Messages

1

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Switching to wine

« on: September 11, 2018, 10:25:24 PM »

An easy way to get started is a home wine kit. I tried the Wine Expert Cab Sauv recently and really enjoyed the result. After that kit I bought Jon Iverson's Home Winemaking Step by Step: so far it's answered all the questions I can think of about wine. I've made some of the recipes on Jack Keller's site as well: http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/starting.asp

I'm still beginning to learn about this stuff, but those are the resources I've found helpful so far.

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All Things Food / Re: Water Profile for Brewed Coffe

« on: July 05, 2018, 08:45:10 PM »

FWIW, the Specialty Coffee Association of the Americas (SCAA) has water standards https://scaa.org/PDF/ST%20-%20WATER%20STANDARD%20V.21NOV2009A.pdf

SCAA also sells a water quality handbook: https://store.sca.coffee/collections/books/products/the-sca-water-quality-handbook

I know about these things because I entered an adult science fair with a project about brewing coffee! I used:

• 10L Distilled Water
• 0.3g CaCl2
• 0.2g NaCl
• 0.3g Ca(OH2)

I don't recall exactly why at this point

Full write up of my experiment: https://tylercipriani.com/coffee-extract/

3

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Boxed beer' could be the new drinking trend

« on: July 05, 2018, 08:34:22 PM »

I live not too far away from primitive beer and I went to their grand opening. I love that there is a big enough beer scene in Colorado to be able to support experiments like this: we have some a few all craft lager breweries popping up and now we have a traditional lambic brewery — it's a great time to be a craft beer lover in Colorado.

In addition to serving beer in boxes, at the brewery they serve it using beer engines and ferment in a ton of barrels that are stacked everywhere. Their coolship is in the corner of the taproom so I got to lean in and look at it up close which is super awesome.

The beer was not the spectacular lambic that you get in Belgium, but it was interesting. They're still very new and they are passionate enough that I imagine it will only improve over time.

4

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Pics of recent brews?

« on: June 21, 2018, 05:18:49 PM »

Finally got my hefe color right!

* 57% Weyermann Wheat
* 38% Root Shoot Odyssey Pils
* 5% Carahell

Mash:

Main:
* 111°F 10 minutes
* 125°F 10 minutes
* Pull 1/3rd decoction: 160°F 15 minutes, boil 20 minutes
* 148°F during decoction
* 158°F 25 minutes
* 170°F 10 minutes


Photo info:

* Copyright 2018 Tyler Cipriani
* License: CC-BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
* Additional Information: https://photos.tylercipriani.com/thumbs/3e/c2acb984cb88db94d71b49a8b89abc/

5

Equipment and Software / Re: Recommendations wanted for high end all grain brewing system

« on: June 19, 2018, 02:25:21 PM »

I currently use a Picobrew Zymatic. I had high hopes but it’s just not working for me. I want to invest in a SERIOUS system. Money not being an issue. What would you recommend? Can be electric or gas and the footprint is not an issue. I want something where the beer that is made could easily be scaled up. Blichman? Thanks for your input. Finally. I assume I wouldbrew 10 gallon batches but some flexibility in the volume would be a nice plus.

Blichmann is definitely an option. Blichmann is designed to be flexible and as a result requires a bit of configuration. There are folks who make nice fully built systems. The Cadillac of systems is probably the Brew Magic by Sabco (https://brewmagic.com/) or possibly B3 sculptures (https://www.morebeer.com/category/brewsculptures-morebeer.html).

Is it just the scale of the picobrew? If scale is the whole problem, then the picobrew Z could be your answer.

There are unlimited options for folks with the space and the money depends on what kind of customization you want, how involved you want to be in the brew day, and which parts of the process you'd like to optimize for.

6

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: "watery beer"

« on: June 05, 2018, 08:36:19 PM »

Pitch rate was a little tricky on this one. I used the WYEAST 1332. The original pitch had terrible viability (even with a starter), so I pitched a new one about 2 days in.

When I used to can starter wort, I did something wrong somewhere along the way, and I had a bunch of batches come out watery. I messed up yeast vitality or viability somewhere in there. At the time I was doing cell-counts (but not staining) for every batch. I was sure I was pitching the right amount of yeast, but not that the yeast was very healthy when I did pitch.

I finally figured out my problem when I skipped the starter for a batch and it came out tasting much better than the last few batches. My unsupported guess is this was a yeast problem: I'd try a changing up your starter procedure or skiping it and pitching a few fresh packs and seeing if that clears things up.

7

Commercial Beer Reviews / Re: Braupakt

« on: June 04, 2018, 10:23:43 PM »

Just bought a 6-pack of these and they totally break my brain. I initially smelled hefe with a little citrus, finish was all hops. After the initial sip I couldn't really find the hefe character again. I don't think I like hoppy-weizen beers. I'd rather have one or the other, I guess

8

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: "watery beer"

« on: June 04, 2018, 10:03:44 PM »

FWIW, I have a similar mash-tun situation as you (3 gallons under the false-bottom). It doesn't seem to affect the final product much apart from making it hard to hold temps steady. Doesn't seem like a lot of hops for an IPA, and it sure seems like a lot of lactic acid for such a thin mash; however, watery flavor (in my experience) seems to come from low yeast vitality. Large amounts of lethargic yeast make for watery beer. I don't see much discussion about your pitch-rates or procedures -- could that be a possible culprit in this instance?

9

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: How's your LHBS doing?

« on: April 18, 2018, 08:57:14 PM »

There are 2 shops close-enough to me to call them my LHBS. Both seem to be doing really well (although admittedly I'm not familiar with the finances of either). One interesting point about both is that they have tap rooms where they serve beer they brew in-house. Boulder Fermentation Supply/Vision Quest brewing is one of the tap rooms I frequent most-often. Brewmented in Longmont has a lot of guest taps from breweries around town. I still go out of my way a bit to go to Vision Quest because the beer is awesome.

10

All Grain Brewing / Re: Mash ph Delta Discrepancy

« on: March 15, 2018, 06:10:24 PM »

Also does your meter do ATC at all?

My limited understanding is that when folks say the pH differs by 0.35ish at room temp vs mash temp they mean the actual pH of the solution is different. It's also true that meters have to perform their own internal correction for temperture as well. That is, a meter with ATC will show the difference in the actual pH (~0.35) and a meter without it will have undefined behavior and just be unpredictably incorrect.

If your meter doesn't have ATC: might explain it. If it does: then TIL that ~0.35 might not be normal pH difference. I've never actually tried this with my ATC meter (as others have pointed out folk wisdom is it shortens probe life).

11

Questions about the forum? / Re: When should threads end, when should they be moderated?

« on: March 09, 2018, 10:40:49 PM »

Is this a thread about a thread?

Sorry

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Questions about the forum? / Re: When should threads end, when should they be moderated?

« on: March 09, 2018, 10:40:10 PM »

Self-moderation is awesome. Mods are awesome. I suppose I just think there might be some benefit in explicitly democratizing the moderation process a bit, or updating the rules with some of the modern heuristics.

Here's a quote from an essay by Jo Freeman with a heavy-handed url: http://www.jofreeman.com/joreen/tyranny.htm

For everyone to have the opportunity to be involved in a given group and to participate in its activities the structure must be explicit, not implicit. The rules of decision-making must be open and available to everyone, and this can happen only if they are formalized.

The whole point of the essay is that if we don't codify structure and rules explicitly then we're taking power away from folks who aren't part of the current group of brewers i.e., new brewers or brewers who are new to the AHA or the AHA forum. And maybe we end up marginalizing some new voices not because of any malice just because: it happens.

Anyway, I posted this because I think that making the moderation process clearer might be an easy way to ensure that the brewing community keeps growing and stays healthy while it does so.

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Questions about the forum? / Re: When should threads end, when should they be moderated?

« on: March 09, 2018, 06:23:45 PM »

Thread drift happens and I don't consider it reason to close a thread.  That one came awfully close to getting shut down due to lack of civility, but it straightened itself out.  My theory is that the best moderation is the least moderation.  I'll do what I have to , but I try not to have a heavy hand.  In addition, all the mods discuss situations before any of us takes action.

It does seem like the hands-off approach worked in this instance -- the thread righted itself. I totally agree on the thread drift topic: up to individuals involved to determine when a thread has run it's course.

Are there any heuristics the mods used in this instance WRT to the discussion of civility that are worth talking about here? Could the discussion about this particular thread be opened up and talked about here?

I'm not sure that I believe that the inaction on that thread squares with the "will not tolerate" line:

We will not tolerate rudeness, insults, personal attacks, inflammatory remarks, threats, racial/ethnic slurs, trolling, flame baiting or similarly disruptive postings.

although everything squares with:

The mods reserve the right to take steps not addressed in these rules in order to maintain a friendly and helpful environment. The #1 thing to keep in mind is "DON'T BE A JERK!"

so maybe it's all fine.

Personal aside. I feel like I was moderately engaged here 2010-2012. I've dropped off to a few posts a year. I have a memory of being actively stressed during my participation on this forum. Which is goofy: it's a beer forum and I'm passionate about beer; but this thread definitely had a high stress level, too which made me think maybe there're more systemic things that can be done.

Also, another aside, thanks denny for replying to this and for doing all the hard moderator work!

Anyway, I'll be quiet for a bit and see if this topic has any legs or not.

14

Questions about the forum? / Re: When should threads end, when should they be moderated?

« on: March 09, 2018, 03:56:50 PM »

So we don't lose where the discussion left off I'll just quote the last bit here:

This has gotten away from its purpose of brewing a traditional weissbier, imho

Sent from my SM-G955U1 using Tapatalk

Does it matter? I’d say the resulting discussion is infinitely more engaging.

That may be true.  But this started with the OP proudly sharing a simple recipe he'd worked long and hard to develop, and before long it was almost as if he got jumped on and told he was washing his socks wrong if it didn't involve use of the Large Hadron Collider. Not quite but it probably seemed that way to him.  Maybe we should be a little more alert and when a derailment or side topic is far enough removed from the original,  move it to a new thread.

15

Beer Recipes / Re: Ultimate Traditional Weizen Recipe - I finally figured it out

« on: March 09, 2018, 03:54:30 PM »

FWIW, and this is from what I feel is mostly a community outsider perspective as I haven't been active on this forum in quite a while: this thread took a necessary early detour to address remarks that were not intended to malicious, but could have have easily been perceived as such.

The thread, likely, should have ended after that was addressed. As moderators (seemingly since this forums inception) have taken a very light touch it was up to participants who were at the point in a somewhat heated state to end the thread and move discussion elsewhere, but that didn't happen.

At this point it seemed to me when I posted my questions, there would be too much lost context to switch to a new thread.

I will second Big Monk's statement that this thread is a good read.

I'd like to propose that *this* discussion be moved to https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?topic=31324.0 so that we don't end up creating context that will be lost in an un-searchable topic.