Search results

It sounds like you have done excellent primary and secondary research on sours! From reading these forums, many brewers use a secondary as a bright tank to clarify their beer. I feel the long aging of a sour does away with this need. Also, a lot of brewers (myself included) complain about too...

You might want to read up on secondary for this beer. The bacteria and brettanomyces yeast are supposed to be nourished by the yeast cake. If you primary in a bucket, by all means rack and try to leave a small head space so there is less exposure to oxygen. Acetobacter may give off too much...

I believe the spices go in with 15 minutes left in the boil. It is listed on the brew schedule on the lower right side of page 1. Full boil should have a slightly better hop utilization. there's some debate on the forum, but maybe 5 or so % more IBU's. I made this last year, and it can handle...

If this isn't a water issue, try a new auto siphon/racking system. In your earlier threads, you mention you made a couple of good beers and then developed this off taste in both bottles and kegs. Racking will be common to both bottling and kegging. You used to do secondaries, and then...

I rechecked the hydrometer with 59* water and it reads 1.000, so i beleive I can rule that out. I agree- 1.011 is high, and I was expecting the brett and bugs to chew through everything (the partial mash and DME I used are in OP). The brett is definitely working, and I observe that it a...

Shortly after posting in February, this pLambic developed a nice pellicle that hung around throughout the summer. The temps in my basement stayed around 70*. At the end of September, the temperatures outside took a turn south and I thought I would let this cool down in the garage to see if the...

It sounds like maybe your priming sugar was not fully mixed into your beer. As these last bottles had a bunch of trub in them, maybe the priming sugar concentration was a little higher also, leading to over carbonation.

From personal experience, 3.25 volumes of CO2 in a 10% wheat saison is nearly impossible to pour. The bottles hold that much pressure (I bottle mostly in 22oz bombers) but the head gets rocky due to the wheat, and you end up with a glass full of head that doesn't dissipate, and very little beer...

I used the WLP007 because it is highly attenuative and fairly neutral. The chico strain is also, so it will probably be a great substitute. Notty will be good, too. This is a spiced brown ale, so any neutral yeast will be fine to allow the spicing and maltiness to shine. If I recall, Notty is...

If I recall, I made a 1 liter starter. I sought the liquid yeast because there were issues in 2010 with Nottingham viability, and I didn't want to risk yeast stress and long lag times. I, too, bought this kit on a whim between batches. The same situation, none of the kits really appealed to me...

LME will contribute ~35 points per pound per gallon. Thus, your 4 lbs of LME will contribute 140 gravity points. If you intend to make 5 gallons, you divide 140 by 5 to get your expected specific gravity (28 points, or sg = 1.028.) If your yeast attenuates 75%, your finished gravity should be...

Hi sub- I brewed the BB Holiday Ale kit last year and am looking over my notes now since SWMBO really loved this and said she preferred it to Great Lakes Christmas Ale! I swapped the 1lb of corn sugar for 1 lb of Pilsen light LME, and by mistake added the spice pack at 60 minutes rather than at...

LME ages (stales) more rapidly then DME, and darkens while it ages. If possible, find the freshest LME available or substitute with extra-light DME. As wort gravity rises (higher concentration) the color will darken somewhat, also. At 1.050, you should be able to achieve a very light yellow beer...

Hector-- I assume you are doing a partial boil. If so, I believe you should try to match the boiling wort gravity with the OG of the topped off wort, so hops utilization is consistent with the recipe. Thus if your partial boil volume is, say, half of the final volume, add about half of the DME...

Room temperature or refrigerated? They look pretty normal to me if room temp.

I'm not a BJCP person, but I think you should enter in category 23- Specialty beer. How did it come out? You did use 50-60% wheat, didn't you?

Have you noticed that other bottles have had too much carbonation or have you had some gushers? I had a batch that fermented 4 weeks and had a stable gravity at 1.016 over three days, so I primed to 2.5 volumes and bottled. Within 3 weeks, they were highly carbonated and it was hard to pour a...

1. Do you partial boil? (High gravity wort may lower hop utilization.) If so, try late extract addition. 2. Are you getting good yeast attenuation? If your finished gravity is high, like 1.020 or higher, this may lead to perceived sweetness. 3. Do you use a hop bag? If the bag is too...