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Designing Great Beers is also all about ingredients and ratios

Thanks for the response, Saccharomyces, you rocked the last thread I put up too! Regarding the Munich, that's pretty much what I was thinking. Do you (or anyone else?) know of any good books/websites that accurately describe the flavor profiles of various malts? Or do you mostly pick stuff up...

It was probably a more flocculant (clumping) yeast strain that was clumping during growth. Wyeast Whitbread 1099 did that for me. Glad it worked--that flocculation should make it easy to pour off clear.

I really like Dave Miller's guide...don't write it off b/c of his old-school siphoning!! There's lots of other really good info there.

I've directly pitched white labs twice (poor planning, no time for a starter) into 5 gal and both times, the fermentation took DAYS to get going! I've used the Activator twice and had active fermentation within 12 hours. I think it probably mostly depends on how fresh your source is, but I...

Hey, I've been poking around books and forums looking at wit recipes, and I've noticed that a lot of recipes have about 10% munich. Does anyone know what this contributes? Is it stylistically typical? How much does it darken the beer?? Cheers!! :mug:

Bob's...he's super friendly and knowledgeable and the store is really nice.

acetaldehyde is also one of the primary indicators of oxidation. could that be a possibility?

When you're doing all grain, you need to throw in some Irish Moss (basically seaweed) toward the end of the boil--it binds to the proteins that cause the chill haze and drops to the bottom, so you're able to get rid of them. Other fining agents will also do the trick--gelatin, egg whites...

yeah, I was using it with my water when it was quite cloudy...even though the pH was good, I'm not sure it was the best idea. I'm also going to leave my bottles in for 1-2 minutes versus wet for 30 secs.

So today I peeked at the Red Ale dregs under the microscope (1000x) and there was definitely bacterial contamination--small cocci in singles and pairs, so likely Pediococcus, especially since everything else fits (4-5 months, below 6% ABV, DMS/vegetal). Nice work, Saccharomyces!!! I think from...

I'd consider an SO2 addition, or sorbate. How are you carbonating?

Sure.. 12.3 lbs Simpson's golden promise malt (base) 3/4 lbs. melanoidin malt 1/4 lbs. black patent malt 0.6 lbs. flaked barley 1 oz amarillo @ 60 min 1 oz cascade @ 3 min Mashed for 1 hour at 152 F sparged at around 165 F Boiled 1 hour cooled with immersion wort chiller OG 1.046 FG 1.010...

I recently entered my very tasty American Red Ale in a competition. When I got the judging results, they said it had vegetal overtones and some DMS. I was really surprised, because I thought this was one of my best beers ever, but upon tasting the 2 bottles that I had left, they DID have...

Most likely your volume came out somewhat below 5 gallons. Also make sure you're doing temperature corrections when using your hydrometer (I believe they're calibrated to 20C, it should say on the instrument) The hops probably didn't contribute, as long as they weren't in your sample cylinder...

Welcome fellow Vancouverite!! (ok, some I'm in White Rock...) Hope brewing goes well for you :)

that's a pretty tiny barrel! make sure you're keeping tabs on how oaky your beer is..it should be done really quickly. Also, make sure you read up on barrel sanitation or are willing to keep something in it at all times. Apparently it's really easy to get infections in barrels.

I just saw some nasty old hops at a health food store that sells bulk herbs/spices/teas and I've heard of others finding them as well...maybe try there?

I have moderately hard water (total alkalinity around 100 ppm) and pH 5.2 doesn't do a thing for me. I'm way better off adding calcium chloride and bringing down the sparge water pH w/lactic acid.

The pH rises as you wash the sugars out, thus when your gravity falls, your chances of extracting tannins increases. I've also read that tannin extraction is affected by temp--if your grainbed gets above 175, there's a greater risk of extraction.