Well, my beer fridge is pretty full atm, and I've got 2+ cases of a Magic Hat #9 clone (that's my wife's favorite beer) bottle conditioning, then the ESB fermenting, so I can probably afford to experiment a little and not run low any time soon!

Thanks for the info, jock!

Well I meant to make that spiced wheat last week, but life got in the way. I'm going to try to brew it tomorrow. I may scale it down to just 2 gallons so I can do it in my smaller boil kettle rather than hauling the keggle out for a small batch. The boiloff rate alone might throw things out of whack.

Bump.

Doing an extract clone of Sorachi Ace this afternoon. Looks like a really simple recipe, so hopefully I don't screw it up too bad. Using basic light pilsner extract, 3711 yeast, and a crapton of Sorachi Ace hops.

Awesome, I had some Brooklyn Sorachi Ace last weekend and really enjoyed it. Let us know how it turns out! I'm going to bottle my ESB sometime this week, hopefully. If not, Saturday for sure.

I wish there were a way to post the smell coming from the fermenter. It's glorious.

Anyone turning in entries to Karbach's Carboy Classic or Saint Arnold's Homebrew Comps?

We're turning in a Blood Orange Lager to Karbach on Friday and a Texas Oatmeal Brown Ale to SA next month. Both turned out pretty great so hopefully we'll do decently. Probably some stiff competition though (this is our first try at either) so not getting my hopes up.

Us And Them - The Pink Floyd Experience
http://www.usandthemband.net

Have a smoked apple beer / graff in the fermenter.

3 lbs 2-row
0.5 lbs honey malt
0.5 lbs smoked malt
0.5 oz saaz (60 min)

Combined 2 gallons wort with 3.5 gallons Kirkland organic apple juice. Pitched some Nottingham I harvested from a previous blonde.

Hopefully it doesn't suck.

[This message has been edited by corndog04 (edited 4/16/2014 10:39p).]

I entered the karbach one.

AggieOO, if you don't mind saying, what "Texas" ingredient did you end up using?

Have you entered the comp before? The only reason I ask is I don't have any idea if we'll get feedback on our entry or whether it's just a "We'll call you if you win" type thing. Was hoping to get some feedback if possible.

Us And Them - The Pink Floyd Experience
http://www.usandthemband.net

I used rosemary. It's actually a beer I brew all the time. First time I've entered, so no idea about feedback.

Sounds interesting there corndog, let us know how it turns out!

Hopefully going to brew that Tripel recipe this weekend, Kyle. It had better not suck.

Ha!

Bottled my ESB over the weekend. I'll probably toss one in the fridge Friday to see how it's coming along.

Didn't know this thread existed!

Bottled a year old Berliner back in February, been sitting in primary where it formed such a nice pellicle!

Currently have 2 gallons of this Berliner sitting on Whole Strawberries and Apricots. Will Bottle these in June for those nice hot summer days! It smells wonderful so far and the pellicle the apricot one is forming has got me really excited!

I'll probably brew a Gose next and a Bourbon Barrel Vanilla Dark Lord Clone come September!

[This message has been edited by EaglePassAg08 (edited 4/24/2014 11:43a).]

Mind posting your recipe and process for the Berliner?

Awesome about the Berliner!

Finally going to brew my wheat tomorrow. I have a few friends coming over that want to help me brew, so hopefully I can get them hooked.

What type of water do y'all use to brew with? Tap? Filtered? Drinking? Just curious...

My tap water has chloramine instead of chlorine, so I can't filter it, and I always forget to pick up campden tables at the homebrew store, so I usually use bottled spring water. The Wal-Mart Great Value brand is $0.89 per gallon when you buy them in boxes of threes.

I'm not to the point yet where I mess with water profiles or worry about PH too much.

We usually use mostly bottled spring water, but throw in maybe 20% Houston tap water. You don't want your water too "clean" as it won't have enough of the minerals you want, hence why you shouldn't (in general) use distilled water.

If/when you get really serious about brewing you should get a water report from your provider (or the bottled water provider) and then treat it with additives to get it where you want chemically.

We are still in the "ah screw it" phase of brewing so we have not undertaken these efforts as yet.

Us And Them - The Pink Floyd Experience
http://www.usandthemband.net

I use well water (haven't had it analyzed) for my primary water. I keep bottled spring water to top-off with if needed.

Echoes97, you don't want to use too much RO water. Not enough minerals. For all intents and purposes RO = distilled in terms of water chemistry.




[This message has been edited by helgs (edited 4/25/2014 3:02p).]

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Echoes97, you don't want to use too much RO water. Not enough minerals. For all intents and purposes RO = distilled in terms of water chemistry.

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While your general point is valid, this isn't completely true. If you're brewing very light beers, 100% RO water can work quite well. Just look at a water report for Pilsen and you'll see it comes extremely close to RO water.

/nitpick

As far as brewing water in general, I know it can be somewhat intimidating delving into the chemistry behind it, but practically speaking it's actually not that bad and can make a HUGE difference in your beer quality and consistency.

My quick/dirty recommendations:

1) Get a water report. Ward Labs has a Homebrewer's water panel (I think), and it's like $26. Best money you'll ever spend.

2) Google and download the Bru'N Water spreadsheet. It's free, reasonably user friendly, and extremely powerful.

All you do is enter your water profile, enter your grain bill, and mess with acid/mineral additions until you get the water where you want. We test all our mashes w/ a pH meter, and the estimated number it spits out has been essentially dead-on every single time. On top of that, it even has a large database of target water profiles from around the world and for specific beer styles. Can you tell I'm a big fan?

This thread is seriously lacking in recipes. Mine are all ripped off of others.

Oops...I haven't posted any. Anybody doing lagers? Lager brewing is probably the best thing I could help out with.

dp

[This message has been edited by jock itch (edited 4/27/2014 6:56p).]

what's the warmest you can lager at?

I would like to get into lager brewing, but I don't have a way to keep the fermenter down in lager temps yet.

I've done a few lagers in my keezer but determined the extra effort is not worth it to me. Maybe I'm just bad at lagering. I made the AHS Texas Bock, a Dos Equis clone, and a Dortmunder Export. The Dortmunder was the best of the 3, but I tried the same recipe with a neutral tasting ale yeast and it was just as good.

quote:

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what's the warmest you can lager at?

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For traditional European styles, it's pretty hard to brew a great lager much above ~55F (and that's beer temp, not ambient of course). Steam beers are often fermented in the 60-65F range though, and while they aren't quite as "clean", it's still a fun introduction to lagering.

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I've done a few lagers in my keezer but determined the extra effort is not worth it to me.

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Without a basement/cellar, you're right a fermentation chamber is almost a necessity (although I'd argue if you want to make truly excellent/repeatable beer you should be using one anyways...if possible of course).

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I tried the same recipe with a neutral tasting ale yeast and it was just as good.

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Good to see you're happy w/ the results, but ours were quite a bit different. We've tried Cali ale, Nottingham, WLP 029, and a host of other neutral ale yeasts at a wide range of temperatures and while they certainly made very good beers, our "lagers" were never quite right until we used an actual lager yeast.

There are surely some lager styles that would be more than acceptable w/ an ale yeast, but we've been trying to nail down a German style Pils for what seems like years, and the second we tried it with an actual German lager yeast we became converted.

Definitely going to try a lager next winter. Basement is in the low/mid-50's in the winter and the cement floor is colder than that, will be like a natural chill plate.

Other than using a chest freezer, anyone have suggestions for a not-too-expensive and not too space-consuming fermentation chamber?

I just use a swamp cooler for now, which works, but the temperature does fluctuate during fermentation, and it will be very hard to keep cool during the summer.

Jock, I don't have my notes handy, so I can't say which lager yeast I used for the Dortmunder, but when I made the ale version, I used Wyeast 1335 British Ale II and fermented around 65 degrees. The flavor was certainly different from the lager, but just as good in its own way (fuller mouthfeel, slight fruitiness).

quote:

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Other than using a chest freezer, anyone have suggestions for a not-too-expensive and not too space-consuming fermentation chamber?

I just use a swamp cooler for now, which works, but the temperature does fluctuate during fermentation, and it will be very hard to keep cool during the summer.

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Just to give you info on chest freezer;
Mine was 5cuft which is about 30" square... A really small footprint IMO. I got it on craigslist for $50, and temp controller was $50.

I don't know that you can do a whole lot else outside of manually cooling for much less money. And it can hold two carboys, and can lager to boot.

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Definitely going to try a lager next winter. Basement is in the low/mid-50's in the winter and the cement floor is colder than that, will be like a natural chill plate.

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Sounds like a good plan. Just remember to pitch twice the amount of yeast.

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Jock, I don't have my notes handy, so I can't say which lager yeast I used for the Dortmunder, but when I made the ale version, I used Wyeast 1335 British Ale II and fermented around 65 degrees. The flavor was certainly different from the lager, but just as good in its own way (fuller mouthfeel, slight fruitiness).

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Had to go look that strain up and it does sound interesting. We had a similar experience w/ all the other ale yeasts: It made a very good beer, but there was always a very slight fruitiness regardless of temperature that just wasn't quite appropriate for a Pilsner.

If you ever take another shot at lager brewing, I highly, highly recommend the dry W-34/70 from Fermentis. It's the same strain as WLP 830 from Weihenstephan and is an incredibly versatile (and reasonably forgiving) lager yeast. We actually use the dry version over liquid at our brewery and have been very happy with the results.