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[andylsun]

Brewed Mirror Pond clone yesterday and for the first time I overshot my OG. I consider this a good sign as I've been scaling recipes for 60% efficiency. Recipe called for 1.051 and I ended up around 1.056. I've been using a thinner mash, which not only keeps temperature better (10 gal cooler) but seems to give an improvement with efficiency.

I left about a gal of sludge in my brew kettle, so decided to chuck that in a carboy with some Safale 04 and will see what happens. There's at least half a gallon of clear beer mixed in with it, and it had a lovely krausen on it this morning, and fermenting away like mad. If it drops well (will cold crash it) should get at least a sixer out of it.

 

[Moppet13]

I was thinking of making a hazelnut stout, I'm thinking the best way to get the hazelnut flavor would be by soaking them in high proof alcohol and adding them to secondary? Any other thoughts?

I was also wondering what kind of malt I should go with, I tried making a black IPA with roasted wheat and it ended up with an after taste like cough syrup so I'm all scared of messing with roasted grain

 

[fenners]

Both dry yeast - the first was a new to me brand as a test, Mangrove Jack. Rehydrated as normal. Second was a good old stand by Safale S05, just sprinkled on top - I have little doubt both yeast were "fine", especially the second as it's a S05, a reliable back up.

After doing some reading/posting on HBT, I've spent today rocking the carboy & put a brewbelt to heat it up a little - something I didn't expect to need to ever do here in Texas I'll take a sample & test gravity again tomorrow evening, see if it's moved any.

Beer moved down to ~1.028/30 and hasn't budged in a few days. And we've had another severe cold snap. The planned according to Beersmith is 1.018, so screw it

I've got a pound of dried cherries soaking in some spiced rum (after washing/sanitizing to get as much of the sunflower oil off as I could) and that's smelling /delicious/ already, so the cherries and some of the rum will get added in a few days to make for a nice boozy beer.

 

[thcsquad]

I was thinking of making a hazelnut stout, I'm thinking the best way to get the hazelnut flavor would be by soaking them in high proof alcohol and adding them to secondary? Any other thoughts?

I was also wondering what kind of malt I should go with, I tried making a black IPA with roasted wheat and it ended up with an after taste like cough syrup so I'm all scared of messing with roasted grain

Making an alcohol infusion like that should work, I just added some hazelnut extract into the bottling bucket and it worked just fine though.

 

[codswallop]

I was thinking of making a hazelnut stout, I'm thinking the best way to get the hazelnut flavor would be by soaking them in high proof alcohol and adding them to secondary? Any other thoughts?

Yeah, vodka is usually the best choice. Add after fermentation is finished.

I was also wondering what kind of malt I should go with, I tried making a black IPA with roasted wheat and it ended up with an after taste like cough syrup so I'm all scared of messing with roasted grain

Black IPAs (and most 'black whatevers') use black malt, 1-5% only.

If you want a slight roasty taste, add 1-2% and use another 3-5% of one with the husks removed (like Carafa III), as it'll just add colour. Least that's what I've been lead to believe. Made a black saison yesterday with 1% black malt and 3% Carafa III, we'll see about the taste, the colour seems very dark brown, not quite black.

 

[wetwired]

Has anyone here brewed with honey before? I usually use wet wort kits but my father gave me a canned kit for my birthday. I figured I'd use honey instead of sugar for something different and add some galaxy hops.

I put in roughly a kilo of honey which started the gravity at 1.080. It's down to about 1.010 now but it tastes slightly mediciney (I always taste what I get out of the hydrometer). I've yet to dry hop with the galaxy hops but is this normal in anyone else's experience?

 

[MacGurcules]

Has anyone here brewed with honey before? I usually use wet wort kits but my father gave me a canned kit for my birthday. I figured I'd use honey instead of sugar for something different and add some galaxy hops.

I put in roughly a kilo of honey which started the gravity at 1.080. It's down to about 1.010 now but it tastes slightly mediciney (I always taste what I get out of the hydrometer). I've yet to dry hop with the galaxy hops but is this normal in anyone else's experience?

Honey ferments out pretty dry. You've got to be careful to maintain a good fermentation with high percentages of any highly fermentable additives because you can end up with a lot of nasty secondary alcohols. I've had a couple of brews with honey where I didn't watch my temperatures well enough and it fermented out too hot and too fast. Ended up with some unpleasant cidery flavors from it.

Since you're talking kilos and and using Galaxy hops, do I assume Australia? Being summertime, it's possible a hot ferment could have contributed. What's your water like? Bottled? Tap? What yeast are you using?

 

[wetwired]

Honey ferments out pretty dry. You've got to be careful to maintain a good fermentation with high percentages of any highly fermentable additives because you can end up with a lot of nasty secondary alcohols. I've had a couple of brews with honey where I didn't watch my temperatures well enough and it fermented out too hot and too fast. Ended up with some unpleasant cidery flavors from it.

Since you're talking kilos and and using Galaxy hops, do I assume Australia? Being summertime, it's possible a hot ferment could have contributed. What's your water like? Bottled? Tap? What yeast are you using?

Yeah I'm Australia, but I have a temperature regulator, I had it at 19c with tap water. I did initially try some american ale yeast as opposed to the stuff that came in the kit but that didn't start. I ended up using the kit yeast after about 3 days of nothing happening

 

[MacGurcules]

Yeah I'm Australia, but I have a temperature regulator, I had it at 19c with tap water. I did initially try some american ale yeast as opposed to the stuff that came in the kit but that didn't start. I ended up using the kit yeast after about 3 days of nothing happening

Could be your water. Chlorinated tap water can promote the production of phenolics, especially when used with a messy yeast strain. It's possible it will eventually condition out to be more palatable.

For next time, you could try to drop a crushed campden tablet in your water to strip out the chlorine/chloromines. That or carbon filter it.

 

[wetwired]

Could be your water. Chlorinated tap water can promote the production of phenolics, especially when used with a messy yeast strain. It's possible it will eventually condition out to be more palatable.

For next time, you could try to drop a crushed campden tablet in your water to strip out the chlorine/chloromines. That or carbon filter it.

I don't usually use the canned kits, so hopefully there won't be a next time. The dry hopping might hopefully disguise some of the taste but I think I won't have it palatable for xmas. Good thing my belgian wort kit came out awesome

 

[Angry Grimace]

Experiment report:

I tried hooking my temperature controller up to a thermowell in order to control the liquid temperature more precisely. However, I've found it simply doesn't work as well as one might imagine. The liquid is very slow to change temperature, but the ambient air is not. The result is that the freezer just stays "on" until the liquid starts to drop, but by the time that occurs, the ambient in the freezer could be 30.

 

[Yaboosh]

Experiment report:

I tried hooking my temperature controller up to a thermowell in order to control the liquid temperature more precisely. However, I've found it simply doesn't work as well as one might imagine. The liquid is very slow to change temperature, but the ambient air is not. The result is that the freezer just stays "on" until the liquid starts to drop, but by the time that occurs, the ambient in the freezer could be 30.

Insulated probe taped against the fermenter is the way to go. Simplicity is the name of the game.

 

[Angry Grimace]

Insulated probe taped against the fermenter is the way to go. Simplicity is the name of the game.

I don't see why that would work any better; its the same concept but less accurate. The problem is that the liquid has a lot of mass, so it doesn't change temperature very quickly. The ambient ends up being very low and only goes back up very slowly since the freezer is mostly insulated, but the liquid continues to go down in temperature. So far it seems like it works better to simply control the ambient temperatures in the freezer directly.

 

[sharkmuncher]

I'm trying to organize a few brewing experiments to do with my club. Any ideas or suggestions would be great. Someone already noted if we use American 2-row for the mash experiment there will be no difference and I'm inclined to believe him. There's so much enzyme in those converted malts that even at non-optimal temperature, all enzymes will convert everything over the course of an hour, but I guess we'll find out.

I just had a couple of things I think would be interesting to try out as a club and just thought I’d see if there was any interest and hopefully get the ball rolling on a few of these.

1) An examination of differences in Mash Temp
- Brew a basic pale ale, but mash at 4 different temperature (147, 150, 153, 156)
- Follow the as close to the exact same procedure for the rest of the process and have a tasting for anyone interested 3-4 weeks later
- Make one large starter and pitch 4 ways
- Mix and mill all grain as a 20 gallon batch, then divide

- Difficulties with this include: 4x of same of very similar equipment required or 4 batches on same equipment in 1 day.

2) An examination of hop additions
- Same beer with Mash Hop vs First Wort Hop vs 60 minute addition

-Difficulties : See #1

3) Variations of Different Yeast Strains from a Particular Region
- Make a large (20 gallon, more?) batch of a beer of a particular region (German Lager, English ESB, Belgian Pale Ale, etc.)
- Pitch a similar starter of various yeast strains from that region (i.e. Belgian Pale Ale with WLP 500, 510, 530, 550)
- Follow same ferment, etc.

4) Variations in Hop Varieties and Blending Beer
- Same recipe
- Large Mash
- Split into multiple kettles for the boil.
- Same Bitter, Different Varieties per kettle at 10, 5, 0 min.
- Ferment and taste. Focus on the blending of the finished beers as determining good blends of late hops.

ie brew a pale ale with neutral buttering hop then 10, 5, 0 Cascade
10, 5, 0 Centennial
10, 5, 0 Simcoe
10, 5, 0, CTZ
or any other variations.

Sorry if this is a mess, it was just a list of ideas I wanted to get out there and if people are interested, any of this can be altered/refined as needed.

 

[Yaboosh]

I don't see why that would work any better; its the same concept but less accurate. The problem is that the liquid has a lot of mass, so it doesn't change temperature very quickly. The ambient ends up being very low and only goes back up very slowly since the freezer is mostly insulated, but the liquid continues to go down in temperature. So far it seems like it works better to simply control the ambient temperatures in the freezer directly.

The amount of thermal mass the cold air has in the freezer is not going to be enough to drop 5-10 gallons of fermenting beer far below your set point.

You want to respond to the actual temperature of the fermenting beer because it will be a few degrees higher than ambient. Controlling based on the ambient temperature only can result in far wider swings than measuring the temperature of the beer directly.

 

[Angry Grimace]

The amount of thermal mass the cold air has in the freezer is not going to be enough to drop 5-10 gallons of fermenting beer far below your set point.

You want to respond to the actual temperature of the fermenting beer because it will be a few degrees higher than ambient. Controlling based on the ambient temperature only can result in far wider swings than measuring the temperature of the beer directly.

Except it IS doing that. I set it to 50 with a differential of "1" and the internal temperature of the beer was 44 when the freezer stopped.

 

[Yaboosh]

Except it IS doing that. I set it to 50 with a differential of "1" and the internal temperature of the beer was 44 when the freezer stopped.

Never had that issue before. Though I have never used athermowell at home.

 

[Angry Grimace]

Never had that issue before. Though I have never used athermowell at home.

That's the center too. Looks like this:

I imagine it might even be colder near the sides (which might be a reason to tape it to the side, I'd imagine). I'll probably try either that or just continue to set ambient to 3 below my target ferment temp.

 

[fenners]

I imagine it might even be colder near the sides (which might be a reason to tape it to the side, I'd imagine). I'll probably try either that or just continue to set ambient to 3 below my target ferment temp.

3 below is what I do. 65 for 68 etc...

 

[codswallop]

I'm trying to organize a few brewing experiments to do with my club.

Similar to #2, you could try different timings of hop additions to the boil? One at the start and end, one "10 minute", one hopped every minute or something, all attempting to hit the same IBU with the otherwise same recipe.

 

[MacGurcules]

Got a nice two-liter Erlenmeyer for Christmas. Just rigged up the world's simplest stirplate. Gonna have a go with it for a brew this weekend, I think.

 

[Snytbaggen]

Me and a friend decided to try homebrewing a while ago, and bottled our first beer today. We made a weissbier and got about eight liters, so that's four liters for me. Now it's gonna be bottle conditioned before a few weeks before I can find out how bad it tastes...

 

[FelixOrion]

I'm currently brewing 5 gallons of a Cranberry-Raspberry-Cherry fruit wine for a class in college. Will bottle at end of semester/graduation. Racked last week. Looking pretty good so far. My yeast tops out at 18%, so I'm hoping it hits that, or gets close.

 

[codswallop]

Now it's gonna be bottle conditioned before a few weeks before I can find out how bad it tastes...

Even if it's terrible you'll enjoy it, because you made it!

 

[Snytbaggen]

Even if it's terrible you'll enjoy it, because you made it!

Yeah, that's true. I didn't dare to taste it before bottling it, but my friend did and he said it tasted like a "lukewarm beer that has lost its carbonation" which I kind of see as a good thing. I definitely thought it smelled like a weissbier although yeasty, he said he didn't really taste the wheat but that he's always been bad at discerning things like that. So I'm having hopes it might actually turn out well, but I'm prepared for the worst.

 

[codswallop]

If you taste a beer at any stage before either being kegged or bottle conditioned, you should consider that the flavours will be quite different, so don't use that as a final judge (though once you're experienced enough it sort of helps).

Also, wait at least two weeks before drinking. After one week it'll be carbonated, but won't taste as good as it should.

 

[Snytbaggen]

If you taste a beer at any stage before either being kegged or bottle conditioned, you should consider that the flavours will be quite different, so don't use that as a final judge (though once you're experienced enough it sort of helps).

Also, wait at least two weeks before drinking. After one week it'll be carbonated, but won't taste as good as it should.

Yeah, I just saw it as a good sign in an "it's not infected" way. The recipe said to wait about three weeks before sampling, but I might open one a bit earlier if I get too curious. Is there any way to tell if the carbonation has started?

 

[codswallop]

Carbonation probably started as soon as you added the sugar and put in the cap! Not sure if you know how it works, but when the beer was fermenting, it was putting out CO2 (presumably you had either an airlock or blowoff) into the atmosphere. Now, it's doing the same thing but can't get out into the atmosphere because the bottles are sealed, so it ends up being dissolved back into the liquid. When you open it up, bubbles!

It can be hard to tell in glass bottles (I always like to put a couple in PET/plastic bottles, the bottles get much harder to squeeze when it's all good -- and then they're my early testers because I have trouble waiting too!), but if you (gently!*) upend the bottle, you should see a little bit of foam inside.

* Gently because if you used way too much priming sugar (like, 6+ times what you should've used), the activity could make the bottle explode.

 

[Snytbaggen]

Yeah, I know how it works but thanks anyway, it was a good explanation I assume the cap will start to bulge out a bit when the pressure is increased as I've seen that on other bottles, but I was kinda hoping that there'd be some kind of other visual feedback on what happens as well. I'm probably overly paranoid about the bottles exploding, but I've put them in a plastic bag just in case.

 

[DiabolicalBagel]

I recently made my first beer, thanks to a good friend kindly lending his kit and support. Will be kegging/bottling it this weekend hopefully and then leave it for a while to bottle condition.
Chocolate DIPA, fingers crossed it doesn't taste horrendous.

 

[Angry Grimace]

I was thinking of making a hazelnut stout, I'm thinking the best way to get the hazelnut flavor would be by soaking them in high proof alcohol and adding them to secondary? Any other thoughts?

I was also wondering what kind of malt I should go with, I tried making a black IPA with roasted wheat and it ended up with an after taste like cough syrup so I'm all scared of messing with roasted grain

Super, super late response here but Jamil Zainasheff says that you should never try and make hazelnut extract at home because it doesn't work right.

 

[GameplayWhore]

I'm currently brewing 5 gallons of a Cranberry-Raspberry-Cherry fruit wine for a class in college. Will bottle at end of semester/graduation. Racked last week. Looking pretty good so far. My yeast tops out at 18%, so I'm hoping it hits that, or gets close.

After a really successful basic mead, a solid lemon ale, and a so-far promising coffee mead, we started up a juice wine with a similar mix. It's about three weeks into the process and starting to properly smell like wine.

We got real world results at around 12% ABV on the mead with EC-1118 champagne yeast. I think the wine may bring us more, because that sucker's been active.

Our basic plan going forward involves starting up a new batch maybe every three weeks.

 

[waxer]

I use 71-b for my meads coupled with nutrient additions and degassing for first third of fermentation.

Thinking about building a pot still(new zealand its legal) Just started reading up on it. I dont see the point of reflux etc where there is no flavour. Going to all that trouble only to throw in flavouring seems like a waste. Or am I missing something.

There is something satisfying about getting your own fruit etc and making something from scratch vs off the shelf. Without that I dont much see the point. Other than cost I guess.

 

[FelixOrion]

After a really successful basic mead, a solid lemon ale, and a so-far promising coffee mead, we started up a juice wine with a similar mix. It's about three weeks into the process and starting to properly smell like wine.

We got real world results at around 12% ABV on the mead with EC-1118 champagne yeast. I think the wine may bring us more, because that sucker's been active.

Our basic plan going forward involves starting up a new batch maybe every three weeks.

I also used EC-1118 as my yeast, so it should be a good comparison to see how our respective brews end up. The benefit of me doing this as part of a class is that I'll end up using a gas chromatograph to quantify my ABV.

 

[GameplayWhore]

Thinking about building a pot still(new zealand its legal) Just started reading up on it.

I looked into it earlier (individuals can get a license to legally distill up to 30000gal in New York State, US, for a couple hundred dollars a year), but I definitely do not trust myself to not accidentally blow up the neighborhood, at least not quite yet.

There is something satisfying about getting your own fruit etc and making something from scratch vs off the shelf. Without that I dont much see the point. Other than cost I guess.

You definitely get more control over your flavour. And you can brew things that simply aren't available: In this area, Mead in particular is very popular among the nerd set, but only one brand (Carroll's) seems to be sold in stores.

Next step will probably be to make a bunch of smaller batches, one or two gallons each, so we have more flexibility in experimentation. Then we'll be able to shift from juice to grinding our own fruits. I do want to try something with the rhubarb that I grew last year, which has been in the freezer for quite some time. Fermenting with it sounds much more fun than baking a pie!

I also used EC-1118 as my yeast, so it should be a good comparison to see how our respective brews end up. The benefit of me doing this as part of a class is that I'll end up using a gas chromatograph to quantify my ABV.

Ooh. I was not aware that this was a valid method. I'm using the old fashioned method of calculating from specific gravities.

Oh, on the side, while it's a tad dangerous (I tend to avoid giving people more than a ship or shot each), I have also done a bit of freeze concentration. It makes pretty much everything taste dramatically better. So far, it's done wonders with the mead and the lemon ale, and we tried a blind taste test after making Bud Hard (freeze-concentrated Bud Light) to see if the method would fix the oft-maligned beverage. Everyone liked it (and most of them do not like the source material), though it was hard for people to figure out exactly what it is -- guesses ranged from ginger ale to some kind of whiskey!

 

[codswallop]

Just finished brewing a Flanders Red (current plan is to bottle it around Christmas). Got a cider a couple of weeks away from being done. Bought a small demijohn yesterday to make my first batch of mead (plan on giving away a few bottles as Christmas presents), will be using the well-known JAO recipe.

Fun time to be brewing!

 

[Deleted member 8095]

My dad is starting to get really good at home brewing. He's moved away from the malt extract, which in my opinion, gives the beer an artificial taste and is now doing all grain. I really enjoy brewing with him as we don't really have that many things in common. It's great bonding time.

Anyone have good all grain clone recipes they like? Last one we did was a Dogfish Head 90 minute IPA clone. Turned out really well. He just did a Boneyard RPM which I have not been able to taste yet.

 

[Snytbaggen]

I have a quick question about scaling recipes. The recipe we used was for 23 liters of finished beer, but we wanted to do half of that because our pot wasn't big enough. We just split everything in half without thinking, and we only got around 8L of finished beer. Later on we looked at the recipe and realized that the same amount of water would evaporate regardless of how much we started it, since it'd only depend on temperature and boiling time.

So my question is: when scaling recipes, should we adjust the expected evaporation loss from boiling anything or keep it as it is?

 

[waxer]

Just finished brewing a Flanders Red (current plan is to bottle it around Christmas). Got a cider a couple of weeks away from being done. Bought a small demijohn yesterday to make my first batch of mead (plan on giving away a few bottles as Christmas presents), will be using the well-known JAO recipe.

Fun time to be brewing!

Jaom is a great way for anyone to jump in even if they dont have any equipment as everything incl balloons as airlock can be bought from supermarket. I found mine to have to much clove for my taste. I think I would rather add it after fermentation like oaking and remove at desired level.

Im really into chinese spirits lately like Maotai and I prefer their style of spicyness to something like jaom. Im probably going to start working towards making a mead that tastes closer to them.

I plan on visiting china next year hopefully and do a tour of some spirit making facilities while im there.

Im quite liking my rewarewa honey meads but it is a strong flavour. After all the comments on how much is required I started to worry but this type has no problem.

Ive been to busy to put on anything for a while but last winters haul of wines, mead and cider

Some wasnt in picture. Had about 100 liters aging. Ive got about 6-9months on a lot of it now and will bottle it in the next few weeks so I can refill. If I can get a pot still for cheap I may make some brandies instead. Its almost time to start pressing apples here.

 

[MacGurcules]

I have a quick question about scaling recipes. The recipe we used was for 23 liters of finished beer, but we wanted to do half of that because our pot wasn't big enough. We just split everything in half without thinking, and we only got around 8L of finished beer. Later on we looked at the recipe and realized that the same amount of water would evaporate regardless of how much we started it, since it'd only depend on temperature and boiling time.

So my question is: when scaling recipes, should we adjust the expected evaporation loss from boiling anything or keep it as it is?

Boil rate is going to be mostly dependent on the amount of heat you're putting in it and the open surface area of your kettle. Scaling back the recipe won't change that. If you boil for an hour, you're basically going to lose X gallons whether you started with three or thirty as long as you're using the same pot on the same heat. There will be some additional liquid losses with hop debris and break material. That'll vary a bit with recipe size but doesn't usually account for a ton of loss.

Though, if you end up short on liquid at the end, you can generally just top up to your intended volume with water. That's actually how most people do it when starting out, anyway.

 

[Snytbaggen]

Boil rate is going to be mostly dependent on the amount of heat you're putting in it and the open surface area of your kettle. Scaling back the recipe won't change that. If you boil for an hour, you're basically going to lose X gallons whether you started with three or thirty as long as you're using the same pot on the same heat. There will be some additional liquid losses with hop debris and break material. That'll vary a bit with recipe size but doesn't usually account for a ton of loss.

Though, if you end up short on liquid at the end, you can generally just top up to your intended volume with water. That's actually how most people do it when starting out, anyway.

That's pretty much what I thought, thanks for confirming it.

 

[Snytbaggen]

Me and a friend decided to try homebrewing a while ago, and bottled our first beer today. We made a weissbier and got about eight liters, so that's four liters for me. Now it's gonna be bottle conditioned before a few weeks before I can find out how bad it tastes...

We opened one today to see what it was like. I found it surprisingly sour, I hope it's not infected but I've looked around and it might just be that the yeast hasn't finished it's work yet. We're gonna try another one in a week or so and see if it's gotten any better.

Also we brewed our second beer today and, well, things went so-so. It was supposed to have an OG of 80, but we got like 68-70. We think that we didn't lauter well enough, we just stopped when we had gotten the amount we should. I suppose we should've ran it through the mash once or twice again, but hopefully we've learned something from it.

 

[MacGurcules]

Damn. I wish there were an easier way to know how much beer is left in a keg. I just tapped out both of mine at the same time.

Well, good thing I was planning to brew this weekend.

 

[pxleyes]

Damn. I wish there were an easier way to know how much beer is left in a keg. I just tapped out both of mine at the same time.

Well, good thing I was planning to brew this weekend.

Weight. Buy a cheap scale for your kitchen (assuming you're using pony) and weigh it each day you drink. Easy to do the math on it.

 

[MacGurcules]

Weight. Buy a cheap scale for your kitchen (assuming you're using pony) and weigh it each day you drink. Easy to do the math on it.

Yeah, that's an idea. But I'm never likely to do it. It's a tight squeeze in my little kegerator and getting both kegs properly situated with the gas bottle is like a two-minute operation. Plus, if I'm humping the kegs in and out all the time, they'd never settle.

I'd be better off just having a tally board behind the thing to mark off pours. It's not going to be exact, but I'd have an idea at least. In the magical future, I'll have a flowmeter hooked up to each one and a nice computerized gauge ala Kegbot.

 

[Snytbaggen]

We opened one today to see what it was like. I found it surprisingly sour, I hope it's not infected but I've looked around and it might just be that the yeast hasn't finished it's work yet. We're gonna try another one in a week or so and see if it's gotten any better.

I had another brewing friend taste it and he said it had been infected with lactic bacteria. So that sucks. I was a bit afraid that our tripel had been infected as well so I opened one up to check. It's only been in the bottle for two weeks (out of eleven in the recipe) so I know it's still immature, but I find it surprisingly good. I think I can taste and smell a hint of tartness, but I honestly don't know if it's from a potential infection, paranoia or because it's just not mature yet. It's at least nowhere near the level of sourness I remember the wheat beer having, and it's surprisingly tasty.

Also I just saw this on Reddit, and let's just say it doesn't help my fear of exploding bottles:

 

[MacGurcules]

I had another brewing friend taste it and he said it had been infected with lactic bacteria. So that sucks. I was a bit afraid that our tripel had been infected as well so I opened one up to check. It's only been in the bottle for two weeks (out of eleven in the recipe) so I know it's still immature, but I find it surprisingly good. I think I can taste and smell a hint of tartness, but I honestly don't know if it's from a potential infection, paranoia or because it's just not mature yet. It's at least nowhere near the level of sourness I remember the wheat beer having, and it's surprisingly tasty.

Also I just saw this on Reddit, and let's just say it doesn't help my fear of exploding bottles:

That's pretty amazing. I had one batch that was inconsistently primed. Had four or five bottles blow, but they were all in the bottom case, so I didn't get any busting out of the box. But, I'll tell you, it was nervewracking bleeding gas off the rest of those.

I keg nowadays. So much better if you've got the space for it.

 

[codswallop]

Made my first batch of mead on Sunday!

Also bottled my first batch of cider. It has a slightly odd taste at the moment, but I'm hoping getting it off the yeast after five weeks and giving it a month or two in bottles should help get rid of that.

Also also bought an auto siphon recently and have been practicing with it so I can rack my Flanders Red off the yeast it's been on for nearly four weeks now and into another plastic (!) fermenter for the rest of the year.

 

[andylsun]

Yeah, that's an idea. But I'm never likely to do it. It's a tight squeeze in my little kegerator and getting both kegs properly situated with the gas bottle is like a two-minute operation. Plus, if I'm humping the kegs in and out all the time, they'd never settle.

I'd be better off just having a tally board behind the thing to mark off pours. It's not going to be exact, but I'd have an idea at least. In the magical future, I'll have a flowmeter hooked up to each one and a nice computerized gauge ala Kegbot.

Use one of those scales that you use for checking the weight of suitcases - loop through the handles on the keg and lift it a few inches. Should be accurate enougha nd you don't have to disconnect anything.

I brewed the Lefty Blond from Brewing Classic Styles last week. OG was 1.070 and WLP500 got it down to 1.010 in a week at 64F. It's really cloudy and the book recommends lagering for a month, so will transfer to a keg and let it sit. I gave up drinking beer for lent, so haven't been able to taste it yet, but next weekend I can start drinking again!

Going to reuse the yeast (wash and repitch) to make a Belgium Dark Ale that I'll bottle rather than keg, and then age.

As it's spring it's also Pilsner time! My last few were pitched warm (60F), but my last Octoberfest was pitched cold (44F) and I'm going to do that with my pilsner. Should be completely awesome.

 

[MacGurcules]

Use one of those scales that you use for checking the weight of suitcases - loop through the handles on the keg and lift it a few inches. Should be accurate enougha nd you don't have to disconnect anything.

Yeah, still not really feasible.

They're basically wedged in there and there's only a few inches between the top of the keg and the top of the fridge. The real solution is to just get another keg and have a beer ready to swap in as soon as one empties.