Messages

526

All Grain Brewing / Re: First repeat recipe almost on mark

« on: October 08, 2012, 03:18:43 pm »

I don;t plan them out for the whole year- though that isn;t a bad idea!

Since I'm both a) insane and b) I love Excel, I've considered doing that. My problem is I get really excited about brewing something, then when it's time to brew it, there's something else I'm way more into. For instance, I bought a bunch of smoked malt for a rauchbier, but then I decided to buy a bunch of different NZ hops, so the rauchbier is on the back-burner for a while I work through those.

527

Ingredients / Re: Falconer's Flight

« on: October 08, 2012, 02:29:43 pm »

It's kinda like how when you can't get enough coffee, you mix it with chicory.

528

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: more aeration on day 2-3?

« on: October 08, 2012, 02:13:55 pm »

According to this paper, http://www.fermentis.com/SHARED/Doc_52528.pdf, the amount of dry yeast per gram on average greatly exceeds the 6 billion cells per gram.  That's probably the discrepancy.

S-04, for some reason, only has 8b per gram, according to that. I've always used the 20b / gram rule of thumb, but I guess it makes sense that it may vary by strain, and I'll try to use that info in the future.

529

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: more aeration on day 2-3?

« on: October 08, 2012, 02:03:28 pm »

Well that's confusing to. Just checked Mr Malty and he says 1.8 packs even if they are a month old. He also recomends >300 billion cells but says that 1.8 packs will deliver that.

I must be missing something here.

ahh well. I guess I will RDWHAHB and pitch the two packs as planned. There is something wonky in my understanding of this whole thing.

If you properly rehydrate the yeast, 2 11g packs will be plenty. If you just throw the yeast in the cool wort, you'll kill 50%+ of the yeast.  BTW, the optimum rehydration temp varies a bit by strain, but most strains will be more like 100-105*, rather than 90*.

You also don't want to use RO water. Tap water would be better. It needs some minerals so the minerals inside the yeast don't get sucked out into the water.

I came across this that I thought was interesting: http://www.fermentis.com/SHARED/Doc_52528.pdf
Viable cells per gram:
k-97 - 1.4*10^10
s-04 - 0.8*10^10
t-58 - 1.8*10^10
s-33 - 1.6*10^10
s-23 - 1.0*10^10
s-189 - 0.9*10^10

530

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Research papers or studies on homebrewing's contribution craft beer industry?

« on: October 08, 2012, 12:30:08 pm »

Although everybody has their favorite homebrewer-gone-big-time story, I believe the biggest impact of homebrewing is to provide a customer base for all those pro breweries. But that is even more difficult to quantify.

That's so true. Per capita consumption is seriously skewed by heavy drinkers. We studied alcoholism in my psychopathology class in college. Basically, something like 90% of all alcohol consumed is consumed by about 10% of the drinkers. Most of the homebrewers I know definitely fall into that 10%. The other "drinkers" drink very infrequently. Some people only drink one or two times a year. As someone who enjoys a pint just about every day, that's inconceivable to me.

531

All Grain Brewing / Re: First repeat recipe almost on mark

« on: October 08, 2012, 12:25:20 pm »

I've never brewed exactly the same recipe twice. If it ain't broke, keep tinkering until it is!

532

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: more aeration on day 2-3?

« on: October 08, 2012, 11:28:25 am »

I'm sure I read somewhere it was OK to aerate until the SG passed the halfway mark on your planned attenuation.  So if you're aiming for ~1.020 from 1.100 then unless it's past 1.060 I think you should be OK.  I've never tried it though

I've read something similar, I couldn't remember what the cut-off is. If it were my beer, my cut-off would be a lot more conservative, maybe more like <20-25% of planned attenuation. I'd aerate if gravity > 1.080-84.

533

Ingredients / Re: What is candi sugar?

« on: October 08, 2012, 10:55:28 am »

I'm pretty sure D2 is the Candimic dark 78%

534

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: more aeration on day 2-3?

« on: October 08, 2012, 10:51:21 am »

Rousing is a great idea.

Aerating is a good idea too if gravity hasn't dropped much. Adding O2 is only bad if the yeast don't need it.

535

Ingredients / Re: Belma Hops?!?!?

« on: October 08, 2012, 10:48:50 am »

I just ordered some too, mostly because of the price point. I got a pound of Citra too, so it might be a while before I get around to using the Belma.

536

Ingredients / Re: Water Softeners

« on: October 07, 2012, 06:42:49 am »

If your water is high in temporary hardness (Ca/Mg + CO3, not Cl or SO4) you can always use the low-tech method of using pickling lime. That's what I do, and it works well. Just don't use an aluminum pot to do it in.

537

Ingredients / Re: Water Softeners

« on: October 06, 2012, 11:52:52 am »

Some water softeners use potassium as the cation. Potassium is good for yeast health, generally. If it uses sodium for the cation you really wouldn't want to use it in most cases. If it uses potassium you could probably blend softened with unsoftened to get something reasonable, but I'd check your water report to make sure that's reasonable.

538

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: Fusel alcohols revisited

« on: October 06, 2012, 07:22:41 am »

I'm kind of an idiot, but here's my understanding: Acetyl-CoA is acetate and Coenzyme A. The Coenzyme breaks sugar down into pyruvate, which can be turned into acetate and attached to the Coenzyme to form acetyl-CoA. In the presence of oxygen, the acetate can be broken down into CO2 and water. If there's no oxygen, the yeast has to turn the acetate into "something else" to get rid of it. The "something else" is yeast byproducts.

It's my understanding that if the yeast is using acetyl-CoA for growth, it can't be used for ester production. I'm not sure exactly how that works, but it squares with info from Neva Parker (WL) and Dr. Cone (Danstar) that high pitching rate = less growth = more esters.

I think there's a strong strain-dependent variable here, because Wyeast, for instance, found that overpitching their weizen strain meant basically no banana esters were formed. So there's a lot of anecdotal evidence that seems to contradict the "scientific" explanation. Although, I think the composition of your malt and your wort should have a pretty big impact on the types of flavors created during fermentation, but hardly anyone talks about that, outside of doing a ferulic acid rest for weizens.

FWIW the best Belgians I've made have been massively overpitched. I've found that using dextrose gives different yeast character than using sucrose or levulose. I used to use a lot of table sugar when making my Belgians, but I've been happier with the results from dextrose. I haven't done any true ABX comparisons to verify, so take that with a sack of salt.

539

General Homebrew Discussion / Aluminum pot and lime decarbonation

« on: October 05, 2012, 10:14:28 am »

So, I normally do my lime softening in a food-grade plastic trashcan, but I only needed a little bit, so I used an aluminum stockpot. The inside of the pot turned dark gray after I drained it. I used the water to brew a batch of beer. I didn't think about aluminum corrosion until after I was done brewing.

The water sat at about pH 10 for 12-15 hours. Should I be concerned about excessive aluminum content in the beer?

540

Ingredients / Re: How best to use raw wheat berries?

« on: October 03, 2012, 05:39:01 pm »

I found a used Corona mill on Amazon for $18 w/free shipping. I think Mosher is right that a malt mill isn't appropriate for milling unmalted grains. As a bonus, I can use it to make masa harina!