Messages

46

General Homebrew Discussion / This is a new one

« on: February 20, 2013, 07:50:39 pm »

Ok I had an appointment cancel today so I figured it was a perfect opportunity to brew my 80/- that I didn't get to this weekend. Went ahead with a single decoction to mashout and a 1G of first runnings kettle carmelization (simple grain bill: 97% Eng. Pale Ale, 3% roasted barley), and I think the decoction gave me rockstar efficiency again on the BIAB. I calculated @ 84%.

Anyway, I had to add water volume to the kettle to maintain my BU:GU ratio, and had about a half gallon of extra wort. I thought it would be a great simple way to get my 3711 French Saison started. Pitched a non-swollen smack pack into 1.5L or so of 1.055 80/-, thinking it was not hoppy, and relatively session strength, with some trub for yeast nutrient.

Not seeing much activity 3+ hours later, usually I see a big krausen in an hour or so.

So, a n00b like question from me: I am hoping this starter will still start, but could it be that its a dextrinous malt (mashed around 158*), or higher gravity, or did I perhaps ruin my precious French Saison Yeast?? Blah!

47

Extract/Partial Mash Brewing / Re: Why does all my beer taste the same?

« on: February 06, 2013, 09:07:53 pm »

I started brewing recently and have made three batches from extract kits (details below). I had a little experience before this in helping my dad make mead and wine, so I at least had a clue when I started. I sanitized and followed all directions religiously, and I ended up with three beers that should taste pretty different from each other but all taste incredibly similar. There are no off-flavors. The aroma is very nice on all of them, and the color, head, etc. all look right. OG and FG were exactly where the instructions specified. But they all have a very thin flavor profile and/or seem overcarbonated, with only subtle notes of the beer's intended flavor.

#1) Brewer's Best Scottish Ale, OG 1.034, boil volume 2.5gal
#2) Midwest Supplies Hex Nut Brown Ale, OG 1.043, boil volume 5gal
#3) Midwest Supplies Irish Stout, OG 1.047, boil volume 3gal

After the first one came out thin but with everything else seemingly on-target, I figured I needed to steep the specialty grains for longer (30 minutes on batches 2 and 3 compared to 20 on batch 1), which resulted in little to no improvement. All three seemed to have a much fuller flavor just before bottling compared to after bottle conditioning - going into the bottles each batch tasted great, and all three notably different from each other as they should be, but after 2 weeks in the bottle they all taste very similar and seem to have lost their flavor. There might be a tiny improvement in the flavor after extra time in the bottles (a month or two), but it's small enough that I could just be fooling myself.

I'm using secondary fermentation (roughly a week in the primary and a week in the secondary), bottle conditioning with the 3/4 cup of priming sugar that is included in the kits, and the fermentation/carbonation temperature is around 65F.

I'm stumped.

what about serving temp?  34* makes all beer taste cold then bitter!  take them out of the fridge 10 min before pouring them and report back.

48

All Grain Brewing / Re: Looking for a good AG recipe book

« on: February 06, 2013, 09:03:10 pm »

BCS is THE recipe book.  I know Jamil gets a lot of head-inflating props, but every one of his recipes has won comps.  He is the type of brewer that will brew the same style 10+ times until he gets it right.  Every style I have made out of BCS has turned out great. 


I've also heard "Clone Brews" is terrible.

49

Extract/Partial Mash Brewing / Re: Questions about using corn meal

« on: February 01, 2013, 06:17:40 am »

Cornmeal can go rancid, so let your nose be the guide on weather to use it. Did your wife buy new for a reason, or just forgot she had it on hand?

You need to do a cereal mash, as that gelatinizes the starch, allowing the enzymes to get in and do the work converting starch to sugars. The gelatinization temp of corn is fairly high, so that is why you boil it to break up the starch granules. If not you will have lower efficiency and starch in your beer.

For the price of the cornmeal, I would buy some fresh. That is what I did for the CAP that is lagering now.

Forgot she had it on hand.  I also have this obsession as of late to use ingredients I have on hand.  Will give the packages a sniff and a sift and see if they are good to go.  Thanks for the responses!

50

Extract/Partial Mash Brewing / Re: Agave Nectar Wheat Beer?

« on: January 30, 2013, 08:38:17 pm »

One of the better brewers in our club brews an agave blonde regularly.  Haven't had it, but I know it gets great reviews.  Congrats on a successful brew!

PS as Jamil says, "all great brewers share their recipes" :-)

51

Extract/Partial Mash Brewing / Questions about using corn meal

« on: January 30, 2013, 08:33:09 pm »

Ok somehow in my house we have accumulated about 4 lbs of cornmeal (I think there have been a few times when making cornbread where my wife would just buy a new package. 

In 40 brews, I have brewed one cream ale that I liked.  This past weekend I brewed a faux CAP that I am really psyched about.  Took a preliminary sample to see where I was in the ferment and it is already tasting pretty darn good. 

I want to brew Your Father's Moustache soon, but I can already see myself becoming obsessed with this style and beers based off of it.

Anyway, I would love to use this cornmeal I have in a simple lightish drinker with some good saaz character.

-Does corn meal go stale?  I know its something to do with whether the germ is removed or if they're steel cut or otherwise (?)  Google is not yielding good information on this, but some of this corn meal was bought a year ago or so.
-Do I have to do a cereal mash with cornmeal?  If it helps or makes a difference, I typically brew in a bag (so gluey mash shouldn't be a huge issue), 5 gal batches
-Is this corn meal better suited to make a bunch of corn bread for a homeless shelter?

52

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: The Lesser of two ferment temp evils

« on: January 30, 2013, 11:17:21 am »

Wow. Came home for lunch and saw the faux pils had climbed to 66-67* while in front of the dehumidifier fan!! Put a wet towel around it. Though gravity had only dropped 10pts when I checked, hopefully this pitch of yeasts' fusel and ester-making days (hours) are largely behind it.

53

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: The Lesser of two ferment temp evils

« on: January 30, 2013, 06:14:14 am »

Revised plan: moved faux pils out of chamber set @ ambient in basement.  Temp climbing a bit, but still 64ish.  Used ferm fridge for bitter, which is good because it's churning like crazy after 8 hours.

54

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: The Lesser of two ferment temp evils

« on: January 29, 2013, 07:45:18 pm »

Ok, here's the plan:  going to start it upstairs until it gets going, then move it downstairs and wrap it in an old blanket (and I can place in front of the dehumidifier with a wet towel for some evaporative heat loss if it gets too warm).  As fermentation winds down, I'll bring it back upstairs for a makeshift d-rest. 

God I love my ferm chamber.  I just need another one :-)

55

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: The Lesser of two ferment temp evils

« on: January 29, 2013, 06:21:43 pm »

Thanks brutha.  I was leaning toward your camp.  The proprietor of one of my LHBS's told me he would put it on the first floor, as I wouldn't get esters otherwise.  I gave  him a weird look when he gave his answer.

56

Yeast and Fermentation / The Lesser of two ferment temp evils

« on: January 29, 2013, 06:08:41 pm »

So I did a quick Premium Bitter today and realized I don't have a way to ferment it right @ 67*. 

I have a faux pilsner going in my ferm fridge set at 60*.  The ambient temp in there also happens to be 60*.  The pils is in the midst of high krausen (US-05) and is bubbling pretty regularly.  I checked the gravity, and it had only dropped from 1.058 to 1.045 (if it was further through fermentation I would have moved up to the first floor of my place with a pretty regular ambient temp of 65). 

My question is, is it better to ferment my premium bitter (1L starter of Nottingham) at an ambient temp of 60* in my fermentation fridge, 58* in my basement, or 65* on my first floor?  I want some ester production, but I feel like if I have it @ 65 degrees ambient, the ferment could take it up north of 70*, and I don't want fusels.  Any thoughts are appreciated. 

57

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: BJCP Guideline question

« on: January 28, 2013, 07:07:01 pm »

Good responses above, also depending on the temp of the majority of your fermentation, I would consider raising it after its 60-70% done, as Irish Ale yeasts can tend to produce some diacetyl, which is a big flaw in an AmIPA or even an amber.  Raising the temp will encourage the yeast to clean that up and also fully attenuate.

58

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: BJCP Tasting Exam: Wow! That was hard!

« on: January 28, 2013, 07:04:03 pm »

I'm taking my tasting exam @ the end of Feb.  Publicly-posted commercial calibration would be huge, though I don't think it exists.  In fact, a reader wrote in to Zymurgy complaining that different judges were coming up with such different descriptors for the same beer.  [EDIT!!! If you are an AHA member, go on to eZymurgy and you can find a lot of different commercial calibrations!  One more reason to join if you aren't already a member!]

I passed my online exam in October, have judged one comp as a provisional (judged saisons with Dave Houseman in the afternoon, who contributes to the calibration column...such a great guy and a great teacher!) and stewarded two others prior.  I was particularly psyched when Dave and I would come up with the same score for a beer!

Also, one of my clubs does a non-sanctioned comp every month, which has helped me taste different beer, learn the styles (somewhat, as we do a different category each month), and learn to use descriptors. 

Finally, I have been trying to fill out a minimum of 5 scoresheets per week.  A couple of things I have found helpful as well:

-my proctor recommended taking one beer (eg Sam Smith's Oatmeal Stout), and judging it in three different categories, ie "Oatmeal Stout", "Russian Imperial Stout", and "Baltic Porter".  That way, you can learn to ID STYLE flaws and not just technical flaws.  SS's Oatmeal Stout is a well-made beer, but it is probably not the best Baltic Porter.
-look through Ratebeer and BeerAdvocate for simple reviews of the beer you just did.  Like anything crowd-sourced, a lot of the 'data' can be crap, but you might catch a descriptor that you missed (make sure to save some of the sample when you are reviewing your scoresheet.
-Finally, I will quiz myself on some reverse-learning stuff (there's probably a more technical term).  Ie instead of reading the style guidelines for saison and biere de garde, I will try to write down the differences between a saison and biere de garde.  For example:

Biere de garde has (should have):
-malty upfront sweetness followed by dryness
-low esters, malt-focused aroma potentially with some toasty character
-clean lager character over some melanoidin

Saison:
-ester/yeast-forward aroma
-much more citrus/tart flavor
-similar dryness
-some hop bitterness (whereas the dryness in a BDG comes more from the fermentation)

This may be completely useless, but it helps me remember style characteristics.  Where I do get a bit fuzzy is on the difference between a German Pils and a Bo Pils (german has more hop bitterness, higher carb?), and a N. German Alt and a Dusseldorf Alt!

Wish me luck!

59

General Homebrew Discussion / Beer Brewing Cookbook

« on: January 22, 2013, 07:31:21 pm »

Brewing Classic Styles: 80 Winning Recipes Anyone Can Brew

buy it, brew them, love them. 

60

All Grain Brewing / What exactly is...

« on: January 07, 2013, 12:27:35 pm »

I thought it was a non-repeating terminal phantasm/Class 5 free-roaming vapor?