Recent content by rockharrier

Thanks. Yeah, I noticed that the wort usually is not boiling inside the mesh bag attached to the spider... my IPA's have not had as much flavor as I'd hope but wasn't sure to blame the spider. Would it help if I attached a paint strainer bag (larger bag) instead of my normal (smaller) bag? I'm...

I've started using a hop spider during my boil. Sure is convenient and makes cleanup much easier. But I was wondering if having the hops confined in the relatively small bag affects the hop extraction of bittering or flavor during the boil?

Nice article. I don't have a ball valve on my kettle, so just dump everything straight into my fermentor. Would you recommend using an auto-siphon to avoid transferring the stuff on the bottom, or will that all fall out in the fermentor anyway? Btw, I use Irish Moss, but my beers always have...

Btw - the hydrometer sample was dead-on with the refractometer prediction. The Beersmith refractometer calculators seem pretty accurate whenever I cross-reference them to a hydrometer.

Maybe I'll split the middle and aim for end of next week. Out of curiosity I took a hydrometer reading today (have a SS bucket with ball valve, so it's easy, I just hate wasting beer). Hydrometer was 1.009, and refractometer was 9.1 (where it's been for 10 days now). I'll take another hydrometer...

Thanks. I'll give it a couple more weeks.

It's been 3 weeks in primary. Regarding the refractometer, I convert the brix to gravity points using the Beersmith tools...when I compare the conversion to a hydrometer sample, it's almost always spot on! In any case I tend to use the refractometer to see when the fermentation is stopping, and...

So I've got a Belgian Dark Strong going in the primary fermentor. It's at about 10% abv, and refractometer readings have not changed in over a week. At about 1.010. Yeast is the Wyeast 3787 trappist high gravity. How much longer should I wait to bottle?

Yeah really enjoying my belle saison as I brew my ESB. It's very dry, not the most "saisony" beer I've ever had, but am really enjoying it. Will use again.

Has anyone tried Burton Ale - WLP023?

I've just brewed two beers in a row with this yeast. The first I meant as a "session" saison, og was 1.046...but fg ended up 1.001, fermented in the house at 78 degrees. I repitched the slurry in the second, which was 1.056, and finished at 1.005. This one I set out in the garage to see how...

I'm planning on making a ESB and then repitching the yeast for an english-style porter. What would be a great liquid yeast for this?

Love my tap-a-draft. Had one piece break, but the company shipped me a new piece for free, and no problem since then. It usually takes 1 to 2 co2 cartridges to completely dispense the container. I buy co2 packs of 20 on ebay for a reasonably cheap price.

Love my tap-a-draft. Had one piece break, but the company shipped me a new piece for free, and no problem since then. It usually takes 1 to 2 co2 cartridges to completely dispense the container. I buy co2 packs of 20 on ebay for a reasonably cheap price.

In answer to my own question, yes, the cooler works great. I ended up with 71% efficiency the first try. Got the first beer bottled, and it tasted pretty good at bottling time. Kind of a slippery slope...it's not much harder to do a partial mash than extract + specialty grains...and then not...