Messages

1711

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: Roselare Question...

« on: December 06, 2010, 05:13:38 AM »

I will be aging 15 gallons of Flanders Red in an Oak Barrel using the Wyeast Roselare Blend (don't recall the number). 

Another side question...

Say after a year I only bottle 10 gallons and leave 5 gallons in there, will I be able to brew 10 gallons of Flanders and top up the barrel and let age for a year without any ill effects?  I was wondering if the barrel needs to be emptied and cleaned out after a long aging period or can it perpetually be used year after year as I just described?

Thanks for everyone's replies!!

Cheers,

Richie

One thing to note is that the empty part of a barrel will tend to dry out over time and may leak when you add beer to it later.  It depends a lot on the barrel, the environment (humidity) and how long it is half empty.  Of course it will seal itself up fairly quickly when you add the beer, but you don't want to see good beer leaking out until it does.
 

1712

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Do you care about cold break in your fermenter?

« on: December 03, 2010, 03:23:34 PM »

you need some, but not all of it.

I like to try and leave some of it behind (or dump it at high krausen) as I prefer to keep my yeast slurry harvest a little cleaner.

that said, I didn't worry about it for 5+ years and never had an issue either 

Paul, how do you dump it?  Do you have conicals?

1713

The Pub / Re: Anyone Watch 'Brew Masters' Last Night?

« on: December 03, 2010, 01:25:22 PM »

Are some of you guys getting the next show before Sunday's normal broadcast schedule?  I keep hearing of another slot on Monday night or something, but I can't find it in the guides.

1714

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: What's Brewing This Weekend - 12/3 Edition

« on: December 03, 2010, 11:34:05 AM »

Judging at Walk the Line on Barleywine Saturday.  Moving beer around on Sunday.

1715

Kegging and Bottling / Re: Taking apart a regulator

« on: December 03, 2010, 11:29:44 AM »

Some of these are actually left hand threads.  You should be able to see some mark on it if so (LH) or be able to tell that the threads look backwards or try turning it the wrong way a bit.  Just a thought.

1716

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Best way to prime your bottles

« on: December 02, 2010, 07:37:20 PM »

I've been using less than 2 cups for fear of diluting my beer, but I hadn't thought about my yeast health.  I do culture my own yeast which seems to be amazing for fermentation, but maybe there's not even healthy yeast left for bottling in a consistent manner. 

On a side note, how much gelatin do you use per 5 gallons?

I use one package of Knox unflavored gelatine in 5 gallons.

1717

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Best way to prime your bottles

« on: December 02, 2010, 04:47:04 PM »

Wow, five cups of water would dilute the beer a bit more than I'd want.  I haven't been bottle conditioning for many years, but if I did I would use the beer I was going to bottle instead of water to mix and boil the sugar.  I've been using beer from the batch I want to clarify for my fining additions in the keg also.  I just don't want to dilute the beer with water any more than I have to.

I agree five cups is a lot.  Jeff, are you saying you boil the beer?  I haven't bottled in a while either, but I was doing 2 cups of water or less.

I bring a cup or two of beer up to about 180F in the microwave, being careful to watch so it doesn't foam over, then stir in gelatin and lay it onto the beer in the keg.  I don't think boiling is necessary because it's finished homebrew.

1718

The Pub / Re: What's the Weather Like Where You Are?

« on: December 02, 2010, 03:18:58 PM »

This whole thread reminds me of a story.  I was in Petaluma, Cal trying to get directions from a local to a brewpub and they commented that it must be tough living in Florida what with all the hurricanes.  I replied that it's probably not much different than living with the constant threat of earthquakes, except that the hurricanes move a lot slower so you can get out of their way. 
Later I happened to walk back in to hear the same guy say, "what is it about these Florida guys?  Whenever you mention hurricanes they always say something about earthquakes."  Umm, you're living right on top of the S.A. fault, guy.
One of my favorite joys is to be brewing outside on a sunny Sunday afternoon in December, watching people on TV play football in a blizzard.  I never get enough of that.
I have no idea how much milk costs, but gas is $2.77.

1719

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Best way to prime your bottles

« on: December 02, 2010, 03:05:09 PM »

I take my corn sugar, heat it slightly in some water and then mix it in with into the beer in the bottling bucket. 

You mention, "some water".  That's not vary specific.  I would recommend using 5 cups of water.  This helps the sugars dilute into a thinner syrup.  Yes please bring syrup to a slight boil for 10 minutes.  Then let cool to at least a few degrees above the temperature of the beer.  Syrup in first, then beer.  Litely stir the mixture in the primming buckett for a few seconds, each minute changing direction of the stir, for 10 minutes.  This should help you in making sure that the sugars have had enough time to mix into the beer before you start bottling.

I have another brewer friend who swears by the Coopers sugar tablets.  He drops one tablet into a standard sized bottle.  Before he drops the tablet into the bottle he moistenes the end of the tablet with clean steril water or beer from the cornie keg and then litely touches it onto a dish of dry yeast.   It only takes a few grains of yeast with the sugar tablet to work consistently.  He is vary satisfied, and has won many compititions which he has entered his beers.

For the Love of Beer,
Robert

Wow, five cups of water would dilute the beer a bit more than I'd want.  I haven't been bottle conditioning for many years, but if I did I would use the beer I was going to bottle instead of water to mix and boil the sugar.  I've been using beer from the batch I want to clarify for my fining additions in the keg also.  I just don't want to dilute the beer with water any more than I have to.

1720

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Best Brew Software??

« on: December 02, 2010, 02:49:39 PM »

I like Beersmith ok, but since migrating over to Apple products over the past year (work-related migration) I recently tried BeerAlchemy, and like it a lot. I know Beersmith is going to have a Mac version Real Soon Now, but I need software that can support my brewing needs today, not RSN.

I don't use brewing software all that much, but before settling on BeerAlchemy    I successfully tested both ProMash and Beersmith on my Mac using a bit of magical software called Crossover, which allows you to run many Windoze programs seamlessly  on your Mac with the advantage of not having to install the Windows OS at all (to me, installing Windows on a Mac is something akin to putting a lawn mower engine in a Ferrari).   

info here:
http://www.codeweavers.com/products/cxmac/
 

Is this about the same as Parallels?  I've got that on my macbook but never thought of using it to run Promash, which I have on my PC.

1721

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Christmas Presents for Husband

« on: November 30, 2010, 01:56:35 PM »

There was just a long thread about something very similar here:
http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?topic=4420.0
Maybe you can find some ideas there.

1722

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: Looking for opinions/facts on reusing dry yeast

« on: November 30, 2010, 07:51:00 AM »

I'm on my 4th use of W23/70 lager yeast.  I think it's getting better, but that may be because now I can actually measure the amount of slurry volume that I'm supposed to use according to MrMalty.  I've got a lot of leftover yeast that I've been rinsing, although it does not seem to separate much when left in the fridge.  Kai and Blatz had a thread going on that somewhere.

1723

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Outragious beer prices???

« on: November 29, 2010, 03:29:18 PM »

I mostly stick to the draught selections when I'm at a specialty beer bar and leave the bottles for purchase at the store, like mdixon says.  It's partly the big "service" mark-up on bottles and partly the fact that I can get the bottled version whenever, but not so much with draught.

"Now I have have a Belgian Black Ale to bottle!!"
I had a very nice Brooklyn Cuvee Noir on tap the other day.  Yours similar?

1724

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Outragious beer prices???

« on: November 29, 2010, 12:21:21 PM »

Or you can stay out of Park Slope when you're thirsty.  I'm sure there are other places in NYC you can find those beers and pay a lot less, but look where you were!  I believe Park Slope is the international capitol of Yuppydom.

1725

Ingredients / Re: Northern Brewer Munich LME

« on: November 29, 2010, 12:10:45 PM »

I'd recommend no more than .00000001 grams of peated malt.  But that's me   The rest sounds good.

Is that because you don't like smoke in general, or the peated malt in particular?  I ask because I use a pound of cherry-wood smoked malt in my gotlandsdricke and really like the results.  I've got no experience with the peated malt.

I like smoke malts, but I don't like peat-smoked malts.  So, I agree with Tom.  Any amount is too much.