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Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2011 9:42 pm
by Paul
There's a big difference between your house changing 10 degrees and a 5 gallon bucked of liquid changing ten degrees.
Just stick it in a closet or something.
Posted: Thu Feb 17, 2011 3:07 pm
by GORDON
Tangentially related, I just upgraded the holding tank on my Reverse Osmosis water filtration system. The thing can produce about 1 gallon every 90 minutes, and I only had a 1 gallon holding tank. This was going to require some water hoarding when it came time to produce 5 gallons for a vat of beer. Now I have a 16 gallon holding tank. 
Edited By GORDON on 1297973784
Posted: Thu Feb 17, 2011 11:11 pm
by Paul
I use tap water.
In the old days I'd buy a few gallons of water at the store.
Posted: Thu Feb 17, 2011 11:19 pm
by GORDON
Paul wrote:I use tap water.
In the old days I'd buy a few gallons of water at the store.
I have a theory that straight tap water around here causes cancer. We're all using wells. There's too much cancer on my street.
We only drink triple filtered (softener, RO system, then a big Brita filter in the fridge).
Which, actually, is the best tasting water I've ever had. Once it's cleaned out. It's going to make great beer.
Edited By GORDON on 1298003950
Posted: Thu Feb 17, 2011 11:41 pm
by Paul
Okay.
We have pretty good water here.
Well water... I wouldn't trust it unfiltered.. Too much runoff.
Posted: Thu Feb 17, 2011 11:47 pm
by GORDON
Yep. Runoff, farm leakage, industrial pollution, and leaky septic systems all around here.
But seriously, once filtered, it tastes so much better than chlorinated city water. I never even knew until that first sip after Culligan was here. It's going to make really great beer.
Edited By GORDON on 1298004512
Posted: Wed Jul 20, 2011 9:15 pm
by GORDON
Found a local place so I can save a ton on shipping.
http://www.titgemeiers.com/id13.html
Going shopping within the next few days.
Posted: Wed Jul 20, 2011 11:42 pm
by Paul
Go for a darker/stronger beer at first. They are more forgiving
The lighter the beer easier it is to taste flaws (like skunkiness).
Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2011 1:11 am
by Malcolm
Darker beers tend to have more alcohol anyway.
Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2011 7:45 pm
by Paul
If you get an IPA, that's hard to screw up.
IPA's have extra hops (bitterness) and extra sugars (alcohol) which allowed the beer not to spoil during the hot, 6 month ship ride from England to India.
Of course it's a strong beer and a lot of people won't like it. (IPA's and double IPA's are my favorites)
I'd say try the Brewer's Best Milk Stout. It has lactose (unfermentable sugar) which will make it more palatable to non-beer-snobs.
Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2011 9:18 pm
by GORDON
Bought a kit today, and a thing of Scottish Ale. I plan on brewing tomorrow night.
I'll post pics and stuff later.
Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2011 10:44 pm
by Malcolm
The brewing of any Scottish ale must be done in a kilt.
Posted: Sat Jul 23, 2011 12:00 am
by GORDON
How about a scarf with my clan colors?
Posted: Sat Jul 23, 2011 2:21 am
by Malcolm
GORDON wrote:How about a scarf with my clan colors?
If no kilt then bagpipes. If no actual bagpipes, sounds of bagpipes. If no sounds of bagpipes, any reasonably popular non-sucky Scottish band will do.
Edited By Malcolm on 1311402095
Posted: Sat Jul 23, 2011 2:25 am
by GORDON
I can arrange for the sound forbidden tunes on forbidden pipes.
Posted: Sat Jul 23, 2011 5:50 pm
by GORDON
Bought this kit from a local place for the same price, so I saved on shipping.... the difference is the carboy in the kit I bought is plastic, so that means they don't give me that angled cleaning brush.
http://www.midwestsupplies.com/brewing-starter-kit.html
Also bought a Scottish Ale ingredient kit for about $28. That seemed pricey, to me, but the prices appear to be comparable on the midwest supplies website.
I'd take my own pics of tonight's brewing but the camera on my blackberry decided to stop focusing.
Will be playing this loudly while I brew.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmwoeBJpcDs
Posted: Sat Jul 23, 2011 5:54 pm
by Malcolm
Sweet.
Posted: Sun Jul 24, 2011 1:13 am
by GORDON
Wow, that took a while.
Notes for the next batch:
- Don't do this on a hot day. The stove burner will be going for hours.
- Get an extra bag of ice for when it is time to cool the batch. All the ice from my ice maker wasn't enough to get the wort down to 70 degrees, and the ambient air temp was about 80, so I had to pour into my fermenter and add hops when it was about 4 degrees too warm.
- There was something else but I forgot it.
- I need to get one of those lab instrument clamps to hold my thermometer in the boil pot so I don't need to stand there for 20 minutes holding it to get the exact temp for steeping my grains.
Getting the exact gravity was sort of interesting. I hit the exact bottom of the gravity range when I added water to 4.75 gallons, so I guess I did it approximately correct. But then my hydrometer said it was calibrated to be used in 60 degree liquid, and mine was 74, so I don't know. I guess we'll see. Floor of my basement was exactly 70 degrees, so I guess that's good.
All in all it was a 3 hour process tonight, but a good 45 minutes was trying to lose the last 20 degrees of heat during the cool-off period when I was out of ice.
Posted: Sun Jul 24, 2011 10:34 am
by TPRJones
You can find out how close you were on the SG here: http://www.brewersfriend.com/hydrometer-temp/
With 1 as the baseline, at 74 degrees it will be off by about 7%.
Edited By TPRJones on 1311518363
Posted: Sun Jul 24, 2011 11:01 am
by GORDON
What is sort of strange is that my hydrometer itself says the measurements are calibrated for a 60 degree liquid, but my ale instructions called for a 70 degree liquid.
So I guess in the future I can use that link to do the conversion for the temperature offset.
This stuff is frikkin chemistry, man. That's cool.