Recent content by Closet Fermenter

I have the 10 gallon version. (Had 18 ¼ lbs of grain in it today with 7 gallons of strike water; we were full!). There are 3 ports on mine; valve on bottom, thermometer right above that, and another plugged & unused one up high. Maybe one day I’ll get around to installing an auto-sparge or maybe...

I been working outside in the Carolina’s my whole career, and I have never seen one. So, I really have no idea what your chances are of ever even seeing one of these critters. 🤷🏻‍♂️

I have one concern; your 15 6-packs (12 0z?) and a growler come up a bit short of 11 gallons by my math. If you’re already on the high side of priming sugar, and short on beer volume, you might want to be very careful with those bottles! Maybe I’m missing something here. 🤔 I will agree with...

I’m not sophisticated, but usually just add 1 ounce (by weight) per gallon (cane sugar) and since I am kegging, I can make adjudication later with my gas pressure.

I started using the Fermax in the past year. I was curious about when to add it, and how it might skew my OG reading. Is it too little to make any significant difference? I really don’t know, but would love to hear any opinions.

Nice fermenter! I was a bit puzzled as to why you were catching the yeast in a sheet pan until I saw the picture. Maybe you can put the rig up on blocks of some sort next time so you can get a jar under the bottom valve. Hopefully, you won’t have any issues with bottling, but shouldn’t if the...

Maybe the Coke in the small bottles was better. 🤔

But wouldn’t the same apply to conditioning in bottles? When I did bottle, I didn’t chill them immediately, but left them in a closet while they carbonated and conditioned. I only transferred them to my refrigerator a few at a time as they were consumed. The result (for me, at least) was that...

I’m going to throw this out there: just because it’s kegged doesn’t mean that you can’t “bottle condition” your beer. About the same time that I learned about closed transfers, I also started naturally carbonating my beers in the keg. I use a floating dip tube and don’t have to worry about...

Gravity is your friend, especially since you are doing small batches and not having to deal with heavy lifting. I use stainless fermenters (without spigots) and still use gravity. They are not pressure vessels, so even they don’t hold much pressure, but fortunately, just enough to get a siphon...

Irish Dry Stout! I’m really sad when I run out of my stout. I like keeping a blonde ale around as a backup, or something else that I am trying, but I buy in bulk for my IDS.

^THIS!^ I remember back in college how me and my buddies used to love Monday Night Football. When Hank started singing; we started popping the tops!! By the time all the expert analysis was over and kickoff was imminent, we were popping #2. Started second quarter with #3. I usually took a break...

…or germ warfare! 😆

The overnight mash intrigues me. I actually tried it a couple years ago. I just did my regular thing and left it until the next morning. It did have a little sour smell when I opened up the mash tun, and that spooked me a little, but I carried on and made beer. I don’t recall any major...

I’m sure that there are several reasons for needing this setup, but purging my transfer lines has not been one of them. I have a receiving keg that was purged with fermentation gas. Last batch, I did a little pressure fermentation at the end and so even ended up with a little pressure in the...