Recent content by Johannes

Several of my lagers have been a getting slight to moderate phenolic taste and odor. Some more of an odor but no taste. I was wondering if the mash tun had any factor in it as I never sterilze it since everything gets boiled that has been inside of it. It could also be bleach residue even...

It took about two weeks to develop. I know that acet can form from bad sanitation, but I don't think this is it. I had have of the batch in a party pig and it was great for two weeks and only when it was almost gone did a little sourness appear. I read that oxygen at bottling can cause a reverse...

What can I do to prevent acetaldehyde from oxidation when I bottle? I use an autosiphon with a cheap bottle filler. The beer starts out fine and then developes a slight sourness ala budweiser. Thanks

To brew an oatmeal stout, can I use Quaker oatmeal in the cardboard cylinder as is into my mash, or do I have to roast them first. Thanks Johannes

As 99 mentioned the plastic breathes and allows small amounts of O2 to enter. I have lagered in plastic fermenters and come up with some decent lagers. The colder you lager and the closer the beer is to the top of the fermenter the better off you will be. Glass works best.

I am going to be doing a wheat beer with 50% wheat and 50% barley. My question is how do you add the rice hulls to the mash tun? Thanks

I have that type of contamination from using plastic fermenters/secondaries. Each one infected the next until all my buckets were contaminated. I lost several batches before I figured out the problem. I was distraught. I switched to glass carboys and have been fine since. The plastic gets...

Making Cristal a Cuban pilsner. Racked my Pilsner Urquell to secondary. Lagering Bitburger pils and another Czech pilsner.

I have some bottles of Austrian lager that has a good dose of acetaldehyde. Can I help clear this by bringing the bottles up to room temp to let the little remaining yeast clear it up? The bottles have been in the fridge for a couple of months. Thanks Johann

Thanks for the replies David and Mysterio. I thought it might be carapils, but then the clone book also uses carapils in recipes so I was confused by the name change. Thanks again for your help. Johann

I have the clone brews book by Szamatulski and many of the lager recipes call for a 2.5 Lovibond German light crystal malt. Does nay know this by another name? None of the homebrew stores carry it by that name. Also, has anyone ever used glucose powder as a primer? Someone had a brew kit and...

I also have been having some acetaldehyde problems in my beers. I think it stems from kegging and bottling too soon without letting the beer sit long enough on the yeast. Time does help the problem, especially with higher gravity beers that like time. Don't dump it and try it a few weeks to...

Guinness no longer makes real ale or stout. They used to sell bottle conditioned stout with yesat sediment on the bottom that homebrewers could pinch and cultivate to brew their own. In London you can get different kinds of Guiness on tap all depending on how cold you want it.

It doesn't have to flat or warm, just warmer and flatter than your and my buddies are used to. A little education helps. I tell them you get so much more flavor and subtlety this way. Also you don't have to drink it in one sitting. Especially with a pig that has the inflated bladder that fills...

After about a week of secondary I do add sucrose and DME to get conditioning in the pig and bottles. The pig takes half of the 5 gallon batch and I bottle the other half. Once in the pig I let it condition at 68 degrees or so(room temp) to get up some carbonation. I chill to around 55 degrees or...