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Add the SMS right before mashing in, after the yeast cleaned up the water, because the SMS will inhibit yeast activity.

Good idea. I use about 1 gram per gallon each of instant bread yeast and granulated sugar. I use an electric kettle so it's easy to set the temp at around 105F and let them prepare the water. Yeast is like magic!

This thread captures something we all endure. The countdown.

I think you could both clean and sanitize very quickly with this method, but having the bottle upside down might be necessary to simultaneously flush it.

I think steam cleaning is totally viable for these bottles as I mentioned. But for this I only tested a few old bottles for fun.

The reason why this is going to work in my case is because I am keeping these bottles at 175-180F for around 5 minutes by heating them no faster than they would air cool. It seems to happen slow enough to stay in control. You can control the temperature and flow of the steam. I am not relying...

It's not hospital grade sterilization. However neither is star-san. Anyway, a steam cleaner can heat the bottles to over 200F. I quickly went back and measured them with an infrared gun and heated them more as needed. I really think it's gonna work although very valid concerns raised. There...

I like your term Steam Treatment. Yeah, the steam treatment actually cleaned them from start to finish in seconds. It began as an experiment, but I saved 45 minutes off the bottling process on Saturday. And who knows how much $ in supplies. Super easy. Just spread them out, or leave them in the...

I'm probably not the first one to do this at the homebrew scale, but I had an idea to get a cheap steam cleaner with an extension on the nozzle that fits into the mouth of the bottle. I just moved the wand with the extension from bottle to bottle. Sure enough, the steam rapidly heated the bottle...

Typically, decreasing the malt bill results not only in a lower ABV beer, but also one with lighter mouthfeel and body. In turn you might want to think about the hop/malt balance, where decreasing the DME by a lb without also decreasing some bittering hops would likely result in a beer that...

And for the reasons you mentioned, one will almost always win out. How long that takes to happen also depends on these factors. So if you mix two strains, it's not like you have an indefinite ratio.

What you see sounds like a krausen film, no? Smelling yeast during fermentation isn't always nice. It can be sulfurous, sour, mildewy, cardboardy, cidery... all sorts of stuff. Taste is a much better indicator of the beer quality but even that changes as time goes on and the yeast finish up...

If it's dead it wouldn't be harmful, but that would be pretty unlikely given it was sealed. Looks dead though.

in plain sight

Anyone ever try adding Champagne (sparking wine) to a Saison? I have 16L of (basically) the same recipe I posted above and am thinking about adding 3 oz Brut California Champagne to half the the batch between krausen and bottling.

I decided to go for it. I plugged the fermenters shut. They're already 45F right now. Not really worried about pressure building, + or -. I'll monitor. Thank you for the reply. Almost wanted to "lager" them all but it will be a good comparison.

I kinda like a long boil! I do 120 minute-boils sometimes. I'm not convinced I could taste the difference between a 30-minute or 120-minute boil in a blind test. I often boil for 80-90 minutes because it slows things down, gives me a minute to eat a meal, measure hops, and clean things up. I do...

Using Wyeast's 2565 (Kolsch) strain, I've fermented simple yet aromatic "Kolsch-inspired" beer in four 4-liter fermenters for a total of 16L. It's tasting perfect so far after 13 days. I started around 62F before ramping up. I was debating on whether to do any lagering, and I've decided to split...

According to a few sources, below, Brewtan B is a natural gallotannin -- ie tannic acid for brewing, like you said. It is used to improve clarity, shelf life, and flavor stability. It causes proteins to precipitate out, reducing chill haze and preventing staling. It's also an iron chelator...

3711 is one of my favorite yeasts, even the starter tastes good. I always refrigerate my starter and decant before pitching. It was the second yeast I ever got, after WLP001. From session beers to 12% ABV behemoths to a robust biere de guarde, this yeast is a beast and very nicely flavorful. I...