Recent content by chitowngator

Yep. Storm Corrosion is how I learned about Opeth. Damnation and Pale Communion make it into my playlists. I have a hard time with all the growling, but enjoy the musicianship on their other albums. Unfortunately I think PT is done as a band, but Wilson's solo stuff is just as good or...

I bet the chics love coming over to help you brew:p mellow opeth will come up on my Pandora channel, but I've always been a prog guy: Porcupine Tree, "mellow" Anathema, Rush, Dream Theater, Spock's Beard, Tool, Pink Floyd, etc.

I've used WLP860 in all five of my lagers so I'm by no means an expert. The Helles and Dortmunder I entered into a competition didn't win any awards, but both time received comments on having a nice clean ferment. I pitched at 48F and once it reached about 10 points above final gravity brought...

If your recipe is based on Pliny The Elder then it looks perfect to me. Pliny is delicious, just wish I was able to get it here in Chicago

My first thought was water profile. The first couple batches of BIAB I did had a grainy taste to them that went away once I started adjusting my water profile and mashing pH. It looks like New Brighton has "very hard" water according to their website. Any chance you are using water from a...

I did a bunch of reading on water pH and adjustments about a year ago. If I had to cliff note them for you, you add either to bring up your calcium level if it's low to give the beer "crispness." Otherwise you're just using it to adjust your SO4/Cl ratio to emphasize the hops or malt in the...

Looks like the Munich Helles I brewed last month on WLP860. I pulled a sample five days in and it had only dropped from 1.052 to 1.038. It had a big thick krausen on top.

Wow! I'm glad I'm not the only one who enjoys the brewing more than the drinking. Although there's nothing quite like opening up that first bottle of a recent batch to see how it turned out, but after the 4th or 5th one I'm ready to see what else I can make. I still have a handful of bottles...

Similar problem here in Chicago and got worse once I moved from extract to all grain (BIAB). Stouts were fine, but pale beers had a weird twang or grainy taste. Once I started treating my water the off flavors went away.

Getting trub into your bottling bucket is not a problem, just makes for a beer with a little more sediment in the bottom of the bottle. Just don't be greedy and siphon off the top of the fermenter leaving behind the trub and a little good beer. Also make sure you give the yeast to drop out...

If you make a starter with the WLP630 it will get the sacch going and dominate the lacto once you pitch it in the Berliner. If you want your Berliner to be tart you need to let the lacto get a head start for a few days then pitch the sacch. I'd pitch the WLP630 and then the euro ale yeast like...

I typically get 80-85% efficiency with BIAB and I've done several batches where the bag didn't fit over the pot. I just hung the top over the side and put the top on the pot to keep if from falling in during the mash. Every 10-15 minutes I stirred the grain and checked the temperature of the...

I couldn't find much info searching threads on lacto fermentation, but one suggested that lacto has the same gravity as sugars from wort. If that's true the gravity should not change. Since the wort still tastes fine I'm not worried. Just curious what others think happened.

from Saccharomyces. Sorry couldn't resist :smack: I did a 7 day, 1/2 gallon crock pot sour mash (with raw pilsner) then pitched it into 2 gallons of low gravity, low hopped wort (Berliner). I then left the fermenter in a cooler on a hot pad around 90F for another 7 days. Around day 5 it...

Using a stir plate for the starter? Otherwise it looks good to me, but I'm still a novice with lagers. Smoked Helles in bottles, and a Maibock currently lagering.