Search results

  1. bret america

    What's your best tip for making brewing easier and better?

    I know you said "one thing" but I cannot help myself. The one thing - sanitation - easily the most important in brewing drinkable beer and reducing headaches. I know it is "rudimentary" knowledge but still worth repeating in my opinion. The other 5 1. SS conical fermentor with valve...
  2. bret america

    Beer of the Month

    Here is my Spring Saison - Spring Hopper. As the name suggests, it is a refreshingly hoppy Saison for Spring season - with a blend of Willamette, French Strisselspalt, and Halertau Blanc. Not necessarily bitter hoppy character, but a balance with hop flavor / aroma character. I am originally...
  3. bret america

    Our First Recipe Giveaway!

    American Barleywine - All-Grain Recipe Kit Thank you for the stoke!
  4. bret america

    BJCP category?

    Hi all - I am planning to enter a beer in BJCP contest and not sure what category to place mine under - any thoughts would be appreciated! Below is my recipe and my personal description. I was thinking Saison but it may be too fruity and not dry enough. Another thought was Belgian Specialty, but...
  5. bret america

    Off-flavor and little to no head?

    I only brew farmhouse style and 565 is my house yeast (1/2 my brews) - so hear is my 2 cents. 1. recipe - your DME / LME malt looks a little heavy at 7lbs - better at 5-6lbs. Also the hop schedule is a little more complex than I prefer. I generally single hop and do a lot of late hopping. I...
  6. bret america

    When To Add Fruit To My Beer

    Pappabell - http://www.themadfermentationist.com - front page is a fruit beer too.
  7. bret america

    Weird or Unusual Ingredients / Techniques

    Weird ingredients - I typically only brew farmhouse style so always look to do something a little different. I fruit a lot of split batches (real fruit) and feel I usually get some bug or wild yeast. I also cool my brews outside and always wonder if I collect something in the ocean breeze...
  8. bret america

    SMASH beer

    I think a Saison Smash would be pretty tasty. I tend to only brew Farmhouse style and stick to single hopping. I guess next step would be single malting. Which would be pretty easy since 2 row is generally 70% of bill. 100% 2 row or pilsner with williamette and WL565... That is pretty close...
  9. bret america

    When To Add Fruit To My Beer

    add some Acid? William S. Burroughs agrees. [b]When to add fruit - I have used a few different processes; 1. secondary - racked on top of loose fruit - fruit will rise to top and can clog siphon or transfer small chunks 2. secondary - transferred beer first and dropped fruit in (inside mesh...
  10. bret america

    Chill Time

    What if I was making a Gose?
  11. bret america

    Chill Time

    thank you for the quick responses everyone. Jeff - I would definitely like to build out something like your setup - but i keep it simple mainly because we do not have a lot of space. I will try the salt and keeping a continuous whirlpool going in the ice bath portion.
  12. bret america

    Chill Time

    Question - what is your typical chill time? I do a large ice bath and immersion chiller (using new SS Silver Serpent) but it still takes about 60 minutes and only get down to about 73-75 deg. i get down to about 80 in 30-40 minutes but it gets stuck there. Any suggestions? I am a pretty...
  13. bret america

    All Grain Brewing as an entry point

    Some great advice in this thread. As someone into his 3rd year of brewing and likes to experiment - here is my process. 1. started with extract and recipe from homebrew store - great place to bounce ideas off someone in person 2. brew #3 - steeping specialty grains just to get some added...
  14. bret america

    100% efficiency???

    was the 1.055 pre-boil or post-boil reading?
  15. bret america

    fermenting with fruit

    I have used fresh fruit (picked and store bought) a handful of times after primary fermentation. Since i was paranoid about contamination I did some research among different forums and came to this process. 1. cut up the fruit into chunks - usually use 1lb / gal - but depends on fruit...
  16. bret america

    One Bottle Infected?

    from my experience it is possible to have a gusher or 2 without the whole batch being ruined. Probably a sanitation issue if only a couple - something was still in the bottle or something "flew" into it during bottling. Either way its usually not end of the world.
  17. bret america

    Possible infection in secondary, need help!

    I agree with others that it looks like a pellicle from Brett. I added Brett to a secondary last year and had the same exact film - see attached. It could also potentially be lactobacillus or pediococcus as I believe they both have a membrane as well. Either way make sure it is fermented out...
  18. bret america

    Recipe - image size

    what is the max image size you can upload? Having trouble with anything over 2MB
  19. bret america

    Recipe - Style selection

    Would it be possible to add the following categories under "American Ale." -Am. Wild Ale - suggest also adding this under belgian category -Am. Farmhouse Ale I am originally from the midwest (grew up on farm) and focus on farmhouse style ales. I originally brewed belgian style farmhouse ales...

Back
Top