Messages

1

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: Lactic activity... or spontaneous fermentation/infection

« on: Today at 08:43:07 AM »

White Labs is notorious for having yeast in their lactobacillus strain. Lactobacillus does not produce krausen. That's definitely yeast and likely yeast from WL. Most likely nothing you did wrong here.

2

Kegging and Bottling / Re: Bottling in "non-standard" bottles

« on: Today at 08:41:15 AM »

Champagne-style bottles like the Boulevard smokestack bottles are designed to withstand internal pressure. Use freely. Regular wine bottles are not designed to withstand internal pressure.

The glass 32 and 64 oz growlers are also not designed to withstand internal pressure of bottle carbonation. There are people who carbonate in them but you'll also find plenty of people online who had the growlers shatter or the bottom blow out. Use those at your own peril. Some of the flip top ones might be okay but I'm not sure. Metal also probably okay although they might deform.

3

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: Roeselare Wyeast and Golden Base issue

« on: August 14, 2017, 01:26:57 PM »

What happened with the mash?

If you have a lot of unconverted starch in that beer then you'll eventually see brett break that down and ferment it but we're talking a long time. Like check on it a year from now. You could add extract to increase the fermentable sugar but you're still going to have all that starch. I don't know if it tastes starchy but if it does you probably don't want to drink it now anyway.

You definitely don't want to add fruit until you're 4-8 weeks out from packaging. At four months in you'd still be too early to keg even if you didn't have the problem with low ABV.

4

All Grain Brewing / Re: Cocoa Nibs vs Cocoa Powder

« on: August 14, 2017, 01:20:46 PM »

I use a whole bakers bar of chocolate in my stout.  I think it's 8 oz, but it's whatever standard size you can get at the grocery store.  I add it to the boil and get noticeable chocolate flavor in the stout.  No issues with head retention or oils over many years.  It can be a pain to get it to melt and you need to be sure not to scorch it, but the bakers bar works fine for me.

Do you throw it in whole or chop/blend/grate first?

5

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: Reusing 34/70 dry lager yeast

« on: August 14, 2017, 08:18:32 AM »

I've repitched slurry from both US-05 and 34/70 with no problems.

Fermentis's position is one part an unspecific statement of fact (repitching yeast always invites risk of infection) and one part straight marketing (it's cheaper to buy new yeast). Put them together it's just advising you to buy more of their product.

6

Beer Recipes / Re: How much buckwheat?

« on: August 14, 2017, 08:13:29 AM »

If you just care about flavor contribution you could throw it in the mash along with the other grains. If you also want conversion then you'll want to do a cereal mash or at least give the buckwheat a good long boil.

7

Beer Recipes / Re: How much buckwheat?

« on: August 13, 2017, 09:32:28 AM »

I've gotten noticeable but not aggressive flavor at as little as 5%. That was in a saison. In a porter I might think about 10-15%.

This was unmalted, plain buckwheat.

If you have Indian/Asian/Latin grocery stores in your area you should find buckwheat hidden away somewhere for a good price. Usually at Asian or Latin stores you'll find it among their Indian ingredients. They'll only carry unmalted buckwheat though.

8

All Grain Brewing / Re: Cocoa Nibs vs Cocoa Powder

« on: August 13, 2017, 09:20:24 AM »

Not to be a turd, but it's CACAO nibs, not COCOA.  Pronounced like a large artillery gun going off.  Ca-COW!! 

Back on topic, I've used the cacao nibs in secondary and they were ok, but I would agree with others that it provides more mouthfeel and some aroma, with little flavor contribution.  Recently I brewed Jamil's Chocolate Hazelnut Porter, and that recipe called for an 8 oz addition of cocoa powder at flameout.  I got a lot more chocolate character from that than I ever have with nibs.

Does processing cacao result in flipping the vowels?

9

Ingredients / Re: Suggestions for Nugget hops

« on: August 08, 2017, 11:38:28 PM »

Nugget in large quantities will develop a really nice peach tea-like flavor. Still subtle by hop standards though and requires a massive load of hops.

It has that woody flavor you find in mosaic (it's one of mosaic's parents).

10

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: Bulk starter wort

« on: August 08, 2017, 07:30:48 AM »

Microorganisms will consume wort at fridge temps. Although you're thinking about the barrels and barrels of beer stored and consumed out of cleaned kegs around the world every day, the difference is that beer is resistant to a lot of microorganisms due to its fermented state (alcohol, hop compounds, ph) that does not exist in wort. Unless you can sterilize the keg and everything from wort preparation into the keg, you'll eventually get some microorganisms eating the wort--probably not something you want in your beer.

11

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: Corona Extra clone

« on: August 08, 2017, 07:26:58 AM »

You'll have no problems fermenting a lager with 34/70 in the 60s if you can get that cool; but Corona has a particular taste that is partially fermentation driven and I don't think 34/70 gets you there.

Otherwise you really need to get the beer cool and keep it there through primary fermentation. I couldn't keep fermenting beer in the 50s during the summer myself but maybe you can with the swamp cooler method. Otherwise just hang on to the kit until cooler weather hits.

12

The Pub / Re: Guess I'm not gonna be a star....

« on: August 08, 2017, 07:23:09 AM »

It could have been fun... You could play a character nothing like yourself to get famous (i.e. rich) with rubes around America like Duck Dynasty, Larry the Cable Guy, etc.

The difference between them and me is that I have a modicum of integrity.

Get a crew-cut, stop experimenting, drop the ukulele and take up the oboe. Then blame it on your previously unknown evil twin Kenny Conn.
Hey, it's worked on General Hospital many times.

Never ever oboe

13

Ingredients / Hops sale at hops direct

« on: August 07, 2017, 08:21:08 AM »

Saw this morning hopsdirect.com is running a good sale trying to clear out 2016 stock. Lots of varieties running $5-10/lb. and not just the ones people don't use a lot. Saw mosaic, azacca, etc. in there. There are lots of classic American hops and some unusual hops in there as well if you're looking for something different to play with.

14

The Pub / Re: Guess I'm not gonna be a star....

« on: August 06, 2017, 09:36:39 AM »

It could have been fun... You could play a character nothing like yourself to get famous (i.e. rich) with rubes around America like Duck Dynasty, Larry the Cable Guy, etc.

The difference between them and me is that I have a modicum of integrity.

Are you saying Robertsons don't have integrity?  Wow.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

The Robertsons that exist publicly are fictitious beings designed for reality TV and to sell their subsequent ventures. The people they portray don't exist. They have done an exceptional job building and adopting characters and blasting that creation out to promote themselves.

Definitely committed and talented at building a brand. Not sure if I consider that the same as integrity.

15

Beer Recipes / Re: First IIPA recipe check/help

« on: August 06, 2017, 08:11:16 AM »

Definitely a hop combination for a unique IIPA. Jarrylo is an unusual hop. Lots of banana but in a banana candy way that a lot of people don't like. I've used it in combination with other hops and liked it enough to drink what I made but probably not a hop I plan on buying again.