beer ASK WHEEBZ

wheebz said:
yea thats not the recipe I have
Click to expand...
 
never had it, and it's probably not to my liking regardless, but it's 'the point' ...
 
in my case, it's goose island's bourbon county stout ... haven't had it, still, after years ...
 
BCS clone will be the 1st brew i try from scratch ingredients, i bet ...
ps - in my mind, i figure having a recipe is AT MOST getting 50% of the way there ... getting something reproduced on different rigs is probably something that improves w/ mastery, but remains an iterative process nonetheless - i'm assuming ...
 
ive got the recipe to that too
 
the owner of southern tier took all the shit that he had from when he worked at Goose Island and put it on the main server at southern tier, which I promptly put onto a thumb drive and took with me
 
I'd like to brew a pliney clone, but I can't justify spending the $900 dollars on the freaking hops that beast uses! i could brew like 3 batches just on hop price alone.

wheebz said:
ive got the recipe to that too
 
the owner of southern tier took all the shit that he had from when he worked at Goose Island and put it on the main server at southern tier, which I promptly put onto a thumb drive and took with me
Click to expand...
  ohhhhh really?? Spill da beans!
 
wheebz said:
ive got the recipe to that too
 
the owner of southern tier took all the shit that he had from when he worked at Goose Island and put it on the main server at southern tier, which I promptly put onto a thumb drive and took with me
Click to expand...
 
i'm prepared to beg ...
 
i'm looking at WL now, actually ...
 
might order a couple from WLP565,050,008,940,070,050 ...
PS - looking into Biere de Garde as a style ... running out to Total Wine to pick up some singles in a bit ...
 
ASK WHEEBZ -
 
I'm having a *really* hard time w/ the cold storage options - which is why I haven't purchased anything in this regard yet ...
 
It seems like a single space w/ a single temp doesn't really cover things at all, really ...
 
10 lb bags of ice at the corner gas station are $2.50, and I'm pretty sure that I can chill two separate 2 gals beer, 1x gal in ea sink basin, using 2-3x bags of ice depending on how low I need to take it down for what I'm trying to make ...
 
The Cool Brewer bag thingy costs like $65 I think, and it's not that bad changing out frozen 2L's of water to keep things cool ... I have definitely considered adding a small freezer and not modifying it and just using it to freeze 2L's of water to ferry back and forth to the bags ... it's not optimal, but it works, and I am here working, anyways ...
 
Given the ground-water temp factor, the time of year I'm heading into, the cost of pumps and chillers and kegs etc ... and the fact that I want to brew often in small batch for a while yet (at least) to be able to experiment, it just doesn't seem at all like time to work w/ kegging in earnest, BUT ...
 
I've been thinking about getting a single 3 gal keg to bottle small batches, to use w/ the Beer gun, but to still ultimately bottle condition - just bottle BETTER ... I figure I'll mix priming sugar and beer (not carbonated) in the keg - instead of using a bottling bucket. Then, I can purge the keg and put low psi in, and then use the co2 to push beer into bottles, and condition it normally in the bottle, with minimal o2 exposure ... as I'm not interested in competing on any level, a little sediment in the bottom of my beer is hardly a concern of mine. Shit, half of the bottles of beer I drink, I don't drink the last 10-15% of, regardless ...
 
In this regard, taking the temp here into consideration, as well as the groundwater temp, and that I do have relatively limited floor space available inside my house (more avail in carport, though) ... it really seems prudent to enjoy a half year to a year just doing an excellent job bottling (12, 16, 32, growlers etc) the beer I brew, as mentioned above ...
 
I picked up a couple length of high-temp tube to do some "no chill" ... and some yeast strains that are happy in my house's temp range ...
 
So, the question is ... do I really just want a second, normal household fridge? ... it would give me the ability to freeze like 6 or 8 2L's to use w/ the Cool Brewer bags, and provide an entire fridge for "other" activities ... but that's the thing, I don't know what those other activities really are yet ... cold crashing etc ...
 
Any input definitely appreciated ... this is one sub-topic I'm having a really hard time w/, and it's the least well-covered by homebrew supply store's ...
 
ImageUploadedByTapatalk1428993522.186100.jpg


i was wondering what the two very distinct layers on the bottom of this brew are ...

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1428993733.748852.jpg


i'm guessing the little fluffy balls on top of the silt (yeast, right?) are related to the increased amount of hops relatively speaking, perhaps? ...

thanks for any input =)
 
wheebz said:
I actually was just forwarded the entire brew sheet for Pliny the Elder last night, entire recipe and fermentation schedule
Click to expand...
 
I ummm, wow.  That is just awesome.  I have had it once and never forgotten it.  Tried a few clone recipes off the web which were great beers but not the same beer.  
 
If there is an abridged version or helpful hints you feel comfortable posting we would be forever in your debt.  
 
Ask Wheebz! -

On cooling wort ...

I would imagine the range where things are most precarious on the way down, is sub-170F ...

If I'm not mistaken, from my sous vide tinkering, 170F water (w/ prolonged contact time) is still pretty hostile for baddies ...

The reason I ask, is that it kind of makes sense to me to just use cold sink water changes at first in the bath, to take off the first 30-35 points - and then use the full bag of ice for the second half, to have momentum through the range more likely to let baddies multiply ...

As it stands I've been dumping early on, and I think that's applying the accelerated cooling during the less useful half of chilling ...

(This os for the small batches)

Am I thinking about this right? Or, would that be good from a biological standpoint at the expense of DMS trouble, or perhaps cold break material or tannins or something? ...
 
Wheebz will answer your question, I'll just say that I find that it works best to put 3 or 4 frozen 2 liter bottles in at first to start getting the temperature down as fast as possible and then as it reaches the danger zone to add the bagged ice. Stir the pot to get more of the Hot wort in contact with the cold water helps too.
 
 
 
Hasn't been  called for yet but this thread needs to be pinned. Any mods please pin this, I'm sure everyone that used this section will agree.
 
So basically, if you cant instantly chill your wort,  you need to get your wort down below 140-150 as fast as possible
 
you should be keeping your pot that you boiled in covered, and unfortunately because you do not have a imersion coil or a counterflow plate heat exchanger, the best way is to do what RM said with stirring, or moving, the wort inside the pot to create better contact 
 
the HUGE downside is you will never get proper trub separation and settling out if you are constantly moving your wort, and you do NOT want your trub poured in with your beer, hence why you use irish moss or whatever you are using to have all that gross stuff settle out. By continuously stirring, you are completly negating the effects of letting your wort settle
 
Using a sanitized lid, yes.
 
Did the whirlpool last time, but realized that carrying it over to the sink stirred it up again, regardless. I'd move it to the sink and do the whirlpool in place in the sink during the 1st fifteen minutes w/ the plain water (or 2L's like RM said) next time.
 
Yeah, because last time I went to use a sanitized spoon after 15 mins to give it a gentle stir, but saw the muck stirring, and pulled it out and let the temp come down in the sink on it's own ...
 
I had a 10 lbs bag of ice, so I'm getting fast cooling on single gallon serving (<= 30 min), but I'm pre-gaming 5 gal batches, and ice isn't going to cut it w/ the temp water is flowing through the pipes now ...
 
I'll probably go ahead and figure out how to use build and use March Pumps from the start, as handling 5+ gal boiling batches seems imprudent to my household and work ...
 
I guess it basically means installing a 2nd ball valve down low in the kettle for return from a plate chiller etc ...
 
I'll dig into that this weekend in the books ... I'm going to brew up my remaining two batches of AG (single gallon) kit beer, maybe just do them both at once this weekend, and then I'm going to slow my roll while I figure out the 5+ gal stuff ...
 
I have to decide if I want to do true BIAB in a single, spigot'd pot, or go w/ a two item version using a cooler for MLT etc ...
 
Thanks for all the help, man ...
 
PS - I agree w/ RM, this thread should be pinned ... I'll email THP.
 
I saw a You Tube when I first started where the guy duped some 2 liter bottles in Idophor and then put then directly into his wort. Don't think I could convince myself that that was a good Idea.
 
RocketMan said:
I saw a You Tube when I first started where the guy duped some 2 lyrics bottles in Idophor and then put then directly into his wort. Don't think I could convince myself that that was a good Idea
Click to expand...
 
I found a nice heavy-ass cylinder of 304 on eBay and thought about freezing it, and then sanitizing it and putting it in the pot ... but I backed out, because it would require welding on some rods to suspend it from the rim of the pot (to not compress the trub etc) and then that would open up gaps all around under the lid ...
 
Pumps it is! ... actually, I really need to tackle this whole pumping liquids shit, because it would pan out improve both the brewing AND the gardening weaknesses I feel pain from (not automating watering, namely) ...
 
ASK WHEEBZ -
 
I heard (was a podcast) where Aussie's were adding sodium metabisulfite to their mash (out?) in advance of the boil to eat up oxygen and reduce hot side aeration ...
 
Is that a good idea?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top