Wow, that looks great. Between not getting to Alesmith and how nice Stone is, seems like San Diego just moved up on my list of places to visit.

I'm thinking about making a Kolsch this weekend. Anyone got any great tips or recipes? I only have extract capabilities right now but I don't want to use a kit.

A Kolsch is a bit tough to pull off properly with extract because the grain bill is typically 100% grains that require mashing - so you won't be able to steep any specialty grains. That said, you can still brew a decent one with extract.

I would use dry malt pils extract as that will get you closest to the light straw color of a Kolsch and keep the grain bill traditional . Also would do a full boil if you have that capability. This will also help keep the color light.

For hops, you can use any of the German noble hops, or use American hops like Mount Hood or Crystal. I would just hit it with a 60 minute addition and maybe a light 20 or 15 minute addition.

If you're going traditional, aim for an OG between 1.045 and 1.050 and IBU:BU ratio of close to 0.5.

Wyeast 2565 is nice, and if you can do a starter I would do at least a 1 liter starter, then try to ferment around 64f for 3 or 4 weeks. Then if you can lager it for another month or two at about 35f you will be a happy man.

The first Kolsch I did I got impatient and knocked the yeast out early with gelatin. It had a very green apple taste because I knocked the yeast out before they cleaned up all the fermentation by-products.

It's a very clean and simple beer and the yeast profile really makes it what it is. You could use a touch of wheat or add some honey, but my best have been 100% pilsner.

Sweet, that is phenomenally helpful. Thanks for the great tips. I'll keep y'all updated.

Im brewing up my SMaSh tomorrow. Im taking the opportunity to mess around with BIAB a little bit, only my second time with it. But mostly time to dedicate to a full brew day for a few weeks.

I'll be doing a Maris Otter Citra SMaSh, hopbursted.

I'm only vaguely familiar with this method. What does your hop schedule look like for this? Are you doing a short boil or a long one?

It's a technique to get high amounts of hop aroma in a beer by moving all of your hop additions to 20 minutes or later. This is my first time doing it do it joules be interesting. Here was my schedule for a 60 minute boil.

0.5 oz Citra 20 Mins
0.5 oz Citra 15 Mins
0.5 oz Citra 10 Mins
1 oz Citra 5 Mins
1.5 oz Citra flameout

This was for a 3.5 gallon batch, so it's alot of hops.

That hop schedule looks delicious.

Without any 60 minute or FWH's, what are you expecting for a BU:GU ratio?

The BU:GU is about 1:1 maybe a little high BU then that. Ive gotten similar results with a 20 min addition as I have with a FWH in the past. Im not too worried about the bitterness, Im going for a huge aroma and a slight bitternes.

Been alot of homebrew chatter in itt, so I figured I would change the topic a bit. What's everyone's favorite summer beer? Whether its a seasonal release that you cant wait for or a macro that you like to mow the lawn with.

I am sure I'm not alone in this but for me it's Bells Oberon, it's just so incredible satisfying.

But recently te Brooklyn Summer Ale has been my go to beach beer, especially since its in cans. But I really really enjoy it.

My go to summer beer style is hefe weizen. I like a lot of the imported ones if I can find them fresh. I haven't found many domestic ones that I like though - they usually seem to overdue the banana esters imo.

SN's Summerfest and Kellerweis are both awesome during the summer. Oberon is also super tasty and I enjoy it a ton. I also like cream ales out at the beach.

I've also been doing a ton of the brooklyn summer ale. Then there's also ommegang witte which IMO could be the best american-made belgian white going.

Gonna try to pull off the triple brew tomorrow. Here's the recipes:

Hefeweizen:
5 lbs 12.0 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 55.4 %
4 lbs 2.0 oz Wheat Malt, Pale (Weyermann) (2.0 SRM) Grain 2 39.8 %
8.0 oz Munich I (Weyermann) (7.1 SRM) Grain 3 4.8 %
0.25 oz Summit [17.00 %] - First Wort 60.0 min Hop 4 16.3 IBUs
1.0 pkg Safbrew Wheat (DCL/Fermentis #WB-06) [50 Yeast 5 -

English Porter
7 lbs 8.0 oz Maris Otter (Crisp) (4.0 SRM) Grain 1 68.2 %
1 lbs Brown Malt (Crisp) (65.0 SRM) Grain 2 9.1 %
1 lbs Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM) Grain 3 9.1 %
8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM) Grain 4 4.5 %
8.0 oz Caramunich I (Weyermann) (51.0 SRM) Grain 5 4.5 %
8.0 oz Chocolate (Crisp) (630.0 SRM) Grain 6 4.5 %
1.00 oz Progress [6.25 %] - First Wort 90.0 min Hop 7 24.7 IBUs
1.00 oz Liberty [4.30 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 8 2.9 IBUs
1.0 pkg SafAle English Ale (DCL/Fermentis #S-04) Yeast 9 -

SMaSH - Dark Wheat/Centennial

9 lbs Wheat Malt, Dark (Weyermann) (7.0 SRM) Grain 1 100.0 %
0.50 oz Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 20.0 min Hop 2 11.2 IBUs
0.50 oz Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 3 9.2 IBUs
0.50 oz Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 4 6.7 IBUs
0.50 oz Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 5 3.7 IBUs
0.25 oz Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 6 1.8 IBUs
1.0 pkg Safale American (DCL/Fermentis #US-05) Yeast 7 -



Gonna pick my Centennial off the vine and toss it right into the pot at 5min. Subsidizing it with 2oz commercial in the last 20min of boil.

Hopefully I'll get some help tomorrow or else it's going to be a long, long day.

Wow you're a sicko!

I've done two batches in a day, but it honestly kicks my ass and takes like 9 or 10 hours. I must be getting soft working a desk job for so long now.

I'm going to do a pretty simple house ale tomorrow. This is for 6 gallons and OG is only 1.043 or so.

9 pounds 2-row pale
5 ounces special roast
10 ounces golden naked oats
1 ounce hallertaur @ 60 and 1/2 ounce @ 10
London ESB

I think the sixpoint apollo would be a great summer beer. I generally love drinking kolsch's in teh summer as well

If I could get it, I'd drink Bell's Oarsman all day during the summer.

Quick question about the Smash brew. I was planning on doing golden promise/citra with a similar hop burst like Coff. Would you guys rather me use a different hop so we can get a different taste or do you want to see how citra plays off golden promise vs marris otter? I'm open to either, I'll be picking up ingredients Thursday and brew this weekend.

holding up to the sun, you can not even see thru the glass!

Stick with your plan, if we were both doing Marris Otter and Citra then maybe switching it up would be good. But in this case we should really be able to tell the difference between the 2 malts since the hops are the same. It sounds great to me.

+1 to sticking with Golden Promise/Citra. Didn't get to brew this weekend on account of all the rain that has been hitting Florida and I caught a 24 hour bug. Got all the grains though, hopefully this coming weekend will be a bit better weather wise.

+1, that beer is perfect for summer

Haven't disliked anything from Firestone yet. How was that?

I'm a newb, I love drinking craft beer but never made it. Tell me what a newb has to do to start, what I need to buy and what basics I need to know. Would a starter kit a good starting point? I already know I would rather do recipes from scratch tho opposed to buying a box kit.

samuel Adams summer ale is good
Three Floyd's gumballhead is one of my favorite beers ever and it was originally released as a summer ale, any good craft wheat beer or hefeweizen makes for a good summer brew
And ya bells Oberon is good

First off read How to Brew by John Palmer. An old edition is available free here. Also, start lurking at homebrewtalk.com, it's a fantastic website.

A kit is a great way to start. Here is one. You can get cheaper but this sets you up with 3 fermenters which I'm sure you'll find necessary after you brew a few batches.

The next thing you need is a pot. I'm assuming you're going to start by brewing extract because it's easier, but you can also do brew in a bag grain now if you want. Personally, if you think you're going to enjoy brewing, I'd start with a big stainless steel pot to begin with (7-10g) because you're going to need it eventually if you do full boil all grain batches and if you're like any of us, you're going to become addicted quickly.

I think that's a good start. A bunch of people who post here are better brewers than I and more knowledgeable so you should get most of your questions answered.

Joining the conversation here, looking to start homebrewing sometime this summer.

Last good beer I recently tried (new "Mussel Bar" in Revel has it in bottles):

Boulder Mojo Risin Double IPA