I wouldn't think that that would cause what you had in that picture of the bottle.

I'm using the oak as a sort of "residence" for the microbes which can then be taken out and transferred to another fermenter. They will be in either plastic or glass carboys.

Hello, I hope you all had a great holiday! So I'm about to start a sour solera and plan on using oak spirals but I do not want the oak flavor. They are American white oak, light toast. I've read you need to boil the oak for up to 2 hours to achieve this. Do any of you have any advice or...

I would speculate that this is precisely the reason why.

Increasing pitching rates decreases esters and increases fusel alcohol according to Chris White in his book, Yeast.

Agreed. I had to do this with the last stout I brewed. Brought it right down.

Tell her she has to go to Narrow Gauge Brewing and get OJ Run. One of the best IPA's I've ever had. Schlafly is another good brewery down there. But yeah Urban Chestnut IMO sucks. I've spent a few months total in St. Louis over the past 3 years and found that they have a really good beer scene.

Thanks for the advice. I will try a lower fermentation temp.

If you try rethreading yourself use anti-seize on the die or galling may occur and both the keg and the die will be useless.

Good idea about keeping for blending I hadn't thought of that!

So in late September I threw a handful of raspberries from my garden into a mason jar of unhopped starter wort with an airlock on top. Fast forward a month and it smelled pretty good and had what was either the start of a weird pellicle or mold. At the time I had no vodka on hand to add to the...

I am an anxious and impatient person so instead of waiting for more input I added 14 oz. to the fermenter with out racking. I managed to only draw out a small sample because its 3 gallons in 5 gallon fermenter and my wine thief is only 12 inches long. I was completely blown away at how well it...

You suspect oxidation from the taste?

So I brewed a golden sour mostly following the Rare Barrel recipe on 3-16-19. I only pitched bottle dregs I had saved over the last 2 or 3 months from sours and Lambics. On 4-16-19, one month later, I pitched a pack of Funk weapon #3 from Bootleg Biology. Soon an amazing pellicle had formed and...

I'd make a small starter and pitch some of the yeast/trub and see what happens.

A few years ago my LHBS did the opposite of what you are planning on doing. It's one of the reasons I switched to all grain. Briess is absolutely terrible compared to Muntons in my opinion. Definitely not worth it to save a couple bucks.

Yes, I live in southern Erie County, Hamburg to be exact.

I did have a friend help once. He actually did more harm than good.

I've read that it is only good for 48 hours once mixed. After 48 hours its ability to sanitize declines. If someone else could comment on this that would be very helpful.

I love History. I'm from Buffalo, NY and read an awesome book called Nickel City Drafts: A Drinking History of Buffalo, NY by Dan Murphy. I read the book about 10 years ago but there 2 things that really stood out. 1. Right after prohibition took effect Buffalo elected an Anti-prohibition mayor...