Topics

1

All Grain Brewing / is my theory sound?

« on: January 28, 2013, 09:55:12 PM »

im 3 AG batches deep and my beers have been very watery unfortunately. The second one i mashed at 155 and i still got a FG of 1.007 (og 15 brix). I have been batch sparging w/o mashout. im wondering if not mashing out is the culprit as the grains temp lowers as i recirculate and sparge possibly converting the higher sugars and dextrins to light sugars while doing so. could this be the issue?

2

Beer Recipes / double batch

« on: January 11, 2013, 11:58:13 PM »

my next beer i want to make is a barleywine. as of right now i can only do 3 gal batches but i want more than that so i was thinking of doing 2 separate batches and mixing them together to get 6 gallons. i was wondering if should i overpitch the first then throw in the second a few days later or pitch both a normal size and then mix? are there any issues with doing this i should be aware of? the 2 batches would be identical (probably just marris otter, some c-120 and c-60, ekg and fuggles).

3

All Grain Brewing / first AG questions

« on: December 31, 2012, 09:07:45 PM »

i did my first AG on christmas, it was my LHBS moose drool clone. I did a 3 gal batch instead of a 5 gal because i only have a 5 gal kettle as of now. Anyways had a few questions.

1. the O.G. for the kid was 1.056-1.057 and i got 1.071, i batch sparged and there was roughly 7lbs of grain in the mash tun, the amount was scaled down from the 5gal recipe, i feel like thats a huge gap for just efficiency . Is there another factor im missing?

2. cleaning my mash tun was quite the endeavor how do you guys go about doing it?

3. how do i calculate efficiency? and if i was to make my own recipes what should i assume for most base malts ppg if it is unknown

my brew day actually went very smoothly besides for being shocked at my 1.071 gravity

4

Yeast and Fermentation / pitching temp

« on: November 27, 2012, 09:27:38 PM »

i have come to adopt the old rule of pitching yeast when the wort is blood warm, i usually pitch between 80-90. besides for the danger of hot side aeration(which i think is bologna) is there any reason i shouldnt pitch at this temp? I get very short lag time, i had a 1.090 imperial IPA made today with a 2 hour lag time from pitching to airlock activity and ive never had a yeast health issue. My beer turns out great but would chilling it down further make it better or can i just give in to my impatience and pitch?

5

Wood/Casks / Charring oak cubes

« on: October 25, 2012, 07:22:01 AM »

Has anyone ever tried charring their oak cubes? I know it's what they do to whiskey barrels before use. How did you go about doing it?

6

Yeast and Fermentation / Fusel alcohols

« on: October 01, 2012, 09:25:58 AM »

I have been reading through yeast by Chris white and I was reading about Fusel alcohols which is an area I have Limited knowledge in. Almost all my beers have a "hot" alcohol taste, even the low gravity ones. I've always attributed this to me using extract and assumed it would go away when I jumped to allgrain(almost there). In the book he mentioned hot fermentation temperatures can make some hot alcohol flavors and I ferment at 66(coldest room in my house) would this be the culprit of my hot alcohol flavors?

7

Kegging and Bottling / Cleaning lines

« on: September 10, 2012, 01:01:03 PM »

I just acquired 6 kegs from a former homebrewer(jackpot!) but he has not brewed in 10 years and the lines are very dirty, how would I go about cleaning these? Would I just push my iodine solution through the lines and do I need to clean the air lines? They do look dirty but I'm not sure if it matters

8

Other Fermentables / First cider and some questions

« on: August 30, 2012, 09:19:13 PM »

I made my first cider today. it's for thanksgiving, so I made it with a mix of cinnamon ginger nutmeg and allspice(about 1.5oz total) and 1.5 cups dark brown sugar(I plan to add some more after fermentation)NOTE: 3 gal batch. Trying to get into the autumn spirit. Has anyone ever tried this or something similiar? How did it come out? I have also heard complaints of cider being too dry while I was researching online and wondered if anyone has tried steeping some crystal in their cider before. Did that fix up the excessive dryness?

9

General Homebrew Discussion / Dry moss?

« on: August 22, 2012, 06:33:00 PM »

I forgot to add Irish miss in my last brew (an ipa) and its having some clearing issues. Could I "dry" Irish moss it? I don't really have enough room in my fridge to cold crash it. Should I boil the moss in a small amount of water just to be sure of sanitation? I need to tack it off the dry hops anyways

10

Beer Recipes / types of hops?

« on: July 31, 2012, 07:17:21 PM »

i went on vacation recently to wisconsin where we bought a variety pack of new glarus beers. Their pale ale really spoke to me, "moon man" http://www.newglarusbrewing.com/index.cfm/beers/ourbeers/beer/moon-man
i really liked the hop character it had towards the end of the palate and wanted to know if anyone knew what hops they used and which ones were most dominant. I am planning my next brew to be a pale ale, and i thought i might give these hops a shot if anyone knows what they are. Thanks in advance!

11

Ingredients / Sunflower seeds?

« on: June 07, 2012, 10:28:57 AM »

Wondering if anyone has done anything with these? The idea just came to me today. I think itd be kinda gross but I've never tried it so i cant say it is lol. Maybe it'd work in a brown ale? I'm presuming that you would only use the inside and not the shell.

12

Yeast and Fermentation / British sweet stout yeast

« on: June 05, 2012, 07:35:19 PM »

Which yeast would you recommend? I don't want it to be very dry and I want something reliable not one that works sometimes but works great when it does. I'm a wyeast fan and my Lhbs doesn't even carry white labs so which would you guys recommend? It's made with all British ingredients and a gu bu ratio of .43   of around 55-60 if memory serves me correctly

13

Yeast and Fermentation / Lager temps

« on: May 28, 2012, 08:06:02 PM »

Ok guys so it decision time for me once again. What's my next brew? So one of my favorite styles is a bock, but I don't have an old fridge or any means for the fermentation temps. Are there any cheap and easy ways to achieve temps ideal for fermenting lagers?

while i have this up here the recipe i built for the bock:


1 lbs Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 1 9.5 %
12.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (120.0 SRM) Grain 2 7.1 %
8.0 oz Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 3 4.8 %
8.0 oz Melanoiden Malt (20.0 SRM) Grain 4 4.8 %
4.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM) Grain 5 2.4 %
7 lbs 8.0 oz Extra Light Dry Extract (3.0 SRM) Dry Extract 6 71.4 %
1.00 oz Hallertauer [4.80 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 7 7.5 IBUs
1.00 oz Hallertauer [4.80 %] - Boil 50.0 min Hop 8 7.1 IBUs
0.50 oz Hallertauer [4.80 %] - Boil 40.0 min Hop 9 3.3 IBUs
0.50 oz Hallertauer [4.80 %] - Boil 30.0 min Hop 10 2.9 IBUs
0.50 oz Hallertauer [4.80 %] - Boil 20.0 min Hop 11 2.3 IBUs

14

General Homebrew Discussion / dogfish tv show

« on: May 27, 2012, 04:35:51 PM »

i know this doesn't really qualify for "general homebrew discussion" but i didn't know where else to put it. I know dogfish head had a little tv show and i remember seeing part of an episode but i didn't understand it so i shut it off. The tv show is on anymore as you most likely know but is there anywhere i could view the show, netflix doesn't have it

15

Beer Recipes / U.K. stout

« on: May 20, 2012, 06:56:47 PM »

heres my recipe:


8lbs xlight DME
1/4lb chocolate malt
1lb roasted barley
1.5oz fuggles 60 min
1 oz northdown 60 min
1oz goldings 15 min
.5 oz 5 min

expected O.G.: 1.072
27 ibus
22.7 srm
7.1 abv

would this recipe be good for a U.K. stout? any changes you think i should make?