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Yeah, that's pretty much it. Smack never puffed, but I pitched it any way. I've had smacks not puff and still work, but I was suspicious so I made the White lab starter the next day. After nothing with the starter for 2 days on the stir plate, I pitched the 05. All the starters were low gravity...

I searched through the threads but didn't see actually this question, but apologies if it has been addressed. I asked a friend to pick me up some yeast for porters and pilsners and he came back with a variety of things--not sure why. I used an English Ale smack pack for the porter...nothing. I...

i didn't know that adding sugar during the boil wouldn't do anything...odd that so many recipes for belgians call for so much sugar. what does it do then? i might try a bit of lactose, thanks for the suggestion.

yeah, just not sweet enough for what might usually pass as a dubbel. i mashed pretty low, 148.

i brewed a dubbel 16 days ago that has hit og/fg pretty well, 1.062 and 1.012. i put it in the secondary today and had a taste and it was pleasant but not that sweet. thoughts about bottling or adding more sugar/syrup to it (i added 2 lbs of candi syrup 90 during the boil--5 gallon size batch)?

super helpful, thanks!

i'll probably try the secondary next time. i had planned on doing pb in the secondary, but after the stuck fermentation I thought I'd save for next time...thanks for the ideas!

I plan to double a pale ale recipe to collect 11 gallons of work to boil. Do I just double the sparge amount or does this ratio change? I planned to collect about 4.5 gallons of the first run-off and then sparge until I'm at 11. I'd like to hit an OG of 1.05. Recipe: 11 lbs. 2 Row 5 lbs...

it turned out ok. it did attenuate a good bit, so it doesn't have the mouth of a porter. i'm also missing the chocolate, more of a coffee aftertaste--which i'm assuming is the bitter chocolate...

i'm making a tripel with an og of 1.07. i read--i think somewhere on here--that your starter should be about +/- .01 from your og. i made a 1.5L 1.065 starter in my 2L flask and put it on a stirplate, you can guess what happened. after cleaning my desk, i cold crashed the starter. still looks...

will do!

ugh, i feel like an idiot. i don't know how i didn't know that. i've used it for my last three beers and all were a bit off, but this one by a lot. it looks like with the online calculator that 10 brix is about 1.04 and 6.5 is 1.026, which gives about 3.1% ABV. I'm still about 1% lower. Good...

refrac...

i was in my uninsulated barn and the temp was 20s, so my tun didn't hold as well as it normally would. I started at 155 and after 20 min it had gone down to 153 and by the end it was at 149, so about a 2 degree drop every 20 min. good to know about the sparge...thanks!

I actually didn't use a starter. i used a wyeast pack. the recipe was: 5 lbs maris, 3 lbs brown malt, 2 lbs caramel malt, plus the coco powder. i continuously hopped 1 oz of goldings. i mashed at 170 and kept it at 155-149 for 1 hr in my cooler mash tun. i got about 4 gallons out and then i...

I brewed a chocolate porter two weeks ago and it's stuck. OG before pitching was 1.045 and it is at 1.027 (for a week now). I'm pretty sure I hit all my temps. I did use a lot of coco powder (13 oz.) in the mash tun, but not sure why that would have stopped the yeast. Room temp is 55-60, but I...

i'm game, what does that beast look like?

thanks, i made the switch to starsans but only last week. i'll grab one of those bottle washers. i do soak the bottle caps, but as you say, i'm guessing the dishwasher isn't doing much for me. What did you mean by "Starsan works as long as the surface is wet with it. Once dry its sanitizing...

I clean with pbw, but only if the brewing equipment/buckets are really dirty. Otherwise I just sanitize with Iodophor--soaking everything for 1/2 hr or so and letting it air dry. I did recently go all-grain so, I have new everything (except bottles and bottling wand). For the bottles I usually...

I've made about 16 batches of different beers in the last year and at times have some that foam up and spew when opened. It's never been an entire batch, but definitely a good portion of the bottles. It has not really affected the taste that much--maybe some subtleties lost. For awhile I thought...