Wednesday, February 7, 2007

Samples & Sam Adams Contest

OK, sorry to those of you who I said I would have some samples of my new Porter out to last week. I have slacked off and didn't send them out yet. They are coming I swear.

In other news, Samuel Adams is holding their 2007 LongShot American Homebrew contest and I am going to submit one or two entries. If mine gets chosen as a winner, they will brew and distribute it with other winners in different categories.

http://www.samueladams.com/promotions.aspx

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Karlis, can you help me troubleshoot my homebrew? I just tested my latest batch of stout... and it is incredibly fizzy/gassy... not at all smooth like a stout should be. Any idea what might have gone wrong? Is this a sign of infection?

John Karlis said...

Several things could have happened. Other than the fizziness, does the beer taste ok? My first batch of beer was highly carbonated, but overall tasted pretty good. I think I just didn't wait long enough for fermentation to complete before bottling. Patience is tough when you have all that beer staring at you from the carboy, and your mouth watering...

Anyway, it could be simply overcarbonation from too much priming sugar. From books I have they say 1/2 to 3/4 cup corn sugar per 5gallons.

Or also possible that fermentation continued in the bottle. After all appearances of fermentation have subsided from your fermentor (no more bubbles coming from airlock), it's still good to take hydrometer readings until the gravity has stabilized. That way you can be somewhat sure you won't have fermentation continuing in the bottle.

And last, you could have a bacterial infection that caused yeast to start fermenting things in there that otherwise it would not have. Just make sure everything is real clean all the time, especially when transfering between vessels and try to minimize any possible oxygen exposure.

Hope that helps!

Anonymous said...

Thanks! I'm the original poster. Too much priming sugar is the most likely cause in this case. After about a month in the bottles, the beer was very, very sweet. Now, it's less sweet but super fizzy. I'll be more careful next time.

Anonymous said...

Karlis,
My closest frame of reference for comparison to your Sumatra Porter would be Sierra Nevada Porter, which I consider to be the best American Porter. I was quite surprised: your brew starts out with an enticing aroma, perfect body and head(the carbonation seems more natural than others I have tried). Unlike some others which hit you with a somewhat harsh, heavy first taste, yours has a mellow full-bodied taste, though redolent with finer nuances which become apparent gradually, and linger pleasantly for a while on the palate. Unlike some amateurish attempts and even microbrews which have a yeasty taste, yours has none of that, and is an absolutely perfect, natural brew. Keep up the good work; Sam Adams needs your Brewmastership!
(Or Sierra Nevada, since yours is better!)
Uldis