Recent content by bryan567

So I got a 15 gal kettle for christmas :cool: and Im trying to figure out how I will configure the pickup and return tubes I got. Here's what I was thinking: I'm worried that the pickup tube will disturb the whirlpool and not allow me to get a nice trub cone in the center. I noticed...

Holy crap that's a good idea. Thanks! I will do that. The fail beer is only 4 gallons so it should fit in my fermenter.

I did use a big active starter of 099 after the first 4 days of fermentation. After reviewing your responses I'm going to give saccharomyces one more shot. I'm going to do a 2L starter at around 1.06 with 2 vials of 099 and let it completely finish then cold crash and pitch slurry into 2 gal...

I'm pretty sure fermentation has stalled due to alcohol. I mashed very low and even used 2 viles of Ultraferm to maximize fermentables in the beer. I'm certain there's still more fermentable sugar, the yeast just couldn't keep up. I started this beer on a giant yeast cake of wlp545 and pitched a...

Hi, So I tried to brew a 20% abv beer and recently decided it is a failure. I'm not here to talk about what I did or why it failed (although Im prefectly willing to if anyone is interested). I have a good idea what went wrong and what to do differently next time. I'd like to get your opinions...

DOH! So I'm boiling my wort right now and as I was doing some mash clean up I realized I added 3ml of Hanna ph meter storage solution into my mash instead of lactic acid. They both have similar containers and are stored near each other so it was an easy mistake ( which will never be made...

Heyoo sd brewers! South park here. So I'm almost ready to harvest my centenial hops and I have a question about post season care for hop growing in San Diego. I keep reading to cut the plant back for the winter frost but that obviously doesn't apply to us. What do you guys do with the plant...

Thanks. I was hoping installing one would be unnecessary. Hmm stainless HE? I think Ill stick with this one until it stops working. After all, like I said, it never comes in contact with wort.

So I recently finished my herms set up. I'm using a 2 gallon cooler with a heating element (controlled by a pid) and a copper coil as the herms. My buddy who has experience brewing electric told me I need to install a sacrificial anode to prevent corrosion on my heating element. After some...

poopscoop.

ahhh.. that may be it there.. beersmith shows 1.029. never really thought those would be inaccurate.. but still, would it throw it off THAT much?

what am I doing wrong here: http://imgur.com/9PqcZ.png temp was at 60 degrees . triple checked with 2 hydrometers. made sure the hydrometers were calibrated with water showing 1.000

Hi! Long time lurker, first time poster here. Im stumped. I'm pretty sure it must be wrong, but I can't figure out why. We brewed an esb yesterday that's happily fermenting right now. Everything went swimmingly until we took the gravity reading. We got 1.074 post boil with 12.75lbs or...