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Hay! You got something against pigs?!

Question 1: I've struggled a little lately with getting good efficiency (<68%) and, while I THINK it's the milling causing it, I HAVE wondered about the water treatment. How does adding 5.2 plus mineral additions negatively impact extraction? I understand that a pH over 6 will have negative impact o...

Hey Dave...based on my most recent Pumpkin beer success, I recommend dry hopping a few cinnamon sticks (in addition to very late boil spice additions). I dry hopped 3 sticks because there was little or no spice flavor or aroma after a few weeks from brewing. Within 3 days, the beer had a really nice...

Phil- I can see you took a few chemistry classes in school. I wasn't allowed in the door... In any case, this would explain why the pH of my mash this weekend was 5.5 after adding the 5.2 and salts to match Munich water. Previously, I had no good way to measure pH, but Santa sprang for a meter! Anyw...

Wow...lot's of questions. I'll try to be brief. -Chalk is Calcium Carbonate and is available at HBHQ. It raises alkalinity and lowers pH of the mash but does NOT go into solution well. It's best to keep levels of the associated minerals (bicarbonates) low (50ppm), as it may impart harsh flavors, amo...

Hey Cameron. Sounds like you're describing Star San, and/or Saniclean. Because they are acid based, you don't want them in contact with SS for more than a few minutes, but they sanitize almost instantly, anyway. They are also no rinse and stay effective for weeks/months after mixing. Star San is ser...

Hey Bill. Like you, I don't do hops...but, you could cut out a small piece of a hop sock and affix it to the end of the racking cane. Better yet, a small chunk of fine steel wool wrapped around the end of the cane should do it. I use steel wool in front of the valve in my kettle and get very little ...

Hey TB. Thanks for letting us know who you are. I am always curious to whom I am speaking on this forum. I go to most brew days but certainly don't know everyone in the club. So I just was wondering if we have met...sounds like we have not. You really should come to the brew days. They are entertain...

I'd like to make a suggestion to the masses out there: It would be nice if folks would (voluntarily, of course) include a signature in their forum profiles so we know who we're talking to. It would just make things a little more personable and we could continue some of these threads "live and i...

OK Bill, I've seen your storage setup...where will you keep 11 beers? I ask because if you need some storage space, you can borrow some of mine. Rent is cheap...roughly a pint per keg per day... :) I hope to have 7 or 8 beers worthy of entry, also no double entries. Entry fees don't bother me...I wo...

Thanks for clarifying the rules for the various competitions, Orlando. You're right, of course, about the 2 main types who enter. You're a hardware guy and I'm a feedback guy...and we can both coexist in these competitions. As long as we both follow the rules, and we both go into it with eyes wide o...

This double entry comment is very disappointing. Taking two awards with the same beer seems wrong to me. To sastisfy my curiousity, I may try to email some of the big name guys and find out their entry habits. Is there any way to get email addresses from the Lone Star Circuit Officers? I have to ag...

If Charlie P., R. Mosher, and M. Jackson (the big white guy, not the other one) were the judges at every homebrew competition, there would be much less "luck" involved. But they are not. Instead we get people more like me who are not necessarily experts at detecting the subtleties of beer ...

Hey Leroy-

Do/can we bring homebrew to the meetings, or do the hosts frown on that?

Hey Chris, while you're at it, how about finding out why star san bubbles last forever.. Rob-- I got the answer from Star San! Here ya go: Star San's foaming is a product of the root ingredients; we do not add any 'foaming' agents to enhance the foaming. The root ingredient, DDBSA, is a naturally h...