Recent content by GlowingApple

That makes sense! I'll record readings once the meter stabilizes but take a few more data points the next time I mash. Thanks for the replies!

When I started all-grain brewing I bought a cheap $10 pH meter. I never quite trusted it and lately it was giving me readings way off of what I was expecting from Bru'n water. So I decided to finally upgrade to a Milwaukee 102. This last brew it gave me a reading closer to what I was...

My drill actually has a trigger lock, but it doesn't work all that well. Never thought to use a hose clamp; will try it! My phone has a time lapse video mode, so I can try recording for a set time and should be able to count the revolutions that way! This would definitely be the easiest...

At the moment I'm using an adjustable Milwaukee drill to drive my grain mill (eventually will upgrade to a motor, but don't have the space or money for a pulley-driven system right now). I'm sure that at full speed it is way too fast, but I can easily adjust it down to a crawl by squeezing the...

I figured the closest category would be American Amber, but I was probably biased by the fact that the last amber I brewed was more on the malty side. The judge did make a comment about barely tasting any hop bitterness at all, so I assume he was expecting a more hoppy amber ale to begin with...

no diacetyl could be tasted (by heating a sample... -- this could be avoided; in future brews I probably won't do a test and just wait about 10 days, but since this was my first lager I was a little paranoid about making a butter bomb. blow-off tube was removed and replaced; the beer was...

The grain bill was pilsner, munich, and aromatic malt. I got everything just a couple months ago from morebeer.com. Everything was heat-sealed until the day I brewed with it. I assume morebeer would have good turnover? I added gelatin the way that brulosopher does: add gelatin to cold tap...

A little bit ago I brewed my first lager, an Oktoberfest. It tasted amazing! Was the perfect amount of sweetness, mouthfeel, color. The malty aroma was a little low, but otherwise I wouldn't change a thing. So I decided to enter it in my first competition. Unfortunately the competition...

I've made some meads and ciders before, but I'm making my first fruit wine. Got several pounds of concord grapes from some friends in Erie, PA. I have about 1.5 gallons, split into a 1-gallon jug and a growler, both with airlocks, and I'm thinking of sweetening 1/2 gallon. I've added...

I have a cooler that I've installed a bulkhead fitting/valve. I'm using my biab brew bag as the filter. For my last brew I tried to recirculate the mash through a coil in my HLT. It would work as long as I held the brew bag away from the cooler outlet (the inside flat of the bulkhead...

I am borrowing a nitrogen tank from a friend and going to fill it with beer gas to serve a chocolate stout on nitro. I've been reading posts about how to nitrogenate, but I'm not sure I have it right. As I understand I should rack the beer to the keg carbonate with pure CO2 to 1.0...

Finally found one! It's even stainless too! It's 1/4" FNPT, so I had to get different fittings (since I was working with 3/8" before), but it doesn't leak between inputs like all the other valves I tried...

Thanks for the responses! I assumed cold-brew coffee was weaker than steeping at boiling, but sounds like it's pretty close to the same! I'll shoot for 4 oz for this beer then. The coffee flavor was just about right the last few times I brewed it, though a little less would be fine too, but it...

I have a chocolate coffee stout that I've brewed several times. I keep making improvements and love how it turns out! For a 5-gallon batch I add 0.2 lb of coarsely ground coffee to the boil at flame-out. Just the right amount of coffee flavor, but does add a lot of bitterness. I'm going...

I have Lugol's (also an expired bottle from my school), and all of my tests on chalk come back positive. I run a test at dough-in to have a confirmed positive, but the subsequent tests are nearly as dark. I used SG to confirm my last brew's conversion. Samples every 15 minutes showed 9.2...