Messages

16

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: My first experience competing in the National Homebrew competition.

« on: May 13, 2013, 01:59:42 PM »

If its any consolation, a lot of the homebrew contests I've been a part of have bordered on being victims of their own success.  I think this is the root of many of the issues you encountered.  Possibly even the misspelling, although that seems to be a dying art.

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General Homebrew Discussion / Re: IPA daydream

« on: May 10, 2013, 12:08:58 PM »

I have one, you mow my lawn and I'll pour you a pint.

I put a bomber of rye IPA in the fridge for tonight.  It has simcoe, columbus, cent, citra and amarillo.

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General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Storing an oak barrel

« on: May 08, 2013, 04:00:23 PM »

It should be fine for a month or more.  Nothing will grow inside since it is saturated with whiskey at this point.  Just keep it sealed and in a cool dry place.  You could add a cup of water if you are worried about it drying out, but I doubt it would in a month.

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General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Cidery Taste in Biere de Mars

« on: May 05, 2013, 07:14:36 AM »

Not so much speeding things along, as ensuring a good environment for the yeast to finish and clean up after themselves.  Yeast like it warm, and once they are no longer producing heat during high krausen then the temp drops and they see that as a signal to go dormant.  Raising the temp fools them into keeping active longer.

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General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Happy Big Brew Day!

« on: May 05, 2013, 07:12:53 AM »

Had a great time, met some brewers, talked brewing and sampled of course.  One fellow and is dad had their brewing setup at a shop not two blocks from the shop so we walked down and looke di over.  They had a nice single tier HERMS with two chuggers, three banjo burners and a large plate chiller.  Sweet!  They are working on the electrical now.  These guys are serious.

MY own BIAB came in low OG, I guess not tending it left the temp to drop too much.  That or I had the grain too tight in the bag or something.  The no-chill part worked of course, and I spiked with some DME and a little sugar this morning to get a reasonable OG.  Pitched some alt yeast this morning, I needed to grow that one up again.

Today is brew club, Cinco de Mayo party.  Have some American lager and Vienna lager I brewed for the occasion, they both came out well.  I"m researching something to take for food now.

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General Homebrew Discussion / Happy Big Brew Day!

« on: May 04, 2013, 04:38:16 AM »

Headed up to the LHBS to do a brew demo.  The owner is brewing an extract batch, then an AG.  Both Two Hearted Ale clones.  I'm going to brew a small batch of roughly the same beer using BIAB and no-chill.  I did a no-chill Southern brown recently and it camr out really good.  I'm curious how a hoppy beer will turn out.  I think I'll add some hops right at knockout, or possibly even after the beer cools to 180F.

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General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Cidery Taste in Biere de Mars

« on: May 03, 2013, 08:18:58 PM »

Helps if you raise the temps just before its done fermenting, not after its comeptely done.

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General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Brewstrong

« on: April 26, 2013, 01:43:38 PM »

For the record I am a fairly new judge and I do my best which I'm sure is not good enough for someone like a JZ.  I can live with that.  He can't judge all the beers that need judging.

Having made this admission, I feel that judging beer is subjective and people shouldn't get so worked up about it.  I know there are people out there for whom competition is of paramount importance, but for god's sakes its only a beer.  Even the greatest beer in the world is going to be piss shortly after its consumed.  I'll be happy when the current fad for homebrew contests fades.  Until then I wish the clubs running these contests would limit the number of entries so I wouldn't have to judge ten+ beers per flight.  I don't think I've been to a single comp where there were enough judges, and many have had to resort to enlisting every warm body in the vicinity not just experienced judges.  I also wish BJCP would help by making the certification process a little simpler.  They probably thought they did this with their changes but I don't see where its any easier to get into a tasting exam now.

Blame this rant on JZ.

24

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Observation

« on: April 26, 2013, 06:04:31 AM »

My observation on commercial vs homebrew is that the better commercial brews seem to have a level of malt character that I see in very few homebrews.  I don't know if its a matter of oxidation from the average homebrewing process vs a system that puts the beer through without ever touching air, or just what is going on, but something like Boston Brewing's brown ale has amazing malt flavor and I see this in so very few homebrews and then its often more muted.

Homebrewers can make excellent hoppy beers, and the ones that have distinctive yeast character are very much in our wheelhouse thanks to WL and WY.

25

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Look what the stork droped off...

« on: April 23, 2013, 11:57:42 AM »

If you really want to be nice to your yeast, rehydrate with a product called GoFerm.  Its a nutrient solution that provides a nice boost during rehydration.  I use it for my wine yeasts, never tried it for brewing.  Then again I mostly use liquid yeasts and starters for those.

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General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Look what the stork droped off...

« on: April 23, 2013, 11:15:10 AM »

After six posts and/or the immediate question is answered, the topic is allowed to drift off into the arcane.

If you don't let the yeast sit in RO or distilled too long (<15min) they won't burst.  The salt concentration in the cells pulls water across the cell membrane to rehydrate the yeast.  It doesn't happen in an instant.  Tap water with some salts is safer since the gradient is not as great, but the chlorine issue competes with the lesser osmotic gradient.  It'll all be OK though.

There for a minute I thought you were saying that RO treatment changes water in a way other than simply removing salts/organics.  This is the kind of voodoo that is sold by some in the water treatment business. 

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General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Look what the stork droped off...

« on: April 23, 2013, 08:26:39 AM »

Good RO is probably only 10-20ppm of salt vs <1ppm for distilled.  I don't think either one will kill yeast in under 15min.  Most water is lower than the osmotic concentration inside the cell, thats why its beneficial to rehydrate yeast prior to pitching into a high osmotic strength wort.

Yes, they make wort the same as we do, and the mash has the same mineral requirements.

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General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Look what the stork droped off...

« on: April 23, 2013, 06:24:09 AM »

In addition to the responses so far, in your second question you ask about a concentrated boil and topping off with distilled or purified water.  Keep in mind that your brewing water should be sanitary, but not distilled. To keep things as simple as possible, you could buy 3 one gallon bottles of spring water at the grocery store and leave them unopened in the fridge until you have chilled the boiled wort to ~100F in an ice bath.  Combining that wort with the 3g of ~35F water from the fridge should get you to the point where you are ready to aerate the batch.

Nothing wrong with using distilled water for extract brews.  The extract has all the salts of the original wort, and they generally use a modestly hard water in their process.

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General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Solera beers

« on: April 22, 2013, 12:36:24 PM »

I don't see that as an excuse to just throw whatever beer into the solera, you should think about each beer you add based upon how the flavors in that beer change over time and how they might blend into the solera and how it is going to change the overall flavors in the solera. It's easier to predict the change in flavor and ensure a positive change with a repeated addition of the same beer or a similar beer. You can always blend the solera beer with a disparate beer in bottling but once a beer goes into the solera you can't take back those flavors or how they will mature.

I have been steering my stuff one direction, then another as far as how dark and malty the beer is.

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General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Solera beers

« on: April 22, 2013, 12:33:58 PM »

My experience with the cask is that the beer keeps getting more sour, or at least it certainly doens't fade.  Probably the result of microoxidation.