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internet celebrity posted:Is there a good straightforward guide anywhere for making unpasteurized fruit mead with fresh fruit? I'm looking for something that tells me when/why to use campden, pectic enzyme, and all that other stuff. This document, starting at page 80. For a melomel (fruit mead) they differ a bit from Schramm's approach for reasons they explain. They talk about adding pectinase at the end if clarification is needed, but I'd go ahead and just add it in at the start (as I think is mentioned elsewhere in that document).
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# ? Jan 14, 2013 19:02 |
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# ? Apr 18, 2024 05:08 |
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Ice concentrating my Imperial Oktoberfest (basically a doppelbock), calling it "Icetoberfest."
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# ? Jan 14, 2013 19:03 |
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So this morning I'm stumbling around my kitchen half awake getting ready to pitch the yeast for yesterday's brew of a Belgian Red, and my dumb rear end opens the top of the smack pack before I, you know, smack the pack. So anyway I cut open the nutrient packet inside and poured it into the yeast, mixed it up, and let it sit for about 45 minutes before I had to leave for work and I pitched it into the wort. Here's to hoping!
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# ? Jan 14, 2013 19:55 |
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Anyone here make any of the White House beers? I've been curious about them ever since the recipes were published a few months back and I was thinking about getting a clone kit to use as my second homebrew.
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# ? Jan 14, 2013 19:56 |
lifts cats over head posted:Anyone here make any of the White House beers? I've been curious about them ever since the recipes were published a few months back and I was thinking about getting a clone kit to use as my second homebrew. I had the honey ale at an election results party hosted by the Alamo Drafthouse and it was delicious. I was planning on making it for my next batch, before my little incident. It would be great for a refreshing summer beer.
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# ? Jan 14, 2013 20:06 |
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Mr. Wiggles posted:So this morning I'm stumbling around my kitchen half awake getting ready to pitch the yeast for yesterday's brew of a Belgian Red, and my dumb rear end opens the top of the smack pack before I, you know, smack the pack. Shouldn't be a giant problem from what I understand about the nutrients in the pack. It will rouse the yeast so maybe take care of a couple hours of lag but there isn't really enough of anything to do something important like begin multiplication.
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# ? Jan 14, 2013 20:22 |
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lifts cats over head posted:Anyone here make any of the White House beers? I've been curious about them ever since the recipes were published a few months back and I was thinking about getting a clone kit to use as my second homebrew. Northern Brewer's WH Honey Ale and Honey Porter kits were the first beers I ever brewed (thanks Splizwarf!). Of the two I would say the Ale was definitely my favorite. Incredibly drinkable, very smooth, and all of the flavors melded well together. My wife's uncle is a huge beer far, but most of my beers have been relatively anemic compared to what he likes. He's a huge fan of IPAs and stouts. Can you guys recommend a good hoppy beer that might be fun to brew? Actually while I'm at it I might as well discuss the summer plan. As part of her grandparent's anniversary my wife's family (about 20 of them) are taking over a beach house for a couple weeks. I plan on supplying the beer, so I was thinking about what brews to make. One thing we were thinking was making a Summer Shandy, similar to Leinenkugel's, and possibly another summer beer like a cream ale or the honey ale. The third one was going to be something a bit more robust. Any suggestions? Particularly for making the summer shandy? EDIT: After some additional research it looks like the summer shandy is just beer mixed with sparking citrus soda like lemonade. So I suppose I won't have to actually brew that, just make a light lager and bring along a lot of carbonated lemonated. Easily done. Beer4TheBeerGod fucked around with this message at 20:35 on Jan 14, 2013 |
# ? Jan 14, 2013 20:28 |
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Why not try to make you own lemony / orangey citrus ale and have it carbonate with your beer? Then again whenever someone says "Oh dude you should make like a strawberry beer!!!", I get kind of grossed out from imagining the combination.
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# ? Jan 14, 2013 20:46 |
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Marshmallow Blue posted:Why not try to make you own lemony / orangey citrus ale and have it carbonate with your beer? Then again whenever someone says "Oh dude you should make like a strawberry beer!!!", I get kind of grossed out from imagining the combination. Yeah I haven't had a lot of personal enjoyment from fruity beers. I want to say it was some kind of Sam Adam's cherry creation that really grossed me out. But then again I've been thinking it might be worth adding a bit of lemon to the honey ale recipe; I know that honey and lemon go well together in other recipes and perhaps it would turn out well. Is it hard to do subscale batches? If I wanted to make a half batch of honey ale would I just cut the recipe in half and keep the boil times for the same length?
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# ? Jan 14, 2013 21:03 |
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We do a lot of fun non-beer 1 gallon experiments which are usually a hit among our non-beer-loving friends & family. Also I hate to waste yeastcake so I'm always scrambling after bottling day to ferment SOMETHING with what's leftover. Hard iced tea, hard lemonade, hard gingerale ... all 3-4 ingredients each and take about a half hour total to get everything set and fermenting (and the ingredients are cheap as hell). Plus people who already thought you were super cool for being able to make beer lose their minds when you tell them you have HARD ICED TEA AND HARD LEMONADE TOO. It's like magical. Edit: Make hard gingerale, it's amazing. (sugar/fresh squeezed lemon/fresh grated ginger -> boil for 10-15 minutes -> "dryhop" with more fresh grated ginger depending on how spicy you like it about a week later) 2Edit: We use german rock sugar (stuff from Teavana) in addition to table sugar to give it a darker, more authentic gingerale color. fullroundaction fucked around with this message at 21:13 on Jan 14, 2013 |
# ? Jan 14, 2013 21:08 |
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Man I'm going to be the booze baron this summer. I wonder if we'll have room for clothes with all the alcohol we'll be bringing.
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# ? Jan 14, 2013 21:15 |
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lifts cats over head posted:Anyone here make any of the White House beers? I've been curious about them ever since the recipes were published a few months back and I was thinking about getting a clone kit to use as my second homebrew. Switching gears, what's the wording on the law regarding how much homebrew you can make in a year (Florida)? I've made 6x 5.5 gallon batches in 8 weeks and just got a new fermenting chamber so I can step it up to 8-10 gallons a batch. I'm legally restricted to 100 gallons, but I'll be giving out 1-2 gallons in bottles to my assistants. We were joking about what part of the brewing process is technically "brewing"? If a friend comes over and makes a batch in my Saccharomyces Sampo, does that count toward his 100 gallons or is it mine because it was made on my premises? What if he takes the fermenter home and pitches the yeast at his house? What if I give away all the beer I make? I know that nobody will ever get arrested for brewing a little extra than they should but I am just curious how it works. I'm sure if you do get arrested, the punishment is some arcane prohibition-era punishment like I have to break rocks in prison and then be publicly shamed or put in stocks.
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# ? Jan 14, 2013 21:54 |
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Florida: (a) Not in excess of 200 gallons per calendar year if there are two persons over the age of 21 in the household. (b) Not in excess of 100 gallons per calendar year if there is only one person over the age of 21 in the household. Any personal or family production of beer in excess of the above amounts or any sale of such alcoholic beverage constitutes a violation of the beverage law. http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/pages/government-affairs/statutes Other than Alabama it's pretty much the same in every state I've checked.
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# ? Jan 14, 2013 21:56 |
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Beer4TheBeerGod posted:Yeah I haven't had a lot of personal enjoyment from fruity beers. I want to say it was some kind of Sam Adam's cherry creation that really grossed me out. But then again I've been thinking it might be worth adding a bit of lemon to the honey ale recipe; I know that honey and lemon go well together in other recipes and perhaps it would turn out well. I went on a Sam Adams Cherry wheat kick one month and have not been enthused since. The Sam Adams Blackberry is good though. --- The 200 Gallon thing is also in Massachusetts. I find it hard to imagine (barring alcoholics) any one couple drinking more than 700 bottles of wine in any given year. I also just realized... Who's going to stop you from making more than 200 gallons? You destroy the evidence when you drink it. No beverage control officer has banged on my door to punch the amount of gallons on my gallons produced card recently.
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# ? Jan 14, 2013 22:03 |
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CapnBry posted:
If that episode of the Simpsons is any indication, they'll fire you out of town with a catapult.
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# ? Jan 14, 2013 22:12 |
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Bottled the beer that we made on Christmas day this past Saturday. Next time we do this we are going to be testing the specific gravity before and after, so we know what we're looking at - otherwise we're just kind of guessing. Live and learn.Marshmallow Blue posted:The 200 Gallon thing is also in Massachusetts. I find it hard to imagine (barring alcoholics) any one couple drinking more than 700 bottles of wine in any given year. Where in MA do you go locally for supplies, if any? I'm in Medford and trying to find somewhere other than Amazon to pick up another brew kit for the Northern Brewer setup that I got.
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# ? Jan 14, 2013 22:12 |
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Zhent posted:Bottled the beer that we made on Christmas day this past Saturday. Next time we do this we are going to be testing the specific gravity before and after, so we know what we're looking at - otherwise we're just kind of guessing. Live and learn. I'm in Allston MA. I have gone to a few different places. To the north in Beverly I have gone to "Boston Brewin" on Cabot Street in Beverly (It looks like a regular hobby shop on the outside so its very confusing but the home brew stuff is in the back) They dont have too much more than your basics. Carboys, bungs stoppers, yeasts, a few all grain selections but nothing major. A good place to stop after you go pick your own fruits at Russel Orchards and get inspired and need to grab some stuff. There is also Modern Home brew Emporium on Cambridge St. near Davis Square. They have a few kit things( not sure if its Northern brewer) and just about anything you'll need from more all grain selections to bottling equipment. Lastly and furthest away is Strange Brew in Marlboro MA. Its a very big store as far as home brew stores typically go but the shelves are sparse due to the square footage but they have the biggest selection of just about everything and even have my hard to find Mr. beer kits (However I wont be using them anymore cause I'm taking off my brewing diapers and going to all grain). But all their stuff is a little more expensive then you can find elsewhere.
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# ? Jan 14, 2013 22:32 |
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I'm still dry hopping my clone of KR Citra and I'm starting to get the impression this kind of dry hop regimen is kind of bullshit. It's a 12 day dry hop with staggered additions every three days and all of the hop additions are like an ounce or more.
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# ? Jan 14, 2013 23:58 |
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Marshmallow Blue posted:There is also Modern Home brew Emporium on Cambridge St. near Davis Square. They have a few kit things( not sure if its Northern brewer) and just about anything you'll need from more all grain selections to bottling equipment. Haha. Right before I moved away from Boston, I bought my first ever recipe kit from those guys Don't remember much about the shop since this was going on 5 years ago, but I do recall that the guys in the store were typical homebrew spergs who would gladly talk your ear off all day if you let them (which I appreciated since I had no goddam idea what I was doing). They were even patient when I called them in a panic a week later cause my fermenter never started bubbling. Yup, you guessed it, there was a poor seal on the bucket lid and gas leaked out there instead of bubbling the airlock; everything was fine.
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# ? Jan 15, 2013 00:27 |
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If I had to describe it. I would say it's closest to a clown car, because they have everything in such a small space. You just ask and it's in some crazy place, but its all there. I wouldn't be surprised if they had a time machine in the back. Modern was the first home brew store I had ever been in and I was pretty intimidating. But the staff is definitely friendly and I learned all I could ever need to know about bottle cappers. Also I've got a mead idea to run by you folks. What do you think? Meadowfoam vanilla bean metheglin 3 gallon batch. 8# meadowfoam honey 4# orange blossom honey 4 whole vanilla beans 1 oz medium toasted oak chips or cubes Cote de blanc yeast I'm thinking of doing a primary fermentation without anything but honey and yeast and racking onto the oak and 2 beans for 8 days or so. Then racking off the chips onto the last two beans until its bottling time (8.5 months or whatever brings it to a year)
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# ? Jan 15, 2013 01:06 |
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It looks like I may have been overconfident in placing my IPA carboy so close to where my sour is. There's something that looks like a bit more than yeast rafts dusting the top of the liquid. It might just be yeast, though, which would be cool. I need to go to the homebrew shop for more dry hops and to get a new wine thief (melted my old one) so I can get a decent sample and figure out what is up. Even if I've got brett in there I think it'll turn out fine; my hop profile was low on the IBU and high on oily mango-y hops. As long as it isn't sick right now, I think it has a chance. (The sour, on the other hand, I couldn't be more happy with, and my stout seems uninfected so far - I'm still playing with fire, though)
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# ? Jan 15, 2013 01:16 |
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Angry Grimace posted:It's a 12 day dry hop with staggered additions every three days and all of the hop additions are like an ounce or more. cripes, that is a lot. Marshmallow Blue posted:Also I've got a mead idea to run by you folks. What do you think? As much as I like the idea of vanilla and oak mead - I'd be more inclined to use wild flower and do 1 gallon batch first. I have the feeling that the long soak from the vanilla, let alone the oak, is going to mask any subtly from any solo-style honey. So i'd say do a test batch before wasting a year and 12# of expensive honey. ChickenArise posted:It looks like I may have been overconfident in placing my IPA carboy so close to where my sour is. There's something that looks like a bit more than yeast rafts dusting the top of the liquid. Could just be hops or how the yeast is flocculating - I'd not worry.
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# ? Jan 15, 2013 03:32 |
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Well based on reading about what others have done online and reading in the appropriate texts. Both oak and vanilla age out to be very subtle. It looks like the vanilla starts off no matter how many you add to be almost too intense, but it should really mellow out along with the oak since the oak is so early in the aging. Ill be okay with the cost and the amount of bottles ill get out of it if it just turns out just "okay" but I'll hate myself for doing a small batch and wanting more. I usually get about 3.5 bottles from a one gallon batch, so the that half gets drunk that night as a celebration. One gets shared with my brew club for their opinions and praise which won't leave much for me. Plus I've got no free gallon carboys for small experiments. I think it should turn out well. Edit: Also, I've found a decent place for meadowfoam honey at a decent price. It's called flying bee or something along those lines. And thanks to the wonders of flat rate boxes I can get my 12 pounds for a little over 65 with shipping. Marshmallow Blue fucked around with this message at 04:12 on Jan 15, 2013 |
# ? Jan 15, 2013 04:04 |
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I brewed my first witbier almost two weeks ago but I have a question, is it okay to cold crash it? I have a fridge that can keep it in the 40s for a while but I'm worried it will lose it's cloudiness.
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# ? Jan 15, 2013 04:54 |
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Don't forget your yeast nutrients. Descriptions of that yeast in mead says it's pretty important.
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# ? Jan 15, 2013 04:55 |
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Midorka posted:I brewed my first witbier almost two weeks ago but I have a question, is it okay to cold crash it? I have a fridge that can keep it in the 40s for a while but I'm worried it will lose it's cloudiness. For what it's worth I didn't cold crash mine (standard all-grain wit from NB) and it came out way too cloudy (IMO) even for the style.
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# ? Jan 15, 2013 04:56 |
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So I decided to get the beer off of that hop matter, and racked to secondary (which I usually don't do), took a nap and came back and the airlock was on the floor. Sigh.
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# ? Jan 15, 2013 05:00 |
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I keep hearing about how you are not supposed to grind your grains until right before brewday, but is this honestly a problem? I don't want to buy a mill, and the homebrew shop in the city where I just moved only has a hand crank mill with a 4 pound hopper. A few times in the past I forgot about a batch that I had milled a couple of months ago, and they turned into perfectly respectable beers.
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# ? Jan 15, 2013 05:48 |
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ChickenArise posted:It looks like I may have been overconfident in placing my IPA carboy so close to where my sour is. That doesn't matter. I keep all my sours and regular beers right next to each other. An IPA would kill most bacteria due to the hops. Plus it's unlikely for the sour to infect the other with the bacteria going in and out two air locks.
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# ? Jan 15, 2013 06:50 |
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Midorka posted:I brewed my first witbier almost two weeks ago but I have a question, is it okay to cold crash it? I have a fridge that can keep it in the 40s for a while but I'm worried it will lose it's cloudiness. Cold crashing is for clarity and witbiers are cloudy. I'd leave it well alone and bottle as is.
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# ? Jan 15, 2013 07:35 |
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crazyfish posted:Cold crashing is for clarity and witbiers are cloudy. I'd leave it well alone and bottle as is. For a dissenting opinion cold crashing it for 2-4 days is just gonna help the big stuff drop out and it'll still be plenty cloudy if you used a decent amount of wheat. I cold crash everything I can and I've only had one hefeweizen start to clear up after a 4 day cold crash and 4 weeks in the keg. All you have to do then is take the keg out and flip it upside down a few times if you want it cloudy. ScaerCroe posted:I keep hearing about how you are not supposed to grind your grains until right before brewday, but is this honestly a problem? I don't want to buy a mill, and the homebrew shop in the city where I just moved only has a hand crank mill with a 4 pound hopper. A few times in the past I forgot about a batch that I had milled a couple of months ago, and they turned into perfectly respectable beers. This is one of those best practice things. It's best practice to grind your grains as close to when you're going to brew as possible, that way they're as fresh as they can be. But there's tons of people out there that mail order all their homebrew supplies and don't own mills, so clearly waiting a couple of weeks isn't the worst thing in the world.
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# ? Jan 15, 2013 14:07 |
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Thanks for the replies, my main reason for wanting to cold crash is to get excess yeast out. It really hurts presentation to give a friend a beer you brewed only to have a layer of sediment on the bottom. It can be a little off-putting. I know it's a superficial reason but since I have the capabilities to cold crash I don't see a reason why I wouldn't. For what it's worth I used 45% flaked wheat and it's very cloudy with only a filter going from the kettle to carboy to get rid of hop and other matter in the body while aerating. Question though, has anyone used Bell's immersion chiller? I can't find one cheaper and I'm not brewing again without one, the tub method is a pain in the rear end and I won't be doing that again after knowing how well this works.
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# ? Jan 15, 2013 15:14 |
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Midorka posted:Question though, has anyone used Bell's immersion chiller? I can't find one cheaper and I'm not brewing again without one, the tub method is a pain in the rear end and I won't be doing that again after knowing how well this works. Mine just arrived today, will post a trip report. Can't wait to play with it! Also ordered a ton of other little stuff from them (bottle caps, tea ball, random 1oz hops) since they're strangely way cheaper than everyone else (even on shipping). Who knew. -------------- Took a grav reading of 4 gallons of 1.056 grocery store cider that has been sitting on top of a leftover cake of Nottingham ale yeast for less than a week. It's already at 0.98. I'm mad about apparent attenuation once again ITT (IT'S A LIE PUT OUT BY BIG YEAST INC).
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# ? Jan 15, 2013 15:51 |
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Made a robust porter back in October, aged it in a carboy for a month with Makers Mark-soaked oak cubes. Bottled with just 2.5 oz of priming sugar (5 gal batch), to keep the carbonation low since I knew I'd have a fair amount of bottles laying around for awhile. It tasted so nice and malty and was just right carbonation-wise through December, but opened one a few days ago and it was almost like Coca-Cola or something, fizzy and unpleasant. I don't know what happened, after about a week in bottles at ~68, I put all the bottles in a pretty cold basement, because at that point the batch was on the threshold of where I wanted the beer to be carbonation-wise. What could have happened? Is this just what happens, an exponential increase in carbonation? Is actually refrigerating the bottles one of the only ways to cause the cessation of carbonation? Barring the use of less priming sugar, how can I avoid this on future batches of maltier, less sessionable beers?
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# ? Jan 15, 2013 16:09 |
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Midorka posted:Question though, has anyone used Bell's immersion chiller? I can't find one cheaper and I'm not brewing again without one, the tub method is a pain in the rear end and I won't be doing that again after knowing how well this works. Yes, it works very well. The clamps leak a little but I may just not be putting them on right, it's just a standard hose/clamp setup and I can't see anything low quality about them. I did spread out the coils a bit to increase surface area, but it chills 4 gallons from boiling to 65 in 10 minutes.
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# ? Jan 15, 2013 16:14 |
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Worm clamps on wort chiller tubing suck. No matter how much you tighten them this time, it will leak next time, or the time after at best. I strongly recommend upgrading to compression fittings - or even better, soldered fittings. As far as cooling performance, there's a reason the coil of copper is so widely used - it's a very effective design.
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# ? Jan 15, 2013 16:29 |
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Nice brewday on Sunday. 14lbs Rauch Malt 1 oz Hallertau A bigass starter of Wyeast 2042 Happily bubbling away at 50 degrees.
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# ? Jan 15, 2013 18:33 |
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Imasalmon posted:Nice brewday on Sunday. 14 pounds of smoked malt. Let us know if it's drinkable, I'm curious because I've done 15% of the grist and that lent a pronounced and noticeable smokiness.
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# ? Jan 15, 2013 18:48 |
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Anyone know a good resource for types of hops, descriptions, styles, complimenting hop flavors, et. cetera?
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# ? Jan 15, 2013 19:10 |
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# ? Apr 18, 2024 05:08 |
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Paladine_PSoT posted:Anyone know a good resource for types of hops, descriptions, styles, complimenting hop flavors, et. cetera? This chart doesn't have a ton of relevant information but it's a good start: edit for hugeness internet celebrity fucked around with this message at 19:21 on Jan 15, 2013 |
# ? Jan 15, 2013 19:18 |