Recent content by Tim Rhoads

Not sure. I will check. What does it mean if they are?

No, we have had sufficient rain, so thats not it.

Any muscadine growers out there? I am growing Ison, a higher lattitude variety of Supreme. My vines do great every year. Highly productive, very little disease, etc. Its July 28. I just went out and looked at the vines, and there are immature grapes all over the ground! Perhaps 20% have...

Folks, I have been growing Cascade hops in my home gardens for about 10 years. No problems. Decided this past summer to add a few Magnum rhizomes for bittering hops. I chose Magnum for their reputation of vigor, productivity, and disease resistance. The Magnums came up with vigor to rival...

Why do most pear wine recipes call for raisins? Do they just add sweetness? Should one omit the raisins if they are shooting for a dryer wine? Thanks

Does anyone know where I can find Warrior rhizomes? Thanks

Thanks for the tip Brewsmith. Worked great

Folks, Used some old leftover hop flowers from last years crop in a recent batch. Over-hopped to compensate, but not enough. Does anyone know if: 1. you can buy hop oil extract, and 2. if you can add it to beer (a mug at a time) to kick up the bitterness and hop flavor? I am a hophead...

Checked my gravity upon racking to secondary = 1.01. Nice and dry already. Cant wait.

Folks, I started a batch of oatmeal stout (initial SG 1.050) the other day. Pitched a starter of London Ale (WLP013) at 25C around noon. It was bubbling moderately by 2PM (maybe sooner) the next day, but had stopped by the next morning. I have only used this yeast once before, and dont...

Folks, I am using fresh hop flowers from last falls crop in batches recently, and getting pretty peeved while racking; bits of hop blooms plugging my racking tube. Sure, I realize that I could a) put hops in hop bag or b) strain out hops before I seal my primary fermentor, but I can see...

Does anyone know where I can find a recipe to make authentic fermented soy sauce? I am a microbiologist, so I want to do this right. No shortcuts. Thanks

Does anyone out there know the approximate date of harvest for hops (cascade specifically) in central Virginia? That is zone 7 by the way. I have grown hops before in the deep south, and these are showing the telltale signs of maturity, but wanted to confirm with someone local. Thanks

Revvy, Great info, and liked the video. Understand that my carbonation problem (if I have one) does not involve head retention, head proteins, etc. My issue is more simple. At day 20 I still have little to no pffft when I open a beer. If I were priming differently, holding my beer at an...

For some reason my last several batches have been taking an unreasonably long time (like a month) to carbonate. I bottle with 3/4 cups table sugar as I have for the last 20 years. At winters end I thought temperature may have been the problem since I store my beer in the cool basement, but now...