Topics

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Homebrew Competitions / Boston Homebrew Competition, Feb. 23 - More entries wanted!

« on: January 09, 2013, 03:24:00 pm »

Hi, folks. The Boston Wort Processors 18th Annual Boston Homebrew Competition is shaping up to have a great set of sponsors and prizes, but not a lot of entries, so your chance to win has never been better!

Entry deadline is Feb. 8th, and it's an AHA/BJCP sanctioned competition. Full information here: http://www.wort.org/boston-homebrew-competition.html

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General Homebrew Discussion / USPS shipping- more legal than I thought?

« on: November 14, 2010, 07:08:27 am »

In another forum, someone asked the usual question about how to ship homebrew, and got the usual set of answers, including admonitions not to use the USPS due to the illegality. However, one person responded to that by citing chapter and verse of the domestic mail manual, with links, and pointed out that the clauses that prohibit shipment of alcohol specifically refer to the technical term "intoxicating liquors", which for the purposes of the DMM is limited to taxable alcoholic beverages, which homebrew, of course, is not.

http://community.livejournal.com/homebrewing/603814.html?thread=4805030#t4805030

This is contrary to what I've been hearing for years. Anyone want to chime in on whether this is true, or if there's another set of technicalities somewhere else that makes it untrue?

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Other Fermentables / Ice cider - yeast and other issues

« on: November 01, 2010, 06:18:59 pm »

I'm changing up my usual cider routine this season and trying to make a batch of Quebec-style ice cider (cidre de glace). I'm on my way to having 4-5 gallons of 1.100-1.110 SG concentrated juice made from my local orchard's unpasteurized juice (apple blend unknown, unfortunately). Any thoughts on yeast strain, fermentation temperature, or other issues here? My usual cider yeasts are Lalvin D47 and WLP775; I suspect either of them would do an OK job but probably not a great job.

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Yeast and Fermentation / Raising the temperature in a chest freezer/fermenter

« on: August 23, 2010, 06:30:17 pm »

I recently acquired a chest freezer and digital temperature controller to free myself from the tyranny of whatever temperature my basement happens to be. I made an ale and it worked fine to hold it steady at 66F. Now I'm making a marzen, and I am following the advice in BCS to chill to do a "modified Narziss fermentation" - 44F, pitch, and slowly raise the temperature to 50F. However, 24 hours after I turned the set point from 44F to 50F, the temperature is still down at 44F. This is great for demonstrating the insulation of the chest freezer, but not really what I wanted for my fermentation schedule.

What are some good ways to warm this up? A second controller and a heating pad would be ideal, but I'm not set up for that. Would putting a pint of just-boiled water in the chamber be reasonable? (6 gallons I want to raise ~3 degrees at a time vs. 1/8 gallon that is ~160 degrees above the ambient temperature).