Beer Feeds

I’m geeting a keg of ale with me for the memorial weekend. I’ll be driving for about 4 hours and it will be exposed to the high temperatures 70-75F and a lot of shaking.
Right now it goes through the secondary fermentation and is almost ready (I’d give it couple more days, but…)
I plan to serve it from the keg it is now in. So I have two options:
1) Seal it now with 20 PSI, disconnect and travelkl like that, let it carbonate, chill to servig temp when I arrive, finish carbonation and drink.
2) Put it upright in the car (no airlock of blow of tube though, but enough headspace), chill when I arrive or even the day after, and force carbonate then.

What do you think?

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I’m planning a bigger Kolsch tomorrow. Probably around 1.055 with 75% Pils and 25%% flaked spelt and noble hops.

Does the spelt need cooking or a cereal mash? Tastes similar to flaked wheat which I always just toss in the mash. I’m assuming gravity contribution should be similar too. Any thoughts?

dj

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I did a pale ale, 2 weeks ago this tomorrow. I was planning on bottling this up this weekend, assuming I had reached final gravity. My beer still looks pretty freakin cloudy. Is this because I didn’t whirflock? Is there anything I can do to fix it?

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Posted: by DaveFL1976 (11 hours ago)

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Posted: by sharlaon (14 hours ago)

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I made a standard hefeweizen using 50:50 pale:wheat malt and WL300 yeast. I have reached my target FG but there is still a thick head of yeast on top of the beer. Is this normal? How long can I expect to wait for it to drop? Or should I just rack into secondary (something I don’t normally do).

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Posted: by MMansfield (16 hours ago)

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Sometimes I wonder about quality vs quantity in a starter. I wonder would happen with the following, all obviously intended to have the same pitch rates:

- Stir plate vs large aerated starter

- Large aerated starter vs smaller stepped up starter. Probably more for lagers than ales

- Above starters: at fermentation temp vs ~75 or so

- Any starter vs pitching more packaged yeast

- Any starter vs slurry of approximate same pitching.

I’ve read all the research and stuff, but I feel it’s still some blind faith in trusting a stir plate. Just making a big batch of wort and aerating has less variables.

Also, it kind of seems like when repitching, once a yeast hits the groove, it makes some pretty good beer. The yeast kind of learns your wort, learns your practices and adjusts. Maybe not, I don’t know. A stir-plate is like another planet and while you’ve got a whole bunch of lovely yeast, it’s used to a different wort, different conditions, doing different stuff.

Also, I suspect if you do steps or a single aeration starter, that would be similar to a beer, and probably would be hard to screw up growth, nutrients, osmotic shock, etc.

I’ve got too much on my plate right now to start doing a bunch of split batches, but this has been nagging at me. Anyone have any opinions here?

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Posted: by Bunnyhop (35 minutes ago)

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just getting ready so that when my 1st batch is done what i need to know about kegging.
how do i go about kegging?
how do i get the co2 into beer?(whats the best way)
after the beer is kegged can i pour into bottles and cap them? how long will it last?
do i need any special coupler and tap? or can i use my current setup? (us sanky coupler and tap)
thanks in advance

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wellguys im about to lager my kolsch for about 1 month and had a few questions.

1.) is the 40’s enough to lager?
2.) if i lager will all the yeast in suspension fall?
3.) If I am bottling (natural carbing) wat septs should I take

I also plan on using polyclar

what say ye merry gentlemen?

Carlos

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So here’s some pics of my first year rhizomes…

Centennial

Goldings

Mt Hood

The trellis… it goes up to the awning of the roof

My cascades looks dead, but I’ll leave it in the ground just in case.
I hope to get some hops this year, but I’m realistically expecting not to have enough to brew for a year.

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Aside from imperial pilsners and bocks maybe, I find lagers to be all so similar and just plain boring.

I just never have a reason to buy and brew them.

Anyone else agree or am I just not with a refined enough palate?

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I’ve always loved real ale, and I’ve also always loved the old-world charm of beer engines, but as we all know, beer engines are hard to come by. Since I eventually dropped the cash to get one (off of ebay.co.uk, paid twice the amount of the engine in shipping), I needed to have a proper place to put it. No clamping it to the work bench for me, this had to be proper. So I looked around and decided my living room furniture was pretty simple in design, and decided to try to build a cabinet to hold the beer at room temp, with the engine built in and clamped to the top. Below are my first few pics. It was inaugurated at my wife’s med-school graduation party with an ESB, so it was in the garage in case of rain.

Disclaimer: I’ve never built furniture before, and never even used most of the tools necessary. Be critical for sure because I want to do better on future projects, but remember I’m a complete amateur!

The wood is stained mahogany and the finish is brushed lacquer. I’m going to rub it out later, the was no time before the party:

Let me know what you think! I know real ale isn’t supposed to be at EXACTLY room temp, but I did get an engine with water cooling capability, so if I decide I want it a tad cooler later, I can always rig up a little pump and a bucket of ice water.

EDIT: Forgot to say that I’ll post more pics when I get the thing back to my house (still at the party location) and put it in the room where it belongs.

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Couldn’t find it in a search, but anyway - it’s been so long since I’ve done this. Ran out of C02 to keg, and I have about 9 days before it will be served so I figured I’d just let some corn sugar do the work today.

How much sugar do I need to add to get a medium carbonated 5 gallon keg of mild? eh?

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I was planning on adding some frozen raspberries to a wheat beer, but I was just at the grocery store and found fresh cherries on sale for cheaper than frozen raspberries. I have never added cherries to a beer before. What should I do to prepare them? Should I pluck the stem? Pit them? Crush them in a pot with warm water? Thanks for any help you can give me.

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Posted: by dano213 (10 hours ago)

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Posted: by Donnie2112 (12 hours ago)

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So, it is official SWMBO landed a sweet job and we will be moving to Tacoma, WA in the fall , and I have found myself wanting to clear out the ingredient inventory so they do not have to be subjected to the high temps of the moving truck (the kegs of full beer will be in the temp conrolled car with me ).

Anyway, I have found myself with about 3lbs of brown malt that I will need to use, so I though what better time then now then to dive into a historical beer experiement. And I was just wondering if anyone out there has any of the recipes floating around and if there are any you would avoid?

Some of the resources I’ve found:

2 recipes (1850s Whitbread and modified 1750s)

Blog looking at the grists of various historical porters

Ray Daniels’ take on the subject and 2 recipes

PDF with a 1744 town and country recipe via Terry Foster

slight twist on a 1868 Porter Recipe taken from G.S. Amsinck

Article from Brewing History on the origin of porter

etc, etc, etc

Has anyone used a percentage Rauchmalt in addition to the brown to replicate the smoke character that is said to have been more pronounced in the historic brown malts vs. the modern brown malt produced by crisp?

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Seems like chilling has been one of the biggest challenges for me, especially being in Florida, where our tap water is damn near hot. I’ve been using a CFC for awhile, but I go thru a crapload of ice with inconsistent results. So I’ve decided to recirculate the wort from the chiller back into the brewpot and create a whirlpool. It’s discussed a little at MrMalty, as an alternative to the recirculating immersion chiller method.

I have a March pump coming from Morebeer. My question is how to set it up. Should I put it between the outflow from the kettle and the CFC, or after the CFC, pushing wort back to the kettle?

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I’m interested in brewing a red ale that’s deep , almost blood red in color. Can anyone suggest some specialty malts that help create a vibrant red color?

Thanks in advance.

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Greg talks with Adam Avery who explains Avery Fifteen in depth.

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Interview with Blackfoot River Brewing from Helena Montana. They had possibly the best pairing in savor, Scottish Ale and Creme Brulee.

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