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Equipment and Software / Re: New MT ordered
« on: May 04, 2013, 03:31:41 pm »
I agree with the plate chiller. The Terminator is the best piece of equipment I own.
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Equipment and Software / Cleaning Mills- Barley Crusher
« on: May 04, 2013, 03:30:18 pm »
I just used my Barley Crusher for the first time. What an amazing tool! I want to make sure that it works for as long as possible. How should I go about cleaning it? I just took the Shop Vac to it. Anything further required. My old Corona mill seemed to rust over a decade of use- rinsing with water it and drying after each use (probably not wise) . This new mill is the bees knees. I cant believe I ever used anything else.
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Ingredients / Re: Amarillo
« on: April 25, 2013, 04:04:06 am »
Can you even find Amarillo? I havent been able to find any online or in stores until I wandered into a LHBS in a neighboring state that somehow had 36 oz of pellets. I bought them all!
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Ingredients / Re: Coconut Porter
« on: April 08, 2013, 06:03:39 am »
I usually add toasted coconut to the keg in a cheese-cloth sack. Purge air from the airlock and leave in for 48 hours -max. After 48 hrs it is overwhelming (to me) for the first couple of weeks, but definitely fades over time.
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Ingredients / Re: Chocolate in a porter?
« on: March 19, 2013, 04:14:39 pm »Chocolate would not be an appropriate substitute for corn sugar in this recipe. However, if you want to add chocolate flavor to it I have had excellent results using this coca powder (http://www.savoryspiceshop.com/spices/cocoablk.html) at the end of the boil followed by using cocoa nibs from the same company in the secondary.
+1 on cocoa powder at the end of the boil
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General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Brewing over Two days
« on: March 19, 2013, 06:23:59 am »
I probably brewed 20+ batches with the day 1 pre-boil, day 2 boil to ferment method- out of necessity (small kids and long brew days). I did get my one and only infection this way. The wort was bubbling away in the kettle when I went to boil the next morning. This was also in the summer and ambient temps were conducive for lacto to get going. I had invested the time, so I actually went ahead, boiled and fermented......tasted awful and had to pitch. So, 95% time (or more), this methodology worked great.
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Yeast and Fermentation / Re: What to do with a slow fermenting beer
« on: February 17, 2013, 09:49:40 am »Just to check, are you correcting for alcohol content in your refractometer reading? An uncorrected FG reading of 1.044 corrects down to about 1.024ish, methinks.
You are correct- and eerily close. I get (1.075 = 19 Brix to 1.044 = 11.5 Brix) = 1.026 using Sean Terrill's refractometer calculator (http://seanterrill.com/2012/01/06/refractometer-calculator/). I used it when it was at 1.055, but not at this new reading (1.044)- makes it not seem as dire now.
Thanks for the replies so far - I will continue to wait.
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Yeast and Fermentation / What to do with a slow fermenting beer
« on: February 17, 2013, 08:41:25 am »
I made a larger beer a couple of weeks ago (1.075) and in haste (and in hindsight) did not pitch enough yeast (1 vial Yorkshire Square) nor did I make a starter. The beer never really took off in fermentation. Fermentation was visible within 24 hours, but never really develop the thick krausen I am used to. The fermentation has been temperature controlled and monitored (69 degrees F) throughout.
2 days post brewing, I left for a week, and when I returned home, saw about the same, thin layer of activity on the surface. At this time, I checked the gravity with the refractometer (did the conversions for gravity on fermented beer) and found it around 1.055. At this time, I decided to add the only yeast I had on hand - 1 vial of White Labs Cal Ale yeast. After aeration and another week (2 weeks from brew day), the gravity (refractometer reading) is now around 1.044, still have some activity in the airlock of about a bubble per 10 secs, uniform but very thin "head" or bubbles on the surface of the beer, but again, no healthy krausen.
Another variable that may help troubleshoot this issue are:
The recipe had 1 lb of brown sugar added to the kettle, which should have been pretty easy for the yeast to chew through.
My question is: Should I:
1. Dump it: 2+ weeks in primary scares me. I should have been transferring to secondary by now. I can tie up a fermenter for another couple of weeks, but I dont know what this monster is going to do, or taste like.
2.transfer it to secondary and keg it later (is it worth kegging at 1.044)
3.or just keep taking gravities, praying that it will come down into at least the 20s. I am doubting that it will at this point.
Any help is greatly appreciated.
-Ben
2 days post brewing, I left for a week, and when I returned home, saw about the same, thin layer of activity on the surface. At this time, I checked the gravity with the refractometer (did the conversions for gravity on fermented beer) and found it around 1.055. At this time, I decided to add the only yeast I had on hand - 1 vial of White Labs Cal Ale yeast. After aeration and another week (2 weeks from brew day), the gravity (refractometer reading) is now around 1.044, still have some activity in the airlock of about a bubble per 10 secs, uniform but very thin "head" or bubbles on the surface of the beer, but again, no healthy krausen.
Another variable that may help troubleshoot this issue are:
The recipe had 1 lb of brown sugar added to the kettle, which should have been pretty easy for the yeast to chew through.
My question is: Should I:
1. Dump it: 2+ weeks in primary scares me. I should have been transferring to secondary by now. I can tie up a fermenter for another couple of weeks, but I dont know what this monster is going to do, or taste like.
2.transfer it to secondary and keg it later (is it worth kegging at 1.044)
3.or just keep taking gravities, praying that it will come down into at least the 20s. I am doubting that it will at this point.
Any help is greatly appreciated.
-Ben
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General Homebrew Discussion / Re: How to become a better recognizer of flaws
« on: January 05, 2013, 07:54:34 am »Us women generally have more sensitive palates than our male counterparts. I read it in a book, so it must be true!
Otherwise, drinking beer and writing down what you think is a great way to get the thought process going. The BJCP has tons of great resources on their website - use them!
As a biologist, I can say that there is a lot of evolutionary evidence for females (of many species) having better senses for smell and taste than males. My wife's palate is one of my most important brewery guages!
From the number of responses here and from past posts, it seems that smells affects beer perception greatly, maybe even more so than taste.
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General Homebrew Discussion / How to become a better recognizer of flaws
« on: January 03, 2013, 05:07:34 pm »
I can't say that my palate is overly sensitive. I let my wife have the first pint off of every keg to determine whether batches are serve worthy for parties, or if I am going it alone for 10 gallons. She seems to be able to detect very subtle flaws that I cannot.
My question is, is this something that I can overcome or rather become better at? I would like to exercise the palate so that I can detect subtle differences in my own procedures. I am sure that those who have sat for the BJCP exam became better by preparing for the exam? Anybody have any study tips that were helpful or techniques? Thanks in advance.
My question is, is this something that I can overcome or rather become better at? I would like to exercise the palate so that I can detect subtle differences in my own procedures. I am sure that those who have sat for the BJCP exam became better by preparing for the exam? Anybody have any study tips that were helpful or techniques? Thanks in advance.
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Ingredients / Need more hop "nose"
« on: January 03, 2013, 04:25:42 pm »
I have been tinkering to beef up the hop aroma of my IPAs lately- without results of my liking. I really want an overwhelming hop smell, but no matter what I do, there is very little variation.
I have used the same malt profile, usually a Columbus 60 min addition, and then altering one variable, either 1. use of a hop back or 2. dry hop time. Apart from the 60 min addition, I have removed 45 and 30 min additions from the standard recipe (usually something like Galaxy, Cascade or Zythos) and have instead put these additions at 10 and 5 mins. I use a hop back (1-2 oz of Cascades flowers) and dry hop with 2 oz per 10 gals for anywhere between 3 and 14 days. No real difference.
Any suggestions? Higher quantities of hops? Different timings? Different cultivars?
I have used the same malt profile, usually a Columbus 60 min addition, and then altering one variable, either 1. use of a hop back or 2. dry hop time. Apart from the 60 min addition, I have removed 45 and 30 min additions from the standard recipe (usually something like Galaxy, Cascade or Zythos) and have instead put these additions at 10 and 5 mins. I use a hop back (1-2 oz of Cascades flowers) and dry hop with 2 oz per 10 gals for anywhere between 3 and 14 days. No real difference.
Any suggestions? Higher quantities of hops? Different timings? Different cultivars?
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Ingredients / Re: Dry Hopping research - Interesting
« on: December 06, 2012, 10:12:00 am »
Great work and an interesting read. Whereas decreased dry hop contact time and increased aroma, bittering is great, I am not sure that I like the idea of increased astringency.....
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All Grain Brewing / Re: stuck sparge
« on: November 18, 2012, 07:42:45 am »
I have battled many stuck sparges (with a Bazooka), and my advice is:
Dont get greedy with the crush size or impatient with the run-off. Back off on the crush size and sparge as slow as possible. You probably aren't brewing 10 BBLs or more, so the loss of efficiency with a larger crush wont kill your bank account.
I think you will find that you can hit 80%+ efficiency with a larger crush size -just by sparging slower (> 1 hr for ~ 25-30 lbs malt, 12 gal). If you can't wait that long, batch sparge or go to extract brewing.
Dont get greedy with the crush size or impatient with the run-off. Back off on the crush size and sparge as slow as possible. You probably aren't brewing 10 BBLs or more, so the loss of efficiency with a larger crush wont kill your bank account.
I think you will find that you can hit 80%+ efficiency with a larger crush size -just by sparging slower (> 1 hr for ~ 25-30 lbs malt, 12 gal). If you can't wait that long, batch sparge or go to extract brewing.
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Ingredients / Re: Ideas for Sorachi Ace
« on: October 14, 2012, 07:56:04 am »
I had the Brooklyn Sorachi brew at Savor a couple of years ago. Thought that it was so good that I bought a lot of Sorachi Ace. I used it in some IPAs but now have abandoned them for good.
I find them to be overwhelming Dill tasting. Once you identify Dill as the flavor its hard to enjoy it. I was disappointed since I remember the Brooklyn brew to be very lemony, not dill (I might have had too many tastings by then.....). But looking at the description on the hop packaging, it clearly says "dill" .....
I find them to be overwhelming Dill tasting. Once you identify Dill as the flavor its hard to enjoy it. I was disappointed since I remember the Brooklyn brew to be very lemony, not dill (I might have had too many tastings by then.....). But looking at the description on the hop packaging, it clearly says "dill" .....
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Kegging and Bottling / Re: Hop Rocket Randall and Grassy Flavors
« on: August 07, 2012, 06:50:28 pm »
Given the limited responses (and thanks to those that did), maybe I should change my question to:
Is there anyone out that believes that they get anything other than a grassy flavor from their Randall?
If not, I believe that I will try it as a hop back and see what the effects are. Seems that many posts are positive with regard to using the Rocket as a hop back (e.g. picking up hop aroma). I am not concerned with filtering/clarify the beer since I have a hop sock like mesh screen in the kettle (pre Therminator).
Is there anyone out that believes that they get anything other than a grassy flavor from their Randall?
If not, I believe that I will try it as a hop back and see what the effects are. Seems that many posts are positive with regard to using the Rocket as a hop back (e.g. picking up hop aroma). I am not concerned with filtering/clarify the beer since I have a hop sock like mesh screen in the kettle (pre Therminator).