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All Grain Brewing / Re: Water Chemistry
« on: March 01, 2013, 02:52:18 PM »
I don't have time to flip vinyl over during the brew day so I don't listen to much music. But if I did, I would listen to some Feelies.
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62
All Grain Brewing / Re: Bru'n water spreadsheet
« on: March 01, 2013, 10:58:27 AM »
Go to the water chemistry thread for more info re sulfates and chlorides: http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?topic=14929.msg189670#msg189670
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Zymurgy / Re: mit schuss - thanks!
« on: March 01, 2013, 07:55:10 AM »I may use some kind of preservative though.
Really not needed. They are all essentially simple syrup with flavoring and a little extra acidity. Sugar in high concentrations is a great preservative due to osmotic pressure. Think of the stress of adding yeast to high gravity beer and then remember that the specific gravity of simple syrup is ~1.350.
The article says it will last 3 weeks. I'm sure that it could last longer. Maybe I'll also use a little alcohol as a preservative or maybe ensure the pH is below 3. Soda with 10% sugar and a pH of less than 3 will basically last forever if properly prepared or at least not become dangerous to consume.
64
Zymurgy / Re: mit schuss - thanks!
« on: February 28, 2013, 03:00:39 PM »
Looking forward to growing woodruff and turning it into syrup. I may use some kind of preservative though.
65
General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Lactic Acid Impact on flavour
« on: February 26, 2013, 09:48:12 AM »Somewhere in my studies I came across this info and wrote it on my cheatsheet:
"1 ml lactic acid per gal max: 400 ppm flavor threshold (6.5 Ml in 5 galllons of BEER is the flavor threshold) so preboiled wort must be less"
FWIW
Is that the taste threshold in water or beer and what kind of beer? I've used 5 ml / 5 gal in mashes in the past without noticing a taste impact. FWIW, I generally do not need to use any acids to adjust my mash pH. I have also not discerned any taste change when adding 5 ml to 5 gal of finished wit in an attempt to get a little sourness, but did notice a change when adding 10 ml.
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General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Lactic Acid Impact on flavour
« on: February 26, 2013, 07:31:53 AM »
If you are using lactic acid to get the mash pH in range, I doubt you will ever notice it. If the ultimate beer is within normal pH range, I doubt you will notice any lactic acid additions.
67
General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Hop Slurry Method
« on: February 22, 2013, 12:52:27 PM »
This was discussed in another thread on this board. There was more oil (good) and more tannins (bad) extracted by recirculation. The same results could probably be achieved with more dry hops. It isn't clear that this research is particularly practical for homebrewers. I doubt that agitating a carboy a few times a day would mimic a continuous flow of beer through a bed of hops.
68
Kegging and Bottling / Re: Cold Crashing before bottling
« on: February 22, 2013, 12:29:37 PM »
Wyeast 1056 and Safale US-05 are liquid and dry versions of the same yeast. You should be OK to crash cool and bottle without adding more yeast.
69
Kegging and Bottling / Re: Cold Crashing before bottling
« on: February 22, 2013, 12:06:23 PM »
You didn't say what yeast you are using. Perhaps it is US-05? You probably would have enough yeast to ferment. When in doubt though you can hydrate and pitch 1/2 a package of Safale per 5 gallons of beer to ferment in the bottle.
71
Kegging and Bottling / Re: Beer Line Cleaning
« on: February 19, 2013, 09:41:15 AM »
I use PBW for cleaning the lines and the kegs. I use StarSan for sanitizing. I move the PBW through the lines using a bicycle pump connected to the barbed connector of a standard quick-connect.
72
Equipment and Software / Re: propane vs natural gas
« on: February 14, 2013, 08:12:32 PM »
If the previous owner was a homebrewer, there was probably a boilover which is clogging the jets. Try cleaning the pinhole with a pin. Whatever you do, do not unscrew the nozzles expecting to screw them back in. I just leave the gas leaks alone, but the gas leaks I have are pretty small. A good boilover will seal the threads probably.
73
Yeast and Fermentation / Re: Best way to aerate wort just prior to pitching yeast
« on: February 14, 2013, 12:16:42 PM »
Aeration of wort does help dry yeast. There are a myriad of ways to aerate the wort with air. Certain studies have indicated that shaking a carboy to swirl the contents is best, but I've also heard that criticism of the studies. I do this and while racking to primary I aerate the wort by running the wort down the side of the carboy so that the wort fans out (old winemaking trick). I also like to do open fermentations for big beers.
74
All Grain Brewing / Re: 2 beers, 2 yeasts, same nasty sulfur smell and taste
« on: February 07, 2013, 02:22:38 PM »would a tranfer to secondary help with this problem? Getting the beer off of the yeast cake...
If you are getting the eggy sulfur smell, a transfer to secondary can be helpful as the eggy odor will be stripped out by the carbon dioxide that will be lost during the transfer. However, getting the beer off the yeast cake is generally not helpful for green home brews as the yeast reabsorbs some undesirable taste/odor compounds at the end of primary fermentation like diacetyl.
75
All Grain Brewing / Re: 2 beers, 2 yeasts, same nasty sulfur smell and taste
« on: February 07, 2013, 08:51:22 AM »
A possibility is that you are smelling DMS, a sulfur-containing compound that smells like canned corn or a corn refinery, or that the yeast reduce DMS to hydrogen sulfide, which has the classical eggy sulfur smell. You may not be boiling enough to drive out all the DMS-precursor compounds since you are using a Pils malt and you missed your post-boil gravity.