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I'd say the primary contribution is lactic acid from the various lactic acid bacteria (LAB), but they also produce other compounds. Pedicoccus will create a bunch of diacetyl along with lactic acid, which is why it has to be partnered with brettanomyces. Brett converts diacetyl to other more...

If it were me, I'd probably dump it and do a new starter. Otherwise you're pitching a whole bunch of dead yeast cells along with your starter. Most yeast nutrient contains some yeast hulls which are from dead yeast cells, but I don't think it's a good idea to intentionally pitch an entire...

+1 what BrewerBrad said. I'll add, lactobacillus is also very sensitive to the hop oils. My understanding is the oils coat the bacteria which interferes with their ability to metabolize sugars. So even if you keep IBUs low, late additions will inhibit the bacteria's souring abilities...so do...

That's basically it. I have a HERMS system so during the mash I'm using three hoses MT > pump > HEX > MT. I also whirlpool so when chilling I go from BK > Pump > Plate Chiller > BK. I also have a hopback that I use sometimes. I secure the hose on my camlocks with a zip tie. Most people...

That basically is a RIMS, you're just using a really big RIMS tube (your BK). A couple problems I see. Depending on how high your element is mounted, you may have a lot of mash liquid in your BK/RIMS. I have my sight glass mounted as low as possible in my BK and the first volume mark is...

The inside diameter of your fittings will have an impact on flow rates as smaller diameters increase resistance. I switched from barbs to camlock fittings a while ago and haven't looked back. I also use silicone hose as it's rated for higher temps and like you said, you can boil it. I use...

I prefer brighter fresh fruit character to cooked character, so I pretty much always add fruit in secondary rather than in the boil. I usually freeze the fruit first as this will break down the cell walls which improves flavor extraction. It also preserves the fresh fruit character until I'm...

They came from the Seattle Comp Organizer. Yeah, I usually enter at Denver but I decided to try Seattle this year. I think I usually got the Denver score sheets within a week or so of verified results getting posted.

Just got emailed PDFs of my score sheets from Seattle. No indication of placement, but two of my sours seemed to have scored well (38 average in one, 43 on the other). My two stouts didn't fare nearly as well.

I'm not sure if this is going on at all Smith's locations, but my buddy was at the one on 7800 South 5710 West in West Jordan and saw that their stainless insulated growlers were on sale.

That sucks man. Hopefully it wasn't a light crystal or that's going to be a pretty sweet beer.

Yeah, I've been watching that closely trying to gauge how long it will take Seattle's results to get posted. Looks like this will be an exercise in patience.

I love smoked beers and I've smoked my own malt on a couple occasions. Cold smoking is probably the best route as you'll pick up the smoke character while leaving the rest of the malt's character relatively intact, but hot smoking works too. I have a couple large stainless mesh colanders that...

No problem doing this. It could be a fun experiment too, to see how consistent you are brewing the same recipe back to back. For example, you can calculate your mash efficiency, measure and compare starting gravities before blending in primary, etc.

Ha! If my NHC score sheets come back indicating beefy character, I guess I'll know why.

I was kind of wondering about this. I used my HERMS with standalone HEX as a sous vide cooker for the first time this past weekend to do steak and it was amazing. However, I was a little worried going in that there could be some leakage. I used my small batch mash tun and recirculated from MT...

I usually add it towards the end of the boil, but I see no reason why you couldn't add it later. I started experimenting with adding it in secondary in some of my sours (along with a sour culture pitch in secondary), after doing a clean primary.

I'm not sure what you're referring to with "unwanted flavors" from brett. Most people want brett character in a sour unless you're doing something that's supposed to be a little cleaner (e.g. gose). Brett is pretty hardy and feeding it along with the rest of the cultures in the blend at the 15...

Usually the concern is whether those cracks might be harboring flavor-spoiling bacteria.

Thanks, I'll definitely give that a try