Messages

1

All Things Food / Re: Fermenting Crock

« on: April 24, 2013, 10:13:15 pm »

I tried making kraut with green and purple cabbage and shredded carrots. I used a 2 gal food-grade plastic bucket with a lid and air lock. My kraut tasted great but made me sick. Not sure if it was infected or if the plastic made it bad. I made sure to clean everything as I would any brewing equipment. Anyone have similar experience?

2

All Things Food / Ruachbier Beef Stroganoff

« on: April 24, 2013, 10:07:40 pm »

So I always thought Ruachbier tasted like bacon. I had one in the fridge and threw together a simple stroganoff to go with it. I must say, if you pair this beer with meat and gravy, you might warp into a parallel dimension. It's pretty awesome!

First step: open your favorite German Rauchbier

Saute 1/2 white onion with 2 tsp chopped garlic
Brown 1 pkg lean ground beef (or bison, elk, caribou if you have exotic meat on hand)
Add 1 can cream of mushroom soup (if you want to do it up right add sauteed mushrooms and heavy cream!)
1 cup rauchbier
Salt, pepper and paprika to taste

Serve over steaming hot egg noodles. I like a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese too.

Pour another beer after all that hard work and eat up!

3

Beer Travel / Re: 2 Nights in San Diego

« on: April 12, 2013, 09:31:12 pm »

I think the White Labs Tasting Room is a must for a homebrewer:

http://whitelabs.com/white-labs-tasting-room

+1 on White Labs. Unfortunately, Chris was not there when I visited. Ale Smith is right down the street so go there too. I'm sure it's been mentioned but Stone and Port/Lost Abbey are worth the drive to Escondido. Green Flash was probably my favorite, though.

Also if you are in downtown SD go to a little place called the Tin Fish. It's one block from the Padres stadium. Great fish tacos and fries! Also, Anthony's on Harbor Dr. is a local seafood institution. I'm from CO so any fresh fish is pretty much mindblowing!

4

Extract/Partial Mash Brewing / Re: Honey - add in boil or at flame out?

« on: April 10, 2013, 10:01:26 pm »

I just brewed a 100% Brett farmhouse with about 3 lb honey in it. I had never brewed with honey and added it about 15 min before knockout. After tasting only a few weeks into fermentation I don't get alot of honey flavor or aroma coming through. Next time I might wait until fermentation.

5

Ingredients / Re: Ever tried Yerba Mate?

« on: April 08, 2013, 10:57:31 pm »

I brewed it this afternoon and added .75 oz yerba mate along with 2 oz chinook and simcoe for a 15 min hop stand before chilling. I didn't want to go too big on the herbal flavor so I think this is a good place to start. We'll see what happens. It's a beautiful reddish amber ale and I'm very excited to see how it turns out!

6

Kegging and Bottling / Re: Slow, restricted flow

« on: April 08, 2013, 12:22:15 pm »

Some of my dip tubes are straight and some are bent. If the bend is too sharp, the tube flattens at the bend and causes restricted flow. Like a kinked garden hose. This can be frustrating, especially when kegging is the last step before enjoying the fruits of your labor!

7

Ingredients / Ever tried Yerba Mate?

« on: April 05, 2013, 08:58:11 pm »

So I'm an Argentine-o-phile and have some left over yerba mate (pronounced MAH-teh) from my last trip down there. It's a leafy herb used to make tea and is consumed throughout the day for a shot of energy. Every single Argentine household, rich or poor, has supplies for making mate. Not even exaggerating. If you've never tried it, I highly recommend it.

Anyway, I'm still searching for an earthy flavor/aroma to go with my American amber ale. I'm thinking it could add some nice earthy qualities to my beer without being overly herbal. Any thoughts? How would one go about adding it to a beer?

8

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

« on: April 05, 2013, 08:48:13 pm »

Amber ale. First time brewing this style so it should be fun. A nice spring beer reminiscent of fall.

9

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: Lager diacetyl rest...now what?

« on: April 03, 2013, 07:41:32 pm »

Well I tasted my lager last night, about 3 months after brewing and it is pretty darn good! The diacetyl cleaned up quite a lot and I'm left with a really nice, amber rye lager. It's pretty amazing what yeast can do if you leave it to it's own devices. White Labs 940 Mexican Lager is nice and clean. Thanks for all the input, everyone!

10

Hop Growing / Re: growing hops hydroponically

« on: April 02, 2013, 05:45:33 pm »

Hydroponics can be done outside...

Yep. Here in CO lots of people grow the dank outdoors with hydro. I got my mom to plant hops in her garden last year and they didn't do much. I expect to maybe get a harvest in the 3rd year.

11

Yeast and Fermentation / What's your home yeast lab look like?

« on: April 01, 2013, 02:08:11 pm »

Thinking of putting together a basic yeast lab for fun. Mostly to learn the science of culturing and maintaining healthy yeast. I'm assuming it would eventually pay for itself if done properly. So, what's your yeast lab look like? List your favorite pieces of equipment. Bonus points for photos!

12

Beer Recipes / Experience with hop extract/oil?

« on: April 01, 2013, 02:00:30 pm »

So I brewed a double IPA two weeks ago and I think I lost a whole lot of hop bitterness due to boil over. It was a big batch and I'm thinking much of the hoppiness went into the fires during boil. Anyway, I tasted it today and get very little bitterness. Gravity is still at 1.008 and hoping it will dry out a little more. Just wondering if hop extract is an option at this point, as everything else about the beer is fine. If so, how does one go about "back-bittering" a beer?

13

Other Fermentables / Re: Coconut wine, anyone?

« on: March 26, 2013, 06:41:40 pm »

I've used coconut sugar in a beer and it came through well. 3 lbs in a big wheat wine. I think your scheme might just work.

YES! As mentioned above, this came to me in a dream last night but I was reading the forum before gonig to bed and I think I remember seeing your coconut sugar wheat wine mentioned. HAHA! The subconscious works in strange ways! Thanks for the suggestions!

Morticai, is it less fermentable than ordinary table sugar? Wikipedia is telling me it is a "low glycemic" food. Either way, I'm sure it'll make booze.

14

Other Fermentables / Re: Coconut wine, anyone?

« on: March 26, 2013, 11:07:06 am »

I'm guessing that coconut sugar is just cane sugar flavored with coconut?

I think the real stuff comes from palm trees. Wikipedia knows all:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coconut_sugar

Now that you mention it, pasteurizing it would probably be the way to go. This could open up a whole new realm of refreshing tropical summer drinks!

15

Other Fermentables / Coconut wine, anyone?

« on: March 26, 2013, 08:53:00 am »

Ok, this came to me in a dream last night so if it sounds like nonsense, carry on and pretend you didn't see it. I live in Colorado so fresh ingredients off the tree are out of the question but the local Whole Foods has Coconut water, coconut sugar and dried coconut. I'm thinking the water probably has preservatives in it which might not play nicely with yeast but homemade rice milk could be a possible substitute. Pretty sure that just involves mashing/pureeing rice in water. Then boil with chunks of dried coconut and add coconut sugar? What type of yeast would work well? Normal brewer's yeast, wine yeast? I don't even know where to start with sake yeast.

Anyway, let me know some thoughts. I'm going to head over there today and pick up some ingredients. They even have gallon apple juice jugs which make great test fermenters