Topics

16

General Homebrew Discussion / Headache City

« on: July 24, 2012, 08:49:49 AM »

I go to a brewpub from time to time that has some pretty good beers, one even took an award recently. Thing is, every time I drink there, without fail, I wake up with crushing headaches the next morning. It's a bit of a drive so I limit myself to 3 pints (not even remotely in hangover territory for me) and I'm not the only person who has noticed the headaches. 

I understand fusel alcohols can cause headaches, but I don't detect any solventy, or hot alcohol off flavors. No off flavors of any sort come to think of it.

Any ideas what might cause this?

17

Beer Recipes / The Strawberry Rhubarb Gauntlet

« on: July 12, 2012, 08:59:45 AM »

Went to the local brewpub last night, and my girlfriend was giving me the business about never making a fruit beer. The brewer was behind the bar, overheard the conversation and piled on. End result, he challenged me to brew a strawberry-rhubarb beer using kolsch for the base.

I've never made a kolsch, or a fruit beer. I could start with the kolsch in BCS, beyond that....

How much fruit and how much rhubarb? When in process? He recommended using frozen, thawing it and then puree in a food processor. Rack on to fruit in secondary.

Anyway, any advice would be GREATLY appreciated.

18

Kegging and Bottling / dry hopping post carbonation?

« on: July 10, 2012, 07:03:44 AM »

Brewed a best bitter and didn't quite get the hop flavor I was after (shooting for something like Goose Island's Honkers Ale with Styrian Goldings) and I thought I'd throw an ounce, maybe an ounce and half in the keg for dry hopping. I've never dry hopped in the keg and the beer is already carbonated. Am I going to run into any issues if I do? Foaming perhaps? I was thinking I'd let it sit 4 days or so and then bottle it.

19

General Homebrew Discussion / Dealing with trub

« on: July 02, 2012, 10:18:44 AM »

I try hard not to transfer a lot into my fermentors, but it seems like I always have to rack at least a gallon of wort that is loaded with break material. I chill (IC) down to 62ish degrees, remove any hop sacks, whirlpool for a minute or so, throw the lid back on and let it sit 20-30 minutes. I never get a "trub cone". All the break material settles but it's a solid 2 gallon layer. I've even tried upping my boil volume.

Any ideas on what I'm doing wrong?

20

All Grain Brewing / How much of a difference does mash thickness make?

« on: June 19, 2012, 10:39:03 AM »

I normally mash with 1.5 quarts per pound of grain. I calculate my strike water temp using the equation in Palmers book for a preheated tun:

tw= (.2/water to grist ratio) (target mash temp - grain temp) + target mash temp.

I batch sparge, and from what I understand I will have my best efficiency if my first and second runnings are an equal volume. Depending on the total grain in my recipe, which changes all the time, I get different runoffs every batch. For instance, I'm brewing today and my total grain bill is 11 pounds, adding in my dead space and grain absorption my strike water will be 6.5 gallons, giving me a 1st runnings volume of 4.5 gallons, then I'd sparge with 3 gallons to get my 7.5 desired preboil volume.

My question is this:
Can I just adjust (reduce in this case) my grist/water ratio to make my  first runnings 3.75 gallons? How will different ratios effect my beer? My ultimate goal is to get consistent efficiency batch to batch, will my extraction be all over the place if I change up the grist/water all the time?

21

Yeast and Fermentation / 87.9% apparent attenuation...

« on: June 18, 2012, 05:21:12 AM »

with 001. Started at 1.052, finished at 1.006. Mashed an APA at 152. 3 week primary, dry hopped after 2. Normal vigorous 001 ferment. Tasted good at kegging, no off flavors I can detect, albeit a bit boozy tasting, but I find that most of my beers have that flavor when they are green.

I've never had one finish that low. Anything I should worry about?

22

Yeast and Fermentation / higher mash temp w/007 to mimic 002?

« on: June 14, 2012, 11:43:11 AM »

I'm brewing a Special Bitter this weekend, recipe calls for 002, approx 70% attenuation, but I have a vial of 007 laying around I need to use. My question is should I mash higher (recommended is 152), say 156 or 158 to drop the attenuation a bit to account for the 007? Does that make any sense or am I messing around with the body and not going to end up with the beer I want?

23

All Grain Brewing / RO water adjustments for Special Bitter

« on: June 14, 2012, 11:14:06 AM »

I was planning on using the adjustments in Gordon Strong's book to do this but I left it at the house and need to pick up salts etc from my LHBS on my way home. Can anyone tell me what I need to add to my RO mash water per gallon for the following grist:

9.5 lbs Maris otter
.5 lbs Aromatic (20L)
.5 lbs Crystal 120
.25 lbs Special Roast (50L)

mash at 1.5 qts per pd, so 16 quarts, 4 quarts deadspace, 5 qts to grain loss...25 quarts mash water.

Thanks in advance

24

Beer Recipes / Mike McDole's APA

« on: May 23, 2012, 07:27:41 AM »

Does anyone have this recipe? The Beer Dujour site seems to be down.

Thanks

25

Yeast and Fermentation / WLP007

« on: May 23, 2012, 07:18:13 AM »

What a chunky, funky beast that stuff is. Wowsers McTavish.

26

Going Pro / Typical brewers salary?

« on: May 23, 2012, 06:21:16 AM »

For a brewpub?

27

Ingredients / Low gravity ideas....

« on: May 21, 2012, 10:51:32 AM »

Brewing tonight, but again this weekend and I don't have anything planned for that one. Thinking low abv, english or maybe something west coast and really hoppy. I've got a lot of simcoe, amarillo and citra as well as some zythos laying around. Did Kelsey McNairs session ale a while back and loved that.


edit: should have posted this in recipes, my bad

28

Equipment and Software / Tired of crappy therm and hydrometer

« on: May 21, 2012, 08:45:23 AM »

Calced all my stuff yesterday, and only one thermometer was correct, and it's my floater which takes 3 weeks to get a temp. Bought one digital that had to be sent back because it wouldnt calibrate, and my metal therm was off 3 degrees. Hydrometer read 1.003 at 60f in tapwater. Not surprising considering they came in my original kit, and none of that was really quality stuff.

Anyway, can anyone recommend some quality stuff?

29

Kegging and Bottling / conditioning time in keg

« on: May 14, 2012, 09:45:49 AM »

Before now, I typically fermented 4 days or so until things slowed up, raised temp incrementally for 3 or 4 days to do a diacetyl rest, then returned to ferm temp for a few more days to finish conditioning, then cold crashed and bottled.

Now that I have a keg system, I'm wondering if I can cut some of that time in the carboy out, as I'm planning on letting it carb up under low c02 pressure in the keg (I think typically a week?)

Thoughts?

Thanks in advance.

30

General Homebrew Discussion / pleasant surprise

« on: May 10, 2012, 03:17:11 AM »

My scottish 80 scored a 39.5 last weekend, good for a bronze. It was my first all grain beer and my first contest. Got dinged on mouthfeel for a dry finish, which i agreed with. I drove the temp up to finish the fermentation out, and i think it attenuated a bit too well.