Recent content by Dale Owen

I guess what got me started on the lager yeast idea was that most Mexican beers are lagers, and my favorite Mexican lagers are the Vienna lagers, such Bohemia. So, if I really pursued this lager stout, it'd ideally be with a yeast like the one I'm seeing on White Labs, listed as Mexican Lager...

I'm wanting to brew a stout. I'm imagining one with a Mexican chocolate/coffee flavor profile. That includes cinnamon and some type of chilies, and, not to leave out any other part of the kitchen sink, mezcal or tequila soaked oak. Among the other thousand questions this raises is the one of...

Sorry bout that, hit the enter button before I was done. Anyway. I will leave it be. Can't say I intended this one to age for that long. I do want to get to the point where I'm brewing enough that I can put some away and leave them be. As far as extract vs all grain, that make sense. I have...

Ok. While I wasn't thinking this is

I've done a kettle sour. It was an extract clone of Duchesse De Bourgogne. I agree. It was very sour, but lacked complexity. At some point, I would like to brew something along the lines of the dark funky saisons, like the Mad Fermentationist. First I have to make the leap from extract to all grain.

Looks like I spoke too soon about never having had a pellicle! Got a bit of one now. Been watching to make sure there's no mold. I assume with top cropping yeast, racking on top of the fruit and later adding a habanero, it was bound to happen. How do I manage it, in regard to sampling and...

So. Slightly off topic. Please feel free to respond to these at your leisure. I've just always been more interested in how yeast affects a beer's character. Now that I've gone down this dark path, I sometimes get so overwhelmed with all the research I do and need help digesting it. As I...

Thanks! I was concerned it would be too easy to make bottle bombs. But, I don't mind highly carbonated beers, especially pale sours. The beer that inspired this was "carby" so to speak. I have a bunch of bottles from Westmalle, Orval and Saison DuPont that I imagine will work.

Hopefully I'm not getting on your nerves. You have provided some good advice. I think I'm set. I'm going to try and have enough patience to let it condition in secondary for 3-4 weeks. I'm assuming that, as its a wild/sour beer with fruit, it would likely be ideal to age longer, but it being my...

It was very exciting for a moment, but very short lived! For about a day and a half, it looked like the beer was boiling, there was so much carbonation. Then the cap fell. I guess the second pitch of yeast made quick work of the sugars from the fruit. Now the mango puree is sitting on the bottom...

I'm using a plastic Big Mouth. I don't think I'm going to need to do any stirring though. I put in 9 lbs of puree with 5 gallons of beer. Going on advice that ranges from 1-2 lbs per gallon. Starting to wonder if that wasn't too heavy handed. Anyway. It started fermenting right away. So much so...

So. Racked to the puree today. Wondering whether I should give a gentle stir once a week to keep the puree in suspension, or am I just imagining more work than is necessary?

I'm planning on racking to secondary fermenter. My thoughts are to put the puree in first and rack the beer on top. I top cropped some yeast during primary and built a starter from that which I'll pitch. A web page I read recommended repitching to handle the added sugars from the fruit. A Guide...

I have a beer fermenting on wild yeast. I intend to add mango puree and a habanero. I've brewed with this yeast before. It is a very slow and steady yeast. Its been two weeks since I pitched and it's still showing signs of activity. Planning on measuring gravity. If everything suggests its still...

OK. Mind blown. That helps me realize that, at present I probably just want to break out from the available kits dictating what I brew and the volume of my extract brewing when I'm trying out variable yeasts. I think I'm looking for somthing along the SMASH model, only changing out hops for...