Recent content by billvon

I'm making a hoppy amber if I can find a few ounces of Simcoe. Hard to find around here.

Thanks for the advice. Will probably dial back the crystal and go for a lighter base beer and up to 1 lb/gal. I tried Allagash Victor last night and realized I didn't care for it much; there's just not much there, and interestingly it's not dry enough for my taste. So at least I have an...

In my experience: 3lbs fresh peaches in a 5gal batch is just barely detectable in a light wheat beer 6lbs fresh peaches in a 5gal batch gives you a noticeable taste/aroma I take peaches, puree them, heat them to about 180F (to kill most of the bugs without boiling off the flavors) and then add...

Super simple brown ale, very popular around here: Batch Size: 10.00 gal Boil Size: 11.45 gal Boil Time: 60 min 12.00 lb Dark Dry Extract (17.5 SRM) Dry Extract 100.00 % 3.00 oz Palisades [7.25 %] (60 min) Hops 38.9 IBU 1.00 oz Palisades [7.25 %] (5 min) Hops 2.6 IBU Yeast...

Drawback with that is that you're going to lose some of the fruit flavor due to a) boiling and b) vigorous fermentation. I've had good luck pureeing fruit, heating it to 170-180F, then adding it after most of the primary fermentation is done.

We recently bought a house and inherited a fair number of grapevines, both Merlot and Cabernet. (I can't tell them apart; they all look like little red grapes to me.) I figure this is a good opportunity to try a druivenbier. Things I've heard about this style mainly from searching...

Anyone have a good source for a "tub" that fits a 5gal corny pretty well? Looking for something I can fill with ice and keep a corny cold for 12hrs or so. I've been looking for a 12" diameter 24" high garbage pail or something from Home Depot but no luck yet.

Does anyone have a part number for the 4 pin connectors on the Auber probes themselves? (I know they come with the connector, but it would be nice to use the same connector on both ends.)

Been using an electric HLT for about a year, still use gas for the kettle. Trying to decide whether to go all gas or all electric.

1) If you oversparge you'll extract tannins. I did that once. Not good. You get a foul tasting thin beer. 2) If you oversparge your gravity will go down steeply and you'll have to boil a lot to get back to the gravity you want. 3) If you want to mix batches in the fermentor you will...

Come up with a theme. My place (Blue Skies Brewing) is based on a skydiving theme. Some names are: Sitfly Saison Swooper Stout Skydiver Blonde WylieBrau (so named because George Wylie brought some peaches over one day) Big Way Brown Diamond Dubbel Rubick Raspberry Piver Peach...

He may have made the mistake of responding to the original letter as he would to another brewer instead of to a pissed off consumer. Personally I don't subscribe to the "something's wrong so someone owes me free stuff" theory of microbrew purchase - the risk of getting an off bottle sorta...

If time is of the essence I'd consider pitching _above_ fermentation temps. Off flavors will be minimal before the yeast really get going, and higher temps (along with a starter and good oxygenation) will lead to a rapid fermentation start, which will be important with this effort.

My first partigyle beer didn't turn out too well. The first beer was a sweet stout, and I hoped the second running would be a brown. (Instead it tasted like brown carbonated water plus tannins.) Apparently the mistake I made was in fly sparging instead of batch sparging. So I'm looking for...

Brewers tend to learn more and more about smaller and smaller segments of brewing until they know everything about nothing. (This is in contrast to beer critics, who drink so many beers, while learning less and less about each one, that they finally end up knowing nothing about everything.)