Beer Feeds

Posted: by NClifestyle (1 hour ago)

I've been extract brewing for a few years and want to go all grain. What I'm having trouble with is knowing how much water to batch sparge with, and what the ending volume for recipes should be. Here is an example of a recipe that is for two different yeasts to compare taste:

Grains
13. lb. Organic 2-row Pale
1.0 lb. Crystal 80L
0.4 lb. Crystal 120L
.25 lb. Victory Malt
.25 lb. CaraPils
.20 lb. Black Patent


London ESB

Hops
.50 oz. Chinook, 12.9%, pellet, 75min+
.80 oz. Challenger, 6.3%, pellet, 15min
1.0 oz. Cluster, 7.9%, pellet, KO
.20 oz. Challenger, 6.3%, pellet, KO


American 2

Hops
.50 oz. Chinook, 12.9%, pellet, 75min
.80 oz. Cascade, 6.9%, pellet, 15min
1.0 oz. Cluster, 7.9%, pellet, KO
.20 oz. Cascade, 6.9%, pellet, KO


Brew Day Stats

Brewed: 4/11/08
Racked: just primary
Bottled: 4/20/08

Water Adjustment:
.5 tsp acid blend, .5 tsp gypsum, .5 tsp CaCl in strike water
1 tsp gypsum in 2nd sparge water

H2O/Grain Ratio: 1.3 qt/lb
Mash Ph: 5.4-5.5
Sacch. Rest Temp/Time: 154-2°F/1hr
Mash Out Temp/Time: 171°F/15min

2nd Batch Sparge Vol/Temp: 5 gal @ 182°F/173°F

Pre-Boil Vol: 5.75 gal each
Boil Time: 90+min
Post-Boil Vol: approx. 4 gallons each

Color/SRM: amber/16+
Ferment Temp: 68-72°F

ESB
OG: 1.061
IBU: 47
FG: 1.014
ABW: 4.9%
ABV: 6.1%

Amer. 2
OG: 1.061
IBU: 47
FG: 1.014
ABW: 4.9%
ABV: 6.1%

Okay, I understand the saccrificial rest water @ 1.3 quarts per pound of grain. The sparge I don't understand, do I want to sparge w/ 5 gallons of water? This would make almost 10 gallons, minus what the grain soaks up? I just don't know what the author is saying here, someone please help!!!!

When brewing yesterday the wind was really kicking when I started to chill my wort the lid on my kettle was off a bit due to the chiller and I got nervous and pulled the chiller a little soon and pitched the yeast a little warm. I am thinking under 90 degrees for sure, the side of the carboy was a little warm but not bad.
my question is could there be off flavors due to the warmer pitch. I checked this morning and it is rockin and rollin good krausen already.

I just tapped my corny keg with a dortmunder in it, i had it under 20 lb. co2, i'm getting a lot of foam (2/3 glass), is my co2 too high? or is this normal, it's not refrigerated yet, it's at 60 degrees, Going to hit the auctions this weekend for another brewbox.

I just saw my check cleared today. I really hope my schedule doesn't change between now and then.

not even hydrated, just tossed on top and 6 hours later....

The smell was sooo good I almost ate the scum.
So its time to switch to a blow off tube.
What is the best way to get a blow off tube on a bucket?
I have read posts saying to just put a hose on the bubbler but it seems thats where the clog starts in the first place for me.

og correction

I made 10g of a 1.064 porter yesterday. I rehydrated two packs of US-05 and pitched at 72 degrees. 16.5 hours later....nothing. No krausen, just a little positive pressure in the blowoff. And no, I don't have a leaky lid or seal anywhere. The yeast foamed up nicely when I rehydrated so I don't think it was bad. The only less than desirable thing that has happened is the beer has cooled down to 66 degrees since pitching because my basement is still cool (it is 66 degrees). I know dropping the temp after pitching isn't the best thing to do. But I've dropped the temp after pitching tons of times, maybe even most of the time and I've never had yeast not start like this, especially US-05. US-05 seems to not mind the cold in my experience.

Anyway, just ranting. And since my basement is still cool, I really can't warm it up. So I'm going to make a trip to the LBS later this morning and pitch more yeast.

Posted: by stroup69 (18 hours ago)

This is a reminder that CBR is going to Washington DC this Weekend for SAVOR. We will be covering all of the sessions. And having a get-together after the Friday Session.

To get in touch with us either Twitter Jeff or give him a call.

It seems that every time I try my hand at a wheat beer, it just seems to get the better of me! I'm thinking that this time it was because I left it in secondary for a long period of time, around 6 weeks (I was out of town for training). Now its been bottle conditioning for over 3 weeks, and its very flat and very smooth. It does have a very good flavor though. One of the first signs that something was up, is that it was very very clear. I think that I didn't capture much yeast for bottling. Could I re-bottle condition by pitching new yeast?


I think I should just stick to porters!

I need to bottle a batch of Irish Red Ale (OG 1.046, now 1.011) by Sunday and it's still in primary, been there exactly two weeks. My question is: Is it worth racking to secondary for 4-5 days or better to just leave in it primary. I imagine 1 or 2 days would be just stirring things up for little or no good, but 4-5 days?

hey board. been a while since I have posted. I have been focused on losing weight, and getting in shape. that mixed with waiting til I have money to get all grain meterials, is enough to make me not brew again till now. So I am going to the LHBS today, getting everything ill need including a mill. so I want to stock up on some grain. I plan on making sone APAs , porters and german style Pilsners like becks. maybe other things not sure. but I'd like to get enough grain to make it last for like a year or so. makin 1-2 batches a month, and I'd like to have enough variety to where I could make almost anything I wanted when I want to. what do you guys think of a grain bill? I'm going in the next couple hours so please give me a shopping list for a grain bill.

Posted: by agsourdough1 (15 hours ago)

I just finished bottling my first batch. I had 6 Sam Adams bottles and 6 Saranak bottles and the rest were Bass Pale Ale bottles. The Sam Adams and Saranak bottles capped just fine but the Bass bottles didn't look right. Upon closer inspection I noticed that the tops of the bottles are made different on the Bass bottles. The second "lip" that the doubler lever capper I was using hooks onto is alot closer to the top of the bottle than the other bottles were. As a result the caps weren't getting crimped correctly. I removed the cup that does the crimping from the capper and used a dead-blow hammer to tap the top of it until the caps were completely crimped. Seems to have worked well. Do you guys think it will hold ok? It looks like they are crimped well now.

I assume that the Bass bottles would work ok with a press type capper but they wont work with a double lever capper. I guess I wont buy any more Bass beer.

I'm house/dog sitting for my g/f's parents, and I just had my g/f run by my house to pick up a few things. She's taking me out for breakfast tomorrow morning for my b-day, and I needed a few things from my house. She walked into my room, said it smelled like beer. She explained that there was weird crusty stuff all the way up the top of the carboy, and that it was sticky on the outside, and some had spilled onto the carpet.

I bought a 6 gallon carboy so I didn't have to deal w/ this. I guess I missed some crazy insane fermentation going on in my bedroom. I've never seen krausen more than a few inches, This had to of been at least a good 10 inches. I'm not scheduled to head back to my place till Wednesday. Is it cool if I leave it be until then, or do I need to get over there and check on the airlock? Is it likely that it blew the top of the airlock off? I brewed a pale ale saturday, so it's been less than 4 days.

My carpet is already ruined from other at home"chemistry" ventures.

I just noticed Northern Brewer now lists Saf-lager 34/70 listed under dry yeast, and thought I would pass it along

I've naturally carbonated two batches of beer in the 6 liter tap-a-draft bottles and both times I had beer leak out around the cap from the pressure inside. I read one suggestion online of using teflon thread tape to help seal things, but this didn't help on my last batch.

Has anyone else experienced this? Is there a way to modify the caps to get this to work? Or should I just rig up a cup to catch the drips?

Where do ya'll get your kegs? I've been seeing $40 for a reconditioned keg (not including those lucky ducks that get 6 for $30 from craigslist )
Is there some special secret stash that everyone knows about except for me?

Nate

Does anyone know if the conical flask that Austin Hombrew Supply sells is the kind that you can heat directly on the stove, then put in to an ice bath with no ill effects. I'm getting ready to attempt doing a yeast starter for my next brew. Also, what size should I go with. The 1000 or 2000 ml size. I brew 5 gal. batches and not to concerned with the price difference.

thanks

I'm just getting started brewing, and have a question. Brewing an English Pale Ale, cooking went great. This is my 4th batch, so I'm getting to know what to expect. Used a funnel with a strainer on it, thinking I could use more of my wort and not leave so much in my brewpot. Checked it this morning, bubbling like mad, but it is also foaming and the excess is coming out of the airlock. I removed the airlock and cleaned it to try to avoid it becoming clogged and turning my carboy into a bomb. Will be at work for about 12 hours, hopefully won't have to clean a mess when I get home. Anyone run into this? Will my batch be ok? Anything I can do to slow that down, or do I just need to wait it out? Thanks!!!

Posted: by pweis909 (17 hours ago)

I made a BGSA spiced with orange peel, corriander and ginger sitting in the secondary and will get tapped maybe end of this month. Anyone have problems with spices permenantly flavoring their kegerator hose?

For that matter, how about fruit beer? I don't plan on making fruit beer this summer, but it might make the post more informative.

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I brewed a cream ale 2 saturdays ago with OG of 1.059. Its been in the primary for 2 weeks now and has only gotten down to 1.018. I was shooting for somewhere around 1.010. I still here bubbles coming out about every 5 minutes or so. I made a yeast starter and tried the olive oil thing for the first time. The temps have been a little unstable going up and down ranging from 68 when I racked it to about 75 where it is now. What should I do here? Let it keep riding or rack to Secondary? Just not sure never had one seem to take this long.

I'm cleaning out a couple of kegs that kicked last week and I realized that I'm out of pbw and I really don't feel like driving to the homebrew store today. Do you think that using unscented Oxyclean will be ok or just a long hot soak and the sanitize.

thanks

I recently brewed a saison and failed to really research it properly before embarking on this adventure. Any rate, after two weeks in primary and another two in secondary my gravity had come from 1.058 (OG) to 1.030.....my initial thoughts on this were that my mash temps were a bit high(156) and that I probably just extracted too many unfermentables. I bottled the beer and it has been bottled for a couple weeks now at 70'ish.
But after reading a few posts and speaking with some of the other brewers at work concerning Saison and how ferment temps should be in the 80-85 range and a couple weeks in primary and secondary, I began to really question if I had just made 48 grenades instead. I popped one open this morning and was suprised at just how carbonated the beer has become; to say ridiculous would be an understatement. I poured some into the test-tube for gravity reading and I am waiting until it goes flat to take a reading.
I put the remaining bottles into my beer fridge in the garage so that if anything decides to pop it will at least be contained to the fridge and garage vice the interior of the house. I wonder if I should let them ride, drink up or re-cap the bottles every couple of weeks......help!

So I'm here to ask for advice, I know the next time I'll not make the same mistake.

I'm getting into lagers and trying to get fairly clear wort. Just wondering how clear your pre-pitched, cooled wort is and what hoops you go through to get it that way. I use a false bottom, Irish moss, immersion chiller, and try to recirculate some but its still really milky. Dropping the temp and siphoning it off the break gets me to "pretty cloudy". Not as clear as I want but the beer still turns out OK so far.

I brew AG with well water which has no detectable levels of sulfite(-ate?) according to my local lab. I've been adding gypsum on the assumption that it improves hop flavor. No problems with mash pH. I've been brewing pale ales so far. Must I do this? For all non-lagered styles or just for hoppy styles?

I have read conflicting opinions on whether dry hopping with high AA hops is a good idea or not.

I have 2 oz. of bullion that I was thinking of adding to my APA (hopped w/ cascade and centennial). Bullion is noted for its "intense black currant aroma."

So I guess I'm asking a general and specific question. What's up with hopping with high AA hops, and will the bullion work with cascade and centennial?