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Tapped my Belle of the Ball and dragonstooth stout tonight. The stout is flawless - definitely the best pak I have brewed so far. I used one tsp of the included US-05 with no off flavor so this yeast is still well adapted for some beers (maybe it's just hoppy pales where it stands out poorly)...

Question - with Belle of the Ball, should I cold crash before racking to the serving keg? Or is it more desirable to keep it a bit cloudier?

I just bought the 12 mo BrewUnlimited. Comes with a new Pico C keg and now a PicoFerm. One other question about Belle of the Ball - should I pitch all the yeast or just a teaspoon?

One of my next batches is Belle of the Ball saison. This one I should not use the fast ferment valve right? If so, should I be attempting to lower the ferment temperature below room temp?

It helps, but I expect results would still be incrementally better if fermentation was done at lower temps or the yeast strain was more forgiving. I may try the swamp cooler method on my next batches but I certainly enjoy the flexibility to just set the kegs anywhere and forget about them for...

What are some yeasts that are known to perform well at higher temps (70-74), with high flocculation? I think these two characteristics would be desirable for most Pico brewers who are typically fermenting at room temp.

I was also hoping the BrewMarketplace ratings system would have been marginally useful by now, but it seems like every single pak is rated 3.5-4 stars!

I think that's exactly the problem - the first couple of batches made me extremely sensitive to that US-05 flavor, and now I can't untaste it :-) My next batch of IPAs I'm going to try 1968 - apparently this is the house strain for Three Floyds and I am a big fan of their beers. I just...

I'm still not 100% satisfied with my dry hopping quality (even using a separate hopping bag). I've been thinking about using a stainless steel mesh tube around the dip tube and loose hopping into the serving keg - the mesh keeps the hop particles away from the dip tube. Because of the...

But to be fair - if you homebrewed from scratch and used US-05 you would have exactly the same problems would you not? The issue isn't with the Pico, it's with the included yeast (which is easily remedied)

Why is it okay to pitch a full pack of liquid yeast when we are advocating less than a half of the dry?

Finally tapped my Half Squeezed made with London Ale III yeast. Very very good indeed, and no hint of the off flavor that we have been associating with the US-05. This yeast finishes a bit drier which works well for an IPA in my opinion. It's definitely the cloudiest batch I've done though -...

I also did a Deaf Turtle right afterwards. Two batches works almost perfectly with an 18L water cooler jug of distilled water- I run a "first time clean", then two batches, then a deep clean at the end. That almost completely uses up the jug of water.

My first picopak ever was a Half Squeezed, and now about 10 paks later I'm trying again (now that I know what I'm doing :) ) What struck me today is how incredibly awesome this pak smells while it's brewing - whatever magical hop combination is in there is a complete home run!

I'm not sure it I'm going to jump on the $500 brew unlimited but I'm definitely jumping on the 2 month and then continuing at $60/mo for now. It moves the value proposition a lot for Canadians - shipping becomes a flat $10/mo. My friend has a couple 10L cornys so now brewing some double batches...

Great! I'll definitely try that on my subsequent batches using liquid yeast.

It seems crazy - but if the shipping makes sense I'm probably in too :-) Has anyone (jrb) tried to collect wash and reuse yeast? It would certainly make the idea of using different liquid yeast strains a lot more palatable. Could I use the initial trub from racking? Or would it be better to...

Interesting - thanks for the tip. What about a German Weiss?

Well, I've tried 8 paks so far and I beg to differ. I'm dialing in on a better result but I am still not getting the "hop blast" I would get from a top tier pale ale. The extra maltiness and ABV of the Pliny clone really helps the overall flavor come together. At this point I'm not sure the...

I'm with you - I'm not as much a DIPA fan, I'm definitely more a session IPA/hoppy PA fan. Seems like that's the hardest style to brew on this device though.