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LaserWash posted:drat, If you order stuff with the "everyday" shipping on either MoreBeer or Northern Brewer, they get to it when they get to it, which is anywhere from 1 to 4 business days. My assumption is that this means the really cheap shipping arrangements are made in bulk, i.e. they send out a whole week's worth of orders on some day where they can ship for cheaper since they send out a boatload of stuff.
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Aug 31, 2012 20:34
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They may be assembling kits on the fly too, that would keep stuff like extract from getting old in low-selling kits.
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Aug 31, 2012 20:39
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Yeah that's been my experience with MoreBeer. Last time I ordered something with free shipping it took over a week to go out. But whatever, you get what you pay for.
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Aug 31, 2012 20:39
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Docjowles posted:But whatever, you get what you pay for. If that's the reason, they should be more transparent about it. One of the other (non-brewing) vendors that I order from has a "Rush" surcharge that's a percentage of the total bill, like 10%-ish I think? As I understand it, anything not in their Rush queue doesn't get worked on until the Rush queue is empty. This might sound like it sucks for the non-Rush customers, but what's really going on is that if you don't have a delivery deadline (like if you're buying stock ahead) you can save 10% off your order. I've never had the non-Rush turnaround go more than 2 weeks.
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Aug 31, 2012 20:50
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Splizwarf posted:If that's the reason, they should be more transparent about it. One of the other (non-brewing) vendors that I order from has a "Rush" surcharge that's a percentage of the total bill, like 10%-ish I think? They are. It's listed on their shipping policies that there is a longer processing time for free or reduced shipping.
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Aug 31, 2012 21:34
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So in light of the great maple syrup heist from the news yesterday I am feeling like making a maple stout. What exactly is the best way to add maple? Can I just dump syrup into the boil, or would that ferment out and not leave the maple flavor behind?
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Sep 1, 2012 15:31
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kitten smoothie posted:So in light of the great maple syrup heist from the news yesterday I am feeling like making a maple stout. What exactly is the best way to add maple? Can I just dump syrup into the boil, or would that ferment out and not leave the maple flavor behind? I'd not boil it, but use it in secondary. It's also notoriously fickle, look at fenugreek to boost "maple syrup" flavor.
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Sep 1, 2012 17:32
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That was remarkably responsive.The White House posted:WHITE HOUSE HONEY PORTER
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Sep 1, 2012 19:15
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icehewk posted:That was remarkably responsive. Well, I said elsewhere that I would brew it if the recipe was published, so I guess I am going to have to do it. Of course, I don't have access to the honey from the hive on the White House grounds, so I will have to make do with local honey.
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Sep 1, 2012 20:27
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I've got two batches that need to get brewed before I can do it but I think I will try one of those as well.
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Sep 1, 2012 21:02
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The recipe for the honey ale calls for 1 1/2 oz. of Fuggles, but the instruction state to put in .5 oz. at knockout. What gives Mr. President? What are you hiding!?
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Sep 1, 2012 21:07
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Important question: what's the White House honey taste like? Big difference between clover and, say, tupelo. Usually the flavor that honey contributes isn't "honey flavored", it's whatever the main ingredient was, which is why clover mead just tastes like grass.
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Sep 1, 2012 22:29
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Splizwarf posted:Important question: what's the White House honey taste like? Big difference between clover and, say, tupelo. Usually the flavor that honey contributes isn't "honey flavored", it's whatever the main ingredient was, which is why clover mead just tastes like grass. Well, at 1 pound in 5 gallons, it won't make much difference to the beer, really. There's a video of the process (including the word 'distill' for the secondary ferment) which shows the mason jars of the honey, and it appears to be fairly light in color. It's conceivable that it might be at least partly cherry blossom honey, given that it's DC and all that. Any light and mild honey should be fine; I will probably go with orange blossom honey, myself.
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Sep 1, 2012 22:39
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BDawg posted:Thanks for the responses, guys. I believe it's a commercial slim quarter. These make for the best 5 gallon batch fermenter - they'll hold a whole batch plus headroom since they're 7.75 gallons, fit most places a regular corny keg will fit, aren't hard to clean with PBW and a carboy brush, and can be easily adapted for pressurized fermenting if that interests you. All you need is a drilled #11 stopper and a standard airlock and a couple screwdrivers to remove the spear the first time.
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Sep 2, 2012 00:21
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Angry Grimace posted:If you order stuff with the "everyday" shipping on either MoreBeer or Northern Brewer, they get to it when they get to it, which is anywhere from 1 to 4 business days. Yeah, they dicked around until it got to be Friday afternoon to ship. Now UPS isn't going to work on Saturday, Sunday, or Monday. 3 day shipping should have meant ordering Tuesday last week and getting it on Friday. It now means ordering Tuesday last week and getting it Thursday this coming week.  How's Austin Homebrew Supply? Ordered some stuff from them yesterday too. On the plus side, I got my turkey fryer on Thursday night, assembled it and burned about 5 gallons of water off a boil for about 30 minutes. Now the pot has that nice brown color inside that you get once the coating chemicals on the aluminum pot wear off.
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Sep 2, 2012 13:35
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Just a PSA that if anyone is looking to use a commercial keg for anything and is trying to remove the spear make sure it's depressurized first. That poo poo will fly out of there if it's not depressurized and can really hurt you.
Josh Wow fucked around with this message at 19:36 on Sep 2, 2012 |
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Sep 2, 2012 13:36
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So I don't understand anything about water/mash pH stuff. My grains have been mashing at about 145* for about an hour and my pH hasn't moved from 6 since I started. Is this good or bad? I'm doing a Belgian triple, so it's about 10lb of two row and 2 lb of Munich. About 1.25 quarts of water per pound for the ratio. Suggestions? Info? Water Chemestry for dummies?
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Sep 2, 2012 18:50
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Daedalus Esquire posted:Is this good or bad? I would say indifferent tending to slightly suboptimal. The range for ideal mash pH is 5.2 - 5.5. Your mash is a bit less acid than that, which means you may get slightly sub-par efficiency. It will still convert and it will still make beer, though. I don't think you need to do anything for this batch, but you might consider acidifying your mash water a bit next time, using 5.2 salts, or building your water from RO water plus minerals to suit your aims for each batch. Historically, areas with alkaline water tended to spawn styles with a fair amount of darkly roasted malts, perhaps the canonical example being Dublin and Guinness. http://www.howtobrew.com/section3/chapter15-2.html
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Sep 2, 2012 19:19
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Get some "Super 5.2" or similar pH buffer and use that whenever you make light colored beers. You shouldn't need to use it on any stouts/porters due to the higher acidity of roasted malts. In the case of your Belgian, I would have let it sit mashing for an extra half hour just in case the conversion was really slowed significantly. Probably everything went fine though.
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Sep 2, 2012 19:58
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Yea, we probably gave it an extra 45 to an hour since I was worried about conversion and don't have any iodine to check it. Thanks for the advice, I'll look into getting some 5.2 buffer for when we do lighter stuff.
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Sep 2, 2012 20:49
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Question about the difference between base malts: I'm updating and hoping to improve upon my previous go at a saison that I really liked, but was done with LME instead of all grain. In my new recipe I'd have 1 lb of Belgian Pilsner malt, and 12.2 lbs of Briess Pilsen malt. For a 5-gallon batch, would I really notice a difference if I went with 100% Briess Pilsen? What about 100% Belgian Pilsner? -OR-, if I just went with what I already have and used Rahr 2-row for it all? I haven't brewed enough to know what sort of difference I'd see in using the different base malts - I've only used the Rahr 2-row or extract and, while I'd like to replicate the results of the first time I brewed this beer, I'd also like to save money where I can and if I can utilize the Rahr 2-row and probably won't notice a difference that would be awesome. Just looking for some general thoughts on what sorts of unique characteristics I'd be seeing from various light base malts, or if they're all basically the same.
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Sep 2, 2012 22:16
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You can taste the difference for yourself - just pick up a few grains of each next time you are at the brew shop and chew them up. I have not tasted Breiss Pilsner malt, but the Belgian and German versions I have tasted have been so drat good I am not sure I would change. In my experience, malts vary widely, and the best way to get the character you are looking for is to use malts as similar as you can to those used in the commercial examples of the style. In this case, my inclination would be to use all Belgian Pilsner, unless I could taste the malts head to head and decide that the Breiss was as good or better.
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Sep 2, 2012 22:39
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Jo3sh posted:You can taste the difference for yourself - just pick up a few grains of each next time you are at the brew shop and chew them up. I have not tasted Breiss Pilsner malt, but the Belgian and German versions I have tasted have been so drat good I am not sure I would change. Fair enough. If I'd gotten a response from someone like "well xxxx is more bitter and earthy and yyyy has a wheat and cereal flavor" then I'd probably concern myself with it more but I have a feeling that's not the case.
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Sep 2, 2012 23:00
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wattershed posted:Fair enough. If I'd gotten a response from someone like "well xxxx is more bitter and earthy and yyyy has a wheat and cereal flavor" then I'd probably concern myself with it more but I have a feeling that's not the case. As a random side note based on an exchange we had months ago, the lady at White Labs told me that they they do in fact sell the vials directly at the yeast lab.
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Sep 3, 2012 18:47
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Angry Grimace posted:As a random side note based on an exchange we had months ago, the lady at White Labs told me that they they do in fact sell the vials directly at the yeast lab. That must be fairly new, and also great news if I'm trying to hunt down some obscure or Platinum series yeast. It makes sense with them now selling pints in their tasting room now instead of just tasters; definitely feeling more like a retail shop akin to the tasting rooms in regular breweries.
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Sep 3, 2012 19:24
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I made something truly awful last night. I call it a "Belgian Coffee Cider". Steeped some special b, chocolate, and pilsner malt and mixed it with apple and black currant cider. Broke into three different jugs, pitched a champagne, english, and brett culture separately. I am hoping for a jet black, malty, dry cider. The brett jug isn't fermenting today, but that yeast works in mysterious ways.
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Sep 3, 2012 19:55
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Just finished yeasting my first beer (porter). The instructions say the initial specific gravity should be about 1.043. I read mine as 1.034. Other than me taking a wrong reading, what does having a low initial specific gravity mean? Also, the rubber stopper on my carboy keeps slipping out. How long do I have to worry about pushing it back in? How do people stir in yeast in a carboy? None of my spoons were long or narrow enough. I ended up using a sanitized handle of a bottle cleaner then shook the carboy from side to side. BDawg fucked around with this message at 00:57 on Sep 4, 2012 |
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Sep 4, 2012 00:15
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BDawg posted:Just finished yeasting my first beer (porter). The instructions say the initial specific gravity should be about 1.043. I read mine as 1.034. Other than me taking a wrong reading, what does having a low initial specific gravity mean? Low specific gravity means less sugar in the beer. Assuming you're doing extract that could mean you misread (which is fine), it could mean you didn't mix it thoroughly enough and there's a bunch of thicker syrup at the bottom (it'll mix in in time), or it could mean you used too little extract or two much water, which will just give you a weaker beer in the end. What temperature was it at when you did the measurement? It's only a few points difference if it's near fermentation temperature, but if it was still actually warm when you measured that makes more difference. I can't speak on the carboy stopper, I've always done my main fermentation in buckets and used carboys for aging/settling. I never bother with stirring yeast in, I just sprinkle/pour it in depending whether it's dry or liquid, and figure it will mix on its own. There's a lot of convective flow during fermentation and it's in there for weeks even if it wasn't so you don't really need to worry about stirring anything.
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Sep 4, 2012 01:25
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Killer robot posted:Low specific gravity means less sugar in the beer. Assuming you're doing extract that could mean you misread (which is fine), it could mean you didn't mix it thoroughly enough and there's a bunch of thicker syrup at the bottom (it'll mix in in time), or it could mean you used too little extract or two much water, which will just give you a weaker beer in the end. What temperature was it at when you did the measurement? It's only a few points difference if it's near fermentation temperature, but if it was still actually warm when you measured that makes more difference. My thermometer was being wonky, so I'm not sure. I waited until it was ok to touch and didn't feel hot. Then, I added tap water until I got to 5 gallons (3.5g). I have to believe it was around 80. It was an extract brew. I didn't notice anything odd in my pot or collander other than hops. BDawg fucked around with this message at 02:23 on Sep 4, 2012 |
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Sep 4, 2012 02:19
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As you describe it, a low gravity reading probably means the topping water was not well mixed in. In other words, no issue. The temperature would be a small source of error, but no more than a point or two, at a guess. It's going to be fine.
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Sep 4, 2012 02:51
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Jo3sh posted:As you describe it, a low gravity reading probably means the topping water was not well mixed in. In other words, no issue. The temperature would be a small source of error, but no more than a point or two, at a guess. Thanks all for the hand holding. I've already stared fermenting, so I'm very excited.
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Sep 4, 2012 03:11
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My friend has too many hops, so he invited me to come grab some. I got what looks like about three gallons of Cascade flowers.
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Sep 4, 2012 05:23
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Did some brewing over the weekend. Was thinking of doing a Hair of the Dog Adam clone inspired by my recent trip to Portland that resulted in some trips to HOTD and consumption of more than a few bottles of Adam, but the recipe provided to The Homebrew Chef by Alan Sprints makes me scratch my head. Its a 10% ABV beer (with AFTW and CAFTW being 12% and 13% respectively) that has its OG around 1.094, but this recipe very clearly makes a 1.134 beer which is more like 13-14%. I'll figure this out and brew it one day, so instead I put together a Rye IPA (finally!) based on an IPA recipe I made for a new local brewery that turned out awesome and slightly inspired by SN Torpedo because thats practically my daily drinker IPA. Brewday went pretty good and hit my targets, the smell is pretty fantastic and I look forward to the finished product! code:
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Sep 4, 2012 05:47
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LaserWash posted:How's Austin Homebrew Supply? Ordered some stuff from them yesterday too. I ordered some hops and random minor equipment off Austin Homebrew Supply and it arrived within 4 days on their normal shipping in Washington state (I live up in BC, Canada). Was very satisfied with the shipping time and the quality of what I ordered.
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Sep 4, 2012 06:03
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JawKnee posted:I ordered some hops and random minor equipment off Austin Homebrew Supply and it arrived within 4 days on their normal shipping in Washington state (I live up in BC, Canada). Was very satisfied with the shipping time and the quality of what I ordered. Austin Homebrew has virtually the exact same shipping policies that Northern Brewer and MoreBeer have. If you order a product with the reduced price/free shipping, it will ship in 2-4 business days. If you want something to ship faster, you have to pay for regular UPS shipping, in which case it goes out next business day at all of these places.
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Sep 4, 2012 08:42
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That's weird. I ordered on Saturday night (I presume they were closed), they were closed on Monday, and I got a message last night that says a shipping label had been printed. I live in the next town over (college station) so it shouldn't be that long until I get my stuff. STILL waiting on my stuff to leave from Minnesota. Ugggggghhhh. To make this beer related: anyone have a good place they go or extract recipe they use for a shiner bock clone that is warm fermented? I noticed people on ahs said that they were taking the Texas bock recipe and had success warm fermenting the lager yeast they used. I've been to Germany several times, loooooooooooooove the beer there, but shiner is still my favorite. LaserWash fucked around with this message at 13:20 on Sep 4, 2012 |
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Sep 4, 2012 11:57
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What are people using for a thermometer? Optimally, I'd like one that I can leave in the pot for the boil and the cooldown. The $15 one I bought apparently wasn't very waterproof and that's why it was telling me my boiling water was over 350 degrees.
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Sep 4, 2012 15:33
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LaserWash posted:warm fermenting lager yeast
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Sep 4, 2012 15:45
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BDawg posted:What are people using for a thermometer? Optimally, I'd like one that I can leave in the pot for the boil and the cooldown. The $15 one I bought apparently wasn't very waterproof and that's why it was telling me my boiling water was over 350 degrees. I have a probe thermometer with a remote that I got from a cooking store and it works great. It was about $40 but it was probably one of the best investments I've made so far.
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Sep 4, 2012 15:52
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BDawg posted:What are people using for a thermometer? Optimally, I'd like one that I can leave in the pot for the boil and the cooldown. The $15 one I bought apparently wasn't very waterproof and that's why it was telling me my boiling water was over 350 degrees. Is that thermometer a remote probe thermometer (i.e. the probe is on the end of a cable)? If so, take the probe (not the main unit) and put it in a cold oven. Heat the oven to 350 and leave it there for 20 minutes. Let the probe cool down, and it will tell you the right temperature again. I've fixed several thermometer probes that way.
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Sep 4, 2012 15:53
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