Messages

16

Beer Recipes / Re: Cream Ale Saison ?

« on: April 21, 2013, 06:12:51 AM »

Looks good. It should make a tasty saison. You can call it anything you'd like, but using a saison yeast strain will make it taste like a saison, not a cream ale. Historically, a saison would have been brewed with whatever grains the farmer had available. It's the yeast that makes the beer a saison.

17

The Pub / Re: Re: Why I run Windows

« on: April 17, 2013, 05:17:08 AM »

saw this this morning: http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2013/04/16/windows-its-over-tech-site-declares/

It's not just me!

That about sums it up. Design an operating system geared towards a touch screen, when 99% of installations won't be on a touch screen device. Pure genius.

18

All Grain Brewing / Re: Re: Preboil Gravity off

« on: April 16, 2013, 05:13:23 AM »

Also, I've found a preboil gravity reading to be utterly useless and a complete waste of time.

I agree if by "preboil" you mean before the boil, which it pretty much translates as.  I found I was not getting good mixing and any "preboil" gravity reading was off.

Now I take my "preboil" reading at the hot break, which is preboil as far as the hops are concerned but means it has been mixing for a while and gives me much nicer results.  I start timing my boil from there.

Good point. I also wait until the beginning of the boil to take the "preboil" reading.

19

All Grain Brewing / Re: Preboil Gravity off

« on: April 15, 2013, 02:25:23 PM »

To be perfectly honest, if my preboil gravity and volume are on target, I don't even bother checking again postboil. I know how much water boiled off, and the sugars aren't going anywhere, so why bother.

20

Wood/Casks / Re: What temp for secondary ferm / conditioning cask ale

« on: April 11, 2013, 08:33:46 PM »

You'll have plenty of yeast even if you wait. I'd personally wait for the krausen to fall and the yeast to finish cleaning up any fermentation by-products.

21

Wood/Casks / Re: What temp for secondary ferm / conditioning cask ale

« on: April 11, 2013, 07:29:01 AM »

Let it carbonate at 68 for a week or so, then drop it to cellar temp. It might still carbonate at 55, depending on yeast strain, but would likely take a long time.

22

Hop Growing / Re: Second Year Hops

« on: April 09, 2013, 07:21:32 PM »

I usually wait a bit to see which are the strongest growers, but I don't think it matters that much.

23

Hop Growing / Re: Second Year Hops

« on: April 09, 2013, 06:27:49 PM »

I'd prune those back to just a few shoots per plant and train them up your string, trellis, etc. You should start to see a harvest your second year.

Duboman... They're on their way. Mine all started breaking through the ground in the last few days. That's about a month behind last year.

24

Beer Recipes / Re: wantin to add some more flavor to california steam kit

« on: April 05, 2013, 12:18:56 PM »

I'm not so sure apricot would go well with Northern Brewer hops. Maybe add a couple drops to a pint after the beer is kegged to see if you like it before you dose the whole batch. If you're looking for something more than the kit provides, try tossing an extra oz or two of Cascade or N. Brewer in at flame-out. Or dry hop it.

25

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

« on: April 04, 2013, 07:41:30 AM »

Got a starter going last night for a Steam beer. I also need to dry hop my APA.

26

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: 2013 AHA Governing Committee election results

« on: April 03, 2013, 06:40:37 AM »

It was an exceptionally strong candidate pool this year. I hope they all run again next year. Congrats to the winners.

27

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: How to tell a craft brewer his beer is seriously flawed

« on: April 02, 2013, 05:29:40 AM »

Why get into the business if you don't care about your beer quality? Pisses me off.

28

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Brett Saison and bottle conditioning

« on: April 02, 2013, 05:19:33 AM »

The Brett will eat those last couple gravity points, so take that into account. With only those couple gravity points and the priming sugar to work with, you'll have a pretty subtle Brett character.

29

The Pub / Re: Re: Why I run Windows

« on: March 31, 2013, 06:39:57 AM »

Compared to windows 8, 7 is a dream. We bought a machine for tHe brewery that came pre-installed with 8 and OMG it is a nightmare. It is a huge, clunky mess. Huge bugs that don't have any fixes. And we tried to install 7 on the machine but you can't get the particular drivers you need. They are forcing you to move onto windows 8.

Yeah, I'd love to hear the thought process behind Windows 8. They finally made a decent version with 7, why try to reinvent the wheel at that point?

30

All Grain Brewing / Re: Re: Help in identifying off flavor

« on: March 29, 2013, 06:26:50 AM »

OP - You might take some to the LHBS, a Brewery, or a local club meeting. Get someone with experience taste the beer and identify what is off, and recommend a course of action. I say this because the guys in my club helped me a lot back in the day from tasting my beers.

This is sound advice. Odds are, they've experienced the same thing before. You can also rule out the brass fittings in your brewhouse, I have used brass ball valves with no ill effects for years.