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You might be right. I remember a bohemian lager pack being a bit if a pain. but i did notice that i hate the new White labs flex packs. Every time you open or pour it , it gets everywhere.
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Mar 8, 2018 02:35
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Imagine that beers, in the past (for some reason I always imagine colonial US) were fermented in cellars, which were in the mid 60s, likely, maybe cooler most of the year. Lacto is really active in the 80s+, and even though it does SOMETHING at cooler temps, it's fairly inactive - especially if it wasn't aged. Pair that with the fairly well-known fact that higher temps tend to throw off more esters (think Belgian-style beers) and I think it's reasonable that a lot of beers in that era, while 'soured' from a modern perspective, were clean. If I were to guess, I'd put them mostly on the 'Saison' spectrum wrt flavor profile.
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Mar 8, 2018 02:51
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Bottled a gallon of JAOM (or what remains of a gallon after several rackings, removing the oranges, etc). The excess went into an old maple syrup bottle for immediate consumption. It's quite sweet, and you can taste the clove along with some of the floral components of the honey. In fact the sweetness makes the maple syrup bottle pretty apt; it's better with an ice cube in it to water things down a bit. I'm looking back at my notes and I apparently used 5 loving pounds of honey in this, I think I got a big bottle pretty cheap somewhere and just used the whole thing trying to get a dessert wine. Between the extra honey, the use of D-47 yeast instead of bread yeast, and removing the orange peel before adding it, I guess you can hardly call it JAOM anymore, it's just a sweet orange melomel. Edit: it's sort of like a honey port. Pham Nuwen fucked around with this message at 02:08 on Mar 11, 2018 |
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Mar 11, 2018 02:06
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I did kind of a halfarsed cleanup of my bottling bucket last time, so opted to do a PBW soak (first time using it) + rinse + starsan before bottling my SMaSH this morning. Only maybe the rinse wasn't good enough, something tasted seriously wrong from the bit I sampled out of the fermenter once I'd done bottling. Such is life. Pham Nuwen posted:Bottled a gallon of JAOM (or what remains of a gallon after several rackings, removing the oranges, etc). The excess went into an old maple syrup bottle for immediate consumption. I just bottled my 22L batch as well (9kg of honey  ). I bought it in bulk at an Asian market/restaurant supply store in 3kg buckets, still worked out to AU$90 of honey. I am definitely very envious of the guy at my brew club that has an apiarist relative with too much honey on his hands.Totally drinkable now, but from experience it gets even nicer with age.
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Mar 11, 2018 06:34
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Ethics_Gradient posted:I did kind of a halfarsed cleanup of my bottling bucket last time, so opted to do a PBW soak (first time using it) + rinse + starsan before bottling my SMaSH this morning. Only maybe the rinse wasn't good enough, something tasted seriously wrong from the bit I sampled out of the fermenter once I'd done bottling. Such is life. I assume you mean the sample from the bottling bucket, unless you mean you hit the fermenter with PBW as well. What kind of off flavor was it? I've had bottles that tasted slightly sour to me, and I always guessed I didn't drain all the star san out of the bottle properly. Anyhow, I think all the samples I take before packaging taste weird and it always makes me paranoid.
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Mar 12, 2018 00:42
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This Belle Saison yeast kicked off a bunch of sulfur during bottle conditioning. I sure hope it clears up.
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Mar 12, 2018 18:19
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Biomute posted:This Belle Saison yeast kicked off a bunch of sulfur during bottle conditioning. I sure hope it clears up. I could be wrong, but doesn't hydrogen sulfide need a way to off-gas to dissipate completely? It seems to me that's why you bulk cold-age lagers in the first place (or lager lagers which just sounds wrong), in addition to precipitating as much yeast and trub as possible.
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Mar 12, 2018 22:02
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Jhet posted:I could be wrong, but doesn't hydrogen sulfide need a way to off-gas to dissipate completely? It seems to me that's why you bulk cold-age lagers in the first place (or lager lagers which just sounds wrong), in addition to precipitating as much yeast and trub as possible. I've read words to that effect, yet others seem to think it's just a matter of a few weeks in the bottle. Time will tell.
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Mar 13, 2018 12:23
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Anyone buy hops plants from Great Lakes hops? https://www.greatlakeshops.com/retail---shop-now.html I just ordered a planting of Cascade, Cluster and Serebrianka. Their site seems to be telling me that these are established plants and not a small rhizome. I'm curious to see the difference. I ordered from AIH last year and got two plants each of centennial, tettenang and fuggles. The centennial was the strongest grower by far and some animal dug up one of tettenang. I'm also trying to figure out the best way to do the trellis. What do you guys do? I am thinking of sinking two 20' 4x4's into concrete and running a wire. Last year I made a trellis with large sticks leaning into each other but it wasn't tall enough and wasn't very stable.
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Mar 14, 2018 13:30
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Der Penguingott posted:Anyone buy hops plants from Great Lakes hops? It really depends on how much space you have for it. I let them run up the side of my south facing back porch where they get a ton of sun. If space really wasn't an issue, I'd run them up and over an arbor or trellis or something. Go up 8' then across, but my patio wouldn't be able to manage that. If you do the trellis route again, don't lean them into each other and give them a half-lap so that the wood is pulling against itself and won't go anywhere. The thing with hops being vines and all is that they'll pretty much keep growing until they can't anymore. Mine drooped down and then I just trained them to go right back up the coir twine. I've seen them zig-zagged on the side of a garage too, so it's really about what you want it to look like. The plant will just train along it. I am curious especially how your fuggles will do. That's what I have and it will be year 2 for mine as they came as rhizomes, not the plants that Great Lakes Hops has (I have heard good things about them). And considering same climate, I'm interested to see if we end up with similar yields or not. Your's will come with a fair amount of root stock already looking for more dirt and water. It basically skips forward a year in the cycle, so you should get an okay yield in year 1 and be near capacity in year 2 (instead of waiting for year 3).
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Mar 14, 2018 14:54
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Just checked the gravity on my Amber ale. Looks like it's gonna sit pretty at 1.014. Most of my beers mashed at 150-152 end up at 1.010 / 1.011, however due to a bigger strike water addition, the temp didn't drop as much this batch and I ended up mashing at close to 160! I'm surprised to only see a change in final gravity of 3 points, and that may also just be to me using more than my usual amount of crystal and specialty malts. 0.75 lb Caramel/Crystal 15L (US) 0.5 lb Victory (US) Any Mash 34 28 °L 0.33 lb CaraFoam (DE) Any Boil 37 1 °L 0.25 lb Caramel/Crystal 120L (US). (1.8 pounds instead of my usual of .5-.75 lbs) Does mashing temp matter as much as we say it does?? Now i'm starting to wonder.
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Mar 14, 2018 15:24
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Marshmallow Blue posted:Just checked the gravity on my Amber ale. Looks like it's gonna sit pretty at 1.014. Most of my beers mashed at 150-152 end up at 1.010 / 1.011, however due to a bigger strike water addition, the temp didn't drop as much this batch and I ended up mashing at close to 160! Yes, but it's not going to change your attenuation by more than a point or two. It will leave more long chains in your wort providing a different texture in the mouth. If you don't buy it, test it yourself and make two beers with the same grist. Mash one at 144 and one at 158. Your final attenuation will be dependent on your choice of yeast too, so keep that in mind when making comparisons.
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Mar 14, 2018 15:37
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I ended up bottling my bochet I made back in February. My starting gravity was 1.128, I finished at 1.015. I caramelized 3.5 lbs of honey for 15 minutes and added it to 1 gal of water. I should have pulled it slightly sooner, it's a bit warm but I'm going to let it age for awhile to see how it goes. Somewhat clockwise, raw, 5, 10 and 15 minutes of boiling:  Finished:  I think next time I may go a bit further than 15 minutes. I tasted at each time and stopped at a point I liked. I will say boiling honey is like freakin' lava.
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Mar 15, 2018 00:46
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Keezer drip tray question incoming. I have a 7 cubic foot keezer with a 10 inch collar around the top. Five taps. Is a 16 inch drip tray too long/short/just right for my keezer? A point of reference from other goons outh there would be nice.
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Mar 15, 2018 01:36
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LaserWash posted:Keezer drip tray question incoming. is it long enough to cover all your taps? e: I guess I should ask whether you mean 16 inches horizontally, or is it one of those ones with a backsplash, and so you mean 16 inches vertically
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Mar 15, 2018 02:09
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calandryll posted:I ended up bottling my bochet I made back in February. My starting gravity was 1.128, I finished at 1.015. I caramelized 3.5 lbs of honey for 15 minutes and added it to 1 gal of water. I should have pulled it slightly sooner, it's a bit warm but I'm going to let it age for awhile to see how it goes. This is really neat, I've never heard of it before and will have to try a gallon!
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Mar 15, 2018 02:33
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It was a bit expensive for a gallon, I want to say I paid 12 bucks for the honey. I would recommend when you boil take various samples like I did and stop when it tastes good to you. Also, use a long rear end handle spoon because the honey does jump a lot out of the pot. I have a nice little burn on my finger from it. I also did adjust my water as well as did a staggered yeast nutrient addition.
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Mar 15, 2018 12:31
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JawKnee posted:is it long enough to cover all your taps? 16x6. Would have a backsplash and be mounted to the collar. This specifically: https://tinyurl.com/y9ouevsf
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Mar 15, 2018 12:49
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Haha I just ordered a 2.5gallon keg for my test batches so I don't have to use up a normal keg. Related, I brewed a test batch of a stout on my new Brewers Edge this past week. I'll probably do a whole write up on my experiences after a full batch or two. But, the jump from ice bath chilling to immersion chiller WAS SO NICE.
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Mar 16, 2018 18:47
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Just wait if you get something like a plate chiller or counter-flow chiller. It's even nicer. I heard from my guy about the barrel we're going to get, apparently it's housing corn whiskey and not bourbon. He's bringing the liquor to our next meeting to get an idea of what it tastes like. I'm wondering what to toss in there. I'll probably still do something like a RIS or porter.
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Mar 16, 2018 21:50
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What’s the difference between corn whiskey and bourbon? Is bourbon a style of corn whiskey or? I always thought the two were synonymous
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Mar 16, 2018 22:28
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hot cocoa on the couch posted:What’s the difference between corn whiskey and bourbon? Is bourbon a style of corn whiskey or? I always thought the two were synonymous Bourbon needs >=51% corn and then whatever else for the other 49% of the grist, so you're not wrong. It could be a corn whiskey if it's not in a brand new charred oak barrel as that's the other really big requirement. The rest is ABV reqs and brewed in the US, because "reasons". RIS or big porters are both solid choices. I've also done a strong scotch ale and a quadrupel in first beer after the spirits barrel to good result. Pretty much anything that's strong enough to stand up to the whiskey and oak will do you well. (Also barleywines.)
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Mar 16, 2018 23:26
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hot cocoa on the couch posted:What’s the difference between corn whiskey and bourbon? Is bourbon a style of corn whiskey or? I always thought the two were synonymous Bourbon is also aged in charred barrels that are single use only. That's part of why there are so many bourbon barrel aged beers out there because the distilleries will sell them off or give them away after each batch.
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Mar 17, 2018 01:23
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rockcity posted:Bourbon is also aged in charred barrels that are single use only. That's part of why there are so many bourbon barrel aged beers out there because the distilleries will sell them off or give them away after each batch. They also ship the barrels over to Scotland and Ireland for the whisk(e)y distilleries over there. 
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Mar 17, 2018 02:16
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Left town for a week with the mead still cloudy and bubbling once every few seconds. Came home yesterday to crystal clear, orange-golden goodness at a bubble per minute. Final racking and degassing soon, so excited to try this out tonight.
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Mar 19, 2018 20:30
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LaserWash posted:16x6. Would have a backsplash and be mounted to the collar.
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Mar 20, 2018 16:47
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CapnBry posted:I have 3x taps on a 12" drain tray and I'd think 5x taps on 16" would be an impossibly tight fit. My taps are on 4" centers which feels like a pretty good spacing, although it was specifically selected for matching the 12" tray. With my same layout it would be 4x taps on 16" or 5x taps on 20". If you went on 3" centers, that's 15" wide and you can have 2" sticking past the taps on both ends which is important because drips like to go sideways somehow. You could definitely do 3" centers but I think it would feel pretty cramped. 3.5" centers would be OK, but then wouldn't fit the 16" tray for sure. I'd suggest trying to find the same thing in 20". Went ahead and bought it last weekend. My thinking goes that I need a little bit of room on each end (how much should it be?) and then just divide what's left among the five taps. I measured last night and the tray ends up being 15.5 inches, end to end. I'm currently toying with 1.5 inches on each end and then this leaves about 3 inches between taps. I've seen where some people have bought a 2x4, and cut holes of varying lengths of "center" to test out what they feel works best. Might try this strategy. Also, how far below the taps should I have the tray? I have a large growler that I might use as my guide for "just enough."
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Mar 20, 2018 17:50
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Well it looks like my first shot at a lager went to poo poo. My OG came in way way higher than expected and likely ended up with an underpitch situation. It's super clean looking, but it smells like straight up butterscotch candies and is likely a diacetyl nightmare, despite following some pretty stringent lagering 'rules'. It's carbing now, we'll see if it's drinkable. edit: gonna pull this back out of the keg and re-secondary it on some more yeast. I don't think this is good as-is. robotsinmyhead fucked around with this message at 00:57 on Mar 21, 2018 |
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Mar 21, 2018 00:23
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Or just let the keg warm up to room temp for a few days. If there's any residual yeast, it will eat up the diacetyl; then you can cold crash it again and lager it.
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Mar 21, 2018 03:46
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robotsinmyhead posted:Well it looks like my first shot at a lager went to poo poo. My OG came in way way higher than expected and likely ended up with an underpitch situation. It's super clean looking, but it smells like straight up butterscotch candies and is likely a diacetyl nightmare, despite following some pretty stringent lagering 'rules'. It's carbing now, we'll see if it's drinkable. A lot of weird lager flavors drop out after a week or so at very cold temperatures. I would wait to do anything drastic, especially repackaging ( = potential oxidation). My last lager tasted funky as hell but once everything dropped out it was magic. Keep your keezer at 32F and it'll happen faster.
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Mar 21, 2018 03:47
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Conflicting information! So the "fix" for diacetyl is to let residual yeast convert that chemical into another chemical, which is does during a diacetyl rest (warmer fermentation temps after primary fermentation has calmed down). If my yeast health was poor and the beer underattenuated (I didn't get a good OG, so I didn't do an FG reading - I might grab one and see tonight), that yeast didn't have enough time for that conversion and I don't think leaving it cold is going to help. This beer did a proper lager rest for almost a month at 40ish.
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Mar 21, 2018 12:46
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I'd go with Jo3sh on this one. Warm it up for a week or so in the keg, then cool it again.
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Mar 21, 2018 14:42
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Yeah, diacetyl isn't one of the "funky" things that drops or ages out, in fact from everything I've read, it gets MORE pronounced unless you do something about it because there is no breakdown for that chemical without an outside influence, and since it's detectable in such tiny amounts, it's really obvious. My friend has a fermenting lid for corny kegs. I'm just gonna slap that baby on there and let it sit at 70 for a couple days/week. If that doesn't fix it, I'll repitch.
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Mar 21, 2018 14:49
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robotsinmyhead posted:Conflicting information! Diacetyl rest is done at about 70F like Jo3sh mentioned, so if you didn't do one, you still can try to warm it up to that temp and let it sit for what would normally be 3-4 days. I'd probably leave it closer to a week if you've been lagering it already to get the yeast a chance. Adding fresh yeast isn't really going to help much, as there may not be many sugars for it to munch on. If it's already in a keg, there's no harm in just pulling it and leaving it at room temp without doing anything else to it. Just leave it to lager again in your keezer once it's done to drop it clear again. Shouldn't need a month again to lager, but you never know until it tastes and looks right. If it were some other flavors, you'd probably be fine dropping the temp and leaving it longer, but diacetyl isn't going to drop out like that. I have a traditional bock that's currently sitting on gas, mostly because it sort of defeats the purpose to lager it in a keg and then force carb it. I'm getting impatient though, but as long as it's ready for NHL playoff season I'll be happy.
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Mar 21, 2018 14:49
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For background, this was done as club project, so we had 4-6 different beers - all lagers - brewed on the same day, fermented in the same conditions, lagered for the same time, etc. I was leaning a bit towards there being a yeast deficiency as that can be a factor in diacetyl contamination (low yeast activity/population/health not doing the work of cleaning it up). All the beers were kept in the same spot, and the guy doing it is pretty fastidious with this sort of thing, so my immediate suspicion was a yeast issue. A second diacetyl rest and some 'relagering' time should do the trick, and if not, I'll pitch some more yeast and give that a shot. At this point, I'm not that excited by this project anymore and the "benefits" of a lager are massively outmatched by the extra work it takes to make one.
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Mar 21, 2018 15:18
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robotsinmyhead posted:For background, this was done as club project, so we had 4-6 different beers - all lagers - brewed on the same day, fermented in the same conditions, lagered for the same time, etc. I was leaning a bit towards there being a yeast deficiency as that can be a factor in diacetyl contamination (low yeast activity/population/health not doing the work of cleaning it up). All the beers were kept in the same spot, and the guy doing it is pretty fastidious with this sort of thing, so my immediate suspicion was a yeast issue. Yeah, I only make them during the winter and that's because I don't need temp control in one part of my basement to ferment them in the high 40s-low 50s. This year was only low 50s, but I thankfully didn't get a mass of esters. They can be awesome beers, but needing constant low temps makes it not so friendly for a lot of people. Unless you have a chest freezer that's devoted to lager fermentation, the turn around time is long enough to make it annoying when you can brew a malty ale and turn it around in 2 weeks.
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Mar 21, 2018 15:39
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Frankly I'm not really into 'Traditional Styles' like many European beers that are largely lager-based, so this is definitely a one-off for me. Lots of guys in my club are really into Dopplebocks and stuff like that. I like pale ales and sours, so that's what I make. It's nice to get outside my comfort zone with new styles, but I'd rather work on other aspects of my brewing since I don't get to brew as often as I'd like to. The time an effort expended to make a lager correctly could be better spent elsewhere for me, and I don't have the space to dedicate to another cold storage/lagering chamber. While I was transferring that beer to the keg last night, a friend came over and we shot the poo poo for a while. I realized that the only beers I make that are outstanding are my kettle sours. I've taken them to events and served them at parties and stuff and they're absolute gangbusters and I'm gonna just keep refining those recipes and methods.
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Mar 21, 2018 15:49
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So I won a Drafto at the brewing club SMaSh competition, didn't come with a manual. How do I uh, turn it on? Came with the CO2 cartidge installed, there's a knob on the top that has "UP" and "DOWN" directions indicated on it. Think I may try pouring a few bottles of JOAM into it and seeing how it is carbed. The guy who won first beat me by a country mile, but I have actually been eyeing one of these things for ages but could never justify the expense to myself, so pretty pleased to come in second. The beer in question was the trainwreck of a brew day I wrote about a few weeks ago where the grain sat milled for like 2-3 months before I actually brewed with it 
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Mar 23, 2018 23:25
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It it came with the CO2 cart installed, I'd guess that either it's not screwed in all the way, so the seal is unpunctured; or that all the gas has bled off. This looks like the same thing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFS3QILs6oo Jo3sh fucked around with this message at 23:33 on Mar 23, 2018 |
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Mar 23, 2018 23:29
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| # ? Apr 26, 2024 02:14 |
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Brewed for the first time since like January today. The one nice thing about it being cold out is chilling time. I put the coil in to knock my wort down to 160F for a whirlpool and it was like 90 seconds from 195.
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Mar 24, 2018 01:20
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