Recent content by ghank15

My refractometer usually gives me a reading that is a bit higher than my hydrometer. Unfortunately, at 1.000, they are identical, and the higher in gravity, the further the difference. It maxes out at about .007, which isn't a huge deal, but it would really help with my brew day calculations...

I pitched lager yeast at 60 instead of 45-50 once because it started raining and my wort chiller seemed to be taking too long. My beer tasted like I dumped fruity pebbles in it, until I lagered it. Once it was in bottles for a few weeks it tasted fine. The best thing about this hobby is that...

Vienna is a malt that has a slightly sweet, yet roasty/ nutty flavor. It may be out of style for an IPA. That said, I'd always thought of doing an IPA using vienna to add a more malty backbone. The way I see it, any unwanted sweetness which may be present will probably be covered up by both...

Thanks, mredge... Now that lagering season is over for me, I am going to be focusing on ales, mainly ESB's, stouts, and pale ales. This means that munich and vienna won't be used too often, if at all. I'll see if this is what it is. I love beer, and I think I have a good taste for it, but my...

I think that increasing my hops might be a good idea, but i'm always afraid i'm going to make the beer too bitter. Maybe I should slowly push the envelope with the hops and go a little bit more bitter until I fix the problem. Any thoughts?

I think my water is ok too. My water comes from the same place that the local brewery uses (I wonderful german style brewery that makes german style beers called Ramstein). I've checked the waterprofile, and there isn't too much chlorine or anything, there is no chloramine, I'm not sure about...

Oooh sorry. I forgot to mention that. I have a thermapen. And I've actually been mashing low. Like between 147 and 152 at most. At boiling, the thermapen reads within a degree of 212, and if I stick it in Ice water its very close to 32.

By the way, I barely use any crystal malt. At most, I use .5 pounds for a 5 gallon batch, but usually it is much less. In the aforementioned Maibock, I only used Pilsner and Munich. I brewed my last lager as a SMaSH with Vienna and Spalt, and its still a little too sweet.

So I have been brewing for almost a year and a half. My results have been pretty good, and some batches have been better than others. I hoped that once I made the jump to all grain, my results would improve by a pretty good margin. However, they haven't. Don't get me wrong, my beers are...

Looks like my crush, maybe a little bit more fine. I usually get 70-80% efficiency. I use a barley crusher on factory settings

This is interesting. I have a friend who loves beer but can't drink because he has epilepsy and his doctors think drinking can cause seizures. I wanted to make him an NA for his birthday. I was thinking brew as usual, and before bottling, boil the beer, add yeast and sugar for carbonation, and...

Well according to the bjcp, you don't need Munich, but it is acceptable. When I was reading up on How they are brewed in Germany, I found Munich as a primary ingredient

I've done only 2 AG batches (+1 Partial Mash). I have learned that the most important thing is to remember everything you learned doing extract batches. If you do that, get a good crush, and come relatively close to your mash temps, you'll be fine. Also, make sure you take a preboil gravity...

I just ordered the malts, I ended up going with 9.5 lb of munich and .5 lb of caramunich. I am hoping that the caramunich provides very subtle tasting notes while contributing slightly to the color. I figure I can mash at around 151 and hopefully get good results. According to Kaiser's Alt...

also, I'm looking online at various supply shops, why is midwest Weyermann Light Munich $14 for 10 pounds while other places are $18 or so?