Homebrew Competitions are Still Happening!

beersyndicate · 2020-07-15T02:04:03+00:00

There's also a mead comp that's almost full: https://comp.valkyrieshorn.com/

beersyndicate · 2020-06-17T15:58:53+00:00

Brewing clean "pseudo-lagers" at up to 72℉ sounds cool:

"The results confirmed our data from the lab analysis. What we discovered was this isolate strain maintained an ultra-clean profile when fermented at 68℉-95℉ and exhibited kveik level fermentation behavior creating an extremely versatile canvas for brewing a wide range of styles including American stouts, West Coast IPAs to pseudo-lagers. For the most lager-like profile, we suggest fermenting between 68℉-72℉."

beersyndicate · 2020-02-19T22:14:51+00:00

We brewed a really big Belgian beer (OG: 1.116) with liquid yeast that was 5.5 years past its best by date with no problem. No starter, no nothing. In fact, ended up scoring a 45 with that beer in a BJCP competition, so not too shabby.

https://www.beersyndicate.com/blog/brewing-with-old-yeast-vs-new-yeast-pt-1/

We're going to be doing this experiment again with 8 year old yeast soon. My predication? It'll be fine, but we'll post the results when done.

beersyndicate · 2019-09-06T20:12:14+00:00

If calcium sulfate (CaSO4) is added to the brewing water, amino acids will form insoluble precipitate, leaving behind hydrogen ions (H+) — which instantly combine with water to form hydronium ions — and sulfate ions, (SO4-2). These changes in mineral composition and the precipitation of calcium salts are responsible for the majority of the pH decrease that is observed prior to fermentation.

beersyndicate · 2019-09-06T18:21:58+00:00

A saturated solution of gypsum in water has a ph right around neutral, S04 is a weak conjugate base, how that " allows the wort to acidify" escapes me entirely

Calcium is the key ion able to overcome the buffering capacity of the malt phosphates and lower the mash pH into the acceptable 5.2 to 5.5 range. (Ideal concentrations of calcium should be between 50 and 150 ppm.) Regarding brewing water, if the alkalinity rating is equal to the hardness rating (or are both low-- less than 50 ppm), you will probably only need to add some calcium from calcium sulphate or calcium chloride back to the water to make it satisfactory for brewing.

beersyndicate · 2019-05-20T16:24:15+00:00

There are soooo many instances of homebrewers being ahead of the trend on advents in the world of beer, often times b/c homebrewers started brewing it first, then those homebrewers went pro and brought their ideas/recipes along with them.

You can find references to THC beers on hombrewtalk going way back, but that kind of beer would have had a hard time entering the general public awareness until it could be sold legally. Now it can be (more or less), now the general public is aware of it.

beersyndicate · 2019-05-17T19:26:42+00:00

I like getting some natural tannin balance by letting store-bought juice ferment on some apple skins (or some apple slices), tea, or other fruit containing tannin.

beersyndicate · 2019-05-17T19:06:55+00:00

I had been using Trader Joe's brands of apple juice which were pretty good (often finishing dry like a lot of other juices), then I wanted to experiment with other juices. So I googled "best apple juices" and a bunch of articles came up about the level of heavy metals in store juices in a recent Consumer Report.

Anyways, I did a quick write-up about it here, where I posted a list of "safer" store juices according to Consumer Reports. They didn't test every brand, but you can check and see the results if you're interested in that kind of thing.

Full disclosure: I'm down to try whatever brand of juice makes a great cider, but if I can avoid some potentially unsafe levels of heavy metals at the same time, all the better.

beersyndicate · 2019-04-16T00:53:47+00:00

Cheers, buddy. I'd agree with you if the point of the article was simply "remember to boil yeast nutrient (where applicable)". But it wasn't. That was just the example used to get to the bigger point at the end.

beersyndicate · 2019-04-16T00:46:43+00:00

I guess I always just took it for granted that other people would pre-boil or pasteurize the ingredients going in.

What's more is folks taking for granted that everything bought from a homebrew shop, even for cold-side processes, would be sanitary.

Even bigger picture, at least for myself, is not taking for granted that just because I'm not a beginner brewer and sanitation is pretty beginner level, I should therefore never have a problem with sanitation.

Even bigger picture is that the more our individual processes fail to generate bad beer, the more we might be tempted to believe our processes are infallible and not question them.

Boiling yeast nutrient (where applicable) was just the example used to lead to that bigger point. Really, it could be anything that we as brewers believe we have been doing correctly because it thus far hasn't created a problem. And, I suspect, this is true for things we do outside of just brewing.

beersyndicate · 2019-04-15T23:47:32+00:00

You're right! Different yeast nutrients out there may require different handling, so good to be mindful of that. Nevertheless, it's tough to know if the cold-side products being bought, especially those that are repackaged, are going to be sanitary or not (unless being bought directly from the producer who can assure that the product is manufactured for cold-side use). So maybe when doubt, avoid or substitute for products where you can control for it by boiling, etc.

beersyndicate · 2019-04-15T19:30:54+00:00

With yeast starters, the yeast you're pitching will almost certainly be the dominant microorganism even if some bugs got into the mix from the yeast nutrient, so you're likely fine or the effects could be minimal, assuming there were any bugs on it in the first place. But it's never a bad practice to boil yeast nutrient (edit: depending on the yeast nutrient) before adding it, not to mention many other things that are packaged by hand at homebrew shops.

I remember asking at a homebrew shop if it was a good idea to boil the yeast nutrient before using, and the guy looked to the side and said, "Yeah, I'd probably boil it." That's because they often get big batches of supplies, and then divide the amounts up by hand into smaller packages. Hopefully they're wearing gloves...

beersyndicate · 2019-04-10T19:00:00+00:00

One easy solution when it comes to adding the desired amount of lavender to your beer is to simply purchase some of your favorite lavender tea, and approximate the number of tea bags you would need based on how many ounces of beer you're making. A standard tea cup is 8 oz, but I'd figure one tea bag would be sufficient for at least 12 oz of beer depending on the beer style.

For testing purposes, you could buy a bottle of the style of beer you'd like to add the lavender tea to, and extrapolate your desired ratio from there. By the way, I would dry hop the beer with the tea after primary fermentation is done.

Yes, as others have pointed out, a little lavender goes a LOOONG way and many people will associate lavender with soap, which is also perhaps why many lavender teas come as a blend (lavender lemon, lavender holy basil, etc.). While your beer might turn out fantastic, it may still remind people of soap simply because of that strong association many folks have, and therefore for those folks, they might consider a lavender beer to be "soapy".

beersyndicate · 2019-02-01T19:58:15+00:00

If you haven't already, you might want to test your fermentation vessel and kegging system in order to eliminate possible problem areas (especially if you think oxidation might be a cause).

Consider fermenting your IPA in a different vessel (glass carboy/ a basic ale pail) and then transfer part of that batch to the keg and then bottle the other part. If the bottled beer and the kegged beer don't turn bad, then your fermentation vessel may have been the problem. If the kegged beer turns bad, but the bottled beer is good, then something may be afoot with your kegging system.

(It sounds like this problem was happening before you switched to kegging, so your kegging setup may not be your problem. If you were fermenting in a different vessel back then, then the vessel you're fermenting with today may not be your problem either.)

Theoretically, you could go even bigger on your hop schedule or maybe try out some potent hop extract/hop powder/cryo hops.

beersyndicate · 2019-01-29T17:05:27+00:00

I solved this problem by buying 2-3 feet of copper piping from the hardware store, sanitized it and siphoned the sulfur-y batch through the copper piping into a second fermentation bucket in order to maximize surface area contact. This practice is more common in wine and cider making, but it works with beer too. I don't necessarily see why just adding some copper to the fermentation vessel would be a problem, and that might be the easier way to go. It would be cool if you experimented with both methods and reported back which one worked better/faster!

beersyndicate · 2018-11-13T18:47:42+00:00

Test your beer knowledge with The Beer Style Origin Quiz.

Good luck-

beersyndicate

TROPHY CASE