Beer Feeds

After alot of anticipation and worry about doing an AG batch I finally just jumped in feet first and did it. To my surprise it went very well. I did a 2.5 gallon batch for my first one and will do some more like that until I get my feet wet. This one was a Red Hook ESB clone that I pitched and entire packet of Safale US-05 after I aerated the wort. Well a couple hours after I pitched it was making bubbles in the airlock and then after I got home early this morning from a hard night of beer drinking it was going like hell, I was excited. Now things seem to have fell off. I checked everything and it all looked good.

Oh did I mention that I realized this morning I forgot to take my OG reading before pitching?

So what I was thinking of doing was taking a reading tomorrow and then again in a few days to see if the gravity is decreasing or not. I think it will be ok, but I really wanted this to go perfect, but there is always that one thing that will always come back and bite me in the arse.

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This is the show where we finally give away all the prizes for the DVD. We also taste 3 beers from Allagash Brewing Company. Thanks for all the support.

• Jeff’s GABF Calendar

• Allagash Crieux
• Allagash 11th Anniversary
• Allagash Victor

• Preshow - Clipper City, Red Sky at Night.
• Postshow - Cleanup

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Fresh hops just put out the harvest 25-27 dollars a pound
Time for the consumer to get completely ripped off -

go ahead and argue about how they are still low cost compared to everything else
these prices are out of hand

It’s now about 6-7 bucks more per batch

what a shame

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An Idea hit me today while I was riding the mower today. I have a nice Scotsman Ice machine but since moving into my new digs I have no place to hook it up as it needs 1) Water line; 2) Drain; 3) Condernsate pump if direct access to drain not availible.

My inital Idea was to tap into the water line leading to my hot water heater located in the garage and utilize the condensate pump to drain the waste water to the overflow line of the water heater that leads outside. Also in the plans was to build an under counter homebrew fridge similar to what Walt has done tapping the cold air supply from old fridge.

This is when my idea hit me today. The waste water that drains from the Ice machine is damn cold. I could use the condensate pump to circulate the water through water lines inside my “cooler” then skip the cutting of the fridge. I know that I will not be able to maintain serving temps but if I could get good fermentation temps during the warmer months that the good Lord grants to us in the Tri-state region I would be quite the happy one.

I guess I need to measure the output of the water but guessing I am sure it is near 35*F. The condensate pumps can handle pushing water a fair distance but I am wondering it can handle the pressure created by the additional length of tubing that would be circulating through my “cooler”.

Thoughts?

Thanks!

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Just bottled a batch of Wheat beer. 5# wheat DME and 2# light DME. 1 oz Hallerttau bittering. Used WY3068 to ferment for 2 weeks @ about 72F. Stuff smells like banana puree. REALLY intense. Bottled it anyway and I’m hoping another week or so in the bottle will help. Is this typical of 3068 or do you think something else wrong? Anybody have an alternative yeast they’d recommend in a similar recipe?

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Linky.

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I inherited a large upright freezer. I didn’t look at it very carefully before I hauled it away, and now I realize that the coils are integrated in the shelves. It looks like I can pop them out and move them off to the side. Anybody done this?

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Just pitched a starter of WLP001 that had a pretty sour smell to it. This is my first time using this yeast and I was wondering if anyone has ever noticed a sour smell coming from their starter. I wasn’t sure if perhaps yeast can smell sour when there is a large concentration of it like this. I’ve never noticed it before so I’m guessing it was contaminated somehow

Too bad I didn’t smell it BEFORE pitching it.

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Just realized that I didn’t order any rice hulls, can I still brew? Here is the recipe and im batch sparging if that helps.

Twosday’s Belgian Witbiere

5 lbs. pilsner Belgian
2 lbs. wheat malt
2 lbs. flaked wheat
.5 lb. flaked oats
1-2 lbs. rice hulls
1 oz. Hallertauer Mittelfruh boiling
1 oz. Saaz aroma
1 oz. crushed fresh coriander
1 oz. dry curacao orange peel
1 tsp. bruised cardamom
1 g Grains of paradise
1/3 tsp of cumin
3944 Belgian White

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HI

I live in Ontario. I’m thinking of coming down to Syracuse for a little trip. I want to bring back some beer that I can’t get here. Any suggestions for a big liquor store with lots and lots of beer?

Thanks for any suggestions.
Neil

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Every year I make a pumpkin ale, unfortunately my record keeping has been almost no existent the last two years. (Ever since my laboratory thermometer AND hydrometer broke) I could not remember how much Libbys pumpkin pie mix I threw in last year.
This years recipie, I thew in Two cans of pumpkin pie mix, and a can of pumpkin. All this with 3 pounds of 60/40 bavarian wheat DME, 1 ound of light DME, and a hellacious mini mash…………it ought to be pretty alcoholic. Although I wouldn’t know this, cause my damn hydrometer broke. Anyway……..all that pumpkin along with minimal hops (3/4 tettenger for bittering, 1/4 ounce for aroma) the smell and flavor was ALL pumpkin pie! You cant even taste any hops. Next time more robust hops (not by much….just a little more), and less pumpkin pie mix.

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My neighbor just got a fridge to use as a kegerator, but we haven’t converted it yet. It will probably be a while. We can get one fermenter in there and keep the temperature at 45 (or lower).

I’d like to try my first lager, but would maybe like to use a dry yeast to make this a cheaper experimental batch.

Also if you have any recipe advice I’m looking for something with at least a moderate amount of malt character. I have a pound of Centenniels and Cascades I just picked up, and a few extras.

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Yup I forgot to get part of my grain bill yesterday so I went back today to get it. I’d planned on goining and just spending $1.25 on some wheat malt and wound up getting that, plus the book “The Complete Joy of Homebrewing”, and a Phil Mill. Just a shade over a buck and a quarter.

Just for clarification, I didn’t steal it, I just spent more than I had planned….

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I had a great cake of wlp028 edinburgh left over from a scottish strong. Pitched it into a DIPA recipe just so I could call it “hopscotch ale”, thought it would be a fun recipe. white labs says this strain is a multi-tasker. The flavor in this concoction is to me and all tasters award winning. Does this multitasker go great w/ other beers as well? Are there any other strains that make an unusual but delicious beer? I’m on 3rd generation now of this and the DIPA is just amazing.

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Ok, I’m heating up the strike water right now for an APA and took the yeast out of the fridge. I didn’t have time to make a starter this week, so I bought two vials of WLP001. Well, at least I thought I did. Turns out one of the vials is Cal Ale V. You guys think I would be ok pitching two different strains?

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I’m headed to Toronto next weekend to play some hockey and want to know if there are any good brewpubs?! I’m staying on Yonge and Wellesey Street, so I don’t know where exactly that is compared to the rest of the town. I’m going with my girlfriend, brother and our hockey friend, so we are ready for some good brews!

Go Pens!

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I’m 99% sure its the equipment, not me, but I can’t figure out what’s happening for the life of me. I bought a bunch of stuff from a guy on craigslist, including a 5-gallon, round, orange mash tun. At the bottom is a copper manifold with holes punched in the bottom. Its kind of a funky shape, with weldless fittings at the junctions.

Every time I go to drain my runnings, I get about half a quart and then it is stopped cold. Nothing I’ve tried doing prevents this. I’ve tried just dumping the grains in, I’ve tried using a strainer bag, I’ve tried using a ton of rice hulls, all no luck. I’ve tried smaller mashes, waiting for the stuck sparge, then dumping in a bunch of hot water and trying to resuspend. No luck. In fact, the only way I’ve gotten flow restarted is to dump everything back out of the cooler, rinse it out once or twice, and then fill it with water, after which the flow will start again in a few seconds.

So after yesterday’s nightmare of a brewday, I took it apart. I took off the manifold, hooked it up to a hose, and pushed water through. It looked ok, maybe. There are two holes on the long, straight arm of the manifold and water was gushing out of those. It was hard to tell if water was getting pushed through the arms because of the hose not fitting tight and because water was really coming out of the first two. I pushed water through the spigot by itself, no problems. Then I put it back together, filled it with 1-2 gallons of water, and it was flowing fine. Then I dumped in a couple big handfuls of spent grain. Bam, clogged within seconds. I tried reaching around and stirring it, getting my fingers underneath the manifold to try to see if the holes were clogged, and just nothing worked.

Any ideas? I’ve got a bunch of milled grain ready for a weizen, fresh yeast from a local brewery, and I’d really like to get it going. I’m not going to have to just dump it and build a new one, am I?

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I brewed last night and just now realized I forgot the flavoring hops. Is it to late to add them or am I just SOL.

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I’ve tried using vanilla extract in beers a few times. First it was a porter, then I put some in the pumpkin ale, but I wasn’t satisfied. I thought I’d give it one more try using the best extract I could buy and see if was any better. I brewed a simple American CAP and put the Watkins double extract (which I actually DID buy it from Bill Porter) into the keg.

I’m drinking some now and it’s not great. The idea for the beer was to pay homage to the vanilla cream ales that so many make well. The problem is that this beer doesn’t taste like vanilla. Instead it tastes like vanilla extract. Every time I take a drink, it evokes the shape of the bottle and that brown color of the extract.

If I ever try vanilla again, it’s definitely going to be the bean itself. IMO, if you’re thinking of adding a few drops of vanilla extract to your beer, DON’T.

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My favorite beer is Pete’s Wicked Ale and for some reason it is not distributed in SE GA or NE FL. Does anyone have a clone recipe for this wonderful beverage?
Thanks!

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Thanks to all who answered all my noob questions, I brewed my first batch (Canadian Ale extract kit from HBA) 5 weeks ago.
I couldn’t wait any longer so a couple days ago I stuck a six pack in the fridge and just poured myself a cold one. It was 10 times better than I was expecting, carbonated well and no strange tastes. Its a little darker than I thought it should be but I attribute that to only boiling 2 gallons and getting some caramelization.

My second batch (Old Flat Tire extract kit from HBA full boil) is ready to either bottle or transfer to a corny and force carbonate. I have everything to set up my kegerator but still need to put it all together first.

I have everything to brew either a Lager extract kit or a Cream ale all grain. I am leaning towards the all grain as I only have a 1000ml Erlenmeyer flask for on my stir plate, I eBay’d a 5000 ml Pyrex bottle but it did not show up yet.

Before anyone else says it……………….. it really was so easy a caveman ccould do it

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First off, Beloved Vicki and I are headed to Oregon from Oct 3rd until the 8th. We will be in Portland, Eugene and Bend. Any listeners who would like to try to hook up and drink a couple beers please email me here.
Show 130 was recorded among the commotion of the first Muncie […]

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Flying Dog’s beers are now available to several European chapters of the People’s Republic of Flying Dog. The current selection includes Gonzo, Snake Dog, Old Scratch and Doggie Style with more styles arriving in ‘08. Flying Dog’s distribution now includes Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Austria, Italy, UK and Holland with more to come. We are […]

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Topic says pretty much everything. With the possibilty of some varietals becoming scarce, and some becoming uber pricey, which 5 vareities can’t you live without? All hypothetical of course

for me;

I could do well enough with

Magnum
Cascade
Mt Hood
Willamette
Cz Saaz

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I’ve heard of people using PH testing to determine when starch conversion is complete. What PH should your wort be when starch conversion is complete?

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I brewed a batch of English bitter on August 6th. Due to a bunch of bad things happening, that day, it came out horrible. Two of those things, in particular, are: over-sparging due to using a new rig, and pitching the english bitter onto a cake of WY1056 (American Ale)–we had another batch go weird that same day, and decided to use the ESB yeast for that batch.

I tapped it in late August (3-4 weeks after brew day). It was terrible. I really TRIED to like it, but I couldn’t choke down more than a pint at a time. It was extremely plain, yet astringent.. very astringent. Not bitter, just awful. I took my hoses off of it and left it in the kegerator, trying to figure out what to do with it.

Today, on a whim, I moved the hoses from another keg onto it, poured a 1/4 pint. Wow! It’s still not my best beer, but it’s actually pretty good, now. I’ll drink the rest of this keg, certainly!

It definitely could have benefited from british yeast, and probably maris otter, too, but I can’t believe how much it’s matured in the past ~4 weeks.

The lesson: don’t pour out a beer until you’re sure it’s undrinkable!
That was a close one.

S

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Brewing a dark mild tomorrow and will be using an Oxygenator for the 1st time. (Kills my back picking up full Better Bottles and shaking the hell out of them). My question, How long do you shoot the oxygen in a typical 5 gal. batch? Also, do you run it wide open or slowly release the oxygen? Any imput would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

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With the apparent Armageddon on our doorstep, what with the spiralling hop and malt prices, what adjustments in your brewing will you make in the coming year(s)?

For example I’ll likely be retiring my DIPAs for a while (although that pound and half of Summit pellets in the freezer may contradict that). With the newer Saison yeasts coming from WYeast some moderate gravity Belgians will be in my future. This is also an opportunity to play around with some adjuncts. In addition to cereal mashes I plan to play with Palm Sugar, caramel and molasses and even some Maple Syrup (why not when grain will be almost as expensive?).
Also, given how tasty this second mash RyePA is, I may even take up doing small beers…at least when I do big ones, as well.
How will you weather the storm?

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Thought I’d share what I put together. I got the fridge and and temp controller together off of craigslist for $100. The only thing I needed to do was bend the ice tray to make it all fit. Now I’ve got plenty of room for a carboy or a single cornie. This is a good alternative to people who want to get into kegging on the cheap because this size refrigerator is much more common and a bunch cheaper on craigslist than chest freezers and the Sanyo’s everyone converts into kegerators. It just requires modding the freezer tray.

Plenty O room for a carboy

Plenty O room for a Cornie

Up close of bent freezer tray. This took literally 10 minutes to do. I would recommend bending the tray when the fridge is off and at room temperature. I see a lot of people putting together fermentation chambers with 2X4’s and insulation. If you are only doing 5 gallon batches this is a whole lot easier, will give you a more consistent product, it’s not an eye sore, and is virtually maintenance free. Oh and did I mention these fridges are on craigslist all the time for $30 - $50.

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Are we really going to pay 16 bucks or more per pound for hops from fresh hops

they are really the only place to go because hops direct doesnt have nearly as many good american varieties - cascade and centennial and thats it!

simcoe and summit as well as amarillo might even be more than that.

ingredients sure are going to get expensive.

I remember getting hops for 6-7 bucks a pound.

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