Messages

91

Equipment and Software / Re: Tired of crappy therm and hydrometer

« on: June 16, 2012, 12:08:24 PM »

As for hydrometers, I bought the two precision hydrometers from Steinbart's, one that is from 1.000 - 1.070, and one that is from 1.060 - 1.130, and I like them a lot.  I still have a couple standard hydrometers for backup.  Check under the TESTING & MEASURING link.

https://www.fhsteinbart.com/products/index.php

92

Equipment and Software / Re: Tired of crappy therm and hydrometer

« on: June 16, 2012, 11:59:36 AM »

One of my favorite pieces of brewing equipment and a trustworthy, well-built one is a TM500 Palmer-Wahl instant read thermocouple meter.  I've used mine for six years now with complete accuracy, and it is so easy to use, to accurately and very quickly measure temps for everything from hot liquor, sparge water, mash, sparge, hydrometer flask, chilling wort, wort at pitching, etc.

http://www.palmerwahl.com/product_home.php?cat=3&catl=43&line=12&itm=604 

Along with it, from McMaster Carr I got an 18" flat pin stainless steel immersible probe.  Looking at the website the part appears to be:  316SS Air/Immersion Thermocouple Probe Mini Conn, w/o Cable, Type J, 32-1400 F, 18" L Probe, part # 39095K62 that is around $20.  If you get the 18" or longer probe it will sit in a bucket of sanitizer with the plug-in end still above the solution, for easy reinsertion into the meter when you're working on the cold side.

http://www.mcmaster.com/#flat-pin-thermocouple-probes/=i073vp

93

Equipment and Software / Re: An alternative to bagging hops

« on: June 16, 2012, 11:24:25 AM »

I drain from my kettle into bucket primary fermenters.  I prop a sanitized FINE mesh, handled kitchen strainer over the bucket and runoff through that.  I like catching the pellet hop debris and break material without immersing a strainer bag in the final wort, so none of the finest particles will permeate into the wort as I figure would happen with the bag immersed in the wort.  But, other than waiting awhile for everything to settle to the bottom of the keggle after chilling and removing the immersion chiller, I don't otherwise have a mechanism to strain out break material so I'm just hoping to be as efficient as possible about keeping it out of the fermenter.  I just keep a garbage pail nearby to shake out debris every once in awhile from the strainer as it fills with crud.  This is also helpful if I decide to strain all the liquid from my kettle, by taking out the last 1/2 gallon a cup at a time. 

94

Ingredients / Re: Belgian pale malt vs English pale malt (Golden Promise)?

« on: June 16, 2012, 10:29:13 AM »

I pretty recently used GP in a Scottish 80 shilling ale and a sour-worted Oud Bruin style beer and they both came out excellent.  It has a reputation as the Scottish version of Marris Otter, and deemed by some as superior and slightly sweeter.  It provides a standout, full-flavored malt backbone.

95

Ingredients / Re: Post your water report

« on: June 16, 2012, 10:19:46 AM »

From East Spokane Water District 1.  I live in Spokane Valley, Washington.  This water has no chlorine, chloramines, or flouride, or other purification agent(s).  I keep calling them to be sure that doesn't change...

pH 7.9
Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) Est 183
Electrical Conductivity, mmho/cm 0.31
Cations / Anions, me/L 3.0 / 3.0

#'s below in ppm:
Sodium, Na 6
Potassium, K 2
Calcium, Ca 35
Magnesium, Mg 12
Total Hardness, CaCO3 138
Nitrate, NO3-N 1.5 (SAFE)
Sulfate, SO4-S 4
Chloride, Cl 7
Carbonate, CO3 < 1
Bicarbonate, HCO3 151
Total Alkalinity, CaCO3 124

96

Kegging and Bottling / Re: Kegerators--any suggestions?

« on: June 10, 2012, 09:46:27 PM »

The thing I worry about with building one with a chest freezer and a collar is, what if the floor of the freezer gets dirty and you want to clean it?  The collar would make it way hard to get down to the floor of the freezer to clean. 

A sponge mop works great.

97

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: What's Brewing This Weekend - 6/8 Edition

« on: June 10, 2012, 09:24:19 PM »

Today I kegged 5 gallons and bottled 5 gallons of a Pannepot clone (Quadrupel), and kegged a hard cider.  I might brew a citra pale ale tomorrow.

I brewed the citra pale ale today and for the second time in a row got 79% efficiency where I used to get ~72%.  I'm sure that it is due to treating my sparge water as well as my mash water, made easy by ver. 1.12 of Bru'n Water.  I think the problem with the sparge before was my starting water's low calcium (>35ppm).  A new day is dawning!

98

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: What's Brewing This Weekend - 6/8 Edition

« on: June 09, 2012, 10:46:24 PM »

Today I kegged 5 gallons and bottled 5 gallons of a Pannepot clone (Quadrupel), and kegged a hard cider.  I might brew a citra pale ale tomorrow.

99

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Hard apple cider

« on: May 26, 2012, 11:25:40 AM »

When I do it I'll let it ferment out and rack to a keg and chill. Then I will add a can or two of frozen apple juice concentrate to back-sweeten. I've found out that that is about right for my tastes. I keep the keg cold to inhibit fermentation, but if I were planning on bottling I'd use a campden tab or two when racking and before back-sweetening.

Keeping it cold slows the process down dramatically and works with beer as well.

How long do you generally keep your cider in secondary before kegging/chilling/backsweetening?  I've made dry cider several times, and waited nearly a year before bottling, but plan to keg this time and am shooting for only a four month secondary, basically until the cider pretty fully clears, before kegging/chilling/backsweetening.

100

All Grain Brewing / Re: Phosphoric Acid amounts?

« on: May 25, 2012, 04:47:18 PM »

I recently saw a big jump in brewhouse efficiency by treating my sparge water in addition to my mash water, which was a snap using the new v1.12 of Bru'n Water, and involved a small addition of phosphoric acid in both water treatments.  We're talking about my guess of at least a 6 point efficiency increase in a 1.063 OG targeted beer with 5.5 pH mash and all other efficiency contributors accounted for.

101

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: What's Brewing This Weekend - 5/25 Edition

« on: May 25, 2012, 04:19:45 PM »

Little bit of keg draining, some keg washing, some keg filling.  It's a full circle!

102

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: What's Brewing This Weekend - 5/18 Edition

« on: May 19, 2012, 08:31:35 PM »

Today I brewed a Columbus/Centennial/Cascade ale that was going to be a pale ale, but due to a considerably higher than expected efficiency, ended up an IPA.  I got about 79% efficiency and 1.071 OG, 8 points higher than I targeted.  I believe it was primarily due to treating not just the mash water as I have always done in the past, but also the sparge water, per Martin's v1.12 of Bru'n Water.

But also higher OG due to boiling 15 minutes longer than I input in ProMash.

103

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: gluten free starter

« on: March 17, 2012, 11:34:45 PM »

Pikelakehomebrew, what was your OG and FG?  I'm visiting a gluten-free friend this summer and am thinking about bringing him some beer.  Thanks,

104

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Online brewing courses (moderate to advanced brewing)

« on: March 17, 2012, 10:00:45 PM »

Since you are interested in going as high as "advanced", there are plenty others to add to that list.  A few I have that are also good, related to learning styles, and educationally I feel not outdated:

Brew Like a Monk - Stan Hieronymus
Farmhouse Ales - Phil Markowski
Wild Brews - Jeff Sparrow
Brewing with Wheat - Stan Hieronymous
Classic Beer Style Series - various authors
Brewing Lager Beer - Gregory Noonan
Brew Your Own British Real Ale - Graham Wheeler
Brew Classic European Beers at Home - Wheeler & Protz
Old British Beers and How to Make Them - Dr. John Harrison

I still haven't gotten "Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers"

I have other older books that I also treasure; look into books by Stephen Snyder, Dave Miller, Charlie Papazian, the Szamatulski's, Lutzen & Stevens, Burch, and plenty others.

105

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Promash Question...Batch Size?

« on: March 17, 2012, 09:36:21 PM »

I make my batch size same as my wort size, and then in the "water needed" section set for that same volume in the field "after chilling" to fermenter(s).  With a little trial and error, the rest for me is setting the efficiency setting in the "edit Ingredients" section so that I get the volume and SG I'm shooting for.  At least this is the basic approach for me, and works most accurately when I have few losses from wort left behind in the mashtun/kettle/other also as figured in the "water needed" section.  I often refer to past batches to recall what efficiency to expect based on the predicted OG.

edit: What that wort size volume is depends on how much beer I am making, usually 11 or 12 gallons.