Messages

61

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Can't clean fermenter

« on: March 26, 2013, 03:58:36 PM »

Thanks, if the current soak doesn't work, I'll try shaking the fermenter with a strong, warm solution of PBW/oxiclean and a wash cloth.

I'm not sure, but you might not want to mix the two. Some cleaning materials will react when mixed. Lol you might end up with some bathtub crank!

Looks like you got the go ahead to mix it up then! 
I'm always careful because I mixed the wrong stuff to do my nasty ass dishes that had been sitting in the sink for a semester back in college.

Oxiclean is one half of what's already in PBW so mixing those two is no problem

62

All Grain Brewing / Re: rookie who needs help with floaters!

« on: March 26, 2013, 03:55:24 PM »

I am going to agree with taking your time with it. Ferment for 3-4 weeks. Many don't use a secondary, but I do. I usually go 10-14 days in the primary. Lately I have been going 14 days, but I had a beer a few batches ago go 18 days. The blow off was still bubbling. I then rack for two weeks in the secondary. I'm not sure, but you might have a lot of yeast suspended in the beer when you bottle. I know that you're a rookie and anxious to taste your beer. I think we've all been there...we want our beer now! Take your time with it, and it will pay off with much better beer.

Are you taking gravity readings? OG or SG?

63

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: No brained brewing rules

« on: March 26, 2013, 03:37:21 PM »

Quit buying a 6 pack every time you go to Giant Eagle...You're a brewer, dummy!

64

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Can't clean fermenter

« on: March 26, 2013, 03:33:42 PM »

Thanks, if the current soak doesn't work, I'll try shaking the fermenter with a strong, warm solution of PBW/oxiclean and a wash cloth.

I'm not sure, but you might not want to mix the two. Some cleaning materials will react when mixed. Lol you might end up with some bathtub crank!

65

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: First time Homebrewer

« on: March 24, 2013, 07:20:52 PM »

I'll be the one against the grain here. I use OneStep. It's easy, cheap and has never failed me. I've never used Star San and have thought about trying, but I figure there's no reason to fix something that isn't broke.

Frank, I felt the same way about One step until it did fail me.  Once I went to Oxiclean/PBW/Iodophor/StarSan I realized how superior they were to One Step.  I know you have a lot of the stuff to work through, but once you do, I encourage you to try some of the other ones.

I probably have 4 pounds of it left lol. I do use oxyclean to wash my equipment with... It does very well. Then I use the OneStep before use to sanitize. I have never heard a bad thing about StarSan, so I'll eventually get to it. But what does make me worried about it is when people talk about infection in their beer. I have yet (knock on wood) to have one while using OneStep, but I am also very careful with what I am doing too.

66

Commercial Beer Reviews / Re: Founder's Dry-Hopped Pale Ale

« on: March 24, 2013, 04:44:54 PM »

I just drank another one of these. I may have to take back my previous comment due to disqualification lol. The bottling date on this six pack is 3/36/12.... So, I would imagine most of the dry-hop flavor was long gone!

67

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: First time Homebrewer

« on: March 23, 2013, 07:33:18 PM »

I'll be the one against the grain here. I use OneStep. It's easy, cheap and has never failed me. I've never used Star San and have thought about trying, but I figure there's no reason to fix something that isn't broke.

68

Hop Growing / Re: Bamboo Stakes?

« on: March 23, 2013, 10:04:13 AM »

Thanks guys. I think I'm going with it. I ordered 50 of them for like $11, so if they fail, I'm not out much. I'm just trying to provide the best growth opportunity for the hops. The three plants that grew last year did pretty good considering not much prep was done. I want this years to have a much better opportunity to grow. I put far more effort into prepping the soil. As far as air movement goes... That shouldn't be an issue. They're planted next door to The Windy Hill Tree Farm. I checked our latitude last night. We're a little farther north than I thought. These hops are planted at 40.68 N latitude. I'm hoping that all the new breeds that I added will take off. I guess we'll see.

Tom - I understand that I will trim back the leaves later. This is to maximize the airflow and sun light exposure to the young shooters, to insure a great start. They are only going to get sunlight exposure on three sides, so I want to maximize that. Am I making it too complicated? lol Probably, but I like to be outside playing in the dirt 

69

Hop Growing / Re: Bamboo Stakes?

« on: March 22, 2013, 09:59:13 PM »

There's no reason really why the twine can't be closer to the ground. I guess my thoughts are if the shooters are spread somewhat apart when they are younger, they would have more aeration, therefore having more availability to CO2. This in turn would promote better growth during the earlier stages of the sprouts. Basically the same concept of why you should prune back fruit trees and berry shrubs in late winter.

70

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Favorite beer you've ever brewed?

« on: March 22, 2013, 08:07:32 PM »

It was probably my tart cherry stout. It was my second all grain brew. My first was my attempts to clone SNPA. That beer didn't clone it, but it was still pretty good. But that was a simple recipe. I decided to jump into something that was much more complicated. I questioned myself if I should brew it or not. I put the recipe together. It involved cold steeping of dark grains and racking the beer onto 10 pounds of fresh tart cherries. This was last July....The beer was very cherry-y at first. After some aging, it is now pretty damn good IMO. Good enough that I registered it into the NHC. So, I guess I'll see how good it actually is 

71

Hop Growing / Bamboo Stakes?

« on: March 22, 2013, 07:55:15 PM »

Last year (my first year for hops) I used a tomato plant cones to start my hops up to the twine. I had to bridge the gap between the steel cone to the twine with some kite string. So, I got a plant magezine in the mail today and was looking at options to use to be better. I saw a picture of a tomato plant that grew into three bamboo stakes that were in a teepee shape. Basically the reverse of the cone. Would you think that the hops would stick to the bamboo? I'm thinking about using 4' bamboo stakes in this shape (buried about 6-8") up to the twine. I figure that I could cut back the shooters to the 3 strongest and let them grow up the stakes and then all combine onto the twine that is suspended from the roof of the barn. I'm going for a shape that is shown in the picture below. These appear to be 6' stakes, but same sort of concept of shape. I'm just concerned about the hops gripping to them. What do ya think?

72

All Grain Brewing / Re: Mash-in

« on: March 20, 2013, 06:56:56 PM »

I add grain to water. I'm generally dumping 3-4 gallons of strike water into a 5 gallon round (and orange  ) cooler from my kettle, so this is really the only option for me. Otherwise I'd be afraid to kick up a bunch of dust when I dump in my water. I also think this gives me good control over doughballs since I can add my grain slowly while stirring.

Orange round coolers unite!! 

It doesn't matter what order you use with a blue cooler....No dough balls!

73

Beer Recipes / Re: Looking for piney, earthy character in hops

« on: March 20, 2013, 02:39:57 PM »

I use Styrian Celia quite a bit, and get earthy with a touch of lemon. Otherwise, I was drinking Great Lakes' Alchemy Hour the other day, and it was very earthy with some pine and tropical fruit. The hop combo is apparently Mosaic, Nugget, and Cascade.

This is where I was kinda going with my suggestion. Alchemy Hour is certainly an earthy tasting IPA that is very amber in color. I wasn't aware of the Cascades in it. I thought it was an even blend of Nugget and Mosaic....Then I threw in Simcoe for the piney flavor.

I was surprised their was Cascade in there myself, but I got the info from their website.

http://www.greatlakesbrewing.com/uploads/Beer/2013%20Beer%20Profile%20-%20Alchemy%20Hour.pdf

Well there it is! lol I don't know where I read that it was an "even blend of mosaic and nugget". Nevertheless, it is a very different "earthy" tasting IPA. I like it for it's nice change of pace in taste.

74

Beer Recipes / Re: Looking for piney, earthy character in hops

« on: March 20, 2013, 02:15:49 PM »

I use Styrian Celia quite a bit, and get earthy with a touch of lemon. Otherwise, I was drinking Great Lakes' Alchemy Hour the other day, and it was very earthy with some pine and tropical fruit. The hop combo is apparently Mosaic, Nugget, and Cascade.

This is where I was kinda going with my suggestion. Alchemy Hour is certainly an earthy tasting IPA that is very amber in color. I wasn't aware of the Cascades in it. I thought it was an even blend of Nugget and Mosaic....Then I threw in Simcoe for the piney flavor.

75

All Grain Brewing / Re: Mash-in

« on: March 20, 2013, 11:45:15 AM »

I add grain to water