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General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Wrong?
« on: May 22, 2013, 05:13:34 pm »There's just not enough claminess in it.I get clammy just thinking about it.
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General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Wrong?
« on: May 22, 2013, 01:55:03 pm »
There's really nothing you can do with a Clamato to make it not foul, except not opening it. Once you open it you'll have to pour it somewhere-it's not fair to punish bacteria in your gut, the ground or septic tank with that vile stuff. Pilsner Urquell does go very well with sliced cheeses and dry salami.
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General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Most and Least
« on: May 18, 2013, 05:31:18 am »Definitely temp control is #1...I totally agree with temp control, that took my beer from drinkable to very good.
Least valuable to use are air-locks. I just don't see the need.
But I use airlocks or blowoffs to keep fruit flies out of my fermenters. Loosely covering them with foil results in very buggy beer.
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General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Beers for the non-craft drinker
« on: May 16, 2013, 10:08:27 pm »But it really isn't possible to cater to everybody's tastes....To the OP I say brew what you like and if the others don't like it they can bring their own...
Its always nice to cater to your guests if you're the host, though.
Everybody we know understands the kind of beer that will be served at our house and reacts accordingly. Some bring their Coors or Bud Lite, no problem for me and it's what they like. They still have the option of trying any of the other beers, but they can also stay in their personal comfort zone if that's what suits them. My boss brought a 12 pack(at least) of Budweiser to my house every time he came over, his wife loved my homebrew, everybody was happy.
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General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Beers for the non-craft drinker
« on: May 15, 2013, 12:03:33 pm »Since pretty much all my friends are my age (40s and 50s) I can say that age isn't a factor at all. My daughter's friends all drink good beer, my son's friend all drink BMC.
I haven't found any connection with age and liking good beer. There are from my observation as many youngsters as there are people around my age (59) who are lite beer drinkers. I would guess the average age of people at the brew pubs that I frequent to be around 45. Would be an interesting study though.
Bruce
To the OP I say brew what you like and if the others don't like it they can bring their own. At our annual Oktoberfest my rauchbier and the hefeweizen are always the most popular, even with BMC drinkers. People who are unwilling to try homebrew always bring their own so I don't worry about them.
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Hop Growing / Re: Bine Culling
« on: May 13, 2013, 01:38:53 pm »
Don't expect much the first 2 years anyway so that's why I said to just let them grow for the first 2 years.
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Hop Growing / Re: Bine Culling
« on: May 13, 2013, 01:01:04 pm »
For the first year or two I'd just let them go wild. Let the root systems get well established before you start worrying about culling. If you are determined to just have 3 get ready for a summer of pulling bines because they never stop coming out of the ground.
The 3 bine limit is for mechanical harvesting, for us handpickers it doesn't really apply.
The 3 bine limit is for mechanical harvesting, for us handpickers it doesn't really apply.
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General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Goose Island beer
« on: May 12, 2013, 08:34:40 pm »
I've spent too much time the past few years sitting in the Goose Island pub in O'Hare Airport, but I loved their beer, especially the Matilda on tap. But we can now get 312 Wheat(one of my favorites at the airport) and Honker at a restaurant in Carlsbad. Both are insipid, tasteless shells of what I enjoyed too much of at the airport. I don't know if it's a freshness issue or an InBev issue but the beer I get here truly and royally sucks.
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Kegging and Bottling / Re: Handle on 20 LB CO2
« on: May 12, 2013, 07:27:41 am »
In Carlsbad here are the prices:
1 lb $6
5 lb $10
20 lb $12
50 lb $20
All the cost is really the service charge, the gas is really cheap. Plus they exchange the tank so I've never had to pay for a hydrotest.
1 lb $6
5 lb $10
20 lb $12
50 lb $20
All the cost is really the service charge, the gas is really cheap. Plus they exchange the tank so I've never had to pay for a hydrotest.
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Kegging and Bottling / Re: Pin lock VS Ball Lock
« on: May 12, 2013, 07:24:18 am »
I have both kinds, in roughly equal quantities. Pin locks are short and wide, ball locks are tall and skinny so that may matter when you design a kegerator for them. I can put 6 of either in my 12.5 cu ft chest freezer. My 18 cu ft fridge will hold 5 pin locks or 6 kegs if at least 2 are ball lock kegs.
You cannot force the wrong connector onto a pin lock keg, but you can with a ball lock. With pin lock you don't even have to be able to see the post to put the proper connector on.
I use flared threaded connectors so that switching from one type to the other is simple.
I suggest you buy whatever you find and can afford.
You cannot force the wrong connector onto a pin lock keg, but you can with a ball lock. With pin lock you don't even have to be able to see the post to put the proper connector on.
I use flared threaded connectors so that switching from one type to the other is simple.
I suggest you buy whatever you find and can afford.
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All Things Food / Re: Growing food - The Garden Thread
« on: May 11, 2013, 08:15:30 am »
I waited until May 1 to plant my meager garden-this year it's only tomatoes, squash and Japanese eggplants. And of course 2 days later it froze killing 3 of my 8 tomatoes and all three eggplants. Or so I thought until today. All the dead plants have new growth so I now have 6 eggplants, 4 more than I really need. Amazingly I had asparagus this year, and some onions and garlic are back even though it really hasn't rained since 1 time in October.
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All Things Food / Re: BBQ Style
« on: May 09, 2013, 11:05:18 am »Here's the BBQ guru Steven Raichlen's KC style BBQ Sauce recipe. I give it the bluesman's twist by adding some New Mexico chili powder to it. A fantastic all- around grilling sauce. Slather it on anythiing form babybacks to burgers.I do something pretty similar but with a couple of twists. All the "heat" comes from new Mexico red chile powder, some mild but mostly hot or extra hot. Also I use homemade malt vinegar instead of cider vinegar, and I leave out the liquid smoke. Very finely diced shallots and garlic take the place of the dry rub ingredients. But the ketchup/brown sugar/mustard base is the same. lately I've been adding about a cup of homebrewed stout or porter also.
Basic Barbecue Sauce Recipe
This is the type of sauce that most people in the United States think of as barbecue sauce: Brown sugar and molasses make it sweet; liquid smoke makes it smoky--there isn't a Kansas City pit boss around who wouldn't recognize it as local. Slather it on ribs and chicken, spoon it over pork shoulder, and serve it with anything else you may fancy. You won't be disappointed.
Makes about 2-1/2 cups
2 cups ketchup
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons molasses
2 tablespoons prepared mustard
1 tablespoon Tabasco sauce
1 tablespoon of your favorite barbecue rub
2 teaspoons liquid smoke
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
Combine all the ingredients in a nonreactive saucepan and bring slowly to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to medium and gently simmer the sauce until dark, thick, and richly flavored, 10 to 15 minutes. Transfer the sauce to clean (or even sterile) jars and store in the refrigerator. It will keep for several months.
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Equipment and Software / Re: PBW
« on: May 09, 2013, 10:56:28 am »
flbrewer, you're gona learn that there are as many ways to do anything as there are homebrewers trying to do it, but one thing we all agree on is that glass is very dangerous and you cannot be too careful around it.
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Kegging and Bottling / Re: Extending the life of chest freezers question
« on: May 08, 2013, 04:52:50 pm »Freezers apparently dissipate heat through the outside walls. The plywood holds heat in.My chest freezer is now 9 years old, it runs in my garage which routinely hit 110F in the summer and low 20's in the winter. I didn't insulate the collar, and I even sheathed it in oak plywood, something I since learned is very bad. I keep my temp probe in a sealed, dry, empty water bottle.Why is that bad?
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Kegging and Bottling / Re: Extending the life of chest freezers question
« on: May 07, 2013, 05:34:54 pm »
My chest freezer is now 9 years old, it runs in my garage which routinely hit 110F in the summer and low 20's in the winter. I didn't insulate the collar, and I even sheathed it in oak plywood, something I since learned is very bad. I keep my temp probe in a sealed, dry, empty water bottle.