Recent content by galacticbrewing12

That's helpful information. There is so much conflicting information out there its hard to know what to believe. While in many ways home brewing is an art, there is also science behind it. Just hard to determine what is fact or fiction. Seems like overall I shouldn't stress too much about it as...

I was wondering if anyone has any good online sources of where to get fresh yeast? I have a local homebrew shop that has fairly fresh yeast within a month or less, but has a limited number of strains available. I am looking for yeast that is usually within about a month of its manufacture...

So after conferring with a professional brewer friend of mind who tasted my beer he indicated that it was more of a diacetyl flavor than anything. May need to aerated the wort more prior to primary fermentation and try to minimize the amount of oxygen exposure after fermentation is complete.

What would you suggest to avoid the oxidation then? Should I just put a lid on the new kettle while chilling or use a plate chiller? How quickly do I need to chill the wort to minimize oxidation?

I have been noticing that with lighter colored beers like IPAs, Pilsners, Pale Ales, etc. tend to finish with a stale/oxidized flavor. When I brew stouts and porters I don't get that taste at all. It comes through with a smooth and malty flavor without any oxidation. My process is the same...

I keg all my beer and have been doing so for the past 2 years. Most recently I have started bottling my beer off of the keg in order to submit bottles for homebrew competitions. Unfortunately, in both the competitions I have entered my beer in the carbonation has been almost non-existent. I...

So after 2 weeks of lagering between 41-45 degrees I popped the top on the fermenter and found a weird film on top of the beer. Is this anything to be concerned with?

I haven't used torrified wheat before. What characteristics does it add to the beer?

Thanks for the feedback and various ideas. I will definetely take it all into account. I guess I think the fruity esters is the whole benefit of doing a Belgian IPA. Otherwise you would just be brewing a regular American IPA. From a hops standpoint I would think a fruity hop might go better...

Any recommended recipes for a Belgian IPA? I am looking for ideas on what type of grain bill to utilize. I know some people choose to do just an American IPA grain bill using Belgian yeast. I'm thinking of using some crystal malt and maybe some candied sugar. I'm open to anything. I plan on...

After a few weeks the residual cleaner went away and I no longer had any extra foam. I cleaned the beer lines with BLC and diluted it with water, but in hindsight I should have flushed the lines with water afterwards. Thanks.

I currently have a 3.1% ABV Irish Red Ale on CO2. It is only at 6 psi and I still have about 75% of my pint glass full of head/foam. About half of that dissapates after about 5 minutes. I have not had these issues before on previous beers. I had cleaned out the beer lines and my taps...

Well just to report back I went ahead and adjusted the stout to 30 psi for about 10 days and it had a great pour. It had the nice cascading effect that we expect to see with stouts on nitrogen. This method seemed to work well and have recently kegged my Oatmeal stout and plan on checking on it...

I'm glad to hear from another Pacific Northwesterner. I lived in a suburb of Seattle from about 10 years and since leaving I can say that I was certainly spoiled by how great the water quality is up there. The tap water tastes better than most bottled waters. There is something about that...

Thanks for the suggestions.