BeerTools Discussion Forum

In thicker wort enzymes survive better, you get better fermentabilty and often efficiency, but is is harder to mainain even temperature. I usualy use 1kg:3liters ratio, in english ales thicker: 1:2. In decocted beer they usualy use thinner mash - 1:3.5, 1:4, I dont know why, but I obediently do the ...

I usually do 100 min boil (90 min plus 10 min pre-boil before I add bittering hops). This time is best for most beers, 60 minutes is often not enough to dive-off DMS and other unwanted flavours, especially when you use lots of pilsner malt and you have no posibility to cool the wort down quickly. Bu...

Okay I understand that with decoction mashing that I pull out a set amount of mash, bring it to a boil, then return it to the main mash. What I don't understand is the reference material and reciepes all refer to pulling the "think" or "thin" part of the mash. Are these terms qu...

Do any of you have one and would you suggest getting one? I use the the plain hydrometer. I use one and I find it very useful. It is much more convenient than hydrometer and you dont waste so much beer for measuremants. But remember - when fermentation starts, you have to make corrections to the re...

Has anyone tried culturing yeast from bottled homebrew? I have always wanted to try it with my homebrews that were successful. My degree is in cell biology so I understand the concept pretty well. Yeast in the bottle are seriusly damaged and stressed by long storage in alkohol, so dont' do it if yo...

I read in "The Complete Joy of Home Brewing" that you can use a portion of the wert as a priming solution. Has anyone here used this method? If you have, how well did it work? Thanks for any response! :D I do it all the time, and it works fine. You have to take care about wort storage - s...

Actually, I'm thinking of installing UV lamp in my home brewery. You can buy such lamp for ~$100 on ebay, the kind they use in hospitals. But the use of UV light is limited only to the sufraces that are exposed to it, so it can only play supplementary role to our normal sanitation regimes. I hope it...

TimmyR wrote:West Coast Red on the brew schedule for tomorrow. Recipe calls for 3 oz pale chocolate malt (200L). Suggestions for sub?

Try half of the quantity of chololate malt. And/or maybe some Biscuit?

I have never used it, but I've heard that liquid smoke is really nasty. Listen to Jamil:
http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com/jamil.php

I have a very similar problem in my Bitter, but I blame water burtonizing: too much gypsum & Epsom salt

Also, with the amount of wheat involved, you would probably have to add aroound 1.5 lbs of rice hulls... OK, but still Im not sure what kind of grain is that: 6.5 lbs. Belgian White Wheat - I'd say thats a wheat malt 5 lbs. German Wheat - what is it? look like another wheat malt, so where is raw wh...

In the net I came across this recipe:

Phil

On secondary the Witbier fermented one more degree, not it has 4.5 Plato, not so bad. I'm a bit suprised, because I didn't notice any activity in airlock during secondary...

My witbier: Belgian Pils 1 kg Wheat (raw) - 2.50 kg Munich - 0.25 kg Oats - 0.13 kg Wyeast Witbiet starter 2L It didnt ferment too much on primary, just ~50% attenuation (11.2 Plato->5.4 Plato). I knew there can be problems with such beer, I've made quite a large starer, kept the fermentor warm (21*...

I am going to brew a german pils, with decoction.
I wanted to use in the grain bill just 100% of german pils malt, but beerools recipe calculator says, that I must add some darker malts (munich, crystal?) What are your suggestions?