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Does anyone have extensive experience with this yeast strain? It’s tolerance for lower temps interests me and I’m wondering if anyone here has used it multiple times and, if so, what your experience was. I’m a little confused by the Wyeast description which lists a moderately low attenuation (69 - 73%) but several of the styles they suggest are, in my experience, relatively dry. Any information/descriptions would be much appreciated. Thanks!
I’ve been lurking for awhile. I brewed my first batch about 3 weeks ago and I am brewing another batch tomorrow. I used White Labs yeast for my first batch pitched directly into the wort. I am using a WYeast Activator smack pack for the next batch. Do I need to make a starter with this yeast?
Many thanks for the help!
Just tasted a German Pils while kegging (at 35 F). GACK! hot alcohol and hop bitterness and nothing else. Very thin, no maltiness or sweetness AT ALL. No off-flavors really, just sorta like you mixed some cheap vodka in a flat Michelob Ultra. The 6-gal recipe was 9.5 lbs of Pilsener malt with a pound of munich and a half a pound of carafoam.I mashed at 149 for an hour. I pitched a 2-liter starter (stir-plate) of WLP830 and fermentation at 50 degrees seemed normal if a bit slow.. I let it warm up to the mid 60s for a couple of days to try to get it to finish after 4 weeks of slow bubbling at 50. When I finally crashed it to 35, it threw a slight haze (had been clear at 50). I’m pretty sure it’s undrinkable, and I was gonna re-pitch. Dammit!
I calculated FG from a refractometer reading and the OG and came up with 1.007.
What on Earth happened? Wild yeast?
I also have a severe cold. Could this just be a problem with my taster?
Some of you might have read about one of our members looking for beta testers for a PLC he designed to be used for homebrewing, I was one of three selected to do a beta for him… and will post my findings as i experiment along the way.
I had to understand the concepts of State Machine programming and it did not take too long surprisingly as I haven’t done anything like this since Uni, almost 25 years ago.
OK, so the unit arrived Wednesday from Embedded Control Concepts and I finally got to play late Saturday night.
http://www.embeddedcontrolconcepts.com/ for more info.
The owner has agreed to let me post my experiences as I go through them and I will also add these to my blog.
The unit is packaged into a Black 6×4x1″ Alu container,(Pics to follow)
The I/O is all on one side - very neat for a beta box.
First out - the Ethernet port is self sensing , and even if directly connected does not require a cross over cable (I spent 30 minutes looking for the one I know I have and never found)
The system will auto fail to DHCP and self assign it’s own IP address after 20 secs if directly connected.
I tried networking it through my wireless router and had no luck finding the assigned IP address, (I later found out the WIFI router has a table of all asigned addresses and I could have looked it up - DUH)
I had to force my Local Connection ethernet port to a fixed IP in the end, as the WIFI kept setting its IP config to same as WIFI. This is something that will be looked at during the beta. I will also attempt to look at connecting this to more than one PC to see how easy / difficult the first connection is. We will also look at using a WIFI Print router to connect it remotely, but this will be later on.
The external items needed and sold on the site are the Immersion temperature probe, 10K ohm NTC thermistor input. 6″ (15 cm) or 4″ (10cm) 304 SS stem and 1/4″ NPT brass adaptor with compression sleeve for adjustable insertion length. Accuracy of 0.2°C,
You will also need Solid State Relay’s - rated for switching 15-40 amps, these are the ones that are switched with a 3-8v input
The system allows for 4 inputs and drives up to 6 outputs.
For my first test , I programmed a simple RIMS mash, and did a dry run, to confirm the parameters and switching of everything. A hot water test was supposed to follow , but we ended up having people visit yesterday afternoon, so that will happen later today.
The gas control valve has also arrived , just need the pilot burner to be able to test that. I will use it with a temp probe to heat and keep to temperature the HLT water , both strike and later sparge water.
So I have started programming for the day I can get the system to start on its own, firstly a delay till on, then gas valve will fire and HLT water will start to heat and keep its temp within 2 deg for strike water.
This means I can go to bed the night before after lighting the pilot light on the gas system and wake up with Strike water ready for me.
Next will be mash in (could do this automatically with a water valve), mash stirrer ON for 5 minutes, and then into mashing for 60 minutes and RIMS will take care of hitting and maintaining the mash temp. This program is running dry at present, with two bugs which I am working on, not sure if me or the sw yet , more fun later tonight to do more tests.
Will post some pics and screen shots later.
I have been wanting to build a corny keg washer for a while now. One of my most hated tasks is washing kegs (almost about as much as I hated bottling). I finally decided to commit to building one, but am on a tight budget these days. Was curious to know how much lift (head) the pumps are capable of doing and how much GPH they are to see if I can find an adequate pump on my budget.
I know harbor freight has a sump pump that is about $40, but I am one of those instant gratification people who will never follow through if I have to order an item versus walk into a store and buy it. (Also less of a paper trail for the wife to follow if I can go into a store and buy it.) So I am hoping for some specs to try and find a similiar priced, or cheaper, in store item that has enough force behind it that the spray is more “abrasive” when it is sprayed out at about a 4 foot head.
Thanks
As the title says, my last three batches have had an infection. I notice it when I crash cool..everything drops but there are still some bubbles at the top and a whitish transparent layer on top. The first of these three batches I didn’t think was infected, I thought it was a mash temp issue, however now that I think about it, it makes more sense that it was an infection. The second batch I thought was a dirty oxygenation hose and stone however they both were boiled. This last batch was oxygenated with just filling the head space and shaking it around so I know it wasn’t the hose (and I am using a sterile filter) I was thinking last night…you know..these last three batches have used my stir plate, so what am I doing wrong with it? Or is it my fermentation vessel (glass carboy) I see some scratches on the outside of my carboy from where it was dropped when cleaning, but cannot tell if there are any on the inside. With my starter; I do drape a wet washcloth around my flask when its on the plate to keep temps down and from fluctuating. I’ve heard about the gas exchange with a stir plate, so could I be bringing in “dirty” air into my starter? This needs to stop, I cant stand spending two weeks on a batch just to crash cool it and see an infection. I have not tasted this last one yet, but I’m thinking it will taste bone dry and have little residual sweetness as the others did. Your input it greatly appreciated! I would post pics but the dried krausen covers the carboy and you can only barely see from the very top*
Thanks,
John
When it comes to light beers, grain brewers have the advantage to have a wide selection of base grain available. For us (extract brewers) we face a challenge when it comes to this issue. I usually use beer can kits to get the extra flavors you won’t get from plain DME. The problem with this is that most of the premium ones comes already hopped which takes the fun out of brewing and also the flexivity of hop usage per your preference and style. Another way of adding complex flavors is to use 1 to 3 pounds of base grain and do a partial mash before adding regular DME or LME for the boil.
I am really not meant to be a grain brewer and surely do not have the money and space to become one. After all that said, I am hoping that others extract brewers here have a few other tricks in regards to this matter that will like to share.
Yesterday I brewed up a Belgian Dubbel and all turned out great. My SG was 1.076 and I pitched an appropriate starter of 3787 according to MrMalty.com. I pitched my yeast last night and I have had a very healthy and vigorous fermentation since this morning. I have a temp controller and freezer and am currently fermenting at 64 degrees. Here is my question, does anyone have a suggestion on how I should let this yeast do its thing going forward. Should I raise the temp in a couple days? what sorta successful fermentation schedule have you used to ferment using this yeast. Thanks for the advice and time.
Mash on,
Mike
Ok, this summer I picked up one of the Banjo burners from Bayou Classic. worked great for my first few brews. Lately however, it seems to be losing pressure as my boil goes along. It starts out full blast but the flame drops and drops until it will barely keep a boil going. At first I thought it was because my tank was low, under 8-9 lbs, so I got a full one and tried that, same thing. I can’t figure out why the pressure seems to drop off so bad. I had this happen last week, used the same tank today and the same thing happened. Anyone have a similar problem? Could it be the regulator or the tank valve?
I have the good fortune of going to Belgium in a couple of weeks and have been very anxious about the timing of the sales of the 12. I am giddy with anticipation as they just posted that the one day I will be in the area the Westy wil be for sale!!
Now I have to get up at 2:15a on Tues to reserve my spot to buy 2 crates…and I have to get planning on my beer transporter luggage box to get this babies home safely…thinking of one of those Target plastic trunks lined with foam.
Any ideas on protecting these things? Was actually wondering if I took a can of “great stuff” and a heavy trash bag…put the beers in the trunk…sprayed the “great stuff” in the bag and before it set pushing it in and around the tops of the bottles….sort of like a custom foam lid….thoughts?
Little confused by how the Blichmann beer gun works. To my understanding you can only take carbonated beer from a keg and transfer it to a bottle all while purging with co2. My question is, can you use it to take finished beer from a secondary fermenter and transfer it to a bottle. Then bottle condition as usual. I have noticed oxidation when using a regular bottle filler and I thought the beer gun would be the solution.
Ok I put some hot water in my tun to warm it up. I put in 14lbs of 2 row and 1 lb of briess 60 and poured in 3.75 gallons of water at 168degrees. Let that sit and stirred for about 60 minutes. emptied that in my keg and sparged with 170degree water until i filled it up to the 6 gallon mark. brought that to a boil and put in my hop schedule and by the time i was done, i was only able to put in 3 gallons of wort in my fermentor. did I screw something up? there may have been about 1/2 gallon in the bottom of my keg. Could i have had a 2.5 gallon boil off?
any help or direction would be awesome!
North
Back in early Oct I brewed up a pumpkin dubbel and a stout. I had reviewed several recipes and finally settled on a mixture of a few different stouts for what I figured would taste best to me….any rate had both kegged up by mid Oct and had my neighbor and his wife over for some beers and a few select “marinated” cherries. His wife was impressed with the pumpkin but Jim was extremely impressed with the stout. So much so that tonight I am brewing up a batch for uhm, a donation(grains/hops and yeast), for him and his parents that are coming in from out of town next month.
I’m keeping everything crossed that I can in hopes that it comes out the same and is as good as the 1st batch, mash is done and boil is starting.
We’re about to head to Chattanooga for a long weekend and I need some good beer to bring home. About the best we can get where I live is Stella, Warsteiner and Terrapin Rye. I saw a thread asking about Nashville that talked about some places in Chattanooga, but I couldn’t tell for sure where they all were in Nashville or Chatt. We used to go to the aquarium all the time when we lived in Atlanta, but I never had to worry about looking for beer when we went since I could find good stuff at home. Now that we’re in AL, I NEED SOME GOOD BEER (besides my own). We’ll be there through Monday evening, so if anyone sees this tomorrow, you might still make suggestions. We have a couple of full days planned, but I can probably get away some time. Is the brewery/restaurant still down by the aquarium, if so, we’ll probably eat there tonight.
I am new to the world of scottish ales, and though I’ve tried several, I’ve never brewed one. I am looking to make a scottish ale that is balanced between hop and malt character leaning toward the malt (the hallmark of scottish ales). I would like the malt character to have a discernable nut character to it, but not dominate the overall maltiness. This is why I opted to use a small proportion of brown malt instead of a larger amount of victory. I hope that gives a fair description. I will be using a single batch sparge system and will perform a protein rest at 122 followed with a sacc rest at 154. 6 gallons.
Using beertools, I get the following:
OG: 1.053
FG: 1.014
SRM: 16.39
IBU: havent figured out yet, but single bittering addition with EKG to reach ~22 IBU
ALC: 5.1%
Efficiency: 73%
Golden Promise 5lb
Ashburne Mild 3 lb
Light Munich (Briess) 3 lb
Brown Malt .25 lb
Melanoidin .5 lb
Chocolate Malt .25
Wy 1728 Scottish Ale (will use a large starter and ferment in low 60’s followed by a cold conditioning period)
Thanks for the input. Again, this style is new to me so I’m interested to hear tips from some of the more experienced scottish ale brewers. Last thought….though i don’t have a water report, i know my water is pretty soft, so I figure it’ll work for this style.
Are there any suggestions on how much malto dextrin to use per gallon?
Would the use be the same for beer as with soda?
Thanks
Would it be crazy to use a mix of 7lbs pale and 5lbs light munich as the base for a porter?
Anyone brewing this weekend? I didn’t see a thread posted.
I am going over to a Homebrew Club members house tomorrow early morning. He is hosting a Brew in and there should be about 4 of us bringing our systems and brewing up some various batches. I personally am brewing my first Belgian beer doing a Belgian Dubbel. Hope everyone has a great weekend.
On Sunday my friend is coming over and we are bottling up an Amber Ale that he made two weeks ago. I keg he bottles so I offered to carb his beer. We are going to us the BeerGun to bottle his whole batch. Should be fun. I gave the gun a run couple of nights ago for the first time and it rocks.
Mike
About 2 years ago I brewed a pretty decent helles (I love munich helles) and drank most of it pretty quickly. I sent a few bottles to the ST. Louis Brews comp and it didn’t place but did rather well. I had saved a number of bottles which I mostly drank shortly after the comp. Two bottles somehow snuck themselves onto my shelf for aged beers.
So, two years later I notice them (after brewing another helles and racking to lager) and throw them in the fridge. Tonight I popped one.
Quite carbed. Hmm… for a beer gun beer, I didn’t expect quite so much carb, but it didn’t overflow or anything. Upon the pour it was very carbed and the color seemed to have changed slightly. Take a whiff… WOAH!!! Seriously… the first thing that crossed my mind was Cantillion. The smell is very horsey. The flavor is pure Cantillion lambic. Very horse blanket with a nice tartness. Seriously… it’s tasting as good as the Cantillion Gueze I had about a year ago from 2001. Freaking fantastic.
Question is, how the FARK did it happen, and do you think the second bottle will be the same? If so, I GOTTA have the club around for a tasting when I open it. WOW!
Since I pump out of the MLT I can go fast or slow. But I’m limited on how fast I can heat using electricity. Usually I’m standing around waiting 10 -15 min for the boil to start. Today the I went slower than usual and was starting to boil before the sparge was finished. Weird, about 65 min sparging to a volume of 13.5 gal - which is about how long it takes sparging faster but waiting for the boil. Gave myself a little leeway and assumed I would hit 1.050 at the most. Nope, 1.057. Can that really make that much difference?
One of the few times I skipped a pre-boil refractometer reading since things have been so consistent lately 
At least I have about 45 IBUs in it.
Ok, so I’ve thoroughly reviewed the FAQ on balancing a tap system and have had fantastic success with beers up to about 20 psi.
I’ve got a dunkelweizen I want to serve at 4 volumes. Kegerator is set at about 42 - 45 degrees, so regulator is set at about 30 psi. Beer has been at this pressure for at least 3 weeks.
According to the FAQ, I need about 17 feet of 3/16″ ID beverage line to balance this properly (by the way, I’m using a simple picnic tap on the serving end)
So I cut 17 feet of Bevflex line (3/16 ID, 7/16OD), slapped on a kobra tap, hooked it up…… and WHOOOOOSH!!!!!
I’ve never seen a beer come out so fast! Did I say beer? I mean beer like foam matter.
I tried this line on another keg at “regular” pressure (12 psi) and while it poured slower I got a ton of foam. Makes sense…too much resistance from such a long line. So I cranked that beer up to 30 psi. Pretty much the same thing. Beer comes flying out with a ton of foam, although I get at least a little bit of beer on the bottom of the glass.
Am I just missing something?
Anyone else able to serve these high carbed beers properly?
Anyone care to share their experiences with K-97, the dry German Ale yeast from Fermentis? In a nutshell, I’ve pitched three 11.5g packs into 10g of a 1.054 OG alt with absolutely no activity after 26 hours. Nothing. Not even a hint that fermentation has started. This is unusual based on my past experiences with dry yeast and a >24 hour lag time makes me nervous. The K-97 is Batch Number 16772XX05.
If you want more details, here they are:
Due to rain I couldn’t get the wort down to the temp I wanted and when I pitched it was at 68°. I pitched 2 packs for 10g and then put the wort in the fermentation fridge to let it cool down overnight. I know this isn’t ideal but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. When I woke up the next morning I had no activity and the wort was at 59°. Oops, a little colder than I wanted. I wasn’t surprised to see no activity since the temp dropped so much overnight. I let the beer warm up for 3.5 hours to 63 degrees still no hint of activity. I then pitched another pack of K-97 just to be safe. 8 hours later the beer is still at 63°, nothing. Nothing at all. Not a hint of a krausen and no positive pressure in the airlock.
So finally, after 26 hours of absolutely nothing with the K-97, I pitched a pack of US-05 and 3.5 hours later I was seeing signs of activity. This morning, 13 hours after pitching the US-05 I’m getting bubbles from the blowoff. Call me impatient, but I don’t like 26+ hour lag times. I’m used to 4-6 hours. Something doesn’t seem right, but the only dry yeast I’ve used before this is US-05. So I don’t have other dry yeast experience that I can compare performance. Other than one previous time, US-05 always seems to start quickly even with a cooldown.
5 Gallon
24 IBU
OG: 1.062-1.064
6.5 lbs German Wheat
4.5 lbs German Pils
1/2 lb German Dark Munich
1/2 lb German Vienna
1/2 lb Flaked Rye
.3 lb Dextrine
.5 oz Perle @ 60
.5 oz Mt. Hood @ 30
.5 tbs Allspice @ 10
Vanilla bean @ 10
So I posted this in the recipes thread but by a suggestion I wanted to ask a specific question out here to see what others have to say.
This is going to be my Holiday German Wheat and I am looking for a great yeast to accent it. I want something that adds a great spicy/clovey flavor with the least amount of banana and bubblegum esters. My limitations are that I do not have temp control for my fermentation room (closet) and I have herd that fermenting higher (70-74) will produce more of the flavors I am not looking to have. I also don’t ever make starters (yea I know, I know) but have always been succesful with WLP strains and will pitch a smack pack straight if something better is out there.
The best thing that I found with a little research was BrewTek CL-920 - “A true, top fermenting Weizenbier yeast. Intensely spicy, clovey and phenolic. This yeast is highly attenuative and flocks in large, loose clumps. Use for All Weizen recipes and is particularly good in Wiezenbocks. ” However I also found out that this yeast company went out of business awhile ago.
Anyone have any suggestions on a good yeast that will hit somewhere close to the description above? This means you Hefeheads… 
Edit: Also I have herd that when using a high percentage of wheat malt the mash should be a few degrees higher (160 range) is this true?
So I found a guy who came upon a couple thousand corny kegs from a recently out of business soda company. The price at $25 a keg seems to be the best around. I am trying to get into kegging while saving money. Since this is all new to me, what should I be looking for in a “good” used corny keg?
Thanks!
I’d like to put a corney in one of the kitchen cabinets under the counter. The corney will fit there, but how to keep it cold?
Someone told me they thought there was some kind of copper stick-on sheet with built-in tubing for a liquid (ie. chilled water circulated from a basement kegerator). Does anyone know of such stuff, or have an alternative for wrapping a corney to keep it cool? Has anyone gotten good results with regular soft copper tubing wrapped around it and insulated? It’ll normally hold British style bitter, so I only need to cool it to 55F.
I am just now gathering the equipment to switch to AG brewing. I need a crusher, mash tun, and chiller yet. I have a turkey fryer and a five gallon rubbermaid drink cooler for the HLT and an eight gallon pot. My question is what exact name brand/model rectangular cooler makes the best mash tun. I only want to do this once and then use it for the next fifteen years. I plan on batch sparging. I checked Wal-Mart yesterday and the pickings are slim at this time of year. I can order online though. Thanks for all of your help.
For me it was Victoria(a vienna lager)I had in Cancun after getting tired of Corona against the advice of my waiter.”Senor,you won’t like it ,it’s a DARK beer”Until then I had always drank lite watery beers.Came back to the states and tried to find it unsuccessfully but ended up trying different styles leading me to want to brew my own.
Anyone have a similar experience where it was like”Wow, I didn’t know beer could actually taste good” 
I just finished transferring a couple beer to kegs, but I ran out of CO2 in the middle of the process. 
I use CO2 to both push sanitizer from the destination keg to purge it and to push the beer from the BB into the keg. I’d just started pushing sani out of the last keg of the night when I ran out. Problem is that I’m not really set up to transfer without CO2 anymore and I had to scramble to get the beer into the keg using some winemaking equipment. Major PITA, but it’s in there, although it and its two friends are NOT carbonating. 
No real point to this post; just venting. (Although I know somebody will probably tell me to have a backup cannister…)
I know that many of you already do something like this, and there’s a lot of talk of these on The Brewing Network, but I’d never seen a post here. This is my keg cleaning rig. A submersible pump moves cleaning liquid through the posts, through the diptube and spills out the top. I give it 15 minutes and then another minute or so with clean water. I haven’t stripped down a keg since.
So Im making my own 50 ft counter flow chiller and Im curious about what kind of sanitizing agent I could store inside the copper line (wort side) to inhibit the growth of nastys in between sessions. Of course Im looking for something that will NOT damage the copper. Any suggestions?
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