Recent content by CascadesBrewer

I often brew 2.5 gallon batches in my kitchen (BIAB on my stove) and I also have wooden floors in my kitchen. I have a few floor mats that I put out. I am not sure they are water proof enough for a massive spill, but they are good enough for drips and damp items. I find that I often need a...

My favorite styles to have on tap/bottle are hoppy American ales (Pale Ale, IPA, Hazy Pale/IPA), Belgians (Saison and Trappist), with a Stout or Porter in the mix. I have said that I just made 5% American Pale Ales, I would be happy. These days I might replace that with a 5% hoppy lager (West...

I am not a huge fan of the subscription model that is prevalent today, but I guess the $15 per year price for BeerSmith is not terrible. When BeerSmith is said, most people think "outdated desktop application", but I mostly use the web based application. I personally think it has the cleanest...

The theory is that you can ferment a warmer temps (which speeds up fermentation vs a lager at say 50F) but the pressure will suppress the esters that would normally be created at warm temps. The pressure and additional CO2 present does put stress on the yeast. I have had good luck with 2 packs...

The "Chubby Apollo 30L Pressure Fermenter with Wide Mouth and Integrated Handles" has some great ideas. Though I see it listed at $70 (USD? Or is that $47 USD?) and I am not sure when these will be available in the US. https://www.kegking.com.au/chubby-apollo-30l-pressure-fermenter.html

He might need a beard to be an actual Brew Matrix, but he at least needs something to drink: Or maybe...

Maybe not the best thread to dig deep on water chemistry, but that seems a bit excessive to me. Plugging that into BeerSmith using 8 gallons of Distilled as the base water, I get: Ca: 165.8 ppm Mg: 0.0 ppm Na: 64.5 ppm SO4: 183.1 ppm Cl: 260.7 ppm I would say a better generic "balanced" water...

@Willy : Your post hints at the "secret" to making better beer...you have to actually try to make better beer. Try out new things and evaluate how they impact your beer. There are a few major steps that will have a noticeable impact, but I tend to think it is mostly a bunch of small factors...

I have a couple Vivosun branded seedling heating mats that I picked up off Amazon. One was a kit that came with the heating pad and a heat controller. They have worked well for me to keep batches up to 85F. Belle Saison dry yeast is not quite as flavorful as 3724, but is a beast that always...

Are you worried about the bit of oxygen that got pulled into the fermenter or liquid that got sucked in? Did you do something during the cold crash to prevent pulling in air/oxygen? I use a simple mylar balloon setup that prevents pulling in air when I cold crash, and also when I take gravity...

I was a bit disappointed that the blow off jug was just sitting on a bucket vs a Spike stainless steel, Bluetooth-enabled, self-leveling blow off jug stand. ;)

I tend to go by a general rule of thumb that if you pitch 200B cells into a 5 gal batch of an ale, you will end up with 800B cells total in the yeast cake. So pitching 1/4 of the total cake into a following batch will get you back to a 200B cell pitch. It is far from exact, but it has worked...

I am not convinced that trub into the fermenter leads to cloudy beers, and in fact I am in the camp that trub into the fermenter leads to healthier fermentations and beers that clear faster. What you propose seems like it will work and produce wort. Give it a try and see if you like the...

What is the source of this data? Based on my knowledge, I would question if the following malts should have a "Must Mash?" value of "No". (Well, maybe a title of "Should Mash?" is more accurate.) Acidulated Malt- BestMalz (3.5L - 4.5L) Biscuit Malt - Dingemans (18L - 27L) Brown Malt -...

I use this inline filter when transferring from my fermenter into keg: https://vacmotion.com/Details.aspx?Cat=InlineFilters&Id=2843 They sell different size mesh filters, but I find this one to be good enough to filter out the hop particles that are big enough to clog my keg poppet. I...