Recent content by SMOKEU

I'm on my 5th attempt at mashing wheat (50% wheat this time, the other times 60% wheat), and I have yet another throw away batch. The first 4 times I got basically no conversion (like 40% brewhouse efficiency when I expect to get 80% for that grain bill). This time it's a stuck mash. I always...

Good point about the extra additions, especially in the whirlpool. I do get a bit nervous about leaving beer on the dry hops for more than a week as I've read about the potential for grassiness/vegetal off flavours. In saying that I have left beer on the hops for 12 days when I was too lazy/busy...

This is my first time posting a recipe on here so not really too sure what I'm doing, but anyway... Grain bill: 3KG Gladfield American Ale malt (60%) 1KG Gladfield Munich malt (20%) 500g Gladfield Toffee malt (10%) - if you can't find this then I suppose you can use light crystal instead 500g...

I'm terrible at describing this, but yes, I think it could be an astringent taste. I really wish I could describe the taste better. I didn't really consider anything else other than IBUs... I wonder if it has something to do with the dry hopping only, or a combination of the big whirlpool +...

When I used to cold crash with gelatin, I would still have full carbonation after 3 weeks in the bottle, but I would invert the bottles a few times in the first week or so to rouse the yeast back into suspension.

I've had this issue several times now so I think it's unlikely it was due to bad hops. I've made at least 4 batches of each kind so it's fairly consistent. I've brewed a few "clone" recipes of some of my favourite hoppy commercial ales like Behemoth Chur and Epic Pale Ale. Both times they...

My standard pale ale recipe hop schedule is to buy 2x 100g (3.5oz) bags, and then split it evenly between 10 min, whirlpool, and dry hop additions. That makes for a nice, tasty fairly hoppy beer. I usually aim for around 40 IBUs, and then get the rest of the bitterness with a 60 minute addition...

I bottle condition and am very short on fridge space, so unfortunately I don't really get the chance for any proper cold conditioning or lagering (I do have a brew fridge and STC1000 so fermentation temps are never an issue, but I need the space in the fridge to ferment the next batch). I'm...

I just had a look and there's a nice big healthy looking krausen! So I think I can save my US-05 for something else. Next up: buying a magnetic stir plate.

Temperature was a steady 15C (59F). Today when I added the rest of my yeast I bumped it up to 16C (60.8F). This strain (being the same as WLP009) is known for fermenting well at cooler temps than most other ales. I'll keep checking on it. It could indeed be possible that I removed too much of...

Worst case scenario (apart from obvious infection), if it doesn't manage to take off in 48 hours I might just pitch a pack of US-05 that I have laying around in the fridge.

No foam at all on the surface. From my experience last time using this yeast with a 2L size starter I had a lot of krausen after 12 hours so this should be quite fast to take off. I stirred the wort vigorously with my mash paddle up to the point it foams so much the foam almost comes out of the...

I tried pitching onto 1/3 of the yeast cake. 24 hours later no activity at all so I added more of the liquid yeast from the fridge. 24 hours after that no activity either and a hydrometer reading doesn't show any change.

Sweet, it's in the fermenter now. Can't wait!

I've currently got a 1.040 OG Coopers clone in the fermenter that I only used a single 60 minute hop bittering addition with. I plan on making a 1.055-1.060 OG IPA and pitch onto that yeast cake. I want to save some of the yeast cake in a jar for future use. How much of that yeast cake should...