Beer Feeds

Posted: by iwantmorehops (21 hours ago)

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I’m in the market for one.Just curious as to what all of you are using.Also,is the Milwaukee PH600 any good?

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Posted: by Sneers (16 hours ago)

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I know this has been asking manty times and many ways BUT how long?

Primary General rule
Kegging as a secondary before forcing carb.

For normal 4-6 ABV

Ein Prosit

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Hi all,

I recently made a second attempt at a Chocolate Stout recipe that I found online. The first batch turned out pretty good, and I wanted to fine tune it, but when I made the 2nd batch, the OG was much lower than the first time.

first batch = 1.053
second batch = 1.033

Here is the recipe.

.25lbs Black Patent
1.0 lbs Roasted Barley
.75 lbs Chocolate
6 lbs light LME
1 oz Centennial (60 min)
.5 oz Willamette (30 min)
.5 oz Fuggle (5 min)
1 pack Irish Ale Yeast - Wyeast No. 1084

I only changed a few things from batch 1 to 2.
- I used tap water the first time, switched to bottled the second time.
- I accidentally put a full ounce of Willamette in the first batch, instead of .5oz
- In the first batch I used a single large muslin bag for the grain. 2nd time I used two smaller bags. I figured this would help expose the grain to more water and help it steep more effectively.
- In the first batch, I added 4oz of Hershy’s coca powder to the wert at the last 10 min of boil. Then I added another 4 oz of coca along with the priming sugar. I had checked and made sure that the cocoa powder did not have any added sugar. In the second batch I plan on adding all the cocoa while priming.

So basically I’m at a loss as to why my OG would be so much lower, when I used the same amounts of sugar as before. Any ideas as to what happened? Did my plan for using 2 muslin bags backfire somehow?

I’ve already let it ferment for 2 weeks, and the SG is down to 1.015 now. The SG stopped at 1.016 for the last batch, so I’m thinking that it is done. I’m just wondering if there is anything I can do at this stage to increase the sugar/alcohol content, or if there was anything I could have done 2 weeks ago?

I tasted it while taking an SG reading a few days ago, and it tastes good; I’m more concerned with taste than alcohol %, anyway. Things could be worse!

Thanks!

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Posted: by Namaste (18 hours ago)

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Posted: by pastradul (24 hours ago)

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I don’t bottle very much.
What is the current wisdom concerning the use of sucrose as priming sugar?

If it is not a problem, what rate per 5 gallons?

Thanks.

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Does anyone worry about sucking in air through the blow-off tube to compensate for the volume lost in the fermenter due to dumping the trub?

I was thinking of “filling” a flask with CO2 and putting the end of the blow-off tube at the bottom during the dump process.
I’m just not sure how pure an environment I can make by bleeding off CO2 into a flask.

Does anyone else do this or something easier/more consistent?

Thanks.

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Posted: by Sneers (13 hours ago)

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Posted: by levifunk (15 hours ago)

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Posted: by gregmoscetti (16 hours ago)

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Just looking for any info on what causes umami flavors in big dark beers. Cracked open a RIS to see if it had carbonated yet, and it had a definite soy sauce flavor. Would like to avoid repeating that mistake.

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Greetings!

picked up a 14.5g blichmann fermentor and was wondering if anyone had some tips and tricks and or lessons learned from moving to this. i was “forced” into buying one after i had to clean up a glass carboy that broke while moving it to rack.

also, what have people been using for temperature control on these? i was looking at

Frigidaire - 20.6 Cu. Ft. Upright Freezer - White Model: FKFH21F7HW | SKU: 8822544

from best buy to make sure it fit without having to fight with it.

any info would be appreciated

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If you want to learn more about using the popular qBrew recipe calculator to design your next beer recipe using Mr. Beer ingredients click the link below. I’ve included the complete instructions for downloading, installing and using the free qBrew 4.1 version on your computer.

This post was researched and updated based on the prior work done by forum member ‘D Rock’ who I would like to thank for taking the time to share this information and providing the inspiration used to hopefully further his original work.
I would also like to thank other forum members like ‘EricG’ and ‘esheppy’ who have also provided much of the related information as well as helping to understand the inner workings of qBrew. I have also researched the qBrew topic on the Internet and have included the information provided many other contributors.

Click here for…qBrew With Mr. Beer Ingredients Database

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I was getting ready to put my beer in the fermenter this weekend when I found that it was not as clean as I thought.

I’m using an old pony keg for a fermenter. Normally to clean it I rinse it out after pitching to the soda keg and then fill it about half way with hot water and OxyClean. I give it a shake every once and a while and keep turning it upside down as well to get the top half clean. This is what’s know as the T & A (Time and Agitation) method. Normally this works very well, but this time I must not have turned it over enough to clean the krowsen ring off of the top half of the keg.

I had a 6.5gal carboy that I used to use so I just cleaned and used that once I reallized the pony wasn’t clean. The way I found out the keg wasn’t clean is why I wanted to post this to let other people know how to check the inside.

The pony keg is not very different than a carboy, basically a steel bottle with a small hole in the top, but because you can’t see through it, it’s hard to be sure the top is clean on the inside.

Well, after I thought it was all clean I started filling it up with water to add sanitizer to. After I filled it up about half way I shined a little flashlight inside to see what level the water was at. It was then that I found that I could see the top half of the keg in the reflection of the water.

So from now on I’ll be able to visually verify that the top half is as clean as the bottom half.

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Posted: by bgramer (11 hours ago)

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My kegerator has been off-line/driving me crazy lately. I made an upgrade and re-did all the tubing. Ever since then, I’ve had leaks that I couldn’t find. I went through three 5 lb cylinders going through all this. I should mention that all of this happened after the new guy at the paintball place filled my tank even though he didn’t seem to know what he was doing.

Well, the paintball place suddenly closed so I spent a few hours today driving around trying to find a place to fill my cylinder. I finally got to Sports Authority. First of all, who knew they filled tanks? Anyway, the guy there asked me if I’ve had my tank hydro-tested. I told him I hadn’t because it’s only three years old so it should be OK for two more years. He told me that it was leaking from the valve on top of the tank and he could fill it but it would just leak.

Could the new guy at the paintball store really screwed up my tank that much or is there any way that I could have possibly done that? Also, I have no experience with hydro-testing. Is it worth it for me to get this done or should I just buy a new tank and trash the old one? There’s a local place here that does exchanges. Do they typically test every time they get a bottle in? In other words, would it be a big issue for them if I gave them a broken cylinder and took a full, working one from them? I don’t know how these things work since I never had any problems before.

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Question:

I have a mash tun large enough to make a full mash (not a partial) but my inside boiling still demands that I split the batch into 2 pots. will this affect my beer and how? My idea is to mash out and do the runnings into the 2 pots and then mix them back and forth so they are even (as to not create a party gyle brew- big & small beer)

does this sound like it will work???

Thanks

J

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Been in Oxford for the past week…lots of real ale and fine bitter. Just thought I would gloat for the moment. Well, off to the White Horse Pub!

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I need to replace my cordless drill and after killing 2 cordless and cost of new batteries , I’m now thinking of electric.

Dependable but what size should I be looking for?

Ein Prosit

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Posted: by WYVYRN527 (9 hours ago)

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Posted: by inflatablechair (11 hours ago)

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My Recommendations

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Throwing down on my first parti-gyle… still deciding on what do do.

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Posted: by grees20 (23 hours ago)

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My old pot that I had been making beer in was used for a BBQ to boil corn in was kind of forgot about and has been growing all kinds of grossness in it for about 2 months. I know I could clean it up and boil water in it and it would probably be fine….but I think I would rather buy a larger new pot.

I live in Seattle and fortunately have all kinds of restuarant supply stores nearby. My old pot maybe held about 6 gallons, maybe a pinch more, and is borderline too small. I want to buy a new one on the way home but not sure what size to get. I dont want to get a HUGE one because the price increases dramatically as the size slightly goes up.

I plan on just doing 5 gallon batches so I figured a 26 qt pot (6 1/2 gallons) would probably work fine, since my old pot was slightly smaller than that. However I am open to suggestions.

FYI - I have old kegs that I am in the (what feels like the ongoing never gonna finish) process of getting set up for a larger electric brew setup, so I dont need a 48qt pot or larger for upsizing to 10 gallon batches.

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I have a 20ft 3/8th inch copper coil that had served as my chiller for 8 years, until I upgraded to a bigger coil.

I have been wondering what is going on inside the coil and if I could use it to pass wort through for use as a HERMS as is. I figured if I recirculated some PBW or TSP through it for awhile if I could clean out any hidden corrosion in there.

Any thoughts?

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I have seen this recipe a various places and am wondering if anyone has every brewed it. I’m not sure my mash equipment is large enough to do it (I have a 10 gallon mashtun and a 10 gallon brewpot. The all grain recipe calls for 25 pounds of grain.

Anyone have any insight?

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I’m getting ready to try my first go at dry hopping.
Do you folks that dry hop usually bag them or do you just toss them in?
I’ve got 1.2 oz of freshly, locally-grown (now dried, of course) Nugget hops that I plan to add… very soon… tonight, even.
Right now I’m trying to picture the difficulty in stuffing those bags down in the neck of the secondary carboy…

Also, how long should I leave them in if I go the bag route? Full length of secondary? Less?

Any thoughts, please? Thanks,

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