Recent content by timdurning

I'm a bit pressed for time and want to force carb while dry hopping so that I can get some more contact time with the hops. The keg is going to be poured at a large event, and I wanted a 5 day dry hop. Is there a problem with leaving the hops bag in the keg during carbing and serving? Right...

Made the 2XIPA from Brewing Classic Styles and loved the smell and taste of this batch, but after two weeks in the bottle, this thing is a notch above still. I've never had this happen before and I'm a little perplexed. The only difference from my usual procedure is that rather than bottling...

I was intrigued by talk of newer IPAs focusing on aroma over a bracing bitterness. However, a lot of the ones I have sampled recently have been distinctly sweet with an aroma I can only define as "Jolly Rancher" candy. The smells were over-the-top fruity and lacked any real bitter backbone- is...

I used this strain recently and, indeed, it is a beast. Made a saison (3gal batch of Jamil's from Classic Styles) that started at 1.067 and finished at 1.002. Just okay yeast-derived aroma, but a great, dry finish. Is this supposed to be the same strain as Wyeast 3711? To my understanding, this...

Hi All, I'm about to bottle my first batches of 1gal mead (wildflower and a cranberry mead) and would like to carbonate them, but don't know if there are special considerations. Do I approach this just like bottle conditioning a beer? Does the yeast I used (EC-1118) call for any special...

This is a bit of early planning, but I'm thinking about brewing saisons when it gets warm enough. My first meads have just moved to secondary and the yeast, Lalvin EC-1118, cut through some very high gravity environments to ferment down to 1.000 and below. Now I'm wondering if I can use a...

Wish I could take credit, but it's a John Palmer recipe. The recipe's on the BrewingTV's and so far it taste great :D

I recently made a traditional hefe according to Brewing Classic styles and it turned out fantastic, plus the recipe was dead simple. 50/50 pilsner and wheat malt, dash of hallertau hops @60min, fermented at 62º. Great balance of the aromas produced interesting complexity- the last thing I would...

Maybe something like a roggenbock...? Replace the wheat part of the weizenbock with rye and see what happens with a strong roggenbier.

Sure hope so—I also inherited about 4qts of it. Time to buy some corned beef!

A friend donated much of his brewing equipment because he was moving, including a fermentation bucket. I was excited to use the bucket (only have carboys) to try out the open fermentation hefe from a BrewingTV episode, skimming and saving yeast from the krausen, etc. My concern is that he has...

Hope it works out for you! I've read the above thread, but still wanted to try out the repitching method ever since I heard about it. For what jt's worth, yesterday I put a newly brewed mild (OG 1.038) on a cake of WLP007 that fermented a batch of Northern Brewer's Surly Bitter Brewer (OG...

Could you take another hydrometer reading and see where it's at? Often my sample will foam up from thief to sample tube, but you could wait for the foam to die down or press your finger along the side of the tube to get rid of the foam. Quick question though- why add the simple syrup in...

I can actually relate to this a little more. When I did BIAB, I used a potato masher to stir my mash. Now that the grain bed is considerably deeper, I've gone back to the metal spoon, but that long whisk might be good. It doesn't get beat up in the mash?

I'm in love with the idea of a wooden mash paddle, but do you guys find it really useful? Right now, I'm doing a lot of 3gal batches so it's not likely that I'll be stirring 20lb+ of grain any time soon, so my metal spoon has felt more than adequate. However, now that I've switched from BIAB...