Recent content by Bhamsteelerfan

Okay, I'm brewing a hefe. Made a yeast starter, got an awesome, aggressive fermentation. A week and a half later, I checked the gravity. Reading was around 1.013. Perfect. Bottled today. Forgot to take a gravity reading before I started bottling, but figured its fine since the last reading I...

I'm planning on making an all-citra IPA tomorrow afternoon. I'll be making the starter this afternoon. My question is, should I go with an older vial WLP001 (expiration date is March 15) or a nice fresh vial of 051, which is pretty fresh (expiration date is April 5). Which one would you go with?

Okay, one last thing I need help with. I created the starter at 2 pm yesterday. I shut off the stir plate at 11 pm and just now have it back up and running. My brew day is planned for Sunday morning-early afternoon. I want a good strong starter (I'm judging by the activity I'm well on my way)...

Okay, one last thing I need help with. I created the starter at 2 pm yesterday. I shut off the stir plate at 11 pm and just now have it back up and running. My brew day is planned for Sunday morning-early afternoon. I want a good strong starter (I'm judging by the activity I'm well on my way)...

Airlock off, foil (sanitized) on. Restarted stir plate a lower speed. So far, so good.

Yeah, definitely figuring that out now. Think I'll find a gallon jar and use that in the future.

Okay, replaced foil with airlock. As you can see, the airlock is already super foamy. Cut the stir plate down to its lowest setting. Got a lot of bubbles emerging from the airlock now. Guess I'm going to have overflow no matter what. Should I replace the airlock since it's all foamy, or should I...

Definitely keeping it sanitary. So should I just let it sit since stirring just causes a mess, wait for the krausen to fall, decant, and pitch tomorrow during brew day? Attached is a photo of how the starter looked this morning.

I'm making a yeast starter for a Belgian IPA. I built a stir plate and used it for the first time yesterday. Made a 1600 ML stater in a 2L flask using the Mr. Malty formula. After only 8 hours on the stir plate, the krausen reached the top of the flask. I was afraid of overflow, so I turned off...

I replaced the CPU fan controller with a 25K ohm 3W rheostat and replaced the 9v supply with a 6v supply (the 12v supply was spinning the fan ridiculously fast even with the rheostat cranked all the way down). Now it works perfectly. Even added a rocker switch.

So today, I made a yeast starter. 2 cups of water to 1/2 cup of DME. I was really excited because this was going to be the maiden voyage of my DIY stirplate (which purrs like a kitten, by the way). I poured the starter into a 2-liter flask (the starter barely filled the bottomthe the flask), and...

So I've been trying to construct a stir plate. Online tutorials have seemed easy enough, but man has it been frustrating. Thought I finally had everything wiried correctly. I set a filled liter flask on it and let it run. For a while, it was running like a charm, but then about an hour in, the...

Okay, it is time for me to dry hop my Belgian IPA. I took a sample for a gravity reading today, and, wow, was it tasty and very hoppy! . I used an once of Magnum for bittering and threw in an once of Centennial near the end of the boil. Going with a late addition hop method really made a...

Magic City Beer Fest this afternoon!

Thanks for the reply. Went with an ounce of Magnum for 30 minutes and an ounce of Centennial for 10. Am going to dry hop with Chinook and Cascade. The smell out of the airlock is really, really good.