Trying the Stone 14th Anniversary Empirial IPA. It's great so far.

Hop Wallop is pretty good as well. My favorite is the Golden Monkey though. Their lager ain't half bad either.

This is currently my favorite beer by far. It is absolutely delicious.

Fixin' to go to this in a little bit:

WaZoo

It is great, I agree. That's pretty much the exact kind of IPA I want when I want an IPA. Some are darker and more syrupy, but I love the color and cloudiness of this beer.

I just cracked a Sierra Nevada Tumbler, an "Autumn Brown Ale", their replacement for Anniversary Ale. The packaging claims that the malts are added "straight from the kiln" which I seriously doubt.

The ale has excellent malt mouth feel and head retention. The hops are understated, unusual from Sierra Nevada. It is drinkable, but doesn't really come close to a best in class like Lost Coast's Downtown Brown.

Sierra Nevada doesn't really strike me as a bunch of liars.

Last year when demand exceeded supply of ingredients for their new Torpedo IPA they chose simply not to make it, rather than make do with what they could get.

Based on that kind of integrity, I'm willing to take their word on the kilning claim. I've been to Chico and they really try to do everything for themselves they possibly can, and the things they can't they're always looking into starting.

I don't think it is a matter of integrity, more an issue of creative license with the advertising. When I picture "straight from the kiln" I think of still hot grains immediately cracked and added to the mash. Which I doubt. Does within a few days of roasting still count as "straight from the kiln"?

I've been to Chico too. Spent five or six years going to school there about twenty years ago, roommates worked at the brewery. We got 2 cases of mislabels/shorts every other week - I was practically weaned on the stuff.

Crash -

Didn't mean to sound too jerky, but ya gotta understand that I take Ill words against Sierra Nevada like Bin Laden does against Allah. However, I completely respect your Chico cred.

In other news, I JUST finished CIP'ing my mash and filter tuns and I'm off to pick up some Five Star Sani-Clean for yeast harvesting tomorrow.

The beer I posted about earlier is now called Country Boy, which was it's original name, but the owner tasted it in the first couple of days and thought it was too hoppy to be his flagship flavor. Luckily, it's mellowed and will be pretty close to what he had in mind from the start.

So here's the flyer for our brewery launch Saturday.

Cool! Send some Hophead Red to Hawaii stores for me..!

Whole Foods here finally reduced the price and put the SN Anniversary stout down from $15 to $11. I was only on the motorbike when I saw, so only got 8 bottles. May take the car next week and buy em out.

Time to move.. Went to the liquor store today, picked up the last DFH 60 min they had and was talking to my friend at the register, he said it sounds like they are about to stop selling it in Iowa all together.. FML FML FML

First pint poured of the Hot Head Red:

^^^Looks delicous.

I have a question for some of the brewers itt. Im a novice homebrewer, I have 5 batches under my belt in the last 6 months.

Some of the recipes Ive done lately have been recommending using a secondary fermenter (Carboy im assuming). Can someone please explain to me this process, explain it to me like I am a 6 year old.

Im assuming all you do its siphon the beer into another Carboy and let sit for another 7-10 days then bottle? Is this style of beer specific, ie some styles there is not need for a secondary? What exactly are the advantages of using a secondary fermenter?

The only secondary fermentation I've ever done was to produce Co2 for bottling. What I did was add a little sugar to my beer right before racking. Occasionally I've used Champagne yeast too, which helps clear things up a little too.

So are you saying it might be overrated?

I haven had any problems getting my beers carbonated enough by just bottling after the primary...

I havent done it and all of my batches have turned out in the B- range. Grades laid out by my other beer snob friend.

Can you post or PM the recipe which suggests a secondary fermentation so I can see it?

The less you expose your beer to potential contaminants the lower the chance of infection. Opening up your carboy another time just increases the risk imo.

Most of the recipes I've seen that call for a secondary are either to add another ingredient - dry hop, fruit, spices, etc - or are bigger beers that benefit from bulk aging. For aging, the main reason to age in secondary as opposed to primary is to avoid yeast autolysis, which is basically the yeast eating itself and then rupturing, releasing all sorts of nasty off-flavors into your beer. Do a bit of digging on homebrew forums and you'll find that there's a bit of a debate about whether autolysis is ever actually a danger for homebrewers.

Personally, I don't sweat leaving beers in primary for a month or more if needed. I think I would start thinking about it at the 6- or 8-week mark, but I've never had to worry about it. In general, Mark is right on: the less you move your beer, the better. As for the act itself, yes, you just siphon into another carboy, being careful to leave your trub behind.

I should visit this thread moar.

Looks good Markusgc!

Coff, imo in most cases you don't need to secondary. Rundownhouse covered the main reasons to do it. FWIW/IMO, using cornies to secondary can be a nice alternative to using a carboy/bucket. They are easier to move (have handles), don't shatter, smaller footprint, can hold pressure and you can do a keg-to-keg transfer when done (for keggers).

Got a Dortmunder lager, Belgian Pale Ale (aka ginormous yeast starter for a Chimay clone), and a Breakfast Stout in primaries right now. Got 6 kegs in the keezer (4 on tap) plus two on deck (one is an Oktoberfest of course!), plus the 3 primaries going. The Breakfast Stout will def get a secondary because I'm adding whole coffee beans to it. The Dortmunder will also get a secondary just because it's a lager and a I let those naturally carb in the keg (rack with a few points left and spunding), then keg-to-keg transfer to the serving keg. The BPA won't get a secondary and will only get 12 days in the primary so the yeast is still healthy/viable for the Chimay clone. But I'll crash cool the BPA before I rack it.

Brewer's Best IPA

This is a similar recipe from the same manufacturer, I'll be doing this one tomorrow anyway but the one in my Carboy now was a PSA IPA. But on page 2 along the right side under two-stage (secondary) fermentation, it talks about how they recommends you employ this process.

I was always told exactly what youre saying, the less you open your Carboy the better.

This is interesting and probably something that I need to read up on a bit, thanks for your input.

The recipe I attached calls for 7-10 days in the primary, is there any advantage/disadvantage to leaving it in the primary for longer. Im sure that it is recipe/style specific, for example my last recipe was a Belgian triple and I left it for 5 weeks.

Just read the recipe, don't worry about secondary unless you're thinking about dry hopping it. You'll be fine leaving it in primary for a few weeks if you want. Advantage to leaving it in primary is you don't risk contamination/oxidization. Disadvantage... I dunno, you can't put another beer in that carboy?

EDIT: Big props to Brewer's Best for the note about MH, first I've seen that in a printed recipe.

I don't have a dog, and didn't know that. Is it just whole/pellets/spent hops, or is it any beer in general? I've def. seen people give their dogs beer

I think its just hops themselves. And I haven't heard of dogs getting into raw hops because they don't like the taste. Spent hops, though, covered as they are in sugary wort, are definitely on a dog's interest list.

As far as I understand from the reading up I've done on it, the dog has to have a fairly unusual genetic condition to be susceptible enough to hops to die of MH from eating them. I still make sure to dispose of mine right after brewday, though.

Oh yea! I never knew that until I bought one of their recipes, it should be printed more often imo.

Thanks for the tips guys, I have a ton more questions but I dont want to be a bother. I may post them over the next few months. I just bought a 2nd Carboy so Im going to try to always have 2 in the primary at a time.

Heading to Brewers Supply Group to pick up my grain for the milk stout I'm brewing Friday.