2581
General Homebrew Discussion / Re: PIlsner Break
« on: January 15, 2010, 11:07:58 pm »
Sounds like hot break, and yes, pilsner malt is notorious for producing a lot of it.
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2582
Yeast and Fermentation / Re: Yeast Farms
« on: January 15, 2010, 12:41:54 pm »
Right now I have 8 strains on hand - there are few more I want, so I think I'll end up keeping 11 total. I just keep them in 100 mL glass jars in the fridge, so they take up very little space. Every time I make a starter, I pour 100 mL of it into a jar, and it goes back in the fridge. So the yeast only see ~1.035 starter wort, which should keep mutation to a minimum. Not quite as good as banking the original culture in glycerol and only using each tube once, but a lot easier.
2583
All Grain Brewing / Re: a black ipa... how does this look?
« on: January 14, 2010, 05:46:42 pm »deepsouth - it depends a lot on the AA (of course) but I generally use 12-15oz of hops (mostly C-hops, Simcoe and Amarillo - so mostly high alpha stuff) for a 12gal batch of IPA - 2-3 for dryhop, ~2 for bittering, 8-10 for <20 minutes, including flameout additions.
That sounds about right to me. I use ~6 oz for a 5 gal batch. About 1 oz at 60 min (~40 IBU), .5 oz at 20, 15, 10, and 5 min, 1.5 oz at 0, and 1.5 oz dry hop. comes out to 70-80 IBU or so for typical 8-12% AA hops.
2584
Yeast and Fermentation / Re: Starters and aeration experiments
« on: January 14, 2010, 05:37:00 pm »
I see what you mean. I did control for those variables as best I could. The starters were cold crashed at 0C until they were visually clear, then decanted before the slurry was poured. I then rinsed each jug once with tap water. That said, the yeast I used was *very* non-flocculent (I suspect some of that is due to the lack of proteins to provide conglomeration sites). So I'm sure I lost some yeast down the drain, although the amounts were too small to be visible.
Don't worry about hurting my feelings.
I appreciate the questions as an important part of the process.
Don't worry about hurting my feelings.
I appreciate the questions as an important part of the process.
2585
Yeast and Fermentation / Re: Starters and aeration experiments
« on: January 14, 2010, 03:16:08 pm »
Kai: the lack of access to FAN is definitely the weak link, and I would caution anyone against assuming the results are directly applicable to wort starters. I'm not sure what you mean about errors in the results though. The error in the grad cyl readings is pretty small relative to the values (0.9 mL), and while I don't want to read too much into a single dataset, the trend seems pretty compelling to me. If FAN was the (only) limiting factor I would have expected all the samples to produce the same amount of slurry.
2586
Yeast and Fermentation / Starters and aeration experiments
« on: January 14, 2010, 12:31:35 pm »
I did a few simple tests to see what the effects of various aeration methods were on starters, and thought other people might find the results interesting. A full writeup is here: http://seanterrill.com/2010/01/14/aeration-and-yeast-starters/ but the results are summarized in the image below.
2587
The Pub / Re: Haitian Earthquake
« on: January 13, 2010, 06:14:57 pm »
In terms of human casualties, I'm sure that's true. I was just pointing out that the *planet* has been through much worse. It's a massive and tragic loss of human life, but it's no Ordovician extinction.
2588
General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Complete Fermentation
« on: January 13, 2010, 03:30:31 pm »
Once the krausen drops take a reading, then take another three days later. If they aren't identical, take another three days after that, etc.
The small sample idea (fast ferment test) is a good one to ensure you don't have a stuck fermentation. IMHO, though, if you're pitching an adequate quantity of yeast it isn't always necessary.
The small sample idea (fast ferment test) is a good one to ensure you don't have a stuck fermentation. IMHO, though, if you're pitching an adequate quantity of yeast it isn't always necessary.
2589
The Pub / Re: Haitian Earthquake
« on: January 13, 2010, 02:14:12 pm »This would be the 4th largest natural disaster to ever strike the planet.
Maybe a slight exaggeration...
2590
General Homebrew Discussion / Re: cleaning
« on: January 13, 2010, 02:06:02 pm »
Oxiclean, dish soap, and Iodophor.
2591
Ingredients / Re: Correctly reading ph test strips
« on: January 13, 2010, 11:12:06 am »It should, but it may not.
I would amend that to say "probably won't". Buffers, pretty much by definition, can only adjust the pH to a target if it's within a certain range to begin with. I used the 5.2 product for about half a dozen batches, then I bought some pH strips and discovered that it doesn't actually work very well - and I was already getting my water "close" and only using the buffer to dial it in.
2592
The Pub / Re: Weatherman said...
« on: January 13, 2010, 09:38:02 am »
Just in case anyone's curious, "el niño" is actually Spanish for "the niño".
2593
Yeast and Fermentation / Re: stuff I'm finding under the microscope
« on: January 12, 2010, 12:14:20 pm »
2594
All Grain Brewing / Re: Malt Conditioning
« on: January 11, 2010, 10:38:03 pm »
I tried this for the first time today, starting with Kai's recommendation of 2%. That didn't "feel" like enough to uniformly wet the grains, so I went to 3%, which may have been too much. It took a huge amount of force, and almost half an hour to mill 10 lb of grain, versus about 10 minutes last week. The crush was simply beautiful though; when I run my hands through it the individual grains are clearly separate, and there's basically no flour. Runoff was a little faster than usual, about 10 minutes vs 15 (single batch sparge). I also got a little bit of a bump on efficiency, from 83% to 87%. This is only my second batch with my Barley Crusher though, so I can't say definitively if that's a result of the conditioning.
All in all, I'll be doing it again, although probably experimenting with a little less water to see if I can mill it without herniating anything.
All in all, I'll be doing it again, although probably experimenting with a little less water to see if I can mill it without herniating anything.
2595
Beer Recipes / Re: Hi gravity favorites
« on: January 11, 2010, 04:55:27 pm »Boy, 50 IBU seems kinda on the low side for an Am. BW. I think the last one I did was around 130!You're right Denny, I checked my notes and it was actually about 75 IBU bittering addition, 90 IBU total. IIIRC you age them for a lot longer though, right? A year or more?
Will a hi OG beer still finish with a low FG.With all-grain, you're in good shape because you can mash low and produce a very fermentable wort. I've mashed my BWs at 149°F for 90 minutes. Combined with an attenuative yeast like Chico (US-05/1056/001), 80-85% attenuation is common.