Simcoe Snacks Next time you're at your local grocers pick up a box of Welch's Island Fruit Fruit Snacks and tell me the yellow ones don't taste exactly like Simcoe.
I still have yet to use my keggle, mostly because of burner issues which currently prevent me from being able to place the keggle on the burner. 4pm. Time to go home and fire up the HLT I'm brewing Northern Brewers Limited Release "The Innkeeper" tonight. 2nd AG batch. Also I've started a blog because I'm a dork. ryansbeer.blogspot.com
Did you make a jig for it? Any tips? I have my 15.5 and I got about 4 inches in with the dremel before giving up and borrowing an angle grinder. I have never used one before, watched some keggle videos and they seem to use jigs on them to keep the line straight. Is it possible to do without one?
I still havnt had a chance to brew my chipolte porter. This is the longest I have gone after milling grains without brewing with them. How long are they ok for, anyone know? The longest I went was around 4 days. But now its going on 2 weeks. Been going through some serious $hit at home and have not been able to do much of anything but divorce planning.
I'd say you could go 3-4 weeks as long as they're sealed and in the freezer. I wouldn't go any longer than that myself.
I tried with a jig but I had a thin cutting blade on my angle grinder and it would just bind. I just ended up using the outside of the keg as a guide and went from there. Its isn't pretty but will work for me.
Well I tried the angle grinder, and it didn't work out too well. There was a giant thick disc on it, so maybe that was the problem.... But I ended using the reciprocating saw and went through 4 blades getting all the way around, I think they were maybe not the best blades, but it did the job. Now I just need to get my bulkhead in and brew my first keggle batch this weekend!
I need to put a fitting in for the drain as well. I put a RTD in with a thermowell for temp (parts from work). I have the SilverBrite 8 solder and put it in with that. Like the ability to solder stainless! I think I am going to order from Bargain Fittings and get there stainless pick up tube. I am thinking of being lazy and use the keggle as a primary (or at least try it once).
Before you chop up that 2nd keg take a look at this idea for your hlt. Of course its also setup to be electric and not sure how you'd use a burner on it without melting the silicone gasket. Cool idea though. http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/rip-cooler-e-hlt-helloooooo-bottom-drain-keg-e-hlt-176101/
Thats sweet looking, I wish there was a way to cut the little nub off the top and have the drain hose come right out the handle so you wouldn't need to prop up on bricks....
Turkey Dunk! Decided I needed a Thanksgiving beer this year so my friend and I brewed up a Dunkleweizen last night. Happily bubbling away this morning with some Wyeast 3068 in between the applewine(which is throwing off the most horrendous odor ) and a strawberry mead. Went 2 oz over on the carafa II, so hope that doesn't spell disaster for my first Dunkle. My friend got a time lapse app for his droid and shot the entire brew session in 5 second bursts, i'll see if we can't get that loaded up on youtube. Probably a lot of standing around drinking beer so super exciting.
Dunkelweizen Session Time Lapse http://www.youtube.com/user/ejholmgren I give up trying to embed the damn thing. Go to link above and click on dunkelweizen Timelapse. Not sure why the video doesn't show up in a youtube search either. Go figure.
Ha! Gonna take a lot of mashing to get all 4 wheels sanded down. Had to stop so we could drink more beer. I also started to think that it wasn't very sanitary to have paint dust in the air and on our hands while brewing.
Anyone have any tips on growing a yeast culture? it's for a lager and I have dry yeast. I bought an Erlenmeyer flask and I have light dme available now. I can buy just about anything else I might need at a local store. How long does it need to culture? I would like to brew maybe the weekend after next (13th?).
I did a yeast starter on my last brew and it was done in 3 days. Northern brewer has a youtube video on doing a starter.
Malt Wagon Just in case you were wondering what 100 lbs of pale malt looks like in a subaru wagon. Looks just like this ->
I had to rig up a blow-off-tube for my last batch because the three-piece locks would clog in about 10 seconds... Here's a pic: VIDEO showing the Co2 productionz
Largest blow off tube ever! Always trying to compensate. I don't think you have enough plugged into that one outlet
Bill just got my 3rd. You'll need yours, eventually. Good old Paul and I will be welding up the brew stands soon - we'll do photo documentary.
I am trying out promash and wondering if anyone has some experience with it.... Specifically, is the sparge volume listed anywhere? Or is it just assumed that you would sparge with the volume needed to get up to your pre-boil target volume? This is what I have been doing so far, but it seems like it could be calculated out by the software and it would make heating the exact amount a little easier.
Now I am trying Beersmith, and it seems to the do the same thing. Any advice? Up until now I have just been measuring the level of wort I collect from the first runnings and then sparge with whatever volume needed to make my pre-boil volume, but I sure would like to know that volume ahead of time based on how much the grain will absorb, and the software IMO could tell me this.
Do you have a smart phone? I use Brewzor which is a free app and you can play around with strike water volumes and it will spit out a water/grain ratio if that helps.
I will try that app, thanks for the tip. I finally printed out a recipe from Beersmith and it shows the sparge volume on the printout, but nowhere in the application itself that I can see. Interesting... I guess I got what I wanted out of it though.
keggle number 1 completed this afternoon. I picked up a corded DeWalt drill and a new step bit this morning to finish what I started last night. NO LEAKS!! And, hopefully no moa buying water! *Note brew stand steel in the background*
So, after I used the knotted wheel on the keg, I wiped it with a paper towel and it was black. I kept wiping it, more black, so I wondered if I did something wrong. I posted a question on Homebrew Talk about my choice to use the angle grinder knotted brush on the keg and a member told me that if the wheel that I used wasn't stainless (which it wasn't) I was going to have major rust problems. So, I did some searching and found the text below on another forum: I just got done soaking the inside of the keg with PBW as well as pouring and taking a wet rag and washing the areas that I brushed with the same solution. Also, my wife has a natural citric acid cleaner that I diluted with water, soaked into a rag and wiped down all of the areas in question. As soon as I hit the outside with the citric acid the surface of the metal changed. Now, after it has basically air dried, there is no darkening of the paper towel, so we'll see.
Hopefully its all under control now. Did you buff that keg up? Lookin mighty shiny there Sexy stand steel is sexy!
Here's the dip tube that's going to get re-done. It's about a half-inch from the bottom and I get plenty of volume when the fitting is opened.
Anyone catch the premier of Brewmasters Sunday night? Twas good! If not catch it next week at 9pm Sunday on Discovery.
Brown Porter Brewed up 10 gallons of Brown Porter last night and pitched Nottingham yeast for the first time. Anyone here use Nottingham yeast before? How did you like it?
Yep, caught Brewmasters, enjoyed it (as well as a few homebrews). It's set to record each week. Nope, never pitched Nottingham. Did you pitch it into both, or did you pitch something else into one so you could compare it?
I watched the first half of it and saved the rest for tonight, I really enjoyed it also. Makes me want to find some VC money and start up a brewery ha
I have always wanted to split a batch of wort and pitch two yeasts... I have pitched nottingham in the past, and used it for my Surly furious clone. It works extremely quickly, even on high gravity beers (I assume you made a starter), and dropped like a rock to the bottom after maybe 48 hours. I have read the taste is very neutral (hard to compare without pitching two yeasts), but for a big, flavorful beer I think it will become a staple for me, since its so cheap and easy to use.
Nope pitched the same yeast into both. Splitting the batch with Eric so I pitched both with Nottingham. Guess I shoulda split it, oh well, next go at it i'll try the safale 04.
Starter? Ha! No, didn't make a starter. I'm used to pitching Safale 05 and that yeast always takes off within 12 hours and never fails. Hoping to do my first yeast harvest this coming weekend so starters may be on my horizon. Thanks for the nottingham info. Really wish I had a couple 3 gallon better bottles for some split batch tests. Been reading some info on Danstar yeast recalls so hoping I don't end up with bunk yeast.
I plan on visiting midwest today if I can get out of work early and the ****tastic storm doesn't hit. Gotta buy everything for my oatmeal coffee stout.
Hey guys, my dad homebrews regularly using extract methods and he is looking to move to kegging his brews in the future. I want to help him out with the kegging system for Christmas. Rather than hijack this thread, would anyone mind answering some questions about basic kegging needs for <5 gallon extract batches via PM? Let me know if you don't mind helping me/him out. Thanks!
