Recent content by dmtaylor

I get excellent head from some extracts. I think it's worth a shot. Good call, @trustyrusty.

I'm not in Australia, but I know here in the USA, we can purchase rye or wheat extracts. Look for that. Otherwise, if all you can get is the malt or the flaked... skip the flaked, use malt, and you MUST do a mini-mash by crushing and steeping at around 67C for at least 30 minutes, keep only...

Where did you get all that from?! ;)

American Amber can be hopped like an IPA... but it doesn't have to be. Many amber ales are on the maltier side of the spectrum. I think the hop levels in his current recipe are just fine, even great. Add more hops if you want, or just brew as is, it's going to be great either way.

I'm an American who lives literally 10 minutes north of Briess. And I agree, you don't need to use Briess! But you can, I guess, if you need to be able to say that you used American malt! That recipe looks great. I could drink a lot of it. However I do have some ideas for your consideration...

Rye, and wheat. But mostly rye. Carapils is worthless.

Yeast selection is pretty key in attenuation and FG, and the data provided by manufacturers is very often WAY off from reality. For example, US-05 for many averages 83% attenuation, not 80%. And all Chicos are NOT the same either. WLP001 averages 74%, 1056 averags 75%, and BRY-97/M44 is 81%...

Kveik is made for this. I wouldn't use kveik under normal temperatures, but at 30C, yeah.

I haven't found it necessary to carbonate any beers higher than about 2.5 volumes. You'll get plenty of head regardless in a protein rich beer. No need to pour full glasses of foam, no thanks.

I think I've heard others report similar things with this yeast. A cooler fermentation temperature should help prevent this. How warm are you fermenting with it? It should also disappear with aging, after say a couple of months. Even a hefeweizen will lose its banana character after about...

I made the Ninkasi beer once about 15 years ago or so. I used smoked malt in mine (tastes like bacon.) I made date wine a few days ahead, literally just sanitized my hands then poured water over some pitted dates, crushed them up with my hands to a fine pulp, then let this spontaneously...

No disagreement from me. Cheers!

Diamond makes great lagers at 18-19C in my experience. And so does S-04(!).

I really like it, it is quite phenolic with pepper and clove, and pleasant but mild esters. I will be using it again for sure.

I have put a lot of time into understanding and proper use of refractometers for determining FG. When done right, it is accurate vs. a hydrometer within 0.001-0.002 gravity points. When FG is expected <1.014, then Sean Terrill's correction calculator is the most accurate. However, change his...