Recent content by mnick12

m00ps, Thats a good point about infection. I have had multiple contaminations in my product purchases from both wyeast and white labs. Every time I contact them about a possible contamination they deny even the possibility of any sort of contamination. I have have viewed small apiculate...

I have a "kriek" that I fermented in primary with a wild yeast isolated from germinating barley. Secondary was about 1/3rd of a vial of ecy34, this went in around a SG of 1.01 (OG was like ~1.05something). At first the 34 was throwing a lot of sulfur off, 3 months later it went onto 9lbs of...

No worries, You can still make a great cider from store bought juice! I think tannin and a wild ferment will give a cider much better than any commonly available cider. As for acids, last I checked my store bought apple juice came in a pH of 3.4 which is plenty acidic for a dry cider. In...

What apples are you using? Using the correct apples in a cider blend is hugely important. If you are using store bot juice consider adding tannin ( available at your LHBS), the pH should be good for store bought stuff so dont worry about that. I also am a huge advocate for wild fermentations...

If you want to get flavor from the stone, you will need to crack the casing of the pit or let them sit in the beer for a really long time. The marzipan flavor from the pits comes from the hydrolysis of the cyanogenic glycosides in the seed, amygdalin and the like. This produces benzaldehyde...

It depends, I used my "aged" hops for a spontaneous lambic style ale. In that instance I used 4oz for 5 gallons @ 180 minutes. I use that amount of hops for its preservative qualities, not flavor or bitterness. If you are going to pitch a culture rather than wild innoculate 1oz is probably fine.

Oxidation is an important part of the ageing process, and in sealed mylar bags there is not going to be very much oxidation going on. Baking helps remove the volatile oils but does not do much for oxidation. I would open the bags and transfer the hops to a paper bag, and wait a while. In my...

Well it really does depend on the situation. Even though breweries may use 304l for their gose, does not mean its ok for long term storage. 304 is tolerant of up to 1000ppm Cl @ 10C, but at 30C its down to around 400ppm. This doesnt take into consideration the pH, which would surely lessen the...

304 generally has good corrosion resistance to acidic enviroments, the only case where I would be concerned is saline solutons, like a gose. In that case I would be worried. Otherwise most sours are probably OK

If you guys have costco in your area look for frozen pie cherries. I picked up 3 3.3lb bags at ~9ea. They are fresh frozen tart pie cherries from oregon, just took a sample from the kriek I threw it in and it is already much better than many of the commerical examples I have had.

You can keep your sours at higher temperature to achieve a low pH. I have a "lambic" that uses flaked rye instead of wheat, and it was fermented with some 2013 ecy20 and a wild culture, as of last week the pH was 2.6. I think this is due to the weather, I live in az and the house temp is...

Ya I have a pretty decent pH meter, so I am confident in that reading. As far as sourness goes it is very tart, but good. This is definatly going to be blended with something more mild when I decide to bottle. A contributing factor, I believe, is the tempurature. I live in AZ and it is always...

I would hold off on trying to make anything with ecy20 more sour. I brewed a sour with it almost a year and half ago, it included flaked rye, flaked week I gave it a taste and its really good! More importantly the pH of the uncarbonated beer is 2.6! Which is really freaking acidic for a flat...

Yeah it is kind of odd, I have encountered sulfur in many of my clean fermentations before, but this one is very persistent. Im sure it will clear up in a few months, but right now it is overwhelming. There is still a pleasing funk underneath it all, I am just waiting for it to shine!

Agreed montmorrency has a very "cough syrup" type of flavor to it that I do not really enjoy on its own. On a different not has anyone used meteor? I just planted one of those along with a kirsten sweet and some montmorency.