Topics

1

General Homebrew Discussion / Dry-hopping with Saaz

« on: May 23, 2013, 05:48:22 am »

I brewed a honey blonde ale in Febrewary using 1# of honey post boil, .5 ounce hallertau fwh, 1 ounce tettnang at 30 minutes and .5 ounce hallertau at 10 minutes. OG was 1.060 and FG was 1.006. I used wlp060 and fermented at 60f. After 14 weeks of lagering I finally tapped it and it tasted good, but not great. Clean beer, nice honey character, but missing something. Well I had just opened a pound of saaz and thought why not dry hop? So 3 ounces in 5 gallons and 5 days later, it tastes terrible! It has an overpowering floral/medicinal flavor. Has anyone else experienced this dry-hopping with saaz? Any suggestions to fix it? Dump it?

2

General Homebrew Discussion / IPA daydream

« on: May 10, 2013, 11:34:28 am »

Just ran over a Douglas fir branch with the mower and suddenly I'm hankerin' for a citra-simcoe IPA!

3

All Grain Brewing / another water question

« on: April 16, 2013, 01:57:13 pm »

We are planning a big brew day for national homebrew day at my lhbs. There will be tastings, food, live music  and of course, brewing. We will have perhaps a dozen brewers bringing their systems to brew several different styles in the parking lot. The biggest concern is the water. The lhbs owner won't get his well water tested so we don't really know what we're brewing with. The water tastes fine with a slight mineral "bite", my t.d.s. meter shows a total dissolved solids of 104 ppm, and the pH is 5.4. Any suggestions? Thanks for your time.

4

All Things Food / Moldy bleu cheese?

« on: March 25, 2013, 12:02:31 pm »

I have about 1/4 pound of a wonderful Danish bleu cheese that's been in my fridge for 2 weeks, in a zipper bag. How do I know if it's moldy?

5

Other Fermentables / can white labs sweet mead yeast ferment at low temp?

« on: March 20, 2013, 01:17:23 pm »

So the Chilean wine grape season is almost here and I want to make a sweet reisling pyment. I want to use wlp720 for which the recommended temperature is 70-75F but a white wine should ferment below 50F to avoid losing aromatics in a more vigorous, higher temp fermentation. Does anyone have experience with using this yeast at cooler temps?

6

The Pub / happy pi day!

« on: March 14, 2013, 11:49:44 am »

I was actually eating apple pie with a math teacher, who was wearing a tie with a pi symbol on it, when he missed his pie hole and got pie on his pi tie at 1:59:26 pm! Best pi day ever!

7

General Homebrew Discussion / Do corked belgians lose carbonation?

« on: March 13, 2013, 08:12:13 pm »

So I brewed a Belgian quad last year and bottled in both corked belgian 750s and 12 oz crown-capped bottles and carbed to approximately 3.5 vols. and within 8 months the corked bottles were almost flat but the capped bottles pour a nice, dense, rocky head. I didn't use any kind of foil, shrink-wrap, or wax seal. The bottles were stored upright and undisturbed in the coolest room in my basement (55f winter- 70f summer).  My corker inserts the corks with about 3/4" protruding and they are not dried out. Has anyone else experienced this? Should I seal with the bottles with something? I'd like to use these type bottles in the future but not if my time/effort/patience results in flat beer! What did I screw up?