Search results

Seems to me that either a 1-piece or a 3-piece airlock will allow air to come back in, just as easily as it lets air out. I don't understand what it is about either design that would make air travel one directional. I cold crashed in my primary for years and just recently switched to cold...

You definitely want to correct your FG reading before you enter a number into BeerSmith. My refractometer measures in brix so I always use a spreadsheet calculator to convert my readings to OG and (corrected) FG, and then I enter the results into BeerSmith. I'm sure the BeerSmith tool is fine...

Torilen, you're not hurting my feelings at all because I think we're still talking about two different things: your personal hatred for Bud (and maybe the style in general) vs. the reason why some brewers nonetheless try to brew the style. We get it, you don't like Bud. And that's fine. But it...

I think you're confusing style of beer with mastery of craft. You indicate you haven't even brewed a batch of beer yet. I'd suggest you hold back on your criticism until you try to brew a lager that's as perfectly clean as a Bud, and then try to do it exactly the same over and over again. Then...

Next time consider tying a bit of fishing line to the draw strings of the hop bag and run it out the top of the carboy.

I also pour the trub sraight into mason jars. Learning that simple trick was a game changer for me. But I've always been reluctant to use them after ~2 weeks, though lately I've been reading more and more posts about people using them for up to 2-3 months, and that viability doesn't drop nearly...

I always remove the hop bag before I cold crash. After 2-3 days at 40F, I add gelatin to the empty keg and rack the cold beer on top. Personally, I've never noticed the gelatin stripping out hop flavor or aroma, which apparently supports the Brulosophy experiment linked above. That said, if I...

Yeah, but I think the linked pdf is geared toward pro brewers and at least some of the information may not be applicable to homebrewers. From what I understand, yeast autolysis and stress is mainly a concern when you have yeast at the bottom of a huge conical fermenter under many, many pounds of...

To measure cell density and color, yeah, I'd definitely be willing to pay $100. Not sure I'd be interested at $200. I suppose I'd be willing to pay an extra $20 for a meter that measures both cell density and color vs. one that only measures cell density. Good luck with the project. It sounds...

These hydrometer vs. refratometer threads come up fairly regularly and I've never understood why it is that some people get sketchy results measuring FG while others, including me, get reliable results. Mine is a $25 model from Hong Kong. I calibrate before every use. I use the MoreBeer...

I've been using only a refractometer for a few years now for both brewing and winemaking and I can't imagine going back to using a hydrometer, but YMMV. Personally, I like how small of a sample I need to get a reading and I just prefer the device. For about six months after I bought it I...

I mostly use fermcap in my starters but when I have used it in the fermenter I've never noticed it to cause a delay in the start of my ferments. Two days w/o activity is about as long as I'd be willing to wait. At this point, I'd either raise the temp and/or pitch more yeast. Good luck.

I guess I assumed by 'gas' you meant CO2 specifically but it sounds like maybe you're talking about oxygen?

No, just as a flat soda would never become carbonated again by just letting it sit around for a period of time. Not certain I know what you mean by 'agitate' but the only way to get CO2 back into the beer is to force it in or to get yeast to create more.

I bottle condition and cold crash. Bottle conditioning will result in plenty of yeast in the bottle and the beer will still be hazy even after a 2-4 day cold crash (at least when I use WLP300 or 3068). The times I didn't cold crash I wound up with way too much sediment in the bottles which...

Glad it was helpful. The full thread eventually gets a little silly but that first post is one of my top 5 favorites in all of HBT.

Another option to consider is to collect an appropriate amount of yeast slurry and simply repitch it without washing. Check out the first post from this thread: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/why-not-pitch-your-yeast-cake-166221/#post1921760

Even once your beer is 'done' it's going to be loaded with co2. How much? Not really sure. I wait to bottle until about three weeks because it seems to give most of that co2 time to come out of solution, and my priming calculations seem more accurate and consistent. Not really an issue if you...

I typically crash my ales to 40F in the primary around day 17. Around day 20, I pull the primary from the fridge and transfer to the bottling bucket, add the priming sugar and bottle while the beer is still cold. No need to add more yeast. There will be plenty to carb the beer. I tried to...

My recent favorite APA recipes call for both. Nebraska Brewing's Cardinal Pale Ale uses something like .65 oz cascade at 0 min and 2.6 oz cascade at dry hop (along with some galena at 60 min). Check the CYBI podcast for the recipe. It's great. I also just made a Citra pale ale that I'm very...