Messages

1

The Pub / Re: NTSB Recommends 0.05% BAC Limit

« on: May 14, 2013, 09:10:35 pm »

But I think going to .05% is just going to punish people who have had a beer or two with dinner and then drove their kid to his soccer game and got into a routine fender bender.

Proud to say I have never gotten a DUI, fwiw.

Gotta call you on your logic there.  I'm learning to bike in a city at the moment; the close "fender benders" have be scary enough to really ponder if I'm flirting with my own survival.  Scares the **** out of me when it happens.

Also, a "beer or two" implies 4.5%-5.5% when most beer enthusiasts are drinking 6%-11% (imo, of course).

+1 on no DUI.

2

All Things Food / Re: Pizza stones

« on: April 30, 2013, 09:15:25 am »

Square is far more versitile if you ever want to use it for anything besides round pizzas. Whatever size round stone you can get, you can get the same size in square and have more surface area. I'm not aware of a disadvantage to square either.

Advantage/Disadvantage: large round is not a great fit on webber style grills, as it can trap the heat underneath.  IMO, If that's what I have, I'll split it in half to get better heat circulation.

3

Extract/Partial Mash Brewing / Re: Honey - add in boil or at flame out?

« on: April 10, 2013, 08:53:35 pm »

I wrote an email recently to a brewery which does a honey wheat that has a very nice honey flavor. He told me that they added it after flameout during whirlpool which surprised me. He also noted that higher quality honey makes a big difference...they use local wildflower honey. He noted to use enough to raise the OG by 1 point so I am assuming plato not specific gravity.

After flameout, I stop the chilling at ~180, add the honey & let it sit for a bit (orange/honey saison).  Honey quality can vary widely, so it makes sense to source it locally.  I go for a more subtle taste, 1 lb per 5-6 gal.

For the OP: do you need/want to use honey malt and honey at the same time?  Wondering if it might be easier to figure out what works for you by choosing either all honey or dropping that and increasing the % of honey malt.  I've not used honey malt but have the impression that people who use it like it. 

Agreeing with smkranz, it's seems like a lot.

4

Hop Growing / Re: Second Year Hops

« on: April 10, 2013, 08:07:38 pm »

Those look great.  Frank, how deep did you plant them?  Horizontal or vertical?

Thanks!

5

Kegging and Bottling / Re: Why do YOU keg?

« on: April 04, 2013, 07:45:48 pm »

Craft beer tastes better from the keg.  Always on the hunt for Aroma Coma.  For homebrew, bottled conditioned tastes better (and is more visceral).  Kinda like there's a 9-times-out-of-10 off-flavor with kegging that I can only describe as "force carbonated".  Any ROT to get beyond that?

p.s.  happy baseball season.

Can you please explain how bottle conditioned taste better for homebrew and not craft? That is making about zero sense to me.

Draft beer in every instance stays fresh longer, is easier to dial in Co2 volumes, and has better protection from light and o2 than bottles, both homebrew and craft.

It's an opinion.  There's a number of beers on tap that for me simply have a certain characteristic that's unappealing.  I'll pass.

6

Kegging and Bottling / Re: Why do YOU keg?

« on: April 04, 2013, 06:27:14 pm »

Craft beer tastes better from the keg.  Always on the hunt for Aroma Coma.  For homebrew, bottled conditioned tastes better (and is more visceral).  Kinda like there's a 9-times-out-of-10 off-flavor with kegging that I can only describe as "force carbonated".  Any ROT to get beyond that?

p.s.  happy baseball season.

7

All Grain Brewing / Re: Mash-in

« on: March 20, 2013, 10:00:59 pm »

I pump the strike water in through the manifold and dump/stir the grain in 3-4 batches.

I've found that the best solution is to have a grist hydrator on top of the MLT and grain in through that.

Sounds expensive, large scale.  Are you brewing 3-4 batches in parallel?

8

Commercial Beer Reviews / The Trooper

« on: March 13, 2013, 10:43:07 pm »

Traditional cask ale, with nice color, 4.8%.  Bucket list?

http://laughingsquid.com/trooper-iron-maiden-creates-a-premium-british-ale/

9

Hop Growing / Re: Rhizomes planted on 3/9/13

« on: March 11, 2013, 05:29:18 pm »

I did get a nice stack of 2x12 redwood, so I just dug out my planting areas, boxed them in, and filled it with 6 months of spent-grain and sawdust compost.  Planting soon!

How does Spent-grain effect compost?  MY Brewbuddy and i where worried that to much in his bin would totally kill it.  We where also worried about to much hope trub for the same reason.  Anyone have any experience with this?

Jeff

I vaguely remember reading that you treat as brown material.  Other than that it should work fine in compost.

Paul

The worms et alia all appear happy with it.   When I dump in all my spent grain and hops, I mix in a combination of sawdust & vegetation, mix, and then cover with a layer of vegetation to keep flies out.  It's a 6-sided scrap-wood tumbler.  Regarding sawdust, I happen to generate a lot of it and this combo makes for easy disposal.

10

Hop Growing / Re: Rhizomes planted on 3/9/13

« on: March 10, 2013, 08:28:52 pm »

I forgot to mention price. The rooted cuttings were 7-8 bucks, and the standard cuttings are 4-5 bucks. They do have large cuttings that run the same as the rooted ones. I think the rooted and large cuttings are sold out. I pre-ordered in October. But after getting these, the standard cuts are very nice. Again, I pre-ordered rather early and it is first come first serve.

Seems like a quality purchase either way.  I paid $7 per rhizome + shipping and got two cuttings per order, in more or less the shape and size of a pencil, with one shoot just starting.

I did get a nice stack of 2x12 redwood, so I just dug out my planting areas, boxed them in, and filled it with 6 months of spent-grain and sawdust compost.  Planting soon!

11

Hop Growing / Re: Rhizomes planted on 3/9/13

« on: March 09, 2013, 06:45:17 pm »

I appreciate the photos.  Those look great; it kinda sets the tone (price/quality) for what can be ordered. 

Do you have a plan for harvesting/processing/storing from so many plants?

12

Hop Growing / Re: Hop trellis options and a few other questions

« on: March 06, 2013, 02:07:03 pm »

Done...

Thank you! 

13

Hop Growing / Re: Hop trellis options and a few other questions

« on: March 06, 2013, 12:48:21 pm »

I like this option personally.  my friend and i just ordered 4 rhizomes from our LHBS and we will propably adopt something similiar to this, but instead of the conduit i will probably hang a piece of PVC pipe from the edge of the roof and run strings tot he ground for the hops to run on.  Ive read this on multiple piece of literature and it seems to work very well, you just need to teach the hop to loop around the string as i understand it.
Jeff

Don't know if it would be an issue:  I'm told to avoid PVC conduit when possible because it flexes too much. I could see the vines getting heavy.  That said, I'm on this route as well. I'll will use some redwood and see if I can get it look good.

14

Hop Growing / Re: Hop trellis options and a few other questions

« on: March 06, 2013, 12:14:19 pm »

An aside:  could we get a 'hop growing' section in the AHA Forum?

Much thanks.

+1

We'll talk about it, but I'm not in favor of it personally.  We've pruned off several sections in the past just to keep things easier to manage.  What about a sticky topic?

Was thinking about a child board off of Ingredients.  Up to you, thank you.

15

Equipment and Software / Re: hop rhizomes newbie

« on: March 06, 2013, 12:00:14 pm »

Surfin':  what variety did you buy?

From HopsDirect, they listed two for coastal climates, Cascade and US Tettnanger, grabbed one of each.  I use about 4 pounds a year, this would maybe replace half my inventory if I'm lucky.

I'm in an area where if the sun is out and it's over 70 degrees F, that's a hot day.