Recent content by aleiexjr

Hello, A few months ago I prepared my very first mead, it seems to be ready now and in fact I've already tried a sip of it and tastes wonderful. However, I'm wondering if it would be a good idea to add dried cranberries into 3 or 4 bottles on the day I bottle the whole batch to "dry hop"...

Thanks a lot guys, today I'll brew when I come back from work :D I'll skip the mashout and do as Bobby and Itchy said. I'll surely tell you how this beer comes out! cheers!

wildwest450: these are my settings: batch size: 5 gal evaporation rate: 11% per hour (its the default setting) boil time: 60 min batch sparge: i have none checked :( brewhouse efficiency: 70% (perhaps this one is low, i actually dont know my actual bh ef.) I also chose brewpot (7 gal and cooler...

Which parameters should I correct? I am assuming a brewhouse efficiency of 70% since its my first time, could that be the problem? also my grain and mash-tun temperature are set to my actual temperature measurements (which is ambient temperature for both (70.2ºF)

Actually I was thinking to batch sparge, perhaps I missunderstood how it is done :s I'm gonna re-read about it Edit: Nateo, I didn't considered doing a decoction, it seemed even more advanced than double infussion, but it seems like a good idea to do it, considering my calculated volume...

Even using 1/4 gal per pound I'll need 3.4 gal for sparging only, that would sum 35.8gal of water, and considering water loss and evaporation, do you think I'll be able to get around 5 gal in the end? I have two fermenters ready, in case that I get a lot of wort, but I'm affraid of getting...

Hello again! Yesterday I was about to brew my very first all-grain beer, I want to do a double infusion because I will be using a German Pils Malt and also because I want to learn this technique once and for all :D So here's my "protocol", I calculated the volumes needed using beer smith's...

My HBstore told me that they have both Carafa I and Carafa Special I, so which do you think would be the right one for this beer?

Here's the updated recipe: ------------ General D. Imperial Stout All Grain 5.00 gal Ingredients Grains 11.50 lb Pale Malt 1.10 lb Carafa I 1.10 lb Melanoiden Malt 1.00 lb Wheat Malt, Ger 0.75 lb Vienna Malt 0.50 lb Roasted Barley Hops 1.00 oz Magnum(60 min) 1.00 oz Northern...

The thing is that there are Carafa I, II, III husked and Carafa Special I, II, III de-husked. But anyway, that's offtopic :p Edit: Thanks for your advice on yeast amount, according to the link you provided I'm going to need 1.5 yeast pkgs

I asked my HBstore and they told me that Carafa I and Carafa III (the ones they sell) are not de-husked, also Weyermann's site has the carafa special on a separate category and it specifies that its de-husked. So suprchunk's statement is right.

wow, quite a debate here I like it! suprchunk, I see you sugest using only pale ale malt, honestly I hadn't considered it, but I am waiting for a blonde ale that I brewed with pale ale and it smelled delicious during all the process, but using 11lbs plus the other malts seems like a lot of...

Well It seems that I DO have roasted barley, what do you think about switching smoked malt for roasted barley? Because if I add more grains it is going to be more complex than I'd like, I think. Definitely I'm going to the coffee route, actually there is a specialty coffee "pluma" which to...

hmm coffee sounds tempting... but how much can I add? Since I haven't used smoked malt I think it would be a good idea to take advice from you, but still if it's going to help make a complex beer as I want, what about adding less roasted malt and perhaps more carafa or melanoiden?

These are the available specialty malts at my brewing store: Carapils (Carafoam) Carared (crystal 20L) Caramunch (crystal 40L) Caramunch III (Crystal 60L) caraaroma (crystal 150L) Carafa I (350L) Carafa III (550L) toasted barley (I'm not sure this is the english name) Smoked malt and these are...