Recent content by markto

It turned out really tasty. Chocolatey, hoppy, little bit of roastiness. I can't recommend Fawcett's specialty malts enough, if you can get your hands on them.

I have brewed a couple of variations on this recipe and love it. I craved more chocolate character after my first batch, so I upped it by 3x - then I realized that the first time I had used pale chocolate malt, and the batch with 3x was normal chocolate malt, oops. So, this version came out...

I have heard this theory regarding yeast strains (more developed in the sense that they are healthier and less prone to autolysis in the 3-6 week range), but not regarding malts. What's the theory on malts?

Cool, seems like a similar english-australian hybrid approach, but it's not really getting any flavor/aroma qualities with that one 60 min addition. If your interest is piqued, definitely try out my recipe to get a sense of POR's late-addition characteristics.

Definitely interesting. I was a bit reluctant given some of the descriptions I read, and I think they were pretty rough/too weird when the bottles were fresh. But now that they have been aging for 6 weeks or so, I must say I am a fan. They are herbal in a way I have not tasted before - as I...

Also, for those interested, the water is treated to: Ca Mg Na Cl SO4 159 8 12 24 335

10 lb United Kingdom - Maris Otter Pale 88.9% 0.5 lb American - Victory 4.4% 0.5 lb American - Caramel / Crystal 15L 4.4% 0.25 lb American - Carapils (Dextrine Malt) 2.2% 11.25 lb Total Amount Variety Type %AA Use Time IBU 1 oz...

I ferment with Danstar Nottingham and White Labs Cry Havoc at those temps and get very clean, well attenuated beer. Both can be used like lager yeasts, so fermenting on the low end of the ale spectrum works just fine. Once you get near FG, bring the fermentor up to the 21-24 c part of the...

The lower starting gravity is likely due to the volume of water you used in the boil or for topping up (ie, too much) or an error in measurement. When I first started brewing I was getting super low OGs and was perplexed, as I was using extract and very specific water volume. What I didn't...

I don't know if anyone has talked about this before, or if it will be useful for anyone, but I just came up with an awesome hack for my fermentation set-up. I'm in Toronto and it's January, so the ambient temp my basement (where I have room to ferment) is cold - roughly 59-60 F. This is...

My instinct would be to give it a very small amount of priming sugar, just so the yeast will use up some of the O2 in the headspace, and to create a bit of pressure in the bottle. This calculator gives you an idea of how to achieve the desired level of CO2 per style...

Beat me to it, Petrol ;)

The sediment in the bottling bucket shouldn't be an issue. If you bottled it the same day, that sediment would be in your bottles anyway. If you waited and some yeast did fall out, most spigots on bottling buckets are drilled like an inch from the bottom, so you would likely avoid some of that...

Look back through the thread, it is covered fairly well here. Primary in a bucket would be open fermentation if there was not a lid sealed on top of it. From this thread and others, it seems home brewers generally use something (towel, muslin bag, etc) to deter contaminants, while allow...

Ditto, I'm wanting to use this yeast next batch and am really curious about open fermentation.