Recent content by matt23

Good idea on the sorbate. I was talking to another brewer last night and he suggested the same thing, he actually does this quite a bit when finishing out a batch. Still thinking of cold crashing it though, remove as much as the yeast as I can, then add new maple syrup while stirring to an...

Yeah, I'm trying to stay away from extract though, I've heard others do it and am told it really messes up your system and screws up future brews as it's difficult to get the flavor out of your fermenter or kegs afterwards.

Hi, I'm in the process of fermenting an Amber Maple brew and upon testing, discovered that all the maple flavor is pretty much gone, fermented out, but giving ~15.9% ABV. For the maple syrup, I put in about 20% by volume at the end of the boil, thinking it would be enough for some of the...

Hi, I'm contemplating brewing a 20-25% ABV brew, it seems there are couple options for doing so. Option 1, all grain: This would be making a beer that's normally about 8-9% but would boil down about half of it to get to 15-18%. From this, use a barley wine yeast that'll handle the higher abv...

With making an NA beer, after you've heated it for a certain amount of time and temp to get the alcohol out, how do you know for sure if all the alcohol is gone? I'm making some for people that like good beer but don't want to drink and drive. While I think I may have cooked it long enough, is...

The question being what's happening within the beer after the initial fermentation is done, or when the ABV has stabilized? In general, it seems most beers, and alcohol for that matter, get better with age but I don't understand why. You could say it's more complex sugars being worked on...

Not to change the subject too much, but thinking a fruit beer would be even better lambic style. I found this recipe https://byo.com/mead/item/1749-lindemans-lambic-clone, which suggests using both an ale yeast and a lambic yeast. The process would be adding the ale yeast to the cooled wort, let...

After doing a bunch more research, I'm thinking it'd be better to add the blueberry (or any other fruit) directly to the fermenter. Here's the thinking: If one used actual blueberries, they would be mashed and added directly to the primary fermenter, similar to making wine. Yeah, the yeast...

Many of the recipes I've seen call for adding the blueberry to the second fermenter. As I don't have a secondary fermenter, I'm thinking of adding the appropriate amount to a 1/6 bbl keg and add the beer on top of that, letting it sit for a week before carbonation. Think this would be ok or...

Great idea, you're a genius, will most likely try tonight/tomorrow.

Good point. I started with SafeBrew T-58 and would be adding SafeAle BE-256. What if prep the yeast extra well, such as letting it really foam up in a bit of water first before adding, i.e. it then wouldn't need as much oxygen in the existing wort.

I'm in the process of fermenting a batch of strong ale that I'm thinking I didn't add enough yeast to, debating whether or not to pitch some more yeast in, see what happens. Current Batch OG: 1.070 Current Gravity: 1.031 Apparent Attenuation: 54% A Previous Batch OG: 1.080 FG: 1.017...

Thanks, yeah, I figured I was pushing it a bit. I think I'd done about 20 batches in a row that worked out pretty good without the off-flavors, oh well.

Ok, I think I messed up big time. In summary, I think the beer was too warm when the yeast was added, has produced some off flavors, not sure if there's any way to recover, such as aging/mellowing a bit, or call it a lost cause and move on. What I did was I brewed a Cream Ale that normally...

yeah, starting off at ~65-70 would have been better, but then again, not sure how you'd get around that to some extent. I mean, the amount of sugars provides for much more intense reactions. Starting off at 75 may be a little high but not too much, and definitely within the range of the yeast...