BeerTools Discussion Forum

Flaked barley aids on head retention and creaminess. Any residual soap on the drinking vessel will eliminate head as well. I have heard that hops also aid in head retention. My experience with DME vs. corn sugar has been that the DME primed beers have tighter bubble on the head, nut not neccessarily...

I'm switching to all grain. I am debating on whether to get a set or adjustable crush malt mill. What are your thoughts?

Veth,
How long do you mature your beer?

I crumpled the pods. I seemed like the thing to do. I'll post the results of my Vanilla Porter when I have them.

I am making a vanilla porter. I am planning on adding vanilla beans in the secondary. What is the best method? I have been told to either break the beans into pieces and add them. I have also been told to remove the beans from the "shell" and add the shell. I have two vanilla bean stalk ty...

I often brew high grav batches. Here's what works best for me. I leave the beer in the secondary for between one and three months. I do the long time aging, over three months, in the bottle. Leaving the beer in the secondary a long time is good, but if you must bottle the beer, the conditioning ferm...

How long do you let your brew sit before you bottle? If you let your beer age in the secondary for over a month a good practice is to pitch some yeast along with the priming media. I do this often- my beers usually sit in the secondary for over a month. I have not had a problem with undercarbonation...

Mexican lagers evolved from an almost extinct style called a Vienna. The vienna style is a lighter version of an Marzen or Oktobrefest. A while ago a bunch of beer making Germans brought this beer with them to Mexico. The style thrived in Mexico, but is almost extinct in Europe.

Guinness over ice cream? Sounds sacriligious to me

From what I understand, many of the Mexican beers are of a style that was brought to the region by German immigrants. Many are similar to Vienna style lagers. Vienna style is similar to Marzen/Oktoberfest. Vienna is considered lighter in color and weaker in alcohol then the latter. The mexican beer ...

I found some hops in my closet that I know have been there for two weeks at room temp, sealed in a ziploc bag. I am debating whether to use them as finishing hops for a Belgian ale. They are Tettnanger @ 4.2% AA. I will be using oher hops as well. Any thoughts as to whether or not to use them? I'm j...

I have been there. I brewed a stout with a OG of 1.31. It's been a year and I'm still drinking it. It's not that it's not good, but so !@#$ good I save it for special occasions. I'd imagine you are okay. Not only does the yeast have a head start on anything else, but I'd imagine that the alcohol % i...

Recently I have begun brewing with honey. I have two recipes on this site and have brewed them both and they are good, of course I would say that. I have used as much as three pounds honey in a batch. You definately want to increase your fermentation times. When I use tree pound o honey I keep it in...

Relax, have a homebrew. If your gravity is at 1.020 and you were "shooting" for 1.015, then I woud venture a guess that your yeast is done. They are probably packing their bags and heading for Florida. Every batch will have some inconsistency. As a homebrewer it is very difficult to achiev...

Let's not throw the baby out with the bath water. A year ago I started a 1.130 batch. It finished around 1.060. I watered it down to around 1.020. I'm still drinking it and it is very tasty. I have only two bottles left from a 5 gallon batch. Just water it down. You might have to swallow a little pr...