Recent content by ChrisKennedy

Kegs are supposed to have a fail point, usually on the bottom, that will give before any sort of huge, dangerous explosion happens. This is terrible news, and I hope Redhook makes public what went wrong so that all the breweries out there can make sure this horrible event can't happen to them.

Cousin started out with a pretty substantial charge of Summit late in the kettle and dry hopping. It was originally a mixture of Summit, Columbus and Apollo. The idea behind the beer was working with the kind of hops we could get at the time. We both enjoyed dank IPAs, so we thought we would...

The beers appear very divisive right now. Evil Twin is indeed all late hops, we are just struggling with the amount of IBUs we are getting from an extended hot stand. We are getting 65-75 IBUs with all the hops going in at 5mins or flameout. Evil Cousin is intentially aggressive, but just as...

Heretic's version is indeed Columbus and citra late, and gets most of it's color from crystal 75 and a small amount of roasted barley. There is no pale chocolate. It was a complete reformulation based on the original spirit of the beer. Most of the ibus are from late hops.

When up at Fort Collins (one of the best beer cities in the country, and definitely the best beer city in the state), you have to visit Funkwerks (and Crooked Stave in the same brewery), Odell and Equinox (their Saison IPA is one of the best IPAs in the country). The New Belgium tour is also...

I can understand why you would be disappointed (since you have heard him talk before) but a lot of people haven't. And to sort of excuse Justin further, Jean's talk at the CBC wasn't very technical either, and that was moderated by Vinnie Cilurzo.

It should be just you. QUAFF is a big competition club, so they encourage their members to enter lots of beers. QUAFF was the hosting club, so there was no shipping involved, they could just drop them off, making it easier to enter. QUAFF is full of great brewers so they brew good beer...

We are optimistic that we will be brewing in May. There are always hold ups when opening up a brewery, and for us it is no different. Mostly we are just waiting for final TTB approval. Our fermenters are arriving in just a few days, EJ Phair is putting the finishing touches on the brewing...

No, the ratio is lacto to sacc.

The problem with lacto is you need to keep IBUs and ABV in check if you want it to perform. I recently brewed a Belgian Amber with lacto and brett (no sacc). I let the lacto (no starter) go for 4 days before pitching a pack of Brett L and Brett B (all bugs were Wyeast). It has been about a...

Make a starter, and make it with lots of steps. I would start at around 150ml, kept around 98F for a few days, then throw that in around 1200ml kept at around 98F for 4-5 days, and then that into 3000ml kept at around 98F for maybe even a week. Throwing a fresh pack of lacto in wort...

Every berliner I have done has been decocted no boil, but I don't think I am going to do that anymore. I am really focusing hard on commercial viability of all my processes with any beer I do at home, and a double decocted no boil berliner with a large lacto pitch is not particularly practical...

Yes, it isn't easy to treat commercial lacto. But I have consistently gotten it down into the low 3's. WL Lactobacillus, not dregs. I have always gone with big starters made warm, pitched into warm wort with small amount of yeast. Then kept the beer warm. Takes about 2-3mo to get down...

That's not true. If you treat it right, commercial lacto will take the pH down into the low 3's.

How hot has the beer been sitting? I think you really want this beer sitting at 80+ during aging. I don't know that pitching on top of the cake will do anything to help the sour level in the next beer. What I would do if you want to reuse the cake is take a small portion of it and pitch...