Search results

It could be due to chlorine (from chlorinated water or water with chloramines.) You can boil tap water and cool for your brewing needs if it is chlorinated. If it is treated with chloramines, you need to add a campden tablet or potassium metabisulfite to the water before using for brewing. Or...

I was disappointed with my first Cuvée René, mainly because it was served too cold. That was when I first learned how much the flavor is influenced by serving temperature. As it warmed in the glass, it revealed much more of its funky tartness that the cold had concealed. For gueuzes, I now try...

Check the usual suspects: Did you use a starter? What is fermentation temperature? Did you provide plenty of oxygen before the pitch? What type of yeast did you use? How old was the yeast? Agave nectar is a blend of fructose and glucose, so it should ferment like simple sugar using S...

I would recommend making a starter with the yeast. I think Northern Brewer recommends this as well. This will be a big beer (1.081), and it needs a large population of healthy yeast.

If you had a bacterial infection, you will need to kill the offending bacteria still living in the vessel, or you will sour future batches. You may want to bleach bomb the carboy, making sure to rinse several times to remove all chlorine. Once the bacteria entered the beer, it probably...

Oops- I'm sorry about that! If you didn't find the right link on your own for the "Anarchist's p-Lambic," it is here: http://brewery.org/brewery/library/Anarchplamb.html

"A Liddil Lambic Lesson" is pretty good: http://brewery.org/brewery/library/LmbicJL0696.html "Anarchist's p-Lambic" has some recipes with notes: http://brewery.org/brewery/library/LmbicJL0696.html

It's possible some clostridium bacteria infected your sour mash. This throws butyric acid which can smell like vomit. A few days is not enough time to decide if this will clean up or not. If infection was slight, and you boiled after sour mash, it's possible this will go away with 1-3 months of...

Sour beers I like include the true Belgian gueuzes: Cantillon, Hanssens, Drie Fonteinen, Boon (hard to find) and Lindemans Cuvée René. Lindemans fruit lambics are really neither lambic nor fruit, but, as you say, a cloying, unnaturally fruity-sweet alco-pop. I have just seen Timmermans Oude...

If you didn't exceed 170, you will probably be okay. Usually, steeping is just a means to extract sugar from the specialty grains, and this can be done between 150-160 for about 20 to 30 minutes. If this is already fermenting, you will only know when you taste a beer. Gravity samples can taste...

You will probably detect an astringent harshness when you taste a gravity sample. There could be other factors that influence extracting tannins from your grain husks. If you used/have hard water, for instance, if your steeping grains were lighter in color, if you used an excess volume of water...

I believe, yes, high pH water will extract tannins from grains. This is often blamed for astringency issues, particularly with light grains, as darker grains tend to lower the pH of the wort. You could try bottled water for grain steeping. You could try adding some lactic acid to the steeping...

Hi jubal- I would probably advise you that, in the first place, your water volumes don't add up to 5 gallons. You will probably boil off 1/2 to 1 gallon of water, during your boil, depending on your kettle shape (wider kettles tend to have more evapoaration due to their large surface area.)...

Zak- In my experience, LME can produce a fine beer. If you brew using a partial boil, I would recommend boiling half of the LME for the full 60 minutes (after steeping) with the bittering hops. You can add the remaining half at flameout. LME really doesn't need to be boiled and the hot wort...

SRM (Standard Reference Method) is a measure of color. Lower SRM is lighter while higher is darker. The percentages show the percent of the total grain bill the particular grain represents. The L after the crystal grains stands for Lovibond, which is another measure of color, with higher...

If this is the rye LME, NB says it adds 35 ppg. The DME should give 44ppg. Thus, (6lb X 35) + (3 lb X 44) = 210 + 132 = 342 points /5 gallons= 68.4 points Your OG should have been very close to 1.068. I have never observed that fermcap has had any effect on hydrometer readings. If you...

Tettnanger will bitter the beer just fine, if you boiled the 2 oz for 60 minutes. The terms bittering, flavor, and aroma, when used in conjunction with hops, refers to the timing of the addition and how long they are boiled. Bittering hops are usually boiled for the duration- 60 minutes), flavor...

From what I have read, this can be a fairly technical test of malt properties. I believe the mash program is to hold at 45*C for half an hour, ramp to 75*C over 25 minutes and hold for 60 minutes. You can do it with finely ground malt (flour) and coarse malt. Maybe if you posted this in the...

These pics look good, and it appears there might be some lactic activity going on in the starter. You could add a little maltodextrine maybe to feed the bugs. When are you planning to add them to a beer? I have found that JP dregs are pretty active, and within 3 weeks of adding them to a...

I recommend number 1. I think you want to boil the sour mash to kill any enterobacteria that may have been active. Sour mash a day or two before brewing, and allow the sour mash to stay about 115*F. You can cover with plastic to minimize airborn cntaminants entering the sour mash. This is a hit...