Messages

2446

General Homebrew Discussion / Nice find

« on: January 04, 2010, 12:44:59 PM »

Was getting ready to bottle today, first time in the new house and was going through the taped up boxes that I was under the assumption contained my bottles.  Well, it did, in addition to 5 RyePAs that I brewed almost 3 years ago today and which I didn't realize I had.  Guess I have some homebrews to drink while bottling today after all.  They still taste pretty good.  No real hop aroma left and they're showing their age a bit but still a really nice brew to enjoy while doing homebrewing activities 

2447

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: No Carbonation: A bad condition

« on: January 03, 2010, 09:13:42 AM »

Yeah, I would think that warming them back up and giving them a little shake will probably work fine.  I've found that it generally takes a week to carb and two weeks is more like it to get consistent carbonation.

2448

Equipment and Software / Re: Coleman Extreme 70qt Silver

« on: January 02, 2010, 08:53:14 PM »

Got the washers ground down on three sides and slapped this together.  Brewed with it today and it worked great.  Couldn't feel any heat on the top or other areas outside the cooler with one exception.  Right where the indent is to open the cooler there was some heat loss.  I noticed it easily when I was preheating the mash tun with boiling water in 20 degree weather since vapor was pouring out.  I just put a think towel over that and that seemed to work.

2449

All Grain Brewing / Re: Malt Conditioning

« on: January 02, 2010, 07:49:53 PM »

I may need to give this a try since I'm having stuck runoffs.  In total I left about 0.17 gallons per lb in the mash tun today in "absorption" between the first runoff and the batch sparge.  Maybe I'm trying to run it off too fast as well.  I'm going to stick with what I've been doing for the brew I'm planning to do on Monday and slow down the runoff a little and see what happens.  If I get similar results I guess I'll give this a shot. 

2450

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Whatcha brewin' this week? - 2009 Dec 31 - 2010 Jan 6

« on: January 02, 2010, 09:03:37 AM »

Mashed in on the Belgian Strong Golden Ale.

2451

All Grain Brewing / Re: No Pants Brewing

« on: January 01, 2010, 01:01:08 PM »

My brewing is more infrequent.  Whenever the opportunity presents itself.  I'm brewing twice in three days this weekend but it might be another month before I find a brew day again.  So I try to plan my brews out in as much detail as possible and stick to the plan as much as I can.

2452

All Things Food / Re: What's cookin' for the Holidays folks?

« on: January 01, 2010, 10:46:00 AM »

Happy New Year!

I found a great pork loin roast at the grocery store.  It looked and felt so tender raw that I'm salivating over what it'll taste like after it cooks for a few hours.  It's in there with the kraut, a beer, some salt and pepper, and caraway seeds right now.  Smells great.

2453

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Black IPA underway

« on: December 30, 2009, 08:07:50 PM »

Was just reading through the new issue of Zymurgy and read the "Another Great GABF" article.

Among the many diversions at the festival, the Brewers Studio Pavilion offered several educational seminars.  One of the seminars I attended was on "what's new in craft brewing."  Here's the scoop:

 - Black IPAs:  Stone head brewer Mitch Steele presented on this growing style, which he described as a "black beer that has more in common with a schwarzbier, and is hopped like an IPA."

2454

All Things Food / Re: What's cookin' for the Holidays folks?

« on: December 30, 2009, 04:23:57 PM »

Gotta have pork and kraut on New Years Day.  It's good luck for the rest of the year 

2455

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Whatcha brewin' this week? - 2009 Dec 31 - 2010 Jan 6

« on: December 30, 2009, 10:58:15 AM »

Alright, I've been waiting for this one.

January 2nd - Belgian Strong Golden Ale and on January 5th a Dry Irish Stout.  Presuming that nothing important is frozen solid.  Both 5 gallon batches.

2456

All Things Food / Re: Coffee Makers

« on: December 29, 2009, 10:41:16 PM »

You need one of those ugly green STANLEY thermos bottles. Never seen anything hold coffee hot for longer. (without power)

Yeah, that's what I was thinking actually.  I believe they have a vacuum sealed glass insert.  

2457

All Things Food / Re: Coffee Makers

« on: December 29, 2009, 10:06:04 PM »

This is what I wanted.

Based both on dontblake's review and my going through every coffee pot on amazon and not finding anything else I remotely liked.  But it didn't qualify for free shipping and the shipping charge was outrageous so I fell back on what I could find at BB&B.

5 or so pots in and it seems like it's working well.  The thermal carafe is better than the ones I've had but still doesn't seem to hold the heat as well as I'd like.  I'm probably just nitpicking at this point since it does hold it pretty well.

And I have no experience on the 3300 you bought so no help there.  It does look like a nice machine though!

2458

All Things Food / Re: Coffee Makers

« on: December 29, 2009, 08:49:24 PM »

I ended up just getting this one.

Mine was busted and I needed one immediately since I'm having a bunch of out of town friends over for NYE.  Not 100% what I wanted but it'll do for now.  Between the standard 20% off BB&B coupon, a rebate, and the gift card my parents got us for xmas it cost me $7.

2459

All Things Food / Re: New years eve menu and pairings

« on: December 29, 2009, 07:05:26 PM »

Sounds great!  How many people are you serving?

2460

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Dry hopping and contamination

« on: December 28, 2009, 01:12:18 PM »

In college a friend of mine stepped on a nail.  Didn't really have any other antiseptics handy so I poured jack daniels on it.  Seemed to work just fine