Messages

2191

Ingredients / Re: When should I add this Candi Syrup?

« on: September 14, 2011, 12:22:00 AM »

My rule of thumb is always - if I'm hoping to get aroma and flavor contributions, in late she goes - 10 minutes or so of boil time. If not, chunk it in early.

But I get aroma and flavor contributions from it when it's in for the whole boil.  What am I doing wrong?   

I've tried 60, 40, 20, 0 and at high krausen.  I agree with denny, I think I get more flavor when I add it somewhere between 60 and 40.  My second favorite choice would be after high krausen, but it's a pain in the butt to add then.  Jeff, what's your secret?

What secret?  After the wort is fermenting for a couple days, pour the sugar into the pail or carboy.  What is so difficult about that?  Not pragmatic enough I guess......

2192

Ingredients / Re: When should I add this Candi Syrup?

« on: September 13, 2011, 02:24:29 PM »

To answer the original question, it looks like, "whenever you want!"

2193

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: different yeast experiments

« on: September 13, 2011, 10:17:44 AM »

An American IPA fermented with a Belgian yeast is a different beer, a Belgian IPA.  The yeast adds phenolic spiciness to the flavor, where the US-05 ferments very clean.
Lots of folks split batches and use more similar ale yeasts, to compare between an English yeast and a California yeast to see which one works best for future reference.
Home brew is all about experimenting and yeast is one of the biggest flavor contributors.

2194

Ingredients / Re: When should I add this Candi Syrup?

« on: September 12, 2011, 11:03:06 PM »

I add mine after the fermentation is at full kreusen, or after about three days in the primary.  Less stress on the yeast this way.

2195

Commercial Beer Reviews / Re: Yuengling Oktoberfest

« on: September 12, 2011, 04:29:38 PM »

They do use a darkening agent to make sure the color is consistent from batch to batch, kind of like sinemar, but a different brand.  Perhaps using this and their regular lager would make sense.  As I recall, the beer was not as malty as a "real" German Bock beer that year, more like Shiner or Michelob Dark, which to me are not much more than darkened American Lager. 
He told me that in that first year of specialty production at the Tampa brewery, they didn't want to make 500 barrels in an untested market.
In 2011 they made a regular all grain batch.
Sorry my memory is not so good on the quotes.  I'll see if I can get more info from the brewer.
It's good to see that they are responding to the craft beer market.

2196

The Pub / Re: Kindle books

« on: September 11, 2011, 09:41:26 PM »

My lovely wife is an avid sic fi reader.  She recommends just about any book by Terry Pratchett.
She also points out that NPR put out a list of the top 100 reader recommendations this summer.  (I would copy and paste the link to it here, but I have trouble with this new touch screen device sometimes.)

edit: http://www.npr.org/2011/08/11/139085843/your-picks-top-100-science-fiction-fantasy-books
It's a pretty good list.

2197

Wood/Casks / Re: Barrel aging questions

« on: September 11, 2011, 05:36:40 PM »

Try out the infusion spirals.  They provide a lot of surface area and I think fit into a carboy opening.  Our local brewery (Cigar City) uses these in their bright tanks for wood aging some of their beers.  They also use a variety of spirits barrels for one-off beers. 
I have a small oak barrel also, but it has been infected with an acetic bacteria and that is tough to get rid of.  Boiling water is the most effective cleaner for that I am told.

2198

Kegging and Bottling / Re: Smaller than 12 oz. bottles

« on: September 11, 2011, 12:42:45 PM »

My wife recently found Fever Tree ginger ale and tonic at the store in four packs.  The bottles are clear, 6.8 ounces with regular crimp tops (not twist off).  I have been recycling these for my meads so I won't feel like it is wasted going to competitions..

2199

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: different yeast experiments

« on: September 11, 2011, 02:34:18 AM »

I often brew 10 gallons of wort and split the fermentations into two with different yeasts.  I have an IPA fermenting right now with Ardennes yeast in half and US-05 in half.  It's fun to get two different beers from the same batch.

2200

Commercial Beer Reviews / Re: Yuengling Oktoberfest

« on: September 10, 2011, 10:18:40 PM »

The Bock is not a blend it is a recipe they produced regularly way back and discontinued except for occasional seasonal releases. It was reintroduced 3 years ago as a spring seasonal.

The Black and Tan is the blended beer. It is a blend of the Porter and Premium.

Hmmm.  The brewmaster at the Tampa brewery told me in early 2010 that they made up the Bock that year in the lab, meaning they blended their existing beers to formulate it. This year I think they made a new recipe. 
Black and Tan is indeed a blend of 68% to 32% Lager and Porter.

2201

Wood/Casks / Re: Barrel aging questions

« on: September 10, 2011, 06:42:26 PM »

Ok, so, I've been trying to find answers to this, but nothing has really popped out. Say I want to age beer in some whiskey barrels. One, after I've aged them for x amount of months to years, can I re-use them to age another batch? I'm assuming after all that time that the beer would have pulled all the properties and characteristics of the whiskey out of the wood, thereby replacing it with the characteristics of the beer. And two, how do you go about properly cleaning the barrels for sanitation purposes without removing the flavors of the whiskey and having the wood absorb the cleaner?

Mercy is appreciated, for this is my first post.

Welcome to the nice, polite AHA forum.  You'll like it here once you figure out the inside jokes.
If you get a fresh whiskey barrel, then you won't need to do much sanitation: just add beer.
If it is an older barrel that has been in storage for a while you will have to hydrate it so the wood will swell up enough to hold liquid.  These barrels hold 53 gallons so that would take a lot of sanitizer.  Try to find a fresh one with some whiskey still in it.  
It will lose some of the character each time you reuse it, but you can always add some whiskey to a barrel to rinse it out and sanitize it before adding beer.

2202

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Pumpkin Beer

« on: September 10, 2011, 03:08:27 PM »

You should add, "may try a sample if you hand me your home brew but I don't want a full pint."

done

Dang, I already voted.

2203

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Pumpkin Beer

« on: September 10, 2011, 12:48:41 PM »

You should add, "may try a sample if you hand me your home brew but I don't want a full pint."

2204

Commercial Beer Reviews / Re: Yuengling Oktoberfest

« on: September 10, 2011, 12:39:43 PM »

Anyone else try this? I found this on tap yesterday and was excited to try it. I am a yuengling fan,is my family is from Schuylkill County PA.  I thought this was a decent representation of the style. It has a lot of the same characteristics as the Lager but more body and mouthfeel an d slightly sweeter. I did purchase some Spaten Oktoberfest for a comparison and limed the Spaten much better.

Here is a link with more info.

 http://mobile.pennlive.com/advpenn/pm_29242/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=Iw1AyI6s

Thanks for sharing that article.  I will check into it, since it says they brewed it in Tampa as well as Pottsville.  I was told that the Bock they made in the spring was simply a blend of their other beers.  The OFest sounds like a new recipe.

2205

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: BJCP category

« on: September 10, 2011, 01:12:21 AM »

Category 21 Spice/Herb/Vegetable Beer has descriptions of nut-based beers, so I think it would belong in that category.