Recent content by jvector

Hey everyone, Forgive me if this is a repeated topic, but a quick search didn't find anything similar. Yeast viability (ie, healthy cell counts) is an important part of homebrewing. Specifically, it's important to pitch the correct number of cells into your wort by creating properly sized...

Think about your process, figure out where you are being at least a little lazy (we ALL are lazy about one thing or another), and try to improve one thing each batch. I've been brewing for years and I still try to improve ONE thing each batch. -Are you using enough yeast? No? Make a...

Fair enough. Those are good points. (I especially like your sweet stout example.) I don't disagree with you, but I guess I just have a beef with using "sweet" to describe body. Some beers are actually sweet, in the sense that tongue is picking up one of the basic flavors our palates know...

Hey folks, I'd like to add a quick note on the original topic here. I'd like to make a claim and ask if you all agree. Earlier in the thread, several mentioned that a higher mash temp increases unfermentable sugars, notably dextrins. True. But, dextrins are not sweet! So a higher mash temp...

I'm not familiar with salt water measurements. What unit does it use? And what range does it cover? Most of the refractometers I'm familiar with show Brix, which can easily be converted to specific gravity (I believe Brix units are used more in the food industry, by fruit farmers and...

kh, you're a downer man! Cut me some slack! We're all just here to have fun. :ban: It's in secondary, so no, it's not done fermenting. I do know exactly how much spice I put in... 2 cinnamon sticks and 8 allspice, I just don't know the weights for purposes of this thread. And, to clarify my...

Thanks to both. I don't know the mass but I added about 8 pellet-balls (unit?) of allspice, crushed fresh before adding. I get a lot of trub/lower tank loss in my system so I tend to slightly scale up boiled ingredients (ie hops), so I figured 8 pellets would be fine. I was wrong. All...

Hey folks, first time long time... Quick background to my problem: I'm a reasonably experienced AG brewer and I'm entering a friendly brewing contest at work in early December. I brewed up my entrant last Friday - 6 days ago. So I made a lightly spiced winter warmer. It's dark, in the...