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Depending on the yeast you might be able to decant without cold crashing. I typically start the yeast on a stir plate 24 hrs before pitch. It’s usually beginning to flocculate at about 12-20 hours, so I take it off the plate at 4 hours before pitch and just let it settle at room temp. Even...

Yes, I mix the DME on a stir plate before boiling. Only takes a few minutes. You can boil it with the Teflon stir bar in the flask if you like, but I remove it with a catch magnet.

OK, update. I tried a couple bottles with Premiere Cuvee. In one bottle, I put 10-15 grains of yeast in, and in the other one I put about 50. Both of them carbed up slightly, but still not enough. Should I try again with more yeast??

Yes, the beer does taste sweet. I think I will add yeast. How much should I add? Is it better to empty all the bottles into a container, mix with the yeast, and rebottle them all? Just thinking of how to make each bottle consistent...

Bottled a 10.5% imperial stout with priming sugar according to the normal calculation, but I think the yeast were dead or something because the beer is flat after 4 months in the bottle at room temperature. There is very light lacing on the glass, but no visible carbonation and nothing...

I was wrong before with my pre-boil volume, it was 7.25 gal and 5.5 gal post-boil (updated the original post). Here are my exact numbers (all volumes and gravities are temp corrected): 26.62 lb grain (milled at 0.039) 8.32 gal strike (1.25 qt/lb, single infusion, no mash out) 2.22 gal sparge...

Makes sense. Regarding lost volume... Grain will absorb about 0.19 gal/lb of wort (after normalizing volume to 68 F). This is usually given as 0.12 gal/lb apparent absorption out of the strike water volume, but this lower figure does not account for the increase in volume of the wort from...

I believe another term for that is "sequential mash", according to BYO. I haven't tried that method, but your description sounds accurate. But you shouldn't need to do a sequential mash to hit 1.104 OG. Here's my process: Single infusion mash for 60 min in 11 gal rectangular cooler with approx...

Setting up my first kegerator, and the CO2 lines smell pretty bad (plastic/glue/toxic yuck). Should I clean these out? PBW? Boil? Just clarifying this question is about the gas lines, not the beer lines (I plan to clean those).

Just curious what people like to do for an aromatic dry-hopped IPA? A. Primary (4-7 days) B. Secondary (7-10 days, not including cold crash or fining) C. Dry hop (3-5 days) D. Cold crash (2-4 days) E. Fine (1 week, still at cold crash temps) F. Keg Would you do a different order? Not...

The Congress mash computation is what I call the yield. The 5.45 kg in my example is the total extract available in the grain (~80% yield), not the weight of the grain itself. I compute conversion efficiency based on the grain's yield, not the total grain. So you're seeing (let's say) 10 kg...

Thanks ajdelange. That approach gives me the same value, but it's more difficult to calculate because I have to account for the volume of wort kept back in the grain. Here's my approach: 1.069 gravity = 16.826 °P actual sum of yield × weight for each grain = 5.45 kg extract available...

I treat the full volume of brewing water before separating it into mash and sparge portions. I don't use any baking soda, chalk, or pickling lime, which I gather are not recommended for sparging. If you use these, I would reserve them for the mash only. I think it's completely valid to do it...

Do most people account for moisture content when they calculate conversion efficiency, or ignore it? Example: How would you calculate conversion efficiency for the above? If I account for 4% moisture content in the grain, I get 95%. If I ignore moisture, I get 91%. I'm less...

Yeah 88 is too hot to pitch. Max is 80 (but still not good), ideal is 65-70 F (for ales, obviously). That much bottling sugar should only make a 3-point difference, so let's say your actual FG was 1.027, which is still high. Lower mash temp (142-150 F) produces a more fermentable wort...

Very detailed. I like how you describe your process as well. One thing I do is create an actual space on the page to write my measurements (temp, pH, SG, Brix) at each step where needed. That helps remind me to take the measurements at the right time and write them down quickly in the rush of...

Setup to cleanup is 6 hours if I'm taking my time and it's cold out. In summer, immersion chilling takes longer. What's more important is how much of that time is fun, because the cleaning portion is definitely NOT fun, and that takes me at least an hour.

Fair enough, but it's still odd that the pre-boil OG didn't read high. I also took volume, temp, gravity measurements for first wort and sparge, and all the numbers add up so to speak except for the post-boil OG. Seems suspicious that it would be the only one to be off. In any case, it's 3...

I got acetaldehyde I think from using a glass big mouth bubbler for secondary fermentation. The BMB does not have an airtight seal, and secondary fermentation does not produce enough CO2 to keep the oxygen out, so I believe the O2 was seeping through the lid and attacking my beer.

I just want to rule out if I'm being an idiot or whether this is a standard, repeatable aspect of my setup. If I know where the extra 3 points came from, it's easier for me to make predictable beers. I've struggled with efficiency issues and unpredictable hop utilization. Regarding the gravity...