Beer Feeds

Posted: by josborne42 (2 hours ago)

Posted: by BB1313 (5 hours ago)

I am looking for an extract recipe for a good summer ale. if you have a good one please let me know.
Thanks
Steve

Posted: by earthboundagain (3 minutes ago)

So I had a brain fart this morning and left 1lb of Belgian aromatic out of my mash this morning. It's about 9% of the grain bill. I batch sparge, so I rest for 60m, mash out if needed, then collect first runnings, add sparge water, collect second runnings, add sparge water, and collect my final runnings. I discovered my mistake right after I started collecting my final runnings.

I stopped runoff, I ran the pound through the mill real quick and dumped it in, and now I'm letting it sit for about 15 minutes. Just from eyeballing, it looks like there's in the neighborhood of 1-1.25q/lb mixture left in the mash tun at this point, and it's about 160F.

Will I just settle for poor conversion from this late mash addition? Will it convert just fine, but I won't have very good lauter efficiency, since I'm essentially no-sparging the 1lb of belgian aromatic? I don't think adding more sparge water is a good thing since I don't want to oversparge, but I could be convinced otherwise pretty easily.

Have screwed up 3 beers through experimenting, now I really just want to get back to basics and had a couple of questions (simple ones) that I wanted to get a lesson on:

1. I've got 2 primaries going right now. They should sit at a stable temp consistent with what the yeast likes for 2 weeks and then be racked to secondary for 2 weeks. When racked to secondary should I put them in a slightly colder area? Example: Sitting right now they are about 72. In my garage it's about 60.

2. Once I keg the 2 beers I have fermenting right now is it OK to add priming sugar to them, or just let them sit at 10psi for 2 weeks? I'm looking for 2.5 volumes so that should be good, but wanted to ask about the sugar - I know it's not necessary if I am going to force it, but curious.

For reference the 2 beers are basic Red Ale and Pale Ale recipes. Thanks for any advice!!!

Posted: by MsBee (15 hours ago)

I was looking at labels on various beer bottles and was marvling on the variation of each label.

Any suggestions on some good label making/design software?

I ordered one of these this week to make a conical fermenter. I know how I'll make the dump valve portion and the air lock, but I'm unsure on how to install a racking port. I've seen some threads about folks being interested in these, so could I get some hints/tips/links on how to do it?

Thanks,
Dave

Posted: by EricMc513 (13 hours ago)

I've been thinking about fermenters recently.

Carboys are great except if you drop them and the shatter.

Buckets are great because you can really get in there and clean them, but there plastic so they can scratch.

Old kegs are good because there SS, but hard to see inside when cleaning them.

Corny kegs are good if but there never quite the right size (5gal corny doesn't really have enough head room to ferment 5gals and 10gal would probably be too much headroom for a 5gal batch.) and some say the narow diameter is not good for the yeast bed (wider is better)

Why doesn't someone make a SS bucket with a lid that has an o-ring like a bucket and some latches to clamp the top shut?

It would be the best of both worlds and you could rig any kind of connection into the lid for an air lock/dip tube.

Does anything like that exist?

We had over 40 people over for the superbowl, and they blew all four of my corny kegs and I have been out of beer since then. I finally got around to brewing an IPA to replenish the stock and plan on brewing a "regular" pale ale tonight.

So for the first time in several years of brewing, I am considering to try and pitch over my previous brews yeast cake. Does putting the wort into the fermentor directly on the last brews cake significantly carry over any flavors over from the previos brew? I figure I should be safe since I am going from an IPA to a pale ale that it shouldnt matter a bunch but wanted input from those that have done it.

Thanks

Posted: by speer (11 hours ago)

Posted: by cooch69 (11 hours ago)

Does anyone know where I can pickup 6 or so 15.5 gallon kegs? Getting married and were having a hell of a party. Also, is there any problem filling a sanke style with regular home brew equipment?
Thanks,
Mike






Currently on tap: Honey Pale Ale, 46 ibu's 6% abv and tasty as hell.

Posted: by Cfahooligan (22 hours ago)

This is an American brown ale with Amarillo and Tettnanger hops. I pitched a very large amount of slurry from a hoppy red brewed two weeks prior. I had it sitting in the pantry since it's still cool here (and my fermentation fridge is lagering some other beers). The morning after brewing I checked to find it glugging away, satisfied I left for work. Thirty minutes later, as my wife was about to leave, she went into the pantry for something and noticed the airlock was full of yeast. Thank goodness she moved it into the adjacent bathroom (after cleaning out the airlock) because we came home to find this in the bathroom:

I've been putting off doing anything with this beer, but I think the time has come to address the problem:

A couple years ago, I made an Imperial Stout and it's been sitting in the closet since I bottled it on December '07. The last time I checked, a couple months ago, it was absolutely flat. It has been this way every time I check up on it. The closet is at 66F. I brewed it on 9/25/07 using Wyeast 1084 and fermented at 68F. After a week or so it was racked to a secondary with some oak chips until bottled on 12/3/07.

As I understand it, Wyeast 1084 lends itself to darker beers and with medium flocculation, I would think it should still have had enough yeast in suspension to properly bottle condition.

I see a few options here:

1. Live with flat beer. I don't like this option, as you can imagine.
2. Carefully empty them all into my 2.5 gallon corny and force carbonate it; then drink it quickly.
3. Uncap each bottle and add some yeast to jump start the conditioning again.

For option 3, I would move it to the warmest part of the house (probably 70-72F) after uncapping each and adding a few drops of yeast and recap. There should still be enough residual sugar from priming to give the yeast something to munch on.

Does this sound reasonable? Any other suggestions?

Thanks,
Dave

I used some gelatin finings for the first time recently in an IPA. The finings were added in the secondary along with the dry hops. It's a recipe I've brewed many times before. However, this time the hop aroma did not seem as bright as normal. I understand there could be a host of factors at play, but I'm wondering if there's any reason to believe that the finings had an impact? Thanks.

After years of being gravity fed, I am going to start "force-feeding" my system by adding a pump. While I'm at it, I want to construct a whirlpool system. Hence, a couple of queries for those more experienced...

I know to restrict flow on the "out" side of the pump. For now I will be pumping through my homemade counterflow chiller (3/8"), and returning it to the boil kettle to whirlpool. There will be a ball valve on the "out" post of the pump, then a QD to connect via hose to the 1/2" -> 3/8" reducer on my CFC. I am using a converted keg as my BK.

So, onto the questions:

- Do I want to go back up to 1/2" tubing to re-enter the kettle via the whirlpool apparatus? Or would it be better to stick to 3/8" after flow is restricted? Will there be enough "oomph" to get a decent whirlpool going? (I'm not looking at pulling massive Gs or anything, just hoping to separate out break material!)

- How low in the BK do I want my whirlpool return to be? Certainly under the level of the wort, but all the way to the bottom? Or halfway up?

- I need to modify my pickup tube in the BK (currently in the center of the keg). How far out from the center should I make it to avoid picking up any of the "cone" of break material that will be in the center of the BK after the whirlpool? (I generally use hop bags and whole hops.) I'd love to see some photos of how others have set up their off-center pickup tubes.

Thanks for the feedback.

Posted: by m1ked (12 hours ago)

I've been up here in Fairbanks for about 6 months now, and despite all the hype, the weather here is not so bad. It did get down to -40 something during that last two weeks in January. But, today it was in the 30's (above). In some places around here the ground can stay frozen even during the summer (permafrost). But, I've come to find out that gardening, particularly vegetable gardening, is very popular up here. And the reason is because from around late April through early September we have unusually long daylight hours. And for just about the entire month of July, the sun doesn't even set. And, it can get surprisingly warm. As I recall it was in the upper 80's for a couple of weeks last July.

Apparently, the trick to growing things up here is to plant everything in boxes raised above ground to stay warmer, longer. Because even if you're not on permafrost, the ground is the last thing to thaw in the spring and the first thing to freeze in the fall.

I've never grown hops before, so I'm going to do some more research, but I was wondering if anyone has ever tried to grow hops in Alaska or any other sub-arctic region like this.

Posted: by OrangeCharlie (21 hours ago)

Any homebrewers from Alabama who want to help legalize homebrewing this year please post here or PM me..

There is a bill that has passed the Senate, and will hopefully come up for a house vote soon. Need ANY support possible to make this happen.. Phone calls, writing emails, thank you notes, etc.

Its gone well so far, but the base of people working this issue really needs to grow, so it can be pushed. Trying to get it passed on one of the remaining legislative days this year.

Posted: by beertasterb (22 hours ago)

So I just pumped out the 20 bucks for a new d/l of promash last week.

To my surprise they never delivered the initial email with d/l instructions.

I searched and searched only to find more disturbing news; now fearing I would have to recover my cash and get beersmith ( ew )

Finally I initiated the password recovery script that did infact send me instructions on how to download...

http://www.promash.com/Users/userhelp.html

Wow, how ****** can customer service be, is it a one man shop?

if so I am in the process of advising mr.donovan of the error.

I sent 2 or 3 emails to their support line with no response, this is sad.

Posted: by DrHopenstein612 (10 hours ago)

Posted: by mjw2808 (13 hours ago)

Posted: by clover44 (14 hours ago)

I was thinking of making a green beer for st patty's coming up. Most people just put food coloring in a domestic.

Anyone have any recipe's or ideas for something better.