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wattershed posted:Yep. bewbies, take that recipe there and hit it with 3711 and call it a day. You'll be very happy with the results. I'm really liking Omega's Saisonstein's Monster myself.
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Feb 17, 2016 18:59
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I almost pushed the order button to buy a vial of ECY Bug Farm. The 32$ shipping really is a turn off. What is it about east coast yeast providers that they don't like the west coast? Our yeast providers are happy to send things to the east coast... Whatever, I'll just be over here buying a microscope and finding my own yeast. http://www.love2brew.com/East-Coast-Yeast-Liquid-Yeast-s/217.htm?searching=Y&sort=11&cat=217&show=16&page=1&Click=4645 Probably in stock for another 15 minutes or whatever.
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Feb 17, 2016 19:34
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If it makes you feel better, they wanted like 15$ to ship to Chicago. I bought some, but only after putting 75$ worth of stuff i probably didn't need in my cart... I guess I've got a ton of d180 coming my way now too. Time for a belgian strong dark.
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Feb 17, 2016 20:00
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Der Penguingott posted:If it makes you feel better, they wanted like 15$ to ship to Chicago. I'm just glad some goon got some. Unfortunately, I think the microscope plan is about the same cost as buying yeast from Omega or ECY. Maybe I should just take a trip to Oregon and see if I can visit WYeast. Who doesn't want to make chemistry friends?
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Feb 17, 2016 20:39
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robotsinmyhead posted:I'm generally against using Citra in the boil. Maybe it's just the batch I got, but I've done 2 batches with a lot of Citra in them - one as a single-hop and one as a late addition (10min, flameout, and dryhop) and I've gotten the telltale catpiss flavors from it. Galaxy is similar, if not worse, in that regard. Really? I've made that recipe probably 8 or 9 times and never gotten that result. Am I missing something? Also it seems like "saison" is the right idea here. I've never actually...made a saison as I'm not a huge fan of the style. Is there any particular recipe that would work particularly well in the situation described? And I hesitate to ask, but is there some manner of...adulterated saison I should try? Like, lemon or something like that. In any case I'd like a hop character a bit different from the citra PA.
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Feb 17, 2016 20:41
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My next brew is going to just be a nice light SMASH pale ale (two dark beers on tap now). What is a cool/unique/new hop variety people would recommend trying?
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Feb 17, 2016 20:47
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ChiTownEddie posted:My next brew is going to just be a nice light SMASH pale ale (two dark beers on tap now). What is a cool/unique/new hop variety people would recommend trying? I just did a single hop with a new hop called Idaho 7. Might be hard to get in most places. I bought a pound of it straight from Crosby Hop Farms in Oregon.
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Feb 17, 2016 20:53
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ChiTownEddie posted:My next brew is going to just be a nice light SMASH pale ale (two dark beers on tap now). What is a cool/unique/new hop variety people would recommend trying? I don't know if it's NEW, but El Dorado is one of my next hops to buy. There's also a ton of New Zealand hops popping up lately like Riwaka or Kohatu farmhousebrewingsupply.com has Idaho7 for $21/lb. robotsinmyhead fucked around with this message at 21:05 on Feb 17, 2016 |
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Feb 17, 2016 20:57
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robotsinmyhead posted:I don't know if it's NEW, but El Dorado is one of my next hops to buy. There's also a ton of New Zealand hops popping up lately like Riwaka or Kohatu Nice, I think that's about what I paid for it, I forget exactly. That's a pretty good description of it from the beer I made with it too.
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Feb 17, 2016 21:14
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I've never brewed a Citra hoppy beer and gotten the piss/ammonia thing, but I have tried one or two. On the other hand, I've never ever encounted it from Galaxy. I've spent a year+ with each doing mostly hoppy homebrews.
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Feb 17, 2016 21:19
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ChickenArise posted:I've never brewed a Citra hoppy beer and gotten the piss/ammonia thing, but I have tried one or two. On the other hand, I've never ever encounted it from Galaxy. I've spent a year+ with each doing mostly hoppy homebrews. I NEVER catch it in Zombie Dust, but Odd Sides in Michigan has a Citra SMASH and it's pissy. A local brewery did a Galaxy DIPA and it was pissy too. I even caught a hint of it in Toppling Goliath's Intergalactic Warrior. Maybe I'm sensitive to it or something.
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Feb 17, 2016 21:49
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It sounds like it must be the Midwest  (actually I read something about hop harvest timing and such that suggested it can happen to any hop, but who knows) e: and as far as sensitivity goes, that can be really annoying. I bet most of us have some extra sensitivity to diacetyl, and personally there's a weird off-flavor that sour beer gets that bothers the hell out of me because I've had it consistently enough in both homebrew and commercial beers to know that it 100% ages out. ChickenArise fucked around with this message at 23:46 on Feb 17, 2016 |
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Feb 17, 2016 22:14
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I got a grassy aroma (which I disliked but my friends loved...) but no cat piss from boiling citra in my hoppy wheat. I've since moved to just whirlpool to avoid it. I have noticed the pissyness in old zombie dust and a few other beers. Who knows.
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Feb 17, 2016 23:02
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I will freely admit to not being willing to attempt Citra as a bittering hop. It just seems like the pissy taste is something that isn't worth the chance. High alpha bittering hops are plentiful and often cheaper than the newer and proprietary hops. And it doesn't hurt that I already have a pile of them. Also, why did no one mention that you can sous vide sausages during the mash? It's the perfect temperature and time for awesome sausages. I think I'll give it a try this weekend.
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Feb 18, 2016 01:12
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Jhet posted:Also, why did no one mention that you can sous vide sausages during the mash? It's the perfect temperature and time for awesome sausages. I think I'll give it a try this weekend.  You're a genius!
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Feb 18, 2016 02:56
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I think it's time to chill the homebrew soda. At least I thought to look before I planned to chill it anyway Friday.
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Feb 18, 2016 06:03
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Question about yeast starters. I've always used dry yeast or 2/3 liquid yeast packs depending on the gravity. For my upcoming brew this Sunday I can't get enough yeast so it looks like I'm gonna have to make a starter. I'm checking some calculators, but having a hard time figuring out the best option. Total volume is 6 gallons, but this is split into 3,5 gallons of my brew and 2,5 gallons of chilled water. Final gravity is 1.074 I get results from 300 to 500 billion necessary cells I have 2 vials of WLP500, one was freshly packed 2 weeks ago, the other is about a month past its best before date. Initial plan was to make a 1L starter with the old vial one day before, pitch this together with the new vial, but it looks like that won't be anywhere near enough. The calculator indicates that the size of the starter limits how many cells I can get, which makes sense, but no matter what I do with the gravity there is no change. I assume having a lower starter gravity should have some sort of influence? Too high and fermentation starts, so I guess too low and yeast count will not go up quick enough? I'm looking at a 2.5 gallon 1.040 starter now, using LME and pitching both vials. I was gonna add this amount of chilled water anyway, so it shouldn't change much for me if I just add this. Can I use fermentables that were gonna go in the recipe and get the same result, or will they be used up differently from what goes into the wort? Is 18-24 hrs in advance enough for this or will the starter size mean it'll take longer? Is there a better option with what I have available? BioTech fucked around with this message at 13:45 on Feb 18, 2016 |
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Feb 18, 2016 13:32
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BioTech posted:Question about yeast starters. The gravity for starters is recommended because it is a non-stressful environment for yeast. I would try to avoid making a starter with higher gravity wort, even if you got more yeast it may not be as healthy. I dunno if you have a stir plate or not and the size of your flask, but given the age of one of your vials i would highly recommend stepping the starter up once or twice. Try this calculator if you haven't: http://www.brewunited.com/yeast_calculator.php It is the best one I've found for playing around with different step sizes to hit your target. It accounts for max cell density in the wort and growth factor. 18-24hr is generally ideal for each step, but some starters are faster or slower. It isn't a big deal if you pitch a little earlier or later. Also, if you cold crash and decant the starter wort off between steps it will reduce the amount of starter beer that ends up in the final product. You really won't want to be blending in a lot of starter beer, taste some and you'll see why...
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Feb 18, 2016 16:14
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Der Penguingott posted:I dunno if you have a stir plate or not and the size of your flask, but given the age of one of your vials i would highly recommend stepping the starter up once or twice. No stir plate, but I have flasks up to 5L so size shouldn't be much of a problem. Der Penguingott posted:Try this calculator if you haven't: Right, so a 10L starter and using it instead of water is out. That calculator gives me roughly what I was found over the last hour, I need a step up from 1 to 4 liters or 2 to 3 liters. Might be doable, but I am worried about time. It seems 12 to 16 hours is enough for the yeast to do its thing, but I would have less than 24 hours to cold crash and decant with each of the two steps. WLP500 has low flocculation, so that might not work out well. It is Thursday night for me, so making the first one right away, starting the cool Friday afternoon, decant Saturday morning, starter 2, let it work all Saturday, put in the fridge before I go to bed, decant Sunday afternoon right before the brew so the temperature is at a decent level to pitch. Is that doable or too rushed? edit; Seems the other option is to pitch both vials in a single step 4L starter, let it go for 24 hours and then cool for 36 so I can get rid of more of the starter beer. Less yeast, but less starter beer. Wish I noticed the expiry date before =( BioTech fucked around with this message at 16:51 on Feb 18, 2016 |
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Feb 18, 2016 16:29
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You may have enough time to do the stepped starter and only cold crash the final 5 liters. The stepped starter will probably produce more active yeast than a big starter - the big one may be kinda slow.
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Feb 18, 2016 17:00
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I guess this is as good a time as any to get into doing starters. I've always done yeast calcs, but I just pitch dry all the time. What's a good way to get started doing proper starters? I know you can use jars/shake/agitate methods, but should I go whole hog and just buy a stirplate & flask? How long does a 3lb bag of DME last when it comes to making starter wort?
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Feb 18, 2016 17:16
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robotsinmyhead posted:I guess this is as good a time as any to get into doing starters. I've always done yeast calcs, but I just pitch dry all the time. What's a good way to get started doing proper starters? You can get a stir plate and 2L flask for like $60 and it's definitely worth it in my opinion. I made my own stir plate for about $25 if I remember correctly. A 3lb bag will last you quite a while, but it really depends on how big your starters are and if you need to do any step ups. There's a lot that goes into it, but you can probably get maybe 8-10 batches. Der Penguingott posted:Try this calculator if you haven't: Thanks for posting this. I've always tried to calculate step up starters in Beersmith, but it's annoying as you basically have to run the numbers for your first starter and then input the cell count as the vial cell count for your next one.
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Feb 18, 2016 17:24
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You can outgrow a 2L flask pretty quickly. I feel like my lovely stir bar works better in the larger volume, too, for some reason. If you have old computer stuff lying around and any old cell phone charger, you can get like $5 worth of electronics and a cheap hobby box to make a stirplate. I did roughly this http://stirstarters.com/instructions.html but with a hard drive magnet.
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Feb 18, 2016 18:08
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ChickenArise posted:You can outgrow a 2L flask pretty quickly. I feel like my lovely stir bar works better in the larger volume, too, for some reason. ^^ Do this basically. Keep an eye on homebrewfinds.com for deals on 2L and 5L erlanmeyer flasks. There are a few cheapo stir plates out there that are basically a computer fan and magnet, so DYI isn't necessary, but still possible. Also keep a good blow off tube around. Whenever I pitch a strong starter, I tend to get extra krausen that likes to make a mess everywhere because the yeast are so drat happy. One thing to keep in mind when you're stepping up from a past its prime yeast cap is that yeast will basically reproduce until there's no more room to reproduce. There's a maximum density that you'll deal with. So regardless of your starter size, you'll want to allow for an extra day or two for the many fewer cells to reproduce to max density before stepping up. It's not so much a problem with the yeast, but just a reality of them having to double in count to hit that number 3-4 times instead of 1.5 times. Once you have that first starter, you'll be on schedule for the rest of them. The good news for you is that WL500/WYeast1214 is a beast of a yeast. I just finished two beers with it and it is a wonderfully efficient strain. It also doesn't mind being underpitched a bit and will produce a few more esters and flavors than if you overpitch/pitch to rate.
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Feb 18, 2016 18:27
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Der Penguingott posted:You may have enough time to do the stepped starter and only cold crash the final 5 liters. What do you mean with 5 liters, should I not decant after the first batch and just add the extra wort and then decant in one go? I think I'll brew on Sunday, keep the wort ready and pitch the yeast whenever the two step with decanting is done. Might take one or two days extra before I can pitch, but I'll have the wort in a sealed fermentor inside a separate fridge, not very concerned about infection. Thanks for all the help!
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Feb 18, 2016 18:29
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I get a lot of junk at work and took a shot at a stir plate a few times. I was never really able to get the right spacing between the fan magnet and the stir magnet, or I got vibrations from unbalanced loads on the fan. I could keep loving with one, but at this point I'd rather just buy one. Too many projects lying around.
robotsinmyhead fucked around with this message at 18:37 on Feb 18, 2016 |
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Feb 18, 2016 18:35
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BioTech posted:What do you mean with 5 liters, should I not decant after the first batch and just add the extra wort and then decant in one go? Yep. Brew 1 L starter, ferment it 18hr, dump the whole shebang into the 4 L of wort, ferment it, then cold crash and decant from the final volume of 5 L. You will be dumping some non flocculated yeast but this way, but probably less than if you decant it twice. Also that particular yeast is fine to underpitched by about 20% according to the folks at CSI candi syrups. And I'd believe them because as mentioned already, it is a beast.
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Feb 18, 2016 18:41
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robotsinmyhead posted:I get a lot of junk at work and took a shot at a stir plate a few times. I was never really able to get the right spacing between the fan magnet and the stir magnet, or I got vibrations from unbalanced loads on the fan. I could keep loving with one, but at this point I'd rather just buy one. Too many projects lying around. There's a really easy fix for this. Put one magnet directly across the fan from your other magnet. Also, make sure you invert their polarity, that is, one magnet has + up, the other has - up. That way, it grabs your stir bar better. Der Penguingott posted:You will be dumping some non flocculated yeast but this way, but probably less than if you decant it twice. If you're overbuilding starters and harvesting yeast, dumping the least flocculant yeast is desirable. In my experience, if you don't, you can end up selecting yeast that are less flocculant and it will take longer for your beer to finish fermentation. I had this happen over the course of a year with my first vial of Vermont IPA yeast. Now, my procedure is to spin for ~24 hours, crash for 2-4 hours, decant as much liquid as possible (protip: use an auto siphon to disturb the cake as little as possible), swirl, save some to a sanitized jar (optional) and pitch the rest.
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Feb 18, 2016 19:09
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nullfunction posted:There's a really easy fix for this. Put one magnet directly across the fan from your other magnet. Also, make sure you invert their polarity, that is, one magnet has + up, the other has - up. That way, it grabs your stir bar better. The magnets I was using were from HDDs, so they weren't uniform - you could get them 'close' but it was always a little wobbly. Like I said, too many projects to spend a bunch of time sourcing parts. That stir plate ended up with a friend and it never quite worked out - he bought his own.
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Feb 18, 2016 19:58
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robotsinmyhead posted:The magnets I was using were from HDDs, so they weren't uniform - you could get them 'close' but it was always a little wobbly. Like I said, too many projects to spend a bunch of time sourcing parts. That stir plate ended up with a friend and it never quite worked out - he bought his own. That's fair enough. I used the same sort of magnet you're talking about and it was definitely finicky. I somehow had the foresight to make a lot of it adjustable, though, so in the end it worked out. I do want to swap out magnets at some point anyway, although my last starter went for 2+ days without flinging the bar.
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Feb 18, 2016 21:08
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Javid posted:I think it's time to chill the homebrew soda. Did you die?
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Feb 18, 2016 23:05
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What's the oldest beer, homebrewed or commercial, you have in your collections?
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Feb 19, 2016 00:31
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Probably a 2007 Heavy Seas Below Deck barleywine. For homebrew, 2011 sours.
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Feb 19, 2016 00:37
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I have quite a bit left from the beginning of last year commercially. I was saving a few bottles of an extract RIS from last year and decided to just drink it as it was getting past its prime. This caused me to open my last bottle of Scotch Ale from 2014 that was mysteriously not past its prime and could have lasted a while longer easily. This made me sad, so now I have a collection of strongs, sours, and funky saisons that I'm going to keep around for quite a while. I bottled the Tripel I mentioned making with 1214. I found out that not all champagne bottles take the same size corks, but at least I was able to cap them with normal size caps. The long cool secondary gave me a very clear and well attenuated beer. Finished at 10% ABV. It went from 1.084 -> 1.009 in about a week, but I think the key was just letting it sit for a long while in my cold basement. I plan to keep a few bottles of this until at least 2018.  
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Feb 19, 2016 00:58
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Jo3sh posted:What's the oldest beer, homebrewed or commercial, you have in your collections? Back in Dec 2011 I bought a barrel aged box set of three Sam Adams beers. I actually forgot I had them until recently.
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Feb 19, 2016 01:10
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I think the oldest beer I have is a DFH 120 from 2013. I can't keep a cellar very well (limited space) so almost everything gets drank fresh. I think there are maybe 3 bottles that are older than 2015. We did just put 8 gallons of extremely tasty barleywine in the rye barrel that was just emptied, I do plan on hanging on to a bunch of those and opening one per year or so. Hopefully I'll have more space in a year.
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Feb 19, 2016 01:44
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I just tasted my 1gal coffee/cream ale experiment. I think it's going places. Great places.
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Feb 19, 2016 02:23
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I have a westvleteren 12 that was one of 18 I hauled back in my rucksack from Belgium back in 2005. I told my girlfriend I was saving it for when we have a kid. want that beer
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Feb 19, 2016 02:36
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I still have you all beat. Any older than 2005?
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Feb 19, 2016 02:40
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I suppose I do have a can of Olympia gold that dates from sometime in the early 1990s but I'll be damned if I'll be drinking that
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Feb 19, 2016 03:40
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