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  1. HiGravShawn

    Recipe Review please!

    Long time Brewer, first time vintner. Actually it's my wife who wants to make this after we loaded up on u-pickem blueberries, but I'm helping her with finding a recipe and this one was modified from what I found online. It's here...
  2. HiGravShawn

    What could be causing slow yeast (not a starting question)

    I recently brewed a partial mash IPA very similar recipe to ones I've done before and I used my Pacman harvest. It's second gen and I harvested about 5 vials for freezing and this problem has never happened with the other three I've used although this is about 5 months old. I used yeast nutrient...
  3. HiGravShawn

    Brewing a Kolsch: Experiences required

    I have been brewing a while, but I have never brewed a lager because I don't have the cooling equip. I decided to take baby steps with a Kolsch. I did primary around 60F for 24 days and then cold crashed with gelatin for 3 days. I bottle condition so I bottled it and put as much as could fit in...
  4. HiGravShawn

    Oaking vs Smoking?

    So I hear a lot about people "oaking" their beer and it sounds interesting. I had two beers that were smoked and they weren't for me. Then I tried a "oaked" beer and to me it tasted like the smoked ones, maybe slightly less like smoke, but very similar. Do you think it was really smoked instead...
  5. HiGravShawn

    Light Wheat Recipe help

    I am brewing for a friend's wedding. One for him and one for her. For hers (she's not a huge beer drinker) I am working on a simple extract recipe with fruit. I am still waiting to see what fruit she wants so may edit slightly to match, but I going for a light beer with a hint of wheat beer like...
  6. HiGravShawn

    Help with Pouring at Tasting

    So here's the situation... I will be presenting some homebrew at a charity competition at about 2oz at a time. It is bottle conditioned in 22 oz bombers. Normally I don't worry about clarity or sediment because I put em in the fridge and then pour it all at once in a glass, leaving any sediment...
  7. HiGravShawn

    Dry Yeast Contamination problems?

    When I started started brewing it was with Safale dry yeasts and I had good results, but fairly quickly I moved to liquid yeasts for variety and better flocculation. I still have one or two original recipes I used safale for though. I am very careful with sanitation and have the same process in...
  8. HiGravShawn

    Let's play... name this infection!

    My 20th batch apparently has an infection. From what I can tell it looks like Brett. It looks like waxy film with some bubbles and smells like sour + strong alcohol. I'm super careful with sanitation so it's really bumming me. I used two dry packs of Safale-05 and I've heard tale of contaminated...
  9. HiGravShawn

    Mixing lots of Crystal malts, opinions welcome

    I have brewed lots of beers using crystal malts and 90% of the time a recipe uses one. Several times I have made a recipe using say C60 and C120 or something, but two at the most. I had an idea today to try a malt bomb with smooth flavor utilizing more of the "crystal spectrum". Something like...
  10. HiGravShawn

    Bad Brew Day... so confused right now.

    I'm no expert, but I've got a good number of brews under my belt I can pretty well design and execute recipes from beer smith with repeatable results.... until yesterday. I brewed a recipe for an AIPA that I've done before (sadly this is even for a small comp.). It's actually one of my...
  11. HiGravShawn

    Slow Starters from Frozen yeast bank

    So I stepped up to building a frozen yeast bank. I copied some steps from somewhere a while back (maybe HBT), but just tried harvesting from my last brew (Pacman). Basically I sanitize 15ml vials and lids, add about 3-4 ml glycerin. After racking off the cake I used a pipette to fill the vials...
  12. HiGravShawn

    Calculating Sparge temps

    I am trying to get my process down and one thing that continues to have a question mark over it is the sparge temps. My software has a single default for all mash profiles, but you can configure it a million ways. It seems from looking around, for fly sparging most people stick with a steady...
  13. HiGravShawn

    Should I delay pitching and other chilling questions!

    So it's hot here, really hot and really humid. I have a 25' pre-chiller stuck in a cooler with ice and going to a 20 plate chiller. With the wort flow down to barely a trickle I'm still only hitting like 89F. I don't have a pump to recirc. I just grav feed it to fermenter sitting in cooler with...
  14. HiGravShawn

    Effect of water profile during boil

    I have been noticing a steady flavor in my beers regardless of whether it's dark or light. I'm not sure how to describe it. It's bitter, but in a different way than hops although it makes hoppy beers harsher and has this sourness or astringency on the back and sides of the tongue, but not like a...
  15. HiGravShawn

    Hot and Cold and Hot Issues with corny

    I filled a corny keg for a party which ended up being cancelled. I do not have a kegerator and no where I can put it to keep it cold indefinitely. There are a few things coming up, but none big enough to polish off a whole keg in one pass. If I ice it and then let it warm up, will there be...
  16. HiGravShawn

    What is this off-flavor?

    I just popped a Strawberry blonde and it has this flavor that is reminiscent of Dry Erase Markers. Slightly fruity, but solvent like with slight astringency. Grain Bill... 2# Extra Light DME 0.5# Crystal 20L 0.5# G. Honey Malt 6# Rahr 2-row US 2# Light Wheat Malt Mini-mashed grains...
  17. HiGravShawn

    Can I do a starter with invert sugar if I add yeast nutrient?

    I have invert sugar from sucrose and citric acid. No extra DME on hand, but I have some yeast nutrient. I have read that the lack of nutrients in sugar won't make a good starter (same that causes cidery flavors from fermenting with sugar), but will adding nutrient make up for this?
  18. HiGravShawn

    Question for plate chiller users

    I got in my 20 plate chiller and used it for a 5 gallon batch last night. I took my old mini wort chiller and placed it in a small cooler with ice water to act as a pre-chiller. The tube from garden hose to pre-chiller is 3/8" and 1/2" from it to the plate chiller. I have 1/2" from kettle to...
  19. HiGravShawn

    Beer and food in same kettle?

    So I was thinking about boiling up some seafood this weekend, but only have one 60qt kettle right now which is my main brewing kettle. If I try to boil food in it am I going to be able to get out all the flavor and spices or could this potentially cause problems in future beers?
  20. HiGravShawn

    Help me with a Grocery Brew

    Okay, I have some various milled grains I need to get rid of. I have plenty of hops so that's not an issue, but only about 4 lbs of grain. I have some honey and oatmeal too, but the recipe is still lacking. I don't want to use any sugar since it's already going to be kind of light bodied, but I...
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