Topics

1

Equipment and Software / March Pump Setup Help

« on: December 28, 2010, 10:24:56 AM »

For my Christmas present to myself, I'm going to pick up a March Pump from Northern Brewer.  My question is, what kind of fittings will I need for this?

I'm planning on using it—at least for the present time—as part of a whirlpool immersion set up.  So I'll be recirculating wort from the kettle, through the pump and back into the kettle.

The outlet on my kettle is currently a 5/8" barb fitting on a ball valve.

Can anyone advise correct inlet and outlet fittings for this type of application?

Thanks!

2

Yeast and Fermentation / Trying to Find Yorkshire Yeast

« on: April 12, 2010, 02:03:52 PM »

I'm looking for some Yorkshire yeast.  I'd like to get WLP037 or WY1469.

These are booth the limited edition yeasts.  Does anyone know where I could find either of these yeasts?

3

General Homebrew Discussion / adding sugar...

« on: February 06, 2010, 07:58:48 AM »

What's the best practice for adding sugar to the boil? How long before flame out? Any tricks or precautions?

4

All Grain Brewing / Double Batch: Saison and Dortmunder

« on: January 29, 2010, 10:08:21 AM »

I need help!

I've got to bang out a couple of brew sessions next weekend.  I'm planning on making a Saison and a Dortmunder Export.

I love to brew as much as anyone, but I'm looking to get some economies of scale here.  I'd like mash both beers at once, then make additions in the boil to nail in the style.

I'd like some input on the following recipes and if this is practicable.  Please advise your thoughts:

Dortmunder grain bill as-is:

• 70% Pils
• 30% Munich

Saison grain bill as-is:

• 59% Pils
• 18% Wheat
• 9% Munich
• 14% Sugar (in boil)

Proposed Double Batch Grain Bill:

• 60% Pils
• 15% Wheat
• 15% Munich

I'm going to be brewing with relatively hard water, as I feel that is appropriate for both styles.  I'm also going for a very dry finish with each beer, so I think the mashing schedules are a good fit.

I will switch up the hopping schedule and other kettle additions per each brew.

Do you think this is okay?  Any suggestions

5

All Grain Brewing / Do Finely Milled Grains Retain Less Water?

« on: January 24, 2010, 09:13:08 AM »

I've recently been milling my grains on the tightest mill setting.  I think my gap is about .028".  I condition grains and get beautifully intact hulls, with a lot of fine grits.

On my last several batches I've noticed that I am getting a lot more wort from my standard water additions.  For instance, this morning I used 9.1 gallons total water, and ran off 8.25 gallons of wort.

11 LBS of grain is only retaining .85 gallons of water.  This is much less than I've experienced in the past.

Does anyone have similar experience?  I think in the past, I'd figure on at least 1 - 1.5 gallon of lost wort per 10 LBS of grain.

6

General Homebrew Discussion / Tinseth Hop Calculation Help

« on: January 16, 2010, 12:50:56 PM »

I'm sick of looking up hop utilization numbers when building recipies.  I use a spreadsheet that I built for my brewing "software".

I need some help building an equation in Excel.  I use the Tinseth formula, and on his page on of the stated factors is "boil time factor".  This is determined by this equation:

The Boil Time factor accounts for the change in utilization due to boil time:

Boil Time factor = 1 - e^(-0.04 * time in mins)
                   --------------------------
                             4.15

My question is what does "e" refer to in the above equation?  How do I program this into Excel?

Here is Tinseth's page where I got the formula:  http://realbeer.com/hops/research.html

Thanks!

7

Ingredients / Best Hallertau Substitute

« on: January 04, 2010, 10:40:12 AM »

I'm going to be brewing a bunch of lagers in the next several weeks.  I am going to be ordering a few pounds from Hopsdirect.com, and I want to get a versatile hop for use in everything from Helles to Dopplebock.  What do you guys think?

8

All Grain Brewing / Dortmunder Mash Schedule Recommendations

« on: December 30, 2009, 09:01:53 AM »

I'm brewing my first Dortmunder Export in a few weeks.  I've seen a lot of recipes that call for melanoidin malt.  I don't have any, so I'm thinking a decoction schedule would be appropriate here.

Any body out there have a mash schedule that they like for a Dortmunder?  I'm thinking about doing one of Kai's decoction mash schedules.  This one in particular:

http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?title=Decoction_Mashing#Hochkurz_Double_Decoction

However, I think this style is supposed to have some body, so maybe a long rest at 145°F would cause the beer to dry out too much.

Any ideas on a good schedule?  Maybe the melanodin flavor is overrated in this style and I should just stick to a single infusion...

9

Yeast and Fermentation / Best Practices for Stepping Up a Starter

« on: December 20, 2009, 12:20:47 PM »

I'm doing an experiment with pitching rates in mid-gravity lagers.  I recently made a 2L starter with 1 vial and pitched this into 5.5 gallons of 1.047 wort.

Based on some discussions I've had on forums, it seems that the consensus is that I am underpitching with the above.  I want to try making a bigger starter so that I have a larger pitch of yeast next time.

I'm a bit limited though, in that I only have a 2L flask for my stir plate.  I just finished building up a nice 2L starter on the stir plate, and I'm planning on doubling this starter again.  Here are my questions:

1.  Do I crash, decant and pitch the yeast from the first starter into another 2L starter on the stir plate?
2.  Do I pitch the WHOLE contents of the 2L starter into a gallon jug with 2 more liters of wort?  This will not be on a stir plate, so I will just have to shake intermittently.


Can someone give me some advice on how to build up my starters?  Buying a 4L flask is not an option right now.

Thanks.

10

Yeast and Fermentation / Stir Plate Question

« on: December 15, 2009, 07:28:37 AM »

I finally got my home-made stir plate running.  A few questions:

• I've seen images of stir plate with this huge vortex that almost goes to the bottom of the flask.  How important is this for yeast growth?

• My stir plate just kept things in suspension with a very small vortex that extended maybe 1/2" below the surface of the wort.  What can I do to improve this?  I currently have a 2" stir bar.

Any input is appreciated.

11

All Grain Brewing / Removing Temporary Hardness - Fail

« on: December 11, 2009, 02:21:37 PM »

I treated some water a few weeks back with slaked lime in an effort to reduce my bicarbonate levels.  I'm getting sick of buying and transporting large amounts of RO water from the store.

I finally got my Ward Labs report back. Very strange to say the least. Like Fallrun, I've listed my base water first, then the water treated with slaked lime:

Treatment Comparison : (Pre -> Post)
PH : 7.7 -> 10.1
Sodium, Na: 16 -> 152 (yikes...no idea what happened here. Must have something to do with my water softener which I though I'd bypassed)
Potassium, K : 11 -> 2
Calcium, Ca : 54 -> 2
Magnesium, Mg: 21 -> <1
Total Hardness, CaCO3 : 223 -> 5
Sulfate, SO4-S : 2 -> 7
Chloride, Cl : 3 -> 2
Carbonate, CO3 : <1 -> 89
Bicarbonate, HCO3 : 297 -> 208
Total Alkalinity, CaCO3 : 244 -> 319

I would say this is very much alike the results FallRun (from the NB forum) got with his treatment.

My calculations are showing the RA of the "treated" water to be 168. While my untreated water is 192.

What gives? With how much chalk was pushed out of solution, I'd have expected much better results.  I guess one positive is that I completely consumed all of the calcium in the process of forming chalk.  Maybe next time I just need more calcium?

Any ideas?

12

All Grain Brewing / Water Test Kits

« on: November 23, 2009, 07:37:05 PM »

Can anyone recommend good testing kits for brewing water? In particular, I'm looking to test bicarbonate levels.

I just had my first run of decarbonating water with pickling lime.  It left a huge amount of white precipitate at the bottom of the brew kettle, so it seemed to work to at least some degree.

I'm going to send a sample to Ward Labs to get a baseline set of numbers, but moving forward I'd like a quicker, cheaper method to test.

Any help is appreciated!

Ike