Messages

16

Beer Recipes / Re: Doppelbock recipes

« on: March 26, 2013, 09:12:32 pm »

With your new rig, how would you be measuring the decoctions?  If you are pumping from the mash tun to the ketttle, how do you control the liquid ratio?

My thought was to do it the old way, to scoop out to a kettle/pot on a side burner and boil it there.

17

Beer Recipes / Re: Doppelbock recipes

« on: March 26, 2013, 08:48:15 am »

Jeff, do you feel the decoction is critical? If so what was the volume decocted at each step? I could use a calculation but wanted to know your volumes for reference.

I might try this on Saturday morning for the first run on electric.

18

Pimp My System / Re: Kind of a Brutus 10 clone with RIMS, but it works for me

« on: March 26, 2013, 07:58:43 am »

Up and running after first boil test on electric.

19

Kegging and Bottling / Re: Carbonation taking "hold"

« on: March 20, 2013, 11:12:40 am »

http://www.thebeerjournals.com/carbonation.html

That will get you pretty close, really quick.

20

Kegging and Bottling / Re: keg noob: purge the air from the top of the keg

« on: March 19, 2013, 11:15:26 am »

Nobody told me there would be math! 

I usually try and talk my way around it. With this many smart folks it can get way too detailed :-)

21

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: protein rest..why, why not, and when

« on: March 15, 2013, 12:41:18 pm »

Quote from "How to Brew" ...when using fully modified malts with a large proportion (>25%) of unmalted grain, e.g. flaked barley, wheat, rye, or oatmeal. Using this rest in a mash consisting mainly of fully modified malts would break up the proteins responsible for body and head retention and result in a thin, watery beer.

I cut out the part discussing the usual moderately modified malts as we know that already. If you have other things in the mash that can benefit fro the rest that's good, but if that is not the case, and you are using standard modern malts, it just doesn't make sense, and as above, may work to make your beer thin and watery. Depends on what you are shooting for :-)

22

Kegging and Bottling / Re: keg noob: purge the air from the top of the keg

« on: March 14, 2013, 08:21:28 am »

I do a couple purges as the incoming CO2 mixes with the existing air in the keg simply giving a higher percentage of CO2 in the mix each time. There is no effective stratification just mixing, due to the way our CO2 generally enters the keg.

After a few fills and purges you'll be fine and will have effectively removed enough atmospheric air to be safe. After filling purge the headspace once again and you'll be double good :-).

Mixing gases follows the partial pressure principle so "fill and purge" is the most effective way to get rid of the percentage of atmospheric air (21% oxygen) along with using a decent pressure of CO2. Each time you are mixing in 99.999 pure CO2 with what previous mix of gases remains. If you did the math you'd probably find that three fills and purges does a great job.

23

All Grain Brewing / Re: Mashing with Rye

« on: March 14, 2013, 08:12:25 am »

+1 on the rice hulls once you pass 20% rye in the mash.

Also this is one of the times when getting to a really warm mashout temp can help the sparge. That rye really adds viscosity!

24

All Grain Brewing / Re: Switching to All Grain

« on: March 14, 2013, 08:10:10 am »

Follow the simple and humble guidance on DennyBrew.com and you'll be well informed.

Literally all you need is a cooler to soak/mash the grains and some way to filter them out of the resulting wort. No multi-cooler "all-grain kit" or special equipment needed. Keep it simple as it is only difficult if you make it that way :-)

Almost 10 years ago I ran out to the hardware store and bought a cooler and some parts and have never looked back. Never started with extract, and was sparging into a bucket, and using the brew kettle (turkey fryer pot) to heat the water. Then poured the wort into the kettle for the boil. Simple, basic, cheap.

25

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: New Member

« on: March 14, 2013, 08:02:26 am »

Welcome!

26

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Hospitality Night - Worth volunteering our club?

« on: March 12, 2013, 06:24:51 am »

Not sure what they mean by "hospitality night" but there are many events around my area where homebrew clubs are invited to set up to serve their beer and promote the hobby and the club. Most of these events are excellent, and some clubs cover the cost of ingredients for the brewers who donate a keg of their beer. It's usually a great way to promote the hobby, but unless the audience is really geared to home and craft beer folks, it can be that you are just handing out free beer to folks who could care less about homebrewing or the club. Find out the details and go from there :-)

27

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: maintaining temps in freezer

« on: March 12, 2013, 06:17:42 am »

The Brewers Edge heater looks like just the perfect thing. Can be stuck to the wall of the chamber and takes up no room, and no exposed elements.

28

All Grain Brewing / Re: Mash Tun: Temperature Uniformity

« on: March 08, 2013, 08:06:34 am »

When using my cooler (round, orange) I preheat a bit with some hot tap water and then add the strike water, then the grain. Like Denny I stir until the temp stabilizes. After that I'll stir about every 15 minutes and add hot water if I lose temp from said stirring. Stirring seems to help the efficiency a bit as well.

When using my direct-fired stainless tun with RIMS, I also stir until the temp is stable and then let the RIMS system keep it there, but still give a full stir about every 15 minutes.

29

Pimp My System / Re: Kind of a Brutus 10 clone with RIMS, but it works for me

« on: March 06, 2013, 01:48:27 pm »

I assuming that the Ranco controller controls the heat element in the rims tube?

Do you have any controls for modulating the element on and off or do the wires from the controller go straight on the leads for the element?

 
<edit> just installed the full electric panel with 240v for all elements and PID control.

30

Equipment and Software / Re: Chiller to pond pump question

« on: March 06, 2013, 07:34:32 am »

As for the pump, don't buy a little "pond pump" unless that sucker is at least 1/3HP. Get a "submersible pump" with at least that rating. If you cannot get the velocity of flow through your chiller, you are not using the whole chiller capacity. It can make a big difference, especially when you have had the opportunity to use the proper setup.