Search results

I used Nottingham for the first time recently. It attenuated just fine, but my beer is ******* full of acetaldehyde. It tastes like cider, completely undrinkable. First time it's happend to me in years, I didn't even think to check before I kegged it. I'm not even sure what could have gone...

I use one of these. Cheaper than a full blown bottle capper and much easier than a hand/hammer capper. Takes a bit of getting used to but it works a treat.

Isn't pilsner malt distinctly different to ale malt though? I've never used it so I can't comment on it. Apparently it requires a 90 minute boil?

Good question. Are you no-chilling, or do you have a wort chiller? If you're not chilling I guess you'd just chuck it in at the end of the boil. If you're chilling, there are a lot of different thoughts on the matter. Traditionally people chuck them in at the end of the boil and then chill ASAP...

Hey Yob, bit of a stretch, but I wonder with your contacts in the hop world, are you able to stock "hop goo"? Like the CO2 extracted resin? Not isomerised extract, the un-isomerised gooey **** that you add to the boil like you would normal hops. Tonnes of people use it these days for bittering...

I don't know how much difference it makes, but American 2-row is 1.8ºL while Australian ale malt is 3.2ºL, almost twice as dark. The colour doesn't bother me but I imagine there'd be a difference in taste.

Is this all-grain beer or extract beer? If it's extract it's possible your goo and/or powder is clumping on the bottom and burning on the element.

Nah I've never bought candi syrup from a store. Is it that much better than home made? I mean, $109 USD for ~3.6 kilos?

You know you can make candi sugar yourself? It's extremely easy and costs almost nothing. There are thousands of guides on the net, I dunno which one is the best one though, maybe somebody can link a good one.

Hops. :ph34r:

Zythos and Falconer's Flight are a bit of a conundrum to me. I don't like that I don't know what I'm actually adding to the beer. I know that both of them are famously delicious blends of hops, it just feels weird using them. Like if I was making a pie with "mystery meat". :P

I use Horizon as a substitute for Amarillo. Crack a pack of Horizon open, smell it, and you'll probably be stunned that it's almost exclusively used for bittering. It's a super clean bittering hop (possibly the cleanest bittering hop around), but is officially classified as a dual purpose hop...

How out of date are we talking here? You can use http://yeastcalc.com/ to estimate the amount of viable cells left. White Labs production date is exactly 4 months before the "best before" date (for 99% of their yeasts anyway, special bacteria strains I believe are 6 months).

POR has forever been defiled by the horrors of mega-lager, much like Hitler ruined that mustache.

I have never gotten a "vegetal" or "grassy" flavour from dry hopping. As long as you don't leave it for weeks at a time, and you try and keep the temperature down around 20ºC or so, it shouldn't be a problem. But then it depends on the hop, depends on the person tasting the beer, etc. I can...

1) You shouldn't limit yourself to dry hopping your American ales with Cascade. American pale ales / IPA's are like God's gift to dry hoppers. There are SO MANY amazing varieties to choose from. 2) Historically I believe a great number of British beers were "dry hopped" (well, sort of - cask...

If it tasted like vaguely bitter water, it was probably Sail & Anchor.

Just to add to the mash temperature discussion: http://woodlandbrew.blogspot.com.au/2013/01/measured-mash-temperature-effects.html This bloke did a test on mash temperature and found that final attenuation decreased by approximately 1% for every degree Fahrenheit above 152ºF (66.7ºC), tested...

Thermometer: http://www.thermoworks.com/products/low_cost/rt600c.html One of the best things I ever bought.

I use gelatin before I keg, during cold crash. That said there's no reason you CAN'T use gelatin in the keg, it's just better to do it BEFORE you keg if you can. Keep all the **** in the fermenter so it doesn't get into the keg in the first place.