Brewcommune

I work in Irvine. I wonder if people are up for a beer trip between meetings. Some places can be: Left Coast (Distillery & Smokehouse = M69P+79 Irvine, California ) GameCraft (pre-lim meet = J7FJ+MR Laguna Hills, California ) Backstreet Brewery ( P637+PP Irvine, California ) TAPS ( P6H6+5P Irvi...

Also, at the meeting Bob and I, DT, will present the cream ale which we divided up and fermented with 5 different yeasts each in a 1 gallon container in same fermentation chamber. Everything is the same except the yeasts use. We will do a blind tasting to eliminate bias which would occur if there w...

I'm down.

Get well soon bro'
--LexusChris

I always like looking up off-flavors on Palmer's website How-to-Brew. Metallic flavors are usually caused by unprotected metals dissolving into the wort but can also be caused by the hydrolysis of lipids in poorly stored malts. Iron and aluminum can cause metallic flavors leaching into the wort duri...

I learned more from your post than I knew before I got my chugger pumps. Sounds like you have a firm grasp on what is out there, and what they can do. My chugger pumps have the steel heads, and have been working well for me over the past few years. I've taken the heads apart to clean a few times, an...

Great post Brad! This is a wonderful hobby, and not too many years ago it was still illegal in some states! Many great organizations fought for our right to let nature run its course on yeast inoculated malty water, and then enjoy it for our own use! Imagine if making smoked pork ribs at home was il...

Tough call. Whatever you end up with, could be too big no matter how much you thought you put into it. I'd probably go with the fridge that meets my needs, size of family, etc. Then house shop for houses that meet my needs (and my fridge size) too. 21 cu.ft seems to be a pretty typical size. Not too...

Looking forward to this! My American Barleywine came out really nice on the brandy barrel oak chips... will bring it to the next meeting for some feedback on oak & carb levels.
--LexusChris

I too am eagerlly eyeing a GF ... for distilling, but I also see the value as a 5-gal beer batch, less space, electric brew system.. very cool! Thanks for starting this thread Tim!
--LexusChris

Ended up finding some Brandy Barrel Oak Chips (Brewer's Best) at Windsor... just added them (2 oz to each 5-gal fermenter). Plan to keg & carb on Sunday, then sample for a month or two before bottling.

--LexusChris

I'll admit that I don't know a lot on this subject, only read an article or two. However, it did make sense to me that certain hop oils are volatile at different temps... they evaporate with the hotter temperatures and time. When I looked up the key oils, some boiled off at 197 or so, others at 190,...

I totally agree with you Jon. It is something I've been struggling with at my new location, which is all that has changed since that profile was pretty accurate in Irvine. 8% used to be a pretty good number for me. Since I brew in my backyard, and now have prevailing coastal winds, it is much toughe...

Brewday went very well! I was able to spend the Saturday setting up my rig, and gave everything a good cleaning (pump heads too!). I pre-filled the BK & HLT with water, and was able to start heating on Sunday morning before I even made my 1st cup of coffee. Made for a really timely brewday! (8:0...

Hi all, I've been hankering to do another American Barleywine for some time. My last one was for the club barrel brew in 2010, and that was very tasty! I used to work next to Tenaya Creek Brewing in Las Vegas, back in 2002, and loved their Jackalope BW. They did not post the receipe, just the ingred...

Wow! Amazing job lads! Congrats!

--LexusChris