Recent content by dharvey

Yeah, that's pretty much it. Smack never puffed, but I pitched it any way. I've had smacks not puff and still work, but I was suspicious so I made the White lab starter the next day. After nothing with the starter for 2 days on the stir plate, I pitched the 05. All the starters were low gravity...

I searched through the threads but didn't see actually this question, but apologies if it has been addressed. I asked a friend to pick me up some yeast for porters and pilsners and he came back with a variety of things--not sure why. I used an English Ale smack pack for the porter...nothing. I...

i didn't know that adding sugar during the boil wouldn't do anything...odd that so many recipes for belgians call for so much sugar. what does it do then? i might try a bit of lactose, thanks for the suggestion.

yeah, just not sweet enough for what might usually pass as a dubbel. i mashed pretty low, 148.

i brewed a dubbel 16 days ago that has hit og/fg pretty well, 1.062 and 1.012. i put it in the secondary today and had a taste and it was pleasant but not that sweet. thoughts about bottling or adding more sugar/syrup to it (i added 2 lbs of candi syrup 90 during the boil--5 gallon size batch)?

super helpful, thanks!

i'll probably try the secondary next time. i had planned on doing pb in the secondary, but after the stuck fermentation I thought I'd save for next time...thanks for the ideas!

I plan to double a pale ale recipe to collect 11 gallons of work to boil. Do I just double the sparge amount or does this ratio change? I planned to collect about 4.5 gallons of the first run-off and then sparge until I'm at 11. I'd like to hit an OG of 1.05. Recipe: 11 lbs. 2 Row 5 lbs...

it turned out ok. it did attenuate a good bit, so it doesn't have the mouth of a porter. i'm also missing the chocolate, more of a coffee aftertaste--which i'm assuming is the bitter chocolate...

i'm making a tripel with an og of 1.07. i read--i think somewhere on here--that your starter should be about +/- .01 from your og. i made a 1.5L 1.065 starter in my 2L flask and put it on a stirplate, you can guess what happened. after cleaning my desk, i cold crashed the starter. still looks...

will do!

ugh, i feel like an idiot. i don't know how i didn't know that. i've used it for my last three beers and all were a bit off, but this one by a lot. it looks like with the online calculator that 10 brix is about 1.04 and 6.5 is 1.026, which gives about 3.1% ABV. I'm still about 1% lower. Good...

refrac...

i was in my uninsulated barn and the temp was 20s, so my tun didn't hold as well as it normally would. I started at 155 and after 20 min it had gone down to 153 and by the end it was at 149, so about a 2 degree drop every 20 min. good to know about the sparge...thanks!

I actually didn't use a starter. i used a wyeast pack. the recipe was: 5 lbs maris, 3 lbs brown malt, 2 lbs caramel malt, plus the coco powder. i continuously hopped 1 oz of goldings. i mashed at 170 and kept it at 155-149 for 1 hr in my cooler mash tun. i got about 4 gallons out and then i...