BeerTools Discussion Forum

I just harvested my first year Cascades. What do I do with the vines now?

If you can, don't cut the whole top off. I did that with one of my 16 gallon kegs and it won't support a 10 gallon boil. If you can, cut a hole in the top. That way you can still use the handles to move it and you have the full capacity of the keg to boil in.

Thanks for your advice. It's been about two years since I've had the beer. I don't remember the Tucher that I had being watered down so maybe it's not the hefe that I'm looking for. I recently did a Weihenstephaner Hefe-weissbier clone that was excellent and I would hate to water that down. I guess ...

It's the Hefeweizen.

Anyone had/heard of Tucher? They make a helles with a light blue lable that I can't get here and would like to try and brew it. Suggestions?

For a 5 gallon batch a 30 quart (7.5 gallon) pot is large enough. I use tap water for my 5 gallon batches and hose water for 10 gallon. I have not had a batch go bad because of this. The safest thing would probably be to go buy 7 gallons of purified drinking water and use that. That will be less ris...

So did you set the mash keg inside a large (55 gal) plastic trash can or something of the sort? I imagine then you could line the barrel/trash can with insulation? Do you have any pictures of your set up? I've also considered putting the keg on the burner and stirring constantly. But I currently onl...

When I was doing extracts I would buy three 2.5 gallon jugs of drinking water (not distilled) and put two in the freezer. The other was for the boil. After the boil and an ice bath, the really cold water out of the freezer mixed into the fermenter ensured pitching temp was low enough. Since I've gon...

I currently do the same thing. I've found the weldless fittings from weld-b-gone work great for seals. I have added some large washers to ensure quality seals. I don't have a stand yet so I'm using a platform on saw horses and gravity. I have been mashing in a keg but heat loss was greater than the ...

Basically when you sparge you fill the first pot half full, completely fill the second, then finish filling the first. All additions during boil are split equally. So if 1 oz of bittering hops are required, 1/2 oz goes in each pot. I followed a recipe exactly out of the "Beer Captured" boo...

I have done all of my 5 gal all grain brews on the stove top with much success. An early year issue of Zymurgy this year had an article in the back on how to do it in two pots. Works very well. If you'd like more info on how, let me know.

I always use the WL tube yeast and no starter. Same way you did it. I also pitch once it gets to under 80 deg. I think as long as it's not over 90 there's no problem. In my short time (only 15 batches) I've only had this problem once. But I think that was due to low conversion during mash. It still ...

I typically use masking tape on my fermenters with the beer name and date for next transfer/bottle just to keep things straight.

The local homebrew shop...Home Brew Pro Shoppe...has an extract clone. I have not brewed it but I've heard good things about it. They do have mail order.