Search results

There are three easy things you can do. 1. Insulate with reflectix http://www.amazon.com/Reflectix-ST16025-Staple-Tab-Insulation/dp/B000BQSYRO 2. Buy a canning element for your stove...

Yes. Homebrewalley 4. Pretty much what I expected. Some esters and to watch my ferment temperature and pitch rates. Described it as very drinkable. I also entered an ESB and got an average of 34! Said it was slightly out of style. It was a kit brew though and if I would not brew it again.

Despite the lack of temperature control on my ferment, I still got an average of 36/50 points on this beer in a recent competition. Not enough to place, but I was definitely in the running. This beer is a definite repeat brew for me. Despite fermenting hot, the esters were still only a...

That explains so much on a couple of recent brews! Maybe 3 months ago the LHBS ran out of American 2 Row which I wanted for a recipe. Being a flexible guy I told them to sub MO. While I'm generally very consistent, I overshot my SG target by a considerable amount. The next two brews I was right...

I guess what is most important is to set the efficiency for your recipes that you usually achieve. If your system gets you an 80% on average, that is what you should probably set your target efficiency at. What I don't think is particularly helpful is constant tweaking of your brewing system in...

I don't understand this focus on efficiency. The more sugars you are extracting out of the grain the more chance that you are going to extract other flavors too. Some may be good, but some probably are going to be bad. On the commercial scale I can see why increasing your average efficiency by a...

1. It is perfectly acceptable for you to just leave the mash sitting there without mixing or recirculating for an hour. The more your cooler is open, the more heat you are going to lose. But it isn't going to hurt anything to open it once about half way through to take the temperature and give...

24 gallons so far for me. 6 gallons of Dunkelweizen 6 Gallons of American Amber 6 Gallons of American IPA 6 Gallons of Oatmeal Stout Its gonna be a banner year!:mug:

Two thumbs up for the Specialty IPA category.

Isn't Crystal sort of a quintissential NW hops? I mean, sure its ancestry is german but it is a hybrid created in Corvallis, OR dating back to about 1980.

No, add it all. The syrup has been cooked with the fruit and is extremely flavorful. The oregon ones are just particularly high quality, no preservatives etc. Cheaper brands are meh...

I have been seeing more and more of these entered into competitions over the last year or two. The problem, as I see it, is that if you enter them in the IPA category 14, you lose because you are out of style. So that leaves the specialty beer category 23, e.g. beers that don't fit anywhere else...

The extracts are ok, and depending on the beer, can be more than adequate. I have just found that in fruit forward beers, the purees give a cleaner, tastier and more fresh fruit flavor. And yes, there are some added sugars in them. You can't just add them right before bottling like you probably...

I would recommend the Oregon canned fruit purees http://www.oregonfruit.com/of.pl?pg=cp over either the extract or fresh fruits. They taste much better and give a more "real" fruit flavor than the extract, are already sterile so no chance of infection, and will provide a much more consistent and...

Jamil has said that targeting really high efficiencies aren't necessarily the best plan. 70-75% is kind of a sweet spot. In one of his podcasts he states that when you are getting really high efficiencies, extra sugars aren't the only things you are extracting but that you are getting higher...

1. I would just make a heatstick. Do a search on this site for links to a plan that is easy and works great. 1500 Watts at 120V is enough to boil 3 gallons of water, but if you are making one, you might as well make two. 3000 Watts at 120v a piece will heat your water that much faster and make...

It is worth it to point out that there really aren't that many BJCP certified or even recognized judges out there. I think you can consider yourself lucky if your beer is judged by at least two judges, and one of them is recognized or certified. I think where that certification is important...

First of all, not being BJCP certified/recognized etc. doesn't mean that your comments are invalid. Nor does having a certification make you infallible I've stewarded at competitions before and have entered my beers to be judged. My experience followed almost exactly the graphs above. I started...

There are some great commercial beers out there. Beers that I try for the first time and am transported to beer nirvana. But I've had the same experience with homebrew too. In fact, the best beer I've ever had was a homebrew. I'm salivating right now just remembering the taste of that golden...

I had a minor blowout in the primary about three days in from the super active fermentation (at 62 degrees no less!). I then transferred to the secondary about a week later. The SG was at 1.020 when I transferred and the beer tasted awsome. There were detectable clove and banana smells and...