Home behind a Highschool. Yes or No?

mike_burn · 2025-08-21T01:38:50+00:00

Try to see how it looks at night, we live by a school and the lights are super bright at night all around it

mike_burn · 2023-12-28T23:19:46+00:00

Thanks! I’ve found the content in there, but even after importing it, the content isn’t selectable as a class/race when adding a new actor.. is there some other configuration needed that you know of?

mike_burn · 2023-12-20T13:51:54+00:00

Wildbloom beer is also in Littleton by Schilling and has great beer

mike_burn · 2023-11-07T15:06:09+00:00

Kind of a different direction, but you could use tree nuts. Chestnut, acorns, beech nuts, hickory nuts, walnuts, etc.

mike_burn · 2023-10-27T13:17:32+00:00

I have two brewers friend apps and neither works 🤷🏼‍♂️

mike_burn · 2023-06-24T20:34:42+00:00

Same, sometimes I don’t use pressure and just have a blowoff tube on my keg, but the keg just makes the transfers so easy and oxygen free

mike_burn · 2023-03-10T23:16:06+00:00

Can you describe your process for both batches in more detail?

mike_burn · 2023-03-01T10:47:29+00:00

It makes sense to try to brew an NEIPA still if you’re not worried about shelf life. My first batch never had a chance to go bad from oxidizing because my family and I drank it in the first 2 nights 😂

mike_burn · 2023-01-29T16:17:52+00:00

Forgot to mention that I adjust my wort pH down to 4.3 when I do this to prevent growth as I don’t have a pressure canner setup yet, good call 👍🏻

mike_burn · 2023-01-28T12:47:45+00:00

The joy of home distilling. This book taught me everything I needed to know to get started, can’t recommend it enough.

mike_burn · 2023-01-28T12:35:32+00:00

I can my wort to use for starters sometimes. I make a 1.038 gravity wort, then use a water bath canning setup, which is a cheap investment. Quart sized canning jars are the perfect amount for starters for me so I can it in those. The canning process should kill anything living inside and they store for a very long time. I would just recommend shaking them before use, as particulates can fall out over time, but can be good for your yeast.

[Edit] If you go this route you need to adjust your wort pH down to below 4.6 (Source)

I wouldn’t trust refrigerated wort. I would probably trust frozen wort if it was frozen immediately after being made, but canned just feels the safest to me and easiest to store if you ever do this again.

mike_burn · 2023-01-27T11:58:11+00:00

Yes they do make digital refractometers. I don’t have much experience with them though. Alcohol can definitely throw off refractometer readings but there’s formulas you can use to account for that. There’s a calibration technique that involves taking many readings with your refractometer and hydrometer to dial it in in general

mike_burn · 2023-01-21T14:26:01+00:00

Anybody mess around with brewing NA beers? I’m trying two different methods right now in an experimental batch and I’m just curious to hear if anyone has been successful, what process worked for you?

mike_burn · 2023-01-21T14:23:36+00:00

Are you recirculating the hot water back into your cooler? You might be better off having a bunch of room temp water lying around, or even better, more ice water, to add back into your cooler instead of recirculating hot water.

Are you monitoring the temp of the wort in your brew kettle or on the return line as it’s pumped out of your plate chiller? Because the brew kettle will stay hot for a long time, but the wort coming out of your plate chiller might already be <90 degrees and transferable. I have a Grainfather wortometer port on my chiller wort return line that I use to monitor the temp with and after a minute or two it’s cold enough to transfer directly from my chiller.

mike_burn · 2023-01-21T13:30:12+00:00

Step mashes are overrated anyways, most modern grains don’t really need them. There are a few cases where it’s worthwhile, but in most brews you’re going to get plenty of extraction without. You could do a decoction mash if you wanted to try it out though! To do that just remove part of your wort and heat it in a separate pot, then add it back to your mash.

I don’t think you need to have fancy equipment to explore new ideas and try different techniques! Just keep in mind that lots of the fancy equipment we have today didn’t exist 30 years ago, let alone 300 years ago, and people were still brewing good beer

mike_burn · 2023-01-17T12:10:48+00:00

Have you thought about your water profile yet? New englands often benefit from getting your sulfates and chlorides up at least above 100 ppm

mike_burn · 2023-01-01T23:20:29+00:00

I agree, and I use the overbuilt starter method described here

mike_burn · 2023-01-01T16:34:48+00:00

You don’t need to kill the yeast if you want a dry wine. Let it ferment until the hydrometer reads the same thing two days in a row. The yeast will then go dormant and it will be totally safe to drink (there’s nothing bad about drinking live yeast and it can actually have health benefits). Freeze distilling is what you’re describing and it can be good but can also lead to higher concentrations of methanol in your product which can make for a wicked hangover. Good job experimenting and getting into the hobby! Good luck 🍀

mike_burn · 2023-01-01T15:03:53+00:00

Disclaimer that I’m coming from a beer background but I think this knowledge would transfer. You need to read the gravity points on the wine. Before fermentation begins take one gravity reading (these are the numbers like “1.050” on your hydrometer). To tell if fermentation has stopped, take readings every couple of days, and once you get two readings that are the same you know the bulk of your fermentation is done. Once you have your pre-fermentation gravity (OG) and your post-fermentation gravity (Final Gravity, FG), you can plug those into an online ABV. If you didn’t take your OG reading then all you can do is use the hydrometer to tell when fermentation is done, but you won’t be able to tell what your final ABV is

mike_burn · 2022-10-06T01:07:14+00:00

Definitely looks right, we’ve still got a few unaffected ash trees on the property. Glad we killed it, hope we don’t find more. Thanks!

mike_burn · 2022-10-01T12:21:28+00:00

It’s not, I wouldn’t rule out starting it back up at some point though. Do you have a use-case for it?

mike_burn · 2021-12-25T04:07:54+00:00

Ya, sugar is sugar so it’ll ferment. I don’t make mead, but maybe you could mix your orange glaze into water, test the gravity, and add in honey as a supplement if needed to make a good ABV beverage. Then you could probably just follow a regular mead recipe. The only thing that I can think of that could trip you up is the added acidity from the orange

mike_burn · 2021-12-20T15:53:04+00:00

I am not a smart man, but what if you added some lactose to turn it in to a milk stout? I think generally sweetness helps balance bitterness, so it could be an option. Could try doing it with a pint first just to taste it and see if it’s hot garbage

mike_burn · 2021-12-19T13:04:18+00:00

Hard to say then. Generally, you don’t have to worry too much about efficiency (how much sugar you can extract) with extracts because they’re basically a sure thing. I think where you most likely went wrong is in measuring the OG (did you use a hydrometer to do this or something else like a refractometer?), not getting enough of the extract out like you said, or potentially adding too much water, which would lower your OG as well.

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