Recent content by bdgrizzle

@edecambra is right on the low grav beers. stay away from kits...there is nowhere to hide in those beers. you'll get all of the extract oxidation tastes if the ME isn't super fresh, and you'll loose the high mash temp notes. leave them for all grain once you change your equipment. only option...

is it conical time?

I'd love to give this a try, I've never won a giveaway in my life, and I don't use emoticons - ever. Do any of these help my winning karma?

Brewers Friend has a calculator that you can use to tweak #s and figure it out. Just add your grain in percentage ratio, and then tweak slightly. Other software will do it more easily, but this is free: http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/calculator I'd start with about 9lbs of Pale...

@Coldies - I agree on the water. Thought I might loose some of the flavor from their soak, so I included it. but I basically made a wicked hot pepper tea and hid the chili taste under the heat. Other option would be fresh chilies that you oven roast yourself (and therefore debug), in a smaller...

So here's the report back for FYI and for anyone who wants to offer helpful critique my way. I brewed the beer as per the PM recipe above. OG 1.079, FG 1.023, ABV 7.4%. Tasting the base beer, the chocolate notes were right there - subtle sweet chocolate nib taste. Needed more classic porter...

I just racked it last night, and the grav sample was delicious. really psyched. bought three types of dry chilies today - anchos, smoked serranos, and brown chipotle. watched this video online that describes the taste notes they were looking for in each of those chilies - really interesting...

love the giveaways - cheers!

So a key issue with wort temp is oxidation. Aeration happens with pouring, and aeration of wort above 80° creates hot wort oxidation. You cool first to allow aeration from transfer to be helpful for fermentation without being harmful to beer taste.

couple month old post, but I figure others will stumble in here like me. I brewed a Peated Scottish ale and I'm fermenting it with wlp011 as well - first time I used it. made a starter because the yeast had sat for a month in the fridge (still fine though), and within 18 hours of pitching, my...

I'm working up peated Scottish (i.e. ~6% ABV) ale recipe, and liked what you did here. I also have the caramel 120, peated malt, and flaked oat. But two questions about your recipe. 1) I've never brewed with Carastan before - what contribution were you looking for with this as compared to...

So in this year's Fade to Black series, Left Hand released a pepper porter that I had on cask at the brewery, and it was divine. I normally don't enjoy pepper beers - or at least not more than one pint - but the LH porter is downright drinkable. Instead of a bunch of heat in the beer, the spice...

my favorite kind of beer is that one style where there is no leftover chunch in the almost-clean fermentation vessel

been poking around for ESB recipes and found this old (dead?) post. love Red Hook, and it has gotten GABF noise lately - gold in 09. @Blender was right on the Chinook. Red Hook posts their stats on their site - here is a cut/paste: Style: Amber ABV: 5.8% Malts: Pale, Caramel, Carapils Hops...

i just drove to estes this weekend and saw the same store with the same juice. coming into the fall i figured a hard cherry cider would please the wives and get my buddies and i more brewing time. since bing cherry juice is really sweet, i don't think you'll need additional sugar in primary...