Recent content by DsmBrood

I have just recently killed my third chest freezer. The first was admittedly very old, a mid 70s model, and its time had clearly pasted. The other two where early 90s Amanas: I ran off a Ranco thermostat controller, and made no other modifications to them. They failed due to coolant line...

Edit: I was hopeing to be able rack them out of secondary before serving, at least for the IPA since its currently being dry hopped. The Belgian I can go ahead and start carbing now. I did not cold crash any of them from primary to secondary so they all have a good amount of yeast still. I...

So I was given somewhat short notice of a need for a lot of beer for an event, here is what I'm looking at: All beer needs to be served on April 8th. Batch 1, Belgian Spiced Ale, brewed on March 13th, racked to secondary (Sanke kegs) after 8 days on the 21st. Batch 2, IPA brewed on March 18th...

So 2 days ago I brewed 2 batches, one a 1.060 IPA the other a 1.054 wheat ale. Due to simplicity and equipment I pitched both from a single large yeast starter WhiteLabs 001. I cooled & oxygenated both the same way & can think of no other issues that would account for the wheat ale to be...

Thank you for the feedback. I've got wire running between pipe members that are hard to read at the above resolution, do you think thats problematic? Did you use PT lumber and bury them in concrete?

Thanks for the feedback. Yes, I accept that I'll have a fair amount of bine training to do. I'm fine with going out every (few?) days to retwist some bines. I guess I'm fine with finding a ballance between hop porduction and asthetic function. I just want to make sure that I'm not going to...

http://www.sciplus.com/ a great place for boroscilicate pieces (non thc related that is), as well as tons of other amazing, kookie, fun, educational stuff.

I'm planning on planting! I've designed this hop trellis & am planning on building it soon. I'm planning on having 5 hills, one of 5 different varieties of hops. I'm hoping to alternate bays on the trellis and have each variety grow vertically at first and then horizontally. I will have wire...

I have a 21cf freezer chest that I use as a fermentation chest in the summer. It sits in a non HVAC controlled, but insulated work shop. Today I brewed a Belgian Spiced Strong Ale, and pitched it with Wyeast 1388 and have it in the freezer chest. Now the high temperature today was 30...

Thank you all. This is exactly the kind of discussion I was wanting. I'm going to be working on some side by side step v. decoction batches in hopes of learning more about the differences. Any suggestions for recipes?

So I've looked through forums & several of my books and cant quite come up with the discussion I'm looking for. Could any one point me to a source that would discuss the diffrences in final product that would result from step mash vs decoction mash with the same recepices? I've recently...

I was wanting to go up to a 10 gal batch, and once I get a handle on the temperature control technique be able to more complex step mashes. & I incorporated the chiller once I WAAAAAY over shot the temp due to thermal lag.

Hi all, long time lurker, first time poster (after not seeing / finding a discussion on this topic). I've been all grain for a few years in a cooler & recently upgraded(?) to a 60qt Polarware pot for my mash. I ran my first batch Saturday and was very supprised at how difficult it was to...