Recent content by wingedcoyote

What temp did you ferment at? To my palate US-05 is pretty neutral at high 60s farenheit, but going any lower than that bring out the peach.

I like US-05 just fine. I ferment at ~65 and haven't noticed any significant fruity esters. All my beers get Whirlfoc, cold crashed to 0 degrees, and gelatin, and with that regimen my US-05 beers get just as read-the-newspaper-through-it clear as all the rest. :)

Just switched to kegging recently, and my next step is to set up my BMBF for bottling. I think I'm all set to bottle normal beers for competition etc, but I also have some apfelwein in a carboy that I want to keg and then bottle (because I never want to deal with yeast gunk in bottles again). My...

Wait, so a ton of rainwater got in your brew? I probably would have brought it back up to a boil or at least pasteurizing temp before brewing. Should be interesting though! Did you take an OG reading?

If 80% of your mash is regular 2-row you probably don't need to bother with the amylase, it should convert just fine. I would hesitate to do a protein rest. My experience has been that doing one with fully-modified malt creates an unpleasantly thin and headless beer. My experience is pretty...

If you have temperature control for fermentation, you don't need to be pitching at 80 -- just chill as far as your groundwater will take you and then stick it in the chamber, and wait to pitch until you're down to pitching temp. Delaying a few hours before pitching won't hurt, and even if it's...

I've been doing 2.75-gal batches in my 5gal pot and I think I'm just about maxing it out, so the rule of thumb is pretty close for me. My mash tends to just about fill the pot, I sparge with about another gallon and then combine the runnings, and by then I'm close enough to the rim of the pot...

Palmer in How To Brew mentions porter made with brown malt as the base malt and says "Brown malt porter is a very good beer if you are careful not to oxidize it during brewing and let it age for several months before drinking." Apparently it can be rather tannic and harsh when it's young.

If you're not paying for malted barley from those greedy brewing supply companies, you're kinda actually not making beer. Maybe you'd be better off over at prisonhoochtalk.com. ;)

I've had similar issues when pulling the strainer bag tight, but it doesn't need to be super loose either. Think of it like a condom, you just need a little "reservoir tip." :)

I'm something like 14 batches in and I've never dumped one, but my second batch (a Northern English brown) tasted weird and I've pretty much ignored it... 40-something bottles still sitting in my closet upstairs nearly a year later. Keep meaning to pull one and try it again, but I never get...

Oh man, I'm glad he was okay! I'm pretty sure the original stunt involved drinking the diluted StarSan solution, not the concentrate.

Huh, I assumed they'd perform identically -- everything I can find in the beer world indicates they're the same strain. Well, I'll keep checking it and report back with my results.

Okay, so excuse my newbness, but I have a mini batch of BOMM going and I'm hella excited about it. :) My first mead! I mixed some local honey with Camden-treated tap water to an OG of 1.100, added DAP and Wyeast beer nutrient (I only have beer stuff so far) and cooled it to about 68 before...

Might be safer to add it in secondary (or to primary after active fermentation ends) so you can wait out any renewed fermentation from the sugar.