Recent content by novahokie09

I'm in Baltimore, but I cannot attend the banquet on Friday. Can meet anywhere near the convention center.

Belle Saison without a doubt. It's work horse.

Take a sample, place it in the microwave for 30-45 seconds and smell it. You'll know quickly if you have diacetyl.

Can anyone recommend any specialty bottle shops in Northern Virginia offering a wide sour and farmhouse ale selection?

Taste the beer and enter it in the category you feel it fits best, which will probably be an American IPA. The judges will not know the beer's calculated IBU, SRM, or ABV. They will only be able to evaluate based on their perception on how well the beer was brewed and how well the beer fits...

Disregard my post, I did not fully read the initial post before replying.

If you stay outside of DC, consider staying in Crystal City for easy metro access into DC. I would avoid the Red/Orange line like the plague. If you do go Orange line, you can stay in Fairfax, Vienna for the Nutley Street stops, it's the last stop west on the Orange line. Either way, limit...

I'd be much more interested in cell viability counts than color.

How does the ball valve seal with the hole located on the weld?

Main culprits of astringency would be sparge pH, grain crush and sparge temperature. Also, are you getting any grains into the boil kettle?

There was a talk at NHC on the myth of cohumulone creating a harsh bitterness. The argument was that cohumulone has the highest solubility with respect to low pH among other alpha acids. This is relevant because beer pH drops during fermentation from 5.2ish at boil to around 4.2ish after...

I like beers on the dry side. I also didn't calculate any type of flameout hops, so if you kept the flameout hops in for any length of time, you're going to get more bitterness. Consider first wort hopping, by adding an 1/2 - 1 oz of hops into your first runnings prior to boiling, you also get...

Here's the problem: Late addition hops have very low utilization rates of converting alpha-acids into iso-AAs. 30 minute additions is somewhere near 5-10% where 60 minutes is 25% and 90 minutes somewhere in the 30% range. From your additions assuming 14% AA Simcoe and 5% AA Cascade, I...

The perceived sweetness can be coming from several places. It is probably coming for your really high 1.017 FG combined with the Munich and C15 taking up to 15% of your grist. I get a bready, sweet flavor from Munich. It could be due to lack of hop bitterness not balancing the perceived...

There's only two categories now: 1. Black IPA 2. Not-Black IPA They're adding an American Wild Ale category. IPA will have several varieties as well as strength specified. They're moving belgian specialty out of 16. Historical beers is a new category with Gratzer, Kentucky Common along...