Recent content by reed1911

I agree on several points here, no need to use the higher end aroma/flavor hops for primary bittering agent, Magnum or Nugget works great for that. Citra does not have much of a citrus/grapefruit flavor, mostly tropical flavor. I'm not much on Cascade for citrus but I do love Amarillo for the...

You would not use grain alcohol to make vinegar. The production of grain alcohol is not legal in the US without a license. The production of such is not allowed for discussion here.

Being frozen, they can be added with no other prep. I would not add them to the whole batch; pull a gallon sample and add 1/2lb to that gallon and see if that will bring what you expect. Often times the result is far from what folks expect. Generally using fruit you'll get lots of strong aroma...

Are you sure you are turning the pot all the way up and not down? You should not need a pot at all if you have a 12v power supply and a 12v fan. I'd opt to measure the resistance you are actually using and work from there.

I would pull a small batch say 1gal and dry hop that with the herbs before I batch the whole thing.

No I have not.....but it sounds like an excellent idea

Let it ride. It may or may not have any funk, but provided it has that good beer brewing smell and no rotting garbage smell it will be drinkable. The nice thing is no matter what strain of good yeast grows it will be in 'style' :)

How does the offgas smell?

That has been my experience. I decided to make a starter, and based on the starter whether to ramp it up or not. I'd hate to waste 5 gal when I can only waste a liter.

+1

Depends on the temp of the wort. Provided once mixed with the water it is at pitching temp, yes, go ahead. If not, then no. It takes much longer to cool a larger volume of water to pitch temp then a smaller volume. If you pitch while the wort is too hot you just have to wait that much longer for...

It would appear so.

um...if you use milk and butter it will go rancid. Yes the fat and oil in butter will kill the head retention. No the alcohol will not stop it from rotting. The flour will cause a gooey sticky mess. The baking powder will mess with the PH and possibly lend some bad flavor. If you want that...

I don't see anything wrong here.

Falling off topic again, but does anyone know off hand how they remove the alcohol? Vacuum maybe?