Recent content by Renegade Brewer

No no not now. I’m sorry I should have clarified. In future batches ensure to add enough O2 and healthy pitch rates to alleviate this issue in the future. This batch may just be a loss unless you want to blend it.

Hmm I think if it was me having this issue then I’d ask a fellow brewer if I can brew on his propane system and brew the exact same beer with the same process. If I still had the same results I might start examine my process and possibly ingredients. If it alleviated the issue I would examine...

Oxygen and yeast starters will most likely solve this problem. Check your pitch rates using a pitch calculator and make sure to get enough O2 into solution.

Ah, I misunderstood the idea behind this. The way I originally understood this it was more of a pre-hopped no boil extract.

It sounds like your temp and power output are appropriate for what you are doing. Maybe try doing a 90 boil and see if anything changes. Of course don’t forget to adjust your recipe for the addition volume loss.

EC-1118 is a champagne yeast and is not designed by nature to eat the sugars created in beer wort. 1118 is what we recommend to customers who want to make a dry white wine or a dry mead because it will chew the very simple sugars of fruits and honey; it doesn’t really know what to do with...

It depends on how quickly you’re getting from 212 to pitching temp. Normally we want to chill as rapidly as possible to achieve the cold break, dissipate DMS, and of course because of sanitation reasons. I personally want to bring 15 gallons from boiling to pitching temp in no more that five...

I don’t think this is prepared by your local shop, but from a distributor they use. Making malt extract is not an easy task and requires a lot specialized equipment that usually only maltsers will have. I’ve seen pre-hopped and no boil extracts available through a couple of my distributors and...

My wife was pregnant with our son in 2010 and we upgraded to our 1bbl pilot system at that point. It was our Christmas present, and she argued, “I’m not going to let being pregnant and having a baby stop me from brewing.” That’s when we went automated so we could brew and still attend to the baby.

36 and wife 35. Started brewing at 24 and we brew 15-40 gallons a week.

What temp did you ferment your 3711 at? In my experience that is anything but a boring yeast, but it does like to be in the warm side. 70-75 it throws wonderful clove and coriander notes, but on the lower side it will ferment cleaner. Check out T-58 by Fermentis. This is one of my favorite wit...

1.065 is a pretty healthy gravity for a single pitch. If you’re using dry yeast I’d suggest upping your pitch rate to 2 or 3 packs to ensure you’re getting enough viable cells to complete the job. If you choose to use a liquid strain make a good starter 48 hours prior to pitching. Using a...

Your local homebrew shop doesn’t carry citra? Citra are a very popular hop variety and a staple used in many recipes. As for the hop sensation it’s basically a hop shot. It would be a fine substitute. Last time I checked morebeer (placed a wholesale order yesterday) had citra by the pound...

RM-MN brings up two very solid points. Ambient temp means almost nothing. We need to pay attention to the temp of the contents of our fermenter. This is best achieved by taping your temp probe to the outside of your fermenter or using a thermowell. Also, the most crucial point during...

Wyeast offers lactobacillus, pediocaucus, and Brett strains that are amazing. They also have a rosalair blend which has all of these bugs in one smack pack. These strains are what Russian River and many other craft breweries use. They provide consistent results. I am an advocate of them...