Topics

1

Yeast and Fermentation / Secondary Fermentation on Cherry Puree

« on: October 13, 2012, 07:19:39 am »

Hey all.  I brewed Jamil's Black Forest Stout for a holiday beer.  OG was 1.071.  Primary went well.  I put two cans of cherry puree from Northern Brewer into a secondary fermenter and racked the stout on top, gravity was down 1.019.  I don't brew with fruit, but was expecting a vigorous refermentation to kick off.  Quite the opposite has occurred.  The cherry puree just seems to be sitting on the bottom of the fermenter and there are few signs of anything going on.  No CO2 action that I can see (i have a blowoff tube in some starsan), and no swirling as in primary.  There was a tiny thin layer of foam/krausen? on the top for a few days, but nothing spectacular by any means.  It's been about 10 days.  I haven't taken a gravity reading, but the later of fruit just siting on the bottom really bothers me.  Any advice?

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2

All Grain Brewing / HELP STAT!! WATER!

« on: November 27, 2010, 06:40:33 am »

Hey all. I am brewing today, but unfortunately had an unexpected COLD night here in VA. Long story short, my outside lines are frozen and I need to go buy distilled water at the grocery store. I usually filter my water. I'm wondering if anyone out there can tell me what water salt/chemical additions I'm gonna need to add to the distilled water to brew a big stout/porter. I plan on having 7gallons in the mash(6 above the false bottom), and 7 gallons in the HLT. If anyone can help me out STAT, it would be greatly appreciated!

3

Ingredients / Water Profile help for FW Union Jack-extract

« on: October 19, 2010, 04:33:29 pm »

Hey all. Not sure if this should be in this section or not, but here goes. I am an all grain brewer and I haven't done an extract batch in 8 years. I am wanting to brew the Firestone Walker Union Jack recipe from Can You Brew It for "Learn to Homebrew Day", extract version. Haven't actually seen an extract recipe anywhere, but have converted the all grain to extract. During the interview, Jamil states that for water they "use reverse osmosis and add back Gypsum and CaCl to 100ppm". As an extract beer, how do I go about creating that profile? I plan to use 7.5 gallons of distilled water for a full boil. I was on ProBrewer's calculator and plugged in 5.2g of gypsum and 8g of CaCl. The result is: 94ppm Ca, 102ppm SO4, and 91ppm Cl. Am I in the ballpark for what Jamil said. Are there any minerals that are not represented that need to be? I find Jamil's comment to be a bit vague, but then again I know very little to nothing about water chemistry. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

4

Yeast and Fermentation / No CO2 bubbles, but lots of krausen?

« on: July 24, 2010, 03:05:53 pm »

Hey all.  Brewed a Munich Dunkel on Wednesday (Jamil's recipe).  All went well in the mash, although could have been a bit warm (155*).  Cooled wort to around 65 before pitching the slurry from a 1L starter of WLP833 that I had already done a 1L starter for, cooled and decanted into the next 1L starter.  I added 60 seconds of pure O2.  I'm sure the slurry was cooler than the wort, so I probably shocked the little buggers.  Usually when I pitch "cold(50*)", which I didn't do necessarily this time, it takes a good 24 hours before I see signs of fermentation. I went down the next morning and added another 30 seconds of O2, there was no signs of fermentation at that time.  My situation is that I had signs of fermentation 24 hrs after pitching-- (bit of foam on the surface), and got a nice head of krausen going in another 4 hours or so, with lots of yeast swirly activity.  But...no CO2 discharging from my blowoff tube.  I have it in about 2-3" of star san.  So, visually there is ALOT going on, but there are no CO2 bubbles chugging away in the star-san...  I have a thermowell in a carboy cap (the larger "spout"), with the blowoff tube coming from the smaller "spout" on the cap.  I thought perhaps the weight of the hose was crimping the "spout", but that doesn't seem to be the case.  I'm not sure what's happening here??   Where is my CO2 going?  There is no smell of any kind in the fermentation fridge.  I set the controller to 50* at pitching and it has remained there.  The beer has been fermenting since Thursday night.  I might have had this happen before, but can't remember exactly .  Could this be a problem? 

5

The Pub / Anyone ever built a radiator cover?

« on: February 28, 2010, 02:31:21 pm »

Hey all.  I have an 85 year old home with an ugly old radiator in every room.  I am tired of painting them and would like to build radiator covers for all of the ones that are visible to visitors (living room, dining room, kitchen etc.).  I have found several helpful sites about how to measure and build them, but am having trouble finding the "screen" part that goes on the front of the cover to allow air flow.  I have tried a google search, but have come up dry.  Any of ya'll done this before, and if so where did you find the decorative screen?  I've been to Lowes and Home Despot and only Lowe's had something remotely usuable.  It was stainless steel and pretty dang expensive.  Thanks.

6

Ingredients / Shelf life of adjuncts

« on: January 17, 2010, 03:32:56 pm »

Hey all.  Does anyone know what the shelf life is on flaked adjuncts, particularly flaked corn?  I am brewing a cream ale tomorrow and have some flaked corn that is probably around 2 years old.  It is in an unopened package from LD Carlson.

7

Wood/Casks / Anybody purchased from this guy?

« on: December 21, 2009, 09:43:31 am »

Hey all.  My wife just purchased a barrel from this seller on ebay and was wondering if anyone has purchased from him before.  Barrel price is awesome, shipping price isn't...  Total price of $128 is still less expensive than getting it from thousand oaks or some of the others in the US.  He has a money back guarantee and great feedback (100%).
http://cgi.ebay.com/20L-Wood-Wooden-Wine-Rum-Whiskey-Liquor-Barrel-Beer-Keg_W0QQitemZ370089232755QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item562b098973

Barrel aging is about the only aspect of homebrewing I've yet to explore, so this is the perfect Christmas gift.  Guess I'll be reading up on all things oak .