Recent content by tallmike

Hi all, Hey Anchor Brewing is throwing a homebrew contest in San Francisco, in case anyone is interested. The style is California Common, and the prize is getting to be Brewer For A Day at the Anchor Brewery. Email for info: [email protected] Register your secret brew at...

Another method I use, more for clarification than for presentation, is to use round Avery OL32 1/2" labels, printed with the beer name or logo, and put them on the bottlecaps.

I started using autonomist3k's oven-autoclave method a few batches back when I first read this, and I'm a believer. Although I only give them 20-30min at 300 degF. Nothing on earth can live past about two or three minutes on glass at that temp anyway, even 250 would be safe technically. I...

How is this possible, given that gravity going down is the result only of fermentation, and fermentation causes airlock activity? Unless it's not sealed well of course.

Just a bump for one of the best ideas in the homebrew world. Thanks for doing the work for us on the template. :tank:

Shorter answer: Yes it's basically done fermenting, but wait the full 14 days at least. Weeks longer wouldn't hurt. Longer answer: Co2 is a byproduct of the fermentation process, so if the airlock or blow-off tube is sealed and working properly, the rate of bubbling is directly...

For reference, the kits I buy come with 4oz of corn sugar (~8 tbsp) for bottling an entire 5-gal batch... :eek:

Personally, I only check gravity before pitching yeast for initial, and before pitching corn sugar for bottle conditioning, for final. Takes a significant amount of your 5-gal batch if you check more than that. What you learn from repeated samples IMO won't be as valuable as another bottle...

It only takes one explosion (like my first batch) to get a homebrewer to use a blow-off tube as standard practice in primary fermentation.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but the 60min hops is for bittering, and you did that. Adding hops in the last 15 minutes of the boil would be for hoppy flavor, not for bittering, although I suppose it would bitter it a little bit more... I think you would have been fine without worrying...

Well it worked out fine, both yeasts did contribute their character, banana/clove from WLP300, and clove-heavy from WLP380. A clovy Hefeweizen, big hit with friends and family. It came out very nice, almost indistinguishable in appearance and taste from Schneider&Sohn's Original Hefeweizen in...

You can taste it when you bottle, it's all done but the carbonation. No sense bottling a Hefeweizen that is "off" at that point.

Please, experienced brewers correct me if I'm wrong, but the yeast you pitch is just a starter for the yeast that grows in the wort. Pitching double yeast shouldn't hurt a thing. It's like lighting a fireplace in two places instead of one, either way the fuel (sugar) is what burns...

Thanks for the reply. I guess though it wasn't quite what I was proposing, since I want to pitch the Belgian yeast alongside a Bavarian weizen yeast. My Dunkelweizen I thought was spicy but lacked enough yeasty flavor, which I love in a wheat beer. I guess I was also thinking of a...

I've started a two-yeast Hefeweizen, 5gal partial boil, my third homebrew. My first was also a Hef, which is my favorite beer. It blew out my airlock on the second day of fermentation, expelled the entire bung/airlock assembly and sprayed krausen all over my garage while I was at work...