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Docjowles posted:This is another good one (actually the entire site rules if you like the RiggenBlaque posted:This probably doesn't give everything you're looking for, but is a good overview: Second question: I'm running a RIMS-type mash that circulates the wort through the grain (this thing: http://www.speidels-braumeister.de/), and haven't been doing a secondary. After say 4 weeks in the fermenter, on average, I still have a tonne of suspended particles in the keg, which leads to a rather grainy mouthfeel. I'm thinking the recirculating mash is releasing a lot of flour from the ground grains that might not be released in a normal mash. To clear this up, will finings like Irish Moss work well? I've never really bothered with finings before as I didn't care too much about having clear beer, but it's getting intrusive, now.
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Apr 1, 2012 14:23
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side of brewing)
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icehewk posted:How do I do a beta glucan rest? I'm using BIAB so there's no drain to be plugged up. Think I'll still throw in some rice hulls for insurance/cleaning. It doesn't plug up the drain so much as the grains themselves get kind of cement like and won't let water flow through them. This may actually be less of a problem with BIAB, I'm not sure. To do a beta glucan rest just do your first mash step at 95-113* for 20 minutes or more before you raise the temp to your normal mash temperature. Cpt.Wacky posted:I'm getting back to beer brewing this weekend and I started with a Blonde Ale extract kit this afternoon. I pitched Safale US-05 with the wort at about 77 F. Ambient temperature is going to be 63 F and I'm reading that the sweet spot for US-05 is 65 F, so with the extra heat from fermentation I should be pretty close, right? I also read about raising the temperature near the end, what effect does that have? First of all you always want to pitch your yeast 2-4* below your target fermentation temp and let it warm up. Yeast are more active at higher temperatures so you threw them into this warm wort and they took off, then the temperature is going to drop and stress them out and slow them down. This can lead to off flavors and/or an incomplete fermentation. Ambient temp of 63 for US-05 is pretty perfect. Raising the temperature at the end ensures the yeast stay active and give you a complete fermentation and can help them to clean up off flavors that may have been created during fermentation.
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Apr 1, 2012 15:49
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the42ndtourist posted:To clear this up, will finings like Irish Moss work well? I've never really bothered with finings before as I didn't care too much about having clear beer, but it's getting intrusive, now. Irish moss or whirfloc tabs should help alot. You might also want to consider "cold crashing" your carboy once it's time to rack i.e. refrigerating your fermenter down as low as you can get it without freezing to encourage everything to settle to the bottom and then rack into your keg/bottles.
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Apr 1, 2012 16:36
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My first day brewing went pretty smoothly. There were only a few slight problems. I never had a 'hot break', but I think that is common. Then I put my candi sugar in at 40 minutes instead of 20 since I can't read a recipe. Also, I didn't like how long it took to cool the wort before I pitched the yeast, and I didn't have a lid on the kettle because I was stirring made while I sprayed water on the side of the kettle. But I just shined a light into the side of my Mr. Beer and it was churning along gamely. One can hope.
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Apr 1, 2012 17:53
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Sweet new system from Morebeer! B3 All-In-One Brewing System
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Apr 1, 2012 18:47
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Docjowles posted:Sweet new system from Morebeer! Cue HBT debate regarding advantages/disadvantages of drinking beer through a straw.
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Apr 1, 2012 18:52
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Docjowles posted:Sweet new system from Morebeer! I love the callback to the ancient history of brewing in Mesopotamia, using a reed to draw beer from the serving vessel. In ancient times, this was done to help filter particles from the beer and to enable to communal experience of sharing beer with one's friends; now we have that opportunity again while maintaining a connection to modern brewing with updated ingredients and flavors. I've put in my pre-order, and I feel that the cost is well in line with the high quality of the expected product.
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Apr 1, 2012 18:55
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Docjowles posted:What was the actual number you got for OG and FG, and how does it line up with the kit's recipe specs? There just aren't that many variables to mess up in an extract kit, so it's pretty hard to miss your intended OG unless you added way too much water. It can be hard to MEASURE it accurately, though, since it's tough to get the extract to fully and evenly dissolve. So one reading might be super high and another might be super low, but in reality you're fine. OG was 1.035, FG was 1.010 (stable for 3 days). At this point I'm just hoping I got a bad reading on the OG. edit: Bottling seemed to go well enough. 12 more days until I find out if I made vinegar or not! Les Oeufs fucked around with this message at 19:39 on Apr 1, 2012 |
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Apr 1, 2012 19:34
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Josh Wow posted:First of all you always want to pitch your yeast 2-4* below your target fermentation temp and let it warm up. Yeast are more active at higher temperatures so you threw them into this warm wort and they took off, then the temperature is going to drop and stress them out and slow them down. This can lead to off flavors and/or an incomplete fermentation. Thanks. The MoreBeer kit instructions say to pitch between 70 and 80, and Northern Brewer less than 78. Fermentation hasn't been very vigorous so far, so I think it'll work out in the end. I was using dry yeast and the instructions had me rehydrate with 90* water. Would that cause the same kind of stress or is it necessary to get them active from the dry dormant state?
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Apr 1, 2012 20:26
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I don't like rehydrating that warm. I killed a package of notty doing that and my brown ale got infected. I generally just dump dry yeast right in as long as its not to big of a beer and it's never really been a problem.
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Apr 1, 2012 20:42
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So I have an altbier fermenting [edit: On Wyeast 1007 German Ale]. I'd like to reuse the yeast cakes when I move the batch to kegs. I have on hand lots of American 2-row, most of a bag of Weyermann Pilsner, and about a third of a bag of Weyermann Munich. I also have a variety of hops available, including Amarillo, Citra, Bravo, (domestic) Saaz and a few other things I can't remember just now. So any suggestions about what I should do next? I'm thinking an amber-colored bier de garde, heavy on the hops. Jo3sh fucked around with this message at 22:05 on Apr 1, 2012 |
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Apr 1, 2012 21:54
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In an effort to finally get moving on my all-grain setup, I destroyed a bunch of kegs this weekend. The process was surprisingly un-fatal. And I still have more than 99% of my fingers! Was it safe and/or smart? Probably not! I did wear gloves, goggles, and ear plugs if that helps? Also: DUST MASK. loving wear one of them. The exterior of my mask is a dark gray after cutting these. I would not have wanted to breathe all that powdered stainless. Stainless steel lungs do not really provide as much of an Armor Class bonus as you'd think and are just not particularly worth it. Jig is a 2" hole saw screwed to a big piece of scrap from something. The cable ties worked surprisingly well (I actually used more of them than pictured for most of the process), but you will use something much more stable and safe than dumb stupid cable ties, because you are a smart person that generally does not make bad decisions. I would actually recommend them for keeping the power cord out of the way, though!  Here it is mounted on the keg. The hole saw fits perfectly once I ran a grinder around the exterior of the outward-bending teeth for a minute. Um... which probably ruined it as a saw, I suppose? I am sure there was probably a better solution to this than throwing away  . I don't know, I didn't really plan on using the hole saw for anything but this, really, so I didn't mind. Besides, it's too late now! End results. The good-looking one on the left is actually the FIRST one. The latter ones were much more sloppy and I did not get quite as big and clean of a hole. I think it is because I really took my time on the first one and made 4 or 5 passes around, whereas the others I did in 1 or 2. I am not sure if this was intentional, as for most of the first keg I still had the handle screwed into the angle grinder and it rested on the lip of the keg which I think kept me from cutting too deeply. I would probably go this route on the first couple passes, actually. The second keg seemed to cut fairly easily somehow and the cutting disk sank deeper than I thought and ended up breaking a few times.  All-in-all, though, this whole thing was much easier than I was anticipating. The hardest part was probably trying to come up with some sort of improvised jig. The first keg probably took about 10 minutes. The others probably about 5. I still need to smooth out those cuts, and I still have a hole to drill in one of them, so there is a strong possibility that the worst is yet to come. At the moment I am only planning on "finishing" one of them into a kettle. The others I will convert to hot liquor tank and mash tun as need and/or the funding required arises.
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Apr 1, 2012 22:06
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Stupid question time. First time beer making, had the wort chilling in the sink, went to pour some salt into the ice surrounding the pot, got a very small amount (<100 grains) into our ale. Did I ruin it?
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Apr 2, 2012 04:47
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nominal posted:
I love looking at keg cutting jigs. They're always really, really weird. Mine was pretty hideous.  The holes came out absolutely perfect, and if you've got them, the scotchbrite pads for an angle grinder work wonders for smoothing the edge. Also, don't bother trying to straighten the edge of that one keg. It'll never, ever budge without a very big rounding jig. Bastards are really tough.
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Apr 2, 2012 04:56
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TracerBullet posted:Stupid question time. First time beer making, had the wort chilling in the sink, went to pour some salt into the ice surrounding the pot, got a very small amount (<100 grains) into our ale. Did I ruin it? No. As with any food, salt in beer will tend to boost flavor, although with such a small amount, you won't notice it.
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Apr 2, 2012 05:07
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Hypnolobster posted:I love looking at keg cutting jigs. They're always really, really weird. How about jigs to help round out the hideous job someone else did in cutting my kettles? I am thinking I will just get some generic lids at Smart and Final, then Sharpie around them and grind away any bits inside the line, but is there an obvious way to do this that's easier? vvv Yeah, these kegs have clearly seen better days. They are rough enough that they might actually have been salvaged from a scrapyard, so using the rolled rim itself as a guide is not really workable. Maybe something with a sort of collar made from plywood or something would work. Or a turntable and a plasma cutter. Now who do I know with a plasma cutter? Jo3sh fucked around with this message at 06:28 on Apr 2, 2012 |
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Apr 2, 2012 05:10
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If you have an angle grinder and steady hands (and the keg rim is round still), you can get situated and just run the grinder around with the guard against the rim. It takes really steady hands, but I did 3 of a friends kegs like that and they turned out great. e: I've never had to deal with re-cutting a keg with a rim that was out of round, but I'm sure there are ways to do it. 1/2" copper pipe in the desired diameter circle mounted to the rim and a little roller jig for a grinder or something? Hypnolobster fucked around with this message at 05:34 on Apr 2, 2012 |
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Apr 2, 2012 05:32
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TracerBullet posted:Stupid question time. First time beer making, had the wort chilling in the sink, went to pour some salt into the ice surrounding the pot, got a very small amount (<100 grains) into our ale. Did I ruin it? As Jo3sh said, no you didn't ruin anything and people sometimes add salt to their water for advanced brewing chemistry stuff, though to anyone who is considering messing with their water chemistry and needs to use NaCl (table salt) make sure it's not iodized salt since iodine will mess with your yeasts health. (And Tracer, even if your salt was iodized, I doubt you added enough to worry about that)
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Apr 2, 2012 06:14
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Jo3sh posted:No. As with any food, salt in beer will tend to boost flavor, although with such a small amount, you won't notice it. Daedalus Esquire posted:As Jo3sh said, no you didn't ruin anything and people sometimes add salt to their water for advanced brewing chemistry stuff, though to anyone who is considering messing with their water chemistry and needs to use NaCl (table salt) make sure it's not iodized salt since iodine will mess with your yeasts health. (And Tracer, even if your salt was iodized, I doubt you added enough to worry about that)
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Apr 2, 2012 14:02
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I'm going to pick up a carboy warmer for a saison I'll be brewing in a week or so. Any recommendations? Can I use one on a better bottle or do I need glass?
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Apr 2, 2012 15:59
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internet celebrity posted:I'm going to pick up a carboy warmer for a saison I'll be brewing in a week or so. Any recommendations? Can I use one on a better bottle or do I need glass? I just use a heating pad I got from Wal-Mart for like $10 and then wrap the carboy in an old sleeping bag. I use it with better bottles and it's worked fine, they don't get hot enough to melt or anything. One of those FermWrap things would be nice to have since it surrounds the whole carboy, but I am cheap and would rather spend the money elsewhere.
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Apr 2, 2012 16:15
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How finely can you control the temperature with that setup? Or does it matter, with a saison?
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Apr 2, 2012 16:53
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I take the temp controller I use for my keg fridge and flip it from cool to heat, and plug the pad into that. So to within ~4 degrees which I think is the tolerance on that thing.
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Apr 2, 2012 17:19
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So I was thinking about dry hopping this really bland bitter in the keg. Any tips? I have nylon bags and a fair bit of hops but I'm curious about the best way to go about it. I suppose I need to weight the bag, but what's a good thing to use? (I can't find marbles around my house to boil, although I assume that'd be best)
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Apr 3, 2012 03:16
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I am pretty new to home brewing and will soon be making my first lager, as well as my first 5 gallon batch. The brew I will be preparing I will first be making as an ale with German bock white labs wpl833, and then the exact same recipe except lagering it for 2 months so I can see the difference between the two, how the lager yeasts acts when fermenting at ale temperatures as well as when used as intended. I have heard that I probably don't need to make a starter for the ale. It will be a 5 gallon batch with an OG of 1.076, but I would need to make one for the lager. Since I am making these one after the other with the same kind of yeast would I be able to just bottle the ale and then add the new wort on top of the old yeast cake and continue to avoid making a starter?
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Apr 3, 2012 03:58
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he1ixx posted:So I was thinking about dry hopping this really bland bitter in the keg. Any tips? I have nylon bags and a fair bit of hops but I'm curious about the best way to go about it. You got it. Soak the bag in sanitizer or boil it and then just chuck it in the keg. Marbles work well, as do any random stainless steel nuts/washers/whatever as long as they are clean and undamaged. Bitch Hat posted:would I be able to just bottle the ale and then add the new wort on top of the old yeast cake and continue to avoid making a starter? I would not do this. Lager yeast really hates to ferment much above 50F. It's going to be stressed, tired, or even dead if you do a fermentation close to 70F and your second batch at proper lager temps will just not turn out well. I'd recommend doing it the other way around, since a 1.076 ale really should have a starter too. Make a big 2 liter 2-vial starter, do the lager primary fermentation around 50 for a couple weeks, rack to a secondary and then pitch the next batch on top of that yeast and do your ale experiment with that. "Overpitching" the ale that way will hopefully mitigate the off-flavors you can expect from working a lager yeast at ale temps. Docjowles fucked around with this message at 06:47 on Apr 3, 2012 |
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Apr 3, 2012 06:44
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Docjowles posted:You got it. Soak the bag in sanitizer or boil it and then just chuck it in the keg. Marbles work well, as do any random stainless steel nuts/washers/whatever as long as they are clean and undamaged. You'll also get better extraction of hop aromas and such if you dry hop at fermenting temps rather than serving temps. I'd suggest sinking your hop sock in a keg and leaving it somewhere cool-but-not-cold for a couple of weeks, then moving the beer to a fresh keg to get it off the vegetable matter. I've left the hop sock in the beer in the past until the keg ran dry, but best practice is to remove it.
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Apr 3, 2012 16:06
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Is it cool to ask just brewing questions here? Some friends and I were going blackberry picking and were planning on just making a basic hobo wine/ mead w/ it. So I guess my question is, how hard is this to gently caress up? Should i be using just 1 gallon or 3 gallon jugs. We have a local brew store here in town, I should be getting airlocks for the jars themselves, I figure we're going to make about 20 gallons of the stuff. Anyway thats it. Is there any specific thing I really need to know before attempting this? I made dormroom/hobo booze in college w/ the balloon and coke bottle. It's been so long that I'm just like gently caress it let me do it right.
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Apr 3, 2012 16:13
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Well, people have been making fruit wines since the dawn of time, so it's a pretty reasonable project. Since it's fair to assume that these blackberries you are going to pick are growing in dirt, have been crawled on by bugs and shat on by birds, etc., you probably will want to sanitize the must to allow the yeast you want to use to outcompete all the nasties. I have not done this myself, being a beer guy, but one approach would be to make up your must (crushed berries, honey, water) and add sulfites to sanitize. I'm not 100% sure, but I think the yeast gets pitched the next day or some such when sulfiting like this.
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Apr 3, 2012 16:22
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Jo3sh posted:Well, people have been making fruit wines since the dawn of time, so it's a pretty reasonable project. Since it's fair to assume that these blackberries you are going to pick are growing in dirt, have been crawled on by bugs and shat on by birds, etc., you probably will want to sanitize the must to allow the yeast you want to use to outcompete all the nasties. I have not done this myself, being a beer guy, but one approach would be to make up your must (crushed berries, honey, water) and add sulfites to sanitize. I'm not 100% sure, but I think the yeast gets pitched the next day or some such when sulfiting like this. Blackberries grow on brambles, their incredibly annoying to pick. Because you know they stick you. So it's a labor of love really. I figured to clean them I'd just give the berries a wash and that should be enough. I've made plenty of pies etc.. with wild blackberries and that's always turned out fine. Yeah, its my first attempt at real brewing. I'm planning on just using a recipe for mead flavored with juice very basic, honey, the juice. The question I have is do I want to boil all this together? Then strain it? From what I've read you have to skim the must. I'm more curious as to the ratio, I have no idea on that some recipes give a 1 part to 3 ratio then others will be completely different. I don't want the blackberries to over power the flavor of the mead, but also I still want it to be very black berrie. If that makes sense. Basically was looking for a real simple easy mead recipe online or one that someone here has used. For reference I was using as my containers, 3 gallon Glass Jugs, w/ the aspirator thingie Hollismason fucked around with this message at 16:39 on Apr 3, 2012 |
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Apr 3, 2012 16:32
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Hollis posted:I figured to clean them I'd just give the berries a wash and that should be enough. I've made plenty of pies etc.. with wild blackberries and that's always turned out fine. OK but you're planning on boiling and Jo3sh was describing a method to sanitize the berries cold to keep the blackberry flavour. This is a really good guide to mead making: http://www.morebeer.com/public/pdf/wmead.pdf
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Apr 3, 2012 17:00
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Yes, boiling will work, but has some downsides both in loss of flavor and aroma, and in clarity of the final product. I'm not trying to knock it, it seems like a decent way to make a first foray and will definitely work to make a sanitary must, just pointing out that many people would opt for the cold sanitation offered by sulfites.
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Apr 3, 2012 17:12
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What's actually going on chemically when cold-sanitizing with sulfites?
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Apr 3, 2012 17:27
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I found this: http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview/id/569754.html Which contains this: http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=525195 "Postulated mechanisms of sulfite toxicity or inhibition of microbial growth include reactions with protein disulfide groups (3, 19, 25), inhibition of enzyme activities by inactivating their cofactors (e.g., thiamine pyrophosphate) (31) or coenzymes (e.g., NAD) (20, 25, 27, 29), and rapid depletion of ATP and ADP pools (14). Sulfites may also react with pyrimidine residues of nucleic acids (17, 26), which can lead to genetic damage and cell death." Although I am not a biochemist, my obviously incomplete understanding is that sulfites aren't really a sanitizer, but a bacteriostatic which prevents bacteria from reproducing. It's also pretty volatile, so it stuns all the bad guys then goes away, letting the desirable yeast go to work. The article linked above also seems to say that cultured yeast have some tolerance for sulfites and just excrete them if they are absorbed.
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Apr 3, 2012 17:44
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So less of a sanitizer and more of a literal sterilizer. Reading that, it looks like it acts as a neutralizing agent on the various molecules used inside bacteria cells. Also looks like an acidic delivery fluid will give the best results. Pretty cool, thanks for the link!
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Apr 3, 2012 18:02
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I could only get cider that had potassium sorbate in it when I started my hard cider. After a bunch of research I found a forum post by a guy who called a chemist at a company that produced k-sulfate for brewing, the explanation he got was that they inhibit reproduction of microorganisms, but they do not kill them. The molecule apparently messes up the budding points for yeasts. It also apparently becomes more effective in higher alcohol environments. I pitched 3 dry packets of yeast in the cider and got very good fermentation, so I assume doing similar with hobo wine/mead should be fine.
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Apr 3, 2012 18:07
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What's the effect of using less or more water when doing a partial boil? I've been playing around with Beer Calculus on Hopville given that I have a recipe for a 10 litre kit but may not be able to boil the entirety of that given that I very nearly topped out my brewpot with the last batch which only called for 6 liters. So if I brew this using less water than called for, do I have to increase the hop bill to make up for it? Also, on Hopville it says "late additions" in the grains bit. How late are "late additions"? If you look at the recipe I linked it requires part of the DME to be added later, presumably to avoid massive color change...
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Apr 3, 2012 19:01
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crazyfish posted:Hops do lose a little of their luster as they age (aged hops are used on purpose in lambics), but if they're kept cool (refrigerated or frozen) and vacuum sealed they'll be fine for at least 6 months and possibly longer. I just kegged and IPA I brewed with 2 year old Amarillo hops. These were kept vacuum sealed and in the freezer. The beer tastes perfectly fine. I was a little worried that they wouldn't work out though.
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Apr 3, 2012 19:20
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Well my actual process was to just make it like jam, I mean heat the berries then distill the juice bits I don't want then add it to the mixture of honey and water. Not putting the actual berries in there but don't really know if that is going to work. I have no idea though on the proper amount though. Still researching that. It recommends concentrate. So just researching how much juice I want to put in there. Depending on when I harvest the blackberries is important as well, the less ripe the more bitter.
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Apr 3, 2012 21:16
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Hollis posted:Well my actual process was to just make it like jam, I mean heat the berries then distill the juice bits I don't want then add it to the mixture of honey and water. Not putting the actual berries in there but don't really know if that is going to work. I have no idea though on the proper amount though. Still researching that. It recommends concentrate. So just researching how much juice I want to put in there. Depending on when I harvest the blackberries is important as well, the less ripe the more bitter. Crushing the berries and heating them, then chucking out the solids (skins and seeds) and just using the juice should work just fine. You may have an issue with pectin haze if you take that path, but that's a very minor quibble. As to how much to add, it's kind of hard to say. First, as you note recipes are all over the drat place as far as the ratio of fruit to honey. Second, if you're chucking out the solids, I have no idea how much whole fruit equivalent the juice represents. This may be an area where you have to take a wild guess an tweak your recipe next time. One good place to start might be to add the juice from half or two-thirds as much whole fruit as you are planning to use honey. That is, for each pound of honey, maybe add the juice from 8 to 12 ounces of berries. That's just a guess, though, so use your judgement.
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Apr 3, 2012 22:00
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