Recent content by kingwood-kid

I would make a starter so that you can pitch half and save half. You may be housebound for longer than we all hope, and a starter will likely give you better yeast than harvesting from a high-ABV beer.

Clearly, this beer can't be made by or for a retiree, someone who's unemployed, or one of those damn trust fund kids, and probably not even a student working part-time.

I'm probably reading the comments incorrectly, but it sounds like a few of you think saving lives is less important than fair allotment of shelf space for a non-essential product.

I think I was supposed to update this. I made a dubbel with .25 each Special B and Chocolate malt and 2 lbs of toasted sugar. It's quite tasty, but it lacks the depth of flavor you get from dark candi syrup.

http://howtobrew.com/book/section-3/understanding-the-mash-ph/what-kind-of-water-do-i-need

I've bought one beer this year, and that was to harvest the yeast dregs at the bottom of the bottle (although the beer was absolutely delicious).

I read it, and I'm not trying to be rude although I'm sure I managed it anyway. I just don't get why you thought a saison yeast + saaz wouldn't taste like clove and cinnamon. Google saaz and it says "earthy, herbal, spicy." White Labs' description of the Dupont strain is "earthy, peppery, and...

You tried to make an Altbier with Dupont yeast? And you think the hops are the problem?

For that recipe, I have no idea. If it's in secondary, I could see using one yeast for flavor and the second to insure fermentation gets to the preferred dryness. For priming, people will often use a yeast that is low-attenuating (so it only eats the priming sugar and doesn't overcarbonate), a...

I use 1318 a lot, and I usually get pretty good attenuation, but in my experience it's more sensitive to variations in fermentability than a lot of other yeasts. You could try mashing for an extra 30 minutes. If you normally mash out, just skip that step and you'll be fine, the malt enzymes will...

Scientifically speaking, I have no idea how much bitterness hopstands and dry-hops contribute, my best guess being "some, not a lot." That having been said, I don't have much more faith in the accuracy of IBU calculators, and agree that IBU is a number that fails to address your preference, any...

I bought the Yakima Valley can awhile back. It's not really soupcan sized, more like cat food can. I find it doesn't deliver near the bitterness the formula indicates (unless this is that "soft bitterness" I keep reading about), so I try to get about half my IBUs from a traditional 60 minute...

Big Belgian is still the plan, although the ESB route has promise as well. I'm okay with it not being part of a BJCP defined style; something that straddles dubbel and tripel is ok by me. I'm just hoping that it all comes together nicely. I was just wondering what your taste impressions were...

Mine was pretty caramelly. It was nowhere near as sweet as I toasted sugar, but it was still sweet enough to obscure much else, although obviously that will change during fermentation. I was planning on putting this in a big Belgian instead of candi syrup.

Any updates on the flavor? I toasted up 4lbs last night, and I'm looking for some inspiration.