Recent content by clickondan

I wouldn't be worried about DMS at all in that scenario along with typical post-boil cooling practices. I once brewed a Dortmunder that was 80% pilsner malt, did a 60 min boil and there was zero DMS.

Followup thoughts: - Water and chemistry: Practice restraint. Until you figure out where the issues are coming from, use low mineral profiles, and just generally think about what you shouldn't add, more than about what you should add. - Infections: Once you start cooling, do not let anything...

Sorry to hear you've been having trouble. I've definitely been through that. For me, brewing a beer that I love is about doing lots of little things right, so I'll just brain dump a bunch of stuff here for you. Water: I think using distilled is a good idea for you, until you can get a run of...

OP said that the beer with FG 1.040 is a sweet stout with lactose. If something on the order of 1/2lb of lactose per gallon of total water was used, that would account for about 25 of those points. That's a lot of lactose, but at least it would rule out the FG of this beer from part of the...

I did that with US05 once, it was the first beer I made with a temp controlled fermentation chamber, so I got excited and did it at 60F I think. It was very peachy.

I use 1 or 2oz of chocolate or pale chocolate sometimes in various pale ales. It does just what you say and I like it. If I only want color, I use 1oz of blackprinz.

Thought this is interesting enough to put out there. I just brewed an amber ale with several ounces of Willamette hops from my buddy's hop garden. I dried the hops myself, and I think I dried them too vigorously or for too long. They smelled and tasted good themselves, but the beer...

In my experience, it's not a hard stop, it's a slope. All the way down through at least 150F which is the lowest I've gone. 150F seems a bit like 10% utilization to me, with pellets. BUT also... at least from what I've experienced, there's another slope at play, which is the...

I've found hop stands to be the key to impressive hop aroma & flavor. Sometimes I do a 170F hop stand, sometimes a 150F, or both depending on what I'm trying to accomplish. 170 gives me some isomerization and bitterness contribution that is fairly time-stable. I've made several batches where I...

By "reach out" I assume you mean spread awareness of your shop. Throw tasting events, brewing events, and lots of contests. Host classes taught by great local brewers and/or your staff. If you know how to do the following right, or know someone who can help you, be aggressive and intentional on...

I wouldn't really expect any kind of grain bed compaction scenario that would impact efficiency in any typical setup, but it really might be one of those things where if I saw it with my own eyes I'd think oh ya that could be a problem. Certainly, a super thick mash ratio can lower the mobility...

Your mash efficiency target might be a bit too idealistic for your system. If you end up not being able to improve it, you can just lower the expected mash efficiency of your system to whatever you can consistently reach in an hour (in other words, end up using a bit more grain). An extra hour...

The goal of this brew is to feature some amazing hops grown by a friend of mine, in an interesting but approachable style. Planning to throw a series of parties to feature each of his hop types. He babies these things and they are top notch hops. This is my idea for his Willamette...

Just brewed a 5 gal AG Oktoberfest, was shooting for 1.056 for 5.5% ABV. Ended up with 1.063 for a now expected 6.5%. That's out of balance for this recipe. Looks like if I wanted to do this, I'd have to add about 0.6 gallons of water to get down to my target OG. Does anyone actually...

If the keg has been below 40F this whole time, your original plan should work great. Leaving it at 10 PSI for an hour won't be any different than leaving it there for 2 minutes, just to serve your test. If your test seems properly carbed, just leave it at 10 PSI. Otherwise, bump it back up to...