Beer Feeds

My in-laws are on their way to Phoenix to visit family, and told me to send them a wish list of beers they can look for in the area. I am mostly interested in the west coast beers that I can’t get here in NC. I’m thinking Stone, Alesmith, Russian River, Deschutes, Alaskan… Also, any good local brews in AZ that I don’t know about. Also, if you can recommend a good beer store where they may find the beers, I would greatly appreciate it. Their next stop will be Colorado, so I will also be giving them a list of beers in that area to hunt down too.

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The title says it all. I was finishing cooling my wort, getting ready to transfer into the fermenter when I saw and heard a PLOP sound of sweat fall into the wort. It is like it was in slow motion and I could do nothing to stop it… Arghh.

I guess I am just commiserating, if nothing else.

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Posted: by Traquairlover (1 hour ago)

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I am about to maje my first lager. Vienna type, SG @1.050. I have a smack pack of the Wyeast Bavarian. I was all set to let the starter ferment at lager temp, like Palmer says. (I think he actually says you do not have to, but it would be better to) but when I was at the LHBS, the guy there who brews a lot of lagers, says he lets all his starters ferment at room temp, ale or lager.

So you folks who brew lagers, which is the better way to ferment the starter?
Thanks.

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Here it is. This was a marathon show thanks to Bonus Beer Bob’s contribution. The musical guest was Michael Martin. He can be found here and tracks can be downloaded on his MySpace.

Beer as follows
Green Flash West Coast IPA
Avery The Beast Grand Cru Ale
Avery Mephistopheles Stout
Middle Ages Dragonslayer Imperial Stout
Lost Abbey Serpents […]

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My manifold was stolen by copper theives…bummer. I tried using a SS braid and it just didn’t work out well, so I am going to rebuild my manifold. I use a 70qt coleman cooler. My last manifold had 4 lines running across the cooler and I slotted each pipe the entire length and got decent consistency for efficiency. I began pondering the idea that if I put more slots on the far end than the end with the ball valve I should be able to even out the amount of siphoning across the grain bed, due to less resistance down there. so….

Is this just going extreme and not worth the effort?
Any recommendations in terms of spacing of the slots (I use a hack saw)?
Could this assist in boosting a consistent effieciency of 70%?

I found a link a long time ago relating to the physics behind the mash tun and can’t find it, so if anyone has that and can forward it along that would be great as well.

Thanks

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Alrighty, I did my first wheat beer (a honey wheat, extract w/ specialty grains) over the weekend and it is bubbling nicely in the primary. The recipe states 1-2 week primary and then 2-3 weeks in a secondary and some keg conditioning. Now my question is why 2-3 weeks secondary? I added the honey at flameout, so it’s already in there. I’m not dry hopping and a wheat isn’t supposed to clarify. The only thing I could think of is that the flavor of the honey would need a little time to mellow, but I would rather just put it into the keg and condition it there. Please explain to me o’ guru’s of the homebrew!

lil p

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So, my keg of delicious smoked ported blew last night so I decided to replace it with a keg of dry stout witch I had about a month into conditioning. I should have known something was wrong when I pulled the relieve valve and got a way stronger PSSSHHTT then expected. I proceded to tap the brew and pourred a glass to purge the line whitch resulted in massive foaming. At this point, I pretty much knew something was wrong and a smelling/tasting confirmed that. The taste was reminescent of Orval but in a bad manner : way too strong and “pissy”; a little tart but not sour thought, I guess I got some brett somehow. Anyways, it was not the dry stout I tasted diring my transfer from primary to keg.

I brewed 5 beers after this one. I had a sip of my koelsh that was cold conditioning and pulled the relief valve on my conditioning tripple and didnt detect any off odors (which are evident in the bad keg). I really hope this was a one shot deal.

I have brewed around 40 beers yet and this is the only bad one (I hope)… Time to review sanitation procedures (I think I will setup closed transfers now)

Anyone have similar experiences to share? Advice on how to make sure my beer line and my keg is cleaned?

Thanks!

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I have 4 perlicks on my bar and am quite happy with them (was just glad to get forward sealing ones!). However, I noticed that I’m getting the ‘hollowing’ out of the pour sometimes and contacted Perlick’s tapping department (now that’s a place to work!) to ask if they made any kind of replacement spouts for their faucets like ventmatic does. The answer-no. However, they say they have a replacement kit for the valve mechanism inside the faucet itself that will fix it (available from Foxx Equip or Rapids Wholesale).

And apparently the ventmatic spouts don’t fit the perlicks…

Does anyone know what the pitch is on the ventmatic spouts? The perlick guys told me the pitch for their standard spouts. (Wondering if I can retap the threads on the ventmatics….) Obviously I don’t know what the price yet for the replacement kits are, but will find out. Seeing as the spouts are less than $10 for an 8mm ID…

So, who’s got info?

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Ok, I hope I did it right.

Gave the keg a good cleaning with Oxi-Clean, then real good rinse with fairly warm water. Sanitized real good(I think) with Idophor. Sealed up keg, purged with CO2 3 times with about 10psi. Racked from secondary to keg, closed keg up, purged keg again 3 times, then put in 30psi to seal, the relieve valve was leaking a little so I flicked it a few times and now its not, I hope it holds fine. Put 30 psi in again, then put it in the fridge for overnight chilling. Going to try to force carb tomorrow after work.

Will

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I brewed 14 gallons of hefewizen on Saturday. I’d had the good fortune of timing my brew with Springfield Brewing Company’s hefe and was able to score a quart of pure yeast from their batch. So, the scenario is that I’ve got 14 gallons of weizen and a huge amount of yeast and I decide that yes, YES I can ferment this in a Sabco sanke fermenter. Hell, I even added a blowoff tube and a quart jug full of Starsan just in case it gets aggressive! The inside of my chest freezer looks like a yeast bomb went off inside! I’m guessing that I blew a gallon of brew out but can’t tell because it’s still cooking so hard I can’t pull the lid off. I wish I would have taken pictures. The good news is that the beer smells awesome!

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I know this may have been discussed before but…
Really getting more serious about brewing. Joined the
local brew club. Got a malt mill. Mashing device have
4 carboys, 4 kegs etc. My wife of 27 years is having
her ladies club over to our house (with spouses)
in august for a homebrew tasting/beer style testing
meeting. How has your wife/other supported or
rejected your homebrew addiction? If you spend
a weekend brewing vs mowing/painting, how does
she feel about it?

ehines

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Hi all,
We are having a work bbq and i have been tasked with finding kegs of non alc beer for ~250 people. I pleeded for alcohol, but got the no-go. We still want some near beer though, as it is sort of a “we put on a cooler bbq than you” game we will play with other departments throughout the summer. Any thoughts on if this exists and where i may be able to find some? BBQ is next tues and I am in los angeles area.

Thanks,
JD

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Posted: by paulthebeerguru (24 hours ago)

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Flying Dog’s Lead Dog, Eric Warner, caught up with Jeff from Craft Beer Radio at the Brewer’s Associations 1st Annual Savor event in Washington, DC. Eric talks about new styles, brewery history and food pairings. Catch the interview here.

addthis_url = ‘http%3A%2F%2Fwww.flyingdognews.com%2F2008%2F05%2F27%2Feric-warner-interviewed-on-craft-beer-radio%2F’;
addthis_title = ‘Eric+Warner+Interviewed+On+Craft+Beer+Radio’;
addthis_pub […]

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Flying Dog’s Lead Dog, Eric Warner, caught up with Jeff from Craft Beer Radio at the Brewer’s Associations 1st Annual Savor event in Washington, DC. Eric talks about new styles, brewery history and food pairings. Catch the interview here.

addthis_url = ‘http%3A%2F%2Fwww.flyingdognews.com%2F2008%2F05%2F27%2Feric-warner-interviewed-on-craft-beer-radio%2F’;
addthis_title = ‘Eric+Warner+Interviewed+On+Craft+Beer+Radio’;
addthis_pub […]

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Posted: by trill (2 hours ago)

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All,

Put this in another post on a different topic, but wanted to see if I could get some advice. I need a threaded 90 degree elbow to attach to my pump on one end and a brass disconnect on the other. I’m thining of using a stainless elbow from McMaster. Question is, do I need 304 or 316? Also, using one rated for 150 PSI seems adequate, but is there any reason it wouldn’t be?

Thanks,

Norm

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I have a friend who is living outside of amsterdam and wants to get into homebrewing. Any european brewboarders out there recommend a homebrew store either in that area or in Europe in general? Given the exchange rate, it may be cheaper for them to buy from an american brew store and pay for shipping…….

J

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Many of us use propane tanks. Someone in my brew club just forwarded this warning from the National Propane Gas Association. Apparently, Meth cooks are getting the propane tanks from the exchanges at Wal-Mart, Kroger, etc. and emptying them of the propane. Then, they are filling them with anhydrous ammonia (which they now have a recipe for). After they are finished with them, they return them to the store. They are then refilled with propane and sent back for you and me to buy. Anhydrous ammonia is very corrosive and weakens the structure of the tank. It can be very dangerous when mixed with propane and hooked up to our grills, etc.

According to the web site, you should inspect the propane tank for any blue or greenish residue around the valve areas. If it is present, refuse to purchase that one.

Anhydrous Ammonia and Propane Cylinders

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For bottlers who buy commercial beers partly based on how useful the bottle would be when empty, there is little more frustrating than soaking and soaping and scrubbing a batch of bottles and finding out those damn labels were never meant to come off. Likewise, it’s such a stoker when you soak a label off and it actually comes off. With that in mind, here are my nominations for best and worst:

Best — FireStation 5 (out of Ukiah, Calif.) almost peels off clean without soaking; New Belgium (Fat Tire, etc. pretty easy to clean up) and Kona Brewing out of the Hawaiian Islands (love those plain bottles that come clean easily).

Worst — Pete’s Wicked (hands down the hardest label to get off); Widmer (I’d rather have my nickel deposit back than endure all that scrubbing.)

Anybody else have thoughts? Maybe we could save each other some trouble.

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11lbs of grain, target temp was 151, which I hit. Problem is before I took my first runnings I forgot to add my 1.25 gal of water. Can I just add it to my sparge water?

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Ok, I’m going to start kegging, I was thinking it would be nice to have a continious rotation, it will take me some time to figure out my schedule and times. But I have a small fridge that will fit 2 cornies, and another large fridge for drinks, I could also fit 2 cornies in there. Would it be doable, to have 2 cornies on deck, in the large fridge cold conditioning while waiting for one to run out? How long will the beer last in the keg in a fridge waiting to be drunk. Will they need to be hooked up to CO2 all the time?? Or could I just purge the headspace with CO2 and stick it in the fridge?

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Ok you may have seen other post about my eBrewery, but I wanna make sure I plan everything out completely before starting. This leads me to thermocouple placement. I have two as my disposal so I would assume HLT and Mash, but the question is where to mount?

HLT - Being that I am looking for an overall temp reading and will be using a stir motor, I would assume placement can be anywhere

Mash - This is where it gets tricky, I’ve seen them mounts at the ball valve, at HERMS return, and on side of keggle. Is there an advantage to either. I figured it would be a matter of dialing in the system depending on the mounting choice.

Is this correct, or is there a best method?

Squeeky

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All - needed a 90 degree threaded elbow for the “In” side of my pump. My local hardware store only had galvanized, no copper, brass or pvc. Are there any issues with using this? I’ll be recirculating wort thru it, so tems will be up to 212 or better.

Thanks,

Norm

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I don’t mean rhizomes either but cuttings from the vine treated with rooting hormone. I can’t think of any reason why this would not work since other plants can be done this way. Any thoughts?

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Just realised I forgot to switch power from the EHLT to the kettle - nice move. So I’m fly sparging with 200df water, pH in the kettle is 5.4. Since I’m pumping into the kettle through the valve I can’t get a reading on the runnings.

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i just have a 2.5 lb bottle and had checked all my screw fittings, i’m using 120 psi braid reinforced line and lost all my pressure about have way thru the keg, are there clamps to go on the hose where they slide on the nipple fittings?

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