Messages

1681

All Grain Brewing / Re: Gelatinizing Raw Wheat

« on: March 05, 2012, 10:23:04 am »

This might be of interest: http://hbd.org/brewery/library/GelTemps_RL0796.html

Wheat gelatinizes around 125*F.

IIRC from Raj Apte's article, you want a large amount of unconverted starches to feed the bugs over the course of the 9-12mo secondary.

1682

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: The trouble with advice from random people on the Internet...

« on: March 05, 2012, 10:11:43 am »

I use a bayou classic aluminum pot for my boils. I (GASP!) read the instructions for my KAB-4, and it does specifically say to not light the burner while the pot is empty, because it would melt holes in it. I've never had scorching issues, fwiw.

1683

All Grain Brewing / Re: Mash temp too low

« on: March 04, 2012, 02:00:03 pm »

I think the importance of mash temp is overstated. The temp range is so narrow, and modern malt has so much enzymatic power, that a mash at 149* probably won't be any drier than a mash at 153*, all other things being equal. Strain selection and grain bill have a much bigger impact on dryness than mash temp.

Now, if you're mashing at say 145 instead of 160, that'd be a big difference.

1684

Equipment and Software / Re: March Pump orientation/mounting tutorial

« on: March 04, 2012, 01:31:12 pm »

Awesome tutorial. Thanks Walter! I've been doing it wrong all this time.

1685

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: Bottling a Berliner Weisse

« on: March 04, 2012, 11:32:28 am »

I've used 'wild' lacto from grain to make Berliners. It definitely produced CO2 in addition to lactic acid. Have you checked the pH? My yeast got seriously crippled as the pH fell under 3. It might just need more time to fully carbonate.

1686

Wood/Casks / Re: Possible barrel source for people

« on: March 04, 2012, 11:09:26 am »

There were a few I was interested in. I was thinking of buying a sack or two, then if other people want part of it I could divy it up and ship it out to people. I was thinking like $4/lb + shipping, or $1.25/4oz + shipping for the "regular" chips, and $6/lb or $1.75/4oz for the high extract chips. Probably twice that for cubes. Just enough to cover my costs, and a little extra for baggies and gas to drive to the post office. It should still end up being cheaper than the usual LHBS cost for those.

1687

Going Pro / Re: Going Pro-Starting with a Homebrew Supply Shop

« on: March 03, 2012, 05:07:51 pm »

Retail is both easy and hard. We have a tackle store in a vacation area. Our customers tend to come in waves. The store is either swamped or dead. I'm here more than 12 hours a day, almost every day. So it's a huge time suck, but I do have time throughout the day to hang out on the AHA forums.

Some of our customers require a lot of education, much like those in a homebrew store would. This can be either really fun, or really frustrating, depending on who you're trying to teach. Dealing with people all day can be exhausting too, but in a different way than mucking out mash tuns or carrying sacks of grain around.

1688

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: how much S 05

« on: March 03, 2012, 03:59:17 pm »

Just pitching one pack would be about 0.5m/ml/*P, which is the low end of pitching rates. You could probably get away with pitching just one pack, but if you have two I'd use two.

1689

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: how much S 05

« on: March 03, 2012, 03:39:36 pm »

If you properly rehydrate it, you should get close to 90% viability. You need about 300b cells, 1 pack of dry yeast would give you about 210b. If you don't properly rehydrate, you'll lose about half of them. so maybe rehydrate one and dry pitch another pack?

1690

Other Fermentables / Calcium hydroxide instead of potassium hydroxide?

« on: March 03, 2012, 03:00:17 pm »

After reading Dr. England's mead presentation, where he talks about using potassium hydroxide to raise the pH during fermentation, it made me wonder why he didn't use calcium hydroxide. It's a lot easier to get a hold of than KOH. Does anyone know why he recommends KOH over CaOH?

1691

Going Pro / Re: How hard is it to be a pro brewer?

« on: March 03, 2012, 02:47:14 pm »

He was running a law practice while he was taking the course by correspondence, mostly late at night after putting his three kids to bed.  I don't know how he did it all.

Huh, I didn't look closely enough at their website. I didn't know they did correspondence courses. I thought I was going to have to go to VT or CA for the course.

1692

Ingredients / Re: Question about roasted grains

« on: March 03, 2012, 01:15:38 pm »

"Black roasted malt" isn't actually malt, AFAIK. It's unmalted barley that's been roasted. Black patent malt is the darkest of roasted malts. The flavors you get will be different.

Here's an article about it: http://www.byo.com/stories/article/indices/34-grains/156-back-in-black-the-truth-about-black-patent-malt

1693

Going Pro / Re: How hard is it to be a pro brewer?

« on: March 03, 2012, 01:07:25 pm »

One of the things I really enjoy about homebrewing is being able to brew to taste, not to style, and being able to try a lot of different flavor combinations. I think the attitude with craft beer is changing, and I'm seeing a lot more small batch, one-off brews from breweries, but the bread and butter is the "regular" lineup. I think beer drinkers in general expect a lot of consistency from one batch to the next. Wine drinkers seem to enjoy the fact that different vintages taste different.

Ideally I'd like to have a brewery that only makes small-batch, one-off beers and gets like $40 a bottle for them, but ideally I'd have a draft system built into my rocket car. I'm not holding my breath for either one.

1694

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: Saison temperature advice. To Heat or Not To Heat

« on: March 03, 2012, 10:29:19 am »

In looking at different resources for mead making (which involves wine yeast) I came across a thread talking about how saison yeasts (probably derived from wine yeasts) could excessively lower pH during fermentation. This could be a reason why saisons can plow through fermentation quickly up to a point, then take a long time to finish.

So if you have a pH meter, I'd check. The closer the pH is to 3 the slower the ferment will be. I made a pre-soured Berliner Weisse pitched onto a whole yeast cake that only got about 50% apparent attenuation, because the pH was under 3.

1695

Other Fermentables / Re: Kris England's 2008 NHC Mead presentation

« on: March 03, 2012, 09:57:03 am »

Cool, thanks Denny! All the ones I found sent me here: http://www.ahaconference.org/presentations/2008/KrisEngland_NHC.pdf