Recent content by noblesquirrel

Hops change harvest to harvest as well. Also depends on where they were grown, too.

That's fair. This may be my last year entering; we shall see. I know I'm slowing down on comps overall for entering. Judging is another story. I judge around 17-18 competitions a year and next year will be judging GABF for the first time.

I'll be judging starting tomorrow here in the Chicago region, then on Friday & all day Saturday. Here's to hoping we get through all of the beer in a reasonable amount of time. It's actually less beers than the hosting club had in the Drunk Monk Challenge a month ago, so should be doable. I've...

Also, I note that you made a number of mentions of other sour categories. The most recent iteration of the style guidelines are set to be released in the next month or two and do include numerous sour and wild ale categories, so you'll have a better place for them in the future. The idea being...

I think there's a misconception here. Fresh is not the same as young. Freshness is when a beer is ready and well taken care of. Not old or stale. Certain beers take longer to be ready, that's just the nature of brewing. I'd also say that there are a lot of people that are serving beer far too...

They are one of the original "catty" hops and are ancestors to a lot of the modern varieties of American hops...

Session IPA is totally a marketing term. For instance, Oskar Blues Pinner is 35ibus & 4.9%abv. It's a straight up pale ale. APA has shifted that way. The old school types of APA are closer to what are considered Amber Ales now. Even beers like SNPA & Alpha King are pushing back towards Amber vs...

My only concern would be what's in the can with the fruit.

I've taken the fruit, while frozen, and hit it with the blender to break it up. Then I'll let it sit overnight in the fermenter to thaw out before pitching the yeast. Works great.

I wouldn't be worried. I regularly use buckets with loosely fitting lids for primary fermentation and then age/condition in carboys. Oxidation isn't an issue in any of my meads.

I'll third the use of beer bottles. Just make sure it's done fermenting and stable before bottling...

Actually, maillard reactions aren't the same as caramelization. They do occur in the boil. That has been proven. Caramelization, though, does not. As to the discussion of stove top caramel, that does occur at hotter than 212, but you can make candi sugar with inverted syrup and an addition of...

Probably not. You just think you can. Really fresh, high quality DME in anything but the lightest flavored beers is virtually indistinguishable. Now i you're using the liquid stuff, particularly if it has any age or O2 exposure to it, I could see. The main reason people *think* they can taste...

Yeah, you really shouldn't need more yeast, though...

3# of honey + 1g of water is not the same as 3# of honey for 1g of mead. The latter is 25% (roughly) less water than the former. Also, adding raspberry puree and juice will DROP the overall gravity, not raise it. Unless it is replacing part of the water.