Lets Talk Brewing

[Southtown]

Originally Posted by alexander

not a fan of those, south, but i did remedy the issue... i got a bigger bucket :P, i have a 6.5 gal now

That's what I have, also, and I only put 5 gal at at time. So why don't you like that setup?

[alexander]

well, i dont like the hose, because any variation in pressures between the carboy and the outside, such as what you would have if the foaming stops if say the overly active fermentation kills itself, and a high pressure weather system moves in, you can very easily have a sucking effect, which can (and i have heard this from a couple of brewing friends of mine) suck the sterilizing solution back into the carboy... which is baaad, as you know... this can even more easily happen if you move the carboy while it still in the midst of fermentation, this can also suck the sterilizing solution as well as now, not-so-sanitary foam, in even more easily....

But its a matter of preference, whatever works best for you

Waiting for a new hops harvest, all my favorite hops are gone for the time being, and so i'm anxiously anticipating the fall...

[Southtown]

Believe it or not (now that you mention it,) suck-back was another problem I was having with the airlock when removing the lid that the hose solved because, if you think about it, the chances of suck-back are inversely related to the length of hose.

Here's a pic of the foam on my airlock for comparison.

[alexander]

true, true...

[Southtown]

Anyway, I can't believe I didn't find this thread sooner. It took me half the day to plow through it. I would have never tried all the stuff you've tried because I'm still focusing on like hop variety/intensity and malt color/gravity. Plus, I can't get my sanitation up to snuff. My last three batches tasted like soap after bottle conditioning (which all started when I washed them with Dawn.) And what size pot do you use? I have been working with a 4 gal and a 1 gal, which is limiting me from going all-grain. Just so happens, though, that I get birthday money in October, so maybe I'll get a new pot and maybe a burner in time for some imperial goodness. =P

[alexander]

i'm working on an all grain setup, but as of right now, i dont have one, i have a 4 gal and a 5 gal pot, you can see my new stainless one in this pic

http://hypography.com/forums/attachm...g-img_0059.jpg

well, i have hops down pretty well, my birthday recipe which i posted sometime ago, i specked all the hops for it, as well as yeast and specialty grain, sugars and special add-ons (those make your beer great ) Its a crazy stout neighboring on the side of an insane barley wine... its really neither

I am working on an east meets west beer, lets just say it will put my insanity level back on a "aaah he is coming into my store again" level with the guy that works at my fav brew store, and it will use a steamer, unorthodox grain, a very special fungus, orthodox grain, fruit, very light honey, and other ingredients that will give me a sort of "you used what, how does that even make a beer?" conversation piece

i still need to figure out exactly all the ingredients and hopping... though ingredients will influence hops

[Southtown]

Here's a picture of my hops from today. It's Mt. Hood, but I think I want to start growing Fuggle, and more of it. My one plant doesn't look like it will produce enough for a whole batch. My 8 foot trellis probably isn't tall enough. The vines don't start budding until about 5 or 6 feet in the air. So I plan on building a barley field with a 12 foot lattice fence to grow hops on.

[alexander]

that's great... you dont really want to use whole hops for bittering anyways, pellets are a lot better for it, but for final hopping stages and dry-hopping, right on... but you should do semicoe and tomahawk

[alexander]

so here is what i've been thinking about in terms of that east meets west beer:

Start off a sake, steamed rice, koji. For the first 2 days, build up the sake, like a sake, koji rice, more steamed rice, water, esb ale yeast (for good sake, you make 3 additions, with every other addition being double the size of the previous one)
the final addition is what will be different, it will contain more koji and normal rice, but it wont contain double the amount of normal rice, some would be replaced by a 50/50 wart of wheat to light barley, lightly hopped (probably amarilo) (as sake will also act as a bittering agent), at that, i will add (once the temp drops below 190) cubed peaches in a dry-hopping sock thingy and some light honey to the wart to give it some very unique and pronounced flavors. I'll take the peach sock out a day after all that goes into the fermenter; then as the fermentation of all of that is about a week in, i'll add some plugs or fresh hops if i can find for dry-hopping, but not too much, just enough to give it a unique scent, taking them out before bottling... Idea is to get the feel of unfiltered sake in a beer