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I've been brewing for~17 years and still brew all over the map. I like most styles of beer, and enjoy the challenge of brewing something new. I don't think I've brewed the same recipe twice (at least, deliberately) in the past decade. Like dsorenson said, the flavor palet of beer is simply to...

Usually we do the whole mash, but if leaving it for a whole week you may want to consider souring only 50% of it. I'd be cautious though - unless you can guarantee the temps will stay above 37C/98F (by a minimum of+2C/+4F) you run the risk of allowing a lot of the off-flavour producing bugs to...

Like I said, there is a lot of mis-information out there. But don't forget - if you cannot keep the temperature above 37C/98F an oxygen barrier will help prevent the formation of acetic acid. Its not that it's useless, its just that its importance has been overstated. Bryan

I always stirred, if I had to guess, for 30 seconds or so to equal out the temp. As I mentioned in my earlier post, if your temperatures are above 39C/100F introducing oxygen should not result in off-flavours as the bacteria that produce those off flavours are inhibited at those temps. Its only...

I've done it two ways. "Historically" (as in, upto ~5 days ago) I made a thick mash in a cooler-style mash tun, dropped in a temperature probe to monitor, and added boiling water when the temp gets low. I would usually wrap the cooler in a few sleeping bags to help maintain temps. The thick...

I taste my sour mashes all the time - but I also keep them above 37C (98F). The only time I had a vomit aroma was the one time I forgot about the mash, and let the temp drop to ~33C (91F). Oxygen has nothing to do with the formation of those aromas though; those are from the enterics and they...

There is a lot of mis-information out there about sour mashing, including the impact of oxygen. When sour mashing you are actually doing two things: 1) you're creating conditions under which lactobacilli will rapidly sour the wort, and 2) you're trying to create conditions which impair the...

There are a lot of manufacturers who make good flasks. What you want to get is a flask made of pyrex or borosilicate glass (same thing, different name). These are resistant to heat-related cracking and are fairly tough when it comes to bumps and drops. Cheaper flasks are often other types of...

I'm afraid that Edcculus is, indeed, wrong. As is his source. FWIW, I'm a working microbiologist/immunologist, and if you follow the link to my blog you'll find many posts on harvesting wild yeasts (including one from cider apples, though-be-it, not Saccharomyces). In the wild yeasts are...

I freeze my cultures, Brett & sacc both. In a conventional freezer they appear to last for 3 years before needing to be recultured. If you have a frost-free you need to keep the tubes in a cooler with some ice packs to protect from the defrost cycle. In either case, store the yeast in a mix...

You should be able to just buy YPD pre-mixed. But there are a number of cheaper/easier options. I'm a fan of potato-starch agar myself: http://wiki.bugwood.org/Potato_dextrose_agar Grows most organisms we'd be interested in, can incorporate selective agents like specific sugars in place of...

Keep the ferment running - oxidative yeasts really kick ass the first few days and tend to overwhelm everything else, but given time the sach & bret will take over. In my current run I'm planning on my first "harvest" around day 30, and every 20 or so days after that. I'm a bit surprized by...

Its not always hard to tell what you have growing - depending on your resources. I've developed (well, copied) a DNA-sequencing based approach for species ID. It works pretty well - assuming you have access to a PCR machine & DNA sequencing lab... Bryan

The presence of mold is generally a bad sign, often a sign of preparing the sample in a dirty/dusty place &/or in too moist an environment. Most wild ferments should appear clean, with no filamentous molds/etc (other than normal bacterial pellicles/etc). Molds typically won't grow in liquid...

If you follow the link in my sig, I have a whole section on my blog about capturing/characterizing wild yeasts. I've not done the best job keeping it upto date, but there is some stuff there that may help you out. As for your yeasts, growth rates are not sufficient for species identification...

The first 24-36 hours. Ester precursors are produced in that time period, so that's when you need the control. The wet t-shirt method is probably good enough. Bryan

Brett is not required, and you generally need prolonged ageing to get their character to really shine through - I.e. summer will be over. You do need to worry about temps with saisins - too much heat too early on can give you too many esters, making for an overly-fruity brew. Generally, you...

If you follow the link in my signature I have a couple of posts on using gelatin & the science behind it. Long story short, the gelatin will clear your beer at warmer temps, but not as well as at cooler ones. Cooling decreases the solubility of proteins, so more will get pulled out. At warmer...

He's just mad because he got slapped around after declaring that everyone who didn't share his exact sense of humour was a stick-in-the-mud.

Never seen that one - thanx for giving me something new to try - a test episode is already downloaded onto the phone, for listening on my bike ride home tonight! B