Recent content by bmac8

Thank you. 6/2 Sunday afternoon... here is today's shotglass sample (13 days in fermenter) taken after dumping the yeast. I like the color. Tastes clean, still looking a little cloudy. Seems like a win so far.

UPDATE: Sunday 6/2--this is the 13th day of fermentation. The bubbling really slowed (and maybe completely stopped,) over the past few days. I opened the bottom valve of the conical verrrrry carefully...only needed to move the ball valve two clicks... Yeast squished out in a few bloop-bloops...

Any tips on bottling day? Thinking about going straight from fermenter...I have the hose and bottling stick with little spring valve for bottom-up filling. Do I need to pick up a white bucket and spigot as a secondary? Almost there! Thanks.

Bottling it Monday (14th day of fermentation. Threw in nylon bag (sterilized) with cascade hops for final 4 days.) Stay tuned, and continued thanks, all.

It is going to be a basic pale ale something close to Sierra Nevada, I hope, but boosted with one pound of DME in the boil, so it figures to be darker. Added cascade hops at the close of the boil. I picked up a long "hop spider" mesh hops-contain piece for that. The fermentation is slowing to a...

All, I'm ALIVE! Thank you again for your patience as I looked for help in stepping into the all-grain world with a larger, new system... I took a break, waited for some warmer weather... but last week, I had a successful brew day. I worked outside, finally pumping through a window into the...

Thank you for that very kind and encouraging post... I could keep the thread in suspense... but then, this has gone on way too long. How did I do? Ahem. POST-GAME REPORT: Well, a fail, but not a Superfail. I wasted some grain, but my loss was a big win for my next door neighbor's chickens...

Ha, thank you for that. I'm heckling myself anyway, so it is all fair game...and it is fun to report back here as I stumble along... I hope it entertains, but along the way, I am definitely learning.

Great. Thanks.

I'm just trying to make my first all-grain beer. I am just trying to make an American pale ale of sorts. This is also my first crack at creating my own recipe from scratch. I wanted it to be fizzy (and not flat) and first suggested 3.5 vols but I have since been educated (and heckled,) and I'll...

What's LODO?

2.5 sounds like a better number. Thank you.

MASSIVE Shout out to SIBELMAN--The MAN. Kind enough to visit my garage brewery yesterday, and walked me through all-grain + sparging. As I am true visual learner, I cannot thank you enough! Of course, I continue to learn here on Homebrewtalk too. Today, finally, will be my brew day. ...ohhhh...

I misunderstood that--thank you just the same.

Bobby, Definitely interested in help! Would you be willing to stop by? Thank you! Brian