31
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32
Zymurgy / Pilsner Urqell homebrewers contest
« on: October 26, 2011, 11:08:37 AM »
Just got Zymurgy Nov/Dec 2011 today with a sidebar about the Urquell Homebrewers contest. Anyone know if the winner's recipes will be (or have been) posted anywhere? Would love to take a look at them....
Or maybe one of the 3 winners is on the boards and wants to chime in himself?
Or maybe one of the 3 winners is on the boards and wants to chime in himself?
33
Beer Recipes / good recipe for first Doppelbock
« on: October 26, 2011, 11:02:35 AM »
So I'm currently fermenting a North German Pils (thanks for the recipe, HopfenUndMalz!) and planning a nice yeast harvest when it's done, and thought it might be time to try my first Doppelbock, which could be ready around Lent....
I'd like input on a good recipe... so far the ones I have that I would trust are the one on Kaiser's site (http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?title=Imperator) and Jamil's from BCS. Main different between the two is that Kai's is roughly 75% dark Munich, and Jamil's is about 2/3rds light Munich, with the balance of both being Pils and some caramels. I'm leaning towards Jamil because I have plenty of light Munich on hand and won't have to lay out anything to brew this one... but if 90% of you say "it sucks... make Kai's!" then I will reconsider.
Or who has a better recipe than either of these two?
thanks
red
I'd like input on a good recipe... so far the ones I have that I would trust are the one on Kaiser's site (http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?title=Imperator) and Jamil's from BCS. Main different between the two is that Kai's is roughly 75% dark Munich, and Jamil's is about 2/3rds light Munich, with the balance of both being Pils and some caramels. I'm leaning towards Jamil because I have plenty of light Munich on hand and won't have to lay out anything to brew this one... but if 90% of you say "it sucks... make Kai's!" then I will reconsider.
Or who has a better recipe than either of these two?
thanks
red
35
Yeast and Fermentation / just tasted possibly my worst beer ever - HELP!
« on: October 03, 2011, 05:03:52 PM »
By this I mean, the worst beer I have brewed - I've tasted a lot worse from the BMC's of the world.... actually probably my first extract beers were this bad, but nothing in the last 3 years I've been doing AG comes close...
Anyways, what we have here is a Mocktoberfest (Jamil's Oktoberfest recipe, just brewed with a US-05 slurry instead of lager yeast). OG was 1.051, and I used a slurry from a big IPA that was taken out of primary the day before I pitched it into the Mock. I usually collect my slurries pretty thin and keep them in the fridge for 3 or 4 days to get a hard pack cake, then decant the liquid and pitch a nice thick slurry. Anyway of course the IPA slurry is damn hoppy which I sort of forgot to take into account, and also after just an overnight in the fridge it hadn't really settled out and was still thinner than usual.
So I make 20 gals of wort, pitch about 250mL of this slurry into each 5gal fermenter, which is reasonable based on Mr Malty for slurry that is even a week old... but fermentation does not take off like a rocket, (it usually does when I pitch a fresh slurry, even at 60F which I was fermenting at) I have a pretty good idea of what my airlocks should look like for different recipes (I've done this Mock before, same mash sched, etc etc... so wort fermentability is not an issue here) anyways the fermentation never really gets going. After 10 days the gravity is only 1.018. So I warm it up to 65F and toss in about 5grams of fresh dry US-05 to each 5 gal ferm, trying to shake each ferm enough to get a little O2 in there. Probably futile, I know. After 3 days of no airlock activity, gravity is still 1.018 so I say screw it and keg it anyways. It did not taste too bad at that point, just a little sweeter than I would like.
Well that was 2 weeks ago - I tapped 2 of the 4 kegs this afternoon for a taste (I keg with gelatin, carbonate at 34F, and always dump the first cup out of each keg) - it had horrendous sulfury smell, kind of cidery and yeasty, and tasted astringent and dry - not sweetish like I was expecting from a 1.018 beer. After 10 mins in the glass, the smell dissipated but the taste remained. It is not UNdrinkable but it is not good beer.
What the hell happened? I've just been googling autolysis and underpitching and getting more confused. Seems like the 2 weeks on yeast cake is not really long enough for autolysis to occur? What sort of flavors will underpitching give me? I know it's probably a little early to serve this beer but the taste is bad enough to make me wonder if another week or two in the keg will help at all. I kind of need this beer for a oktoberbash this weekend.... guess it's a good lesson in hubris vs. humility, etc etc but if anyone knows what I can do, let me know.
what with this and the steelers sucking this past weekend, things can only get better, knock on wood
-red
Anyways, what we have here is a Mocktoberfest (Jamil's Oktoberfest recipe, just brewed with a US-05 slurry instead of lager yeast). OG was 1.051, and I used a slurry from a big IPA that was taken out of primary the day before I pitched it into the Mock. I usually collect my slurries pretty thin and keep them in the fridge for 3 or 4 days to get a hard pack cake, then decant the liquid and pitch a nice thick slurry. Anyway of course the IPA slurry is damn hoppy which I sort of forgot to take into account, and also after just an overnight in the fridge it hadn't really settled out and was still thinner than usual.
So I make 20 gals of wort, pitch about 250mL of this slurry into each 5gal fermenter, which is reasonable based on Mr Malty for slurry that is even a week old... but fermentation does not take off like a rocket, (it usually does when I pitch a fresh slurry, even at 60F which I was fermenting at) I have a pretty good idea of what my airlocks should look like for different recipes (I've done this Mock before, same mash sched, etc etc... so wort fermentability is not an issue here) anyways the fermentation never really gets going. After 10 days the gravity is only 1.018. So I warm it up to 65F and toss in about 5grams of fresh dry US-05 to each 5 gal ferm, trying to shake each ferm enough to get a little O2 in there. Probably futile, I know. After 3 days of no airlock activity, gravity is still 1.018 so I say screw it and keg it anyways. It did not taste too bad at that point, just a little sweeter than I would like.
Well that was 2 weeks ago - I tapped 2 of the 4 kegs this afternoon for a taste (I keg with gelatin, carbonate at 34F, and always dump the first cup out of each keg) - it had horrendous sulfury smell, kind of cidery and yeasty, and tasted astringent and dry - not sweetish like I was expecting from a 1.018 beer. After 10 mins in the glass, the smell dissipated but the taste remained. It is not UNdrinkable but it is not good beer.
What the hell happened? I've just been googling autolysis and underpitching and getting more confused. Seems like the 2 weeks on yeast cake is not really long enough for autolysis to occur? What sort of flavors will underpitching give me? I know it's probably a little early to serve this beer but the taste is bad enough to make me wonder if another week or two in the keg will help at all. I kind of need this beer for a oktoberbash this weekend.... guess it's a good lesson in hubris vs. humility, etc etc but if anyone knows what I can do, let me know.
what with this and the steelers sucking this past weekend, things can only get better, knock on wood
-red
36
All Grain Brewing / FWH questions
« on: September 01, 2011, 05:02:26 PM »
I want to try FWH one of these days. Some noob questions:
1) Do you add the hops to the 1st runoff of wort, or only when you start the sparge? I assume the 1st runoff (duh) but want to make sure cause one website I saw mentioned adding them "when you sparge" which I assume they actually mean the 1st runoff....
2) How long is too long for the hops to sit in that wort before you begin boiling? 30 mins? 1 hr? Is there a minimum time? Just trying to plan a brew day around it...
thanks
1) Do you add the hops to the 1st runoff of wort, or only when you start the sparge? I assume the 1st runoff (duh) but want to make sure cause one website I saw mentioned adding them "when you sparge" which I assume they actually mean the 1st runoff....
2) How long is too long for the hops to sit in that wort before you begin boiling? 30 mins? 1 hr? Is there a minimum time? Just trying to plan a brew day around it...
thanks
37
Ingredients / mocktoberfest hops
« on: August 30, 2011, 12:52:29 PM »
I'm brewing up 20gals of Mocktoberfest for a bash in Oktober - will use 14.5# Pils, 11.5# Munich, 9.5# Vienna, and 3# CaraMunich III. Target OG to 1.052 or so. I have done this recipe before with Hallertauer hops - 5.5oz at 60 min and 1.75oz at 20min.
However I can't get my hands on that much Hallertau at a reasonable price. Is Vanguard a decent sub? I can get that cheap from Midwest and it seems close in characteristics...
Remember this is a "Mocktoberfest" which will be fermented at 60F using US-05 and then lagered in kegs for only about a month, I've done this before and it is "good enough" to keep the masses happy (you know, the ones who loooooove Sam Adams Octoberfest already)
However I can't get my hands on that much Hallertau at a reasonable price. Is Vanguard a decent sub? I can get that cheap from Midwest and it seems close in characteristics...
Remember this is a "Mocktoberfest" which will be fermented at 60F using US-05 and then lagered in kegs for only about a month, I've done this before and it is "good enough" to keep the masses happy (you know, the ones who loooooove Sam Adams Octoberfest already)
38
Ingredients / hops direct stock
« on: August 29, 2011, 10:51:41 AM »
And I'm not talking 'bout an IPO (but maybe an IPA)
Does anyone know when/if HopsDirect will start getting new supplies of imported hops (I'm looking at you, Hallertauer and Saaz).
thanks
Does anyone know when/if HopsDirect will start getting new supplies of imported hops (I'm looking at you, Hallertauer and Saaz).
thanks
39
All Grain Brewing / fix my Bohemian Pilsner
« on: August 12, 2011, 05:17:42 PM »
I am having trouble brewing a Bo Pils that tastes anything like a Pilsner Urquell.
My darker lagers (Vienna Lagers, Oktoberfests, Schwarzbiers) have worked well, & taste close to what they should, and have placed (and won) in some local contests. Even my most recent Helles (brewed to Kai’s Edel Hell recipe) was very nice and quite close to Hacker-Pschorr Munich Gold in a side-by-side tasting.
So I think my process is good for lagers in general, but obviously I’m missing something, because I can’t get a nice crisp Urquell-ish beer. Urquell has way better hop aroma, flavor and bitterness. It just tastes like it has more “pop and zing”. Mine is a nice smooth lager but lacks the bite of the Urquell. Mine actually tastes pretty close to a canned Heineken, oddly enough. Mine is also a lighter pale yellow compared to Urquell’s rich gold. My buddies all love it (reminds them of Heineken, I guess ) but it disappoints me.
Here is my 10 gallon recipe: (scaled from Jamil’s book)
18.80 lbs Best Malz Pils
1.15 lbs Weyermann CaraPils
0.20 lbs Acidulated Malt (this is 1% of the total grain bill)
Single infusion mash at 155F for 90mins. For mash and sparge, I used 100% distilled water with additions of gypsum, Epsom salts, and CaCl2 to get the following profile: 58ppm Ca, 8ppm Mg, 0ppm Na, 89ppm SO4, 63ppm Cl, RA of -47.
My mash pH was 5.2 to 5.3 (I was still figuring out my new Milwaukee meter but I am confident this is a decent reading). Collected 16gals to boil down to 11gals.
Did a 60min boil with Saaz additions at 60min (2.20oz), 30min (3.00oz), 10min (1.50oz) and flameout (1.50oz). 60min addition was 5.5% AA, the rest were 4.0% AA. Hops were all pellets, tossed loose into the boil.
Used a huge immersion chiller to get all 11 gals of wort below 100F in 3.5mins. So I’m confident I shut down pretty much all DMS/SMM stuff (not sure I have all the acronyms correct) and captured that late hop flavor and aroma. Entire batch chilled to 48F in 11mins. OG of 1.059. Possibly I boiled it down a little too hard here, 1.055 was what I was shooting for.
Pitched 22 grams of dry S-189 yeast into each 5 gal fermenter at 48F. Fermentation was active within 28hrs (good airlock activity). Fermented at 48F-50F for 23 days. Then raised temp to 65F for 48hrs (a maturation or diacetyl rest), then crash cooled at 34F for 48hrs, then racked into kegs, and lagered under 10psi CO2 for 5wks, at 34F. FG of 1.014.
One possible thing is that I was travelling between day 10 and day 23 of fermentation, and there was no visible airlock activity when I got back, so it’s possible that the yeast was done prior to that, and that the maturation rest didn’t really do anything if the yeast was done…
Any obvious flaws in this thing? Or subtle hints for next time?
Thanks (and sorry for the long post)
Red
My darker lagers (Vienna Lagers, Oktoberfests, Schwarzbiers) have worked well, & taste close to what they should, and have placed (and won) in some local contests. Even my most recent Helles (brewed to Kai’s Edel Hell recipe) was very nice and quite close to Hacker-Pschorr Munich Gold in a side-by-side tasting.
So I think my process is good for lagers in general, but obviously I’m missing something, because I can’t get a nice crisp Urquell-ish beer. Urquell has way better hop aroma, flavor and bitterness. It just tastes like it has more “pop and zing”. Mine is a nice smooth lager but lacks the bite of the Urquell. Mine actually tastes pretty close to a canned Heineken, oddly enough. Mine is also a lighter pale yellow compared to Urquell’s rich gold. My buddies all love it (reminds them of Heineken, I guess ) but it disappoints me.
Here is my 10 gallon recipe: (scaled from Jamil’s book)
18.80 lbs Best Malz Pils
1.15 lbs Weyermann CaraPils
0.20 lbs Acidulated Malt (this is 1% of the total grain bill)
Single infusion mash at 155F for 90mins. For mash and sparge, I used 100% distilled water with additions of gypsum, Epsom salts, and CaCl2 to get the following profile: 58ppm Ca, 8ppm Mg, 0ppm Na, 89ppm SO4, 63ppm Cl, RA of -47.
My mash pH was 5.2 to 5.3 (I was still figuring out my new Milwaukee meter but I am confident this is a decent reading). Collected 16gals to boil down to 11gals.
Did a 60min boil with Saaz additions at 60min (2.20oz), 30min (3.00oz), 10min (1.50oz) and flameout (1.50oz). 60min addition was 5.5% AA, the rest were 4.0% AA. Hops were all pellets, tossed loose into the boil.
Used a huge immersion chiller to get all 11 gals of wort below 100F in 3.5mins. So I’m confident I shut down pretty much all DMS/SMM stuff (not sure I have all the acronyms correct) and captured that late hop flavor and aroma. Entire batch chilled to 48F in 11mins. OG of 1.059. Possibly I boiled it down a little too hard here, 1.055 was what I was shooting for.
Pitched 22 grams of dry S-189 yeast into each 5 gal fermenter at 48F. Fermentation was active within 28hrs (good airlock activity). Fermented at 48F-50F for 23 days. Then raised temp to 65F for 48hrs (a maturation or diacetyl rest), then crash cooled at 34F for 48hrs, then racked into kegs, and lagered under 10psi CO2 for 5wks, at 34F. FG of 1.014.
One possible thing is that I was travelling between day 10 and day 23 of fermentation, and there was no visible airlock activity when I got back, so it’s possible that the yeast was done prior to that, and that the maturation rest didn’t really do anything if the yeast was done…
Any obvious flaws in this thing? Or subtle hints for next time?
Thanks (and sorry for the long post)
Red
40
All Grain Brewing / first Witbier
« on: August 09, 2011, 05:17:09 AM »
Hello,
Planning my first witbier tomorrow (all grain). Going to use Jamil's BCS recipe, at least as a starting point. 2 questions though:
1) fermentation temp. he says to start at 68F and then slowly ramp to 72F for the last third of fermentation. now I'm generally of the opinion that the ale ferm temps in BCS are a little high (for lagers he's good) ... often he specs 65-68 and I prefer to use 60 or 62 for APAs, ambers, IPAs, etc. But in this case, using T-58 dry belgian yeast, should I go with this high temp to get the esters going? or should I still shoot lower, maybe 64 or 65? i've never used T-58 before so any help would be nice
2) mashing. most of Jamil's recipes just call for a single infusion mash which i'm comfortable with. but for this belgian he says hold at 122F for 15 mins, then ramp up to 154F over 15min, then hold until "conversion is complete". can I just do this by starting my mash (in a cooler chest of course) at 122F, and have it thick, like 1.25qts/lbs, and then after 15mins start adding boiling water a couple quarts at a time until I hit 154? I figure that will get me to about 2.0qts/lbs when I'm done. and then how long should I hold at 154? I do most single infusion mashes for 90mins and get 85% to 90% efficiency. so should I hold at 154F for 60mins, to get my 90min total?
thanks in advance
-red
Planning my first witbier tomorrow (all grain). Going to use Jamil's BCS recipe, at least as a starting point. 2 questions though:
1) fermentation temp. he says to start at 68F and then slowly ramp to 72F for the last third of fermentation. now I'm generally of the opinion that the ale ferm temps in BCS are a little high (for lagers he's good) ... often he specs 65-68 and I prefer to use 60 or 62 for APAs, ambers, IPAs, etc. But in this case, using T-58 dry belgian yeast, should I go with this high temp to get the esters going? or should I still shoot lower, maybe 64 or 65? i've never used T-58 before so any help would be nice
2) mashing. most of Jamil's recipes just call for a single infusion mash which i'm comfortable with. but for this belgian he says hold at 122F for 15 mins, then ramp up to 154F over 15min, then hold until "conversion is complete". can I just do this by starting my mash (in a cooler chest of course) at 122F, and have it thick, like 1.25qts/lbs, and then after 15mins start adding boiling water a couple quarts at a time until I hit 154? I figure that will get me to about 2.0qts/lbs when I'm done. and then how long should I hold at 154? I do most single infusion mashes for 90mins and get 85% to 90% efficiency. so should I hold at 154F for 60mins, to get my 90min total?
thanks in advance
-red
41
Equipment and Software / Milwaukee pH meter issues
« on: July 26, 2011, 07:29:55 AM »
Anyone with a Milwaukee MW102 or similar, have you experienced the following, which I have on the 4 or 5 mashes I've used this meter for(bought it in the spring):
I calibrate it with 7.01 and 4.01 solutions, Hanna brand (recommended to me by a Milwaukee tech on the phone) then test my sample at around 75F. The little hourglass shows on the screen for a minute or two, then disappears. I take my reading (in the case of an Oktoberfest this morning, 5.25.) However as I stand and watch the meter, the pH climbs to 5.49 over 2 or 3 minutes, then stabilizes.... but this increase from 5.25 to 5.49 was all with the hourglass off. What is my correct reading? Same thing happened with a Schwarzbier mash a few weeks back; the hourglass went off and the meter read 5.50, but it climbed up to 5.61 before it finally stabilized.
I know this is a bit nit-picky perhaps, because all the numbers are in a good range for the mash (this meter has ATC, but I always cool my samples into the 70s anyways) but I like to know what is going on. I called Milwaukee and the tech was frankly not very helpful. He said he thought the reading was valid when the hourglass went away, but also said some drift in readings is unavoidable. I am not stirring or shaking the sample, which he said is apparently a no-no, and I store the probe in Hanna storage solution all the time....
Any help from blatz, denny, or kai, or anyone else, would be appreciated....
thanks
Red
I calibrate it with 7.01 and 4.01 solutions, Hanna brand (recommended to me by a Milwaukee tech on the phone) then test my sample at around 75F. The little hourglass shows on the screen for a minute or two, then disappears. I take my reading (in the case of an Oktoberfest this morning, 5.25.) However as I stand and watch the meter, the pH climbs to 5.49 over 2 or 3 minutes, then stabilizes.... but this increase from 5.25 to 5.49 was all with the hourglass off. What is my correct reading? Same thing happened with a Schwarzbier mash a few weeks back; the hourglass went off and the meter read 5.50, but it climbed up to 5.61 before it finally stabilized.
I know this is a bit nit-picky perhaps, because all the numbers are in a good range for the mash (this meter has ATC, but I always cool my samples into the 70s anyways) but I like to know what is going on. I called Milwaukee and the tech was frankly not very helpful. He said he thought the reading was valid when the hourglass went away, but also said some drift in readings is unavoidable. I am not stirring or shaking the sample, which he said is apparently a no-no, and I store the probe in Hanna storage solution all the time....
Any help from blatz, denny, or kai, or anyone else, would be appreciated....
thanks
Red
42
The Pub / strawberry beer from DFH
« on: June 30, 2011, 01:25:58 PM »
http://dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/30/brewing-beer-with-dancing-strawberries/
My apologies if this was already posted (I didn't see it anywhere today...)
The animated GIFs are the coolest part... not sure I would like the beer but I'd sure like to try it....
EDIT: wondering what hops they use (if any) .... Sam doesn't mention it
My apologies if this was already posted (I didn't see it anywhere today...)
The animated GIFs are the coolest part... not sure I would like the beer but I'd sure like to try it....
EDIT: wondering what hops they use (if any) .... Sam doesn't mention it
43
All Grain Brewing / help me fix this water
« on: March 23, 2011, 11:35:34 AM »
A brewer friend in SW Pennsylvania got his Ward Labs report and came to me for help. He's been doing all-grain for a year with this water and complains of his pale beers being underwhelming. (I have not tasted any.) Being a neophyte brewing water chemist myself, I thought I would crowd-source some advice.
Here's the water (call it A): 97ppm Na, 5ppm Ca, 0ppm K, 0ppm Mg, 2ppm SO4-S, 35ppm Cl, 12ppm CO3, 181ppm HCO3, 169ppm Total Alkalinity as CaCO3. pH 8.6.
He can get water from a second well a mile away (call it B) with a similar profile: 72ppm Na, 11ppm Ca, 2ppm K, 3ppm Mg, 1ppm SO4-S, 29ppm Cl, 9ppm CO3, 163ppm HCO3, 149ppm Total Alkalinity as CaCO3. pH 8.4.
This is so unlike my own water I'm not sure what to do with it, although at first glance the Na looks like a potential problem. Any suggestions for him? Dilution with RO or distilled, then a lot of additions based on Martin and Kai's spreadsheets would be how I would think to attack this, for pale beers. Is there any beer style that this water is good for?
thanks
Red
Here's the water (call it A): 97ppm Na, 5ppm Ca, 0ppm K, 0ppm Mg, 2ppm SO4-S, 35ppm Cl, 12ppm CO3, 181ppm HCO3, 169ppm Total Alkalinity as CaCO3. pH 8.6.
He can get water from a second well a mile away (call it B) with a similar profile: 72ppm Na, 11ppm Ca, 2ppm K, 3ppm Mg, 1ppm SO4-S, 29ppm Cl, 9ppm CO3, 163ppm HCO3, 149ppm Total Alkalinity as CaCO3. pH 8.4.
This is so unlike my own water I'm not sure what to do with it, although at first glance the Na looks like a potential problem. Any suggestions for him? Dilution with RO or distilled, then a lot of additions based on Martin and Kai's spreadsheets would be how I would think to attack this, for pale beers. Is there any beer style that this water is good for?
thanks
Red
44
All Grain Brewing / pH discrepancy between Martin and Kai's water sheets?
« on: March 19, 2011, 05:11:11 AM »
Perhaps Martin Brungard and/or Kai are able to weigh in on this....
I've been using Kai's water sheet for my last couple beers (German Pils, Helles, a Maibock coming up next week) and with all the recent chatter on this board about Bru'n Water, thought I'd check it out as well. And I'm having trouble getting the predicted pH to match up. As a test, I used Kai's "Pilsner Water" recipe which calls for 100ppm Gypsum, 85ppm Epsom, and 130ppm CaCl2 added into distilled water, and a grist of 98% Pils and 2% Acidulated. Both worksheets match up at this point, telling me to add the same amounts of the right salts, giving RA of -47, etc etc.
But it is in the next step that things go south. I loaded my basic pils parameters into both sheets: 17.64lbs pils malt, 0.36lbs acidulated, mash at 2qts/lbs (9 gallons strike water) and collect a total of 16 gals pre-boil, which is boiled to 11 gallons. And somehow Kai's sheet is giving me predicted pH of 5.36 (which would be nice), and Martin's is saying 4.9, which is too low.
Can anyone confirm something similar? Or are these sheets always going to differ in how they calculate pH from the SRM? Or am I doing something wrong? I believe I have zeroed out all things like lactic acid additions in Martin's sheet but maybe I missed something. Kai or Martin, I can email my working copies of your sheets to you if you want to check them out.
thanks, Red
I've been using Kai's water sheet for my last couple beers (German Pils, Helles, a Maibock coming up next week) and with all the recent chatter on this board about Bru'n Water, thought I'd check it out as well. And I'm having trouble getting the predicted pH to match up. As a test, I used Kai's "Pilsner Water" recipe which calls for 100ppm Gypsum, 85ppm Epsom, and 130ppm CaCl2 added into distilled water, and a grist of 98% Pils and 2% Acidulated. Both worksheets match up at this point, telling me to add the same amounts of the right salts, giving RA of -47, etc etc.
But it is in the next step that things go south. I loaded my basic pils parameters into both sheets: 17.64lbs pils malt, 0.36lbs acidulated, mash at 2qts/lbs (9 gallons strike water) and collect a total of 16 gals pre-boil, which is boiled to 11 gallons. And somehow Kai's sheet is giving me predicted pH of 5.36 (which would be nice), and Martin's is saying 4.9, which is too low.
Can anyone confirm something similar? Or are these sheets always going to differ in how they calculate pH from the SRM? Or am I doing something wrong? I believe I have zeroed out all things like lactic acid additions in Martin's sheet but maybe I missed something. Kai or Martin, I can email my working copies of your sheets to you if you want to check them out.
thanks, Red
45
Yeast and Fermentation / technical details on a starter for 10gal lager
« on: February 19, 2011, 06:38:37 AM »
Happy Weekend All,
Need some advice from people who make starters for 10-12gal lagers. I am well-informed on the basic practices of making starters, but my experience is limited to 5gal batches. Mostly I would do 1 Activator pack in a 3L or 4L starter on a stirplate, with good results.
Lately I've been brewing some 10gal lagers using dry yeast, but want to try some liquid yeast strains too, in an effort to come closer to the lagers I'm trying to clone.
But it seems a little daunting: for a 11 gals of a 1.060 lager, using my stirplate, Mr Malty calls for a 6 liter starter using 3 Activator packs, or 4 liters using 4 packs, or 10 liters using 2 packs.... what do you guys usually do??? I have a 5L flask.. do you guys buy 4 activator packs (pretty pricey!) and make a 5L starter? or do you go with a 3 gallon carboy and make a 10L starter with 2 packs? or what... maybe two just separate starters, the same way I did it before?
Or what is the two-stage stepped-up starter I've heard about? Is that an option, and if so, what does it involve?
-Red
Need some advice from people who make starters for 10-12gal lagers. I am well-informed on the basic practices of making starters, but my experience is limited to 5gal batches. Mostly I would do 1 Activator pack in a 3L or 4L starter on a stirplate, with good results.
Lately I've been brewing some 10gal lagers using dry yeast, but want to try some liquid yeast strains too, in an effort to come closer to the lagers I'm trying to clone.
But it seems a little daunting: for a 11 gals of a 1.060 lager, using my stirplate, Mr Malty calls for a 6 liter starter using 3 Activator packs, or 4 liters using 4 packs, or 10 liters using 2 packs.... what do you guys usually do??? I have a 5L flask.. do you guys buy 4 activator packs (pretty pricey!) and make a 5L starter? or do you go with a 3 gallon carboy and make a 10L starter with 2 packs? or what... maybe two just separate starters, the same way I did it before?
Or what is the two-stage stepped-up starter I've heard about? Is that an option, and if so, what does it involve?
-Red