Recent content by rwashko

Hey All, I'm considering brewing a version of Goat Scrotum Ale with sriracha hot sauce replacing the peppers. My problem is this: I don't know if the amount of potassium sorbate in a few tablespoons of sriracha is enough to keep my yeast from doing their thing. Does anybody have any...

Thanks for the advice. This one had 1lb 8oz of cane sugar, the mash was stepwise with 30min@120F, 30min@140F, and 30min@160F, and the final gravity was determined with a temperature corrected hydrometer reading. I actually just let my anxiety get the best of me, chilled one and drank it only 3...

I recently brewed a batch of gold strong ale using Wyeast 1762 belgian abbey II. The OG was 1.072 and it fermented out to 1.002 (expected 1.018). The beer tastes great, but my (limited) understanding is that such an extreme attenuation can only mean contamination. I did ferment a little high...

I recently brewed a chili lime saison. I used the juice and zest from 5 limes in a 5 gallon batch. When I tasted the wort prior to fermentation there was no lime flavor at all. I used Wyeast 3711: french saison and fermented hot (71F). OG was 1.043 which was dead on what my software told me...

I'm thinking that I want my next beer to be an all grain chili lime wheat ale. I haven't noticed many recipes using lime juice in the mix so I was just wondering if a significant amount of lime juice (I'm thinking roughly 1 cup in 5 gal) will throw the ph of my brew off enough to keep the yeast...

My last two batches have been all grain. Before that I've done maybe 10 extract batches. Each batch has fit roughly into the same OG range (around 1.060) and each of them has been in the same room at roughly 72 F. I'm confused because my all grain batches ferment out in half the time of the...

I was hoping it had something to do with the high temp. Thanks so much for the feedback!

Less than a week ago I brewed my first all grain recipe. According to my software the OG should have hit at 1.067 (Actual: 1.065) and FG was estimated at 1.017. The fermentation took off rapidly for two days followed by slowing drastically. I checked the gravity when it slowed down and again...

The gravity was 1.065, supposed to be 1.067 so I wasn't at all concerned. Thanks for the feedback, takes a load off my mind.

So I just finished my first all grain brew. Might be the most fun I've ever had. But there's a good chance I made a mistake. I was using a recipe from a book that focuses on extract recipes with some side notes to convert them to all grain. when I boiled my wort I followed the extract recipe...

Thanks for the feedback! Somebody asked for the recipe, I got it from the link below. http://beerrecipes.org/showrecipe.php?recipeid=643 I think if I were to do it again, I'd add more chocolate malt and cut back on the blackberries. I tried it when I took the sg yesterday and it was a...

I have a blackberry porter sitting in secondary right now. Per the recipe, I added quite a bit of pureed fruit in the secondary along with the original beer. There is a good inch and a half of fruit sludge on the bottom of my carboy. My concern is that when I move to a bottling bucket, I'm...

I'm trying a recipe for a blackberry porter. The recipe calls for frozen blackberries, and it says to thaw them and put them in the secondary when I transfer over. My question is do I need to pasteurize them before doing so, or should the alcohol content keep the nasties at bay? Thanks for...

The first recipe I made up myself was a brown pumpkin ale. Everything is going smoothly, except when I transferred to secondary I tasted my creation and it had a really weak flavor (understatement). Can I add some pumpkin pie spice/hops to the secondary, or even just add spice to the bottles...

I'm very new to homebrewing, but I'm already in love. I've got myself thinking 4-5 recipes in the future. My question is how far in advance can I buy ingredients and still count on their freshness? I've already been told that hops is something you should use fairly quickly after you buy it...