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Background The last time I published the results of some dry yeast viability testing, I made the assumption that the reduction in viability that resulted from rehydrating the yeast in wort rather than water would have flavor impacts similar to under-pitching a liquid yeast culture. Shortly thereafter, James Spencer of Basic Brewing and Chris Colby […] At 335 pounds, Tuesday’s grain bill (for our next seasonal, a Smoked Vienna Lager) was the smallest I’ve done yet. It’s remarkable how much more smoothly the brew day goes when you only have two-thirds the usual amount of grist to deal with… Until the backflow valve on a sump pump broke and I spent […] An interesting discussion got started on the NB Forum, and it made me realize that I’ve never actually seen data on craft beer drinkers’ preferences. So tell me, what are your top ten (give or take)? You never know, it may help with planning future commercial brews. [polldaddy poll=”5232124″] So, yeah, it’s been a while. Long story short, I am now the Head Brewer at Silverton Brewing Co. Long story slightly less short, I’m also the only brewhouse employee for the time being. A 70-hour week means I managed a day off. I’m planning a minor shift in focus in that direction, blog-wise. There […] If you don’t have a subscription, you might want to pick up the May/June issue, which should be hitting newsstands right about now. And maybe let them know which article interested you? How weird is it that I’m considering framing this? Last time I wrote about refractometry in brewing, I had developed a correlation for determining FGs from refractometer readings that, in my own brewing, seemed to be an improvement on the correlation used in (to the best of my knowledge) all contemporary brewing software, spreadsheets, etc. A total of eight brewer-instrument pairs contributed additional data […] Background One ongoing point of contention among brewers is what benefits, if any, result from rehydrating dry yeasts according to manufacturers’ recommendations, as opposed to simply adding the yeast directly to the fermenter. On the technical level, there would appear to be a consensus for a substantial reduction in viability when rehydrating in wort, with […] Background It’s probably fair to state that a majority of breweries operating today are employing single-infusion mashes – that is, they target a single temperature and try to maintain it throughout the entire mash. Broadly speaking, that temperature would almost always be in the range 63-72°C (145-162°F). When a highly fermentable wort is desired, it […] Home brewing is a great hobby (and it turns out, not a bad way to launch a career), but it sure does get sticky. In the original post, I gave a laundry list of concerns, ranging from increased color formation to decreased fermentability, and while I don’t want to generalize too much based on a single beer, I don’t think that any of those were borne out in this particular batch. I don’t think the beer could have come […] |
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