Recent content by durbo

@piank If it were me and my LHBS was 1.5 hr drive away I would just brew it anyway. That's a long way to go for an oz of fuggles. Presumably you will just lose most of the aroma, but being a nut brown you probably aren't after huge aromas anyway. But that's just me.

Now that you have that info have a search online for 'bru'n water' spreadsheet. It's very involved and fairly complicated but comes with pretty detailed instructions so with time you'll pick it up. Basically you input your water profile, select the profile you want and tweak it to get the...

Ok thanks. I guess the only way to find out for sure is to give it a go. You say that there are plenty of bock recipes for which a single infusion is sufficient. Does this mean that there are some where a decoction is necessary? If so what would differentiate these recipes? Sent from my iPhone...

I am going away for a month soon so I want to do a lager style that will require fermenting at a lower temp for this time so I don't have to play as long a waiting game. With this in mind I want to try my hand at a bock but a lot of what I read calls for multi-step or decoction mashes, which...

I agree 100%. I'd never switch back to sodium percarbonate or the like. Now a spray bottle filled with star san, I think you might be on to something here. Brilliant.

This was a while ago but as far as I recall I think it turned out fine. Wasn't my best brew for other reasons but I don't think it became infected due to not rinsing the percarbonate. I use star san now because it's not necessary to rinse and is heaps easier.

1 lb of chocolate seems to be a hell of a lot in a brown ale. What was the predicted SRM/EBC of this one? Was that a typo because I reckon that would bring it out closer to a stout or porter. In comparison, in my brown ale I had about an oz and a half (45 grams) of choc malt.

How was the Fuggles at 15 mins? I've got the same in a recipe I'm working on at the moment (using EK Goldings), just not sure if it would end up being too hoppy being that late in the boil.

I would be more inclined to leave the frozen berries in secondary for almost 2 weeks to really let the flavours soak in. Only thing is I don't know how sweet this would make the cider though and would probably need something extra. Perhaps a bit of dextrose? And then I would bottle carb and...

Hi all, I did a brew yesterday and was going to do up a yeast starter to pitch the next day (I realise this is the wrong way round), but then found out I have no DME at present. Can I just bring out some of my wort that I prepared, and use that in my starter or is there a particular reason I...

I've had a go at doing a cider and it turned fairly bad as I stuffed up the back sweetening process. Apple Juice concentrate is really hard to find in Aust so I just used Orange and it turned out awful. This isn't my question. Anyway, I want to give it another go and want it to end up quite...

I did a brew tonight with a mate and we each took half the load in each of our fermenters but didn't sanitize them first. They were clean, just not starsan clean. The reasoning was that the boiling wort will kill any bacteria in there. Seemed to make sense to me but I wonder if any of you had...

How long did it take for the nail polish after taste to disappear? I think I've had a similar problem. SG 1.064, bottled at 1.013. Added some caramel syrup and concentrate to sweeten but it did little to mask the over powering taste of alcohol. Hoping that time will improve it but my hopes are...

And kdog, perhaps I used the wrong term but I'm just following upstate mikes recipe. So I'll be adding concentrate and caramel sauce to bottling bucket and stovetop pasteurising after a few days. So it will get a sufficient level of carbing but won't totally ferment out the sweetness

Thanks guys, I've done plenty of beer brews before, so I have the very basics of co2 production down but you're level of detail was great. I was just surprised with the level of bubbles it created when I poured some out of the carboy (wine-like). Pleased to hear that it's normal.