Messages

3511

All Things Food / Re: Ataulfo Mangos in Season

« on: April 14, 2011, 03:18:56 PM »

They are the best for lassi as well. So smooth and very little stringyness. amazing flavour as well.

3512

All Grain Brewing / Re: Is This A Problem?

« on: April 14, 2011, 03:06:44 PM »

I was contemplating heating it up to a boil and then shutting it off, covering it (tinfoil or something to more or less seal it, plus kettle lid), and then getting back to it tomorrow.

probably fine. Look at the aussies and the no chill method. course that's seeled up tight and post boil but...

3513

Equipment and Software / Re: Got them boil kettle pickup blues again...

« on: April 14, 2011, 02:58:18 PM »

I will attempt to post some pictures later.  I went to do so only to discover the basement is flooding.   

Have to take care of that first.   

To respond to a few suggestions.  Yes, I forgot to mention I have tried it without the scrubby.  Yes I have tried it with water only.  It worked one time and not another.  I have cleaned out the ball valve by running a dip tube type brush through it plus running a hose backward through it.  Looks clear.

I will get picks so you folks can help diagnose before I rebuild.

Ahh how I miss springtime mud season in vermont. Hope you have a good sump pump!

3514

Kegging and Bottling / Re: I'm confused

« on: April 14, 2011, 02:06:51 PM »

I understand the concept of CO2 being CO2. My concern is that I over carbed the Tripel, is it possible to over carb naturally? or does the beer hit some sort of equilibrium and stop carbing?

It sure is possible. If you give it too much sugar it will over carb. In a keg, not such a big deal, you bleed a little off and your good to go. in a bottle... BOOM. well, potentially at least.

Could it be an issue of stressed yeast?

3515

All Grain Brewing / Re: Is This A Problem?

« on: April 14, 2011, 02:03:04 PM »

A question tengential to the OPs question:

After you finish a mash, how long can a wort sit before the boil?

I've let them sit in my boilkettle for a few hours before with no problems, but today I find myself faced with the possibility of having to wait until tomorrow (24-36 hours) before I can boil.  Life sometimes interupts even the best planning!

I'm inclined to think that since it's pre-boil that this isn't going to be any sort of issue, as long as i can keep my cat from taking a swim in it or some equally catastrophic (pun intended) problem occurs.

Thoughts?

It's slightly possible to get a little sourness overnight but not likely. There are alot of lacto critters on malted grain and if they are not killed of they will convert some of the sugars in your wort to lactic acid. Charlie P actually uses that in TCJOH (DOn't remember which one) to make a simple sour beer with tight control over the sourness. SOmeone else may be able to speak to the likelyhood of this happening but I would think that unless you mash out as a high enough temp to pastuerize you are risking this.

3516

Ingredients / Re: Sesame seeds

« on: April 13, 2011, 01:27:30 PM »

The only concern I would have is that there is a lot of oils in sesame seeds. Toasting them would help somewhat but you might negativly effect your head retention

3517

Beer Travel / Re: Boulder

« on: April 12, 2011, 02:57:51 PM »

Cool!!!

Looks like I have some research and hard choices ahead. I am going for work and will be busy during the day so it's gonna be where I go for dinner friday night and saturday night. Maybe I can get an earlier flight on friday and get there in tiem for some lunch too. That would mean three places! The meadery is intriguing. I love mead when it is good. Stopping at AHA wouild be fun to but we will ahve to see how the timeing works out.

Thanks everyone!

3518

Beer Travel / Re: Boulder

« on: April 12, 2011, 11:17:58 AM »

So I will be spending a night or two in boulder in Late july. What are the top one or two places I can get some exciting local brew and decent food (Something vegetarian)

Vegetarian in Boulder?   

you think that's bad try vegetarian in Vermont in the 70s. Although my favorite by far is vegetarian in France. 'There is no meat just a little bacon'

3519

Beer Travel / Boulder

« on: April 12, 2011, 10:51:28 AM »

So I will be spending a night or two in boulder in Late july. What are the top one or two places I can get some exciting local brew and decent food (Something vegetarian)

3520

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: High final gravity - bottle or not?

« on: April 11, 2011, 08:00:53 AM »

Have you had stable hydrometer readings for a couple of days running? that's the real test. 'two weeks in primary then bottling' is a recipe for bottle bombs. granted we are talking pretty small differences. the difference between 1.019 and 1.016 is more than what you would get from 4 oz of corn sugar so you could in theory end up with more than twice as much carbonation as you want.

3521

All Grain Brewing / Re: When is your beer ready? Poll

« on: April 11, 2011, 07:42:21 AM »

It's ready when it's ready. I don't call primary done until I get a couple of stable hydro readings. Even then it ussually sits for another week or so until I get the time to take the next step. If I dry hop I try to bottle within a week or two but other than that the schedule is determined by the beer. Also once in bottles I get impartient and start taste testing after a week. Generally, except with small or session beers it takes a couple of weeks in the bottle to really come into it's own. had an RIS that didn't really taste great until 6 months in the bottle. Just cracked open a rosemary/sage mead that was 1 year in bottles. Still needs more time.

3522

All Grain Brewing / Re: Hopping a California Common

« on: April 08, 2011, 11:57:34 AM »

I've been researching this a little, as well.
The BJCP Guidelines say to use Northern Brewer & I've heard folks say that NB is the absolute one to use.
On the other hand, I've seen several recipes that include Cascades.
Now...If I was to go with a historical re-enactment of the recipe, from the late 1800s & early 1900s, Cascade would not be an option, since it was not released until sometime around 1981 (I think).
In fact...NB were not available until 1934.
So...
Does anyone have recommendations/ideas for which hop breeds may have been used, in the late 1800s?

As I understand it there are a few historical varieties that are starting to make a comeback in the SF Bay area. Now that the bulk of the north bay wine excitment is dying down (yeah right) some farmers are turning back to hops. I just did a barley wine using Ivanhoe which as I understand it is an heirloom northern CA variety. It is a Cluster hop type which was very common here pre-prohibition. so Cluster type hops would be an area to explore. I wouldn't be suprised if the early german brewers that 'invented' the style used locally grown 'noble' type hops either but I don't know the historical accuracy of that.

3523

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: Open fermenting a Saison

« on: April 05, 2011, 03:46:52 PM »

one of those large plastic tupperware type food service bins might work. the ones that are 24" by 18" by 5" or 6" deep. they usually have a snap on lid that could be drilled for a airlock even.

3524

Kegging and Bottling / Re: Bottle Priming Calculators and my Heffe

« on: April 05, 2011, 03:43:16 PM »

you say it seemed kind of carbonated already. Are you sure it was really done? did you take several hydrometer readings over a few days and get the same result?

For what it is worth I have had issue with my syphone to bottle bucket several times and had to work similar to what you are saying. I did not get any bad flavours.

3525

Extract/Partial Mash Brewing / Re: Cervesa Recipes?

« on: April 05, 2011, 03:39:14 PM »

...and Bob's your uncle.

How did you know Bob was my uncle?