Insanity said:Pick the one that knows the alpha acid % (AA%) of their hops and that the hops are refrigerated. Any place that doesn't know the AA% shouldn't be open in many brewers opinions. A good place also has a grain mill to crush the grains there. Crushing grains without one is quite difficult.
Find a local club.
Code:http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/pages/directories/find-a-club
Find a local supply shop
Code:http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/pages/directories/find-a-supply-shop
Insanity said:When I've gotten 55# bags of pale malt, is usually comes crushed, but specialty grains are usually sold in 1#, 3#, 10#.
There has been occasions where I forgot to get the grains crushed, and as I don't yet have my own mill, the alternate to use a rolling pin, and even 2# is rough.
Having a variety of hops, grains and yeast is nice. The yeast is what really makes the beer. You can use the same amount of grains and hops, but use two different yeast and each beer will differ.
[PLAIN]http://www.whitelabs.com/beer/homebrew_strains.html[/PLAIN]
http://www.wyeastlab.com/hb_yeaststrain.cfmInsanity said:I think the yeast is more important in brewing then most people realize, and there are many different strains of yeast used in brewing aside from the broad ale and lager categories.
White Labs and Wyeast Labs are pretty much the top two labs for producing yeast for fermentation of beer, ciders and wine. Both have about 50 different yeast strains, that can differ in alcohol tolerance, attenuation, flavor profile, etc...
Which is great, because if you want to make a dry irish stout, you can use an irish yeast.
Code:[PLAIN]http://www.whitelabs.com/beer/homebrew_strains.html[/PLAIN] http://www.wyeastlab.com/hb_yeaststrain.cfm
I have read that the Belgium trappist breweries are so particular, that when they will select their yeast cell by cell under a microscope to choose which ones are used to establish their "base".
nismaratwork said:AFAIK you're right about hops, and I think some true Lambics are also unhopped. 18 inches though? Fantastic!
What kind of soil do you need to grow them, and how does it effect flavor and aroma? You seem to really know your stuff!
Insanity said:I asked my friend about what he does for his hops each year, and he says he throws a heaping pile of fresh compost from his compost pile and then uses a light 1/5 strength miracle grow when they start to flower.
Norman said:The more I think about it, the more interested I would be in getting into homebrewing.
The only reservation I have about it is trying to regulate the temperature during fermentation. How do people typically do this? I doubt my wife would let me do the fermentation in the house... My house is horribly insulated anyways. Wild temperature variations in winter when I turn the heat way down while we are at work. I don't have a basement and my garage is not connected to the house nor is it heated.
[PLAIN]http://www.northernbrewer.com/brewing/brewing-equipment/fermenting-equipment/fermentation-temperature-controlnismaratwork said:Bathtub.
Insanity said:I've placed my fermentors there too, just in case the fermentation got over active, which happens. My wife requested not to do this anymore. It was easier then carrying 5 gallons in a large glass jug up and down the basement stairs.
A friend dropped one of his 7 gallons filled with apple raspberry wine, quite the mess. Loss of wine too.
nismaratwork said:Ooooooh... 7 gallons?! Damn... was that a Lambic too?!
Insanity said:Nope, he makes wine, he has 4-5 acres and has several (1000 or so) strawberry, raspberry, blackberry plants, some grape vines and apple trees. So he makes wine with it all, he made a very good blueberry wine last season, think he hit 19% ABV. When you had a glass, you knew you had a glass.
We are in the process of cross training each other, I am teaching him beer making, he will be teaching me wine making. All my attempts at wine have failed, except the pineapple I did from a concentrate. Fresh fruits have failed, though might be decent grape vinegar.
I had used his raspberries in my raspberry wheat beer that I got 3rd place in a local competition. Has a nice hawaiian punch color to it, bit tart, but aging I think it removing that. Not my personal favorites of what I made, but good first attempt at a fruit beer.
Wikipedia said:During the larval stage, the Japanese beetle lives in lawns and other grasslands, where it eats the roots of grasses. During that stage, it is susceptible to a fatal disease called milky spore disease, caused by a bacterium called milky spore, Paenibacillus (formerly Bacillus) popilliae. The USDA developed this biological control and it is commercially available in powder form for application to lawn areas. Standard applications (low density across a broad area) take from one to five years to establish maximal protection against larval survival (depending on climate), expanding through the soil through repeated rounds of infection, in-vers can be used to exclude the beetles; however, this may necessitate hand pollination of flowers. Kaolin sprays can also be used as barriers.
Research performed by many US extension service branches has shown pheromone traps attract more beetles than they catch,[3][4] Traps are most effective when spread out over an entire community, and downwind and at the borders (i.e., as far away as possible, particularly upwind), of managed property containing plants being protected. Natural repellents include catnip, chives, garlic, and tansy,[5] as well as the remains of dead beetles, but these methods have limited effectiveness.[6] Additionally, when present in small numbers, the beetles may be manually controlled using a soap-water spray mixture, shaking a plant in the morning hours and disposing of the fallen beetles,[4] or simply picking them off attractions such as rose flowers, since the presence of beetles attracts more beetles to that plant.[6]
They apparently taste offensive to bird. The stinky smell is from decomposition and bacteria.turbo-1 said:I have a bird-bath, a very large backyard pond, a smaller pond near the garden, seed feeders under the eaves, etc, so no shortage of birds. Somehow, the birds don't seem very effective at controlling Japanese beetles, though. Maybe they don't taste good. I know that they stink to high heaven if I don't change the soapy water in my "drowning bucket" for a day or so.
That was my assumption. We can be inundated with Japanese beetles, and insectivorous birds don't seem to eat them, though they are a very abundant and massive food source. Those beetles are pretty big, and are not real nimble, but our phoebes, yellow-throats, and other insect predators don't touch them. There are phoebes that nest under our deck and raise a couple of broods a year, and they are constantly on the hunt for food for their babies. Also, the brushy south border of the cleared part of this lot is a favorite nesting site for yellow-throats. They will helpfully come to my garden and patrol tomato plants, pepper plants, etc for bugs, but they don't go after the Japanese beetles. I would try mantises again, though the season here is so short that the mantises don't attain a size capable of tackling very large beetles.Astronuc said:They apparently taste offensive to bird.
I have a very potent LP torch, but since the beetles seem to congregate on our plum trees, cherry trees, raspberry bushes, etc, there is a down-side to the practical approach.Insanity said:perhaps a flamethrower against the beetles?
turbo-1 said:I have a very potent LP torch, but since the beetles seem to congregate on our plum trees, cherry trees, raspberry bushes, etc, there is a down-side to the practical approach.
Astronuc said:This place has a good list of domestic and foreign craft beers.
One can browse by brewery, region, nation, or type of beer, and they have various give packages.
http://www.halftimebeverage.com/
dlgoff said:It's a little further from me (Topeka, KS), but they make some really good unfiltered wheat beer.
http://www.blindtiger.com/ales.html"
What does unfiltered really mean? I know it's much "heavier" but the taste is awesome.
Insanity said:the leftover yeast is supposedly high in vitamins and minerals.
That is the basis of Vegemite.Insanity said:the leftover yeast is supposedly high in vitamins and minerals.
Astronuc said:That is the basis of Vegemite.
Insanity said:Recently had Abita's Purple Haze, a raspberry wheat. The hint of raspberry is just there, but not overwhelming as is the aroma. Quite good, though personally I would prefer a bit more of the raspberry to come through.
Also had Samuel Smith's Nut Brown Ale, from Yorkshire, a Northern English brown ale. The brewery still draws its water from the original well put in place in 1758. Deep red-brown, but clear beer, toffee and caramel flavors there, but not strong. Another good one.
Astronuc said:I had a bottle of Rogue Chocolate Stout last night, and it tasted like bittersweet chocolate in a stout beer. The chocolate taste was actually more like cocoa taste. It was certainly the most chocolaty tasting Chocolate Stout I've ever tasted.