Recent content by enganeer

Try different yeasts In the past, I bought the kits (Hanks Hefewiezen) and had good results until the last kits. I can't recall the yeasts used but for the last two kits, I know it was the same yeast as I only ordered one (I think they were out of 6068 and I used a sub) and then reused the...

I played around making a spreadsheet and compared to inputs with Mash Chemistry and Brewing Water Calculator from brewers friend to double check for diluting the filtered tap water with distilled and then adding specific salts and lactic acid. I used the ranges from Palmers book. If I cut it...

Digesting some information here on minerals, alkalinity and acid modification. I ran my city water through a carbon filter for about 15 minutes and took a sample and sent to Ward labs for analysis. Based on the information below and using a calculator, I have an RA of 249. ya it's hard. So...

I made a re-circulation setup using my boil pot, pump and a cooler. I controlled the flow by using the valve body at the pump. I think next time I will use I will try and do a stepped mash.

I have done some milk chocolate stouts kits were I soaked them in Vodka and added to the secondary fermentation stage. Use a bag as to keep them in control otherwise they will clog up everything or use a strainer when transferring for bottling.

Newbie to grain brewing also. Hard to say when the temp drop in the mash below 148°, if after 60 min then your probably good, if it dropped faster than that, you might have lost some of potential sugar conversion in the mash. Was 6 gallons of pre-boil the target or could you have sparged some...

Yes, definitely going with a blow tube of some sorts going forward to start to handle the possible situation. Got back from work early and the krausen had fallen back, put back the air lock in and virtually no activity in the bubbler. Did a gravity check to see if the yeast just died off or...

Every started out with best intentions and have things go sideways. I had some all grain kits that I bought over two plus years ago and forgot all about them until I was cleaning a room. Well nothing to lose if they don’t work out and I wanted to get back into all grain brewing versus...