Beer Forum

Well, my extract beer, an "Ordinary Bitter (8A)" won 3rd place at the Foam on the Range Competition (11 in category). I think that all the hours I've spent listening to the BN over the past year have probably improved my brewing, and I can point to some specific examples:

1) Oxygenation - I didn't even know I needed to worry about this until I heard the Brewcasters talking about it. I have a ghetto solution for now, but it works (*).

2) Starters - TBN got me started on starters, even though Mr White thinks that they are a waste, all the discussions hooked me on the subject. I have my very own erlenmeyer flask now.

3) Motivation - After finishing a show, I always want to go brew, even if my last batch sucked. TBN keeps me brewing and I think the local home brew shop here should pay TBN a royalty on my purchases.

So thanks Brewcasters and TBN for all your assistance!

(*) - Since my brew kettle is only 4gal, I used to add in preboiled water and mix the wort and water in my carboy. Now, I use a couple gallons of reverse osmosis water, which I believe has O2 in it already. Although this is not as good as an O2 bubbler stone, it provides more O2 than using preboiled water (that has just cooled down and has very little O2 in is).

Uhh Reverse Osmosis water contains no more O2 than regular water, probably less. You could shake the piss outa that water in a jug or whatever and add some o2 to it but you would be better off shaking that carboy.
BUB

Glad to hear you did well! Did you claim The BN as your club?

bub wrote:Uhh Reverse Osmosis water contains no more O2 than regular water, probably less. You could shake the piss outa that water in a jug or whatever and add some o2 to it but you would be better off shaking that carboy.
BUB

Bub,

It contains more O2 than water that has just finished boiling on my stove. That was the comparison I tried to make. Also, I follow this process:

1) chill wort
2) pour wort in carboy
3) shake carboy (which contains 3-3.5gal of wort)
4) add reverse osmosis water to fill carboy

That should do it.... and you are correct about the comparason vs the stove.
BUB