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Some time ago I got a used Homark beer engine off of ebay. Looks pretty clean and in good shape, except that it doesn’t actually want to pump anything… I’m guessing I need to replace the rubber gasket attached to the piston inside the cylinder. Any idea where I can find one of these? Or is there anything else I should try first?
Where would you guys suggest to find the best price on a 10 gal brew kettle with a ball valve and thermometer. I’m upgrading my 7 gal Bayou Classic kettle for a 10 gal and just want to get it for as little as possible. I’m also going to be in the market for a mash tun and HLT in the near future, and advice as to where to buy those would be great. Thanks guys.
I have recently dove (dived, diven, doved?) head first into home brewing and have to decide what beer to brew next. I have successfully brewed a St. Arnold’s Amber, an Irish Red, an American Brown, and a honey Amber (extremely delicious).
The options I’m currently considering are:
Kolsch
English Brown
Weizen Bock (as an ale)
Honey Wheat
Hefeweizen
Octoberfest (although I’m thinking about holding off on this one for a month so it will be in it’s prime for December)
Thoughts or other suggestions?
Posted: by WeaponTheyFear (24 hours ago)
Posted: by HeadwatersFinest (17 hours ago)
Posted: by beertunes (19 hours ago)
Posted: by Teleweizen2 (3 hours ago)
My beer has a metallic taste to it. I changed the cleaning solution, and it seemed to help it out. But, the last batch I brewed has a similar taste. I think it may be due to my well-water, and can fix that.
Before anyone jumps in, I have read the posts on metallic tastes. The question is - can I do something to help get that taste out of my batch sitting in the secondary? Maybe some additive that will pull out that taste?
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Posted: by eat (8 hours ago)
Let’s say the initial pH of the mash is 6.5 @STP (or any number outside of the desired range).
In order for me to figure this out, I take a sample, cool it down, then measure with my pH probe.
This takes around 15 minutes.
Then I’ll add some acid (or whatever) to bring the pH in line and test again.
The mash will have been churning for 30 minutes before I know if the pH is on target.
My supposition and the reason for this post is that this process takes too long.
Any tannins will be extracted, enzyme activity will be nearly complete, etc….
So ultimately the question is: how long after the grist is mixed before unwanted products are brought into the wort by a wrong pH?
Alternatively, how do we check the pH in a timely fashion and still maintain accuracy in the reading?
I just tasted my first batch of beer and it was pretty awful. Super Bitter. I used a kit from Midwest called Irish Red Ale. I followed directions to a “T”. Primary Fermenter (bucket) - 7 days; Secondary Fermenter (Glass Carboy) - 7 days; Bottled using EZ-cap bottles and let sit at room temp for 2 weeks. Average temp during fermentation and bottle condition was 65-70 f. Should I dump it or wait another week. Oh yeah, I used Wyeast Propagator. No yeast starter due to me not really knowing anything about it.
Is it safe to use a brewbelt to heat up a glass carbuoy? What is recommended to heat these up?
I’m thinking of making my first yeast starter to add later for an all-grain Delirium clone.
Tell me if I’m missing something because this seems simple.
1 - soak 12oz beer bottle in sanitizer during 10 gallon wort boil
2 - immediately post-boil, steal some wort and put it in the bottle.
3 - pitch in a small bit of yeast and cover with sanitized foil.
4 - pitch starter to batch 3-5 days before bottling.
Posted: by Hoptrollop (26 minutes ago)
Okay everyone, I am really new to the beer-brewing aspects, and a lot of the language on these boards is aimed at people who understand the short-cuts, and acronyms, etc… So, if anyone could help me with a Blue-Moon recipe, and put it in lay-man’s terms, that would be great! Thanks!
I recently made a 16.5 gallon batch of Baltic Porter. I split it into three 5.5 gallon batches using 3 different yeasts. The mash and grain bill was the same for all. For the sake of experimentation I used ~26% specialty grains and mashed for 90 min at 158-159. The targeted FG was 1.020. Here is recipe info:
4 Munich Malt info
27 American 2-row info
6 American Caramel 80°L info
1.0 English Chocolate Malt info
0.5 American Roasted Barley
1 Belgian Special B info
1 Weyermann CaraMunich® II info
1 Oats Raw info
3 East Kent Goldings (Pellets, 5.00 %AA) boiled 60 min. info
1.5 Fuggle (Pellets, 4.75 %AA) boiled 30 min. info
0.5 Saaz (Pellets, 5.00 %AA) boiled 2 min. info
Yeast : Fermentis S04 batch 1 FG - 1.028
Danstar Nottingham Batch 2 FG = 1.025
Danstar Windsor Batch 2 FG - 1.032
All 3 fermented at 65F. Note: these fermentations were done.
Question 1: Is there any yeast that I can add to attenuate these down further or has my mash temp created so much unfermentable dextrines that I have what I have? I have some Champangne yeast on hand.
FWIW, the flavor on the Windsor batch is amazing. Going into this, I also knew attenuation would differ between these three yeasts and that Windsor was a medium to low attenuating yeast.
Question 2: In the future, should I keep this ratio of specialty to base malt and mash lower (say 154) or continue to mash high at 158 for full body and decrease the specialty content?
Lots of discussions about mash temps are highlighted on the board regarding high FG’s, but I believe there more to it such as the interaction of: ratio of specialty to base, yeast attenuation, as well as the mash temp.
Thoughts?
tomorrow I am gong to spend the day at the eagle rock brewery, its going to be great!
Posted: by Jeffo (18 hours ago)
I usually brew 15 gallon batches (post boil).
From the 15 gallons, I’ll usually fill 2 corni kegs.
As I drink the first, I imagine the extra deliciousness of the second–due to the extra aging it receives.
However, when I tap the second, it’s not always as good as the first (and this usually is about 3 weeks after the first was tapped).
I am starting to blame keg trub for the difference.
I think that autolysis products and perhaps other boil/fermentation products left over in the keg affect the flavor as the keg ages.
Anyway, right now, I have 8 aging kegs. For the first time I removed that plug of yeast and trub right up front (i.e. before aging, just as the kegs were put in the kegerator). Perhaps this is what others have always done?
I guess this is similar to doing a secondary. I was just wondering if others have simiar experiences (with the second keg not always being strictly better than the first) and also estimates for the causes and remidies.
Thanks.
Posted: by eberlybp (3 hours ago)
A week ago Sunday, I brewed a Doppelbock with an OG of 1.113. Unfortunately, I under-pitched the yeast. Fermentation took off like crazy after about 15 hrs. Tuesday it appeared that the yeast was beginning to burn out, because fermentation activity dramatically slowed. The SG was 1.100 on Wednesday. There was still some yeast activity so I added energizer and pitched two vials of wlp833. Fermentation resumed at a constant pace (about 1 bubble every 3-4 sec. in a 3-piece airlock) for the next several days. Monday I noticed that activity was beginning to slow (1 bubble every 9 sec.), but I am assuming that there is still a significant amount of potential fermentation. I may be too impatient but I was worried about the yeast dropping on me, so last night I performed a gentle swirl rousing and did the same thing this morning. Now the fermentation is back to 4-5 bubbles a second. (I’m not sure how scientific a bubble count is, but I thought it’s a reasonable indicator)
The question is, should I continue a 3/day rousing or just leave the yeast be? Should I have even bothered rousing? It’s probably obvious that I haven’t shared a current SG. I was pretty confident that there was much fermentation possible, so I didn’t want to breach the fermentor just for curiosity.
Any feed back is much appreciate.
Lately, I have put my copper immersion chiller in my boil kettle for the whole boil.
I was just wondering if this leaches too much Cu into the beer and what results can I expect vs putting it in 15 minutes before the end of the boil?
Posted: by Gambrinus1184 (2 days ago)
150 numbered episodes. 4 and a half years. I think this calls for some limited release beers. Thanks everyone for your continued support.
Beers:
Rankings:
Posted: by oglmcdgl (2 hours ago)
What is the primary consituent of your mix that’s indicated or presumed by measuring it’s specific gravity with a hydrometer? Is it co2? alcohol? something else? We all know the SG reading off the hydrometer is the result of the combination of the effect of ALL the ingredients. Some have more effect than others. I’m wondering which has the greatest impact on the reading.
If you put 1 tiny crystal of sugar or salt into a glass of pure water, it changes the specific gravity (SG) of the resulting mix. Fact is, if you introduce ANY impurity into the water (kool aid flavoring, drop of lime juice, shot of vodka, dissolved hydrogen, helium, nitrogen, co2, ethylene glycol, sulfuric acid, spit, etc). All of these impurities affect the weight of 1 cubic centimeter of the resulting mix. So, in a batch of homebrew you are checking the SG on using a hydrometer, is there a single one of the many ingredients contributing the greatest effect to the overall density of the mix?
I’m guessing it’s co2 - but I don’t know. Thought one of you might.
On this winter solstice we put up a video that was recorded just after the summer solstice. If you count people reselling beers on ebay, this is easily the most expensive beer that we’ve done on CBR.
The youtube video in HD will be uploaded later, Technical difficulties.
I’m planning to do a big stout next weekend. As an excuse to replace a carboy, I’m thinking about adding some final (after hitting the boil volume) runnings to wheat extract and then fermenting with whatever yeast I have around and either Brettanomyces Lambicus or Lactobacillus Delbrueckii.
This is the grist for the American Stout.
Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 61.82 %
Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM) Grain 14.55 %
Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (120.0 SRM) Grain 5.45 %
Caramunich Malt (56.0 SRM) Grain 5.45 %
Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM) Grain 3.64 %
Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 3.64 %
Special B Malt (180.0 SRM) Grain 3.64 %
Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM) Grain 1.82 %
The decisions I need to make are:
Posted: by Rizow (19 hours ago)
I am trying a ‘Utopias’ clone and I stumbled upon this website -> http://www.fermentarium.com/content/view/254/58/ some time ago and decided to revisit it. What I was wondering is if anyone has any experience with adding olive oil. It sounds radical, actually, logical (to a certain point) to me. Let me know what you all think.
Felix, ‘Il gato nero’
