Messages

1711

Equipment and Software / Re: My simple carboy washer

« on: November 23, 2009, 08:03:15 AM »

This one looks much simpler and cheaper than sweat fitting a bunch of copper piping.

I was thinking about copper before. When I had a few fittings in my hand and was looking at the price I though WTF. Especially when the PVC/CPVC display was right next to it and looked so much cheaper. I was even planning to make a fitting that screws onto the pump (w/o the male QC that I ended up using) but the threads didn't end up fitting so I settled on the much cheaper option with the male QC.

Make sure the pump is not too tall and the pump fits into the bucket while being able to shoot water up the center. I quess you could add two ellbows if the latter becomes a problem.

Kai

1712

All Grain Brewing / Re: Aciduated Malt

« on: November 23, 2009, 05:49:30 AM »

Most likely b/c your pale ales would have been fine without it.

1713

Equipment and Software / My simple carboy washer

« on: November 22, 2009, 09:38:14 PM »

Today I put together a carboy washer with a few things I had lying around at the house. Here is a page with pics and a description: http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?title=Carboy_Washer

That idea has been around for a long time and many brewers have build one. I just felt like documenting how simple it can be to build one. The only major piece of equipment is the pump which I already had for pumping ice water through my immersion chiller.

Kai

1714

The Pub / Re: What do you like besides homebrew

« on: November 22, 2009, 09:05:51 PM »

Did somebody say backcountry?
http://www.vimeo.com/7728596

Wow. I didn't know that you get so much snow in VW. I used to live in NC and moved back to New England b/c I missed the snow.

Kai

1715

Equipment and Software / Re: Brewing Software

« on: November 22, 2009, 07:21:08 PM »

I used to use Beersmith a lot. But then I started to miss a number of features and found that I rarely had a pc with me when I needed to take notes. So I developed my log book pages and have stopped using Beersmith.

Now that I have discovered the usefulness and constant availability of mobile devices like the iPod, I'd love to see an app that allows me to take notes very quickly and associate them with a given batch. I have brewpal, but don't find it very useful for my brewing. But I have a spreadsheet app that I use for efficiency analysis and water design.

Kai

1716

Beer Travel / Re: What are you're favorite online beer travel resources?

« on: November 22, 2009, 07:12:56 PM »

I don't think I can drink that much for breakfast, though.

Beer for breakfast is a fun thing during vacation but otherwise it seem very close to alcoholism to me. On occasions I have sampled beer in the morning b/c I remembered that I wanted to take a gravity reading. I always get very odd looks from the wife when I drink the sample. But that is not really beer for breakfast for me

Kai 

Kai

1717

Beer Travel / Re: What are you're favorite online beer travel resources?

« on: November 22, 2009, 05:52:08 PM »

For Germany this is very good.  I can vouch for Berlin and Bamberg. 
http://www.europeanbeerguide.net/

I was about to post "google", but that looks like a good site indeed.

Kai

1718

All Grain Brewing / Re: Malt conditioning rocks!

« on: November 22, 2009, 05:12:55 PM »

Glad to see that it worked for you. Did you tighten the mill gap as well?  Generally that is necessary to improve your efficiency.

Kai

1719

All Grain Brewing / Re: Aciduated Malt

« on: November 22, 2009, 01:22:15 PM »

Don't trust the 5.2 either. From my experience it doesn't even buffer the mash at 5.2. I'd recommend testing the mash with colorpHast strips over the use of 5.2.

Kai

1720

The Pub / Re: What do you like besides homebrew

« on: November 22, 2009, 10:38:31 AM »

I love the outdoors. Rock climbing in the summer and back country snow boarding in the winter. And then the occasional mountain bike ride.



Kai

1721

All Grain Brewing / Re: Aciduated Malt

« on: November 22, 2009, 10:22:07 AM »

I use this malt as 2-4 % in my Pilsner malt  grists. The reason is that even at 0 residual alkalinity, the mash pH with Pils malt is still 5.7-5.8. Lowering the RA to -20-40 and using some acid malts brings the pH to 5.3-5.4.

At these levels I don't detect any sourness from the acid malt in the final beer.

But I don't think that using acid malt is a good fix for overly alkaline water because you may have to add too much to bring the pH down. Knowing your water and possibly treating it to bring the residual alkalinity down is still necessary even with acid malt additions.

BTW, at this point most of us are "Newbies" here

Kai

1722

Equipment and Software / Re: Light bulb in fridge to control temp.

« on: November 22, 2009, 05:57:38 AM »

I wrap aluminum foil around the bulb.
It allows heat to be transmitted without the light.
Works for me   

I did that once to make a reflector for a light bulb. The boil touched the socket and was electrically charged. It was humming all though my arm and that was in Germany where we have 220V. I'm happy that I'm alive.

To heat my chest freezer I now use one of the energy saving bulbs (13W) and put 2 brown paper bags around it. Eventually I want to put some sort of heating mat at the bottom. I think that this will make for a more even heat distribution.

Kai

1723

All Grain Brewing / Re: Malt conditioning rocks!

« on: November 21, 2009, 08:08:48 PM »

Thank you Kai

Thanks,
I didn't come up with it, though. I just found it and figured it would work for home brewers too.

Kai

1724

The Pub / Re: It will take some time...

« on: November 21, 2009, 05:29:46 PM »

I wonder if enough people know that you don't have to be a member to join here. I'm writing this after I noticed a banner on the very top of the forum page that reads "welcome to the home of the AHA membership".

Kai

1725

All Grain Brewing / Re: wort quality and water ratio question

« on: November 21, 2009, 04:06:56 PM »

This is one of the reasons why I have been advocating thinner mashes. The more water you use in the mash, the less you'll be using during the sparge and the less sparging you will be doing. I was pointed to that conclusion by brewing texts that said exactly that. Some German brewers even say to use 2/3 water in the mash and 1/3 for the sparge. I have been doing that (or close to that) for German Pilsner and other light beers.

As for how thin you can go, there seems to be no practical limit. Just look at the Australian Brew-In-A-Bag process where all the water is used in the mash and the mashes are as thin as 3 qt/lb. Brewers often cite that thin mashes inhibit enzyme reaction b/v the enzymes are too far away from the substrate. In my experience that is not true. It may happen in mashes much thinner than 3 qt/lb but those mashes can only produce worts below 1.044 (11 Plato) and are therefore unpractical anyway.

Someone, way back, started the idea that 1.25 qt/lb is the best mash thickness and ever since many home brewers have accepted that as the gospel when in fact thinner mashes have many advatages and can make brewing easier. Just think about how difficult it is to stir a 1.25 q/lb mash vs. a 2.0 q/lb mash. You'll have to use thick mashes when you are brewing really high gravity beers.

Kai