Recent content by HeaterAllen

While it is not the most preferred approach, it will work just fine.

You'd also have to take into account the gravity of the wort, since it's slightly heavier than water and will change with each batch.

I have been using a counter-flow chiller from B3 for the last several years, and I struggled to effectively chill my wort to near-lager temperatures fast enough to avoid excess DMS. I recently bought a Therminator to, hopefully chill the wort faster. I put the Therminator to work for the...

I'll preface my comments by saying that all I brew is lagers - usually 2 to 4 batches a month. I'm actually somewhere in the middle on this. I usually try to get my wort as cool as I practically can in a short amount of time (this reduces the amount of DMS you get) - which is usually about 60...

I used a recipe that is very similar early in my pilsner trials. The aromatic malt will definitely step up the malty profile. It was actually a little too much for my tastes, but a number of my friends loved it.

Paul, You're probably right. I'll try it with and without to see if it helps at all. Rick Allen

I like a little more malt flavor in my Pilsners as well. I've actually brewed about a dozen versions in the last year. Here my current favorite grain bill: 75% Pilsner Malt 10% Vienna Malt 10% Light Munich Malt 5% Carahell Malt (this is a 10 Lovibond Crystal Malt made by Weyermann) I...

This is true, particularly where you have a slower fermentation, as in lagers. The more violent fermentation with ales will clean out most of the DMS. I had a real problem with the lighter lagers I was brewing until I figured this out. Now I go through all sorts of steps to cool the wort as...

After you get the chlorine out, I'd try filling your fermenter with a strong solution of Star San and leaving that for a week or so.

What's the ph of your mash and your sparge water? If you're not getting solidly into the proper mashing range, you won't get very good efficiency. Same is true of the sparge water. You'll get higher efficiency when the ph of your sparge water is between 5.5 and 6. I use a very small amount...

A California Common is a beer brewed with Lager yeast at warmer (but not really warm temperatures. I ferment my Common at 56 to 58 degrees using Wyeast #2124 (Bohemia) and it works just fine. The 48 degrees would be a good primary fermentation temperature for a true lager (that actual...

If you fermented at the high end of the temperature range, you probably have some esters in your beer. Out of curiosity, how did you know what the temperature was? Do you have a temperature probe or a fermometer on your fermenter?, or was the room temp at the high end of the range? The reason...

I wouldn't recommend starting with a Pilsner. The flavors are more delicate, and any little flaw shows up like a sore thumb. I would recommend starting with an amber lager - maybe something similar to the one made by the Brooklyn Brewing Co. This is a little more forgiving. If you need an...

I think that I would be concerned about "bottle bombs". Your reading going at bottling was way too high. Your gravity can't rise, so one of the two hydrometers was faulty, the temperatures when you took your reading were wildly different (there are small changes in gravity due to temperature)...

David, I spend a lot of time in McMinnville and that area, so I'm driving past your stomping grounds all the time. I thought about joining the Club in Salem, but it's just a little too far to drive. I bet your greyhounds do give those rabbits a little exercise!