Messages

1

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: LHBS

« on: Today at 12:17:32 PM »

My local is less than a mile from my house, has a huge selection of ingredients, plus they have a bar that serves craft beers, both brewed there and hand-picked elsewhere.  They support the brewing community, they have a beer garden and last night they had a food truck that specialized in panninis.
I love that place.

Awesome.  Mine is owned by a BJCP who really understands making great beer.  Selection and service are great.  There is a really good nano next door, and they have a food truck there on most days as well.  Just an all-around good experience.

2

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: LHBS

« on: Today at 11:54:37 AM »

I'm lucky to live close to a great shop who almost always has everything I want.  On the odd time that they are out of something I need, I'll get it online.  I do like to buy bulk hops online when I see a deal that's too good to pass up.

3

Equipment and Software / Re: Plastic carboy

« on: Today at 11:44:38 AM »

Brewer's Best wine fermenter buckets.  They're just under 8 gallons, which lets me stay in plastic and not be limited by the size of Better Bottles. They're pre-drilled too, and I get them for under $20.  I use Better Bottles for long term secondary on occasion for RIS, Barleywine, etc.

4

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: can you repair a beer

« on: Today at 11:37:42 AM »

You can also try and double crush next time, or get your own mill to have complete control

+1.   I've been having my LHBS double crush for years.  It's helped my efficiency (~83%) stay fairly constant, whereas before, it was anything but.

5

Kegging and Bottling / Re: Kegging, conditioning & dry hopping scenarios?

« on: Today at 07:07:34 AM »

I brewed a bitter last Saturday with an OG of 1.040. Today it is down to 1.012.
I have brewed this same beer before and it finished at 1.010.
I still need to dry hop it the recipe calls for 1 oz. for 7 days.
The beer is to be served on June 28th at the AHA conference.
I have a few options I am considering.
1) Dry hop it today, in primary let it sit for a week, keg and force carb.
2) Transfer to secondary, dry hop it, let it sit for a week, keg and force carb.
3) Keg it today let the last few points of attenuation naturally carb, the keg. Add dry hops 1 week before serving.
4) Same as #1 but let it ferment out and add priming sugar to carbonate.
5) Same as #2 but let it ferment out and add priming sugar to carbonate.
6) My homebrew club has a cask I could use, so I could use one of the above methods or some combination of all of the above, and serve "real ale".
I am a little leary of this as I haven't done it before, and I am not sure if the cask would have time to settle before serving and I don't want to serve up a yeast mess.
7) Some variation of all of the above.
I do have a fridge I can put this in so cold crashing somewhere in the process is a possibility.

Thanks
Dan

#6 sounds like a winner to me. The right beer for a cask.

6

Ingredients / Re: Sinamar: Not the Right Coloring Agent for a Black IPA

« on: Today at 07:02:36 AM »

I really gotta make a purple IPA sometime to demonstrate how stupid it is to have a "style" based on color alone.

<cough> Schwartzbier?

A) I agree that color alone isn't sufficient to define a style, despite the whole "we taste with our eyes too" argument.

B) The Schwarzbiers I enjoy have enough roast character to differentiate them from something like a Dunkel.

C) The BIPA/CDA/whatever-you-want-to-call-them I enjoy are hoppier than a Robust Porter, but still have a noticeable roast character to them. I can accept "Black IPA" as a sufficient descriptor for those beers. But I've really got no use for an IPA that is simply dyed black (or red) with Sinamar.

+1.  BIPA should be hoppier (much hoppier IMO) than porter, a little roasty but  less so than porter. Flavorless black dye doesn't get it there.

7

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: First beer taste

« on: May 24, 2013, 08:18:39 PM »

I stopped tasting beer prior to bottling. Warm, flat beer tastes bad.

I'm going to have to disagree here. I always taste throughout the process.

I also have a Nelson Sauvin that I've been drinking the hydrometer samples from at 90* and flat. It's damn good and I can't wait to drink it cold and carbonated.

Mmmmmmm........Nelson.....

+1 to tasting at every step of the way, and +1 to Nelson !

8

Equipment and Software / Re: Dead fridge, brought back to life!

« on: May 24, 2013, 07:47:04 PM »

My kegerator stopped working last week.  It wouldn't chill and the only noise it made was a loud click every few minutes.  This is exactly what happened to my last chest freezer that died, which I replaced.  This was a lot worse, though, since I have the fridge built into a larger bar and replacing it would be a total PITA.

I decided to do some more research and it sounded like it could just be the start relay.  I found the right part and ordered from repairclinic.com, and lo and behold, it works again.  So if your fridge/freezer won't start and you don't hear any noise from the compressor, you might be able to fix it for cheap instead of throwing it out.

Man, I wish I had a do-over.  I got rid of my lager fridge, which I reconditioned, a few months back. It was an old fridge.  A couple times it lost its cooling and I noticed the clicking.  What I did each time was unplug it, wait an hour,plug it back in and it reset and cooled again. Until the last time when it didn't.   If I'd thought to look for a site like this, I maybe could've found a relay for it.  Like I said, it was old and there might not have been a part for it, but now I'm back to square one. Thanks for the link!

9

Equipment and Software / Re: Burn marks on outside of kettle

« on: May 24, 2013, 03:46:58 PM »

That's called character.  It makes your kettle unique.

+1. 

10

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Learned my lesson

« on: May 24, 2013, 03:40:57 PM »

Been there and got the t-shirt! One of those cases where more is not better.

11

The Pub / Re: bridge collapse

« on: May 24, 2013, 11:48:29 AM »

+1 

12

The Pub / Re: bridge collapse

« on: May 24, 2013, 06:16:58 AM »

Red I'm glad you brought up the report card.  Its staggering how poor our infrastructure as a whole is.  From my personal experience having worked as a civil engineering for 8 years and specifically on bridges for half of that time deficient bridges are all to common.  Good thing their were no fatalities.

+1.   We find endless ways to waste tax dollars, but direct precious little $$ to safe infrastructure.

13

Pimp My System / Re: I'M CHEAP, NO PUMPS, ALL GRAVITY 15 GAL

« on: May 23, 2013, 12:02:20 PM »

I think you got a very good deal.  Nice setup!

14

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Dry-hopping with Saaz

« on: May 23, 2013, 09:27:41 AM »

You could brew another Blonde and blend the two. Or, blend it at the taps with something a bit more maltier & hoppier that can handle the SAAZ...  Cheers, and good luck!!!

+1.  I think a beer that finished @ ,say 1.012,  could have handled the 3 oz of Saaz much better. 

15

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: Over Attenuation?

« on: May 23, 2013, 06:14:40 AM »

A thermometer that's not calibrated properly could easily let you mash a good bit lower than you wanted, creating a much more fermentable wort.  Also, styles come into play.  My recent saison was mashed @ 147, finished @ 1.002.  No infection there whatsoever.