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GonadTheBallbarian posted:Second all-grain batch done, did an American Red. The 2-hr 155F mash (3:1 qt/lb) did wonders for efficiency, the final ABV of the thing is 7%. Hiding alcohol is all about restraining fermentation temps, pitching lots of healthy yeast and giving it enough time to age. So yeah, it's normal if you're doing things right 
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Feb 5, 2012 08:36
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Docjowles posted:Hiding alcohol is all about restraining fermentation temps, pitching lots of healthy yeast and giving it enough time to age. So yeah, it's normal if you're doing things right I kept my temp at 58-60F for 4 weeks, and used Safale 05 instead of the lovely lager yeast that was suggested. I'm happy about it, but poo poo, 50 7% beers for $25 is  for me in Massachusetts.
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Feb 5, 2012 08:46
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beetlo posted:So yeah this decoction mashing... Saving it for REALLY special beers on rare occasions. 8 and a half hour brew day. gently caress that noise. Infusion mash FTW. Just wait until till you taste it to make that call  I don't use it every brewday, maybe once every month or two.
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Feb 5, 2012 14:53
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Hypnolobster posted:You may never notice a problem, but it's a giant vector for infection. The air in a house and outside is absolutely full of dust particles carrying yeast and bacteria, your house probably has some fun little skin cells floating around, your breath is full of tiny particulates of happy little sugar-consuming bacteria, etc. Anybody that uses an immersion chiller leaves the lid off their wort when they're cooling it, unless they're one of those weirdos that cut slits into their lid for it. I do this every time for 10-20 minutes outside and have never had an issue with infections. I would notice too, almost all the beers I brew are under 5% and I do a lot of lighter styles. There's not a whole lot of room to hide off flavors in an ordinary bitter or helles. chiz posted:How would I cap them properly? You guys advise against using twist offs to bottle homebrew. Most 40s I've seen have a cap like a soda bottle rather than one like your standard bottle of Bud or whatever. If it has a soda bottle type cap it'd be fine to bottle in. Just make sure you hand tighten the cap well.
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Feb 5, 2012 15:30
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I leave the lid on halfway 
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Feb 5, 2012 15:36
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Josh Wow posted:Anybody that uses an immersion chiller leaves the lid off their wort when they're cooling it, unless they're one of those weirdos that cut slits into their lid for it. I do this every time for 10-20 minutes outside and have never had an issue with infections. I would notice too, almost all the beers I brew are under 5% and I do a lot of lighter styles. There's not a whole lot of room to hide off flavors in an ordinary bitter or helles. Guess who's one of those weirdos 
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Feb 5, 2012 17:06
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GonadTheBallbarian posted:I'm surprised at how well homebrew masks alcohol taste. Is this normal? I don't think of it as hiding the alcohol, but as actually having some flavor from malt and hops. So yes, it's normal. Just like cooking at home, when you put in stuff you like and care about what you're making, then end result is really loving good. Josh Wow posted:Anybody that uses an immersion chiller leaves the lid off their wort when they're cooling it, unless they're one of those weirdos that cut slits into their lid for it. Now that I have switched to a plate chiller, I am going to have to get a well-fitting lid for my boiler. Since the cutout is only vaguely circular, this means I will have to spend some quality time with a grinder. Jo3sh fucked around with this message at 17:24 on Feb 5, 2012 |
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Feb 5, 2012 17:22
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Hypnolobster posted:You may never notice a problem, but it's a giant vector for infection. The air in a house and outside is absolutely full of dust particles carrying yeast and bacteria, your house probably has some fun little skin cells floating around, your breath is full of tiny particulates of happy little sugar-consuming bacteria, etc. As a counterpoint: leaving the lid on while cooling promotes DMS in your beer. The DMS-filled condensate will drop back into your beer, and cause off-flavors. John Palmer - How to Brew posted:DMS is continuously produced in the wort while it is hot and is usually removed by vaporization during the boil. If the wort is cooled slowly these compounds will not be removed from the wort and will dissolve back in. Thus it is important to not completely cover the brewpot during the boil or allow condensate to drip back into the pot from the lid. The wort should also be cooled quickly after the boil, either by immersing in an ice bath or using a wort chiller. TOMSOVERBAGHDAD fucked around with this message at 19:11 on Feb 5, 2012 |
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Feb 5, 2012 19:08
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Josh Wow posted:Anybody that uses an immersion chiller leaves the lid off their wort when they're cooling it Wait, they do? I've always slid the lid over most way to keep dust or other particles out. Obviously you can't cover 100% since the tubes stick out of the pot, but.
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Feb 5, 2012 19:08
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I just got 2 gallons of fresh(ish)-pressed unpasteurized cider. Some questions: 1) Should I bomb this with some campden tablets, or will the yeast I pitch outcompete any of the potentially unwanted wild bugs? 2) I'm thinking of using some low-attenuating ale yeast like WLP002, Nottingham, or S-04 to help keep the cider as sweet as possible - anyone care to narrow this down or object? 3) I'm thinking of adding .75# of corn sugar, does this seem right for 2 gallons of cider? 4) I'm also thinking of adding some yeast nutrients and aerating the cider prior to pitching, but I actually haven't read much on this, I assume this is standard practice? 5) What's your favorite way to keep cider sweet? I've read that I can cold-crash / rack when it hits the desired FG, but this seems kinda hit-or-miss (gotta thief a sample on the right day), plus I'd like to have some still and some sparkling bottles so I don't necessarily want to lose they yeast (note that I won't be hitting full-carbonation for the style since I don't have a corking rig, but I figure that even beer-levels of carbonation should make a big enough difference, right?)
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Feb 5, 2012 19:20
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TOMSOVERBAGHDAD posted:As a counterpoint: leaving the lid on while cooling promotes DMS in your beer. The DMS-filled condensate will drop back into your beer, and cause off-flavors. Doesn't this not matter much with extract? Whoever made the extract needs to worry about it, but when you re-boil the extract at home you aren't likely to get much DMS.
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Feb 5, 2012 19:34
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e: ^ correctTOMSOVERBAGHDAD posted:As a counterpoint: leaving the lid on while cooling promotes DMS in your beer. The DMS-filled condensate will drop back into your beer, and cause off-flavors. Not if you actually, y'know, boiled the wort for 60-90 minutes. You'd have a pretty hard time getting anywhere near the DMS flavor threshold from 15 minutes of chilling wort with a lid on. If you're worried about it, the lid can go on after you've knocked down to ~150 f or so. Above that, short of a squirrel/flies/etc falling into the wort, you're not going to get many beer spoilers that will survive. I still have some issues imagining how people think that 16" of cool wort exposed directly to the air is a good idea.
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Feb 5, 2012 19:55
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I dunno, I always leave the lid resting on the top/cracked a little bit and not fastened so that there's always positive pressure inside the bucket like in an operating room so that air moves away from the liquid.
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Feb 5, 2012 19:58
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Hypnolobster posted:I still have some issues imagining how people think that 16" of cool wort exposed directly to the air is a good idea. Just from experience doing it and never having any negative effects. Leaving the lid off allows me to stir the wort which greatly reduces my cooling time. You could even argue that leaving the lid off reduces my chances for infection since stirring allows me to cut up to 10 minutes off my cooling time, which means my wort spends less time in the higher temperature ranges that bacteria thrive in and I get to pitch my yeast sooner. I also keep a spray bottle of star san around that I spray the open kettle with every few minutes, I'm not trying to make it sound like you can just do whatever and never get an infection. I just think people get a little to paranoid about poo poo in the air. Be reasonable about your sanitation and pitch enough healthy yeast and you'll be fine. I've had bugs, leaves and sticks all fall into my wort at different times and never had an infection from any of those things.
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Feb 5, 2012 20:07
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Because it's a huge volume and if you are using a chiller, it's not exposed that long...then you drop in a huge population of a microbe designed to out compete everything else. When people are trying to do wild ferments, they generally leave their beer in wide open containers (think giant turkey pans) and it still takes 8-10 days to get signs of fermentation. Contrast that with pitching yeast and within hours having fermentation. :edit: Danm, quick posting. I was responding to two posters up about exposing 16" of beer surface.
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Feb 5, 2012 20:07
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Josh Wow posted:Anybody that uses an immersion chiller leaves the lid off their wort when they're cooling it, unless they're one of those weirdos that cut slits into their lid for it. I do this every time for 10-20 minutes outside and have never had an issue with infections. I would notice too, almost all the beers I brew are under 5% and I do a lot of lighter styles. There's not a whole lot of room to hide off flavors in an ordinary bitter or helles.
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Feb 5, 2012 20:09
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Angry Grimace posted:One guy I know took some big wide pieces of aluminum foil, sprayed it down with Iodophor, and wrapped it around the top of the immersion chiller and kettle to prevent stuff from getting in. Cookie sheets!
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Feb 5, 2012 20:17
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Today has been a great day even though no homebrewing was involved. I went to the grocery store to get ingredients for chili, and I found two beers I had not had before - Sierra Nevada's new Ruthless Rye IPA, and Magic Hat #9. Of course I had to pick them both up. The SN RRIPA is pretty darn good. It reminds me of their Torpedo, but with some additional smoothness and spicy rye character that backs up the aggressive hopping nicely. I have not tried the #9 yet, but after all the recommendations in various homebrewing and beer-related threads, I am looking forward to checking it out.
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Feb 5, 2012 20:39
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Maybe it's due to my proximity and thus high exposure to number 9, but I don't think it's anything particularly special. It's good, don't get me wrong, nice strong apricot taste to it and very easy to drink it large quantities, but I wouldn't say it's really worthy of any hype. We used to drink #9 in high school when we wanted to spring for "fancy beer." Ruthless on the other hand is pretty awesome, I tasted a bottle of it two weeks ago and if I wasn't going to Ommegang next weekend and planning on loading up, I probably would have filled one of my growlers at the beverage center.
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Feb 5, 2012 20:51
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I'm doing a lambic today and trying to mimic a turbid mash without all the fuss. The point of a turbid mash as I understand it is to get some unconverted starch to make it to the fermenter, so what I did was do a regular mash with 85% of the grain bill at 155*, then raised it to 163* and added in the rest of the wheat for ~15 minutes. I figure this will have a pretty similar end result since most of the enzymes will be denatured before all the wheat can dissolve and get clipped down to sugar.
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Feb 5, 2012 21:07
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j3rkstore posted:Just wait until till you taste it to make that call Here's the problem. I REALLY like wheat beers. If this turns out good, I'll be doing crazy long brew days very often. Oh and my other big like? Lagers. Yeah... German ancestry I guess. Keep your hop bombs away from me! My current lineup is this:In bottles: Dunkelweizen and Hefeweizen Secondary: Marzen Primary: Weizenbock and Apple Cider (fermenting with 3068 aka best yeast ever) On deck: Fruit beer. Probably blackberry wheat. I was going to do blueberry, but what I've read indicates real blueberry flavor mostly ferments out...
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Feb 5, 2012 22:29
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Daedalus Esquire posted:Maybe it's due to my proximity and thus high exposure to number 9, but I don't think it's anything particularly special. It's possible that I will reach the same conclusion, but hey, new brewery (to me), so gotta try it out. I even made sure to mention to the store manager how much I appreciated the improvement in the beer cooler lately. And now I have to take back the part about no homebrew activities today - I am racking an IPA to kegs. Second keg is almost ready to be moved to the serving fridge for pressurization.
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Feb 5, 2012 23:50
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Oh. Right. Bottles. For bottling. The things I don't have for that thing I have to do in about two weeks. I should do something about that.
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Feb 6, 2012 14:36
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Cinnamon Bastard posted:Oh. Right. Bottles. For bottling. The things I don't have for that thing I have to do in about two weeks. Start. Drinking. Heavily. Cures all ills. Including this one.
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Feb 6, 2012 15:00
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Cinnamon Bastard posted:Oh. Right. Bottles. For bottling. The things I don't have for that thing I have to do in about two weeks. I found that buying Trader Joe's 6 packs is a cheap and easy way of getting bottles. The beer is 'decent.' Also:  Cracked open two of my braggots during "the big game." It is shocking how much of a difference there is already after 11 days. The dregs are pulled from a local brew and a Jolly Pumpkin, and I've got to say - the little critters in the JP really really come though and to a fantastic job blending in flavor with the honey. US05, is 'okay' but gets better with while warming. Think I'll let them age a lot more before I crack open the 1L bottles.
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Feb 6, 2012 15:08
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I suddenly realized I don't have a big stockpot/brewpot!  Is a 24-quart aluminum pot good enough? I mean...that's 6 gallons, so you figure I'd boil maybe half of the whole batch, just under 3 gallons, and that's plenty of space for foaming and such, yes? Or should I go with a 30 or 32 quart? My moneys! 
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Feb 6, 2012 16:18
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24 quart is a pretty good option. You probably will not be able to do full volume boils, partly because there's limited volume, and partly because your stove might not actually make enough heat to boil a full 5+ gallons. Also, nothing wrong with aluminum, but boil some plain water in it a couple of times before brewing to get an oxide layer going on - this will keep your beer from having a metallic flavor. If you have an issue with boilovers, get some Fermcap-S Foam Control. It's another seriously amazing product. Yes, it is more moneys, but fortunately a small number of them. The free method of preventing boilovers is to watch the pot like a hawk, ready to kill the heat immediately if needed.
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Feb 6, 2012 16:38
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Cinnamon Bastard posted:Oh. Right. Bottles. For bottling. The things I don't have for that thing I have to do in about two weeks. To any goon brewers in SoCal - if you are in this situation, I have recently slipped back into the habit of saving glass for some reason even though I really don't use bottles anymore. As a result, I have more than a case of good clean bottles. They are all well-rinsed, and are also mostly delabeled. If you're close enough to me (eastern Ventura County) to make a meetup practical, the bottles are yours for the asking, but there's no way it makes sense to ship empty bottles across town, much less across the country.
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Feb 6, 2012 16:42
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Looks like the Midwest Brewing groupon starter kit is back. Is there anything not included that I should tack on? Was thinking of another airlock and StarSan. Going to pick up a kettle at a local shop.
icehewk fucked around with this message at 16:54 on Feb 6, 2012 |
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Feb 6, 2012 16:49
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icehewk posted:Looks like the Midwest Brewing groupon starter kit is back. Is there anything not included that I should tack on? Was thinking of another airlock and StarSan. Star-San for sure. Possibly also PBW, although OxiClean works well also. An autosiphon will help you keep your mind composed. Fermcap is pretty nice to have, but not required.
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Feb 6, 2012 16:53
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Sweet...pot ordered, and I know I can't do full boils with it, but like you said, I don't think my apartment's crummy electric stove would put out enough heat to do it anyway. I plan on getting one of those propane burner things this summer, so I'll probably get a large pot when I get that, too. And hey, as a bonus, I'll be able to deep-fry a turkey as well!  Question: Would it be going too "overboard" to try to make a fruity (  ) beer with a secondary fermentation? I got a basic kit for a wheat beer, but I'd like to at least do something to it to make it my own...I was thinking raspberry or blackberry, though the earlier talk of Magic Hat #9 makes me think it would be ironically appropriate to do apricots (I say ironically because I live ~3 miles from the Magic Hat brewery.) It would be neat if I could do their beer better than they do...but I doubt it (of course, we'll ignore the fact that #9 is a pale ale and not a wheat beer, but eh...though I guess if I did blackberries I'd be doing a knock-off of Long Trail's Blackberry Wheat, another local-ish brewery.)Though I don't know how I'd sterilize the apricots...though I guess StarSan is safe to get a little bit of in the beer, so I could just soak them for a few minutes, let them drip dry, then toss them in? And if I do go that route, I would also have to (well, should) take a gravity reading before starting the secondary fermentation so I know how much sugar was converted to alcohol during the primary? And then do another gravity reading before bottling? And then a final one when I open the first bottle?
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Feb 6, 2012 18:07
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Assisting brewing on a Belgian strong ale today! This is my second brew I'm helping with, but I get excited as heck doing it. I'm also going to check how my pale ale is doing, it's been two weeks so it should some left! Does anyone know any good home brew website I could go to learn more about recipes and such?
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Feb 6, 2012 18:28
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DrBouvenstein posted:Though I don't know how I'd sterilize the apricots...though I guess StarSan is safe to get a little bit of in the beer, so I could just soak them for a few minutes, let them drip dry, then toss them in? Lol,  Just chop them shits up, freeze them, and rack on top of them in secondary. Pretty much the same way with all fruit tbqh.
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Feb 6, 2012 18:42
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Jacobey000 posted:Lol, I didn't think freezing would kill any nasties...sorry about being stupid, I was just reading a couple other places and people were always saying how they only used canned or frozen fruit because it gets pasteurized, so they didn't have to worry about 'sanitizing' their fruit...one guy said he dunked his is boiling water for a bit before adding them.
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Feb 6, 2012 19:11
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So I picked up a KAB4 burner and got to use it this weekend. HOLY poo poo is that thing amazing. Brings 5 gallons up to a boil in no time and is easy to maintain a vigorous boil with the flow turned down to minimum. Definitely worth the money and I'll be able to use the burner it if I ever build a proper brew stand.
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Feb 6, 2012 19:19
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DrBouvenstein posted:I didn't think freezing would kill any nasties...sorry about being stupid, I was just reading a couple other places and people were always saying how they only used canned or frozen fruit because it gets pasteurized, so they didn't have to worry about 'sanitizing' their fruit...one guy said he dunked his is boiling water for a bit before adding them. I've never done fruit myself, but I was under the impression that you're correct - freezing isn't going to kill any wild bugs on the fruit. Though those wild bugs will be very slow to start up which would make it a non-issue for kegging - if you're planning on bottling I'd wait until someone can confirm what Jacobey000 said.
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Feb 6, 2012 20:07
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DrBouvenstein posted:I didn't think freezing would kill any nasties...sorry about being stupid, I was just reading a couple other places and people were always saying how they only used canned or frozen fruit because it gets pasteurized, so they didn't have to worry about 'sanitizing' their fruit...one guy said he dunked his is boiling water for a bit before adding them. You could always soak them in vodka for a while before you add them to your secondary.
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Feb 6, 2012 20:25
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DrBouvenstein posted:I didn't think freezing would kill any nasties...sorry about being stupid, I was just reading a couple other places and people were always saying how they only used canned or frozen fruit because it gets pasteurized, so they didn't have to worry about 'sanitizing' their fruit...one guy said he dunked his is boiling water for a bit before adding them. I wasn't trying to make you feel stupid, I just had an image in my head of someone spraying apricots with star san. I was being too goony apparently. You aren't going to be killing any of the buggies - but your beer will already have booze in it making it pretty hard for the ones to worry about to grow. By freezing it you'll be bursting the cell walls that hold in the sweet sweet candy so when they warm up (in your beer) you'll be ready to soak it all up. Boiling water would work if you are worried, but honestly, it's not really a big deal. I racked on top of 5lbs of fresh (minched & then frozen) cranberries in a beer, I was worried too - but it came out without any funk (apart from way too much cranberry). You really do not want to 'cook' the fruit either though, because pectin and 'burning' off some flavors. Also: as a a tip, buy a thin mesh bag, weight it and rack on that, you'll want to jump off a bridge trying to rack off of the fruit. e: cryme posted:You could always soak them in vodka for a while before you add them to your secondary.
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Feb 6, 2012 20:27
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Indoor cooking question - a 20,000 BTU rangetop burner should be sufficient to reach & maintain a boil of 6 gallons, yes? I have a lot of equipment on its way, I'm set to buy ingredients to hit the ground running, and I just had this realization that, perhaps, everyone who's brewing is cooking on outdoor setups? It didn't even cross my mind until now...
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Feb 6, 2012 21:07
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wattershed posted:Indoor cooking question - a 20,000 BTU rangetop burner should be sufficient to reach & maintain a boil of 6 gallons, yes? 20k BTUs is probably on the low end of "just barely able to bring it to a boil" and it will likely take you an hour or more to get there.
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