Messages

1

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: All grain small batch

« on: April 18, 2018, 03:40:06 PM »

I brew a lot of small batches. I was never happy doing BIAB on the stove with it. I just couldn't keep consistent mash temperatures. I have a coil stove, which is the worse for heat consistency. I could see a sous vide circulator or gas stove making that easier.

I bought a two gallon cooler. I'm on my third version of using it as a mash tun. I tried using a brew bag in it to avoid spending money changing out the spigot but didn't like the results. I barely modified the spigot but ended up with a lot of stuck mashes. I recently upgraded the ball valve on my larger cooler and used the leftover parts from that to fit a standard ball valve on the cooler.

Here's the original build: http://homebrewingfun.blogspot.com/p/one-gallon-homebrewing.html#onegallon

I haven't had a chance to write up the newer build. It's pretty much the normal ball valve outlet for cooler mash tuns but I had to add some additional gaskets and washers to create a seal because the hole in the two gallon cooler is larger than a five or ten gallon cooler.

2

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

« on: April 18, 2018, 03:33:04 PM »

I believe the numbers are correct that the hobby has/is retracted from its peak a few years ago.

Shopping for homebrewing has changed a lot in the past few years. BIAB cut out buying mash tun equipment and being able to buy these all-in-one brewing systems directly or through Amazon can't be helping. Similarly, a lot more people have kegerators at home for commercial beer which means they aren't buying that equipment from homebrew shops either.

Another issue is that homebrew shops are competing against their past sales. At least here the local craigslist always has several complete homebrew setup listings for dirt cheap. I know several people who bought $500 of equipment for $100 from people getting out of the hobby. Hard to imagine stores can survive just selling people grain and hops.

Beyond stores that have a competitive online presence or a strong local following, I don't know what will keep a lot of stores open in the current business model. A lot of stores will have to rethink their business model or close.

3

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

« on: April 16, 2018, 03:38:48 PM »

I'm moving to Denver next month so I'll bite the bullet at some point and try it.

I wouldn't say uncarbonated sour beer is my favorite but I've tasted enough while blending and bottling my own that I have some sense of how it should taste.

4

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Top Beer Things to Do When In Portland For Homebrew Con

« on: April 16, 2018, 03:25:25 PM »

This got terrible in a hurry.

Maybe we can wipe out the trolling and make this a useful thread for good things to do in Portland--for which there are many.

5

All Grain Brewing / Re: Sour pH

« on: April 13, 2018, 06:37:39 PM »

At that low of a ph you might have some conversion problems and as a result have a starchy wort. You'll probably need to add brett or something else that can consume starch and plan for that beer to sit for a long time. It may not get too sour with just lacto because it's going to spend its time waiting for simple sugars to become available and then fight with yeast to metabolize them first.

Is it worth it to you to sit on this beer for more than a year and throw more money into it?

The wort is already made. I'd say ferment it out with S-05 and see how it is. It may not be too starchy and actually might be sour enough from the low mash ph that it's worth drinking as is.

6

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Do you belong to a homebrew club?

« on: April 13, 2018, 02:31:28 PM »

I was a member of the most local club but I didn't feel I was getting anything out of membership. It felt like guys getting together as an excuse to drink. I don't have kids and my wife happily drinks with me so I don't need to leave the house just to drink. Add to that the club took a turn for the negative in how it was run and they moved the meetings to an inconvenient location and that was the end for me. There are other clubs in the Dallas/Fort Worth area but they are a long drive from my current house.

I'm moving to Denver next month. When I get fully moved in and brew a little I might look at local clubs to join.

7

Ingredients / Re: Wild hops

« on: April 02, 2018, 01:19:13 PM »

Growing and brewing with it will be the easiest test. Centennial is not too hard to distinguish. As it starts to grow you can also compare pictures of the plants. Some hop plants have distinguishing features.

8

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: Getting sour.

« on: March 31, 2018, 04:59:01 PM »

You need to be sure it is at or close enough to terminal gravity to avoid bottle bombs.

+100000000000000000000000000

Cold crashing won't do anything.The LAB will continue souring and brett will continue fermenting. At four months the beer is probably not close to reaching its terminal gravity.

If you like where the beer is right now your best course of action is to bottle, carbonate for a couple weeks at room temperature and then store them cold to be consumed immediately.

9

Kegging and Bottling / Re: Small batch bottling method.

« on: March 31, 2018, 04:55:20 PM »

Same as regular bottle bucket procedure for larger batches. I drilled a hole in a food grade two gallon bucket so it fits the normal bottle bucket spigot.

10

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: The Saison Files - Yeast Bay, BE-134 and American Noble Hops

« on: March 31, 2018, 04:51:26 PM »

Thanks for indicating that BE-134 is a diastacus variant.  I normally ferment in plastic so knowing that I need glass or steel beforehand is important.

I’ve used 3711 and belle in my plastic fermenters and never had a cross contamination.

Same

11

The Pub / Re: Hop Glut

« on: March 27, 2018, 02:45:16 PM »

I'd be curious to know the breakdown of varieties held which might tell more about what is going on then bare numbers. A large volume of tropical hops just tells me there's a lot of hop inventory going into IPAs and brewers are holding a large inventory to ensure they always have enough. In that case, there's no problem. OTOH, if that supply is full of hops nobody wants then that's inventory that will eventually get liquidated and likely represents hop fields growing product nobody wants.

12

All Grain Brewing / Re: Grain Mill in Garage

« on: March 27, 2018, 02:26:25 PM »

How do you enter the mouse turds in BeerSmith?

Match up the SRM 

13

Ingredients / Re: Bought 2-3 Year Old Hops

« on: March 23, 2018, 03:00:24 PM »

Looking at old brewing logs it appears that English brewers often used hops that were several years old. I recently saw a recipe from 1953 and the log stated that one of the bittering hops used was from the 1950 crop.

You can go back centuries in English brewing literature and see the recommendation to use older hops by themselves or in combination with new harvest hops. Lots of recommendations to wait to use the new harvest until at least the end of spring. Usually this was advised if the brewer felt the hops were too rough although it isn't clear if that means too bitter or the flavor.

14

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: 1-Gallon Batch IPA Fermentation Schedule

« on: March 16, 2018, 01:05:51 PM »

Where did we get the idea that fermentation speed relates to pitch size?

15

Beer Recipes / Re: Hopped IPA with generous amount of hops and doesn't seem tasty enough

« on: March 13, 2018, 02:02:54 PM »

There's a lot of Munich and crystal in that recipe. It might be too malty for your expectations.