BeerTools Discussion Forum

That's what I was concerned about. I figured they would stink pretty good. Maybe I'll use the "let one turn brown then pick the rest" trick.

Most of my cones have the yellow lupelin, but it's a bright yellow. I'm not sure if it's supposed to get darker.

Anyone harvesting yet? I've got a few cones that are just starting to come around, so I'm going to wait until this weekend. By that time, most should be ready to come down. I've been told that I should have a good hop aroma when they are ready....but I'm not getting much. Anyone else noticing this?

You said it...checking the gravity. Just looking at a beer with never tell you for sure. This is very suprising. I've never seen a beer take off within minutes of adding sugar. I can't remember what it's called off hand, but I think there's something you can add to your beer to make sure the yeast i...

I'm not sure about this, but I would think moving it while it's still fermenting would be better than waiting. My reasoning behind this is that when the beer is finished, you don't want to splash it around because of oxydation. As I've said hundreds of times on homebrew forums...I'm no scientist. I'...

I've never used WL yeast, but the wyeast american ale is the same way. It's a very angry fermenter. Everytime I've used it, I've had blow-off. As far as your setup goes... I just had one more thing to add on what slothrob said. You may want to use sanitizer in your bucket instead of water. I've neve...

I do about the same thing. Currently, I seal the keg, set it at about 12-14psi depending on the beer, and let it sit for a week. I found that trying to carb with 30psi was hurting the flavor of my beer. I'm not sure if this was just my mind screwing with me, or it was actually changing the flavor. I...

So, I've finally got a bunch of cones forming. They're a lot bigger than I was expecting so I'm excited. As for harvesting... from what I've been reading, I need to wait until the tips turn brown and the lupelin (sp?) is a golden yellow. Is this about right? Also, they should feel papery? Right now,...

How far off was your gravity? When mixing that much water, I'm assuming you probably didn't mix it well enough to get a good hydrometer reading. This happens all the time with extract brewing.

Was this an extract beer? If so, did you add water to the wort to bring it up to 5 gallons?

I made a 2 gallon batch, sorry. The 3oz. of beans was a bit much. I used Camerons Southern Toasted Pecan beans. You can find the recipe on here if you search the recipe section for my user name. If you're interested....

I would say you're at around 8.2% ABV with this beer, gravity right around 1.085 depending on efficiency. And roasted barley is not flaked. It can be, but usually not. I think this beer may be a bit too complex for a first beer, but that's just my opinion. I think when you brew your first, you shoul...

Glad it's all good now.

So I now have hundreds of flowers on my first year rhizomes. They're all pretty small and a few are starting to form into cones from what I can tell. I'm wondering if they are going to grow much bigger than the flowers. My flowers were only maybe a 1/2". I'm hoping for bigger cones, but I suppo...

I've had yeast that give off pretty nasty smells while they're fermenting and the smell goes away after a few weeks in primary. I'd just let it sit. It sounds like krausen to me.