Topics

61

Homebrew Competitions / Entering a hoppy wheat

« on: July 21, 2012, 02:26:46 PM »

Where would you put a hoppy wheat beer? 
50/50 Pilsner/Wheat with 1.5 oz Citra at 15 mins and 1.5 oz Sorachi Ace at 10 mins with 1 oz of each dry hopped. 
Cloudly like a wheat, hopped like a pale ale.  Not overly bitter due to all late hopping.
Thanks

62

Ingredients / 100% Wheat Malt

« on: July 19, 2012, 08:26:12 PM »

I'm thinking of doing a 100% wheat malt beer (plus rice hulls).  Not sure why, just think it would be something to try.  I'm sure others have done this so what do you think.  Is it worth considering?  Just re-read Brewing with Wheat and it's got me thinking of upping my wheat proportion in my American Wheat beers in general (50/50 right now) but I'm wondering what all wheat would be like. 

63

Equipment and Software / Dear White Labs

« on: July 11, 2012, 06:57:25 PM »

I have a comment and a suggestion. 
The comment first.  I don't have enough air locks and through necessity, I discovered that a white labs vial fits perfectly into the hole in the lids of my plastic buckets.  Now, I put an airlock on the bucket for the first few days until bubbles slow down and then I dip a vial into star-san and put it into the hole so I can use the airlock on another brew (yes, I'm cheap).  Just something to think about if you ever find yourself short of an airlock but have some on other brews.

Now the suggestion.  Please consider adding a sticker onto the bottom inch or so of your vial labels stating what yeast is in the vial.  I think it would be so slick to just peel off that bottom sticker and put it right onto my starter jugs so I don't forget what starter is what (and maybe I'm the only person that's ever made 3 or 4 starters in a day and forgotten which was which).  When I'm using Wyeast, I cut off the part of the pack that says what the yeast is (after pitching) and tape that onto the jug now but I use way more WLP yeast than Wyeast.  So, I'm making the suggestion. 

64

Commercial Beer Reviews / Angry Orchard Crisp Apple

« on: July 11, 2012, 10:03:33 AM »

I was in St Louis yesterday and I went to the hotel bar hoping that they still had Tank 7 on tap.  They did not.  Instead, they had Angry Orchard Crisp Apple which I'd never heard of.  I asked the blond behind the bar to tell me a bit about it.  "It's beer with apple in it" she said.  "Huh", I replied.  "Are you sure?".  "Yes" she said confidently.  So I ordered one.  Well, there was no beer in it, that's for damn sure.  I asked her if she'd tried it and apparently tasting the beverages you're serving isn't necessary at this particular hotel.  Another guy, with a distinctly British accent, joined me down the bar and asked the same questions, and got the same reply.  "This is cider" he said after tasting it and I nodded at him in agreement.

So, as a cider (not a beer with apple in it), how was it?  Personally, it was slightly too sweet for my tastes.  The website says that it's a blend of a whole bunch of apples but the mention Fuji specifically as adding sweetness and it is definitely sweet.  I'm no cider expert but the cider I make and have had is clearly drier and a bit less cloying.  It was a nice colour, brilliantly clear and not excessively carbonated.  It's not flat but it certainly isn't a sparkling cider.  The apple taste was very pronounced and I wonder if they are stopping fermentation and then back sweetening with the Fuji cider to get it so sweet and apple forward.

In general I'd say it was a very nice cider, a bit sweet for my tastes and thus not quite as refreshing as I'd want on a real hot day on the patio but for an evening drink it was good.  Much better than beer with apple in it.

65

Kegging and Bottling / How much table sugar per 5 gals?

« on: July 08, 2012, 10:31:00 AM »

I have an IPA that I want to cask condition in the cornie keg.  How much sugar would I need to add to a 5 gal cornie to get the right level of carbonation for an IPA?  I don't have room in the keg fridge for this one and since I'm going away on vacation, I thought it would be fine to dose it with sugar and walk away for a week.
Thanks

66

General Homebrew Discussion / Am I brave enough?

« on: July 07, 2012, 12:57:04 PM »

So the other day I was brewing and I brewed extra for a starter that I wanted to do but I sort of forgot the extra gallon of wort on the deck.  I poured it into a water jug and threw a cap on it and then had a few beers and forgot to put it in the fridge.
Now, it's been sitting on the deck in 95 degree weather for 4 days and it has a thick krausen going on the top of it.  A quick smell gives a definite impression of Brett, not sour just a strong wild smell for lack of a better explanation.

There's one gallon and I'm considering letting it ferment out, carbing it in 2L pop bottles and giving it a try.  Any reason I should not do this?  I'm sure it'll taste like crap but I'm sort of curious what this will be like.
Thoughts?

67

Yeast and Fermentation / Older Roeselare packet

« on: July 05, 2012, 08:16:37 AM »

I have an out of date packet of this blend.  If it was a yeast, I'd still use it and just step it up with a starter but in this case, is it still worth using?  I have 5 gals of saison that I'm thinking of adding this to and then just forgetting for a while.  I was going to add WLP Brett B. but then I discovered this packet in the fridge from a forgotten order.  The Manf date is 17 Aug 2011 so it's pretty far past now. 

68

Ingredients / Cardamom

« on: July 03, 2012, 09:22:43 PM »

Has anyone ever used this spice in a beer?  I'm planning a blood orange wheat with honey and I read that cardamom was a good complimentary spice to orange but I have no idea how this would work in a beer.  I may give it a go regardless but I wanted to get the advice of someone who may have tried this spice. 
Thanks

69

Ingredients / Caramelized sugar

« on: July 03, 2012, 09:19:00 PM »

I've never had a "creme brulee milk stout" but I love the sound of it.  I'm thinking of trying something that includes dark caramelized, practically burnt sugar but I'm wondering if that caramel flavour (not butterscotch, think burnt sugar) would come through in a beer.  Here is what I'm thinking.

8 lbs Maris Otter
1 lb Black Patent
1 lb C 120
1 lb Pale chocolate
1 lb lactose
2 lbs caramelized sugar
2 oz EKG at 60
Vanilla beans (2) in secondary
Wyeast Irish Ale Yeast (have a big pitch ready to go from an Irish Red I just kegged).

Would the burnt sugar flavour come through in this (and would you want it to?)
Thanks

70

Ingredients / Cherry saison?

« on: July 02, 2012, 08:44:57 AM »

What do you guys think about using sour cherries in a saison?  Yesterday I made 10 gals of saison.  It was:
14 lbs Pils
2 lbs Light Munich
2 lbs Wheat
1 lbs brown sugar
4 oz black patent malt added at sparge
1 oz Magnum
1 oz EKG at flameout
WY3711 - big pitch from last batch
OG was way higher than I expected at 1.070 (I probably measured my water wrong because that's 96% efficiency and I'm not that good).

I added the black patent because I was trying for a "red" saison.  Just playing around mostly.  But, last night I got thinking.  What would happen if I added 5 lbs of sour cherries to one of the 5 gal pails and pitched a tube of Brett as well.  I have some WLP670 coming so I may also make a starter with that, pitch it for a different beer and then re-use the container to jug to build it up again and pitch that.

Would the spicyness of the saison match the cherries?  Would the saison/cherry/brett character be good/bad?  My thoughts is with such a high alcohol beer (assuming this will finish around 8%), I will bottle this into 750's and put them away for 3-6 months to allow the Brett to work it's magic.

71

The Pub / Happy Canada Day!

« on: July 01, 2012, 10:07:47 AM »

To the two or three other Canadians on the AHA forum, Happy Canada Day!  Hope you are celebrating with friends, family and of course some homebrew. 

For those who may not know, July 1st 2012 celebrates 145 years since Canada politely asked to form it's own country.

72

Beer Recipes / Mdixon wit recipe

« on: June 30, 2012, 06:58:29 PM »

I brewed a wit last year following the directions that mdixon posted but for the life of me, I can't find the post that I got the recipe/step mash times from.  I've tried a search but with no luck.
So mdixon, if you're out there (and it was actually you and I'm not completely confused) or if someone else has this recipe, could you send it to me.  I also had a crash with the computer I kept my notes on so I'm really at a loss here.
Thanks

73

Ingredients / No hop flavour

« on: June 27, 2012, 12:37:22 PM »

I've noticed a real lack of hop flavour and aroma in the last few beers I've made.  The one major process change is the lack of an immersion chiller because it's broken so I've been putting the beer in tubs with ice/water.  The chilling is obviously slower.  Would this be the cause of less hop flavour and aroma?  I've been adding decent amounts of late hops but I'm just not perceiving them.  How important is fast chilling to preserving those flavours?  I wonder because others talk of hop stands where they let the hops seep for a while so what would the difference be?

Last beer had 1/2 oz of Magnum at 60 mins, 1 oz of Centennial and 1 oz of Amarillo at 10 mins and 1/2 oz of each at flameout and all I get is bitter (O.G. 1.042).  Yeast was WLP007.
What would you recommend for the best hop timings to get good hop flavour and aroma?
Thanks

74

Yeast and Fermentation / Ringwood Strain

« on: June 20, 2012, 08:03:24 AM »

Wondered what you think of this strain. I'm a big fan of WLP007, not so big on WLP002 so I wondered how this compared and what you thought of this as an all-purpose strain (Am and Eng styles).
Thanks

75

Equipment and Software / How big for a homebrewer?

« on: June 12, 2012, 02:28:13 PM »

So my wife and I are buying a new house on a couple acres.  The property has a heated garage with water that she is more than willing to let me turn into "the Brewery".  Right now I'm batch sparging with a 50qt cooler and boiling with a 15 gal pot that lets me do up to 10 gal batches.  I can keep up OK with that but there are often times that I'd like to have more capacity so that I don't have to brew some styles as frequently.  I do go through a good amount of beer and I have a few friends who've been very kind to us over the years that I'd be more than happy to supply beer to (for free - let's leave the legalities debate out of this).  Also, I'd like to go to bigger kegs just to reduce the amount of washing etc.

So, where do I start?  I've got some cash earmarked for this but I don't want to over or under due this project.  Is a 1 barrel system overkill for a home brewer?  I have no experience with pumps etc.  I batch and boil.  Should I just get a bigger cooler and a bigger pot and stick with what I'm doing?  I really want to get some bigger fermenters but I have no idea what or how many.  Almost all my beers are ales although I may lager more in the future. 

I guess I just have this big empty space coming that seems perfect for a brewery and I don't have a clue where to start.  Help!