So I have decided that I am kind of the martha stewart of brewing. Oxyclean not only takes labels off of bottles when in hot water (and I mean they just fall off), but it also takes burned sugar off of the stove when used in a paste.
Anyway the beer sounds awesome. Have you guys used Wyeast at all?
Ooh, thanks for the advice. The ordinary stove cleaner is not working, so I should try that.
In the past we've used White Labs liquid yeast and not had great results with it. I suspect it's user error rather than anything else (one time it stayed in the car for too long, another it was just too long till we brewed with it, etc etc), but the dry yeast was so easy I'm inclined to keep using it, especially since we're likely to mail-order future kits and it's nice not to have to say "we must brew tonight or lose the yeast".
It's just as dark as the photo looks, and that's exactly what we're hoping for. I was very pleased with the colour, until I learned that black patent malt is essentially black food colouring for beer, so now I'm curious to try a similar beer minus that ingredient and see how it works out.
I totally agree with Cindy - OxyClean in a paste will totally get the crap off your stove. I did the same thing last year, and it worked for me.
Also, I usually just use chilled bottled water to fill to 5 gallons, and that's always worked well. Plus is easier than boiling 2 gallons of water (although not cheaper).
Lastly, if you've got a second carboy, rack it off the yeast into that after 2-3 weeks, then let it sit there until you're ready to bottle. You definitely don't want to let it sit on the yeast for more than 3 weeks or so, or else things could start getting funky.
Thanks for the suggestion. I think we need to buy some oxyclean the next time we order brewing supplies.
We don't have a secondary fermenter, but we're going to bottle before 3 weeks are up. It stopped noticeably bubbling 4-5 days ago, and I think we'll be bottling this coming weekend, because the active fermentation finished so quickly.
I had assumed bottled water would be a sanitisation issue, but if that's not a problem then we should try that next time. It would save a bunch of time, and if we start with that fridge cold, then we could get away with pouring the wort in before it's quite down to room temperature. All told, the reduced ice bath requirements could save us an hour per brew....
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Anyway the beer sounds awesome. Have you guys used Wyeast at all?
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In the past we've used White Labs liquid yeast and not had great results with it. I suspect it's user error rather than anything else (one time it stayed in the car for too long, another it was just too long till we brewed with it, etc etc), but the dry yeast was so easy I'm inclined to keep using it, especially since we're likely to mail-order future kits and it's nice not to have to say "we must brew tonight or lose the yeast".
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Also, I usually just use chilled bottled water to fill to 5 gallons, and that's always worked well. Plus is easier than boiling 2 gallons of water (although not cheaper).
Lastly, if you've got a second carboy, rack it off the yeast into that after 2-3 weeks, then let it sit there until you're ready to bottle. You definitely don't want to let it sit on the yeast for more than 3 weeks or so, or else things could start getting funky.
Reply
We don't have a secondary fermenter, but we're going to bottle before 3 weeks are up. It stopped noticeably bubbling 4-5 days ago, and I think we'll be bottling this coming weekend, because the active fermentation finished so quickly.
I had assumed bottled water would be a sanitisation issue, but if that's not a problem then we should try that next time. It would save a bunch of time, and if we start with that fridge cold, then we could get away with pouring the wort in before it's quite down to room temperature. All told, the reduced ice bath requirements could save us an hour per brew....
Reply
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