http://armpithomestead.blogspot.com/2009/11/partigyle.html

Went pretty well. Got a bigger Quad and Tripel than expected and a not too shabby Dubbel either. And as a bonus, perhaps two sourmash beers to boot!

I hate projects. I'm not good at them and I typically do a bad job. That's one reason that I hate my fixer upper house that is still more fixer than upper. I don't know why I thought building a kegerator would be any different. I'm finally almost done, and thought that I'd be able to get a keg on today. I was going to clean my lines and shanks with hot PBW in the handy cleaning pump that screws into the faucet end of the shank and pushes cleaner through, then use some Star San to make sure every… Continue

is it just me or do you get a lot of announcements without the products showing up?
I recommended looking at the refractometer with specific gravity scale to a group of brewers on LinkedIn, and it was gone from the website.
then I get the email about the pressurize-able conicals (which look suspiciously like Blichmanns, only welded) and there is no link, no pricing, no better pictures!
I'm not spending over 500 dollars on something I can't see in depth pictures of. (Hint, hint, hint)

Well, we've got our plans about 90% together. Here are the calculations and recipe formulations if anyone is interested:
http://tinyurl.com/yz9zxyl

The Tripel plan: http://tinyurl.com/ylnv3c9
Tripel recipe: http://tinyurl.com/yl35dn2
Tripel adjusted grain bill: http://tinyurl.com/yhfrygn

The Quad plan:… Continue

I stopped in the other day, and was amazed to find Jolly Pumpkin, Russian River, BrewDog, Lost Abbey, Port Brewing, and a whole bunch of obscure Belgian, British and Danish beers! I haven't seen a selection like that since Ledger's Liquors in Berkeley, and K&L has the virtue of being a few minutes from my house. I asked the folks when they started carrying all these great beers, and they told me that project started this year. I plan to support them on that! K&L is in Menlo Park on El Ca… Continue

I finally finished my kegerator. I converted one of the sanyo mini fridges into a dual tap kegerator. I am pretty excited about it. I was really nervous drilling into the top of the fridge but it came out fine. I think doing all the reading before hand on guys who did it previously really helped. It is a nice little fridge and super quiet. My wife said I could keep it in the apartment as long as it wasn't too loud and she cant even really hear it. I picked up a 1/6 barrel of Two Brothers Ebel's… Continue

I brewed a 10 gallon batch of american ale today. I left my mash for a few minutes without stirring, and scorched the bottom. I emptied it into another pot and cleaned the two inch thick black crust off the center of the pot. Started over and realized I didn't hookup my bazooka screen! The good part is I don't detect any burnt or off flavors. And I hit my o.g.
I'll never leave my mash on the fire again. what a mess

Last Weekend we brewed a 20 gallon batch of a vanilla oatmeal stout. we brewed this same beer about a year and a half ago and it was the second batch of beer we had ever brewed. Much to our delight it was absolutely wonderful, not too heavy on the roasted malt flavors, with a huge vanilla aroma and flavor. The challenges lied in the fact, that in order to brew 20 gallons we would have to brew the wort at double strength, and then dilute the wort with boiled cooled water. My main concern was hop… Continue

It was a sad, sad day yesterday. Cut down my bines and cleaned up the planter boxes. Just isn't the same looking out over the yard without those beautiful bines growing strong and tall. Of course the snow the other day didn't help much either. Damn, winter is getting close. The good news is SWMBO said I could move my first year Chinooks and start a new planter. I planted them next to my Perles, in the same raised bed. Not a good move, so today's job... move the Chinooks while the weather is stil… Continue

Our group is planning a try partigyle. Anyone have real world experience? We are thinking about a quadrupel, a trippel, and a dubbel. The idea is to use honey, sugar, DME or a combination of some or all to boost OGs for the trippel and dubbel and shoot for the OG we want for the quad. Use steeping grains as needed in the trippel and dubbel. We may use two mashing vessels, one cooler mash tun and one biab style. We'll use three burners to boil the worts at the same time.

It will take some carefu… Continue