I could not wait any longer and cracked open a bottle of the Motueka Single Hop IPA. This is a pretty damn tasty beer. Apricot and peaches with a nice late hitting bitterness. This beer should get even better with a couple more weeks of bottle conditioning. Cent'anni y'all! #homebrewing#homebrew#beer
In the cauldron today, another German-style Altbier with some minor tweaks and an attempt at open fermentation.
Ingredient list for an 11.5 liter batch:
1.8 kg Amber liquid malt extract
220 g Crystal medium malt
100 g De-bittered black malt
50 g Crystal hops (pellets)
Half a 11.5 g packet SafAle K-97 Yeast
12.5 liters water
I'm using 5 liters of the water to boil the malt and hops in. The remaining 6.5 liters will be cold tap water waiting in the brew bucket.
Just placed an order for the ingredients to brew three more beers. A kölsch, sour, and saison are on deck! All three will be perfect for summer in Florida. I also ordered a second brew bucket so I can put the glass carboy out to pasture. #homebrewing#beer
Stout is done now. I think it is my best stout yet. Very delicious. Lots of dark chocolate with a bit of vanilla going on. Excellent mouth feel. #homebrewing#beer#stout
Is Boston (MWRA-supplied) water more prone to algae blooms?
My humidifier turned bright green this morning. I’m cleaning it with citric acid solution per manufacturer instructions, but if I need to peroxide or C-brute the thing I will.
My knowledge of water quality only goes as far as “#NewHampshire water has brain amoebas, pack in your own,” so I thought I’d ask.
Has anyone here ever brewed with Crystal hops? If so, what do you think of them?
I’m looking for a US equivalent of the Hallertau Mittelfrueh for my Altbiers.
My birthday gift is on its way to home! Finally I spent a little more and bought a Single Vessel. Let's see how my next beer batch will be 🙂 #homebrewing#singlevessel
A sneaker taste (and demonstration of impatience).
I couldn't resist having an early taste of the Altbier I bottled a week ago. There's a little extra harsh bitterness with a very slight metallic-like taste at the end. I am hoping this mellows out after I give it a chance to age properly. Also, I'm hoping a little more toffee/caramel will come through with time.
Well, I just finished bottling ~11 liters of Altbier. This is the fourth batch of beer or mead I've have brewed without using any type of sanitizer at any stage of the process. I've just thoroughly cleaned everything with hot, soapy water. I might be playing Russian Roulette with my beer and mead but, so far, I haven't had any surprises. Though, the equipment I am currently using is quite simple (not many cracks and crevices for critters to hide in).
#homebrewing gear question: The readings of my digital #refractometer change over the first 10-20 seconds for the same sample, when taking multiple measurements.
For example…
t = 0s: 12.0 %Brix
t = 2s: 12.5 %Brix
t = 5s: 12.8 %Brix
…
t= 20s: 13.9 %Brix
Eventually it stabilizes at a number that’s about 1.5-2 Brix higher than the initial measurement.
Is this normal or do I have a defective device? Is the first or the last reading correct?
Ended up a fair bit short of 10L and with a huge amount of trub... but got 1.060 OG when the target was 1.058, so I'll take that. Not too bad for my first go in many years.
Fingers crossed this becomes tasty beer now. Cheers!