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internet celebrity posted:I'm using calcium chloride. I don't know if mash temp is really a factor, I can't seem to get dry or sweet maltiness to come through. FWIW the recipe I linked to was mashed at 153ish. If you want super malty Jo3sh posted:I toot this horn pretty regularly, it seems like, but my Best Bitter is freaking awesome, IMO: this is definitely super malty! I've been to a couple of wineries while on vacation, and I've come to two conclusions: 1. I really don't like muscadine based wines 2. I can't wait to get home and start making random fruit wines
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May 10, 2014 17:49
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super malty ESB recipe? I've heard the recipe in BCS is kind of bad and every recipe on HBT is pretty similar.
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Took a quick trip to the FLHBS this morning and I found that they had brought in the GigaYeast 200MM cell packs. It would have been bad manners not to buy one after I asked the owner to bring it in, so I picked up a Vermont IPA. SWEET! I'm not using that today, though - today I have the Colt .177 planned, plus five gallons of cyser. I'm using four gallons of apple juice, a gallon of cran-raspberry to add some acid, and five pounds of honey, all fermented with WL Sweet Mead.
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May 10, 2014 17:56
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Quick questions regarding adding liquid flavorings to beer: 2. I already racked the beer to the secondary yesterday and forgot to add the flavoring, am I hosed or would it be safe to add the flavoring still? I was trying to make a peanut butter porter, but if it turns out to be just a regular porter then no harm done v  v
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May 10, 2014 19:01
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Millions posted:2. I already racked the beer to the secondary yesterday and forgot to add the flavoring, am I hosed or would it be safe to add the flavoring still?
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May 10, 2014 19:26
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Go for it. Secondary fermentation is a bit of a misnomer, the yeast might still be cleaning up off flavors a bit, but it's more of a settling period. In olden times when yeast was shittier and not specialized for brewing, you had to get the beer off the yeast cake as well, since the yeast could die and vomit their nasty guts into the beer causing bad flavors. Yeast is much better now, and sometimes it can be beneficial to leave beer on the cake. It's pretty rare for me to do a secondary these days, I generally only transfer beer for dry hopping or aging on things where the aromatic ingredients might get messed up by sitting on yeast. Hell, I have a spur that's just over a year old and I'm debating adding raspberries after a year of secondary.
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May 10, 2014 19:29
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Awesome, thanks for the info!
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May 10, 2014 20:52
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hey goons; I just got into homebrewing and am having a little issue with my second batch. My current batch is an imperial stout that had an OG of 1.075. Unfortunately, it seems to be stuck at 1.030 for the last week now and the krausen is completely dropped. I hard-racked it to a secondary to see if fermentation might pick up again but it still won't budge. I called a homebrew shop and they told me to order some CBC-1 yeast to restart fermentation. So, I did just that and it came in the mail today. I'm wondering how to properly introduce the CBC-1 to my batch as I've never worked with dry-yeast (I've only used the whitelabs vials) and I don't want to mess up any specifics on how to go about re-pitching. The brew shop guy told me it wouldn't be as simple as pitching it into my fermenter. He said something about slowly introducing it but wasn't very specific with details. Any of you guys know what he was trying to get at or have any other advice/counsel on how to get my brew going again? Here's the recipe I used: Standard Stout - Extract: 8 lbs Dark Malt Extract, 3 lbs @ last 10 minutes (wanted to make it an imperial and this is what the staff at my local shop instructed) Steeping malt: 1/2 lb. Caramel Malt 120L 3/4 lb. Roasted Barley & 1/4 lb. Chocolate Malt; 170F degrees and steeped for 10 minutes. Hops: Northern Brewer (1-1/2 oz. @ beginning and last 10 minutes of brew Yeast: One vial of Whitelabs British yeast & one vial of Whitelabs irish yeast (recipe normally calls for one but again, brewshop guys recommended a second vial since I was adding another 3 lbs of malt at the end) 1 tsp Irish Moss @ 30 minute mark 3 tsp Gypsum Pitched both vials after the wort was cooled & aerated. Thanks
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May 11, 2014 03:05
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Chronos13 posted:imperial stout stuff 1.030 is high but not an unrealistic attenuation for a recipe like that. You might not actually have that many fermentables leftover. What does it taste like? To pitch the dry yeast just boil a little water, let it cool to room temperature and then mix in the dry yeast. Let it sit for 20 mins or so and then just pitch the whole thing in. Don't be surprised if you don't see much of a drop in the gravity though.
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May 11, 2014 03:38
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Chronos13 posted:imperial stout I tried an extract Imperial Stout and it did more or less the same thing 1.090 -> 1.029. It came out as a fairly sweet tasting stout. Not bad, but ... I think "rich" is the best way to describe it. My suspicion is that dark malt extracts have more unfermentables than their lighter cousins. If I had to do it again, I'd probably use ~1/3rd dark and 2/3rds lighter extracts, then just fool around with steeping grains to get the right color. Presumably then it would ferment down to a more appropriate range. Point is: that's not too abnormal. Maybe give it a bit longer in secondary, and pitching some more yeast might not hurt, but like Bobsledboy said, it wouldn't be surprising if all the fermentables were already eaten.
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May 11, 2014 04:43
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For any big beer, it is a challenge to get a wort fermentable enough that it finishes where you want it and does not end up cloying. The issue is compounded by the fact that high-gravity worts have lower hop utilization than milder worts, so it's also hard to get them bitter enough to be balanced. Don't be afraid to add kettle sugars to make high-gravity beers. My last Imperial stout was almost 15% simple sugars.
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May 11, 2014 05:00
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Try light malt extract instead of dark. Compensate with steeping grains.
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May 11, 2014 05:05
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Jo3sh posted:For any big beer, it is a challenge to get a wort fermentable enough that it finishes where you want it and does not end up cloying. The issue is compounded by the fact that high-gravity worts have lower hop utilization than milder worts, so it's also hard to get them bitter enough to be balanced. Seconding this. I'd have used candy sugar instead of the extra malt extract if you just wanted to make it higher gravity. I did that to a couple Belgians.
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May 11, 2014 05:07
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thanks for your response all. I think i'll try throwing in the CBC-1 and hope for the best and expect the worst. One question; what do you precisely mean by 'kettle sugars'? sorry i'm retarded. edit: it tastes really good as far as uncarbonated/room temperature beer goes. I'm perfectly content with bottling it as is, I was just hoping to learn the ropes about making a beer an imperial one as far as learning new projects go. Chronos13 fucked around with this message at 05:33 on May 11, 2014 |
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May 11, 2014 05:29
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Kettle sugars are sugars like actual table sugar or other highly-fermentable, non-malt-derived sugars that you add during the boil. Candi sugar or syrup, turbinado sugar, honey, dextrose, etc. can all be used. It seems weird because we think of good beer as being all-malt, but a surprising number of classic beers have had kettle sugars added - especially British styles. Fermentable sugars will tend to drive down the FG of a beer and make it dryer, assuming similar OGs. That is to say, between two beers with an OG of 1.090, for example, an all-malt beer will tend to finish higher and sweeter than one with a good dose of kettle sugars contributing to that OG.
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May 11, 2014 05:44
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Bobsledboy posted:1.030 is high but not an unrealistic attenuation for a recipe like that. You might not actually have that many fermentables leftover. What does it taste like? This isn't strictly ideal, best practice is: - Boil water and pour it into a clean container - Cover it (foil works well) - Let it sit until it is around 35 degrees Celsius (95f) - Sanitise some scissors and the outside of your yeast packet. - Uncover the water, sprinkle yeast on top of the water and try to avoid clumps then cover again. Do not mix (yet) - Wait 15 minutes and check, if you see foaming or other yeast activity, give the container a gentle swirl to suspend yeast in the water and pour into the beer.
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May 11, 2014 05:52
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What are people's experiences with the Wyeast/White Labs Lambic Blends? I started a lambic last week using White Labs blend, and someplaces I read that it is great and others suggest adding other dregs to it to make it more funky. Thoughts?
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May 11, 2014 16:53
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I don't have experience with them, but the wyeast site suggests it has a regular Belgian Sacc, a sherry strain, two bretts, Pedio, and lacto. These are all the necessary components for a good sour beer, but you may want to ferment warmer then normal. I personally don't do any temp controls on my sours. I keep them near a window so they get effected by the seasons as well. Granted I'm all dregs and a few pure Brett beers but I've had good results by not trying to micromanage them like with normal beers. :Edit: first brew of the year! It's been cold and miserable in upstate NY so I'm happy to finally get my pipeline up and running after a winter of no brewing. I guess having a leak somewhere in your kegerator really helps to put off brewing. Anyway, oatmeal stout today that I promised a friend I would brew for her almost a year ago...I ended up deciding to try a single decoction since I could only get pale malt instead of mild or brown and I hit my Sacc rest right on the head after boiling the thick mash. I'll be sparging in about 30 minutes then onto the boil... Trish's Oatmeal Stout 17# pale 2# flaked oats 2# crystal 120L 2# black patent 3oz fuggles for 90 mins 3oz fuggles for 15 mins Irish ale yeast I'll probably add a few ounces of milk sugar after fermentation if it ends up thinner then I want. Daedalus Esquire fucked around with this message at 20:29 on May 11, 2014 |
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May 11, 2014 17:15
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ScaerCroe posted:What are people's experiences with the Wyeast/White Labs Lambic Blends? I think that they're weak sauce. The first generation beers that I've made with them have never turned out to my liking. They make good beer, but it's never sour or funky enough for me. I always supplement with bottle dregs.
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May 11, 2014 20:24
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Is there any good way to make a decent gluten free stout?
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May 11, 2014 21:12
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Two more newbie questions: 1) I just brewed the Northern Brewer Petite Saison Extract. The instructions they gave estiamte a 1.041 OG, Brewer's friend online estimates 1.037 or so. My actual OG is 1.051 after temperature adjustment. I'm not worried about it, but I am curious what could cause that? My initial thought was boiling too much water away, causing the proportion of sugar to be higher but that should be counteracted by diluting the boil up to 5 gallons. 2) While I am saving up to buy a wort chiller as possibly my next investment (vs. a boiling rig so I don't have to use my electric stove). I was thinking, since I dilute my boil with water to get it up to 5 gal anyway, why wouldn't I just dump ice directly into the boil during cooling?
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May 11, 2014 21:49
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hellfaucet posted:Is there any good way to make a decent gluten free stout? My sister drinks Omission, which removes the gluten after the beer's been brewed. I don't know how they do that, but it's worth looking into because I can actually drink that without tasting sawdust.
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May 11, 2014 21:49
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hellfaucet posted:Is there any good way to make a decent gluten free stout? I think it depends on your defnition of "gluten-free," and how sensitive the people drinking it are. This stuff is supposed to reduce gluten content in beer to <20ppm, which meets some definitions of "gluten-free," but I have read that even that level is enough to cause problems for celiacs and other very sensitive people.
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May 11, 2014 22:31
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Napoleon Bonaparty posted:My sister drinks Omission, which removes the gluten after the beer's been brewed. I don't know how they do that, but it's worth looking into because I can actually drink that without tasting sawdust. If I recall on a homebrew scale it depends on how Gluten-Intollerant they are they should fall into one of the 4 camps:
If Gluten Allergic / Celiac/Coeliac don't use this as its a gluten reducer and don't risk your health over something like this. But if you're Gluten Sensitive but not too sensitive it's worth a try I guess (at your own risk etc): Use Whitelab Clarity Ferm quote:Now just to set the record straight: Article on gluten free / gluten reduced beer: http://www.examiner.com/article/gluten-free-beer-reduced-gluten-beer-offers-real-beer-taste-for-celiac-impaired If you want gluten free beer you pretty much got to do it from the start here is a recipe from briess site (using their BriesSweet™ White Sorghum Syrup 45DE High Maltose) http://www.brewingwithbriess.com/Recipes/beer/display/honey-of-a-gluten-free-lager quote:What is BriesSweet™ White Sorghum Syrup? Edit: gently caress beat.! 
Fluo fucked around with this message at 22:40 on May 11, 2014 |
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May 11, 2014 22:33
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Capt. Sticl posted:Two more newbie questions: The issue with top-up water is that it pretty regularly does not get well mixed in. Sometimes this leads to high readings and sometimes to low, it just depends on what bit of the wort you get. With extract beers, your overall gravity will be within a few points of the projection, assuming your volume is close, so it's almost certainly not worth worrying about. Capt. Sticl posted:2) While I am saving up to buy a wort chiller as possibly my next investment (vs. a boiling rig so I don't have to use my electric stove). I was thinking, since I dilute my boil with water to get it up to 5 gal anyway, why wouldn't I just dump ice directly into the boil during cooling? The issue there is that the ice may not be sanitary.
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May 11, 2014 22:48
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Jo3sh posted:The issue there is that the ice may not be sanitary. I kind of thought about that, but its still in the bag and says its from distilled water. But, yea I probably shouldn't be introducing anything more that I can't control the sanitation on.
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May 11, 2014 22:58
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Well, never talk about your brewday until it's done I guess. I jinxed myself after getting my decoction perfect and ended up struggling the last 3 and a half hours trying to sparge. I just could not get a good grain bed and was getting no run-off. I found a pound of rice hulls in my brewing stuff and tried adding those to help, but I just could not get them distributed and they kept floating to the top. I basically had to have the slowest trickle I could manage for the initial runoff and first sparge. Finally my second sparge got a decent runoff going and only took 10 or so minutes after the first two literally took hours. This is turning into an awfully long brewday, I better not miss game of thrones 
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May 11, 2014 23:11
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Cointelprofessional posted:I think that they're weak sauce. The first generation beers that I've made with them have never turned out to my liking. They make good beer, but it's never sour or funky enough for me. I always supplement with bottle dregs. I feel the same way. We make a lot of sours and the blends turn out consistently mediocre beer. Probably (my) process more than anything, but all of our best sours have been from dregs or other experiments rather than commercial blends.
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May 12, 2014 01:01
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Cointelprofessional posted:I think that they're weak sauce. The first generation beers that I've made with them have never turned out to my liking. They make good beer, but it's never sour or funky enough for me. I always supplement with bottle dregs. Hmm, I could possibly add some of my standard 'sour dregs' or something to get it really funky.
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May 12, 2014 01:02
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Fluo posted:If I recall on a homebrew scale it depends on how Gluten-Intollerant they are they should fall into one of the 4 camps: Celiac, with my cousin bordering on Allergic. I'd say whatever they do is worth figuring out.
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May 12, 2014 02:02
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Napoleon Bonaparty posted:Celiac, with my cousin bordering on Allergic. I'd say whatever they do is worth figuring out. Been reading around as scientifically (if you want to be profitable) I'm fairly sure you can't removed all the gluten after making a beer with gluten. And just came across article after article talking about Omission beer. quote:Omission Beer is not a “gluten-free” beer but a “gluten-removed” beer. They actually make their beer with malted barley and then use a proprietary method using enzymes to remove the gluten quote:Scientists say it leaves tiny gluten fragments behind and that it may not be safe for those with celiac disease. And recent tests done in Canada on other “gluten-removed” beer found gluten in those beers too. Paragraph taken directly from the CSA website: quote:Unlike the FDA definition, the CSA Recognition Seal Program does not allow the use of oats or ingredients that are derived from gluten-containing grains that have been refined in such a way to remove the gluten. The Program also uses the most stringent ELISA test equally cross reactive to wheat, barley and rye for testing purposes and products must test below level of quantitation at 5 ppm to qualify for CSA Recognition Seal status. Now I the official press release yesterday from the CSA: quote:The Celiac Sprue Association (CSA), the largest non-profit celiac support group in America, today announced that Omission Beer has met stringent requirements for earning the organization’s Recognition Seal. The CSA Seal, currently found on more than 1100 product brands, embodies the CSA’s commitment to a consistent, meaningful, and verifiable definition of products that are the most risk-free for consumers on a celiac diet. Then it turns out Omission is very straight up that the beer contains some gluten, but less than the 20ppm (aka on par with what the enzyme Whitelab sells).  So if you want 100% gluten free beer brew with unmalted white sorghum grain/BriesSweet™ White Sorghum Syrup, if you want reduced (20ppm) gluten beer, use WLP4000 Clarity Ferm. But personality I wouldn't risk the WLP4000 Clarity Ferm on a homebrew scale as I guess you don't have the expensive scientific equipment to check the ppm of gluten. quote:Omission beer is brewed with malted barley, but we’ve developed a proprietary process to remove the gluten to ensure that gluten levels in every batch measure well below the widely accepted international gluten-free standard of 20 parts per million (ppm) for food and beverages. According to federal guidelines, we aren’t legally allowed to claim that Omission beer is gluten-free outside of Oregon because the beer is brewed with malted barley. While the FDA proposed to define the term “gluten-free,” that definition has not been formally adopted by the organization. While Omission beer does contain barley, one of the “prohibited grains” in this definition, all batches are tested by an independent lab using the R5 Competitive ELISA to ensure that gluten levels meet our standards. Fluo fucked around with this message at 02:25 on May 12, 2014 |
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May 12, 2014 02:16
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@lambic pre blends: my first generation lambic mead with WYeast Belgian lambic turned out good, but not super sour. Right now i have the second generation about a month in and it is sour enough to take an eye out. I hope it gets even more sour  Brewed my amber today starting around 3. Double crushed my grains this time so i wasn't boiling til 7. Gravity and other info to come tomorrow some time.
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May 12, 2014 03:02
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Marshmallow Blue posted:@lambic pre blends: my first generation lambic mead with WYeast Belgian lambic turned out good, but not super sour. Right now i have the second generation about a month in and it is sour enough to take an eye out. I hope it gets even more sour Blend, baby, blend. This is why I usually make a couple batches of a sour beer, they are so unpredictable. Fluo posted:So if you want 100% gluten free beer brew with unmalted white sorghum grain/BriesSweet™ White Sorghum Syrup, if you want reduced (20ppm) gluten beer, use WLP4000 Clarity Ferm. Thanks so much for the excellent information on gluten-free beers. I have a close friend who has been on a pretty strict gluten-free diet for some time. I had one of her gluten-free beers over the weekend and it... wasn't good, at all. It kind of inspired me to check out if you could make a decent beer with sorghum. Of course, her fav beer style were stouts... In order to get the roast, chocolate, bready notes... I don't see how it'd be possible in any sort of authentic, non-cheating sort of way.
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May 12, 2014 13:37
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I have a friend who is (actually) celiac and brews. Sorghum apparently makes pretty lackluster beer, we have a local beverage center that contract brews gluten free beers under the name "Steadfast Brewing" and it is, like you said, not very good. My friend started brewing with millet instead of sorghum and I guess it's much better, he also recommended buckwheat since I guess that is GF too.
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May 12, 2014 13:45
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hellfaucet posted:Blend, baby, blend. This is why I usually make a couple batches of a sour beer, they are so unpredictable. Daedalus Esquire posted:I have a friend who is (actually) celiac and brews. Sorghum apparently makes pretty lackluster beer, we have a local beverage center that contract brews gluten free beers under the name "Steadfast Brewing" and it is, like you said, not very good. My friend started brewing with millet instead of sorghum and I guess it's much better, he also recommended buckwheat since I guess that is GF too. Buckwheat is a great idea! quote:In recent years, buckwheat has been used as a substitute for other grains in gluten-free beer. Although it is not a cereal, buckwheat can be used in the same way as barley to produce a malt that can form the basis of a mash that will brew a beer without gliadin or hordein (together gluten) and therefore can be suitable for coeliacs or others sensitive to certain glycoproteins You could also just roast the buckwheat yourself for roasted buckwheat and maybe even malt some buckwheat? 
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May 12, 2014 14:06
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Fluo posted:You could also just roast the buckwheat yourself for roasted buckwheat and maybe even malt some buckwheat? Seems Colorado Malting Co. has a range of malted gluten-free grains (scroll down a bit), including buckwheat, millet, sunflower, and others. It appears they even sell direct to homebrewers, although I have no idea how much it would cost to actually get the grain in your hands.
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May 12, 2014 17:28
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Brewing my first stove-top batch, BIAB 1 gallon mosaic single hopped and I'm already considering using extract next time. My largest stove-top pot holds ~1.5 gallons, which is what I'm mashing with. With the grain it's about full. I heated the water to 160 and added the bag of grain and the temps are all over ranging from 150 inside the grain to 160+ outside. What a pain. I may buy a slightly larger pot, they have them for $20 for a 5 gallon pot next door to my work. I guess that would allow for better heat distribution since the grains could be fully submerged without touching edges. Maybe I'm just worrying about temps too much though. We'll see.
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May 12, 2014 17:36
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Midorka posted:Brewing my first stove-top batch, BIAB 1 gallon mosaic single hopped and I'm already considering using extract next time. My largest stove-top pot holds ~1.5 gallons, which is what I'm mashing with. With the grain it's about full. I heated the water to 160 and added the bag of grain and the temps are all over ranging from 150 inside the grain to 160+ outside. What a pain. BIAB in a one gallon batch just seems really weird to me. I can't see being able to hold temps on a stove to properly mash with that little water. A 5 gallon pot could actually be worse because it's likely wider and would just put the bag closer to the bottom of the pot. You'd probably be better buying a cooler and heating your water and submerging the bag in the cooler of water.
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May 12, 2014 19:19
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rockcity posted:BIAB in a one gallon batch just seems really weird to me. I can't see being able to hold temps on a stove to properly mash with that little water. Well the pot I used is 2 gallons. I had no problem holding heat for 45 minutes at all. I lost maybe 3-4 degrees which I do find incredibly odd mind you. I'm doing 1 gallon batches for the sake of simply doing SMaSH to learn every hop available.
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May 12, 2014 20:04
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Midorka posted:Well the pot I used is 2 gallons. I had no problem holding heat for 45 minutes at all. I lost maybe 3-4 degrees which I do find incredibly odd mind you. If you are going through the trouble anyway, why not just mash in a large batch, draw off 1 gallon boils and kill over a whole Sunday? Same exact base beer, just toss in your hops as you boil each one. Jacobey000 fucked around with this message at 02:59 on May 13, 2014 |
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May 13, 2014 02:44
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Jacobey000 posted:If you are going through the trouble anyway, why not just mash in a large batch, draw off 1 gallon boils and kill over a whole Sunday? Same exact base beer, just toss in your hops as you boil each one. Cause then that requires a lot more effort.
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May 13, 2014 04:11
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