Recent content by brodie113

This a reminder that registration opens on January 5.

This is a notice for Final Gravity's Pro-Am Strong Beer Competition (SBC) to be held on Saturday, February 23rd, 2013 in Atlanta, GA. The Pro-Am SBC is an AHA/BJCP sanctioned competition in which all entries must be in one of the BJCP categories that cross the line of 8% ABV. Thus, the name...

It'll probably be okay but will be off for a Duvel clone. The lactose will increase the body which is the opposite of what you'll want for a golden strong.

Very cool idea! I think I will do a similar tasting. I normally have some kind of belgian beer or two around at all times. I just did a series with a saison, blond, dubbel, tripel, & quad over the last couple months. Let us know how it turns out in the end...or when you're brewing the next...

Looks awesome. I'm a big fan of BLAM also. Let us know how it turns out. I'll have to dig up that old BN episode and give it another listen.

What color does that come out to be? It seems like that might be a tad heavy on the chocolate...like closer to a brown ale. Maybe add a touch of dark crystal - 90 L or 120L - to replace some of the chocolate.

I think you are probably fine. Sometimes I will just notice the starter get a little cloudy with no krausen at all. I do use plenty of form reducer in the flask.

I wouldn't add more yeast at that point. But I would add some nutrient just for good measure....That is something I do when I 'feed a fermentation' and it seems to work well.

Yes, it would be fine to make a quick starter to get the harvested yeast going. When did you harvest the slurry from your last batch?

+1 BKF. Once I discovered BKF, I polished everything up and kettles look great now.

It's hard to say for sure without being able to taste the beer but I would vote for lowering the fermentation temperature. Maybe in the 64-68 range...? So, I haven't used that yeast before but temps in the low 70s do not give the desired flavors/aromas (for non Belgians anyway). The pitching...

I wouldn't stir it but trying to get it more uniform would be good. Maybe try to swirl it up a few times a day until the fermentation action starts to mix it. In my batch that stratified, the fermentation took a lot longer to start than normal- turned out fine in the end but there was a delay.

That's a bummer man. I have done the same thing but my beers were fine. The bucket even stained a bit but never affected a beer.

Cool idea. Bump the temp up - those wine yeast can go high. Well, I would think that the orig yeast could do something with the juice also. What was the abv of the beer before the addition? Let us know what the gravity is since that will be the only way to know for sure.

Do you have the ability to keg? That helps since it cuts down on the carbonation time and you can just have full kegs on deck. For my household, consumption varies a lot from week to week and month to month so I tend to have a few carboys full of finished beer so when the kegs are getting low...