Recent content by dtwhite

Yes, squeezing the bag significantly lowers the .13 water loss figure. If you just suspended the bag over the kettle to let it drain without squeezing, you'd probably get closer to .13, but being able to squeeze the bag is a pretty clear advantage of BIAB as far as I'm concerned. Just to...

Bumping this thread to show that cladinshadows was clearly on the cutting edge of the super hazy pale ale / IPA trend, and Belma hops should be the way to go for people looking for opaque beers.

If "WP" means they add hops basically at flameout, it's still going to have plenty of time to impart bitterness on the beer.

I didn't do a true decoction, per se, but I did remove some liquid and bring it to a boil before adding it back. I've got a different setup now and I can actually increase the mash temperature with direct heat, so I'd probably do that now.

It turned out great, and I'm actually planning a second brew of it very soon. I might tone down the IBUs slightly but it's good at the level I chose as well (68). I'm having trouble getting the bottles to carbonate - I would recommend using champagne yeast at bottling. The beer ended up around...

Here's the recipe we've been talking about, which I think is quite accurate: http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/332966/cold-smoke-clone

Do not mash at 168, you will likely kill the enzymes and the beer won't ferment well. Mash at 148. If you want to raise up to 168 after conversion completes, you can remove some liquid and heat it up in the kettle before adding it back (use a decoction calculator). But really that's not...

Yeah, sorry that's a bit confusing. What I did was take 4.5 gallons and mash in at 148, then raise the temperature of that volume of water to 168, drain it, then sparge with 4 gallons. Total water volume of 8.5 gallons minus however much was absorbed by the grain. 185 is fine for sparging, it...

Going from 1.048 to 1.004 with 1272 is highly unlikely without an infection. That's 91% AA compared to the average range in the mid 70s. If you use a glass fermenter, make sure to sanitize, dry, sanitize before you use it again. If you use a plastic fermenter, I would recommend replacing it. I...

I would recommend thinking more in terms of cell counts than starter volumes - use a calculator like this one here. Do you use a stir plate for your starters? If so, assuming you used a vial of yeast a couple of months past manufacture date, you should have been fine on the cell counts. If you...

So you are saying that it was at least a week before the temperature went up to 88? I think you are probably 100% fine.

I'll just chime in with the same things everyone else said: 1) That's pretty good apparent attenuation even at 1.03 2) If you want higher attenuation, you need to mash at a lower temperature, ~148 3) You don't necessarily need higher attenuation. 1.03 will taste good with a beer that big.

I think you should take a step back. The difference in the preboil volume (after your mash) and the postboil volume (after boiling, before putting in the fermenter) has nothing to do with the mash temperature. If you increase your mash temperature up 17 degrees from 154, you'll be at 171 which...

You only boil off 1.3 gallons in 110+ minutes? Other than that, seems pretty similar to other recipes in the thread.

I personally don't think it makes sense to change your process until you have a good understanding of your pre and post boil volumes, because as it is you have no idea what your efficiency is without them. For all we know you only boiled off .75 gallons and had great efficiency. What you said...