that recipe sounds fine to me. i'd substitute dingemanns pale for the maris otter, and i'd use special B in place of the caramunich and chocolate, but i tend to do things my own way. as for the "belgian candi sugar", read post 56.

i just made a bier de mars. its a partial mash, but it only takes me three hours, start to finish, i get tired of doing decoction mashes:

6 lbs light DME
3 pounds dingemanns pale malt
12 ounces special b
4 ounces aromatic malt

1 ounce tettnanger, 5.0 alpha
a bit of some really strong czech hops, styrian perhaps (i just had and needed to use it)

wyeast trappist ale yeast
and
bretamyces, propagated from a bottle of orval.

7 gallons, will be bottling a case of champagne bottles and kegging the rest.

I kegged the beer from post #53 today. I ended up racking it to a secondary after 7 days. It's not a perfect Hoegaarden clone, but that's not a bad thing. The smell is dead on, it's a little cloudier, color is a little darker, and it tastes A LOT better. It's a good beer, but I'll definitely go with a heavier grain bill and some Irish Moss in the next batch to clear it a little better. http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e2...p/drunk4zc.gif

Also racked this one to a secondary today. It bubbled in the primary steadily for 7 days. The fermentation was never vigorous and the temps never got above 67. Very little fallout/dead yeast in the primary, and it still tastes like a malty syrup. I'm really not sure how this is going to turn out. I may need to leave it in the secondary for a little longer than normal.

12 lb Maris Otter
1 lb Caramel/Crystal 120L
4 oz. Belgian Aromatic malt
8 oz. Belgian Cara-Munich malt
1 lb flaked oats
1 lb turbinado @ 15min
1 lb lactose @ 15 min
1.5 oz. Tettnanger @ 4% AA (bittering)
.5 oz. Willamette (aroma)
Wyeast 1214

Hmmm a keg full of beer ready to roll for mardi gras. Sounds like a party to me!

Hope you are having fun.

Hey Tom, Happy Mardi Gras! Holler at me if you make a trip to the BR area. You are welcome to come by and check out the wannabe Speedster replica. You can have a pint here or take a growler (it's like a 1/2 gallon 'go-cup') with you on the way out.

1214 is supposed to be kept between 68 and 78, optimal in the middle. Low temp fermentation will be slow and you will not develop the fruity esters for the style.

When I was brewing in the winter, with 1028, I had problems since I doubt I went above 65F. The beer tasted fine, but it was missing the esters. Now, if you over do the heat, you get banana or strawberry beer.

Thanks. I need to raise the temp. It's been unexpectedly cold here and my house has been like an icebox. I'm usually easily in the ~70-80 degree range, but I'd be surprised if this spot of my house where my fermenters are at has seen 67+ for the last week. I know it's making beer, but what I racked still tastes like sweet wort.

Did you do an SG reading? I used to keep an SG tester in the fermenter, until I had a blocked bubbler and blow out. The glass SG tester shattered on the ceiling.

You know you're a homebrewer, if you've ever mopped the ceiling!

I used 1.5 inch diamter blow off tubes from then on.

I tried to take an OG reading but I somehow cracked my hydrometer. It was around a 1.07 with the busted hydrometer before I realized what had happened and cleaned up the broken glass. It's high gravity, though, no doubt. I expect it to be ~10%.

I started using blow-off tubes when I went AG with the heavy grain bills. This particular yeast never fermented real violently. The S-04 and Danstarr Nottingham dry yeast I've used in my Nut Brown and Milk Stout needed the blow-off tube due to violent fermentation, but not this Abbey Ale Wyeast starter pack. I did use 1/4" cup of turbinado and some nutrient for the starter, FWIW.

I should get back into brewing, except I have this cycling hobby which chews up too much time...Oh, and a small business were trying to expand.

I do ride for a micro-brewery, and we get free beer after the rides...

if the yeast is truly stuck, you may have to re-pitch.

It's not stuck. I would get the temp up, and then "swirl" the trub, in case the yeast have settled out. They don't die, they settle out. Racking to secondary would also do this, but I would purposely pull some of the trub over.

I was doing a weekly brewing cycle, and instead of pitching new yeast, I over pitched the wort straight into the previous weeks fermenter. I would rack to secondary, and let the beer "settle" in secondary for 2 weeks.

Primary was a 6 gallon carboy, secondaries were 5 gallon. I used glass. Always a blowoff in primary (after mopping the ceiling at 5AM one morning...)

It's been a few months since I've brewed anything. I've actually been on the road with work and just haven't had any time. Anyway, I started reading John Palmer's book a few weeks ago. The long holiday weekend gave me the opportunity to apply some of the stuff I've read to my current process. I'm getting a little better at this with every batch. Fun stuff. Gratuitous pic.

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_7FHQQJXuE40/TA...0/IMG_5790.JPG

i like the blow-off system. i may copy you, if you don't mind.

Go for it. It works well. I have not been able to use an airlock on my primary since I switched to AG. FWIW, there is almost no detectable smell from the fermentation with the blow off tube setup. The bucket takes up the space of an additional fermenter, but SWMBO approves since there is no detectable beer smell.

Those blowoff tubes are too small. You would be better off with hoses which are slightly larger in diameter than the fermenter opening inside diameter. You are still risking a clog. See the pictures in "The Homebrewers Companion".

or this:

http://www.donosborn.com/homebrew/blow-off_tube.JPG

i ferment, usually, in stainless sanke keg. i think it would work ok for me. but, yeah, there is still some risk of a clog. i had a major explosion once. ooh baby!

Also, I highly recommend 2 books by George Fix:

Principles of Brewing Science and An Analysis of Brewing Techniques.

I know these are oriented for micro-brewers, but the phosphoric acid in the sparge water technique really works in keeping tannins out of the brew. This reduces a potential astringent taste and reduces the probability of chill haze.

Oh, and the best way to remove chill haze? Cold conditioning. Chill the beer to near freezing, and just let the chill haze drop out of solution. Takes a few weeks, but the beer becomes perfect.

I pulled that photo from a Google search. I just noticed that the dude is fermenting on a hard wood floor, and the blow off bucket is sitting on a white chair seat...

"You know you're a hombrewer when...you've mopped the ceiling..."

As far as stainless, I like to see what is going on. OTOH, Stainless steel protects the beer from sunlight, as opposed to glass.