Beer Feeds

I ordered this kit last week or so and just got around to making the extract kit today. To my surprise, the yeast used is a lager style (WLP838) and I am not set up to make lager style beers. The web site does not show that this is a lager style beer.
http://www.homebrewadventures.com/shopping…t_Code=T-BB-MDB

My question is this; do I treat this like the ale style beers and bring this sucker indoor to ferment or leave it in the garage and hope that it stays in the 50’s.

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I just brewed my first batch and I have a question about the airlock during fermentation. My airlock got all gogged up so I removed it and cleaned it. It only took a minute or so, but is there anything that can go wrong since I removed the airlock?

Thanks!

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I usually just have to drool over everyone elses scores as I usually do not have that kind of luck. I guess that it pays to talk about your hobby to those not in the know.

I was talking to one of the managers for a different department where I work about a grain mill that I wanted to motorize. He then offered me an old 1/4 HP DC motor that was removed from some old equipment as well as the drive for it.

I also keep an eye on the steel scrap barrel for any odds and ends that may come in handy. I was very pleased to find some 2″ round steel bar sitting in there for the scrappy. I got about 2 ft of it and machined it down and put a nice knurl on it. Just need to finish making the eccentric adjusters and the side plates and my new roller mill will be in action.

Happy New Year!

Gary

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I am making a comittment to taking better notes. I made several great beers this year, but, made a couple of small substitutions here or there over my base recipes and then I’d forget what I did.

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I decided to do something a little different for the beer I’m making today. I bought 11 gallons of water from a water machine outside a grocery store here. It looks like it’s strips most everything out based on reading the filters it has in place. I’m going under the assumption that this is pretty much RO water at this time. I therefore felt I needed to add some ’stuff’ into the water before using it.

I’m making a pretty hoppy brown ale so I wanted to add extra sulfate to the water to add crispness to the hop bitterness. (According to howtobrew). I didn’t want to go overboard, so I added 1 tsp of gypsum and 1 tsp of Epsom Salt to 6 gallons of water. I used this for the mash and plan on using some of it during the sparge along with the rest of the RO water. However, I noticed after I added the additions, the water was almost cloudy. Not crystal clear before I added the additions. Tastes ok, so I’m not sure I’m in trouble.

Any thoughts on the cloudiness? How about my strategy of adding gypsum and epsom salt?

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I am contemplating getting this book as it appears to be a step up from most homebrew books and it is reasonably priced for a course textbook.

Appreciate any reviews. Thanks.

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Hey folks,

I got a bucket heater for Christmas. My plan is to use this to heat my strike water in my cooler mashtun. The goal is to wake up in the morning and immediately dough in. In order to do this…I’d like to set up the heater so that few hours before I wake up the following happens:

An electronic timer turns on a digital temp controller. The temp controller sees that the water needs to heat up so it turns on the bucket heater. It keeps the bucket heater on until the water reaches a set temp then turns off. It turns back on if the water temp falls below the target.

Can someone provide a link to a timer and controller that will acomplish my goal? My only concern is that the controller won’t “remember” my preset temp when I turn it off.

The bucket heater is the Allied Precision 1000W 120V model.

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Hi all. A newb brewer friend of mine stopped by the other day and he gave me a good tip for label removal. He said to soak the bottles in HOT water and oxyclean. Then the labels peel right off and you can get the rest of the adhesive off with a light scrubbing and brush. Works like a charm and I thought I would share given all the bottles I get from the beer pass that have original labels. Yall, should be removing labels, especially if you are giving beer away. It is that extra step that makes it just a bit nicer for everyone.

Can’t wait until the little one is old enough to hold a scrub brush…then I’ll put him to work!

Enjoy!

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So here I am on New Year’s Eve, brewing up a storm. I shipped my wife and son off to her parents house and I’m brewing instead of being bored to death over there. I should finish by 8:00, cleanup by 10:00 (I have some extra kegs to clean also from today’s transfer), in bed by 11:00. I am thinking about brewing tomorrow morning as well, but I really doubt I’m going to get up early enough — but you never know.

Anyway, Happy New Year BrewBoard. I hope 2008 treats you all well.

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I got a Crankandstein 3D mill for Christmas. Of course these mills are bare so I had to build a hopper, housing, and base. I posted all the details on my site: http://www.slobrewer.com/howto/building-a-…ase-and-hopper/.

Here’s a quick couple of pictures:

These plans should be easily adaptable to other mills as well. I also discovered a great drill from Harbor Freight to drive the thing. Enjoy!

Dave.

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Who out there is making a New Year’s Eve brew? Making a Taddy Porter clone from Jamil and Palmer’s new book.

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Posted: by rocdoc1 (21 hours ago)

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Posted: by barronkr (21 hours ago)

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To make a long story short, I never bottled a Kolsch that I put in the fridge back in July. It’s been cold conditioning at 40 F for close to 6 months now I was wondering if the yeast is still viable for bottling? (I don’t have any equipment for kegging or forced carbonation at this time)

I turned the fridge up to 50 F and I plan on slowly bring the temp up to near room temperature and seeing if I have any airlock activity. The yeast is Wyeast 1007

If there isn’t any activity what would be a good way to bottle?

Re-pitch some yeast? If so, what strain and at what quantity?

Thanks in advance for the time spent pondering my dilemma!

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I think it’s been discussed before… but I mean damn.

I think they grew the barley that went into this stuff next to hops, and then they watered it with other IPAs, and then they sprayed the hops that went into this with isomerized hop oil. I like to drink it out of a snifter, swish it around, close my eyes, smell it, and then imagine I’m buried alive inside of hops.

Stuff tastes good, and it’ll get ya drunk too lol.

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Episode Ninety-Nine! The Last show of 2007. We taste more West Coast winter beers and have a guest in from Japan.

Sign up for the Beer Geek Round Table

DeCap ‘n Catcher 15% Off

Beer:

• Deschutes Jubelale
• Full Sail Wassail
• Bison Brewing Winter Ale
• Mt. Shasta Winter Warmer

Rankings:

• Greg: 1. Shasta, 2. Bison, 3. Jubelale, 4. Wassail
• Shane: 1. Jubelale, 2. Shasta, 3. Bison, 4. Wassail
• Jeff: 1. Jubelale, 2. Bison, 3. Wassail, 4. Shasta

Extras

• Preshow - Voodoo Witbier
• Postshow- Ommegeddon, Breakfast Stout

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I’m in the process of assembling an all-grain rig and I finally finished my keggle conversion this weekend. It was actually easier than I expected, but I admit I was hesitant to make that first cut with the grinder. All went well and I was able to complete two kegs in under an hour. I drilled the ball valve hole using a 3/4″ hole saw I bought at Lowes, did a little Dremel work and installed a weldless fitting for the ball valve.

After a leak check I wanted to try out a new turkey cooker burner I bought at Target for $30, so I decided to fill it up with water and get some heating and evaporation rates. It took 55 minutes to bring 7 gallons of water to a boil and after a 60 minute boil I had approximatley 5 gallons left. I’ve never done full boils before so I’m not sure what a good heating rate is. I was curious how that compares to what you guys are seeing. Is 55 minutes to boil good?

Also, I’ve read that the inside of a newly converted keggle should be cleaned with Barkeepers Friend prior to brewing. I can’t locate any BKF, so I was wondering if Comet or Bon Ami would be a suitable substitute?

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BMC makes up the vast majority of beer sales, and every single bottle is a lager. Craft beer is a growing segment, and almost every single bottle is an ale. Why is there such a disconnect? Throw out Sam Adams and Yuengling and the numbers become even more lopsided.

The most of the beer that people buy is lager, but the most craft beer brewed and sold is ale, and I’ve been trying to think about why that may be.

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Saw one of the commercials last eve, and the commercial was extolling the fact that they don’t use twist-offs because they let in oxygen. I NEVER got a oxygenated stale Sierra Nevada when they still used twist-off caps.

What I really have an issue with from their statement is the physics involved. If the beer still has CO2 bubbles in it, it is under pressure, so how does the CO2 and O2 swap places while still maintaining carbonation??

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Last night I redid the wiring on my HERMS after a wire got loose. This time I’ll actually document it so if I have to do it again I won’t have to spend an hour remembering what the hell I did.

It’s actually pretty simple. I got an heavy duty outdoor extension cord cut in half, with a length removed to use as extra wire. We go from the outlet to the TS controller, which measures the temperature, when that is fired, it powers the TCS controller, which has a thermocouple going up to the pilot light. If the temp is 350 degrees or warmer (arbitrary temp that indicates there’s a flame), the TCS fires the solenoid, which then lights the main burner.

http://blog.flaminio.net/blogs/index.php?cat=31

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Posted: by groovy24 (20 hours ago)

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I bought beersmith awhile back. It worked well for awhile and then NONE of the ingredients were appearing in the ingredients field, yet the gravity and IBU’s would appear in the apropriate fields below. Contacted the company and they had some ideas but had never come across this problem. None of their solutions have worked (although I still have to reinstall it to see if that works). Has anyone else had this problem or know the solution?

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Have you guys had this beer? Freakin awesome. Expensive but worth every penny. Fitting name as well. Cheers to all my fellow brewers and a happy new year if I get all tangled up and don’t make it back by then.

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I am running a water test on a newly built Brutus 10. It calls for low pressure propane burners and a low pressure regulator on my propane tank. When I start the burners up, I get a lazy looking orange flame that sort of pokes out around the bottom of my keg pots. I began to notice a ton of soot build up on the bottom of the pots and some soot sort of spreading out in the air around my shop. When I have used high pressure burners, I have not had any of this. What could be the problem here?? I bought the 8″ burners from SangKung industries and I am pretty sure they are the correct model. The water seemed to be warming pretty quick but this is a really dirty departure from my high pressure heating ways.. Any advice on where to start with this would be greatly appreciated.

Lars2
Lake Dallas, TX

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I’m in the mist of brewing a barleywine and somehow will be coming short on my OG. I used the search function and noticed some BW recipes use Piloncillo. FYI…Piloncillo is unrefined cane sugar, usually sold in solid blocks and is used in various Latin American countries.

Anyone here have experience with Piloncillo? in a BW? How much do I use to raise a 5gal batch by 10-15 points?

Thanks.

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We are looking to do about 100 gallons of a brown ale using rainwater.
I’m curious if anyone has used rainwater for brewing, either at home or on a larger scale.
If so, have you done anything to the water prior to mashing?
Thanks.

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Hello all new to board.

I was looking into getting a nitrogen setup. Was looking for an inexpensive way of doing so. Has anyone here tried to use nitrogen cartridges? Seems like most of them are N2O and not straight nitrogen. I have a CO2 charger that uses 12 gram cartidges that I use for travel. Would like to know if anyone has tried a nitrogen cartridge on one. Seems like I could empty a cartridge or two into the keg and use a stout faucet.

Also on a similar topic. Due to capacity and time restraints I brew smaller batches now than I used to. Has anyone tried the nitrogen on a tap-a-draft system? What about hooking the tap-a-draft up to a faucet?

Any information would help!

Thanks

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File under haste makes waste:

I brewed a beer inspired by Troeg’s Hopback Amber last Saturday. But my rush to get on the road, I left my basement light on. I use Compact Florescent lights and my carboy was exposed to light, probably all week. Santa gave me a cold for Christmas, I can’t smell a thing so I haven’t opened it up to see if it smells skunked. Do you think that the exposure will be enough to skunk it?

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I recently bought a Westover refractometer but it does not appear to be giving me correct readings. I checked it out during a brew session a few days ago. It was reasonably accurate at higher gravities compared to a hydrometer. But on finished beers it is totally inaccurate. I just racked a beer at FG of 14, but the refractometer gave me a brix reading of 8. I have tested it on another finished beer as well as commercial beers with similiar results. I calibrated it with tap rather than distilled water but can’t imagine that would make much difference.

Any thoughts?

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I am in the market for homebrewing software and was unsure of which one I should buy. I was curious which one ya’ll use and why you like it. I was am currently an extract brewer but am slowly buying the equipment to begin all-grain so I want something that covers all aspects to include Mead and Barley wine. I think the important factors to consider here are:

1. cost
2. ease of use
3. expandability
4. graphing/charting capability
5. conversions
6. recipe database

there are others but these quickly come to mind. Tell me what you use and like. Thanks in advance.

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