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Tannin extraction is a function of pH and temperature. You can go hot as long as you keep the pH below 5.8. What happens as you sparge is you exhaust the buffering capacity of the mash and so the pH begins to rise. Eventually the small amounts of tannins being extracted become problematic...

Yes many ways to crack this nut. Over dose with anticipation of loss after bottle conditioning or improve bottling process. I would add at bottling. You could always steep your vanilla and add the solids to primary like before, but add the liquid it was steeped in to the bottling bucket. Less...

Delicate flavours like vanilla don't need much oxygen exposure on packaging to vanish.

Europeans seem to love exotic mash schedules in order to ensure complete conversion with poorly modified grain. Here in the UK I am spoilt with lots of rain and a history of malting to produce grains with a lot of a diastatic potential. If I'm using authentic grains I've got to use the exotic...

I went with 600g in 22L for 10 days toasted and added without a bag near the end of primary (1-2 points off fg). It floated, but as I had sealed the fermenter at that point I could rock it twice a day to wet it to prevent any dry spots. Was very concerned about any infection/restarting...

Some of it is quite good value. I know why beers with 20g/L in the copper and 20g/L dry hopped at 9% abv are £6/500ml can. The thing has almost £1 in ingredients at cost price before labour, energy, equipment, transport and tax. I know why a barrel aged blended fruit sour at 8% abv is £6/330ml...

When you get some experience you start to see structure within what previously appeared chaotic. Most maltsters produce a typical range with a few speciality grains unique to them though most of the more common and popular ones are copied and an own version is produced which may or may not have...

I use 1:1 for ease in recipe planning but have found 1.1-1.2:1 (liquid:hops) to be more typical in practice.

My feelings on mixed cultures/wild/spontaneous fermentations is basically does it work, does it taste good and does it stay stable throughout the required window for consumption? You might think that makes a lot acceptable, but I like 6 months stability as a rule. I imagine I've very rarely...

When a beer is considered oxidised is down to the brewer/drinker. Introducing oxygen is really easy and reduces the shelf life of your beer. Recently been having a 'wonderful' time canning beer. Turns out the slight suck on a cooling fermenter (ambient cooling at the tail end of fermentation...

I've a friend with one and he is very happy with it. I am envious of the small footprint, ease of clean up and ability to set and forget hot liquor. He seems to fit more spontaneous brew days in where as I have to plan ahead. I am not fussed about anything else because my three tier system...

Beer mat maths here. There are a few ways to work this out. Use 68g at 60 and 30 and then 17g at 10. This is based on weight x AA% required / AA% possessed. This is the simplest way to adjust for variation in AA by bag on the fly and is the way I usually work. While specific essential oil...

I've had both. The counterflow worked really well, was fast and seemed immune to blockages under normal use and is great for gravity fed/pump less systems. Water usage wasn't really a concern, but full mains pressure water went into it and came out of it. I found it less reliable because it was...

You don't need to dry hop for 7 days at room temperature unless you are adding them quite early on, though it certainly isn't the end of the world. co2 scrubbing is not what I'd be looking at if you have no hop aroma from 7g/L, I'd be looking at the variety used, age and condition and if they've...

Do what works. Hydrate though if you want to follow best practice. If you don't hydrate then you'll kill a significant number of cells. This doesn't mean that there aren't still enough left over to finish the job, especially with yeast growth and dry yeast tends to be pitched on the high side...

I'd ditch the bicarb. A pH of 5.2 is fine and it'll give you extra buffering capacity during the sparge. I don't really feel a great need for sulphate, but you need the calcium. I get wary when it is below 100ppm. Chloride should be emphasised for a malt forward sweetness. I'd personally use up...

I use it as an alternative or complement to sugar when making higher gravity beers or bigger volumes than I'd usually make. My system is sized to produce 60L @ 66, but 3 kegs at higher requires a dilution of a higher gravity wort. I've also used it when making kettle sours. What I'll do is mash...

I've got two DIPA's on keg at the moment, exactly the same except one was fermented with a brewery strain which I consider very close (but not the same as) WY1332 or WLP007 and the other with Lallemand London ESB for comparison. I mention this because the ESB looks a lot like Windsor on paper...

There are differences in mashing thick or thin. How much difference this makes to your beer is negligible and depends on other factors, but as a rule mashing thick protects the enzymes from being denatured as readily and allows for faster (less dilution of enzymes) and a more complete...

Hello HBT. I am going to brew a triple chocolate stout for christmas. I intend to split hte batch and keg one as a coconut vanilla. I would like to toast and add the coconut to primary near the end of fermentation. Reason being I leave all the junk in the fermenter and get maximum beer in...