Recent content by Jon_TWR

I recently moved to Philly and would be interested.

I prefer to brew sweet tater beer over pumpkin beer!

I'm actually mashing an onion beer right now! I roasted the hell out of two large red onions, and cooked down 3 more in a slow cooker with water, and added that to the mash. The slow cooked onions had turned a nice light brown, and the roasted onions were black on the outside with some...

I got mine (east coast Kickstarter backer) yesterday. Today I unpacked it, put it together , cleaned it and am doing a test boil (just water) to see how long it takes to reach a boil with 7 gallons of (cold) water. It was about 1:15 to get from 73° to 165°, and I'll report back how long to get...

So the starter had a slight mold aroma and taste (probably got hold in the week or so it took the yeasties to get going), so I just went with a pack of S-04 for this one. So definitely not 100% Trader Joe's Cider...though if I want to do that in the future, I can probably make it work. A...

Thanks for all the feedback, everyone. Sure, I *should* do a 1 gallon test batch...but the dang starter is FINALLY going (started showing significant activity 3-4 gays ago) to the point where I'm ready to cold crash it and step it up. So it'll probably get stepped up tomorrow or Sunday, and...

Well, $3/half gallon *is* more expensive than the cheapest juice I can find, but if I'm not willing to hunt/wait for sales, it's usually $2.50/half-gallon of generic AJ (which is from concentrate...I think this isn't). This was $3/half-gallon If I'm getting fresh pressed or green market cider...

So on a recent trip to TJ's to pick up some Candy Cane Joe-Joes (aka Xmas Crack), I grabbed a couple of bottles of the vintage ale (still need to stock up so I can continue my vertical tastings with this year's) and foolishly swung by the juice section... Honeycrisp are probably the...

I started brewing in the winter in an apartment where we kept the heat at 58°, so a water bath to help maintain temps and the right yeast strains were all I needed to treat my yeasties right, at least with regard to fermentation temps. One of my first purchases was a CL wine fridge, planned to...

I agree with CBXBob! I'd maybe use a tiny amount of the LME with the steeping grains, and add the rest at flameout. However, Magnum and Centennial are both pretty high AA% hops. For the Centennial I might do 1 oz @ 15' and 1 oz @ 5’, or maybe 1 oz @ 10' and 1 oz @ 5', depending on the AA%...

So you're saying instead of a starter, you want to make a starter? Go for it!

No, it will heat the air. It's not microwaves.

You're thinking of an acid rest...I usually shoot for 113°. I'm noy sure how much of an impact it has, but it certainly doesn't hurt anything. If you want the beer to stay cloudy, either give the keg a gentle rocking to resuspend the yeast each day, or if you just want it to look cloudy and...

No comments, questions or suggestions? The day after I killed temp control, temps got up to the low 80s ambient--perfect! Since then, I've had it sitting at 50° ambient, and I'll probably keg it June 9th. :)

Is it an extract or AG recipe? What was the grain bill/extract plus grain bill? I'd want a triple to finish well below 1.020, and giving it more time and letting temps rise shouldn't hurt anything...if anything, it'll let the yeast drop the gravity a few more points. Speaking of yeast, what...