Simple answer, as long as you can stand to. If you get a gravity anything like what's mentioned here, at least two months, but the longer the better. Six months is probably the peak. After that the effect would be negligible IMHO.
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Up next: Big Brew Off competition between me and Kaptain Karma as one team, and my two roommates as another--We'll be brewing Pale Ales with specifications on malts, hops, and total yeild to see who's version is better (and to end up with ten total gallons of great beer).
Also up soon: Belgian Dubbel
Primary: Grampa's Woodshed Apple Smoked Porter
Secondary: Zombiefoot California Common, Chocolate Strong Porter
Drinking: Seamus O'Drunkagan Irish Red, Humble Pie Imperial Stout, Capricorn IPA
Also, how important is it to get champaigne type bottles? I was hoping to just use regular beer bottles. Will this work. I'm assuming that I won't be able to carbonate as much. Is this right?
No. Regular 12oz.-ers will work just fine. I did an imperial stout 7.5% ABV and bottled about half of it in 12oz. and the rest in pints and 22/24 oz. bottles. After waiting a little less time than I should have they were about equal. The benefit of champagne bottles is that they are bigger (fewer bottles to fill), and they're more fun to drink. It's fun to crack a champagne bottle of your homebrew and fill a few glasses for you and your friends. That's my opinion, but you may find others somewhere on this site. Try searching "champagne bottles" and see what you get.
__________________
Up next: Big Brew Off competition between me and Kaptain Karma as one team, and my two roommates as another--We'll be brewing Pale Ales with specifications on malts, hops, and total yeild to see who's version is better (and to end up with ten total gallons of great beer).
Also up soon: Belgian Dubbel
Primary: Grampa's Woodshed Apple Smoked Porter
Secondary: Zombiefoot California Common, Chocolate Strong Porter
Drinking: Seamus O'Drunkagan Irish Red, Humble Pie Imperial Stout, Capricorn IPA
Hmmm.... I just did that search myself, didn't find much useful info. But as far as I'm concerned, no real benefit. Again, just one man's opinion, but it's been tried, and it seems to play out.
__________________
Up next: Big Brew Off competition between me and Kaptain Karma as one team, and my two roommates as another--We'll be brewing Pale Ales with specifications on malts, hops, and total yeild to see who's version is better (and to end up with ten total gallons of great beer).
Also up soon: Belgian Dubbel
Primary: Grampa's Woodshed Apple Smoked Porter
Secondary: Zombiefoot California Common, Chocolate Strong Porter
Drinking: Seamus O'Drunkagan Irish Red, Humble Pie Imperial Stout, Capricorn IPA
P.S. Brewdoc, what does the "ETOH-ics" acronym mean? This is the only forum I use, so I'm lost on a lot of acronyms. Most of them I can figure out, RDWHAHB, for instance, but this one I don't get.
I'll go ahead and field this one. ETOH is a commonly used (at least in the medical/health field and probably others) for ethyl alcohol. Therefore, ETOH-ics = alcoholics.
__________________ Primary: Empty Secondary: Empty Condtioning: Summertime IPA Drinking:
Mirror Pond Clone #2
Mac and Jack's African Amber Clone
Mountain Brew
IIPA
Hard Spiced Cider
Also, how important is it to get champaigne type bottles? I was hoping to just use regular beer bottles. Will this work. I'm assuming that I won't be able to carbonate as much. Is this right?
I don't know a very good answer to this one, but I'll try to offer what I can. The champagne bottles are necessary if you are planning on surpassing a certain amount of CO2 per bottle (something like 3.5 volumes) because the regular 12 oz bottles aren't thick enough and may break.
I read that somewhere when I was searching for champagne bottling info for my wedding beer (just because I thought it would be cool to be able to pop corks at the wedding). However, I haven't ever bottled something with very high volumes of CO2 and also have never had a regular bottle not be able to handle the CO2, so I've got no personal experience with this.
ETOH stands for alcohol (ethyl alcohol or ethanol), thus the ET, and -OH is a chemical designation of part of the actual ethanol molecule itself. ... it's amazing what one can learn from the show, ER.
I believe the point is to ensure that enough yeast are left to ensure appropriate carbonation without the possibility of off flavors due to too mutation or strain on the yeast.
This practice is common amongst trappist breweries and many others have picked it up as well.
I'm doing a tripel this weekend and was thinking of doing this. What's the best way to store the starter till its time? Refrigerate?
__________________ SEMPER FIDELIS ET SEMPER PARATUS Bringin' the 'pane...the propane.
it's amazing what one can learn from the show, ER.
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