Messages

976

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: What's Brewing This Weekend - 4/9 Edition

« on: April 11, 2010, 08:50:53 AM »

The weather was beautiful yesterday, so I decided to do the decoction on the pils.  Everything turned out great... can't wait for summer!

977

All Grain Brewing / Re: saison mash

« on: April 10, 2010, 12:59:48 PM »

And if you can't get a Saison to dry out using an all malt grainbill then you are either A, having fermentation issues, or B, only make strong saisons. I personally prefer a lower gravity saison and it's quite easy to get an all malt grainbill in the 1.040s to finish at or below 1.005 without sugar. Usually a long and low single infusion mash is all that is necessary. If, on the other hand, I am trying to make something stronger, then sure, simple sugar is the way to do it and still have a dry product. But it's far from a requirement in every Saison brewed.

I agree completely.  My last all-malt Saison went from 1.055 to 1.004 with the Dupont yeast.  6.7%, dry, and delicious!

978

All Grain Brewing / Re: saison mash

« on: April 10, 2010, 08:37:49 AM »

Next, try getting Siason dry enough without the sugar additions.....It won't happen.  I didn't tell him how much just that he will need to add them mid ferment and not at boil.  While you may make your siason without, it would be better and dryer with.

Uh, Saison Dupont uses no sugar.

979

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: What's Brewing This Weekend - 4/9 Edition

« on: April 08, 2010, 08:25:20 AM »

Doing a German Pils to get ready for summer.  Still debating whether to do the decoction again or just a step infusion this time 

980

All Grain Brewing / Re: Is there a way to "step-mash" for both "fermentabilty" and "dextrin /mouthfeel"?

« on: April 08, 2010, 08:12:01 AM »

This sounds like a single infusion versus step mash thread

A mash with separate beta and alpha rests is common, especially in German breweries.  Some of the trappist breweries also use step mashes, something like 135-145-158.  Varying the amount of time at the beta rest will change the limit of attenuation of the wort.

Whether or not this produces a mouthfeel that is "more dextrinous" or less one-dimensional than a single infusion rest that produces the same FG is up for debate.

981

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: Culturing Yeast From Commercial Bottle

« on: April 07, 2010, 09:53:21 AM »

YMMV, but I've I'd had great results with Delirium Tremens and Saison Dupont.  I've also used Orval dregs directly in the secondary without making a starter and got very fast results.  Both times that I've tried to culture from Rochefort, nothing grew. 

982

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Things you should not do

« on: April 07, 2010, 09:16:43 AM »

If you don't like the CO2 blast, definitely don't stick your face in the blowoff tube bucket at a commercial brewery.

983

Kegging and Bottling / Re: Basic Question of Kegging Science

« on: April 06, 2010, 12:53:58 PM »

The head space in the keg will immediately equalize at 10 psi.  However, what we care about is the volume of CO2 that will dissolve in the beer.  This is why there are charts that tell you how much CO2 will dissolve at a give temperature and pressure. 

Ideally you want the carbonating pressure and the serving pressure to be the same.  This way the equilibrium from carbing doesn't change once you put it on tap.  It doesn't matter as much at bars that serve the keg in less than a week, but eventually CO2 will come out of solution (or the keg will become overcarbonated) if the serving pressure is less/more than what the keg was carbonated at.

984

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Cost Per Batch?

« on: April 06, 2010, 12:51:30 PM »

All grain with 55 lb sacks is the way to go (I think I pay 88 cents per pound for Best Malz and MFB Pils sacks at my LHBS).  Buying a pound of hops from hopsdirect is also going to save you a lot of money.

Everything else (yeast ranching, canning starter wort, etc) is worth it, but has less return.

985

The Pub / Re: Baseball season just around the corner...

« on: April 06, 2010, 12:49:25 PM »

The Orioles have a ton of young talent.  I just don't think they'll be able to put it together this year for a winning season.  There will be one soon, though...

986

Ingredients / Re: German Hops

« on: April 06, 2010, 11:43:57 AM »

I really like the German (Hallertauer) Tradition hop plugs I get at my LHBS.  They are supposedly a more disease-resistant replacement for Mittelfruh.

987

All Grain Brewing / Re: I have been reading up on decoction mashing again

« on: April 02, 2010, 01:43:42 PM »

Kai -- why the protein rest for the Helles?  I was thinking of doing a decoction Hochkurz mash (145 - 158) for a German Pilsner next weekend since I figured that a) long boiling of the decoction wasn't necessary and b) the protein rest would be unnecessary and maybe even detrimental.  What do you think about this?

The more I read about this the more am I torn between being pro or con protein rest. I brought up the Hochkurz mash as an elegant way of doing decoctions w/o protein rests. However, I haven't done experiments yet where I evaluated the impact of a protein rest. A few reputable brewers have and some of them reported the the protein rest yielded a better beer. This is in contrast to the brewers who report the opposite which report the opposite. At this point I just use it on some beers and not on others w/o having a strong position on its usefulness.


Kai

So these are real (122) protein rests, and not the quasi protein/peptonization/whatever people call it rest at 131 - 135?

988

All Grain Brewing / Re: I have been reading up on decoction mashing again

« on: April 02, 2010, 07:39:56 AM »

Kai -- why the protein rest for the Helles?  I was thinking of doing a decoction Hochkurz mash (145 - 158) for a German Pilsner next weekend since I figured that a) long boiling of the decoction wasn't necessary and b) the protein rest would be unnecessary and maybe even detrimental.  What do you think about this?

989

The Pub / Re: Would you eat whale meat?

« on: April 01, 2010, 01:19:09 PM »

So a refined question would be, if whales were sustainably farmed in similar (albeit underwater) circumstances as other domesticated animals like cows/chickens/pigs, would you eat that whale meat?

Do you actually believe that cows\chickens\pigs are sustainably farmed?

Well, they sure aren't going extinct.  But I'm not exactly sure what "sustainability" in green jargon entails...

990

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: "Spontaneous" fermentation

« on: April 01, 2010, 11:37:25 AM »

According to the same micro professor, they were both known human pathogens, and though they were not especially harmful to a healthy individual they could potentially be harmful to someone with a distressed immune system. 

Isn't everything in life potentially harmful to someone with a distressed immune system?  I'm supposed to give up my dream of fermenting with elephant dung to appease these people??