Like head?

[ebscreen]

Love the label man, that's awesome.

Excellent book on designing great beers is called "Designing Great Beers" believe it or not.
Breaks down the classics, tells you what each ingredient does, gives a sample recipe but leaves the
rest up to you. If you're looking for great head, get you some Carapils malt. All-grain only,
but well worth the effort.

Newcastle is actually a blend of two beers, a brown and a stout. And usually skunked too boot.

The American IPA's (SN calls itself a pale but it ain't) need Cascade hops, and a fresh lot of them. Are you using the pellets or whole
or plug? We're lucky to be close enough to the source out here where whole hops will still be fresh. But if I was in the middle of the
country somewhere's I'd go with pellet or plug.


Never had a standard wort chiller Andy. Only the counterflow type that requires a pump or large gravity drop.

[Frog]

I could swear that I remember seeing a copper coil type in the Embacadero shop.

[ebscreen]

That was for corn whiskey. Little different.

[Frog]

Oh well, have had good luck so far with ice.
Probably should explain to folks who don't brew that the time soon after the beer is first done "cooking", off the fire but still warm, it's the most vulnerable to pick up evil critters from the environment that can taint the final product.
So, ice is good, but, it's not exactly sterile.
The copper coil I need to add to my arsenal, lines the five gallon bucket primary fermenter, and allows cold water to run through, dropping the soon-to-be-beer temp a little quicker.

The whole need for cleanliness thing is used to it's max when we "rinse" out our mouth with our favorite high alcohol "mouthwash" to start siphons. 

[tpitman]

I use pellets exclusively for freshness, and keep them in the freezer until I need them if I have any leftover. The recipe I used called for Cascade, which I've used before, but I don't think there was enough in the tail end of the boil to emphasize that grapefruit/piney flavor. It was good enough to make again, but I'll increase the hops in the last 10 or 15 minutes of the boil.
I made a wort chiller out of 3/8" soft copper, but once the temp drops down around 100, our tap water seems to take forever to rapidly reduce the temperature much further, so I got about 6 of those blue refreezable packs, sanitize them and place them in sealed sanitized ziplock bags to get that last 20 degrees down quicker, and pitch the yeast as soon as it clears 80.

[Shawn (EIP)]

Like head?

I like when it's given :p

[tpitman]

The whole need for cleanliness thing is used to it's max when we "rinse" out our mouth with our favorite high alcohol "mouthwash" to start siphons. 

Something tells me that ain't Lavoris you're swishing around in your mouth . . . and noting your concerns for total cleanliness, doubtless you take care to "sanitize" not only your mouth, but your esophagus and all parts downstream . . . but only in the interest of good brewing protocol, of course. 

[ScreenFoo]

You guys are funny--ever try just filling the hose with water to start a siphon?   

Sanitizing ice packs is a pretty sweet idea though--I usually just throw the whole brewpot in an icebath in the sink and agitate occasionally.

[tpitman]

I picked up an auto-siphon. Half the time I'd start a siphon with the tube filled with water, and by the time I'd move the end to the bottling bucket, it would stop pulling.

[ebscreen]

Never siphoned. Gravity, C02 or pumps only. The human mouth is a dirty dirty place.
That said, there are no known human pathogens that can survive in beer.