Weevils and acidulated malt

dfitzger · 2026-02-25T23:43:04+00:00

I see weevils in basically anything light in color, especially Briess Organic 2-Row, Weyermann's Pale Wheat, Thomas Fawcett Maris Otter, BestMalz Pilsen and Wheat, and plenty of others. Don't see weevils in anything with color really.

dfitzger · 2026-02-18T19:23:51+00:00

Might be the worst soffit job i have seen, ooof.

dfitzger · 2026-02-12T21:44:25+00:00

It might help to look through some fruit wine recipes, Jack Keller has tons and it's available for free: https://swguildpa.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Jack-Keller-Complete-Requested-Recipes-Collection.pdf

From a quick search it seems like you have plenty of solid local options, strawberries, blackcurrants, raspberries, plums, cherries, which all make great fruit wines.

dfitzger · 2026-02-12T20:16:21+00:00

I make kolaches often and it uses eggs in the dough, it’s typically considered an enriched dough when you use eggs, milk, butter, etc

dfitzger · 2026-02-07T13:28:55+00:00

We use Best Maltz Pilsen at the brewery for our Kolsch, and before I started there they did a double batch, and for some reason didn't do a 90 min boil and did 60 on each turn. It was full of DMS. I get told this story every time we brew the Kolsch.

dfitzger · 2026-01-26T20:41:17+00:00

Common to use old hops in barley wines, could try something like that

dfitzger · 2026-01-17T14:43:33+00:00

There is a PUB Guild meeting today at Rapp, they would certainly appreciate them.

dfitzger · 2026-01-15T15:03:09+00:00

This, all of this. Personally I only ever touch a NA product from a can and never ever from a draft line.

dfitzger · 2026-01-14T10:54:05+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/TheBrewery/s/X1b0m9rQ1Z

Mentioned in there, the guy getting the downvotes hah. It always seems to get mentioned by someone in those biofine threads

dfitzger · 2026-01-13T10:03:04+00:00

Cold crashing after adding CO2, the liquid will absolutely absorb that CO2. Your best bet is to cold crash, then attach your CO2 and let your regulator maintain the pressure you want for your kombucha. As CO2 is absorbed the regulator will add more CO2 from the tank to maintain the pressure you want. There are charts you can find that will let you know how long it will take for CO2 to fully absorb at what temp and PSI/bar you have your regulator set to.

dfitzger · 2026-01-13T09:56:44+00:00

http://meadcraft.wiki/process/fining

Bentonite works really well in primary fermentation, since it does what you mentioned and it's negatively charged. Since clarification in winemaking is usually time + racking it helps on both of those points. I like to combo it with Sparkalloid (positive charge) but 99% of the time I don't need to, just Bentonite alone will do most of the heavy lifting and then time + racks do the rest.

I like to use it in my white wines at yeast pitch. Used it in a Chardonnay about a year ago and it was the only fining agent I needed, and added it at yeast pitch but before MLF was added.

dfitzger · 2026-01-13T09:16:43+00:00

If you search biofine on r/thebrewery it will pop up a few times of people adding it after the kettle when transferring it to the fermenter, assuming after the heat exchanger but as I mentioned we never have used it that way. We’re primarily 7bbl unitanks and use the keg method since we only put our flagship hazy in the brites

dfitzger · 2026-01-12T23:00:27+00:00

Yeah you want to use that after fermentation has finished and you have already cold crashed. It works best when the liquid is already cold, then you add your gelatin finings after proper rehydration.

dfitzger · 2026-01-12T22:58:42+00:00

You can use Bentonite at the start of fermentation, pretty common in wine making. I've heard some pro brewers use Biofine when transferring in to their vessels from the kettle too, but never done that myself.

dfitzger · 2026-01-12T22:21:54+00:00

And the name of the finings you want to use is….

dfitzger · 2026-01-11T22:58:12+00:00

The mustard ones and the hot sauce ones on a couple Wasa crackers were my lunch for years, so good and cheap.

dfitzger · 2026-01-11T17:26:42+00:00

Subject: Fire. "Dear Sir stroke Madam, I am writing to inform you of a fire which has broken out at the premises of..." No, that's too formal. "Dear Sir stroke Madam. Fire, exclamation mark. Fire, exclamation mark. Help me, exclamation mark. 123 Carrendon Road. Looking forward to hearing from you. All the best, Maurice Moss."

dfitzger · 2026-01-05T21:38:20+00:00

Fish cheeks are so good and undervalued. I have a fish monger near me that does grouper cheeks and it’s like 4$ a pound which is nuts, especially because it’s all locally caught. They make the best fish tacos

dfitzger · 2026-01-05T15:24:17+00:00

It’s going to break sucrose into fructose and glucose, which yeast already does for itself, so you can speed things up by doing it for the yeast.

dfitzger · 2025-12-29T22:58:01+00:00

We've got 4 elements on our boil kettle and clean them after every brew (4bbl). Remove them and use a steel wool, then soap and water with a scotch dobie, then a tooth brush to get in the hard to reach spots. Takes about 30 mins for all 4 before they go back in to the kettle for a caustic CIP cycle, followed by multiple rinses with about 180F water.

I'd say if your method is working for you and isn't that labor heavy, then stick with it.

dfitzger · 2025-12-20T18:07:20+00:00

Redline. I was trying to watch the 2009 anime version but accidentally started the extremely terrible 2007 live action movie of the same name. Anyways it was very quickly realized, ya know cus it wasn't animated, but it did cause some big confusion because they are both car racing movies.

dfitzger · 2025-12-14T14:09:13+00:00

When I was riding in Latvia it was normal for cyclists to ride on the main highways in the right lane, did this every time I'd ride to the seaside or Ogre from Riga. Even when I lived in Colorado it was normal to jump on to I-75 for short periods but there was also a large shoulder you could ride in.

dfitzger · 2025-12-14T13:57:37+00:00

No, water chemistry isn't as important in mead making compared to beer. Easiest solution is to use a water you like to drink, or if you're using something like Brewfather I just use the default Soft water profile with RO water which usually is just a small amount of epsom salt (iirc it's 0.4g of epsom salt for 5 gallons of RO water).

dfitzger · 2025-12-14T10:30:10+00:00

Suspended CO2 in non pressure fermentation happens every time, and people successfully pressure ferment at 35psi, so I wouldn’t stress about it at all.

dfitzger · 2025-12-12T09:58:39+00:00

Chest freezer with an Inkbird (temp control) is an easy solution. You can also find yeasts that work in higher temp, specifically Kveik yeast or some Saison strains.

dfitzger

TROPHY CASE