Recent content by WilliamH

I'm actually having this same issue with 017 right now too. OG was 1.047 and it's been sitting at 1.018 for about a week. I pitched the yeast about two and a half weeks ago and saw activity in less than 12 hours. Things seemed to be going great. Really disappointed. And this whole time the...

I got the idea for adding it at 60 from one of my favorite Northern Brewer recipes. I've never looked back!

I use candi syrup and cane sugar quite a bit. Now, I always add it at 60 minutes. I've found that, when added at 20 or 15, it thins the body of the beer more than I like. I also love the flavors I get from mallard reaction that happens in the 60 minute boil. With non-syrup, I pour it in slowly...

I got one of these Corona-style mills for Christmas. I was skeptical, but I used it for the first time yesterday and loved it! I knew I wanted to motorize it, so I just tossed a few washers in the gaps where the bolts are, inserted a bolt with the head sawed off where the handle usually goes...

Seems to me like you wouldn't have to worry about a blowoff tube while lagering. My understanding is that lager yeasts work pretty slowly, right?

jleii, I love the tips. Thanks! For some reason I hadn't thought of setting the control sensor in the freezer. I suppose I could move it all around the unit. Perhaps the thing to do would be have the sensor in the fridge during primary, move it into the freezer for lagering, and then like you...

I just got a free fridge (yay!) and plan on hooking up the stc1000 controller to it this weekend. I've been wanting to lager for a while, but I'm a little hesitant to do so because of A) the wait, and B) there are some ales I'd love to brew at the same time. My fridge is a freezer on bottom...

Cool. Thanks for the tips! 6 months sound about right, given how strong it tasted when I bottled. So... I guess 6 months from now I'll post my tasting notes! I'm glad to hear Star West sells good herbs! That's the brand my local health food store carries, so those are the ones I bought.

Okay I bottled my gruit last week. When I tasted it, it tasted FUNKY. Not necessarily bad, just very different. It definitely had a sour taste to it, and I couldn't figure out if it was a taste I liked or not. I know that the taste of a beer can change dramatically after it's bottle conditioned...

Time to resurrect this thread! I love the idea of brewing ancient styles of ale, which I just recently found out means brewing with herbs. This weekend I'll be brewing an experimental, 1 gallon batch of herbal ale. I've got mugwort and yarrow. Any tips on how much of each I should use in a one...