re: Homebrewing Thread: Volume II

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As the beer leaves the carboy the space if filled with air through the filter.

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Ah, gotcha. It's too much of a pain in the dick to hook up a CO2 line to that. I'll continue to just use sterile siphon starter as i believe the degradation due to O2 is minimal if i make a good IPA.

I think most brewery practices are negligible during homebrewing (thanks to brulosophy). Granted, if i had an easier way of doing o2 free transfers, i'd jump on that in a hot minute.

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a keg of IPA doesn't last long enough

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Like all o2 exposure this is really the key.

If you're kegging your IPA and drinking it within a week or two I'd be surprised if you notice a difference.

If you're handing out bottles or shipping to competitions then it can (not necessarily will) make a dramatic difference in the longevity of your beer.

Anyone ever re-hopped a keg? After the keg is carbonated, tried to add some hops and seal back up?

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Anyone ever re-hopped a keg? After the keg is carbonated, tried to add some hops and seal back up?

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I have before, when a pale ale I made with El Dorado hops was rather underwhelming. Dropped a couple mesh tea balls filled with Citra into the keg. It was much better after that.

UPDATE on Cucumber Gose: So i kegged teh gose yesterday and force carbed. I added 1/2 lb of cucumber in the keg in a mesh bag.

Well, i was curious how the cucumber was going to come through, so i took a taster pull. Wow, this thing is terrific. Good acidity, and the cucumber is very noticeable. It almost reminds me of homemade pickles. I guess i never put 2 and 2 together that a sour cucumber is a pickle. But it is very good. I had to take another taster for additional research. It also has a beautiful color.

Also, previous to dry hopping the gose with 2 oz of citra, my ph was 3.25. After dry hopping it appeared to be 3.41 and tasted less tart as before. Does dry hopping raise ph in a gose? Flavor is still spot on, just curious if hops factor on ph, post fermentation/acidification.

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Does dry hopping raise ph

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Yes.

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Results showed that a mean pH increase of between pH 0.040 ± 0.003 and 0.056 ± 0.006 at a rate equivalent to 0.5 lb./bbl. of dry hops added. When adding dry hops equivalent to 3.0 lbs./bbl. there was a mean pH increase of pH 0.233 ± 0.022 and 0.332 ± 0.031. There was no significant correlation between the hop attributes analyzed and the increase in beer pH during dry hopping, and there was no significant correlation between the beer attributes analyzed and the increase in beer pH during dry hopping.

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Source

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Where do you get mesh tea balls from?

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Got mine from Amazon. They are pretty cheap, and you can usually get 6 of them for less than $10. Each one holds almost exactly an ounce of pellet hops, in my experience.

On a different note, it's good to see that Brew at the Zoo scaled the hours back. It's from 6:00 til 9:00 now instead of 10:00. That's a good thing IMO. That last hour just turned into a drunk fest, and it actually made the event less enjoyable.

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6:00 til 9:00 now instead of 10:00. That's a good thing IMO. That last hour just turned into a drunk fest, and it actually made the event less enjoyable.

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completely agree...

We spent the last hour the past two years dealing with drunks who were slamming whatever we had on tap as fast as they could.

Hopefully the food vendor situation is better this year too. I know it's a beer event, but if you are going to tell people that beer and food are included in the price of admission, you really should have food available for most if not all of the event.

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We spent the last hour the past two years dealing with drunks who were slamming whatever we had on tap as fast as they could.

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Same at our setup. s14 and I were pouring for these 2 completely wasted guys last year that could barely stand up.

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Hopefully the food vendor situation is better this year too. I know it's a beer event, but if you are going to tell people that beer and food are included in the price of admission, you really should have food available for most if not all of the event.

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From the Brew at the Zoo website:

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Our past two Brew at the Zoo's were WILD times, and we want to say thanks to not only all who came, but all who provided us with their feedback afterward!

One thing we're changing this year is providing MORE FOOD! We know this has been the battle cry of many of our guests. So what are we going to do about it? While we will continue to offer food tasting from local restaurants on a first-come, first-serve basis, we're also working to bring in a few stations that will be located throughout the event with FULL portions of food to help satisfy that post-work hunger.

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