Recent content by kanzimonson

Thanks!

Point taken - I'm hoping somebody chimes in with some experience with American hops in a lager to give me an idea what to expect. I expect this beer to fully ferment in about 8-10 days, and then another week of diacetyl/sulfur resting, so it will be consumed around Chrimbus

I've made plenty of classic Czech lagers so I was hoping to do something a little different. Thought the NB might mint/herb things up a bit. Maybe 2oz Saaz and 1oz NB at flameout, and then dry hop with a half oz each?

Making a ~5.5% pils kinda beer and I want it to have a nice hoppy kick but still keep the bitterness (and perception of bitterness) balanced similar to how a german/czech pils would be. Here's what I have on hand (have to choose from these): Plenty of: Amarillo Simcoe Centennial Mosaic...

I made a vienna lager-ish beer with a big dose of Hallertau Blanc at the end of the boil. The hops smelled good in the package - kinda a mix of herbal with a little faint tropical - but when I added to the boil it seriously smelled like old trash. Like a bunch of veggie rinds in a compost...

Not with an OG near the recipe's standard. I've found this yeast will really under attenuate without proper oxygenation. I could maaaaaybe see 1.020 if your OG was >1.060 and you mashed pretty high.

I ultimately stopped doing this practice. I felt the bitterness results were unpredictable. It's probably still okay for a single or double IPA where you're attempting to get most of your bitterness from late additions, but if you accidentally over-bitter a small beer it's very noticeable...

@conpewter Impossible. Sure, your first runnings might be boiling, but adding that second infusion will drop you quite a bit. And not just X degrees below boiling, but also over that energy threshold that it takes to get from "not boiling at 212" to "actually boiling." This isn't negligible...

If I setup the night before, I can do an all grain batch in 3 hours. It helps that I have multiple burners so I can heat strike and sparge water at the same time, but I'd say the biggest place I save time is in the mash. I only mash 20-25 minutes, until an iodine test says conversion is...

This isn't completely true, especially if the yeast were in poor condition. Lager yeast are lazy prima donnas and have to be in great condition to produce great beer. But you did achieve 75% attenuation which isn't too shabby, though on the low end.

What was the OG? Definitely seems high but if you like it who can complain? I don't want to make assumptions about your skill level but if you are new to brewing/tasting/diagnosing, this might be a case where in X years you'll know how to make it "better"... or not! Enjoy what you got!

A friend just brewed a beer with Ardennes yeast (think golden strong type flavors - pear, ginger, low phenols) and a bunch of Belma. The hops gave it a lot of melon and especially strawberry. Could definitely work in a wit.

What kind of chiller do you have? If it's counterflow, you could run off half into one carboy, then stop the flow, add some hops for a nice hopstand, and then finish running off.

Something along the lines of Lagunitas Censored would be a good malty base for a coffee beer. Tone down the hops slightly.

Man this is a head scratcher. Repitched yeast usually kicks ass. The pitch rate sounds like plenty, the time between batches is fine, the grain bill seems fine. I can only guess that the initial pitch and 1st beer weren't ideal, and maybe they didn't get quite enough O2. Then they went into...