Out of Pod Experience

Tasted my wheat last night. It's been in its keg for only a week so wasn't expecting any great shakes. First thing I learned - my keg room needs to be cooler. It foamed like a crazy dog. Second thing I learned - the beer tastes really weird when it's warm, instantly less weird when you put an orange slice into it, and almost pleasant when you chill it. Pretty optimistic about drinking it next weekend, but still willing to give it 1 more week in the keg after that.

If you aren't drinking, you aren't brewing

Yea temp is key to drafting beer, well that and beer line length and diameter. If you dont have a keg-a-rator set up you may want to look into investing in one, a fridge you can convert or a jockey box. Jockey boxes are nice and simple they chill the beer as it comes out of the tap and are wicked easy to build. Get yourself a cheap plastic cooler, throw a couple taps in the front of it then either run the beer through a stainless coil or a cold plate then throw some ice on it and your good to go. But even thats not gonna help unless you have proper serving beerline length. their are all kinds of beer line calculators on the net, but i found it is way easier (and more fun) to just start with 18 feel of 1/4 inch line and start pouring, cutting line, and drinking till you get it were you get a nice pour. I usually cut about 6-12 inches of line a go.

As far as the funky flavors that could be yeast dependent. Did you use a german wheat beer yeast by chance? I just went back and read your post regarding a very strong fermentation, was the yeast danstars Munich yest?

You got that right. I have had disasters all because of temperature issues. My last batch, the Smoked Scotch ale, got skunked. So far the only use for it has been to de-stink outhouses (yes I have a friend who uses one) and compost heaps. It might be good for cleaning boat hulls too but I don't have a boat.

Back to porters and stouts. They are most forgiving especially where lack of temperature regulation is possible. There's a reason why brew and cellars are synonymous.

Meanwhile, there's a place that opening up walking distance from my apartment.. Every day I check to see if it's open. I'm thinking of establishing myself as a "Norm" there if the brew is good.

Also, Herzog, Downpour is an excellent name for a pub :D

I used to think that the loss of the airlock was death. But have read numerous times that there's a "protective layer of C02". Wine makers are more aware of this, using large open top fermenters covered in a cloth to keep the bugs out (gnats will suicide themselves in the vat - very happy gnats).

One of the main reasons I have found for airlock blowoff was that the primary fermentation was incomplete. But many times when it happened, I was under the impression that it was complete, running the primary "7 to 10 days" as many of the recipes call for, or as they say "until fermentation slows". Here is where temperature issues can play with you. For where I have found that it appeared fermentation slowed, the action of racking the beer brings new life to it and hence the airlock goes or gets full of foam. I theorize that yeast on the bottom that cannot breath goes dormant prematurely and when racking the beer, it comes back alive again, see's there's still sugars to eat (and crap out into alcohol) and gets to work.

To counter this two methods have worked for me. One is agitation - somewhere around 3/4ths into the primary fermentation, swish or shake the primary fermenter for a bit to get things stirred up. Everything will be settled down again days later when racking. Another method is to go with a higher fermentation temperature, maybe up to 5 degrees. The latter method risks lesser body but higher strength but that might be desirable.

I mean, the only obvious one that springs to mind would be Barney Gumble from The Simpsons. I don't think I can accept that blueprint even if I am right.... :D

im 29 and from toronto so that means i drink pabst blue ribbon... mmmmm my fav cheep beer.

if i am going for something with class then nothing beats a ice cold rickards red from swiss chalet... not sure why it has to be swiss chalet its just the mugs they use are perfect for the brew.

oh i also enjoy red stripe, or a good ol Żywiec.

Wasn't there a Simpsons episode where all the Cheers characters were "Simpsonized"? Homer goes into Cheers. :)