Blonde Ale Miller Lite (Really Triple Hopped)

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How come some people have this taste great out of the fermenter when my taste bad? Is it my fermentation temp. not being controlled? I also brew in an Aluminum 8 gallon pot that has a really dark oxide layer (which i thought was good) but could this be causing any problems?
 
kylelp said:
How come some people have this taste great out of the fermenter when my taste bad?
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There may be a lot of reasons why yours isn't tasting good. How experienced are you at brewing in general? There are a couple of areas in brewing that you need to nail to crank out tasty beers;


  • Sanitation
  • Pitching Rate
  • Fermentation Temps
If you are doing all of those well then you can start looking at other things. I think I read a few posts back that you are doing all grain. With all grain you need to dial in your mash temps and mash pH. You'll want to know what kind of water you're brewing with, have the chlorine/chloramines been removed? Is your water alkaline? What sort of mineral levels are you dealing with?

Can you describe the "bad" taste? Is it an off flavor or do you just not like it? It sounds like it is extremely young still, it may just need to age. I don't think your pot has much to do with the flavor.
 
kylelp said:
How come some people have this taste great out of the fermenter when my taste bad? Is it my fermentation temp. not being controlled? I also brew in an Aluminum 8 gallon pot that has a really dark oxide layer (which i thought was good) but could this be causing any problems?
Click to expand...

Their opinion of bad vs good might be different than yours. Please note this is a light beer that is unforgiving of defects. However don't let that disappoint you. Time might be on your side.

I really think time will GREATLY improve your beer. Brew an american wheat and/or buy beer to drink in the mean time. Resist drinking this until it has time for the ugly duckling to become a swan.

:mug:
 
I will wait for next weekend to give it another try (that would be about 2 weeks in the bottle). I do not do any water changes, mainly cause I spent a lot of money on brewing stuff recently and just want to brew. I do not use tap water since it has a ph of 8.4, instead I use purified drinking water from HEB (grocery store in texas).

The bad taste is hard to described. When you first drink it, you don't taste much of anything but when you swallow is when you get the taste.

I made a American wheat beer from an extract kit, using tap water. This beer taste very good right after bottling so i'm not sure how bad my water is (I know its very low in Ca and high in bicarb). I have this acid blend that I got with a wine kit. I am thinking of adding .5 tsp next time I brew to help lower the ph, maybe this will make a difference (I know acid blend isn't really recommended but its all I got).
 
Schlenkerla said:
Looks good and I'm glad you like it. :mug:
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It's outstanding. I've looked at this recipe for a few years but haven't brewed it until recently. The only issue is that my lhbs was out of cascade hops!!! I used 1oz cluster instead and I'm happy with it. I may brew it again and use saflager 34/70 instead of us05. I wonder how the enzyme would work with the lager yeast?
 
royal1911 said:
It's outstanding. I've looked at this recipe for a few years but haven't brewed it until recently. The only issue is that my lhbs was out of cascade hops!!! I used 1oz cluster instead and I'm happy with it. I may brew it again and use saflager 34/70 instead of us05. I wonder how the enzyme would work with the lager yeast?
Click to expand...

It would work good. The original recipe had a lager yeast called out.

Yeast
-----

Fermentis US-05 Safale (For Summer brewing)
Chuck's version calls for Wyeast 2007
Click to expand...

Wyeast 2007
 
1rst Pot

6 gallon Light Pilsner

.5 lb Carapils
.25 lb Munich Light
steeped 30 min

boil 60 min
6.5 lb Pilsen Light DME @ 60 min
1/2 oz MT Hood @ 60 min
1/2 oz Saaz @ 30 min
1.1 lb Dememara brown sugar @ 15 min
1/2 Saaz @ 5 min

Yeast US05
Fermenting @ 65*


2nd Pot

6 gallon Amber Ale

.5 lb Carapils
.65 lb Crystal 30
steeped 30 min

boil 60 min
6.5 lb Sparkling Amber DME @ 60 min
1/2 oz Amarilo @ 60 min
1/2 oz Galaxy @ 30 min
1.1 lb Dememara brown sugar @ 15 min
1/2 Galaxy @ 5 min

Yeast 1272 American Ale II
Fermenting @ 65*
2 vanilla beans soaking on 2 oz Capt Morgans Spiced Rum for a week - then into the primary

Really looking forward to this one :D
 
Went to get ingredients at lhbs yesterday. They didn't have 6 row, they said 2 row brewers malt is pretty much the replacement. Does this sound right? Will the differences be noticeable?
Thanks
 
R56brews said:
Went to get ingredients at lhbs yesterday. They didn't have 6 row, they said 2 row brewers malt is pretty much the replacement. Does this sound right? Will the differences be noticeable?
Thanks
Click to expand...

Yes & No. They have some interchangability. When using a healthy amount of adjuncts you need the extra enzyme that you get from 6-row. IMHO they just want to sell you 2-Row. If that's what you have, you can add a teaspoon of amylase enzyme to the mash. You need it for the secondary anyhow.

That b.s. from them would tend to piss me off because they don't know what they are talking about regarding the difference or know when it's needed. Tell them they should stock 6-Row especially if they are selling flaked adjuncts.

https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/zymurgy/zymurgy-extra-2-row-vs-6-row-barley/
 
Just about everything I've found I needed per recipe, they have had. I have always felt that they were pretty knowledgeable, until this instance, and they have flaked grains. I had read that the diffference between 6 row and 2 row had been the extra enzyme, but couldn't find anything suggesting that 2 row brewers malt was a replacement, and seeing as how I wanted to definitely make this, I decided to go along with it.
I have 2lbs pale malt 2 row, 1.75 brewers malt 2 row, and 1.75 flaked corn.
I did get amylase enzyme, so I'll use that in the mash as you had said. Do I still add amylase enzyme to the secondary as originally stated in the recipe as well?
Thank you very much,
Jeff
 
Yes, if you mash with AE it'll be denatured with the boil. So you need to add it for the fermentation so the yeast can take it down to 1.000
 
Have the original recipe in this thread in a big mouth bubbler on its seventh day now. I don't typically secondary so can I add the AE and my dry hop sack right into the bubbler for 2 weeks, then cold crash?
 
cgrivois said:
Have the original recipe in this thread in a big mouth bubbler on its seventh day now. I don't typically secondary so can I add the AE and my dry hop sack right into the bubbler for 2 weeks, then cold crash?
Click to expand...

I have never done it myself. I always secondary because I don't cold crash. Several people have posted here doing what you suggest.

I think you can dissolve a teaspoon into a cup of distilled water add it then dry hop.
 
JONNYROTTEN said:
This looks interesting. I'd like to give it a try. The recipe is from 09 when secondarys were common practice. Couple questions:
I've never used an enzyme. How exactly does it get added/when?
Do you need to secondary when using an enzyme?
I'll be using 05. Just use it in the normal way? 68 for a week
Click to expand...







Schlenkerla said:
It's goes back further. World Beer Cup - 1996

People usually add the dry enzyme power (amylase enzyme) to the secondary, then siphon in top of the enzyme. You siphon after a weeks length of fermentation. Let it sit for a week or two more.

I think people have dissolved enzyme in distilled water. Then dumped it in the primary after a week. The let it sit for a while.

I like the secondary, because I want zero sediment. I have extra carboys though.

I think you can do it either way.
Click to expand...







jtrainer said:
Exactly, I've brewed variations of this many times. Quite often a hit with the ladies or the girlie guys.

As to secondary, I have preached to not secondary, avoid that transfer. I have simply dumped the amylase enzyme direct, I've also pre-boiled and re-boiled water then mixed the powder and pour the solution into the fermenter. I normally wait a week or two, measure (or not), and add the enzyme. (I say not, simply after I've brewed a grain bill a number of times, I'm comfortable with my setup and knowing the yeast did its job upon tasting. ) Yes, I stress my yeast at times but this recipe got me some wonderful remarks along with a couple of blue ribbons and a runner-up for best of show twice. Always dinged on style entered.

My setup has me in the fermenter bucket about 70 or so, if much higher I pause the yeast addition. From there my chest freezer is set to 60, I expect a 7-8 degree rise with active fermentation. I'll let this ride out to 2-3 week and keg it.
Finishes at basically 0 every time. Foolproof.

If I expect to travel or serve to guests I'll gelatin it filter it accordingly.

Oh and one very last thing, SANITIZE. There is nothing in this beer that will hide ANY imperfection.

EDIT: Just checked BeerSmith, I first brewed this on 18 July 2009. First dated copy I have in my ToDo folder is 05 July 2009.
Click to expand...

This ^^^^^
 
As the above post states, i didn't secondary, and i added the enzyme straight to carboy. I did this a few days ago and have not seen any signs of fermentation restarting. How long before activity starts up again?
 
R56brews said:
As the above post states, i didn't secondary, and i added the enzyme straight to carboy. I did this a few days ago and have not seen any signs of fermentation restarting. How long before activity starts up again?
Click to expand...

It's typically very slow. Lots of tiny bubbles. Try putting a flashlight against the carboy.

When I did this the first time. I secondaried the bottle was full to the brim. Hours later my airlock was full of beer. The activity is NOT aggressive fermentation, lots of slow bubbles rising. There won't be any krausen.
 
Let primary fermentation run for 9 days, took a reading and got 1.012, went ahead and dry hopped and added AE and let it go another week and took a reading, still at 1.012. All this done in the primary.
 
Evidently the hydrometer was stuck to the side of the flask or bubbles were holding it up but after it sat on the kitchen table for a bit the gravity was actually 1.005 and I could clearly see the tiny bubbles rising up the sides.
 
cgrivois said:
Evidently the hydrometer was stuck to the side of the flask or bubbles were holding it up but after it sat on the kitchen table for a bit the gravity was actually 1.005 and I could clearly see the tiny bubbles rising up the sides.
Click to expand...

Good!

Always give the hydrometer a good twist like a spinning a top. Look at the bottom of the miniscus. Meaning it will usually neck up the walls of the hydrometer and the cylinder. You need to look at the valley of the beer surface and line that up with the graduated scale.

Lower gravity is better but not imperative. Time also helps. This is the alternative to using a lager yeast and lagering.
 
So I've been making 7-8% beers lately and I wanted something I could drink more than two of. I BIAB and my efficiency is all over the place, so I set Beersmith to 70% and hope to get close. I adjusted the grain profile and ended up with 2 lbs 4 oz Corn, 2 lbs 4 oz 6 Row, and 3 lbs 2 Row to get to 1.034 OG in a 5.5 gallon batch.
Brewed it all up last night and ended up with 1.044 OG, which will come out to 5.8% if I get down to 1.000 FG. Go figure I get 81% efficiency when I didn't want it! Maybe the difference is the corn in the mash giving me better efficiency than all grain?

Anyhow, I was hoping someone can tell me if they had this experience, and/or how the beer turned out. I'm thinking I might need to add a bit more dry hops to offset the higher ABV.
Also it seems beersmith doesn't account for grain absorption, it comes up with 8.91 gallons strike water for a 5.5 gallon batch whether you are using 6 lbs grain or 16 lbs. I ended up extending my boil for a whole lot longer than I should have.

LHBS only had 1lb of 6 Row so they recommended I make up the difference with Golden Promise. Does that sound right?
 
Cartman98 said:
So I've been making 7-8% beers lately and I wanted something I could drink more than two of. I BIAB and my efficiency is all over the place, so I set Beersmith to 70% and hope to get close. I adjusted the grain profile and ended up with 2 lbs 4 oz Corn, 2 lbs 4 oz 6 Row, and 3 lbs 2 Row to get to 1.034 OG in a 5.5 gallon batch.
Brewed it all up last night and ended up with 1.044 OG, which will come out to 5.8% if I get down to 1.000 FG. Go figure I get 81% efficiency when I didn't want it! Maybe the difference is the corn in the mash giving me better efficiency than all grain?

Anyhow, I was hoping someone can tell me if they had this experience, and/or how the beer turned out. I'm thinking I might need to add a bit more dry hops to offset the higher ABV.
Also it seems beersmith doesn't account for grain absorption, it comes up with 8.91 gallons strike water for a 5.5 gallon batch whether you are using 6 lbs grain or 16 lbs. I ended up extending my boil for a whole lot longer than I should have.

LHBS only had 1lb of 6 Row so they recommended I make up the difference with Golden Promise. Does that sound right?
Click to expand...

The more I think about your post the better answer I will have for you. Thought about it during my 3 hour commute to work. Let me start with your direct questions.

Corn will NOT give you better efficiency. The reason is, it doesn't have the enzymes needed for the starch conversion.

As for your question about adding more hops. The dry hopping will only add more aroma and some flavor perceived through aroma. It won't change your IBU number. If your IBU is within 5 points of the target. Don't worry about it at this point. 5 points IBU is nearly indistinguishable.

Grain absorption is usually 0.1 gallon per pound. I usually use 1 quart per pound to dough in and 2 quarts per pound to sparge. I make up for the grain absorption in the sparge. I'm a traditional AG'r with mash and a batch/fly sparge.

Your question about the golden promise. It's not good sub for an adjunct heavy grain bill. 6-Row barley is a high enzyme grain. It's predominately used with adjunct brewing; flaked corn, rice, wheat, oats and barley and it's very cheap. Golden promise is supposedly a great grain for Scottish styles. That's its origin. I have never used it but recently contemplated buying a 50 pound bag. I wound up buying 50lbs of Maris Otter instead.

I normally use Briess Pale Malt. It's fairly cheap and fully modified it's slightly darker (+1 lovibond) than standard two row. About 3 total. Pale malt also has enough enzymes to convert adjuncts too, but it has a limits that I can't recall. 6-Row is generally cheaper than pale malt and is the go to grain if you want good efficiency with adjuncts. Especially if it's 33% adjunct. It's never 100% of the grist though. Match it 1:1 with the adjuncts. 2 lbs flaked corn : 2 lbs 6-Row.

As for grain selection and another tip to help efficiency/attenuation, make sure you limit your use of crystal malts. Anything over 40L shouldn't be over 7% of the grist otherwise you'll have problems. The mash extraction could be lower and the wort won't attenuate like expected. If you need it darker or higher SRM value use Dark Belgian candy sugar or Invert Sugars; like #3 or #4. Another alternative is to use some Demerara Sugar or Turbinado Sugar up to 20% max. 10% is my preference. It's not gonna get it as dark as the dark Belgian candy or the #3/#4 inverts.

Hope this helps.

I think you're gonna have a fine light beer for after mowing.
 
Thank you for the detailed reply! There is a lot there to consider. I'm going to try make this again and should be a lot better off.
 
Having a wedding soonish. Is this close enough to serve to the typical Busch light drinker?
 
Schlenkerla said:
Definitely.

Use Noble German Hops like Hallertauer. Mt Hood would work too.

Just hop to 18 IBU. Use one addition, do it 60 minutes.
Click to expand...

Are you saying to boil for 60 mins then? Looks like the original has a 90 min boil. Also, I just use a cooler for my mash tun. Do I just mash this at 147 the whole time and for how long? Looks like a total of 110 min mash in the original recipe? I have never mashed longer then 60 mins...
 
mcfire12 said:
Are you saying to boil for 60 mins then? Looks like the original has a 90 min boil. Also, I just use a cooler for my mash tun. Do I just mash this at 147 the whole time and for how long? Looks like a total of 110 min mash in the original recipe? I have never mashed longer then 60 mins...
Click to expand...

No, make it pretty much per the recipe but with only one hop addition. That would be the 60 minute addition.

Otherwise Mash and Boil per the recipe.

Make sure you have plenty of water in the wort for the longer boil.
 
Schlenkerla said:
No, make it pretty much per the recipe but with only one hop addition. That would be the 60 minute addition.

Otherwise Mash and Boil per the recipe.

Make sure you have plenty of water in the wort for the longer boil.
Click to expand...

Hallertauer is a US hops according to beer smith? Had the wrong one selected my bad!
 
When are people adding the amylase enzyme now? I believe I read a post around 90 pages in about adding it about 9 days after it's been in the fermentor, added it into the primary. How long do I need to let it sit in my primary before kegging?
 
mcfire12 said:
When are people adding the amylase enzyme now? I believe I read a post around 90 pages in about adding it about 9 days after it's been in the fermentor, added it into the primary. How long do I need to let it sit in my primary before kegging?
Click to expand...

Several seem to add it in the primary fermenter at the 7th day. Then let it sit for two weeks.

I still secondary but that's how I've always done. I liked to dry hop in a secondary. It's personal preference.
 
Schlenkerla said:
Several seem to add it in the primary fermenter at the 7th day. Then let it sit for two weeks.

I still secondary but that's how I've always done. I liked to dry hop in a secondary. It's personal preference.
Click to expand...

Perfect, thank you! Let this ferment out at normal 70* temp?
 

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