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Background: A few weeks back I brewed an ESB with WLP007. For some reason (unrelated to this question) it stalled around 1.020, and I was advised to pitch a pack of dry Nottingham yeast to get it closer to 1.012ish which is what I wanted. The 1.020 sample was a little sweet but otherwise...

Thanks! I will absolutely go through that article and report back.

So on my last four batches, I abruptly went from getting 75% efficiency (exactly where I want it) to 55-58% every batch which I consider unacceptably low. Been racking my brain but I don't think anything in my process has changed. I have my own pet theory but I wanted to ask for any other...

Split the difference and shoot for 1056? :) I really can't imagine being off by less than 1* Plato will make or break your clone attempt.

I am replying to this thread :fro:

lol. There is more going on in the finish, but that's definitely the first thing I get.

I picked up a bomber of this after hearing the CYBI episode, never had it before. The most striking thing is that Chad was dead on, it smells and tastes like blueberry and strawberry pancakes! It's the damndest thing. If the recipe didn't come directly from the brewer I wouldn't have believed it...

How big was the batch? I think we're all assuming 5 gallons, but there's no way 1.5lbs of extract got you 5 gallons of 1.044 wort. That might explain the confusion with the hop bitterness.

Best advice :cross: Do keep gelatin in mind if you get to the end of fermentation and it still looks cloudy. It's like $2 at the supermarket, easy to use and ridiculously effective. I used gelatin for the first time on my last brew and was completely blown away by how it went from very cloudy...

I agree, with the caveat that you have to know what you're doing (which Yooper certainly does) :) Pitching enough healthy yeast and fermenting at proper temperatures was what took my beers from needing months to be drinkable down to 2 weeks. Obviously some styles will be ready faster than...

At work now so I can't confirm. But I always go with whichever setting skips the pre-heat step and just uses hotter strike water. Could always just be user error, of course :)

I have a related question so I figured I'd bump this. On my last brew I decided to play around with a thinner mash (saison, wanted it to finish dry as can be). I set BeerSmith to 1.5 quarts/lb and after mashing in, my temp was WAY high, like 8 degrees off. Has anyone else experienced BeerSmith...

There's a homebrew competition coming up in my area, and I'm interested in entering a few brews mostly for feedback. One of them is a Dortmunder Export that's pretty tasty but I had a brewday screwup that took it WAY out of style. My wort chiller leaked like an extra gallon of water into the...

I use beersmith for mash in calculations, but didn't do any for the sparge water. I just stuck my thermometer in after stirring the sparge water in and it read 165.

Thanks for the input, sounds like I am doing it correctly. Like you said my efficiency went up a good 9-10 points after I started sparging hot so I am reluctant to give it up :) We'll see what the finished beer tastes like. Maybe the flavor was just the roasted barley or something, never used it...

Short version: should your sparge water be below 170, or should the grain and water end up below 170 after you stir in the sparge water? Batch sparge method. Long version: I was brewing a 5 gallon all-grain oatmeal stout today on the high end of the style, so a lot of grain. By far the darkest...

I'd definitely try a British yeast for the scottish strong. You don't want something totally clean and neutral for that style like 1056.

One thing that will help is to shake the starter around to get more oxygen into solution. Yeast needs oxygen to reproduce and be healthy. So whenever you think of it, go give the jar a good shaking (with the cover still on) as often as you can.

When I was doing stovetop brewing I always dumped through a (sanitized) strainer into my bucket. Got rid of all the hop trub and it also seemed to help aerate it a little better. Edit: I'd say don't bother boiling the top-up water. For one, yeast needs oxygen to reproduce. If you boil the water...

Not sure how much we can add. Sounds like you are working on the temperature issues which will help for sure. Ideally you want someplace in the low 60's. Be careful drinking that first beer... really hot fermentation leads to lots of "fusel alcohol" which is hangover city. If you wake up the...