Recent content by SteveHeff

After the beer has been in the keg for a month now, things have settled down a bit. My glassware may have been a large contributor to the all the foam. I used some smoother and wider glasses which seemed to make things a bit better. Next trip to the homebrew store will result in longer tubing...

Brewed up 11 gallons of wort using 50% pilsner malt and 50% white wheat malt. Ended up with 1.047 sg wort. A friend likes hefe's and I enjoy my lagers so I decided to split a batch...first one I've ever done in 15 years of brewing. Both worts fermented down to 1.012 after 3 weeks. After...

Thanks for all the responses. I started pouring off of the keg 5 days ago. It will make a suitable stout for the next couple of months.

My biggest concern with the substitution was attenuation. I build yeast starters for all my batches which usually end up hitting the top of of attenuation for the given strain. But I do think that mixing yeasts may lead to better beer discoveries. I'm all for it.

I was shocked to see how expensive the smack pack was. I already thought that $7.99 for a pack was a little pricey given the availability of dry yeast strains. It's been probably 3-4 years since I last brewed a stout so looking for a suitable yeast to replace 1084 is on my list. Thanks for...

Hi everyone. This is my first post in about 5 years. I've been brewing on and off for about 15 years but I'm trying to get back into it a bit. Here's what I've been up to. I brewed an oatmeal stout with an OG of 1.061. It was a 10 gallon batch. I keep 5 gallons and typically give 5 gallons...

Perhaps I missed this somewhere in the thread, and I know the viability of dried yeast, but how old were your packets? It sounds like you covered most of your issues outside of the yeast. Pitched a single pack per 5 gallons of wort? I grasping at straw, here. Good luck with the future brews...

I can only offer what I've experienced with S04, although it may not add any real empirical information. When I first started brewing, S04 was my go to yeast due to its availability and general function in fermenting the kind of beers I enjoyed at the time. For my first 5-6 beers that I brewed...

Just as an example of where my water is currently and where I want to brew, I added 8g of CaCO3 (chalk) and 1g of Gypsum to get my dark lager profile at Ca-61, Mg-0, SO4-22, Na-150, Cl-150, HCO3-319...all in ppm. I just brewed this a few days ago and will add to the thread once I have it kegged...

My pre-treated water is terribly high in manganese as well as PFOAs. This water is dangerous to drink and my town has been working on remediation for several of the town wells. My next step is brewing with RO water, but until then I will continue to use my tap.

Hi gang. I've been posting around here for a few years and I finally got into adjusting my water chemistry. This has been a big goal of mine, both in understanding how water chemistry improves beer quality, and making sure I am putting the best beer I can make in the fridge. A few months...

You'll still have beer at the end of this. I don't believe that there is an actual problem here. Report back after you've had a few pints and then we'll chime in.

I have a yeast cake from a lager I fermented and transferred 4 days ago. I've been holding it at 40F still in the sanitized bucket I fermented in. How long can I hold this before I should consider dumping? Looking to brew tonight or tomorrow. Thanks in advance.

5 gallons nut brown 5 gallons Kolsch 10+ 1957 = 1967

Czech lager. Been in the kuhlschrank for the last 3 months.