Strange message from homebrew

I received this msg today when I logged in at homebrew.
Hello fungusamungas it appears that you have not posted on our forums in several weeks, why not take a few moments to ask a question, help provide a solution or just engage in a conversation with another member in any one of our forums?

Well you know what, in my last post titled lager fermentation schedule, around the beginning of June ,I detailed my lagering brewing process and asked for some advise. I got 108 views and one, yes one reply that stated :

"This is a hell of a question and given that 36 hours have passed without a reply, a difficult one to answer. I suppose 90% of all the beers brewed by all the regular posters here are ales."

Yet I see many, threads about lagering questions on forums here and they all seem to be answered.

I would hope that if I am asked to be active in this forum, and participate in threads, others would participate in mine as well,
Just a thought
Sincerely
Fungasamungas

So 108 people didn't know the answer. 109 makes me.

FWIW: Your thread title could be read as providing an answer that 108 people wanted to know the answer to.

If it makes you feel any better no one ever responded to my introduction post.

BTW the record for a non-recipe /non-admin / non-sticky straight up post that went unanswered in the last year goes to:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=11738

460 views and no replies.

My personal best is 101

One of the most prolific posters, david_42, has a post out there with 384.

Probably help if you put it in the right section.

Im just sayin.

Also, if you post late at night like you did (late on the east coast US) you can always expect fewer responses. I would say the peek time of activity is in the mid to late afternoon (people getting board at work, etc.). I know I tend to read the newer posts more carefully than the ones from the night before.

If you post late at night, don't hesitate to go back and bump the thread the next day by responding to yourself or something...

Also, the questions that get the fastest and most response tend to be the one's that a lot of people know the answer to...you asked a tough question and tough questions take longer for an answer because you have to wait on the experts (not me btw).

I get the same message almost everytime I log on. (not the next time though)

My response to homebrewtalk.com is simple.....I search a lot, I read a lot, and I thank you....a lot.

Thanks again!

TRNDRVR

And why is this in the AG/Partial mash section?

I'd be happy to help, but, to be honest, I'm exclusively an ale brewer for the time being. I'm sure if I ever (not likely though) get into lagers, I'll be asking the same questions as you. Welcome aboard!

BTW, I love your handle. You get that from the musical Grease?

I think there's a delicate balance here. Sometimes the vets here are in the giving mood and are quick to help a noob out. Sometimes not. You have to hang in there. Add some discussion to existing threads. Do a lot of reading and post about things you've read. Hey, you should consider yourself lucky that some EAC didn't just tell you to F#ck off ;-) Now try figuring out what an EAC is.

Sorry I couldn't help. I can only read about lagering.

Look at the bright side...I'm more likely to get a pop-up message when I log in saying:

"BierMuncher, it appears you've been posting an unusually high number of worthless posts, asking dumb questions, giving bad advice and cluttering our forum with pictures of your ugly equipment. Why don't you take this opportunity to go ahead and find another forum.
Best of luck...the Management".

Don't feel bad man, sometimes even here it's hard to get an answer. Don't get discouraged, we can be of help on occasion... I think...

This is why I think there should be a forum just for lagers. They are CLOSE to ales but require more knowledge/work.

Anyway, I've got the same question pretty much fungus...look at the brewingnetwork.com archieves as they have a show on lagers, plus there is good info in each episode. I haven't listened to it yet as i've still got some equipment to buy but I'll let you know anything I find out.

haven't listened to it yet but give it a go:

http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com/archive/dwnldarchive09-25-05.mp3

Also posted in your original thread:

One of the best pages in the Wiki is the one on lagering. Your question is addressed, I think:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Fermenting_Lagers#lagers_and_bottle_conditioning

bottle conditioning before lagering
When you bottle condition before lagering, you wait until the beer has completed fermentation and prime the beer with corn sugar or DME. Since the yeast is still fairly healthy and active there shouldn't be any problems in getting the beer carbonated. Let the beer caronate at room temperature for a week. Give it a taste to ensure complete carbonation before moving it to cold storage 32 - 42 *F (0 - 5 *C) to lager it.

Because the beer is bottled before lagering, all the yeast and other sediment that settles out during lagering will remain in the bottle.

Click to expand...

greenhornet said:

This is why I think there should be a forum just for lagers. They are CLOSE to ales but require more knowledge/work.

Click to expand...

That's actually a pretty good idea. Why don't you post it in "site support and suggestions"?

To the OP; I can tell you, that if that many people read and did not respond, it simply was a question that we did not know the answer to. I've asked many a question and only gotten one or two replies, if they're more technical in nature. Nobody here is deliberately withholding information!

Orpheus said:

BTW, I love your handle. You get that from the musical Grease?

Click to expand...

...or an Incubus album

I can tell you that I know nothing about lagering and I brew ales only so I rarely even look at threads on the subject.

boo hoo... Your getting some replies now

I understand your frustration. Sometimes we tend to think of forums as huge repositories of information with hundreds of people standing at the ready to leap to their keyboards and help anyone with any question. More often than not, that is not the case. The intarnets be filled with a bunch of clueless peoples wandering around aimless and slack-jawed.

It's disappointing that the "geniuses" don't have an answer at the ready, but hey, it's all free advice and you get what you pay for so at the very least you should take it upon yourself to maybe re-type the question and ask it better. Think of it as being like marketing. If your question isn't being read or answered, how can you make it more noticeable? I just read your thread. You gave a bunch of details, that's important... however, your question isn't clearly stated. After reading it all, you end with a supposition, and then you ask whether anyone has experimented with it. Why not just ask, "How do YOU lager?" Or... What do you think is the best way of lagering? Bottle or secondary?

Honestly, I think the question you asked isn't really what you wanted to know. It was clear, sure.... but it wasn't what you really wanted to know.

People want to help, but they want to feel smart. You need to feed their ego, make them think that their approach has merit and relevancy. When you ask if someone's experimented with something, it's like asking if they've ever sucked at it. Just ask the pro's how they do it... and from that draw your own conclusion.

In other words, the people you are trying to attract to your thread are on HBT for entertainment. You need to make your thread entertaining. You need to appeal to people. You need to ask an open-ended question that will encourage people to talk around the issue. If you ask a precise the question, unless someone has the precise and perfect answer, people are unlikely to chime in and tell you what they know.

To put it simply, don't come to an internet forum looking for answers... come here looking for dialogue.



Hope that helps.

Two awesome quotes in this past post:

Damn Squirrels said:

The intarnets be filled with a bunch of clueless peoples wandering around aimless and slack-jawed.

Click to expand...

Damn Squirrels said:

To put it simply, don't come to an internet forum looking for answers... come here looking for dialogue.

Click to expand...

Well stated -- thanks.

Yeah, I certainly got some replies this time, I'd like to respond to some posts. Your probably right I shouldnt have posted in all grain , PE forum for this.

It would be great to have a lager forum, I do enjoy stouts and loved brown ale I made, maybe I should go back to doing at least some ale yeast brewing.

As far as my handle, I'm closer to Grease age than Incubus, although I wasnt thinking about the movie consiously, I was just thinking about a name, was reading about yeast, fungus and in popped the phrase fungasamungas. I think it was from some books/jokes from childhood, Since we all are brewing with live yeast we all have a fungasamungas!.

I really liked the response from Damn Squirrel, looking back at my thread and even a previous one about cultering yeast, they were rather dry, I guess I just didnt think about marketing and phrasing my question to be appealing, to fellow surfers, I thought I was being informative and would get responses. Sell the sizzle not the steak. Trying to phrase threads in such a way as to get max responses, yeah I now get it!

I am very apprecative of everybody that responded, my original thread this was all about, "lager schedule", my question has been now answered, the past responses have shown to me that Home Brew Forums is a caring community!

To my PM, thank you for bumping my thread!

Right on dude! Welcome aboard.

BierMuncher said:

Sorry I couldn't help. I can only read about lagering.

Look at the bright side...I'm more likely to get a pop-up message when I log in saying:

"BierMuncher, it appears you've been posting an unusually high number of worthless posts, asking dumb questions, giving bad advice and cluttering our forum with pictures of your ugly equipment. Why don't you take this opportunity to go ahead and find another forum.
Best of luck...the Management".

Click to expand...

Ha! good stuff! LOL. I like. thanks!