Messages

16

All Grain Brewing / Re: fruity tasting pilsener??

« on: February 17, 2011, 08:38:30 PM »

This sounds like a water issue to me.  Lack of calcium and sulfates rounds the flavors and accentuates sweet malt and esters.
You didn't say where you are from, but here in WA, the rain/snow runoff in the spring contains much lower mineral content than other times of the year.  It's pretty amazing how fruity the beers can taste.   Did you have a relatively slow conversion in the mash tun when you brewed this?  I would not be surprised if you said yes.

Ward labs can help you with a water analysis report.  It may be as simple as adding a half a teaspoon of gypsum or calcium carbonate (depending on your water report) to adjust the mineral levels.

HTH-

17

Homebrew Competitions / Call for Judges & Stewards -- NHC 1st Round 2011 NW Regionals

« on: February 08, 2011, 12:07:38 AM »

We need HELP!

The First round of the National Homebrew Competition is coming to Seattle on April 2, 2011!
We are expecting a record number of entries and are therefore looking for as many judges and stewards as
we can get to help with the 1st round judging of this competition. You don't
have to be a BJCP judge to participate. You just need a decent beer palate and be
reasonably familiar with different styles of Craft Beer. Don't worry, all
novice judges will be paired up with at least one experienced BJCP judge, so you
won't be left hanging. We are seeking stewards as well, so you can help out that way too.

You can help by pre-registering here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/C735L5G

Thanks!
Steve Antoch
BJCP Master Judge
NHC NW Region 1st Round Judge Director

Side Note -- BJCP National Judge Mark Tanner and I will be presenting a short Beer
Judging seminar at the Cascade Brewer's Guild ExBEERience event which will be held at Redhook in
Woodinvlle on March 12. It's a great chance to get out and sample some great Craft Beer and Homebrew
and take in a small class on beer judging. I hope that all prospective Novice judges can stop by and take part.

http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/153508

18

Beer Recipes / Re: Looking for feedback on Belgian Dark Strong malt bill

« on: May 16, 2010, 04:55:06 PM »

Looks pretty good.

19

All Grain Brewing / Re: Is it just me or are session beers hard to enter into competitions?

« on: May 14, 2010, 12:26:05 AM »

I live near Seattle.  I've judged plenty of BOS rounds that go to the smaller beers. Last year's Puget Sound Pro-Am (>300 beers in the comp) BOS was a fantastic Kolsch.  We also had a Mild take the BOS at Novembeerfest (~280) a few months ago.  Great beer.  I guess I'm saying that the big beers don't always win around here.

20

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Astringent Beer

« on: May 11, 2010, 08:30:26 PM »

Check out the WAHA web site:

http://www.wahomebrewers.org

We have a "find an experienced homebrewer / beer judge" section on there just for this type of thing that works better when you try to troubleshoot it in person.
.
There's also a list of clubs and contacts on there for you to hook up with other home brewers.

HTH-
Steve Antoch
WAHA

21

All Grain Brewing / Re: Gambrinus Pale Malt?

« on: May 03, 2010, 08:39:30 PM »

I really like the Gambrinus ESB malt.  Never had any efficiency problems, hull problems, and the flavor's very good -- biscuity.

22

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Town water contaminated just before bottling day

« on: May 02, 2010, 09:43:21 AM »

Dont worry about calling out the store when they give you HORRIBLE advice

+1000

"Wait 3 or 4 batches before sanitizing" is probably amongst the worst advice I have ever heard.

Sanitize everything, every time, without question.   And remember, if it is not CLEAN, it can't be sanitized.

IMO, the top things to work on for new brewers is:

1) Sanitation
2) Temperature control
3) Consistency
4) Sanitation
5) Temperature control
6) Repeatability
7) Sanitation
Temperature control
9) Decent recipe
10)Sanitation

(Can you tell I'm a big fan of sanitation and temperature control)

23

All Grain Brewing / Re: Brewing at Twice Strength then Dilluting

« on: May 02, 2010, 09:17:35 AM »

I agree that the caramelization is a factor so you will want to do it in a beer that melanoidans are expected.
Also, do not underestimate the decrease in hop utilization you will get due to the high gravity boil.

<copied from Norm Pyle's Hops FAQ Page http://realbeer.com/hops/FAQ.html>
 

According to Rager, if the gravity of the boil exceeds 1.050, there is a gravity adjustment (GA) to factor in:

   GA = (BOIL_GRAVITY - 1.050)
           ----------------------
                0.2
otherwise,
   GA = 0

Non-metric Units
IBU  = (OUNCES OF HOPS) * %UTILIZATION * %ALPHA * 7462
       -------------------------------------------------
                 VOLUME(gallons) * (1 + GA)

Assuming that your beer is supposed to end up at 1.050, then the "normal" GA would be 0.
Doing the same recipe as a concentrated boil raises the GA multiplier to 1 + ((1.100 - 1.050)/.2) = 1 + 5.25 = 6.25

in other words, the denominator for the 5 gallon batch goes to
V*6.25 instead of V*1.  So, the extraction in the concetrated boil will produce 1/6.25 the amount of IBUs for the same addition.


Also realize that there is that upper limit to the number of IBUs you can actually get into solution.  It is somewhere around 100 IBUs.  IN a concentrated boil, you will Max out at 100 during the boil, then dilute it to 50, so basically the upper bound for beers using this method is around 50 IBUs, and that's if you compensate for the lower utilization.  You'll need a LOT of hops to make a hoppy pale ale using this method.

HTH-

Steve
North Bend, WA