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Boiling for 90 minutes is recommended for all-grain brewers using pilsner malt. The pilsner malt contains higher levels of SMS, which get converted into DMS lending a cabbage flavor to the beer. SMS is volatile so the extended boil vaporizes off the SMS to reduce off flavors. It is not...

+ 5 English Special Bitter + 5 Oatmeal Stout + 5 Marzen + 5 Belgian Tripel + 5 California Common + 5 Saison + 5 Orange Hefeweizen + 5 Blonde Ale + 5 English Special Bitter + 5 Robust Porter + 5 Imperial IPA + 5 Berliner Weiss + 5 Flanders Red = 41,279 gallons

I only did a mash hop so it makes it a little difficult to estimate, but beer smith gives me 4 IBU, so pretty much nothing (though I did decoctions so it might be higher than that). I suspect 2 things: (1) I can't get my heater above 88F (damn aquarium heaters!) so it's quite a bit cooler than...

Airborneguy, that is insane pellicle. For some reason, I'm not getting anything from my lacto that I pitched into a berliner weisse brewed last Saturday (4 days ago). I pitched a vial of lacto directly into the fermentor, no starter, so that's probably why it's taking so long. So far, the only...

I brewed a berliner weisse on Saturday and pitched a vial of WLP677 lactobacillus directly to the fermentor. No aeration as I read that lacto doesn't like oxygen. Pitched at 72 and raised to 85 (heater seems like it can't get to 90F in winter). After 2 days there is still no activity. I later...

Looking into Tasty's recipe some more, he says that he does a whirlpool for 20-30 minutes prior to chilling after flame out. Turns out you have quite a bit of hop utilization during that time, so he counts it as a 20 minute pre-boil addition when calculating IBUs. More here. Since I have an...

Whoops! I'm still getting a hang of the new version of BeerSmith. Thanks for the catch!

I was following the Union Jack recipe from Can You Brew It, and they only have an addition at 90 and 30 minutes, with the rest at flameout and dry hop. I'll look around to see if there's any other recipes that have later additions. I was basing most of the recipe on this one. And yes, I use...

I love this beer, by far one of the best IPAs I've had. I have the Union Jack recipe from Tasty McDole and the CYBI team and tried first just scaling that up, but with the hop utilization going down the tank with a 1.090 OG, upped the hops quite a bit. Also subbed Magnum for Warrior since...

Thanks for the helpful post. Unfortunately, fermentation temperature has been quite erratic, delving down to 64 when I chilled it after pitching, then back up to 68 the next day, then back down to 64. I'm putting the fermentor in a tub with an aquarium heater to try to regulate this thing. I...

No hot alcohols from the high fermentation temperature? How quickly did it get up to 82?

True for the beginning of fermentation, but then later yeast take up those chemicals so you want either a completely stable temperature profile or one that rises so that there is more yeast to clean up the beer. My concern is that since I had a high starting temperature, a lot of off flavors...

So I pitched my WLP530 Abbey Ale in my Tripel at 72F. I didn't have enough fridge space too cool the wort, so I just went ahead and pitched it thinking the temperature would fall a bit. Well, it had a quick start only taking about 6 hours and the temperature was at 74F. So I freaked a bit not...

I know just what you mean, I think my greatest weakness as a brewer is not having quite a refined palate. Basically I enjoy 95% of whatever is in front of me and I find it difficult to pick out the different flavors. Keeping tasting notes on my brews is so difficult! It usually amounts to...

Yup, I always add a mix of gypsum and calcium chloride to get the salts up to brewing range. I also add a mix of chalk and baking soda the mash for darker beers. Perhaps I'll stick with only baking soda, as I've read it dissolves more readily than chalk. I agree that the brewing sheets can...

I second that! Although it makes nice for light lagers and I find it easier to add minerals than dealing with RO rigs or buying distilled water. My water report says: Chlorine (including free chlorine and chloramine) Avg 1.81 ppm Is that normal, low? I've also never detected band-aid...

I live in the San Francisco bay area, so my water is very soft. I don't filter my water, I use it directly out of the cold tap. I did at one time, but then did a blind taste comparison of the tap and filtered water and noticed that I couldn't tell the difference. I don't treat it either for...

Hence the need for starters. Check out the mrmalty website for info about what starters are and how to make one.

I brewed 13 5-gal batches in the last 10 months. I try to brew about every 3-weeks so that comes out about right. Keeps the homebrew in constant supply with extra for sharing/storing. It's much, much easier now that I have begun buying in bulk, milling my own grains, and re-using my yeast. I...

Yup I stir, that way the rest of the mash rises to temp. But never had problems with a stuck sparge. In fact, I've never had a stuck sparge with my false bottom. Did you do a mash out?