Search results

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...

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...

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...

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'm building my own counter-pressure filler, and have everything put together but I'm having issues with the 3-way valve. I have a 3-way valve from eBay, and it's the right kind of design, but when I go from closed (handle perpendicular) to open either input (CO2 or beer), some CO2 from the...

I used Bru'n water for the amber ale I made recently. I used RO water and adjusted using salts. It was the first time I've used anything besides my tap water... and it tasted delicious! Used to have some background off-flavor in all of my brews, but no longer; I'm sold on adjusting my water...

I'm using Bru'n water 3.4. When I set "Add CaSO4 & CaCl2 to replace Chalk & Lime in Sparging Water?" to Yes, Excel gives me an error, "Excel cannot calculate a formula." and shows a circular reference: N14 (Finished SO4/Cl Ratio) points to G14 (overall water Chloride), which points to K20...

I've been brewing for a few years now, but made a rookie mistake with my latest brew. I brewed an amber ale, and tasting (after fermentation had died down) it was delicious! A little yeasty, but otherwise a really good amber ale. I removed the carboy from my temp controlled fridge and let it...

I just started getting into water chemistry and purchased a TDS meter. The TDS of my starting water (RO and deionized) is 2 ppm. I added 48.8 ppm Ca, 5.2 ppm Mg, 15.4 ppm Na, 57.4 ppm SO4, 63.9 ppm Cl, and 32.6 ppm HCO3. How can I calculate a TDS from this? If I add up those additions (and...

I've been more careful about leaving trub behind with my last couple brews. After wort chilling I whirlpool, then wait 15 minutes to let it settle. A lot of the trub moves to the center, but it never really forms a compacted cone. Even carefully racking at the side of the kettle seems to stir...

I brewed an amber ale today and decided to try using chalk for an iodine test (did a vial test for my previous couple of all-grain brews). Even after mashing for over 90 minutes the test still wasn't negative on chalk. In the vial it looked negative, but the color is really hard to tell in...

I've been doing extracts for several years now and decided to finally get into all-grain brewing. I brewed an oatmeal stout this past weekend and took a sample out of the primary today. It has an off flavor, that lasts strongly in the aftertaste. I think it might be astringency, but I'm not...

I usually ferment in a plastic bucket, but wanted to try using my keg fridge as a temp-controlled fermentation chamber, and my bucket is too big. My 5-gallon BetterBottle fits beautifully, but I needed a blow-off tube (since I'm brewing a 5-gallon batch). I'm using FermCap (added during the...

I've started kegging my beer, and am loving the setup! The only drawback is not being able to bring bottles to friend's places. I can bottle condition a few after brewing, but it would be easier to just be able to tap bottles/growlers right from my keg. I have a carbonator cap (plastic...

Yeast: SafAle S-04 1/3 oz Nugget, boiled 60 min (13.3% α acid) 1/2 oz Cascade, boiled 15 min (6.9% α acid) 1/2 oz Cascade, dry-hopped 6 lbs. Pilsen Light Dry Extract 1/4 lb Honey malt 1/4 lb Smoked malt 1/4 lb Biscuit malt 1/2 lb Caramel 60 malt 1/2 lb Chocolate wheat...

7 lbs Amber dry malt extract 3/4 lb chocolate malt 1/2 lb crystal malt 1/4 lb black patent malt 1/4 lb roasted barley 0.2 pounds Nebraska blend coffee (from The Mill, in Lincoln, NE), ground coarsely; this is a chocolate and Irish cream flavored coffee 1/2 cup Ghirardelli unsweetened...

I'm trying a new recipe. It's intended to clone Empyrean's (a Nebraska-based brewery) Burning Skye, a Scottish Ale. I started with an OG of 1.058, fermented with S-04. From BrewTarget I was expecting a FG of about 1.014, but ended up with a FG of 1.008. The brew tastes a little watery, but...