Jdub

Ya I take the spigot apart after every bottling/cleaning. I assume @Cato is talking about spare spigots? By golly if I had spare lbks laying around I would have beer in them stashed around my house considering how many recipes are in my brew queue. My wife said that 3 lbks is enough (for now). What she doesn’t know won’t hurt her.....lol

It’s not part of the recipe. I don’t know as much as most on this forum but I would think that 2 hme cans, 1 lme and the sugars from the steeped grains would be sufficient. I would follow the recipe. But that being said I am a fan of abv so may be it can’t hurt?

@Cato I know. Those are 2 precious gallons. That was my 1st thought I don’t want to waste any. I haven’t had any batches taste sweet or non-alcoholic at bottling. Bout to bottle creeps’ saison ipa this week. How much sugar did you go with for carbing? Ya I’m with you. I don’t use the mrb yeast ever. With that much time invested in every batch I either order the good stuff or go to my excellent local HBS. Not to knock it bc I don’t know the difference but it’s just a suspicion. All of the PM kits come with better yeast and tell you to toss the one under the lid.

I hear ya there BDawg....I just haven’t gotten that complex yet. I don’t know if I have had a batch get stuck yet. I need to start checking that. I need to get a squeeze bottle of sanitizer ready to rock at all times so I can sample a little at 21days or sooner to make sure it’s ready.

I guess I should be using it. I’ve just been fermenting 21 days and not worrying about it. Seems like some brewers take frequent samples to determine if it’s finished fermenting. I’ll try using on my next brew.

So I have a hydrometer but haven’t used it much. When you take a sample do you take it from the spigot and then re-sanitize the spigot?

I have 3 lbk’s. I had that problem with 2 of them. I used fine sandpaper and evenly went around the opening in the outside. Solved the problem. When putting the spigot on I have the downspout of the spigot (where the beer comes out) facing 3 o’clock. I tighten as much as I can from the inside and then from the outside turn the spigot clockwise till it’s upright. Works for me.

Gotcha. I’m sure it will turn out just fine. We’ll have a virtual brew together when they’re both done.

Hmmmm I don’t know. Did you put the 1st round of zest in a hop sack? Is that maybe pulp from the juice? I would just roll with it for 21 days and then cold crash it. It’s probably just science man...On a side note....those hop sacks sure do soak up a lot of beer. I just bottled up a batch of voodoo (no hop sacks) and I got a whole extra 12 oz bottle than usual.

It went good. I put the zest and hops into the same sanitized muslin sack and dropped it in with the juice. Haven’t peeked at it. I only shine a flashlight into the lbk about once per week. Did you zest really fine? Mine was fairly coarse bc of the grater I used. I don’t think it could get out of the sack. We’ll see when it comes to bottling.

I bought a 4 pack of IPA’s at Costco recently partly for the beer but mostly for the cool 22 oz bottles. The labels were plastic and glued on with something impossible to get off. I gave up. Did enjoy the beer though...

It was bugging me so I just went and capped a negra modelo bottle. No leaks and seemed to fit ok. I hear ya on the devils backbone. I’ll look out for that beer here. I find myself only buying beers that I can reuse the bottle.

@Cato thanks. Did not know that about modelos. Never thought to try it. Will try to cap one today. I only have about 4-6 in the bunch. I have a couple of bottling days coming up and needed to get the bottles going.

Cleaned used bottles today. Mostly followed @RickBeer ‘s advice. Cleaned 50 bottles today. Used hot water soak to remove labels. Wanted to mention what bottles were the most friendly to home brewers trying to remove labels. This is not comprehensive, but just my top 4. 1. Odell’s-hands down the most friendly. Label practically fell off in the water. 2. Sam Adams-after a soak just took a light scrape and it all came off. 3. Sierra Nevada-came right off after a soak 4. Paulaner-came off so easy. Honorable mention: deschuttes, real ale brewing, revolver (easy to peel off plastic label), modelo. Had a few that were literally impossible. Some use plastic labels and probably requires a solvent of some type to remove the glue. Just gave up or left the label on. Won’t buy those again. After label removal, filled up sink with oxy clean free and hot water for another soak. Shook the poop out of them and rinsed with hot water and hung on my new bottle tree. Ready to rock. I have to admit I did calculate what my time is worth professionally vs saving $50 in not buying 2 cases of new glass. Much less satisfying buying online. Plus I do love working on anything beer related. Jdub

Hey that ice pack wrap thing looks good! I did the 1week additions today. I had soaked the 1/2 zest in a small container with vodka. Added the hops and tangerine juice and zest today. I put the zest and hops in the same muslin sack so I don’t have floaties everywhere. I am spot on <65 deg at all times in my cooler. Can’t wait to try it. Jdub