Search results

Bottled 3 gallons of a Belgian Tripel last night. Carbed to 3.2 volumes by adding a boiled and dissolved corn sugar mixture to bottling bucket. I just remembered that I did not stir the mixture in the bucket. I racked to the bottling bucket, added the mixture by pouring all around the edges, let...

Used 2-row pale for the base, yes. Did not do a test, but I always check gravity post sparge. My pre-boil gravity reading was 1.053 which was spot on my target for the recipe. My conclusion is that the beer is done, and the the mash temp for the recipe is too high a mash temp for my system. I...

Brewed on 7-10-09. So 11 days in primary so far. Fermentation pretty much stopped on the 14th, and it's just been sitting still ever since.

Brewed Jamil's Lagunitas IPA clone. Recipe calls for 158-160 degree mash, so I did. Followed the recipe to the letter, pitched a starter of 1968, fermented at 66 degrees. After 3 days fermentation slowed way down, i raised the temp to 68-69 and fermentation stopped a day later. Let it sit for...

So basically as long as I don't transfer to secondary, i'll be OK? I wasn't planning on using a secondary for any of these batches, but some of them might stay in primary for a month or so.

I've recently started brewing some two-gallon test batches to try out some new recipes before making a larger batch. I've been fermenting them in a 5 gallon carboy since it's the smallest i've got. Should I be worried about all the headspace? Should I be careful about how long I leave these...

Brewed a Barleywine (9.5% ABV) back in early May. Transfered to secondary after fermentation finished and it's been there ever since. I'm planning on bottling it this week and i'm wondering how much yeast to add to make sure it's going to carbonate. It's been in secondary for about 3.5 months...

Brewed an IPA on May 25th, 08. Fermentation finished in about 10 days. Left it in the primary for about 4 weeks. Dry hopped in the primary for another 7 days, then bottled. Two days before bottling I crash cooled to 40 degrees. The day of bottling I let the beer warm up a bit and it was around...

I gravity feed through my chiller, so I can't speed up the flow of the wort, but what I do to regulate temp is slow down the water flow. In the summer, I can run it full bore, but in winter I was having to slow down the water to keep the wort going into the carboy right around pitching temps.

+1 on listening to that episode before doing anything. I listened to it for the first time the other day and he's got some good info. The big thing in my mind it to not overdo it, and to sample periodically until it's just right. You can always add more or keep the wood in longer if you...

Get a thief. Cheap, simple to use, sanitary. http://www.midwestsupplies.com/products/ProdByID.aspx?ProdID=5020

I just picked up a chest freezer off craigslist and i'm looking to get a fermentation controller. I need something that will do both heating and cooling. The Controller II from Williams seems like one of the better controllers i've found as far as features and price. Anybody used it? Is there a...

I've been wondering the same thing lately. I mash in a keggle and when I do big 10 gallon batches it's filled all the way to the top. It seems like taking a temp reading from the top 4 inches of a keggle with a floating thermometer that there HAS to be a difference between top and the bottom...

I'm trying to decide what hop utilization formula to use for my brewing software (beertoolspro) and I haven't been able to find an answer. Seems like there are several popular formulas to use and they all calculate bitterness different ways. I do full boils and primarily use pellet hops. Any...

I'm looking at getting a setup for controlling my fermentation temps. My plan is to get a temperature controller from either MoreBeer or AHBS. I've seen people using both fridge's and freezers for this sort of thing. What are the pros and cons of each? I typically have 2 carboys going any any...

Brewing an Imperial IPA this weekend and the LHBS was all sold out of high-alpha hops and the highest alpha they had was 9%. In trying to figure out what I was going to do, I realized I have 4 ounces of Norther Brewer (6.5%) in the fridge that I didn't end up needing a few batches ago. The...

It might go ahead and do that. A little extra time and a little extra propane, but not a big deal. I don't mind a little longer boil just to be on the safe side.

I'm brewing an IPA recipe this weekend that includes 5 lbs of pilsner malt in the grain bill. That works out to about 17% of the total. I've read you're supposed to boil Pilsner malt for 90 minutes to get rid of any DMS. Is that still true if i'm using it in a smaller percentage? I usually boil...

I generally rack first, then add sugar. Unless you've done it a bunch of times, it's hard to know exactly what volume of beer you're going to end up with. I like being able to carb exactly to what I'm going for, so it's nice to know total volume first. As for mixing, I sanitize a long spoon, and...

I saw that episode too. Here's a description of the experiment they did and the results. Experiment: Talking helps plants grow. Result: plausible Seven small greenhouses were set up on the M5 Industries roof. Four were set up with stereos playing endlessly looping recordings (as having...