46
Equipment and Software / Re: Pulleys
« on: November 03, 2012, 04:27:32 PM »
garage door opener comes to mind.
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47
Beer Travel / Re: Poland?
« on: November 03, 2012, 03:26:32 PM »I think if you look the article over closely, it says it is not made anymore in Poland.
Missed that, thanks for the correction.
48
Beer Travel / Poland?
« on: November 03, 2012, 12:19:39 PM »
The latest issue of Zymurgy has a great, great article on Grodziskie. On my last trip through Poland (mostly through rural areas), I didn't find this. Anyone know where to expect to find it beyond where it is made or if it is imported?
I'm no expert, just a random traveler. The best I could find was on tap, Okocim. The Polish do meats and mushrooms very well, and pairing anything like that with Okocim was great (and notably inexpensive; $2 a liter).
A question is what are craft or BJCP beer judges looking for in good Pilsners. Most of the pilsner beers there were advertised as award winning, but if it was good it was also quite green. This meant huge yeast aromas, much more than I've ever noticed before. I'm wondering if that is desirable or simply different from the beers sent to contests.
Would love to find something like either one of these in the US.
I'm no expert, just a random traveler. The best I could find was on tap, Okocim. The Polish do meats and mushrooms very well, and pairing anything like that with Okocim was great (and notably inexpensive; $2 a liter).
A question is what are craft or BJCP beer judges looking for in good Pilsners. Most of the pilsner beers there were advertised as award winning, but if it was good it was also quite green. This meant huge yeast aromas, much more than I've ever noticed before. I'm wondering if that is desirable or simply different from the beers sent to contests.
Would love to find something like either one of these in the US.
49
All Grain Brewing / Re: stuck sparge
« on: November 01, 2012, 08:56:17 PM »Try malt conditioning. Very slightly dampening the husks prior to crushing the grain can substantially improve the quality of the husks, which is the easiest way to improve lautering and reduce the chance of a stuck sparge.
How is your efficiency? I was doing this for a while and needed to stop, mostly to simplify the process and to not clean the mill in fine detail (sticks to the rollers). I used about two cups of water per 5 gallon batch (14-18 pounds), letting it sit for a couple hours before milling & mashing.
Cheers.
50
Equipment and Software / Re: Aquarium heater for controlling fermentation temps
« on: October 29, 2012, 06:36:18 PM »
I suggest monitoring closely at first; I found out the hard way that the settings are not accurate. I killed a really great Saison batch with excessive fusel notes over night. I use a pump with a 200W heater & enclose it all in a 32 gal plastic trash can, works great. Cooling is up next, but I'll insulate for that.
51
All Grain Brewing / Re: No Sparge
« on: October 24, 2012, 10:26:54 PM »+1. Efficiency for a regular strength beer will only be about ~5% less than your usual. Big beers around 1.100 will be about 50-55%. Then you can do a batch sparge for another 5 gallons of brew. It sure saves a lot of time too.
Any advice for the target temp of the sparge for how it might affect the outcome of the wort (say, sweet vs dry)? Can one get by with measuring the sugar content of the sparge, or do you need to be tracking the ph as well?
Thanks.
52
Beer Travel / Re: San Francisco
« on: October 12, 2012, 11:45:06 AM »You could also bop over to the east bay on BART and chcek out beer revolution. they have some good stuff and most of what you drink you can grab a bottle of to take home.
I've not been there but have only heard good things. By chance, have you visited Drakes?
53
Beer Travel / Re: San Francisco
« on: October 12, 2012, 08:53:36 AM »
Pi Bar, on Valencia in the Mission. They'll also have some unique finds from Europe by the bottle. http://pibarsf.com/drink-menu
Thirsty Bear is a longtime favorite, in particular they'll have something from a up-and-coming local brewer in the cask.
The Public House next to AT&T Park will also will have kegs of from small local brewers.
There's great beer just about everywhere. What I look for is a place with Drakes or Speakeasy on tap, like Zeitgeist http://www.zeitgeistsf.com/beer.html.
Lastly visit Whole Foods and try some singles from Moylan's. The Whole Foods in Potrero Hill has a tap room now and occasionally puts local beers on 20% sale.
Cheers!
Thirsty Bear is a longtime favorite, in particular they'll have something from a up-and-coming local brewer in the cask.
The Public House next to AT&T Park will also will have kegs of from small local brewers.
There's great beer just about everywhere. What I look for is a place with Drakes or Speakeasy on tap, like Zeitgeist http://www.zeitgeistsf.com/beer.html.
Lastly visit Whole Foods and try some singles from Moylan's. The Whole Foods in Potrero Hill has a tap room now and occasionally puts local beers on 20% sale.
Cheers!
54
Ingredients / Re: Spent Grain as Compost?
« on: October 08, 2012, 08:10:08 PM »
By throwing it in the grain on the ground, it attracts the vermin something fierce. Perhaps buy/build a composter? I give it about 6 months before rotating to the garden (w/ worms), it's awesome to work with when dumping it out.
55
Yeast and Fermentation / Re: Fusel alcohols revisited
« on: October 06, 2012, 03:33:57 PM »
Thanks for the reply Paul & Nateo, that gets me going in the right direction.
How does a homebrewer control for low oxygen rates? Seems like that's a controlling factor (as compared to pitch rates) along with glucose (via dextrose) & some fusel production.
The chemistry terms are appreciated; I'm finding a lot of reading material by searching on https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp.
I'll give it another try. Going between IPA's (hop + water science), Pilsners (water + lagering technique), & Saisons (fermentation chemistry) is like working through a college course in homebrew (not a bad thing
)
Cheers!
How does a homebrewer control for low oxygen rates? Seems like that's a controlling factor (as compared to pitch rates) along with glucose (via dextrose) & some fusel production.
The chemistry terms are appreciated; I'm finding a lot of reading material by searching on https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp.
I'll give it another try. Going between IPA's (hop + water science), Pilsners (water + lagering technique), & Saisons (fermentation chemistry) is like working through a college course in homebrew (not a bad thing
)Cheers!
56
Yeast and Fermentation / Fusel alcohols revisited
« on: October 05, 2012, 07:51:00 PM »
I'm on the opposite side of andrew000141's "fuel alcohol" thread where I want a strong ester profile for saisons and am just learning about temp control. I just brewed a honey-orange saison (mash at 150 deg, WLP566, 6%, 40 ibu), and I upgraded the fermentation heater from 50W to 200W without testing first. The high temp setting says 89 degrees, so I went with it.
The next day after pitching I checked, it was krausening at 97 degrees. Tasted horridly awful with fusels, and it fermented out at 85 degrees. 6 weeks later (w/ rack & bottle at ~60 degrees), the majority of fusel notes are gone and should be quite fine in a month or so. No headaches.
I'm not tasting a lot of esters yet - does it help if the beer is mashed at a lower temp?
How about fatty-acid content to promote esterification - does honey help in that regard?
Any other tidbits?
Cheers.
The next day after pitching I checked, it was krausening at 97 degrees. Tasted horridly awful with fusels, and it fermented out at 85 degrees. 6 weeks later (w/ rack & bottle at ~60 degrees), the majority of fusel notes are gone and should be quite fine in a month or so. No headaches.
I'm not tasting a lot of esters yet - does it help if the beer is mashed at a lower temp?
How about fatty-acid content to promote esterification - does honey help in that regard?
Any other tidbits?
Cheers.
57
The Pub / Re: song title game
« on: September 13, 2012, 10:25:15 PM »
Devil with the Blue Dress - Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels
58
The Pub / Re: song title game
« on: September 13, 2012, 09:12:59 PM »
Friend of the Devil - Grateful Dead
59
General Homebrew Discussion / Re: What's Brewing This Weekend - 9/7
« on: September 06, 2012, 08:45:33 PM »
Bottling orange/honey saison, racking rye IPA to secondary w/ dry-hop. Weekend project is to find some good references to read up on specifics of hop aroma, hop flavor.
60
Ingredients / Re: Hop Schedule
« on: September 04, 2012, 11:08:18 PM »
I've changed from a hop schedule that has intervals like 60, 30, 10, 5, 0 minutes to 60, 20, 8 minutes based on this chart:
http://brewjournal-dvg.blogspot.com/2011/01/hop-utilization.html
So far, I'm getting very good results on aroma and flavor for specific hops with the change, specifically for a style like IPA. Saving the 0 min flame-out addition for dryhop.
That image is posted all over the internet, anyone know of it's roots?
Cheers.
http://brewjournal-dvg.blogspot.com/2011/01/hop-utilization.html
So far, I'm getting very good results on aroma and flavor for specific hops with the change, specifically for a style like IPA. Saving the 0 min flame-out addition for dryhop.
That image is posted all over the internet, anyone know of it's roots?
Cheers.