Recent content by Willy

Brewing as I type this... Using a BIAB inside malt pipe. I tie up the bag and loop the string around the top so nothing is coming out the top. Then, lay it flat on top of the mash and the put the top plate on that. Once every 15 min.... I will pull out the bag and "fluff" it to ensure I am...

Wish you were beer. Drink Floyd. Hahahaha

Had a similar experience and equally annoyed. I had better luck the next few batches using a BIAB in addition to mash pipe. Tried inside and outside mash pipe. Preferred inside. Anyway, the bag helped a lot with the side leaks. I also drained a bunch by holding it halfway (ugh) for a minute...

I have considered putting in 4 small 90° angle brackets to allow for sparging without the malt pipe all the way removed. Basically just weld them on or you can drill and use small screws to fix it in place. It was supposed to have this feature but they got sued by someone. Kinda stupid...

My weekend plans. Tomorrow, start yeast swirl and crush grains Carolina Summer Ale 5.25 g batch 10 lbs Pale ale malt 1.3 lbs Marris Otter malt 12 oz caropils 3 oz Honey malt Simple mash 158° strike Hold at 149° for an hour Mash out 170° 10 min. Boil - 1 hour Cascade at 30 min Mosaic at 15...

Thanks for the suggestion.

Same for me - I always try and make beer to suit my palette. As part of that process, I made a bunch of batches with a single malt, single hop - so I could better understand how each item contributes to the flavor profile. You quickly learn the base malts - pilsner, Munich, vienna, pale ale...

Patience and sanitation are required for success and repeatability.

I use brewfather and it calculates suggested additions based on your recipe. Most times it suggests about 3.3 g of calcium chloride, about 2.8 g gypsum and 3 g of magnesium sulphate (Epson salts). I suspect other recipes software offers this as well.

Little lactic acid ! Yeah.

I still ferment in buckets and hope to upgrade soon. Corny keg seems like a good option. I sometimes need to go to secondary due to trub build up getting so thick it can block the little tap near the bottom of the bucket. Yeah, I could use an upgrade.

I have personally been brewing a mong time (20+ years) and wow!!! Things really changed in the last 5 years - there are many new tools that help us amateurs make better beer. Below are some changes to my brewing process that really improved my final product. Just a few. 1) whirlfloc tablets 2)...

A camel breaker!

Bugsy Beer - pre prohibition lager Doubtful Abbey - a "muh" batch of Belgium Girl from IPA Nema (one of my first brewzilla batches, after the electrician installed the 220v Nema 6-15 outlet) Suds Missle - a 9% imperial ipa

Before. The bottling days After: fridge is now filled with grain inventory and the keezer with cornies.