Recent content by jpsloan

I had a very similar experience earlier this year. In my case, the culprit was the virtue that my LHBS was selling roast at 300SRM instead of 500SRM, which the recipe technically called for. I have since learned to double-check the roast level on my dark grains! I ended up adding some Sinnamar...

My "sweep it under the rug" beer is Michelob. I genuinely dig the stuff!

Here's a follow-up on my acetaldehyde issue. Six batches have been brewed and consumed in the same keg equipment since my problem, and none have had a problem with acetaldehyde. At this point, I'm going to call oxygen the culprit. I have never agitated my kegs since these two batches, and...

Ditto!

Another vote for Brewer's Art. They specialize in Belgians. Though you're really going to want to get dinner there, too... amazing.

That said, I use my LG dishwasher on the steam sanitize cycle for my bottles. It also has a Jet Dry reservoir. I've been bottling with it for a year and a half and have never had the first problem with head retention.

If it were me, I'd look into getting a march pump and working up a recirculating immersion chiller, and get the hell away from depending on gravity for every damn thing. I'm not bitter. I'm just poor.

It seems to me that it's far more likely that a homebrewer will create a batch of beer with lots of acetaldehyde due to poor fermentation, and an appreciable quantity of that surely isn't easy on the body.

That poor dog and his frozen chin!

I've brewed kolsch before with no problems. The doppelbock was my first lager. The doppelbock was fermented in a chest freezer with a Johnsons Control set for 55 degrees, and remained undisturbed for 21 days (give or take). I pulled the bucket out of the freezer and allowed it to sit in my...

Thanks for the input, everyone. I've officially retired my plastic buckets. With any luck, this is just a bug I picked up in the plastic. I'll be rocking a weizenbock/dunkelweizen partigyle this weekend, so I sure do hope that blasting my after-cooling gear with my usual strident course of...

My first thought when I pondered the possibility that oxidization was behind this was "Wouldn't I also be getting lots of diacetyl?" The other common element that didn't occur to me are the kegs. These are the second and third beers I've ever kegged. I feel really confident in my cleaning and...

From the Wiki, among other sources: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Acetaldehyde

I've developed an apparent system-wide issue with my beers. Acetaldehyde. This is a relatively new problem, so I'm trying my level best to ferret out how it's popping up in my beer. Here's the skinny... Two beers in a row... both have that green apple jolly rancher smell and flavor, almost...

Every year, it feels like the Summer Ale takes forever to roll out of rotation. I'm not necessarily defending their Oktoberfest, but it's my favorite of the four SA seasonals, and it seems to take forever to get past those summer ales.