Beer Feeds

Hi guys,

I’ve made a few beers lately, which I don’t find are as “fresh” tasting in the hop aroma area. Over a year ago I bought
a lot of hops, (well over a year ago ) which have been packaged in vacuum bags ( Foodsaver brand ) and have been in the freezer.

I’m now wondering if buying huge amounts of hops that will last well over a year is a smart thing to do ? or is it
really false economy … where you save lots of money, but in the end, the freshness of the beer suffers.

What are your thoughts on this ? , do you find any degradation in hops over a 12 month or 18 month period ?
even if the hops are sealed in air tight bags ?

I am thinking in the perfect world, instead of buying 10 or 12 lbs of hops at one time in a group order, it would be
better to have more orders, with members buying fewer hops each time. In the perfect world, members would order,
say 3 times a year, and only order enough hops to last them that amount of time, and that way you’d have hops that
are in theory only in your freezer about 4 months, vs 12 or 18 months.

Perhaps I’m wrong, but I am sure there is a degradation in hops, perhaps not so much in the bittering area, but surely
in the aroma potential they are capable of, when they have been sitting around so long.

What are you thoughts on this, does anyone agree ? or am just being silly thinking this guys ?

Thanks for your thoughts.

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I have a keggle that I bought from PedalBiker’s ebay site Keggle Brewing

It got me to wondering if anyone had any plans or designs to convert a pony keg into a fermenter.

It would have to have a way to put an air lock and some way to seal the vessel, but it would be great to have a SS fermenter that is easy to clean and you don’t have to worry about breaking it. You could put a spigot on it so you could drain the beer out and leave a nice yeast cake behind, or find a way to pressurize it like a corney and push the beer out with CO2.

Any ideas?

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Not my item, but a current bid of only $51, means someone is likely to get a great deal.

Edit, link not working. Try item #330168046186

http://cgi.ebay.com/True-Bev-Aire-Refriger…1QQcmdZViewItem

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So I just found out about the Brewing Network and was listening to one of the old webcasts (Scotch Ale). During the show Jamil mentioned about missing pre-boil OG and hop IBUs being off. He also mentioned adding DME to make up for the missed OG. So I’ve done a search on this board and still have a couple questions:

1) Does anybody supplement their missed OG with DME or do you just accept it and see what comes out?
2) I assume this is done pre-boil? How would you calculate the amount needed pre-boil to get a proper post-boil OG?
3) Apparently I missed something in my readings - I thought IBUs were based on volume of boil, amount of hops added, and time boiled. How does missing your OG, by say 10 points short, change the IBUs? Given a scenario: boil volume 6.5 gal pre-boil/5.5 gal post-boil, 1 ounce - 5.0 AA hops boiled 60 minutes, pre-boil OG is 1.040 instead of 1.050 what would be the IBU difference? Does it really matter that much?

To partially answer my own question #1 - I missed my OG on my first all-grain batch (an APA) and it seemed to have come out fine (tasted good out of the bottom of the bottling bucket anyway). I wanna make sure I’m doing this right if I’m going to do it though.

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So, I hooked two regulator bodies together the other day, and I’ve done the “turn off the high side gas” trick and it seems I’ve got a *very* slow leak in the regulator body somewhere. I know it’s in the regulators, cause she was totally over-night leak proof when I had it just from the one regulator before I made the connection to two regulators. I also have shutoffs attached to the two bodies that I switched off last night when I also turned off the high side, so that essentially made a trap between the shutoffs and the tank connection. It dropped from 850psi to around 600 psi overnight. I realize that’s a pretty small leak, but it’s causing me to lose sleep at night. How the hell do you find a leak like that that probably won’t produce bubbles, and you can’t submerge the regulators?

Or, am I just spastic and should get on with my life? Realistically, how much gas am I “giving away”?

Mike

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Hi guys,

I’ve never used one of these tiny Co2 charger units, so I’m wondering…
do they shoot out gas at a pretty high PSI ?

If so, how do you reglate the keg pressure ? , let’s say for example this thing shoots out
30 psi, even a short 2 second spritz on the keg would give you a lot of foam when dispensing,
so….. I thought I had better ask before ordering one of these things.

Thanks for any info guys:
http://www.northernbrewer.com/kegs-disconnects.html

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Hi everyone! I just got bit by the brewing bug, and after a couple weeks of reading and pestering friends bought this kit at Home Brew Mart here in San Diego:
http://www.homebrewmart.com/starter_kit_1_store.html
I also purchased some iodophor and a packet of irish moss derivative the salesperson recommended.
The kit comes with a set of ingredients, and I chose the West Coast Pale Ale recipe . I cooked up my wort that afternoon and, after some trial and error and a lot of sanitizing, I poured my first brew into the fermenter and pitched the yeast at 77F. Initially I forgot to put water in the airlock, and it sat for perhaps 2 hours with no “lock” on the lock, and I hope that doesn’t mess up the flavor or skunk it… This afternoon while putting things away I dropped my hydrometer as well, that was nice. It’s been fermenting for 24 hours now, and I was wondering if anyone had any advice on a couple of questions:
When I added the first batch of hops to the wort, I unthinkingly threw in the irish moss with the hops. I don’t know if
Right now, it’s bubbling pretty vigorously, and there’s a yellow fluid up in the airlock. It’s also pushing some of the fluid out the top (I have the 6.5 gallon fermenter sitting in a 34 qt pot, so my carpet is likely safe). Is this normal?
The top of the fermenter is visibly bowed upwards, though not much more than a centimeter. Is this normal? No chance of coming home and finding my brew all over the place?
My bottling bucket came with a nice big hole drilled in it, but no spigot. Can I use a rubber stopper with a hole in it? what other gear should I get? I have a racking cane and a bottle filler, as well as 6 feet or so of tubing…what do i attach to the hole at the bottom? should I just use the racking cane?
Sorry for all the questions! I appreciate any advice in advance, and look forward to reporting on my first brew. I’m sure it’s happened here before… =)
(also, if i’ve violated some board etiquette here, please forgive me)

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At the begininng of this month I put an AC unit on my little fermentation chamber. It ran great for over two weeks and then iced up overnight Sat right after I put 10 gallons of a sort of Alt (long story). Anyway I took it out, thawed it out and reinstalled with a 4″ fan that will run full time over the cooling coils.

Will that work to keep the coils clear? Then I had another thought, a few months ago one of the fans pulling off the old cooling source (a freezer) was losing it’s bearings and heating up. They’re only pulling 1.5 amps (120v) and now my system has 3 running. One full time the the other two only when the controller lets them. Should I have an inline fuse on those? TIA

dj

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The Rocky Mountain News ran a great story on Flying Dog Brewery Founder and Owner, George Stranahan over the weekend. Check it out here.

addthis_url = ‘http%3A%2F%2Fwww.flyingdognews.com%2F2007%2F09%2F24%2Fgeorge-stranahan-featured-in-rocky-mountain-news%2F’;
addthis_title = ‘George+Stranahan+Featured+in+Rocky+Mountain+News’;
addthis_pub = ‘’;

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Finally started to build my bar in the new house this weekend. Here’s my progress so far (click on the slideshow):

http://picasaweb.google.com/given2flybrewing/BarPics/

Will update as I continue to work on it.

G2Fly

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The last 5 years our club has grown so much that we have been getting some local media attention. Some of our members were featured in the local paper once again. I thought they did a superb job plugging the quality of homebrew and what clubs are all about. Check it out….

http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2007/sep/23/brew_connoisseurs/

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I was hanging out with some pro brewers at our annual LBG Brewfest over the weekend and they mentioned some things that made me think. Dustin, a fellow homebrewer in the LBG is now working at Flying Dog in Denver told me their latest hop order from the next harvest for Cascades was $9.75/# John Dean head brewer at Blind Tiger concurred. He said the Europeans have started to love the American varieties and are willing to pay top price to get them. John mentioned specifically Cascade, Centennials, and Simcoe. I wonder how this will effect home brewers as these guys have already been effected.

Also, John Dean said alot of co2 thats coming down the line is being recaptured from ethanol plants. The main problem with this scenario is that this co2 has sulfur in it. If brewers use this type of co2 to force carb. with the sulfur stays in the beer and effects flavor. But if you just push beer the sulfur will blow off. If this is true, id still think that a homebrew keg thats under pressure can still acquire some sulfur character just because our kegs sometimes take longer to dispense than commercial brews…..It was also mentioned that a filter can be used inline of the kegging setup to filter out the sulfur compounds. Anyways, thought I would throw this out there for general info. or discussion…….

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Can anyone suggest where I can get good brew either at a beer store or a pub/brewery near the Outer Banks? I will be staying with some beer snobs and we want some good brews. We do not want to have to bring our gear or buy stuff up north for this trip.

Also, are there any good liquor stores out that way? Looking for some Rye and some good bourbon. Thanks ya’ll.

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This is by no means a scientific study, just my observations… I’ve only used dry yeast twice. Different strains (Safale S-05 and Safale S-04) on different recipes (same OG though).

Batch 1 - S-05 OG 1.063 Pitching Temp 78* Yeast rehydrated for 1 hr prior to pitch

• 4 hrs after pitch: bubbling rate at 1 bubble every 30-40 seconds
• 12 hrs after pitch: bubbling rate at 1 bubble every 2 seconds
• 24 hrs after pitch: bubbling rate at 1 bubble per second

Batch 2 - S-04 OG 1.063 Pitching Temp 84* Yeast was not rehydrated

• 4 hrs after pitch: bubbling rate at 1 bubble every 8 seconds
• 12 hrs after pitch: bubbling rate at 2 bubbles every 1 second
• 24 hrs after pitch: has not been 24 hrs yet…

Although this data is insufficient to draw any conclusions, I can say that, in my experience, dry yeast takes off quickly and rocks. I’ve never had yeast take off so quickly in the past when I used liquid strains. Anyway, I thought I read that S-04 takes off faster than S-05 so this is by no means a fair comparison, just an interesting observation.

Batch 1 is still conditioning and won’t be ready for a few months. Batch 2 should be drinkable in a month or so. I can’t wait to try both of these batches.

Maybe in the future I’ll do a more controlled study where I do a single batch, aerate the whole thing then equally rack onto carboys and pitch hydrated yeast, dry yeast (right out of the pack) and the equivalent liquid yeast, just for kicks. Anyone done/seen something like that done? I am certain it’s been done, I just haven’t seen it.

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Wierd??? A few weeks ago I pitched a Wyeast 1010 at 70 deg. that topped out at around 1.080. (Wierd) After a week in primary, transferred to secondary and it still floated at 1.080.() This is after a nasty, crazy ferment, in which I was on a blowoff tube for 4 days!! Tasted beer and it was awesome, definately had active fermentation. Took another reading today and it floated at 1.100!!!!! (WTF!!!!) Still the beer looks great, smells good, tastes superb. So I’m not sure if I have a bad Hydrometer or if this beer is wacked out? Any suggestions??

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Posted: by errantnight (13 hours ago)

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I just got back from a month long trip to Canada to find that the cones on my bines had really come on nicely, but I susopect that they may be beyond usable. They are mostly still green although a few have now turned yellow/brown. There is still a decent amount of resin in the hops although my impression of a health “ripe” hop cone is a tight, sticky bud - mine are now fairly loose-leaved and definitely not sticky.

Have I missed the boat with these, or is it still worth picking them and throwing them in a harvest ale?

Note: This is their first year so I was never originally planning to use them in a beer anyway - rather wait until next year. However, they looked so good, and produced so many cones that I changed my mind. Had my Canada trip not intervened I would have harvested them some time ago.

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I made a rye stout today and used Wyeast Irish Ale yeast….i dont normally screw this up, but I beleieve I pitched at around 87deg because i went to check on the carboy and the belt thermometer said 86deg….i put it in the fridge and will take it out when it gets down to 76 or so…..I am hoping since fermentation has yet to start i will be ok…. or did i screw up….

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Posted: by edmundfitzoil (1 hour ago)

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I found an old topic
http://www.brewboard.com/index.php?showtop…eineken+5+liter
but no one seemed to answer the question. Has anyone attempted reusing these yet? Or figured out how they work?

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I’ve tried to find it on the net but I can’t come up with a tolerance for 05. Also, is the alcohol tolerance in %W or %V?

Thanks

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I have been using one of those cheap turkey deep fryers from Target for the past year (about 20 brews) and I think it’s time for an upgrade….I can’t seem to get a blue flame anymore….

any recommendations on an affordable but good one???

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I have been using one of those cheap turkey deep fryers from Target for the past year (about 20 brews) and I think it’s time for an upgrade….I can’t seem to get a blue flame anymore….

any recommendations on an affordable but good one???

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I have a 12 gal 3 tank system that is piped in ss and copper. Im not having any contaminate issues but Im curious. I have a 5 gal pressure cooker. It is has a toggler on it that maintains 15 psi. In effect it is a saftey device like a PTR valve. At 15 psi the Steam will be 250 F. I can remove the boil kettle and replace with the pressure cooker on the burner. Then remove the threaded pressure gauge from the lid of the cooker and thread a steam line to my system. At the lowest point in the system - the drain valve, I can put a steam trap. The hardware stores sell replacements for old steam radiators. This should pressurize the whole system to 15 psi and maintain 250 F for about a hour. The March pump is also rated for this temp. I know the heat exchanger will benifit from a long and hot attack on bacteria! I know there are risk involved. The pressure cooker could explode. Sound bad and that would be but I would not have modified it (pressure cooker) in anyway that it was intend to be used. Privided the system has been cleaned and rinsed this maybe an alternative to chemicals - cheaper too. I also feel at this time and temp. there is nothing that could survive in the equipment. Most breweries I know use caustic but Im sure some steam clean.

Do you have any experince with this idea?
DV8

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I started my mash 15 minutes ago and just realized I forgot the oats (oatmeal stout). Can I add them now and just let it mash a bit longer? Or am I screwed at this point?

Thanks.

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I’m going to be brewing a Belgian Ale in a couple hours and need some help. When pouring the cooled wort into the fermenting bucket, should I pour in all the junk that is on the bottom from the boil?

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I’ve wanted to do this for a while and after reading the latest BYO I’m going to take the leap. Please share your experiences or thoughts here.

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Used a bottle of Rogue Shakespeare Stout to culture up some Pacman yeast. I placed it in 2 pints of wort, gave it oxygen, and then onto a stirplate.

Noticable fermentation took a while (midnight Thursday till 8am Saturday morning) then the guy took off all throughout today.

BUT,

I’ve never used Pacman before, but it seems to have slight sour smell to it. Is this usual for fermention, or has something gone wrong.

Everything looks normal and I was good as usual with sanitation.

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So I’m at a restaurant with a few friends having a couple of brews. They had been drinking some SA and other quality beers with pop-off tops so as we were leaving, I thought, HEY, I’ll grab these bottles and add them to my stockpile. I’ve been stocking up for my next few batches. Well, then I remembered that I was on my motorcycle and that I didn’t have my backpack… So, I stick them in my pockets since I only live 5 minutes away. Right as I’m about to leave, I say to my friends “THIS WOULD LOOK REALLY REALLY BAD IF I GOT PULLED OVER!” Now what do you think happened about 2 minutes later? You got it, I was pulled over by not ONE, not TWO, but THREE POLICE CARS. Apparently I had been seen driving a little fast out of the parking lot and they suspected that I may have been a drug dealer/buyer. I guess there’s a problem around where I live with running drugs on motorcycles.

Anyway, the police officer instructs me to remain on my motorcycle, and comes over and tells me I was going a little fast. Then he sees all the beer bottles in my pockets and say, “… and now I know WHY you were going a little fast” I quickly explained to him why I had the beer bottles. I also didn’t have my registration or proof of insurance! Thank goodness, they picked up on me being in the military right away and knew I wasn’t a drug dealer. The very nice man left me with a warning for not having my registration…

All this because I wanted a few more bottles to bottle my wheat wine with. Maybe this is a sign that I should just stick to kegging.

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I have a fig tree in my yard and I’m tired of throwing the figs out. Theres a ton of them this year.

Do you think this would work and what type of beer would you use them in?

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