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zedprime posted:Ahh yes, the exotic primary fermentation metabolic pathway that would never otherwise be taken when brewing beer. Wait a minute, that doesn't sound quite right. What I meant by that is that the yeast are producing products other than CO2 whereas the forced carbonation is just straight gas. I think it is reasonable to experience the taste to be different. I didn't mean to imply one or the other was superior.
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Oct 7, 2012 00:26
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I just bottled my blackberry mead, so I thought I'd share a bit. It was made using 3 pounds of wildflower honey and spring water to make a gallon. No heat, a bit of nutrient. Pitched Wyeast 4184 and let it ferment out. Racked onto puree of a pound of blackberries and left to age for two months. Pectic enzyme cleared up the awful haze it had after two weeks. It tastes amazing. The fruit flavour really stands out. It is deliciously tart and not too sweet, but not at all dry. There's a distinct honey finish and it's strong in the nose, too. This is the first thing I've made that was so enjoyable right out of the fermenter and I'm happy with myself. 
cobalt impurity fucked around with this message at 01:04 on Oct 7, 2012 |
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Oct 7, 2012 00:57
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cobalt impurity posted:I just bottled my blackberry mead, so I thought I'd share a bit. That's awesome. I'll be racking some mead onto about 7 pounds of blackberries tomorrow, assuming they thaw out by then. I spent this afternoon pressing cider and got about 3 gallons out of 2 buckets of apples. I need to make a few modifications but I'm pretty happy with the new pressing bucket over the old method of trying to balance cheeses. This is the Whizbang cider press design so there is a separate grinder that uses a garbage disposal. I chop the apples up so that they fit better and to catch any of those apples that look fine on the outside but have yucky bug damage inside.  Apples go in the top and the garbage disposal poops out applesauce.  The pressing bucket is an old bottling bucket. I cut off the bottom 3 inches to use as a form for filling the cheeses so they each get a consistent amount of mash. Then I drilled a bunch of holes in the sides with a Unibit. Each layer has it's own bag with pressing discs in between them. I need to make a longer pressing shaft. When I first built the press I was worried about getting the shaft in and out so I made it short and blocked it up as needed. Now I realize I can just remove the middle boards to install the shaft.  The cider must flow! 
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Oct 7, 2012 02:42
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Beer4TheBeerGod posted:What I meant by that is that the yeast are producing products other than CO2 whereas the forced carbonation is just straight gas. I think it is reasonable to experience the taste to be different. I didn't mean to imply one or the other was superior. So in your head, what exactly is happening differently to that final 2 points of gravity compared to the first 60, and why should it manifest strong enough to make a difference with a 3% gravity contribution consisting of a neutral adjunct?
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Oct 7, 2012 06:31
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Speaking of cider. Bought 10 gallons yesterday at my favorite local orchard, campden tabbed them yesterday afternoon. Adding 1# each of Light & Dark brown sugar, and molasses. Pitching 4766 and red star champagne in two separate 5 gallon batches. Boss. Jacobey000 fucked around with this message at 13:55 on Oct 7, 2012 |
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Oct 7, 2012 13:52
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zedprime posted:So in your head, what exactly is happening differently to that final 2 points of gravity compared to the first 60, and why should it manifest strong enough to make a difference with a 3% gravity contribution consisting of a neutral adjunct? Looking over my post I should have been more clear. You're right that the difference is probably not significant.
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Oct 7, 2012 14:50
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Jacobey000 posted:Speaking of cider. Bought 10 gallons yesterday at my favorite local orchard, campden tabbed them yesterday afternoon.
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Oct 7, 2012 18:42
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Made a holiday maple brown ale yesterday that I pitched onto a fresh yeast cake of WLP028 that I had just used for a Scottish 80 shilling. 6 gallons of 1.083 OG beer + lots of healthy yeast = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHSgZAnEWIY
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Oct 7, 2012 19:05
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Huge_Midget posted:Made a holiday maple brown ale yesterday that I pitched onto a fresh yeast cake of WLP028 that I had just used for a Scottish 80 shilling. 6 gallons of 1.083 OG beer + lots of healthy yeast = I'm about to throw 5 gallons of a 1.086 OG strong belgian into a NB brew bucket; is it acceptable to put one of my brewing tubes into my airlock and leave the other end in a bucket of sanitizer?
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Oct 7, 2012 19:41
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YASD posted:I'm about to throw 5 gallons of a 1.086 OG strong belgian into a NB brew bucket; is it acceptable to put one of my brewing tubes into my airlock and leave the other end in a bucket of sanitizer? If you wanted, but you're essentially doing the same thing twice.
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Oct 7, 2012 19:43
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YASD posted:I'm about to throw 5 gallons of a 1.086 OG strong belgian into a NB brew bucket; is it acceptable to put one of my brewing tubes into my airlock and leave the other end in a bucket of sanitizer? Yeah that would probably work but be careful with the end of the airlock. If they are anything like the ones I have, they have very small holes that are just meant to vent gas. Hop trub and krausen will clog up the little holes pretty fast and pressure can build up quickly. I'd try to modify the end of the airlock by either cutting off the tip with the small holes, or better yet try to find a piece of tubing that fits snugly in the rubber gromit of your bucket lid. I just use a quart Mason jar full of Star-san solution as my airlock when I rig up a blowoff tube like the one in the video above.
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Oct 7, 2012 19:59
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I put a curved racking cane into a rubber stopper and then put a short piece of tubing on the other side and into a cup of water.
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Oct 7, 2012 21:14
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Nateron posted:What are you paying for a gallon of cider? Up here a spring frost knocked out almost all our grapes and apples so local cider is $11 per gallon. I bought some in NY for $5 a gallon and some in CT for $6 a gallon, and we had the same thing with the frost killing off the apples, so I don't think it affected the price too much.
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Oct 7, 2012 21:18
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So for that above mentioned DIPA recipe, I'm thinking about subbing out the Citra due to scarcity and price. Galaxy is looking like a good substitute, but it's equally pricey. Any good suggestions for a substitution? Maybe I'll just go all Centennial?
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Oct 7, 2012 22:54
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Wanted to order a kit or two this week, but one of those I wouldn't have space for right away. Assuming that I'm brewing extract, with dry yeast, and something with specialty grains, how long can I wait until I make up one of those kits? It looks like the biggest concern is the specialty grains and that everything should stay sealed and put in the freezer and the yeast in the fridge. Does this sound right? Does AHS send their grains in sealed bags? That sounds like a stupid question, but I figured I should check.
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Oct 7, 2012 23:22
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Huge_Midget posted:Yeah that would probably work but be careful with the end of the airlock. If they are anything like the ones I have, they have very small holes that are just meant to vent gas. Hop trub and krausen will clog up the little holes pretty fast and pressure can build up quickly. I'd try to modify the end of the airlock by either cutting off the tip with the small holes, or better yet try to find a piece of tubing that fits snugly in the rubber gromit of your bucket lid. I just use a quart Mason jar full of Star-san solution as my airlock when I rig up a blowoff tube like the one in the video above. Yeah, sticking one of my brewing tubes that fits in the rubber hole in my lid was my plan, at least for the first few days, not sticking it on my airlock. I'm maybe a little concernicus that it won't be completely air tight but if it's pumping out gas at a record pace I won't be too worried that there will be inflow.
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Oct 7, 2012 23:51
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Took a gravity reading on the connoisseurs ipa bitter kit my friend got and no infection and it tastes okay. Og was 1.040, finished at 1.010. I added an ounce of cascade hop pellets to it to bring up some more hop presence and plan to add 1-2 ounces of toasted oak chips for a week after the hops have sat for a week. Any thing I should do different?
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Oct 8, 2012 00:41
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Just getting back into brewing after a long absence. I bought myself an immersion wort chiller to force the issue ("Now that I have it, I have to use it"), and I'm really glad I did. Got a brown ale in my primary now, and a porter lined up for next week. It's nice to be back in the hobby! That said, I had an IPA sitting in a fermenter all that time (months!), and it miraculously didn't get touched by infection or yeast autolysis. Bottled it yesterday, so we'll see how it works out. How long can you reasonably expect a beer to last before going bad, assuming the airlock stays intact and all that?
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Oct 8, 2012 02:26
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Nateron posted:What are you paying for a gallon of cider? Up here a spring frost knocked out almost all our grapes and apples so local cider is $11 per gallon. Bought mine for $5.75/gal from my favorite local orchard. Cheapest I saw though was at the farmer's market for $5/gal. Btw, this may sound obvious, but the molasses will darken the gently caress out yo cider. Landed at 1.074 OG.
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Oct 8, 2012 02:49
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I used to home brew, slowly amassing the cheapest ghetto-rigged parts I could to build an all grain system. I even had a complete fermentation cooler built out of a box, some old house insulation, the air conditioner thermostat out of my 1978 BMW (the A/C didn't work anyway), a computer fan, and some frozen 2 liter bottles. I had nothing but problems trying to infusion mash in a bucket, when the largest pot I owned held about a gallon and the porch-screen false bottom kept floating up and letting all the grain come right out during lautering. I eventually became frustrated and gave it up. Fast forward 18 years to a few weeks ago when a friend asked me why I hadn't gone back to home brewing? Parts and ingredients are now easily and quickly available on this new internet-thing, and I have more money than just the cash in my wallet to afford more respectable equipment. She was right! This time however, I was determined to not be frustrated by the mashing and lautering process. To this end I have now spent $2285 on getting all the parts to build an all grain electric brewery in my garage. I've got pumps and tubing and fittings and giant rear end wires and glorious 15.5 gallon stainless pots. If you looked at my old system and said "Build me the opposite of that piece of poo poo", this is what you'd build. However, there's just one crucial piece missing: the mash tun false bottom. -- As much as I'd love to buy a Blichmann Boilermaker with their false bottom, that's $500 and I'm already way over my construction estimate on this project. -- The flap-down false bottoms designed to fit in the curved bottoms of kegs won't work as my pot isn't the right dimensions. -- I'm weary of any of the domed stainless mesh false bottoms because they look too much like my floating old window screen filter. -- Do slot designs work well? -- "Bazooka Tubes" seem to clog endlessly. Are there any cool new whiz-bang false bottom ideas out there that I should be looking into? My mash kettle is 15.25" in diameter and has no holes cut yet, although I'd prefer a side train to a bottom drain. EDIT: 15.25" not 18.25". It is 18.75" tall and I confused the measurements. CapnBry fucked around with this message at 01:34 on Oct 9, 2012 |
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Oct 8, 2012 21:44
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What did you get for a mash tun?
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Oct 8, 2012 22:05
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I haven't gotten it yet, contingent on finding a good false bottom. The other two kettles (pots) are Bayou Classic 62qt and that's what I expected to use for the mash as well if I could get the right bottom.
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Oct 8, 2012 22:10
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So I have IPA that's been going for a little more than a week now and I think I'm about to attempt my first dry hop. It's a 5 gallon batch and I was planning on using 2-3oz Ahtanum. What's the standard time to let it dry hop until bottling?
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Oct 8, 2012 23:53
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So I've been stressing out over my third batch that's been in the primary for 8 days now. Did the Dead Ringer (Two Hearted clone kit) from NB that had a substantial amount more hops than I had brewed in my first two batches, also double the alcohol content. Hydrometer readings are right where I want it to be, but a lot of the particulate from the pellet hops didn't sink totally with the krausen after fermentation. They are kind of just lingering in specks on the top along with the normal patches of bubbles. No visible film that I can tell, bumping the carboy lightly didn't reveal any membrane either. So I'm not sure it's pellicle... Is it normal for the top of the beer to still have some hop particles that didn't drop on the surface?
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Oct 9, 2012 00:02
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hellfaucet posted:HOP SPOTS You're fine. If anything, I'd stop opening the lid and just let it do its thing.
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Oct 9, 2012 00:36
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Buying all kinds of poo poo to build up a water profile from scratch combined with all the other brewing related chemicals I've got has to have put me on some sort of watch list at this point. No, Officer, I've not poisoned anyone and I didn't use all that stuff to clean up a crime scene. Yeah, sure, you can look around. No, wait, don't open that bucket!
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Oct 9, 2012 01:38
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I need to put a muslin bag with cubes of oak into my keg. I couldn't find un-waxed dental floss to hang it in, so I got waxed. Waxed shouldn't matter, should it?
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Oct 9, 2012 01:49
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The worst thing I can imagine happening is that you end up with trace amounts of wax in your beer.
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Oct 9, 2012 01:51
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CapnBry posted:I used to home brew, slowly amassing the cheapest ghetto-rigged parts I could to build an all grain system. I even had a complete fermentation cooler built out of a box, some old house insulation, the air conditioner thermostat out of my 1978 BMW (the A/C didn't work anyway), a computer fan, and some frozen 2 liter bottles. I had nothing but problems trying to infusion mash in a bucket, when the largest pot I owned held about a gallon and the porch-screen false bottom kept floating up and letting all the grain come right out during lautering. I eventually became frustrated and gave it up. I will attest that the Blichmann false bottom in my 10 gallon Boilermaker mash tun is glorious. I've never had a stuck sparge, and the grain bed sets and runs clean very quickly. I run off maybe half a gallon of wort and the bed sets and runs clear. I pour the runnings back into the tun to vorlauf and then fly sparge or batch sparge depending on the beer. I don't know if you could somehow adapt a Blichmann false bottom to your kettle, but it's the best design I've ever seen.
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Oct 9, 2012 02:16
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CapnBry posted:
No reason to go whiz-bang, IMO, false bottom technology isn't exactly rocket science. 3/32 holes on 5/32 centers seems to do the job for most applications. I had a hardware store braid in my old system and had nothing but problems. I got mine made by NorCal Brewing Solutions for my 15 gallon megapot with locally welded outputs. I ended up getting their large stand in exactly the height I needed to make sure my port was below the false bottom. I've never had it stick even with extremely high percentages of wheat and I always recirculate my pumps at full blast for the whole mash. The false bottom/stand combination with a handle welded on was about twice the price of the morebeer version for the same pot but is much more durable.
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Oct 9, 2012 02:29
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Turns out my upstairs spare bathroom never goes above 72 during the winter. 
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Oct 9, 2012 03:09
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So my beloved, clever wife has been listening to me mention, mostly while daydreaming, about trying home brewing for a couple of years. My birthday rolls around this past weekend, and she and my son are just about exploding trying to keep a secret. I knew it was about a present, but I had no clue what it was. Anyway, I open up the big boxes, and there's a beginner's starting set with ingredients for a nice dark ale, and I'm blown away. So I've been devouring this thread for the last couple of days, but I've got a couple of quick questions: 1.) Should I just snag a stainless steel stock pot from Amazon for boiling? I'm looking to start cheap since I'm a total newbie. 2.) I don't need a strainer/screen, do I?
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Oct 9, 2012 03:22
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Nostratic posted:So my beloved, clever wife has been listening to me mention, mostly while daydreaming, about trying home brewing for a couple of years. My birthday rolls around this past weekend, and she and my son are just about exploding trying to keep a secret. I knew it was about a present, but I had no clue what it was. You definitely want at least a 5 gallon pot even for partial boils, although I bet someone knows where to find a cheaper one (although I paid just about the same as that for my first pot). You won't need a strainer or anything for your first beer. The most important thing to learn on your first brew is the important of good sanitation.
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Oct 9, 2012 04:07
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I'd say look for at least a 7 gallon pot for brewing 5 gallon batches.
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Oct 9, 2012 04:22
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Nostratic posted:1.) Should I just snag a stainless steel stock pot from Amazon for boiling? I'm looking to start cheap since I'm a total newbie. Check out http://www.homebrewfinds.com/, you should be able to find a stockpot that suits your needs in a matter of days for a pretty good price. If you are unsure if its a good deal, just ask in here. Buy as much stockpot as you can afford right now, I really wish I would have gotten a 7.5 - 10 gallon pot right when I started, it seems silly to me that I have to buy another pot when I could have spent a few bucks more last year. As far as your second question, no you don't need a strainer/screen, at least not for extract brewing. BUT! if you buy a big stock pot then you can roll into BIAB as soon as you feel comfortable enough to do it!
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Oct 9, 2012 04:37
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Huge_Midget posted:I'd say look for at least a 7 gallon pot for brewing 5 gallon batches. I'd go further and say I wouldn't recommend less than a 10 gallon pot, if only because a 10 gallon will have more than enough headroom for any all grain batch up to 5 gallons, and aluminum pots are not that expensive.
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Oct 9, 2012 04:45
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Huge_Midget posted:I'd say look for at least a 7 gallon pot for brewing 5 gallon batches. *Select the 32qt. lid and then order from Bake Deco for $20 shipped in the "More Buying Choices" box on the right. I don't know why the first result comes up as $100 for a lid, but it doesn't actually cost that much.
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Oct 9, 2012 04:46
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Its his first batch. I don't think he needs to worry about adequacy for all-grain batches. A 5 gallon pot is just fine - most stoves can't bring 5 gallons of anything to boil. In other news, the little plastic piece that clips your AutoSiphon to the side of the bucket/carboy is the best thing ever.
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Oct 9, 2012 05:21
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Angry Grimace posted:In other news, the little plastic piece that clips your AutoSiphon to the side of the bucket/carboy is the best thing ever.
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Oct 9, 2012 06:45
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Welp, kegged a brown ale and a Pliny clone. As usual, I did something wrong on both of them. I literally don't think I've ever stuck to the "plan" on any beer from start to finish ever.
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Oct 9, 2012 07:36
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