Messages

31

Beer Recipes / Re: (Cherry Chocolate) Oatmeal Robust Porter

« on: January 19, 2013, 08:38:57 AM »

Just on first glance there a lot of different thing going on in the grain bill. Not necessarily a bad thing, but I wonder how much you need the wheat and aromatic with the other flavors going on.  Also, why are you bittering with a lower alpha Golding hop? Do you have something higher in alpha to bitter with? Finally I like the flavor/aroma hops, but not for the chocolate/fruity half of the beer. I am not a big fan of fruit beer with a strong hop flavor. Not sure how you can remedy this since if you take the hops out, the non-fruit beer will suffer.

32

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: Cold Wort - Warm Yeast

« on: January 18, 2013, 05:24:43 PM »

If you pitch the yeast in very cold wort, it won't really stay in suspension, it will just fall down to the bottom of the vessel. Once it is on the bottom it is harder to get it started fermenting. I think you would be better off bringing the wort into the basement and let it sit there until it gets in the sixties and then pitch the yeast.

33

Going Pro / Re: Beer volume vs. Profit margin.

« on: January 12, 2013, 02:23:00 PM »

I didn't read the articles, but here's my attempt at some quick math:

Half of 14000bbl is 7000bbl.

7000bbl=14,000 kegs

14000/365 = 38 kegs worth of beer a day

That is a LOT of beer being sold at a pub.

My guess is that less than half the beer being made is sold at the pub, but more than half of total sales is made there (food, merchandise, etc.)

34

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Soapy off flavor

« on: January 11, 2013, 10:42:57 AM »

Can you be more specific with your dosing? I want to try this tonight with an IPA just to see what happens. I am thinking one control, one with Calcium Chloride, one with Calcium Sulfate.

35

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Soapy off flavor

« on: January 10, 2013, 08:25:06 AM »

I think some hops come off as a little soapy. Maybe the floral aroma of the cascades smells a little soapy.

36

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: Wyeast 3522 Ardennes temps

« on: November 19, 2012, 11:35:41 AM »

Sounds like a pretty good plan to me. The one suggestion I would make is to cold crash the beer before you keg it. This will keep most of the yeast out of the keg.

37

Beer Recipes / Re: American Saison

« on: November 08, 2012, 12:48:18 PM »

Sounds great to me. Golding/Cascade goes great with WY3711. I would ditch the sugar if I were you. This yeast ferments so completely that it is unnecessary, and actually detracts, in my opinion.

38

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: What's Brewing This Weekend - 11/2 Edition

« on: October 31, 2012, 01:52:51 PM »

Just turned off the burner and added 6 oz of hops to an English IPA. I used a pound of hops for a 10 gallon recipe, not counting dry hops - hope it isn't too much.. 

39

Beer Recipes / Re: English IPA tips

« on: October 30, 2012, 09:23:22 PM »

Oh by the way, half will get WY 1968 and half will get WY 1099. Which one should I save for long term aging?

40

Beer Recipes / Re: English IPA tips

« on: October 30, 2012, 09:18:12 PM »

I'm brewing my first attempt at an English IPA tomorrow, with a recipe based on the Meantime IPA recipe listed in the IPA book by Mitch Steele. It sure takes a lot of hops to make this beer, so I guess I can understand why you would want to age it. I am making a 10 gallon batch split in two carboys. I am hoping to age one kind of briefly and start drinking it in a couple of months and then save the other one for posterity. I don't bottle often anymore, but I wonder if I can bottle this beer for aging. I am not sure I can spare a keg full of beer for a couple of years. I suppose I would lose the fresh dry hop aroma if I bottled, though. Sorry, rambling a bit.

41

Beer Recipes / Re: The Avery Whirlpooling discussion got me started....

« on: October 30, 2012, 04:53:07 PM »

I guess what I am trying to say is that it is tough to know for sure how much bitterness you get from late additions, and that it really depends on your setup. I am betting that this will be a tasty beer. Be sure to take careful tasting notes so you can estimate the bitterness level for future attempts.

42

Beer Recipes / Re: The Avery Whirlpooling discussion got me started....

« on: October 30, 2012, 03:44:52 PM »

Which hops are going in for the "hop stand"? The ones at 17.5 minutes? If so, I think it sounds like a pretty good experiment. You might be overestimating the IBU you are getting from that, but then again you might not. I definitely get some bitterness from the whirlpool hop addition which I let sit for about 15 minutes, plus the time it takes to cool and get in the fermenter.

43

Ask the Experts / Re: Ask the Experts: Mitch Steele on IPA

« on: October 22, 2012, 03:00:20 PM »

My questions about recipes:

For hopping rates do we use the IBU listing and work the numbers around to keep the percentages right? I tried to make it work for the Meantime IPA and it came out to an obscene amount of hops - about 4 lbs per barrel vs. the 2 lbs per barrel mentioned in the recipe. Can we assume a more efficient use of hops at the professional level vs. homebrew level?

Can you be more specific for yeast strains? The homebrew strains that are typically available are purported to be from some of these breweries: Brakspear, Worthington, Whitbread, Boddingtons, Timothy Taylor, Fullers, Ringwood.

44

Beer Recipes / Re: Recipe help for WLP644

« on: October 16, 2012, 07:04:16 AM »

I have also just tapped a Saison made with this yeast. I split the batch between WL644 and WY3711. The 3711 half fermented down to 1.004 or so, and the Brett half finished at about 1.011. Fermented in my basement at about 68 degrees.

The taste of the Brett Saison is very fruity, with some pineapple and apricot notes. It is pretty tart, but not quite sour. Not a ton of the Brett "funk" that comes out when Brett is used in the secondary, but there is some barnyard, especially in the nose.

I adjusted my typical Saison recipe for this beer a little bit and added some unmalted grains ala Chad Yakobson in his recent Zymurgy article and Brewing Network interview.

45

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: Great attenuation.....a little too great

« on: October 12, 2012, 07:09:29 AM »

I just read through that presentation. Pretty cool stuff, but a bit confusing at times with just the slides. It would be neat if someone could make up a calculator using his percentages for each of the factors for terminal gravity.

Yeast strain, grist, mash temp and mash time. DrewG, if you have accurate measurements for these four things, we could see how it compares to Doss's presentation.