Recent content by RBlagojevich

My sense is that rayon vert has a lot of variation in carbonation level from bottle to bottle. The Brett in it works slowly, so the older the bottles are, the more carbed they get.

the temperature at which you pitch your yeast is one of the the most important factors in beer flavor. definitely wait to pitch until you get down a couple of degrees below your desired fermenting temperature.

Maybe the flavor I'm getting is from chloramines. Meh.

:\ I know. Hence my question?

It's not buttery or butterscotchy, not sulfury... it's maybe something like grits or husk, cooked vegetable notes. It is hard to describe and is a slight unpleasant aromatic quality in the aftertaste.

I know that yeast produce DMS during fermentation as a result of Breaking down the DMSO that occurs in the grain. But I hadn't heard that they can subsequently clean it back up? I thought that DMS is"baked into the cake" as it were...

lol, no :)

I've been experimenting with some new yeast strains lately and also having trouble with DMS off flavors in beer. These flavors persist in spite of my having moved to a 2-hour boil, and using only pale ale base malt (instead of 2-row or pils). The DMS taste isn't detectable in the wort...

this strain appears to finish its fermentation, and then slooooowly superattenuates all remaining sugars. i have to carbonate it conservatively because it just keeps going in the bottle. almost like a brett.

After reading Kaiser's stuff, I tried a cold sparge on several batches. It worked fine for me, with no noticeable ill effects.

Anything I should look for here in particular? Drinking water and quality report

- if it's the water, what in the water would bring out that flavor? just a ph that's too high? -I am not in the habit of testing the mash ph. should I check ph immediately after mashing in, or do I have to wait a bit for the ph to stabilize? - I've heard that NYC's water is soft, and good for...

Hi everyone, I have been a homebrewer for many years. I moved to new york recently, and since the move all of my beers taste "off". I would describe the unwanted flavor compound as sort of grainy, husky, and sometimes cabbagey. I immediately blamed the problem on DMS, and have taken the...

if more body is what you want, you can also mash at 160 in order to have more body, i.e. a less fermentable wort.

it's a measure of how much carbonation there is. 2 volumes is a moderately low carbonation level and 4 volumes is very, very carbonated. be careful approaching 4 volumes though because most american beer bottles are not rated for that level of internal pressure. (the little stubby belgian...