Search results

Here's the recipe. My LHBS was out of London III, so I used Juice. Worked great! https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/1233059/cricket-british-strong

Beer turned out great! One of my favorite beers I brewed this year. Two ounces seemed perfect. Nice EKG aroma and flavor. I have it entered in an upcoming comp. Will try to remember to post the judge's comments. It's a bit overcarbed at this point, but otherwise I feel like they are going...

It seems to be working! Plan is that once it fills the balloon, the airlock will kick back in. Then when I could crash I plug the airlock. Wish me luck!

Solid advice, all around. The good news is that it doesn't have a ton of hops. If it was a NEIPA I wouldn't even risk it. I do belong to a club, but I don't know any of the brewers well enough yet to see if I could borrow their system. I will say that I personally have very little interest...

Thanks - that looks a bit like the system I am planning to set up. I do have a can of Co2, but I am going to try to capture some at the end of fermentation. Plan is to use a fermenter cap with two holes, with the air-lock in one and the balloon in the other. Hopefully the balloon will...

yeah, it will probably be tastier with some more time. The one flavor I might get is some more pronounced grain, which could be a good thing. I don't actually know if they will store the beer cold, but my guess is not. People are not dropping off or shipping their beers cold, and I don't...

So it sounds like trying to time when to put on the balloon could be a challenge. From the other post, though, I think I can just fill it up and close it. Then use it when it's time to crash. I have had those balloons (filled with helium) last for weeks, so I bet it will hold the C02 for a...

Cool - thanks! I didn't realize they could be closed and re-opened.

On a related note... Has anyone tried the balloon trick on the fermenter to help avoid oxygen suck-back when cold crashing? When should the balloon be attached? Toward the end of fermentation, of course, but is there a rule of thumb? With 5 expected gravity points left, for instance?

Interesting idea about the tag! I strictly bottle, so we'll have to hope for the best with the carbonation. Most of my beers are ready after one week. I do think it might be too green to do well, though the freshness could lead to some nice bready grain flavors. The good news is that I will...

Dropping off. I think they are doing remote judging, so hopefully they won't chill them until after they pick them up.

12 ounces. Another plus is that they probably would not be bottle bombs after just 10 days... It does seem like a long shot, but at least I might have a chance. The first version had major astringency issues...

I ask because I have a bit of a challenge and I think cold crashing might help... The Belgian Golden Strong I brewed did not turn out right, so I dumped it. I changed the process I think was the culprit (too hot sparge) and brewed it again yesterday. The challenge is I plan to submit it for a...

That's a bit over my head, which goes to show there is always more to learn... But I can certainly raise my calcium. I usually just get it to 50. I could use acidified grain instead of a lactic acid, but I can't really reduce the acid and hit my mash ph. Unless I switch to RO, which I don't...

Cool (pun intended), I will give it a try. I wonder why the water needs to be hot in the first place? We are rinsing sugars, not mashing. But then there is the mashout that I have never quite understood. I also read that you are supposed to stop sparging when your ph hits X (is it 6?)...

So, I am rebrewing the beer that had astringency IMO. I just tested the sparge water and it's 4.0 ph. So, that likely means it was under 6 last time... So even if I sparged too hot, it should not have caused astringency, correct? So where did it come from..? Someone on this thread mentioned...

Just to put more data out there... Now that my beer is fully carbed, I consider pitching at 75 to be a failed experiment. It just didn't help the beer, and I am now detecting some fusels. I'll be pitching at 67 or so from now on....

The starting alkalinity from the tap was 73 ppm Cac03. Not sure if that is high or low? Makes sense to treat the waters differently. I have seen that option on the water calculator. It just always seemed easier to treat all the water at once. (Which is probably why 9 ml seems high to you. I...

It's certainly possible. My latest beer was fermented on the hot side, so some fusels may be in there. But I have gotten dinged by judges for astringency that I can't even notice, so I am thinking I might need to make some process improvements. So far I have a few things to try next time...

I use a calculator to predict the mash ph, and test that with a ph meter. Always hit between 5.2 and 5.5. I use lactic acid to treat both the mash and sparge water at the same time. BUT I have never tested the ph of just the water before adding it to the grain. The mash ph calculator...