Recent content by sunbeam

So I've got some serious reading to do it seems. I'm still in the early '90s doing it how Charlie Papazian taught me then... Time to catch up!

I'll have to get a second burner for the boil kettle since the burners are too close together on the hotplate. I may already have something that could work.

I've been using S-23 or 34/70 dry yeast

Sure can. I borrowed my neighbor's blichmann pot for that big batch (which turned out fantastic btw) usually I brew with a very bare bones setup and I batch sparge using a saucepan to dip the water from the HLT over to the MT. I do have a spare fridge on an inkbird in the basement but i try to...

Thanks! I will start looking for a deal on a conical and try to get control of fermentation temperatures. One of the main flaws in my beers is that buttery diacetyl taste which can be masked with a sure hop levels in a NEIPA, but I brew lagers mostly. Usually if I'm doing a lager in the warmer...

Hi all, I'm seeking some advice from those who have gone a few steps ahead of me in brewing. I've put about 60 batches behind me, mostly on a very basic system of an 8 gallon kettle, immersion chiller, converted cooler MT and a big aluminum pot for the HLT. Heat source is a 2-burner toastmaster...

Update. Slowly thawed beer over a few days, gave the keg's a shake and let lager for a couple weeks, then put on serving pressure for a couple more. It's now VERY good!. No harm done and caught it before any damage was done to the kegs

A couple weeks ago I brewed a big ~9 gallon batch of Gavin's Glorious Pilsner for a party coming up in June. Everything went way too well. Hit my numbers all the way through, fermented at 53F in the freezer plugged into Inkbird control, packaged into two 5 gallon cornys and dropped it to 33F at...

Just tapped mine, very good indeed.

SWMBO here met my renewed interest in brewing with the mother of all eye rolls. But today I scored a minor point with her. She enjoys seltzer water as her n/a drink of choice, so since my keg of ESB kicked the other day, I filled it with water and put it on 25psi of CO2. Now she has some...

Had a few bumps in the road on this batch, not much experience with lagers. Left the brewpot valve open at beginning of sparging losing the first quart or two of wort. Made it up with 2/3 # dme.(doh!) Using dry yeast, hope it's as beautiful as some of the other examples on this thread. 12 more...

Fermenting some now

After all the worry and a near sink pour, a week in secondary, cold crash, and carbonation in the keg resulted in a very drinkable beer. In fact, good enough to get a newbie interested in the hobby.

I can't say for sure why I stopped, other than I wasn't consistently making great beer, and in my late 20s my living arrangements were rather fluid for a few years. I think that one needs to put down some roots before being able to AG brew regularly. I feel like I had some unfinished business...

Opened the bucket this AM and took a gravity sample and added dry hops. 1.050 to 1.010 in 2 days! Had a taste and I don't think it will be a sink pour but there definitely some hot alcohol that lingers after the desired flavors fade. I'm ordering up an Inkbird 308 control this week to control my...