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  1. Edan Z

    Faster/cheaper way to clean bottles?

    I'm wondering if it is really necessary to soak bottles for 20 minutes in PBW before sanitizing with Star San. Problem is, it takes an inordinate amount of PBW to soak 50 bottles at the same time and the stuff is just so expensive. I've been trying to save by making ten liters of it and soaking...
  2. Edan Z

    Attenuation calculator

    I noticed that all my beers based on a similar recipe, pitched with a 1L starter of WLP530, starting at 1.063 OG, always finish up at 1.008 FG. According to the BF recipe calculator that corresponds to a "custom" attenuation of 84% for that yeast. I have gotten in the habit of using that custom...
  3. Edan Z

    Would this recipe work

    Now that I have a couple of very successful blonde/amber Belgian ales under my belt. I want to try something a little different for the next brew day. I'm thinking of something along the lines of a dark brown ale brewed with the same trappist yeast. I personally really like quadrupels, but the...
  4. Edan Z

    Hop bags or straight in?

    I am wondering if there are any real advantages from using a hop bag, vs just tossing the hop pellets straight into the wort. I normally dump all the trub into the fermenter, so any hop debris will make it in there. So far, I have used a hop bag for all the additions, but for the next batch...
  5. Edan Z

    Bittering hops vs noble hops

    In all my batches so far, I adopted a strategy for saving $ on hops, by opting to bitter with a small amount of high alpha-acid hops at 60 and flavoring with noble (low alpha-acid) hops at 20. I have done this, mainly because it makes financial sense. You achieve the same level of bitterness...
  6. Edan Z

    Liquid starter major lag

    So I decided to make a starter ahead of brew day. The vial was expiring in a week. I decided to make a 1.6 liter starter on a stir plate. 36 hours later and the starter had not done anything, a gravity reading still read 1.040. I figured the yeast must have been dead from shipping so close to...
  7. Edan Z

    Need help identifying off-flavor

    After the first two batches of home brew, I'm in need of some help identifying an off flavor that is persistent in my first two brews, made with two different yeast strains, different malt, etc. Reading about the common off-flavors hasn't helped. I can't tell if it's band-aid, catty, DMS, etc...
  8. Edan Z

    Auto Siphon just won't work when I need it

    Has anyone had an auto siphon that just won't work at the most critical moment? I bought this thing from my and online HBS it's plastic and looks just like any standard auto siphon. It seems to only work before sanitizing. I test it with Star San and everything seems fine. Once it sits in...
  9. Edan Z

    Second batch (airlock activity)

    **This is the batch I made with a wlp530 yeast packet I was worried about it tasting sour/tart straight from the packet.*** Anyhow, after 16 days in primary at 72 the beer tastes delicious, which got me thinking about cold crashing and bottling. The OG was 1.066. I took a hydrometer reading 3...
  10. Edan Z

    Anyone taste liquid yeast straight?

    I was making my first starter with WLP530, and after pitching the PurePitch package into the starter wort, I decided to taste what was left in the package. I was really surprised by how incredibly sour it tasted! Regardless, I made a 1.3 liter starter on a stir plate, and pitched it into a 4.5...
  11. Edan Z

    Liquid Yeast Question

    So, my first ever batch of beer is two weeks into bottle conditioning, and I'm already planning another brew day next week. For my first brew I used Safbrew BE-256 yeast, which is marketed as an Abbey type yeast. I fermented on the lower side of the temperature range (64ºF) for 10 days, then...
  12. Edan Z

    Mistake during transfer

    Made a pretty big rookie mistake with my first home brew. Beer was coming along nicely, 18 days into fermentation, I decided to transfer to second bucket, allow to resettle and bottle. BUT, I transferred using the fermenter spigot and 1/2 inch tubing. I soon realized the 1/2 inch hose was not...
  13. Edan Z

    First time brewing

    First timer here, hoping to get some feedback before embarking on this first brew. Not sure if any of you would consider it asinine for someone to try an all-grain (BIAB) recipe as a first brew. I'm a biochemist with years of lab experience, so I figure a small BIAB recipe may be Ok to start...

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