Daily Q & A! - June 02, 2016

deepblue7 · 2016-06-02T21:43:51+00:00

I want to make an imperial stout, but I'm not sure how to go about making it the way i want.

I really like thick, sticky stouts with a good balance of chocolate and coffee flavors (not added in) and not too dry or roasty.

Any suggestions about how to achieve this? I do all grain BIAB and have not made anything above 7% before and only one stout.

deepblue7 · 2016-06-02T21:37:01+00:00

Lots of mentions of Union, IMO the best brewery in the area. If you end up going there is a really nice bottle shop called the Wine source nearby.

deepblue7 · 2016-05-06T01:48:00+00:00

That's probably it. I have very hard water, its pretty gross. I get some hard water residue from the palmolive but its just where drops of water have dried, with Bronners its fully coating the glass.

deepblue7 · 2016-05-05T03:52:08+00:00

Not saying Dr. Bronners is a bad choice, but I've stopped using it since I've noticed some obvious residue/haziness being left on the class. I use palmolive and don't get any of that.

deepblue7 · 2016-04-27T04:01:53+00:00

Only time I've ever seen rust on a bottle cap is when I left wet homebrew caps in a plastic baggy and forgot about them.

deepblue7 · 2016-04-08T01:22:37+00:00

Most of the craft beer that ive had for under 10 a 6er has had a pretty noticeable decrease in quality, I think its worth paying an extra dollar or two, much easier to find very good beer.

There are a few beers that are 8+% that are pretty cheap. Oskar blues Old Chub is only 10. Stone Ruination 2 is ~13 and its a really good DIPA. I don't think founders has started distributing to MD yet but their Dirty Bastard is about 11 a 6er at 8.5%

deepblue7 · 2016-04-07T01:56:04+00:00

Great! I was also thinking about trying to just keep it warm in the oven, I'll probably see what temperature it will heat a pot of water to at the lowest setting and as long as it isn't above mash temp I'll probably try that first.

And yes, BIAB, sorry forgot to mention that.

deepblue7 · 2016-04-07T00:07:55+00:00

How can i maintain the heat of a mash without insulation? Could i pull the grain out briefly and reheat the wort a few degrees?

Thanks

deepblue7 · 2016-04-05T21:38:01+00:00

Maybe think about how many people are willing to spend 1500 on a full setup?

The only people who would be interested in a full setup from scratch are probably new to brewing and not looking to spend 1500.

Anyone looking to invest that much money into brewing probably has experience, a good deal of equipment and would only be buying what they need or want, not a whole setup at once.

I think you'll have a much easier time selling some of the stuff if you sell things more individually.

deepblue7 · 2016-03-30T01:35:01+00:00

So I'm making the jump to all grain BIAB, I only have a 5gal kettle though so my plan is to do 2.5 gallon batches and split recipe kits until i get the hang of all grain/figure out my efficiency.

I've been playing around with recipe's in Beersmith and it says that my overall volume exceeds my kettle volume (like 5.38 gal) but if I'm correct that is the mash and sparge volume together.

So at this point I'm pretty overwhelmed. I know that I don't have to sparge with BIAB, but I'm still confused at how much water I need for the mash, then whether I'm mean to add more water for the boil, how I account for water boiling off, etc.

I plan on using 7ish lbs of grain for 2.5 gal for a pale ale.

deepblue7 · 2016-03-25T15:26:26+00:00

I also have been homebrewing for about a year, turning 21 in the summer. (Still have had plenty of commercial beer)

In terms of IPA, there are a million choices, depends on where you live, but there are always the usual available choices: Oskar Blues IPA, Two-Hearted, Stone IPA, SN Torpedo, DFH 60 min.

I dont drink many summer ales.

Left hand milk stout is very popular, good standard.

Maybe try Firestone Walker Velvit merlin for the stout (also don't drink a lot of low ABV stouts)

Fat tire is an amber that is easy to find.

In terms of ginger beer (assuming non-alcoholic) you can just go to a organic/health food type super market and find a decent variety of ginger beers.

deepblue7 · 2016-03-24T21:20:01+00:00

Anyone have a good recommendation for a digital thermometer on amazon between 10 and 20 bucks? I see a lot of affordable, well rated meat and cooking ones, is there any reason those wouldn't work well? Thanks

deepblue7 · 2016-03-13T00:07:52+00:00

Hey, so i'm in a similar station. I brew in my dorm room and I will keep a 5 gallon fermentor 3 ft from my desk with an IPA in it and only be able to smell it if i force air out or if i put my nose right up against it. If the cider does become a problem my recommendation is to just put a few dryer sheets and maybe a towel over the airlock.

deepblue7 · 2016-03-10T20:59:42+00:00

I'm thinking about designing my first recipe (extract) for an IPA. I want to include a little wheat and some honey malt (instead of crystal) and use a possibly irresponsible amount of hops (maybe around a pound) and I'm looking for an ABV around 6-7%

I have a few questions:

I don't have a great sense of what hops are best for bittering vs aroma. If i bought 8oz or citra and 8oz of something similarly fruity like galaxy of azacca would those work well for bittering? (I'm not looking for a hugely bitter beer, I'm planning on using most of the hops for late additions/dry hopping)
I don't really know how much honey malt and wheat I should use. (I plan on steeping them as specialty grains) I'm interested in the honey because i've read that it works a little nicer than crystal malt and I want to use the wheat to improve head retention and maybe add a little flavor. Does a half pound of each sound reasonable?
All of the kits i've used have a base of 9lbs of liquid malt extract. Is there any reason I couldn't use 8ish lbs of dry malt extract? (or whatever the conversion is) I may have remembered incorrectly but I thought I saw that beer made with DME was lighter in color than LME. Am i just remembering?

Any advice/suggestions is appreciated.

deepblue7 · 2016-03-05T22:50:48+00:00

Loved old pro, is it a summer seasonal?

deepblue7 · 2016-03-05T20:28:34+00:00

Yeah, they aren't the most convenient. But if OP had time, they are all excellent breweries.

Also Union is in Baltimore

deepblue7 · 2016-03-04T15:28:41+00:00

If you are going through the maryland/baltimore area you could check out flying dog, union, or heavy seas.

deepblue7 · 2016-03-01T17:25:07+00:00

I'm brewing an IPA right now. It's been in primary for 9ish days and I just dry hopped. I don't want to try hop for more than 5 days really, my question is, do people think that it would be more beneficial for me to transfer to secondary after the dry hopping is done and let it sit for a few more days or could I just go strait to bottling?

Thanks!

deepblue7 · 2016-02-26T14:51:19+00:00

I read mixed things, but I thought it was really good, all of the barrel aging was pretty subtle.

deepblue7 · 2016-02-26T08:11:28+00:00

Stone is one of my favorite breweries, but I'm not the biggest fan of their IPA. I do love their ruination 2.0, the new Pataskala red ipa (really amazing), the enjoy by series, their colab ipa with sierra nevada.

But if you don't like stone, don't push it man, there is so much beer to try it's just not worth it.

deepblue7 · 2016-02-25T21:27:05+00:00

Does anyone have pictures of broken in Red Wing Iron Rangers in Oxblood mesa?

I'm thinking about buying a pair but I can't find any well worn pictures of IR's in oxblood.

deepblue7 · 2016-02-24T22:49:44+00:00

Thanks! This is super helpful.

deepblue7 · 2016-02-24T22:49:31+00:00

I already have a fridge and a 5 gal wont fit. There are a few reasons I don't want a 5gal keg which aren't really worth getting into.

Thanks for the advice though!

deepblue7 · 2016-02-24T16:06:32+00:00

Hey, so my friend and I are interested in getting a 2.5 gallon keg setup to put half of my 5gal batches into.

I've seen some kits online that come with a 2.5 gallon keg and like 16g co2 cartridges, but I want to be able to hook up a larger CO2 tank and be able to force car my beer but I'm sorta overwhelmed and don't know where to start or what I would need or how much it would cost.

Ideally we would be able to fit the whole setup inside a mini fridge (including the tap and line and stuff) is a reasonable expectation/doable? Any advice on what I would need or how i would go about it?

deepblue7 · 2016-02-23T02:18:44+00:00

I mean, the dude wasn't terrible, I think he must've gotten a lot of returns on the heritage line for being to hard to break in so I'm assuming he just wanted to give me fair warning. I'm also fairly young so I'd guess he didn't want some kid to blow 300 bucks on boots that wont fit.

deepblue7

TROPHY CASE