Search results

Hey all: I thought I'd post a recently brewed Bier de Garde. This is the first time I've brewed it as a partial mash, and I think it may be one of the best beers I've ever brewed. It's very malt forward, with bready, honey, and herbal notes, and moderate bitterness. I'd love to hear your...

Don't worry too much about turbid mashing -- I guess you won't have a particularly traditional lambic without it, but you'll get a very good beer. I've made a few beers, both traditional lambics and sour beers with not so traditional grain bills using nothing but the Wyeast lambic blend. You...

Late extract additions serve a couple of purposes: 1) you will increase your hop utilization from the earlier hop addition. I'm not sure by exactly how much, but I'm pretty sure equations that predict IBUs take into account the specific gravity of the boiling wort. 2) this will decrease the...

I could be wrong, but I thought Bret forms a pellicle when acting is the presence of oxygen. Depending on what you using for primary you may get one, or not. Plastic buckets have a large amount of 02 transfer, even more than a barrel, so if your primary is plastic you may get one. If you're in...

It may be that the few yeast that survived the original 150F rehydration are just taking their time reproducing... it may take a bit longer to finish the ferment. I doubt it will take the full 2 weeks to complete, however. Let your hydrometer guide you. Once the gravity stops falling you're...

How did you clean your bottles? Dishwasher on high heat, starsan or using the oven? How about the bottle caps? These are a couple of places that you might have picked up a soapy taste or something that might wreck your head retention. I doubt that steeping the grains for 60 min vs 30 min had...

Hey all, I just started partial mashing using Revy's 2gallon cooler technique ( https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/mr-beer-read-all-about-ask-questions-46360/index18.html#post785533 ) so I'm still a bit new at picking my mash temps. This is a recipe based on one I made a while back and loved...

How's the malt sweetness/hop balance? The malt bill looks lovely, but any bitterness you have to balance out that 1.020 may fall off during the cellaring these beers can handle. Just my two cents -- as KyleWolf said, if it tastes good, it's all good. Is the gravity continuing to drop in...

I'm not very experienced in this, but I do have a couple of sour beers under my belt at this point. I'd say 8 months is still a bit early depending on how much work the US05 did before the bugs got to it. Neither of the sour beers I have bottled tasted very good until about 12 months, at which...

Hey, I was wondering how this turned out. My buddy is about to buy his first brew kit and is a huge Belgian beer fan. I was hoping to give him more info about the different strains than is available on White labs web site. -Aaron

So -- I realize I let this thread die, and maybe should not have. The beer is actually wonderful. Since it was a preasent for SWMBO, I've kept my greedy hands off, which means there's still a little less than a case left. It took a while for the bugs to eat through all the sugars provided by...

I don't have too much experience here, but I'd wait. The last time I dry hopped when I transfered to secondary, which re-started the fermentation. I lost a lot of hop aroma out the airlock. My two cents: hold off until you're at, or at least close to, target gravity. -aaron

I don't have too much experience here, but I'd wait. The last time I dry hopped when I transfered to secondary, which re-started the fermentation. I lost a lot of hop aroma out the airlock. My two cents: hold off until you're at, or at least close to, target gravity. -aaron

Just to make things a little more complicated in a beer that already has a lot of interacting flavors: A 30 min hop addition with middle of the road alpha hops that have earthy character might round out your beer while adding a couple of extra ibu's. And a somewhat related question for...

On a related note: If splitting batches, what should one ferment in? is a typical Ale Pale, or 6.5 gallon carboy ok? or should I ferment in a smaller vessel?

Maybe I should qualify my earlier statement. You can certainly formulate your own recipes by mixing and matching grains from various recipes; especially if using an online recipe program that will help you reach certain style goals. You'll most likely end up with a very drinkable beer -- but...

I think trying to make your own recipes may be a bit of a challenge at this point. I'm about 10 brews down the road from you (maybe a few more), and have tried once: it's tricky to get everything to balance. My advice: either buy a recipe book and start there, or start checking the recipes...

At first I was using a lot of 22s because I just don't like bottling... but since a buddy and I have been brewing almost exclusively big Trippels, Imperial Stouts and Barleywine, I've been trying to use mostly 12 oz bottles so that I can still walk the dog after drinking one or two, with a few...

Slomo: I'd let it be for a while. Check a reading at 7 and 10 days and see where you are/where you're going. Most of this scientician talk about attenuation rates goes a bit above my head, but it seems to me that either way you'll want to wait a while to see what yeast you did pitch does. If...

Ok -- I futzed around with the specialty malts. I figured 8 oz each Cara-pils and 60L Crystal gave me a slightly darker colored beer with better head retention and body. I'm heading to the store this afternoon, hopefully brewing tonight or tomorrow AM. I'll keep y'all posted. Thanks for...