Recent content by markstache

In a split batch of stout, I added 1.5 oz (weight)/gallon of beans prepared as either a) hot process (using a Moka pot), b) cold press, or c) dry beaning. The coffee flavor was certainly noticeable but not over the top, so I think the 1.5oz/gal is a good starting place. Of the three, I preferred...

I threw some S-04 into a sourdough culture when building it up once. Hard to tell if it survived past the first generation, but I figured "the more, the merrier" with a mixed culture.

I'd like to design a 3 way manifold that I can use to both clean the lines of my 3 tap kegerator and also use to fill 3 kegs simultaneously during homebrew club barrel projects. In both cases, I use my chugger pump to push the liquid. One of my goals is to try to maximize throughput of the...

Agreed. Having two people bottling is the real key in my opinion. One to fill, one to call, and it goes real fast.

Turns out it was Kara Taylor of white labs: https://www.reddit.com/r/Homebrewing/comments/4yjag9/has_anyone_got_experience_of_mixing_yeast/d6petkp

Yes. Add on stages. In theory, this should get you more of the hefe flavor, but allow the saison yeast to finish the beer dry. Interesting question. The danger in pitching a half packet would be that the yeast would not be able to out compete bacteria or wild yeast. Under pitching is also...

Chris White of White Labs has done presentations on this (or perhaps it was other White Labs staff).. I think at least one was at the NHC/Homebrew con. If you are an AHA member, you can find the audio and slides. If not, you might find at least the slides online somewhere.

I tried something similar once. As I recall, I only got the saison characteristics. In other words, I think the Belle Saison will dominate. It might work better to start with the wheat yeast for a day or two and then add the saison. I would start this lower and then ramp up the temperature when...

I agree with Martin. Trust the author. One hopes that recipes published in books have gone through a few iterations with tweaking. Perhaps the lower temp is there to offset a higher percentage of crystal malt or a low attenuating yeast. It's impossible for us to know that given your brief...

I frequently use tap water to make up star san to sanitize carboys or other cold side equipment. Have never had a bandaid/plastic flavor in my beer. I've also topped off batches with straight tap water if no ill effects. Perhaps I am lucky, but as I understand it, chlorophenols are produced...

For sure. I've made these kinds of mistakes more times than I care to admit. Without going down the rabbit hole of statistical schools of thought, I will say one of the best criticisms of the use of p-values, in my opinion, is that they are often exactly the opposite of what people really want...

Warning: pedantic stats instructor correction ahead. You are stating the logic of the hypothesis test backwards. The null hypothesis supposes that everyone is guessing with a probability of getting the correct answer of 1/3 (see also my earlier response for another justification based on...

From an admittedly brief reading of brewing texts, I've found many of the conclusions are based on studies that targeted things other than taste perception, such as dissolved oxygen, yeast cell counts, amounts of volatile organic compounds, etc. The implication being that if process A lowers DO...

Yes. Specifically, a closed testing procedure that allows one to get safe p-values no matter how many different groups of hypotheses one combines. E.g., we might want to pool the fermentation temp experiments to see if there is evidence against the null of no difference in all panels and also...

The difficult part is actually knowing if something works, which is tougher than it sounds. Say I claim A leads to B because I did A and observed B. This implies a counter-factual world in which I did not do A and consequently did not observe B. Getting a handle on such situations requires...