Mick S

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  • in reply to: Gettysburg Brew Fest 2019 #1687
    Mick S
    Participant

    Correct link to Ephrata Review article… https://www.ephratareview.com/entertainment/hopin-around-a-brew-fest-with-a-bang/

    ---Mick S (aka VikeMan)

    in reply to: Habanero, Cherry Pepper, Raspberry Hot Sauce #1640
    Mick S
    Participant

    Has there been, or do you expect, a flavor change over time; other than from O2 exposure from opening and using?

    I haven’t had any sauces around for more than about a month, but I haven’t noticed any changes.

    Are there qualities to sea salt (other than non-iodized) that make it better for fermenting hot sauces?

    Not that I’m aware of. And I’d be pretty surprised if there were. I use sea salt because it’s non-iodized and available at my grocery store.

    Does this type of fermentation reduce aroma/flavors of additions, like using maple syrup in beer to get a maple flavor?

    I really don’t know for sure, but if it does, I would guess the loss is less than with a clean fermentation. I say that because if you keep the fermentation sealed, and only burp it to let off any CO2 produced, you’re not losing as many volatiles into the atmosphere as you would with a constant outpouring of (lots of) CO2 via an airlock in a clean fermentation. Not only do Lactobacillus strains produce little or no CO2 (depending on strain and environment), they also don’t ferment all the fermentable sugars before they more or less hit a wall due to pH drop.

    Also, the nice thing about killing off the bacteria and pasteurizing after fermentation is that you could make miscellaneous flavor/aroma additions after the fermentation, even if they contain some sugars.

    ---Mick S (aka VikeMan)

    in reply to: 6/6/19 Meeting Minutes #1386
    Mick S
    Participant

    Thanks Steve. Brian’s pizzas were awesome. I have posted the tentative beer list for Fort Hunter on the -> Events page <-. Everyone, please let me know of any corrections/changes/additions.

    ---Mick S (aka VikeMan)

    in reply to: 5/23/2019 Meeting Minutes #1370
    Mick S
    Participant

    Thanks Steve! The presentation on Attenuation has been uploaded to the library. Here’s a direct link:

    Click to access Attenuation-Factors.pdf

    ---Mick S (aka VikeMan)

    in reply to: Lookin for a little help with a stuck fermentation #1342
    Mick S
    Participant

    To test this, I think you’d need to brew a big beer, maybe something like a barleywine, with a yeast strain that should quit before attenuation is finished, due to its ABV tolerance. e.g., Wyeast 1968 has a tolerance of about 9%. I don’t know if there are any ale strains that have a lower tolerance. No yeast nutrient, no starter…stack the deck against the primary strain to keep it from over-achieving. Hopefully the yeast would quit with enough fermentable gravity left to really test the saison yeast’s impact on the flavor.

    I suspect that whether or not the saison flavors show up will depend on how much carbohydrate the saison yeast has to work with. Let’s say that the saison yeast gets another 4% ABV out of the wort. My guess would be that the saison character might be noticeable…think about how much saison character you get in a little grisette. OTOH, that character would be diluted somewhat by the character of the stuck base beer.

    If the saison yeast doesn’t have many carbs to work with, I suspect it wouldn’t impart very much character, because there couldn’t couldn’t be much additional cell growth.

    Another thought, since the pathway leading to esters is a function of (among other things) cell growth… I have no idea if the saison strain cells would recognize the dormant/half-poisoned 1968 cells as part of their viable/vital population. If so, there might be little or no growth of the saison strain cells…so few additional esters downstream. OTOH, if the 1968 population is ignored, you’d expect some growth and some additional esters downstream.

    Sounds like a fun experiment.

    ---Mick S (aka VikeMan)

    in reply to: Lookin for a little help with a stuck fermentation #1337
    Mick S
    Participant

    Resurrecting this thread after Steve’s posted about the issue on GroupMe. My thoughts…

    – The reason champagne yeast doesn’t revive a stuck fermentation is that champagne yeast (at least most champagne strains) can’t eat maltotriose and is not very good at eating maltose. By the time a fermentation is “stuck,” the simpler sugars (glucose/fructose/sucrose) tend to be gone already, and champagne yeast can’t do much/anything with the more complex sugars remaining.

    – Regarding most yeast driven flavors being produced early in the fermentation…I agree, sort of. For esters specifically, I prefer to say that the stage is set early in the fermentation, i.e. the initial conditions in the wort will determine much about how the esters will evolve later. I say this because yeast don’t actually make esters right away. They make fusel alcohols, which are later brought back into the cell and converted to esters. (This is why a fusel bomb can sometimes clean itself up given enough time with live yeast. Sometimes people talk about fusels “aging out,” but the bulk of what’s really happening is conversion to esters by yeast.)

    – My recommendation for unsticking a fermentation would be to pitch a yeast that has attenuation characteristics as close as possible, given the grain bill and mash conditions, to the attenuation desired, as long as the current ABV of the beer isn’t close to bumping up against the new strain’s ABV tolerance. Pitching a saison strain could certainly work, but if you’re not trying to make a beer as dry as a saison, then you’re likely to end up with a beer that’s drier than desired.

    ---Mick S (aka VikeMan)

    in reply to: Habanero, Cherry Pepper, Raspberry Hot Sauce #1306
    Mick S
    Participant

    this is a test reply to the above post

    ---Mick S (aka VikeMan)

    in reply to: 3/28/19 #1072
    Mick S
    Participant

    Thanks Steve! Just to add… It was decided that Tres would check at work about opening a checking account for the club.

    ---Mick S (aka VikeMan)

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