Recent content by corncob

The exact same thing that happens at 64: delicious ale with a faint tangy raw biscuit dough element.

I've been warming up to the Nottingham/Windsor co-pitch. It produces an ale with a solidly English character, but less overtly estery than the standard liquid stains. BUT, it doesn't act like any English yeast I'm used to. It finishes on time, but then takes forever to clear. I'm doing a batch...

I have never tired conditioning, actually. I know it works, but I'm lazy and using a bag anyway. Planning to go back to a real mash tun soon though. I'll probably have to start conditioning. My maltzilla leaves halfway decent intact husks, though, so maybe not.

I have settled on the "1mm" setting. You could start there. But I'm going by the look of crushed grain, because that's really what matters.

The highly flocculant English strains really are great in every way. Top cropping is another notch. Top cropped yeast is like an unfair advantage to the home best.

Consider crushing some malt, carefully separating husk from kernel, and eating a handful of each separately. My money is on tannins. The taste of husks is not bad in and of itself, but it's considered a flaw in beer and can't be readily found in commercial examples.

When most trad-behaving English yeasts are allowed to run a little warm, 50% will come shockingly fast--maybe 3 days. But it doesn't matter if you hit it exactly. Jack up the thermostat when you first see foam. Give it 36-48 hours warm. Start cooling before the krausen starts falling. Hold at...

I would top crop on about the second day after a good yeast cap forms, then start dropping the temp, personally. A degree two or three times a day, then let it ride at about 64 for a couple days. There's really no reason to take a sample if everything looks normal, until you are looking for it...

I will second gradual cooling with English yeast in English styles, unless there's something wrong (like an underpitch) that might result in the yeast giving up early. I can't back it up with data, but it seems like I get stronger yeast character expression starting at a moderate temp for the...

I have seen references to BE-256 having an English origin, but I've never seen anybody taking about using it for English styles. I did a cursory search one time and found references to banana, so I've never tried it. I don't like those flavors at all and avoid Belgians and hefes. Have you ever...

I like a spreadsheet created by the brewer (me) tailored specifically to his equipment, process, and aesthetic taste, personally. In the smartphone era, it's a Google sheet with all my brews, plus a Google sheet version of bru'n water for me. I have no desire to build it the math for balancing...

It's not everything (everything) is getting more valuable, it's that the dollar is getting less valuable. Or, rather, that after the dollar started decoupling from middle Eastern crude a couple of years ago, it's value is now inevitably floating down to the productivity of the US economy divided...

One facet of this not yet mentioned here is the 3 tier system. Retail is hard for little guys because of it. The big AB distributor has literal control of how much shelf space gets left for the craft guys. Actually, I wonder if the 3 tier is why we have a division between macro and craft at...

I have thought for a long time that craft beer went terminally wrong when ipas became mainstream enough to crowd out other styles in grocery stores. Lack of options I want to drink available at convenient retailers means I only ever drink coors, Guinness, and homebrew.

I find that the character of the hop flavor changes between 45 and 60 minutes. The ibu formulas say there's little bitterness added, but it really seems like it takes a full hour to get a "hard" or "firm" or "stiff" bitterness, no matter how much more hips are added. This might be 100% placebo...