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zerox147o posted:There is a brewery about 15 minutes from me called Defiant that makes an awesome tripel (http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/14359/43008) that I want to emulate and work on tweaking. Anyone have a good tripel they would suggest as a base or should I just try to get some hints on the recipe from them next time I swing by (different employees there offer different levels of insight on their process)? Sorry for the late reply, but here's a tripel recipe I was really happy with. Unfortunately I lost my notes due to a buggy old version of BeerSmith but it was a straightforward recipe as far as I remember. code:
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May 30, 2012 03:43
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Corbet posted:Has anybody brewed the "Cherries in the Snow" or "Cherry Fever Stout" recipes from the Complete Joy of Homebrewing book? How did they turn out? There aren't nearly enough non-Kriek beers that have cherry in it, although it can be difficult to make anything cherry related not have the cherry cough syrup taste. My second extract batch was the Better Brewer Belgian kit, and I steeped about 2 cups of dried cherries (Mariano brand, I think; grocery-store grade) in the bag with the specialty grains. It gave me a beautiful pink tone and a subtle cherry flavor on top of the Belgian turning out well in the first place. This was my second batch ever, so someone who knows their stuff could probably do what I did, only better. I'm going to keep making it and tweaking it, I guess I'll report back when it's past good and into amazing. 
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May 30, 2012 14:27
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I want to do a red colored pale ale for the 4th of July (Red White and Brew ). What's the best way to get a good red color without imparting too much dark malt flavor? I'm thinking a tiny amount (3oz tops) of debittered black malt would be the best way to get me to around 13 SRM without affecting the flavor too much. Is 13 going to be enough color to get a solid red color or should I be shooting for closer to 17-18 SRM?
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May 30, 2012 14:37
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internet celebrity posted:Cut the top off, put in a false bottom and ball valve and make a mash tun? I've looked up what some folks have done and wow. That's probably a step or two ahead of where I'm at right now (just started another extract batch last night) but I'll have the top cut off of both and look around for a big burner to use outside. I was thinking I'd step up to BIAB next and then think about doing the full mash process after a while, but having two massive boiling pots can't hurt anything.
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May 30, 2012 15:28
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internet celebrity posted:I want to do a red colored pale ale for the 4th of July (Red White and Brew That should do the trick, if it's the only specialty grain you could probably go up to 4oz without imparting too much roastiness. I don't know what selection you have but any of the Carafa varieties will do the trick, the higher the better (i.e. III will contribute more SRM than I). Due to a momentarily unfixable CO2 leak my very light-colored saison was slowly getting flat. To combat this I would add maybe 1/3 volume of my dry Irish stout to make a sort of ghetto black and tan - this always made the beer turn a beautiful red 
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May 30, 2012 16:16
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krushgroove posted:I've looked up what some folks have done and wow. That's probably a step or two ahead of where I'm at right now (just started another extract batch last night) but I'll have the top cut off of both and look around for a big burner to use outside. I was thinking I'd step up to BIAB next and then think about doing the full mash process after a while, but having two massive boiling pots can't hurt anything. I know it seems daunting but the jump to all grain is actually pretty simple. Definitely get the hang of everything before jumping in, but if you already have a mashing vessel and the space for it all, I'm not sure what the advantage to doing BIAB is. Usually people do BIAB because they don't have the space for extra vessels, or they really don't have any extra money, but in your case you already have what should eventually become your mashing vessel so I'd say skip BIAB entirely!
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May 30, 2012 16:19
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Super Rad posted:I know it seems daunting but the jump to all grain is actually pretty simple. Definitely get the hang of everything before jumping in, but if you already have a mashing vessel and the space for it all, I'm not sure what the advantage to doing BIAB is. Usually people do BIAB because they don't have the space for extra vessels, or they really don't have any extra money, but in your case you already have what should eventually become your mashing vessel so I'd say skip BIAB entirely! Thanks for the vote of confidence - I'm just a bit flustered by the amount of work that's gone into some of the mash tuns...this one with a braided steel hose looks pretty simple: https://charlottesvillehomebrew.wordpress.com/2011/10/26/converting-a-cooler-into-a-mash-tun/ but this is the first one I looked at, which seemed very involved: http://www.jimsbeerkit.co.uk/equipment.htm According to this page http://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Cooling,_Racking,_and_Aerating I don't need separate vessels for cooling just yet (I can deal with ice baths for a while) so I guess the mash tun is the next piece of the puzzle for me. I guess I'll just need to drill the right sized hole and find a spigot to get started on the mash tun. I take it that it doesn't matter if the kegs are stainless steel or aluminum?
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May 30, 2012 16:41
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Well, I had a very frustrating brew day yesterday. I have been using my pump to recirculate wort from the boiler and through the plate chiller, but I could not get the recirc to work. I ended up effectively doing a no-chill batch and leaving the fermenters to cool overnight in the ferment fridge. I need to rework my pumping apparatus, apparently. On the up side, I had a better time with my strike temperature than I have had in a while. Apparently, the solution is to trust your instruments. Who knew?
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May 30, 2012 16:41
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Super Rad posted:That should do the trick, if it's the only specialty grain you could probably go up to 4oz without imparting too much roastiness. I don't know what selection you have but any of the Carafa varieties will do the trick, the higher the better (i.e. III will contribute more SRM than I). Yeah, no Carafa available at my LHBS. I'm thinking it's going to pick up some color in the boil since I'm doing a partial mash and a partial boil so I may err on the side of caution for this one. Here's the recipe as I have it written now so hopefully between the partial boil and black malt I'll land somewhere in the range for red.
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May 30, 2012 17:02
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Man it has been weeks since I brewed last because I have been preparing to move, well that move is tomorrow so I'm thinking either friday or saturday is immediately a brew day haha. Only ingredients I have on hand are for a 2.5 gallon batch, but thats okay. Thinking a pale ale with: 3.2# Gold Malt Syrup 1-2# 2Row 1/2# Honey Malt 0.5 60m Citra 0.5 20m Cascade 0.5 10m Citra 0.5 5m Cascade And maybe dry hope some cascade too. Any thoughts?
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May 30, 2012 17:36
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Welp, fired this thing up last night and after stinking up my house and steaming up my walls for an hour, it looks like everything got set up okay. It's been a bit over 12 hours and there's already a pretty complete layer of (thin) foam on top and some good sized bubble coming through the lock. Yay! I think I did make a mistake when we were chilling the wort down, it was taking a really long time(in my completely unknowledgable estimation) but it looked like the outside toward the walls of the kettle was cool, but inside wasn't. So I gave it a quick stir with a clean spoon, and I think it stirred up a bunch of poo poo that could have been left in the pot. The wort is now very cloudy and there's a rather large layer of sediment in the bottom it looks like. I figure this will all settle out in the next few weeks, but it still makes me a little anxious :\ edit: pic from last night, this had only been in the carboy about 15 mins, tops. See that layer of crud at the bottom?  edit 2: actually, it's bubbling pretty good. I can't get through a 10 count without seeing SOMETHING go through. Is this a bit early for that much activity? AlternateAccount fucked around with this message at 17:50 on May 30, 2012 |
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May 30, 2012 17:46
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A lot of stuff will settle out during the fermentation, that way when you use your auto-siphon (you have one?) when bottling...you can just avoid the mass at the bottom. Ultimately for the first batch or two I wouldn't worry about clarity hehe. Its not too early at all to see activity. Relax and let the yeast do its thing E: As it has been said a bunch of times in here, it is pretty hard to mess up completely so if you were unhappy with something you did this time (that last stir for example) then make a note and avoid it next time. You'll improve your process really quickly. ChiTownEddie fucked around with this message at 17:56 on May 30, 2012 |
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May 30, 2012 17:53
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Going for clarity will drive you insane. The best combination of easy and effective process in my opinion is to just run your entire volume into the fermenter through a strainer and/or a paint straining bag. But the protein and hop sludge don't do anything to the beer so I wouldn't really worry about it.internet celebrity posted:Yeah, no Carafa available at my LHBS. I'm thinking it's going to pick up some color in the boil since I'm doing a partial mash and a partial boil so I may err on the side of caution for this one. Here's the recipe as I have it written now so hopefully between the partial boil and black malt I'll land somewhere in the range for red. 
Angry Grimace fucked around with this message at 18:35 on May 30, 2012 |
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May 30, 2012 18:31
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I think I'm going to get back into brewing this weekend. It's been close to two years since I last brewed a batch, so I thought I'd post the recipe I'm planning on using to make sure it makes sense. I'm going for an american-style IPA for the summer: 6# light DME 1# crystal (steeped) 0.5 oz Amarillo (60 min) 0.5 oz Citra (30 min) 0.5 oz Amarillo (10 min) 0.5 oz Citra (10 min) 0.5 oz Cascade (0 min) 0.5 oz Cascade (dry hop) Either White Labs California Ale yeast or the Wyeast equivalent Does this sound reasonable? I think the last IPA I did was all-amarillo so I wanted to switch it up a bit. I can't remember the recipe I used, though (drat my lack of note-taking  ) otherwise I'd just use that with a different hop schedule.
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May 30, 2012 18:39
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AlternateAccount posted:edit: pic from last night, this had only been in the carboy about 15 mins, tops. See that layer of crud at the bottom? I haven't thrown too many things in my carboys, but they've always been fuller than what's in that pic...would there be an increased risk of spoilage with the headspace in that carboy?
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May 30, 2012 18:51
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I guess? But he said it is already bubbling so the CO2 will quickly be displacing any air/oxygen in there.
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May 30, 2012 18:53
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I have an extract brew that's stalled and have a few questions. It started off around 1.090 and has been at 1.032 for about a week now. I know extracts (especially dark) don't attenuate very well but we were hoping to get it down to around 1.020. Is it likely that because we used so much dark LME, 1.032 is about the limit and the rest is unfermentable? If not, what is the best way to get it going again?
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May 30, 2012 20:14
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Butt Soup Barnes posted:I have an extract brew that's stalled and have a few questions. It started off around 1.090 and has been at 1.032 for about a week now. I know extracts (especially dark) don't attenuate very well but we were hoping to get it down to around 1.020. I've heard you can use a starter at high krauesen to get a little bit more points, but I would take that with a grain of salt. I'm not sure there's a ton you can do at this point, maybe someone else can help. I think one of the big problems with high gravities over 1.080 is that you really need some serious aeration and serious pitching rates to get full attenuation. Maybe even consider yeast nutrient. wattershed posted:I haven't thrown too many things in my carboys, but they've always been fuller than what's in that pic...would there be an increased risk of spoilage with the headspace in that carboy? Angry Grimace fucked around with this message at 20:32 on May 30, 2012 |
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May 30, 2012 20:28
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Quick head up, the Midwest Supplies Groupon is back. I know somebody was asking about a good starter kit recently.
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May 30, 2012 21:41
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OK, guys, thanks for the reassurance. I am not OBSESSED with clarity, but it's really cloudy now. We'll see what comes out.wattershed posted:I haven't thrown too many things in my carboys, but they've always been fuller than what's in that pic...would there be an increased risk of spoilage with the headspace in that carboy? Well, it's 5 gallons of beer in a 6 gallon carboy. I had one of each and I was worried about maybe it overflowing and making a mess, so I just used the 6. You can just make out the sharpie line on the left which is the 5 gallon mark. Given how much it was bubbling this morning before I left for work, I think it can be pretty safely said that all that air should have been long since displaced by now. I hope so, anyway.
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May 30, 2012 23:41
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Butt Soup Barnes posted:Is it likely that because we used so much dark LME, 1.032 is about the limit and the rest is unfermentable? If not, what is the best way to get it going again? Yes, even light LME isn't as fermentable as mashed wort, dark LME is even less fermentable. As far as suggestions you can warm up the beer, swirl the beer occasionally, and you can also pitch some more aggressive yeast like champagne yeast or some of the super-high gravity yeast that are out there. I wouldn't expect anything drastic though, even a beer made from highly-fermentable wort starting at 1.090 would not go below 1.020-1.024
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May 31, 2012 00:03
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Splizwarf posted:Jo3sh, where can I get a couple of those? So I asked the guy what gave me that shirt where he had it made, and he tells me that all he knows is he ordered it online. Sorry I don't have more info for you, Spliz.
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May 31, 2012 00:33
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I don't see why you couldn't just get a few made from somewhere like Cafe Press or the like. I'm sure there are a lot of actual quality silkscreening places online, too. I've actually had the police show up too, but it seemed just like general curiosity. The guy was quite nice and seemed pretty enthusiastic.
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May 31, 2012 01:43
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Holy poo poo, this stuff is MOVING! It's bubbling pretty good, there's about half an inch of foam and the silt in the liquid is MOVING AROUND.
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May 31, 2012 01:47
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AlternateAccount posted:OK, guys, thanks for the reassurance. I am not OBSESSED with clarity, but it's really cloudy now. We'll see what comes out. Mr. Glass posted:I think I'm going to get back into brewing this weekend. It's been close to two years since I last brewed a batch, so I thought I'd post the recipe I'm planning on using to make sure it makes sense. I'm going for an american-style IPA for the summer: I made an APA with a couple of oz. of Amarillo a few weeks ago and double what you're using as bittering, but otherwise a pretty similar hopping schedule and it wasn't particularly bitter or IPA-like at all. Tasty, but not really an IPA. Just as an aside, Amarillo and Citra are very difficult to source right now. If you've already got some then no problem, but they're hard to find at the normal spots. Angry Grimace fucked around with this message at 02:45 on May 31, 2012 |
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May 31, 2012 02:21
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Seaweed? Rendered horse bones? I think I will stick with my cloudy beer. The clouds mean it is full of protein and all the guys in You Look Like poo poo make it sound like there is nothing better than protein.
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May 31, 2012 02:34
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zedprime posted:Seaweed? Rendered horse bones? I think I will stick with my cloudy beer. The clouds mean it is full of protein and all the guys in You Look Like poo poo make it sound like there is nothing better than protein. You forgot modified fish swim bladders and the vegan option, bits of plastic.
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May 31, 2012 02:46
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I have a question about converting an all grain recipe. I'm looking at the Brewing Network clone for Dark Dawn and it has a ton of different grains/adjuncts. Here's the original recipe: 0.35 lbs. Clover Honey Generic 0.53 lbs. Corn Sugar Generic 0.66 lbs. Turbinado Sugar Generic 8.04 lbs. Pilsener Belgium 1.93 lbs. Roasted Barley Great Britain 1.61 lbs. Pale Malt(2-row) America 0.11 lbs. Melanoidin Malt 1.18 lbs. Munich Malt Germany 0.96 lbs. White Wheat Belgium 0.48 lbs. Crystal 80L America 0.24 lbs. Black Malt Belgium Will be okay keeping everything except converting the Pilsener Belgium into equivalent Pilsner Extract and the the Pale Malt into Gold malt extract? For the rest of it, my plan was to do a mini-mash to still get the sugars and flavors of the specialty grains. Here's the recipe for reference. http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=&t=17614
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May 31, 2012 03:31
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[Edit]Double Post.
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May 31, 2012 03:35
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Angry Grimace posted:I don't know, it doesn't sound like it's going to have the bittering level I'd expect from an American style IPA unless you've got really high AA Amarillo hops. I'd expect something more like an APA. Yeah, I'm hoping my LHBS (which I haven't actually been to yet, lol) has them, but failing that I think I can order some from Northern Brewer. To get the IPA level of bitterness, should I just throw in more hops at the beginning of the boil? It's been way too long since I've read about this stuff 
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May 31, 2012 04:27
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As I speak to you, I am drinking my very first batch of homebrew. We call it scheissebrau and made it with a Mr. Beer kit we bought heavily discounted at Ross. The kit came with a can of Hopped Malt Extract and a pouch of Nondescriminate Carbohydrate ABV Booster. It makes a 2 gallon batch at 3.4% abv, we decided to do 1.5 gallons and hope the ABV would jump into the ~5.something range. We left it in the fermenter keg thingy for two weeks and then bottled it into 2 liter Walmart cola bottles with some sugar in the bottom, which we left in a cool dark place for an additional 2 weeks. It is drinkable. It tastes like a can of Hopped Malt Extract and nondescriminate carbohydrate booster. That is, it's slightly better than, say, High Life but really not what we're going for. We want to take the next step, but the kit is largely bereft of instruction short of including a catalog for different flavors of Hopped Malt Extract and a chart of sugar/bottle size for appropriate carbonation. Most of the recipes I can find online are all for 5 gallon batches. Can I just scale these recipes down to fit my 2 gallon Mr. Beer fermenter keg thingy? Do you guys have any recommendations? Should I just read the thread? Also I was wondering how best I should sanitize my setup, now that my pouch of 'no rinse sanitizer' is all used up. It says that my brewing keg is not dishwasher safe, can I just use dish soap? Is the best option available at my local homebrew store? I plan to get a proper 5 gallon setup (at least) and all of the proper accessories in the future, but right now funds are limited so I'd like to make use of what I can.
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May 31, 2012 04:34
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You can scale a five-gallon recipe, but still use one pouch/tube/packet of yeast.
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May 31, 2012 04:46
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Cointelprofessional posted:Will be okay keeping everything except converting the Pilsener Belgium into equivalent Pilsner Extract and the the Pale Malt into Gold malt extract? For the rest of it, my plan was to do a mini-mash to still get the sugars and flavors of the specialty grains. I think that should be fine as long as you do the mini-mash. The munich and wheat should have enough enzymes to convert everything.
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May 31, 2012 04:50
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Don't use dish soap to clean it, use OxiClean or PBW. Sanitize with Star-San or iodophor.
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May 31, 2012 04:51
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Stalizard posted:As I speak to you, I am drinking my very first batch of homebrew. We call it scheissebrau and made it with a Mr. Beer kit we bought heavily discounted at Ross. The kit came with a can of Hopped Malt Extract and a pouch of Nondescriminate Carbohydrate ABV Booster. It makes a 2 gallon batch at 3.4% abv, we decided to do 1.5 gallons and hope the ABV would jump into the ~5.something range. We left it in the fermenter keg thingy for two weeks and then bottled it into 2 liter Walmart cola bottles with some sugar in the bottom, which we left in a cool dark place for an additional 2 weeks. Scale everything linearly except the yeast. Go on and use a full packet of whatever yeast is called for and you'll be fine. Best option for sanitizing is star san, then iodophor, and finally a bleach solution like this one http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter2-2-3.html. In terms of upgrading to a 5 gallon setup, you probably have everything you need except for a large enough fermenter and maybe a pot for boiling. I don't know what a mr beer kit includes, but really all you need for 5 gallon extract brewing is a large, food grade bucket for fermenting and a pot large enough to boil at least 3 gallons of water. Read up on that link I posted. It's a great resource, especially when starting out. It's where most of us started out for sure, and probably the best guide for the basics (plus a little bit) of brewing. Imasalmon fucked around with this message at 05:00 on May 31, 2012 |
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May 31, 2012 04:56
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Mr. Glass posted:Yeah, I'm hoping my LHBS (which I haven't actually been to yet, lol) has them, but failing that I think I can order some from Northern Brewer. To get the IPA level of bitterness, should I just throw in more hops at the beginning of the boil? It's been way too long since I've read about this stuff I would think something more like an ounce or so of some kind of higher AA bittering hop, i.e. Columbus, Magnum or Centennial would be more in line with a American IPA. For bittering you'll want it in the boil for 60 minutes. 60 minute additions contribute little other than bitterness (debatable), and later additions are more flavor/aroma additions. I'm not sure I understand what 30 minute additions do at all.
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May 31, 2012 05:23
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Angry Grimace posted:You forgot modified fish swim bladders and the vegan option, bits of plastic. Honestly, cold crashing at 34F for a day or three has gotten me better results in terms of clarity than any agent I've added. Also, I tend to run into problems with head retention on beers I get almost clear. Anecdotal my head retention and clarity seem inversely proportional. I read somewhere once that head retention was about the CO2 bubbles grabbing hold of a protein string in such a way that it prevents the buoyancy of the bubble from escaping. That makes sense in that as you strip out strings of protein there will be less and less available to grab a hold.
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May 31, 2012 14:31
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Cold crashing's generally great for me too, but I've had a few beers that either would not clear or I needed them ready ASAP for a party or whatever. In those cases, gelatin is a godsend.
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May 31, 2012 15:01
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Well, I finally got a hold on a bottle of beer from Jolly Pumpkin. It took a special request to the good beverage center in town to stock it, but they have a bunch of their stuff now. I had a bottle of La Roja for my first taste and it was so wonderful that I just finished making a starter to get a decent population of their yeast/bug blend. I was considering doing a lambic or something long term since my 5 gallon carboy hasn't been used for almost a year, but now I might consider doing a sour amber like La Roja next.
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May 31, 2012 15:22
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Thanks for the advice guys, I picked up some yeast just for the hell of it and it turns out the fermenting started up again out of nowhere. A week ago when it first stalled we aerated the hell out of it and checked again 4 days later with no change in gravity. Since then it has gone from 1.032 to 1.022, which is not much higher than where we wanted it to end. What could be the reason for that, just a delay while the yeast started to do their thing again? Also I have some basic questions about fermenters. What is the purpose of a secondary fermenter? Is it just to get the beer off the trub? If so, is there a reason that a secondary is usually a carboy instead of a plastic bucket? Also, I've seen guidelines about how long to leave a beer in the secondary, how long to leave it after bottling, etc. but how does that vary for different types of beers? For example we have a stout that will be transferred to secondary in a few days that is going to be about 9% abv. I'm assuming that a beer this strong will want to sit in the secondary/bottles for longer, but how do I know when it's been long enough?
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May 31, 2012 15:31
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