Messages

1

Kegging and Bottling / Re: Spartangburg kegs - plastic gas in tube

« on: June 18, 2013, 06:07:29 AM »

I'm glad to have seen this thread. The last two kegs I bought, several years ago, had these plastic tubes. One I tossed before I realized my extra stainless part wouldn't fit. A lot of good solutions here. I may finally get those two back into service! Thanks!

2

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Water filter at new house

« on: June 18, 2013, 04:40:01 AM »

We redid our kitchen and I ran into the same problem.  I insisted the vent over the stove be high enough to fit my pots, but when I went to be I realized I couldn't attach my hose adapter for the wort chiller.

First, I highly recommend the permanent second faucet for the undersink mounted carbon filter. The whole family will appreciate that and we use it constantly. This was a design feature I built into the new kitchen from the get go.

Second, for the IC, I inserted a T,  a ball valve and a hose thread adapter with quick disconnect under my sink. When it's time to cool, I open the cabinet, attach my hose and I'm in business.

Mostly I used this as an excuse to get out of the kitchen and into 10 gallon all grain batches outside. Now I only make a rare 5 gallon batch in the kitchen, usually in the dead of winter.

Good luck with the new house!

3

The Pub / Re: OnTap Liquid Beer Enchancer - WTF?

« on: June 08, 2013, 06:27:39 AM »

My first thought was why bother. Certainly at home we can just buy craft.  But at the gazillion corporate functions I attend with only BMC and Amstel available, maybe a few drops of this could be handy...

4

Equipment and Software / Re: Re: Beersmith

« on: June 05, 2013, 07:39:56 PM »

I lessthanthree this analogy.

I am fascinated by the word lessthanthree.  Even as a phone autocorrect, I wonder about the derivation.

Btw, agree, BeerSmith will help if you are designing your recipe, extract or all grain, by computing predicted gravity, color and bitterness. If you are consuming recipes it may help with scaling or substituting ingredients. And it's useful for tracking and inventory.

It's a tool, not an advice column. The blog and podcast might be useful if that is your desire.

It has more utility in all grain where there are more degrees of freedom. Especially because in all grain, even the recipe is severely impacted by system specifics like efficiency, batch vs fly vs biab, and kettle/tun size and dynamics like specific heat.

In extract, most of those variable are removed. The software is useful, but you are only benefiting from a portion of the value. 

5

Extract/Partial Mash Brewing / Why hot break?

« on: June 01, 2013, 06:22:54 PM »

Boiling up a starter and watching a pot, waiting for it to boil. Gets the mind wandering....

Why is the fresh hot break formed when working with extract?  I get it with all grain, but shouldn't that have already been done and destroyed during the initial manufacture of the DME?

And while I ask this question, I looked away from that pot and now I have to clean a boil over. Doh!

6

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Who's going to NHC?

« on: May 31, 2013, 04:37:15 PM »

I'll be there. First timer and won't know too many. Looking forward to it, though!

7

All Grain Brewing / Re: Grains on hand

« on: May 13, 2013, 06:28:35 PM »

And keep a big box of rolled oats in the kitchen pantry. One less item in your brewery and a great addition for anything you want a little creamy mouthfeel in.

8

Beer Travel / Re: New York City

« on: May 13, 2013, 04:32:02 AM »

The pony bar, 8th ave at 44th, I believe. Excellent taps and very serious about their beer.

Do not go to new York beer company. That is some Disney type tgif-esque place.

Especially if you like sours, try Jimmy 's 33? I know I have the number wrong, but Jimmy's ##. It's down in the east village. N.Y.homebrewers guild meets their, I believe.

9

Pimp My System / Re: Show us your Son of a Fermentation Chillers!!

« on: April 30, 2013, 05:44:48 PM »

Mine isn't quite as furniture grade as the other one...

I also started with a son of fermentation chiller and used it for a few batches. I quickly redeployed the resources to build the "mother of all fermentation chillers" from the wort-o-matic website.



I wish I still had my original SoFC to photograph for you.

10

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Scoresheet comment... Inappropriate?

« on: April 27, 2013, 06:48:33 AM »

To defend the judge a little...

The judge was probably feeling bad about a lower score for a clean beer and trying to convey that. I bet they did not realize the negative tone it conveyed. It can be hard to find a beer that is good on process and fits style parameters but does not fair well on a relative/subjective basis.

Either way, the comment doesn't belong, as no recipe tweaking will change the other beers on the table, but I bet it wasn't intended as negatively as it came across.

11

Equipment and Software / Re: Help me please find a 5 gallon brew kettle

« on: April 21, 2013, 02:40:23 PM »

Just to be clear, are you looking for a brew kettle for 5 gallon batches, or a 5 gallon brew kettle for maybe 3 gallon batches? 

12

Events / NHC full pass available

« on: April 14, 2013, 11:58:06 AM »

I bought a full pass, Thursday through banquet, for someone who is no longer able to attend. I will happily transfer at cost to an AHA member who got shut out.

Please drop me a note.

Update 4/15 - ticket no longer available. Thank you!

13

All Grain Brewing / Re: Oops...Session IPA

« on: April 04, 2013, 02:21:10 PM »

I like SIPA.  It sounds like sippah, which kind of works for the drinkable session nature of it.

You can SIPA all day long.

14

Kegging and Bottling / Re: 3 gallon keg...five gallons of beer

« on: March 09, 2013, 05:00:29 PM »

Probably just ten seconds should be sufficient.  I'd try to slow the flow and gently put the co 2 in from the bottom.  It's not extremely important, so you can't really mess it up much.

15

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Last minute BJCP

« on: February 24, 2013, 04:06:44 PM »

Good luck!