Recent content by waynetempro

I’ve done peanut butter flavoring a couple of times by making a slurry of PB2 and vodka. Then dumping it in secondary.

Everything that I’ve read about kveik says that it does not need a starter and does well under pitching. I did 2 beers recently with Lutra, I used half a packet each and they took off quicker and any ale yeast and came out great. And they were fermented a regular indoor AC temp.

You do need to change the gap in the grain mill for wheat. It is a smaller grain and will not crush correctly at the normal barley settings. Don’t forget to reset the mill after you are done. Also based on your recipe, you will need about a pound of rice hulls to avoid a stuck mash.

OK Erik, I think that I figured out where you went wrong. Corn needs to be crushed and cooked. But it then needs to be cooled to about 150 F and then mashed with some 2-row or 6-row malted barley. The amamyse enzyme in the barley will convert the starch in the corn to simple sugars that can them...

Eric, what else did you have in there besides corn, water and yeast?

EDIT: The original post has an error in the schematic. I updated it in this version. The original digital controller for the Grainfather Conical Fermenter had a monochrome screen and pogo pins at the back. It was was upgraded to a newer version with a color screen and Wi_Fi. If you upgraded and...

Seeing as you are doing a small batch (1gal), I would consider using the Cascade hops for both bittering and flavoring. My reasoning is that I get hops in 1oz (28gram) bags. And hops start to spoil once opened. And the 60 minute addition is for bittering only. Also, I would adjust the 60 minute...

I rarely see them with ball bearings. They are definitely better than 15 years ago. But in a very dusty environment, they will have a short life. And like I said, they do need to be properly balanced or that sleeve will wear out quickly.

I built a couple of them last year from scratch and learned a lot. I used old computer fans and some surplus parts to build the controllers. Most of the DIY projects that I’ve seen show someone using one kidney shaped hard drive magnet that is epoxied on top of a fan. That is not enough. You...

Erik, Please be careful with that cracked corn. If the bag says "not for human consumption", then leave it be. Those have a small amount of mycotoxins that are allowable for deer and cattle but are at a level that are poisonous to humans.

Caramel is comprised of several hundred different compounds from the breakdown of sugar using heat. If used in beer, yeast will consume the short chain sugars and leave an unsweetened caramel flavor behind. Depending on the residual sweetness left in the finished beer, you might end up with...

My rule of thumb is to set the roller gap to snuggly fit 2 regular sized business cards.

Karo corn syrup contains salt and vanilla flavoring. I don’t care for salty beer, so that would be a no for me. However it is fairly simple to just make invert sugar. I prefer to use a little acid blend instead of lemon juice for a neutral flavor.

I’ve had similar issues with some old kegs that I acquired. After cleaning and replacing o-rings, some of them would leak at the post or lid. Swapping lids and posts with another keg usually solved the issue. I know that it sounds crazy but it is the only solution that worked for me.

I just pitch about one third to one half of a packet and let it go.