Recent content by bigbadgreen

I recall this subject coming up on the beersmith podcast a month or so ago. His guest was talking about neipas and how they can get very dark as the age and are exposed to normal amounts if o2. I think it's just the nature of the style. Have you tasted it to see if that's off. I normally don't...

I've always done a cold brew added after fermentation starts to die down. I was told boiling coffee makes it too bitter and results in over extraction. Even old coffee recipes when boiling was en vogue never keep the coffee boiling and only put the coffee in boiling water and then remove it...

I belive that you are correct about the white residue on fruit being wild yeast. It happens most obvious on darker smooth fruits like grapes, blueberries, plums etc. I think you'll be just fine. The only real worry is that you can't be sure what flavors you'll get and if it's awesome you...

15 gallons of amber for a friends wedding in may. 5 gallons of barley wine. I've got 10 gallons of wheat wort boiling right now so i'll be posting later New total 6411

I've got 10 gallons of wheat almost to boil right now. Picked 10lbs of blueberries yesterday. Berries in the freezer. 5 gal will be standard.5 will be blueberry. Never done fruit. Wish me luck

As i was thinking about this last night it dawned on me that you could use this to make some sours. Try some open top styles and see what happens. I'm with you, if it's a deal you can't pass up, then do it.

After you rack into it flow some co2 on top if you want to be extra sure. I would say go for it. Maybe one day you'll be brewing bbl batches.

I have used chilies before. I made a smoked pepper wheat. I "dry peppered" with a mix of chipotle and ancho. I soaked them in vodka for 5 minutes and tossed them into the secondary. After 10 days (with lots of samples) i determined it was smokey and spicey enough to bottle. I don't think i...

Just curious as to why you're suggesting not to boil them. .

How did you use them? Boil, secondary, dry nib? I have brewed and baked with cocoa nibs. In my experience brewing with nibs they are best used at the end of the boil. The heat left in the wort will break down the nibs into a better state to impart flavor into your beer. Nibs are just...

I am going to second the making sure to take hydrometer readings to verify that fermentation is done. last summer I brewed a clone of founder's breakfast stout and without looking at my notes, i remember it taking it's sweet time fermenting. Yeast is a complicated issue that has so many factors...

I haven't even done a setup like this for chilling wort but I have done a computer water cooled system, which sounds similar. What most people do now is use distilled water with an algaecide. You can find it in any pet supply store in the aquarium section. I ran antifreeze however a lot of...

for the OP subject. Brew whatever you want to brew at all times. It's your time, money and more importantly beer. I consider an american light lager to be one of the hardest styles to brew. Not only is it impossible to mask off flavors from even a slightly off fermentation, mash, ingrediants...

I've been doing this for a while to "piggyback" yeast. I've never done it with that light of a beer before so i can't say about subtle flavor issues. I haven't detected anything in the beers I've done however. One of my favorite holiday things to do is brew up a nice winter beer, like a...

I've used glass, bucket and BB. They all serve a different purpose. I've always used the train of thought that if I'm going to add anything to the beer i.e. fruit, wood chips etc... then I'll primary or rack to the bucket before adding. Have you ever tried to clean a lot of fruit from a...