Leeinwa

Recipes 

Great!! Don't drop that. I did and had to epoxy flip lid back on but it still works.

mattinboston

Recipes 

Thanks Lee - I emailed you. You might want to take at least your cell num off of this post. Just a friendly tip!

mattinboston

Recipes 

FYI to you guys...

I'm brewing two beers today. One with dark roasted chips to make a schwarzbier, and taking another shot at an IIPA to improve on my previous pretty good one.

I'll be experimenting with the pectinase for clarity in the black lager as well as some CaCl2 to assist the alpha-amylase with the conversion of the chestnut starches for the IIPA (in working at 150 degree mash for such a long time I worry that the alpha-amylase will quickly be deactivated, decreasing yields). Theoretically adding calcium ions to decrease pH should help....... we'll see. I'm going to measure pH with my digital reader to see.

mattinboston

Recipes 

Just put my black lager into fermentation. Those dark chips make a nice sweet wort! It will come out with a lighter color than it should though, I can tell already.

I could keep it in the right color range, but that would probably keep the OG a little too high for the style, so I'm going with the OG to start and maybe I'll tweak the color in a subsequent batch. Taste over color every time!

The calcium carbonate (CaCl2) brought the pH down to 5.8 so I think that may have helped with the yield.

The IIPA is tomorrow's project. My first chestnut lager is off and running in fermentation.

Gonoles10

Recipes 

Funny, I was reading about PH, temperature and enzymes over the weekend as well. I bet the black lager comes out great. Is this a pure chestnut beer?

mattinboston

Recipes 

Yeah both beers I brewed this weekend were pure chestnut brews (well with corn sugar...). Both my IIPA and my Black Lager are fermenting actively now. The Black Lager does look great... we'll see how it turns out in about 4 weeks when lagering is complete. The IIPA should be ready in a couple weeks after secondary and dry hopping.

Almost out of chestnut chips (2 lbs left)... Time to re-order.

Gonoles10

Recipes 

Curious to know if u boiled the chips this time before mashing? I was afraid to go above 160 area with them. After more readiing, I guess we are just trying to get them as soft and easy to break down as we can, cool down to 150 area and then add the amylase. Leaving them overnight as you and lee have suggested should give the enzymes time to do their thing. Mine cooled down to 120 last time which I guess is good as it like doing a protein rest. I think the gypsum will help in full conversion also. Did u add pectain this time? Any gravity/brix readings this time? My Ipa from last week is now showing 4 on the refractometer.

DKershner

Recipes 

Remember, presence of alcohol screws up refractometer readings. Use a converter.

Something like this works (the bottom one)
http://brew.stderr.net/refractometer.html

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Gonoles10

Recipes 

Yeah, I did see those converters. I am new to the whole refractometer thing and bought one after dropping my hydrometer on the ground last week. If I use the converter, I'm showing a gravity reading of 1 already. This can't be right, can it? Original refracto reading was 11 and that was only a week ago. Help me mr refracto wizard. Lol

SexPanther13

Recipes 

Hey guys, I've been reading through this thread and it's pretty interesting. I've never done gluten-free but I have a friend who is gluten intolerant so I told her I would do some research into it and make a batch for her. I am pretty sure I am going to use chestnuts because you all make them sound much better than sorghum.

Matt is there any way you can get me a recipe for any of the beers you've had good success with? She doesn't know what style she wants me to make and I don't know what I would like to try, but it's been a while since she's had any beer so I'm sure she would appreciate anything. Thanks!