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I'm doing an RIS today that I plan to molest with coffee, bourbon, and oak. I have two probably stupid questions: My local HBS has several choices for oak: french (from cognac barrels), some sort of super-fancy Hungarian oak something that are lightly toasted; they are supposed to be the latest thing for wine, and regular local white oak. The French and Hungarian stuff are $5 for 3 oz, the local stuff is 1$ or something. Would I get anything out of either of the fancy chips, especially since I'm planning to soak them in bourbon? Or rather, would the cognac or toasted chips do anything unexpected to the beer? Also, would adding a vanilla bean to the bourbon soak add anything, or would that just mirror the oak flavor? bewbies fucked around with this message at 17:00 on Feb 17, 2013 |
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Feb 17, 2013 16:58
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bewbies posted:I'm doing an RIS today that I plan to molest with coffee, bourbon, and oak. I have two probably stupid questions: This article talks about the differences between the types of oak.
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Feb 17, 2013 18:01
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Jacobey000 posted:First lager, no idea about temperatures during fermentation - who has the best advice? Palmer? Here is more info than you ever wanted to know about fermenting lagers at home and also commercially. http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?title=Fermenting_Lagers . There is also a good article on decoction mashing if that's your bag on that site as well. The guy really knows his German beers (he is German after all).
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Feb 17, 2013 18:57
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When adding geletin to a keg, do you add it before or after you've racked the beer in? Opinions seem mixed.
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Feb 17, 2013 19:05
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Toebone posted:When adding geletin to a keg, do you add it before or after you've racked the beer in? Opinions seem mixed. I've never noticed any difference at all and I've added it at the beginning of the keg, with half the keg filled, the keg fully filled and when the keg was fully filled and already fully carbonated. It worked pretty much the same at all times.
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Feb 17, 2013 19:26
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Toebone posted:When adding geletin to a keg, do you add it before or after you've racked the beer in? Opinions seem mixed. Gelatin pretty much always works if you give it more time, but the optimal way is a few days after racking, once the beer is cold. Add the gelatin solution when it's still warm and the temperature difference will mix it for you.
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Feb 17, 2013 19:47
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To the guy that asked a few pages ago about getting some Amarillo, you can get 4 oz. bags here: http://www.farmhousebrewingsupply.com/scripts/hopsList.asp?idCategory=21 2012 crop year; not particularly cheap, but if you wanted it for something, there you go.
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Feb 17, 2013 23:05
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10 gallons of brown. 30 minutes left on boil...might not make it...so very cold...tell my family I died making beer. Seriously. gently caress this weather, right now I've got my garage door half closed and a piece of plywood covering most of the gap so I still have a little ventilation for the burner and I'm still dying here. 19 degrees is not fun brewing weather. On the plus side, I'll end with 5 gallons brown, and 5 gallons for an oud brune on jolly pumpkin dregs, but brewing today was a bad choice.
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Feb 17, 2013 23:56
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Daedalus Esquire posted:10 gallons of brown. 30 minutes left on boil...might not make it...so very cold...tell my family I died making beer. I'm laying in a hammock, enjoying this lovely 70 degree weather. You should move.
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Feb 18, 2013 00:38
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FYI for anyone looking for a prebuilt kegerator: I was in Costco earlier today and saw a Danby kegerator, model number DKC146SLDB, for $370. It seems to come with everything you would need to pour beer from Sanke kegs, and should be easily convertible to serve homebrew from a Corny. The faucet is the standard, rear-seal type, but it would work. Wal-Mart has this for $429 on their web site. Of course, whether the Costco near you has this is another question.
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Feb 18, 2013 03:38
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Jo3sh posted:FYI for anyone looking for a prebuilt kegerator: I was in Costco earlier today and saw a Danby kegerator, model number DKC146SLDB, for $370. It seems to come with everything you would need to pour beer from Sanke kegs, and should be easily convertible to serve homebrew from a Corny. The faucet is the standard, rear-seal type, but it would work. Wal-Mart has this for $429 on their web site. My parents said they'd seen the same thing a year back when they knew I was starting to put one together so they would appear to be widespread.
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Feb 18, 2013 03:41
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my son bort posted:What specific yeast did you use? s-23, mostly because I'm cheap. Docjowles posted:I've done a few pilsners on the below schedule to good effect. There's probably some shortcuts you can take but lagers are just kind of a long, slow pain in the dick which is why there are so few craft examples--they tie up valuable tank space for many months. Word. I pitched near there and his fridge is at 53f - beersmith told me to. Was going to do a diacetyl rest in two weeks, so I've got that going well. I'm going to assume so - but if I don't have a free keg, I can just use a 5 gallon secondary right? Maybe with a blow off tube so I don't get suck back from the dropping temps?
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Feb 18, 2013 17:15
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Jo3sh posted:I would do this based less on reaching a specific number, but more on reaching what turns out to be the number you get this time even if it's not in the range the recipe gives. Then I would just crash right in primary for a couple of days, and then package. By the way, got to where I wanted the gravity, and I've got the fermenter in the back fridge now. The temperature in there is about 30F, so what, maybe 1-2 days for the whole 5 gallons? I've never really done this cold crashing thing before because normally I like my beer cloudy.
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Feb 18, 2013 18:03
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Jacobey000 posted:I'm going to assume so - but if I don't have a free keg, I can just use a 5 gallon secondary right? Maybe with a blow off tube so I don't get suck back from the dropping temps? Yup, if anything less headspace is better so there's less chance of oxidation. You can actually get suckback in blowoff tubes, too, so if you go that route just put a really really small amount of liquid on the other end so it can't make it all the way up the hose. The best fix is probably to just pop the airlock off real quick a couple times a day to equalize the pressure, and/or fill it with something harmless like vodka instead of Star San.
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Feb 18, 2013 18:09
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Jacobey000 posted:s-23, mostly because I'm cheap. As doc noted, you still actually can get suckback in a blowoff tube and if you have the catch jar placed in the wrong spot you can cause a siphon too (i.e. the entirety of the catch jar ends up in the beer). I usually just use a S-bend airlock for that and don't fill it with much liquid.
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Feb 18, 2013 18:16
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I'm about to purchase a dudadiesel plate chiller, and I've been sort of working through pickup points in my keggle to decide a few things. First of all, I'm concerned about cleaning the plate chiller, which I assume is done by flushing with clean water through the hot ports, then sanitizing on brewday with whatever sanitizer I choose. My concerns with sanitation have made me rethink my pickup point inside my kettle. As it is now, I have a dip tube to the bottom of the dish. I usually pickup lots of coagulated proteins, hop sludge, etc. because of this placement, and filter through into my fermenters. When I begin cooling outside of the kettle, however, I'd like to move that pickup point higher on the dish so I can whirlpool out of a lot of those solids. I've thought of filtering the end of my dip tube, but worry about impeding flow through there should precipitated solids collect on the screen. Does anyone here have experience with plate chillers? Are any of these even valid concerns?
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Feb 18, 2013 18:42
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I've been reading up on kegging out of curiosity and there's one thing I can't find a good answer on. What do people who keg do about conditioning? The nice part of bottling is each bottle you have is better than the last. I imagine that if you rack to a keg and begin refrigerating immediately that you would greatly slow the rate at which the beer's taste evolves. How do people work around this? Do you let the keg sit at room temp for a month or two before tapping it? Do you just drink your beer before it's fully matured? Or is kegging more for the hoppy beers with tastes that diminish over time?
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Feb 18, 2013 20:06
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ZIGfried posted:I've been reading up on kegging out of curiosity and there's one thing I can't find a good answer on. What do people who keg do about conditioning? The nice part of bottling is each bottle you have is better than the last. I imagine that if you rack to a keg and begin refrigerating immediately that you would greatly slow the rate at which the beer's taste evolves. How do people work around this? Do you let the keg sit at room temp for a month or two before tapping it? Do you just drink your beer before it's fully matured? Or is kegging more for the hoppy beers with tastes that diminish over time? I'm not sure I understand what you're talking about. The beer conditions in the refrigerator where the keg is. Conditioning beer warm doesn't offer benefits over cold conditioning; there's a reason lagering is a thing.
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Feb 18, 2013 20:58
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If you make your beer right it doesn't need conditioning  But you can set your kegerator to cellar temp for perfect conditioning. As mentioned even kitchen fridge cold your beer can still do things.
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Feb 18, 2013 21:05
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ZIGfried posted:I've been reading up on kegging out of curiosity and there's one thing I can't find a good answer on. What do people who keg do about conditioning? The nice part of bottling is each bottle you have is better than the last. I imagine that if you rack to a keg and begin refrigerating immediately that you would greatly slow the rate at which the beer's taste evolves. How do people work around this? Do you let the keg sit at room temp for a month or two before tapping it? Do you just drink your beer before it's fully matured? Or is kegging more for the hoppy beers with tastes that diminish over time? Alternate answer: bottle off, say, a gallon of what would go into the keg (or brew an extra gallon), then if you fly through the keg quickly you can crack open the bottles slowly over time. If you find that you like it a lot more six months down the line instead of only six weeks, then next time age the whole thing for six months before putting it on tap. It's not rocket science.
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Feb 18, 2013 21:23
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I'm not really sure about the science behind the "age at cellar temp" thing anyways. I've found both commercial and home brew improve over time while aged cold.
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Feb 18, 2013 21:35
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I had my first brew day in nearly seven years yesterday with this recipe. Feels good. This was my first time using my new keggle and immersion chiller, and I was amazed by how effortless everything was, compared to my previous experiences. Seriously, gently caress tipping pots of hot wort to pour through a funnel. I had to go to Lowe's to grab some buckets and spray bottles for cleaning, and I picked up a Bayou Classic SP2. This thing throws out a LOT of heat; I didn't time my boil, but it got there quickly, and I scorched a bit of my wort. If anybody else gets one, be sure to dial it back once the boil starts. Now a question: How much StarSan foam is an acceptable amount to leave in the fermenter? There was a 1-2 inch layer of big bubbles that wouldn't drain out, so I just dumped my chilled wort right in there with it. I checked this morning and it was bubbling away, so I'm not worrying too much.
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Feb 18, 2013 21:39
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Garanimals4Seniors posted:Now a question: How much StarSan foam is an acceptable amount to leave in the fermenter? There was a 1-2 inch layer of big bubbles that wouldn't drain out, so I just dumped my chilled wort right in there with it. I checked this morning and it was bubbling away, so I'm not worrying too much. That sounds about right, I just pour out what I can and don't worry about the bit stuck inside. As long as there's not a ton of liquid it's fine.
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Feb 18, 2013 21:43
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Garanimals4Seniors posted:I had my first brew day in nearly seven years yesterday with this recipe. Feels good. This was my first time using my new keggle and immersion chiller, and I was amazed by how effortless everything was, compared to my previous experiences. Seriously, gently caress tipping pots of hot wort to pour through a funnel. All of the Starsan foam is cool. There's a dude at the brew club who's favorite homebrew talk forums story is when he drank Starsan straight to prove to someone it wasn't causing them off flavors.
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Feb 18, 2013 21:44
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If I'm not mistaken, isn't it engineered to break down into digestible compounds for yeast in low concentrations?
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Feb 18, 2013 21:55
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Angry Grimace posted:I'm not sure I understand what you're talking about. The beer conditions in the refrigerator where the keg is. Conditioning beer warm doesn't offer benefits over cold conditioning; there's a reason lagering is a thing. So say I take two bottles from the same batch that have been allowed to carbonate for two weeks at fermenting temp. If I place one in the fridge for a month and I leave the other one at fermentation temp for a month these two beers will taste exactly the same assuming all other variables besides storage temperature are identical? I have a hard time believing that if that is what you're saying. Like I said just curious if this is an issue or not and what people do to work around it. I know it's not rocket science, no need to be rude.
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Feb 18, 2013 21:56
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I've tasted StarSan at the proper concentration and it tastes like absolutely nothing. Also yeast will eat it once it's diluted in the wort. It's a magical substance 
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Feb 18, 2013 21:58
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ZIGfried posted:I've been reading up on kegging out of curiosity and there's one thing I can't find a good answer on. What do people who keg do about conditioning? The nice part of bottling is each bottle you have is better than the last. I imagine that if you rack to a keg and begin refrigerating immediately that you would greatly slow the rate at which the beer's taste evolves. How do people work around this? Do you let the keg sit at room temp for a month or two before tapping it? Do you just drink your beer before it's fully matured? Or is kegging more for the hoppy beers with tastes that diminish over time? Right now I have two batches in kegs that are lagering at their appropriate lagering temperature. I haven't carbed either of them yet. I'll probably draw a couple of bottles from each and carb those in the bottle so's I can share them with people more easily, but the rest of it will just get carbed in the keg and tapped whenever they're ready. I do not know if this has answered your question because I don't really understand the question but this is how I've been doing things.
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Feb 18, 2013 22:27
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This could possibly be a retarded question, but here goes! It seems like my regulator and manifold are designed for the gas line to come from the right side, but due to the geometry of my kegerator it makes much more sense for the CO2 canister to be on the left side of the fridge. This means that as it is right now my regulator has to be pointed towards the front door of the fridge in order for me to be able to read the gauges. This is not ideal because it's still a pain to see the regulator this way and it makes teh lines more messy than they need to be. Is it as simple as unscrewing the barb on the regulator and switching it out to the other side where I assume secondary regulators would normally be attached, or would that make everything explode?  Also, as for the manifold, if doing the above would solve my regulator problem, could I do the same to the manifold? If not my manifold would be "upside down" with the outputs pointed upwards rather than downwards...would that be a problem? Editted for clarity. E2: Here is my regulator http://www.amazon.com/Kegco-Premium-Series-Single-Regulator/dp/B003WXBD4O Here is my manifold: http://www.midwestsupplies.com/2-way-co2-distributor-5-16.html Mikey Purp fucked around with this message at 23:08 on Feb 18, 2013 |
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Feb 18, 2013 22:58
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LeeMajors posted:I'm about to purchase a dudadiesel plate chiller, and I've been sort of working through pickup points in my keggle to decide a few things. You will need to filter in some way, since it is relatively easy to clog a plate chiller. Things like a hop taco or a hop stopper work well with a dip tube. Cleaning them, well, I have seen a few ways. I generally backflush mine until it runs clear, then run it forwards to make sure it stays clear. Optionally, you can toss it in the oven on self clean which should destroy anything left in it. There is a lot of argument over whether this is safe on the chiller, though. Flush it out really good, sanitize it before use, and you should be fine.
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Feb 18, 2013 23:04
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 Finally starting to get decent beer out of this kegerator. I moved it to the basement so if it wants to leak again it will drain right into my basement sump.
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Feb 18, 2013 23:09
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bewbies posted:Right now I have two batches in kegs that are lagering at their appropriate lagering temperature. I haven't carbed either of them yet. I'll probably draw a couple of bottles from each and carb those in the bottle so's I can share them with people more easily, but the rest of it will just get carbed in the keg and tapped whenever they're ready. My question revolves around the "tapped when ready" part of your post and I'm starting to realize there is no right answer for this. I was reading stories of people racking to their keg, putting it in their keezer attached to the co2 and enjoying their beer by the end of the week. This seems odd to me because in my (limited) experience my beer just gets better and better the longer it sits at room temp. When I crack one open a week after bottling it's not undrinkable but it is a shadow of the beer it eventually turns out to be. I can't imagine its taste will develop at the same pace while chilled. I feel like I'm missing a piece of the puzzle and was hoping someone who kegs could fill me in. I guess an ideal set up in my mind would be a keezer with three beers on tap and two more filled kegs sitting at room temp, conditioning, waiting for a spot in the keezer. I'm interested in kegging and I'm just trying to learn as much as I can before I decide to make the financial investment.
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Feb 18, 2013 23:20
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ZIGfried posted:My question revolves around the "tapped when ready" part of your post and I'm starting to realize there is no right answer for this. I was reading stories of people racking to their keg, putting it in their keezer attached to the co2 and enjoying their beer by the end of the week. This seems odd to me because in my (limited) experience my beer just gets better and better the longer it sits at room temp. When I crack one open a week after bottling it's not undrinkable but it is a shadow of the beer it eventually turns out to be. I can't imagine its taste will develop at the same pace while chilled. I feel like I'm missing a piece of the puzzle and was hoping someone who kegs could fill me in. Remember if you're wanting to condition a beer at a certain temperature you can always just do it in the fermentor. This is what I'm doing right now with a quad batch as I only have 4 kegs and I don't want to tie one up for 2 months while this beer does its aging thing. Also remember if you want to condition in the keg you can do that too, it isn't like there's a rule that you have to refrigerate a filled keg right away.
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Feb 18, 2013 23:31
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Anyone have experience using ginger and coriander seed in a pale ale? I was thinking of using them in this recipe in a few weeks: 9 lbs Pale Malt 2 Row 1 lbs Crystal 20 8 oz Biscuit Malt 1 oz Cascade - 15 min 1 oz Sorachi Ace - 15 min .5 oz Cascade - 10 min .5 Sorachi Ace - 10 min .5 oz Cascade - 5 min .5 oz Sorachi Ace - 5 min 1 oz Sorachi Ace - dry hop 7 days Just not sure when during the boil or how much would work best. I figured they might play well with the lemon grass flavor from the Sorachi Ace. Suggestions?
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Feb 18, 2013 23:32
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ZIGfried posted:So say I take two bottles from the same batch that have been allowed to carbonate for two weeks at fermenting temp. If I place one in the fridge for a month and I leave the other one at fermentation temp for a month these two beers will taste exactly the same assuming all other variables besides storage temperature are identical? I have a hard time believing that if that is what you're saying. I have no clue what you're construing as "rude."
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Feb 18, 2013 23:55
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Angry Grimace posted:I have no clue what you're construing as "rude." Yea sorry, wasn't exactly directed at you and wasn't really called for anyways. Long day at work etc. Thanks for the answers from everyone and this thread in general. I read this thread often and I always come away with something new I want to try. The last page with the Keezer building tutorial has me really thinking about kegging and I'm trying to decide if that's the next step I want to take or if I want to start dabbling in all grain brewing.
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Feb 19, 2013 01:59
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Imasalmon posted:You will need to filter in some way, since it is relatively easy to clog a plate chiller. Things like a hop taco or a hop stopper work well with a dip tube. The cheapest option is a nylon paint strainer from Home Depot/Lowe's clipped to the side of the boil kettle with a stainless steel clothespin (I'm just being paranoid, you could use a regular old one or a binder clip, I'm just worried about steam condensing on non-foodsafe metals and dripping back into the wort) and you put the hops in that. Actually its even cheaper to just tie the bag to the handle in a loose knot. Angry Grimace fucked around with this message at 02:37 on Feb 19, 2013 |
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Feb 19, 2013 02:32
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ZIGfried posted:My question revolves around the "tapped when ready" part of your post and I'm starting to realize there is no right answer for this. I was reading stories of people racking to their keg, putting it in their keezer attached to the co2 and enjoying their beer by the end of the week. This seems odd to me because in my (limited) experience my beer just gets better and better the longer it sits at room temp. When I crack one open a week after bottling it's not undrinkable but it is a shadow of the beer it eventually turns out to be. I can't imagine its taste will develop at the same pace while chilled. I feel like I'm missing a piece of the puzzle and was hoping someone who kegs could fill me in. Those who keg, on the other hand, have the option to force carbonate their beer, meaning carbonate it by injecting a bunch of CO2. Since the yeast has nothing to do with this process, no additional off flavors are produced. As a result, force carbonated beer can be enjoyed earlier than naturally carbonated beer. In all conditions, however, the flavor will develop months and years out.
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Feb 19, 2013 02:33
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Imaduck posted:One thing to note is that if you "naturally" carbonate - that is, add sugar before you bottle or keg to let the yeast produce the CO2 - the yeast will throw off additional off flavors. Using this method, the beer will often be at its appropriate carbonation level in just a few days. It will likely taste bad, however, because you need to give the additional flavors some extra time to age out. I would kind of disagree with this - the majority of beer styles don't see a lot of benefit from aging at all and just get worse. The time frame between "done fermenting" and "ready to drink" isn't really that long in most cases. Conditioning and aging aren't really the same thing; the only beers that really benefit from aging are really big. The reason I wasn't understanding the original question was partially because I wasn't understanding the underlying premise that beer conditioning occurs either better or faster at room temperature vs. cold. I don't agree - I feel that most beer tastes better when conditioned cold, which is why lagering exists. Obviously its all subjective though.
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Feb 19, 2013 02:44
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Oh, I didn't mean to imply that beer will always get better with age. For the most part, I've found beers tend to mellow when you bottle condition warm, which can be good or bad depending on what your target is.
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Feb 19, 2013 03:36
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