Compromise.
Yeah, nobody says they like to do it…but they do it all the time.
I had to compromise yesterday. Let me explain.
I wanted Magnum hops. I had to get Northern Brewer hops.
I wanted White Labs WLP833 strain. I had to get the WLP830 strain instead.
I did get my Pilsner and my Munich malt though. Photos below:
So, it’s not going to be exactly as I planned. I still think it’s going to come out great, but just not in line with the initial thoughts.
Sadly, it’s time to tell my gift certificate giving family that I would be better off with another homebrew shop. I hate typing that but I think I need to buy from a place with a larger inventory.
Eichlerguy
Funny you mention that…I’ve recently become dissatisfied with my LHBS, too. Not sure who you use but mine is a nationally known mail order house that also happens to be local to me. Recently they’ve been out of stock on many items, slow to fulfill orders, and generally disorganized. A shame, it is…
Brew on!
JW
Sometimes that happens. I would think that the yeast swap should be fine (Weihenstephan vs. Ayinger). You’ll have to excuse me for not looking back in the archive – are you just doing just a 60 minute addition for the brew?
Best of luck .
John
I don’t think I want to reveal my LHBS here in the comments but if you look back a few posts, you will see a gift certificate from the particular store I frequent.
Mike and I have discussed this shop many times and we have our thoughts on it. I feel wrong about trashing on a person’s livelihood so I probably won’t put up something that names names. At the same time, I want to be honest about my dissatisfaction.
For the hop addition, yes it’s only going to be one hop addition for 60 minutes.
I am unsure of what this means in terms of equating the bitterness of Magnum with Northern Brewer hops. The recipe called for .5 ounce of Magnum hops with 13% AA
These NB hops are in the 7 to 11% range. Not sure what the conversion is…
JW
John,
I feel your pain on the LHBS – I’m always confliched as to whether to support ‘local’ and buy from limited selections or to go mail-order where the selection is essentially unlimited.
Regarding the hop additions, I punched in your recipe into Beersmith and this is what I got. Assuming a 5 gallon batch (i.e. 6 gallons left at the end of the boil) and a normal efficiency (75%), my number have you coming around a 1.074 OG. If thats the case, boiling 0.5 oz of Magnum (13% alpha) results in 22-23 IBUs. If you change that out with NB (assuming 8.5% alpha), you would need about 0.75 oz to get into the 22-23 IBR range. (All calculations performed with the Rager forumula.) Your numbers might be a little different one way or another, but I hope this gives you some guidance.
Best of luck – let us know how it goes.
-JW