Messages

16

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: First mold, now SULPHUR!

« on: July 30, 2010, 11:11:02 AM »

Where I brew has the same problem, although I wouldn't describe it as bad or as strong as you are.  How do you draw your water; straight from the tap or a garden hose?  If it is a garden hose like me, then just buy an RV water filter that connects to a garden hose.  It greatly reduced the sulpher to barely negligible.  Also, I would think the 1 hour boil precipitates out the remaining sulfer.  I don't have any science to back my theory, but what I do know is that in drinking the final product you would never know the water had sulpher smell/taste to it.  Sent a few beers for comps and not one returned with a comment of sulpher smell/taste. 

17

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Beer staling prematurely?

« on: July 28, 2010, 07:12:54 AM »

Based on the sherry and cardboard comments it seems to me like you are having some oxidation issues.  What types of bottles are you using; pry off or twist off?  Twist off is said to allow oxygen in there.  You could also try using oxygen absorbing caps.  Other than that there might be a splashing issue you are just not noticing. 

18

General Homebrew Discussion / GABF Designated Driver Ticket

« on: July 21, 2010, 09:05:58 AM »

I'm not sure where else to post this and thought the anwer to my question may be beneficial to others.  I am going to the GABF this year for my bachelor party.  My pops is coming along too, but he is not a beer drinker (or any sort of drinker for that matter) at all.  Thus, I bought him a deisgnated driver ticket.  After reading again on the website it says there is a special designated driver lounge.  Does anyone know if that means he is restricted to just that lounge, or is he also able to be out on the floor as well?  I'd hate to have to buy him an $83 ticket that would essentially go to waste.

19

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Cherry experiment

« on: July 15, 2010, 06:34:58 AM »

More importantly....  what does the lady think?

It's not her cup of tea, but good thing I made only one case of it.

20

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Cherry experiment

« on: July 14, 2010, 06:10:23 PM »

If you're really scared, freezing could also be used to kill off the unwanted bacteria without changing the cherry juice.

While freezing decreases the rate of reactions and sometimes kills off some unwanted living organisms, it does not completely kill off all living organisms.

I'll second that.  Made a blackberry blonde for the lady.  Froze the berries and added to secondary and racked beer on top.  Beer going into the secondary tasted great.  Beer that is now bottled has a definite sourness from wild fermentation.  Those wild yeast went to town on my beer.  Oddly enough I like it.  Has a definite wild fermentation character that I enjoy.  Moral of the story is that freezing will not kill off all bacteria.  Perhaps make it dormant, but not dead.

21

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: ld carlson extract

« on: July 08, 2010, 09:59:54 AM »

Just add it to the bottling bucket before you bottle, or to the keg if you don't bottle.  No need to sanitize the bottle or flavoring itself.  I will say though, have you ever used these fruit flavored extracts before?  4 oz goes a very long way.

22

General Homebrew Discussion / Bottle priming after 6 week lager, do I need to re-yeast?

« on: July 06, 2010, 09:20:39 AM »

The title says it all.  I am going to bottle an alt that has been lagering in the fridge for 6 weeks.  Do I need to add some yeast to bottle, or can I just rouse some yeast sitting on the bottom (I obviously did a secondary in glass to lager)?

23

All Grain Brewing / Re: How much honey malt for a slight honey flavor?

« on: July 06, 2010, 07:11:28 AM »

Wow, I am definitely going to go against what everyone else says here.  First, you will get a slight "honey" flavor, if any at all.  I think a better description would be just sweet.  Second, I think you are absolutely going to notice it at a half of a pound.  1 full pound in an American Wheat is far too much.  As a point of reference I used 6 oz in a blonde (other grains were pale malt, munich, and vienna) and I knew it was there.  I cut it back to 4 oz the next time and it was just right.  This malt is strong and will dominate the beer to disgust if used too much.  That being said, I have never tried honey malt with the late hopping rate you going to use so I can't comment how that will offset the sweetness.  However, my opinion is to start small and work your way up next time, not the other way around. 

24

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Small gripe with Zymurgy (and BYO as well)

« on: June 29, 2010, 08:10:36 AM »

Here's what I think is silly: Two separate people wrote into Zymurgy and complained about the full page Budweiser ads. really, people, you think Zymurgy should turn down a FULL PAGE AD???  Come on back down to reality, people. Magazines stay in business because of ads. As long as they are not morally offensive you don't turn them down.

That's funny because people also did the same thing in the curernt issue of BeerAdvocate as well.  I completely agree that they should let them put an add in because that is how they make money.  On top of that I think that if Bud wants to spend it's money trying to advertise to arguable it's most hostile crowd then I'm all for it.  Keep sending that money our way.

25

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Small gripe with Zymurgy (and BYO as well)

« on: June 22, 2010, 10:43:05 AM »

Jill does an awesome job with getting Zymurgy (and those other  unimportant BA publications) out.

Awesome job Jill !!!

I agree, and I'm not implying anything to the contrary whatsoever.  I just found it odd to see similar articles more often than not. 

26

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Small gripe with Zymurgy (and BYO as well)

« on: June 22, 2010, 08:10:52 AM »

Wow, that is definitely one heck of a coincidence considering the multitude of topics that could be discussed at any given time.  Although I will admit it is interesting to read the articles side-by-side to see the differences, similarities, and get a sense of how different people approach similar topics.

27

General Homebrew Discussion / Small gripe with Zymurgy (and BYO as well)

« on: June 22, 2010, 06:41:01 AM »

So I got both my Zymurgy and BYO in the mail yesterday.  What do I see on the cover of both?  Dark Cascadian beer articles.  While I have not yet read them so I don't know how different they are, I couldn't help but notice this is again a time when both magazines in the same time period have the same topic covered.  The last one I can remember this happened is when they both did malt conditioning articles (although Kai's article kicked BYO's ass all over the place).  How does this happened?  Coincidence, on purpose?  It just bugs me a bit that when looking forward to two magazines they both have similar or the same content.

28

The Pub / Re: can someone explain

« on: June 21, 2010, 07:46:43 AM »

......... This is one of the worst environmental disasters the world has ever experienced.

Is it really?  I honestly don't know, but I'm guessing many worse things have happened.  This one really hits home because its in the Gulf of Mexico.  If it was in Russia, China, Middle East or some South American backwater then we'd barely know about it.

Sadly, this has to happen close to home for Americans to really care.

I couldn't agree with you more. 

29

The Pub / Re: Anyone following any of the World Cup?

« on: June 18, 2010, 06:51:05 AM »

WTF, Germany lost against Serbia.

Kai

I agree, pretty shocking considering their last performance.  You need to look at it this way though, I think they were lucky with a 1-0 loss.  Serbia easily could have, and should have, put 2 more on them.  If I am a fan of Germany I would be very, very worried about the final game against Ghana and the prospect of advancing to the knock out round.

30

All Grain Brewing / Re: How does this look to you?

« on: June 17, 2010, 06:41:08 PM »

My experience with Columbus is that it is a very dominate hop.  What I mean is that I think you are short siding your Cascades by mixing them Columbus.  Plus, I don't think you have enough bitterness for this being a hopburst recipe.  I know it says you in the mid-40s for IBUs, but it's not going to drink like that.  I think you are going to have a cloying beer.  That being said, I would still stick with you hops, but move them around.  I'd combine the Amarillo and Columbus hops for the 20, 15, and 10 minute additions and blast the beer with Cascade for 5 and flameout ones.