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I believe yeast selection and pitch rate are the largest determinants of how quickly you can make beer. No matter what you do with your process, you will always be waiting for the yeast to do something. Everything works better with cleaner, faster yeast pitched at a high rate (*note: Not talking...

Right now I am really getting burned out myself, from competing. Every other competition I'm either absolutely killing it or getting totally shut out. Most of it is absolutely my fault, bad packaging, bad beer, or otherwise, but some of it is just bad luck or poor competition organization or...

I use a bag on my all in one brewer. It's improved my lautering efficiency and prevented all the stupid grain leakage past the bottom that used to gum up my pump and valves. It's basically a Unibrau that @Bobby_M modified to function like his BIAB systems, which is frankly the best option on the...

I believe overnutrition is contributing to the younger generation's reduced interest in beer. Human beings for millenia didn't just rely on beer as a source of sanitary water but as a source of literal energy as well. One of the main reasons alcoholics perish is actually malnutrition as alcohol...

IMO, the craft beer boom/bubble permitted mediocre breweries to exist. I am optimistic that the beer scene will be far better on the other side of the "recession" we're currently in. While beer is certainly in a decline, it will never go away, and we are objectively, worldwide, producing the...

"Takes a while to clear" is an understatement. I don't think I've ever brewed with a strain less flocculant than Novalager. I hit my serving keg with gelatin twice, and it still never poured clear for the couple months I had it on tap. Notty is also pretty bad, but I've never had a beer just...

If you keep your eyes peeled on eBay, you can snag a deal on expired bricks once in a while: https://www.ebay.com/itm/226235246516

If you have the ability to ferment in keg under pressure, I would try Nottingham over Novalager at 66°F. I don't exactly understand what Novalager's purpose is in Lallemand's porfolio, other than to say "we have a pastoranius strain that works well at higher temperatures". To me Nottingham is...

I did a split batch of this against OYL-016 Fuller's, using the same English Brown wort, identical fermentors, and 68°F constant fermentation temp. These strains have a lot in common. They both fermented out with virtually identical kinetics and finished at similar terminal gravities with the...

You can just leave the temps where they are for the blonde and IPA, IMO. Just make sure the airlocks are topped off. The BGS, I would park it at 75° to finish up. Assuming you're using Duvel, it might still be creeping a tiny bit when you get back depending on how much you pitched.

Or just jam two of these in one and pressure ferment while you're at it. Built in floating dip tubes. Just saying. Link to the cheap spunding valves I love from Kegland.

I haven't posted in here in a while. I continue to make pristine authentic Bavarian style wheat beer with this yeast, at the same pitch rate (1 gram per gallon), with various fermentation profiles. I am absolutely in love with this Dunkelweizen I just made. Even though it's dark in color, it...

Easy, filtration, finings, lagering, water chemistry. I used none of that when I made a series of Hefeweizen batches that were horribly astringent and the one variable I changed that eliminated it was pre-washing my rice hulls. That's a style where I used no finings, soft water, and the yeast...

I have made countless beers without astringency comprised of 100% pale malts without any pH adjustment that were free of astringency. I certainly think the problem lies outside the tannin issue, and it certainly could be from squeezing the bag. Grain husks are astringent. I'll never forget the...

Love them. The only reason I own regular ball lock corny kegs is that they are better for serving my Hefeweizens since the yeast tend to flocculate away from the floating dip tubes in the cornies. I still need to invert the corny kegs regularly, but not as often. I can't think of a single way...

When I moved into my new house, through Costco magic, I was able to purchase a 17 cu ft. wheeled chest freezer for around $200 shipped to my door. I had several objectives when building my keezer: 1) Keep costs as low as possible - I now live in North Carolina making NC money and cannot afford...

It's interesting you say that. A member of my homebrew club here in Greenville recently brewed a Saison with that yeast, which I got a free sachet of from a competition. For a "saison" it finished surprisingly high (1.008 - nearly perfect for a Belgian Tripel, though), and was also "very"...

I don't see any reason this wouldn't produce an excellent beer, although it seems a bit heavy on the Vienna and I personally prefer Munich (bready rather than toasty). We know from "The New IPA" by Scott Janish that theoretically low temp hop stands should provide an extra layer of flavor...

I've brewed 5 American Pale Ales in the past year, I think 3/5 have medaled (BJCP - one got Gold!) and I keep it very simple. The malt bill is Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. The ingredients are old school but the process is modern. I use all late addition hops and dry the snot out of the beer so it's...

How did I not see this thread before? My dad and I are avid road cyclists. We have been doing Bikes and Beers rides since they started in Philadelphia, if anyone is familiar with them. Here is the Dogfish Head event we just did together a couple weeks ago...