Messages

46

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: silly yeast prop questions

« on: March 04, 2013, 07:10:58 am »

We boiled yeast for this purpose at an eastern Virginia brewery. We dumped yeast from a conical and saved a few pints back to be used as yeast nutrient in the boil that same day. Seemed to work very well.

47

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: Lager Woes

« on: February 20, 2013, 05:52:05 am »

You need more yeast my friend. Head over to mrmalty.com and use the pitch rate calculator there.

On a side note, lager fermentations are always slower. The lag phase takes a while as well as the growth phase - it ALL takes longer. The only thing I trust my airlock to do is keep bad stuff out of my fermenting wort, it is never an indicator of fermentation.

48

Kegging and Bottling / Re: cornelius vs firestone

« on: February 18, 2013, 09:37:00 am »

I have all sorts of different kegs with all sorts of different connects on them. I have some coke keg that are traditionally pin lock with ball lock connects and vice versa. Can't say that one works better than the other, I just got what was freely available at the time. Sometimes it leads to a few Franken-kegs!

49

All Grain Brewing / Re: My First Batch Sparge

« on: February 18, 2013, 09:34:18 am »

A mashout really doesn't matter in batch sparging, and unless you hold a temp of 170 for 20 min. or more you aren't really doing one.  I usually use sparge water around 185-190F so that I can be sure I've gotten complete gelatinization and conversion, not for a mashout.

I thought you don't want your water to be higher than 170 to prevent extracting tannins...

I have always heard if you keep the pH below 6.0 you won't have to worry about tannin extraction.

50

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: My water profile

« on: February 13, 2013, 08:26:02 am »

Like others have said, some, if not most, RO waters you buy from a grocery store exchange system do have minerals added for flavor. Before making any adjustments, I went to the manufacturer of the particular brand that is available to me here in Suffolk, VA where my water is REALLY bad. They informed me that their mineral additions were proprietary and they could not release the actual mineral content. I found this troubling, because I wanted to know what I would be ingesting. At that point I wrote them off and decided to go distilled just because I know what is in there and have a consistent baseline, which will make the process repeatable.

I am not sure if anyone else has ever had a similar experience trying to obtain a water report from a company producing RO water. I could have simply sent a sample to Ward Labs, but the cost of the test IMO was better spent on distilled water that I could brew with and have confidence of the mineral content.

FWIW, since I started building my water from distilled and getting a little friendly advice from the folks on the forum, my beer has become much better. These guys know their shiznit!

51

All Grain Brewing / Re: where do you take mash pH?

« on: February 12, 2013, 07:14:53 am »

Please correct me if I am wrong gang...

I would say the main mash if you are not recirc'ing. If you can recirc you can pull it straight off the outtake. If you cannot recirc I would try to pull a relatively clean sample from the mash a few minutes after mixing well.

Like Martin said - you want a sample that is representative of the entire mash.

52

All Grain Brewing / Re: where do you take mash pH?

« on: February 12, 2013, 06:25:28 am »

I take mine around 15 or 20 minutes into the mash. I actually catch wort as it is recirculating in one of those stainless steel quart scoops used for decoction mashing. I run cold water over the outside of the scoop to bring the sample down to room temp (works pretty fast with the stainless steel). I dip my meter into that and presto!

53

All Grain Brewing / Re: My First Batch Sparge

« on: February 11, 2013, 09:10:47 am »

I will do anywhere between 168 and 170.

So are most of you batch spargers adding your water at higher temps than 168?

54

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: The Mad Fermentationist's Top 10 Myths

« on: February 07, 2013, 12:04:02 pm »

And let us not forget that brewing is a hobby that will be shared by all without even leaving the house!

55

The Pub / Re: Real men wear coveralls

« on: February 01, 2013, 08:32:21 am »

Are Keith and Drew the same person? Double life?

56

Ingredients / Re: Nelson Sauvin hops

« on: January 28, 2013, 09:58:44 am »

Wow, didn't realize that the NS hops were so hard to come by these days. The owner of my LHBS traded me a pound of them for me to go and pick her up a case of Duck Rabbit Milk Stout from NC. Harder to get the Duck Rabbit here in VA it seems...

57

All Grain Brewing / Re: Hockhurz Step Mash: Check my Process

« on: January 25, 2013, 10:54:01 am »

Not to steer the conversation too far from topic...but does anyone feel that very similar results can be achieved by conducting a step mash regimen hitting the same temps?

58

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Beer Brewing Cookbook

« on: January 25, 2013, 09:41:22 am »

I find the Classic Beer Styles Series awesome for getting a feel for the way beer was brewed for a particular style. Lots of insight into the history and all aspects of the classic brewing ingredients. Plus you only have to buy what styles are relavent to what you like brewing.

59

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Yeast nutrient

« on: January 25, 2013, 07:25:11 am »

I don't know that I've made a beer without yeast nutrients.  I use Wyeast Nutrient blend, a pinch in my starters and 1/2 tsp with 10 min left in the boil.

I do this as well. Is it necessary to do it at both the starter stage and in the boil. I really havent given much thought to it until now. What say you all?

60

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: DIPA Review by Professional Brewer - Bell's Hopslam

« on: January 25, 2013, 07:19:28 am »

Haha, hilarious! Descriptors fit for any BJCP scoresheet, right?