Recent content by proton

I think an ounce or two at the end of the boil would be noticeable in a five gallon batch--though it really depends on the amount & type of flavoring hops you use. Lots of people use orange peel in belgians, but they're usually hopped quite modestly.

Actually the bergamot in earl grey is not the herb of the same name--it's the extract from a bitter citrus rind called a bergamot orange. They're italian. I don't know what precisely the herb tastes like, but if you want earl grey flavor I would try some bitter orange peel.

The stout is roasty, the IPA is hoppy. If you're interested in experimenting with different kinds of flavors, you could use to try something malty, like a scottish 80 shilling, or maybe a british ordinary bitter. Or you could go with something that highlights the yeast, like a hefe or a...

Most of my middle-gravity beers tend to taste rather stale and astringent after 5 or 6 months--I usually try to keep a few around just to watch 'em die, to learn more about the process. I think it also really depends on how many mistakes you made in the brewing process.

I use the tap for the partial boil, and chilled bottled spring water as well. I've heard that using distilled water will lead to a flat or bland tasting beers--you need some of those minerals for the goodness (though if you add gypsum that might make up for it).

I second bonechewer's advice about strisselspalt for the flavoring add. I've brewed two saisons this spring, one with strisselspalt and one with sorachi ace, and the strisselspalt is spot-on delicious.

Wow, Alpha King really runs the gamut with the different crystal-type malts--I guess that's what makes it...complex? Anyway, I might give that a try this summer. Thanks.

I'm curious if anyone had any thoughts about this one--particularly my hop selection and schedule. I'm going for something with a similar body & sweetness to Three Floyd's Alpha King (which they call a Pale, but with 66 IBU I'd call an IPA). I'm doing a partial mash / late-add extract method...

Thanks for the knowledge, folks. I'm guessing that most of my over-carbing issues have been due to unfinished fermentation, and under-carbing probably due to long aging in the secondary. My undercarbed saison sat for at least a month before I bottled it. Guess it's time to get an aeration...

Here's something I've been wondering about. Should you take into account the attentuation potential of your yeast when deciding how much priming sugar to use when bottling? It seems like if you use a yeast with high attenuation, and you have a complete ferment, you'd need more sugar to achieve...

I've been wondering the same thing, and I think I'm going to give it a shot when I brew tomorrow or Wednesday. It won't be very scientific--it's only my third partial mash, so I don't have a good handle on my average efficiency--but I can't imagine that a pound or maybe a half-pound of crystal...

So I'm contemplating a tripel, shooting for something like 7.5 to 8.5 percent abv. I'm thinking something like 4 lbs base malt (pilsener seems typical for the style), 5 pounds Extra Light DME, and a pound or two of clear candi sugar. I wanna keep that FG low (around 1.010-1.015 ballpark). So...

I add spent grains to my bread doughs a lot. In my experience they tend to weigh your loaf down unless you cook them a little bit more--until they really resemble hot cereal--and then use them as the liquid component of the dough. They seem to incorporate better that way. It's sort of a hit...

I generally ferment in glass--but based on my smell-tests I infected this one while dry-hopping in the secondary. I must not have properly sanitized the muslin sack or the marbles that I used to weight it down. It smelled and tasted great (it's a light golden ale) until about a week after the...

I'm up in Kirksville. Any good homebrew supply places in Columbia? We have a small place called the Greed Door here that stocks some stuff, but I mainly order online.