Beer Feeds

This dang Saison… I used the Wyeast Saison yeast, and it fermented at 73 degrees or so, from 1.083 to 1.032. Then it just stopped. Been like that for 2 weeks now. I increased the temp in the box to 90-94 degrees, no luck. Now, I’m lowering it back to 80 degrees to see what happens, although from what I’ve read, this yeast likes it warmer than that.

I’m also creating a new starter with some champagne yeast I had sitting around, but the yeast is old, and I think it’s not good any more.

Nothing seems to want to grow in this beer!

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OK. I’ve not brewed in a while, and I had some left over 2-row in my brewing cupboard. Well, about half a sack, actually. I pulled it out, and started weighing it out, and noticed some creepy-crawlies crawling around in it. I HATE BUGS! They make me feel ill. I looed it up online, and it says it’s a sawtoothed grain bug, I think. Now, I wouldn’t mind, but it says they are really good at infesting a whole place. I really don’t want to throw my grain away, but I don’t know what else to do to keep them out of my house?! Help!

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Hey there buddy, I miss you Hope you haven’t given up on us.

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1 gallon Maple Syrup
2.2lb American Two-row Pale
1.3lb Wheat Malt
1.1lb Vienna Malt
.5lb Roasted Barley
5oz American Crystal 40L
3oz American Crystal 120L

1oz Galena @ 60
1oz Fuggles @ 30
1/2oz EKG @ 30
1/2oz EKG @ 20
1oz Fuggles @ 10
1/2oz EKG @ 5

OG: 1.110
FG: 1.028
IBU: 43.4
SRM: 30

Wyeast 1056

I am looking to make a barleywine with a huge maple profile, something more maplewine than barleywine. I still want this to be beer though so I want the hop and grain profiles to create a firm barleywine base for the maple sugar addition. I have never put this much maple syrup in a beer but I don’t see a problem, if anyone has any concerns about using that much adjunct I would appreciate hearing it!

I am not sure on the choice of yeast, I think something clean and able to chew through this much sugar is ideal for this as I am looking for the character of the maple to shine through along with the grain and hops for balance….if anyone has another suggestion for yeast that would work in a beer of this style I would love to hear it as I have little experience in the vast array of yeasts available.

I wanted to hop it thoroughly as it will be aged for probably a year or more all told before drinking…I modeled the hop schedule after my friend’s english barleywine, but the fuggles and EKG have worked well for me in the past alongside maple as they have an earthy kind of quality…

I will probably prime this with maple syrup as well to give it additional aroma and taste before going into the bottle.

Comments or criticisms welcome, I am trying to make something off the style charts here so I am not concerned with whether it is too dark for a barleywine or whatever…

Thanks again greenboard!

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Well, looks like today is not a lucky day.

The bottom of my better bottle cracked and spilled a few litters of the kleaning solution it was filled with on my counter. Not happy. Good thing I was there to notice it. Any of you had similar experiences with BB?

This and the discovery that lasts week’s IPA tastes like burned toast…

Bad brew day. Good thing it takes more than this to discourage me of brewing!

PL

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I was wondering if anyone knows where I can find the material they make stainless scouring pads from.

Thanks
KD

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While it seems to be the general consensus that scorching does not occur under normal electric brewing conditions, this has not been my experience. I have already reported a first scorching experience here. In this case, the full coupling that I got installed on my kettle got plugged with hop debris and crud which graphitised when the element mannaged to dry that area independently from the rest of the kettle. The resultant was a few brews that tasted like pencil lead.

During my last brew, a rye IPA, I noticed a burned odour comming out of the kettle while I was brewing. Once the kelltle was empty I could clearly see that some parts of the elment (generaly bended parts) had a thick (0.5-1mm) thick layer of carbonised material on them. I could not taste anything in the sweet wort but the finished beer had a clear aftertaste of burnt toasts (ashy I would say). I had since removed the element and scraped off the burnt material which was a PITA. This is the first time it happens in this way in around 40 electric brews.

I have the 4500W CAMCO ultra-low watt density element that every one uses but I do not control the output power. I did notice that sometimes I had a gummy deposit on my element that I did not take extra care removing. My kettle cleaning procedured involved soaking the kettle for 24 hours in hot PBW.

So my point is to be carefull with scorching in electric brewing. My guess is that a output power controle and carefull cleaning of the element each time will solve the problem.

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Posted: by Pizzabeertom (6 hours ago)

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I am a homebrewer who recently transferred to Yokosuka, Japan. I miss my hoppy beers. Where should I order supplies from for reliable delivery of liquid yeasts and does anyone have experience with shipping times? Thanks for any help.

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So what thinks you?

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Some may not agree with my state designations, but its the best I could come up with.

I am willing to bet Southeast will not get a single vote. Hah.

I vote NW.

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Are there any board members that use this type of fermenter? Seems like a good deal at $20 (and free shipping). Size is 9 gallons, but I figure I could step my batch sizes up, keg 5 gallons and bottle the rest.

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I recently brewed a pumpkin ale. It’s been three weeks in the bottle as of last night, so I had a taste test, but the beer is flat. Hardly any carbonation at all. I think that my basement where I stored the bottles may have been a touch too cold (64F). I moved the batch up to warmer temperatures last night, but is there any chance of saving the beer at this point?? Thanks for the help

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Is this everything I’ll need to run a rims system? http://auberins.com/index.php?main_page=shopping_cart Also, how would I go about wiring everything up? On the panel side, I plan on building my panel similar to this one. http://breweryconstructionguide.com/elect_plan.html with only one pump. Any advise? Thx in advance.

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Posted: by brandoneast (14 hours ago)

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I live in the SF Bay Area and I am looking to find two used keg to convert into keggles.
Looking for advice on where to find them. The cheaper the better.
Thanks

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What ingredient gives the wheats and Hefe’s their straw’ish color?

Both my wheats have turned out light brownish. They’re good don’t get me wrong, just not the light straw I was hoping for.

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Posted: by ngoins200 (21 hours ago)

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Hi Everyone,
I would just like to see what Yeast you like best. I have used White Labs for a few years, but I decided to pick up some Wyeast last night. What are your preferences?

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Posted: by Mosstrooper (23 hours ago)

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What do you do if you’re in New Orleans during Halloween? Dress up like Dr. Gonzo, that’s what! Brad was there and spent the last day of October in style. And always remember to bring your trusty attorney with you, especially whilst spending Halloween in The Big Easy.
And friend of Flying Dog Siobhan dressed […]

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Posted: by n0rmann (3 hours ago)

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So I made this Imperial stout 2 months back and bottled it 10 days ago in the 22oz bottles. I opened one up last night to see if was almost ready and it was flat. It had a very very small amount of fizz. I guess I’m going to wait till next week and try another bottle to see if its good than. If it isn’t carbonated by than….any suggestion on how to save this batch or do I just cook up some bratwurst in it? I saw a few people mentioned to sprinkle some dry yeast in and let it sit for another week or so. Anyone have any luck with that method?

Thanks Guys!

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so, me and my best home rick were chillin and talkin about bullshit, and we came across the idea of brewing some cheap homebrew just for beerpong purposes. this conversion then shifted direction. why make cheap swill..when we could just make cheaper versions of good craft brews. lower ABV for longer game play….less body to be less filling (since ur generaly chugging it down) and all in all it ends up being cheaper!

imagine it…. BP stout, BP porter. great flavored beer for a beerpong match but around 3%ABV, and light body so u can play just as long if not longer than u could with swill. if you have any opinions or ideas for recipes, please drop them!

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I’m really big on maple oatmeal stouts, I think they are fantastic but the maple hasn’t been more than a subtle complexity in any of mine - so far. I use between one and one and a half liters usually, but I wanted to make a stout and push the maple syrup flavour and see how I liked it. To this end I wanted to use again about a liter of syrup in the wort, but then prime with maple syrup…..the trick would be not to make bottle bombs….or undercarb. Then my solution came in the mail with the wizard explaining how to make the calculation in this month’s BYO.

My quebec maple syrup is also 66 brix so I used the calculation and made some weight volume conversions and used about 7/12 cup maple syrup (I have no scale but my friend does so we went and weighed out 10 g of maple syrup to find the correct conversion to volume)

As a result I have about 5 gallons of maple oatmeal stout stored for carbonation and looking forward to the results. Just wanted to know if anyone else has tried this after the BYO article or before and what the results were….

I will post my results sometime next week after I try my creation…

in case anyone was interested, this is the recipe I used…

3 kg Pale 2-Row
750g Flaked Oats
.5 kg Munich
200g Chocolate Malt
150g Crystal 60L
100g Crystal 40L
40g Black Patent
60g Roasted Barley
1 liter maple syrup @ flameout

2 oz fuggles @ 60
1/2 oz fuggles @ 30
1 cinnamon stick @ 10
1 1/2 cup Stove-top Espresso@ flameout

Wyeast Irish Ale 1084

Cheers!~

EDIT: forgot the oats

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Posted: by Blazer06 (13 hours ago)

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Posted: by ntrogdon (15 hours ago)

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Posted: by UGADawgGuy (17 hours ago)

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In fear of getting all sorts of grief I am going to fess up. I don’t like Belgian beers. I tried several when I was at the NHC and just couldn’t get into them. Eg, Ommegang has great looking bottles but I couldn’t manage to choke down the stuff.

I usually brew English and American beers but would like to start learning about Belgian styles. I guess I realize that I am missing a big part of the beer world. So I was wondering if anyone could recommend a Belgian yeast that doesn’t produce all spicy, clove, banana, phenols, and esters. Isn’t that all of them, though?

I remember that I used to be able to drink Chimay several years ago, but that was before I really knew anything about beer (other than you’re supposed to drink it). Can anyone recommend a good strain?

Thanks.

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I’m about to bottle a Munich Lager after cold conditioning and some recent results have me slightly discouraged. My two last brews were ales and had a hard time carbonating fully in the bottle — they’re both sweeter than I’d expect, undercarbed, and there is very little yeast sediment. I suspect I may have been a little too efficient at racking when using a primary and secondary on the ales.

So my plan for the lager is to add a little extra yeast at bottling time. I’m really hoping for the beer to be bottle-carbonated in time for Thanksgiving. My original Wyeast activator didn’t proof in the first day, so I bought and used a second. A few days later, the first activator finally blew up. I stuck it in the fridge for the last 5 weeks and have now taken it out to warm it up.

Since I’m adding yeast just as a booster, I figure I’ll just put half the activator into the bottling bucket — which is really my question here.

For a 5-gallon batch, should I go with 1/2 the activator, the full activator, or should I make a stir-plate starter overnight?

T.I.A. for the replies!

Jason

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