|
What really confuses me about CaraPils/CaraFoam is how does it actually work in an all-grain batch? Don't the enzymes from the base malt go to town on any dextrins that are available from the CaraPils? Should these grains be kept separate and added in towards the end of the mash? At least I can see how it boosts FG when steeped, no enzymes and steeping is much shorter than mashing anyhow.
|
#
?
Jun 21, 2012 18:19
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 15, 2024 00:41 |
|
|
crazyfish posted:I think the problem you're going to have is you need to use more than you think you do, such that you can't reasonably bottle with that amount without risking bombs. I'd say if you're intent on making it cherry, rack it to secondary or dump some cherry puree in your primary, then bottle as normal. nesbit37 posted:This. I made a cherry ale a couple of months back and used 15 pounds of cherries in the secondary for a month for a 5 gallon batch. Even if it doesn't explode I don't think you are going to get the results you are thinking you will with just adding cherries/filling/flavor to bottles and growlers. Thanks guys. I'll rack to a secondary and pull off what my friend wants (the growlers) and I guess I'll add puree to it and see where it stands after a month or so. Another question though, I take it I'm looking for unsweetened puree and not like the pie filling in a can right?
|
|
#
?
Jun 21, 2012 19:01
|
|
|
Super Rad posted:What really confuses me about CaraPils/CaraFoam is how does it actually work in an all-grain batch? Don't the enzymes from the base malt go to town on any dextrins that are available from the CaraPils? Should these grains be kept separate and added in towards the end of the mash? I don't think amylase converts other sugars like dextrins; it converts starches. Caramel malts like Carapils (which is a trade name for a "dextrine malt") are already converted in the hull by the stewing process. Angry Grimace fucked around with this message at 19:21 on Jun 21, 2012 |
|
#
?
Jun 21, 2012 19:16
|
|
|
NB has some Apollo pellets on sale pretty cheap and I'm considering picking up a half pound or so to have on hand for bittering since it's ~19% AA. The flavor profile I'm reading says it has notes of wood and blackberry so it seems like a reasonably complex hop. Has anyone used this hop for flavor or aroma additions? Anyone know what it might pair well with?
|
|
#
?
Jun 21, 2012 19:36
|
|
|
Has anyone here ever steampressed blackberries for their juice? I want to vint blackberry wine and have about 4 gallon sized bags full of berries in the freezer so far, but I have no idea how much juice I can expect to get from a gallon of berries, or any measure really. I've had no luck finding any information on it elsewhere online. Any advice on blackberry winemaking is appreciated really!
|
|
#
?
Jun 21, 2012 20:22
|
|
|
Nateron posted:Thanks guys. I'll rack to a secondary and pull off what my friend wants (the growlers) and I guess I'll add puree to it and see where it stands after a month or so. Another question though, I take it I'm looking for unsweetened puree and not like the pie filling in a can right? Depending where you live, sour cherries are in season right now. Go buy a bunch of them, freeze them overnight to rupture the cell walls, and then use them whole. 1 quart of cherries is about 2 pounds worth. I wouldn't use pie filling. I could be wrong, but I have a feeling there is a lot of sugar added to it and it is going to do more than just add cherry flavor to the beer.
|
|
#
?
Jun 21, 2012 20:41
|
|
|
Nearly done with first all-grain brewday! It's much, much easier than I would have figured, say, 6 months ago. I had a lot of help from watching a local brewdude and forum goon run through an ESB, which made things much less intimidating. I kind of wish I never tried to read the all-grain section of How to Brew until AFTER I tried actually doing it, because all the math he throws down makes it seem really complicated. Of course, BeerSmith helps with that simplification quite a bit. I did some thinking about the chilling issue I mentioned previously and I ended up deciding that I really won't be using my chiller in the old brewpot anymore, so why not try to bend the living gently caress out of it and see what happens? I ended up kinking it a little bit more, but nothing that I would say is catastrophic. It's... pretty weird-looking, and probably not the most efficient system for this keggle, but big deal - it'll work. Anyway, jut have about 30 minutes to go on the boil, then cool the stuff down, pitch, and get it in the brewfridge. Man, I've been waiting a couple years for this while I read like crazy and put cash away for hardware and built and tweaked other pieces of equipment, and I'm pretty excited to finally be doing it. Funny how the two year wait to finally brew all-grain was kind of rough, but the next couple months while I impatiently wait to drink this Biere de Garde are going to be TORTURE
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2012 00:05
|
|
|
Awesome, it's always so satisfying when a plan comes together. You could fill in the time with an Ordinary or Special Bitter. Either of those could go from brewday to your mouth in like 8-10 days.
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2012 00:57
|
|
|
The How To Brew all grain section as an intro to all grain is a bit like trying to explain the otto cycle to someone taking their drivers license exam.
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2012 01:13
|
|
|
I did one partial mash, then jumped right into all grain. It really sounds more difficult than it is.
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2012 01:21
|
|
|
DrFrankenStrudel posted:Rhubarb I've got some rhubarb in my backyard that I've been thinking about using. My strategy was to make a strawberry rhubarb lambic. I have a friend that made a rhubarb wine that turned out great.
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2012 01:36
|
|
|
nominal posted:I kind of wish I never tried to read the all-grain section of How to Brew until AFTER I tried actually doing it, because all the math he throws down makes it seem really complicated. I'm thinking of taking this advice. After reading that chapter I felt like I needed a PHD in Chemistry to continue.
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2012 02:17
|
|
|
I'm wanting to add some peaches to an extract wheat beer I'm making, but it seems like purees are overly pricey. Should I just buy some frozen peaches/fresh peaches, chop em up and put the beer right on it, or should I try to puree them myself and sterilze them (i.e. with campden tablets)? This is, assuming it's not even more expensive than just buying a can of the puree.
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2012 03:09
|
|
|
Angry Grimace posted:I don't think amylase converts other sugars like dextrins; it converts starches. Caramel malts like Carapils (which is a trade name for a "dextrine malt") are already converted in the hull by the stewing process. This. Caramel malts are kilned while wet so you can get a variety of things from them. If you want to get really crazy with extract brewing, you can add a little 2-Row into your grain bag to do some extra conversion. In fact, some of the new Brewer's Best kits come like that to get a bit more out of your grain. This is also the reason that once you find caramels that you like, stick with one manufacturer for the best consistency across batches. We use Rahr base grain for the most part (unless we are going MO or Golden Promise), but go out of our way for the Briess caramels because we like them so well. Small differences in kilning process make the use of caramel malts less than predictable unless you regularly use one maltster.
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2012 03:44
|
|
|
Angry Grimace posted:I'm wanting to add some peaches to an extract wheat beer I'm making, but it seems like purees are overly pricey. Should I just buy some frozen peaches/fresh peaches, chop em up and put the beer right on it, or should I try to puree them myself and sterilze them (i.e. with campden tablets)? This is, assuming it's not even more expensive than just buying a can of the puree.
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2012 04:17
|
|
|
So I finally got off my butt and took the homebrew plunge and have my first batch sitting in primary right now. Learned a lot of important [what not to do] and [do this better next time] lessons and took a ton of notes, so that's cool. I've been sperging out about things and one problem I can't solve is getting my water to boil on my stove without having a lid on. I've tried 4 different pots (aluminum, stainless, some random black thing my mom had) and same results. I know it's out of the question to do allgrain with the lid on for a variety of reasons, but while I'm still in extract-learning-mode is it going to make too huge of a difference? PS: outdoor isn't an option where I live  Also I'm sorry if this has been answered a million times, I've been reading a lot of books on the topic but haven't read much of this thread beyond the first few pages.
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2012 04:37
|
|
|
nominal posted:Nearly done with first all-grain brewday! It's much, much easier than I would have figured, say, 6 months ago. I had a lot of help from watching a local brewdude and forum goon run through an ESB, which made things much less intimidating. I kind of wish I never tried to read the all-grain section of How to Brew until AFTER I tried actually doing it, because all the math he throws down makes it seem really complicated. Of course, BeerSmith helps with that simplification quite a bit. I'm glad things went smooth for you man. I just got my third regulator and gas manifold to finish my kegerator, so I'm doing that this weekend and then consolidating some kegs. Wanna do a saison soon?
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2012 04:40
|
|
|
fullroundaction posted:So I finally got off my butt and took the homebrew plunge and have my first batch sitting in primary right now. Learned a lot of important [what not to do] and [do this better next time] lessons and took a ton of notes, so that's cool. For extract, you are probably better off with the lid on than an all-grain brewer would be. Depending on the extract you are using, the DMS (the stuff you are trying to get rid of by having the lid off) should have been driven off already. But you'd be better off without the lid anyway. If you beer tastes like canned corn, that's the DMS. Having the lid on most but not all of the way may give some kind of compromise between lid off and on, retaining enough heat to get to a boil while still venting steam and such. Some people have also reported finding a pot with a short, wide geometry and using it across two burners to get enough heat. But really, you just may be in a position where you have a lovely stove and it's just not going to boil for you. If you're trying to do full-volume boils, this is not really very unusual; I've also heard of people who can't even do a partial boil (2-3 gallons) on their stove, in which case drat, how do you even cook. If brewing on a propane burner outdoors isn't an option for you, and brewing on your crappy stove isn't working, try asking around to see if you can borrow someone else's heat source. I even know one guy who used to go camping just so he could build a giant fire to heat his brewpot.
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2012 05:09
|
|
|
Daedalus Esquire posted:I'm pretty sure it was in Radical Brewing where I read it, but peaches tend to be very disappointing in beer. The author recommended subbing apricots for a similar yet recognizable flavor. That was what the internet in general had said, but I wanted to give it the old college try anyways. I suppose my question is sort of independent of the fruit variety though.
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2012 05:41
|
|
|
fullroundaction posted:
If you have an electrical outlet near your stove you can use an electric heat stick to supplement. I have no personal experience with the various DIY options out there but I did use a 1000W Marshalltown 742G bucket heater from Amazon when my stove couldn't quite do 10 gallons. It made a big difference and might get you over the edge.
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2012 06:01
|
|
|
Note to self: never buy anything from the LHBS unless there's no other option. Pretty much everything is gouge-level prices.
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2012 07:32
|
|
|
Thanks for the heating advice guys. I wouldn't describe my stove as lovely (it's only a few years old) but it's a glass-top and the burners constantly turn themselves on and off for whatever reason. When they're burning full tilt it WILL boil, but then after 10 seconds they click off and the boil immediately subsides (if there's no lid on). Repeat over and over. Never thought I'd regret replacing my old, burned-out coil burners e: Looking at bucket heaters which appear to just be exposed elements. Is there any danger there in it scorching the malt or other crap floating around in the kettle? fullroundaction fucked around with this message at 13:22 on Jun 22, 2012 |
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2012 13:16
|
|
|
fullroundaction posted:Thanks for the heating advice guys. I wouldn't describe my stove as lovely (it's only a few years old) but it's a glass-top and the burners constantly turn themselves on and off for whatever reason. When they're burning full tilt it WILL boil, but then after 10 seconds they click off and the boil immediately subsides (if there's no lid on). Repeat over and over. I use water heater elements that are far in excess of the bucket heater and it just gets a bit of beer scale not unlike the bottom of a pot anyway.
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2012 13:49
|
|
|
As mentioned, build a heat stick. It's cheap and easy and saves a ton of headaches. Its the only way I can get a boil with my electric stove. Using the burners on the stove and a heat stick I can get 9 gallons of wort boiling in less than a half an hour. http://www.cedarcreeknetworks.com/heatstick.htm
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2012 13:54
|
|
|
Bruinator posted:1000W Marshalltown 742G bucket heater Good god the reviews for this thing. Someone bought one for use in a DIY hot tub they made from a 100 gallon stock tank.  For some reason I thought you could only build your own heat sticks which seemed like tempting fate. Good to know I may actually have more options besides 3gal batches when I go to all grain with my lovely electric apartment stove.
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2012 14:04
|
|
|
Kelley Geuscaulk posted:I decided to try my hand at yeast rinsing this week. I gave it two rinses and decants letting it settle for at least 12 hours for each rinse. After the final rinse it sat in my fridge overnight and this is what I ended up with. That looks like a pretty decent wash. Usually you only want to let the slurry sit for ~20-30 min per decanting. You only want two distinct layers (maybe a little bitty bit of clearish beer on the top as a mini-third layer). If you have three distinct layers, your yeast has settled and you will be leaving a lot of it behind. It doesn't take trub and dead yeast long to settle to the bottom. Much faster than healthy yeast on most strains. Non-crappy HBT thread on the topic with pictures, http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/yeast-washing-illustrated-41768/
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2012 14:49
|
|
|
Daedalus Esquire posted:I'm pretty sure it was in Radical Brewing where I read it, but peaches tend to be very disappointing in beer. The author recommended subbing apricots for a similar yet recognizable flavor. I wonder what RJ Rockers is doing for Son of a Peach? That stuff is pretty great. Jo3sh posted:For extract, you are probably better off with the lid on than an all-grain brewer would be. Depending on the extract you are using, the DMS (the stuff you are trying to get rid of by having the lid off) should have been driven off already. But you'd be better off without the lid anyway. If you beer tastes like canned corn, that's the DMS. Having the lid on most but not all of the way may give some kind of compromise between lid off and on, retaining enough heat to get to a boil while still venting steam and such. Some people have also reported finding a pot with a short, wide geometry and using it across two burners to get enough heat. For what it's worth, the Brewer's Best kits I used (the hefe and the Belgian) specified that I needed to leave the lid off or bittering would result. I have no idea how true that is, might just be a CYA in case casual users need to boil the chlorine or sulphur out of their water or something.
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2012 15:40
|
|
|
Angry Grimace posted:Note to self: never buy anything from the LHBS unless there's no other option. Pretty much everything is gouge-level prices. This drives me nuts. One of the other places locally charges $3/oz for Cascades...I'm charging $1.25 and I feel like that's too much. We pretty much went online and looked at NB's pricing, cut that by 15% and we're still making a ton of margin. It's amazing how greedy a homebrew store owner can be. On the other hand, when someone comes in to our place and bitches that $35 for a bag of (non-bulk buy) 2-row is too high so they're going to buy it online, I want to loving choke them. I've also been told that I'm a greedy rear end in a top hat for selling Vintner's Reserve wine kits for $45. And then of course you have the folks who can't understand that it is impossible to carry every strain of liquid yeast under the sun and get pissed off at you. The LHBS is kind of a lose-lose scenario. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone unless you live in a very big city and have no existing competition.
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2012 15:43
|
|
|
Splizwarf posted:I wonder what RJ Rockers is doing for Son of a Peach? That stuff is pretty great.
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2012 15:57
|
|
|
Daedalus Esquire posted:it was the most reasonable solution I could think up. Was this pun intentional?
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2012 15:59
|
|
|
Mud Shark posted:The LHBS is kind of a lose-lose scenario. I think this is true for shops that support any kind of hobby. People start these businesses with stars in their eyes and passion in their hearts because they love the hobby and want to share it with the world, but soon the reality of having to pay rent on their retail space sets in, and they get a lot of lookers but not too many buyers. A new brew shop opened near me recently and I want them to be awesome, but they just have not yet managed to make it over the hump. I think it's even worse in some of the hobbies my wife has - she spins and knits, and I have to tell you that, unlike brewing, there is no imaginable way you can break even on a pair of socks vs. buying them at retail. Industrialization of converting fiber into clothes has so completely changed the economics of that craft that you have to do it for the pure love of it. People ask her how much it would cost for her to knit them a sweater, and the answer is always, "it's just impossible."
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2012 16:03
|
|
|
Mud Shark posted:This drives me nuts. One of the other places locally charges $3/oz for Cascades...I'm charging $1.25 and I feel like that's too much. We pretty much went online and looked at NB's pricing, cut that by 15% and we're still making a ton of margin. It's amazing how greedy a homebrew store owner can be. Angry Grimace fucked around with this message at 16:33 on Jun 22, 2012 |
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2012 16:30
|
|
|
The two things they're profiting on are 1) people who don't use the internet / don't like to shop online / want to buy local and 2) instant gratification. And by profiting I mean surviving, it's not something you get into to get rich quick. Or slowly. Those prices are very likely to not be gouging, but rather what it costs to keep them in business. The internet's ruined everything in that respect. Luckily mine's a corner in a mom & pop landscaping supply place, one of the owners is an avid homebrewer. Good place for carboys, buckets, and the other big things you wouldn't want to ship. Not the kind of place you'd buy liquid yeast, though.
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2012 16:38
|
|
|
Mud Shark posted:The LHBS is kind of a lose-lose scenario. I live 2 minutes from a MoreBeer brick & mortar, they are definitely an exception. There's 0 markup from their online store and I've been able to avoid buying a mill thanks to theirs. Also the folks that work there are awesome and will usually give us an extra discount or will actually let us walk out with the really cheap stuff (airlocks, o-rings).. as long as the GM isn't watching.
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2012 16:41
|
|
|
Daedalus Esquire posted:I'm unfamiliar with the brewery/beer, but if I had to guess they probably filter the beer to get the yeast out and then add a peach syrup. I think that's what most brewers do with blueberry beers since blueberries are also very fermentable and lose a lot of their distinct taste when yeast gets to them. It seems like it would be a sound practice for keeping peach flavor intact. I don't actually have experience with doing this, or have the process confirmed by anything, but it was the most reasonable solution I could think up. The Compleat Meadmaker by Schramm actually does a really good job at covering fruit additions and quantities needed for good flavor in the section on melomels. Yes, it is focused on mead but I have used the same recommendations for fruit beers and gotten really good results.
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2012 16:42
|
|
|
Anyone here in the Pittsburgh area? I got the ingredients for my last brew at South Hills Brewing supply, but I was a little disappointed that they only had White Labs liquid yeast. Are there any places locally that sell Wyeast smack packs? I usually feel a little more confident that the yeast is viable when I use them. (On the positive side, they had both Citra and Amarillo hops, which I'm led to believe are in pretty short supply right now)
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2012 16:47
|
|
|
Angry Grimace posted:It doesn't make any sense to me, because the places around here aren't competitive with NB or B3 at all. It's like 33% higher on every item and some items like malt extract are easily 50% markup. Really: they want like 17 and change for 3 lbs. of DME. Midwest wanted $23 and MoreBeer wanted $20, that's both after shipping. Seems like a fair price for DME? I think the 1 lb bag I bought last time was $5.xx, so that seems in line with what you were quoted. If all those places are gouging, I'd love recommendations on where to buy it cheaper (or anything cheaper) online. I've only been to All About Brewing locally. I've been saving my receipts for things like specialty grain prices, and my end goal is to buy enough things from that place to determine what, with shipping factored in, is cheaper to buy online and what's still cheaper in the store. That way when I build a recipe in BeerSmith, I can add all my ingredients, then look at each ingredient which I should have a 'local' or 'online' denotation for as to where to purchase it. I'm also taking mental notes of which grains they seem to stock so I don't have to waste my time building up a recipe with the expectation I can walk in on a Friday and walk out with everything I need to brew on a Sunday and realize they're missing, say, Crystal malts of every color level. Yeast and hop stock seems to be great, though, but I'm pretty sure I can get much of that cheaper online. I also wonder how much the reality of knowing there's a bunch of people who need things at the last minute plays into pricing at the local shops. Kind of a 'what else are you going to do?' philosophy.
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2012 18:26
|
|
|
wattershed posted:Midwest wanted $23 and MoreBeer wanted $20, that's both after shipping. Seems like a fair price for DME? I think the 1 lb bag I bought last time was $5.xx, so that seems in line with what you were quoted. If all those places are gouging, I'd love recommendations on where to buy it cheaper (or anything cheaper) online. NB has Breiss DME for $11.50 for a 3 lb bag, my LHBS has the same stuff for something like $13... $20-23 sounds exorbitant.
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2012 18:43
|
|
|
Mr. Glass posted:NB has Breiss DME for $11.50 for a 3 lb bag, my LHBS has the same stuff for something like $13... $20-23 sounds exorbitant. You're not factoring in shipping. On NB if you add that 3lb bag and ship it at its cheapest to my zip code, it's $19.49.
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2012 18:50
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 15, 2024 00:41 |
|
|
$7.99 shipping for everything at NB unless it's big like carboys and kettles. That's why I went with them over anyone else online, because not only is it a good deal but I like that I can mostly ignore shipping during the shopping.
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2012 19:05
|
|