What is the best way to sterilize things like dry hops, spices or fruit before putting them in the fermenter? Some stuff you can obviously boil. But boiling hops, say, would defeat the purpose of dry-hopping it seems. Yet adding straight dry hops to the fermenter seems like a good way to get contamination.
Brewers can make their own invert syrup (Belgian candi syrup) by heating regular granulated table sugar, water, and a little acid. https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/how-to-brew/invert-syrups-making-simple-sugars-complex-beers/ The process involves heating the syrup well above the boiling point of water, so there is no separate water present in the finished product, but hydrolysis occurs, so the hydrogen and oxygen molecules are taken up by the sugar molecules. The chemical reaction is : If I start with one unit, say one pound, of table sugar, how …
Fermentable Sugar, e.g. Maple Syrup I brewed a Maple Stout before Christmas in which I racked the beer to a secondary fermentation vessel where I added 550g of Maple Syrup. I let it sit at 12ºC for 4 days before racking to keg. The schedule was as so: Day 0, O.G. = 1.067 Day 10, S.G. = 1.015, transfer to secondary, S.G. = ? Day 14, F.G. = 1.017, transfer to keg I didn't think to take a gravity reading …
Is it possible to estimate the post-boil specific gravity given only a pre boil gravity reading, plus volume measurements, while also accounting for a invert sugar syrup addition? For example, say the facts were as follows: 7.59 gallons at hot break 1.062 specific gravity at hot break 0.35 gallons1 Belgian candi syrup added 6.70 gallons at flame out Edit / Addition: The 2.5 pounds of table sugar that was used to make the candi syrup is said to have 46 …
I'm planning to brew my first gruit ale. I was planning to use Myrica Gale, Yarrow and Rosemary. Sadly, I'm having serious difficulties with buying Myrica here in Europe. Could anyone tell me a good alternative to Myrica Gale?
Is it possible to get a useful starting gravity reading when not everything is dissolved or suspended, but you know it ultimately will be? Some context: In my pre-hydrometer days, I made a few cysers / honey ciders that really only amounted to apple juice, honey, and yeast. I never was able to get the honey to fully dissolve, it just went straight to the bottom and sat there, silently mocking me. After initially being concerned, I RDWHAHB'd, figuring the …
I've been taught to look down on breweries that use corn in their beer, because it's a cheaper ingredient, and obviously men would never put corn in their beer. That being said, why would you put flaked corn in your beer? I've heard generically of adding corn to more closely approximate a commercial clone, but that leaves me questioning, in what way does it change?
Ignoring the downsides (Hops: buy vs. grow), how would one grow hops in their backyard? I know that it grows 30 feet tall and that you cut it to the ground in the winter, but how do you get started with growing your own plants? How long would it take and how many plants would you need if you wanted to brew one small batch of beer each year from your home grown hops? I live in the north-east. Is …
So, I've added my grapefruit potion along with my hops in the secondary fermenter. Will it need to stay in the secondary fermenter longer because of the added alcohol / ingredients?
I made a witbier last weekend from a recipe which called for a pound of unmalted wheat in the grain bill (along with 8 oz pilsner malt, 8 oz flaked wheat, 4 oz flaked oats, and 6 lbs dry malt extract). The unmalted wheat was too hard for the mill at the local homebrew shop. I tried crushing it with a rolling pin with no success. So i wound up using it whole, which left me wondering if that was …
What is the best way to add fruit to a beer? I'm afraid boiling it will break down the fruit too much (a muslin bag could fix this I guess), but I'm not sure how to add it to the fermenter without contaminating the beer. I suppose this answer could depend on the fruit, too (bananas, blueberries, cranberries, oranges...)
I've got a recipe for a wild strawberry blonde (I recently asked for tips on prepping fresh strawberries). Well, I'm finally going to brew this, but...corn? The blonde recipe I'm looking at right now has ±1.125# of flaked corn. Tips and thoughts on a grain substitute? Any general tips or resource links on grain substitution is also welcome. Disclaimer I get it, corn is a respectable adjunct. But it's also the characteristic of many lagers and pilsners I dislike the …
I'm making a mint chocolate stout. I've made it before; I added 1.5 ounces of fresh spearmint to the last 10 or 15 minutes of the boil. It turned out alright, but it's not as strong as I'd like. The obvious answer would be to add more mint. But before I make it again, I'd like to utilize your collective experience. When is the best time to add mint without imparting off flavors? Should I add it to secondary? (Last …
I was recently at a beer festival and one of the breweries (Fulton) had a delicious pale ale that had been infused with grapefruit. I asked the brewer how they did it and he told me that the night before when they kegged it, they quartered a bunch of grapefruits, scored the peels, and threw them in the a bag in the keg. I have 10 gallons of pale ale that I need to keg soon, and was thinking about …
I will be adding half a pound of cacao nibs to my stout here in a few days. Since the beer will be almost fully fermented at that point is it necessary for me to sanitize the nibs before adding them? If so, can someone please provide me with some advice on how best to do so?
Instead of performing a cereal mash which can be done as so: Mill rice Mix 10-15% malted barley to provide a fluid mash Raise temp to 158F for 30 minutes Boil for 15-20 minutes Add to main mash Can I instead? Cook rice as normal in rice cooker Add to main mash It seems to me that both steps are processes are basically the same. The rice will be gelatinized in either method because boiling is involved. In a cereal …
Radical Brewing says that triticale is a useful alternative to rye. Apparently it's a rye-wheat hybrid, and is easier to sparge than rye, while still having a good rye flavour. I'm interested in trying it, but I would like to know: How close are the flavours? What are the main differences? Is it technically similar to rye in terms of how it should be brewed? Is the sparge easier? How easy is it to get hold of malted triticale (I'm …
I am having a hard time finding bitter orange peel in my region, but I did find bitter orange powder. Can I achieve the same results with the powder instead of the peel? Should I use the same quantity or increase or decrease? I will it to brew my first wit.
I have a recipe that calls for adding a gallon of cold brewed coffee in the secondary. The comments have described how to cold brew it, but I was wondering, do I need to add the grounds plus the gallon, or just the spent grounds? I don't want to dilute the beer with an extra gallon, but would still like to get the flavor of the coffee.