re: Homebrewing Thread: Volume II

What's this boards thoughts on extract beer?

They all taste the same to me.

I would echo what frat said except I would also add one point. If you want to make really good beer with extract, you need to do full boils.

And if you have the burner and kettle for full boils, you save yourself money and hassle (DME and LME both suck to work with due to sticking to pot for LME and becoming a goopy mess when you add them for DME) by going all grain.

The first time I saw a super pale IPA wort I was hooked on all grain.

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They are all dominated by that extract taste.

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Outside of brewer error like frat mentioned, there are a few other factors outside of the brewers control that can cause that 'extract taste'.

1) Oxidation of LME after opening bulk LME containers at your LHBS. I've been to homebrew stores that had 55G drums of LME that were over a year old sitting on the floor for people to buy.

2) Over mineralization of wort; All of the minerals that were in the water used to make the extract remain in the extract after processing. If you reconstitute the extract with your local water supply all the minerals in your local supply add on top of those.

If you ever try an extract beers that has that odd chalky/minerally/asprin taste to them. This is probably the issue.

Buy fresh extract or from stores that turn over extract quickly and use RO/Distilled water for brewing and those 'extract twang' issues will go away.

Wow... that's a great deal for someone looking to go electric.

Does anyone have any experience with using Giga Yeast Vermont IPA yeast (GY054)? I am thinking about using it in my next DIPA.

Not sure if everyone has seen this, but Beersmith has a new update. And it looks like they listened to a few of my suggestions!

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Major BeerSmith 2.3 Feature Highlights
A new "Session" tab that consolidates brewing session data in one place and makes it easy to compare planned vs actual readings.
Mash pH estimation and acid adjustments built into the recipe editor along with improved water analysis.
Simplified recipe editing that makes it easier to create and adjust recipes including things like copy/paste/undo, the ability to add/delete multiple items at once, proper keyboard shortcuts and focus handling, and more.
Support for wide screen monitors including many resizable dialogs.
Proper late sugar additions for all grain, as well as a separate mash gravity and mash efficiency estimation.
Support for CO2 as well as isomerized hop extract additions.
The ability to lock/unlock recipes for editing.
An improved brewing engine that can integrate hop additions as gravity changes in the boil as well as carry over unused hops into the whirlpool for long whirlpool or "no chill" brewing.
A large number of bug fixes, usability enhancements, and recipe editing features to make the program easier to use.

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About to download.

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Beersmith

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I'm still rocking the first version, but I rarely use it these days. I pretty much only use it to quickly calculate my OG and IBUs as it is tuned to my system.

Last weekend I did a bunch of blending and kegging, and I saw something I have never seen before. I've seen some weird yeast floaties in beer before, but this was a new one on me. They looked like tiny mushrooms or something. They had a tail/stalk that and a head/cap. The head was about the size of my pinky nail, and the tailes were about the length of my last pinky joint. It was a beer I brewed from some Fantome dregs. Tasted great, but just kind of freaked me out a little.

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They had a tail/stalk that and a head/cap. The head was about the size of my pinky nail, and the tailes were about the length of my last pinky joint. It was a beer I brewed from some Fantome dregs. Tasted great, but just kind of freaked me out a little.

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Looks like a job for milk the funk to identify.

Brewed up a 2gal batch of pumpkin ale I found on homebrewtalk forum. I just scaled it down and decreased boil time to 60min.

Moved to a secondary today and it was smelling really nice. Added in 10 oz of maple syrup today too b/c I had read it would be best to wait until primary fermentation was finished before adding that part in.

Recipe Specifics

Batch Size (Gal): 6.25 Wort Size (Gal): 6.25
Total Grain (Lbs): 14.50
Anticipated OG: 1.066 Plato: 16.17
Anticipated SRM: 12.5
Anticipated IBU: 25.8
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75 %
Wort Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Grain/Extract/Sugar
% Amount Name Origin Potential SRM
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65.5 9.50 lbs. American 2-row America 1.038 2
13.8 2.00 lbs. Munich Malt(2-row) America 1.035 6
17.2 2.50 lbs. Maple Syrup Generic 1.031 35
3.4 0.50 lbs. Crystal 40L America 1.034 40

Potential represented as SG per pound per gallon.

Hops
Amount Name Form Alpha IBU Boil Time
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0.75 oz. Northern Brewer Whole 7.00 17.4 60 min.
1.00 oz. Goldings - E.K. Whole 5.00 8.5 30 min.

Extras
Amount Name Type Time
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3.63 Lbs Pumpkin Fruit 90 Min.(boil)
2.50 Tsp Cinnamon Spice 10 Min.(boil)
1.50 Tsp Nutmeg Spice 10 Min.(boil)
1.50 Tsp Allspice Spice 10 Min.(boil)
0.15 Oz Irish Moss Fining 15 Min.(boil)

Yeast
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Safale US-56 California Ale (Chico)

Mash Schedule
Mash Type: Single Step

Grain Lbs: 12.00
Water Qts: 12.00 - Before Additional Infusions
Water Gal: 3.00 - Before Additional Infusions

Qts Water Per Lbs Grain: 1.00 - Before Additional Infusions

Saccharification Rest Temp : 153 Time: 60
Mash-out Rest Temp : 168 Time: 10
Sparge Temp : 168 Time: 45


Total Mash Volume Gal: 3.96 - Dough-In Infusion Only

All temperature measurements are degrees Fahrenheit.