Recent content by Throckmorton

Cascade hops have a citrus grapefruit flavor that mellows with time. I love to use them in pale ales personally.

I should find out the true test if plastic is good long term. Been lazy and left my pale ale on the trub in the plastic fermentor for a good two months now... maybe longer. Plan on bottling today.

Hey Hop-Head, I said that you needed liquid because I wasn't aware that there was a dry Hefe yeast strain. :D Now that I've looked it up, based on the info, you should be fine. The yeast is supposed to produce a banana clove taste, which is what most people want in their Hefe. That being...

I plan on buying some BB's eventually. They resist O2 better than the #2 plastic buckets, but are a little to a lot more expensive. I will probably buy one or two of these with the racking attachement within the next year.

I agree with brewt00l, but I also think you should try to expand you palate. I think the following should definately be in the top 10: -- Pale Ale -- Stout (I prefer dry Irish) -- Hefe -- Brown -- Bitter I would reserve a 3 or more for lagers... but I haven't brewed those, and don't know...

Hey Pelikan, I realized you made a starter from the yeast cake. Just giving you another option in the future. There is tons of stuff on starters. From what I have read, you want to let the starter go until the activity dies down (around to days), toss the starter in the fridge to cold crash...

I don't know for sure, but I think the difference would be minimal. You can only get water up to 212 F which is the boiling point. If it is simmering, it might be a degree or two under, but I'm sure you are getting the bitterness of the hops. I'd worry too much about playing the cover game...

While I agree with all that is said there... I just don't have the patience! :cross: I usually have it in the primary for 3-4 weeks, bottle, and start sampling after an additional 7 days. The beer definately improves with age.

Never noticed it on mine. I would just give the top a tap to make sure that the airlock isn't plugged and it is still releasing CO2.

You'll more than likely be fine! When I first started brewing years ago, I would bottle after a week straight out of the primary. Never had bottle bombs, but may have just been lucky. Since you left it in the secondary for a bit, you should be even better off. I just recently started leaving my...

I just brewed a batch of pale ale wort that I pitched on a yeast cake. It took off with a bang. This is the first time that I've done this and have read that it has it's upsides and downsides. The good is that it is a nice starter, and you don't have to worry as much about contamination because...

Never saw the whirlpool until now... very cool idea, but you would have to have a recirculation pump correct? If you don't want to go that route and have warm water in your area, I have seen people create both a immersion chiller, and a pre-chiller. The pre-chiller is just a smaller version of...

It doesn't render your carboy useless. If your glass carboy is only 5 gallons, you don't want to primary ferment there because there isn't enough room for the krausen (foam). You can leave your beer in the plastic bucket for up to a month. If you can't get around to bottling it by then, you...

DME = dehydrated malt extract. It has the consistency of powdered sugar and is what I buy when I get ingredients from my local brew shop. It's easier to handle than liquid, but you need to be careful not to get it wet before you dump it into he pot. Otherwise it can be a mess.

I found that creating a checklist of what to do on brew day helped me out a lot until it became second nature. I always forgot to take a hydrometer reading to get the OG, which isn't a big deal.