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I don't always put crystal in my American IPAs (I often do, though), but I ALWAYS put crystal in my APAs. It might only be 3-4%, but I just feel like APAs should have some amount of crystal in them. Usually C40, but sometimes C60. I do notice, though, that both American IPAs and APAs have really...

It only really comes up when you specifically try to compare the products of your hobby with a commercial version. You can't say "It's so much cheaper to play basketball myself than to buy tickets to the NBA!" or "It's so much cheaper to write and record your own music than to buy albums!" since...

I took another gravity reading and it got even lower than I had expected. 1.005 for an apparent attenuation of 86%. Not quite the 89% of my last lager with 34/70, but still way more than I expected. It has a very clean and pleasant flavor. At this point, I can say that I will probably end up...

The idea of saving money by making beer has never even occurred to me. At the very least, the time I lose brewing instead of working can make homebrew cost several times what it would cost to buy the beers commercially. And yes, everything remotely related to homebrew in Japan is way more...

Peaches, sour cherries, raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, blackcurrants, grapes, and on and on and on and on. Infinite options for "fruit juice" in those days. The problem with fruit juice hundreds of years ago is that they wouldn't stay juice for long because they would start naturally...

I tested it 8 days after pitching the yeast and there was no diacetyl or sulfur in the smell or flavor. It's only 78% apparent attenuation, though, so I think it can still probably fall at least one more point, possibly a few more. The flavor is surprisingly clean for having been fermented at...

It tasted very good. The rum flavor was a bit stronger than I thought it'd be, especially considering the relatively small amount in there, but it had a nice mouthfeel and a decent amount of chocolate flavor (though, again, not as much as I'd like). I made several other stouts after that: a...

I pitched at 25C (78F) and fermented at 24C (76C) to 26C (79F), and no fusels.

It's a West Coast Pilsner, so it's more about tons and tons of hoppy aroma and flavor with whirlpool hopping and keg hopping, so it's pretty much the opposite of the most popular kind of traditional lager with, say, just a single small 60 minute bittering addition and maybe a subtle late aroma...

Good to hear. In that case, I'll only do a diacetyl rest if I taste any diacetyl in it during my first gravity test.

It's one of the reasons why I started brewing this when my keg is already mostly full. I won't even be able to transfer it from the fermenter to the keg until the beer that's currently in there is gone, so I plan to keep the temp in the 60s until there is zero diacetyl or sulfur, then cold crash...

I won't make the claim that this is the first beer I've ever made where sulfur was produced, but it's definitely the first where I've noticed a sulfuric smell. And interestingly enough, the first 3 days of fermentation did not have any sulfuric smell, but today it's this massive rotten eggs...

Right. I definitely would build a starter if I was working with liquid yeast. With ale yeasts, sometimes that was a bit of a pain, so I'd just pitch two containers of liquid yeast, but with lager yeast, I'd probably build a starter. On the bright side, even with a roughly 20% reduction in...

My previous lager was fermented at 57F-59F and I had planned on fermenting this one at 59F, but I guess this will be an experiment to see how well this yeast does in the 60s.

Glad to hear. I don't plan to do the 68F-72F warm-fermenting of lagers I see a lot of folks doing, but I do plan to do warmer than I've done before (probably 63-65F) just to be on the safe side. I've seen quite a few folks talk about being unable to tell the difference between a lager fermented...

3.4 gallons.

I've done more than 100 gallons of West Coast IPAs, but I'm relatively new to lagers in general, though the West Coast Pilsner I made back in December was described by my wife as better than any commercial lager she'd ever had, so I have that going for me, I guess.

It's 3 gallons in the keg, but 3.4 gallons in the fermenter. But I think you guys are definitely right that those calculators are INSANELY overly conservative. I just got home from dinner with my wife at a nice Italian restaurant and then a craft beer bar, and I already have airlock activity...

In this case, I went with Columbus for bittering, Chinook for whirlpool (aroma and flavor, but not quite as strong as dry hopping), then Columbus, Chinook, El Dorado, Amarillo, and Galaxy for keg hopping (basically dry hopping but in the keg at fridge/lagering temperatures). Personally I do...

Thanks. So you think that me having the controller set to 17C (63F) should help make up for the loss of 15-20% of the yeast in the package? I've just been wondering whether I should raise the temp higher or if the yeast calculators assume a temp of say 45F / 7C and a temp in the 60s F / mid...