Recent content by kaplanfx

Sort of OT for this thread but I also recommend Auburn Alehouse. Good beer and food. I always stop there on my way up to Truckee and grab growlers (Knee Deep is a bit off the road).

They have a keg at the new beer bar in my town. I live in the SF Bay Area so it's usually not easy to find on tap. I'll have to get there this week before it floats. -kap

I've been saving a 2009 and 2010 La Folie. Next time I pick up a 2011 La Folie, I'm going to invite some beer snob buddies over to vertical them. I'll report back to this thread. They are both excellent beers. The difference to my pallet is that the La Folie has some real maltyness to it...

If you want to try an RR beer and you like La Folie I highly suggest Beatification. In my opinion it's the most sour beer I've had from RR. Basically it only has one characteristic, citrusy sour. Consecration is actually my favorite from RR, but it's not nearly as tart as La Folie if that is...

I bought two bottles and drank one. Honestly I was a bit disappointed given the quality of the other sours in the Lips of Faith series from NB (huge fan of La Folie, La Terrior, and the Kriek). Buddy and I just brewed a 30 gallon batch of stout to sour that we are aging in an oak barrel so...

He said that it was an extract brew, unlike in an AG batch where you might not have hit your mash temp and ended up with the wrong types of sugars, there should be plenty of sugar to ferment. -kap

Revisiting this thread, I was drinking Black Butte last night, and I randomly started reading the label ring on the neck. The Black Butte claims a thin layer of yeast in the bottle due to bottle conditioning and natural carbonation. It doesn't say the same on the Mirror Pond, do you think they...

I'll take a shot here: 1) I pour everything in the kettle into my primary, with no filter. This includes all the hops as I don't use a hop bag. I just let time settle everything out, then do a careful job siphoning without pulling trub. Never had a problem. 2) It shouldn't, unless you...

Without commercial filtering systems, the real way to get clearer beer is TIME. -kap

I second the stir plate, your yeast colonies will be mighty happy. -kap

Actually a low number is good. Gravity is a measure of the density of the beer, basically you are measuring how much sugar is in the beer. The original or starting gravity is high, then as the sugar is converted to alcohol, the gravity will drop. IIRC water has a gravity of 1.000, so that...

The % of alcohol in the tequila is much higher than what's in your beer, I don't know for sure but I suspect the tequila will separate out and someone will end up pulling a glass of tequila off the keg :) -kap

CO2 is heavier than air. The yeast will have produced CO2 as a result of fermentation. The CO2 will sit in the fermenter above the beer in the empty space and act as a barrier to anything outside (plus you have an lid and an airlock on there right?). Just make sure you don't disturb the beer...

If the FG is correct, the fermentation has taken place. I recommend holding off on transferring to secondary just yet. It doesn't hurt to leave the beer in primary on the yeast cake. In fact the yeast, after fermentation, will spend some time cleaning up other things in your beer that can...

I thought you were not supposed to use #1 plastic for brewing as it's not food grade. -kap