cdh

Well, I'd just noted that the Algonquin is a great end of summer drink in the what-hit-the-spot-today thread, and it is totally apropos this thread too... The autumnal dark woody whisky meeting the summery tropical pineapple juice mediated by the white vermouth makes for a perfect transitional drink.

An Algonquin really hit the spot today. It is just autumnal enough to fit the early chill this fall, but is still sort of summery. Just right for this weather.

So anybody else with results to report? Msk, how did the saison turn out? Anybody else with new beer to brag about?

Back to the basement. That should be fine to carbonate them.

You should expect no fizz before the beer has been primed and sealed in bottles for 2 weeks. Acidity is a part of the recipe you used. German wheat yeasts throw some tartness, and you used acid malt in the mash, no? It should have a nice lactic edge. The wateryness will likely seem much improved once carbonated.

Any activity yet? 50F is right around where lagers like to be, but without a starter, you were in for a slow ramp-up to visible activity. Also, keep in mind that lager yeast like to ferment on the bottom, unlike ale yeast that float to the top and make lots of foam.

Don't worry. 18 hrs is nothing. When it gets to 36 and there's still no yeasty activity, then you're allowed to worry. Lagers need lots of yeast to get going. How cool is the space you're going to ferment it in? If it is too cold, that will slow the yeast. Lagers like to ferment in the 50s F.

Guinness gets a lot of its perceived thickness from the nitrogen/CO2 high-pressure dispensing system that whips a lot of gas into the solution too, which contributes to that mouthfeel.

Stop worrying and leave it alone for 2 weeks. No more peeking. No decanting. No re-yeasting. Leave it alone.

If you've not yet added the yeast, then you could aerate it. Otherwise, forget about it. Good guess about the acid malt, though I don't know for certain. I've never seen a malt turn red in the mashing process.

Nope... they're all available year round. The Dogfish Head should be in countless NYC delis... the Saison Dupont is at the very least on dba's menu, and should be available in a few delis. 3 Floyds stuff I've seen in PA, but never in NYC. The Boon is in NY, can't name a deli off the top of my head that has it... but it's there. The Hoegaarden and Jever are everywhere... etc... Take a trip to dba (1st Ave b/t 2nd and 3rd Sts in NYC) and you'll get to try most of that list. Look and ye shall find. As to what makes them seasonal? They're almost all tart and refreshing, like boozy lemonade, but with all kinds of microbial complexity backing the tartness up. Either that, or they're good light lagers you've likely not heard of.

No no no. Rebrewing tea leaves is by no means a no no. Some of the best Chinese oolong teas only start getting good after their second infusion and can stay good for at least 4 brewings, sometimes many more. Many commercial black teas don't do so well with too many steepings, but they are not representative of all teas. Tea in an espresso machine or moka pot won't do much since it doesn't pack together and provide the resistance that those machines use to extract lots of goodness from the finely ground coffee. (Yes, however, rebrewing coffee is a no no. Don't do it.)

White bits are just fine. Don't worry about them. Let the beer go for two weeks, and then have a taste. If it doesn't taste very sour or of band-aids or otherwise objectionable, you've gotten through without an infection.

Sounds like all that would be required would be a milk frothing device. You certainly don't want to put most tea through the espresso pressure brewing treatment. There are toys out there that heat and froth milk, like this frothy thing. I can't imagine a more expensive or complicated machine making a better drink. Tea is best brewed manually, milk is impossible to froth right manually... so get a machine that froths the milk.

110F is about as high as they can stand.

This sounds like an objective statement that can be proven or disproven quantitatively. A little gas chromatography should reveal how many different flavorful compounds are in a sample of either drink... do enough samples and you should be able to get an idea of whether the statement is true or not.

It's interesting that people have such varied reactions to the word "seltzer". I'd always thought it was a word in common usage that meant fizzy water, but here on eG I've run into several people who are flummoxed by the word, as if it means nothing to them and needs detailed explanation. Is this another of those regional things like "pop", "soda" and "coke" ? Why is it that fizzy water and its byproducts are so prone to linguistic splits? Having lived in Philly, New York and Austin TX, seltzer worked in all of them... but they've all got some longstanding German immigrant communities... so is seltzer a German word that Americans not in germanic areas never run into?

Use lots of rice in your dry Japanese style beers. Use malt with lots of excess enzymes, and as much rice as it can convert. Rice comes out very light and dry.

OK, here's my observations Looks reasonable. Use the recipe calculator at www.hbd.org/recipator to figure out your weights for the volume you intend to brew. I doubt you need to do the multi-step mash. Try to mash at 150 for 50 minutes, and you should be fine. How do you intend to sparge? Batch style like in my lessons, or are you going to do the fly sparging thing? Use the calculator to figure out hop amounts. You don't want more than 25 IBUs in there. I'd aim closer to 20. Temperatures are very yeast specific, so what you yeast produces at what temperature isn't something I can really help you with, as I've not played with the 3068. Experiment and see what happens. No real need to lager a wheat beer. Don't worry about dropping the temp until you're ready to drink it. Wheat beers drink best young. Let it ferment for a week, keg/bottle it and let it rest there until it carbonates, then start drinking.

Well, you'll have to mash the grain to get it to the state where it would be useful as a starter. This is within your grasp, however... Take a large insulated travel cup and fill it 1/2 full with grain. Warm some water to 160F and pour it into the cup with the grain. Leave it there for an hour. Strain out the grain. Cool the liquid down to room temperature, and add your yeast. Now you've got a starter. Let the yeast grow for a few days, then put it into the fridge. Don't forget about sanitation, as you don't want to contaminate your starter.

It shouldn't be problematic. Anything that got in and started growing would get killed by the boil. You should be fine so long as your delay wasn't on the order of days. If given enough time, wild beasts could leave enough byproducts in your beer that you might taste it... but that would take days or longer unless you specifically put them in there.

Care to compare the energy usage of a standard electric burner to that of an induction one? I'd like more damning evidence than a subjective judgment of immorality. Ordinary electric elements use heat generated by resistance to heat up, and that's not the most efficient process out there either, is it?

Sounds like you're ready with your equipment, so long as you've got sanitizer and siphon tube and racking cane and bottle filler handled too... Now it sounds like you're getting ready to brew a Hefe-Weizen... what recipe are you planning on using? That's a beer that is ideal for a hot summer. But you've gotta be ready to drink it all up within a month or two... Hefes are beers that don't keep well for very long.

Belgian candy sugars are 100% fermentable. They will leave only alcohol and no residual sweetness. Residual sweetness comes from unfermentable sugars that grains can be coaxed into producing in the brewing process.

Well, bitter is a very individual taste sensation... Think about Campari... can you stand it or not? Some people have more bitter sensitivity than others, and can't handle the Campari bitterness. I don't know what bitter sensitivity you've got. A beer will taste very different if we both have the same sweet receptors, but you've got double the bitter receptors I've got. But, it sounds like Belgians are probably up your alley. Try dubbels and tripels. Try Delirium Tremens. Try barleywines, particularly English barleywines... American ones tend to be very highly hopped. Try things labelled "Cream Ale", these use some corn in the mash that conveys a sweetness. Try bock beers from germany.