Recent content by The Soft Underbelly

Outdoors - Yes....

I let them warm up prior to pitching. My apologies for the confusion.

If you haven't opened the pack you should be fine to refrigerate it for a bit. I've had smacked packs in my fridge for as long as 2 days before i got around to using them. If memory serves i added them directly to the wort though typically i make starters for all liquid yeast these days.

Sounds good! I'm a big fan of "kitchen sink" beers. Throw in all the leftover ingredients and see what happens. I bet you come out with something tasty.

You sir are NOT looking for advice on how to grow hops! Youre looking to inspire insane jealousy in me for your super awesome greenhouse! Great work! For what its worth, i grow Chinook and Cascade. Both grow voraciously but the Chinook have huge leaves and might serve you well.

I finally got around to bottling this on Sunday. It totally smelled of fuggles. The sample i tasted was closer to a mild in terms of bitterness with just perception of... i dunno what I'd call it... grassiness, earthiness... not in a bad way though. Looking forward to trying it in a few...

So you have a 6 & 9 year old, don't wanna haul the 5 gal of water up a ladder and need a hobby you can do with the kids.... Dude... Let the kids haul the water up the ladder. Problem solved! Your welcome.

There's a popular mantra in home brewing circles which stresses not worrying. I've noticed rehydrated yeast seems to kick off fermentation a bit quicker. If you have the chance, go a head and rehydrate. If you're feeling a bit overwhelmed with your first beer - we all do, but there's really no...

You'll be fine. I've dropped random ice cubes into beer in similar situations and never had a problem. I never re boiled either for what it's worth.

Sometime back in October, on a whim, I ordered several experimental hop varieties from Farmhouse Brewing and until recently haven't done a thing with em. Yesterday I found myself with time and a number of left over ingredients from previous batches. Exp 4190: Experimental variety from Hop...

Hey gang, thanks for all the good advice. I appreciate everyone's input. I brewed this up earlier this week as follows... 6# M.O. 2# Rye 12 oz roasted barley 8 oz special b 8 oz chocolate malt 5 # light DME 1oz chinook 12.1% @ 60 min 1oz chinook 12.1% @ 20 min 1oz chinook homegrown @ FO 2...

I made a galaxy / pacific Jade IPA recently and all I can offer is that I thinks it's wise not to bitter with the galaxy, there's a bit of lingering bitterness that I'm not fond of in an otherwise excellent beer. I've been using 1 lb of corn sugar in my IPA recently for what it's worth. This...

Galaxy is Australian and Pacific Jade is from New Zealand. Both were an impulse buy over the summer. I used too much... I think the pacific jade is what lends the tropical fruitiness which hit me in the middle. The initially bitterness is good, the lingering bitterness is rather dry, I wouldn't...

I made an IPA recently with Galaxy and Pacific Jade, i popped the first bottle last night after only a week (and after just finishing a zombie dust fwiw) and you get a nice fruitiness out of the paring of those hops that is at once bitter, lingers and develops on the pallet a bit but finishes...

I've never made an Imperial Stout before and what i'm hoping to achieve is a more domestic version than a true British RIS. Any input from those familiar with the style would be beneficial, I cobbled this together out of a number of recopies I've found online but cant recall a specific...