Recent content by InLimbo

This should be a public service announcement for people entering competitions who are trying to medal (or ribbon). Evaluate your own beer before you enter it (or better yet, ask a BJCP judge in your club to evaluate it), and then decide which category it fits best in. Back to OP: if the oak in...

I agree with your recommendations, however just because a yeast manufacturer says something doesn't necessarily mean it will yield the best result possible. Whitelabs says to ferment vials of 001 at 70-80 degrees. Sure it will ferment, but the esters will be through the roof. My point is that...

The way to get the largest population of healthy cells will be to pitch a single yeast culture from a single source. Mixing at least three different yeast strains who may all have different preferred fermentation methods AND different levels of cell viability is like playing Russian roulette. I...

The short answer is no. Use an ale strain if you want, but it's never going to have the proper lager characteristic. I guess I should ask, what is your intention: success in competition? Or just something you can drink at home? You will likely not have success in a BJCP sanctioned competition...

Awesome read, keep it comin. Love the polished kegs, they are gorgeous.

This thread is invaluable. Can it please be made a sticky? I used it to select my first chest freezer several years ago, and I just now spent several minutes searching different things to try and find it again.

You're mashing pretty high. This yeast strain will attenuate, but not if you don't give it enough fermentable sugars. US01 you could probably get away with mashing that high, but not neepah. I would mash at 152-153 max. As far as your grain bill goes, I'm a bigger fan of maris otter for stouts...

Why is everyone scared of esters? They aren't a bad thing. In some styles they're even desired. This Pilsner SMASH ale in particular that this guy is making is going to be very boring without some ester contributions. I would pitch at 65, slowly ramp to 70 over 7-10 days. Raise the temperate 1...

At that temperature everything will have been converted probably in about 30 minutes, I don't think that's the problem. However, 156 is borderline "high" especially for something you want to attenuate out a little further. Mashing at 152 is typically the "sweet spot" for a single infusion mash...

I redacted most of your post, because you've thoroughly beat a dead horse over the course this thread. Whether you agree with it or not, for the vast majority of people brewing in North America and Western Europe, tap water is indeed "FINE" and even GOOD and suitable for brewing after it's been...

Tasting this beer will be a great lesson for you. Pitching warm and then cooling to fermentation temperatures is going to at best throw a bunch of off flavors, and at worst hurt your attenuation. It's crucial to cool the wort to ferm temp before pitching the yeast. My beer improved tremendously...

How are you planning on maintaining temps while mashing in a keggle? Unless youre going to build a HERMS or RIMS setup between the keggles, I would use one keggle for hot liquor tank, one for boiling, and mash in a cooler.

Great information in this post. I think a porter would be a better call for something smooth and dark as well. Just to give credit where it's due: Brewing Classic Styles was a joint effort between Jamil Zainasheff and John Palmer--Jamil's recipes, and Palmer probably did most of the technical...

Don't you hate it when you find yet another thing your father was right about...?

I completely agree with this. Driven by emotion was a nice alternative to saying "ignorance." I've heard over dramatized statements by other food preparation professionals as well. Food safety classes seem to cater to fear mongering, instead of basic biology. Assuming you don't scrub in and...