Random brewing pics

[redoubt]

I pressure can mine. No thawing and guaranteed sterile!

Nick, any tips for pressure canning? We got a pressure canner this summer/fall and tried doing some carrots. We keep losing a bunch of liquid though, and I haven't had the time nor patience to play with it since. Is it just a practice makes perfect thing?

Cheers,
Keely.

[Keggermeister]

If you are losing liquid, you may be overfilling the jars or letting the pressure out of the canner too quickly. The canner should depressurize naturally as it cools. If you vent it, you create a pressure difference between the inside of the jars and the canner, thus causing the jars to vent as well.

Check out this website, It's my canning bible. I think they have a course online too. All of the recipes are tested for safety.

http://nchfp.uga.edu/

[redoubt]

Awesome, thank you!

-Keely.

[GuingesRock]

Only have 1 empty keg and need two to keg the bitter tomorrow, so emptied a keg into my old 1L SS drink bottles/"growlers". Washed and sanitized them in the dishwasher only and filled them with the Blichmann gun. I got them on sale at CT for $2.99 each (I think) a couple of years ago.

I'm not 100% sure how well they hold pressure as when I used them before the beer wasn't in them for any length of time, and also I used them to supply family, they didn't complain of flat beer though. This time around it's in there for home consumption so I should get a better idea.

[Keith]

Tomorrow may be a brew day. looks like the weather is going to cooperate. Going to fill my propane today just incase.

[evanisnor]

Making an ESB today. How fast do you guys run your drills when you crush? Slow, medium or hard-down?

[LeafMan66_67]

Making an ESB today. How fast do you guys run your drills when you crush? Slow, medium or hard-down?

I run mine at around 225 rpm, which is about half speed on my lowest setting.

[LeafMan66_67]

Vermont yeast starter getting ready for tomorrow's APA. Power supply is a bit large, but works in an emergency!

[GAM]

Making an ESB today. How fast do you guys run your drills when you crush? Slow, medium or hard-down?

Flat out and I mill twice.

Sandy

[jtmwhyte]

Making an ESB today. How fast do you guys run your drills when you crush? Slow, medium or hard-down?

Flat out and I mill twice.

Sandy

Same here

[GuingesRock]

step on the gas here also. Just once.

[Ruby]

About 25-50% here. Always tends to crack the endosperm and leaves the husk intact. If it ain't broke, don't fix it!

[RubberToe]

I also run mine on the slow side.

[Woody]

Wide open with the drill and only once. My efficiency has been great! Water treatment made the biggest difference hitting numbers with my water.

[Ladd]

I condition my malt before milling and found it makes a big difference keeping the husk intact (http://www.brewnosers.org/forums/viewto ... ing#p66676" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;). I've modified my process slightly since that thread; I adjusted my mill gap with a credit card (tightly), don't spray the water anymore just dump it right in and stir until there is no more on the bottom, I run the drill slower (about 25%) and only make one pass. I am getting 80-85% efficiency every time.

[evanisnor]

Damn, this could've been in its own thread

[GAM]

I only use a drill if It's or someone else or a huge amount of grain.

I mostly hand grind and I don't see much difference.

Sandy

[mumblecrunch]

I condition my malt before milling and found it makes a big difference keeping the husk intact (http://www.brewnosers.org/forums/viewto ... ing#p66676" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;). I've modified my process slightly since that thread; I adjusted my mill gap with a credit card (tightly), don't spray the water anymore just dump it right in and stir until there is no more on the bottom, I run the drill slower (about 25%) and only make one pass. I am getting 80-85% efficiency every time.

Are you still using roughly 100mL of water for this? And is that for an average 5 gallon batch (i.e., roughly 12-14 lbs of grain)?

I still tend to mill by hand and let my 5-year-old take a couple of turns in there. I've been running it through twice (I use one of Becky's bags in my cooler mash tun), but I've been curious about conditioning and tightening my mill gap instead.

[Ladd]

Yes I do 5 gallon batches and just toss in around a half a cup of water. Lately I haven't even been measuring it, I just eyeball it. That seems to work well with most of my grain bills, just stir the grain around really well to wet it uniformly and make sure there is no water on the bottom of the bucket. Let it sit for ten minutes or so to absorb and then mill away. Took me a couple of tries to dial it in but got it all set now. I don't adjust my gap at all anymore regardless of what I am milling. It's tight enough for rye, wheat or whatever else I throw at it. The milled product looks more squashed flat than anything but when you stir it around it falls right apart. Works great for me. Let me know how you get along if you give it a try.

[mcgster]

Brewed up a lite american lager of all things last night. I don't know what possessed me to do this style other than i have never tried it before but i thought i'd give it a go. I did a triple starter to get 300B cells for my 2.5 gal batch to hit 1.5 m cells / ml / plato. The yeast pic is 2 hours after starting the last step, it took off like a rocket!

IMG_4624.jpg

IMG_4635.jpg

IMG_4633.jpg

[evanisnor]

That stir plate is boss!

[mcgster]

Hahaha it was salvaged from a lab, ebay is pretty good for lab salvage but it is a gamble sometimes.

[bluenose]

what's the big tube thing in the boil pic?

[mcgster]

That is a heat stick i rigged up using some parts from still dragon, here is a pic of it at home on my larger setup.

IMG_3126.JPG

[mckay75]

New to me conical filled with a SmaSH ipa and trying out my new temp controller!