Topics

1

General Homebrew Discussion / Brewing Lagers

« on: February 19, 2013, 09:40:36 PM »

Though active on many other forums under various pseudonyms ( I like to lurk  ) ....I always run into the very same scenario when it comes to brewing lagers....Many say they wait until winter to brew their lagers and many say by March it will be too warm to brew lagers any longer... .... I am sure there is a real world answer to this dilemma but I fail to recognize it right away.... Can some of you enlighten me??

2

Ingredients / Galena Hops Alpha Acid inquiry

« on: September 28, 2012, 05:10:21 AM »

I purchased a pound of Galena Hops through our Club's group buy where we buy directly from North Country. The hops arrived in a vacuum sealed bag but had 7.9%AA written on the sticker. That seems quite low to me for Galena. Usually they are in the 11-15% range aren't they?  Does anybody else know of these low Alpha Acid Galena's or did they mean to write down 7.9% Beta instead of Alpha???

3

Yeast and Fermentation / Urquell WLP 800

« on: July 30, 2011, 10:01:02 AM »

I previously used this yeast in a plastic pail fermentor and then harvested it. This time, I used it in a CAP which fermented in a glass carboy in my fermentation fridge.  It has been a month and there is still a good layer of yeast/krausen sitting on top (about a half inch) but all bubbling from the carboy has ceased. It is now been at 60F for a few days completing the D-rest. Is it safe to just push my racking cane through this layer and rack it to the keg? I was hoping this layer would fall once it was warmed up to 60F. 

4

Kegging and Bottling / Gas & Liquid Connector internal 0-rings

« on: May 21, 2011, 07:20:10 AM »

ran a search and came up empty. Does anyone have a source for the o-ring which is INSIDE the gas and liquid connectors (Ball Lock) .... I took one apart to clean it and lost the little bugger  down the drain.. It is so light that the sink trap didn't save me.. thank you and cheers!! ...

5

Yeast and Fermentation / Where did all the dry yeast go?

« on: February 14, 2011, 04:51:17 AM »

I am trying to find out the yeast counts in dry yeast and math is not one of my strong points.... There is another thread which quotes Clayton Cone of Danstar Lallemand stating that each gram of the dried yeast contains 20 billion live yeast cells. First off, I find that extremely hard to believe. 20 billion in one gram? So I went onto their web site. See here for the spec sheet on their Nottingham yeast: http://www.danstaryeast.com/sites/default/files/nottingham_datasheet.pdf .. Now, Item 2 states they have more than 5 Billion cells (5 x 10⁹ =5 billion right?) per gram but then Item 4 of that pdf file states 100 grams in 100 hectoliters gives you a density of 5 - 10 million cells per milliliter. This is much more than Item 2 states, but even this amount could be equivalently scaled to 10 grams at 10 liters (or only 2.64 gallons). Which would mean I need 20 grams for 5 gallons just to give me a max of 10 million cells per milliliter. And 10 million cells per milliliter is only good for inoculating a 10^o Plato wort (figuring 1x10⁶ x Plato^o = cells per milliliter) which is roughly only 1.040 gravity. Also, if you look up SafeAles S-05 pdf sheet here: http://www.fermentis.com/FO/pdf/HB/EN/Safale_US-05_HB.pdf you will find only 6 billiion yeast cells per gram. Meaning an 11 gram sachet would only have a maximum of 66 billion yeast cells! Figuring this backwards: 66,000,000,000 / 3785ml per gal / 2.5 gal = 6.974 million cells per milliliter. Which is a proper pitch rate for only 2.5 gallons of a 7^o Plato wort (approx only 1.028 gravity). Where did all the yeast go? Or am I computing something drastically wrongly here??  cheers!!

6

Classifieds / $60 certificates for only $30

« on: December 09, 2010, 12:31:54 PM »

Midwest supplies is offering $60 worth of brewing product for only $30.. click the following link for the details... http://steals.startribune.com/r/4d01127779f41d784c983ca3

EDIT... Note that the time limit for responding was 11:59PM Dec 09....

7

The Pub / Midwest Supplies offering $60 for $30

« on: December 09, 2010, 12:29:33 PM »

Click this link for stealing the deal of the day.. Midwest homebrew supplies certificates (limit 2) $60 in product for only $30 ....  http://steals.startribune.com/r/4d01127779f41d784c983ca3

8

Yeast and Fermentation / WL029 yeast help

« on: November 23, 2010, 06:24:21 AM »

ok all, I need some good education on this...  I brewed up a batch of Kolsch on Friday the 19th.  For yeast I used a harvested WL029 from a light cream ale. The harvest consisted of 3 mason quart jars containing approximately 3/8 inch yeast layer in each jar. This would give me just over an inch of yeast to pitch. My intent was to ferment this at 59-60F which I had read on this forum was a great temp to ferment Kolsch at. I figured with this much yeast I could bypass the starter. The yeast was a month old. At pitching time, my wort was at 55F, my yeast was 58F. I figured this would allow the yeast and wort to come up to my planned fermentation temp. For all three jars, I decanted off until the yeast got to the mouth of the jar. This left me with just enough liquid in each jar enabling a swirl and pitch. On the morning of the 22nd, the temp of the wort was at 59F and nothing was happenning in my 30 liter carboy. The s-bubbler's liquid level hadn't budged.  I went to White Labs web site and it said this yeast needs to be in the mid 60's to optimally ferment. So I warmed it to 64F and it began taking off. I am now holding it at 65F and it's chomping away happily with a nice sized krausen on top.  How are you all able to ferment this yeast colder? Did I need to have more than an inch of yeast to do this?  At the colder temp I still should have gotten a good krausen shouldn't have I? Or should I have taken a couple liters of the wort, placed it in a flask and then added the yeast to that in order to get it going at the lower temp? Then pitch into the remainder of the wort??  As usual any and all advise is always appreciated from this group.  cheers!!
... Needed to add here that the starting gravity of the kolsch was 12.5BRIX or 1.050....

9

Yeast and Fermentation / Lager strains

« on: November 15, 2010, 11:42:13 AM »

In the ale world, many brewers freely substitute the WL001, WY1056 and the S-05 as being the Chico Strain. Being new to the lager world, would the WL830, WY2124 and S-23 all be considered the same German Strain? The descriptors on these just say they are the most popular German Strain...just curious.. cheers!

10

Kegging and Bottling / Distributor Pressures

« on: November 14, 2010, 08:02:28 AM »

Ok, new to kegging and have a newb question about utilizing one of those gas line distributors.  If I set my tank pressure to 15psi going into the distribution block and I have three kegs attached to the output of the distribution block, am I getting 15 psi into each keg or only 5 psi into each keg? Sorry for the newb question but I am kind of visualizing it as a resistive parallel circuit in which the sum of the reciprocals equate to the total resistance.  cheers!!

11

Yeast and Fermentation / Wyeast 1450

« on: October 24, 2010, 07:40:10 AM »

I brewed a cream ale with this yeast which turned out terrific after lagering it for a few weeks to drop the yeast.  I am currently using the cream ale's primary harvest of this yeast to chomp through a batch of Denny's Rye IPA.  My OG was 1.072 and it has been fermenting in the primary now for three and a half weeks.  The very center of the fermentor is temp controlled at 67F.  My question:  It is still bubbling away at a couple bubbles per minute. There is a very thin layer of yeast (I hope that's what it is) still laying on top.  Does this yeast have a reputation for being slower on the higher gravity beers? I was hoping to get this one into the dry hopping phase after 3 weeks, but as long as it is still bubbling away I don't want to transfer it. I have NEVER racked a brew to secondary that is still showing signs of fermentation. That much bubbling per day indicates fermentation or infection to me.  Thoughts anyone?

12

Kegging and Bottling / placing a chest freezer "keezer" in Garage

« on: September 15, 2010, 05:18:03 AM »

I'm from the upper midwest and I had heard from someone that not all chest freezers have the ability to withstand the frigid winters in unheated garages. Something about the coil kicking out when the temps fall below 20 degrees Fahrenheit.  Has anybody else heard this or was the guy talking out his back side? You would think the manufacturers would have some sort of warning on their freezers if this were true wouldn't you.  cheers!!

13

Ingredients / IBU confusion

« on: August 30, 2010, 04:04:57 PM »

I greatly apologize if this subject has been discussed elsewhere, but a search came up empty. Many of you veteran brewers have gone out of your way sharing your recipes.  My confusion is derived from the IBU's many of the recipes claim to have.  I use BeerSmith for my software.  I can only set it for one type of IBU calculations at a time.  I am in the process of getting the ingredients for Denny's Rye IPA.  Where in all of these recipes do I find which scale was used for IBU's?  Tinseth gives me a much less IBU and ratio than Rager does. Depending upon the style, there can be a great disparity between those two scales.  Do I assume Tinseth unless the recipe notates Rager?  Or the other way around?  Denny, if you see this, do you use Tinseth or Rager?  Is there a common default scale for these recipes you have all so unselfishly uploaded?  Thank you all !!   cheers!!

14

General Homebrew Discussion / stuck BarleyWine

« on: March 25, 2010, 04:20:08 PM »

Ok, I have searched under 'stuck fermentations' and after an hour I have decided to post this. Please forgive if a duplicate. I normally make my beers no more than a 1.068 in gravityand use O₂. Well, I made my first BarleyWine at 1.120 and I forgot to use the oxygen. I still shook the beejeezus out of it but after 10 days of really slow bubbling (slow fermentation?), it has ceased and desisted... I used a blend of WL001 and S-05 (1 pint jar of each from harvested cakes but NOT a pint of slurry each) and am now only at 1.050 and I need to get to 1.020... what are my options and how do I get there. I have only been brewing for about 15 months so please don't go too far over my head with your responses... cheers!!

15

General Homebrew Discussion / using gravity to keep track of boil off

« on: March 03, 2010, 10:16:16 AM »

Is it possible to keep track of your boil off (or the amount remaining in your kettle) taking various samples during the boil? Either by cooling the wort and using a hydrometer or by using a ATC refractometer? Won't the readings linearly increase as the boil off occurs so that you could compute your volume remaining?  This would hopefully prevent my erroneous readings using a stick skewed by bubbles from the boililng wort...