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I brewed a chocolate milk stout last night and on flameout I mixed in a pound of lactose and 8oz of Dutch processed cocoa. Before adding the cocoa and lactose to the whirlpool, I checked the wort ph and gravity to make sure I didn't need to boil any further and that I hit my original gravity...

PLEASE READ! For the past 3-4 months I have been experiencing the exact same issue this thread starter was having over in the BN forums. All my beer regardless of the style, hop amounts (e.g. 6oz boil, 4-5 oz dry hop for 5gallon batch), yeast types, water chemistry ect, ect, came out...

I brewed a Honey Blueberry Ale for a friend last week. I mashed real high around 157-158 since I knew it was going to finish dry with the additions of 1 # of honey and some blueberry pureee in the secondary. I added the honey towards the end of active fermentation. I did not pasteurize it, it...

One thing that is often discussed is the importance of a proper mash PH. I understand that and I always try to target my beers to their proper PH respective to the style I am brewing. I often check mash, kettle, pre-fermentation, and post-ferm ph values but only bothering to adjust mash ph...

I'm curious, if anyone would happen to know, what temps do commercial breweries whirpool at (the smaller guys not the big guys)? Are they able to whirlpool/chill down to a certain temp like 175F then add their hops like homebrewers do for the aroma steep or because of their such large systems...

Tonight I mark as the first time I accidentally consumed? (spit out and gagged) a fully infected commercial brew. I purchased two bombers of an ESB from a local brewery in a very well respected liquor store here in Minneapolis. Cracked one open last night and noticed something was off about...

So I've been toying around with sulfate levels and mineral additions with my PAs and IPAs and I do understand there is no ideal level for everyone but it got me thinking about the local commercial breweries and the audience they are targeting in terms of their water profiles for Minnesotans and...

I've never bothered to filter out chlorine or use campden tablets in my water because I've never noticed it being a problem and neither have judges until recently I noticed a plastic taste to my Belgian IPA. So research lead me to looking at my water report again since I use that for mash ph...

First time I brewed a Belgian IPA the other day with WLP566. I checked the gravity yesterday and still has some work to do, it is sitting at a temp of 66F. I tasted the sample and its good but the after taste has a slight plastic flavor/aroma to it. First time I've experienced that in my two...

Picked up a # of flaked oats at Northern brewer last night. Toasted them for roughly 45-50 minutes at 300F. Turned them every 10-15 minutes till I got a perfect light golden brown. The only concerning thing is that instead of getting that yummy oatmeal cookie smell I was expecting, I got a...

This has been like the 3rd time this has happened recently and I don't understand how this is happening. Is it the cold a$$ weather?! I'm clearly missing something. I need a sanity check please! For example, yesterday I brewed an IPA. (I use beersmith btw) - Batch size is 5.5. I batch...

Hey all, I'm going to be brewing an ESB and I want to target a final gravity of 1.012-1.014. I'm just trying to dial in my mash temp to achieve what would be about 75% attenuation with wlp002. I know you can push it past it's range of 63-70%. I understand there is many variables involved so im...

I was reading the BYO article on Milk Stout and Christoffel from Lefthand recommends anywhere from 5% (naunce) to 13% (extreme). With that said, I am interested on what people prefer based on their experience, so what is your favorite percentage of Lactose to use in a Milk Stout or whatever...

From about 5-20 minutes after dough-in I find myself checking the mash ph by pulling samples each time. To do this I have to open the lid of my cooler (big orange rubbermaid). I find that I am losing 1 or even 2 degrees by doing this. Is there a more efficient way of checking the mash ph...

When I'm designing a recipe I often keep a close eye on my crystal malt and specialty malt percentage in relation to the style. However, I often find confusing and conflicting results when I see people use toasted malt (i.e. victory/biscuit malt) in their recipes, but don't count it towards...

I was doughing in my cali common last night and I took a reading around 10 minutes in which was 5.24. I wanted to bring it up to 5.3~, but then I realized I didn't know how much to add to bring it from 5.24 to 5.3. So quickly in Bru'un water I just went back into the Water Adjustment tab and...

I'm brewing a cali common later this week for an NHC entry. BJCP guidelines states: "Water should have relatively low sulfate and low to moderate carbonate levels." So targeting the amber balanced profile with mineral adjustments and lowering the bicarbonate I can hit a target mash PH of...

I've always thought of chill haze as a negative thing, however, recently I've been seeing the effect in commercially bottled beers. I know that chill haze is just a cosmetic thing and doesn't really effect the taste of the beer, I'm just curious as to why would they purposely do it? For...

I've FWH (first wort hopped) many beers and I'd agree that the bitterness level is no way near the IBU calculations that, lets say, Beersmith projects on a 60min boil with FWH selected. So often times I fudge the boil time to 20 mins when selecting FWH and then I'm more inline with my perceived...

This is my first time kegging and FWIW I read a lot of the threads on keg, force carbing, and burst carbing.. However, not sure on how to handle my current situation or How to search for it? So I wanted to burst carb an IIPA that I had made for my sisters wedding. My timing left me just a...