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lazerwolf posted:My Chocolate Milk Stout kit just arrived from NB! I am excited to get this thing brewed up. I know you can dry hop in primary with no problem but what about stuff like Cacao nibs? The directions that come with the kit say to transfer (then again they ALWAYS say to do that), is it better to just toss the nibs in the primary or would I get a more pronounced chocolate flavor from using a secondary? I brewed that kit a few months ago and it turned out great. I followed the instructions exactly as far as transferring it and adding the nibs. I didn't do anything to sanitize the nibs. The beer came out great. Nice thick creamy head and good chocolate flavor. As it has aged the chocolate flavor is turning into a smokey flavor. It's delicious.
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Aug 16, 2012 17:18
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Splizwarf posted:I am completely comfortable with the work itself but lack of clear well-written instructions is what might me scare off. The instructions included with the ones from patriot supply (via ebay) are super clear, I'll vouch for those. I think they come with the unit itself but I can't say for sure. Printed on glossy paper, so I suspect they are just part of the original documentation. Big obvious pictures with simple instructions make it hard to mess up. I'd post a pic but I have no idea where mine have gone. fake edit: Oh wait, here they are: you want page 4, figure 4: http://www.etcsupply.com/manuals/ranco_etc_instructions.pdf?osCsid=061bd27eaed4e6cd515f2b9e14cb9094
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Aug 16, 2012 17:29
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Les Oeufs posted:Question: Whats the difference between hop flavour, hop aroma? The instructions for this recipe say to add the finishing hops >2 minutes before the boil to add hop flavour, and less than that to add aroma. What would the difference be when I was drinking the final product? There's a continuum of what happens to a hop when you chuck it into boiling wort. Hops contain very volatile oils that have, well, an aroma. Take a whiff of your favorite IPA. Those notes of grapefruit or pine or orange are coming from the hops. These oils boil off very easily which is why a hop addition that you only boil for a couple minutes or less is called an "aroma addition". It contributes a strong odor but no significant bitterness. As the hop continues to boil, oils continue to be extracted which contribute a flavor. Usually the descriptors are the same as the aroma--citrus, pine, floral, grassy--depending on the exact hop variety you use. But you're perceiving them with your tongue rather than your nose. The aromatic oils have mostly boiled off, but you still haven't boiled long enough to contribute a lot of bitterness, so these 10-30 minute additions are called "flavor additions". Finally, when you boil hops 45-90 minutes, you really start extracting a lot of pure bitterness. The aroma is long gone, you still get some flavor, but bitterness is the dominant character. That's why your very first additions are called bittering additions.
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Aug 16, 2012 17:44
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Aroma/flavour is also quite a gradual transition, as tastebuds can only detect salt, sweet, sour, bitter, umami and spicyness. What makes oranges taste like oranges lies in the nose. However, Docjowles' distinction is accurate with regards to hopping methods.
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Aug 16, 2012 17:50
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Bad Munki posted:The instructions included with the ones from patriot supply (via ebay) are super clear, I'll vouch for those. I think they come with the unit itself but I can't say for sure. Printed on glossy paper, so I suspect they are just part of the original documentation. Big obvious pictures with simple instructions make it hard to mess up. I'd post a pic but I have no idea where mine have gone.  On it. Patriot's the one I was looking at. Thanks! e: they're even on my side of the country, so it's going to get here at the same time as my NB order!
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Aug 16, 2012 18:38
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Has anyone used wyeasts London 1968? My beer was smelling like fresh apples but now smells like flintstone vitamins.
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Aug 16, 2012 20:07
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I used it with the NB ESB kit. It turned out well but the flavor has changed for the worse after about 2 months in the bottle.
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Aug 16, 2012 20:14
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icehewk posted:Has anyone used wyeasts London 1968? My beer was smelling like fresh apples but now smells like flintstone vitamins. What temperature are you keeping it at? 1968 is a very estery strain especially at higher temperatures.
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Aug 16, 2012 21:39
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Its been between 64 and 70, with the majority of the time being 66-68. I took a sample and it was deeelicious so the strange flintstone must have just been yeast gas byproduct.
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Aug 16, 2012 21:44
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That sounds right. I've had starters of 1968 that smelled like they were off but tasted fine. It has been a while since I've made anything with 1968 but one of the things that stood out was the fruity aroma it gave off.
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Aug 16, 2012 22:03
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Don't want to jinx it but that hydro sample of the IPA I made seems like the best beer I've made yet. It wasn't a super vigorous fermentation but it went on for 5~ days and attenuated down to 1.008. Unfortunately, I was late for a meeting and never did captured a OG post boil, just a pre-boil with about ~7 gallons of 1.044 (which should be like 65-67% eff.).
Angry Grimace fucked around with this message at 02:04 on Aug 17, 2012 |
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Aug 17, 2012 01:31
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icehewk posted:Its been between 64 and 70, with the majority of the time being 66-68. I took a sample and it was deeelicious so the strange flintstone must have just been yeast gas byproduct. Great strain, I just made an ESB with it. I've heard you shouldn't bottle with it though. Let the yeast settle out as much as possible (cold crash if you can but let it sit a few extra days if you can't). Pitch another yeast like half a pack of US-05 or S-04 to bottle condition. Supposedly this yeast does weird poo poo when used to bottle condition after a month or two.
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Aug 17, 2012 03:23
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Help me fix my beer. I had started with the intention of making an oktoberfest, so I went to get 6 lbs munich DME and half a pound of flaked barley, but they were out of munich. I replaced it with light, did the partial mash a bit high so the protien rest never happened. Boiled an hour with 1oz hallertau for 60 and 1oz hallertau for 25. Pitched WL029 kolsh ale yeast, let it ferment a few days at a nice 67 or so, then took it to secondary. When I made the secondary, I had some left over, so I filled and primed 2 bottles. It's been a week in secondary, and there's certainly something missing. Anyone have any ideas? At this point it's barely qualifying as a blonde ale. Should I maybe dry hop an ounce of centennial or similar to give it a bit of character?
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Aug 17, 2012 06:54
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digitalhifi posted:Great strain, I just made an ESB with it. I've heard you shouldn't bottle with it though. Let the yeast settle out as much as possible (cold crash if you can but let it sit a few extra days if you can't). Pitch another yeast like half a pack of US-05 or S-04 to bottle condition. Supposedly this yeast does weird poo poo when used to bottle condition after a month or two. What temp does cold crashing entail? Refrigerator temperatures? I got a few yeast rafts (loogie looking chunks floating on top) but I smacked it while the pack was still frozen so that might have something to do with lack of moisture exposure. edit: Would a half pack of Munton's work for this? icehewk fucked around with this message at 18:25 on Aug 17, 2012 |
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Aug 17, 2012 07:43
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Talked to a local brewer last weekend and we were talking about yeast strains. He mentioned that US-05 is in fact not a single strain but a combination of several, including a bit of lager yeast(!). This would explain its serious attenuation power which I have experienced personally. But it would also explain why they recommend to not wash/reuse US-05 - the various strains would start to compete and you would end up with a different proportion. Has anyone else heard anything like this?
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Aug 17, 2012 11:39
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Paladine_PSoT posted:Help me fix my beer. Your mistake was going from Munich to light extract and not changing the entire rest of your recipe. Generally when I do extract beers, I use the lightest colour dried extract that I can get my hands on and get all the rest of my colour and flavour from specialty grains. Luckily, to fix it you've got a fairly neutral base to work with so the world is your oyster. Dry hopping is one way to go, though if you're not tied to having a pseudo oktoberfest maybe you can throw some fruit in it?
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Aug 17, 2012 12:34
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Yesterday I received a call from the head brewer of a local brewpub, looks like I'll be interning there this semester. I know a lot of what he needs done is office related, but I still cannot wait for this opportunity! Even the chance to observe will be awesome.
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Aug 17, 2012 14:03
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crazyfish posted:Luckily, to fix it you've got a fairly neutral base to work with so the world is your oyster. Dry hopping is one way to go, though if you're not tied to having a pseudo oktoberfest maybe you can throw some fruit in it? "Pitch Brett, see what happens" is always a fun option, too 
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Aug 17, 2012 17:47
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I don't think I've ever done a beer where I didn't do something wrong. This time, I got the brilliant idea to rack about half of the beer into the carboy, and then dump the cup of gelatin into the carboy through a funnel. I don't think that's the recommended way to avoid oxidation. (Note: I don't actually think this ruined the beer or will even be noticable. You just shouldn't dump poo poo into the fermenter willy-nilly.) Kaiho posted:Talked to a local brewer last weekend and we were talking about yeast strains. He mentioned that US-05 is in fact not a single strain but a combination of several, including a bit of lager yeast(!). This would explain its serious attenuation power which I have experienced personally. But it would also explain why they recommend to not wash/reuse US-05 - the various strains would start to compete and you would end up with a different proportion. Angry Grimace fucked around with this message at 18:23 on Aug 17, 2012 |
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Aug 17, 2012 18:10
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Angry Grimace posted:I have my doubts that local brewers know a ton of inside baseball. Every source I've ever read has stated its just a dry version of the Chico Strain. I can see the actual story being distorted into the line Kaiho posted: "We looked at the genome of the US-05 strain, and we found some genes that we have traced back to a number of ancestral strains. There's even a small amount of genetic material that originally came from a lager yeast!" Next iteration: "I heard they looked at US-05 and they found a bunch of strains in there, including lager yeast!" But I agree, as far as US-05 actually being a blend of strains, I am pretty skeptical without some source material.
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Aug 17, 2012 20:23
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For those who buy bulk hops, Nikobrew is having a special for $10/lb on a few varieties this weekend.
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Aug 17, 2012 20:34
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So is it possible to make a sour (or something similar but not quite a sour) without aging for like a year? I'd love to brew something similar to that but the long term aging isnt in the works haha.
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Aug 17, 2012 21:11
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Does anyone have a favorite refractometer to recommend? I was looking at this one from MoreBeer that has ATC, Brix and gravity with the scale adjusted correctly for conversion. I was also wondering if it's worth going for a digital version that isn't a whole more money for a lot more precision.
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Aug 17, 2012 21:36
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JawKnee posted:Some quick googling seems to suggest flavors of passionfruit and peach - as well as stonefruit (though I'm not sure what that is referring to). I've been reading that Summit can have a garlic and onions flavor OR a tangerine flavor, depending on how you use them. Should I even bother trying to use them? Was thinking of doing: Centennial 60 mins Amarillo 15 min Citra or Summit 5 min
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Aug 17, 2012 21:37
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Alright brew day is coming up, I am doing two for labor day. I plan to do an IPA clone recipe from the LHBS recipe book for one, but I also want to do something a little seasonal - like a blackberry wheat ale. I have a good wheat ale recipe written down and I was thinking I could pasteurize a couple pints of fresh picked blackberry puree on kegging day and strain the juice right into the kegged beer before I close it up and carbonate. I know it will add all sorts of color to an otherwise yellow/clear beer - but I am not sure if this is the right approach to get some blackberry flavor in my wheat ale. I figure it's too late to really do anything with secondary fermentation by labor day, but it's not too late to reconsider and use blackberries in primary. Any pointers?
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Aug 17, 2012 22:02
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I haven't tried it myself, but what about blackberry extract? I don't think it'll add nearly as much coloring.
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Aug 17, 2012 22:30
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Cpt.Wacky posted:Does anyone have a favorite refractometer to recommend? I was looking at this one from MoreBeer that has ATC, Brix and gravity with the scale adjusted correctly for conversion. I was also wondering if it's worth going for a digital version that isn't a whole more money for a lot more precision. http://www.brewhardware.com/refractometer Great price and a great guy to deal with too.
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Aug 17, 2012 22:44
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icehewk posted:What temp does cold crashing entail? Refrigerator temperatures? I got a few yeast rafts (loogie looking chunks floating on top) but I smacked it while the pack was still frozen so that might have something to do with lack of moisture exposure. Yea, its usually fridge temps. Basically as close to freezing as you can get without actually freezing. The Munton's would work fine.
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Aug 17, 2012 22:45
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ChiTownEddie posted:So is it possible to make a sour (or something similar but not quite a sour) without aging for like a year? I'd love to brew something similar to that but the long term aging isnt in the works haha.
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Aug 18, 2012 00:39
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ChiTownEddie posted:I haven't tried it myself, but what about blackberry extract? I don't think it'll add nearly as much coloring. I am less concerned with the color as I am with using what's growing in the alley, so I think I will try the pasteurization right in the keg. I can't imagine it will be bad like that but that's what experimentation is for.
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Aug 18, 2012 01:18
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Are you heat pasteurizing? I'm not sure how much pectin is in blackberries but you might want some pectic enzyme. Sky River Meadery does blackberry and raspberry meads and they juice the berries and add 10% juice by volume to the primary. I'm not sure if they do heat pasteurization of the juice or sulfiting though.
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Aug 18, 2012 02:16
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Docjowles posted:For those who buy bulk hops, Nikobrew is having a special for $10/lb on a few varieties this weekend. Oooh, neat...CTZs and Willamettes for me. Speaking of CTZs, Home Brew Mart today was selling CTZ hops for $3.50 for 2 oz. and Columbus for SEVEN. I literally started laughing right in the store. Angry Grimace fucked around with this message at 03:27 on Aug 18, 2012 |
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Aug 18, 2012 03:24
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Phew. After over a month, and a painstaking reyeasting of every individual bottle a few weeks in, my imperial IPA finally carbonated. It's on the sweeter side of what I like in the style, even though I bittered and dry-hopped the living poo poo out of it and used two pounds of demerara sugar, but it's still pretty tasty. And my stout using Briess Midnight Wheat with Amarillo hops and orange peel loving rules. I just with the body were a bit bigger, but I think part of what happened there was a yeast overpitch (since I had a really good, strong slurry from the brewery I work for).
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Aug 18, 2012 08:33
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Angry Grimace posted:Oooh, neat...CTZs and Willamettes for me. My local homebrew store sells ALL hops for $4 / 2 oz. Wrap your head around that
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Aug 18, 2012 13:17
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Does anyone here make charcuterie? I'm considering getting a fridge or chest freezer to make into a fermentation and meat drying chamber, since they both need roughly the same temperature ranges. It seems like that would work to me, but maybe I'm missing something?
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Aug 18, 2012 13:53
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I know it's not proper beer, but I've been trying to make ginger beer with this recipe: http://www.jeffreymorgenthaler.com/2008/how-to-make-your-own-ginger-beer/ Problem is I'm worried that the liquid was a bit too warm when I added the yeast to it. It's been sat under the fridge for about 40 minutes now, and there's a small amount of foam forming on the surface of the liquid. Is there a way I can see if the yeast has been so damaged that I need to add some more? I've never done this before so I've no real idea about how much bubbling I should see or anything like that...
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Aug 18, 2012 14:30
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Angry Grimace posted:I have my doubts that local brewers know a ton of inside baseball. Every source I've ever read has stated its just a dry version of the Chico Strain. Jo3sh posted:I can see the actual story being distorted into the line Kaiho posted: It sounded pretty outlandish to me. I think the genetic analysis line is plausible as an origin story. The whole thing about competing strains just sounded  paranoiac to me.
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Aug 18, 2012 15:30
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I've got an imperial IPA coming out of dry hopping and into bottles today. It's been in secondary for 2.5 weeks after a 6 day primary, coming in at around 9.5%. Is re-pitching worth thinking about for bottle carbonating? Seems like a pain in the rear end but I don't really want flat beer, either.
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Aug 18, 2012 18:14
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Gerblyn posted:I know it's not proper beer, but I've been trying to make ginger beer with this recipe: Unless the water was over about 90 degrees Fahrenheit, I doubt you did the yeast any harm. The way to find out for sure is to follow the directions, including the part about chilling as cold as you can (slushy-cold is ideal) after 48 hours. When you open the first one, it will either be carbonated or not. Be warned that Champagne yeast may continue to work even at refrigerator temperatures. This means your ginger beer may continue to get more carbonated and may eventually get so pressurized that the bottles explode. The reason Jeffrey Morgenthaler can get away with that is he runs a busy bar and no doubt goes through the stuff quickly. Force-carbonation, either with a soda siphon or a kegging rig, is less likely to result in shrapnel.
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Aug 18, 2012 18:20
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Jo3sh posted:Unless the water was over about 90 degrees Fahrenheit, I doubt you did the yeast any harm. The way to find out for sure is to follow the directions, including the part about chilling as cold as you can (slushy-cold is ideal) after 48 hours. When you open the first one, it will either be carbonated or not. Yeah, I wasn't really thinking and just mixed some of the just boiled water I'd used to make the syrup with cold water and added it to the bottle. I did some math and figured it could have been 110 degrees or more, though I had no way of being sure by the time it occurred to me. I dropped in a bit more an hour or so ago, after I noticed it had gone totally still and it seems to be fizzing quite happily now. Thanks for the info by the way, I'm gonna start drinking it pretty much as soon as it's cold enough so hopefully I'll avoid any detonations. One other thing that confused me was the guy saying 25 granules of yeast. That seemed like a really tiny amount to me, so I added a bunch more (around 1/8 teaspoon for a liter). Is "a granule" like a special measure or something, or do you really need such a tiny amount?
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Aug 18, 2012 18:48
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