Messages

3691

All Things Food / Re: Growing food - The Garden Thread

« on: July 29, 2013, 04:17:49 PM »

The calabacita in my garden are rangy, and seem to like a lot of room.  Easily the first producing squash here; really have been enjoying them.  Thanks for the recommend.

I have a feeling they might turn into calabasota pretty quick.

They do look like the volunteer squash that appear from my compost. 



Harvested the garlic this weekend, just in time.

My volunteer potatoes are fantastic.  Wondering why we can't plant them in the fall and just act like they are volunteer?

That's a nice looking pile of garlic pinnah. jealous. our garlic is okay, but the heads were really small and we only got about 10 bulbs and I have to use 1 per batch of pesto so it's going quickly as I can barely keep ahead of the basil. It's been hot here and they want to bolt so badly.

3692

Yeast and Fermentation / Sourdough beer

« on: July 29, 2013, 03:11:27 PM »

Well,

I have started another project. this weekend I boiled up 65 grams of DME in 650 mL of filtered water and stirred in one large dollop of my sour dough starter.

This starter is pretty sour and has a nice but still restrained funk.

So far it has behaved like a normal sacc starter with about .5 inches white krausen with a little brown gunk on top. I'm going to let it go for a while before trying to step it up into an actual beer so I will see if a pellicle forms or anything.

3693

Beer Recipes / Re: Partial Mash English IPA

« on: July 29, 2013, 02:56:21 PM »

Made another batch based off of this, but mixed it up into an American IPA instead.  Would appreciate any comments on the recipe/partial mashing.

2lbs Maris Otter Pale Malt
.75lbs Simpsons Golden Naked Oats
1lb Simpsons Caramalt
1lb Munich Malt

Mashed with 5 quarts of bottled water @ 164
1 hour Mash rest @152
Raise temp to 170
Sparge with 5 quarts of water at 170

Add in additional water to = 5.5gal boil volume
Add in FWH 1oz Yakima Magnum 13% and bring to boil

15 min - Add 1oz Summit 18% and Irish Moss
15 min - Add 6lbs Maris Otter LME
5 min - Add in 1oz Simcoe 13%
0 min - Add in 1oz Simcoe 13%
0 min - Add in 1lb dextrose

Fermented with American Ale yeast (1056) w/ starter at 68 degrees

Will add 1oz Simcoe 3 days prior to bottling

OG=1.073 FG=1.018  7.13%ABV  78.07IBUs (theoretical)

you will want to watch your mash pH. It's probably fine with that grist but without knowing the analysis of the bottled water you used it's hard to say. also your mash seems pretty thick. maybe half again as much water next time?

I would not have used the caramalt. I love the way Munich lends a richness and sweet impression without the actual sweetness of a crystal malt. However others will disagree on that point and given that I believe the MO LME is 100% MO you should be alright.

3694

All Things Food / Re: Growing food - The Garden Thread

« on: July 29, 2013, 02:37:01 PM »

Eggplants grow more bitter the older/larger they are. So it is best to enjoy them on the smaller side.

+1  A little bit bigger than a softball tastes good.

unless it's one of those tiny Asian varieties that only get as big as eggs, you know the ones that are white? and look like eggs? I have always assumed that that is what EGGPLANTS were supposed to look like and the giant purple ones are a mutation.

3695

The Pub / Re: Budweiser Isn't what it used to be...?

« on: July 28, 2013, 07:33:58 PM »

What I have read is that since the seventies they have reduced the bitterness by almost 70%. It used to be much closer to it's roots as a bo-pils. but with hops being the single most expensive ingredient they figured if they did it bit by  bit no one would notice.

also hence the late 80's 'bitter beer face' advertising stuff. (Keystone?)

3696

The Pub / Re: Awkward Band photos

« on: July 27, 2013, 09:13:22 PM »

funny, I feel like most of those were intentionally awkward though

Having posed for too many band photos in my life, I think they're frighteningly real.

well okay, I'll admit that there are probably a fair number of awkward cast photos of me out there.

3697

All Things Food / Re: Growing food - The Garden Thread

« on: July 27, 2013, 09:12:24 PM »

When is the best time to harvest eggplant. I've been hearing its before they turn purple. Anyone know if that is correct or have better advice? Thanks !

some eggplants don't turn purple. if they get to old they will get seedy and tough. other than that it doesn't matter all that much.

3698

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Tennessee Home Brew Club Meeting at Restaurant with Liquor License

« on: July 27, 2013, 08:07:23 PM »

Yeah, talk to the authorities in your locale.

My club meets at a brewery/restaurant and it is not a problem. but this is california and yo ucan bring your own booze into restaurants whenever you want here so long as you are willing to pay the corkage fee. so who knows.

3699

All Grain Brewing / Re: Help with recipe adjustment - Blonde ale

« on: July 27, 2013, 08:04:18 PM »

Thanks for the thoughts. Sounds like it's pretty much unanimous, so I guess I'll recommend we re-visit the LHBS this morning. Yes, the amounts should have been 4.5-5% for both the aromatic and carapils. He got the pilsen and munich amounts right, and I think saw ~7 ounces of those other malts and multiplied by 10. We'd have to get something like ~40 additional pounds of pilsen malt and a couple pounds of munich to get in the right ballpark for my recipe.

Out of curiosity, what would happen if you tried to brew with those grains? Aromatic has enzymes for conversion, but the carapils doesn't, right? So would the huge amount of carapils be more of a problem? Would you end up with a beer on the sweeter, thicker side? Not an experiment to try for the wedding, unfortunately.

.9 lb of munich you might as well leave it out.
you could just buy some more base malt, and take 10% of what you already have as the character malt portion, maybe 15%.

3700

The Pub / Re: Awkward Band photos

« on: July 27, 2013, 08:01:17 PM »

funny, I feel like most of those were intentionally awkward though

3701

Ingredients / Re: The "Truth" About Commercial Beer.

« on: July 27, 2013, 07:59:19 PM »

I'm a little shocked that guiness is using HFCS. regardless of the validity of health claims around the product I think it's kind of a bummer that such a classic gateway beer is headed down the cheap ingredients path.

3702

Ingredients / Re: Green tea Saison

« on: July 27, 2013, 07:50:10 PM »

The lighter (greener) the tea, the lower the temperature that it's supposed to be steeped at.  Tea is best not boiled at all.  Black tea can be steeped at like 180F, while green tea is steeped much lower.  I seem to recall 160F to 140F was the recommendation. 

At best, green tea would be steeped at the later stage of the whirlpool.  I do like the ideas of adding the tea directly at kegging.

shrimp eyes.

that is how the instructions describe when to pour the water on green tea. when there are bubbled the size of shrimps eyes coming off the bottom of the pot. I've always interpreted that as just before the simmer.

3703

Ingredients / Re: Male hop plant

« on: July 27, 2013, 07:48:36 PM »

I have a Hermaphrodite Zeus plant that I got from Freshhops as well.

This is the second year, and was not stressed at all. It's growing like crazy to tell you the truth. I just noticed the seed pods today.

Not sure what I'm going to do with it?

Is this common with Zeus?

seems like maybe zeus is prone to this. Those aren't the seed pods  by the way. those are the male flowers. the seeds will grow underneath each bract in a female flower (hop cone)

3704

All Grain Brewing / Re: malting your own

« on: July 27, 2013, 07:44:20 PM »

Mort,

Keep us posted on this.  My neighbor has a couple of acres and we've always talked about growing and malting.  He put in 5 hop strains for me with 15' poles and they are mammoth.  We are actually harvesting the early crop today. 

Dave

I will if I ever get off my a$$. I have made a commitment to source some barley seed before november this year. We're going ot plant where the corn/squash/beans are growing now and they are almost done. Maybe lay down a cover crop to get us to the fall.

I am thinking I will get a sack of un-malted barley from one of the micro malters and grow some and try to malt some. After my quinoa experience I have a little more confidence.

3705

All Things Food / Re: Growing food - The Garden Thread

« on: July 27, 2013, 07:41:26 PM »

Jonathan,
Those volunteer "squash" mnay be gourds.  The calabacita have mild and soft flesh like a zuchinni
only slightly different.....They should be harvested when at the size of your fist....

yeah, they aren't terribly pleasent. Ive got one out there right now that is about the size you describe. Maybe I'll go pick it now and see how it is. Are they tasty raw like zukes?