more falafel please posted:

For a dual-stage (heating and cooling) controller that's usable out of box, it's a good price. You'd be looking at like $100 or more for another dual-stage digital controller. If you only need cooling, you can get a Johnson Controls single-stage one for cheaper, and if you don't mind wiring it up yourself you can build an STC-1000 box for like $35.

fullroundaction posted:

If we can figure out what colors the stickers are going to be.

Discomancer posted:

I made a Milk IPA after a discussion about undrinkable beers. Nothing fancy in the grain bill except 8 oz of lactose and I used 3 oz each of Pacific Jade and Citra (2 oz during the boil, 1 oz dry hopped) for a 2.5 gallon batch.

The bottles finally carbed up and after cracking one open, all I can say is "not bad". Certainly not the horror show you expect when you hear "Milk IPA", even my very skeptical friend thought it was disturbingly good. It came out almost like a hearty filling IPA, but the bitterness is really smoothed over by the excessive amount of lactose.

So a Milk IPA is a thing that exists now, fyi. Next batch will have to be something real and not some gimmicky joke brew.

Toebone posted:

Three Floyds makes a double IPA with lactose called Apocalypse Cow, it's pretty darn good.

http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/three-floyds-apocalypse-cow/95886/

Millions posted:

My first two homebrews were a moderate success! My first was a pretty run of the mill red ale, which is very drinkable if a bit boring. The second was a peanut butter porter, which I will definitely be tweaking a bit next time because the nut flavor is a bit dominating. All in all I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out, and I'll be starting my third beer ASAP.

One issue I have with both though, they don't seem to have carbonated enough. They're not flat by any means, they just lack that refreshing taste you get from a well carbonated beer. Fwiw they both say in bottles for 2 weeks after priming, is that a bit premature to be drinking them? I still have like 30 bottles of each (low turnout since I played it very conservatively with skimming off sediment) so I can definitely let them sit for longer if it would help.

Jo3sh posted:

It does both heating and cooling, but only one at a time, unlike dual-stage solutions from Ranco, Johnson, and whoever it is that makes the STC-1000. You have to manually switch modes and plug in the device you want to control. Admittedly, the switching of modes is done with a switch rather than rewiring the thing, but it's really a single-stage controller that goes both ways more conveniently, not a dual-stage.

I do like the long probe, but that brings it above $100.


Red. Red is always the fastest color.

Jo3sh posted:

It does both heating and cooling, but only one at a time, unlike dual-stage solutions from Ranco, Johnson, and whoever it is that makes the STC-1000. You have to manually switch modes and plug in the device you want to control. Admittedly, the switching of modes is done with a switch rather than rewiring the thing, but it's really a single-stage controller that goes both ways more conveniently, not a dual-stage.

I do like the long probe, but that brings it above $100.

Discomancer posted:

Sometimes it takes longer than 2 weeks, that's just a general rule of thumb. The other major factors are whether the yeast fully dropped out (as in the case of cold crashing before transferring to a bottling bucket), which means there will be less yeast to carb the bottle, the amount of priming sugars, and temperature. If the bottles are in a cooler area like the basement, try moving them upstairs for a week or so and seeing if that wakes the yeast up and gets things carbed. That head looks pretty good, so maybe it's a sugar level issue?

Marshmallow Blue posted:

@Carb Talk - This is unorthodox, but I carb by adding sugar to each individual bottle and haven't had any issues. One thing I've noticed is that If I don't have them in the fridge long enough (at least 12 hours) the carbonation is all gone in the head and doesn't go back into the solution. My understanding is that when they are conditioning in your closet the Co2 is in the head space and when it's cooled the Co2 goes more into your beer or something like that. So how long did you have them in the fridge?

Bag of Sun Chips posted:

I've was hanging out with some local home brewers last weekend and they mentioned "building up water from scratch" when they use sparkling water from the store. Is there some sort of resource online that talks about what kind of water profile you'd want for specific styles of beer?

wattershed posted:

I didn't glue my finger to the project box or set my house on fire when building my stir plate so I think I'm gonna have to give the stc-1000 box build a go next. It's fun to see how much I can build without any real understanding of how electronics works.

Midorka posted:

Oh what the heck? Then why even bother spending the money over a single stage? To save a little time from unplugging equipment?

Jo3sh posted:

You don't even get that - the thing appears to have only one outlet on it, so you'd have to (for example) unplug the fridge and plug in the heater when you wanted to switch modes.

I think it does have some good usability features, like the multiple mounting options and the color-changing display. And I do like the probes. I don't see any killer features that make me want to buy it, though.

wattershed posted:

Okay so I'm not crazy, this is just an overpriced Johnson "blue box." What a rip.

fullroundaction posted:

I just got voted in as president of our homebrew club (thank you for your congratulations) and I'm trying to sort out a lot of messes and get us back on the righteous path.

Anyway, what kinds of cool stuff do you guys do in your clubs other than get together and drink? We've got a few competitions scheduled and we do a few public brewing demonstrations per year ... just looking for things to fill in the gaps between big events.

rockcity posted:

I've been looking to make the leap from partial mash brewing up to all grain and I'm finally getting closer to pulling the trigger on some equipment. My birthday is coming up in a couple weeks and my mother is looking for some gift ideas for me so that's sort of acting as the catalyst in finally looking into the equipment I'll need to take that step. Right now I'm looking at doing some sort of a cooler/false bottom setup. It looks like a couple companies sell 7.5 gallon and 10 gallon cooler kits. I know you can build them yourself for slightly cheaper, but I'd rather have my mom buy me something ready to go rather than a bunch of random parts. The other things I'll need to get is a bigger boil kettle as my 6 gallon kettle isn't going to work for full volume 5-gallon batch boils and also an propane burner as I just figured out that the stove in my new house is just not powerful enough to do large boils. My big questions are...

Is there any reason I should consider jumping to kettles and more burners to do my all grain instead of coolers?
If I'm doing 5 gallon batches, is there any reason to go with 10 gallon coolers instead of 7.5 gallon?
Is a 10 gallon kettle big enough for full volume 5 gallon boils?
Also, is there a good reason to drop the money on a kettle with all the bells and whistles like a sightglass and built in thermometer? I do think having a ball valve would be handy.

Discomancer posted:

1) Coolers are useful for keeping your mash temperature consistent. The classic Home Depot cooler will lose maybe 2 degrees during an hour long mash.
2) Go for the 10, a 10 gallon is necessary if you're doing bigger beers, since the grains will take up a ton of space. An imperial may end up hitting the 9 gallon mark.
3) Yes
4) A thermometer is helpful, but you can also get one of those corded cooking thermometers on Amazon for around $25 instead of having it as part of the kettle, so consider that. Not sure how useful a sightglass is, but some kind of volume markings are helpful. You can just notch the kettle every half to 1 gallon too, which works fine.

rockcity posted:

Thanks. I figured 10 gallon would give me room for the bigger beers, I just wasn't sure if having the extra airspace could lead to problems with beers with smaller grain bills. I do have a probe thermometer already so I'm good there, I just wasn't sure if there was a benefit I wasn't aware of to having one built in.

Fluo posted:

English IPAs!

Floral, spicy, earthy!

Rocko Bonaparte posted:

A few weeks back I was trying to get some unmalted wheat from Austin Homebrew, and I found out they were discontinuing it due to lack of demand. They were down to less than a bag so I could still get the hookup, but I'll probably have to get my unmalted wheat elsewhere in the future. I prefer unmalted wheat for my witbier, and as that extra addition for this or that. I guess everybody else just gets malted wheat now. Has this become a thing generally?

brew clubz posted:

hellfaucet posted:

I loving need unmalted wheat for my sours and farmhouse ales. They better not be discontinuing at my LHBS.

Rocko Bonaparte posted:

I was particularly worried since it was Austin Homebrew Supply; it's not like they're a small time operation or something. Actually I kind of wonder if it's a case of all the locals getting into bulk buys for it or something.

Myron Baloney posted:

Are you looking at one particular form like whole raw kernels? Everybody I buy from always has flaked and sometimes torrified, and both are pre-gelatinized which is nice. Plain puffed wheat without additives from the grocery works well also.

Rocko Bonaparte posted:

Do you know which ones are unmalted?

more falafel please posted:

Both flaked and torrified wheat are unmalted. Flaked is gelatinized while torrified is basically wheat popcorn, either way it breaks the starch globs (technical term) so that the enzymes in the mash can access the starch.

Unmalted wheat is also, like, literally just wheat. We have a sack of wheat berries from a farm not too far away, they don't malt any grains, but they do sell wheat.

I've also heard some crap recently about AHS having supply problems, and like, being out of Maris Otter. So maybe they're just out of stock for the time being.

Jo3sh posted:

Just since I've never done it, what would be the effect of just using straight-up flour in place of the unmalted wheat in a recipe?

Economic Sinkhole posted:

I'm 99.9% sure I screwed up priming a batch of Munich Helles lager. How long should I wait before cracking the caps and adding carb drops to be sure?

If anyone cares why: I measured out the priming sugar but used too little water, making a thick syrup ofter boiling. I didn't mix it well at all in the bottling bucket and there was a syrup coating left in the bottom of the bucket after I finished bottling. So very little of the sugar made it in to the bottles. I have one in the fridge chilling now and will open it this weekend, 2 weeks after bottling, to check it.