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Thanks for the suggestions - I finally got around to making this. Went with natural/pressed apple juice and Nottingham yeast. Added 3 cups of water with lime juice (for acid) and steeped two tea bags (for tannins). Happily bubbling away, I'll post back with how it turns out!

So I've made a few batches of Apfelwein before, but never anything I'd really call a cider. For my first attempt I'd like to try an English-style cider. What I have: Wyeast Cider Yeast Carboys Things I need: Apple juice/cider (sadly no access to orchards, but any grocery store varieties...

I say try it! Start small - I would use no more than 3% seawater in the strike water/lauter water, and maybe make a quick 1 gallon test batch. This is based on nothing but guesstimation, but as Gose is made with salt added to the water I don't think that a little salt would hurt you too much on...

Planning my summer batch of hefe - for this beer I want to keep it more traditional with nice hop flavor and aroma (nothing too crazy, IBU <20... just thought some citrusy hops would add a nice flavor for summer days). 5 Gallon Batch All-grain OG: 1.051 IBU: 15 SRM 6.8 5.8# German...

Racking over to a glass carboy has solved the mold problem! For the first few weeks after racking, there was a pellicle/kraeusen(ish) thing that formed on top of the beer (it was tan-colored and about 0.5cm thick), but that has dropped and is being replaced by a slightly opaque/whitish (the...

I'll try to flush the headspace with C02 - taste was fine (nothing too funky/sour, but it hadn't been aging that long) and smell was similar to Brett C/some sort of bug with prominent lactic acid and not too much acetic. There's some stringy tan bits floating around, but I'm not too worried...

Crap. I racked it over to a glass carboy (much less headspace) 4 days ago - what should I do if the mold returns? And I know it's hard to say for sure without having actually seen it, but does it look like the mold was forming it's own pellice, or more so that the mold formed on the top of an...

Thanks for the suggestions - unfortunately school has been getting a bit crazy these past few weeks so I didn't have time to brew up anything to pitch onto the yeast before racking. As a bonus, I have funky pellicle pictures (please tell me this is normalish and not just a raging mold...

What's in the fermenter currently... I could always make a second one and blend if necessary.

Quick update - I pitched the WLP665 with US-05 in primary, and after a fairly vigorous early ferment (kraeusen stayed up for around 3 weeks), it's fallen and a nice funky pellicle has formed. The smell coming off the pellicle seems pretty normal for a sour - some good Brett funk and a nice...

Thanks for the input everyone - based on that I'll go ahead and pitch 665 with US-05 for the primary, leave it there for ~2 months, and then rack for long-term (10-12 month) aging. I'll be sure to post back periodically, esp with and racking I do onto fruit/wood for split batches before...

Yeah, after thinking about it more I decided to pitch with US-05. Can't hurt, and better safe than sorry.

Anyone know if this blend is designed to be pitched in primary and then left on the lees (like Roselare) or if one would get better results pitching a clean yeast first and then using 665 to sour? My other thought was to pitch a vial of 665 alone with one vial of clean yeast to ensure that I get...

I'll second this - I used WLP670 for a farmhouse rye (10% flaked, 10% malted, 80% Belgian Pilsner) and after three months in primary the results were fantastic. Now I'm just waiting for another 2 months of bottle conditioning, but this blend is great.

I'm planning to start my first sour (woohoo!) next weekend, but wanted to check with everybody here to figure out the best plan/logistics for the aging process. I'm using the Flemish Ale Blend and plan to pitch that vial for the "primary" fermentation and leave it on the lees until the pellicle...

A Wit would also be a good choice - I've had good luck using WLP400 at an ambient of 72-75.

Since I'm still a poor/cheap student, I decided that making posters based on old beer labels would be cheaper/more fun for apartment decorations than other options. On the other hand, I know almost nothing about graphic design but decided to investigate the Adobe Illustrator free trial. This is...

Thanks - I'm inclined to agree that the crush may be a key culprit here. Looks like I may have to add a grain mill to the ever-expanding list of stuff to get for this hobby... :mug:

I brewed up a wit today, and it seems that my efficiency was straight up terrible - projected OG was 1.050 and I ended up with 1.032, which worked out to a 45% efficiency. Normally I'm getting around 75-80% with my system, so I'm puzzled. Recipe/mash details below, any help would be great...

Thanks! I'll keep the protein rest in then and hopefully brew it up this weekend. Peppercorns might drop down a bit but I'll post back with how it goes and hopefully how it turns out.