Newest Threads

daggers_nz · 01-19-2013, 07:24 AM

? Safale is really awesome and cheap, seems like a dumb reason

autiger · 01-20-2013, 05:01 AM

LHBS doesn't carry Safale and I don't want to pitch onto the yeast cake of the British IPA I am bottling tomorrow that used S-04 so I picked up WY1968.

I went 10lbs 2-row, 8oz. 40L, 4 oz. 120L and 4 oz. biscuit. Used my cereal killer grain mill for the first time tonight and will be brewing tomorrow. Sticking to same hops as the original recipe.

jwalker1140 · 01-23-2013, 11:50 PM

My LHBS doesn't have dark crystal 135-165L but it does have Briess 120L and Special B 150L. Any preference for one over the other? I see that several people have gone with 120L and I've also seen suggestions that 120L could be pared with an ounce of chocolate malt or something to bring the color more in line with the original recipe. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!

RoadKing · 01-24-2013, 10:20 AM

120 is fine, It's all mt LHBS carries too and the color was right on.

Unibrow · 01-24-2013, 12:41 PM

150 may give a darker color but damn is it delicious

jwalker1140 · 01-24-2013, 02:05 PM

Thanks, guys. Sounds like either would be fine, and maybe even a compromise of 2 oz. of each.

**gcdowd** · 01-24-2013, 02:20 PM

What is the recommendation of what to carb this at?

**IanJ** · 01-27-2013, 09:31 PM

Pretty sure I'm going to brew this as my first AG batch.

Two questions:

Within BeerSmith, or just in general, should we be modifying the mash/sparge temps? Having set up my equipment profile, it's giving me different numbers, should I manually change to what the recipe calls for, or leave what it's adjusting based on my equipment? This portion kind of confuses me, as I'm still learning about AG.

Secondly, for those who had to stick with US varieties of Crystal, did you go with .25# 120L and .75 40L?

Thanks

**bottlebomber** · 01-27-2013, 09:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ianskate

Pretty sure I'm going to brew this as my first AG batch.

Two questions:

Within BeerSmith, or just in general, should we be modifying the mash/sparge temps? Having set up my equipment profile, it's giving me different numbers, should I manually change to what the recipe calls for, or leave what it's adjusting based on my equipment? This portion kind of confuses me, as I'm still learning about AG.

Secondly, for those who had to stick with US varieties of Crystal, did you go with .25# 120L and .75 40L?

Thanks

Until you've brewed a few times it will be hard to know what your temp loss is going to be for your system. I would probably heat your strike water to 165 degrees, and you'll probably shoot a little high but you can fix that easier and faster than trying to heat the mash. If you know what the temp of your grain is, and the volume of water you can find out how much heat your mashtun is sucking out. Are you using a cooler mash tun?

**IanJ** · 01-27-2013, 10:05 PM

Gotcha. I'm using a 10 gallon cooler, just calculated general heat loss on 5 gallons of 170 degree water... lost about 4 degrees over an hour, opened the lid twice, as I could by stirring.

BeerSmith is suggesting that I mash at 166.3, step down to 152 for 60 mins. Also to sparge at 168. Will probably 2-step batch, total of 3.38 gallons. Grain will probably be room temp, around 68-70.