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I'm brewing a Belgian Stout this weekend and I'd like to get some feedback on my recipe before I go and buy ingredients tomorrow. I want this to be my Belgian Christmas Brew: Belgian Congo: Single Infusion Mash at 150* for 90 min 6 lb Belgian Pale Malt 4 lb Vienna 8 oz Belgian Cara 45 8 oz Belgian Special B 4 oz Black Malt 1 oz Chocolate Malt 6 oz Roast Barley 10 oz Flaked Oats 1 lb D120 Dark Belgian Candi Syrup 1 oz US Saaz at 60 min 1 oz EKG at 30 min 1 or 2 Ceylon cinnamon sticks and 1 or 2 whole star anise in the end of the boil Ferment with WLP 550 Belgian Ale Yeast pitching at 68* and letting it ramp up to 75 over a few days* I'd like the finished product to be a medium bodied beer with Belgian phenols, a smooth, layered malt profile, a touch of roasty bitterness with chocolate and maybe a hint of coffee overtones, and finally a kiss of cinnamon and licorice, because hey, its for Christmas time. How does my absurdly complicated beer look? Also, how does my mash look? Should it be a step mash instead with the Belgian malt base? Edit: Would it be better to use Carafa II or some other de-bittered black malt? digitalhifi fucked around with this message at 15:37 on Sep 28, 2011 |
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Sep 28, 2011 15:21
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I always hear to freeze them first because it breaks the cell walls, making it easier for the yeast to get at the delicious sugars, but I haven't made a fruit beer yet.
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Oct 13, 2011 15:16
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I contacted Airgas, some other large welding gas operation sales place, and a specialty beverage dispensing place that sells gas. None of them would sell me a C02 tank. No idea why. Also they all offered to fill any empty tanks I had so long as I already had them. Both my LHBSs will fill tanks as well, but for a slight price markup. I'm in Houston, TX. YMMV
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Oct 21, 2011 18:11
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RiggenBlaque posted:I'm reading this most recent BYO magazine, and I guess in last months Jamil Zainasheff posted a recipe for a maibock with an OG of 1.070 and recommended a 4 gallon starter. Someone thought it was a mistake and BYO said it wasn't: I would imagine so, although I would probably do at least a 1 gallon starter for a lager that size. Ideally I would just repitch onto a cake from a helles or something though. 5 GALLON STARTER!
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Oct 21, 2011 20:08
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^^I saw "Nazi Lager" instead of "Narziss Lager". "How many of you use Nazi lagering?" Sorry, anyway I haven't tried this method, but it looks like a very good method. What way were you using before? Were you pitching cold or warm?
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Nov 4, 2011 15:14
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^^Sometimes racking can kick up the yeast and start fermenting anything they left behind.
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Nov 9, 2011 16:12
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I'd be down for the secret Santa.
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Nov 13, 2011 22:10
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tesilential posted:I'm on the lookout for a nice propane burner, a weldless bulkhead with valve and diptube, weldless sightglass, and other miscellaneous stuff so please post any brew related Cyber Monday sales here please! Austin Homebrew still has 3-piece stainless ball valves on sale for 14.99. Pretty much the cheapest you're going to find that nice of a valve.
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Nov 28, 2011 17:00
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 Untitled by digitalhifi, on Flickr I'm not sure if I brewed a beer or brownies... This is my KBS clone. Recipe http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/kbs-clone-recipe-zymurgy-185487 . Its been in primary for almost a week and a half. I think this is just yeast that is chilling on top, maybe due to all the coffee grounds and chocolate and hops in the recipe. I'm planning on taking a gravity sample and probably racking to secondary this weekend where I will add the cold brewed coffee and oak beans.
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Dec 7, 2011 03:30
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Paladine_PSoT posted:
I'm going to sample it this weekend. I'll report back.
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Dec 7, 2011 06:15
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^^It seems like you could simply mash with less water, but instead of just adding top up water do a sparge-rinse. Just heat your normal top off water to about 168* and while holding the grain bag open over the pot, pour the hot water through the grains. This will rinse the remaining converted sugars off the grain. Its the same basic method that is employed with a traditional batch or fly sparge. The real trick can be holding the bag of wet grain while you pour nearly boiling water through it. You'll definitely either need a strong helper, or rig some sort of pulley system to help hold the bag up. HBT might be a good resource for BIAB resource tips.
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Dec 12, 2011 16:00
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Sent my secret Santa off today!
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Dec 14, 2011 03:56
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PokeJoe posted:It's been an interesting day, my mother's trying to set me up on a date with a furry and I got a package in the mail! Cheers!
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Dec 18, 2011 00:08
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stizu posted:i thought I was going to end up early, likr 1.015 or oe so, so Come again?
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Dec 20, 2011 15:42
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So I got something while at work yesterday. All Citra IPA, a Chipotle Chile beer, and an ounce of Simcoe and German Perle. I am super excited! Thanks Dark Goku Jr! I'll post some tasting notes when I get around to trying them soon.
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Dec 30, 2011 16:12
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Hey Rage-Saq (or anyone else really) I'm going to be brewing your "The Muse" 100% Brett L beer this weekend and was wondering if you had any advise or anything you would change about the beer. I saw your note on HBT that you would add a bit more Caravienna to get a bit more residual sweetness in the final beer, so I was considering bumping that up from .25 to .5 lbs. I'm going to scale the batch to 10 gallons. I'll take the extra half and ferement with WLP 550, and when its finished add some Jolly Pumpkin Bam Bier dregs growing on my stirplate right now and let it sit on oak for a few months. It won't be a Bam Bier clone per say, just a (hopefully) yummy Belgian sour experiment. Also, how long does it take for a Brett starter to ferment out? Similar to regular yeast? I'm picking up my vial of Brett L tonight.
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Jan 24, 2012 16:18
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^^I always feel dirty linking threads from HBT (possibly because they will redact any URLs for other brewing forums posted on their forums) but here is a thread with some pertinent information at least. http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f127/aphrodite-ommegang-limited-edition-ale-269984/ It looks like its a pretty simply grain bill with just pilsner malt and carapils malt for some body and a little residual sweetness. I've never heard of the hops they list, Celeia, but google says its related to Styrian Golding and Aurora. Also they apparently add grains of paradise as well as raspberry and pear juice to it. Sounds interesting. I'd be careful with the mash temp, maybe a little higher than usual to leave something for the Brett to munch on in secondary.
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Jan 25, 2012 16:51
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Garanimals4Seniors posted:
I've had positive experiences with them in the past. I own 2 of the sight glasses he sells and am very happy with them. My older one is nearly a year old and has just started leaking where the racking cane attaches to the elbow, but I think thats a result of me not installing it low enough so it stuck out above the top of my keggle resulting in hitting it on the ground often. I plan to get some epoxy and try to seal it up now that I've shortened it a bit.
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Jan 31, 2012 02:12
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Toebone posted:That's more than I was looking to spend on something I'm only going to use rarely. I was thinking of putting a quick disconnect on the liquid out line, transferring it over to my keg, and replacing the picnic faucet, but that would probably just get a bunch of oxygen in the beer. Here's one a little cheaper http://morebeer.com/view_product/16348//Tap_-_Commercial_Sanke_Single_Valve
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Feb 3, 2012 01:42
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Docjowles posted:Someone correct me if this isn't the case, but I believe some hops are proprietary to the farm that developed them, sort of like how pharmaceutical companies get the exclusive right to sell a drug. Many of the signature American hops right now, like Citra, Simcoe and Amarillo fall into this bucket. With every freaking brewer in the US clamoring for huge amounts of these hops to make their Double Imperial IPAs, demand greatly exceeds supply and everyone sells out the second the harvest hits the market. Yea, they are proprietary to the inventor of the variety, whether farm, seed company or whomever. Also these three are used in a lot of popular craft IPAs (Dogfish head 60+90 minute (Simcoe+Amarillo), 3 Floyd's Zombie Dust (Citra) to name a few). So the breweries know how much of each hop they will need a year or so out, and are allowed to pre-order those hops. So the farms have a large majority of these "rare" hops already sold before they even put them in the ground. The homebrewer's get mostly the extras that are left unsold after the pre-orders are filled. These varieties' seeds/rhizomes also cost more on account of being proprietary, so farmers are less prone to planting them without a pre-order. Also, https://www.freshops.com has Citra and Simcoe available as whole hops in increments up to 1-2 lbs. ^^efb
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Feb 9, 2012 16:39
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Not to bring back and beat a dead horse but if you use an aspirator valve (http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/brewing/kegging/beer-engines/cask-supplies/aspirator-valve.html) your cask will last nearly as long as a keg. It allows you to fill the cask with only C02, but at approximately atmospheric pressure. Downside is its expensive, and CAMRA refuses to accept cask ale served this way as real ale. Basically, I think they are afraid of C02.
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Feb 28, 2012 15:52
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I'd drop the rye. The description is a little confusing, but generally either wheat or rye is used, not both. Not that both would necessarily be bad. Also you may want to change half of your wheat malt in your partial mash to 2 row or pilsner malt. Generally wheat is kept to a maximum of 50% of the grain bill. Your wheat DME is usually made from half wheat and half pilsner malt. Have you used a recipe calculator to come up with your hop additions? If not, something like hopville is free and online. They also have bunches of recipes to look at. Without knowing the ibu contributions it's kind of hard for me to gauge the final bitterness of the beer. Hope that helps.
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Mar 2, 2012 16:59
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On the topic of paying the deposit and keeping the keg: Yes, it is a pretty lovely thing to do, but what about places that won't accept the keg without a receipt? Some states/places do not allow people to get the refund back if they lose the receipt. Also scrap yards are not supposed to accept kegs in many places. So what does a person who loses that little slip of paper supposed to do with a keg that they cannot return? It can be kind of a catch 22 at times. Also, HBT will ream anyone out who brings up the keg deposit thing. Its not something you can really discuss without getting flamed.
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Mar 5, 2012 23:27
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HBT isn't IMHO a bad place. It gets a bad rap here because its mostly filled with not so intelligent people who are generally unhappy with their lives. It does however have a minority of some very intelligent and helpful people. If you ignore everything not directly beer related it can be a really informative and helpful place though.
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Mar 5, 2012 23:30
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^^The Flying Saucer?
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Mar 8, 2012 15:40
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Pints at the Saucer range from $4 to $6 for most standard beers. Some Belgians and really big stuff is a little pricier.
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Mar 8, 2012 19:38
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kwantam posted:Let's talk about diacetyl rests... I haven't used Wyeast 2278, but WLP833 is my usual lager strain right now. My last lagers I made (still lagering now) were a Vienna and a Maibock. It took 2 weeks at ~48* to reach what I expected to be final gravity. I have a very similar cool and pitch technique as you. The sample did not taste buttery, nor did I detect the typical diaceytl oily mouthfeel. FWIW because I wanted to use the fermentation fridge I transfered the lagers to secondary (kegs) and left them in the freezer while I fermented my next beer for 9 days at 67*. Now the lagers are making there way down to 31* where they will stay for a month or two.
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Mar 9, 2012 16:07
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Maybe a little bit late on this one, but the White Labs Farmhouse strain only has a small colony of Brett in its mix. Its designed to be pitched into primary where the Saison yeast will do the bulk of the fermenting. The Brett will then continue to munch away for the next 6 months or so. From everything I've heard about this yeast, you should be in for a real neat treat as you sample the beer throughout its aging process. Also, be careful when you bottle it. It will likely produce more C02 than a normal beer on account of the secondary Brett fermentation.
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Mar 14, 2012 03:20
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Docjowles posted:Catching up on the thread after a long vacation, I had a question about this thing. Does the regulator have a gauge so you know how many liters per minute of oxygen you're adding, or is it just a knob you turn til it "seems right"? edit: Here is some crap on HBT: http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f13/aerating-oxygen-129760/ digitalhifi fucked around with this message at 17:32 on May 1, 2012 |
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May 1, 2012 17:29
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As far as perlicks vs standard rear sealing faucets. I've always heard the rear-sealing faucets actually produce less turbulence at the faucet, resulting in a better, more controllable pour. This makes sense, because the extra couple hundred dollars probably doesn't matter to a bar for something as important as its taps. Rear sealing isn't ideal for the homebrewer because you aren't likely pulling a pint from every one of your taps at least once a day, ideally more. The forward seal is better suited for intermittent use, whereas the rear seal is not.
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May 15, 2012 14:58
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tesilential posted:
Heh, I'm a dapper dandy who only goes to upscale beer bars.
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May 15, 2012 23:41
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Angry Grimace posted:US-05, WLP001 and Wy1056 are all the same strain, right? Most recipes I've made so far call for either 001 or 1056, and I've pretty much routinely resorted to subbing US05 for the ease of use. All supposedly the same strain, "Chico". You may get varying answers depending on who you ask, but its been my experience they will all three produce very similar beers.
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May 18, 2012 17:27
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Kelley Geuscaulk posted:I decided to try my hand at yeast rinsing this week. I gave it two rinses and decants letting it settle for at least 12 hours for each rinse. After the final rinse it sat in my fridge overnight and this is what I ended up with. That looks like a pretty decent wash. Usually you only want to let the slurry sit for ~20-30 min per decanting. You only want two distinct layers (maybe a little bitty bit of clearish beer on the top as a mini-third layer). If you have three distinct layers, your yeast has settled and you will be leaving a lot of it behind. It doesn't take trub and dead yeast long to settle to the bottom. Much faster than healthy yeast on most strains. Non-crappy HBT thread on the topic with pictures, http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/yeast-washing-illustrated-41768/
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Jun 22, 2012 14:49
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Splizwarf posted:What are those companies doing that's different? It's weird (given the rest of the thread) that you'd say "That's not right" without at least explaining why or mentioning what the right way is. http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/20-lb-sugar-jar-yeast-nutrient-114837/ http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/candi-syrup-experiment-trying-clone-d2-220882/ http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/i-knew-i-knew-i-knew-candi-syrup-302936/
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Jun 28, 2012 04:27
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Hypnolobster posted:I've been assembling my nitro setup and adding more regular faucets and kegs. Welp, that looks awesome. I just bought one as I have some brewing-related clamping projects to do.
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Jul 12, 2012 18:11
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Angry Grimace posted:As a semi-unrelated aside, I've been using a full on 3-way secondary regulator to split my gas line. The only thing that's a little weird is that using the secondary regulator knobs is quite bit slower than adjusting the PSI with the main regulator - my assumption is that it's because the input PSI is a lot lower, but I don't know. It was pretty spendy though. I've noticed this same thing when using my secondary regulator. I think you're right about the lower pressure. Good thing its not dependent on the primary regulator setting (so long as the primary is set higher than the secondary) or it'd be a pain having to re-adjust every time I changed the primary pressure to force carb or whatever.
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Jul 20, 2012 15:43
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The Thermapen is amazing. Its a great feeling when it takes three seconds for the thing to measure the temperature and it doesn't fluctuate.
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Aug 10, 2012 01:29
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BlueGrot posted:So uh. I'm gonna connect my PID to a PT100 and SSR soon. I've done alot of connecting low power electronics, but this is my first try at something which goes into the mains. Does this make sense? EDIT: Here is a good wiring diagram showing a complete electric brewery using a BCS-460 instead of separate PID units. You can see the elements, contactors, and SSRs in the diagram. http://i.imgur.com/7aXTM.jpg digitalhifi fucked around with this message at 21:57 on Aug 13, 2012 |
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Aug 13, 2012 21:51
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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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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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