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MoreBeer sells most major varieties of hops, yeast, and grain and their catalog has descriptions of each. In the end though, reading descriptions is only going to give you so much insight into the properties of an ingredient when the most important attributes of flavor and aroma are very subjective (color/IBUs/body contribution etc are more objective). To bolster my knowledge of ingredients, I've been brewing some beers with the smallest number of ingredients to get a good grasp on each. For example I've brewed a series of single-hop IPA with nothing but base malt in the grain bill. Also I've brewed dark beers that only use one of the highly kilned grains with relatively similar hopping schedules to get a feel for the difference between Black Barley, Black Patent, and Chocolate Malt. Same for yeast I've brewed multiple batches using identical recipes with only the yeast changed. IMO this is the only way to truly personalize recipes and get a real grip on the huge amount of ingredients out there. Reading will give you some great insight and will give you the launching points for associating particular beer styles with particular ingredients, but it's not going to replace real experimentation.
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Apr 13, 2012 18:31
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I have been thinking about buying a small fridge to keep a cornelius keg with a picnic valve dispenser in it. Any thoughts on that? Anybody out there doing this already and have a suggestion as to a good, cheap type/brand? I don't have space to get into a horizontal freezer, or kegerator. I'm thinking a small thin fridge, just big enough for 1-3 corny's would be perfect.
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Apr 13, 2012 18:53
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he1ixx posted:I have been thinking about buying a small fridge to keep a cornelius keg with a picnic valve dispenser in it. If it fits the cornies then it will work - you will likely get tired of the mess caused by the picnic taps and the extra energy the fridge will expend everytime you open the door for a beer though - i.e. setting up permanent taps in the door/side of the fridge is a move you might consider in the future. I might also recommend that you search craigslist for used fridges, no need to buy a brand-new fridge.
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Apr 13, 2012 18:58
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For small fridges, if you have a college nearby, start looking on Craigslist around the time school lets out for the summer. You'll usually find a ton of them for cheap then.
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Apr 13, 2012 19:07
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Super Rad posted:If it fits the cornies then it will work - you will likely get tired of the mess caused by the picnic taps and the extra energy the fridge will expend everytime you open the door for a beer though - i.e. setting up permanent taps in the door/side of the fridge is a move you might consider in the future. Hm. yeah I never considered installing taps in the side but, given where I am considering putting it, that would probably work well. Retemnav posted:For small fridges, if you have a college nearby, start looking on Craigslist around the time school lets out for the summer. You'll usually find a ton of them for cheap then. Great idea. I'll start looking around. Thanks!
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Apr 13, 2012 19:14
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he1ixx posted:Hm. yeah I never considered installing taps in the side but, given where I am considering putting it, that would probably work well. Two things I can add as I'm also looking to do something like this... 1. In regards to tapping the unit itself, some people find it easier to build a "collar" on their units which have the door on the top, like chest freezers. Take a look at this:  They pull the top off, put a wooden collar sealed on the bottom by epoxy or something permanent, then replicate the normal seal of a freezer on the top rim of the wood & bottom of the lid. All the tap connections go through the wood instead of the fridge. 2. The all-in-one preassembled keg fridges are great, though after looking on CL for a while now it seems that chest freezers are far less expensive. Couple them with a $50 temp regulator (which is all external minus the probe line) and you've got a functional keg fridge for $250. Setting up a tap on it is where the price gets up to the $400-450 range, but if you're okay with having to open up a door to get beer and using the picnic tap, the price can be kept to a reasonable level.
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Apr 13, 2012 19:44
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I'm soaking some oak chips in Woodford Reserve, what recipe would be good for using these? Also- Kegerator fridges are a little more expensive, but at least you can also use them for storing bottles. Plus, you have a spare freezer for meat and stuff (and Lagering if it's big enough/temp is right)
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Apr 13, 2012 19:55
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wattershed posted:Two things I can add as I'm also looking to do something like this... I have a friend with this setup at work. He loves it but it isn't something I'd be looking to get into for a while. Since I was pointed in the direction here, a few minutes ago, I started poking around at Lowe's and such, and there are some decent cheap freezers out there in the sub-$200 range. LIke you said, couple that with a regulator and you get a fairly small footprint and a less painful hit to the wallet. Now I'll look around Craigslist armed with some size and type limitations and see what I find.
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Apr 13, 2012 19:56
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djwetmouse posted:Sorry if I missed any discussion on this earlier on the thread, but I was wondering if anyone had any experience with one of these bad boys or anything similar. A couple pages back, but I'm going to reply to this because I bought one of these last fall. I moved into a condo apartment, and needed something that wasn't gas-powered. It's much much easier to brew with this than stovetop or with a turkey fryer. You can program in your mash schedule (up to 5 rests, I think), and it'll take care of the temperatures. Beeps and pauses when you need to do something. Seems to reach a pretty good mash efficiency (I've never calculated it out). It does tend to put out more sediment in the beer than I'm used to, so I'm going to have to put some effort into clearing the beer up - which I never bothered with before. It won't do very strong all-grain beer, as someone mentioned. I had to buy a ~$150 (can't remember how much it was) transformer to run it on North American current. It's a good machine, similar in price to pre-assembled brew stands. If you're considering it, you just need to think about your needs and brewing habits. If you're short on space and not too concerned about brewing monster beer, you'll probably be quite happy with it.
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Apr 13, 2012 20:01
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Chill_Bebop posted:I'm soaking some oak chips in Woodford Reserve, what recipe would be good for using these? Imperial Stout goes amazing with whiskey and oak. Here's my Old Irascible: http://hopville.com/recipe/93555/russian-imperial-stout-recipes/whiskey-barrel-old-irascible
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Apr 13, 2012 20:01
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Jo3sh posted:Imperial Stout goes amazing with whiskey and oak. Agreed. I had one of mine scored by judges and they said to leave the bourbon whiskey out. I said nuts to that. The flavors just get more and more amazing as the months go by. I've been drinking my bombers at a rate of once a month, so I should be good until Christmas of next year when another one will be ready.
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Apr 13, 2012 21:46
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What's the smart way to drink a bomber? I don't buy them because the beer gets warm before I'm done. I keep glasses in the freezer for normal 12oz beers, but I don't think I've seen anything big enough, and I'd be worried about the same thing, heating up too fast.
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Apr 13, 2012 21:50
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Splizwarf posted:What's the smart way to drink a bomber? I don't buy them because the beer gets warm before I'm done. I keep glasses in the freezer for normal 12oz beers, but I don't think I've seen anything big enough, and I'd be worried about the same thing, heating up too fast. Open bomber. Pour. Put bomber of remaining beer back in fridge. You could put a wine stopper in the top if you want.
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Apr 13, 2012 21:54
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Personally, I love the experience of drinking beer as it warms. There are a shitload of interesting flavor perceptions I get from beer (especially big beer) as the temperature changes. Hops recede from the front and move to the swallow as malt comes up and dominates the early flavor. Plenty of times I have sat, nursing a glass as I tried to warm it with my hands so it would just come into its own. I know opinions differ, but I think the English are onto something with their cellar-temperature beer. So: In my opinion, the right way to drink a bomber is slowly, appreciating it as it changes.
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Apr 13, 2012 22:05
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I am going to be brewing a Pliny clone this Sunday. I had a couple of questions, as this is only my second time brewing (first was a Northern Brewer extract kit), and figured you guys could steer me in the right direction. I am following the (rough) directions available here: PDF warning! The first question is related to my own issues: I failed to purchase enough LME, but I have plenty of corn sugar. Would it be okay to substitute the 1/2 lb. of LME I am missing with 1/2 lb. of corn sugar? I don't mind a lighter bodied beer, and it stays beneath the 20% ratio I have heard bandied about. My research indicates yes, but I would prefer to get some outside opinions from more experienced brewers. If I do utilize corn sugar, should I reduce my hop bill to correlate with the decrease in malt? Utilizing the two packets of yeast called for in the recipe, should I install a blow off valve as opposed to the airlock that came with my plastic fermentation bucket? Am I going to be seeing that kind of pressure buildup? The recipe mentions rinsing the carapils/crystal 45 malts with hot water after steeping. Is the hot water that I am using in rinsing supposed to be utilized in "topping up" my pot? Finally, I was unable to find crystal 45 at the price point I wanted, so I went with a 40L malt instead. Would it be safe to use 10-15% more of this malt to make for that 5L difference? Jesus, that ended up being a fuckton of questions. I suppose I have been saving them up... I appreciate any help and expertise you guys are willing to share!
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Apr 13, 2012 22:16
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Chill_Bebop posted:I'm soaking some oak chips in Woodford Reserve, what recipe would be good for using these? Since Imperial Stouts have already been recommended, I'd like to say they also work well in IIPAs, especially if you take care to boost the body a little (making it dark also seems to fit the flavor, Special B in large amounts works well). Jo3sh posted:Personally, I love the experience of drinking beer as it warms. There are a shitload of interesting flavor perceptions I get from beer (especially big beer) as the temperature changes. Hops recede from the front and move to the swallow as malt comes up and dominates the early flavor. Plenty of times I have sat, nursing a glass as I tried to warm it with my hands so it would just come into its own. I agree totally! Coldness mutes so many of the crucial flavors in beer, and I think that drinking "ice-cold" beer is a recent phenomenon that goes hand in hand with the recent phenomon (I'm talking last century here) of light lager monopoly - and who wants to taste those beers any better?
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Apr 13, 2012 22:43
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Jo3sh posted:Personally, I love the experience of drinking beer as it warms. There are a shitload of interesting flavor perceptions I get from beer (especially big beer) as the temperature changes. Hops recede from the front and move to the swallow as malt comes up and dominates the early flavor. Plenty of times I have sat, nursing a glass as I tried to warm it with my hands so it would just come into its own. But then you need to make sure it isn't bad beer or you taste all of the bad stuff in it even more.
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Apr 13, 2012 23:21
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I'm interested in moving out of my kitchen and into the driveway for brewing my extract w/specialty grain beers, with the eventual goal of going all-grain but mainly to boil the water faster and have less of a mess to clean up. I have a 6 gallon pot right now and I realize it's not going to be big enough for full boil extract or all-grain brews. Is there enough of a difference going from partial 3-4 gallon boils to a full boil to warrant getting a bigger pot now? I like to do higher gravity 5 gallon batches right now, so what size pot should I be looking at? Are there any particular features I should be sure to get, or specific places to shop for them? From what I can tell, aside from the pot, all I need is a propane burner like the KAB4 and a propane tank. Am I forgetting anything? How much do those tanks go for new and filled? What about refills?
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Apr 13, 2012 23:56
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I decided I would crack open a bottle of pale ale I just bottled a week ago. Still needs a bit of carbonation and the beer is clearer than my previous attempts at homebrewing. The beer is bit sweet and not so Hoppy as I would expect a sierra Nevada clone, would some more age help balance that?
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Apr 14, 2012 01:05
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lazerwolf posted:I decided I would crack open a bottle of pale ale I just bottled a week ago. Still needs a bit of carbonation and the beer is clearer than my previous attempts at homebrewing. The beer is bit sweet and not so Hoppy as I would expect a sierra Nevada clone, would some more age help balance that? Yeah. If it's not carbonated all the way then there are still excess sugars in there altering the flavor. Once it's carbed up all the way the hops will come forward a bit more.
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Apr 14, 2012 01:09
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internet celebrity posted:Yeah. If it's not carbonated all the way then there are still excess sugars in there altering the flavor. Once it's carbed up all the way the hops will come forward a bit more.
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Apr 14, 2012 01:43
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Cpt.Wacky posted:From what I can tell, aside from the pot, all I need is a propane burner like the KAB4 and a propane tank. Am I forgetting anything? How much do those tanks go for new and filled? What about refills? You may want some kind of chiller, cooling ~6 gallons of boiling wort in an ice bath will take an eternity and a half. And if you don't already have one, maybe an autosiphon to transfer to your bucket/carboy so you don't need to lift and dump that whole volume at once (they are only like $15). Either that or get a kettle fitted with a ball valve. Aopeth posted:The first question is related to my own issues: I failed to purchase enough LME, but I have plenty of corn sugar. Would it be okay to substitute the 1/2 lb. of LME I am missing with 1/2 lb. of corn sugar? 1) Yeah in fact I'd probably recommend it. It will help the beer finish dry, extract brews tend to end up a bit underattenuated and sweet. 2) Your call... I always go with a blowoff tube just to be safe. Coming home to my airlock exploded across the room and an open carboy once was enough  3) Yeah, if you "sparge" the steeped grains to get the last bit of sugars out, subtract that amount from the amount you'd add at the end to top up. You're still looking for about 5 gallons total into the fermenter after boiling and chilling. 4) Just use the 40L and don't mess with the amount, it won't make a difference. You can't really average out different crystal malts to hit a specific one you can't find. It works in terms of beer color, but the flavor could end up wildly different. The darker (80+) crystals have a really distinct dark fruit, almost burnt sugar thing going on. So if you do say 0.5lb C20 and 0.5lb C120 cause you couldn't find a pound of C70, it won't taste the same at all. Docjowles fucked around with this message at 04:15 on Apr 14, 2012 |
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Apr 14, 2012 02:12
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My wife wanted to try the beer I just bottled today, even though we both knew it wasn't ready. So, I popped open the cap and immediately a geyser shot accross my counter. Will this calm down in a week or two when it is ready to drink...or will it get worse?
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Apr 14, 2012 02:41
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Docjowles posted:Answers Thanks!
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Apr 14, 2012 05:12
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The Dregs posted:My wife wanted to try the beer I just bottled today, even though we both knew it wasn't ready. So, I popped open the cap and immediately a geyser shot accross my counter. Will this calm down in a week or two when it is ready to drink...or will it get worse? Was it in the fridge for a few hours before you opened it?
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Apr 14, 2012 05:14
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No. I just bottled it a few hours before I opened it.
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Apr 14, 2012 12:22
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The Dregs posted:No. I just bottled it a few hours before I opened it. It geysered after just a few hours in the bottle? That is weird.
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Apr 14, 2012 14:50
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The Dregs posted:My wife wanted to try the beer I just bottled today, even though we both knew it wasn't ready. So, I popped open the cap and immediately a geyser shot accross my counter. Will this calm down in a week or two when it is ready to drink...or will it get worse? How long did it ferment for? how much priming sugar did you use?
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Apr 14, 2012 15:10
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The Dregs posted:No. I just bottled it a few hours before I opened it.
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Apr 14, 2012 18:38
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indigi posted:Whoa. Well, a least if you've got bottle bombs on your hands, you should find out very quickly. Yeah... consider putting those in the basement with a blanket over them or something, that sounds like it could get dangerous.
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Apr 14, 2012 19:14
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I just bought a 10 gallon brewpot and I was wondering if I did a full boil with an extract kit from Northern brewer would I be changing the recipe too much in terms of ibu?
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Apr 14, 2012 20:25
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The Dregs posted:No. I just bottled it a few hours before I opened it. For the record, it usually takes around two weeks for bottles to be carbonated all the way. If it is fizzy enough to foam out of the bottle after a few hours then something is wrong.
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Apr 14, 2012 20:29
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lazerwolf posted:I just bought a 10 gallon brewpot and I was wondering if I did a full boil with an extract kit from Northern brewer would I be changing the recipe too much in terms of ibu? I think the NB kits call for a late extract addition, so I don't think you will see much difference. If you are really curious or concerned about it, you could plug the recipe into Beer Calculus/Hopville or BeerSmith or something and see how it changes, but overall I think the beer should be at least similar both ways. vvv I stand corrected. Jo3sh fucked around with this message at 23:20 on Apr 14, 2012 |
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Apr 14, 2012 22:02
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Jo3sh posted:I think the NB kits call for a late extract addition, so I don't think you will see much difference. If you are really curious or concerned about it, you could plug the recipe into Beer Calculus/Hopville or BeerSmith or something and see how it changes, but overall I think the beer should be at least similar both ways. I've looked at the recipe sheets for quite a few extract recipes from NB and I've never seen one that called for late extract addition. http://www.northernbrewer.com/learn/documentation/ You can pretty much just look at what the recipes and instructions are for all the kits they do (extract or all-grain) here, although some of the more exotic "pro kits" that have the real recipes for Surly and such are supplied with "mystery ingredients" so you can't actually determine exactly what's in them. Most of them don't though,t hey just have exotic ingredients you'd likely have to special order anyways like Golden Naked Oats. Angry Grimace fucked around with this message at 22:20 on Apr 14, 2012 |
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Apr 14, 2012 22:12
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withak posted:For the record, it usually takes around two weeks for bottles to be carbonated all the way. If it is fizzy enough to foam out of the bottle after a few hours then something is wrong. I used 2 oz of sugar for just over two gallons of beer. The beer didn't taste super carbonated, but is sure shot out of the bottle. They haven't blown out the bottles yet, but I have put towels over them.
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Apr 14, 2012 23:23
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Earlier, I think you said something about pouring the priming syrup into the fermenter. Did you mix it at all? I'm wondering if you got a bottle that had more sugar than the rest of them. Also, as TenjouUtena touched on, if you bottled before it was done fermenting, you may have additional sugar working there. 2 oz sugar in slightly more than 2 gallons of beer should not be an unmanageable level of carbonation; especially not a few hours after capping. I am confused.
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Apr 14, 2012 23:41
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Jo3sh posted:Earlier, I think you said something about pouring the priming syrup into the fermenter. Did you mix it at all? I'm wondering if you got a bottle that had more sugar than the rest of them. I mixed it, yeah. I didn't put a blender in there or anything, but I stirred it around. It was weird, the beer didn't taste very carbonated at all, it just shot out of the bottle when I opened it. Trip report in a week when I try another one, if they hold that long.
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Apr 15, 2012 00:01
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The Dregs posted:I mixed it, yeah. I didn't put a blender in there or anything, but I stirred it around. It was weird, the beer didn't taste very carbonated at all, it just shot out of the bottle when I opened it. Probably because all the carbonation came out of solution. I'd bet it was a poorly mixed bit of priming sugar.
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Apr 15, 2012 00:22
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LeeMajors posted:Probably because all the carbonation came out of solution. Can there be enough carbonation to cause a geyser after only a few hours in the bottle?
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Apr 15, 2012 00:24
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withak posted:Can there be enough carbonation to cause a geyser after only a few hours in the bottle? It seems pretty bizarre. There are a few possibilities. Maybe the yeast wasn't done attenuating. Maybe the sugar was mixed unevenly. Maybe your storage area is too warm. Maybe all three? Any issue I've had with that, and it is rare, has come after weeks and weeks.
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Apr 15, 2012 00:42
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