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Yes, dark/roasted/caramel malts have an acidifying effect on the mash. But as I understand it, the extent to which they lower your actual mash pH is determined by a lot of other things - particularly your water's bicarbonate level, as bicarbonate acts as an acid buffer. So basically if your...

I am FAR from an expert in water chemistry, but I have become interested in it and done a lot of reading over the past year or so. I had a few consecutive batches with off flavors a while back, so before heading home to the States one time, I filled up a PET bottle with my tap water and sent it...

The wheat probably isn't helping, but if it's so bad that you can't even see through your hydrometer sample - it sounds like you have a whole lot of yeast in suspension. US-05 is a great yeast, but it does take longer than some to flocculate. It could also have a lot to do with your hot...

esb

Citra & Mosaic IPA with 10% rolled oats. Only two weeks in the bottle at this point and still pretty hazy, but I'm always a little impatient with this style. Amazing white grape, mango character - cheers!

I'm certainly no expert either, but I think it's a little too soon to condemn that beer (JeuDeVache's). There could be something developing there, but at this point I don't think it looks ominous.

I'm right there with you on minimal shelf space, but I really don't think there is any way you can do this without (severely) compromising your beer. I like my beer to be clear when it should be clear, too - but I'll take cloudy homebrew that still tastes great over crystal clear homebrew that...

Dark Mild! (Next time I'll make it a bit darker - but I have no complaints. Can't go wrong with WY1968 and a simple malt bill).

Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit sniffin' airlocks.

Edit: I just re-read the original post and realized that my comments are irrelevant. OP doesn't want to use crystal malts, etc. My bad. Best of luck on brewday!

For what? 1968 is my all-time favorite yeast, but I have no idea what you're trying to make.

Yes, every time. Been bottling beer for a long time and I've always had it - and I've always thought the whole standard bottling set-up was a little cheap and flimsy. But to be honest, I really don't think it has ever been detrimental to my beer. I think it takes a lot more than that to...

Can't answer your question but I'm a bottler-by-choice too and have always wondered the same thing. I'd be interested to hear if there's something better out there also.

Next time try to pitch lower than you plant to ferment, if possible. In my experience (and very generally speaking...), it's better to have the wort warm up to fermentation temps (even though it may take a little longer for fermentation to start) than it is to pitch warm and have an explosive...

There are different schools of thought on this, but a lot of people (myself included) dump everything into the fermenter and don't give it a second thought. I used to go crazy trying to strain everything, but not doing it has had absolutely no detrimental effect on the flavor of my beer. Mind...

I absolutely agree with doing an extract batch first. Ease yourself back into the hobby slowly. Take some time to review the simply stuff before you delve into something entirely new. And, as someone else mentioned, you'll have some good old homebrew to drink while you're learning about all...

+1 on this. You've definitely done your reading, and that's wonderful. You don't have a lot of time to brew and want to make the very most of brew days - and that's completely understandable. But I would suggest trying a handful of different approaches, taking solid notes each time, and taking...

Sure looks like yeast to me. At the end of the summer I brewed up a saison and pitched with a bunch of slurry from an earlier batch. I made a mess as I pitched and it was all over the inside neck of the carboy. That beer sat in primary for over a month at 80F. The yeast sure looked funky by...

+1 on all of this. There's some great advice here. With proper handling, you should have no issues getting beautiful spice/phenol flavors from that yeast. Get your recipe and yeast handling down before you consider adding spices. You'll probably find that you don't need them! Good luck!

The yeast may be tolerant to an environment of 18% alcohol, but that doesn't mean it's an ideal condition for the yeast to thrive. When you pitch yeast into cooled wort and it begins to ferment, the yeast has a chance to acclimatize to the conditions as alcohol is slowly produced. But when you...