Search results

From what I understand full boils are the way to go. The only reason you should do a concentrated boil is if you don't have a big enough pot to do a full boil. You may have to adjust your hop amounts, however, as a full boil will supposedly utilize more of your hops' alpha oils than an extract...

Phenol is not particularly good for you, and I wouldn't say it is a normal healthy yeast flavor. It is a good antiseptic though. Working in the chemistry lab I would say phenol smells like alcohol-y but then again it was always mixed with alcohol. It is the active ingredient in chloroseptic...

The dark was DME, but in retrospect I am pretty sure it was 5# of the LME. Why don't you trust your OG reading after topping your extract off with water? Properly mixed, shouldn't it be accurate?

I take my hydrometer readings in my wine thief, but I have noticed that anything besides cooled wort leaves foam at surface of the liquid. This foam makes it rather (or extremely) difficult to read the hydrometer. Saturday I rolled up and inserted a paper towl to wick up the foam, and that...

So I downloaded Beersmith and it pinned my expected OG nearer 1.09X making me think my OG measurement was off (too bad I can't go back and retake it). That would put the brew at about 9% ABV, which gives me hope for bottle conditioning yet. On the other hand, If for some reason my 5# bucket...

Actually, its still bubbling. I don't know if its residual CO2 in the fluid, but it might still be fermenting a bit. I am pretty sure about my SG readings, so unless I did the formula wrong the US-05 is still going at 12.7 avb. I plan to rack it to secondary next week, should I maybe pitch...

Just took the gravity on a brew i made a week ago: Russian Imperial Stout recipe (modified slightly) 5 Gallon batch 5# Amber LME 3# Dark DME 2.5# Honey 1# roasted barley 1/4# Chocolate malt 1/2# Black malt 4 Oz Chinook whole hops (90 min Bittering) 2 Oz Goldings whole hops (10min) 2...

Been reading the book in my free time (too bad chemical engineering textbooks are sucking up good pleasure reading time). I had about 3# of specialty grains, 5# amber LME, 2# honey, and 3# dark DME. I used Deathbrewers easy partial mash procedure for the specialty grains. He called it...

Then how do AG recipes work? If you don't get fermentable sugars from steeping/sparging the malted-grain, how do we get beer out of AG brews?

Why do we boil our extracts (and finished sparge water)? I know that we need nice high temperature to steep our hops, but is there anything beyond that? Does it help break down complex sugars into more easily fermentable ones? Will yeast be able to consume these complex sugars at any (if not...

It is probably a derived constant factoring in 2 things 1) density reduction due to consumption of sugar (reducing the density of the water) 2) density reduction due to production of alcohol (less dense than water) there is a stoicheometric (i.e. constant) relationship between the...

damn engineers!;)

:tank: Maybe off topic, but doesn't Guinness use N2O? or is it N2? Edit: just finished brewing the batch. OG = 1.113 this is going to be a powerful brew!

I don't have any CO2 sitting around (I don't keg), but I do indulge myself with a bit of laughing gas every now and then, and as a result I have a few N2O charges just sitting around. If I settled with CO2 over N2O, could I drop a small chunk of dry ice in the secondary, and let it bubble...

On the package of Safale US-05 it says to pitch the yeast straight into the warm wort. No starter, no nothing... just pitch it in, and stir it in a few minutes later. Is this a good idea, or should I pitch the yeast into a starter, and then stir it into the wort? If I am going to pitch it...

N2O doesn't break down into elemental oxygen and nitrogen unless its under pretty extreme conditions (like those found in the combustion chamber of your engine, ~7-10 ATM and over 200*C). That's why they use it in food preparation. Whipped cream doesn't oxidize because under normal conditions...

If you REALLY don't want to rack into a bottling bucket to mix your priming sugar, I have seen priming tablets. Add one tablet into each bottle, fill, mix, and let condition. I have heard bad things about these tablets being inconsistent and expensive. In fact, you could probably buy a cheap...

So, from what I have gathered you want to use the smallest possible carboy that will contain your batch when you rack to secondary for settling/secondary fermentation/bulk conditioning. You use the smallest carboy that will fit the batch because you don't want the oxygen in the headspace to...

haha I too am in it partially for the gadgetry (chemical engineering student). I was actually thinking about how I might take apart an old fridge and turn it into a wort chiller the other day. OT sorry, but I'm glad I'm not the only gadget-phile

So I have come to understand that fermentation temp can have quite the effect on your final brew, and I have seen some ideas for raising fermentation temp (aquarium heaters, heat pads, etc), but how about lowering it? my household temp is between 60 and 70, but can get higher (which is my...