46
Yeast and Fermentation / Re: Fermentation chamber too cold?
« on: May 06, 2013, 08:00:58 pm »
it's perfect. no reason to do anything. 64-66 is a great temp to be at.
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47
General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Drinking while brewing
« on: May 06, 2013, 12:30:16 pm »not to hijack, but what is this hot scotchy you speak of?
sweet wort with scotch or some other flavorful brown liquor added.
48
Kegging and Bottling / Re: Bottle pressure limits
« on: May 06, 2013, 12:11:58 pm »
couldn't you use new caps? seems like a lot of trouble to re-use a 2 cent cap.
49
Extract/Partial Mash Brewing / Re: Brewing a 5 gallon extract with 5 gallon carboy
« on: May 06, 2013, 12:08:45 pm »
Order a 7 gallon bucket from a homebrew site, local homebrew store, or, if you can find it get food grade plastic buckets from local restaurants. As long as you can get the smells out they are great and cheap.
a 5 gallon carboy will be messy if you try to ferment 5 gallons in it. it would be fine for 4 gallons though. Maybe brew up a big barley wine where you won't miss the extra gallon.
a 5 gallon carboy will be messy if you try to ferment 5 gallons in it. it would be fine for 4 gallons though. Maybe brew up a big barley wine where you won't miss the extra gallon.
50
General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Drinking while brewing
« on: May 06, 2013, 11:23:33 am »
should this happen again, you should remember that there is no problem with leaving that wort safely tucked away under an air lock for 24ish hours until you ARE able to get yeast.
However, brewers yeast and bakers yeast are the same species of yeast. While the provenance of the bakers yeast is likely not as perfectly kept as a particular strain of yeast for brewing it'll be fine.
However, brewers yeast and bakers yeast are the same species of yeast. While the provenance of the bakers yeast is likely not as perfectly kept as a particular strain of yeast for brewing it'll be fine.
51
General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Experimental Brewing Forum
« on: May 06, 2013, 10:39:22 am »Hey all!
Drew and I are co-authoring a book called "Experimental Brewing" and we want to hear about your brewing experiments! We've set up a blog and forum at www.experimentalbrew.com . Please let us hear about your brewing experiments. You might get included in the book!
Im in, but i cant seem to get an email with my password.
+1
52
Ingredients / Re: Ginger and Belgian Style Yeast
« on: May 06, 2013, 08:27:07 am »
Not familiar with that yeast in particular but I find that ginger and Belgian yeast goes quite well together for my tastes
53
Yeast and Fermentation / Re: Fermentation chamber too cold?
« on: May 05, 2013, 08:26:40 pm »
They are suprisingly accurate. I would get your water temp to ~55 and call it good. pull the ice if it's still in there.
If it reads 66 it's probably right around there. which is perfect
If it reads 66 it's probably right around there. which is perfect
54
Equipment and Software / Re: Polar Ware SS boil kettle scratched
« on: May 05, 2013, 08:24:00 pm »First brew today with my 10 gallon Polar Ware stainless. I ended up stirring a little bit during the boil w. a stainless spoon. Unfortunately, the bottom of the kettle has little scratches now! Did I ruin the kettle? Should I contact Polar to see if this is a defect? Thanks.
nah, it's be fine.
55
Equipment and Software / Re: Considering a smaller kettle
« on: May 05, 2013, 08:23:33 pm »Brewed today with a 10 gallon SS kettle and it was BIG. I'm considering downsizing to a 5 gallon kettle as nothing came close to a boil over with about 3 gallons of wort.
Besides making more beer, is there an advantage to doing a full boil as far as quality of beer goes? Thanks.
it means a lower gravity so you get better utilization from the hops. Less darkening of the wort. If you decide to go all grain at some point you will need to do full boils and a 10 gallon kettle is ideal for 5 gallon all grain Brew In A Bag (BIAB) batch.
56
General Homebrew Discussion / Re: An impuslive experiment
« on: May 05, 2013, 05:29:01 pm »
.75 gallons tops. if you use anti-foam probably more like .85.
57
General Homebrew Discussion / Re: An impuslive experiment
« on: May 03, 2013, 12:20:39 pm »
seems like the way to go for the hops experiment would be to mash all the grain together and run it off into one container to start so you can mix thoroughly then split it into your 4 1.5-2 gallon kettles and boil them all simultaneously (or stagger them a little so you don't have to add hops to all 4 at the same moment). You should be able to do them all in the same time as a single batch.
58
Ingredients / Re: california select 2 row
« on: May 03, 2013, 12:17:34 pm »thanks fellas. crazy that it's shipped to washington and back. i hadn't even thought about where it would've been malted. i was born in yakima so i suppose that's okay too.
cheers.
yeah when they first came out with the state select line I spent more time than my boss would have liked had he known researching and calling Great Western to figure it out.
59
Ingredients / Re: california select 2 row
« on: May 03, 2013, 07:44:23 am »
I use the CA select organic all the time. It's my go to base malt. The only problem I have with it is that while yes, it is grown in Cali, it is also shipped up to Washington to be malted and then shipped back down.
If your aim is using the most locally GROWN ingredients its great. If you are after the LEAST travelled ingredients then the WA select is actually probably your best bet as it's grown close to the maltings.
but overall, I think it's really nice. I am not prepared to make any specific statements of the differences between it and the 'normal' great western pale malt.
If your aim is using the most locally GROWN ingredients its great. If you are after the LEAST travelled ingredients then the WA select is actually probably your best bet as it's grown close to the maltings.
but overall, I think it's really nice. I am not prepared to make any specific statements of the differences between it and the 'normal' great western pale malt.
60
Yeast and Fermentation / Re: starter volume
« on: May 03, 2013, 07:41:25 am »Yeastcalc mentions an "ideal gravity" of 1.037 for a starter - perhaps that was done to keep the grams of DME to milliliters of water ratio at a nice comfortable 10:100.
I'll assume the growth rate calculators were set up based on that OG, but does it really make that much of a difference in the growth rate or overall yeast health between a liter at 1.037 and a liter at 1.030?
I will leave the discussion of yeast health to the microbiologists, but overall growth rate would be less at a lower gravity just because there's less food for the yeast to eat.
since we are on the topic, anyone have general guidelines/thoughts on how big a single step starter should be? ive wondered if a one step 2.5ltr starter at 1.035 is fine, vs. 2 steps at 1.25lt each.
one step at 2.5 liters is probably even preferable. your growth rate will be higher and therefore, if I am understanding this whole yeast thing, the average age of the cells will be lower.