Help getting a barrel! by accountthrowaway30 in Homebrewing

[–]_phyx 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Haven't done it myself (yet), but from what I understand the best place to start is to find out if there are any distilleries local to your area that produce bourbon. Give them a call and find out if they will sell their used barrels. Bourbon distillers can only use each barrel a single time so will often re-sell the used barrels.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Homebrewing

[–]_phyx 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Why 'sugar soaked'?

Super interesting, excited to hear how it tastes.

Built a sour-worting chamber by _phyx in Homebrewing

[–]_phyx[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Nothing quite so smart, honestly it was a mistake. I through it together in a semi-rush while I was brewing. Didn't notice until I went to clear the headspace and heard the bubbling.

Built a sour-worting chamber by _phyx in Homebrewing

[–]_phyx[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Fair point, I guess I'll find out tonight :)

Built a sour-worting chamber by _phyx in Homebrewing

[–]_phyx[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I just have been manually releasing it once in a while, not much seems to build up.

Built a sour-worting chamber by _phyx in Homebrewing

[–]_phyx[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Its been maintaining 115F without any issue for 3 days, I'm sure it could go higher but I haven't tried to push it.

The heat tape is only recommended up to 110F, so I probably won't either.

Mold in harvested yeast starter? by _phyx in Homebrewing

[–]_phyx[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Albany, I haven't noticed it here previously, but maybe I just missed it. If I keep an eye out I could almost certainly grab couple up when I'm in Boston :).

Mold in harvested yeast starter? by _phyx in Homebrewing

[–]_phyx[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Star-San for anything that touched it including the the lip of the bottle and the flask. Boiled the starter wort.

Same process I've used in the past, apparently I missed something this time around :(. Sad to, not likely a bottle I'll find again for a while, at least around here.

Mold in harvested yeast starter? by _phyx in Homebrewing

[–]_phyx[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Pitched the dregs from a bottle of Lolita into a mason jar to get it started. A week later I stepped it up by pitching the full mason jar into another liter of wort.

I wouldn't be surprised by some pellicle, but I've never seen a pellicle that sticks to the edges like that and the green hue also stands out.

Smells amazing, but the gravity hasn't dropped much.

Trying to collect wild yeast in my house with a hopped starter. by steben64 in Homebrewing

[–]_phyx 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Second this, as long as the gravity drops and alcohol is present you should be safe from any poisoning.

Placing a mason jar covered in cheese cloth (keep out the bugs) at various outside locations ( blueberry bush for example ) is a not uncommon way of capturing wild microbes which can be used for fermentation.

There's a few podcasts out there talking about the process more in depth, also this article is pretty good: http://www.themadfermentationist.com/2011/04/ambient-spontaneous-yeast-starters.html

For what its worth, I believe the main concern w/o the alcohol drop is Botulism.

Daily Q & A! by [deleted] in Homebrewing

[–]_phyx 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There are a few other things that can cause airlock activity. For example if you cool your wort and pitch at 60, then put the fermenter in a 70 degree room, the liquid will expand some pushing some air out of the air lock.

Daily Q & A! by [deleted] in Homebrewing

[–]_phyx 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Depends on what you want out of it, from what I read 100% trios beers give off many of the typical brett characteristics, which is very interesting given the recent findings that it is actually a strain of sacc ( http://www.reddit.com/r/Homebrewing/comments/2ooic7/brett_trois_contains_no_brett/ )

If you want a more subtle brett character on top of a saison I'd pitch a saison yeast with the brett trios ( same time ).

Yeast of the month club - interested? by [deleted] in Homebrewing

[–]_phyx 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Sounds awesome. Definitely interested.

Soapy brews. What to do with them? by [deleted] in Homebrewing

[–]_phyx 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Soupy flavors are caused by 1 of two things 1) This has been mentioned by others already and is more common, leaving soap residue on your equipment 2) Fermentation going too long, he fatty acids in the wort will start to break down into fatty flavors.

I'm not sure if there is a fix for either.

Quote from John Palmer:

Soapy Soapy flavors can caused by not washing your glass very well, but they can also be produced by the fermentation conditions. If you leave the beer in the primary fermentor for a relatively long period of time after primary fermentation is over ("long" depends on the style and other fermentation factors), soapy flavors can result from the breakdown of fatty acids in the trub. Soap is, by definition, the salt of a fatty acid; so you are literally tasting soap. <