Recent content by cheier

Hey guys, I'm looking to do a pilot brewery, and so I'm looking to set up a 2BBL brewhouse with the same in fermenters and brights. I'm going to be setting up in a shop that has no drainage or water, so I'll be bringing water in periodically in barrels. There is natural gas and 240V power...

I've just finished brewing a pale ale where I had done some water modifications. One of the main mods that I did was to soften the water through use of phosphoric acid. The result of this addition is what I'm more curious about. From what I've found, the phosphoric acid reacts with the CaCO3...

Keep in mind that any acids you add will contribute flavour, likewise, if you add more calcium carbonate to offset those acids, you may start to get more chalk flavour. You can do it, but be careful.

Haha! Too true. I had the same response when I was asking about how to raise my pH. First question had to do with my recipe (though I didn't know why that was relevant to my question), then he went and bashed the internet for bad advise, then proceeded to tell me to use an acid blend (to raise...

I use something like this one (might be the same model but it is what the LHBS carried): http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0054IQCB4/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

That's what I hear as well. Since I made the mistake of adding acid already, I figured I'd cut my losses. I've got it up to 3.4 pH, but I don't feel comfortable adding more chalk and risking too much of a chalky flavour. At another LHBS, the guy I talked to generally does his meads around 3.4...

I was undergoing a state of confusion myself when he recommended the acid blend. I'm working on slowly bringing it up at the moment. I've added about a half teaspoon of calcium carbonate and it is currently bumped up to 2.8 from 2.4 now. I'll slowly add more over time to try and bring it up to...

I've just tried to make my first mead. Essentially your basic water + honey bit. I heated to 150ºF and maintained that to get all the honey out of my bucket, and addd a couple cinnamon sticks. I also threw in Wyeast nutrient. My yeast choice is the Wyeast dry mead yeast. I pitched and have...

Most of the time, I only use Whirlfloc in the boil, but there were a bunch of beers that I used filtration for, including a wood aged beer that won a bronze medal and got commented on with its clarity, even at 9% and a couple months of age. I'm probably going to do filtration for most of my...

Congrats on the win. I just had the same thing happen in our homebrew competition. My first competition as well. Entered an imperial stout and took gold with 32 entries in the category. Also posted the recipe on my website. http://www.chrisheier.com/homebrew/evil-shenanigans-imperial-honey-stout/

I want to start a brewery, so I started to brew.

The airlock is nice because it is fun to watch during activity, but never forget that the hydrometer (or refractometer) is your most important tool. It will give you all your answers either directly or indirectly.

I'm a Yeast Wrangler myself. We tend to try and do group buys of some ingredients, but personally, I've purchased from both www.hopdawgs.ca and www.homebrew-supplies.ca. Neil at the Vineyard (LHBS) is also very good at bringing in equipment and ingredients for homebrewing, but some of us have...

Just means there was a lot of CO2 suspended in solution. This would have happened right after the vial was packaged since it is usually fermenting some sugars in the wort it is stored in. Whether the yeast was dead or alive when you opened it, the CO2 will still have a tendancy to want to leave...

Sounds like a good idea, though if I were brewing, I would probably start at the floor of 68, then bump it up. Either that or just simply start high. With my personal philosophy when it comes to experimenting with new things, if you are wanting to get some of that yeast character, do a lot of...