Messages

1

General Homebrew Discussion / Blending Beer Batches

« on: October 05, 2012, 05:00:38 am »

So, I brewed a monster barleywine with a high alcohol intolerant yeast strain.  It's stalled at 1.060.

I REALLY don't want to dump this if I don't have to because of the cost of producing it thus far.  The only remaining solution I can think of to salvage the effort is to blend it with a different batch of beer and mitigate some of that intense sweetness.

Does anyone have any guidance as to how one goes about such a process? 
Is there a way of calculating the gravity of the new, blended beer?

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Yeast and Fermentation / Re: Stuck Fermentation Help

« on: July 06, 2012, 08:58:45 am »

Thanks for the suggestion.  Just reading the reviews on the White Labs site, I might be a little worried about the WLP handling the amount of alcohol in this brew. 

3

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: Stuck Fermentation Help

« on: July 06, 2012, 08:24:08 am »

No doubt, no doubt.  Off to the LHBS I go....

4

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: Stuck Fermentation Help

« on: July 06, 2012, 08:10:06 am »

That's a good thought.  1968 isn't a real high tolerance yeast.  Instead of the Belgian yeast (I'd have concerns about flavor contributions that I wouldn't want), might that White Labs San Diego High Gravity yeast be a good option?  Too neutral?

5

Yeast and Fermentation / Stuck Fermentation Help

« on: July 06, 2012, 07:48:48 am »

Background:

6/17 Brewed a 5.5G batch of 1.140 English Golden Barleywine (overshot the gravity a bit!).  Pitched the brew on a whole slurry from a 1.035 bitter fermented w/ Wyeast 1968.

Had a week of great action and then things really started to slow.  6/30 I re-pitched a 1L 1.040 starter of Wyeast 1968.  Checked the gravity today and I still get a ready that's within .002 of what I got last week (1.064 vs 1.066).  I've already gathered that I did an abominable job aerating the wort. 

Am I out of options to salvage the operation at this point?

6

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Brewing with Chipotle or Other Peppers

« on: June 19, 2012, 07:00:38 am »

Awesome info.  Can't wait to give this a shot.

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General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Brewing with Chipotle or Other Peppers

« on: June 19, 2012, 05:58:11 am »

I would advise against putting peppers directly in your boil, you have no way to gauge the heat. What I do is make a tincture. I chop up peppers, and add to a small jar of vodka. Let is sit for a few weeks. Then you can do some taste tests to gauge your heat. I used an eye dropper and added from 1 to 5 drops at bottling time to each bottle, and marked then accordingly. I still have that small jar of habanero juice years later, a little bit goes a long way.

Do you find that this approach provides flavor too, or just heat?

8

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Brewing with Chipotle or Other Peppers

« on: June 19, 2012, 05:57:19 am »

I put mine in the secondary or the keg until i get the heat, flavor and aroma I want.  I like poblanos for flavor and habaneros for heat.  My base beer is usually a Belgian witbier.

The aforementioned tincture idea is pretty interesting.  What's your process for sanitizing the peppers?  Have you ever tried using roasted poblanos?

9

General Homebrew Discussion / Brewing with Chipotle or Other Peppers

« on: June 18, 2012, 12:50:21 pm »

Am curious to what peoples' experiences have been using peppers in brewing.  I'm thinking of doing something with chipotles and with Thai chills and would love to hear what people have tried.

10

General Homebrew Discussion / Raisin Flavors

« on: June 11, 2012, 08:24:45 am »

I'm starting to think of brewing a beer that has raisin type flavors.  Any suggestions on how this can be achieved?

11

All Grain Brewing / Re: Additional Boil for 70/-

« on: May 17, 2012, 05:18:20 am »

Great.  Thanks, Denny.

12

All Grain Brewing / Additional Boil for 70/-

« on: May 16, 2012, 06:42:25 pm »

Planning on brewing the Caramelized 70/- recipe from Jamil's, "Brewing Classic Styles." 

In the instruction regarding boiling down a gallon wort and adding it back to the main boil, he calls for "reducing it down until the sugars begin to caramelize."  Does that really mean cooking it down until it thickly coats the back of a spoon?  What would an appropriate test be to gauge whether you'd reduced enough?

13

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Clear(er) Beer

« on: May 03, 2012, 07:24:32 am »

Great!  Kind of what I was thinking.  Really appreciated the "clarification," guys.

14

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Clear(er) Beer

« on: May 03, 2012, 05:53:53 am »

Regarding gelatin - I usually don't use a secondary vessel.  If I'm going to use gelatin, do I?  Or, is there an appropriate point to add to primary (assuming I don't want to harvest slurry)?

Euge, when you say "crash cool," do you mean some type of cooling other than just chilling the wort?

15

General Homebrew Discussion / Clear(er) Beer

« on: May 02, 2012, 06:52:15 pm »

Any suggestions? 

My beer tastes good, but it could surely stand some improvement in the clarity department.  Any help is appreciated.