Search results

OP... I'm a huge proponent of fancy equipment/upgrades especially if you can afford it BUT... nicer equipment doesn't necessarily improve your beer. Technique/process is always number one IMHO. The reason I say this is because if you buy a nice new fancy conical.. but don't have a way to control...

I actually quite brewing for a while until I could find a decent priced used kegging setup... I hated bottling that much. Kegging has it's own pains but I'd never go back to bottling...I might bottle a big stout once a year... but that's it.

Not sure all what you currently have or your budget... but I'd say some of the essentials (in my eyes) are wort chiller (i like immersion), fermentation temp control, yeast starter equipment, oxygen tank/kit, pressure transfer gear, kegging setup.

The NEIPA in my sig, I used a bag for the hops on the hot side, then dry hopped right in the carboy (no bag, etc.) I did two separate dry hop additions (day 3 and day 5) cold crashed on day 10 and kegged on day 12. The first pour was perfect... no hop particles, no yeast sludge, and no hop burn...

Not sure what style of DIPA you are brewing, but I know a lot of people making hazing IPA's are still doing one early dry hop during active fermentation, then cold crashing for a few days, then warming back up while dry hopping again, then another cold crash to drop out the hop particles. The...

Secondary boogey man... haha !!! I'm going to use that one.

^This is the most salient advice for new brewers. Having a good process and technique will allow you to brew phenomenal beer with ease. I can't say I didn't make mistakes in the beginning... because I did... and made some pretty lousy beers. Once I took a step back and worked on my process and...

Smoking meats, brewing, and drinking beer are also my favorite hobbies (aside from fishing and snowboarding) Welcome !!!

Welcome from Pennsylvania !!!

The real issue with secondary is more about how little you have to gain. You can clear a beer and harvest yeast perfectly fine without utilizing a secondary vessel. I agree that the infection aspect of secondary is way over blown...but the oxidation issues are not, especially if you're just...

The real question is what do you have to gain by racking this beer to secondary... If it were me, I'd leave it in primary 2-3 weeks... then package. I never use a secondary unless there is a reason. If I wanted to bulk age a RIS for a year... then I'd secondary. There's other reasons to rack...

Welcome and congrats on the brew...beer/wort always look cloudy/merky while fermenting. My recent Neipa looked like gravy until I cold crashed it. Give it a week or two, and cold crash if that's an option. Otherwise it will clear up with time after it's packaged.

This makes sense, but for me I only have a 7 gallon kettle to do 5 gallon batches... so I can't heat my mash and sparge water at the same time. I'll heat my mash/strike water, add salts, then mash in. After I mash in I'll heat my sparge water, add the salts, then lauter.

I start my water profile in beer smith. I find my target profile online from secondary sources (magazines, forums, etc.) and plug it into beer smith along with my starting profile (distilled or RO), and my recipe. It will spit out mineral additions. I then take those additions and plug them into...

The biggest thing for me is the precise control of carbonation with kegs. I really believe that carbonation has a huge impact on flavor, and you can dial the carbonation exactly how you want it, even changing it if need be throughout the life of the keg (or beer in it). If your carbonation is...

I use Bru'n Water and I treat my mash and sparge water separate. I'm not an expert with that spreadsheet by any means but it works well for me. I usually start my water profile in Beer Smith, then transfer everything to Bru'n water to check my ph. I cross check both Beer Smith and Bru'n Water to...

Yeast has a mind of it's own...looks like you did fine... like others have said, try and get the wort down to pitching temp next time... yeast can throw some funky flavors in those higher temps... good luck and hope it turns out well for you !!!

The Neipa in my profile pic looked like straight gravy while it was fermenting, especially after the second dry hop addition on day 5. It cleared to a beautiful orange within hours of cold crashing. I used Imperial A38. Here it is after a 48 hour cold crash 20191023_191807 by Day-Day posted...

For what it's worth, I aim to make make my starters 24 hours before I plan to pitch them... I often pitch my starter 18 hours after they are made. I've left them on the plate for up to 72 hours. I've crashed the starter and pitched just the slurry. My preferred method is make my starter the day...

Congrats on moving to all grain !!! I noticed you used RO water... did you build a profile and add minerals or did you mash with just straight RO water?