Success!

[jjward101]

So I just finished brewing my 8th batch this afternoon, with my 4,5,7th in secondary, my 6th in the fridge, and 8th in primary, and all others bottled- except for the 1st, which is a mere memory now.

A friend came to drop off his daughter for a playdate with mine, and we threw back a few...the conversation turned to locally brewed micros, and I happened to have some Yards Philadelphia Ale in the fridge, so I gave him one. When he was done drinking the Yards, this was his comment: "you know Joe, its not bad, but do you mind if I switch back to your homebrew? It's way better".

I consider that quite the compliment, therefore.....Success!
It was an 8% creamy blonde I served him.

Tue batch I brewed today is a similar beer, but I plan on trying out some pickle juice in the secondary. Any thoughts on this?

 

[JasonScott]

Awesome. My third batch is in the secondary fermenter, and I look forward to receiving compliments like that.

 

[Flomaster]

jjw3ard101 = WINNING

-=jason=-

 

[jwplessner]

Funny I tested an early brew against yards ppa with my stepdad but with less positive results.

Aiming higher now, next time i'm going to lose to the case of great lakes porter I just bought.

 

[abrdnck]

Months ago, I gave a friend a couple bottles of an IPA that I made (my 2nd ever batch). I recently saw him, and we got talking about beer. He mentioned that he liked my beer so much that he has pretty much completely switched to IPAs. I didn't think they were that great, to be honest - but I just found one hiding in my beer cellar and it has aged quite admirably.

Anyway, I was pretty honored that he liked my beer, and that it inspired him to try something new. I like my homebrew better than a lot of commercial beers, but I figure I am biased. Getting other people agreeing with that sentiment is very encouraging.

I have Monday off of work and will be doing my first all-grain - I can hardly wait. I'm making a fairly standard British Bitter. That was the first style of beer I ever really enjoyed, so I hope I do it justice.

 

[cervezarara]

Hi JJ.
Pickle juice will probably consist of salt and vinegar. Are you thinking of a gose flavor? I would go easy and experiment with additions, as the acetic acid is highly detectable at just few ppm and could become pretty strong in the beer. I really like sour beers, but most of the sour comes from lactic acid introduction either from lactobacillus or pediococcus. Of course, some Flanders reds develop a small mount of acetic acid from acetobacter. For most conventional brewers, these are considered infections, and result in dumpers.
If you want a little sour, you could try lactic acid or maybe lemon juice. If you're set on pickle juice, try a few drops or half teaspoon, say, in the hydrometer tube to see how it affects the taste. Maybe you'll hit on something you like and you can scale up the addition to the whole batch.
It might be a good idea to sour a gallon or two to see how it finishes out. Then you'd still have 3 or 4 gallons of something you already know you like in case the pickle beer is a tad overwhelming.
Cheers.