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I feel that mashing at a higher temp is not the best way for what you are trying to achieve. Sure, a LITTLE less alcohol, but now you have more residual sugars. I would say find a recipe that requires less grain.

I did not know that about rice hulls. That seems like important information! Thank you.

I got some grains from my LHBS and I didn't know that someone (likely a customer since the employees were unaware) changed the gap so that the grain was crushed sooooo fine. I ended up getting a pound of rice hulls to ensure I didn't get a stuck sparge. Turns out a pound of those take up a lot...

The alkalinity according to the city water report is about 40 ppm for treated (tap) water.

Hmmmm. Now I wonder how effective my Star San has been. The water out of my tap has a pH of 9.4. I've never checked the pH of diluted Star San. I treat my mash water to lower the pH, but never thought to do with my sanitizing solution.

I would like to prepare my mash and sparge water tonight, so as to have one less thing to do tomorrow. If I adjust the pH tonight and let sit overnight, will this affect the pH? I would also like to keep the lid off to let chlorine escape. I will probably also add a campden tablet for that...

I started 3 sour beers in the past couple of months using different strains for both the clean and sour microbes. My hope is to be able to blend them, if necessary, at some point. Two of the sours I racked from primary to secondary after about 2 weeks. The third one is a larger batch, since I...

Is there a resource that has descriptions of all different types of connectors (e.g. for valves of a kettle) in one place? Online shops don't really explain what each are used for. The main valve of my kettle has an end that, as far as I can tell, cannot be connected to anything else...no...

I have two sour starters going right now and figured it would make sense to just brew 10 gallons and split the batch, instead of having two brew days to make 2 x 5 gal of the same wort. So, I took my base sour recipe and doubled it in Beersmith. So I don't have to use a ton of grain, I...

I recently brewed a coconut porter that had a metallic taste on the finish. It may be for different reasons though. It may be the malt or even the toasted coconut in my case. But I do use Star San and usually have a good amount of foam in the carboy. Not usually a problem, so I don't associate...

I had a great opportunity today to view some rare books, owned by the hospital in which I work, that have never been shown to the public before. One of the books was a first edition of the English-translated "Studies on Fermentation" by Louis Pasteur. I was able to flip through the book (with...

I just did a simple hydration: - boiled water - poured 4 oz into sterilized jar/glass - let cool to ~100F and pitched in yeast - stir, and then stirred again at 15 min - chilled wort to 68F and pitched yeast What kind of beer are you making? What is the original gravity? Mine was about...

Thanks for the advice. I'll probably also shoot come co2 into the headspace after transferring, if I do.

I know that this has been discussed before: should i rack off of trub for a long-aging sour. I am brewing today and have been thinking about the 5 gal versus 6 gal carboys. I was planning on using a 6 gallon carboy, but that was with the idea that I would rack after a month into a 5 gallon. I...

I see! that makes sense. thank you!

My porter that was fermenting at about 56 (no idea what the internal temp was during peak fermentation) is done and has been kegged. I haven't gotten any off flavors that I would think came from the low temp. Something I am getting is a slight metallic after taste, but that is likely from the...

I'm entering a few beers into competitions over the next couple of weeks. I have been using kegs lately, so the bottles are filled from the keg. I do a pretty good job of making sure the beer doesn't foam. I have been filling as far to the top as i can to reduce the amount of oxygen in the...

Hello all. I am entering my first homebrew competitions. I brewed a bunch the past couple of months so I have a few beers I would like to enter. Two of them have additions. One is a porter with coconut. Another is a hibiscus saison. Would both of these fit into the "30A. Spice, Herb, or...

Yeah, the keg gets shifted a bit. I pull it slightly out of the fridge so I can get to the CO2 regulator that is normally hidden by the kegs.

Someone needs to make a see-through keg that can handle beer serving pressures! I would love to see what's going on in there. The hop bag is suspended by a string inside the keg. If it starts to sink, it only goes about halfway down. After I remove the bag, then there is still plenty of hop...