Messages

61

Equipment and Software / Re: What 10 gal fermenter?

« on: January 20, 2013, 09:44:39 PM »

They're a little harder to find, but you can also get your hands on 10 and 15 gallon corny kegs and you can get by without any welding. 

62

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Super Bowl brews

« on: January 13, 2013, 08:36:19 PM »

Patriots Pale Ale?  Brady Bock?  Belichick Berliner Weisse?

Nothing planned except a Superbowl victory!!!  Also, my fermentors are dedicated right now for brewing for NHC first round.

GO PATS!!!

BeliCzech Pils?

63

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: What's Brewing This Weekend - 1/11 Edition

« on: January 09, 2013, 09:49:19 PM »

Kegging a cream ale and waiting on a Dortmunder Export.

Hmm this sounds good. Let us know how it turned out, and did you use any adjuncts in the cream?



I am brewing a German Hefe with the super fresh yeast I bought from the white labs tasting room. And kegging a SMASH pale ale with mosaic hops.

Used 5% flaked corn and 5% flaked rice. Having done a vigorous 90 minute boil I was really surprised by a huge corn aroma after 5 days of fermentation.  I suspect the big pitch of yeast I used from a friends IPA was rather spent. So, I pitched some Safale-05, warmed it up to 68 and hoped for the best.  It's now down to 1.009 and crashing, the corn aroma is diminished but I think it's going to need some time and bit of CO2 scrubbing to really clean it up.  I'm staying optimistic. 

64

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: What's Brewing This Weekend - 1/11 Edition

« on: January 09, 2013, 06:26:05 PM »

Kegging a cream ale and waiting on a Dortmunder Export.

65

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Dry Hopping in a corny keg

« on: January 07, 2013, 09:55:19 AM »

My preferred method is to tuck a hop sock containing whole hops between the out-tube and the wall of the corny about 1/3 from the top of the keg.

66

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: Post a pic of your Pellicle!

« on: January 03, 2013, 08:35:49 AM »

Flanders red

Hey Red, is that a Roeselare pellicle?  I've had my first Flanders in the closet for about 4 months now and the pellicle is really just starting to build and it most resembles your photo.

67

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: Stir plate question

« on: January 03, 2013, 08:32:39 AM »

How long do you use the stir plate after fermentation begins? do you run it till the bubbles stop?

Its usually in the 24-48 hour range for me.  There are visual signs to look for - krausen/foam head has fallen, the wort has a creamier, more opaque appearance than when initially pitched, and the cascading bubbles rising to the top have ceased.  When all of those things have occured, I tightly seal the foil on top and off she goes for cold crashing.

Same here, usually around 36 hours unless I'm doing multiple steps.

68

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Christmas Presents

« on: December 28, 2012, 10:33:39 AM »

My kids got me a craft beer club membership. 3 bottles of 4 different craft beers. 4 shipments, every other month. It's going to be interesting and fun.
I bought my self a pound of Citra and Simco hops. Brew Brothers rocks.

The Brew Brothers do rock, I've seen them do it.
It's awesome to have them as my LHBS only minutes from the office. 

69

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Christmas Presents

« on: December 27, 2012, 11:43:46 AM »

... it was a Scotch advent calendar.  24 drams of different scotches... the last one being a 50 year old speyside.  It was awesome opening each day to see what we were trying that night.

That is awesome.  I wan't one with bourbon next year!

70

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: What's Brewing This Weekend - 12/28 Edition

« on: December 27, 2012, 10:39:59 AM »

I'm kegging my Backyard IPA that has 100% of my 2012 personal hop harvest.  Won't have time for a standard batch so I'm thinking about making a big bad stout extract/steep grain style. 

71

The Pub / Re: Your favorite Christmas beers?

« on: December 26, 2012, 08:47:11 AM »

I used to look forward to the release of Jubelale every year.  The past couple years it just hasn't done anything for me. Searching for a new holiday favorite, enjoying the research.

72

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Christmas Presents

« on: December 25, 2012, 06:14:28 PM »

Santa brought me a flight of Deschutes The Abyss bombers, 2007-2012. Looking forward to aging them and starting a new X-mas beverage tradition.

73

The Pub / Re: Merry Christmas Everybody!!!

« on: December 24, 2012, 11:45:31 PM »

Beery Christmas to all!

74

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Starsan after BLC

« on: December 20, 2012, 03:24:41 PM »

I modified a 2 gallon garden sprayer (new) to use as my line cleaning tank. ... Maybe $30 in materials.

If you aren't in a DIY mood, that's roughly what the commercial units cost. http://www.micromatic.com/draft-keg-beer/line-cleaning-cid-1084.html

*Never* use caustics without a thorough HOT water rinse. The solubility falls off sharply at low temperatures.

Guess I'll keep doing what I'm doing then.

I didn't mean to suggest that you not rinse BLC,  just that some sort of manual air pump vessel would be easier to deal with than corny kegs for line cleaning and save CO2. 

75

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Starsan after BLC

« on: December 20, 2012, 11:22:43 AM »

I've been wondering this as well, wondering if it's really necessary. Getting a little tired of wasting the CO2, opening and closing my kegs to refill with BLC, then StarSan...my process seems to be working fine, but if I don't need to run StarSan after BLC, then I don't want to bother with it. The instructions on the BLC bottle say to rinse with clean water, I think. So I run BLC, then water, then StarSan through. So if I can cut down on something there, I'd love to.

I modified a 2 gallon garden sprayer (new) to use as my line cleaning tank. Just remove the wand and replace with a ball/pin lock post and your good to go.  It's light, no CO2 required and you can purge the lines with pressurized air at the end of a flush if you like as well. Maybe $30 in materials.