Recent content by dave8274

Bottled the beer this weekend. Tasted awesome, but it was more brown than red. Look forward to trying it in a few weeks!

Brewed this back on the 9th, checked gravity today to see about bottling. I started at 1.096, but right now my SG is 1.021. Is my fermentation likely stuck? Thinking about moving it upstairs where it's a little warmer, giving it a gentle stir and giving it another week or 2. If my math is...

Parents are doing all the cooking, so I'm bringing 6 bombers of Pumpkin Ale and some Apfelwein.

Just brewed this today. Ended up at 1.053 and the wort smells great. I pitched S-04, I'll let you know how it turns out!

I keep mine in the basement at room temperature for 3+ weeks, but I usually do sample one after about 10 days or so just to see how it's coming along.

I was planning on brewing a couple of recipes this week with the same yeast, one required a 1L starter and the other required a 2L. I was planning on making the smaller beer 1st, so I made a 2L starter, planning to brew the 1st batch tomorrow, pitch half the yeast, and then add another...

Cool thanks. I've never seen rafts like that before, the ones I've seen have been much flatter. The again I usually don't opej the fermenter and look before about 2.5 weeks.

I brewed this Centennial Blonde about 10 days ago, using rehydrated Nottingham. I moved the bucket yesterday, and noticed afterward that the lid of the bucket had popped open a bit. I'm not sure if it happened a few minutes earlier when i moved it, or a week ago. Not long after I smelled...

I'd like to make this next weekend, and I'm about to make a starter of S-04 for some ESB I'm going to make midweek. It would be great if I could step some of that starter up for this beer. Has anyone made this with S-04 and how were the results?

Well, that was adventure of a brew day. Everything that could go wrong went wrong, the copper manifold at the bottom of my mash tun got knocked loose when I was stirring the sparge water, and I had to dump everything into buckets, fix it and put it back, but there was still obviously a bunch of...

I'll have to get that book. I do have a pressure cooker, I use it to make my slants and also to can my starter wort, so sterile technique isn't an issue. I was more concerned the fact that I can't pressure cook the petri dishes like I can the slants. Also about airborne stuff when I plate...

I do have the loop and the alcohol lamp. I just figured the plating step in between would increase the chances of contamination vs just going straight to the slant.

Brewing it today and giving the WLP007 a try with it. My basement seems to be the perfect temp for that yeast right now in the mid 60s, and I'm going to give it a nice long diacetyl rest. I'll report back on how it turns out!

I could do that. I was planning to take the sample from the slant before making the starter, but after works fine. I tried plating once though, and had no success getting an isolated colony. Might have to try it again. Is there anything wrong with just taking a bunch from the slant without...

Patience was hard for me to learn. My 1st 3 brews were rushed and suffered for it. Now I always leave it in the bucket for 3 weeks regardless of how fast the fermentation is.