137 replies to this topic

[Mya]

sterling makes a fine Pilsner

[Mya]

Well that was an abysmal mash. 60% when I was planning on 75%. Looks like lots of unranked grains in the grist. New mill setup needs tweaking.

I'm just gonna boil it down to the correct gravity.

crush til yer skeered!

[neddles]

The bottle does not say "1516" specifically. "1516" is George's terminology. As we know the law has changed since then. I don't know enough or care enough to debate the current law but New Glarus's FAQ specifically says this, which is almost exactly what it currently says on the bottle. I interpret this to mean that the flaked barley is no longer there and malted wheat is in.

Well WTF do I know. I just got to my inlaws where my FIL is drinking a fresh can of SC. Sure enough it says the same thing as the website about the flaked barley. Current bottles give the diddy about the purity law. Sounds like some inconsistent labelling. And who TF knows whats really in there.

[Mya]

I've used it in a pils, experimentally, many years ago, made little to no difference, that I could detect, though that beer did have a good head to it

[BrewerGeorge]

Just cleaned the mash tun and about a third of the grains weren't crushed.

[Mya]

Just cleaned the mash tun and about a third of the grains weren't crushed.

that'll do it   

[BrewerGeorge]

My mill is a Schmidling and only adjusts on one end. The proper grind is in the center of the 10" (though) rollers, and you have to control the feed so it only Let's grains down in the center. My new mount clearly doesn't do that.

[matt6150]

Well WTF do I know. I just got to my inlaws where my FIL is drinking a fresh can of SC. Sure enough it says the same thing as the website about the flaked barley. Current bottles give the diddy about the purity law. Sounds like some inconsistent labelling. And who TF knows whats really in there.

Yeah the cans that I got when I was up there said flaked barley that's why I brought it up. It will be beer either way.

[Big Nake]

I could easily see flaked barley being in this beer. I could also see a possibility that the recipe could have changed although I don't think NG would futz with that recipe much... according to the tour guide at NG, Spotted Cow accounts for 75% of the revenue at New Glarus so they don't want to make waves with that particular beer.

[pkrone]

I brewed up another batch of this on Friday and kegged it today. (my yeast was rockin'!)    My iteration is pale malt w/ a little flaked barley and flaked maize.   OG 1.048   FG 1.010.   Tasted great at kegging today.   Now we wait...

Edited by pkrone, 04 September 2017 - 02:23 PM.

[BrewerGeorge]

I brewed up another batch of this on Friday and kegged it today. (my yeast was rockin'!) My iteration is pale malt w/ a little flaked barley and flaked maize. OG 1.048 FG 1.010. Tasted great at kegging today. Now we wait...

What yeast?

[pkrone]

US-05

[Deerslyr]

US-05

That's my "go to" yeast.  Has never failed me.

[BrewerGeorge]

Hmm.....

 

So a work friend just got back from Wisconsin and he brought me a 12er of Spotted Cow.

 

I'm a little underwhelmed.  A few things might have happened. Either I was getting much, much fresher beer up there on tap, or I was SO excited about being able to drink beer again that my "calibration" was out of whack.  Or some combo of the two.

 

I was drinking the beer in resort towns in the middle of tourist season, so I'm sure the beer was SUPER fresh.  Judging by the code on the bottom of the can, this one was packaged on June 16th. That's kind of old for this kind of beer.  That's probably what it is.  It reminds me of that flavor when you used to buy imported heffeweizen. 

[neddles]

1. This has happened to me with beers before. Wine and food too actually. Beer is very often enhanced by the time and place.

2. How did you decipher the code on the can? My understanding is that code is a distributors code that tells them when to pull it from the shelf.

[Big Nake]

Been there before too. It's better when fresh and preferably standing near a lake in WI.

[HVB]

1. This has happened to me with beers before. Wine and food too actually. Beer is very often enhanced by the time and place.

So true. I have had it happen a lot where my memory of the beer at a particular moment takes over and skews reality. I just want to go back to that beer at that time!

[BrewerGeorge]

...

2. How did you decipher the code on the can? My understanding is that code is a distributors code that tells them when to pull it from the shelf.

I saw that too.

 

The code was L167.  If I'm interpreting it properly, the L means it should be pulled from the shelves in December and the 167 means it was packaged on Julian 167, which is June 16th.

[neddles]

I saw that too.

The code was L167. If I'm interpreting it properly, the L means it should be pulled from the shelves in December and the 167 means it was packaged on Julian 167, which is June 16th.

While not 100% sure, I dont think thats how it works. I tried to figure it that way and had some codes that did not make sense. When everything they made was in bottles they were just a simple julian date with the month code. When they began canning SC and Moon Man it changed. I emailed them a while back for a clarification so I could figure out how old the Moon Man on the shelf was but I never received a response. So I made good on my promise to them... I wont buy Moon Man anymore.

Edited by neddles, 08 September 2017 - 09:24 PM.

[Big Nake]

This may not be relevant here but your tastebuds can play mind games with you too. depending on what you have recently eaten, whether you're sick or taking meds, things may not taste right. I was in WI once many years ago and had Spotted Cow and thought it was really nice and I tried to duplicate it home and made a reasonably decent beer that was in the spirit of SC. A friend of my wife's lives near Madison and was coming down to IL and I asked her to bring me a sixer of SC so I could sample it again and what she brought me was NOT what I remembered. Was it a recipe change? Was it the setting? Was it the freshness of the beer I had there vs. what I had here? Don't know. I feel like NG is very good about brewing consistent beer and making sure that their customers drink it fresh so I hesitate to point the finger at them. All of us homebrewers see a change in our own products from the time the beer is packaged to a month later, two months later, six months later, etc.