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Nice. I may do that, but all sub-$20 ones on Amazon seem to have problems. Does anyone have one that: 1. Uses 4.0 and 7.0 calibration? Sounds like some lock you in to their own wonky calibration packets so you're kinda stuck buying from them. 2. Has more than 20 real-sounding reviews? There are a lot of "I received one for a discounted price for my honest review" that all sound copy/pasted. This one even includes many five-star reviews for a luggage scale that seem to be factored in to the pH meter's rating  Here are two with lots of reviews on Amazon and 4+ average rating but both have some sketchy (fake?) high ratings and worrisome low ratings. Anyone have experience with either? https://www.amazon.com/Qimius-Digital-Accuracy-Household-Tester/dp/B01EPN9F3A/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8 <-- lol now that I look closer, lots of the reviews are for a luggage scale instead
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Nov 7, 2016 18:05
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BrianBoitano posted:Nice. I may do that, but all sub-$20 ones on Amazon seem to have problems. Does anyone have one that: When I need something, I tend to look at homebrewfinds. That's a pre-filtered link for pH meters. I think I have one of the Etekcity ones, and you should be able to buy just any 4.0/7.0 calibration solutions. I really would like one of those Milwaukee instruments pH meters, but those really are 
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Nov 7, 2016 18:21
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But does homebrew finds actually filter their stuff based on quality? I actually searched their site before posting here but it all looks like knockoff crap... From an Amazon review of the Etekcity: "its ok not grate" 
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Nov 7, 2016 18:40
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BrianBoitano posted:But does homebrew finds actually filter their stuff based on quality? I actually searched their site before posting here but it all looks like knockoff crap... You get what you pay for, but it does what I need it to do for homebrewing purposes. It's just important to calibrate it. I like them better than strips too because you can calibrate it and strips aren't verifiable. So if they're off, they're off and you won't know. Granted, if you don't calibrate your cheap pH meter, it's less reliable than old/poorly stored strips. I think it boils down to using what you're comfortable with.
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Nov 7, 2016 18:54
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Love 2 brew has a bunch of ECY back in stock. I just picked up some bug county and the Scottish ale. They also have Brett anomala, which looked interesting and not common.
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Nov 8, 2016 00:25
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So I'm at a little over 48 hours since brewing my wort and I'm seeing no activity in the air lock. I opened the lid to see what was going on and there's foam on top and some bubbling but still nothing in the lock. I'm worried I did something very simple wrong. I have the Northern Brewer bucket. When I first put the lid on I was surprised it didn't click or anything but I tried putting it on the other way and it didn't fit at all so I figured it must just kind of fit on loosely. Now I'm worried that it's so loose the air etc is escaping around the rim and also that air is able to get in. Am I worried about nothing or is the lid supposed to fit on more securely than just sort of sitting on the top?
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Nov 8, 2016 07:34
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Fork of Unknown Origins posted:So I'm at a little over 48 hours since brewing my wort and I'm seeing no activity in the air lock. I opened the lid to see what was going on and there's foam on top and some bubbling but still nothing in the lock. I'm worried I did something very simple wrong. It probably just doesn't close tightly, or you just didn't close it all the way. Just close it as tightly as you can and put the airlock back on. Don't check it again for a couple weeks. The more you check, the higher the chance for infection. The CO2 being produced will still be forcing itself out of whatever hole it found, and it's heavier than air, so you'll be fine for now. You had a krausen, so it's properly fermenting and there's not really anything to worry about. If you really want, you can use a spray bottle with some dish soap or starsan and spray it on the exterior of the places it closes to find out where the leak is.
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Nov 8, 2016 07:48
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I'd like to brew an american amber ale for my GF's birthday. She requested that I add some smoked malt because she likes it. I was wondering if anyone already used that kind of malt and what percentage I should use in my recipe so that it does not over power. Also, I was planning to use Amarillo but someone on homebrewtalk commented that the smoked malt and Amarillo would clash, any one else thinks so also?
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Nov 8, 2016 10:34
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Bucket dude just snap the lid on like you mean it. It has a gasket and makes a tight seal so it's not easy to put on/remove at first.
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Nov 8, 2016 12:17
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Yeah those buckets are a motherfucker. I ended up buying a bucket wrench to pull them off.
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Nov 8, 2016 13:30
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Le0 posted:I'd like to brew an american amber ale for my GF's birthday. She requested that I add some smoked malt because she likes it. Depends on the type of smoked malt. German Rauchmalt (smoked with beechwood) has a very light smoke character and can be used in large percentages as a base malt. Many classic rauchbier recipes call for it to be 100% of the grist. Other smoked malts are much much more potent. Peated malt should only be used in extremely small quantities, and stuff like the Briess cherry wood malt is a little less intense than the peat but I'd still hesitate to use much more than 0.25 lbs in a 5 gallon batch.
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Nov 8, 2016 15:58
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Josh Wow posted:Bucket dude just snap the lid on like you mean it. It has a gasket and makes a tight seal so it's not easy to put on/remove at first. Well the good news is after pushing it down really hard it snapped on and the air lock is now bubbling. The bad news is that means my beer spent almost 3 days not being air tight. Is there a decent chance it turns out ok?
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Nov 8, 2016 16:30
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Fork of Unknown Origins posted:Is there a decent chance it turns out ok? Yes. It's fine. Lots of breweries - good ones - ferment in open fermenters. Not just not-sealed, but with completely open tops. Anchor is one, and Sierra Nevada (at least sometimes) is another. When I went to Alesmith, they were fermenting in repurposed coolships with loose-fitting tops - and an open rollup door to an alley a few yards away. Peep this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xClXKMhcFr0 Not only are the fermenters open to the air, there are people walking around in the room - and the resulting beer is good stuff. Your beer has a very good chance of being just fine.
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Nov 8, 2016 16:36
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Once fermentation is active the odds of infection are slim. Yeast is very good at taking over that ecosystem and once it is the dominant species its hard for other microbes to gain much of a foothold. They're there, but in amounts too small to matter.
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Nov 8, 2016 17:30
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Great news. The lid was on top, just not snapped down and it was sitting in a big bucket of (pretty dilute) starsan as a temperature regulator in a room with very little traffic.
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Nov 8, 2016 17:42
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Jo3sh posted:Yes. It's fine. Lots of breweries - good ones - ferment in open fermenters. Not just not-sealed, but with completely open tops. Anchor is one, and Sierra Nevada (at least sometimes) is another. When I went to Alesmith, they were fermenting in repurposed coolships with loose-fitting tops - and an open rollup door to an alley a few yards away. I want to put a coolship in my basement, but my wonderful wife who says yes to so many things, well I just don't want to push it. It's not really worth it for small batches anyway. If I ever go large scale, there's about a zero% chance that I go the stainless conical fermenting route.
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Nov 8, 2016 18:34
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Jhet posted:my wonderful wife [...] says yes to so many things I have recently come to the realization that my own wife is an absolute saint for putting up with my homebrewing shenanigans. But at least I'm not building an airplane in my garage, like a certain relation of mine.
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Nov 9, 2016 01:57
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Jo3sh posted:I have recently come to the realization that my own wife is an absolute saint for putting up with my homebrewing shenanigans. But at least I'm not building an airplane in my garage, like a certain relation of mine. When we moved, we did select a home with an eye on having enough space for all my brewing stuff. I have an entire extra room under the porch in the basement that will be for fermenting. The rest of the house is great too. Building a plane requires building an extra garage I should think. Behind every great brewer is a great spouse saying, "okay, dear, you go play with your toys". I've just planned going to visit my family for the sole purpose of stopping by ritebrew's warehouse.
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Nov 9, 2016 02:22
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Jhet posted:Building a plane requires building an extra garage I should think. Well, there's a hangar out at the airport as well, containing the other airplane and more stuff as well. And there's some of his stuff at the local voc-ed school where he teaches. But the garage there at the house is completely full of airplane, with the rest of the tools and such related to all of his hobbies. And the lathe in my garage is technically his as well, because there isn't space in his own garage or hangar. His wife might as well be the loving Pope. Jhet posted:Behind every great brewer is a great spouse saying, "okay, dear, you go play with your toys". ... and mumbling, sotto voce, "Well, at least he is at home and not over at the bar." Jo3sh fucked around with this message at 02:37 on Nov 9, 2016 |
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Nov 9, 2016 02:33
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Just bottled 10 bottles of cider and put about a gallon into the freezer to make applejack. Smells good, can't wait to sip on that applejack especially.
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Nov 9, 2016 05:29
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Jo3sh posted:... and mumbling, sotto voce, "Well, at least he is at home and not over at the bar." might as well be
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Nov 9, 2016 08:45
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Le0 posted:Do you think making your own candi syrup added something? I was going to buy it because I'm lazy but I might reconsider if it improves the final quality of the beer. Yeah I reckon doing our own Candi syrup definitely added something. We've tried a few batches out, our quad used 6kg worth and we used a kg of brown sugar in the 6kg worth of sugar to add some complexity which worked. The only reason we added wheat was I had the last 3kg worth of a sack that I needed gone, so we tossed it in the mill. I can't find details on mash schedules, but I think that what we did wasn't far off what you described - my brewing partner read BLAM cover to cover not a week before we brewed this.You could get away with a single infusion, but you wouldn't want to go any higher than 67-68 otherwise it can end up being too full bodied imho. Ours finished around 1.018 and that's pushing it for a dubbel (if brewing to style). No worries!
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Nov 9, 2016 11:47
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Brewed up the brown porter that I posted about a little while back with the anticipation of making a rootbeer-esque tincture. Does anyone have any good resources for spices for stuff like that? I'd really like to use wintergreen in it, but I'm realizing that it's not all that common. I'm thinking I want wintergreen, star anise and vanilla. Maybe some kind of wood like birch bark too. Fermentation is about 13 hours in and it's ripping pretty strong. I did a vitality starter with Thames Valley yeast. I'm liking that method of starters for low gravity beers. They seem to take off quite nicely.
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Nov 9, 2016 15:08
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Anybody able / want to write an article on Carbonating and Nitroginating stouts covering the following topics: • very basic style overview of stouts • Proper Volume of CO2 for a stout • What nitroginating does for your beer • how to go about nitroginating said stout Should be between 750-1000 words Will pay 25$ Anyone interested please email me editor@culturedmedia.com / Sales pitch, My kitchen sink beer that had the strangely under-attenuated finish will be tasted tonight. Hopefully there's enough IBUs to taste balanced at 1.019 woof.
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Nov 9, 2016 20:33
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I am new to brewing, only just picked up some stuff. Over the last weekend I helped a family member process 500lb of apples they purchase for cider, and took home about 12 gallons.  So my first effort will be making some hard cider, but my goal is to make some stouts. But I am not sure if I should start with trying to make a stout or should make something a little easier (assuming from reading that stouts a little more advanced). Any thoughts? 1500 fucked around with this message at 21:54 on Nov 9, 2016 |
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Nov 9, 2016 21:51
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1500 posted:So my first effort will be making some hard cider, but my goal is to make some stouts. But I am not sure if I should start with trying to make a stout or should make something a little easier (assuming from reading that stouts a little more advanced). Any thoughts? Stouts are really no harder than other styles. Really, most beers are not all that dissimilar from each other if you ignore the recipe list. It's just following the steps and adding those ingredients at the necessary times.
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Nov 9, 2016 22:45
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Yep, you can make stout at home right from the start if you want. Go for it, I say.
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Nov 9, 2016 23:49
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ok cool. Looks like I will have some time to think about what recipe I want to try as I wait for the cider to finish.
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Nov 10, 2016 00:26
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Really jealous of the cider haul. I really need a fruit press, for both grape and apple reasons
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Nov 10, 2016 01:05
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Jo3sh posted:Yep, you can make stout at home right from the start if you want. Go for it, I say.
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Nov 10, 2016 06:40
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The only real consideration to make when putting a recipe together is that some stouts and heavier beers like DIPAs can have very heavy grain bills. Personally, I BIAB, and I have to consider that doing full-volume mashing + a high grain bill, I can have fitment issues.
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Nov 10, 2016 14:23
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Jo3sh posted:Yes. It's fine. Lots of breweries - good ones - ferment in open fermenters. Not just not-sealed, but with completely open tops. Anchor is one, and Sierra Nevada (at least sometimes) is another. When I went to Alesmith, they were fermenting in repurposed coolships with loose-fitting tops - and an open rollup door to an alley a few yards away. Could there be any kind of process advantage to having your open fermenters such that the krausen overflows out of the vessel (instead of resettling) the way it does in that video?
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Nov 10, 2016 21:47
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Less trub would be my only guess but I'm very casual with my brewing science
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Nov 10, 2016 21:56
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the yeti posted:Could there be any kind of process advantage to having your open fermenters such that the krausen overflows out of the vessel (instead of resettling) the way it does in that video? Three I can think of immediately: First, all the stuff that's on the floor isn't in the fermenter and in the beer to deal with later. This means less sludge to deal with and possibly clearer beer. There's also a thought that the stuff that crops to the top has some undesireable flavors and better out than in. Second, the video says 12,400 gallons of wort in four fermenters, or 3100 gallons (100 BBL) per fermenter. Fermenters are expensive, so it makes sense to make maximal use of the capacity they offer. If the only cost is mopping up the floor, it makes a ton of business sense to fill each fermenter with 3100 gallons of wort, not 2500 or something. Third, overflow is basically the basis of the Burton Union system (although that's not what they are doing in that video). In a Burton Union, the overflowing krausen is directed into troughs for capture, and yeast is harvested and re-used. Without overflow, a Burton union just doesn't work as it ought to. All of this is pretty negligible in a homebrew setting, but it makes good sense in a commercial setting. I suspect that the main reason they do it that way is the second one I've listed. vvv Aaaaaaand it makes some scutwork to assign to the low man on the totem pole. Go in there and clean up that gawdawful mess, new guy. Jo3sh fucked around with this message at 00:07 on Nov 11, 2016 |
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Nov 10, 2016 22:03
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^ You forgot the best part. It looks Really cool.
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Nov 10, 2016 23:40
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Anchor Brewing does open fermentation and some really old-school techniques. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zng1YgiOFv8 There's a long version of this somewhere, but I can't find it right now.
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Nov 11, 2016 14:32
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I'm planning on brewing this week-end and my stir plate is not working yet. I have two packs of 3787, should I still make a starter? I'm going to brew 19l at 1.069 gravity but it will be my first time making a starter so I'm not too sure.
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Nov 11, 2016 18:33
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Mr. Malty's yeast calculator says a batch of that gravity would want 2.6 smack packs. I typically take those numbers with a grain of salt. Assuming the smack packs are good and fresh, you could get away without a starter. In fact, if you're going for a strong yeast ester character, a slight underpitch like that will tend to accentuate that. A starter would help you go get a faster start and possibly a more complete ferment, on the other hand. If you decide to make a starter, 1300mL or so with both smack packs added to it will do well even without the stir plate. Shake it every now and then to keep things suspended and active.
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Nov 11, 2016 18:43
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Le0 posted:I'm planning on brewing this week-end and my stir plate is not working yet. I have two packs of 3787, should I still make a starter? Two packs should be plenty. Really, one would even be close. E: You can still use a starter, but that yeast likes to be stressed a little bit.
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Nov 11, 2016 18:45
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back to brewing after a couple months off, feels so good
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Nov 11, 2016 21:00
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