Topics

1

Ingredients / Flaconers Flight Blend

« on: April 01, 2012, 06:49:38 AM »

I am considering these for an IPA as a huge late addition blast. What are everyone's experience with this blend?

2

General Homebrew Discussion / Cellaring temps

« on: March 24, 2012, 07:18:53 PM »

What is the best temp to cellar beer? I have a scotch ale I want to age for many months. What should it be sitting at?

3

Beer Travel / Road Trip City ?s

« on: March 18, 2012, 03:44:30 PM »

Okay I am headed back home to Seattle. I am driving through Des Moines IA, Salt Lake City and Boise. Any recommendations on great breweries?

4

Yeast and Fermentation / Bulk versus bottle.

« on: March 11, 2012, 02:39:17 PM »

I brewed a wee heavy that was 1.098 and has been in the primary for 3 weeks. What do you guys think for best results? One more week in primary then bottle and age. Bottle now and age. Rack to secondary and bulk age off the cake.

I would appreciate your input. It smells amazing and fermented at 62 degrees. Gravity is down to a few points of what I was looking for.

5

Beer Recipes / Need to use some excelent chocolate

« on: February 22, 2012, 06:48:05 PM »

Okay I just got sent some absolutely amazing dark chocolate bars that are Coconut curry. These are simply the best chocolate bar I have ever eaten. I immediately thought "hmm I want to brew with these." I want to make something a bit unique. I recently did a stout and would rather not just do a chocolate stout again. Any fun ideas out there. Also  I have used cocoa powder before but not actual chocolate when do you all add this to your brew?

6

Yeast and Fermentation / yeast starter volcano

« on: February 20, 2012, 09:41:10 PM »

Okay I made a yeast starter with WL028. Today I decanted and added another batch of wort to step it up. It has gone crazy and is pouring out from under the foil. I don't really have a bigger container to move it into. What do you guys think. Should I just leave it. My foil was soaked in star san and my sanitation overall was great. Should I switch foil for a newly soaked one once it finishes and dies down. I am brewing tomorrow night and was going to decant the majority off after an afternoon in the fridge.

7

General Homebrew Discussion / Water question

« on: January 29, 2012, 07:39:14 AM »

Okay I live in  national forest and I have well water. I have sent some off to get tested but will not get it for awhile. I am about to start an extremely busy month at work and I want to brew tonight. I am doing my first all grain. I am doing a robust porter. It should come out pretty dark. My question is should I add some 5.2 stabilizer or add some baking soda to keep my PH from dropping to far? Or should I not worry about it? The water tastes great in my opinion but I am sure it has some minerals in there. I wish I had gotten the report sooner. I thought about adding a gallon of purified water to thin out the tap water. I don't know.

8

Yeast and Fermentation / Cold Yeast in a starter

« on: January 25, 2012, 06:08:08 PM »

Okay I taught my buddy how to make a yeast starter because I was going to be gone for work on the scheduled date that I  wanted the started made. He did everything right as far as I can tell except he took the yeast out of the fridge about ten minutes before he pitched it. I know this will not kill the yeast or anything. I want to get your guys feed back on what this will mean for a time frame and growth in the starter. It is a white labs english ale yeast. The OG of the start was 1.032. Thanks.

9

Beer Recipes / Opinions on this recipe

« on: January 13, 2012, 09:52:47 AM »

I am putting together a partial mash recipe for a Baltic Porter. Let me know what you think. I batch sparge. and do a full boil.

6 lbs 2-Row Brewers Malt; Briess
.75 lbs English Chocolate Malt
.5 lbs Maris Otter Pale
5 lbs Dry Light Extract
.5 lbs Dark Brown Sugar
1 oz Cluster (Pellets, 7.00 %AA) boiled 60 min
.5 oz Cascade (Pellets, 5.50 %AA) boiled 15 min
.5 oz Willamette (Pellets, 5.00 %AA) boiled 1 min

Yeast :  WYeast 1332

10

Equipment and Software / Thermometer

« on: January 10, 2012, 09:31:20 AM »

I have a really nice digital meat thermometer that i have been using. It has a great quick read and a timer built in which is nice. However it seems to not read accurately in the cold ranges. It is great for my mash but when i am cooling it is way off. I was so frustrated I have been testing it. I put it in a bottle of refridgerated water and it read that the water was 84 degrees. I am pissed because I can not get a good OG or FG. Anyway what are thermometers people like? I can not spend a ton on a fancy one right now. I just want something that cvan accurately tell me that my cooling wort is at 65 degrees.

11

General Homebrew Discussion / Cold break

« on: January 09, 2012, 10:25:47 PM »

Okay so everything was going perfectly on my brew day today. Then as I am using my immersion wort chiller for the first time my thermometer stops working. I have no idea what temp I pitched the yeast at. I am so frustrated because I had such a well planned and smooth brew session before that.

So here is what I did. I do a full boil so I had about 5 gallons in the pot when I started chilling. I ran the chiller for 33 minutes. The water coming out was as cold as the water going in. I got cold break to form and the wort completely cleared. I finally decided to pitch. I pitched a room temp 1 liter starter. What do you guys think? It is in the bucket at 66 degrees ambient temp right now.

Oh it was an imperial IPA and I used WL0001. Somebody reassure me please.

12

Yeast and Fermentation / Yeast starter question

« on: January 09, 2012, 08:03:17 AM »

I made a starter for WL california ale yeast. the only other starter I have done is with California Ale yeast V. I pitched the yeast at 75 degrees and around six to seven hours I had no krausen which I know is no big deal but the yeast had almost completely caked to the bottom. After fifteen hours I had no real krausen to speak of and there was still a cake at the bottom. There was a tiny bit of bubble going on. If I swirl the starter I do get some foam and release of gases. I am just concerned that the yeast are not performing up to snuff. I am making an imperial IPA and I want to pitch heathly dose. The last starter I did rocked and rolled compared to this one. Each time I swirl and get everything in suspension the yeast drop back down within a half hour. I mixed a ratio of 1 cup DME to 4 cups water. Thoughts? Should I pitch or restart.

Also on a side note I got my grains crushed at the LHBS yesterday as I had planned on brewing tomorrow. How long can crushed grains sit before you brew without affecting flavor and such. You guys a re great.

13

Extract/Partial Mash Brewing / Partial Mash system

« on: January 02, 2012, 10:45:29 AM »

First off happy new year. My birthday is next weekend and I am going to brew a birthday IPA. I am doing a partial mash for the second time. I have been reading and watching videos and seems there are three or four different main partial mash techniques. I have been getting such great feedback and suggestions on this forum that I thought I would get all of your opinions. What system of partial mashing works the best. As far as efficiency and flavor. I will be using The following grain bill.


5 lbs    2-Row Brewers Malt; Briess
0.28 lbs    Caramel Malt 20L; Briess
0.32 lbs    2-Row Carapils® Malt; Briess
2 lbs    Dry Light; Muntons info
3.3 lbs    Liquid Amber Extract in

14

Extract/Partial Mash Brewing / Partial Mash help

« on: December 27, 2011, 08:09:49 AM »

Last night I brewed my first partial mash. I used the method explained in this article http://www.byo.com/component/resource/article/511-countertop-partial-mashing I started the mash at 154 and let it go for 40 minutes. When I opened it up It was down to 140 so I lost to much heat. Would this ruin my efficiency. Ialso had a 5 gallon cooler instead of a 2 gallon cooller like in the article. I used 4 pounds of base grain and 2.25 pounds of specialty. I only got an a pre boil gravity of 1.021. So I got nearly no sugars out at all. I dont really understand. I used 1.5 quarts of water per pound for the mash. My sparge volume was a bit more than that because my temp got to high and I had to add some water to cool it down. Has anyone gotten good efficiency with this model?

15

Kegging and Bottling / Options for corked bottles

« on: December 21, 2011, 08:17:23 PM »

A friend gave me a bunch of chimay style bottles that were corked origionally. I do not want buy a corker. Guy at my brew store has some plastic champagne stoppers and wire cages he said might work. What do you all think. Can I use these?