Recent content by mensplace

The Emerson brewing site says that beer is bottle conditioned and that they use Bavarian yeast in their brewing, so you may have viable yeast. Soeme breweries do use a different yeast for bottle conditioning than that which is used in fermentation. Shelf life, shipping conditions, and the...

Medicinal beers have been used for hundreds of years. Even the noble hops plant was considered a strong medicinal herb. Herb Beer -- Mrs. M. Grieve

Found this in The Brewers Handbook "Beer is a poor and rather hostile environment for most microorganisms. Its ethanol concentration and low pH is lower than most bacteria can tolerate for growth. Furthermore, the high carbon dioxide concentration and extremely low oxygen content makes beer a...

Kinda hard to "man up" after a day on the john with gut wrenching cramps...man or woman

And...many anaerobic molds & other organisms will kill

peck... others do care one wrong micro-organism, "yeast, bacteria, mold, fungus, protozoa, amoeba, archaea or alien spores from the 13th dimension" can spoil a batch of brew...and totally ruin a day in a host of other ways. relax...you will live longer

In preparing to make a Framboise, I had planned to use some Lactose to sweeten the brew. Fortunately, there came the realization that the wife is severely Lactose intolerant, so this would impact ale making just as much..or more..than the consumption of dairy products. I don't want to kick up...

My question would be...How do you know for sure EXACTLY what mold spores you would be introducing? Could be dangerous. Too, just using wild yeasts and other organisms will NOT make Belgian beers just because you are using belgian styles and steps...that would be like me trying to make San...

Beginning a Framboise today. Certainly one of the most complex processes thus far. Just finished a Pilsen Urquell, so this will be something of a crowning achievement for my wife. Now I have to work on an orderly process to assure I have a firm understanding of each substep.

You have PLENTY of company in the area! WELCOME

This weekend I thorughly enjoyed sampling a broad range of beer styles made by the many breweries in the Asheville NC area. After a few days of pub crawling we enjoyed an evening of Mexican food in the Biltmore Village. When I asked for some sauce that was a tad warmer, I was brought a very...

ERADICATE them NOW! One bag of cornmeal a few years ago and we have been trying to kill them ever since. They can eat through plastic bags and they eat a lot more than just grains. Frustrating to open a box lined with contents in plastic and THERE they are. They love to attach the cocoons to the...

Just as an experiment, I recently wanted to test the accuracy of home thermometers. I have one expensive digital, three with a dial of the top, and two with liquid in a glass tube. My results showed different readings on every one of them..and these were NOT cheap thermometers. Since I do...

When someone comes up with a different shape for glass carboys...as in with built in handles, or even glas carboys with heavy plastic handles added on, I will consider using them again. It only took me one experience of a carboy hitting the floor while full that showed me with glass shards and 5...

I couldn't agree more. I love most styles of brews and drink Laphroaig Scoth, but the peat flavor in the ale is a totally different matter. I thought it would be a great idea, but it was awful...to MY taste.