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 post 3000!  So, I have a unique opportunity afforded to me by living in NE ohio: my neighbor makes his own maple syrup. We talked, and he wants to do a maple beer (and as payment let me have at it with maple syrup for my own creation). the thing is... I really don't know how to approach this. He's more the kind of guy that considers Yuengling an adventurous beer, so i know i need to keep his lighter, but I'll probably for myself do a CBS clone and something else TBD. He brought up the idea of using the semi-concetrated sap as the mash water (he can control sugar percentages pretty precisely). Basically, what i'm trying to say is I have an awesome opportunity and no idea how to take advantage/exploit it. And also sorry for the smilies
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Mar 2, 2012 06:49
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| # ? May 15, 2024 02:23 |
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I don't have much advice, but in Papaizan's Complete Joy Of Home brewing, he mentions that he's tasted a beer where they used maple sap instead of water so it is possible.
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Mar 2, 2012 13:26
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So I'm toying with making up a partial mash wheat ale to be my A) latest brew and B) entry into a local homebrew competition. I threw together this recipe after looking up a few others for a 5 gallon batch - any goons want to input and critique? I'd be entering it as American Wheat under these guidelines for judging: http://www.bjcp.org/2008styles/style06.php#1d I'm going more for citrusy and clean, just enough spice to be interesting but not to dominate. Thoughts? 3lb wheat DME 2 lb 12 oz Weyermann pale wheat malt 1 lb 4 oz Weyermann rye malt 1 lb Weyermann CaraWheat malt 1.0 oz Cascade hops (bittering - start of 60 min boil) .5 oz Ahtanum hops (aroma - 30 mins remaining) .25 oz Pacific Gem hops (flavoring - 5 mins remaining) White Labs California Ale yeast 3 weeks primary, another 2 weeks in secondary before bottling. Thoughts? I am quite new to making up my own recipes so be honest. MJP fucked around with this message at 16:43 on Mar 2, 2012 |
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Mar 2, 2012 16:12
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I'd drop the rye. The description is a little confusing, but generally either wheat or rye is used, not both. Not that both would necessarily be bad. Also you may want to change half of your wheat malt in your partial mash to 2 row or pilsner malt. Generally wheat is kept to a maximum of 50% of the grain bill. Your wheat DME is usually made from half wheat and half pilsner malt. Have you used a recipe calculator to come up with your hop additions? If not, something like hopville is free and online. They also have bunches of recipes to look at. Without knowing the ibu contributions it's kind of hard for me to gauge the final bitterness of the beer. Hope that helps.
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Mar 2, 2012 16:59
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It looks like you have aroma and flavoring additions swapped - also 30 minutes is still considered to be mainly a bittering addition, 10-15 minutes is right around the peak of the "flavor" curve.
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Mar 2, 2012 17:37
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I'm getting back into homebrewing. I picked up an extract Sierra Nevada pale ale-esque kit from Northern Brewer. The last time I brewed an extract batch of IPA it came out a lot darker than I wanted. I've got some tweaks in mind for this batch: 1. Do a 4 Gallon boil instead of their 2.5 gallon on the instructions. 2. I was thinking about adding half of the LME (3lbs) and all of the DME (1 lb) at the 60 minute mark and then adding the rest of the LME (3lbs) at the 15 minute mark. I know both of those things will alter the hop utilization of the boil but my question is how noticeable will it affect the final beer. Here's the kit for a reference: http://www.northernbrewer.com/documentation/beerkits/SierraMadre.pdf
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Mar 2, 2012 17:40
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Both of those will indeed result in a lighter colored beer and will drive the hop utilization up, probably by 10-20%. A program like beersmith, or maybe hopville's calculator could help you calculate what the IBUs would be for both brewing methods so that you can decide whether you want to cut back on the hops or simply go with the boosted IBUs. Both would probably be fine - SN's Pale Ale certainly wouldn't be ruined by being hoppier, though if you want it brewed as close as possible to style it wouldn't hurt to leave 10% of the hops out of the boil (or move them from bittering to flameout for some extra aroma).
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Mar 2, 2012 17:52
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The hop choices are pure me, took from the descriptions of initially Cascade/Amarillo/Cascade. So based on my original, here's my tweaked output via the Hopville calculator: 3lb wheat DME 1 lb 6 oz Weyermann pale wheat malt 1 lb 6 oz Breiss organic 2-row malt 1 lb 4 oz Breiss organic carapils malt 1 lb Weyermann CaraWheat malt 60 mins 1.0oz Cascade pellet 5.5% AA 30 mins 0.5 Ahtanum pellet 7.0% AA 5 mins 0.25 Pacific Gem pellet 13.0% AA Hopville even lets you target a style, that is awesome. This seems solid... is the carapils a good substitute for the rye? MJP fucked around with this message at 18:04 on Mar 2, 2012 |
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Mar 2, 2012 17:56
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MJP posted:The hop choices are pure me, took from the descriptions of initially Cascade/Amarillo/Cascade. I'm not familiar with CaraWheat, but presumably it has all the same properties as any caramel grain. In that case, you now have 2.25 pounds of caramel grains, which I would say is far too much.
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Mar 2, 2012 18:05
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Would replacing the Carawheat with regular pilsner be a good substitution?
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Mar 2, 2012 18:11
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Darth Goku Jr posted:Maple Syrup I've never used Maple syrup before, but I've been looking into it recently. From what I've been reading is that because it's sugar, the yeast will eat it and you may not end up with much flavor. To increase the chance that you taste it, adding it in a secondary or at the end of a boil will increase the chance of getting the aroma and flavor.
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Mar 2, 2012 18:17
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Cointelprofessional posted:I've never used Maple syrup before, but I've been looking into it recently. From what I've been reading is that because it's sugar, the yeast will eat it and you may not end up with much flavor. To increase the chance that you taste it, adding it in a secondary or at the end of a boil will increase the chance of getting the aroma and flavor. Adding it in secondary will preserve more maple flavor and aroma but it will still be extremely faint as the yeast will still consume a great majority of the maple syrup - adding a tsp or two of crushed fenugreek at the end of the boil (5 minutes) will add a healthy mapley kick that will last throughout fermentation.
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Mar 2, 2012 18:23
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MJP posted:Would replacing the Carawheat with regular pilsner be a good substitution? That certainly would be better, but you're not really going to gain much from doing it. I'd probably just add more 2-row to get to the OG you want.
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Mar 2, 2012 18:44
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RiggenBlaque posted:That certainly would be better, but you're not really going to gain much from doing it. I'd probably just add more 2-row to get to the OG you want. Cool beans, advice is always helpful. 2lbs 6 oz Breiss orgo 2-row, no pilsner. Looks like I've got a recipe - I'll name it Goonish Citra Shortage Ale in honor of the thread. If it wins anything in the competition I'll try very hard to slip in an acceptance speech about stairs in houses. Edit: what about adding in some sweet orange peel with 5 minutes remaining of the boil? Or would that go into the primary/secondary fermentor? MJP fucked around with this message at 20:03 on Mar 2, 2012 |
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Mar 2, 2012 18:47
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Super Rad posted:fenugreek I've heard that too, but I've read in one case that it gave a celery taste.
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Mar 2, 2012 19:24
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Cointelprofessional posted:I've heard that too, but I've read in one case that it gave a celery taste. Hmm, not in my experience at least. I used one tblsp in 5 gallons (added with 1 kilo of jaggery after primary fermentation) and it made for an extremely upfront smokey maple flavor. I wouldn't go past 1 tsp in 5 gallons unless you want a maple bomb - I used 1 tblspoon for a 10.5% barleywine and it was still more than enough and took a fair amount of cold conditioning to be at a drinkable level.
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Mar 2, 2012 20:02
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RiggenBlaque posted:I'm not familiar with CaraWheat, but presumably it has all the same properties as any caramel grain. In that case, you now have 2.25 pounds of caramel grains, which I would say is far too much. What's the purpose of doing a partial mash? I thought it was so that you could add specialty grains that need conversion to fermentable sugar. It seems like the recipe above has nothing but caramel malts and 2-row in the partial mash portion so can't he just steep those to get the sugar out of the grain and then just do a full extract? Or is it just because he wants keep the color really light?
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Mar 2, 2012 20:51
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Super Rad posted:Both of those will indeed result in a lighter colored beer and will drive the hop utilization up, probably by 10-20%. Plugging the recipe into hopville gave some interesting results. adding 1 gallon to the boil with all the DME/LME and normal hopping schedule gave ~45IBU total. Removing 3 lbs of LME from the total boil in addition to 4 gallon batch size projected over 60 IBU. I'm thinking for a pale ale, 60 IBU is really pushing into IPA territory without having the malt body to support the bitterness. I think I'll just boil more gallons to start off EDIT: I've seen people make a hop catcher to put over their kettles/brewpots. Couldn't you do a similar thing by stretching a 5 gallon paint strainer bag over the top of the brewpot or would that ruin some aspect of the boil? lazerwolf fucked around with this message at 01:57 on Mar 3, 2012 |
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Mar 2, 2012 21:55
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Angry Grimace posted:What's the purpose of doing a partial mash? I thought it was so that you could add specialty grains that need conversion to fermentable sugar. It seems like the recipe above has nothing but caramel malts and 2-row in the partial mash portion so can't he just steep those to get the sugar out of the grain and then just do a full extract? Or is it just because he wants keep the color really light? The purpose of partial mash is to... mash, but not a full mash that could be unwieldy for a lot of homebrewers. To me at least, it allows more of a full ownership of how a beer comes out. I don't think a partial mash needs any more explanation than that.
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Mar 3, 2012 05:08
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With a partial mash, you're able to extract more sugars, flavors, colors, etc. than with just steeping the grains for 20 minutes. For some grains, they need more time for you to extract the particulars and a partial mash will get you those aspects without going All-Grain.
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Mar 3, 2012 07:43
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I'm looking to move beyond the offerings of my local shop (it's a farm and garden warehouse with some Brewer's Best kits) and wondering if there was a goon-preferred online shop. I live in Virginia so East Coast would be better; a day or two for shipping compared to a week.
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Mar 3, 2012 17:18
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Splizwarf posted:I'm looking to move beyond the offerings of my local shop (it's a farm and garden warehouse with some Brewer's Best kits) and wondering if there was a goon-preferred online shop. I live in Virginia so East Coast would be better; a day or two for shipping compared to a week. I've used Northern Brewer and was very happy with it - they packed my liquid yeast in somewhat insulating wrap, which was pretty good at keeping it at the right temperature in transit. Plus it arrived in about three days (I'm in Jersey). It had stickers to deliver quickly, but if I was going to order a bunch of yeast and hops I'd probably spring for express shipping and try to be home at or around the tiem of delivery.
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Mar 3, 2012 17:30
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Splizwarf posted:I'm looking to move beyond the offerings of my local shop (it's a farm and garden warehouse with some Brewer's Best kits) and wondering if there was a goon-preferred online shop. I live in Virginia so East Coast would be better; a day or two for shipping compared to a week. Brewmasters Warehouse is in Georgia and seems to be run by nice people, based on reports here. There were some issues with slow processing of orders a while ago, but I don't know if those were a temporary thing or an ongoing capacity issue. I have not done business with them, but a few others here have. I can echo the recommendation of Northern Brewer, though. Although they are half a continent away from me, I have always gotten what I ordered in a timely manner (although I have not ordered perishables like yeast from them). I also use Beer, Beer & More Beer somewhat regularly, but mainly through their storefront in Riverside, CA - I just bought 200 pounds of malt from them last week. It's a long drive for me, but worth it for the annual stock-up. When I have ordered things via the Web from them (but again, not yeast, as I usually get that from a local shop), it has shown up in good time and good condition.
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Mar 3, 2012 17:55
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I've used most of the bigger online stores now, and had no real problem with any of them. MoreBeer sent me the wrong hops once, but they fixed it immediately.
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Mar 3, 2012 18:28
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I stirred my mash with a heat stick for 15 minutes and all I got was a few degree temperature rise and a broken tip. JB Weld nooooo. Subsequently I think the whole stick part of the heat stick is a bit redundant when you encase the connections in epoxy anyway.
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Mar 3, 2012 19:18
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The thing that keeps me going back to Brewmaster's Warehouse is that they let you order grains in ounces. Not just down to 6 ounce increments. Yes they are slow to process, but I just plan ahead and take that into account.
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Mar 3, 2012 19:37
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Jo3sh posted:Today is, "Oh, gently caress, family reunion BBQ in three weeks!" brewing day. Best bitter coming up. A followup on this - I brewed the beer on Tuesday and pitched the yeast on Tuesday afternoon. Today, 3.5 days later, I pulled a gravity sample and found it within shouting distance of its FG (OG was 1.044, today's reading was 1.013, which is about what I expected given I mashed high). Tasting is of course de rigeur, and I am happy to report that it's loving amazing. I'm going to give it another day or possibly two at ferment temp, check the gravity again, then cold crash for a day and keg it up.
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Mar 3, 2012 20:15
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beetlo posted:The thing that keeps me going back to Brewmaster's Warehouse is that they let you order grains in ounces. Not just down to 6 ounce increments. Yes they are slow to process, but I just plan ahead and take that into account. I was tolerating the slow processing for awhile, but what really drove me to stop ordering from them was when I ordered a better bottle and it took them 3 full days to inform me they were out of stock and still hadn't shipped the rest of the order.
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Mar 3, 2012 21:58
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I've found a lot of weird websites that sell like one thing (i.e. places that sell weld-fitted 10g kettles for like 140 dollars) only which seem to be a better deal than stuff I've bought from NB or MB, but you never know what you're going to get or what kind of service to expect.
Angry Grimace fucked around with this message at 00:13 on Mar 4, 2012 |
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Mar 4, 2012 00:09
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ugh I'm beginning to think Alts are my white whale. Some goofy poo poo always happens to it. Last time my keg connections god screwy, this time apparently my temp control probe fell out of the freezer, causing the whole drat thing to freeze. Thank god I just bought a Better Bottle and used it at least. I doubt anything will be salvageable
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Mar 4, 2012 22:37
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So I'm tasting some of my meads and trying to learn more about off-tastes. I found this MoreBeer page on off-flavors. This one batch has a definite plastic taste which looks like Chlorophenol according to the chart. This batch was from before I knew what I was doing and I think it's entirely possible that I topped it up with tap water to 1 gallon after the primary fermentation. Is there any chance this particular off-flavor will dissipate with time?
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Mar 5, 2012 05:43
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Recipe: http://hopville.com/recipe/1145147/belgian-specialty-ale-recipes/everythings-coming-up-farmhouse I wanted to dry hop my saison (my first real non-kit beer, but still mostly LME). In the last thread, I mentioned undershooting the boil-off amount and ending up with 5.8 gallons. I got a few ideas of what to throw into the side 'experimental' jug that would hold the extra .8 gallons which wouldn't fit in my 5-gallon bottle. In the 5-gal bottle I'm just dryhopping an ounce of whole Sorachi Ace hops, which was my plan all along. I was going to do some other fun stuff with the 1-gallon jug, but after tasting the sample I used for the gravity reading I'm not sure I want to throw anything else in there. I'm very happy with the sample, and with the Sorachi Ace bag floating on top of the beer in the 5-gallon bucket (I FORGOT THE loving MARBLES) it's probably for the best it's not immersed in the bottle as the bitterness will need to subside a little bit before I'm completely satisfied. The real highlight of my night was the gravity reading - I was down to bubbles every 17 seconds, but the room it's been in the last 15 days hasn't even been 68 degrees (probably closer to around 62-65 for most of the day) so I know it's still got a bit more to go. Therefore, when I saw it went from 1.071 to 1.010 (I triple-checked this and had the wife read it to verify that I was reading it at the meniscus) to currently sit at 7.99%, I was quite surprised. That put the attenuation of the White Labs 670 American Farmhouse Blend at 86% with probably a bit more to go. I read of some people hitting higher-than-expected numbers with this yeast, but this was a shock. Basically, brewing is awesome, and bonus points if you have a beer wench to help you tip buckets and poo poo like that.
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Mar 5, 2012 06:07
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I've done kit brews so far. While these are fun and can be toyed with in terms of hops etc., I think I'm being constrained by the size of my brewpot. Which is to say I don't have a proper one, I've just been boiling half a gallon of water and then topping up with cold to get the right temperature wort. So I've been looking into stock pots (I'm a long way off from massive mash tun stuff purely due to money and space constraints). Thing is, the ones that seem a decent price are invariably thin as hell, especially at the base. Considering that I'd be doing 60-90 minute boils I can't afford to have malt extract burn to the bottom due to the gas hob. Of course I'll be stirring but apparently people have had issues with cheaper ones. What's the sort of price range I should be looking at? Hell, what size should I go for? Is it a better idea to go bigger and just boil slightly less in it if needed? I mean, there's something like this that's big but Amazon reviews are nothing if not unreliable, you know? http://www.amazon.co.uk/Buckingham-Deep-Induction-Stock-Glass/dp/B0049MPIJI/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1330937555&sr=8-9 I guess I'm just looking for recommendations on what to spend on a brewpot.
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Mar 5, 2012 10:01
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Spergio Leone posted:I've done kit brews so far. While these are fun and can be toyed with in terms of hops etc., I think I'm being constrained by the size of my brewpot. Which is to say I don't have a proper one, I've just been boiling half a gallon of water and then topping up with cold to get the right temperature wort.
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Mar 5, 2012 10:20
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Angry Grimace posted:An aluminum pot will be both cheapest and reduce the likliehood of scorching the most, or if you're still buying into that Aluminum is bad thing, a tri-ply bottom. The idea is that aluminum distributes heat much better than steel does, which reduces scorching. Yeah I had a chat with a friend of mine who used to homebrew lots in his previous place and even worked in a brewery and he was categorically against aluminium. Is it about supposed off-flavours?
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Mar 5, 2012 10:36
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Spergio Leone posted:Yeah I had a chat with a friend of mine who used to homebrew lots in his previous place and even worked in a brewery and he was categorically against aluminium. Is it about supposed off-flavours? There are a few other reasons why people were against aluminum cookware for a long time, namely there was a study 20-30 years ago linking aluminum cookware to Alzheimer's disease. However, this study was debunked and link between aluminum and Alzheimer's disproven multiple times by studies within the medical community, but the rumor persists despite of this. The other big bugaboo was that some people believe it will leach aluminum into the boil, which is also probably not true, particularly if you build an oxide layer on the kettle by boiling some water in it for like 90 minutes. I wouldn't have a problem using aluminum, but the pots I've used are both stainless steel, so take that for what you will. Angry Grimace fucked around with this message at 10:50 on Mar 5, 2012 |
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Mar 5, 2012 10:43
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Just on a personal level I cook with stainless steel and cast iron so have an affinity to iron-based stuff. I understand aluminium would be hella lighter but yeah, the denting/scratching potential puts me off a bit. Maybe I will bite the bullet and spend a load in a catering supply shop. The cheapness of the beer brewed will ease it out, right? Right? 
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Mar 5, 2012 11:19
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Spergio Leone posted:Just on a personal level I cook with stainless steel and cast iron so have an affinity to iron-based stuff. I understand aluminium would be hella lighter but yeah, the denting/scratching potential puts me off a bit. Maybe I will bite the bullet and spend a load in a catering supply shop. The cheapness of the beer brewed will ease it out, right? Right? Just make sure you get a big pot. I bought a 5 gal and regret not getting at LEAST one more gallon larger.
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Mar 5, 2012 14:06
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If you're already going to splurge on something you're intending to use just for brewing, why not buy something intended for it from a brewshop? Homebrewing does not seem like a market rife with inflated prices as far as I can tell.Angry Grimace posted:Professional brewers/cooks/etc. don't use aluminum because it can't be cleaned with the same type of caustic chemicals that you use for stainless steel and because it dents/scratches much easier than steel. This is the biggest thing for me (and I do come from a pro cook background so v  v): I don't care about the chemicals angle (aluminum stands up fine to dishsoap) but steel wool is an important tool, especially for efficiency, and, being stronger than aluminum, it eats aluminum pots. It's a catch-22, aluminum helps prevent scorching, but if you do scorch aluminum it's so much worse to clean out. And yeah, off-flavors abound, at least in the ones I've used. Aluminum always seems like a goofy also-ran to me, where someone said "Hey, I wonder what else we could make pots out of?"Plus I'm not sure how much this comes up in brewing but I'd be uncomfortable running anything with a low pH in aluminum, because tomato juice eats it.
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Mar 5, 2012 15:02
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| # ? May 15, 2024 02:23 |
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Splizwarf posted:If you're already going to splurge on something you're intending to use just for brewing, why not buy something intended for it from a brewshop? Homebrewing does not seem like a market rife with inflated prices as far as I can tell. FWIW my local homebrew shop said that people tend to use catering-size pots until they start thinking about proper boilers. I guess it's a relatively marginal thing in the London area. Either you're kind of into it or hyperbrewer. I'll be going stainless steel, I've decided. Will pop my head into a catering supply shop I noticed on Saturday. And thanks for the tip of going bigger than 5 gals, Jacobey000. That's a good point. If I'm doing (eventually) a 5 gal boil then clearly I'd want some froth space on that thing.
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Mar 5, 2012 15:12
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