|
I have a darkstar burner, and I can barely see the flame. Is this something I should be changing my oxygen dial for? And which way should it go? Or is no visible flame ideal? I got 3 batches form a 15lb tank.
|
#
?
Mar 25, 2015 21:53
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 4, 2024 02:33 |
|
|
Marshmallow Blue posted:I have a darkstar burner, and I can barely see the flame. Is this something I should be changing my oxygen dial for? And which way should it go? Or is no visible flame ideal? I got 3 batches form a 15lb tank. It can be pretty hard to see blue propane flame in daylight. You want as little orange as possible, so if you're only getting blue, you're doing great.
|
|
#
?
Mar 26, 2015 00:23
|
|
|
Jo3sh, what is your best Best Bitter recipe looking like these days? My Vienna Simcoe SMaSH keg just kicked and I want something low-gravity to replace it.
|
|
#
?
Mar 26, 2015 03:16
|
|
|
Economic Sinkhole posted:Jo3sh, what is your best Best Bitter recipe looking like these days? My Vienna Simcoe SMaSH keg just kicked and I want something low-gravity to replace it. Well, Brewtoad is being a bitch right now, so I can't just paste in the link. For ten gallons: 7 pounds Ashburne Mild malt (Briess) 7 pounds Maris Otter Pale Ale malt (Crisp) 2 pounds Crystal 40L (optional) a couple ounces of Black Prinz to touch up the color a little Single infusion mash at 153-4. 2 ounces Cascade pellets, 7.4%AA, 60 min 2 ounces Cascade pellets, 7.4%AA, flameout Wyeast 1275 Thames Valley or White Labs WLP023 Burton Ale At 75% efficiency, this should have an OG around 1.039. When I do smaller beers like this, my efficiency jumps, so I tend to be a little higher than that. If you try, you can get this from grain to glass in under two weeks. I might brew this one this weekend as I just kicked a keg last night myself.
|
|
#
?
Mar 26, 2015 06:07
|
|
|
Jo3sh posted:Well, Brewtoad is being a bitch right now, so I can't just paste in the link. This sounds v good and I might do something similar to get rid of some higher alpha hope I have sitting around, specifically topaz and vic secret leaves. Also I can't really get much in terms of crystal malts locally, all the different ones are very hard to find in Australia so I was thinking a fawcetts medium caramel would do a good replacement?
|
|
#
?
Mar 26, 2015 10:39
|
|
|
Jo3sh posted:Well, Brewtoad is being a bitch right now, so I can't just paste in the link. Its great, I tweak it abit for regional preference etc likeI use a different brand of mild, a little less grain (effiency have to nail 4% everytime etc for this one, fussy best bitter drinkers) and use fuggles east kent gold but this recipe owns. I got 2 firkin casks of the stuff ready for my Birthday get together (other beers too mind) 
|
|
#
?
Mar 26, 2015 11:59
|
|
|
Took a gravity reading on the Cab IPA last night. A little taste and there's not much aroma, which is weird because of the 3ozs of cascade I added at flameout, hoping it shows up next week for bottling. It's at 1.010 right now (5.9%)
|
|
#
?
Mar 26, 2015 13:22
|
|
|
Jo3sh posted:If you try, you can get this from grain to glass in under two weeks. This raises a question for me... I always see a bit of mixed information in terms of the amount of time to leave the beer in the primary before racking to the bottling setup. Sometimes I see 2 weeks in the primary, 2 weeks in the bottles to condition. But I've also heard that you should leave it in the primary for a month, then 2 weeks in the bottles. Is there any hard fast rule? Do you really benefit from leaving it in the primary an additional 2 weeks?
|
|
#
?
Mar 26, 2015 13:50
|
|
|
Scarf posted:This raises a question for me... I always see a bit of mixed information in terms of the amount of time to leave the beer in the primary before racking to the bottling setup. Sometimes I see 2 weeks in the primary, 2 weeks in the bottles to condition. But I've also heard that you should leave it in the primary for a month, then 2 weeks in the bottles. Whatever feels right. I let sours sit as long as possible but hoppy beers are best fresh. Strong beers I will ferment up to several months on a certain temperature schedule, like my quad started at 16c, went to 25 over 2 weeks then gets an 8 week crash in the keg fridge at 6
|
|
#
?
Mar 26, 2015 14:20
|
|
|
Gravity hasn't changed in 4 days, but it definitely can't be finished. Attenuation is less than 60%, so I raised the temperature and crossed my fingers. First time this happened to me, any advice?
|
|
#
?
Mar 26, 2015 14:21
|
|
|
McSpergin posted:Whatever feels right. I let sours sit as long as possible but hoppy beers are best fresh. Strong beers I will ferment up to several months on a certain temperature schedule, like my quad started at 16c, went to 25 over 2 weeks then gets an 8 week crash in the keg fridge at 6 On the same token I've had grain to keg on a 9% heady topper clone in 8 days including a 4 day dry hop. A week to carbonate and it was amazing.
|
|
#
?
Mar 26, 2015 14:21
|
|
|
McSpergin posted:This sounds v good and I might do something similar to get rid of some higher alpha hope I have sitting around, specifically topaz and vic secret leaves. Also I can't really get much in terms of crystal malts locally, all the different ones are very hard to find in Australia so I was thinking a fawcetts medium caramel would do a good replacement? Yeah, crystal and caramel are the same thing, more or less. Medium caramel from Fawcett is going to be great in that beer.
|
|
#
?
Mar 26, 2015 16:14
|
|
|
Scarf posted:This raises a question for me... I always see a bit of mixed information in terms of the amount of time to leave the beer in the primary before racking to the bottling setup. Sometimes I see 2 weeks in the primary, 2 weeks in the bottles to condition. But I've also heard that you should leave it in the primary for a month, then 2 weeks in the bottles. There is no hard and fast rule. In (very) general, lower-gravity beers can be wrapped up more quickly, and bigger beers take longer. I'm a pretty lazy brewer, so I tend to leave things in primary a full two weeks and then keg them on a weekend. I have, however turned this recipe into drinkable beer in a hurry because of an impending family reunion. If you want to be absolutely sure you're doing it right, when the gravity has stopped dropping and is stable for a couple of days, cold crash it for a couple days longer and then package it. The easy/lazy way out is just to wait two weeks (for most beers), then package. I don't see any benefit to four weeks in primary for any but big beers. I do leave cyser in primary that long, but that's mostly because it's strong and not as nutrient-rich as beer is, so it takes longer to really finish out. Jo3sh fucked around with this message at 16:22 on Mar 26, 2015 |
|
#
?
Mar 26, 2015 16:19
|
|
|
Jo3sh posted:There is no hard and fast rule. In (very) general, lower-gravity beers can be wrapped up more quickly, and bigger beers take longer. I'm a pretty lazy brewer, so I tend to leave things in primary a full two weeks and then keg them on a weekend. I have, however turned this recipe into drinkable beer in a hurry because of an impending family reunion. Gotcha, thanks. Yeah this isn't anything big, just an ESB I'm trying out. However I'm without a way to cold crash until I can find a good/cheap freezer on craigslist, but I'm not really planning on getting into that until this summer when it'll be pretty much necessary if I want to do any brewing. I guess I'll do the standard 2-3 weeks in the primary and bottle condition. I know it's unreasonable to expect something amazing for what is literally my first time brewing, but I'd like it to be as good as it can considering the time and effort I've put in.
|
|
#
?
Mar 26, 2015 16:41
|
|
|
Sorry, I should have said that cold crashing is an optional way to speed up settling/clearing of the beer. If you don't have the tools for it this time, don't worry about it.
|
|
#
?
Mar 26, 2015 17:09
|
|
|
Jo3sh posted:Sorry, I should have said that cold crashing is an optional way to speed up settling/clearing of the beer. If you don't have the tools for it this time, don't worry about it. Oh no worries at all. It's great to know that'll be an option once I can get a freezer w/ temp control in place. Like I said, it's on my To-Buy list anyway since it'll be necessary for the final stages of wort-chilling and fermentation... I definitely want to do some summer brewing, and my time is running out to do any without one. During the summer our tap water comes out at around 85-90ºF, so my plans are to ice bath down to about 100ºF, transfer it to the bucket, throw it in the freezer to finish it off, then ferment. So it's nice to know that with a few turns of the dial, I'd be able to accomplish all of that as well as a cold crash. And then kegging to boot! 
|
|
#
?
Mar 26, 2015 17:46
|
|
|
Last Monday I brewed my 2nd annual attempt at a "pliny the younger" style dry IIIPA. This time I went off the rails, using ~300 IBU (calculated), 10% ABV, and <1.01 FG, and Simcoe presence as my goals and tweaking everything else. Decided to do a combination of Pilsner malt, vienna, carapils, and cane sugar for the grist, 150 IBUs of hop extract @ 60min, then used a blend of Simcoe, Equinox, Amarillo, and Centennial hops @15 min and flameout. Now I'm just desperately trying not to oxidize it like I did last year by all means possible. Here's my recipe: http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/209375/2015-april-hops
|
|
#
?
Mar 26, 2015 21:26
|
|
|
Made my first batch a couple of weeks ago. I jumped right into all grain and used the no sparge method. I kinda of winged it and just made a simple recipe of. Wyeast American Ale Yeast (made starter) 11 pounds 2 row Great Western Domestic Malt 1 pound of 10L Crystal Malt 3 oz of Cascade Hops (60 min, 30 min, 15 min) IBU around 42 10 gallons of Water. Mashed at 152, but had temperature control issues so the temp fluctuated a bit. Had more preboil wort than expected so I had to boil it for about 2 hours before I added my hop additions. OG at about 1.050 Pool water got splashed into my wort during the cooling phase (don't ask). Fermented at 65 degrees. Tested it today, FG at around 1.015 and I don't taste any apparent off flavors and moved it to a keg. Making another batch tomorrow, hopeful it goes smoother this time.
|
|
#
?
Mar 27, 2015 02:19
|
|
|
Second post of the day: I also made a pale ale using Equinox, Hallertau Tradition, and Nelson Sauvin hops and it turned out SUPER tasty. I think Equinox hops are going to be making a big splash soon. This flavor combo happened to be pretty much perfect. http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/222015/equinox-hallertau-nelson-pale
|
|
#
?
Mar 27, 2015 06:16
|
|
|
I had a pint of Cigar City Madurro brown with vanilla and my wife tried it and immediately said "make a lot of whatever this is". Are there any tricks to working with vanilla beans? I was thinking of soaking them in bourbon for a week then dumping everything in to give the beer the vanilla in addition to a hint of bourbon.
|
|
#
?
Mar 27, 2015 12:52
|
|
|
Power_of_the_glory posted:Pool water got splashed into my wort during the cooling phase (don't ask). New thread title please
|
|
#
?
Mar 27, 2015 13:44
|
|
|
two_beer_bishes posted:I had a pint of Cigar City Madurro brown with vanilla and my wife tried it and immediately said "make a lot of whatever this is". Are there any tricks to working with vanilla beans? I was thinking of soaking them in bourbon for a week then dumping everything in to give the beer the vanilla in addition to a hint of bourbon. You might consider just using good vanilla extract. You can add in secondary, or at packaging. I use Penzey's double strength extract for baking, and it's always excellent. Try one to three ounces for five gallons, maybe.
|
|
#
?
Mar 27, 2015 14:03
|
|
|
Jo3sh posted:You might consider just using good vanilla extract. You can add in secondary, or at packaging. I use Penzey's double strength extract for baking, and it's always excellent. Try one to three ounces for five gallons, maybe. And if you make your own, get BULK grade B beans.
|
|
#
?
Mar 27, 2015 14:08
|
|
|
Marshmallow Blue posted:And if you make your own, get BULK grade B beans. Do you just put in the extract and not put the beans directly in the beer? I liked the idea of racking the beer onto the beans in secondary but I'm yet to do it because the beans are so expensive and I keep running out of bourbon before I remember to soak the beans.
|
|
#
?
Mar 27, 2015 14:38
|
|
|
Der Penguingott posted:Do you just put in the extract and not put the beans directly in the beer? You can add straight up beans if you want. The extraction will be slower because of the alcohol content vs vodka, but it worked fine for my dry vanilla hydromel. This sites beans are WAY more affordable than any dried up bean you'd get in a grocery store. https://www.beanilla.com/madagascar-vanilla-beans-extract-grade-b You can chop and add them in, I wouldn't bother scraping since either way you'll probably see a tiny seed or ten floating in your glass.
|
|
#
?
Mar 27, 2015 14:54
|
|
|
Power_of_the_glory posted:Pool water got splashed into my wort during the cooling phase (don't ask). Ah, the ol' "swirl the kettle around on the top step in the pool" technique! I did that a couple times before being gifted an immersion chiller. Now I need a second to set in an ice bath to cool the wort faster in our terrible heat.
|
|
#
?
Mar 27, 2015 15:13
|
|
|
El Jebus posted:Ah, the ol' "swirl the kettle around on the top step in the pool" technique! I did that a couple times before being gifted an immersion chiller. Now I need a second to set in an ice bath to cool the wort faster in our terrible heat. I have a double sink, I switch the kettle out back and forth between new fills of cold water and it takes 20-30 minutes. I can live with that til I can get a chiller.
|
|
#
?
Mar 27, 2015 17:17
|
|
|
Marshmallow Blue posted:I have a double sink, I switch the kettle out back and forth between new fills of cold water and it takes 20-30 minutes. I can live with that til I can get a chiller. That was one of the first things I made for myself. Parts ran me ~$45 at home depot. Most expensive part was the flexible copper tubing. Only thing I'd do differently (and I may still modify) would be to add a quick release at the sink/hose end.
|
|
#
?
Mar 27, 2015 17:36
|
|
|
Stranges hot break yesterday. Looked like boiling soured beer and the pellicle got all gunked up something. My guess is the unmalted wheat, red wheat, and rye made for a nice egg drop gray blob. 
Jacobey000 fucked around with this message at 17:50 on Mar 27, 2015 |
|
#
?
Mar 27, 2015 17:46
|
|
|
Jhet posted:That was one of the first things I made for myself. Parts ran me ~$45 at home depot. Most expensive part was the flexible copper tubing. If you know somebody in HVAC or plumbing, you can get tubing from a contractor supply store for way less than home depot/lowes. I think mine was like $30 all together, although I don't remember how many feet I got.
|
|
#
?
Mar 27, 2015 23:18
|
|
|
Jo3sh posted:Well, Brewtoad is being a bitch right now, so I can't just paste in the link. So just out of curiosity do you do any water chemistry on this? I'm thinking I might pump a wort kit out for dad this weekend, he's running low on the patersbier I did for him and he's a big fan of the low ABV stuff. I've just gotta convince him to get an STC and an old fridge now haha
|
|
#
?
Mar 28, 2015 00:42
|
|
|
McSpergin posted:So just out of curiosity do you do any water chemistry on this? I'm thinking I might pump a wort kit out for dad this weekend, he's running low on the patersbier I did for him and he's a big fan of the low ABV stuff. I've just gotta convince him to get an STC and an old fridge now haha No, I basically never bother with water chemistry except to add some 5.2 to the strike water. I live in a city that has moderate water that tastes good, and it seems to make tasty beer, so I've never seen the need to goof around with it. If you were going to build water for it, you could basically do any English profile. I'd stay away from a super-hard profile like Burton-on-Trent, myself, but that's just preference.
|
|
#
?
Mar 28, 2015 01:05
|
|
|
two_beer_bishes posted:I had a pint of Cigar City Madurro brown with vanilla and my wife tried it and immediately said "make a lot of whatever this is". Are there any tricks to working with vanilla beans? I was thinking of soaking them in bourbon for a week then dumping everything in to give the beer the vanilla in addition to a hint of bourbon. Maduro is so great. I don't know the answer, other than most people will say to do some variation of splitting the beans, soaking in vodka(I don't see why bourbon wouldn't work) , and adding all of the liquids and solids to secondary for some arguable period of time. Just drink more Maduro and it'll be okay.
|
|
#
?
Mar 28, 2015 03:17
|
|
|
Thanks for the vanilla tips. I'll swing by penzeys and grab some of the extract. I'll try an amount scaled down to a pint in something similar to get an idea of the flavor, maybe I'll just do the same thing with some beans anyway.
|
|
#
?
Mar 28, 2015 03:49
|
|
|
Jo3sh posted:No, I basically never bother with water chemistry except to add some 5.2 to the strike water. I live in a city that has moderate water that tastes good, and it seems to make tasty beer, so I've never seen the need to goof around with it. If you were going to build water for it, you could basically do any English profile. I'd stay away from a super-hard profile like Burton-on-Trent, myself, but that's just preference. Yeah for sure. I rarely do unless I'm trying for something which does need treatment. I use a wallonian/western Hainaut profile for saisons and British water for IIPA's but our profile here is really good 23.6 calcium, 28.7mag, 31 sodium, 3 sulfate, 80 chloride and 156.2 bicarbonate. It is nice for a moderately hopped beer but I just punch heaps of sulfate in if I want more hop flavour As for your beer I've essentially bastardised my own version for what was available and made a couple small changes: 1250g each of Fawcett Pearl and Ashburne Mild Malt 500g flaked barley 480g Simpsons heritage crystal malt 50g Carafa 2 instead of black prinz 18 Ibu topaz at 60, 8@5 Mashing a bit higher for the final body, around 67C, added the flaked barley for that proper British creamy mouthfeel, and dropped the hop character right down from what yours was (Beersmith told me it was around the 60 Ibu mark, I've brought mine down to around 25 which is fairly close to style. Gonna use burton ale yeast because it's the bomb. I added a touch of gypsum to the mash just to up the sulfate a little but not to the point of a burton profile so I'll see how it goes. Dad ferments without temp control at this stage so I'll be curious to see what happens with this one
|
|
#
?
Mar 28, 2015 05:09
|
|
|
two_beer_bishes posted:Thanks for the vanilla tips. I'll swing by penzeys and grab some of the extract. I'll try an amount scaled down to a pint in something similar to get an idea of the flavor, maybe I'll just do the same thing with some beans anyway. Get the base brown ale right first then you should be fairly well good to go from there. I would personally do bourbon and vanilla soaked oak chips, no chill into the fermenter with the oak chips in there. Should pop
|
|
#
?
Mar 28, 2015 05:11
|
|
|
Be careful with how much vanilla you use. I used two vanilla beans soaked in a few oz of bourbon when I was making a 5 gallon batch of vanilla oatmeal stout. It was undrinkable. Even after a few months the vanilla taste overpowered everything else.
|
|
#
?
Mar 28, 2015 14:30
|
|
|
Any advice for balancing hop flavor and aroma with aging for an american barleywine? It went from 1.110 to 1.026 in two weeks with us-05. It's at 76.36% attenuation and I don't think it will do much more considering its almost all Vienna and has no simple sugars. Its got more than half of a pound of hops in it and right now its got a wonderful passion fruit thing going on but its obviously too hot and needs aging. I realize the hops will fade, but I don't want them to! I was planning on dry hopping it with at least 4oz.
|
|
#
?
Mar 28, 2015 16:14
|
|
|
So the St Oswald's Best which had a very special North Yorkshire yeast is covering the garage at the moment. The bung I hit in I hit in at an angle on the first hit causing it to not properly being in, when the carbonation built it shot off. Woke up this morning to 40litres of beer covering the garage and everything in it. Cleaning it up at the moment with some help. It's going to be a long day..
|
|
#
?
Mar 28, 2015 17:41
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 4, 2024 02:33 |
|
|
Fluo posted:So the St Oswald's Best which had a very special North Yorkshire yeast is covering the garage at the moment. The bung I hit in I hit in at an angle on the first hit causing it to not properly being in, when the carbonation built it shot off. Woke up this morning to 40litres of beer covering the garage and everything in it. Cleaning it up at the moment with some help. It's going to be a long day.. I'm not sure how an angled bung would cause an explosion like that, unless it was crimping the blowoff tube? It seems like something got clogged causing the pressure to build.
|
|
#
?
Mar 28, 2015 18:09
|
|