Monday May 2, 2011 posted by: reinheitsgebrewer in Brewing Experiences

So my goal this time is to see how much of a difference a slight change in hops will make. Same quantity and schedule, slightly different kinds. Basically I took the hop schedule I usually use (Magnum, 1 oz, 60 min/Amarillo, 1 oz, 30 min/Cascade, 1oz, 15 min) and substituted with hops I could find at the lhbs, matching alpha acid numbers as best I could.
I also now have a Barley Crusher barley mill, and hope to improve my efficiency. 75% would be great, anything above that would be icing on the cake. Not a very scientific approach, I'll agree, but what the hell, it sure is fun!
I now find myself very eager to check the initial gravity after each batch goes into the fermenter. I should note at this point that I've pretty much settled on Brew in a Bag and No Chill brewing, having had a good deal of success with both. So hopefully, by crushing the malted barely finer that would be normal for traditional methods, I'll get higher efficiency. We'll see. To that end, a refractometer is high on my list of brewing things, so that i can tell during the boil how it's going. Home-brewing is awesome...if you like beer and haven't tried it yet, do yourself a favor and get started!