Recent content by dr_bollinger

I would love to learn more about historical English brewing practices. Can you recommend any books or resources?

Interesting -- thanks guys! This is really informative. I didn't realize that historical yeast cultures were so heterogeneous. Does this mean that Guiness was collecting krausen or dregs from multiple breweries, then pitching a mix of those yeast cultures, some from each brewery? I would...

I was recently considering why every "house strain" of yeast seems to consist of a single strain, rather than multiple co-existing strains. All of the well-known, old, European beers seem to use only a single yeast strain (e.g., Wyeast 1084 Irish Ale, which is a single strain of Saccharomyces...

This is a good point, and one that I considered before experimenting with post-fermentation mineral additions. I recall concluding that calcium and mash pH are important to the mash, boil and fermentation, but that Cl and SO4 concentrations are primarily implicated in the taste of the beer, and...

To each their own? I do both of those things already, pal: I carefully design my water profiles along with my recipes, and add all necessary minerals on my brew day. I track my post-fermentation mineral additions and incorporate those extra minerals into my recipe for next time. But I have...

I have experimented in the glass to figure out how much salts to add to the keg. I’m not sure why you would do it only to seek guidance for subsequent batches (well, I guess if you had bottled the batch then it would make sense). I’m surprised that more people aren’t treating whole batches...

I do adjust my brewing water (mash and sparge water) using lactic acid, CaCl and/or CaSO4. I use Brewers Friend to build my recipes and determine an appropriate water profile. I usually add 4 to 6 grams of CaCl or CaSO4 to my water, so there's always plenty of calcium. But I've found that...

I'm wondering how many people are consistently making mineral adjustments to a beer after it's fermented? In two experiments, I've had great success. I had a saison that was finishing a little on the sweet side, so I added a few grams of CaSO4 (in solution) into the keg. Voila. Dry, crisp...

Thanks for the replies. I'm leaning towards tossing 1 campden tablet into the brett beer 1 day before blending. That should significantly mitigate the chance of future infections while avoiding the risk of oxidization. Also, I don't see any downside to using campden.

I was planning on brewing a clean, 100% sacc saison tomorrow. I wasn't planning on adding brett or bacteria because my "funky" keg is currently occupied, while I have a "clean" keg that is almost available. I just had an idea, though. I have 1 gallon of a 100% brett beer that has been aging for...

Thanks for the great ideas, guys! I'm gonna go for it.

I've got lots of wheat malt and an old pack of WL585 Saison III sitting around that need to get used. I'm considering making a saison with 7 lbs of wheat, 1 lb of rice hulls, and 2 lbs of sugar. Question #1: Is that a terrible grain bill? Question #2: Is 1 lb of rice hulls enough?

I'm not sure why this is so controversial. 3711 is diastaticus. Diastaticus contamination has caused recalls and a lawsuit. There seem to be reasonable grounds to treat diastaticus as a "wild" yeast like brettanomyces rather than a "clean" yeast. No one's saying not to use 3711 -- I'm just...

I accidentally forgot to use campden in a batch. It tastes notably "medicinal" -- there's an unpleasant plasticy, iodine, hospital flavour and aroma. It's no good. Never again. I brew with Toronto tap water, which has chloramines.

You test for diastaticus? Hats off to you sir. Sounds like you've got a more sophisticated lab than White Labs' What sanitation product(s) do you recommend instead of "the big name"?