Recent content by Brandonovich

I use the medium toast oak cubes. I weigh out two ounces for 5 gallons and soak them in 8 ounces of bourbon for a week. I just throw those in the secondary and wait. It usually takes about two weeks or so and it is ready to keg. I have done this with an irish red and a couple different stouts.

I'll take it. Thanks for the heads up Craig.

The Boil: Yes, I would do a longer boil, but you are going to have to adjust your recipe accordingly. I assume you are doing extract, so be sure to account for the extra evaporation and add extra water. Also, do not begin adding hops until the 60 minute mark, the same way you would normally. If...

One of the main advantages to adding coffee rather than grounds is that you have much more control of how much coffee flavor gets into your beer. Cold brew some very strong coffee, and then take a measured amount of beer - say ten ounces to make the math easy - and add coffee to it until it...

You are correct, it is a standard method. The mistake most people - myself included - initially make is that they do not boil the water first. The chlorine in your tap water will really effect the taste of your beer.

I think you may want to be wary of your head space issue as well. The healthiest most viable yeast is going to be at the top during active fermentation, and if you blow it all out the top, you will not be left with enough healthy yeast at the end.

You can do that, and it will work fine, but you need to boil the water first, cool it back down, and then add it into your wort. Boiling will sterilize it - very important - and it will also gas off all the chlorine.

I would be wary of $18 Perlicks, there are knock offs out there that do not work as well, and $18 is insanely cheap.

Also, that San Diego yeast is highly attenuative.

The overnight mash is going to give you really high efficiency, and you have grains that are completely fermentable, so I am not surprised you are finishing low even though your mash temp was mid-range.

The overall viability of the yeast portion of the blend was probably a little lower because it got hot during shipping, and it may have needed a little more time to get going. My friend and I have a batch of belgian golden with the roselare in it, and it was slow for the initial ferment, and...

all grain or extract?

Your problem is most likely not the amount of alcohol, but the type. At higher temperatures you have created more fusel acohol, and it is going to be very difficult to cover it up. I would dry hop it to death, and just put up with the strong alcohol flavor.

I had the same thing happen on a DIPA recently and thought for sure I had an infection. It ended up tasting great, no problems.

Definitely leave it. And try to get the temp up high, as close to 90 degrees as possible. And use the French Saison next time, it is effortless.