Recent content by TheFlatline

Roll over to the mead portion of the forum and look around there. A sweet mead would probably be right up her alley, and it's stupid easy for you to make. Take honey, add water, throw in yeast (and some yeast nutrient). Let gurgle.

First, CONGRATS DADDY! Ahem... Okay onto the topic. Go with wine for several reasons: 1. As far as I'm aware, there are few beer bottles that will remain airtight for 19 years, and you *will* get oxidation. 2. From what I'm aware of, the majority of spirits stop aging once they are...

Bottle carbing is fiddly, and it also depends on the beer type. I find that swirling the yeast up once a week or so helps somewhat (or just gives me something to do to pass the time). Don't keep it in a cold place (70 is a good temperature goal), and relax. My nut brown ale really doesn't...

Oh hell you're telling me. I just got guilted into brewing up a 5 gallon batch for Christmas. She dropped the guilt trip on me at noon or so, and as soon as I got off of work I went to the brewshop. She better appreciate me dammit.

For most of us, a mash tun is simply a large ice cooler that we've fitted with some form of filter. You dump in your grain, mix in your hot water, and when it's time, you drain off the wort from the grain. A lot of the language is obscure and uses kind of archaic terms, but the process is...

You're right, I should have said "extract recipes" and not "extracts". But any can of muntons or coopers that tells you to add 4 pounds of table sugar isn't going to taste very good.

I'm a level 5 vegan: I can only eat things that don't cast a shadow. Anyway... the only snobbish thing that I feel towards extract are the extracts that require table sugar, and lots of it, for the recipe. I went AG because it's significantly cheaper for me these days. That and the extra...

I've had a coppery, metallic taste in draft beer from a bar that didn't maintain it's lines and served old beer. Nasty stuff.

You'll be fine. I started doing full boils off of kits and didn't notice a terrible amount of difference. I moved to all grain shortly thereafter.

I think the brewer who crafted a 9% imperial stout that was ink black would want to show up and beat to death the college student who tried to beer bong that.

The problem with that train of thought is that you have to boil hops to extract the bittering acids, and after I think it's 30 minutes you destroy most of the flavor of the hops too. My money is on no real change.

You're right, DMS is formed when the wort is hot, not just during the boil. Also, you're absolutely right about the brewery venting off the steam. That's why driving by the Budweiser plant on brew day smells like wet cabbage and a dirty gym sock.

Let's be honest, the college students who suck back an entire case of PBR to get wasted on a Thursday night aren't going to enjoy a beer with very much flavor to it. They're drinking to get drunk, not to drink beer. They aren't the demographic craft beer is aiming at. They don't have enough...

Someone referenced it specifically in a recent thread. I'm not surprised we had zombie thread action.

I'm about to do a roggenbier this saturday. I've got my rice hulls ready, and am expecting the mother of all stuck sparges, seeing as my grain bill includes around 60% rye. My recipe suggests a double decoction on the mash, so I'm going to be really going out on a limb with this first one...