Messages

1

Ingredients / Re: Juniper Berries

« on: Today at 09:17:48 AM »

I did find some after all at my local Megamart.  I had apparently missed them when trying to sort through the 14 linear feet of Mrs. Dash variations.  The ones in the bottle I picked up are very blue/purple.  They look like desiccated blueberries.

2

Ingredients / Re: Cacao Nibs

« on: Today at 09:12:46 AM »

I've never worked with nibs.  What flavors do they impart?  Is it an unmistakable chocolate flavor?  I know there is all sorts of processing that can be done on nibs to turn them into cocoa powder such as roasting, alkali, etc., that I was wondering whether you get a lot of chocolate-ness out of it or whether it imparts other unique flavors.  In other words, if I want a definite chocolate taste, do nibs give you that or are you better off going with something like a chocolate malt or using cocoa powder.  This is probably too general of a question because, like coffee, I'm sure it is very dependent upon the cocoa pod, where it comes from, and how it's handled.

3

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: Topping Off

« on: June 14, 2013, 09:13:47 AM »

If you have the yeast, you could also brew a small batch, let it ferment on its own, then blend the two together after they're done.  On the other hand, for my setup at least, brewing a large batch isn't much more work than brewing a small batch, so I would be inclined to leave the 7 gallons alone and brew 10 gallons of the same beer again after the first one finished.

4

Ingredients / Re: Juniper Berries

« on: June 13, 2013, 11:51:56 AM »

I need juniper berries for a sauerbraten recipe, but they are not easy to find at the local Megamart. The bit of looking I've done says that they are ripe when they are blue to purple, and people seem to harvest them in September/October.  It apparently takes three years to get to the ripe stage, and plants will have a mixture of berries in various stages of development. 

You need to pick them from the right species of plant.  A few are poisonous and a lot others are nasty tasting.  I don't know enough to know the difference between species, so I'm still looking locally for some from a store, but I just might have to order some from an on-line spice house.

Once source I found for info:  http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/20/garden/20qna.html?_r=0

5

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Experimental Brew - Tea

« on: June 07, 2013, 08:51:36 AM »

Within the context of tannin extraction and mash pH, I recall a comment or two that Martin and/or Kai have made to the effect that there is a noticeable and desirable improvement when brewing tea using a favorable water chemistry (I can't remember if it was with hard water, acidified water, etc.).  I can't seem to immediately dig up the thread(s) where I've seen that, but since I drink quite a bit of tea I've been wanting to experiment with that myself.

6

Ingredients / Re: Amount of water and IBU's

« on: June 04, 2013, 07:40:40 AM »

John Palmer has a nice table (Table 7) that shows hop utilization percentage as a function of boil time and wort gravity:  http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter5-5.html

Pick a boil time, say 60 minutes.  You get about 28% utilization from your hops if boiling in a 1.030 solution whereas you only get about 18% if you were boiling in a 1.080 solution.  This isn't all that big a deal for people who do full-boils, but if you're doing partial boils using extract, this could become an effect you'd want to compensate for (in this example, you'd want to increase your 60-minute hops by about 50%).

7

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: FYI: Yeast Aeration

« on: May 24, 2013, 03:49:30 PM »

Thank you for posting that article.  Another interesting thing that caught my eye was Figure 2, which shows the dissolved oxygen levels vs. time when using pure O2.  It is interesting to compare that to measurements that Gregg Doss of Wyeast made and presented in The Meaning of Life According to Yeast:  http://www.bjcp.org/cep/WyeastYeastLife.pdf.  The results that Doss presents agrees very well with what is in Figure 2 of that paper. 

I'm going to have to pick through the paper and see what other interesting tidbits are in there.

8

Equipment and Software / Re: Those little red cans of Oxygen

« on: May 21, 2013, 12:48:39 PM »

For me, dropping in a stone attached to an O2 tank for a minute is way less effort than shaking, pouring back-and-forth, getting out the whisk or hooking up the drill with a whip on it.  The O2 tank is a convenience thing for me.

9

Questions about the forum? / Missing avatars

« on: May 21, 2013, 08:08:12 AM »

This is just an observation, but I've noticed lately (within the last week, probably) that some people's avatars are missing.  The pictures are replaced with a broken image icon.  As an example, in a recent post (http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?topic=15826.0), the avatars for poobah85, mabrunguard, and davidgzach are missing, while they are there for hopfenundmalz, HoosierBrew, and brewmasternpb.

10

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Re: Most and Least

« on: May 17, 2013, 07:22:15 AM »

Yup! Another trick I started doing a couple batches back. I toss my yeast in there two so yeast and wort are same temp at pitch.

I've recently started doing the final chilling in the freezer as well, and I really like the technique.

I've thought about putting my yeast in the fridge as well, but I'm worried that because the carboy has a huge thermal mass as compared to the starter, that at some point my starter would get much colder than the carboy every time the freezer kicked on.  I figured this would particularly be the case when I first put the carboy in the freezer because the freezer is running all-out until the wort gets down to temp.

11

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: Over Attenuating Yeast - How is it Possible?

« on: May 17, 2013, 07:13:30 AM »

I would be very reluctant to compare numbers directly with a big brewer.  I would not be surprised if the yeast in my carboy acts much different than that in a large fermenter:  much different pressure on the yeast, much different temperature gradient, unless you got the yeast from the brewery, the strains are probably evolved differently, etc.  I also wonder what variability Rogue gets batch-to-batch.  I presume they would blend batches together to average out variability.

12

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Beers for the non-craft drinker

« on: May 15, 2013, 07:33:58 AM »

older people (40+)

HEY!!!!  40+ isn't "older"!

Absolutely.  And get off my lawn!

I did a California Common once that went over real well.  I brought that and a blonde ale over to a company summer picnic, which also had Coronas and another BMC-type beer, and I was pleased to find that my beers were much preferred over the others.

13

Equipment and Software / Re: PBW

« on: May 10, 2013, 06:04:33 AM »

Better Bottles ... will not shatter.

No but they will stress and crack at the most inopportune times spilling precious homebrew everywhere.  If I do plastic, its a nice thick walled bucket...

My LHBS has a Better Bottle on display with a crack at the bottom where the wall meets the bottom.  The crack apparently was due to chemical stress or some other environmental stress fracture.  It has a sign on it reminding you not to store chemicals (PBW, StarSan, etc.) for extended amounts of time; just clean and sanitize and get the chemicals out and let it dry.  Always put water in first, then the chemicals, etc.  I know I get lazy and let my carboy sit for days with PBW until I get around to cleaning it.  I guess if I ever replace them with Better Bottles I will have to make sure I am careful about that.

14

All Grain Brewing / Re: SG OG BG FG,... why is my post boil reading lower than pre boil?

« on: May 09, 2013, 06:51:36 AM »

I'm not certain, but I bet the relationship between density and temperature is not linear.

It isn't.  I've coded up my own hydrometer correction and I've done a fit to the water density vs temperature data out of the CRC Handbook.  I'd put up a plot if I could figure out how to post it, but by eye it looks linear out around 100C, but it rolls off as you drop in temp.

15

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Room Temperature after Bottling

« on: May 08, 2013, 05:57:03 AM »

The warmer room will carbonate faster.  75 F isn't too warm to bottle condition.  The 65-75 F temperature swing shouldn't be a big deal because you shouldn't be in a situation where the yeast want to go dormant. 

Wherever you put your bottles, just make sure they are in the dark.  Some of the breweries that bottle condition have special storage rooms kept at 80F or higher so that the bottles carbonate quick.  However, when your bottles are fully carbonated, you'll want to move them to a better cellaring temperature so that they'll hold up better over time.