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Ok, took apart my taps today and now I don't remember which way the part below faces. Is the opening supposed to face toward the kegerator, or away (i.e. toward the closed or open position)? 
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Mar 16, 2013 21:06
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I've never taken a tap apart before but my guess is the open part faces you to let the handle drop into it. No loving clue though, just came to post and say happy st paddys to my favorite brewers!
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Mar 16, 2013 21:17
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Daedalus Esquire posted:I've never taken a tap apart before but my guess is the open part faces you to let the handle drop into it. No loving clue though, just came to post and say happy st paddys to my favorite brewers! It slides on from the side, but it can slide on from any side as there's a square nut at the part it goes on. I didn't explicitly intend to brew on St. Paddy's Day weekend, but an early cheers to you all!
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Mar 16, 2013 21:25
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About two weeks ago I brewed a porter that I'll be racking to secondary tomorrow. I'm planning on adding a vanilla bean that's currently soaking in a little bit of vodka. I'll also be adding some coffee on bottling day. Do you guys think one bean will be enough with the added coffee later? I don't want the vanilla to be the dominant flavor so I don't want to overdo it.
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Mar 16, 2013 21:41
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baquerd posted:Gravity isn't everything, there are varying degrees of fermentability. A 1.060 juice based cider will drop much further than a 1.060 milk stout for example. Yeah a little bit of non- or less-fermantable stuff can make a lot of the difference.
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Mar 16, 2013 22:07
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I donīt know if this counts as Home brewing, but I made some rather delicious gingerbeer a few days ago. after 48 hours I put them in the fridge to stop the process. A day after I opened a half filled bottle only to have it shoot a hole in my drywall with the patentcap, due to the excessive amounts of carbonization. How dangerous are the filled bottles? More or less than the halffilled one?
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Mar 16, 2013 22:35
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Prophaniti posted:I donīt know if this counts as Home brewing, but I made some rather delicious gingerbeer a few days ago. after 48 hours I put them in the fridge to stop the process. Depends. Is this the recipe you used? quote:Nathan's Dangerous Gingerbeer But seriously, you may have created bottle bombs. Be extremely careful handling/opening them.
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Mar 16, 2013 23:13
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Josh Wow posted:I just did a combo because I wanted it a bit on the lighter side, but I thought all munich I would be a bit too light. I'm sure you can make a great dunkel with all I or II and any combo inbetween, depending on the flavor profile you're going for. Thanks. The only times I've been dissatisfied is when I add too much Carafa to get the color where I want it and you get a hint of the roast flavor which is obviously not to style. I think I'm going to order some II and start experimenting. Like Grimace said the Hochkurz is supposed to help get some additional flavors without doing a full decoction. I'm not the biggest fan of melanoidin malt as a decoction substitute and this seems to help a little bit when I can't do a full double.
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Mar 16, 2013 23:31
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Anyone know of any rules of thumb when blending beers? I've got ~2gal of a super chocolatey belgian quad style beer that I was thinking of blending off with a nice light saison to produce a chocolate saison. I'm not sure how much saison to use though. I could just mix them half and half I guess, but I'm curious if there's any info available on blending other than just "try samples at different blends and see what tastes good".
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Mar 17, 2013 00:57
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Acceptableloss posted:"try samples at different blends and see what tastes good". I've only done this once, blending a pils and an IPA. I tried three permutations and one was clearly better so that's how I went obviously. It worked really well. I think there are just too many variables to really put any science to this sort of thing.
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Mar 17, 2013 01:06
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Midorka posted:2: Is it better to dry hop cold beer or fermentation temperature beer? I was thinking of throwing the hop bag in while I cold crash them, obviously with the string on the bag kept on the outside so it doesn't sink. This article would have me think that higher temperatures increase extraction and that keeping the hops in suspension does as well. Would I be better then just cold crashing for a day to drop some yeast out, put the anchored hop bag in and wait 3-4 days at 70F? Using those results I only dry hop with pellets and only for 2 days. The study shows that even without agitation you achieve your peak aroma in about a day. I'm crotchety and old so I won't go as low as a day, but I figure 2 is good, 3 days max and definitely at fermentation temperature. It is also important to remember that your fermentation should be completely done and time should be given for extra CO2 to come out of solution, as the escaping gas can take a lot of aroma with it. I feel that giving the beer a beer up to a week after the completion of fermentation allows plenty if time for this to happen. Cold-crashing before dry hopping would actually provide a chance for more CO2 to remain in solution, which will be released as the beer warms to dry hopping temperature and drive off aroma. My procedure is ferment to completion, wait 5-7 days, add hops, wait 2-3 days, optionally cold crash. I keg though so I sort of cold crash in the keg and it doesn't matter because any extra yeast will just come out in the first few pints.
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Mar 17, 2013 01:10
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Acceptableloss posted:Anyone know of any rules of thumb when blending beers? I've got ~2gal of a super chocolatey belgian quad style beer that I was thinking of blending off with a nice light saison to produce a chocolate saison. I'm not sure how much saison to use though. I could just mix them half and half I guess, but I'm curious if there's any info available on blending other than just "try samples at different blends and see what tastes good". Mix it in a glass to taste then scale it up to the appropriate amount.
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Mar 17, 2013 01:27
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wattershed posted:It slides on from the side, but it can slide on from any side as there's a square nut at the part it goes on. I'm pretty sure the more open end faces out - to the tap, b/c that is what allows it rock forward when pulling beer.
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Mar 17, 2013 02:22
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Is there any harm in prolonging a diacetyl rest by about 3 extra days after it's complete? I have an IPA that I'd like to run a little cooler than my ambient room temperature, at least for it's first few days of going strong. The schwarzbier that's currently in my ferm fridge has already been resting at about 65F for the last three days or so. The schwarzbier, incidentally, wasn't tasting too bad when I sampled it. This is a surprise to me, because I had pretty much written off that brewday as a disaster. Maybe RDWHAHB even applies to horribly mangling a triple-decoction? I guess won't know for sure until I try the finished product in a few months.
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Mar 17, 2013 05:36
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baquerd posted:Gravity isn't everything, there are varying degrees of fermentability. A 1.060 juice based cider will drop much further than a 1.060 milk stout for example. Both used about the same % of pale and crystal. Same mash temp. That's the odd thing. I'm confused.
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Mar 17, 2013 13:10
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There's a ton of variables that would affect this. Maybe one fermentor got oxygenated better than the other, maybe one had more volume than the other, maybe one is 1-2* higher than the other, maybe one of your yeast packs had more viable cells.
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Mar 17, 2013 14:43
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Maybe the lid on one of the fermenters was a bit loose.
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Mar 17, 2013 15:06
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My Midas Touch clone seems to not want to carbonate. It's been in bottles for about 2.5 weeks and there's (other than barely a hiss) almost no flocculant in the bottom of the bottles. How worried should I be? Was thinking the muscat concentrate might cause a problem but I had my fingers crossed. E: for more info I used a big 05 starter, primed 5 gallons with 5.5oz of tabled sugar, and bottled after three weeks in primary (1.080 to a stable 1.010). fullroundaction fucked around with this message at 20:30 on Mar 17, 2013 |
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Mar 17, 2013 20:28
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The Candyman posted:If you make wine/fruit alcohol rather than beer, it's amazingly cheaper then buying, as well as tasting a dozen times better. This is why I've been doing less mead lately. The price of quality honey is just too drat high. Around here apples grow really well along with a variety of berries so I'm going to be focusing more on ciders and fruit wines. Speaking of which, I just picked up Craft Cider Making by Andrew Lea and after a quick skim it looks like a very good manual for making cider. You can find a lot of the info in articles on his website but apparently he updated them when putting the book together.
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Mar 17, 2013 21:11
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fullroundaction posted:My Midas Touch clone seems to not want to carbonate. It's been in bottles for about 2.5 weeks and there's (other than barely a hiss) almost no flocculant in the bottom of the bottles. How worried should I be? Was thinking the muscat concentrate might cause a problem but I had my fingers crossed. What temperature are the bottles sitting at?
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Mar 18, 2013 01:32
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 Keezer build is done! No more picnic tap bullshit for this guy. There's some issues around carbonation/foam I need to dial in, and at some point I want to install a drip tray. But the heavy lifting is done. I used Josh Wow's method of just putting foam insulation under the collar and letting the weight of the collar and lid hold it in place, seems to be working very well. It's backed up against a wall so even if someone lifts up the lid it can't slide off and smash into anything.The other obvious problem is out of 4 kegs, only one has more than a few pints left and one is completely empty. Gotta get to brewin'!  
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Mar 18, 2013 01:40
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fullroundaction posted:My Midas Touch clone seems to not want to carbonate. It's been in bottles for about 2.5 weeks and there's (other than barely a hiss) almost no flocculant in the bottom of the bottles. How worried should I be? Was thinking the muscat concentrate might cause a problem but I had my fingers crossed. I don't have any suggestions other than to say that exactly the same thing happened when a friend and I brewed the Midas Touch clone recipe. It never carbed at all - even when I drank the last bottle about two years on, it was completely still. We primed with a marginally smaller amount of sugar but still no reason it shouldn't have carbed up.
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Mar 18, 2013 02:45
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yello posted:I don't have any suggestions other than to say that exactly the same thing happened when a friend and I brewed the Midas Touch clone recipe. It never carbed at all - even when I drank the last bottle about two years on, it was completely still. We primed with a marginally smaller amount of sugar but still no reason it shouldn't have carbed up. Well poo poo. I'm assuming it's because of the sulfates (sulfites?) in the concentrate, but I re-read Sam's recipe and he specifically says to use priming sugar when bottling it (as opposed to kegging or not mentioning bottling at all). Oh well, at least it tastes good on its own? I can probably gift some of it as wine, and I'm thinking about blending it with my over-spiced mead to smooth it out a bit. I'm just a bit pissed because it was such an expensive recipe to put together  @Doc - awesome! @Midorka - normal ambient temps, high 60s.
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Mar 18, 2013 03:12
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Accidental double post turned into another question: there's another local homebrew competition coming up soon and they say on their website that they're using the 2008 BJCP guidelines for judging, but the style I was going to enter (Gose) didn't become a part of the guidelines until 2012. I've asked the event organizers what category I should enter it under (or if I can at all) but haven't received a response. Anyone have any guidance on this? e: VVV I meant "flocculated yeast" but thanks for pointing that out because now I know I've been using the word mostly wrong. fullroundaction fucked around with this message at 03:22 on Mar 18, 2013 |
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Mar 18, 2013 03:15
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fullroundaction posted:flocculant Not to be 'that guy,' but it's not flocculant - it'd be trub or anything else - unless you added an obscene amount of fining agents... As for your quest to carb, I'd let it sit another month and if it's still not carbed up, open them (one-at-a-time), take a pack of us-05 and rehydrate it, use a pipette and add in a drop or two, recap, and check again.
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Mar 18, 2013 03:16
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fullroundaction posted:Accidental double post turned into another question: there's another local homebrew competition coming up soon and they say on their website that they're using the 2008 BJCP guidelines for judging, but the style I was going to enter (Gose) didn't become a part of the guidelines until 2012. I've asked the event organizers what category I should enter it under (or if I can at all) but haven't received a response. Anyone have any guidance on this? I think 2008 is actually the newest rev of the BJCP guide, and I don't see any reference in it to Gose. The Brewers Association Guidelines were updated in 2012 to include Gose so maybe that is what you were looking at? That's different from the BJCP guide, though, and is used for judging professional comps like the GABF and World Beer Cup not homebrew comps. Anyway TL;DR enter it as category 23, Specialty Beer. Docjowles fucked around with this message at 04:23 on Mar 18, 2013 |
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Mar 18, 2013 04:20
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fullroundaction posted:My Midas Touch clone seems to not want to carbonate. It's been in bottles for about 2.5 weeks and there's (other than barely a hiss) almost no flocculant in the bottom of the bottles. How worried should I be? Was thinking the muscat concentrate might cause a problem but I had my fingers crossed. I had a similar problem with my pumpkin beer this past fall. I bottled it 3 weeks before Halloween and when we opened the growler at the party it was nearly flat. Made for ok pumpkin beer floats with my homemade pumpkin ice cream though. What I ended up doing was giving all the bottles a bit of agitation by tipping them up and down a couple times and then letting them sit another week or so. The next one I opened was fully carbonated. So maybe give the bottles a light shake and let them sit a while longer and open another one.
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Mar 18, 2013 04:32
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Docjowles posted:I think 2008 is actually the newest rev of the BJCP guide, and I don't see any reference in it to Gose. The Brewers Association Guidelines were updated in 2012 to include Gose so maybe that is what you were looking at? That's different from the BJCP guide, though, and is used for judging professional comps like the GABF and World Beer Cup not homebrew comps. Thanks for the info, I'm barely literate you see. Not too excited about being in a catch all category but at least I'll get some good feedback! @rockcity - I'll give it a shot!
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Mar 18, 2013 04:38
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fullroundaction posted:@rockcity - I'll give it a shot! Even better than shaking them is to flip the entire case 180* every 2-3 days. This avoids any oxidation you'd get from shaking and helps to keep the yeast in suspension.
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Mar 18, 2013 08:25
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Would it be okay to repurpose an aluminum propane tank as a brew kettle? I know I'd have to build up an oxide layer by boiling water in it but is the fact that it has been used to hold propane for years going to affect anything?
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Mar 18, 2013 14:35
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Cpt.Wacky posted:This is why I've been doing less mead lately. The price of quality honey is just too drat high. You just got to know where to look for decent to higher grade honey. Do a google search to find some web 1.0 websites of apiaries near you, you may be able to get a deal for buying X lbs, as most people would only go there to get a pound or two for their toast. Flying bee ranch http://www.flyingbeeranch.net/ has good honey for good prices, and they use flat rate shipping boxes, so you can save plenty of bucks there. They have some of the harder to find honeys like lavender, fireweed, meadowfoam, and wild carrot. Or if you're on a serious budget, but want some Orange blossom, Tropic Bee honey on Amazon, you can subscribe to get 3lbs per month or ever other month for like 14 bucks, and for subscribing you get 5% off and FREE SHIPPING. Tropic bee also has the Super Rare Tupelo Honey Subscription 3lbs for 20 bucks or so (I haven't tried this so I don't know if its good or not but if you're on a budge, you're on a budget).
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Mar 18, 2013 14:48
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Marshmallow Blue posted:You just got to know where to look for decent to higher grade honey. Do a google search to find some web 1.0 websites of apiaries near you, you may be able to get a deal for buying X lbs, as most people would only go there to get a pound or two for their toast. Yeah, I did that search and went through every apiary in Washington and Oregon. I don't recall seeing Flying Bee Ranch on the list but even with them it would work out to $5.10/lb for their premium honeys after shipping. For a 5-gallon/15-pound batch that's over $75 just for the honey. At Silverbow I can get it down to about $3.10/lb if I buy 60 pound buckets, but that's still $45 per batch just for the honey and they only have a few varieties. $45 is on the high-end for extract w/grains beer kits. On the other hand I can usually get as many apples and berries as I can pick for free around here, and then I just have to process them.
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Mar 18, 2013 16:04
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Not sure why I waited so long to buy an oxynator and one of those O2 tanks, but holy poo poo was this a night/day purchase for my batch this weekend. Brewed a Belgian Dark Strong on Saturday and pumped it full of O2, within 3-4 hours fermentation had started and I was getting a ton of activity in my airlock. It's been motorboating steadily for 2 days straight now. Pure O2 injection owns.
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Mar 18, 2013 16:15
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Well if you like your mead, as in buy it in stores not just make it to try it out. A good 375ml bottle is anywhere from $12-20 and up and say you lose 5 bottles from racking leaving you with 45 or so that's $540 if you had nothing but the $12 bottles ($900 on the other end (and Ive seen plenty of bottles more expensive than 20)). Cider is much cheaper to buy also. You can get a 6-pack of any cider for 8 or 9 bucks, so its where you want to apply your value I guess.
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Mar 18, 2013 16:23
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hellfaucet posted:Pure O2 injection owns. Do you have a link to the setup you bought? Moving to pure O2 is definitely on my wishlist, I got one of those aquarium pump things a few years ago and it is a pain in the dick. Generates tons of foam, takes forever and I'm not convinced it's even doing much good.
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Mar 18, 2013 16:28
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Docjowles posted:Do you have a link to the setup you bought? Moving to pure O2 is definitely on my wishlist, I got one of those aquarium pump things a few years ago and it is a pain in the dick. Generates tons of foam, takes forever and I'm not convinced it's even doing much good. This is the one I picked up from my LHBS. I got the O2 tank from Home Depot, in the tools section, near the welding supplies. O2 tank itself was under $10 and supposedly lasts a year or more, you definitely don't need to use much.
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Mar 18, 2013 16:34
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I just cracked my fermenter open to see how it smelled (dry hopped a day ago with 1oz of Citra and 1oz of Simcoe) and holy crap it smells like weird fruit candy. Suuuuper pungent (in a good way haha). Of course the layer of hops on top looks super gross. How long does it take for that to drop down?
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Mar 18, 2013 16:47
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Docjowles posted:Do you have a link to the setup you bought? Moving to pure O2 is definitely on my wishlist, I got one of those aquarium pump things a few years ago and it is a pain in the dick. Generates tons of foam, takes forever and I'm not convinced it's even doing much good. It probably isn't doing anything, atmospheric concentrations of O2 are going to max out at a certain level, and pump is only going to boost it past naturally dissolved O2 by just a bit. I think it may just be a  kinda thing, because shaking your fermentor for 45 seconds should oxygenate the poo poo out of the wort. I'd be very interested in side-by-side comparisons of shaken, oxygen pump, and aquarium pump fermentations. Can it really affect things that much on a homebrew level?
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Mar 18, 2013 16:53
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internet celebrity posted:Would it be okay to repurpose an aluminum propane tank as a brew kettle? I know I'd have to build up an oxide layer by boiling water in it but is the fact that it has been used to hold propane for years going to affect anything? Yeah. Don't do that. Just buy a cheap Aluminum pot for 40bux (like me). fullroundaction posted:the 2008 BJCP guidelines The BJCP is also working on revising for 2013/14 iirc, and planning on doing a decently sized overhaul - I assume the sour category is going to get more breadth.
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Mar 18, 2013 17:11
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RagingBoner posted:It probably isn't doing anything, atmospheric concentrations of O2 are going to max out at a certain level, and pump is only going to boost it past naturally dissolved O2 by just a bit. I would like to see that same comparison but with unoxygenated wort with olive oil added as well. http://www.brewcrazy.com/hull-olive-oil-thesis.pdf
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Mar 18, 2013 17:52
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