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This is about the only Christmas thing that doesn’t get me PO’d this far before Christmas.
Got a couple kegs brewed a month ago. Basic oatmeal stout with cocoa powder, coffee and Mex vanilla extract. Time to try it since it’s about carbed up. Nice batch this year. The choc, coffee and vanilla are a bit more in the background compared to prior years - maybe better……… Love having this stuff around for 3 months every year…………
Scott Smith from East End Brewing joins us in the studio for a Russian River spotlight show. In this show we sample 5 of their Belgian style beers. With all the hype around the brewery did, the show live up to our expectations? Tune in and find out.
Beer:
Rankings:
Extras
As a small little science project, I was wondering if some of you had any suggestions on which way I should go in wanting to setup up a “labview” type project, measuring fermentation temperatures over time (using a thermowell in the fermenting wort).
I would like to plot the results over time using a spare PC. I might also use this setup to measure the temperature of my EHLT vs. mashtun during my mash.
Is there any simple freeware out there that people might recommend (i.e. LabJack).
I’m at square one, so any assistance would be great.
Remember, cheap and simple…. 
I recently found a few recipes that call for first wort hops. Is this simply putting hops in the kettle while emptying the mash tun into the kettle? Can this be done with pellet hops or does it have to be whole hops?
Thanks for any help.
jml.
Posted: by jrashid (3 hours ago)
I’m looking for a place to buy some really small diameter plastic tubing.
I got a great idea for taking samples for the refractometer using some small tubing through the second tube on the orange carboy caps (the big tube having the airlock in it)
I recently purchased an ‘air-bed’ blow up mattress and it came with a repair kit that included two small pieces of about .156OD - .0625ID tubing.
I figured if I could get a roll of this stuff I could cut a piece off about a foot or a little longer, sanitize it, and then use it to grab a small sample out of the carboy by sticking it in through the second tube on the orange carboy cap and then just hold my thumb over the end like a straw to pull a sample out.
The second tube (I’m using a 6.5gal carboy with the slightly smaller carboy caps) is about .25ID. The smallest tubing I could find at Lowes was .25OD and it’s too tight to use for this purpose. So, anything smaller than .25OD should work.
So, anybody know where I could find something like that?
Thanks.
Hello,
I am taking my first stab at a sour beer. I’d love some input from those of you who have a few of these under your belt.
For those of you who have made Fruit Sour beers before: Did you add your fruit before or after long term aging with brett? I have about 6g of a base wheat beer made for a Raspberry Lambic base. This beer has been in primary for a few weeks and is read for secondary. I plan on using 12-15lbs of raspberries for the fruit addition.
I am considering three options for adding the fruit:
I have two vials available for this: Belgian Sour Mix and Brettanomyces Lambicus. Which one would you add? I definitely want some sourness to the beer - will you get that from the Brettanomyces Lambicus strain??
Thanks all
Any of you guys entering this competition? Its my old Homebrew club, so I send in a few entries every year. http://www.stlbrews.org/competition/hhhc/rules.asp
Mashman
Just curious what the differences were between a beer gun and a counter pressure bottle filler? Is one easier than the other? Is one BETTER than the other? What are you guys using?
Thanks for your input.
Darin
I would like to brew a belgian today, the LHBS is closed till Tuesday, and all I need is the candi sugar. Any problems with buying on Tuesday, boiling in a bit of water to dissolve, and add that during fermentation?
There is a great site with cheap flasks and all other lab equipment. Indigo
I came across florence flasks, or boiling flasks, and became quite curious. Has anybody ever used them? Would there be a need to use them with starters over erlenmeyer? I recently cracked my erlenmeyer and don’t want to have that happen again.
Thanks
Posted: by jraycee (19 hours ago)
Posted: by beersabound (22 hours ago)
A friend of mine wants me to make him a beer for his birthday bash. He wants it to reflect his tastes in food, specified as (in no particular order) Big Mac, Steak and Cheese, and Sloppy Joe.
How could I possibly include meat, fat, or cheese in a beer and make it palatable? Maybe pepper flavor, or onion or garlic? Could I experiment with these nasty options in a secondary vessel, or do I have to actually soil my kettle with these foreign ingredients?
Posted: by jakobsbrew (23 hours ago)
Been a LONG time since I played here! Anyhoo, I have been researching the Brooklyn Lager. Man I love this beer now that we can get it here in TX. I have come up with a recipe. Not sure if this will pan out but it should make a great tasting pre-pro lager I think… Still fitzin with the hop schedule. As far as I know, this is the bill, just not sure of the hop profile…
Hows this sound:
17 lb Pale
2.5 lb 2-Row Caramel Malt 40L
1.0 lb 2-Row Carapils® Malt
2.5 oz Cascade (5.5%) - added during boil, boiled 60.0 min
1.5 oz Hallertau (4.5%) - added during boil, boiled 30.0 min
1.5 oz Hallertau (4.5%) - added during boil, boiled 10.0 min
1.0 ea Whirlfloc Tablets (Irish moss) - added during boil, boiled 10 min
1.5 oz Cascade (5.5%) - steeped after boil
4000 mL White Labs WLP830 German Lager
What say yall?
Took some scrap in the shed and this is the fill station I came up with. Filling a 2.5 tank off a 20lb tank. Built my own fill station plumbing from parts on hand except the 24 inch flex paint ball line. SWL and P-J see anything I missed? I had an old sake five gallon that I had been kicking around in the shed for years I cut the top off and a hole in the bottom for the valve to pass Thur. Tig welded the top to the bottom for enough height for the plumbing and my hand to turn on the tank. I do need to add a bleed off line I hear that they are a little noisy when you bleed off the lines.
Again Thank You SWL and P-J for the good oil
Dominus Vobiscum
Swagman 
The question arose several threads ago as to the most popular vessel for fermentation.
I thought this would make an interesting poll.
*Please add comments and pictures if you have them of your unusual fermentation vessels.
Prost!
I have no plans of under-pitching but this question was recently asked of me and I couldn’t provide an exact answer:
So you have some wort and you pitch in too little viable yeast. Once the yeast starts chowing down on fermentables the yeast also starts to reproduce creating more little yeasties to chow down on fermentables. Given this - why would under-pitching be bad for: a) hitting an acceptable final gravity, and b ) the generation of off-flavors
I’m not planning on testing this out but I was just curious.
edit: damn you sunglasses face!!!
Posted: by vwaddict (17 hours ago)
Posted: by Drufus (17 hours ago)
I am becoming a huge lover of Belgian ales (Dubbel, Trippel and Golden/Dark Strong ALes). It seems they are all traditionally bottled. I have gone kegging recently, so I have this wonderful ability now.
What do most of you do that brew big Belgians?
1) Bottle
2) Keg
3) Force carb with keg and then bottle
I went with kegs to avoid bottles like the plague, but I hate to cut short Belgians of their best.
Also for those that keg and/or force carb into bottles, do you use priming sugar and add new yeast? Or just let it carb purely from CO2?
Thanks all.
Posted: by PatrickJR (21 hours ago)
I just got a great deal on a few 1/2 ball valve’s but noticed the warning about the metal containing lead?
I assumed these were the same types from williams or some other supply house. I bought these at harbor freight. are they OK to use?
Bummed about not being able to make to the 2008 GABF? Even more bummed about not making it to the 2008 FBAG (Flying Dog, Brats & Gonzo)? Worry no more. Our friends at BeerUtopia.com have were there to take in all of the festivities and have posted a couple highlight videos.
So fire up the grill, […]
Hello All,
Quick question what types/styles of beer can be served using beer gas? I now of course that stout would be served using beer gas. The reason I ask is that I am getting ready to build a kegerator from my old Refrigerator and that a tap that uses beer gas has a different kind of regulator than the normal co2 systems.
Ok so I have decided that I want to brew up an Imperial IPA and I believe I can make this using hops that I currently have on hand too. I decided that I would choose hops that seem to follow within the same flavor profile according to the hop character wheel in Brewing Classic Styles Book. I would like to hear any feedback on how you think the hops will turn out and the overall recipe in general. I figure that I can get approximately an OG of 1.082-1.085 from this recipe based on how my system has performed in the past too. I am shooting to get my FG down to around the 1.010-1.015 range so that I have a drier finish and no cloying sweetness as the style dictates to have too.
Thanks,
Mike
Type: All Grain
Batch Size: 6.00 gal
Boil Size: 7.97 gal Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 60 min Equipment: Brew Pot (15 Gal) and Igloo/Gott Cooler (10 Gal)
Taste Rating(out of 50): 35.0 Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00
Taste Notes:
Ingredients
Amount Item Type % or IBU
14.50 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 76.32 %
1.00 lb Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 5.26 %
1.00 lb Wheat Malt, Ger (2.0 SRM) Grain 5.26 %
0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 2.63 %
2.00 oz Centennial [8.00 %] (60 min) Hops 34.6 IBU Pellets
2.00 oz Mt. Hood [5.10 %] (Dry Hop 14 days) Hops - Whole
1.00 oz Pacific Gem [15.40 %] (45 min) Hops 30.6 IBU Whole
1.00 oz Pacific Gem [15.40 %] (30 min) Hops 25.6 IBU Whole
1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.00 %] (10 min) Hops 6.3 IBU Pellets
2.00 lb Sugar, Table (Sucrose) (1.0 SRM) Sugar 10.53 %
Yeast
Wyeast 1056, big starter based on MrMalty
Beer Profile
Mash at 150 degrees for 90 minutes
Boil for 60 minutes
Est Original Gravity: 1.093 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.023 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 9.07 %
Bitterness: 97.2 IBU Calories: 414 cal/pint
Est Color: 7.5 SRM
Mash Profile
Mash Name: Single Infusion, Light Body, No Mash Out Total Grain Weight: 17.00 lb
Sparge Water: 5.20 gal Grain Temperature: 72.0 F
Sparge Temperature: 168.0 F TunTemperature: 72.0 F
Adjust Temp for Equipment: FALSE Mash PH: 5.4 PH
The wife has plans all weekend long….what does this mean?! It’s brew time!
So I’m looking at doing a raspberry wheat just in time for Christmas. I’ve read the pros and cons to using raspberry extract and real raspberries. It sounds like using raspberries doesn’t really give you a lot of flavor but using the extract takes “fake”.
Thoughts? Suggestions?
There has been a rash of books and documentaries about Hunter S. Thompson in the past two years and surprisingly, most of them are worth the money. But for the true, hardcore HST fan, there may be no better purchase than The Gonzo Tapes.
The Gonzo Tapes is a 5-CD set featuring Dr. Gonzo’s personal commentary […]
So I was reading about the Brutus 20 and almost everyone said you get lower efficiency from it because not all of the sparge water is “clean”. I was thinking, why couldn’t you just dump your first runnings into your BK and then fill your MT from your house tap to whatever volume you needed then just heat the MT to 170 and then drain your second runnings? I know this sounds a little redundent but if this works this could be useful for people who want the Brutus 20 but want better efficiency numbers.
