Recent content by artyboy

It's been about two weeks since I added the blackberry must. It's back down to .994. Now it has a really strong, pungent smell that doesn't smell normal. It could be the k-meta but I'm not sure. It's sour now and just a hint of sweetness. You can almost taste the blackberries. I think I'm...

It's not sour. It's extremely dry, though.

The reason not to use commercial cereal is because it's heavily processed. I've heard of people try to make beer from cereals like grape nuts but it never ends well. I've been tempted to try mashing some puffed wheat but have never bothered.

I would freeze them. It makes it easier to extract all of the juice when you crush them. I would also rinse the berries in a campden/water solution before crushing/pureeing them. You could add a little pectic enzyme to eat up the proteins. Usually, when I add puree to beer it just falls out...

Yes. I used the dregs from a Saison de Buff for the yeast. I was really surprised, too. I checked three samples and used two different hydrometers. I combined the two batches and it's fermenting away again so I guess I'll see where it ends up.

I added the k-meta after crushing my berries then stirred a couple of times per day for a week. Then I pitched my yeast. I probably just used way too much. We'll see how it reacts with 5 gallons of beer. I always use a teaspoon in my 5 gallon batches.

Oskar Blues. I love every beer they make..except for Gubna. I like it but I don't love it.

I still don't have a kegerater. That puts a damper on my kegged beer. Usually, I just fill my bottles with whatever I want to drink for the night and put them in the fridge. I don't always get around to it, though. When I get one with 4-6 taps then I'll probably quit buying commercial beer.

So a few weeks ago I tried doing a 1 gallon batch of blackberry wine. I must have used a bit too much potassium metobisulphite because the yeast never took off. It didn't ferment at all. Here's the recipe that I used. It ended up at 1.092 5 lbs blackberries 2 lbs sugar 1 quart water .5 tsp...

My 5 gallon batch started at 1.092 and ended at .996. I think that it's ready to bottle. It smells great. It tastes great. It has that "real wine" flavor that I didn't expect. The blueberry character doesn't really come through very strongly. It's nice and dry with just a little heat. I...

I'm tempted to do a chili stout based on a Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout clone. I think that the flavors would come together really well.

After a few weeks it's really mellowed out. It's awesome now. The heat hits you in the back of the throat pretty hard when you first drink it dissipates pretty quickly and after a couple of them you don't really even notice it.

I just took it off of the stir plate this morning. Now there's about an inch or so of creamy white yeast on the bottom of the flask. It smells really sour and yeasty. I tasted it and it's definitely unpleasant but not undrinkable. It's just really sour and yeasty. Should I decant and pitch...

So the corks don't add to the shelf life at all? I just had a dobbel that was cellared for at least 10 or 15 years and it was great.

I just cracked the first one from my latest batch. I think that I have the malts and the hops where I want them but the beer is really really spicy. The flavor is awesome. The peppers really shine through and the malt balance is good. It just keeps burning after you drink it. My first batch...