Technique questions

[Sinnick]

I am on my fourth batch now and after a lot of reading I am starting to think that I have made some big mistakes as a rookie. I am still in the crawl phase and doing extract brews.

During the boil, how intense should the boil be? I have come close to a boil over with my propane burner but on my stove top it was just a gentle rolling boil. Which is better and why?

I have yet to make a starter for my yeast. I used dry yeast twice and white labs liquid twice. I do not think there were any issues but everyone seems to be adamant about using starters. Am I losing out by not doing this or was I just lucky to have viable yeast each time?

I have been using bottled water. I was thinking about using tap water but the hardness level here is just under 200. Good enough or would I need to use some gypsum?

Why does it seem that my darker beers like a CDA seem to have a lot less head? Anyway to fix this?

I appreciate everyones help. This forum rocks!

Thanks, Nick

 

[jonmohno]

Sometimes i think carbonation has a lot to do with head. Ive been adding the malts for head retention and without enough of carbonation dosent really seem to help.
So from now on im sticking to a little more priming sugar.Dme also is suppose to help.

 

[marnel]

I don't think you've made to many mistakes at all.

As far as boiling a rolling boil is all you need.

Starters are only necessary for liquid yeast and should not be used for dry. You should rehydrate the dry yeast however. For liquid yeast starters it really depends on the gravity of your beer. Anything over 45 I make a starter, although makeing a starter for less won't hurt it's just not necessary if purchasing a smack pack or white labs vial unless you just wanted to verify the health of yeast.

I've found that adding about .5-1% of torrifed wheat to my grain bill has helped greatly with head retention. How are you carbonating your beer?

I will defer the water question since water chemistry is way beyond my scope of knowledge.

Sent from my iPhone using HB Talk

 

[redm18]

I don't think water chemistry is a very big deal with extract. It's way more important for all grain as it can affect startch conversion in the mashing process. You might get some off flavors from your water if you drink it and don't mind the flavor I bet you can brew with it just fine.

 

[Sinnick]

Marnel, I am bottle conditioning with 5 oz. of dextrose for a 5 gal batch. The head on my IIPA are great, but the one CDA that I made was kind of weak looking. I did throw in a tsp of wormwood into a few of my ruination clones and those had crazy carb after a few weeks in the bottle. They were really bitter but still good beers.
-Nick