Messages

2521

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: Honey for Priming

« on: February 01, 2010, 11:55:30 AM »

Take a known quantity of the honey, dilute it 9:1 with distilled water, and check the gravity with a hydrometer or refractometer. That will tell you how much sugar it contains per unit mass. Typical honey will be somewhere around 80% IIRC.

To prime with it, I would boil some water, let it cool down below ~160°F and then stir in the honey until it's fully dissolved. No need to boil the honey itself - it's more or less sterile.

2522

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: anyone by chance

« on: February 01, 2010, 11:42:11 AM »

What makes that the magical number and how can you be so sure of it?

You seem to be banging this drum awfully hard. No offense, but can I see your business plan? I'll show you mine.

For a small-scale on-premises brewery (i.e. the brewhouse and restaurant are separate entities) with one employee, you need to sell roughly 500 bbl a year to keep the lights on and pay yourself minimum wage. So even if you brew every day, you need a 2 bbl system to break even. 7 bbl just happens to be the most common size that's larger than the break-even point. If you want to turn a profit (or god forbid, distribute) you'd better be able to turn over those seven barrels 2-3 times a week. And that doesn't include amortizing the high five- to low six-figure startup costs (which, in this scenario, don't include a liquor license - another six-figure sunk cost in many places).

2523

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: anyone by chance

« on: February 01, 2010, 01:45:05 AM »

Short version: you need a liquor license (for a bar) or a production license (for a brewery), or both, depending on the state. You also need a separate space for brewing (i.e. it can't be in your home anywhere I'm aware of, and it may need to be zoned commercial). And of course you have to pay the appropriate taxes at the federal level, and license/label each beer with TTB.

It isn't impossible to do, but it's complicated, enough so that there are attorneys who do nothing else.

2524

The Pub / Re: Germany...

« on: January 31, 2010, 02:33:22 PM »

ROLF thats funny

So funny you threw up?!

2525

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: culturing yeast from a bottled beer

« on: January 31, 2010, 02:31:32 PM »

Literally anything unfiltered can be built up from a bottle. The younger it is, the easier it will be, but if there's sediment, you're good to go.

2526

All Grain Brewing / Re: Organics

« on: January 31, 2010, 02:30:08 PM »

Alt A has 9 lb pils, 1 lb.munich. ALT B has 9 lb Pils, 2 lbs. munich and a little black malt,  Alt A was mashed at 152 or so for 75 minutes to see if it helps.  The OG was a little higher, but not the .1050 I was hoping for.

Assuming you're at about 1.048, that's around 65% efficiency. Do you check your mash pH, and/or treat your water? For a relatively light beer it wouldn't be unusual for tap water to pull the pH out of range and contribute to poor efficiency.

Organics are not that much more expensive IMHO. Who said saving the planet would be cheap?

I'm not sure I'm willing to grant the premise of your question.

2527

Questions about the forum? / Re: Another area / forum?

« on: January 31, 2010, 11:06:57 AM »

Maybe it could even be tied into the COC cycle. Obviously, people could still send in whatever they want, but posting a common recipe so that clubs could have their own mini-comps (or just as a starting point for clubs that want to enter but don't have a solid recipe for the style) could be helpful. And it's a way to tie into the strictly AHA parts of the site, and demonstrate value for members.

2528

Equipment and Software / Re: Manifold vs. Screen/Braid

« on: January 31, 2010, 11:02:15 AM »

For batch sparging, it really doesn't matter much, if at all. You're just trying to dump the liquid out as quickly as possible. For fly-sparging, you need a design that will drain the entire grain bed as uniformly as possible. There's an entire chapter on how to build a manifold in How To Brew.

I batch sparge with a CPVC manifold and am glad I went that way, because I can take it apart and clean it. I tried a braid for a few batches but wasn't comfortable with the little bits of grain that got stuck inside.

2529

Equipment and Software / Re: Anybody use this?

« on: January 31, 2010, 10:59:03 AM »

My biggest complaint is that you can't see the potential extract or color of the grains until you add them to a recipe. So you can't make a quick estimation to get the gravity and/or color contribution you want; I generally have to revise the quantity at least once or twice. It is very well laid-out, slick and fast.

2530

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: How lolong will harvested yeast keep

« on: January 30, 2010, 01:39:49 PM »

tygo's plan is a good one. FWIW I store slurries in jars in the fridge and have built them back up after more than a year. Also, using an airlock on a starter reduces the amount of yeast you can grow.

2531

Ingredients / Re: Fivestar's 5.2 mash buffer

« on: January 29, 2010, 11:46:44 PM »

Rubidium huh... is it something I can buy legally?

Buy it legally, sure. Shipping is a different issue. You might have to distill your own: http://www.coleparmer.com/catalog/product_view.asp?sku=8699200&pfx=

2532

The Pub / Re: Germany...

« on: January 29, 2010, 02:45:27 PM »

It find it difficult to find dry reisling in the US. We seem to import only the sweet varieties.

Around here it isn't unusual for a winery to make both. I guess they don't grow Reisling in CO though.

2533

Beer Recipes / Re: Brooklyn Lager

« on: January 29, 2010, 01:46:31 PM »

Sorry, I didn't actually read through any of them.

2534

Equipment and Software / Re: brewing kettle

« on: January 29, 2010, 01:45:17 PM »

Spam.

Name:   ettan
Posts:   1 (N/A per day)
Position:   Newbie
Date Registered:   Today at 09:24:02
Last Active:   Today at 09:42:31
Email:   s.speidel@web.de

2535

Beer Recipes / Re: Brooklyn Lager

« on: January 29, 2010, 12:32:04 PM »

I wasn't trying to clone it, but 50% 2-row, 50% Vienna, 20 IBU Magnum for bittering, .5 oz Hallertauer and Cascade at 15 min, .5 oz at flameout, and Wyeast 2035 was pretty similar.

Don't know where you searched, but there are some threads at HBT: http://www.google.com/search?q=+site:homebrewtalk.com+brooklyn+lager+clone