Beer Feeds

Hey all,
I transferred my Russian Imperial Stout the other day, and after a month it only attenuated about 63%. I think it’s really too high and am thinking about adding more yeast to kick up another ferment.
OG-1.092
FG-1.032
Yeast: Wyeast 1056 with half liter starter.
I realize I used too small of a starter. I’m really just lokking for what I can to right now to bring down that FG. Any suggestions would be good, Thanks.
Jay

EDIT: This was one of my first attempts at Partial Mash because i still am not able to make AG batches yet.
6# dark DME
1# Chocolate Malt
1# Black patent
.5# Rosted Barley
2# Caramel 120
1# Pale 2-row
and 1# Corn Sugar

I mashed at 154 for about 90 min. After punching the numbers in Promash I got about 40% efficiency.
I also realize that there is way too much Caramel 120 in there. the mouthfeel of my sample was crazy! but the tast was the best thing i’ve ever made. it was Chocholaty and roasty and delicious.
Brewrunner, do you think that US-05 would be the best way, or should i try to stick with 1056? Thanks!

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Hi all!

I am willing to make a Red Ale, not necessarily true to the “irish red” style. I want it balaned leaning to sweet taste, deep red in color, and with an interesting twist in flavour/aroma, but not from lots of aroma/flavor hops.

My recipe would be something like this.

OG: 1.050 - 1.055

Base malt: British or Belgian Pale malt

Speciality Malts:

- 3 oz Roasted Barley
- 3 oz Special-B 140L
- Maybe some aromatic malt? (haven’t tasted this one yet) Or maybe some melanoidin malt?
- Maybe some munich malt? (for maltier profile)

Hops: EKG both for bittering (about 20-25 IBUs) and finish (0.5 oz for 10 minutes)

Any thoughs and comments for a deep red color, and a nice flavor profile? I especially need guidelines for roasted barley and Specal-B quantities in a 6 gal batch, and recommendations about the other gains (aromatic, malanoidin, munich).

BTW, it would also be my first all-grain batch

Thanks!

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I’m jumping to AG tomorrow (providing I don’t have another starter mishap) and want to stop using bottled water for my brew and switch to tap. I live in Cincinnati and wonder if any other brewers who live here can give me any tips about our water here. I always thought our water tasted a bit funky but SWMBO says its in my head.

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Looking to buy some soft copper refrigeration tubing for my HERMS set up. Does it really matter if the tubing is a Type L rating or a Type K rating? All in all it will serve the same purpose…. right?

I have found 50ft coil of 3/8 for $45 Type L…

What do you think?

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How does this look? I am using fresh hops from www.freshhops.com.

1.00 oz. Magnum Pellet 60 min.
1.00 oz. Perle Pellet 30 min.
1.00 oz. Cascade Pellet 10 min.
2.00 oz. Cascade Pellet 0.0 0 min.

Also - I am planning on dry hopping 1oz (maybe 2oz) in the secondary.

TIA.

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Does anyone know if most commercial walk in coolers that are sectional can be made smaller by omitting a section or two without compromising cooling efficiency or structural integrity. I saw a listing for a huge walk in (at least it is huge in terms of more than I will ever need). It is priced well and was wondering if this would be worth it.
Thanks
JD

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Is there a way to convert to 220 or that appliance will only be able to operate with 3 phase?

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I have water that is suited for beers in the 9-11SRM range but is very low in calcium (9 ppm). What would I use to raise the calcium without affecting the alkalinity. Also, my plan to make lighter beers (<8SRM) is to just dilute my water with distilled water and that would reduce the calcium even more. Palmer recommends 50-100 ppm calcium is why I was thinking about this.

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Can I make wine and beer from the same equipment or will that result in a contaminated flavor?

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This is from a starter I made where I decanted off most of the starter wort but there is still some there so it’s settling out in the jar.

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Somebody posted a link a week or ten days ago with a submersible pump for about $40 with a brass 3/4″ hose connection on top.

Anybody got that link?

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I’ve decided to change the house APA I was going to make this weekend into an IPA instead. I’m not going back to the LHBS, so I need you guys to help me turn the APA into an IPA with limited ingredient choices. Hops, I can handle, but the maltbill I really need help with.

My APA is:
1/2lb caramunich
1/2lb carapils
1/4lb aromatic
Rahr 2-row to about 1.049

I can add:
More 2-row
More caramunich (up to 5 lbs or so)
1 lb of light munich

I’m thinking bumping gravity into the mid 60’s and hopping to around 80 IBU’s, Warrior, Amarillo, maybe a little columbus or centennial early for cohumulone if I can find a holdout pack hiding in the fridge. Yeast will be CL-50. One lb of munich will go in for sure, but how much crystal would you put in to balance? What mash temp?

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Narrowly averting computer-related disaster, we managed to get a show done even while all of Jeff’s equipment made every attempt to stop us. In victorious celebration, we go for a grab-bag of high-alcohol beers. CBR 1, Evil Future Robots 0.

Beer:

• Great Lakes Imperial Dortmunder
• Stone 8th Anniversary
• McChouffe
• He’Brew Monumental Jewbelation 10
• Nieuw Ligt Grand Cru 2005

Rankings:

• Jeff: 1. Stone, 2. Dortmunder, 3. Mc Chouffe, 4. Hebrew, 5. Nieuw Ligt
• Greg: 1. Stone, 2. Dortmunder, 3. Hebrew, 4. Nieuw Ligt, 5. Mc Chouffe

Extras

• Preshow: Eaten by Computer
• Postshow

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I just ordered the TS - Love temperature sensor online. The concept seems basic - TC is set to a specific temperature and when it reaches this temp - the TC kills the compressor thus not allowing the fridge to get cooler.

Question - do i simply set the t-stat inside the fridge to it’s coolest temp and this will allow the compressor to run at all times leaving the TC to make the decisions?

Also - how well do these work in terms of actual temp control - assuming that this is the best method for lagering and fermentation in general.

Thanks in advance.

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It’s gotta be a pain in the ass to make one… i.e… you have to start out with a sterile sample of some sort, most likely something that’s also proprietary and then let it have enough generations where it begins to mutate, and then you must save that batch of appropriately mutated yeast, and then cultivate it to a huge amount where you can have little bits at a time, but somehow keep it such that it no longer mutates anymore so you can have consistent batches.

Like California Ale yeast… did he just start off with baker’s yeast and just keep brewing and doing yeast washes to remove dead cells and then BAM, he likes this one strain and then keeps it in perfect conditions in a giant laboratory? Same thing with Pac Man.

Thoughts?

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I have a chest freezer which will fit 4 cornies comfortably. Problem is, I have about 16 kegs…so. Assuming my kegs are not losing pressure, is there anything bad which can occur from purging the O2 with CO2 and storing the excess kegs in a closet which is say 65 degrees currently until the freezer has a vacancy? My second thought is to get a second CO2 tank and manifold and keep these kegs under pressure to force carb while they are in the closet just to make sure they don’t oxegenate in this case would it still make sense to force carb at 12psi since they will eventually be in the freezer at about 50 deg to accomplish the CO2 level I am looking to get or is my thinking wrong here…

Thanks!

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I am looking for an extract barleywine recipe. I like my barleywines a little hoppy and strong. I also like my barleywines a little on the dry side so I will add some table sugar to help ferment this a little more! I would like something that I can age for at least a year and maybe as long as 5+ years!

Cheers

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The People’s Republic of Flying Dog is now in session. It’s happy hour at Flying Dog Brewery, so here is your latest dose of irreverence.
Flying Dog’s Poet Laureate Is…
Reading this poem, remember one thought.
Brewers, we are. Poets, we’re not.
Entries were many, littered with lyrical force.
Choosing a victor took proper discourse.
Beer drinker troubadours? Most impressed are […]

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Hi,

I currently ferment in a OLD Ale Pail. I use a blow off tube that is just a normal syphon tube insterted into the standard Grommeted Lid. When I see others using blow-off, most use a larger diameter Hose. I’ve never had any problem with my method, but I’m curious if the small diameter hose will handle a REALLY violent fermentaion which I have not had since deploying my method.

The reason I ask this is I’m getting ready to place a big order with NorthernBrewer and I figured I’d throw in another Fermenter while I was at it. The question is: Do I buy a blank lid, cut my own hole and use a larger hose, or get a pre-cut grommeted lid and continue with my current method?

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I have just ordered some Saflager S-189 and I am trying to decide what to brew with it, For those of yopu that have used this yeast, how has it worked out for you. Does it accentuate hops or malt, what is a good temperature to ferment at?

Thanks

Jon

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Was sitting here thinking… designing my new rig…. I have been on the fence between rims and Herms….. I was originally going to do direct fired mash like coplink does on the brutus 10. but have since decided electric is for me… SOOO.. that suck me with either rims or herms….

I dont like herms…. way too many variables etc. (dont need to go into detal.. just leave it at that)…

I didnt like rims due to the fact of not much ability to raise temps etc…..
Then I thought….. has anyone done a mulitple chambered rims system??

For example.. have 3 copper tubes (1.5″ diameter) Next to eachother each with a 1500w extra low density element in it.. wort goes in to one, and flows through all of them till it comes out the top of #3…. where at that point you take your temp reading….. all controlled by a PID of course

Seems to me with this you could do decent ramp’s in temp without scortching etc…. Since it ends up being 4500w but LOTS OF SURFACE AREA……

Now that Im thinking about it… wonder if it would heat fast enough to do away with the HLT and just run sparge water from the “hose” through this to the sparg arm… Hmmm new idea….

Anyone done a multi chamber Rims??

If it has been covered I apologise.. I spent about 5 hours searching last night. (both here and google)

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I had some issues with fermentation in the fridge initially. Brewing an Oktoberfest with Saflager-S23. Basically - I was impatient and did not see fermentation activity within 48 hours. I decided to remove from the 48 degree fridge to room temp (About 75ish) for 3 days now.

I want to return the fermentation process back into my lagering fridge (Temperature Control Fixed).

What starting temperature do I start with and how gradual do I cool things down? I was thinking 2 degrees per day until I reach 36 - (about 12 days).

Once at 36 - I would leave it there for a few weeks.

Does this sound right?

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I just got a delivery from another well known online homebrew retailer, from which I purchased a number of items, including some stainless 1/2″ barb x 1/2″ mpt. Anyway, these fittings look like total crap. I mean, I’m sure chinese stainless is great an all, but the barbs appear to be made from two pieces with a mediocre weld job. Looking at the inside, they aren’t straight and smooth, but rather there is a big joint where it appears that there is a tube inside the main mpt fitting, with a ton of space between the two where critters could hide! Seriously, how can they sell this crap?!

I’d post pics, but don’t have a host. I think I’m calling the place tomorrow and asking for them to ship me the “non-crap” fittings I paid for. Yes, a couple of the fittings they sent were actually nice (which makes the whole thing even more frustrating). SO much for brewing this weekend.

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So bullshitting on itunes today and found this massive video podcast archive about brewing, the guys sound like they know what they are doing. Not the most technically advanced but there are food pairings and other cool topics covered.

Brewing Videos

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So here she is. Around 2.5L of wort + 8oz of light DME. I don’t know if I’ll ever try to make wort in that flask again. Serious PITA. Hard to get DME into it. Boils over easier than anything I’ve ever seen. If anyone has any tips I’ll take em.

So when do I turn the stirrer off? Is there a way to tell when fermentation is done when there is a stir bar mixing everything up?

Stirrer in Action

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Hell Everybody! Found this site today and been reading posts all day to get me through the work day.

Live in a small apartment so my brewing is really dependant on my space. My primary is about 2.5 gallons and I don’t use a secondary, I always bottle condition. I have recently switched to all grain brewing because it’s somewhat cheaper and I love the full flavor.

My lauter tun as of now is a large funnel with a perfectly fit strainer. After the mash I put my grains in and ladle over water while I hold my funnel. (I mash in the same kettle that I brew in, I use a nylon paint straining bag to mash the grains in so it’s an easy in easy out situation). My efficiency is usually around 58-65% my question is, does anyone know of a cheap way to build a better lauter tun? I would like a better efficiency and also lose the hassle of holding the funnel of hotness with one hand while I put water in there. So any ideas would help. Thanks!

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Posted: by logohouse (2 hours ago)

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I have brewed a few AG batches so far, and it seems that I am missing a
crispness or sharpness in all of my brews. Its almost seems like the beer
is too smooth or a bit watery. It’s good, but I know it could be better.

Is this a function of water chemistry, mashing, carbonating, etc?

For example, I made an Irish ale clone and compaired it to a Smithwicks
and mine was pretty close but missed the crispness the Smithwicks had.

I realize I don’t have much information about this, but if someone could
point me in the right direction I could provide more.

Thanks in advance!
DG

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This past batch - an APA - I bottled 2 gallons and kegged the other 3. I have been drinking from the keg since the first of september and the beer has been cloudy. I chalked it up to not using whirlfloc this time. I poured a bottle of this same batch last night and it was crystal clear. This is the first time I have kegged and bottled the same batch for reference. The only other beers I have kegged have been an ESB and a couple of wheats. Those were also cloudy but I didn’t really think of it much. Does anybody have any ideas as to why this would happen?

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With the price of copper being what it is, I’ve been seeing stainless steel immersion chillers that cost less than the copper. My metallurgy knowledge is zilch, but I’ve heard that copper’s better at heat transfer. Any thoughts on how much difference there is between the two?

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