Beer Feeds

ok so I have a few kegging questions as my kegs should come today/tomorrow

1)is there a specific order u should turn everything on? like in my head I imagine its vital that u FIRST open the regulator/used manifold valves with screw low. then turn on the co2 tank. then slowly adjust screw. but maybe it doesn’t matter?

2)what position of the manifold/regulators valves is open and which position is closed?

3) I know u leave the pressure on at all times when forcecarbing…but when ur serving do u leave it always running at like 7PSI? or do u shot it off and turn it on when u want a drink?

4) I plan on putting co2 tank in fridge…LHBS guy said he recommend I don’t cause it will throw off my readings on the regulator or something…is this true? or a big deal? I think it only throws off the amount meter. and I figure I could just take the tank out of the fridge and let it warm up if I wanna check howmuch is left. but ya is it being in the firdge a big deal?

thanx in advance for ur advice guys!

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I want to make another wheat beer, the one i made about a year ago was a disaster(my fault,new to brewing) .Anyhow i am worried about stuck mashes. I shall use 4.5lbs of two-row, 4.5 lbs of american wheat, and maybe a lb of American Victory,and also 1/2 lb of crystal 20.
I thought nugget and mt.hood for the hop additions. I ended up buying some flaked rice and i should of bought the rice hulls. I have never used either, do i need them? or should i skip them? thanks for any help.

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Why can’t I just use regular iron gas pipe and shutoff valves to make my own C02 manifold? It’s cheap and then it’s cheap… serves the natural gas regulations fine.. I can even paint it gold to look like brass if I want to. How come no one mentioned this before? Is there some voodoo I need to know? Some reason not to use iron pipe?

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Are there any brewers out there that use the Ventmatic faucet for pouring stout’s with a nitro system? If so how do they work compared to a normal stout faucet. Thanks.

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Posted: by LittleCreature (12 hours ago)

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I recently brewed an all-grain red ale with the following grains:
9 lbs. Gambrinus Honey
4.25 lbs. Munton’s Maris Otter
1.5 lbs. Flaked Barley
1 lb. Crystal (60L)
.25 Chocolate

As a newbie (7 batches) my brewing technique tends towards excess. I usually do a protein rest at 122 (15min) and 133 (15min), then usually a beta rest at 140-144 for 35 - 45 minutes, then an alpha rest at 155 for 30 mins, then 158 to finish it off. This has worked very well on all of my batches.

On this last batch, I did my regular beta rest, then at least an hour at 155 for alpha and then an additional hour at 158 and the iodine test kept coming out black. Some of you may think that I was careless and denatured the enzymes at some point. I took extreme care not to go above 158 at any point, and furthermore, I did so many steps up to 158 that I know I didn’t just stupidly kill all the enzymes. Also, I tasted the wort. It was extremely sweet (the sweetest wort of the 7 batches I’ve done) so obviously the starches were converting to sugar. Finally, at 9:30 pm and with no more time to wait, my mash still not fully converted, I went ahead and sparged.

I am baffled that the starches didn’t fully convert over that extremely long period. This has never happened in any of my other brews and I have always done an Iodine test.

What’s the deal?

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OK, so you have drained your cooler. Now you need to fill it again with water for your second run off. How do you fill it? Do you dump water on top of the grain with a pitcher? Do you pump water on top of the grain through a hose? Do you pump the water in through your hose braid under the grain? What temp is your water? What is the PH of your water?

Since I switched to Batch sparging my home brew has gone to shit. I brewed Blond ale that just had kinda a bad grainy/nutty taste, I brewed a Kolsch that tasted similar and it would not clear even with lots of cold conditioning, gelatin, and PPV. I brewed my tried and true pale ale (only this time with ahtanum instead of cascade) it had the same funky taste. And now my tried and try helles is just not right. It is cloudy after 4 weeks at 31 F. I have never had problems with my helles not being clear.

I pump my water in through my ss braid. My water pH is 8.3; I add 185f h2o to get up to 165ish for mash-out.

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Anyone ever come across any experiences or literature on excessive FAN in the wort? And then the relationship with that resulting in excessive acetyl CoA remaining for esterification?

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There is a new place to drink fine beer in our little town and we recorded this monster of a show there. “Morton’s Pub and Grub” or as we affectionately deemed it “Studio M” offers 10 lines and 200 bottles of fine beer. Boy, did we have fine beer on this show. […]

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First batch ever.

Boil went well, everything sanitized, wort transferred to carboy, yeast pitched, but then things started going downhill. First, I inserted an airlock into a drilled rubber stopper that came in the carboy and inserted that into the carboy’s mouth. I pushed it in too far, and it dropped inside. Airlock broke off trying to remove it and the rubber stopper dropped into the wort. Tried again with another stopper and this time it seated OK. 26 hours into fermentation, the 5 gal carboy looks like it may be too full and likely to blow off top. I since found a regular cap meant for fermentation.

Questions:
Will stopper ruin the brew?
Can I cool the carboy/wort to slow the fermentation enough to allow me to remove some wort and replace the rubber stopper with a better cap/airlock?
OR
Should I write this one off as a learning experience?

Thanks,
cgAK

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Posted: by HBang (23 hours ago)

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So, how are we all reacting to the crisis?

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When I do 10G batches of lagers, I’ll leave the beer in the primary at the recommended lagering temperature for 2 to 3 weeks and then do a diacetyl rest for two to three days. Next, I will rack to a secondary for 2 weeks and then I’ll rack to my 10G keg, force carbonate, and place it in my kegerator at ~34′ for 2-3 months before I tap it.

Do you agree with this method?

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So I brewed an impy stout at the end of January and transferred to the secondary on the 14th. I tasted it at that point and it lacks…oomph. I’m thinking of adding spices to it to get some OOMPH. What experience have you had and what do you suggest? What hasn’t worked?

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is this too much starter for this beaker? maybe im just paranoid. i dunno.. but its about 200ml of LME and with the water i put in originally, and the water that was used to hydrate my yeast. yeast is us-05 temp is 65. of course the LME wasnt boiled it was straight from the can. plan on leaving it in there for about 16-20 hours. you guys thinktis should be find? or u think it might krausen over? Oh and keep in mind this yeast is for a 10% abv. thats why im going for a robust starter.

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This whole hop hoarding thing has got me peeved.

I needed cascade hops for my SNPA clone and Ive been looking everywhere for it only to find places that wont sell hops by themselves.

It angers me that companies do this but it makes sense, what angers me more is the brewers who take advantage of these situations and buy everything they can get their hands on while its cheap leaving every one high and dry

$4.25 for an ounce of cascades!

this is bananas.

Carlos

NOW for the contructive part for the post, how do you know what hops can be substituted for which is there an online PDF, or something similar?

Carlos

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My floating thermometer exploded in my fermenter while I was stirring to take my SG. ( before I pitched my starter ) All of the pellets and clay ( whatever that red crap is ) is in the primary.

Am I screwed? Should I transfer to another primary before fermentation starts and just pitch more yeast?

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I’ve found one of these on ebay for pretty cheap, but the model number is slightly diferent from the typical johnson A19 controllers that i’ve scene around.

Anyone use one of these things successfully? Anyone know what the coil is all about?

http://bestbuyheatingandairconditioning.co…c-thermcoilbulb

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Out braving the cold today to brew an Irish Red to be ready to send off to the NHC. Good times.
Anyone else out there brewing today?

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I was going to buy a 33 lb jug of bulk LME from my LHBS. but i was wondering 2 things. 1, thats the best way to measure what u are using? i was thinking about getting a big jar, weighing the jar first then pouring it in and comparing then ill know how much a full jar of LME is in weight. and then just do the math from there.
also how long would you say that bulk LME can stay on my brew shelf at 65°F and stay “fresh”?

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I read posts on here about beer that’s “ready to serve after a week in primary and a few days force carbing.” Frankly, I never seem to make this type of beer. I just made this 1.064 OG Pale at 42IBUs (Cent/Cascade/Will hops). Brewed it last weekend, week in primary, a few days force carbing. It doesn’t taste bad at this point but the bitterness is certainly not pleasant at the same time. More like very sharp and lingering.

So what are everyone’s thoughts? Normal to take time to come around for a beer this size?

Also - if I keep it at it’s current “serving temp” of 40 degrees will it age and come around slower than if I left it out at room temp?

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I am getting ready for a lambic and I would like to throw some cherries or rasberries in the boil kettle. Is this a problem or should I throw them in the secondary instead? What is the main differences and potential problems?

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I must say that I am pretty excited. I started brewing on 12/31/07, so I am certainly a newbe. I brewed my second batch on Jan 13 and had it carbed and ready to drink on Feb 13. We had 10 friends over on the 15th and we killed the whole 5 gallon keg!!!!!!!!!! I kept telling people that we had 4 cases of craft beer in the fridge for everyone to drink. They all preferred the homebrew, damn what a great feeling. I can’t wait for the other 4 carboys in the closet to be ready!

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So my LHBS is having an IPA competition. I’ve never entered a beer in a contest, but I’m thinking about throwing my hat in the ring for this one. My dilemma is this – The IPA I kegged two weeks ago is from a recipe that is not mine. Is it bad form to enter something that I brewed, but did not create the recipe for?

To further complicate matters, the recipe I used is a clone of a well known IPA (though the recipe is not from a published book or magazine). I am unsure of the original creator, but with some digging around I can probably find who wrote the clone. I would certainly give the creator credit, as I’m not trying to be sneaky or misrepresent myself. Would I then need to give the original brewery credit as well? Am I being over sensitive about this?

Having never entered a contest, I am unfamiliar with the protocol and I certainly don’t want to step on any toes. Any thoughts/experiences you’d be willing to share are very much appreciated.

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Posted: by PhiloPsych (21 hours ago)

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I figured this process deserves its own thread. I tried the modified batch or pulse sparge described in the BYO article and by Mr. Colby. It really went great, hit 78% efficiency and cut 15 minutes off my typical drain time when batch sparging. I normally hit 70-75% so it was a slight improvement there, but that could be a fluke. Basically I did a single infusion at 153, rested an hour, then started the drain. I turned my valve about half open, normally I would leave it fully open. I skipped the mashout I normally do and sparged more. I vorlofed about 2 quarts and the wort ran crystal clear the whole time. As soon as I was done vorlafing the grain started to expose so I went ahead and added 3 gallons of 180 *F sparge water. The water was just poured from a pitcher on top of the mash. I tried to be gentle and spread it evenly. I did two more “pulses” of about 3 gallons each, with probably about 5 minutes between when I started pouring. Basically I was manually adding water most of the time instead of just waiting for the cooler to drain and doing it all at once. Also there was no stirring or second vorlaf like I would normally do. I think this is the way I’m going to do it from now on, only next time I’m going to do a mashout so I don’t have to start the sparge immediately.

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Good Beer Show 145 from Jeffrey Meyer on Vimeo.

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The curse of the soured beers are still upon us but not as bad as last week. It would be hard to find a set of barleywine more different than the ones on the show this week.

Beer:

• Upland - Winter Warmer
• Arcadia - Cereal Killer
• Speakeasy Ales & Lagers - Old Godfather.
• Hair of the Dog - Doggy Claws
• Brooklyn - Monster Barleywine

Rankings:

• Greg: 1. Upland, 2. Brooklyn,3. HOTD, 4. Speakeasy, 5. Arcadia
• Jeff: 1. HOTD, 2. Brooklyn, 3. Upland, 4. Speakeasy, 5. Arcadia

Extras

• Preshow - Homebrew Saison
• Postshow- Cleanup

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Need help from Stangbat and Blktre. I was following a previous post concerning your heating pad setup, but I have a few questions. I have the digital Ranco controller and wanted to know if you attached the sensor to the side of the carboy or do you use a thermowell?
At this time I have a Belgian Strong Dark in the fermenter (for 9 days) but activity has slowed and I was hoping to bring the temp up from my room temp of 68.
I used the Wyeast #1388, OG was 1.096 and is now at 1.027.
Also, do you have any photos of the heating pad setup?
Thanks
Sqhead

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The latest batch of TF&S Optic I received from NCM has a lot of little sprouts in it. After crushing I see them intact, floating around in my mash, varing in length up to 3/8″ or even slightly more.

Is this right? I thought the acrospires were supposed to be destroyed or removed or something during the malting process.

Thanks,
- Jim

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