Messages

31

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: What's Brewing This Weekend - 10/29 Edition

« on: October 27, 2010, 06:16:26 PM »

My weekend consists  of kegging my 60-minute IPA, building a workbench, brewing some Patersbier, and trick-or-treating.  And watching college football in between.

32

All Grain Brewing / Re: "double" sparge in a batch sparge

« on: October 20, 2010, 05:37:55 PM »

Denny, that is one cool picture.  "improvise"

33

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: cooling my wort (new brewer)

« on: October 20, 2010, 05:25:17 PM »

You can do the ice, but I think it's easier to chill gallon jugs in the fridge and use it to top up the wort to 5 gallons.  In my experience, if you let the wort sit in an ice bath to get down to about 130, you can add the cold water and generally get to pitching temps pretty quick.  When I did this, I used gallon jugs of spring water from teh grocery store and had good results.

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Kegging and Bottling / Re: What is the best way to remove stubborn labels from bottles?

« on: October 16, 2010, 08:03:46 AM »

I use hot water and a big scoop of oxyclean, and most labels are off in  an hour.

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General Homebrew Discussion / Dry Hopping and Cold Conditioning

« on: October 15, 2010, 06:56:43 PM »

I'm making a clone of DFH 60-min IPA, and the recipe I have requires dry hopping.  I was also going to cold condition it for a few days just to help everything settle out before kegging.  Can I do both at the same time or should I dry hop at fermentation temps and cold condition toward the end of the dry hop time?

thanks in advance

Dave

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All Grain Brewing / Lautering Time

« on: October 12, 2010, 05:46:16 PM »

Hello all,

I was wondering how much time I should be taking to get the runnings from the mash.  I batch sparge and make 5 gallon batches.  I haven't really timed it, but I guess it takes me 15 minutes apiece on the first and second runnings, maybe less.  Is that too quick?  Usually I'm itching to get on with boiling by the time I have my second runnings draining.  I've only had one stuck mash in about 3 years of all-grain brewing.  Does going slow provide any benefits other than reducing the chances of stuck mashes? 

Dave

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General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Your own recipes, kits or other's recipes?

« on: July 15, 2010, 08:53:12 PM »

the first few years I brewed it was kits exclusively.  Nowadays, I mix it up and brew recipes that are real popular on the forums (Denny's RIPA and BVIP, some others), ones that I make up myself.  I use Jamil's book when I want to try a category I've never done before, just to get a good baseline.

38

Yeast and Fermentation / Is S-04 supposed to smell like...

« on: May 25, 2010, 08:32:37 PM »

...farts?  I just bottled half a batch of a best bitter made with that yeast (made the other half with 1968), and when I was rinsing out my carboy the yeast had a mild stank to it.  Not rotten eggs, but definitely smelled like butt gas.  Any reason for that?  My beer looked perfectly normal prior to bottling, and tasted fine.

39

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Siphoning Technique

« on: May 03, 2010, 09:09:14 PM »

For my kettle, the auto siphon works a lot better than the ball valve does.  I found that beers with a lot of hops (I use pellets) plus the break tend to clog up the screen in the kettle.  I've hade real good success with the auto siphon.

40

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Anchor Brewing sold

« on: April 28, 2010, 09:17:32 AM »

I just watched Beer Wars the other day and when I saw the post I figured AB InBev swallowed another.  Glad at least it was not them.

41

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: What are your house styles?

« on: April 13, 2010, 07:21:56 PM »

I usually have a Pale Ale and an IPA on hand year-round.  Summertime I like to make a stout and some sort of wheat beer (I usually end up with a pale ale with a bunch of wheat in it!), and in the fall I go with brown ale - good football beer.  Winter I normally try something I've never made before, and I also brew something Imperial that will last a while.

42

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: What's Brewing This Weekend - 4/2 Edition

« on: April 08, 2010, 07:21:24 PM »

Brewing Denny's BVIP this weekend. 

43

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: FYI: blind taste test

« on: March 30, 2010, 08:19:44 PM »

Any chance they came from different breweries?  I don't know how Miller is brewed, but Bud and Coors are brewed in multiple locations.

44

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: How To Clean Bottles For Your Homebrew

« on: March 30, 2010, 08:09:21 PM »

I have tried all manner of cleaning bottles.  For removing labels and most crud, hot or warm water with oxyclean works better than anything else I've tried.  Labels usually come off in minutes.  I like to run mine through the dishwasher before bottling, and have never had a bottle infection in 10 years of doing this.

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General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Amarillo APA

« on: March 30, 2010, 08:05:15 PM »

Amarillo makes a pretty good pale ale.  I like amarillo so much it finds its way into most of my pale ales.  I tried an all-Amarillo IPA once a couple years ago and I think I overdid it because it tasted a bit like soap.