Messages

721

All Grain Brewing / Re: Haze issues with a bag of Maris Otter malt

« on: February 23, 2011, 08:26:42 AM »

So to resurrect an old thread, I brewed up a bitter yesterday using Crisp Maris Otter. I had lots of dough balls at dough-in, followed by significant protein coagulation by the end of the mash. Runoff was very cloudy, even after roughly double my normal vorlauf. I also noticed a much larger volume of break at the end of the boil. I used Whirlfloc in the boil as I always do. Normally when I brew a 6 gal batch, I get 5.25-5.5 gallons into the fermentor, leaving most of the break material behind. This time I barely made 5 gal. And, of course, the wort was cloudy going into the fermentor. I'll report back after fermentation is complete, but I'll be going out to pick up some gelatin in the meantime.

722

Homebrew Competitions / Re: Bottle Submission in to a competion

« on: February 21, 2011, 06:43:44 AM »

Make sure you roll up his score sheets and re-insert them in the sock when you mail them out.

723

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Price for Rogue Ales

« on: February 19, 2011, 07:11:00 AM »

Here in Illinois, Rogue products fall in line with the average price of craft beer, about 8-10 bucks a six-pack. Some of the local ones, like Goose Island and Two Brothers, can be had for cheaper if you know where to shop.

Huh, here in the south 'burbs, Dead Guy is always $2 more than everything else for a six. Bombers are usually closer to the rest of the pack, though.

I'm in the far, far NW burbs. I'm not actually sure if I fall into suburbs, more like farmland. It probably just means I'm getting overcharged on everything else too. 

724

The Pub / Re: My brewery

« on: February 19, 2011, 06:57:32 AM »

Looks beautiful to me!

725

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: technical details on a starter for 10gal lager

« on: February 19, 2011, 06:41:44 AM »

You may want to consider brewing a 5-gal batch of a smaller beer, and then harvesting the yeast for your 10-gal batch. Considering how much DME you'll be using for such a huge starter, the cost may not be much more, and you'll have another batch of beer to drink!

726

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Suggestion for home bar build

« on: February 19, 2011, 06:38:47 AM »

I'm building my bar right now. The way I planned my basement is to have the bar in front of the furnace/mechanical/brewery room. My chest freezer with collar is going in there. My faucets will be in the back wall of the bar with the shanks in an insulated cavity in the wall. That cavity will be attached to the collar of my freezer in the other room. I'm putting a muffin fan in to circulate cold air onto the shanks. I plan on mounting the faucets to a wood panel that is removable for maintenance, cleaning, etc. I don't know if through the wall mounting is an option for you, but it gets that kegerator out of the bar area. Eventually I'll get it done and post pics, but the extra bedroom/bathroom are priority right now with another kid on the way, so it may be a couple months...

727

Kegging and Bottling / Re: Regulator Repair

« on: February 18, 2011, 05:23:41 PM »

Replacement gauges are readily available and pretty cheap. I believe they can be had for under 10 bucks.

728

Pimp My System / Re: Kegerator Showcase

« on: February 18, 2011, 05:17:36 PM »

Attaching the collar to the lid means when you open it, the shanks and whatever hardware you have attached to the collar lift away. The downside is that you need more clearance behind the freezer for the lid to swing open. I've also seen some where there are hinges on both the lid and the freezer, so you can either open just the lid, or open the lid and collar. Mine has the collar attached to the freezer, just because it was the easiest way to build it. I can't say either way is better...

729

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Price for Rogue Ales

« on: February 18, 2011, 04:59:24 PM »

Here in Illinois, Rogue products fall in line with the average price of craft beer, about 8-10 bucks a six-pack. Some of the local ones, like Goose Island and Two Brothers, can be had for cheaper if you know where to shop.

730

Kegging and Bottling / Re: Bitter aftertaste

« on: February 18, 2011, 09:34:35 AM »

I find that California Commons improve significantly with some lagering time. I don't know if it will help this situation, but it's worth a shot. Throw some of the bottles in the fridge for 3-4 weeks and see if the beer improves.

731

Ingredients / Re: Advanced Software for Brewing Water Analysis

« on: February 18, 2011, 09:18:46 AM »

Wow, very well done Martin. This looks amazing. I'm looking forward to giving it a run.

732

Kegging and Bottling / Re: Sanitize CO2 line & connecter?

« on: February 17, 2011, 02:33:23 PM »

I spray Star-San on the post and the disconnect, but don't bother with the inside of the gas line. I push Star-San out of the keg with that gas line about to go into service. So I figure any nasties in the dust sitting in the line are going to get blown into a keg of Star-San anyway.

733

Kegging and Bottling / Re: Beer line length.....

« on: February 16, 2011, 05:50:50 PM »

Reading the subject title, I thought you guys were talking about the concession stand at the ballgame.   

Which is usually proportional to the line at the urinals.

734

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: What's Brewing This Weekend - 2/18 Edition

« on: February 16, 2011, 05:48:35 PM »

Brewing a 10-gallon batch of APA and splitting it between US-05 and WLP007. It's the continuation of my APA yeast experiment.

735

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Too warm to have added yeast?

« on: February 16, 2011, 04:22:11 PM »

70f in winter - wife freezing, "please turn the heat on"!

70f in summer - wife dying a slow death, "please turn the air on"!

So you've met my wife it sounds like...