Recent content by jakegreen58

2022 update. Ends up: It was my hops. Very old hops give a bandaid, almost burnt plastic flavor to the beer that was aweful. Never use old, been lying around sack of hops. Mine were 2-4 years old. almost no concern for storage. I had around 6 beers ruined by this.

"I thoroughly clean all equipment with unscented dish soap". This could be a source.

I have wanted to brew a cucumber saison for some time. Once I tried Cigar City's Good Gourd, I was hooked. I understand that it might be a "love it or hate it" sort of beer. But I finally took a shot a making my own cucumber saison. I will let you know how it was brewed and describe how it...

You want to add flavor hops 10 minutes or less in my opinion. You don't want to boil out the essential oils that create their flavor profiles. I add aroma hops at flame out to keep the volatile from boiling off too much.

You should get the starter ready ASAP, don't worry about how long the yeast has been going. As long as they are active and happily churning out beer your fermentation will be all the better for it. That said I have to stress that there is good research about how and when to pitch yeast...

Just make sure it is pure calcium sulfate. If there are any other ingredients listed, I wouldn't use it.

In my opinion it is best to start with distilled water an build your water profile up. Tap water contains chlorine that can produce some off flavors and negative chemical reactions that you don't want. Add gypsum, MgSO4, Calcium Chloride, baking soda and chalk to adjust you water to fit the beer...

I used 10 lbs of Simpson's Golden Promise , 1 Lbs Crystal 80L, 0.5 Lbs Chocolate Malt and 1 lb of Cane Sugar. Not sure why now I used centennial instead of Cascade, but for hops replacements I had to use Less Styrian Goldings then the recipe called for and I had to use US fuggles instead of UK...

With respect to H20, the best things is to have R.O. water to start adding the minerals as needed. Especially if you are unfamiliar with your H20 chemistry. I use 5.2 stabilizer and Gypsum (~0.5 tablespoon) as a base. If I want, I can add calcium sulfate to "burtonize" my beer. A pH of 5.2 is...

Just brewed the hobgoblin clone today, Had to remove some hops because I didn't have access to them. I used Centennial instead of Cascade. It is now in the fermenter after brewing, aerating and pitching a 1.150L WLP 0023 Yeast (Burton Ale) starter. Will update to see how soon it starts and ends...

What are your hydrometer readings? I have had fermentation finish in 4 days, of coarse that is with regular beer, but I wouldn't be concerned with a two-week fermentation cycle.

I brewed a Huge pumpkin ale over the weekend and I made a 1L starter for it, using a 1.040 starter SG. The pumpkin ale came in at a whopping 1.104. I am now afraid that my starter was not big enough. Should I begin to consider adding a yeast packet or another starter to the wort? Fermentation...

Could it help if I threw in a packet of dry yeast, I have another one of the same yeast.

So here was the end result: Specialty Grains: 1 lb Caramel 30L 0.5 lbs Munich Light 0.5 lbs Carapils 60oz pumpkin puree Boil: 6.6 lbs LME 3 lbs Amber DME 1lb Light Brown Sugar 1.75oz Pumkin Spice at 5 minutes plus the usual water addatives (gypsum, 5.2 stabilizer yeast nutrient...

In the end I created a 1.104 beer, with 1.25oz Mt. Hood, 1oz Wiliamette for boiling and 1oz Cascade Hops for aroma thrown in at 15 minutes left. I am wondering at this point if my 900 mL yeast starter will be enough.