Recent content by Holy_Hops

I just harvested year two of my hop garden. I grow Chinooks, Centennials, Cascades, & CTZ. Last year the Cascades were very light on aroma & citrus as you're describing. I brewed a blonde ale with home grown Cascades last fall expecting the grapefruity notes that I get from commercial...

Thanks for the thoughtful reply, biertourist. Normally I use grocery store RO water. Now that I think about it, on the Kolsch & IPA I used our home RO water tap on the sink. The filter on that def. needs to be replaced as we haven't done it in a year or so. I also brewed an American Pale Ale...

Hey all. So the last two batches I've made have given me band-aid burps. The first was a Kolsch & the most recent is a Double IPA. I can only pick up the off-flavor via band-aid burps (and it's really only every 3 burps, anyway). It isn't anything super noticeable and both beers turned...

Yeah I do think the double dry hopping does make a slight difference in both, although I haven't done a proper experiment with a test and control batch. But I figure if Russian river is doing it there must be something to it...

I always dry hop in primary with great results. Also, I have recently been doing two dry hop additions with great results. I first heard about this doing a Pliny the Elder clone, but I like to do the first 2/3rds of the dry hops for 5-6 days and then add the 2nd 1/3rd of the dry hops for a few...

The basic idea is that a beer of x gravity (say 1.070) needs y billion yeast cells to convert (in this case, 253 billion). The awesome Mr Malty yeast calculator can do all of this work for you: http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html Now you can get the job done - that is, convert sugar to...

I usually rack it to the keg and then pour in the gelatin with good results.

I've heard that a good way to gauge is by using PH strips. If the acidity is still there, it's still good since the acid is what kills the nasties.

I've had good results getting to 180 or so and turning the chiller off & letting them sit in that 180-160ish range for 30 minutes or so. That being said, I also have simply done flame-out additions & let the hops stand for 30 minutes before starting my chill with very similar results. Maybe...

Also check out the Centennial Blonde Ale recipe that's big here on the forums. It hits a nice balance between BMCers and craft beer people, too. Big crowd pleaser.

In my experience 002 is one of the hardest yeasts to wash because it flocs so fast. That stuff is heavy. If I were you, I would just keep the jars as they are & put them in the fridge. When you're close to brewing, decant the liquid and pitch them into a starter. I would imagine that there...

As for the Star San - no it shouldn't be a big issue. It's happened to me before, too. What kind of yeast did you use? If you used a kolsch yeast like wlp029 or similar - they're notoriously slow floccers. You could either lager for a month or so or you . That's what I've down on Kolsches...

Russian River's brewmaster published it a few years back. Here's a link to the version I did & it was incredibly close to the real thing... http://www.bertusbrewery.com/2013/08/pliny-elder-clone-30.html

Another thing you could do is try to rouse the yeast. I got a stuck fermentation from a Pliny clone last year. I sanitized the thin end of my mash paddle, carefully put it in the carboy, slid it under the surface of the beer and gave it a good stir (make sure you do it without oxygenating it!)...

Here's the last batch I brewed which turned out great. I adapted a black IPA recipe from the Mitch Steele IPA book for it. The Sith Lord Black IPA 14 LBS 2-Row (Rahr) 1/2 lb. Carafa II Dehusked 1/2 lb. Midnight Wheat 1 lb. Caramel 40 1 Lb. Caramunich II 1.5 lb. Table Sugar Hops...