Messages

1

Kegging and Bottling / Bottling Yeast - Danstar CBC-1 or Champagne

« on: June 23, 2012, 04:47:46 PM »

Ive been aging some high abv beer in whiskey barrels for 3-5 months now and am getting ready to bottle the beer.  I know that the yeast has all settled out and if there is any residual, its dormant or dead.  I was looking to buy some Danstar CBC-1 Yeast (Cask Conditioning and Bottling Yeast) but can't find it online anywhere...even there website.  I haven't used champagne yeast before and was wondering if it would work for bottling without drying out the beer.  I do plan on reserving a good portion of the beers to taste over time.  Does anyone have any suggestions or experiences that they could share?

Thanks!

2

Going Pro / Re: OK, we're doing it

« on: March 17, 2012, 10:59:40 AM »

Thanks everyone.

Self-distribute?  I don't know the legal answer, but there's another brewer in my county that does, so I'm thinking so.  And that takes care of the health department question as well.  As for a facility, I have a large, three bay detached garage that will be the brewery. 

I just figure starting the process for $100 is no big deal.  If it get's to be to much, then we'll cancel.  The guy that owns the brewery with taproom got going pretty easy, and he's just brewing one barrel batches with blichmann boilermaker pots.  Essentially a home brew system. And he's in an offsite pole building.

I worked at a Seattle brewery where they self-distributed.  I think its free and pretty easy to get that going.  As for location, check out Foggy Noggin.  I think it just has to be detached from your house, so a Detached garage might work!

Cheers

3

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: stuck ferment????

« on: March 17, 2012, 10:24:16 AM »

I wonder what the OP decided to do?
Anyway, when I used LME I had a couple of occaisions when everything else failed to restart a fermentation and used amalyase enzyme to get the beer to finish.
I found that a half tsp per five gallons and a couple of weeks usually resulted in another 10 point drop.
While I only have a couple of data points, I never had any issues with over carbed beer or exploding bottles.

Whats OP mean? 

Im out of the loop.

4

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: carboy headspace when aging sour beer with brett/bacteria

« on: March 17, 2012, 10:01:52 AM »

Allowing some O2 to in the headspace is good for the bacteria to do it's work. Plus a little head space allows a pellicle to form while the beer ages. I currently have a Flemish Red Ale aging in a six gallon carboy with about 4 inches of headspace. I think a little headspace is okay.

Whats Pellicle?  I am brewing my first Flanders Red...Pitched Roeslare into a carboy a few months ago.  Have started seeing what kinda looks like mold in a few patches...is that Pellicle? I hope so. haha. 

5

Going Pro / Re: Financials and Investors

« on: March 17, 2012, 09:57:37 AM »

Thanks Wiley, great suggestions.  I sent it on to our "Finance" guy. 

6

Going Pro / Re: Any Virginia Brewers gone Pro?

« on: March 12, 2012, 05:51:50 AM »

They're starting to pop up and a recent bill passed allowing VA microbreweries to sell pints in their tasting rooms, instead of just the 4 oz sample. 

7

Going Pro / Re: Financials and Investors

« on: March 12, 2012, 05:49:49 AM »

these are hard numbers to pin down precisely. Do you have any idea what type of brewery you want to open? What styles are you planning on brewing? What is your flagship going to be? How much will you be pushing high end "specialty" beers? You need to have a good idea of what your focus will be to understand what you will be able to charge for your beer. And I recommend charging a premium if the product is high quality.

We have been planning on opening a 15 BBL Production brewery with a tasting room that will sell pints (Recently passed bill allows production breweries to sell pints in VA now).  We want to set a max production amount to around 4000 bbls.

We will be brewing all Ales, IPA, Pale, Golden, Brown, Porter...IPA to be the flagship (But like nateo said, the customer will decide that). 

We will be producing about 35% Seasonal/Specialty Beers, including wild ales and bourbon aged beers

We will be working with a local distributor and selling directly to them.  Our wild and bourbon aged beers will be sold at the brewery but seasonals will be sold in 1/6th bbls thru the distributor as well. 



How did you go about estimating your Utility/Insurance/Legal and any TI costs? 

Thanks for responding.

8

Classifieds / Re: whisky barrels need homes

« on: March 11, 2012, 12:43:01 PM »

Any barrels left?

9

Classifieds / Re: 13 gal jacketed conicals

« on: March 11, 2012, 12:41:28 PM »

Why dont they have any legs either?

10

All Grain Brewing / Re: Mash temp too low

« on: March 11, 2012, 07:28:58 AM »

Hey all,
I ended up with a mash temp of 149 instead of 153 for the pale ale I'm brewing today. To make matters worse I didn't realize this until my tun was full to the top so I couldn't add water.

Just how much drier will this make the final beer? I'm willing to leave it as is, but is there anything that can be done post-mash to compensate for the temp mistake?

Do I just mash for a longer time?

Has your Thermometer been calibrated lately?  Maybe its off and you were closer to your mash temp then you thought.  Either way, you'll still get good conversion and a great beer.

11

Going Pro / Any Virginia Brewers gone Pro?

« on: March 11, 2012, 06:34:29 AM »

I was wondering if there were any folks from Northern VA that are in the planning stages of opening a brewery who would be willing to share any information on what setbacks they have had to deal with. Also, if there is any other information that would be helpful for someone looking to open a small 15 bbl production brewery, specific to VA laws and regulations.

State - VA
County - Fairfax or Arlington

Pretty broad request, but just throwing it out there.

Thanks!

12

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Need opinions over lost airlock

« on: March 10, 2012, 06:34:37 PM »

I'd be willing to bet it is fine. I don't even use an airlock until fermentation is finished. If you had Co2 still in suspension in the beer it probably protected the beer from oxidation and contamination.

RDWHAHB.

+1
I ferment in open fermenters with no problems.  Once the fermentation is almost complete I rack to closed 2ndary fermenters under an airlock.

+2?

RDWHAHB

13

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Sour Beer Sanitation

« on: March 10, 2012, 06:22:48 PM »

I'm brewing my first sour this weekend.  Using the Berliner Weiss recipe in Classic Styles.  I am concerned about sanitation.  I would rather not dedicate equipment to sours; especially since this is my first one, based upon results might be my last.  Seems like a waste to buy double equipment at this point for anything that is in contact with the bugs.  I would think as long as I clean with PBW and use StarSan as directed bugs will die.  Isn't that why we use a santizer to kill all the bugs out there?  If santizers didn't work wouldn't we all have sour beer results just from the stuff in the air that lands on equipment?  I just wonder if we all might be paranoid about the ability of these bugs to survive StarSan.  I did a search for sour sanitation on the forum but didn't really get an answer from anyone that has experience just cleaning and santizing rather then have dedicated equipment.  If there is someone out there that has or is just cleaning and sanitizing please speak up and let me know your experieince.

Im not familiar with the recipe you are using, but did you pitch any additional lacto or "bugs" after you chilled?  If not, then the bugs would have been pasteurized during the boil and you have no need to stress anything else.  My understanding was that berliners are mashed for 24-48 hrs and then boiled...so they still impart the sour flavor and lower the pH but the lacto that was on the grain is killed off during the boil.  What did your recipe call for? 

If you did pitch more bugs, I would treat it all that post wild pitch as wild from that point on.  The pros do.

14

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Does Anyone Know if Yeast Produce Acid While Cask Conditioning?

« on: March 10, 2012, 06:10:33 PM »

Acetobacter is aerobic - it often isn't much of a problem if you're kegging/bottle conditioning because there is no oxygen. But if you're cask conditioning and using ambient air to fill the headspace in the cask, then there will be plenty of oxygen in there (and you're probably innoculating with acetobacter too).

+1  - its an issue of oxygen and bacteria, try purging your cask with CO2 unless if you are doing real cask, then there should be very minimal headspace in there.  When pro-brewers barrel age beers, this is one of the biggest issues they face. Too much oxygen along with oxygen can result in A vinegar like liquid...next time, dont dump it and maybe try it out in some bbq sauce...just saying. 

15

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: 1st bad brew = sweet release?

« on: March 10, 2012, 06:03:29 PM »

I made a honey basil ale for my mom once...and never again.  was brewed right, but the basil was very prevailing...not saying you shouldnt brew with basil, but less can be more in this case. 

Cheers,

Keep Brewing.