Recent content by Kaewan

I've used the Wyeast 2565 strain twice so far. Both times I've made a starter and found it is even difficult to decant the starter because the yeast doesn't flocculate well. It's a slow yeast if you ferment it on the lower end of the recommended range. At the end of fermentation, it leaves much...

I think you are quite right, AJ. The next time I do a Kolsch, I would add more bittering hops-- 1oz at 3.5AA is not very much. Also, since this was the first time doing water treatment, I was scared to not add at least some sulfate.

I just did a Kolsch. I started with RO water. Ca 50 Mg 0 Na 0 Cl 68 SO4 29 To get this (approximate) I used 1.5g of Gypsum and 4g of Calcium Chloride. I also used 4oz of weyermann acidulated malt to help reach the desired mash pH. The...

I believe that is normal. The yeast will use oxygen to build their cell walls and replicate while the oxygen lasts. Once the oxygen is scarce, they will start fermentation. Even with the added lag time, fermentation should generally be quicker with the O2 as there should be more healthy yeast to...

Before I had my fermentation chamber readied, I did a few batches that fermented a bit too warm. They had a medicinal taste which I would describe as "band-aid". I did another batch of the same recipe when my fermentation chamber was completed and it did not have that taste. My suggestion is to...

AJ, do you ever add sulfate to the styles you referred to, or just calcium and chloride?

Been reading this forum for a bit and I see a lot of talk about treating water. That's great and everyone seems to be helpful here. But, does anyone have a good success story related to brewing water? Maybe having success brewing a certain style after paying attention to the brewing water...

If you skip the late addition hops and dry hop instead with them for a week you'll get much more flavor and aroma from the hops. Of course, this won't add much to the bitterness but it will add some. I did this with an American Pale Ale recipe once. At first the hops were kind of over the top...

Pitch lots of yeast. Multilpe vials/activator packs or make a large starter.

Standard American Lager (Close to BMC clone) OG: 1.046 FG: 1.008 ADF: 81% IBU: 12 Color: 3 SRM (5 ECB) Alcohol: 5.0% ABV (3.9% ABW) Boil: 60 Minutes Pre-Boil Volume: 7 Gallons (26.5L) Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.039 (9.9 P) Extract: Light LME (2.2L) 6.25lbs (2.83kg) 80.6% Rice Syrup (0L)...

I just started a batch of this stuff two days ago and I had also wondered if I should boil the sugar but looked through this thread and found no mention of it. I just weighed and dumped it in. I added about 1/4 tsp of yeast nutrient and used Montrachet yeast. I had airlock activity within 3-4...

Ambient. Fermentation temp was probably much higher as you say, unfortunately.

Just brewed two batches of this with about week in between. The first one has been in bottles for a little over a week now. When I racked the first to secondary it had a very sulphury smell but now after a week conditioning it has lost that smell (tried one just recently) and tastes good. The...