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You will see some change in color and in malt flavor. This is not necessarily a bad thing - in fact, Scotch Ales almost depend on it. I can't really quantify it, but in the barleywine I did, it seemed to deepen the malt character and develop a lot of flavor that I don't see in my other beers. You should not get any real caramelization (insert discussion here about caramelization vs. development of melanoidins) simply because there is too much water involved, even at 1.100, for the temperature to rise high enough for that. Similarly, burnt flavors are right out. The boil I did for the barleywine I mentioned was quite long - I think it was about 3.5 or 4 hours - but there was no problem with the beer except that there was so little of it. Color will deepen and get richer along with the flavor. You won't really notice this with a RIS (black is black), but the color I got with Old Fogfoot was this deep chestnut-red color. Maybe I am weird, but I could spend some pretty serious time just looking at a really beautiful glass of beer when it is in the deep red range, and this one definitely occupied my attention. My grist was 100% Maris Otter with a tiny addition of dark roast malt just because I was worried about the color, but it was in no way the straw-gold color you would expect from a 100% base-malt beer done on a short boil.
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Mar 7, 2012 07:37
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After doing a little searching around, it seems there are some people who do in fact just put the grain bag in regular unconverted coolers with the strike water, mash for an hour, then pull the bag and just dump the remaining wort into the boil kettle. The only difference is that it seems like the typical method is to then put the bag back with more water to basically batch sparge it. That seems like it would be the easiest way to get that much grain into a recipe with a bag, although it's dangerously close to just being a regular sparging method, I suppose. You'd also have to have a cooler around (although most people do, I assume).
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Mar 7, 2012 07:48
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Angry Grimace posted:Seems like it would be easier to just put the bag (full grain load and all) plus water volume into a regular old non-converted cooler, pull the bag when done mashing and then siphon the remaining liquid into your boil kettle. Since you'd still be using the bag, you wouldn't have any grains left in the cooler, just wort. My concerns there would be fitting a full grain load for a very big beer (again, think speedway/abyss) into a cooler with even half the final water volume. I'm sure this is something I'll have a better idea about after my first AG batch, but I'd really hate to get on with a brew day then realize I'm resigned to either a smaller batch or very very poor efficiency. I'm sure I'll end up tinkering, figuring out a good plan I can consistently rely on, then dispatching wisdom on this very topic, but I'll be full of questions until I have a chance to give it a whirl. Edit: I have a perfectly useful 5 gallon rubbermaid cooler ready to be used in some form or fashion...I'm definitely considering it if brewing a large beer requires some sort of secondary vessel. wattershed fucked around with this message at 07:59 on Mar 7, 2012 |
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Mar 7, 2012 07:55
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wattershed posted:My concerns there would be fitting a full grain load for a very big beer (again, think speedway/abyss) into a cooler with even half the final water volume. I'm sure this is something I'll have a better idea about after my first AG batch, but I'd really hate to get on with a brew day then realize I'm resigned to either a smaller batch or very very poor efficiency. I was thinking more like one of those regular old Coleman coolers everyone's got lying around though, since you can't really fit that much grain in a 5 gallon container (which is why everyone has 10 gallon ones). Angry Grimace fucked around with this message at 08:14 on Mar 7, 2012 |
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Mar 7, 2012 08:00
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Heads up, $30+free shipping 6 gal glass carboys on Amazon right now.
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Mar 7, 2012 19:44
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How good a deal is that?
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Mar 7, 2012 20:09
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Splizwarf posted:How good a deal is that? My LHBS charges a little more than $30 plus tax for one of those, though it's usually the shipping that kills you buying it online.
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Mar 7, 2012 20:12
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crazyfish posted:My LHBS charges a little more than $30 plus tax for one of those, though it's usually the shipping that kills you buying it online. Your LHBS is a lot nicer than the ones around here. They're like $47 around here.
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Mar 7, 2012 20:19
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I gave the second beer I brewed, a Coopers stout, a bit of a taste last night after the Tripel bottling ordeal. drat it, I really shouldn't trust these kit instructions. I brewed it with 1kg of brewing sugar and while taste wise it had a bit of the roast 'n hoppy character I expected, it was thin as hell. Not that I was expecting fridge temp porridge, but I guess I now know exactly what homebrew enthusiasts mean when they say "mouthfeel". It was a bit like... lager in consistency I guess. Thin. I'm sure you know what I mean. I realize having had it condition (in relatively cool temperatures) for only two weeks is very very little but I had to give it a shot. I'll be patient and give it a couple more weeks, but I guess the body of the beer won't change much? DME next time it is. If I do more kits.
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Mar 7, 2012 20:33
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Spergio Leone posted:I gave the second beer I brewed, a Coopers stout, a bit of a taste last night after the Tripel bottling ordeal. "Brewing sugar" means dextrose right? Those tinned kits seem pretty horrible. Hopped extract, old dry yeast, bad instructions, and to top it all off they get you to add pure sugar to up the alcohol rather than malt? My LHBS sells little containers of LME to throw in with those kits.
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Mar 7, 2012 20:38
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mewse posted:"Brewing sugar" means dextrose right? Yeah, dextrose. The instructions are actually decent, but call for household sugar! I wanted to get my head around the equipment etc with no-fail (though possibly not great) kits first, as does everyone. I asked about stock pots because I have this ready to go in the fermenter (along with the missus' mead-making project).
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Mar 7, 2012 20:49
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Speaking of kits, my first beer (a Brewer's Best Hefeweizen) came out nice after two weeks bottled, although a little brown for a hefe; however, it's been about a month since then and yesterday's bottle was noticeably more sour. What's going on? I realize that I can expect flavors to change as it ages; I'm not complaining but rather asking that at face value: what's changing, how, why, etc. I also realize that it may have been a fluke bottle: beginning or end of the batch, infected, etc. More "trials" tonight.  Seemed like it affected me more than usual as well (but then I was also exhausted so it's a tossup whether that's all in my head), could it have had more bottling primer than the other bottles and produced a significant extra alcohol kick? Would that manifest as a sourness? It certainly wasn't the same effect taste-wise as I'd get from adding a shot of vodka or grain to the bottle.
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Mar 7, 2012 21:09
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Splizwarf posted:Speaking of kits, my first beer (a Brewer's Best Hefeweizen) came out nice after two weeks bottled, although a little brown for a hefe; however, it's been about a month since then and yesterday's bottle was noticeably more sour. What's going on? Wheat lends tartness and so does good hefe yeast, which might explain the sourness you are now noticing. As other flavors start to lose their edge during conditioning, the tartness that was always there can become more noticeable. It's also possible that you have a lacto infection. If that's the case I would drink them up quick. Lacto will dry the beer out further than just yeast and could potentially cause bottle bombs. It's not going to harm you, certain styles even require infection with lacto to get its unique sourness so you can just pretend like you were shooting for some of those advanced homebrewing techniques 
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Mar 7, 2012 21:19
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Super Rad posted:certain styles even require infection with lacto to get its unique sourness so you can just pretend like you were shooting for some of those advanced homebrewing techniques What I'm hearing here is I did a great job.  Can you go into more detail on lacto infection?
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Mar 7, 2012 21:35
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Anyone use Brew Balls? They are balls that float in your fermenter and when the wort hits a certain gravity they sink. Seems much easier than using a wine thief and hydrometer to see when fermentation is complete. http://www.austinhomebrew.com/product_info.php?products_id=12581/
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Mar 7, 2012 21:35
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internet celebrity posted:Anyone use Brew Balls? They are balls that float in your fermenter and when the wort hits a certain gravity they sink. Seems much easier than using a wine thief and hydrometer to see when fermentation is complete. http://www.austinhomebrew.com/product_info.php?products_id=12581/ The comments on them seem to indicate that they are not very accurate, and are a rough gauge of progress at best. Never used them myself, though. This is the first I have heard of them.
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Mar 7, 2012 21:51
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internet celebrity posted:Anyone use Brew Balls? They are balls that float in your fermenter and when the wort hits a certain gravity they sink. Seems much easier than using a wine thief and hydrometer to see when fermentation is complete. http://www.austinhomebrew.com/product_info.php?products_id=12581/ They don't have the most glowing reviews. Another note, who can tell me where I can buy a hydrometer that looks like the one here:  ?I've seen links for "finishing hydrometers" but none of them are very clearly defined or magnified like that one. I posted on the blog of the guy who took that photo asking him where he got his at, but there's been no reply.
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Mar 7, 2012 22:02
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Splizwarf posted:What I'm hearing here is I did a great job. There's not a whole lot more to say. Other than taste your two indicators are going to be smell and sight. If the beer smells vinegary than that also definitely points to an infection, either lacto or aceto bacteria. Aceto bacteria tend to form thick ropy strands in the beer though I don't think this is true of lacto. If you have aceto bacteria then double congrats as you are making kombucha - I used to brew kombucha before brewing beer, it's rad. I actually don't know what an in-bottle lacto infection looks like, all the pics from GIS are of lacto infections in the fermenter: https://www.google.com/search?hl=en...7HqbkiALKgM3bCw
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Mar 7, 2012 22:06
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wattershed posted:They don't have the most glowing reviews. If you mean a hydrometer with a different scale range, lab stores usually have a pretty enormous range of hydrometers. http://www.coleparmer.com/Search/Hydrometers%20for%20Specific%20Gravity I use this one for my usual stuff and I've been pretty drat happy with it. They're pricier than the cheap homebrew shop ones, so you need to be more careful  http://www.coleparmer.com/Product/H_B_Instruments_Hydrometer_1_000_to_1_070_Specific_Gravity_0_0005_Divisions_Plain_Form/EW-08298-65 I kind of want to buy something like 1.000 - 1.030 range. Hypnolobster fucked around with this message at 00:25 on Mar 8, 2012 |
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Mar 8, 2012 00:23
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Does anyone use a refractometer instead of a hydrometer? How do they work out? I'd rather not use 2 bottles worth of beer just to check in on gravity (fun though it is to drink afterwards).
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Mar 8, 2012 00:32
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Refractometers are a super cool thing to have, but they're inaccurate by nature with anything that has alcohol content. If you have an accurate pre-fermentation reading, it can be corrected but it's not perfect. Depending on the range, it could be a point or three off either way. Still, it's very worthwhile to only need to grab a few drops of beer vs 4 trips with a wine theif and generally know where you are. I use mine less and less after buying a really nice hydrometer, and I really don't mind too much taking larger samples. I try not to think about it too much.
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Mar 8, 2012 00:38
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cryme posted:Does anyone use a refractometer instead of a hydrometer? How do they work out? I'd rather not use 2 bottles worth of beer just to check in on gravity (fun though it is to drink afterwards). I always sanitize my hydrometer, test tube, and siphon, so I can reintroduce the wort if I want. I usually drink it, though.
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Mar 8, 2012 00:46
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cryme posted:Does anyone use a refractometer instead of a hydrometer? How do they work out? I'd rather not use 2 bottles worth of beer just to check in on gravity (fun though it is to drink afterwards). What kind of giant hydrometer tube are you using that it takes 24 oz of beer? Mine takes about 8-10 oz.
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Mar 8, 2012 00:48
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Josh Wow posted:What kind of giant hydrometer tube are you using that it takes 24 oz of beer? Mine takes about 8-10 oz. You often want at least 2-3 samples though. One for OG, one for FG, and maybe one or more to check that fermentation is done and the FG has leveled off.
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Mar 8, 2012 00:54
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Josh Wow posted:What kind of giant hydrometer tube are you using that it takes 24 oz of beer? Mine takes about 8-10 oz. I'm probably exaggerating a bit, but I usually take in more than I'd like to in the thief, and over 3-4 samples it adds up. Maybe I just need to work on my thief technique.
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Mar 8, 2012 00:58
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The Beersmith podcast a couple weeks ago had a really interesting interview with a dude who bred many of the popular American hop varieties. Thought you guys might enjoy it, especially with the discussion a while back around why some hops like Simcoe are so hard to get. I have some more sympathy for the propriety hop protections now that I know it can take up to fifteen friggin years to bring a new varietal to market!Spergio Leone posted:Yeah, dextrose. The instructions are actually decent, but call for household sugar! If I can sperg a bit about this, household sugar is a perfectly acceptable ingredient but you have to use it in the right place. As you noticed, it pretty much converts completely into booze, adding no body or flavor at all. You can use this to great effect in something like a double IPA or Belgian tripel that you want to be light and drinkable despite being 8-10% ABV. If it was brewed with all malt, it would be very heavy and maybe only finish fermenting at say 1.020. But replace a couple pounds of malt with sugar and you lighten the body and get that finishing gravity down to 1.010. So there's nothing inherently wrong with sugar, it just shouldn't be a) like 50% of the malt bill and b) probably shouldn't be used at all in something like a 5% sessionable pale ale.
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Mar 8, 2012 01:06
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I pull the beer into the sanitized thief, drop the hydrometer into the thief, read it, then deposit the beer back into the fermenter. Net loss, maybe an ounce after the hydrometer drops down and plugs the bottom of the thief.
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Mar 8, 2012 01:07
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My hydrometer flask holds 9 ounces, I just checked. But the flask is significantly taller than required, so I could probably get away with using only 6 ounces or so to float the hydrometer. I like tasting the beer as it progresses, so I don't return the sample. I also have a refractometer, which I use on brew day. I find it very convenient, not so much because it uses only a few drops, but because those drops cool so quickly on the slide that I can check the gravity immediately. My hydrometer and flask live in the garage on top of the ferment fridge, and I prefer to use them for taking gravities during and after the ferment. Yes, I know it's possible to correct for the effect of alcohol in the sample with arithmetic, I just prefer the hydrometer and getting to taste it at that stage. Jo3sh fucked around with this message at 01:21 on Mar 8, 2012 |
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Mar 8, 2012 01:13
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Hypnolobster posted:I kind of want to buy something like 1.000 - 1.030 range. I do too, but I can't find something in that range and only that range. Seems the closest I can find does 1.000-1.060 and with that range I might as well just squint a little more with the regular one that comes in your standard brewing kit.
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Mar 8, 2012 01:45
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I want to second that refractometers are great for brew day, but even using a correction formula, you cannot get an accurate FG reading. Multiple times I have found that hydrometer and refractometer match exactly at the OG reading, but then the refractometer reading for FG (after being adjusted for the OG) is all over the place, usually off by at least 2 points when compared to a hydrometer reading. 2 points really isn't much, but as a homebrewer, you want to know that if you shoot for 1.011FG that you are getting there or at least accurately know how far off you were, otherwise why bother taking readings at all.
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Mar 8, 2012 02:05
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withak posted:You often want at least 2-3 samples though. One for OG, one for FG, and maybe one or more to check that fermentation is done and the FG has leveled off. If it bothers you that much, you can sanitize the hydrometer container and return the sample to the fermenter, or you can get one of those thieves that have hydrometers inside them. Edit: beaten, and badly. Angry Grimace fucked around with this message at 02:32 on Mar 8, 2012 |
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Mar 8, 2012 02:24
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Two points is almost the limit of what you can accurately read from a hydrometer.
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Mar 8, 2012 02:33
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If anyone is looking for beer glasses, the groupon for my city has 4 glasses for $20 after shipping. Four options for the glasses too, pilsner, pint, mug, or "keg" glasses. I ordered the Keg glasses since I'm not likely to win that style at the trivia night I go to. http://www.groupon.com/deals/gg-13o...urce=uu23214778 It's not the greatest deal, pretty on par with the prices at Amazon, but I've never seen the "keg glasses" before and they look neat and are a little bigger then a pint.
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Mar 8, 2012 05:26
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For what it's worth, I'm a big fan of glasses from Goodwill; 8 locations in the area, high stock turnover, and 99 cents apiece. The downside is the selection is completely off the wall and there's never more than 3 of anything. Found some real neat ones, though.
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Mar 8, 2012 13:58
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There's a bar here that gives away pint glasses with your pint on Wednesdays. I was going to miss collecting bottles for bottling but now I can do glasses instead.
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Mar 8, 2012 14:08
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^^The Flying Saucer?
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Mar 8, 2012 15:40
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Out of curiosity, how much is a pint there?
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Mar 8, 2012 15:59
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Pints at the Saucer range from $4 to $6 for most standard beers. Some Belgians and really big stuff is a little pricier.
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Mar 8, 2012 19:38
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Been slacking on brewing lately, but I got a IPA "India Pilsner Ale" in the keg and carbonated. Half pilsner malt, half pale LME, 2 ounces of Amarillo, and 2 ounces of Cascade. I rushed the conditioning, in that I cold crashed it in primary for 2 days, kegged it, and gave it another 2 days rest to carbonate. So it came out a little cloudy but that's not a terrible thing. It's good but I should have done a dose of hops at 5 minutes or so; bitter, but a little weak on the nose. 
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Mar 8, 2012 20:26
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You could let it warm up to room temp and dry hop it. If you used a bag, you could pull it out again after a week or so, then chill the beer again. That should punch up the aroma some.
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Mar 8, 2012 20:38
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