Recent content by SouthForkBrew

+1 ^ I also agree that there are differences, not necessarily benefits and shortcomings, in different brands, but have never cared enough to not brew with what I can get my hands on. And that includes both price and availability reasons.

As a general rule, good tasting water makes good tasting beer. The biggest offenders in off flavors from water are Chlorine and Chloramine, commonly found in tap water. Spring water wouldn't have that so that's a BIG plus! If you're into water chemistry for specific styles then you would want to...

So gas appliances are all rated for different applications and it all comes down to the BTU output and the cubic volume of available room air. On every gas appliance, at least in the US, there is a rating plate or sticker that lists the BTU output, and room air requirements. Modern gas furnaces...

I know of some gas appliances with an ODS pilot that will shut off if the O2 concentration of the room drops below 20%. Generally, those are heaters that wouldn't have the BTU capability of boiling 5-7gallons of wort. If you're talking about a turkey fryer, I wouldn't recommend brewing indoors...

Was a base malt included in your grains? If not then the specialty grains you steeped would not have added much, if any, fermentable sugars. I've found that some brewing calculators assume that there are enzymes present even when there really isn't, and they add in the gravity points of the...

I don't, personally. I use a Brewer's Edge Mash & Boil so at the end of the brew day there is usually some burnt-on stuff where the element is. I just use a little hot water/PBW and scrub it all off after brew day so as long as I've done that then it's usually good to go. The only exception...

Being from where I'm from, I'm a little partial to KY Common beers! One of the interesting things about the style is that it is not well defined from a recipe standpoint. What we know about the style is that it was a rather small-ish beer, amber in color, and meant to be a kind of "working man's...

Hey All! Long time brewer, but brand new to mead here. I made a simple mead a couple years ago and there is still this sulfur on the nose that I cannot seem to get past. I know where it comes from in the beer world, and how to get rid of it if it does, but this has me stumped. Here are the...

It would certainly help to know what flavor you are identifying in the beer. I would assume that it tasted fine going into the bottles, but was not so great coming out of them? If that is the case, there are a few issues that can creep up post-packaging that can happen depending of the...

I had this happen to me once, with almost the same set of circumstances. My beer was also a high-ish gravity ale (I don't remember exactly, but it was north of 1.065), plus I did a two week cold crash out of necessity rather than intention, and used gelatin finings. The beer was damn near...

My apologies, I must have misunderstood the "Why Not?" question from your original post. In all seriousness, there is strong science to support the benefits of reducing HSA in large scale operations. For me, it's never presented an issue. However, for the brewer who gives any of these techniques...

Look, here's how I view Hot Side Aeration(HSA). Now, I could be completely wrong but, on a homebrew scale, 10 gallons or less, I honestly do not see that it is as big of an issue as it is made out to be. The issue of HSA became prevalent when large scale breweries were cranking out 100+ barrel...

Agree with the above. Also, peach is one of the most difficult flavors to work with in my experience. For what its worth, don't expect that classic canned peach flavor to come through, especially if you use fresh, ripe peaches. Which you should!

A hop shot would do the trick, but I think if you did what you described above it would accomplish the same thing. The only thing I would caution you on would be to perform the boil as described but pull a couple of samples and dose your newly hopped beer with varying amounts. That way you don't...

What's up man! I also have a Mash & Boil, (2 actually), and from what I can see you've got most of it set the way I would do it. The thing about these profiles is, that its got a lot to do with your personal process than it does with the equipment itself. For instance, I noticed that your mash...