Recent content by JosephN

That's still a huge boil off difference. You are talking about nearly, if I'm not mistaken, a difference of about 10 pounds of sugar. That's a butt load of boil off and sugar concentration. I'd be interested to see how it turns out.

I've been carbonating for 5-6 days and it's changed that much already. I wonder if yeast availability and temp make that much difference. Thanks for the freshness tip

Haha, 7.8-8 gallons is a butt load of "Sparge" water. Hell at most I Sparge with 4-5 gallons. And if your "pre boil gravity" was 1.010 you sparked WAY too much and the beer might turn out very tannic and bland. There is a method called "no sparging" where you use your full volume at the start...

Why in the world am I constantly getting a bubble gum flavor with this yeast. I fermented at 64F for many days, and worked up to 71F over two weeks. I have bottled and kegged. The carbonation level is usually higher, 2.7-3 volumes. At first after kegging I had a great balance of banana and...

So there isn't an acidic smell or anything like that? Can you taste a small sample? From the picture it does look like a Pedio pellicle that I've seen before but tasting it would help figure out a little. Also I've never seen a lager yeast do this.

It's not always this simple, but I have found gelatin of a great benefit.

It's too much to explain in a forum without writing a mini book. Here is the video I had to stop and pause several times to get it. There are parts that I didn't care about, but for my water it comes down to the chloride/sulfate ratio, residual alkalinity and my pH. If I have that all in check...

Looks completely normal. Most of my beer has something like this on the top. I'm 45 batches in and only had one infection that affected 3 batches. This is fine. Enjoy it.

You could put a heating element in it so you don't expose it to a flame. It's just an idea. I've been flirting around with the idea of building a HLT with a heating element in it and still using my burners for multi kettle boiling.

^^^ no they are different. Distilled has no minerals while RO has some. If you really want to know what is in your spring water I would strongly suggest getting it sent off to ward for a full on test. Not just a simple brewing water test. I say this because there maybe chemicals in it that are...

Maybe that's a butt load of dry hopping matter? At least that's kind of what it looks like. Yeah that's pretty bad but I agree that you don't have to bottle yet. Let that sucker sit there and settle out more. If you can chill it that will help and if you can use gelatin that would help even...

I'm not brett pro, but where did you get this info? I was under the understanding that even the exact same Brett strain could give off different characters depending on man different factors. Personally I'm trying to learn as much about this as possible. I'm looking for the fruitier Brett and...

He might be doing a full boil to help cut down on the DMS from the Pilsner malts. Also boiling in the kettle won't be a big deal. If the aluminum isn't damaged from the oxiclean then you'll be fine. Oxiclean is also an alkaline chemical, while something like star san is acidic. I don't know how...

Here are my thoughts and opinions. When using sacc to ferment a beer, any beer and any sacc, the sacc will "lower the pH, but there will be a point in time when the pH starts raising again. If you leave the beer sitting on the yeast too long it can and will cause a rise in pH. This has been...

I hear you can wax the outside of the barrel to help with oxygen. Also I really have very limited experience with wood but I would assume that if this barrel is pretty neutral that you shouldn't have much of an issue with wood flavor dominating even in a 5 gallon barrel. Check out The Sour...