Recent content by specharka

It really does sound like you're getting more isomerization from your whirlpool hops than you're intending to -- 90C is pretty high for whirlpooling (~50% utilization at those temperatures), even if it comes down after that. I usually wait until my wort is under 80C to start my whirlpool, and...

The late hops were whirlpool additions, not bittering. And it's a saison strain (de Blaugies), I've heard of people taking it as high as 95F without issues. I tasted it again today and it's improved considerably -- still too bitter but at least the citrus and melon tones have muted somewhat.

The beer was keg primed. Ended up being about 2 weeks in the fermenter and another week in the keg to prime it. According to my recipe it was only supposed to be 27 IBU total, but it tastes a lot higher than that. Will definitely cut back next time.

It's a good way to (cheaply) get fruit flavor into a finished beer. I've used tart cherry juice to prime a kriek and it worked pretty well to get the cherry aroma. If you can, go organic & no added sugar -- fruit sugars work plenty well for priming.

Don't get me wrong, I've made bad beer before. It just usually happens when I'm trying something new, not when I'm adapting an old recipe. This one came out just...weird. Recipe was as follows: OG 1.052 FG 1.006 72.5% Bohemian Pilsner 14% Spelt malt 7% Golden Naked Oats 4% Table sugar 2.5%...

I’m somewhere in the middle here. I definitely don’t like the idea of making beers hazy for the sake of their appearance. Suspended particulates in beer are an absolute no-no, and adding adjunct to beers to adulterate its appearance is, to put it gently, a bit silly. Haze is okay, mud is not...

Looks like the recipe I saw on CB&B. It really doesn’t need to be that complicated, and will taste less like a black IPA and more like a bitter porter with all those specialty grains. All you really need is good ol’ American 2-row, debittered black malt, and maybe a touch of medium crystal...

Awesome, thank you. Had to make the jump to a corker since vendors are out of the cappable Belgian bottles.

Hey all, I was wondering if the following corker could be used for cork and caging Belgian bottles: https://www.morebeer.com/products/table-top-corker.html?site_id=9 It looks pretty similar to the Portuguese or Italian floor corkers I’ve seen others use on YouTube. Also, I’ve heard to use a #7...

Sorry mate, but there’s not enough viable cells in the dregs of a single bottle to ferment a 2L starter out completely, and definitely not enough cells built to ferment a standard 5 gallon batch after that. Typically you won’t see more than a 10-fold increase in population growth before aerobic...

My mistake. I live around ~5500 feet, brew beers with predominantly Pilsner grist, never boil longer than 60 minutes, and have never noticed any DMS in my beers. (I entered my German Pils in a homebrew comp and didn’t receive any feedback about DMS so I don’t think it’s a personal perception...

And if you reside at very high elevation, a 60 minute boil is sufficient.

Not really, especially considering diacetyl reuptake occurs during the terminal phase of fermentation after CO2 and ethanol are produced. Otherwise naturally carbonated beers would contain diacetyl as a result. The addition of that small amount of krausen is projected to raise the CO2 level by...

Dude. Throw that guy a bad review on Yelp or Google and he might take these complaints more seriously. He totally deserves it. Yeah, I know I’m the ******* but that’s garbage quality control AND garbage customer service. That’s inexcusable.