Recent content by TheWhaleShark

Not nearly as much as you might think, at least if we're talking 13th century or later. The biggest change is that most malt is rapidly air-dried, whereas medieval malt was direct-fire kilned while it was still wet. This would likely produce something akin to a lightly crystallized high-kilned...

I'm exceedingly interested in this work. I've been researching historical beer production techniques. I've been developing a hypothesis that malting (as we know it) is not technically necessary for the conversion of starch to sugar. Mature, un-germinated barley grains contain both alpha- and...

You don't need a research login. The full text is available for free: What's In A Beer? That was a damn fine article. It confirms my suspicions that the majority of ELISA-based test methods out there are missing degraded gluten proteins that may still be toxic. I believe we still don't know...

Part of the problem is that there is very very little clinical research tying various gluten sensitivities to various protein markers. So, different people could react to different components of the gluten proteins, which may or may not be broken down or rendered non-toxic by various...

So, my girlfriend is gluten intolerant. Being arrogant, stubborn, and resourceful, I decided that I wasn't going to let something stupid - like nature - get in the way of her ability to enjoy beer. Also, this has presented a worthy challenge for me. After a while, my research pointed me at...

OK, this has made me feel a little better about adding all that chalk and baking soda. My primary concern was just that I would overload it with too many other minerals. I estimate that I'll need 15 grams of chalk and 10 grams of baking soda for the whole mash, so that's really not too bad at...

I've found that equipment losses become more pronounced with smaller batches. Maybe you leave a quart of wort behind in the boil kettle, mixed together with hops and coagulated protein. Well, in a 5 gallon batch, that quart isn't missed nearly as much as it is in a 3 gallon batch.

So, I want to brew an all-grain RIS. It's a re-tooling of the very first beer I made, a partial-mash RIS. The partial mashing was easy, as the specialty grains only required steeping, and the extract is already converted. Just add to sufficiently hot water, boil, and BOOM! RIS. It was great...

I responded to a thread about Lactobacillus culture a while back. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/lactose-busillius-wont-grow-slant-160000/#post1851134 The trickiest part is the preparation of the media for propagation. Standard malt extract agar won't work. EDIT: Ah, I think someone else...

Mash at 1.25 qt/lb and do a double batch sparge. 10 gallon batch sizes. My first runnings is usually around 4 gallons, so I do two 4 gallon sparges for 12 gallons pre-boil. Been nailing 75% efficiency. I think I need to get a better crush (using a converted pasta mill right now) and get my...

I would imagine that the leaves have a different flavor, yes?

In retrospect, I'd probably bump up most of those spices to a full teaspoon each. It's a good root beer, and the taste really lingers on the palate, but it's somewhat subdued. I was trying to give it a touch more "oomph" without being too overwhelming. Leave the cloves alone, though; it's got...

I found my root barks at our local co-op: Honest Weight Co-Op They have a fairly extensive bulk food section, as well as an "herbal medicine" section. In other words, lots and lots of hippie BS. They had bulk sassafras root bark, licorice root segments, and cut-and-sifted sarsparilla root.

Well, I had a hankering for a nice old-fashioned root beer. I've had Virgil's many times, so I was in the mood for something else. Not finding anything, I did the only reasonable thing: I made my own from scratch. I saw this recipe and decided that it would be a good place to start...

I concur with everyone else: beautiful label, right up until you hit the "brewing company" business. You should totally make it looked those words are stamped into the plate.