Messages

61

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: My "house" bug is taking over! Sanitation help needed

« on: April 09, 2013, 05:49:39 am »

Just buy new fermentors. It's not worth the risk of all the work of a brewday not to mention cost of ingredients.

These are my feelings as well. At the very least, you have more sour fermenters now! 

That being said, I had a couple batches go south due to what I found to be a "bottle cleanliness" issue. I threw out all the empty bottles from those batches and never had a problem again. It was a slight phenolic, somewhat of a gusher after a couple months in the bottle kind of infection.

62

Ingredients / Re: simcoe, citra and amarillo

« on: April 08, 2013, 11:46:09 am »

I have no idea what they are doing. But when I talked to vinny several years ago he acted like the recipe posted online and made popular by the b3 clone wasn't what they were using "now". Heck, my understanding is that RR is using hop extracts for Pliny for bittering additions.

Hop extract is used to get more wort out of the kettle. The recipe he handed out at the Oakland NHC was for homebrewers, and uses 45 and 30 additions. He said on the BN a couple years back that he uses Amarillo in Pliny now.

So does anyone know where the "correct" recipe is? Or does he just add Amarillo to different points in the process?

63

Equipment and Software / Re: Hydrometer question

« on: April 08, 2013, 10:30:45 am »

Temp of sample?

Unless it was much colder than 60, wouldn't a warmer temp result in a lower gravity reading than expected?

64

Equipment and Software / Re: Something to help with lifting

« on: April 08, 2013, 10:29:15 am »

The fiance' tends to volunteer for this work - lucky me!! 

65

Equipment and Software / Re: hop screen

« on: April 08, 2013, 10:27:34 am »

I use the Hop Stopper and love it. That guy will custom make any size for you too.

I had some issues with losing the suction, but I tilted the screen until one side hit the bottom of the kettle and it drains all but 0.25 gallons from my 10 gallon kettle (5.5 gallon batch). Worked pretty well for the fiance's IIPA a couple of weeks ago. I think it was 8 oz of hops in the boil??

66

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Can't clean fermenter

« on: April 08, 2013, 09:26:24 am »

I've never met any sort of brown crusty stuff that Mark's Keg Washer and some PBW hasn't been able to tackle.

Now, the 1 year old lambic crust in a 6 gallon glass carboy... that took about 40 minutes on the Keg Washer, but it still worked without me scrubbing. Pretty cool.

67

Homebrew Competitions / Re: NHC regional experiences

« on: April 08, 2013, 06:59:04 am »

I can report that the Kansas City Bier Meisters did a great, great job of organizing a successful judging weekend in KC.  I know they are exhausted now but I hope they consider hosting a regional in another year or two.  Some solid and some excellent beers from around the country, and judging done by around 5pm yesterday.  Sufficient lighting and not overcrowded.  The food was great and plentiful, thanks.  Quite a few judges made really long drives to help out.  Janis even flew out to help!  Yeah I did some b****ing about a few long flights, but that is practically my calling card.   

Michael, thank you for the kind words! Yes, we are all exhausted, but it was well worth it. We certainly could not have pulled it off without the help of everyone - something Janis also commented on. When a snafu arose, there was always someone there to figure it out and make it a non-issue.

We had AMAZING food crafted by one of our members, a great staff, and a whole lot of volunteers from all over the midwest (and some beyond!).

I do hope we can do this again next year. If we can improve on a "great, great job", then I think we're in business!

PS - I'm going to have to get the recipe for that peach cider you handed me. 

68

Commercial Beer Reviews / Re: La Folie

« on: April 05, 2013, 08:46:41 am »

I have a couple of these in the secret beer cabinet. After doing the tour before GABF and drinking a fresh keg of it right next to the foudres back in October, I had to stock up.

And Le Terrior is another good one - showed that you really can dry hop a sour!

69

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: What's Brewing This Weekend - 4/7 Edition

« on: April 05, 2013, 08:42:50 am »

no brewing; NHC judging!

+1

I'm heading up to NYC to judge the regionals.

Yep, same here in KC. We've been judging smaller categories since Monday.

70

All Grain Brewing / Re: Extreme Efficiency Boost!

« on: April 04, 2013, 07:17:05 am »

My hydrometer was calibrated...can one become uncalibrated? I never remember to take a pre-wort gravity reading. I'm going to start making sure I do.

Absolutely.

71

Kegging and Bottling / Re: Why do YOU keg?

« on: April 04, 2013, 06:54:01 am »

The biggest advantage to me is that I can pour myself whatever volume I want.

72

All Grain Brewing / Re: First Lagers

« on: April 03, 2013, 05:16:25 am »

Been there, done that.  With enough friends, anything is possible.  Man does my crew love lagers.

Yep. That's how I blew through my most recent Munich Dunkel. I had to pull some bottles off the keg for comp purposes just so we wouldn't drink every last drop. Which means that the Maibock that I had intended on lagering until May is on tap right now... this is dangerous.

But Jim, sounds like you have a good plan.

73

Equipment and Software / Re: Brewing Calculators / Software

« on: April 02, 2013, 09:56:17 am »

Being an engineer by trade, I do nearly all of my own calcs...

Being an engineer by trade, I know the most effective and efficient method of calculating recipe specs is with brewing software 

Quick and efficient is for work - slow and relaxing is my weekend mode. Plus I like to play with the numbers. 

74

Equipment and Software / Re: Brewing Calculators / Software

« on: April 01, 2013, 08:56:26 am »

Being an engineer by trade, I do nearly all of my own calcs. For those I'm too lazy to do (SRM/IBU), I use Beer Calculus.

75

Ingredients / Re: simcoe, citra and amarillo

« on: March 29, 2013, 05:15:33 am »

On the dry hopping go light on the Citra because it really overpowers other hops. I would say 1oz Citra, 2oz Amarillo and 2oz Simcoe.

Second this. The 2012 Citra is quite loud in combination with other hops - I did a even addition of Simcoe, Centennial, Cascade, Mosaic and Citra and all I could taste was CITRA!!! Not a bad thing, but something to be aware of.