Hello Again (and for the first time)

[Tweek]

After a bit of a break I am back. Hello to all of you that I knew from before and hello to all the new people. I didnt do anything exciting that kept me away from the boards, I just needed a break.

Ill catch you up on my brewing efforts since I last posted.

I have brewed an alt, a bock and an esb.

The alt and the bock were fairly non eventfull brew days. hit my mash temps, all was well in the brewery. fermentation went well, but then I got lazy and left them on the lees a bit longer than I should have. The resulting beer has a slight funk that I am not fond of. Others that have tried it liked it, I guess us homebrewers are our toughest critics.

The esb. this is perhaps one of the finest brews I have ever done. It is a shining example of good homebrew. I am on my last 6 pack now from 10 gallons. :)

Today I am trying my hand at a honey beer. I am just sorta making it up as I go along. I want to have a bit of honey taste left in the beer, but as you know honey is 100% fermentable so that will be tough. I will either hope and pray or perhaps I will keg and force carbonate so that I can stop fermentation exactly where I want it.

I also just got back from a trip to Oregon. On my way up it dawned on me that I should have messaged SFB to have a pint or do some swapping, but it was too late by then. I did however manage to spend a fair deal of time at Rogue. Man what a great brewery. I am totally impressed by the variety of beers that they produce and all of them are good quality beers (not all of them I like, but they are good none the less). I think their buckwheat ale is my favorite beer this week.

Thats about it for me. Look forward to more dialogs with you all.

Cheers!

Tweek

[fuji6100]

welcome back!

Glad to hear you had a good time at Rouge... did that give you any ideas for future brews?

[Beerconnoisseur]

Originally posted by Tweek
Today I am trying my hand at a honey beer. I am just sorta making it up as I go along. I want to have a bit of honey taste left in the beer, but as you know honey is 100% fermentable so that will be tough. I will either hope and pray or perhaps I will keg and force carbonate so that I can stop fermentation exactly where I want it.


You can try using a less attenuative yeast strain; it may help leave more of the sugars behind. Also, MoreBeer has a Honey Pale recipe (here) (http://www.morebeer.com/detail.php3?pid=KIT712), which you might like. Or use their recipe as a starting point, and tweak it from there...

Or go for the Honey Stout, (here) (http://www.morebeer.com/detail.php3?pid=KIT716)

[Tweek]

Thanks for the links. I actually already made a recipe that I am quite pleased with. The problem with using a less attenuative yeast comes up when it is time to bottle. If the alcohol level is too high for the yeast used, then it wont carbonate. so that is why I am toying with the idea of kegging and force carbonating.

[batkins]

Which Rogue did you visit........Portland, Newport, etc?
Go anywhere else you liked in Oregon? I visited Portland in '99. Moved here in '01. I couldn't get here fast enough after visiting.

Cheers,
Bill

[Tweek]

I was in Newport. We went through portland, briefly. most of the time we spent on the coast in Manzanita and Newport and then did some backpacking in North East OR, on the Norht Fork of the John DAy. I love OR, if it wasnt for thefact that they dont get much sun on the coast I would be there in a heart beat.

O and Fuji, yes a buckwheat beer is definately in my near future.

[Fast_Eddy]

Glad you're back Tweek - I was just asking about you not long ago....

[Beerconnoisseur]

Originally posted by Tweek
Thanks for the links. I actually already made a recipe that I am quite pleased with. The problem with using a less attenuative yeast comes up when it is time to bottle. If the alcohol level is too high for the yeast used, then it wont carbonate. so that is why I am toying with the idea of kegging and force carbonating.

Hmmm.... really? I thought with a less attenuative yeast, it converts less sugar to alcohol, so high alcohol shouldn't be a problem. But if the yeast doesn't convert the corn sugar, either, then yes, that could cause it to not carbonate properly.

One possibility you might consider is using two different yeast strains; one (low attenuation) for fermenting, and another (higher attenuation, but low flocculence) at bottling. The trick then would be to drink the beer while some sugariness remains, and keep them cold so the yeast doesn't cause the bottle to explode from overcarbonation.

Ah, the fun you can have with your own beer. Can your mass-produced swill do this? :D

[YamahaXS]

welcome back Tweek,

hope you had a nice vacation. :D

[S.F.B.]

Good to see you back on the boards, Tweek. You should have let me know. That would have been fun. If you get up this way again, don't hasitate to let me know. I am always ready to put down a pint with a fellow beer lover.

[danno]

hey Tweek, welcome back... I'm raising a glass to your return...

[Tweek]

Thanks for the welcome back guys.


Hmmm.... really? I thought with a less attenuative yeast, it converts less sugar to alcohol, so high alcohol shouldn't be a problem. But if the yeast doesn't convert the corn sugar, either, then yes, that could cause it to not carbonate properly.

yes you are right here. However I was not referring to high alcohol in terms that we see it, but rather high alcohol in the terms that the yeast sees it. Typically you will get one of two things that will stop your yeast from fermenting. One is lack of food, this happens when the yeast has eaten all the sugars and has nothing else to do. The other is alcohol. Each yeast has its tolerance to alcohol, for some it is very high others low. So if I have a low tolerance yeast in a high sugar beer it will stop fermenting before the sugars are gone for sure, but there will be no more viable yeast left for creating carbonation. Sorry if you already knew this and I was just boring you.


Cheers :)