Melanoidin is very close to honey malt. Some claim it’s the same, though I find them different. Melanoidin is more ‘malty’ while honey is more sweet. Both I find very powerful and would encourage anyone to use it judiciously.
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hmm didn’t know that about honey malt. I just used 5 oz in the Julius. Didn’t notice any malt but other flavors in that beer going on
Yeah 5oz in a hazy IPA recipe is probably negligible. I use 6% of honey malt in mine, just to give it some body and sweetness.
I enjoy a malt-y backbone in a brew… sweet, not so much.
Sneezles
Well to me there is malty sweet, caramel sweet, residual sweetness, and then cloyingly sweet. I think there’s a place for the first three, just not the last one. And all three can lead to cloyingly sweet. 
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There is some brews that have this malt-y backbone… not sweet, from a brewery up north of me. The brewers kinda give out a vague idea of the grain bill. They claim the soft water from Lake Superior is the magic…
Sneezles
That’s an interesting take. Wonder if they’re treating their water.
well the HogsBock is only 3.8% and my decoction probably adds some more. I’ve made this without the victory malt and its not the same. I’ve also made this recipe with the amber and decoction no melanoiden and that was different as well. I’ve been messing with this recipe for years and this last one was the best, Now this batch Im trying to replicate so Ill let you know in a month
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Trying to get my brewing in for the remainder of the year. Friday did an ‘Irish’ red lager since the beloved ND game was being played. Got tomorrow off since my son is out of school for break, so I’m making a Japanese rice lager. I find myself brewing more and more lagers…
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This weekend and last weekend I got in my Lakefront Bridge Burner clone and my Nugget Nectar clone. I doubled up BVIP and Great Lakes Christmas batches in December as my buddy got himself a kegerator and I offered to brew batches for him if he covered ingredients cost. That was an awesome plan until he bought a bowling alley and lost his weekends so his two beers are still sitting in fermenters in my basement. 
Rad
Ha, you’ll have to keg it and bring in growlers.
Sneezles
Anyone tomorrow? Pale ale here. 2row, Munich, C15. Citra, Amarillo, and Galaxy. No bittering hops, all 10 mins or less. Dregs from my favorite ‘no coast’ session IPA.
I’ll be bottling a 1.5 gallon batch of Bohemian Pilsner. Then on Sunday I’m brewing a 1.5 gallon batch of Czech Dark Lager and re-pitching some Wyeast 2278 slurry from the Bohemian Pilsner.
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Out of curiosity how much yeast does one pitch in 1.5gals?
I’m looking to brew a Czech dark lager
Good question. I started with a Wyeast smack pack and pitched that into the 1.5 gal. batch of Bohemian Pilsner. 1 pack seemed like an appropriate amount of yeast for 1.5 gallons of lager. I fermented at 55°F and it took almost 48 hours before I got good airlock activity, so maybe it was an underpitch. I brewed the 1.5 gal. batch of Czech Dark Lager and pitched about 2/3 of the yeast cake from the Bohemian and again, it took about 48 hours before I got airlock activity. I’m fermenting this one a little lower at 50°F. My fermenter is a brand new 2 gallon plastic bucket. I’m thinking maybe it doesn’t have a great seal. I usually brew larger batches and ferment in SS Brew Buckets.
I’m planning on keeping this yeast going for a third batch for a pre-prohibition pilsner. It’s a style I’ve been working on lately. The grain bill is 33% each of pilsner malt, 6 row and corn grits, with a little acid malt mixed in for ph correction.
If it was a healthy pack (with a good date) a whole pack on 1.5gal was plenty. 2/3 of a cake is a ton! But I think it’s very difficult to over pitch.
If you are struggling with lag in 1.5gal batches with those pitch amounts it’s likely lack of O2 before pitching. What do you do to add O2?
That’s a good point. I do a vigorous stir by hand for 60 seconds with a stainless steel tool similar to this. Perhaps that’s not doing the job? I usually never have a problem with lag time using this method on 4 to 5.5 gallon batches fermented in the SS Brewbucket. I was thinking my problem may be related to the specific yeast strain and fermentation temperature. It’s Wyeast 2278 Czech Pils. The date on the smack pack was good.
Come to think of it, I tend to use dry yeast often and I know dry yeast doesn’t require oxegenation. When I use liquid yeast, it’s usually Imperial and the lag times are good with that brand. Thanks for the input. I’ll have to keep an eye on lag time going forward.
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Some yeast are just flat out finicky and lag. IIRC 2278 is one to lag and is pretty finicky.
