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wattershed posted:I...thought I was? The one I'm using has 5- and 7-day dry hop additions that I lazily combined to one 7-day addition, but the way I read it was to add two bags of hops, leaving one in for five days, then the other for two more days for seven days total. Somehow it never crossed my mind that it would be five, then seven days. Probably using the same recipe but clearly will have different dry hop schedules. The recipe they give you at Russian River says 12-14 total days on the first addition, and to add the second addition at 5-7 days left in the total dry hop period. quote:Recipe provided by Vinnie Cilurzo
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Jun 11, 2012 07:02
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Cross posting from the beer thread as I know there are a few Chicagoons here: This Saturday in Chicago I hope a few of you (and I'll probably bug the few of you I've met fyi) will come to a bottle share. We are going to start here: http://www.yelp.com/biz/barbari-cafe-chicago at 4:30pm. I imagine we'll be there for a couple of hours, after which we will be hitting some bars in the area like Happy Village, Small Bar, and where ever else we want to go. If you're gonna go, send me a PM and I can give you my phone # in case you are wanting to hit us up later in the evening. I'll probably be bringing some Jolly Pumpkin and Founders stuff though so you better come and help me drink it. 
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Jun 11, 2012 14:00
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Yeast starter question: Philly Beer Week just ended and my girlfriend is going on vacation for a week starting this Friday so naturally I was inspired to do at least three brews while she is out. I need to do a yeast starter for each of these as I will be using different strands of washed yeast for each. If I make a starter today, once it has built up can I just decant it into a mason jar and stick it in the fridge till I need it next week? I would love to just churn these beers out next week and the yeast is the only potential hold up. I imagine there will be no issue in doing this but better to be safe and get other opinions then be stuck with no yeast.
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Jun 11, 2012 15:55
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It probably makes more sense to put the yeast you have in the fridge, and then make the starters the day of. I don't see any reason you couldn't refrigerate a starter, but I guess I don't see the point.
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Jun 11, 2012 16:18
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Sirotan posted:Cross posting from the beer thread as I know there are a few Chicagoons here: Daaaammit. Not only have I not brewed in a few weeks and am out of homebrew stock (*gasp*) but I also have plans on Saturday. That place is just a skip due south of me too :-/
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Jun 11, 2012 16:22
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Mr. Glass posted:It probably makes more sense to put the yeast you have in the fridge, and then make the starters the day of. I don't see any reason you couldn't refrigerate a starter, but I guess I don't see the point. I would love to do that but the starters take a couple of days to build. This yeast has already been in the fridge for over 6 months and there isn't much of it, so it has to boost its cell count.
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Jun 11, 2012 16:27
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ChiTownEddie posted:Daaaammit. Not only have I not brewed in a few weeks and am out of homebrew stock (*gasp*) but I also have plans on Saturday. That place is just a skip due south of me too :-/ Obviously you should cancel, because beer is more important.
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Jun 11, 2012 16:46
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Sirotan posted:Obviously you should cancel, because beer is more important. haha indeed. The timing maaaaay work out, we'll see. I'd like to meet some goons too!
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Jun 11, 2012 16:51
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ChiTownEddie posted:haha indeed. The timing maaaaay work out, we'll see. I'd like to meet some goons too! Welp you can PM me for contact infos if you want. Otherwise I'll just bug you again towards the end of the week. :]
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Jun 11, 2012 17:41
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nesbit37 posted:I would love to do that but the starters take a couple of days to build. This yeast has already been in the fridge for over 6 months and there isn't much of it, so it has to boost its cell count. Oops, totally missed the fact that you were using washed yeast  Disregard, sorry!
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Jun 11, 2012 17:48
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Angry Grimace posted:The recipe they give you at Russian River says 12-14 total days on the first addition, and to add the second addition at 5-7 days left in the total dry hop period. The dry hop timing is the only thing I did differently, so I guess it'll be close but not identical. No worries there. Thanks for the full recipe though, I'd seen it elsewhere but clearly haven't seen it from the source.
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Jun 11, 2012 18:00
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wattershed posted:The dry hop timing is the only thing I did differently, so I guess it'll be close but not identical. No worries there. Thanks for the full recipe though, I'd seen it elsewhere but clearly haven't seen it from the source. It isn't technically the original, it's the converted version from Zymurgy a few years back. The actual card they give you at Russian River just has a set of percentages on it. A really random thing is that Russian River's new website states that "Pliny the Elder is brewed with Amarillo, Centennial, CTZ, and Simcoe hops," despite the fact that Cilurzo explicitly stated in that Zymurgy article that there are no Amarillo hops in it. (referring to Pliny the Younger) "We add in a good portion of Amarillo hops, which Pliny the Elder does not see. The Amarillo hops work hand in hand with the Simcoe hops, which is the signature hop in Pliny the Elder." Angry Grimace fucked around with this message at 18:39 on Jun 11, 2012 |
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Jun 11, 2012 18:35
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Angry Grimace posted:It isn't technically the original, it's the converted version from Zymurgy a few years back. The actual card they give you at Russian River just has a set of percentages on it. Odd. Probably some crossed wires at some point. What drew me to this hobby was the ease in creating close approximations of what the big boys can make - the mere fact that I can take a stab at replicating PtE, it creates a low barrier to entry and makes it all that much more accessible and enjoyable.
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Jun 11, 2012 18:58
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wattershed posted:Odd. Probably some crossed wires at some point. The only reason I would be slightly hesitant to brew PTE is the fact the hop bill would cost like 30 dollars. I've got a lot of Simcoe in my freezer, but it was overpriced in the first place.
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Jun 11, 2012 19:16
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Angry Grimace posted:The only reason I would be slightly hesitant to brew PTE is the fact the hop bill would cost like 30 dollars. I've got a lot of Simcoe in my freezer, but it was overpriced in the first place. I bought a 50lb 2-row bag and the fact that the bulk of the grain in the recipe comes from 2-row let me blow up the hop bill (monetarily and in profile) without spending a ton on it. I know it's hard to directly compare "would this be cheaper to make or buy?" but I feel like I'm coming out a bit cheaper in this scenario for a PtE clone. I'm also just now at the point where I have all my equipment I'll need for sustained brewing, and ingredients are the only thing that'll need replenishing for a while (or until something inevitably breaks).
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Jun 11, 2012 19:41
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wattershed posted:I bought a 50lb 2-row bag and the fact that the bulk of the grain in the recipe comes from 2-row let me blow up the hop bill (monetarily and in profile) without spending a ton on it. The grain bill is deceptively simple, as you can see and dextrose is something that they sell in fairly large bags for very little cost. It isn't so much the actual financial cost of all that Simcoe, it's the fact that I only have a very limited amount of Simcoe and it was very expensive to get in the first place. I think I was paying like 6 bucks for 2 oz. of it. Has anyone made an APA with Citra? My buddy wants to do an APA this weekend and I'm probably going with the old standby: ripping the recipe off of Jamil Zainasheff's book and subbing some hops. If I recall correctly, the aroma/flavor hops are centennial and cascade, but I don't have any cascade/centennial and almost a pound of Citra - should I go single hop or any recommendations for a good complimentary flavor hop?
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Jun 11, 2012 19:58
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We needed to brew a batch for my parents' 40th wedding anniversary in a few weeks and wanted to take advantage of a full day, so my wife and I had our first attempt at two simultaneous 10 gallon batches. I managed to take a few crappy cell phone pics throughout and wanted to share since this thread always needs more pictures! The set-up during both mashes:  Pale Ale sparge:  Holiday Ale decoction:  First runnings of Holiday Ale:  Pulling off the Holdiay Ale to fermenters:  We had to borrow a lot of equipment from a friend to make this happen but I think we'll be in the market for the additional gear soon. We're used to having a lot more down time with one batch, but I felt that a second really worked well with that extra time. Obviously we had to stagger the batches and were about 75-90min apart on the process for each. Only downside was double the amount of spent grain/hops which I was fortunate to drop off with my dad for his large compost. R2Brew fucked around with this message at 20:51 on Jun 11, 2012 |
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Jun 11, 2012 20:42
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I have limited space and am thinking about small-batch brewing. Anyone have any experience with the Brooklyn 1 Gallon beer kits?
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Jun 11, 2012 20:52
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Trane posted:We needed to brew a batch for my parents' 40th wedding anniversary in a few weeks and wanted to take advantage of a full day, so my wife and I had our first attempt at two simultaneous 10 gallon batches. I managed to take a few crappy cell phone pics throughout and wanted to share since this thread always needs more pictures! I can't imagine you did yourself any complexity or time favors by doing a decoction mash. I kind of like the old tymey aspect of doing a decoction mash but everything I've heard is that its a pretty limited benefit.
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Jun 11, 2012 21:00
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Angry Grimace posted:I can't imagine you did yourself any complexity or time favors by doing a decoction mash. I kind of like the old tymey aspect of doing a decoction mash but everything I've heard is that its a pretty limited benefit. Probably true. We're still fairly new to all-grain having just fully converted this year and only have 10-12 batches worth of experience with non-extract. The process is still fun and I feel like I'm still learning nuances that we don't mind. Besides, with long hours of daylight this time of year spending 12 hours outdoors working on beer is a great way to spend a Saturday. We've done infusion only mashes as well and still had success. Our friend who loaned us the equipment had been doing decoction style for 20+ years so we're trying to follow the lead of a good mentor (plus his beer is outstanding).
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Jun 11, 2012 21:18
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Anyone have any boil pot recommendations? I only do 5 gallon batches, so I'm thinking a 40 quart pot is all I need and I'm not sure how much of a difference wall thickness and base width and things like that will make. I'm thinking something like the Northern Brewer stainless steel Megapot 10 gallons ($182.99 with ball valve), I'm having a tough time seeing why paying anything more than that would be worth bothering with.
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Jun 11, 2012 22:01
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Angry Grimace posted:I've heard is that its a pretty limited benefit. This alone certainly isn't worth the time investment, but on a side note whenever I do a decoction, sparging goes way easier (i.e. each running clears up in one pitcher instead of two or three), and there's far less hot break when it's time to boil. Decoctioning is also one of the ways to add color to a beer without using grains - the double decocted heff I brewed ended up at least twice as dark as BrewSmith predicted. The flavor contributions are harder to put a finger on simply since I wouldn't have a non-decocted beer to compare to, but the first runnings of a decocted mash seems roastier / more bready, which is definitely a good thing in the styles it is traditionally associated with. I'm not trying to sell the process to anyone here, it's certainly a lot of extra work for something that doesn't produce a truly obvious result, but I definitely get an itch to do a decoction mash every 10 or 20 brews.
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Jun 11, 2012 22:10
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Super Rad posted:This alone certainly isn't worth the time investment, but on a side note whenever I do a decoction, sparging goes way easier (i.e. each running clears up in one pitcher instead of two or three), and there's far less hot break when it's time to boil. Funny you mentioned this, I know you're speaking more about clarity, but we experienced our first stuck sparge on the batch of Pale Ale. Easy to clear, just blew back up the hose but used a bit more force than necessary. This affected one of the fermenters which now has a ton of particles churning, but I'm not too worried as this should likely settle out after fermentation.
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Jun 11, 2012 22:34
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RiggenBlaque posted:Anyone have any boil pot recommendations? I only do 5 gallon batches, so I'm thinking a 40 quart pot is all I need and I'm not sure how much of a difference wall thickness and base width and things like that will make. I'm thinking something like the Northern Brewer stainless steel Megapot 10 gallons ($182.99 with ball valve), I'm having a tough time seeing why paying anything more than that would be worth bothering with.
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Jun 11, 2012 22:47
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BerkerkLurk posted:Probably nothing wrong with that pot, but if you're a cheap mother fucker like me I'd recommend getting a 10 gallon aluminum pot from a restaurant supply store for less than half that price. I've been using the same 2 aluminum pots for the last 3 years, so I'm not too worried about cost
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Jun 11, 2012 23:16
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RiggenBlaque posted:Anyone have any boil pot recommendations? I only do 5 gallon batches, so I'm thinking a 40 quart pot is all I need and I'm not sure how much of a difference wall thickness and base width and things like that will make. I'm thinking something like the Northern Brewer stainless steel Megapot 10 gallons ($182.99 with ball valve), I'm having a tough time seeing why paying anything more than that would be worth bothering with. Getting it prevalved is one of the bigger wastes I've done. I figured it was integral at the price premium but nope, bulkhead. Otherwise Megapots are awesome. Ease of cleaning of stainless, with the scorch proofing of aluminum since it's bottom is aluminum cored.
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Jun 11, 2012 23:19
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Super Rad posted:This alone certainly isn't worth the time investment, but on a side note whenever I do a decoction, sparging goes way easier (i.e. each running clears up in one pitcher instead of two or three), and there's far less hot break when it's time to boil.
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Jun 11, 2012 23:25
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RiggenBlaque posted:Anyone have any boil pot recommendations? I only do 5 gallon batches, so I'm thinking a 40 quart pot is all I need and I'm not sure how much of a difference wall thickness and base width and things like that will make. I'm thinking something like the Northern Brewer stainless steel Megapot 10 gallons ($182.99 with ball valve), I'm having a tough time seeing why paying anything more than that would be worth bothering with. I'm not sure what shipping costs are like as I'm lucky and this is my local store, but when I did some research before buying my brewpot, this was the cheapest I could find that didn't seem lovely: http://www.homebrewing.org/9-Gallon-Stainless-Steel-pot-with-one-weld_p_1683.html There is also a no-weld and 2-weld version. So far I've used it once, and it seems perfectly fine to me. Sirotan fucked around with this message at 00:37 on Jun 12, 2012 |
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Jun 12, 2012 00:35
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Angry Grimace posted:somewhat scientific I'll take my personal experiences over this "double blind study" seeing as I have no idea how something like that could even be scientifically done - it's next to impossible for someone brewing on a homebrew scale to guarantee that two batches are identical except for one difference, and Ajaarg, bless his soul, would be throwing conniptions at the mention of using BJCP judges to lend legitimacy to a taste test. At the very least if the decoction were properly conducted there would be a noticeable difference in color between the two batches, so I don't know how conclusions were so hard to draw. There are still large breweries in Germany that do decoctions on a large scale - if it achieved absolutely nothing I'm certain the German brewers would have discarded the process in the name of efficiency - they have modernized nearly every other facet of their operation.
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Jun 12, 2012 00:35
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Super Rad posted:I'll take my personal experiences over this "double blind study" seeing as I have no idea how something like that could even be scientifically done - it's next to impossible for someone brewing on a homebrew scale to guarantee that two batches are identical except for one difference, and Ajaarg, bless his soul, would be throwing conniptions at the mention of using BJCP judges to lend legitimacy to a taste test.
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Jun 12, 2012 01:00
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Speaking of Denny, my first yeast-harvesting experiment is Wyeast 1450. I need to pick up some mason jars from Walmart tomorrow  
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Jun 12, 2012 03:18
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global tetrahedron posted:I have a pretty rollicking fermentation underway; it was bubbling nicely after only an hour or two after i pitched the starter. By 'cool' what temp are you talking? I don't have much temp control atm but the basement to my apartment building is around 70-75. My apartment itself (2nd floor, no AC) is probably in the 80s. That's mostly why I am doing Belgians these days, I love them, for one, and then two, if it's gonna be hot, I guess I might as well bear it and go for some yeast that can handle it. Fermenting this entirely in the upper 60s, I got a pretty neutral flavor. Bumping it up to the low/mid 70s, I got a lot of yeast flavor - don't know what would happen in the 80s.
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Jun 12, 2012 03:47
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Man, I started a batch of NB Patersbier yesterday, pitched at about 6PM. it was climbing out of the carboy this morning, even with a generous headspace. Switched to a blowoff tube, so it's all better now. I worry that it's fermenting a bit too violently/fast, but all I can really do is crank the AC up a bit, so it's ~72 now. Other things I learned yesterday: 1> Putting your bottling bucket on top of the fridge and bottling on the adjacent counter is comfortable and easy. 2> After adding water to your wort to bring it to full volume in the fermenter, MIX IT before you take an OG reading. Otherwise you'll draw off a sample and seal it up and your OG reading will be .01 or more below where it should be, leading to a modest panic before you figure out where you hosed up. 3> PBW is totally amazing stuff. One of these days, I will make a full batch without screwing anything up.
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Jun 12, 2012 03:49
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What is you guys' favorite way of universalising recipes? I mean, I brew 5 gallon batches because that's what my setup is for, but if someone with a larger setup wanted a recipe from me, what would be the best way of communicating it without upscaling to specific size? What I mean is, can I say something like "85% maris otter, 10% Crystal 80, 5% Carapils" to achieve an OG of 1.080? That would work for whatever size kettle, right? But the hops are where I get stuck. It's easy enough to say "50 IBU worth of Nelson Sauvin" but not only are the calculation methods for IBU different, how do you generalize second/third/late additions? Sorry if this is all brew101, I've only just encountered this issue.
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Jun 12, 2012 10:56
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Kaiho posted:What is you guys' favorite way of universalising recipes? I mean, I brew 5 gallon batches because that's what my setup is for, but if someone with a larger setup wanted a recipe from me, what would be the best way of communicating it without upscaling to specific size? The ibu methods probably won't lead to huge discrepancies but for a truly universal way to talk a out additions there are bittering units per gallon. A bittering unit is the alpha acid % times the ounces. Specifying it per gallon and for x amount of time with y type.of hop is about as universal as you can get.
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Jun 12, 2012 12:24
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wafflesnsegways posted:Fermenting this entirely in the upper 60s, I got a pretty neutral flavor. Bumping it up to the low/mid 70s, I got a lot of yeast flavor - don't know what would happen in the 80s. Hmmm. Well, I guess I'll find out, because the peak of airlock activity happened in the first night and I'm pretty sure it was around or above 80F. By morning however the fermometer read in the 74-76-78 range. I dunno. As long as it's not headache inducing... (this is Wyeast 3787 if anyone is wondering)
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Jun 12, 2012 13:58
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This thread seems predominantly beer-based, so please point me in the right direction if this is the wrong place to post. Does anybody have any experience with mead? I just started my first batch yesterday. I was going for a five gallon batch, 1 gallon honey, 4 gallons water. I sat down and did my best to sterilize everything, boiled the 4 gallons, mixed it with the honey, stirred it really well, when it cooled to about room temp (a little warmer, my thermometer stopped working about halfway through the process so I had to guess), I added yeast nutrient and pitched the yeast (Red Star Cote des Blancs). I then added water (about a gallon and a half) to fill the primary fermentation vessel to close to the top, as per directions from my local brew shop guy. I didn't add any juice yet; I was advised to wait until after I transferred it to the secondary fermentation vessel. Apparently I didn't totally screw things up, because when I woke up this morning, the airlock was bubbling happily. There was a little bit of spillage: some of the mixture forced its way up through the airlock. I'm still a bit worried about contamination, and I hope I managed to rinse my equipment thoroughly enough after bleaching, but I'm afraid only time will tell on those counts. I am using about 5 and a half gallons of water instead of the originally-intended four. What sort of effect should that have? I figured, since the yeast only has a tolerance of about 14%, it would normally not consume that much of the sugar before the alcohol content kills it off. With more water, it would take longer to reach that concentration, so I guess it could consume more sugar, resulting in less sweetness? Does anyone have any advice for me going forward (things to do/not do in future batches, aspects further along in the brewing process)? 
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Jun 12, 2012 16:08
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R.D. Mangles posted:I have limited space and am thinking about small-batch brewing. Anyone have any experience with the Brooklyn 1 Gallon beer kits? Looks like this one got missed. I have not brewed with the 1-gallon kits, but just to mention it, there's also a goon who sells a 1-gallon rig, I think. You might look for his banner ads and give him a click if it's something you want to try. I don't know how his prices/service/selection is in comparison to Brooklyn's, but maybe it's worth a look. For my money, though, 1 gallon is a pretty small batch. Really, you are going to see about 9 or 10 bottles out of the thing, and it's not really any less work than a 5-gallon batch. Maybe 1 gallon is all you have space for, but here are some other options if you have just a *little* more space to work with: Although it gets a lot of flak, the Mr. Beer hardware is actually not bad. If you use it with better ingredients and processes than MB itself suggests, there's no reason you can't make perfectly good 2 (2.5? I disremember) gallon batches. As a step up from that, you might look into a 3-gallon Better Bottle as a fermenter - this should allow you to easily make 2.5 gallon batches, and has a very manageable footprint. And really, a regular brew bucket takes up a fairly small amount of space. My first batch literally sat in the corner of my (then-)girlfriend's tiny-rear end kitchen for a couple of weeks, and the cased bottles lived in a closet. Depending on just how limited your space is, the few square feet a five-gallon fermenter takes may not be too bad an imposition, but that's really your call.
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Jun 12, 2012 16:34
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Warheart525 posted:Does anyone have any advice for me going forward (things to do/not do in future batches, aspects further along in the brewing process)? Mead is fine here, although as you note we are mainly beer people here. First advice: ditch bleach forever. Get yourself some Star-San concentrate, a decent spray bottle, and some distilled water. Because it is food-grade and no-rinse, sanitation will consist of spraying things with the prepared solution (1.5mL per quart of distilled water) until they are wet, letting them sit for 30 seconds or so, and then draining any accumulated solution. The stuff is seriously amazing, and your hands don't smell like bleach afterwards, either. Additional water will have reduced the gravity of the must. 1.5 gallons is kind of a lot to add to a 5-gallon batch, so this is going to end up as a lighter mead than you had envisioned. Personally, I would have skipped the topping water, because the ferment activity will drive air out of the headspace and replace it with CO2 anyway. And really, honey does not need to be boiled. The moisture content of honey is so low that it is effectively self-sanitizing. The chances of infection are so low as to be nearly nil unless you are using seriously crude honey with visible chunks of non-bee-related stuff (leaves, dirt) in it. If it's been filtered at all (as is most commercial honey), I would tend to warm it just enough to make it easy to pour and dissolve in the (boiled and cooled) water. If you were feeling very paranoid about this very casual approach to sanitation, you could also sulfite the must for a day or two before pitching yeast. Jo3sh fucked around with this message at 16:59 on Jun 12, 2012 |
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Jun 12, 2012 16:56
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Adding to what Jo3sh said: From some quick calculations, with a gallon (12 pounds) of honey in a 6+ gallon batch you're going to be looking at about 8.5-9% alcohol, and it will probably ferment out quite dry. If that's not what you're looking for you can stabilize and sweeten when you bottle too, but sounds like you're close enough to the top of the fermenter to not really have the option to add more honey now unless you pour some out now. A couple of general notes: I don't think you really want to fill the primary fermenter very close to the top with anything just since it might foam up and blow the top off, it's when you transfer to secondary storage later that you worry about oxidation. Also, with mead I understand it's usually good practice to add some yeast nutrient especially when using a wine yeast, since honey is very low on essential nutrients even compared to fruit juice. Not strictly necessary though: you can make mead fine without it.
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Jun 12, 2012 17:01
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