Recent content by NorthwestBrewman2013

Looks pretty good. If it were me I'd go with the US-05 and let it be neutral on the yeast side. But, I tend to like standard American Ales when it comes down to it. I'd maybe cut the Munich in half and get the gravity points from 2-row instead.

I used a local coffee from a well regarded roaster in town. I didn't feel like my recipe needed any adjuncts at all (coffee included). But, the coffee did add a wonderful aroma and slight bitterness that worked well with the malts in the grist. I may, once I get to brew again, add some...

Chocolate Coffee Porter - 10 gallons Mash at 152 for 60 (I used a Temperature Mash) 15LBS - 2-Row 1.25LBS - Chocolate Malt 1.25LBS - Dark Chocolate Malt 1LBS - Crystal 60L 1LBS - Flaked Rye 1LBS - Rye Malt 0.38LBS - Black Barley 1oz Chinook at FWH 5oz Ground Espresso (I used a...

Helpful tip. Put the beans in a gallon ziplock, take all the air out of the bag, and hit it with a rolling pin or mallet. That'll break up the beans a little and give them more potency in your boil.

Put 2oz ground coriander, 2oz ground pepper, and 2oz orange peel in the boil kettle for a Saison. Plugged up the outlet and forced me to take undue measures to remove said wort after cool down. Had to pour it out from the top of the keggle after siphoning off as much as I could. Don't do that.

The bung will be a pain in the butt to remove after fermentation is done. But, luckily, it will not have any affect on the overall flavor of the beer. Just put another bung and airlock on and let it do work.

I have a Chocolate Coffee Porter that I brew each winter. I think you'll have a tough time getting the coffee flavor you want by just putting the whole beans in the fermenter. I did a 10gallon batch in which 6oz of ground coffee beans were placed in the boil for the last 15 minutes. This led...

Heck yeah! I debated for a while on whether or not to use Crystal 60 or Crystal 40. I'm glad I chose the 40. I felt like the darker malt would have overwhelmed the light hoppiness. I'm curious, though, how did your's turn out in the flavor/color department?

Cascade, Amarillo and Chinook. I know you didn't have Chinook on your list but it's a great hop for a grapefruit/pine profile. Cascade, I've found, shines with grapefruit near the end of a boil and dry hop. Chinook is a great all around hop with some resiny pine aromas and grapefruit flavors...

I dry hopped with 3oz Cascade and 1oz Chinook for 4 days and then kegged. It's been on CO2 for two weeks now and I have to say it's very good. Big grapefruit bitterness bite at the beginning and a smooth/sweet grapefruit aftertaste. Alcohol came in at just about 5%. Surprisingly the body is...

I'd say you're probably okay to let it ride. One cheap fix to this PVC issue is to use a collar for a garbage disposal. They are SS and pretty cheap to buy. Only thing you'll have to do is drill the holes for the SS bolts and you're good to go.

This. One of the mistakes that I made when I first started brewing was to try and be too cute with my recipe choices. I found that mastering the simple beers gave me much more confidence to brew the bigger beers with better results. Now I have a Red Ale, IPA, Pale and Porter that are very...

I'd ferment that sucker at 72-75 for the balance of the fermentation. I have done that on a couple of my saisons and had great luck with it. They tend to have cleaner (by cleaner I mean lower FG) fermentations when they are left to their own devices. On the plus side, as well, you will get a...

Don't overanalyze it. Keeping it simple is always best. I tend to do a majority late addition hops. In my IPA for example the schedule for a 10gallon batch is as follows: 1.5oz - Bittering at 60 2oz - Flavor at 15 2oz - Flavor at 10 2oz - Aroma at 5 1.25oz - Flameout Then obviously dry hop...

Looks normal to me. It's possible that you didn't have a relatively good hot break, more trub got into the fermenter, and the discoloration (greenish brown) is a result of your trub recirculating into the krausen. Notty has a tendency to be pretty intense during the initial fermentation...