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Showing posts from June, 2016

Secondary Fermentation - When You Might Need It, and When You Don't

Earlier today read a very good article on secondary fermentation from Home Brew Supply.  It backed up what I've suspected and experienced.  I'll summarize here and share my experiences. What is Secondary Fermentation? Techincally, secondary fermentation is any period of additional fermentation or conditioning that takes place following the primary fermentation period.  Generally speaking, secondary fermentation involves transferring a beer out of its primary fermentation vessel into a second sanitized vessel. The point of secondary fermentation is to get the beer off the original cake of yeast and the sediments that have fallen to the bottom of the fermenter.  When yeast goes dormant at the end of fermentation and begins to die off, the yeast cells will disintegrate and give off chemicals that negatively impact the flavor of your finished beer. Is Secondary Fermentation Still a Valid Process? The secondary fermentation process came into existence in the early days

Belgian Quadrupel, version 1.1

Back in January, I brewed my first Belgian Quadrupel.  It turned out so well that I have only 4-5 bottles of it left, and that's only because I've been jealously guarding them.  I decided to brew it again today, and also to change it up a little to see if I could improve on it. Ingredients 12 pounds of Belgian Pilsen malt 12 ounces of Caramunich I malt 8 ounces of Melanoidin malt 5 ounces of Special B malt 4 ounces of Aromatic malt 1 ounce of Chocolate malt 2 pounds of Iraqi Date Syrup 4 ounces of Turbinado Sugar 4 ounces of D-90 Candi Syrup 0.25 ounces of Indian Coriander seeds, crushed 5 grams of Grains of Paradise, crushed 0.85 ounces of Styrian Goldings hops pellets @ 6.2% AA 0.65 ounces of Northern Brewer hops pellets @ 10.1% AA 0.50 ounces of Czech Saaz hops pellets @ 3.4% AA 0.5 teaspoons of Wyeast Yeast Nutrient 1 Whirlfloc tablet 1 tablespoon of pH 5.2 Stabilizer 1 Wyeast 1214 Belgian Abbey yeast smack-pack Changes Since Version 1.0 of the Recipe