Recent content by spenghali

Sounds like this could be attributed to the IBUs of everyone's wort

23 ounces of hops seems insane for 5 gallons. In my opinion, if you employ certain techniques, such as moving all your hops to a hop stand (except the bittering charge) at the right temperature, dry hopping 2-3 times (3-4 days contact), and flushing all vessels with CO2 when possible. Dry hop...

No self-respecting Oregonian will tote Rogue as excellent craft beer these days.

When did you take your sample for gravity and where was it pulled from? Your wort might not have been homogeneous...

Yea they should be nearly airtight. Whenever I open one it takes some effort and has a good vacuum just from having some silica in the bottom.

Also, it might be possible to obtain isolation from streaking on WLD, then separating based on acid production, as LAB will have much higher acid production. Or mounting individual colonies on slides for morphology/size comparison. Brett will obviously be much bigger than bacteria.

You might be able to use a desiccator with a candle, though I am not sure if the seal would be air tight. They are usually used to remove moisture from a system using silica. They have large openings...

The real thing to take home is that everyone's palate is different due to genetics. Small sample sizes from sensory panels may not be representative of the population. Heck, some people cannot even perceive certain bitter compounds while others can (such as caffeine). It is a complex science and...

I agree, though as said plastic is an issue sometimes, no matter how good you clean and sanitize. Old plastic fermentors will inevitably be scratched. Not sure why you would need a different CO2 tank and regulator, as positive pressure will keep these from becoming contaminated.

I think you should be able to get JP in Seattle. If not, there is plenty in Portland if you happen to make it there ever.

I suspect that is from you unbder pitching with a 6 month old jar of yeast

Coleman used to offer those cylindrical 70 qt xtremes but I cannot seem to find them anywhere online anymore. Anyone have a source or an alternative? Thanks.

You will not get rid of the ester profile by lowering the temperature. Ale ester profiles are created mostly in the first 2 days of fermentation, but as long as 5 days in some cases. You should maintain your fermentation temperature of 20-22 to let the yeast finish the ferment and clean up by...

It was brewed 3/20/14 as a mixed fermentation. So 7 months is a pretty substantial amount of time. The usual flavors are there and an awesome pie cherry aroma w/ a mild funk, just finishes with a ton of DMS. Also, at the time it was brewed that culture would have only been a few generations in...

Background: So I brew a lot of brett beers and to keep cost down, I maintain cultures of different strains. I recently kegged up a B. Lambicus saison, upon tasting, there is a significant level of DMS, in fact, an offensive amount. I've never had problems with DMS before, I boil vigorously for...