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Brewed a best bitter yesterday. Anyone have a sense of how quick it works? I imagine cask ale strain = fast?

"Flavors" and "spices" are code for "crap you don't want to know about". Otherwise it looks like sugar and dutch processed cocoa. I won't yuck your yum if you want to try it, though - maybe it's a convenient form factor. I guess calculate unit weight of sugar and assume the rest is almost all...

You can typically linearly scale ingredients. I.e. if you want a 5 gallon recipe, and are starting with a 7 gallon recipe, multiply all ingredients by 5/7.** Per above, assuming 60 minute boil, and 10 lbs if malt, I'd guess you need ~7.75 gallons to start. Thats for 1.25 gallons lost to the...

1. edit: Kool-aid has no sugar. Huh. 2. 1.000 is not complete fermentation because alcohol is lower density than water. 3. edit: at least you won't have bottle bombs; you'll get geysers if it goes poorly, though. Perhaps store bottles in a waterproof container.

Stuff in green bottles is going to tend to use extracts. For Heineken, I'd start with hallertauer mittelfruh when attempting a clone. Grolsch I don't recall much late hop character.

Good to know! I'll update as I go. Also: I may be a dope, and I may own a fir tree. I'll have to ask my wife, who is the plant person.

Permission error - what rate of spruce tip addition did you use? Boil?

Ah, that's important! Yes, ~5.75gal including losses.

I finally got around to brewing with spruce tips. I wanted to share my experience, as I didn't find a lot of information online. edit: False advertising. My spruce turned out to be a fir. Recipe was a strong bitter, mashed a bit high. Hops were 1oz ~6.4% fuggles at 60m. S-04 yeast. edot: total...

Oh, yeah, I just mean you hit a point where theory and practice diverge. Luckily it appears to be well below an acceptable level. Here's another one: Every time you attach a quick disconnect, there may be ~1ml of air above the gasket between the mating QD parts. That 1ml of 21% O2 into a 21L...

At some point all your hoses and connections become the weak point. One should consider diffusion rate into tubing if going to that extreme.

The LD Carlson appeared to be HDPE, which is... not so good. (I'll double check tomorrow - I still have half a bottle sitting around.)

No, actually. It's funny, I didn't even remember writing that.

The packaging they use is quite O2 permeable, as opposed to the foil pouches CSI uses. That was my first concern prior to realizing it wasn't even the CSI product. PS I added the tasting notes, finally.

Weighing in late. Did you use dry yeast? That 100% looks like dry yeast that stuck to the side. Perhaps you swirled the fernenter after pitching.

Taste test as promised. This is the 2023 batch vs 2024 batch of the CSI classic recipe Westvleteren clone. Major differences are: 2023 used 2 lbs CSI D-180 in 5 gallons. 2024 used 2.5 lbs LD Carlson D180 in 5 gallons. 2023 airlick went dry during storage, which likely darkened it and changed...

Nope. I recirc over the IC, then pump into the fermenter at same height as the Brewzilla. Works great. (I do store it upside down in case there's any residual moisture.)

Yeah, I actually removed the T and the bottom valve is not even connected.

For purging, the two most popular methods that don't use 3 lbs* of CO2 are: push out a keg full of starsan, or let fermentation gas slowly purge the keg. The fermentation gas method is a favorite around here. *Review of purge gas weight 21L/keg * 2g/L/atm * 2 atmg * 15 cycles / 455g/lb =...

I find I don't like beer as much after a partial freeze. Can't say what's wrong with it, but it seems to lose some body and flavor. If you're keeping the beer at ~31F or higher it should be OK unless you're crashing with a thermowell.