Messages

1

All Grain Brewing / Re: is my theory sound?

« on: January 29, 2013, 10:38:49 pm »

the temp drop may be a culprit of the brown ale as i didnt preheat my mash tun like i usually do(it was my first batch). I sparge with 170 degree water

2

All Grain Brewing / Re: is my theory sound?

« on: January 29, 2013, 08:08:28 pm »

british ale for the brown ale and belgian abbey for the dubbel-ish that turned out to be more of a dubbel than i planned, both wyeast. Actually ive always had an issue with carbonation in my kegs, either they are pretty much dead with foam or its pretty much dead but its only foam(a little exaggeration there but its annoying nonetheless)

3

All Grain Brewing / Re: is my theory sound?

« on: January 29, 2013, 01:58:06 pm »

In that particular recipe i sparged with 2.85 gallons. since then ive been using 4.75 gallons total with 1.25-1.5 quart per pound and the rest is reserved for sparging

after reading through that post again i may have had a small post boil gravity than 3, i know it didnt fill up as much as usual in my 3 gallon keg when i kegged that beer

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All Grain Brewing / Re: is my theory sound?

« on: January 29, 2013, 12:22:33 pm »

Qiuckly looking at your recipe there is something wrong. An og of 1.071 for a 3 gallon batch with less than 7# of grain seems highly implausible if not impoossible.

+1 good catch!

i though so at first too but i made a post about it and everyone just said i had good efficiency, it was a kit and the expected OG was 1.056. it was a 90 minute mash though so that definitely drove my efficiency up

5

All Grain Brewing / Re: is my theory sound?

« on: January 29, 2013, 09:12:54 am »

my 3 grists have been (3 gal batches)

5lb belgian 2-row
1/2lb belgian biscuit
1/2lb belgian aromatic
1/4lb special b
mash =155
14 brix Og
Fg 1.007(there was 1/2lb of sugar but i still thought it should be higher than that)

5.7lb british 2-row malt
9.6oz c-60
2.4oz-chocolate
.9oz-black
mash = 151(90 min)
OG 1.071
FG 1.012(but seems very watery still)

im not going to bother on the 3rd recipe because it ended up a disaster to my fault not this issue and there no need to embarrass myself with posting it

i though about the thermometer calibration and im definitely gonna look into it.
i know my hydrometer is accurate, i always have 2 and they say the same gravity.

now i do have a 10gal rubbermaid cooler as my mash tun but ive been "preheating" it with so just about boiling water before i put the strike water in so the temps have been stable throughout the mash

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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?

7

Beer Recipes / Re: double batch

« on: January 12, 2013, 02:09:53 pm »

i only have a 5 gallon kettle and a horrible electric kitchen stove, i can ferment and bottle more than that

8

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).

9

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: Sort of a pole

« on: January 07, 2013, 10:34:04 pm »

I keg everything so for most ill wait 2 weeks then put it in a keg for a weekish(sometimes shorter) long secondary/hang out in the keg time for the yeast to clean up, then ill carb it up. 3 weeks in primary or maybe even 4 for big gravity beers or beers that have clearing issues.

10

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Hop Pellets

« on: January 01, 2013, 06:20:16 pm »

i just throw them in, a lot of people are scared of it getting out of the brewpot into the fermentor but ive let it go through with no issues. Itll become part of the "trub" at the bottom of the fermenter just dont leave the beer on the hop pelets for too long if its a really hoppy beer

11

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: They do a lot of things "wrong" yet the beer tastes fine

« on: January 01, 2013, 02:44:29 pm »

i recently made a maibock which fermented with 2308 at 59 degrees, turned out fantastic. no detectable esters(to my palate or any of my friends) and it didnt even need a diacetyl rest

12

All Grain Brewing / Re: first AG questions

« on: January 01, 2013, 01:00:30 pm »

wow thanks for all the replies guys! i dont know why i had such difficulty with my mash tun i threw it out where i used to with my specialty grains and then i just could not get all the extra grains off the side and bottom(i may have to use that shower handle idea). This actually wasnt NB's caribou slobber it was my LHBS's clone, the owners of the shop wrote "beer captured" and "clone brews". I ordered a refractometer off amazon with a gift card i received a few days ago for first/second runnings gravity and preboil gravity and such so next time ill have enough time to make adjustments. now i just have to figure out what to make next!

13

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

14

The Pub / Re: Connecticut Elementary School Shooting

« on: December 16, 2012, 06:52:48 pm »

I woke up and saw the headline "Connecticut elementary school shooting" and was terrified. I have a sister that we adopted from china who is still 9 and she goes to middle gate elementary, one of the 4 elementary schools in newtown. The school is just 7 miles from my house, it really is a tragedy. Im really upset how people really jumped on the gun control issues and religion issues right off without a second thought about grieving with these unfortunate families.

15

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: Unusual beer turnaround after ferment temp spike

« on: December 10, 2012, 03:27:27 pm »

in the book 'yeast' by the guy who owns white labs(cant remember his name) he says almost all flavor compounds for beer are created in the first 2 days of fermentation. i think you have a different issue on your hands if it sat at the right temp for the first 48-60 hours.