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Marshmallow Blue posted:I'm going back to buckets! I hate cleaning carboys. I'm gonna use them for meads and stuff and maybe get some for souring in the future though. The carboy brush I have makes cleaning them pretty easy. I usually give them a solid rinse right after use, then soak them with some dish soap for about 15 minutes, run the brush through them and then rinse them clean. Works easy enough for me.
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May 16, 2014 15:51
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fullroundaction posted:Talk to me about priming sugar adjustments for cold-crashed beer. I've bottled a hundred room temperature batches but this will be the first one I've ever crashed out and I don't want to screw it up. You want to use the highest temperature it was at after fermentation finished, not the temperature it's at when you're actually bottling. Something to do with warmer liquids not holding as much CO2 and cooling it off doesn't add more because there's not enough pressure.
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May 16, 2014 16:58
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Cpt.Wacky posted:You want to use the highest temperature it was at after fermentation finished, not the temperature it's at when you're actually bottling. Something to do with warmer liquids not holding as much CO2 and cooling it off doesn't add more because there's not enough pressure. That makes sense, especially with what I've learned during my recent kegging adventures. Okay so it's basically business as usual and I worried/confused myself for no reason.
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May 16, 2014 17:02
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bewbies posted:I think I can get WLP820 or 830, which of those would you recommend? I have not used either of those strains, but if you're going to use any liquid lager yeast, then you pretty much have to make a starter.
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May 16, 2014 17:20
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rockcity posted:The carboy brush I have makes cleaning them pretty easy. I usually give them a solid rinse right after use, then soak them with some dish soap for about 15 minutes, run the brush through them and then rinse them clean. Works easy enough for me. I just use PBW or Oxiclean/TSP. Soak for a day or three, rinse clean. I really hesitate to use a brush in a PET carboy.
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May 16, 2014 17:21
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Yesterday I brewed a very hoppy pale ale type thing using hops ONLY post-boil, 4 oz at flameout and 6 oz at 180 degrees for 30 min before chilling. It will be interesting to taste but it seems like it's going to be pretty great. http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/132190/next-level-hoppy-thing I got annoyingly low efficiency after having the shop crush my grains for the first time, so I guess that I means I have to try it myself next time again, ugh. Maybe it's me?
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May 16, 2014 17:28
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rockcity posted:The carboy brush I have makes cleaning them pretty easy. I usually give them a solid rinse right after use, then soak them with some dish soap for about 15 minutes, run the brush through them and then rinse them clean. Works easy enough for me. You should really not be using dish soap - bad for head retention, can leech scents, etc etc.
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May 17, 2014 03:56
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Jacobey000 posted:You should really not be using dish soap - bad for head retention, can leech scents, etc etc. As long as it's rinsed afterwards I don't really see a problem. It's going to get a second rinse with sanitiser afterwards too.
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May 17, 2014 04:10
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Can anyone recommend a probe thermometer for me to buy? Something I can stick in a pot or MLT and have it beep at a set temperature. Several of the ones that I've looked at you aren't supposed to get the probe wire wet, so they'd be no good.
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May 17, 2014 06:12
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bewbies posted:I think I'd like to make a marzen this weekend. I got this recipe from somewhere, thoughts, changes? You got some good advice on this but I'm gonna throw in my two cents. Definitely stay away from S-23, 34/70 is the bomb if you can get it. Looks like you can't and I've never used WLP820 but WLP830 German Lager yeast is great. You need to make a bigass starter and oxygenate as best you can. 1.5-2L starter with a stirplate or even bigger if you don't have a stir plate. Make the starter enough in advance that you give yourself 24-48 hours to cold crash it in the fridge so you can decant all the liquid and just pitch the yeast slurry. For oxygenation 45-60 seconds with pure O2 if you have a setup, if not do the best you can pouring it between two buckets or whatever. For the WLP830 you'll wanna pitch at 48*F and ferment at 50-52* for the bulk of the fermentation, letting it ramp up near the end. As far as the recipe goes it looks ok, but not great. Personally on my Oktoberfest I do a 70/30 split vienna/munich. I usually do at least two each year one with a lighter munich and one with a darker munich, and I think I'm gonna try a 70/15/15 split this year with vienna/light munich/dark munich. Having a vienna base helps keep the beer crisp and adds a little toastiness. It depends on what you want out of an Oktoberfest though, I like mine to be light, toasty and not sweet. A munich based Oktoberfest would be heavier and have more of a caramel sweetness to it. To me that's getting closer to Munich Dunkel territory than Oktoberfest. If you wanted to go with mostly munich I'd throw in some pilsner malt to keep it light. I'm not really sure why there's a hop addition at 40 instead of 60, I'd probably just do a standard 60 minute addition and adjust the amount to match the IBUs. I like to throw in an oz of hallertauer or tettnanger at 20-15 min in mine, and another oz at flameout. Finally I probably would mash at 152, at 154 it's probably going to underattenuate and be a little too sweet.
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May 17, 2014 12:49
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Jacobey000 posted:You should really not be using dish soap - bad for head retention, can leech scents, etc etc. It gets rinsed several times and power washed out with my carboy nozzle and then rinsed again when I sanitize before my next batch. I've never had a problem.
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May 17, 2014 16:02
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Anybody here ever use alternative sugars for bottle carbonation? I'm thinking honey or maple syrup. Would that work or would it just sit at the bottom in some kind of sweet sludge? Also, somebody needs to make cock ale and post a full trip report.
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May 17, 2014 17:20
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Martello posted:Anybody here ever use alternative sugars for bottle carbonation? I'm thinking honey or maple syrup. Would that work or would it just sit at the bottom in some kind of sweet sludge? As I understand it, you wouldn't get much in the way of flavor/aroma from those. That said, it should carb up just fine and I could be completely wrong. Go for it and tell us what happens!
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May 17, 2014 18:16
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I've tried brown sugar before when I ran out of white, but I forgot to do a split batch to find the difference. Came out alright in the end, I may have smelt something but it could have been the beer to begin with. Go for it. Also I gave Wyeast 3787 Trappist a go, and after hearing the horror stories, in kind of disappointed with the mess it made, Windsor at this stage has made a bigger one
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May 18, 2014 03:42
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oval office.exe posted:Can anyone recommend a probe thermometer for me to buy? Something I can stick in a pot or MLT and have it beep at a set temperature. http://www.amazon.com/Taylor-1470-Digital-Cooking-Thermometer/dp/B00004XSC5/ edit: If I was smart I'd seal the place where the cable enters the actual probe sleeve with some epoxy. But I'm not. Syrinxx fucked around with this message at 04:24 on May 18, 2014 |
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May 18, 2014 04:15
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Nanpa posted:Also I gave Wyeast 3787 Trappist a go, and after hearing the horror stories, in kind of disappointed with the mess it made, Windsor at this stage has made a bigger one Don't let it hear you say that.
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May 18, 2014 05:04
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Syrinxx posted:I basically treat probe thermos as disposable because it seems like the probe will eventually fail on pretty much all of them. That being said, this one has lasted me 6 months so far: I notice you can buy that one by the half-dozen.
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May 18, 2014 05:25
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Syrinxx posted:I basically treat probe thermos as disposable because it seems like the probe will eventually fail on pretty much all of them. That being said, this one has lasted me 6 months so far: Cheers. I might have to see if I can find a local source for such things. Shipping to Australia blows out the cost quickly.
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May 18, 2014 15:22
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oval office.exe posted:Cheers. I might have to see if I can find a local source for such things. Shipping to Australia blows out the cost quickly. If you are paying shipping anyway - ThermoWorks (who makes the much beloved thermapen) has a new ChefAlarm that looks pretty nice - they also sell a "sousvide" $15 addon water proof probe, has min/max alarms and all sorts of whizbangs: http://www.thermoworks.com/products/alarm/chefalarm.html
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May 18, 2014 23:14
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After so many brews the thing I dreaded which I thought I was able to hold off, seems to have happened. Would you say this is infected or just a yeast raft?   Sorry for bad photo quality, they aren't fuzzy, just this pale green colour. It's infected right?
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May 19, 2014 11:47
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Fluo posted:Snip The important question is how does it taste? The human tongue is amazing at detecting infections and other stuff that ruins food.
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May 19, 2014 11:57
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wildfire1 posted:The important question is how does it taste? The human tongue is amazing at detecting infections and other stuff that ruins food. I'll report back in 10minutes, (I ask because infected beer when bottle conditioning is just going to make gushers  ).
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May 19, 2014 12:02
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It tastes fine, however I am almost positive the green is a mold of somekind. I really don't know what to do, because I don't want to risk infecting my bottling bucket and such. Just dump it right?
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May 19, 2014 14:44
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Josh Wow posted:You got some good advice on this but I'm gonna throw in my two cents. Definitely stay away from S-23, 34/70 is the bomb if you can get it. Looks like you can't and I've never used WLP820 but WLP830 German Lager yeast is great. You need to make a bigass starter and oxygenate as best you can. 1.5-2L starter with a stirplate or even bigger if you don't have a stir plate. Make the starter enough in advance that you give yourself 24-48 hours to cold crash it in the fridge so you can decant all the liquid and just pitch the yeast slurry. For oxygenation 45-60 seconds with pure O2 if you have a setup, if not do the best you can pouring it between two buckets or whatever. For the WLP830 you'll wanna pitch at 48*F and ferment at 50-52* for the bulk of the fermentation, letting it ramp up near the end. Thanks for the input! Altered it to this: Brew Method: All Grain Style Name: Oktoberfest/Märzen Boil Time: 60 min Batch Size: 5 gallons (fermentor volume) Boil Size: 6.8 gallons Boil Gravity: 1.046 Efficiency: 60% (brew house) STATS: Original Gravity: 1.062 Final Gravity: 1.017 ABV (standard): 5.87% IBU (tinseth): 23.64 SRM (morey): 8.58 FERMENTABLES: 10 lb - German - Vienna (71.4%) 4 lb - German - Munich Light (28.6%) HOPS: 1 oz - Hallertau Hersbrucker, Type: Pellet, AA: 4, Use: Boil for 60 min, IBU: 15.8 1 oz - Hallertau Hersbrucker, Type: Pellet, AA: 4, Use: Boil for 15 min, IBU: 7.84 1 oz - Hallertau Hersbrucker, Type: Pellet, AA: 4, Use: Boil for 0 min MASH GUIDELINES: 1) Infusion, Temp: 152 F, Time: 60 min, Amount: 18 qt, Water Temp: 168 2) Infusion, Temp: 170 F, Amount: 12 qt, Water Temp: 200 3) Sparge, Temp: 170 F, Amount: 6 qt Starting Mash Thickness: 1.25 qt/lb OTHER INGREDIENTS: 1 each - whirlfloc, Time: 10 min, Type: Fining, Use: Boil YEAST: Fermentis / Safale - Saflager - German Lager Yeast W-34/70 Pitch at 48, primary at 50-52. Diacetyl rest @ 68 Rack to secondary, lower temp gradually until 33-35. Lager forever at 33-35. I'm also pondering the chilling process. Things are already pretty warm where I am; our tap water is about 75 degrees already. I have an immersion chiller with prechiller that works fairly well in colder weather, but it just can't get things much below 80 degrees this time of year. What I'm thinking is this: - flame out, chill to ~80 with immersion chiller - draw off a couple of quarts, set aside for use as starter - transfer wort to sanitized bucket, put in fridge at fermentation temp, seal - bring drawn off worts inside, chill to fermentation temp, pitch yeast - after 48 hours or so, pitch yeast starter Any thoughts on this plan?
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May 19, 2014 15:32
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bewbies posted:Second question: a 7L starter will take a whole pound of DME which is like $7 at my LBS, is there a cheaper alternative to this? Small mash of 2-row targeting 7L of 1.040 wort? I'm going to start doing this with my pressure canner to make giant batches of starter wort at a time. Martello posted:Anybody here ever use alternative sugars for bottle carbonation? I'm thinking honey or maple syrup. Would that work or would it just sit at the bottom in some kind of sweet sludge? I used some D-180 and D-45 candi syrup to prime a Saison de Noel. The NB priming sugar calculator I think has the conversion for it, but the PPG is also listed on the package. It turned out great, I think you can taste a bit of it there, but there was also D-180 and D-45 in the boil, so it's hard to tell exactly. Jacobey000 posted:If you are paying shipping anyway - ThermoWorks (who makes the much beloved thermapen) has a new ChefAlarm that looks pretty nice - they also sell a "sousvide" $15 addon water proof probe, has min/max alarms and all sorts of whizbangs: http://www.thermoworks.com/products/alarm/chefalarm.html I have this and the drat "pro" probe is crapping out on me. I think leaving it in the kettle after the boil (for chilling) gets some steam in it or something, but either way it's "stuck" around 100F now. The regular probe that came with it works fine as long as you don't get it wet.
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May 19, 2014 16:42
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Fluo posted:It tastes fine, however I am almost positive the green is a mold of somekind. Just siphon out the mold. Measure the gravity, then in a week or two measure again. If it remains the same, you shouldn't have to worry about gushers.
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May 19, 2014 17:29
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Martello posted:Anybody here ever use alternative sugars for bottle carbonation? I'm thinking honey or maple syrup. Would that work or would it just sit at the bottom in some kind of sweet sludge? I have used a honey syrup solution to prime bottles of ginger beer before, i think it is only about 75% fermentable so you don't have to worry about something going really bitter although you have to use a bit more. Also the lady I get my honey from advised me to pasteurize it before hand (70 °C for about 20 minutes) to get al the nasties out, not sure if you have to do this with shop bought honey.
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May 19, 2014 17:41
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Martello posted:Anybody here ever use alternative sugars for bottle carbonation? I'm thinking honey or maple syrup. Would that work or would it just sit at the bottom in some kind of sweet sludge? I use honey to prime my honey-wheat and braggots and things like that, so I don't know how much honey flavor you get from doing that, but it carbonates just fine as long as you calculate the adjustment properly. I mix it into a cup of hot water before putting it in the bottling bucket, because otherwise a lot of it just ends up stuck on the bottom of the bucket when you're all done. Store-bought honey should say whether it's pasteurized or not(I believe everything you'll find in a grocery store will be), but it's a good idea to do that yourself if you're using any wild/local/unpasteurized stuff. Don't boil it, because that will break down the flavors and defeat the purpose!
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May 19, 2014 18:44
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BLARGHLE posted:I use honey to prime my honey-wheat and braggots and things like that, so I don't know how much honey flavor you get from doing that, but it carbonates just fine as long as you calculate the adjustment properly. I mix it into a cup of hot water before putting it in the bottling bucket, because otherwise a lot of it just ends up stuck on the bottom of the bucket when you're all done. Yeah, I was going to say you need to be heating it up with some water anyway just so that it mixes properly. Very little of it would make it to the bottles otherwise.
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May 19, 2014 20:47
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Last night's meeting of my club included the stout competition. I took first with my M'aidez Stout (aka Stout Stoat Stout), served through a half-assed beer engine I hacked together.
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May 19, 2014 23:58
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Martello posted:Anybody here ever use alternative sugars for bottle carbonation? I'm thinking honey or maple syrup. Would that work or would it just sit at the bottom in some kind of sweet sludge? I recently found that bottle priming experiments are the easiest experiments. I had a hefe that turned out pretty meh so I batch primed to 2.5 volumes with dextrose then added to various bottles: 1. Extra dextrose to hit 3 volumes 2. Extra dextrose to hit 3.5 volumes (careful with the types of bottles) 3. Grapefruit juice 4. Cranberry juice I preferred the 3.5 volumes for such a crappy beer (too much clove and a little DMS), though you had to open and pour over a sink. One friend preferred the grapefruit, and another preferred the cranberry. What I take from that is that you CAN get a difference from playing with your priming. Have fun, especially if it's just a few bottles!
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May 20, 2014 01:56
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Has anyone played with Cry Havoc? I picked up a vial at my LHBS after trying a couple awesome homebrews made with it. Pitched it almost 3 full days ago and it's just now barely showing signs of life (in 1.050 wort). The other half of the 10 gallon batch I split with WLP001 is almost done at this point. Just wondering if the extreme lag is typical or not for this yeast. Whitelabs seems to confirm 40 hours isn't unusual but I'm at over 70.
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May 20, 2014 17:30
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Just brewed a small batch to bring to the Firestone beer festival: Black ale with Conan yeast and Warrior hops 
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May 20, 2014 18:51
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fullroundaction posted:Has anyone played with Cry Havoc? I picked up a vial at my LHBS after trying a couple awesome homebrews made with it. Pitched it almost 3 full days ago and it's just now barely showing signs of life (in 1.050 wort). The other half of the 10 gallon batch I split with WLP001 is almost done at this point. What temp are you doing the cry havoc at? (I've never used it but I've had mix reviews from friends, some found it lagged when using as ale yeast, others found it fine, same when using it as a lager yeast )
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May 20, 2014 21:47
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more falafel please posted:I have this and the drat "pro" probe is crapping out on me. I think leaving it in the kettle after the boil (for chilling) gets some steam in it or something, but either way it's "stuck" around 100F now. The regular probe that came with it works fine as long as you don't get it wet. My "pro" probe crapped out immediately after using it for the first time and Thermoworks was really good about replacing it quickly. I'd shoot them an email, cause that seems like a pretty straightforward use case.
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May 21, 2014 00:05
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My red ale is going to be drinkable tomorrow! Am I ok to toss a couple bottles in the fridge so they're cold for the last day of conditioning, or will that mess something up? vvv As of tomorrow they'll have been in bottles for exactly 2 weeks. Millions fucked around with this message at 02:37 on May 21, 2014 |
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May 21, 2014 02:34
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^^^^ Oh, then no problem. As with all homebrew though, it's gonna be at it's best just as you open the last bottle  Millions posted:My red ale is going to be drinkable tomorrow! Am I ok to toss a couple bottles in the fridge so they're cold for the last day of conditioning, or will that mess something up? How long have you bottle conditioned it? Should be no problems. From my experience it's probably going to be nicer if you keep it cold for a while, since that helps a bit with letter the yeast sink.
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May 21, 2014 02:36
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Fluo posted:What temp are you doing the cry havoc at? (I've never used it but I've had mix reviews from friends, some found it lagged when using as ale yeast, others found it fine, same when using it as a lager yeast 65ish in the swamp. It's chugging along just fine now (after 3.5 days), and I know better than not to worry ... I've just never seen a lag time that long with normal grav wort.
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May 21, 2014 14:00
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This looks pretty cool: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/433436998/brewjacket-immersion-lager-beer-without-a-refriger?ref=thanks Expensive, but if space is at a serious premium, it might help you out.
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May 21, 2014 14:57
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Glottis posted:My "pro" probe crapped out immediately after using it for the first time and Thermoworks was really good about replacing it quickly. I'd shoot them an email, cause that seems like a pretty straightforward use case. Yeah, it looks like they're sending me a new one. They also basically said "don't submerse the cord in a mash", I wonder if that applies to wort as well.
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May 21, 2014 17:22
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