Search results

Just did a 6.5-gallon boil on my stovetop. The key is to have a pot (mine is 8 gal) that is wide enough to cover two burners. I don't think I could do a rolling boil with a single burner, though maybe it's possible.

Hi Eagle, I've been saying this on here for a little while now, but if I had to go back and re-do my first batch, it would be a dark stout, no question. This is because you can just learn the ropes without having to worry about a bunch of things: clarity, for example, is almost a non-issue at...

Right, with a big enough bag on the hop spider, surely there's not much difference. Totally agree, and not bashing that personal choice at all. However, there's still the dry-hop issue, and spiders cost money and resources, adding a contraption to the boil that can get in the way of...

I will never use pantyhose again... I think I lost 15-ish IBUs worth of bitterness in a recent IPA, and the dry hop aroma was definitely muted. What I now do is this: I add hop pellets whole at both stages. Then, I cold crash to get as much material to the bottom of the fermenter as possible...

Nice! Congrats! An inch over the 5 gallon mark would not have made that kind of a difference. 5 points down is pretty low. With extract, many advise you to actually submerge the container in the boil to ensure that everything comes out. I've had this work for me. 1.037 is a little low...

Yup, I just wandered around in my basement, looking through my various toolboxes, until I found a little piece of plastic tube, a section of which, in combination with a ton of PFTE tape, gave me a watertight seal with no tap movement. For those who are reading this wondering what to do about...

Hi Day Trippr, Since I'd already ordered everything online, I just assembled my 10 gal rubbermaid home depot tun, and indeed it does begin to leak as it hits the 2-3 gallon mark. Not good. Thing is, I know about as much about plumbing as Sarah Palin knows about foreign policy. If you're...

Having ordered the wrong parts for this setup already and heading out to HD to buy the new enlarged rubbermaid cooler, I was wondering: with enough 5/8" fender washers, why would the larger hole make for more leaks? What matters is the seal on the inside, correct? And if you get this tight...

Hi alane, no, I do not. The pH meter and refractometer are next on my "let's see how much money I can sink into this" list. My wife is super stoked about that. Desabat, it's hard to describe, but the resulting beer tastes thin, has acidic notes which are unsatisfying, and has very little...

Hi all, thanks for the comments. I get nothing. No foam, just a slow, steaming rise in temp until 212 hits. None of those little protein chunks everyone talks about. No boil-over when I throw hop pellets straight in. My pot is 15" wide and sits over two gas burners, one of which is the...

Hi all, there seem to be varying opinions on the importance of a hot break. I've never seen one on my stovetop-gas setup, neither with extract or with all grain, 5 batches in. My beers have not been particularly tasty... good, but not very good. No traces of creamed-corn taste/scent, but I...

Hey, I'm slowly upgrading to All Grain here in Providence, RI.... interested in this. What do you estimate that I would have to add to it to make it a working setup, and how much would that (roughly) cost? Sorry for the newb questions.

Update: a batch of mine fermented with the powerful wine yeast D47 has stopped at 1.011 due to multiple rackings, while a recent batch using Nottingham went to 0.999. More evidence that process matters more than yeast selection, at least as far as FG is concerned...

Hey bernardsmith: I wasn't suggesting keeving, I've never done that. Basically, almost all apple juice obtained at any ordinary orchard is going to have a ton of nutrient in it, more than enough to ensure fermentation. It is extremely uncommon for ordinary juice to "Stick" at higher than...

Kingo: I just leave it. Why would you rack several times? I've rotated between Nottingham and D47 for the last couple of batches and I like them both... though again, compared to your aging/backsweetening/pasteurization method, the yeast choice is comparatively insignificant. 71B, S-04 and...

I have never used a yeast that didn't do reasonably well at 12c/53F. Nottingham, S-05, S04, D47, 71B and EC-1118 and Montrachet have all fermented well in the 50s for me. Many producers ferment with champagne/wine yeasts at 50 F. So long as you eventually drop below 1.015, you'll be fine. I...

Disagree with some of the info above. Fermentation speed is NOT just a function of temperature and yeast. It is also a function of how nutrient-rich your juice is (particularly nitrogen). In case you're interested, the most widely respected cider-making handbooks tell us that a slow...

Hey everyone, Been cracking open the bottles from an awesome, tasty, and popular batch of cider and I thought I'd share what I've learned over a 4-year process of experimentation, learning, and talking to craft producers large and small. Many of you know this stuff already but I just wanted to...

I once opened each bottle, used a syringe to add a few mls of Apple Juice Concentrate, closed em up, let 'em carbonate a bit for 24-48 hours, then stovetop-pasteurized them (see sticky). Worked great. You're not too dry, so a little squirt in each bottle could bring you up to 1.007-8 or...

That's probably true, I was just talking to people who are already doing a 60-minute. If you're doing a 20-minute, so much the better, even less heating and stirring for you. My main point is that scorching a bag requires a pretty major screwup (i.e. leaving the bag in and walking away from...