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I never seem to get the increase in gravity I would expect from the boil off. For example today my previous boil gravity was 1.056 at 6.5 gallons. After a 75 minute boil the volume was about 5.5 gallons but my gravity only increased to 1.060. I expected more like 1.066. The wort was cool in...

Thanks Yooper. I've seen various estimates for the quantity of grapes required per batch size of wine. Most seem to come out at around 14-16 lbs/gallon. My grapes turned out kind of small which means I'll get less juice /lb than larger grapes. Using the ratio above looks like about 3 lbs/wine...

I've got some young grape vines and it looks like I'll only have 2-4 lbs of grapes this year. I'd rather make a tiny batch of wine rather than blend with something else since I'm eager to find out what flavor this grape will have. Has anyone made a tiny batch like this? This will be my first...

The label says: "It's deep gold color and full body come from pure Munich malt and Mt. Hood, Citra and Cascade hops balance the flavor well". Any thoughts as to the quantities and hop schedule? I found another description which states it's a lager so it's some sort of light bock, perhaps a...

Yeah I guess that would be the most effective way to do it although I was planning on using my auto-siphon and gravity. I'd need a second setup.

This is more of a thought experiment since I don't have time to do the research right now. 1. So far I've been cooling my wort using my double-coil immersion chiller. One coil sits in an ice-water bath and the other in the wort. I run water from the garden hose through it. 2. Another idea...

Haha, I realized pretty quickly after I started searching. I went looking for stirring options and ended up getting one of these from Home Depot for $f: The shaft is steel (no coating) and the blade is polypropolene which should be safe. I figured my cordless drill doesn't like to run...

Yeah from what I can tell from a quick search there is a slight chance of a problem with hot side aeration during cooling. I'll just set the speed to pull a nice whirlpool without bubbles.

I've thought about it every way and I just don't think it's gonna be practical to get the wort moving via a vacuum without something quite complex so it's back to the drill/paddle concept. At the risk of starting a major debate, how fast should one stir the wort as it's cooling? Ie: is there a...

Ahh, I had seen the Wort Wizard advertised as a drain pump and wondered if it could be used. I wonder what would happen if you hooked two of them together via their vacuum ports. Water would create the vacuum in the upper one which would then pull the wort into the lower one. The question is...

Which blue plastic things are you referring to?

subliminalurge, I've been thinking along those lines for the last couple of days. I just don't see how you keep the water and the wort separate though. DeNomad, I've seen this done and there's a good description of that by Jamil here: http://www.mrmalty.com/chiller.php However I a) don't have a...

My main goal is really to make sure the water is circulated through the IC coils to ensure rapid cooling. The whirlpool for trub collection is a secondary benefit to me. I'm trying to avoid standing there for 15-30 mins with a spoon. I could certainly create a stand for my cordless drill and use...

I'm curious if anyone has ever come up with an idea to use the water pressure in a coil immersion chiller to somehow also create a whirlpool. It just seems like I already have this force available to me in the form of water pressure from my hose it would be so cool if this could be used to stir...

Well I finally got round to brewing again. I decided to use the standard crush that AHS gave me as a control and do a batch sparge instead of fly to see if that would improve my mash efficiency. The results of the mash and batch sparge seemed pretty good. The target post-boil SG (@ 5.25G) of...

You're right they are simple, maybe it'd be more accurate to say that I'm impatient. It will be a few more weeks till I brew again and I guess I'm convinced now that I want to try a batch sparge rather than play around trying to figure out where the fly sparging was going wrong. If the batch...

@Rip, I've measured the diameter of my brew kettle a number of times and calculated the depth I need for 6.25G more than once. I always measure OG @ 6.25G and I think I'm pretty close. @JKoravos and Bobby_M I do think that sounds like a good idea but honestly I can't afford to brew often enough...

Based on the OG numbers on the AHS recipe sheets I believe they use 75% mash efficiency. I'd like to get close to that so I don't have to worry about modifying recipes.

Suggestions for milling equipment?

@Bobby_M On the last batch I made sure there was at least an inch of water on top of the grain at all times and most of the time it was closer to 2". I was barely dripping the hot water in and on to a LME bucket lid to diffuse the flow. It's really exasperating. Maybe I'll save up for the mill...