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I will never get use to the British method of specific gravity; I am used to and will always use the German (I believe) convention of using original gravity, AE, RE, etc. The 17 OG I reference above is about 1.06975.

Especially for a starter, O2 is super critical since the whole objective is to grow yeast. Remember, when it comes to growing yeast, O2 is the limiting nutrient, i.e., the amount of yeast you grow is totally dependent on how much O2 they see for sterol production. That being said, the best...

Generally speaking, acetaldehyde (AA) is a function of three things: 1. Yeast strain - This does not seem to be the case for you based on what you described. Coors yeast is the classic example as AA is a defining part of its flavor profile. 2. Not enough yeast - Also does not seem to be the...

This is a great way to refine brewing processes. A very light beer where defects are more easily noted is the best way to really enhance one's technique. For example, altering grind settings to see the impact on lautering, yield, flavor, and fermentbility. Change fermentation temp by a couple...

Hamaki, My numbers are based on my personal experience working with a brewery. Though the numbers you site do seem very reasonable, there is a lot of variation within what one would call "pale beers", e.g., IBUs, malt: adjunction ratios, RDF (beer's body), etc. that would impact their ability to...

Thanks, BadNewsBrewery. Makes sense.

So I'm a decent brewer (I think :o) but I have very limited controls knowledge but some ability to learn. I am building a new brew set up, have most of the parts but want to add a control panel as follows... can anyone point me in the right direction to build what's below? Need a panel that...

Just to be a broken record, brewing with any simple sugar by itself is all wrong. Yeast are complex and will do what they need to do to survive. In the process or proper growth, many negative flavors and poor health can/will result. Don't do it...:D

In general, I believe that you always want to rack the beer to a secondary to get the beer off of settled yeast and other undesirable that carry over. Even for a short period of time to allow for a bit more maturation, which is almost always a goo thing.

The foam ring and that was removed with it looks like a very healthy and vigorous fermentation. By the pic, all looks good.

Immediately. It can not be done fast enough once your trub pile has formed, that is. If your wort sits for too long post boil, SMM will convert to DMS and it will nor readily go away. I also believe other things are happening but once I converted to a faster and more efficient way to cool, the...

This is the fun part of brewing... try it and see. If you can, bottle a few bottles early and lager the rest and see what differences you see. The early bottles will have to be kept very cold to limit the lagering effect in the bottle which would render the test useless.

Personally, I think it would be fine. The flaked corn is likely a problem due to exposed oils going bad and this is only a flavor concern, not yeast health. But as long as the malt is not infested with bugs or too moist (the two biggest risks with old grain) it should be fine, all the starch and...

A couple of quick thoughts: Is it in both batches or just the pumpkin? I ask because at low levels, AA is often described as "green apples" but at higher concentrations it smells like "fresh/raw pumpkin". AA can either not get reduced after the primary fermentation and this could be due...

All sugar and no other nutrients, minerals, etc? Kind of scary... :( Remember, you are what you eat and I think applies to yeast as well.

I have never seen evidence to suggest that a gravity of 1.037 would cause problems and based on what I know about yeast, seriously doubt that this is the problem. More likely would be lack Of O2 and temp too low. As long as you were using wort from a standard mashing schedule, where the ratio of...

This drauflassen practice is fairly common with commercial brewers but it is typically used to grow yeast. It is common to top a day or two later with wort that has been oxygenated to saturation (depending on wort temp, maybe 10 ppm). O2 being a limiting nutrient will be consumed VERY fast so...

Yes it should most definitely be a single pass. You should have hand valves to control wort flow and water flow. Make sure that the water side is staying packed... this is the most important because you need 100% water contact to cool the wort. It's best to have the hand valves on the outlet...

I am a fan of (very) late kettle hopping. By exposing the hops to hot wort with NO opportunity to boil off, the hop aromas are a bit different, more refined one might say and I find the bittering contribution to be less resinous. Either after flame out or with a "Hop Rocket" type device. It's...

Curious, but how many brewers out there make sure that they are exposing their wort to copper for all the good things that copper does? If recently gone from no copper to the presence of copper (or vise versa), did you see improvements in fermentation/yeast health or in the reduction of...