Messages

1111

Equipment and Software / Re: Mash tun frustration

« on: June 27, 2012, 08:50:01 pm »

+1 on backing up the nut a little. however, I have that cooler, and this parts setup (originally in a 2-gallon MT, then moved to a 5-gallon -- same outlet size) has never leaked, not once:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kgs/sets/72157615665837325/

If 3-gallon batches suit your lifestyle, enjoy it. I want to move up to a 9-gallon Coleman Xtreme so I don't have to sparge, but I'm in no rush. Brewing smaller batches is easier and faster all around for me -- setup, mash, boil, cool, etc. I have a larger kettle and a propane burner, but it introduced overhead and complications. Brew the way you want to brew. You can always move up later--if you want to.

Thanks for the info. The garden hose O-ring and washer set may be just the missing piece I need to get this to work. The best part is - I think I already have this set lying around the house. Will have to try this out tomorrow night.

1112

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: White Labs San Diego Superyeast!

« on: June 27, 2012, 07:31:53 pm »

The head brewer from Union Station Brewery in Providence just told me that they use this yeast for their house ale strain. I noticed a distinct yeasty note in their ales - definitely not as clean as I assumed this strain would be. In fact, I was expecting him to say that they used a British strain. It could be from his fermentation schedule, though. He starts at 70 for the first day, then drops to 65 to finish out. I generally go the other direction with Cal Ale strains. I liked the character it gave to their brown ale and porter, but not so much for their APA's.

He said they repitch for about 10 generations, by the way.

1113

Equipment and Software / Re: Mash tun frustration

« on: June 27, 2012, 07:23:14 pm »

Think about this: A 5 gallon mash takes the same time as a 3 gallon mash as it takes a 20 gallon mash. I generally cut the grass, clean the gutters, etc.. Also, if you can aquire equipment for a 3 gallon  mash for under $50, the equipment for a 5 or 10 gallon mash can be had for the same amount.

I'm not trying to pursuade you to go bigger, just making you think

All good points. Of course, a 3-gallon batch takes half as long to consume, which is the biggest determinant on how often I brew. 

And the difference in price between a 5-gallon cooler and a 10-gallon one is enough to pay for the grain & yeast for my first AG batch. With that logic I can easily reason to She Who Wears the Pants why I need to spend the money on this 

1114

The Pub / Re: song title game

« on: June 27, 2012, 05:37:02 pm »

All Over Again - Johnny Cash

1115

Equipment and Software / Re: Mash tun frustration

« on: June 27, 2012, 05:34:20 pm »

I appreciate the advice Tubercle. I may well be saying "he told me so" in a couple of years, but this really will suit my purposes just fine for the forseeable future. First of all, the smaller the footprint, the easier it is to fly under my wife's radar. Secondly, I'm a small-batch brewer at heart. Even if I gain the capacity for full 5+ gallon boils in the future, I will still probably brew small batches quite often. It seems for every beer I brew, I come up with another 2 I want to try out. I'd rather stick to small batches and brew more often.

Time is my biggest constraint when it comes to brewing, so having a small setup that lets me brew while multitasking around the house is key for me. The only reason I'm using a separate mash tun instead of straight BIAB in the boil kettle is so I don't have to tend to the temperature during the mash. Plus, for less than a $50 investment (I'm hoping), this rig will probably pay for itself by the end of the year just in savings on DME vs grain.

1116

Equipment and Software / Re: Mash tun frustration

« on: June 27, 2012, 09:18:15 am »

A mini-keg bung should fit the opening in the cooler just fine.

You can push a copper line through it and it should be snug and water tight.

If you want to keep the ball valve, a compression fitting on the end of the pipe should allow you to do so.

At least, this is my plan with the cooler I have, which I have not yet completely converted...

This is probably my final fallback. James from Basic Brewing did something similar with his 2-gallon Igloo cooler that he uses for mini-batches. I might also just try running a brass nipple through the bunghole (heh heh - put the nipple in the bunghole) and connecting the ball valve to that.

1117

Equipment and Software / Re: Mash tun frustration

« on: June 27, 2012, 09:12:40 am »

I'm constrained to my kitchen stove (ceramic top, and not too powerful), so I can only realistically manage a 3.5-4 gallon pre-boil volume. I enjoy doing smaller batches since I only drink maybe 5-10 beers a week. A 5-gallon cooler is really perfect for doing 3-gallon batches. I really don't mind dropping down to 2-gallon batches either for high-gravity brews.

Frankly, I'm not worried about lautering or even sparging at this point. I plan on doing a modified BIAB for most of my AG brews. I'm just using the cooler to maintain my mash temp, then running the full volume off into my brew kettle. I can then hang the bag a bit off the floor of the cooler to let it drain fully while I start my boil. I'm not even planning on putting the braid or a false bottom in the cooler. I'm just going to line it with a 5-gallon paint strainer bag. The only modification I'm trying to do right now is replacing the spigot with a ball valve.

1118

Ingredients / Re: Blueberries en masse

« on: June 27, 2012, 09:03:19 am »

Frankly, I wouldn't worry too much about pasteurization if they're going in the secondary. The alcohol in the beer should inhibit the nasties from taking off. Even if you get some minimal contamination, a blueberry wheat is something you're going to want to drink fresh so I doubt you'll have much left before any bugs from the berries can really take hold.

I'd just clean and freeze the berries in a ziploc bag (or better yet a vacuum-sealed bag). Let them thaw and come to room temp. The freezing action should break up the berries pretty well, and you can smash them a bit more by hand in the freezer bags.

I think 11 pounds for a typical 5.5 gallon batch sounds right. Blueberries don't really have a powerful flavor, so 2 pounds per gallon should give a pretty nice balance. I just did a blackberry weizen with 2lbs in a half-batch. It gave a nice color, but not as much flavor as I wanted. Blueberries are a bit milder in flavor than blackberries, so I don't think 2lb/gal will be that far out of balance.

1119

Equipment and Software / Re: Mash tun frustration

« on: June 27, 2012, 07:26:55 am »

Pick up some of this while you are at Home Depot.  http://jbweld.net/products/water.php

It's non-toxic, water safe, and good to 300F.  It's worked great for me.

Dave

The only product I'm finding is the epoxy stick. Is this like a glue stick? Is there a way to squeeze this into a tight spot to fill a gap?

1120

Equipment and Software / Mash tun frustration

« on: June 26, 2012, 07:05:40 pm »

So I'm just about ready to start brewing some all-grain batches. There is a 5-gallon Rubbermaid jug cooler at Home Depot for $20 that has been calling my name for a while. I came across a mash tun design online using this cooler and included the exact parts list from Home Depot, so I decided that it was time to make the plunge.

I put everything together tonight. I noticed that some of the parts didn't fit as well as I expected, but eventually I was able to get everything fairly snug. I put in about 2 gallons of water and put a couple of paper towels under the spigot. A half hour later the towels were slightly damp, so I cinched everything down tighter and tried again. This time I saw the leak start almost immediately.

So I started disassembling the spigot and noticed that the O-ring was a hair smaller than the gasket opening. I'm 99% sure that this is where the leak is coming from. I took another look at the website I got the plans from. It turns out that this Home Depot Rubbermaid cooler is a newer/slightly different model! *GROAN*

I'm pretty sure if I used 1/2" fittings instead of 3/8", everything should be OK. Of course now I have to hope I can return everything (a couple of the fittings are scratched since I don't have a proper pipe wrench). My easy mash tun on-the-cheap is starting to look not so easy or cheap anymore. I'm really this isn't going to turn into one of those several week-long projects punctuated by several trips to Home Depot.

1121

The Pub / Re: song title game

« on: June 26, 2012, 10:20:31 am »

Three to Get Ready - Dave Brubeck Quartet

1122

All Things Food / Re: Growing food - The Garden Thread

« on: June 26, 2012, 07:43:11 am »

Question about "compost":

I don't really have much space for compost, but I have a corner of the house that we have not yet landscaped. It was just dirt (no plants, weeds, etc), so I started piling up and burying my spent grain, trub, dryhops, grass clippings and burying it (it gets a bit funky otherwise).

Will this produce dirt worth using or am I more harm than good?

I think this is sometimes called "trench composting". The usual method is to have a dedicated spot or spots in the garden for this each year, creating new pockets of rich soil. You should get some nice soil from this, but it may take a year or so since the composting will happen a lot more slowly underground.

1123

Ingredients / Re: "Creamy" mouth feel ?

« on: June 25, 2012, 07:32:49 am »

Is the 2% chocolate = milk chocolate? 

1124

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: Swing-top Bottle Carbonation Issues

« on: June 24, 2012, 09:11:24 pm »

Do you mix your uncarbed beer and priming sugar thoroughly?

Yeah, learned the hard way with that. I don't have enough swing-top bottles to handle a full batch, and the regular-capped bottles all come out just fine.

1125

Beer Recipes / Imperial Pilsner - advice/suggestions?

« on: June 24, 2012, 07:41:26 pm »

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to approach an "Imperial" Pilsner? I'm thinking something like an amped-up, hoppy BoPils style. My initial idea is OG in the 1.070-1.075 range and about 50 IBU's. Here are a couple of questions that came to mind:

For those of you who use Munich in your Pilsners (as opposed to 100% Pilsner malt), would you keep the same percentage of Munich in a scaled-up version, the same by weight, or use less overall since the total malt bill is bigger and you might not need as much of that grainy character from the Munich?

Would you consider drying it out with some simple sugars (like you would with an IIPA), or is it OK to end up with a higher FG?

My inital stab at a recipe would be 85% Pils malt (or DME), 10% Munich, 5% Sucrose. 30 IBU's at 90 minutes, 20 IBU's at 15 minutes, a solid flameout addition, and about 2 oz of dry hops. Thinking of using a combo of Ultra and Motueka for the hops.