Search results

My go-to NE IPA uses Galaxy/Mosaic/Citra for the hop bill. I was ordering Galaxy from Yakima Valley recently, and all they had at the time was a buddy pack of Galaxy and Ella...aka Stella previously. I've never used Ella, but wondered if Galaxy/Stella/Citra may make a decent hop combination. I...

Recently attended a seminar/meeting in which a fellow home brewer (newbie I think) stated he ferments in a closed loop tank where no off gassing is allowed to escape for the duration. I didn't have a chance to ask him about this, but I do have a major question: Aside from the excessive...

I have struggled with slow ferment times and low quality tea in the winter as my ferment closet is around 67F. The tea seems weak and it takes forever to develop thin, wispy scoby's on top. Clearly, the tea is not happy at 67F I have a 10" x 20" germination heat mat to pop veggie seeds in...

I recently visited White Labs new facility in Asheville NC where I tried a 4-way split batch of various WL yeasts in IPA beers. The WLP 066 totally took me by a pleasant surprise at the difference between this and WLP001, WLP008 and Sacc Trois. This lead me to my own split batch experiment...

I called a local orchard to reserve my juice to pick up this weekend. Was told the juice has no preservatives in it - and recommends to leave them out. The juice is pressed and stored in large refrigerated vats awaiting my pickup. Oddly, I am not sure I like the way this is heading. Granted...

Greetings. Time slipped up and cider day at the orchards is this weekend and I have no yeast at this point. My LHBS doesn't have WLP775 which I have used before with success, but suggests I try Safcider dry yeast. I want my cider to get down to 1.000 (or close) since I like to retard the...

I got an update to Martin's program via email yesterday (10/11/18). It indicates I need to change the .dat file to a .xls file and go into program settings to make this happen. In this day of scammers and con artists online, I flagged this one as questionable. Nothing Martin has sent me...

I have a new oak barrel that was ordered with a toasted char interior. I'm planning to use this barrel to age some sort of basic sour to get started into barrel aging. Michael Tonsmeire published a basic sour recipe (Perpetuum) using mostly base malts with some oat and other flaked grain...

I was weighing out grains for a Marzen (yeah, I'm a bit late) and had a partial bag of Vienna left over in a grain bin. The Vienna was probably right at a year old, and I had sealed it in a zip baggie that was stored in a pail with a gamma lid. I was weighing the grains and saw weevils on the...

I've made a Sweet Stout before, but they are not on my radar screen, so I don't really have a gauge for what is considered an ideal FG for this beer. My wife requested this beer for an after dinner sweet cordial or something that satisfies a sweet tooth in lieu of a dessert. I doubt I'll drink...

I'm planning to brew an all grain Chocolate Milk Stout with toasted cocoa nibs (tincture) and lactose. I made one last year and I'll say it was very good but fell short of being a gold medal winner. If anyone can share a recipe that may be in the "Gold Medal" category, I'm going to my LHBS...

I have a partial gallon jug of glycol and cannot remember if I have already diluted it with water to make a 50/50 ratio. I assume I can use a floating hydrometer and read the SG to see if the glycol is already diluted? If I can test with this method, what SG should I read if the glycol was cut...

Wife is pea"nuts" over Reese Cups, so I am investigating ways to make a Sweet Stout with a peanut nuance. I'd typically be worried about head retention with oils from nuts, so I'm looking for ways to introduce the flavor and keep head retention. I make my sweet stout with a toasted cocoa nib...

In a general sense, I suppose there are several ingredient choices to balance in making an outstanding New England Juicy IPA: Yeast selection; Grain/adjunct bill; Hop bill and varietals, Water profile. I make NEIPA beers frequently so I always have them on hand with the goal of having the...

We note this is the time of the year we all scramble for Oktoberfest recipes - not March like the old days before refrigeration/cooling was available. Anyway - there are lots of Oktoberfest recipes out there and I have tried a few. Unfortunately I feel many recipes turn out a bit too sweet, a...

I have been focused on beer making most of my time brewing, along with successful batches of cider making. Not in need of the basics like sanitation and temp control, just need some of the basics to make a batch of wine perhaps from grape juice or frozen concentrate. I like something...

I make large batches of Kombucha Tea and share half of it with my 85 yo mom. I bought a couple of cases of Grolsch swing top bottles as a test but she cant get the wire lids to push open with arthritic hands. I have a few GT Dave's 16 oz bottles I saved but I need a few dozen more. Does...

Kettle souring went nicely in the Gose with 3.22 going into the boil. 7 gallons was my pre-boil volume and 5.75G was my post boil volume going into the fermenter. A small amount of hops were added into the boil as well as sea salt and cracked coriander. Since I boiled off 1.25 gallons, I...

As we all are more aware of late hop benefits today than we were 10 years ago, BeerSmith has done well to keep up with the trends and provided ways to calculate IBU's with various late techniques. I have a question about the way to input a particular value...Say I add a hop addition at 15...

A microbiologist at a yeast company shared the latest trend may be shifting from the NE IPA craze to the drier BRUT IPA. A quick look online shows glucoamalyse is added to help break down the long chain sugars down to available food for yeast allowing the FG to get way down to a target of 1.002...