Recent content by jowens

I assume that it means they don't use adjuncts like corn or rice?

I had a plan .... My plan was to bottle my batch of stout, then start a batch of Hefewiezen (Austin Homebrew kit) in the soon to be vacated fermenter. I got the White labs pitchable tube out of the fridge this morning, so I would be ready to go this evening. However, towards the end of...

I had heard that at some point plastic buckets and tubes start harboring bacteria and always impart off-flavors so they need to be replaced. Has anyone had experience with this, and how often do you find you need to replace your buckets and tubing?

Worked for me, but I have only done it once so far.

Yup, there is and the beer is pretty heady with a strong hop flavor. Good, but strong

Turned out to be not a problem, everything is coming up roses. Krausen has disappeared, still tastes great. Must relax more.

Tasted Great! I sipped the hydrometer sample, then decided not cap the last bottle (only 3/4 full) and drank that. Full of hoppy flavor.... little flat though with a few sharp notes. :)

I just bottled my third batch two days ago, and today I noticed that there appears to be Krausen forming in the bottles? FG was 1.16, according to the Kit it should have been 1.14, hadn't moved in a day so I figured close enough? The only other thing I would note is that the beer seemed...

Perfect, put it in the fridge to settle the yeast, and then decant out the nasty oxygenated 'beer' on top and dumb the yeast slurry into your wort.

No help here, but curious why you didn't become a pod-person and go with the ubiquitous apfelwein stuff? I don't know if I'm gonna like the stuff judging by the end of 1 week smell, but heck, it was mentioned so often, I just 'had to be a pepper too'. Even worse, I'm using a plastic bucket...

Welcome bigkevj, where abouts in Kansas are you?

I never considered using a hydrometer to make corrections, those kits are pretty solid. The hydrometer is used to check to make sure your brew has stopped fermenting, and to tell what the alcohol content is. If the hydrometer reading hasn't changed on 3 consecutive days, you beer is done...

Bland? I thought 'green' beer tasted cidery. None of my first bottled beer (all 1 of them, and one in secondary) have a taste that I would describe as 'bland'. They mellow nicely and loose some of the bad flavor generally. Did you taste it as it went along? I usually sample my hydrometer...

You could also try the mead or Apfelwein route?

I've had to tap the crap out my hydros to get the bubbles off of them. You need some kind of 'bubble proof' coat