Recent content by bdupree

Blichmann products are extremely high quality. You can build a stand a lot cheaper but if you don't mind spending some cash, you can have a pretty badass brewery with all blichman products. If you're not going to weld, and don't know anyone who does, you should probably buy a blichman or check...

Budweiser and Clamato Cheleada. Anybody that would drink that stuff is mad at theirself.

sometimes the most informative posts are when people share something that didn't work out or they screwed up. Could you post your recipe for the pinapple wine? Worst thing i ever made was a coopers beer kit -- it was 3.3lbs of LME and I added 3 lbs of table sugar - per directions. It smelled...

One week isn't enough, you really need at a minimum 3 weeks at about 70 degrees.

i brewed the all grain kit from austin homebrew with nottingham yeast because they didn't have any pacman. I can't tell a difference. if you're not going to actually lager it, and just pitch lager yeast, i don't think there will be much difference either.

thats not too much priming sugar. Are you sure they aren't freezing when chilled?

keg it. if you bottle, you might have some bombs. Whatever is growing there will keep eating the sugar in the beer if left at room temps.

I've seen those instructions a lot in kits. There is no advantage whatsoever in leaving a beer for a week or 2 in the primary then a week or 2 in the secondary. I'd just leave it in the primary for a month then bottle. I only use a secondary if i'm aging a beer for an extended period. Always...

to me, smoked malt is smoked malt. It doesn't matter what kind of wood it was smoked with. There isn't going to be an apple flavor to it.

There isn't any such thing. A fan is pretty much your only option. Even if you put an air conditioner out there, it would have to be blowing directly in your face to feel it.

you can, but it doesn't really need it. i just ran mine under some hot water in the sink before it's first use.

just sit it in some boiling water for a minute or two before using it. Some of them are a little oily depending on how it was made. after that, the boiling wort is going to sanatize it when you use it, no need to clean it.

I leave every beer i keg in the primary for a month. it clears up a lot in that time. When you keg, it's going to clear a lot the first week it's in the fridge. Use a siphon to rack it to the keg.

Even an inaccurage hydrometer will be consistently inaccurate. Different temps is possible but 3 or 4 degrees won't make the gravity drop any measurable amount. The only other option i can think of is that the break material settled down into the bottom, either changing the density of the...

make sure you spin the hydrometer to ensure you don't have any air bubbles stuck on it. That will make your reading higher. sounds like thats what happened. after 30 minutes the bubbles probably went to the top and lowered your reading.