Recent content by TheChemist

If you were looking to calculate it yourself, a fast and dirty way of doing things is; vol L x OG = total sugar total sugar x 1.25 (80% efficiency compensation) = total desired sugar total desired sugar \ 300 (rounded sugar extract of grain) = total kg of grain needed If you'd like...

You have several options - first and foremost for a less-dry beer, just mash a couple degrees higher. 68c is a good place to aim for. For 'maltier' tastes, you can add some different specialty malts (as already suggested by our awesome fellow homebrew dudes). My favourites for this include...

My experience with braggots is that they need a compromise of aging time - longer than the equivalent beer of the same strength, but not the years demanded by good meads. It will mellow considerably if you leave it alone for 6 months!

It's already been said, you can just add more H20 - save yourself some time, and add boiling water to the wort to help bring it up to boil. If you're wanting to hit your target OG exactly, easiest thing to do it calculate how much water to add. specific gravity x volume (L) = total sugar in...

Think of coffee grounds like it's crushed malt - if it's held at too high a temperature, or sits in water too long, or is brewed with too much water, you will get bitterness and astringency. That might actually help you to match what your end-goal beer is; it will also help lower the mash pH...

When making almond stout, I usually throw a whole bottle (think it's 750ml) into 40L at the point of packaging (ie. cask, keg, or bottle). If you're bottling, I'd just add it in along with your priming sugar, give it a good stir. By the time things are fizzy, it should be nice and almond-y.

S-33 will take the higher alcohol level without a problem; it works beautifully upwards of 7.5 or 8, but will take levels as high as 11.5 For a homebrew system, it might help to use it as you push the bottom end of attenuation for a higher grav beer. S-04 isn't specially bred for high alcohol...

So, I've been traveling around the UK and living in hostels, which is why I've been on-again-off-again (not that anyone would notice :p). However, I've now been hired on as a pastry chef for several months in a scottish hotel in the middle of no-where. The head chef has expressed an interest...

I know that commercially the mid-sized brewhouses don't bother. They have they're heat sources set up asymmetrically to naturally create greater agitation, and leave it at that. The only reason I can think of to go to the extra effort of adding a mixer is if your heat source can't take your...

Gah! I was chatting with a phD specialising in fungi microbiology and a 'master brewer' from the IBD for about 2 hours, and we STILL hadn't come to a conclusion at the end of it. The question we were debating was; does yeast actually respirate, or simply perform a metabolic function that...

It could be an infection with wild yeast - that would create the medicinal taste that you're describing. Since you said your yeast was fine, it was probably somewhere in your fermenting vessel. Since you haven't had issues with it since, chalk it up to a one-off warning to be extra careful in...

When I was learning about water chemistry, we used the 5H20 form for calculation - not sure why, but there you go. Be sure to keep it in an airtight environment, and weigh it just before you use it, otherwise it turns into sludge.

Amazon.com: Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers: The Secrets of Ancient Fermentation: Stephen Harrod Buhner: Books this book is pretty helpful, if you're looking at pre-hop/non-hopped beers

If you mashed a little on the high side, that would increase mouthfeel as well - try dropping the temp by a couple degrees and see what happens.

Um, red wheat has a bitter seed coat which will add tannins to your beer - so it depends on the style. It doesn't add alot of colour, but it's also a bit harder to mash with (forms gluten easier); it's really up to you!. If you can get torrified or malted, I usually prefer those to flaked, but...