A fermented beverage where the majority of the fermentable sugars are derived from malted grains via mashing.
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1answer
955 views
When using whole hops, do you need a larger amount than you would hop pellets to achieve the same bitterness?
I have read that whole hops impart less bitterness than pellet hops by weight. I have used pellet hops for all of my brews thus far. I have a recipe that I am happy with, and I want to switch to ...
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3answers
3k views
How much does heat affect beer?
What effects could heat have on beer and how long does it take? Is it ok to ship beer without an icepack during the summer? Can it survive the heat of a parked car for a few hours?
Someone out ...
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votes
2answers
417 views
Carastan substitute?
I recently brewed a recipe that called for Carastan malt. My LHBS didn't carry it, so I just used 40 L Crystal. In the finished beer, I'm missing the toffee and toastiness found in the original. Does ...
7
votes
4answers
1k views
Brewed beer turnaround time
As homebrewers why do we take longer to ferment our beer than what seems like the time-line at the commercial/pro level. Everytime I take a brewery tour or a listen to a podcast that interviews a pro ...
6
votes
2answers
228 views
Why measure gravities?
I've brewed a good dozen batches of beer from kits, extract, extract+grain, and now all-grain, and I've never measured gravities. Why measure gravity, besides to know what you're getting? Is there any ...
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votes
5answers
672 views
How do you characterize “Breakfast Beer”?
What makes a good breakfast beer?
Thinking of brewing something for an upcoming eggs and kegs event.
Any clones of Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout out there?
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votes
7answers
4k views
Cardboard alternatives to bottle cases for storage
A problem I hadn't really anticipated was how to store/transport bottled homebrew. I've been reusing old cardboard store-bought boxes, but they seem to be breaking down pretty quickly, especially ...
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votes
6answers
2k views
Reusable Beer Label
So my Dad is an avid brewer, and has always re-used old beer bottles that we drank our way through to bottle his home-brew in. However, for Christmas I made a label on photoshop with our families ...
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4answers
1k views
Recover a brew that quit fermenting after I moved to secondary fermenter
I started my first batch of beer, a "Nut Brown Ale", 2 weeks ago. Its initial gravity was 1.040. As per the instructions, I siphoned the beer into the secondary fermenter (a glass carboy) after two ...
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votes
2answers
834 views
What effect does cooling, then warming have on finished beer?
The common wisdom I have known is that cooling, warming, then cooling beer again would cause it to "skunk." I now know that skunky flavors are typically the result of exposure to light, not ...
6
votes
3answers
676 views
Not using bittering hops
Has anyone brewed without using any bittering hops? Are there any consequences to doing this?
Edit: I ask because I want to brew a style that's not normally very bitter (weizen), but give it a ...
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votes
3answers
1k views
Is there such a thing as malt-free beer?
I am allergic to malt and thus need to avoid it. I currently drink hard ciders, brandy, and wine.
Are there any brew kits out there that does not use any kind of malt as an ingredient? I am trying ...
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4answers
1k views
IPA recipe left very sweet, little bitterness or aroma
Very new brewer here, and I recently tried a generic IPA recipe doled out by my LHBS, and it ended up very sweet with little bitterness or hop aroma. The recipe is here:
...
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votes
3answers
658 views
How many times can I re-use oak cubes?
I'm about to add oak to my second beer, having thrown out the cubes from my first tasty experiment. This time I hope to pull them back out, store them in bourbon, and re-use them.
How much of the ...
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votes
2answers
1k views
How to smoke your malts
How would I go about smoking barley (no points awarded for answering "in a pipe")? My LHBS has a couple of smoked varieties, but not the exact type of smoke I want. I'd like a method that doesn't ...
6
votes
2answers
1k views
How do I convert between all-grain and extract recipes?
If I have an all-grain recipe, and I want to convert it to an extract or partial-mash recipe, the easiest way is to replace the base malt with malt extract. Conversely, converting an extract recipe to ...
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votes
3answers
794 views
How do you degas an empty Sanke Keg?
When folks legally acquire Sanke kegs for conversion to kettles, mash tuns or HLTs, the first step is often to relieve the pressure inside the keg before dismantling the spear and valve.
How best is ...
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votes
2answers
1k views
What does a 0 minute boil time mean?
I have a recipe that calls for an ounce of hops at 0 mins. boil time, any idea what you would do here?
Typically, after a my 60 minute partial boil is complete, I take the pot off of the stove ...
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votes
5answers
1k views
How are 10-gallon batches commonly fermented?
Currently I brew 5-gallon all-grain batches using my propane burner and 7.5-gallon brew pot. I've been considering buying a bigger pot and building a bigger MLT to do 10-gallon batches, but I'm not ...
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votes
2answers
330 views
How much does a full boil affect things?
I've seen a few threads here and there saying that one thing to do as soon as possible is start doing a full boil (5 gallons in the boil instead of ~3 in the boil with ~2 of water added later). For ...
6
votes
1answer
2k views
How to adjust alcohol content of a beer?
I have read stories about people brewing beer with an extremely high alcohol content, and am curious about how they do it.
At a basic level, I know that alcohol is a byproduct of yeast breaking down ...
6
votes
3answers
802 views
How long should Belgian Blonde beer be aged?
I'd like to reuse my Belgian yeast (Zymoferm Z039 Belgische Klosterbiere und Ales) and I'm looking for information on how long various Belgian beers should be matured. My cellar capacity is very ...
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votes
4answers
864 views
Why would someone use Cascade for bittering over Amarillo?
Apparently, Cascade is commonly used for bittering, and I'm not sure I understand why someone would choose that over the very similar Amarillo, which I think is less common for bittering.
Cascade has ...
6
votes
1answer
387 views
Nothing visible happening in fermenter after three and a half days - what should I do?
My first brew has been in the primary fermenter for three and a half days (brewed Saturday night, it's now Wednesday morning). It's in a plastic bucket fermenter with an airlock. There are no bubbles ...
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votes
2answers
245 views
Clarification for a low-flocculating yeast
I'm brewing a batch using WY2565 Kolsch which mentions that is low-flocculating and that it "remain in suspension post fermentation. It requires filtration or additional settling time to produce ...
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votes
2answers
237 views
I want to make a Rauchbier. How do I go about smoking my grain?
I've never made a Rauchbier before. I have some pear wood that I've been curing for about 5 months now and would like to use. I've got an all-grain setup, but no smoker; I suppose I'll need to get ...
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votes
4answers
368 views
How should bulk DME be stored?
Related to this question, but I'd like to get a 50 lb. bag of pilsner DME from the LHBS to use over the course of 3-6 months. Can it be stored like grain, or are there additional considerations that ...
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votes
4answers
477 views
Does bottle color matter for a given beer style?
With clear, green, and brown bottles abound (e.g., Corona, Heineken, and Yeungling respectively), is there a hard and fast rule for what color of bottle to use for a given beer style?
Also, are brown ...
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votes
2answers
346 views
Are residual starches bad for the beer?
I was reading another question here and it appears that the consensus is that the iodine test isn't all that useful if your recipe is good. But, while reading through everything, I had a thought: if ...
6
votes
1answer
534 views
When to harvest wild hops?
Hi there fellow brewmasters! I have recently moved to all-grain brewing after two years of brewing with hopped extracts. The results are pretty good, and the whole process is a lot of fun, but I am ...
6
votes
2answers
115 views
Amounts of various oils in hops.
I have a beautiful chart that shows the level of various hop oils in different hops, as well as their typical alpha acid percentages. Where can I find the raw data that would go into a chart like ...
6
votes
2answers
234 views
What elements are common to Shiner Bock and Real Ale's Fireman's #4?
Shiner Bock and Fireman's #4 both have this weird aftertaste that I can't stand. Any idea what they both have in common so I can avoid it?
EDIT: It's almost a slimy taste (I know slimy is not a ...
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votes
3answers
690 views
Using commercial (breakfast) cereals in a mash
This question looks similar to Using flakes in a mash, but is not actually the same. I was thinking, if someone runs out of maize flakes, and definitely wants to use some for his mash, what happens if ...
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votes
2answers
186 views
Best Resources on Getting Started?
I have several food allergies and a big one is malt. Because I thirst for a good beer once in a while and the difficulty of finding beer I can drink, I am entertaining the idea of brewing my own beer. ...
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votes
4answers
1k views
What are some methods to increase extraction efficiency and consistency?
I've got some irregular sugar extraction efficiency problems. My efficiency is regularly low. I need your help. :) I get anywhere from 60% - 85%.
I've fine tuned my mill to the best of my ability, so ...
6
votes
1answer
184 views
What are some good homebrewing magazines?
What is a great brewing magazine?
Why do you like it?
What does it do well?
Why is it better than the others?
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votes
1answer
128 views
Coriander steep technique
If I crack or grind coriander for a steep at the end of a boil, will it settle out or should I pour through a strainer when transferring to to primary? Should I add before or after flameout?
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votes
2answers
162 views
Needs to be mashed
I recently had a debate with a brewing buddy of mine about malts that "need to be mashed".
For instance victory malt is listed in Palmers "How to Brew" as being in the needs to be mashed column. I ...
6
votes
2answers
557 views
Choosing a yeast for ginger beer
I'm doing some experiments with ginger beer (this is a alcoholic beer, not a soda). I'm use brown sugar as the sugar source for now, but may experiment with other sugars including malt as I go along.
...
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votes
2answers
205 views
When adding grain to mash tun for second runnings, how long should I let the new grain mash?
This probably illustrates my lack of knowledge about mashing in general, but I'm going to brew a barleywine with first runnings, and a stout with the second runnings. I'm going to be adding 1 pound ...
6
votes
2answers
732 views
Is a cider-like smell a bad sign in a culture of beer yeast?
I started culturing yeast from a La Fin Du Monde bottle about 3 days ago. I have since stepped it up to a 2L container about half full of wort. I have been very careful about sanitizing everything ...
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votes
6answers
736 views
Wort aeration on a budget
To aerate my wort I have been using a whisk, but i am worried about contamination. What are other more effective ways to aerate wort without spending too much money?
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votes
9answers
2k views
Types of bottles I can use for beer
Can I use my old water bottles to bottle my beer? Like Dasani or Aquafina type water bottles.
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votes
8answers
1k views
Which commercial bottles are good for repurposing?
I bottle condition my beer, and in the past, I've always just reused commercial beer bottles (I never understood paying for empty beer bottles when I could buy them full of tasty beer!) Are there are ...
5
votes
3answers
118 views
Which brewing podcasts do you listen to?
Which are the essential podcasts that should be on my ipod right now?
5
votes
3answers
866 views
Belgian candi sugar v. Table sugar
I am planning a Belgian Dubbel for an upcoming session. Many recipes make use of belgian candy sugar and there are some very nice syrups available now. But I was wondering if there really was a ...
5
votes
4answers
249 views
Weighing Liquid Malt Extract
In Brewing Classic Styles by Jamil Zainasheff, many of the recipes call for LME. Often, the amount is 0.5 lbs or similar, particularly of things like Munich extract. I typically brew all-grain, but ...
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votes
4answers
927 views
What is Extract Twang?
This term pops up from time to time and it often cited as a reason to go to all grain. But maybe its because I don't really know what it tastes like.
Do you believe in extract twang?
How do you get ...
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votes
3answers
614 views
What is a good alternative to Magnum hops in a barleywine?
I'm thinking about brewing a barleywine. A recipe that looks interesting to me uses Magnum and Horizon hops, but I don't have access to either at my (small) local brewing store. What are some good ...
5
votes
1answer
197 views
Emptying bottles into a keg
I have about 3 gallons worth of IPA that are sitting in bottles. I just got a new 5 gallon keg and I really want to use it. Would it be a good idea to empty my bottles into the keg or is this ...
