Topics

16

General Homebrew Discussion / I would be totally pissed...

« on: July 11, 2012, 05:26:34 PM »

Found this picture today.  Several years before I started brewing.  I broke my cousin's airlock!  Then tried to fix it with duct tape.  I would be totally pissed if someone did this to me!  I talked to him about it recently, the batch was ruined, he said he didn't care, but now that I brew,  I'm forever mad at myself for however this happened.  I'm pretty sure this was the first night I ever had Arrogant Bastard.  I'm pretty sure the two are unrelated...



I just realized I think I'm giving a thumbs up too, slightly out of camera range.  This is not a thumbs up situation!!

17

Equipment and Software / Upright freezer for fermentation chamber

« on: July 04, 2012, 12:02:54 PM »

I was considering using an upright freezer to replace my fridge fermenter that died last week.  It's got a manual defrost, would that cause any issues since it'll only be down to maybe 55 degrees? 

Haven't got any dimensions on it yet, my fridge I could fit 4 carboys in it. 

18

Equipment and Software / Fridge died...

« on: June 28, 2012, 02:53:57 PM »

So another fridge died on me.  This was my fermenter fridge, so there's currently 4 carboys in there.  The stick on thermometers read 78 right now.  Everything is done fermenting.  Will it be ok for a few days at this temp, if the temp doesn't go up?  Or should I expedite getting a new fridge?

19

Ingredients / Dry Hopping with Cacao Nibs

« on: June 09, 2012, 08:17:37 AM »

Anyone ever dry hopped with cacoa nibs?  I brewed 10 gallons of my stout a couple weeks ago, one of the recipes called for coffee and cacoa nibs in the boil, but I honestly didn't want 10 gallons of a coffee stout, so I held the coffee and nibs out.

I'm shooting for a nice coffee stout.  Will the nibs give me a coffee aroma/flavor if I dry hop with them?  I have 4 oz of them.  Or should I just dry hop with coffee and save the nibs for something else?

20

Other Fermentables / Bottling my first Mead...Advice??

« on: June 09, 2012, 07:25:58 AM »

So, I'm gonna bottle my first mead today.  I have a Beer Gun, I only bottle one batch of beer a year, my yearly Barleywine.  I never purge the bottles, since I add extra yeast and sugar when I bottle.  I figure the secondary fermentation will push any O2 to the top of the bottle.

But my mead is going to be still.  Should I purge the bottles with CO2 or just bottle them up?  Would a little oxygen help or hurt this mead?  Its going to need a few months to age, I fermented it really cool, but it still has a weird hot alcohol taste, not terrible, but noticeable.

21

Yeast and Fermentation / Pitching dry yeast without rehydrating

« on: May 24, 2012, 03:44:21 PM »

So, I'm trying to draw Mr. Denny Conn out here.  Have you noticed any thing different (off flavors, etc...) just pitching the dry yeast pack without rehydrating?  Anything over 1.060 I just pitch two packs, but is the rumor true that if you pitch dry yeast, without rehydrating,  it kills half the cells instantly?  This doesn't really make any sense to me, as I usually rehydrate in around 85 degree water.  Wouldn't that kill some cells too?  Why does it make a difference when you pitch into wort, is it because of the sugar content, like it's such a shock to the yeast?  Just need a little food for thought.

22

Equipment and Software / Refractometer WAY off...

« on: May 13, 2012, 09:06:44 AM »

So, somehow, both my hydrometers are broken.  Kegged a couple different batches yesterday, thought I'd pull out the refractometer.

Calibrated it with distilled water, read 0 brix.  Put a few drops of my new beer in there.  8.5 Plato?  Really, that's roughly 1.034 FG, after five weeks in the primary.

I have noticed a few threads on HBT that other people have had the same problem.  I've had the refractometer for a couple years, so returning it is out of the question.  Is it useless?  Should I toss it?

I borrowed a friends hydrometer and sampled the same beer, it finished at 1.010.  Right where I expected it.

This is the refractometer I have: http://www.rebelbrewer.com/shoppingcart/products/Economy-Refractometer.html

23

Equipment and Software / Black Beer bottles and caps

« on: May 11, 2012, 09:44:16 PM »

So every year I want to do something different for my bottled "barleywine".  This year I wanna do an RIS completely over the top, but I want to find some black bottles and black beer caps... 

Anyone got a source?

24

Beer Recipes / Anyone have a Kalamazoo Stout clone? or ideas?

« on: April 11, 2012, 03:08:39 PM »

I've been wanting to clone this beer for a couple years now.  Haven't found a reputable clone recipe.  I'm not good at cloning beers, either.  The only thing I know is that they use "brewers licorice".  But how much and how long, I'm at a loss.

This is a great beer, I'd love to be able to brew something like it.  Anyone tried cloning it?  Or something similar to it?

Is Star Anise the same thing as brewers licorice like I've read?  I really don't like anise, but I love me some Kalamazoo Stout!

25

Ingredients / Addtives, need some thoughts.

« on: April 11, 2012, 03:06:03 PM »

So, I just brewed 15 gallons last weekend and realize I'm getting down to the end of a few things.  Sanitizer, whirlfloc, fermcap, and yeast nutrient.

Sanitizer is a no brainer, you gotta have that.  The ferm cap I'm losing, I only bought it a couple years ago, with a small pot it really does help with boil overs.  Now I only boil in my keggle, even 5 gallon batches, so usually no worries with boil overs.

I'm debating on not continuing the whirlfloc and the yeast nutrient.  I've forgotten to add either of them to a few batches and they turned out fine.  I'm not trying to skimp at all, I really care about my beer, I don't mind paying for it, if I get results.  I just don't want to be paying for and adding things that are really unnecessary.  What do you guys think?

26

Beer Recipes / Liquid Flight IIPA

« on: April 07, 2012, 12:39:23 PM »

So, after having good success with an all Falconer's Flight IPA, I decided to try my hand at making a flight of hops.  Here's what I came up with, and I'm brewing it tomorrow, already ground the grain and weighed all the hops, so I'm all in!


Liquid Flight Hops
 
Alpha: 10.00 %
 Type: Both
Beta: ?
 Form: Pellet   
Notes: Equal parts blend of the following hops - Amarillo, Cascade, Calypso, Centennial, Columbus, Galena, Palisade, Simcoe, Styrian Golding and Warrior.

LBC Liquid Flight IIPA
Imperial IPA

Batch Size: 5.75 gal
 Ingredients
 
Amount Item Type % or IBU
13.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 84.14 %
0.95 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 6.15 %
0.50 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 3.24 %
1.00 oz Liquid Flight [10.58 %] (90 min) Hops 40.5 IBU
0.50 oz Liquid Flight [10.58 %] (60 min) Hops 18.9 IBU
0.50 oz Liquid Flight [10.58 %] (55 min) Hops 18.5 IBU
0.50 oz Liquid Flight [10.58 %] (50 min) Hops 18.0 IBU
0.50 oz Liquid Flight [10.58 %] (45 min) Hops 17.4 IBU
0.50 oz Liquid Flight [10.58 %] (40 min) Hops 16.6 IBU
0.50 oz Liquid Flight [10.58 %] (35 min) Hops 15.7 IBU
0.50 oz Liquid Flight [10.58 %] (30 min) Hops 14.5 IBU
0.50 oz Liquid Flight [10.58 %] (25 min) Hops 13.2 IBU
0.50 oz Liquid Flight [10.58 %] (20 min) Hops 11.5 IBU
0.50 oz Liquid Flight [10.58 %] (15 min) Hops 9.4 IBU
0.50 oz Liquid Flight [10.58 %] (10 min) Hops 6.9 IBU
0.50 oz Liquid Flight [10.58 %] (5 min) Hops 3.8 IBU
1.00 oz Liquid Flight [10.58 %] (0 min) Hops - 
1.00 lb Sugar, Table (Sucrose) (1.0 SRM) Sugar 6.47 %
2 Pkgs Nottingham (Danstar #-) Yeast-Ale 

 Est OG - 1.079
 Est FG -  1.012
Est ABV -  8.7 %


  I've got two ounces of the flight left, I plan to dry hop with one ounce for a week, then add the other ounce for another week.  Two weeks total.

 


 

27

Ingredients / White Table Sugar

« on: March 25, 2012, 04:01:30 PM »

So, I searched the forum a little and couldn't come up with much.  Honestly, I have a hard time searching what I want on this forum.  I can never find posts with what I am exactly searching, so sorry if I'm repeating something I missed.

I read recently that using white sugar is absolutely fine and will not produce any off (cidery, etc.) flavors in beer.  I only want to use about a pound in a new IIPA, to lighten the body and help dry it out.  Is this acceptable?  Estimated OG is going to be around 1.083 and 1# of sugar will be 6% of the "grist" for this beer.

28

Ingredients / Barleywine question.

« on: March 25, 2012, 01:42:21 PM »

So, every year for the last two years, I've brewed a big barleywine, and bottled conditioned them.  I plan on different recipes every year and have since refined my bottle conditioning procedure.  This last one, I cold crashed the primary, kegged it, then added half a pack of redydrated yeast to the keg.  Hooked up the beer gun and bottled it.  Worked great!  I nice compact layer of yeast in every bottle, with no need to refrain from pouring the entire bottle into a glass.  The previous year had a nice 1/2" of sediment.  Too much yeast I presume.

Sorry for ranting...  Both years turned out great.  I was really happy with both batches.  However, I appreciated the taste of the beers when they were relatively new in the bottle.  After having sufficient carbonation from bottle conditioning.  They got intensely sweet as they sat in the fridge.  This years has only been in the bottle for two and a half months, and is very sweet and malty to me.  When it was first carbed up, it was really good, resembling a nice IIPA.  They were both hopped quite significantly, so my question is, are there any malts that will contribute pronounced bitterness, so as the hops drop out, the resulting beer doesn't get cloyingly sweet??

I'm thinking about doing a huge RIS this year.  Will I have to worry about the same issue?

29

Ingredients / Whether or not to dry hop

« on: March 19, 2012, 03:01:27 PM »

So, I normally always dry hop my ipa's.  Even some apa's too.  However, typically beers will hit their stride two to three weeks after I start drinking it.  I've got my new black ipa, which I'm not going to dry hop.  It had several hefty late minute additions.

I know each technique will impart different aspects of the hop. 

So basically I'm considering on my next few ipas, just bumping up the late minute additions and skipping the dry hop step altogether.  Anyone else do this? 

30

Equipment and Software / Need new propane burner

« on: February 29, 2012, 05:17:16 PM »

I'm in the market for a new burner.  Just wanted to get some suggestions from you guys.  This is the burner I currently have:



I'm thinking about getting this one:



Any suggestions?  I routinely brew 10 gallon batches, so I'd like something more powerful and efficient, than the burner I have now.