Recent content by fenixwb

I definitely think this is the case. Its alluded to a few times in "Brew like a Monk" with Allagash in NY stating explicitly that they switched from dark sugar to dark grain because of availability and cost. I guess I'm more interested in people's experiences with differences in the final...

I've been reading through "Brew Like A Monk" lately and I've decided to try my hand at a Belgian Dark Ale. One thing that's always interested me is the disparity between the commercial trappist dark ales, which are made from just base Malt and caramalized sugars, and the extensive American...

Yes. Jmansfield is correct if you're looking for a cleaner profile. Me, personally, I prefer a more funky Belgian flavor. I usually start my Belgians at around 68 and keep them there for the first three days, and then let them slowly rise up to 72-75 depending on what I'm going for and the...

This may be a stupid question, but are you giving the bottles a good couple of swirls before serving? My hefeweizen cleared in the bottle too, and it lack a lot of character if you pour it straight, but if I pour half the bottle, give the rest a good swirl to resuspend the sediment and then...

In fact, why don't you have him put his money where his mouth is. You go ahead and brew your Belgian without any spices and use a Belgian yeast strain, and have him attempt to brew the same style using only spices and a clean American yeast strain. The recipes should be totally the same aside...

I don't think its really up for the debate that the *defining* features of belgian ales are the flavors produced by belgian yeast strains. Yes, some breweries do add minuscule amounts of spices, but they don't define the style. "Brew like a Monk" and almost all the breweries he interviews are...

Ahh, nevermind I figured it out. The individual IBU for each addition doesn't take into account the change in utilization with using a late malt addition.

I understand the partial boil makes a difference as well at a late malt addition. My question is specifically in Beersmith if I add up the IBU's of the individual hop additions the total IBU number is lower than the number that Beersmith calculates and displays in the bottom portion of the...

I've got a question involving Beersmith's IBU calculation during a partial boil brew. When I add hops the IBU amounts for the hops don't match the calculated IBU. For example of my hops amount are 10, 5, and 5 by hand its 20, but in beersmith it will calculate it as a higher amount like...

Okay, so I sounds like this is a pretty normal event. My first batch blew off hard, and by the time it settled all the krausen was stuck to the sides and the beer surface was clear. I know beers can have all kinds of weird flavors in the middle of fermentation and I normally wouldn't be so...

I brewed my second extract batch last Sunday: an Irish Red Ale. I pitched Nottingham into it that night, but became worried after there was no activity whatsoever the next morning. I started poking around online and found out I had used one of the bad Nottingham lots, so I repitched a package of...