Recent content by BPS531

Gypsum dissolves better in cold water, so it's usually best to add it to your strike water before heating. I always do it at the same time that I add the campden.

I use DME when making pretzels. However, that isn't what makes them dark. Boiling at a high pH, traditionally done with lye, causes changes to the starch molecules that deepen the Maillard reactions when they bake. You can get reasonable results with baking soda, but I recently heard of a...

I'm not an expert on lagers, but I have been reasonably successful fermenting them in the garage during winter. If you pitch at 45-50 and then wrap your fermenter in a blanket, the yeast metabolism adds enough heat to keep the beer from getting too cold. But you definitely want to do a...

1. You can boil hops in water, and make bitter, hoppy water (search hop teas) but to get good alpha acid utilization, you are still going to need to boil it for a significant amount of time. 2. Poly phenols in the hops bond with proteins in the wort and improve coagulation, giving you better hot...

Boiling in a pressure cooker raises the temperature needed to achieve evaporation. This will not only slow down your ability to remove water, but also increase the amount of chemical reactions taking place (carmelization, Maillard, scorching, etc.) Malt extract I'd made by boiling at a reduced...

If I read your question correctly, you are asking for the conversion to psi if there are 4 volumes of dissolved CO2 in the beer/bottle? I could get all fancy and write out the ideal gas equation, and calculate a number based on all the constants, but the reality is much more simple. If you have...

If you are legging your own beer, just put some cleaning solution in a Corny keg and force it through with CO2. The plastic bottle is for people that only buy kegs with Sanke connections

I think you need more voltage. The bar is barely spinning, and you need a vortex to form to get efficient gas exchange

I like more Munich in my reds, but that seems to be controversial. However, if you really want a nice red color, you need some black malt or roasted barley. 2 oz should be enough. If you don't want the roasted flavor, use the dehusked Carafa and/or add it at the end when you vorlauf.

I agree with the "Fuggles = dirt" sentiment. Funny thing: I thought that I didn't like tetnanger either, but after reading "For the Love of Hops" it turns out that what is called Tetnanger in the US is probably a Fuggles clone. Now I need to seek out the real stuff and try it out.

Are you sure about that final gravity number? 1.040 seems awfully high with 3lbs of honey. Maybe your 4.5% abv beer is really 7%

Adding sodium or potassium metabisulfite to your water pre mash is a recommended method for removing chlorine and/or chloramine. Once you heat it up, any leftover sulphur should dissipate quickly, and it won't cause issues any more. You should be safe using the coconut in the mash and boil, but...

Randy Mosher has a recipe for Kotbusser in "Radical Brewing" that calls for a small amount of honey and molasses, and he recommends adding it beta the end of fermentation to maximize the flavor contribution. Also, I haven't used molasses, but with honey I mix with some boiled, hot water to thin...

I use a coffee grinder on Carafa all the time. You can minimize problems by adding those grains at the end of mash before you start to vorlauf.

Cold liquids can hold more dissolved gas than warm ones. As the beer warms up, it will release CO2 until the head space pressure is so high that the amount of gas leaving the liquid is the same as that going back into the liquid. If your head space was small, there could be multiple iterations...