Recent content by Biere_Titan

I brewed a pale ale in early April using Citra hops for the first time: 1 oz each of Chinook (60min), Cascade (15min) and Citra (5 min). This weekend I opened the first one. The stuff is liquid crack! I can't get enough of it.

Thanks for the reply ajdelange. I guess I'll send off to Wards.

I’m doing 5 gallon partial boils with Extracts. I’m mostly doing American Pale & Amber Ales. My brews are turning out fine for the most part but I have a couple of questions about water, hoping I can make a good thing even better. We’re on well water and I always bypass the...

I'm still fairly new to brewing, with only 14 batches under my belt. I'm using BrewTarget for crafting recipes and printing out brew day instructions. But I also keep meticulous notes in MS Word as well, including the recipe used, comments on my brewing and fermentation process, and tasting...

You are better off not trying to use the top-off water to cool the wort. Coming off the boil the wort is obviously still very hot. The top-off water will cool it somewhat, but not significantly. You would then be attempting to cool much more wort than you would have had to otherwise, making the...

No, you want to bring the temp of the wort down quickly. Adding water at this stage will only add to your cooling time. Assuming you're doing this on your stove, place the kettle in an ice bath in the sink. Adding salt to the water will bring the temp down even faster. Be sure to stir both the...

These guys really do produce outstanding beers. Have you thought about asking them directly? If not an extract, perhaps an all-grain recipe that could be converted. It's worth a shot. My wife met one of the founders last year a benefit beer tasting event I was unable to attend and came away...

I've used Irish Moss at 15 min. for approximately half of my extract brews with good success in clearing the beer and haven't noticed an impact on head retention. But then again, I haven't tried a back-to-back, with/without test to see if it makes a real difference. Hopefully some of the more...

I understand you want to store grains in a cool, dry place. I would think moisture could be a problem in the fridge.

You can always create your own. This recipe turned out well for me: 5 Gallon partial boil extract recipe (60 min boil) OG: 1.039 FG: 1.010 ABV: 3.7% IBU: 20 SRM: 7 Steep in 0.5 gallon @ 150F for 30 minutes: 0.5 oz Briess - Black Malt 4.0 oz Briess - 2 Row Caramel Malt 60L Sparge...

Thunder Chicken, you might want to head to the store and pick up some commercial Saison or Biere de Garde to get an idea of what you're in for. A lot of people around here love these types of brews, but they are not for everyone. It would be a shame to go to the trouble of brewing one only to...

If you're adding the extract at flameout just be sure to wait 10-15 minutes before cooling. The wort will be plenty warm enough to kill off any "nasties". Have you tried using two burners to bring the wart to a boil? Once it's reached that point one burner should suffice to keep it boiling...

I'm all over the place with the yeasts I've use: Nottingham, Safale-05, Wyeast American Ale, British Ale, Belgian Ale, Belgian Abbey II, Biere de Garde, Denny's Favorite, for example. Mostly they've been chosen for the style of ale and temperature range for my basement at the time of fermenting...

Not sure if there's an answer to this, but here goes... I read elsewhere that some yeasts that don't flocculate out that well and need encouragement via cold crashing. If I'm going to be lazy and forgo cold crashing, what yeasts lend themselves to rendering clearer beers? I've used Irish Moss...

Give your beers time to mature, both in the fermenter and in the bottle. I've done a number of batches that tasted okay after just three weeks in primary & secondary, but those that sat for 4-6 weeks have all turned out very well. Likewise, in my experience, chances are that a brew that tastes...