Recent content by brad451

I've done it both ways and haven't had any problems. However, I prefer to do water first b/c my mash tun thermometer is much more precise than the thermometer on my kettle and I really don't like messing around trying to achieve my mash temps. If I do water first I get a precise indication of...

Just wondering if anyone has ever tried elevating Ph during a step mash to the optimum level for a-amylase. If I'm not mistaken the a-amylase optimum Ph is close to 7. Is there any sense to doing something like this?

The two base recipes seem a little over-done, imao.

This sounds like a good beer. How did you create this recipe? Michael Jackson says that Westvleteren 12 is made from only 2-row pale, belgian candi, and northern brewer hops. Your recipe seems overly complex.

Well, I"ll give it some more time. I just have a feeling about this one. I started to feel something a little foreboding when I missed my usual mash efficiency. Thanks for the comment.

My yeast (WYeast Irish Ale; OG 1.084) was alive when I pitched it yesterday, but this morning the fermentation is stuck. I accounted for the higher gravity and other variables, so things should have been ok. Anyway, I am going to repitch, but I haven't got another Irish Ale yeast to hand at...

Sounds good. I'll give it a shot. Should have thought of that myself. Guess my brain has softened a little bit.

Just one question regarding a no-sparge mash. Should I avoid re-circulating a couple of quarts before I gather the wort? I know that doing that will result in some grains making it into the boil and fermenter, but I am worried that I won't be able to recapture those initial sugars when I...

Hmmm. Maybe I too have a low tolerance for them. Neither my wife nor any of my drinking buddies can make out the same medicinal taste that I get. Thanks for the replies

Does anyone know what accounts for that slightly medicinal taste in a Duvel? Are those alcohols?

I have to say (with my meager knowledge of biochemistry) that both pediococcus and lactobacillus should, in addition to producing diacetyl also produce a lot of lactic acid. I didn't detect any of that in this beer. But I am still very much interested in a description of the metabolic pathways...

Does diacetyl production ever really come to an end? I know that some breweries use an alpha-acetolactate decarboxalase enzyme for that reason. Anyway, I'm with you Sparky. I don't think it is diacetyl (especially after talking with a chemist friend about it.) I'm also thinking less about...

I boiled my instruments for about 15 minutes before I took a sample. Other than having the fermenter open for the 60 seconds it took to get the beer out to test I don't know how it would have become contaminated. It's in bottles now, so I'll just wait and see. I did consider contamination; I...

Ok. Since no one has responded to this thread yet I am going to add a few more thoughts. I was thinking that *possibly* there was an abundance of alpha-acetolactate in my beer that hadn't yet undergone decarboxylation and that opening the fermenter top introduced the oxygen that a-acetolactate...

I just bottled a Belgian style Ale that was made from 85% pilsner, 10% wheat, 5% invert sugar; Wyeast 1388. OG was 1.08; after 4 weeks in the primary it came down to 1.01. So attenuation was in the upper 80's. I took a sample from the primary (@ 70F) and it seemed fine. That is to say, there...