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I use the Brewers Friend app, and go heavy. It hasn’t let me down yet.

+ use honey as priming sugar for carbonation

I totally agree with your philosophy. If I ever find myself on the west coast, I will stop by and sample some of your beers! 😁

1.003 is very low for 3787, especially in such little time. Did you compensate for the high wort temp? How dry were your samples? 1.003 is more like a saison dryness.

Belgian yeasts will often throw a solvent, sometimes bandaid taste when green. If the beer is less than a week old, don’t worry about it. Let it sit in the secondary for a couple of weeks, and another 3 in the bottles, and you will more than likely come out with a very good beer.

Yep. They usually call it some kind of “Belgian” 🤢🤮

Kveik seems to be a hearty beast that enjoys a bit of punishment (50 Shades of Kveik?). I like combining yeasts, I was wondering if drying the yeast combo would isolate more of the Kveik rather than the less- hearty strains. I don’t have any experience drying yeast, but apparently flopping some...

You are right. Breweries used to have a good mix of styles. Now the whole menu is either a hop-monster IPA, or Imperial Stout, or Imperial something or other. I like the yeasty Belgians or Hefeweizens, which have fallen out of style. I asked my local brewmaster why he doesn’t brew them anymore...

I cold crashed a bottle last night after a week @80 deg temps. Prett much fully carbonated! The earthy prune flavor is gone. I am still struggling to taste any tropical orange flavors. It is mostly clean with residual sweetness. I am hoping another week or two will dry it out a bit. It tastes...

I should use my refractometer more often. I started out calibrating it with the calculator and all, but would always end up using a hydrometer just to be sure. I like to taste the samples as I go anyway. To ease my OCDness, how accurate are they, and is it worth going through the calibration...

I took a 4 year hiatus as well awhile back. My overzealous nature when it comes to things I am interested in escalated into almost a small microbrewery set up. I scaled down to a reasonable all-in-one system, and remind myself that this is a hobby and should be fun 😀 Is there a rebuild kit or...

I agree with blending when you catch a mistake early that can be fixed with a mix. Later in the game it is harder to pull off. Not every batch will be your best. Set these aside as “everyday” or “table” beer. Use these at parties when most drinkers are not so critical. As the saying goes, never...

And make sure your hydrometer is thin enough to fit in said wine thief to take an accurate reading. Mine is not, so I have to transfer into a wider flask.

I got earthy, prune like flavors off the sample I force carbonated right after fermentation (5 days). Monday it will be a week conditioning at higher temps. I was hoping to get some orange out of it. I plan to blend with Belgian yeasts that favor orange peel in the boil

I like to taste the hydrometer sample as I go. There is no need to sanitize the hydrometer, or the flask if you don’t return it to the fermenter, just the wine thief or whatever you dip into the fermentor.

I would use use the carbonation tablets the homebrew store sells, and maybe a couple drops of fresh yeast slurry if you want to play it safe. Don’t worry about oxygenization, you will be fine. Those caps sometimes don’t dissolve right away, so give the bottles a swirl before capping. The...

I have read that Kveik flocs out so hard, you may need to add bottling yeast. I bottled after 5 days, conditioning at higher temps, outside in full sun. I cracked a bottle after 3 days, while still under carbed, it is coming along nicely. I would say it had about a weeks worth of conditioning...

Bottled today using honey to prime. FG was 1.10, I forgot to compensate for the warm temp. A lot of trub, presumably because of the extra fine crush. Wort temp fluctuated 61-91 degree, with outside temps (full sun) 115-48. Bottle conditioning outside as well. I also have some PET bottles...

Anti foam drops is liquid gold, especially when pushing your equipment to the limit. You can add it to the fermenter to prevent foam overs during fermentation or oxygenation As well. I use the stuff religiously as I often brew indoors. I never have any head retention issues.

The airlock stopped bubbling yesterday evening, so I tool a reading today. 1.008! In 5 days! The hydrometer sample tasted clean, a little fruity, but no “orange bomb” or any other flavor that stands out. I did feel the alcohol ”burn” on the back of my throat, but no off flavors. The sample still...