Recent content by SpeedYellow

Why do you say that? If you’re suggesting using a lacto that isn’t hop sensitive, NO WAY! I wouldn’t want any such thing anywhere near my brew space, ever.

Indeed most lacto are very hop sensitive! Learned that the hard way- a Berliner with just a couple ibus wouldn’t sour at all regardless of what lacto I threw at it. This is why people kettle sour with zero ibus then boil with hops later.

Also remember that epsom salt does hold water, like CaCl. I bought some USP epsom salt, weighed a handful, baked it in the toaster oven for 20-30 minutes, and it came out like 12% lighter (about the same as when I did this to some CaCl). Goes from shiny and glassy to matte white. So like...

After dozens of batches over several years with a Hanna 98128, I'm just tired of dropping $70 every 2-3 years on probes. The ColorpHast strips are dirt cheap and I've found to be consistent and probably around +/- 0.1. Good enough for our purposes as far as I can tell. Checked them against the...

Instead of an unsightly lock, you can use a window sensor from a security system. For $20 I can buy an additional sensor and get text alerts. If you don't already have a security system, there are surely standalone window or door sensors out there that sound an alarm or something.

That 3-5F slow temp drop method seems to be purely a diacetyl-management issue. See Kunze "Technology Brewing and Malting," 4th ed., pp. 503-505. The slow-drop method is only done for short cold fermentations. If you do long cold, or short warm, or short cold followed by a few day d-rest, then...

That's bad advice. If you didn't pitch enough healthy yeast, then you'd be raising the temp far too early. Standard advice is to raise the temp for the d-rest after 50%-80% done. Granted, some yeast are more tolerant to warmer ferm temps, so your process won't necessarily be a problem. Nor is...

Imperial Stouts just take a long time to carbonate. While most of my beers force carb in two weeks (12 psi), big stouts take more like four. Weird, yes.

At peak fermentation, especially with big beers and ales, you get multiple bubbles at once. For example, a three second pause then blurb-blurb-blurb, then three second pause, etc. I suspect that a bubble counter simply can't pick up the activity correctly then, so I'm very skeptical this...

I simply dislike beers with 30%+ Munich malt. Just tastes cloying to me. So 60% is a non-starter. Some folks may love it though. Also seems like too much C60 crystal malt too, especially when combined with 60% Munich!

Since it's unfermented, it's almost as silly as sipping unfermented wort on brew day. Always just tastes like hoppy malty sugar water lol. This is like tasting flour as some kind of indicator of how good a cake will turn out.

Thanks for posting this! I'll be watching and will brew it too, except that I'll drop the Munich by two-thirds. That grain bill looks awful.

Nothing wrong with leaving the probe in the thermowell during temperature changes. I routinely toss 75F wort in my freezer fermentation chamber with probe in the thermowell set to 50F then let the freezer go full blast to chill the wort. Yes, like you said it does overshoot, but only by around...

Depending on how fresh the Weyerman smoked malt is, you can use 100% of grist and still not detect smoke. So it’s safe to say that 1 lb is truly a negligible amount. I’ve brewed a couple dozen smoked beers and eventually switched to home-smoking for that reason.

I can't help with the rhizomes, but I'll just say that since you're in Downers, you should pop into Emmett's at 7:00 on the last Tuesday of each month for the home brewers group. Small group but nice guys, and great beer! I'm seeking rhizomes too, but will probably just order online since local...