Messages

2791

Beer Travel / Re: San Antonio beer tips?

« on: November 03, 2010, 07:07:34 AM »

Drive to Austin.  That is what my wife always says.

Real Ale makes some decent beers, so that recommendation is good.  Any excuse to drive up to the Hill Country is a good excuse.

If you can find a place that has Live Oak on tap, try the Hefeweizen or the Pilz.  Only had those in Austin, don't know if they get to San Antonio.

If you are downtown, and go to the Riverwalk, the best thing you might find is Shiner, unless things have changed in the last 5 years.  

Edit:  Get some Texas BBQ when you are there.  Lockhart and Luling are 2 of the top town for Q, but I have had some good Q in San Antonio.

2792

The Pub / Re: Wife and Homebrew?

« on: November 03, 2010, 07:00:13 AM »

My wife loves beer, and since we've been brewing more often has taken to reminding me that our HOUSE has a better beer selection than most bars in Paris. She also tells our friends this, so I think it's safe to say she likes what I'm doing with the hobby.

One thing, though. I really want to get her more involved.

She likes the beer you make.  If she has favorite recipe or a style that she wants you to brew, ask her to help make "her" beer.  Relax, and make it an enjoyable experience.  You can use it to talk about beer - errr the brewing process, endlessly. 

     

2793

Pimp My System / Re: My Mash Tun Project

« on: November 02, 2010, 11:39:48 AM »

I don't have any idea where you could get a copper band. 

You might try and find a coppersmith in your area.  There are still some around here.  One guy I used to work with had some very pretty copper brewing thing built by his coppersmith Father in Law.

2794

Ingredients / Re: Hops

« on: November 02, 2010, 05:21:11 AM »

I read somewhere- don't have anything to cite- that EKG's are rapidly vanishing due their acreage being diminished in England.

That is correct.  I have seen some numbers for the acreage of British hops, and it is only a little over 3000 acres, down from 50,000 in the early part of the 20th century .  The East Kent fields have competition from housing development, as that is not too far from London.  Also read that most of the Kent acreage is owned by a guy in his 80's.  Get 'em while you can.

Hops used to be grown near San Francisco.  Those acres were tuned into housing in the early-mid part of hte 20th century.

2795

Pimp My System / Re: My Mash Tun Project

« on: November 02, 2010, 05:14:40 AM »

That looks good.  Someone in the club bought a pico-system that had belonged to one of the guys who got out of the hobby.  It had wood around the mash tun.  The wood is held on with some long hose clamps.  Maybe some copper bands would be more pleasing to the eye, but more of a challenge to find at the big box store.

2796

Ingredients / Re: Hops

« on: November 01, 2010, 05:57:42 PM »

Bob, yes I want a pound of EKG cone hops.  Used a whole pound+ in a historic English IPA last year.  Aged it for 10 months then dry hopped.  It had a couple of brewing mistakes, but turned out to be a really good beer.  Want to do it again without the mistakes.

2797

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Something up with Fred's website?

« on: November 01, 2010, 05:53:13 PM »

Fred is in our club, so an E-mail has been sent.

Mikey, beerdujour.com is what Hacker is talking about.  It has many award winning recipes.  If you find one on there, it has won something somewhere.  Better than the sites where the guy says, "I just brewed this, it is going to be great."  then no feedback on how it turned out.

2798

The Pub / Re: Wife and Homebrew?

« on: November 01, 2010, 02:54:11 PM »

Jeff Rankert is indeed a lucky guy; I can vouch for that first hand.

Thanks for that, Gordon. 

She has learned to deal with me in the best possible way!

2799

Ingredients / Re: Hops

« on: November 01, 2010, 10:47:40 AM »

Hopsdirect still doesn't have Chinooks pellets

On the right side of the page it has said that the pellets would be released in Nov.  It is now November, so they should be out soon.  The pelletizers are fired up once the crop is harvested.  As I understand it, they fill the contracts first, then they put hops on the spot market.

I am waiting for some of the European hops to show up on their page.

2800

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: Washing/rinsing and Re-Using Yeast

« on: November 01, 2010, 10:37:31 AM »

This is covered in Yeast by Chris White and Jamil.   You want to pitch the correct number of cells, so a cleaned up slurry is better.  It is claimed you make better beer if you don't use the trub and dead yeast.  Rinsing is using water (boiled and cooled).   Washing is using acid.  The book covered rinsing, as the acid wash was said to be an advanced technique out of scope of the book.

I have pumped the wort on yeast cakes in the past and made good beer.  I am now considering rinsing as another way to improve my brewing practice, and make better beer.

2801

All Grain Brewing / Re: Why mash for 60 minutes?

« on: November 01, 2010, 05:00:01 AM »

This topic somes down to "What malt are you mashing".  I have a copy of the 1999 special edition on Lagers (doing some reseach on lagers), and Greg Noonan had an article titled "Secrets of the Double Decoction".  In that he states that some malts like dark munich should have a decoction, and fully modified British malts should not be subjected to lower rest temperatures, just a single infusion.

One can select the mash profile for the malt.  Use the right tool (profile) for the job. 

2802

All Grain Brewing / Re: Why mash for 60 minutes?

« on: October 31, 2010, 01:35:40 PM »

If you have a "hot" base malt with a high degree Lintner rating, you could probably do a quick mash and by the time you got it to mash out temps it would be done.  Don't try this with a base malt with a really low diastatic power (degree Lintner) like Munich, as I had one that was all Munich that was more like 2 hours to fully convert last year.  YMMV.

2803

The Pub / Re: Wife and Homebrew?

« on: October 31, 2010, 08:27:52 AM »

My wife has become my brewing partner.  She enjoys beer travel as much as I do (maybe more).  She is also active in out club, and is a member of the AHA.  The NHC has become a high point of the year for us.  Should I say that we are both looking forward to San Diego in 2011?

I am a lucky guy.

2804

Kegging and Bottling / Re: Capping for the long haul

« on: October 31, 2010, 07:18:41 AM »

You can try and get some foam in the beer as it is being bottled, hard to do with beer from the fermenter as there is only about 0.8-1.0 volumes of CO2.  My cheap bottling wands will give me some foam.   Foam is made of bubbles of CO2.  So if you have foam, it has displaced air, and the O2 in the air.  This should help cut down on the oxidation of the beer.

2805

Kegging and Bottling / Re: Capping for the long haul

« on: October 31, 2010, 06:22:02 AM »

There are the O2 abxorbing caps, but I have not seen those at the LHBS in a while.  I use the oxygen barrier caps for big beers.  Try and cap on foam if you can.  Some even wax the cap in an attempt to add more O2 barrier, but I have not done that.

For smaller beers that are to be consumed quickly, I use the cheap caps.