Recent content by kubilusaurus

+1 on the swamp cooler. I'm in Allston on the fourth floor with no AC, rotating the frozen 2L bottles in and out along with a wet t-shirt can keep my fermentation between 65-70 even when my apartment gets into the 90's.

Trust Yooper, she knows what she's talking about. Malto-dextrine is 95% unfermentable sugars, so it adds body/mouthfeel. S-04 is an english style ale yeast which will give you more fruity esters while s-05 will be a cleaner more neutral yeast consistent with american IPAs.

Just for a little more clarification from the lalvin site: What does the phrase “competitive factor” refer to? Wine yeast may contain proteins which allow them to prevent other yeasts from competing during the fermentation. For this reasons these Proteins are called Killer toxins...

I think that wine yeast is highly competitive. Some wine yeast strains play nicely together with other strains, this one is the original "killer yeast". Its going to actively inhibit other yeast strains, so the flavor profile you get is probably all going to be due to the K1-V1116.

Check out mrmalty.com It has a pitching rate calculator that works well, just plug in your OG. I'm guessing you going to need a couple liters of good starter for a barleywine. For DME in water ratio you want to use a 1:10 grams:ml ratio. so 100g Lighgt DME in 1000ml H2O.

I think a day or 2 and you should be fine. However, how did you pitch the first batch? Because it might be difficult to compare the differences in flavor profiles with higher fermentation temp since you're way over-pitching the second batch. Pitching rates will affect flavor profiles, especially...

No worries...pitching 2 packages of yeast isn't a problem, you're fermentation probably got going really quickly and is done now. But the only way to know for sure that it is done is with a hydrometer, which hopefully came with your kit (same gravity in the 1.008-1.016 range depending on style...

Ahh, now I get it. I guess it makes sense that yeasties on agar with lots of resources and minimal stress aren't really that concerned with flocculating. Would/could they even flocculate on agar?

But, by replating everyday and picking for colonies that aren't clump they're selecting for yeast that are suppressing the genes for flocculation, such as flo1. This is standard practice for yeast labs and is also why the majority of lab strains of yeast don't flocculate nearly as well as the...

8oz Cascade 8oz Amarillo 4oz Goldings 4oz Perle 2oz Sorachi Ace ( I want to try these in a Wit) from freshops, should get here early this week. Hooray!!

I had a thermometer break in the wort once as well-the tube containing the liquid stayed intact but the casing broke and those little black beads ended up in the wort. The batch ended up with an infection. I don't think the black pieces inside the thermometer are sanitized. It was the first time...

I brewed a hefeweizen with 1oz vanguard 3 weeks ago. They've only been bottled for 2 days though so I haven't tried any yet. My LHBS also recommended vanguard since they didn't have any hallertau. I think the vanguard will be fine since I wasn't really looking for a lot of noticeable hops just...

I made this same kit a few months back. It turned out excellent. I let sit in the primary for 2 weeks and then secondary for 3 weeks. After bottle conditioning for 3 weeks it was OK. But now after 2 months it is fantastic, unfortunately I'm down to my last 6-pack.

Aluminum will work just fine if you do a few pre-boils with water to oxidize the aluminum before you start using it for boiling your wort.

Hi Brian Greetings from Allston, this site has really helped me. My first batch (an amber ale) has been in bottles for about a week and a half. Waiting for them to condition is torture.