Recent content by felten

What efficiency though? into the bottles? into the fermenter? pre-boil, post-boil, mash efficiency? I may get 75% mash efficiency, and then 65% into the fermenter, and 55% into bottles (pulling these numbers out of the air). Efficiency percentage needs a context.

I twist mine around until its tight, but don't bother pressing it with anything.

That is a brilliant idea.

I used to use a klemheist knot, its easy to do, and gives me a loop to work with for attaching to a pulley. Looking at some of the other ideas though, they're a lot simpler :unsure:

Where and how are you measuring the efficiency? I think it would be worthwhile to troubleshoot via this braukaiser article.

I use a better bottle for bulk aging, since I don't have kegs. They are supposed to be less oxygen permeable than HDPE. The vessel itself is great, but the accessories are way too expensive. I would not want to mess around with a piece of glass that big, I've heard a few horror stories about...

Try this as a starting point. http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f128/brewing-water-chemistry-primer-198460/ Dead simple, and AJ deLange knows his stuff.

There's also some recipes & interviews from Deschutes on the brewing network here. The obsidian stout is one of my favourite recipes.

http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?title=Mash_pH_control There is a slew of other articles there on pH as well.

So your rehydrating tip is to not rehydrate?

I put my stirplate in a large cardboard box together with a heatpad hooked up to a temp controller.

I asked USplastic for a quote on 4x 1gal cubitainers, and they reckon they could send them for $7.72 + $24 shipping. I didn't follow through with it though, but maybe someone else might be interested. Apparently their shipping price is based on weight, so larger cubitainers would probably be a...

http://www.bairds-malt.co.uk/Roasted.html Looks like they make a 150L there.

Each variety of hop gets tested for a hop storage index (HSI) number as standard, which you can find via google. Then if you want to make a guess at the AA%, you can input that number into a hop age calculator either in beersmith or via google. Some info about HSI half way down this page.