Recent content by TonySwank

When I visit my buddy in New Orleans usually our first stop is Port of Call. Pretty well known but the burgers are fantastic. Really dark/dingy inside, perfect for day drinking. http://portofcallnola.com/

Quite a few people, including me, went the eBay route. Might take a week or two to find the size you want but be patient.

Leaving early and going to the gym near work is an easy way to avoid traffic at least on the way in. Definitely look into getting some audiobooks. I used to travel 70-80% of the time for work and audible.com kept me sane.

I would heat my strike to about 185F, dump it in a close the lid. 15 minutes later it would be around 170F. Add grains and your right around 152F. When I first started using a cooler I would heat tap water for pre heating while heating up my strike water, then would dump it out when the...

Single Tier HERMS that I finished last summer. Makes life so much easier and after spending that much time/money I make sure it gets plenty of use. There is no way I could have done it without this site.

reply for a chicken dinner

I don't think anyone has mentioned Kolsches and Alts yet. Both of them ferment well in the high 50's to low 60's. Obviously the more you can control the temperature the better, but plenty of people brew with the seasons.

For anything that is dry hopped with more than 1oz I have had good luck attaching a paint strainer to the end of the racking tube that is in the keg. I use a hose clamp to keep the bag on and it catches a nice amount of hop debris. Try to get the hose/bag against the bottom of the keg, just to...

Just wanted to let you guys know that I believe that adding raw spices in the secondary caused some off flavors in my pumpkin ale. I've made the beer a couple of times before but never added any additional spices after the boil. Anyway, I tasted the beer about a week ago when I kegged and it...

I really like Beer Alchemy as well. Currently use the mac, ipad and iphone apps. All work great but not sure if the iphone/ipad apps would be great without the actual computer software. Editing and creating recipes on my phone was a little slow and awkward, although it was better than any...

Wow, way to show me up. Haven't been on this thread in a while but looking to make another tap handle, so many great ideas on here. Hopefully I'll have something worth posting soon.

Thanks for the responses. My fermentation fridge was at 65 F the entire time so I doubt fermentation temperature is the problem. Since switching to RO water about 10 batches about I've been using the Brewing Water Chemistry Primer method of sauermalz and calcium chloride to the batches but...

I just tasted a batch while transferring to a keg and it had an awful metallic and fusel taste. Never experienced these flavors before so not quite sure what happened, there were some unique things about this batch which I've listed bellow. The beer was a really basic American Pale Ale with...

Finished my single tier electric HERMS a couple of weeks ago. Five batches later and I've barely taken any pictures. Going from turkey fryers and manually lifting hot pots to this has been amazing. Working on getting a thread together for my build.

This should be a good entry level soldering iron. Can't go wrong with Weller. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000AS28UC/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20