I forgot to check the date, and the packet may have been abused too. I picked up brew supplies a few hours before the Northwestern State game, brought them into the house, and then rushed to a friends house to watch it. Realized I left the yeast sitting on the counter, so my wife moved it to the ... freezer. I panicked when I started making the starter and realized it was frozen. Left it on the counter to defrost while my wort cooled.

Anyway, freezer kilt those yeasts dead.

Yeh you can't freeze yeast. The ice crystals that form rupture the cells.

After some quick math I only need to add 8 minutes onto my boil. Reducing the volume a bit should raise my gravity probably a point which will get me exactly what I was shooting for. Finally got my process down better and am consistently getting 70% efficiency. Though my cream ale was 75% probably because of the minute rice. My issues originally was my mash temp was too low. I basically poor man RIMS it and pull a pint off and heat it then dump it back over and over until I'm where I need to be. Was actually a bit too high today but it worked out well enough. I love getting to play amateur chemist and mathematican with this hobby

Somehow I overshot both my gravity and my volume. Ended up with 6.25 gallons of 1.102 wort. That's like 84 percent efficiency. Smoke isn't detectable, but I hope it comes out subtlety.

What's your expected FG? That's gonna be one heavy beer. Sounds awesome. Did you post the recipe?

Two hearted clone bubbling away like crazy. Used an aeration stone for the first time as I think inadequate oxygenation was some reasons for a higher than expected FG on my last few. Hasn't been off too bad but that should help. Didn't use pure oxygen just a little pump. Also used a yeast starter so I'm hoping for a really thorough fermentation. Need to gather stuff for my next batch. Still haven't chilled my cream ale. Hoping to have room in my fridge today.

https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/697945/petey-the-sassenach-smoked-wee-heavy-

It's in 2 carboys in my fermentation fridge right now (4gal in one, 2.25 in the other), sitting at 68F. Both are fermenting so vigorously that the carboys are visibly rocking side to side.

I was on board with this one until I saw you added laphroig. I like scotch but laphroig is the worst thing I have ever tasted. Wonder if another smokey scotch would work similar

It's going to be about 3-4 oz of laprhoig 21Yr, single cask, 117 proof. Traded a gallon of the finished beer for it it from my brother.

I just put my cream ale in the fridge to chill for a few days, should be ready Monday. I want to take the same basic cream ale recipe and make a light version. Take a look at this and give me some feedback. Going to use amylase enzyme to get to 1.000 FG but had to use custom attenuation to make the recipe read right.

https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/702253/house-cream-light

What's the purpose of the custom attenuation? You won't get that result in the real world.

By adding amylase enzyme in secondary most people will get 1.001 or 1.000 for a final gravity. Brewers friend doesn't account for the enzyme addition in the FG so you have to adjust the attenuation

Kegged my saison today. Final gravity of 1.012, original was 1.051, so not the highest ABV saison. Hose on the siphon came a little loose up top so had to adjust. I think minimal air got into the system though, and I did a great job purging the keg and backfilling my cold crashed carboy with CO2.

The hyrodmeter reading tasted good. Think it'll turn out well with a little age on it.

I've never heard of that. Care to link some literature?

Alpha amalyase does what Seven says. It's generally not used because it cleaves the sugars doesn't to very short chain, allowing yeast to consume it all. This also wrecks the body of the beer. This is how Brut IPAs are being made.

So it'd work in some styles but not all.

People have tried to use it on under attenuated beers but.once the amalayse is added it just cleaves through all the sugars, it's not really something you can control to fine tune a beer to shave X points of gravity off.

Guys use it frequently on cream ales and blonde ales to give beer a dry crisp taste similar to what you get with the Bud Miller Coors beers.

Ornlu, if you're on homebrew talk it is all over the forums there

Ornlu said:

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https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/697945/petey-the-sassenach-smoked-wee-heavy-

It's in 2 carboys in my fermentation fridge right now (4gal in one, 2.25 in the other), sitting at 68F. Both are fermenting so vigorously that the carboys are visibly rocking side to side.

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Added my pepper seeds (soaked in Laprhoig) last night. Gravity is down from 1.102 to 1.032, after only 4 days. Still can't taste any smoke, but the Laprhoig will likely fix that.

found a beat up nasty ass deep freezer on CL. Ordered a temperature controller from NB (they have a good one on sale right now plus an additional 15% off $47 shipped). So now I will finally have a legit fermentation chamber. I am super cheap with my HB stuff. I try to do it right but I take my time and slowly piece it together looking for good deals.

Brewed a pumpkin ale this evening. Hit the gravity target well, think I had a better boil this batch. The wort sample was pretty dang good. I did 50% more pumpkin than the recipe called for, and about twice as much pumpkin spice, per recommendations from many reviews.

My 2-hearted clone is kegged and conditioned and ready to drink. It finished up a little quicker than I was expecting. I moved it into secondary to help with clarification and pulled a gravity sample and was surprised to see that it was already 1 point below where I expected it to end up. So I went ahead and cold crashed for a few days and then kegged and force carbed it in my ferm chamber last night. Got my lines cleaned and hooked up this morning, I'm excited to try it tonight. Most of my previous batches stalled 4-5 points above where I wanted, but I used a different yeast (WLP001) and used an aeration stone for the first time (think this made the biggest difference).

I'm about to make my next run to the homebrew store in Houston this week, its a 2 hour one way drive so I have to plan it out and make it worth my time. I thought I would have more cushion but my friends drank almost the entirety of my cream ale in a day during the ULM game. I knew we drank a bit but went to grab the keg for the Bama game and was happy/sad that it was almost gone. So that means I need to brew again. I try to keep a light beer on tap for everyone, then have a specialty beer on my other. The cream ale was a hit but I want to tweak the recipe to have less corn flavor and try for a FG of 1.000 using amylase enzyme in secondary. I think I have the recipe built but wanted some input from yall. A 5.25 gallon batch would have a OG of 1.032 (final ABV of 4.2 with a FG of 1.000) and have a grain bill like this

6# pale 6-row (need help here)
.75# flaked or minute rice
.5# flaked corn

90 minute mash at 152

hops
1oz saaz @60
1oz hallertau hersbrucker @60

yeast S05

ferment @ 64 degrees 7 days
bring to 70 for 3 days then rack into secondary
add 1 tsp amylase
1 week in secondary @64
cold crash then keg

My questions for yall are:
6 row vs 2 row malt for base? I've read that beers like Ultra use 6 row instead, what would the differences be?
Would this grain bill be more crisp and clean? Last time it had a heavy sweet corn flavor so I backed way off on that and upped the rice.
Hops: I just put two varieties down. I've seen these used in similar recipes, it gives me the IBUs I'm looking for. Any input here?
Adding the amylase should give it a very crisp and dry finish like most of the light beers have which is what I'm going for. Would that allow many flavors come thru from the malts or would it just be kind of like a Coors lite in it has very little flavor (kind of the goal but don't totally want straight horse piss).
Any other input would be appreciated. Thanks

Which Houston store do you go to? For a 4hr RT I'd just buy online. Hell, some Brewers in Houston do that even with 3+ stores available.

If you want to keep your dollars in TX I'd recommend: https://www.txbrewing.com out of Dallas, several of our club members use him.

The Cane Island Alers is meeting at Farmboy Katy this Sunday if you're coming in from the west side.

I've only used 6 row in my CAP/Pre-prohibition Pilsner. I find it to be a bit more grainy and I use it to be authentic but unless I made side by side batches I'm not sure I could tell you definitively I could tell them apart. 6 row has more diastatic power to convert your corn.

Sometimes it's just fun to use a different ingredient just to mix things up.

I go to Defalcos. Luckily I work in that area some so it's not like I go there just to go to the store from home. It just adds 30 minutes extra one way to my day. I'll order from Austin home brew some but the $13 shipping is more than this recipe ($12 using harvested yeast plus cost of water). Gives me the convenience of getting stuff that day plus I can buy liquid yeast and keep it good instead of rolling the dice on shipping it.

As temps are finally ally dropping I'm deep cleaning hardware. I took apart some 3 piece ball valves...uh...look at all that crap....PBW soak for a few days.

As temps are finally ally dropping I'm deep cleaning hardware. I took apart some 3 piece ball valves...uh...look at all that crap....PBW soak for a few days.

Seven said:

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6# pale 6-row (need help here)
.75# flaked or minute rice
.5# flaked corn

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6-row barely was all they had before the 1900's when 2-row was bred specifically for brewers. 2-row is superior for beer brewing in pretty much every way. 6-row is mostly used nowadays for animal feed, and should only be used for "super authentic" beers where the authenticity outweighs the poor texture and poor efficiency.

Even the stalwarts of tradition like Weihenstephan and Spaten use 2-row.

Ornlu said:

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I brew about once a month, and have for the almost 10 years now. However, I'm a cheap skate at heart & if I can build it DIY or get it second hand I will. Regulators (well, working ones at least) is just one of those things I haven't been able to come across for less than $50 each.

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I've got a regulator with your name on it if you pay shipping from 80134. It is a backup of a backup, so its just been sitting around for over a year. I've gotten enough free stuff in my 10 years of homebrewing, figured I'd pay it forward (This particular item was part of a free broken keezer I scored). I only used it for cleaning and the like, so don't even really know how accurate it is or how well it works.


It looks about like this:



Interested? Might fit in the small flat rate usps box; def. will fit in the medium one.

AlaskanAg99 said:

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As temps are finally ally dropping I'm deep cleaning hardware. I took apart some 3 piece ball valves...uh...look at all that crap....PBW soak for a few days.

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Same here. Haven't brewed since May for a variety of reasons including the heat. Looking to jump back in this weekend or next!

Venmo?

I only used it once years ago.. let me dig up my info

So I've logged in.. what do you need? I only really used paypal, which I know is my email. Is venmo the same?t

email me your address
Let me ship it off and I'll get a total.

Got it. Email sent.

Working on building an IPA recipe. I want a higher alcohol content and a lot of citra flavor. I have the 2-hearted clone on tap right now and it's good but it is a tad sweet sometimes. The hop schedule is similar to another IPA I've done from a northern brewer recipe. No idea on the grain bill, I just put stuff in there to get the alcohol and color right. Take a look and let me know what you think

https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/711116/work-in-progress