Messages

1

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: What are you tappin'?

« on: December 12, 2012, 08:51:54 PM »

About to tap a couple kegs.  An imperial pumpkin ale aged with some bourbon soaked vanilla beans, and a rye stout.

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Extract/Partial Mash Brewing / Re: Balancing bitterness, flavor, and aroma in IPA

« on: August 16, 2012, 08:09:15 PM »

Just try to get most of your IBU's from late hop additions, which will contribute flavor and aroma as well.  Also, as previously mentioned, low cohumulone hops have a lower perceived bitterness, even though they may have high AA%.  Remember also that bitterness will be at it's peak in a fresh beer and will fade over time while the malt will become more prominent, so aging a very bitter beer for a little while may balance it out.  The problem with this is the hop flavor and aroma will fade at a faster rate so aging an IPA can have a negative impact.  Lastly, Pliny the Elder is a bitter beer so you pretty much got what you asked for with that one, and Chinook hops can be harsh even in relatively low IBU beers so that may be part of why your single hop IPA seemed overly bitter.  With your next IPA load it up at the end of the boil with low cohumulone hops, which should give you the IBU levels you're looking for without harsh bitterness and plenty of flavor and aroma. 

3

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: Sour taste from US-04. Fermented at 63*

« on: August 13, 2012, 07:41:32 PM »

Long story short, does US-04 create sour flavors when fermented low or could this be something else?

Not that I've noticed.  S-04 ferments fairly clean, especially at that temp.  I once accidentally fermented way too warm with that yeast which produced a very fruity, funky beer bordering on Belgian like, but no sourness.  Of course, it's way too early to even be tasting this beer and it will more than likely fade over time.  If it's still sour after a couple weeks then we'll talk.

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Yeast and Fermentation / Re: Attenuation

« on: July 21, 2012, 10:26:07 AM »

One step at a time, right?

Bingo.  Changing only one aspect of your process at a time makes it a lot easier to isolate the issue.  If you change a whole bunch of stuff and the problem gets fixed, you may be more satisfied with the final product but you really won't know why.  Let us know how the next batch turns out.

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Yeast and Fermentation / Re: Attenuation

« on: July 20, 2012, 09:38:09 PM »

What temp are you mashing at?  My first reaction would definitely be to raise your mash temps.  I can only assume you're in the low 150 or even high 140 range.  If this is the case, shoot for around 156 maybe and see what that does for you. 

6

Equipment and Software / Re: Dear White Labs

« on: July 11, 2012, 07:08:05 PM »

Maybe just buy a couple more airlocks, some masking tape and a sharpie?

7

Other Fermentables / Re: Fermented grapefruit juice

« on: June 17, 2012, 11:20:02 PM »

I do think next time I'll mix the grapefruit juice with something else, maybe apple or pear juice.

Fermenting apple or even pear juice I can understand.  There's plenty of fruit juices that can be fermented on their own or with beer.  There's just not alot of success stories out there when it comes to fermenting any citrus fruit juice, not that I've heard anyway.  I'm no stranger to experimenting with all kinds of ingredients, but this one just doesn't make alot of sense to me.  But hey, go for it and let us know how it turns out. 

BTW, I can dig what you're saying when to comes to Bud Light lime and Leinenkugels.  I steer clear of that nastiness.  I'm not sure this is any better than that stuff though.  Just sayin'. 

8

Other Fermentables / Re: Fermented grapefruit juice

« on: June 17, 2012, 09:15:01 AM »

sounds disgusting from the start. you should have known better. and rattlers are for sissy's.. just sayin'.

Amen.  Beer is fine on it's own IMO.  Why ruin a perfectly good thing with something so vile?  Oh well, for each his own I guess.

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Other Fermentables / Re: Fermented grapefruit juice

« on: June 16, 2012, 07:03:03 PM »

Isn't radlers just beer mixed with non-alcoholic juice or soda?  I've gotta be honest, grapefruit wine sounds just plain awful any way you look at it. 

10

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: British sweet stout yeast

« on: June 10, 2012, 11:37:52 AM »

Well this morning it was bubbling and now it's going crazy, so i think its fine. no I didn't make a starter, I don't have a container suitable to make them yet.

Good news.  Those little buggers can be unpredictable at times.  A starter is always a good idea when using liquid yeast.  Before I had a flask I would just boil my water and DME, cool down and pour into a sanitized growler.  Then just pitch the yeast with a sanitized funnel and cover with tin foil.  This would get you by until you got the proper starter kit.

11

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: British sweet stout yeast

« on: June 09, 2012, 08:49:56 PM »

Did you make a starter? 

7 hrs. is a bit early to panic.  Give it more time. 

Also, s-04 makes a good sweet stout IMO.  I know you were asking about Wyeast and you've already brewed but I'm just sayin'.   

12

Ingredients / Re: Holiday Brew

« on: June 03, 2012, 06:00:45 PM »

I can't see it being good either but how do you explain this?

AB up to their old antics of creating new products to take up more shelf space and keep their piss swilling customers happy. 

Good call on dropping the mint btw.  I've only had one beer with mint in it and it was nasty, and it was from DFH so that's saying something.

13

Ingredients / Re: Holiday Brew

« on: June 02, 2012, 10:29:57 AM »

I agree with the above statement.  Add the nibs and vanilla to secondary.  Never brewed with mint so I'll leave that one to someone else.

14

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Rookie Needs A Lil Help

« on: May 31, 2012, 10:12:09 PM »

65 will do the trick.  I like to ferment in an ambient temp in the low 60's so my actual fermentation temp's stay around 65.  Still, your situation will work fine.  I secondary alot (not all) of my brews but the prevailing wisdom is that it is rarely necessary so I'd go with that.  After you bottle, don't put them in the fridge, but instead keep your bottles around 70 degrees for a few weeks until they carbonate.  Then you can toss them in the refer.  Just make sure your gravity has leveled out for a few days to avoid bottle bombs.  All of this is a moot point though if you don't pitch at the proper temp.  Just sayin'. 

15

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Rookie Needs A Lil Help

« on: May 24, 2012, 06:25:59 PM »

I wonder if the OP is still with us and reading all this...

That's what I was wondering. 

Being that this is a hefe I'm guessing it was relatively cheap to brew, and I like my hefe's fresh, so I'm still in the dump it camp.  I'm having a hard time buying into the idea that this is worth trying to salvage.  As a side note, I encourage anyone flirting with the idea of becoming a homebrewer to familiarize yourself with the basics before brewing your first batch to avoid such issues.