Topics

1

Equipment and Software / sani clean slime

« on: May 08, 2013, 11:11:15 AM »

anyone else every see ropey slimy crap in sani clean after it is a month or so old?  i mix mine into distilled water and try to reuse it for 3-5 batches (for kegging only - I use star san during brewing).  but the ropey stuff has always disturbed me, although I have never had an infection or sanitation issue to date.... 

[crosses fingers] [knocks on wood]

2

Yeast and Fermentation / yeast re-use

« on: May 08, 2013, 11:06:00 AM »

any one see a problem re-using W-34/70 from a Bo-Pils that was 1.058, to a German Pils that is going to only be around 1.050?   I ask because a couple years ago I reused US-05 from a 1.066 IPA in a 1.045 brown ale....  major off flavors etc occurred, AFAIK because of the yeast dropping in gravity so much.... I am assuming a 1.058 to 1.050 drop is not such a big deal?

-red

3

Ingredients / Amarillo

« on: April 23, 2013, 04:04:17 PM »

What does Amarillo go well with? I've got about 10oz sitting in the freezer doing not much of anything.  I'm thinking of it a basic American IPA. I'm a big fan of all-Centennial IPAs, what about mixing Amarillo 50/50 with Cents? Or are they best used at a certain point in the boil, like flavor or aroma? 

Other hops I have on hand (in case anyone sees anything that pairs nicely with Amarillo) are Columbus, Cascade, Magnum, Mittlefruh, Tettnang, and Willamette.  (And Saaz but that's going in my Bo Pils this week)

-red

4

All Grain Brewing / Brun Water question

« on: March 21, 2013, 07:04:10 AM »

Recently started using Brun Water to acidify my sparge water with lactic acid. When I'm doing a brew where I'm building water from scratch, based on distilled water, do I enter the Water Alkalinity on Tab #2, Cell B4, as zero, since distilled water plus gypsum & CaCl2 has zero alkalinity, according to Tab #3, Cell L12? 

And then when I enter a zero alkalinity into Tab #2, it tells me to use zero lactic acid in the sparge water. I guess I should believe this, but am having trouble figuring out why...  won't the distilled water still have a pH of around 7, and I'd like it to get down to 5.5?

thanks
red

5

Events / noob NHC question

« on: March 11, 2013, 04:55:22 PM »

I'm probably giving myself mucho bad karma by even asking this ... but having never entered the NHC before, here goes....

IF one of your beers wins in the first round and you get selected for the 2nd round, do you have to send in more beer? In other words, should I be saving some of each beer that I submit to the first round, for possible submission to the 2nd round judging? If so, how much? 

Assuming I don't win anything in the first round, then I'll at least have some of each beer to drink while I ponder the 1st round scoresheets, so I guess it would be worthwhile saving some in any case...

tx
red

6

All Grain Brewing / adding sulfate to my SNPA clone

« on: February 25, 2013, 08:04:31 AM »

My water profile, which I've used for Pale Ale in the past, is as follows (all ppm): 56 Ca, 10 Mg, 15 Na, 7 SO4-S, 28 Cl, 172 bicarbonate, 141 Alkalinity.

I'm thinking about looking to get a little more sulfate crispness in there.  How about adding a few grams of gypsum to the  mash, which would get me 89 Ca, and 99 Sulfate (according to Kai's worksheet), while leaving everything else alone (of course it will reduce the RA a bit)...

Sound like a good idea, or not?

Also, would this be a good idea for an IPA and/or Rye IPA?

tx
red

7

Events / NHC entry registration - how fast does it fill up?

« on: February 23, 2013, 06:31:53 AM »

this may have been asked/answered elsewhere but I can't find it....   how fast do the slots fill up when the bell rings at 3pm EST next Tuesday?  do i have a day, or 6 hours, or only 1 hour???

FYI, I live in NY so would have to register in the NYC area?  or can I ship to say, Ohio or Atlanta if NYC fills up?

-red

8

All Grain Brewing / where do you take mash pH?

« on: February 12, 2013, 06:12:21 AM »

Just suddenly wondering where you guys get the mash sample that you are taking the pH of....  do you scoop off the top, or run some cloudy liquid out of the drain of your mash tun, or what?  And does it make a difference? 

FWIW I take a cloudy sample out of the mash drain about 10 minutes into the mash, and I have lately been getting within +/- .2 pH pts of what Martin's and Kai's worksheets predict....  but of course I always like to second-guess my SOP.

-red

9

Equipment and Software / chilling a 30-gal batch

« on: January 24, 2013, 08:06:27 PM »

Anyone here brew 1-bbl batches?  If so, how do you chill the wort...  large immersion chiller, or some kind of plate chiller?

If IC, what length and diameter is the coil? 

If plate chiller, any info on make, model, # of plates, and what pumps (if any) you use, would be appreciated.

thanks
red

10

Ingredients / boil volume question

« on: January 13, 2013, 11:39:42 AM »

OK from this previous thread (http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?topic=14292.0) I am realizing that my processes are a little abnormal compared to the average homebrewer. To recap, the main issue is my large kettle which has a huge (30-40%) boil off rate, which caused me (up until my most recent brew yesterday, Maibock) to oversparge... that is, collect 16-17gals to boil down to 11gal.  This caused astringency in many beers even though I got great efficiency.  Then the astringency from oversparging got further concentrated by the boil.

So based on suggestions from this forum, I sparged only until I collected 12gal (which would put me in the ballpark of other 10gal brewers, I guess), then I added 5 gallons water to the kettle before starting the boil (for various reasons it is basically impossible to reduce my boil off rate, in case you're wondering). (I also acidified my sparge water with lactic acid for the first time, getting in from ~7.5 down to ~5.7, which will help astringency also)

Now I use Kaiser and Martin's water spreadsheets heavily. What I did yesterday was add minerals to the "dilution" water (which I added to the kettle pre-boil) in the same proportions that I did to the mash and sparge water.  Thinking about it more, I think this may be wrong?  If I enter data into those spreadsheets as if I'm collecting 12gal pre-boil, that obviously makes my mash pH and everything work out, as well as setting the flavor profile.  So if I add more minerals preboil, I am now thinking, that screws everything up and sort of "concentrates" my minerals. Perhaps what I should be doing is adding distilled water as my dilution, so the minerals don't get played with... because the only reason I'm adding water to the boil is so I have enough wort to ferment after the boil.... so it just be be distilled that evaporates off... correct assumption? Or am I off here?  (previously, I entered data in the water spreadsheets as if I was collecting 16-17gal, and they nicely gave me lots of stuff to add to my sparge water, which again got concentrated in the boil...  if Martin or Kai could clarify how their sheets work it would help here... I guess they assume most people have a "normal" boil off rate)

So that got me thinking further: I bet I'm messing with my hop utilization by having such a big preboil volume....  so maybe instead of adding 4 or 5 gallons right at the start of the boil, I should add it a half gallon at a time during the boil, so I never have more than maybe 12-13 gal in the kettle...  this would then let me mimic the average homebrewer who boils from 12 gal down to 10.5, or so... 

any thoughts?
-red

11

Going Pro / vendors / manufacturers

« on: January 09, 2013, 09:23:18 AM »

Just kind of blowing smoke out my ear at this point but where would I start looking to get a quote on equipment for a 7bbl or 10bbl brew house, that would include MLT system, mill & auger, wort chilling system, and 2-5 (or more) tanks for fermenting, lagering, and serving,and anything else I have forgotten?

I am looking for both:

1) manufacturers of new equipment

2) forums where I could keep tabs on used stuff being sold

-red

12

All Grain Brewing / astringency

« on: January 02, 2013, 06:25:56 AM »

I've been noticing a little astringency (dry puckery aftertaste that lasts a little too long for my liking) in only a few of my beers this past 6 months.  After looking thru my brewing notes I noticed that this flavor was pretty much confined to high-attenuating, medium-bittered amber-ish beers (ales & lagers). Here's my theory, you tell me if I'm on the right track:

I think I've been sparging with too-hot water (I batch sparge a la Denny).   Somewhere a while ago I read that one should sparge with 180F water but I'm kind of sloppy about it and often hit 185 or 190 (I log this every batch.)  I then often hit a mash-tun temp of 175+ before I start running off my second runnings (but I only leave the mash at that temp for 5 mins, max).  Now searching online for sources of astringency, I find a lot of people saying that sparge water should not be above 170F...  Which I definitely have not been heeding...  So how possible is it that this hot sparge is extracting tannins?

I think I am doing this for all my beers but my theory is that I only notice it in certain beers like Alt and Oktoberfest because they finish out pretty dry (~1.010) and are not aggressively hopped.... in my recent Pilsners, Pale Ales, and IPAs I have not noticed this because they have a lot more hops in. Also in other slightly " sweeter" beers like Porters and Bocks I don't notice it because of more malty flavors, higher F.G., etc.   Is this a good guess?

Also: is it worth checking the pH of the mash at sparging time? Currently I only check the mash about 5-10 minutes into the first rest, I aim for around 5.3 to 5.6 (at room temp) and pretty much get there all the time... but I do boil in a large-diameter steam kettle and need to collect 16 gallons of liquid to boil down to 11 gal of wort; I often run-off only 6.5-7 gallons of first runnings, and then sparge with 9+ gallons more; could this by somehow messing up the pH of the sparge by diluting the buffering power of the grain and making the mash pH jump up to 5.8 or higher?

One more thing could be that I'm milling too fine... is it true that too much "flour" in the grist will extract tannins? I'm using a BarleyCrusher set on about 30-32 mil (measured with an automotive feeler gauge) but I do see a fair bit of flour.... my brewhouse efficiency usually hits around 85%; lower for 1.060+ beers, but I do hit 90% on some decocted or low-gravity brews. 

thanks
red

(edited to correct misspelling in post title)

13

All Grain Brewing / possible Hochkurz decoction screw-up

« on: November 17, 2012, 08:59:45 AM »

I did a Hochkurz decoction the other day on a German Pilsner (a recipe I got from Pawtucket Patriot) and while reviewing my notes today I noticed that I forgot to hold the first decoction at ~150F for 10 min or so before bringing it to a boil....  I had the mash at 148F, then pulled the first decoction and ramped it right up to a boil.....  is this going to make a huge deal?

-red

14

Beer Recipes / covert FWH to boil hops

« on: October 15, 2012, 05:22:13 AM »

I'd like to brew Denny's Waldo Lake Amber based on the recipe of NB's Kit (I won't buy the kit, but just follow their recipe.)  It is hopped as follows:

1.00oz Cascade @ FWH
0.75 Magnum @ 60min
1.00oz Centennial @ 0min

How would I convert the Cascade amount to boil hops?  My work schedule for the next few weeks won't allow me to have 6 hour un-interrrupted for brewing, but I've had good luck chilling my wort (after mashing)  in a walk-in cooler for up to 48 hours before starting the boil. But somehow I don't think that leaving FWH hops in for 48hours is going to work... or maybe it will?

Advice?
tx red

15

Kegging and Bottling / how long does dry hopping last?

« on: August 22, 2012, 10:33:04 AM »

I have 2 cornies of NB's Two Hearted clone (didn't but their kits but used their recipe), and I added the dry hops in a tea ball when kegging after a 2 week primary. After 2 weeks in the keg it is great, but I'm wondering how long it will taste that way? IPA is not a huge mover with my buddies and it may be mostly me drinking this, which may take a month or 6 weeks.  What, if anything, will be different in 6 weeks about the hop flavors and aromas?

tx red