Messages

7306

All Grain Brewing / Re: Harshness - How much alkalinity is too much?

« on: September 01, 2010, 11:55:25 am »

Your water is automatically balanced ionically, it's not really possible for it not to be.  The salts you add are also balanced, so you'll still have a balanced system.

I think the question of ionic balance came up when reviewing someone's data on water from a certain city, where the balances of ions didn't make sense at a reasonable pH.  Real life water is balanced.  Water on paper, not always.

7307

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Yeast book now on sale - coupon code??

« on: September 01, 2010, 10:40:26 am »

I had a problem using a coupon code to renew my membership and get the Compleat Mead Maker.  I also called and got it corrected and they (AHA customer service) were very helpful.  It turned out that the code is case sensative.

I had no problems using it, but then I tend to copy and paste so maybe that's why it worked.

7308

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Storing Fresh Hops

« on: September 01, 2010, 10:38:57 am »

I made it home without any ill effects. Left the hops in open brown paper bags with a layer of paper towels on the bottom. They are now drying properly spread out thinly on my dining room table. They are going to make the apartment smell GREAT! Thanks for the feedback, seems like there are some different opinions on the matter, maybe this would be a good idea for a future Zymurgy issue (if it isn't in an old one that I am unaware of).

Sorry, I guess I misunderstood.  I was under the impression you wanted to use them fresh, so my advice was from that point of view.  If you're drying them then the way you are doing it is fine.  I'd turn them occasionally to help them dry if you can't put them on screens.  A lot of people take the screens out of their windows and lay them across a couple of chairs to give better air flow around the hops.

7309

Kegging and Bottling / Re: kegging

« on: August 31, 2010, 11:40:03 pm »

Corny, aka corney, aka cornie kegs are what most people use.  Short for cornelius kegs, the name of the company that made them.

There's really not much to it, it's like one big bottle.  You have the option of priming or force carbonating, most people seem to force carbonate.

If you google how to keg homebrew you'll find a ton of resources and some videos as well.  I'd give you links, but I haven't really looked at any of the sites and don't have a favorite.

7310

Kegging and Bottling / Re: carbonating after fermentation has ended

« on: August 31, 2010, 11:35:52 pm »

If you're worried about it you can add some fresh yeast at bottling, use your normal amounts of sugar.  It'll be fine.

I'd wait on these bottles though, make sure they are warm enough and give them more time to carbonate.  10 days in secondary is not that long and the yeast may still be in there working on carbing your bottles.  If they don't carb after another couple of weeks at 70F, then you can add a tiny grain of yeast to each bottle and recap.  Total pain, but it generally works.

7311

Kegging and Bottling / Re: can i carbonate beer in a keg with priming sugar and no co2?

« on: August 31, 2010, 11:32:04 pm »

Are you sure the gas is actually flowing into the keg?  Because it should force carbonate if there's gas there, and if the leak is so slow that it didn't drain the tank then the keg should be holding enough pressure to carbonate the beer.

Don't add more priming sugar, if you choose to go that route just warm it up.  The sugar is probably still there and the beer will carbonate.  It might need some yeast added though.  This is just a weird situation.

7312

Kegging and Bottling / Re: CO2 pressure leaking through the relief valve

« on: August 31, 2010, 11:28:32 pm »

you can get replacement stems from foxx equipment co, they're only a few bucks, i will also send a couple of those out since shipping on em is nothing

Do you know what page of their catalog they're on?

7313

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Yeast book now on sale - coupon code??

« on: August 31, 2010, 11:21:00 pm »

Mine too.

If you can't find it, imma suggest you email Kathryn and ask her to resend it.  kathryn@brewersassociation.org

7314

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Storing Fresh Hops

« on: August 31, 2010, 11:10:37 pm »

You are going to boil the hell out them anyway. There is nothing like making fresh hop beers in the dead of winter!

Exactly, who cares if they get mushy?  It doesn't matter how they look, there's no grade for presentation.

But I would freeze them in measured amounts so you don't have to try to chip 5 oz off of your "hop block"!

7315

Pimp My System / Re: Arctic Brewery and Mobile Fermentation Trailer

« on: August 31, 2010, 11:07:27 pm »

I tracked some of them down.  Wow.  That's all I'm going to say.

It was 2002, when people here might have heard of the Taliban.

7316

Ingredients / Re: SRM of Brewers Licorice

« on: August 31, 2010, 08:35:18 pm »

can you get darker than black?

Exactly!   

7317

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: Lager Starters at Lager Temps?

« on: August 31, 2010, 08:33:25 pm »

Yeah, the short answer is lots.

The long answer is it depends.  There is an element of randomness in where mutations occur, and I imagine it will take several accumulated mutations in the right spots to make the yeast incapable of fermenting at cool temperatures any more.  That's my best guess anyway, the S. cerevisiae (ale) genome is well studied, the S. pastorianus (lager) genome less so.  Any cell that picked up the mutations to prevent it from fermenting cold will only pass those on to its daughter cells, so over a few generations you'll end up with a handful of cells with those mutations, out of billions of cells that are just fine.

Although there are genes in S. cerevisiae that help it ferment at lower temperatures, I'm guessing that the ability to ferment at lower temps is something that came from the S. bayanus (wine) side of the family (lager yeasts are the result of a hybridization between ale and wine yeasts) but it's not clear to me how many genes are relevant.  Or it's possible there is some novel mutation or gene duplication event that allows for the lower fermentation event, or even some kind of synergistic effect from the combined gene products of the two strains.  It's possible this stuff is known, but I'm not up on the literature.  If I had research money to study it, I totally would.  Anyone got some spare cash lying around?

Anyway, all lager yeasts should grow well at warm temps, you're not in danger of selecting for warm fermenting but not cold fermenting cells unless they pick up some mutation that lets them ferment warm better than the lager yeast does.  It's just that you're no longer selecting for only cold fermenting cells, so you could hypothetically end up with some small percentage that will not ferment cold anymore.  Those will go dormant as soon as you pitch into your lager wort anyway, so it's no problem.

I'm going to guess that Wyeast and White Labs both grow their lager strains at warm temps for cell mass.  Growing at lower temps would take a longer time to get the same cell count and they'd probably have to charge more for lager strains due to tying up the incubators for longer periods of time.

7318

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: Munich Helles fermentation temp?

« on: August 31, 2010, 07:39:18 pm »

I don't think you'll want to go to 10 generations:
http://www.asbcnet.org/journal/abstracts/2003/0205-01a.htm

It's been a while since I read the whole article, but I seem to remember a rule of thumb of 7 generations for lager yeasts.  If I have time I'll go through it again.

7319

All Grain Brewing / Re: rice hull percentage

« on: August 31, 2010, 07:34:33 pm »

Keep in mind that all of the draining happens at the cooler outlet, so a longer braid doesn't really provide more "space" for the wort to run through.

But a longer braid does provide more surface area to gather and channel the wort to the outlet which could make a difference with compressed grain beds and gummy grains like wheat and rye.

Just a thought

That's what I was thinking too, but it sounds like it's not a problem for these guys.

Do you tilt the mash tun a little bit to aid in the wort flowing to the channel?

7320

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Storing Fresh Hops

« on: August 31, 2010, 07:28:08 pm »

Mold and composting of the hops are a huge problem.  If you're going to keep them room temp you need to keep good air flow, so paper instead of plastic for sure, and in small quantities.  I think I would be tempted to freeze them in an air tight container to prevent them from degrading, especially since you are going to use them in a few days.  If you leave them in a pile fresh, they will start to break down "within hours" according to James Altweis (I think that's who said it).