Messages

2491

Equipment and Software / Re: Coleman Extreme 70qt Silver

« on: December 15, 2009, 07:33:18 pm »

These are the instructions I followed:

http://brewing.lustreking.com/gear/mashtun.html

Just got mine in the mail today.  Looks like I'm going to have to follow these instructions.  I was hoping to just pop in a new mini-keg bung and move the assembly from the old mash tun but the walls on this one are a lot thicker and that's not going to work.  Good news that this one is better insulated but I guess I'm heading out to Lowe's again.

2492

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: Yeast pitching for a high OG noob

« on: December 15, 2009, 12:34:38 pm »

what table is that? I am trying to find online and I guess I am missing it?

The yeast growth table I referred to in my earlier post is in How to Brew 3rd edition on page 68 I believe.  It has initial cell count down one side and starter sizes from 1-4 qts (liters) on the top to estimate how many cells a starter will give you.  I don't think that table is on the online version.

2493

Ingredients / Re: Yeast Nutrient

« on: December 15, 2009, 10:33:03 am »

I'll continue using nutrient because it's cheap, easy insurance.

That's the way I feel about it.  Maybe it doesn't help very much but maybe it does and adding a teaspoon of nutrient to the boil when I throw in the whirlfloc is no effort at all and very little cost.

2494

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: AHA Membership

« on: December 15, 2009, 10:26:06 am »

Joining online was pretty easy.

2495

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: cold side aeration and staling reactions

« on: December 15, 2009, 07:04:23 am »

So, IMO, pre-boil HSA is not a concern - YMMV.

That's good to hear.  I had a similar problem in the brew I did this weekend.  Not at that scale but at the end of the runoff I was blowing some air into the wort mainly due to the design on my MT.  I was wondering if it would have any ill effects.  Not that it'll probably be around long enough to matter.

2496

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: cold side aeration and staling reactions

« on: December 14, 2009, 07:56:09 am »

I think he's asking whether letting aerated wort sit around before pitching for a significant time would have the same staling effect on the beer as introducing oxygen after the fermentation is complete and the chemistry behind what causes that.  Logically you would think that it would but that's just a guess on my part.

2497

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Good resources for labels?

« on: December 13, 2009, 11:32:10 am »

Check out this thread:

http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?topic=384.0

2498

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: Yeast pitching for a high OG noob

« on: December 13, 2009, 06:59:15 am »

I'm using Jamil's calculator, sort of.  His calculator uses the 1 million cells x 1 ml wort x 1 degree plato and factors that down by some amount, looks like to about 80% of the value you get from that equation for ales.  For a 1.095 ale he comes up with 305B cells.  I had factored that down a bit more but after looking at it again agree that it should be higher.  Probably up to the full amount called for by the equation.

After I figure out the number of cells I'm shooting for I'm using the table on page 68 of How to Brew to decide on the starter size.

2499

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: What Are the Next Steps for Beg.- Intermediate Home Brewer?

« on: December 12, 2009, 10:00:14 pm »

Just out of curiosity I put 7 gallons of water in the brew pot on my gas stove and cranked up the heat.  After over an hour I still didn't have a boil although it was getting close.

2500

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: What Are the Next Steps for Beg.- Intermediate Home Brewer?

« on: December 12, 2009, 08:28:35 pm »

Doing a full boil for a 5 gallon batch on a stove probably isn't going to work.  That's what prevented me from moving up to all grain until just recently.  You need to be able to boil around 7 gallons of wort, give or take and that's difficult to pull off on a stove.  Probably impossible on an electric range and not much easier even if you have gas.  I have a 10 gallon brewpot and it works great for 5 gallon batches but I'm boiling on a Bayou burner outside.  I don't think I could get that sucker to a boil easily on my stove.

2501

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: Yeast pitching for a high OG noob

« on: December 12, 2009, 08:14:39 pm »

I've been tooling around on the forum looking for a topic on this subject before starting a new one, and I found one!  I thought there was one out there.   

I'm planning a Belgian strong golden ale.  Shooting for an OG around 1.095.  I'm planning on using WY 3787 and making a 3 qt starter with a cell count target of about 250B.

My question is should I just pitch that starter and let it run?  I know that will work but should I plan for an additional yeast addition after the initial pitch?  And in general, for high gravity beers when (gravity-wise) do you need to throw in additional yeast additions?

I've also seen reference in some posts about adding oxygen when adding yeast after the initial pitch.  That confuses me a little since my understanding was to keep oxygen out of the beer after the initial aeration.

2502

Equipment and Software / Re: Coleman Extreme 70qt Silver

« on: December 12, 2009, 06:26:11 pm »

Yep, me too  

I was going to get the 52 qt but the 70 was cheaper.

2503

The Pub / Re: What do you like besides homebrew

« on: December 12, 2009, 01:46:47 pm »

Yep, making my own beer was a natural progression for me from cooking.

2504

Equipment and Software / Re: Coleman Extreme 70qt Silver

« on: December 12, 2009, 01:32:12 pm »

Amazon has the 70 qt blue one for $36 and free shipping.

2505

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Oops, missed

« on: December 11, 2009, 01:15:51 pm »

Thanks for the advice everyone.

Topped up with about a gallon and a half of distilled water.  My choices at the local grocery store were spring water or distilled water.  Where do you get RO water?

That put me at 1.055 OG and I pitched the yeast (yeah, somewhere in there my readings were a little off).  Overall, I'm pretty happy with the results of my reboot brew day.

My burner worked perfectly.  Was a little scared of it before I lit it up.  I was finding reasons to delay doing that.  But it fired up perfectly, had a boil in about 15 minutes and it didn't burn down my garage or house.  Win.

Had a little problem where my two floating thermometers didn't agree with each other on mash temp.  Went with the one I thought was more reliable.  I need to get a lab thermometer to be the tie breaker.

As I stated earlier, my cooler sucks.  I knew that going in.  Short term I'm going to attempt to compensate with an additional batch sparge. 

The fermenter is sitting in my basement all nestled in a wet towel in a couple inches of water with a little ice.  Hopefully that will keep the fermentation temp at around 65 since my basement has been holding steady at 70 since the winter months kicked in.