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hellfaucet posted:A few of the higher viewed YouTube videos I was watching yesterday had the host's doing the shake with the gas attached. It makes way more sense now that you'd disconnect the gas lines while doing this, and way cleaner. But then you don't have more gas to put into solution, right? It seems like it makes more sense to do with the gas on.
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Oct 11, 2012 21:05
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Angry Grimace posted:But then you don't have more gas to put into solution, right? It seems like it makes more sense to do with the gas on. The pressure is high enough that there's all the gas you need in there, or plenty to carb it, anyhow. If you need more, you just re-dose it a bit. Seconding the "just put everything at serving pressure and leave the ones you're carbing alone for a couple weeks," though.
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Oct 11, 2012 21:08
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Docjowles posted:What are you using to decide that nothing's happening? If you're just not seeing the airlock move, there could be a bad seal on the bucket somewhere and it's no big deal. When you opened the bucket did you see any sign of foam or crud on the sides or anything that might indicate fermentation happened? Yeah, I probably should have mentioned it, but when I added my second batch of yeast there was no sign of krausen at all. No foam, no film on the sides, nothing. I took a gravity reading right before I sealed it up the first time (1.042 adjusted), but is there a chance of any significant drop if there's no krausen? I want to minimize how often I open the pail, to avoid infection.
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Oct 11, 2012 21:10
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I recently had a batch I thought was not fermenting, but then I opened the bucket and there was a huge krausen inside - it turns out the airlock had evaporated all the liquid out.
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Oct 11, 2012 21:49
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Nolanar posted:[I]s there a chance of any significant drop if there's no krausen? I want to minimize how often I open the pail, to avoid infection. The only way to be really completely sure is to pull a gravity reading. The chances of two bad packet of yeast, especially good dry yeast like Fermentis, are vanishingly small.
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Oct 11, 2012 22:05
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Looks like the keg was really full. Tilted it and had minimal spray.
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Oct 12, 2012 01:36
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hellfaucet posted:A few of the higher viewed YouTube videos I was watching yesterday had the host's doing the shake with the gas attached. It makes way more sense now that you'd disconnect the gas lines while doing this, and way cleaner. You definitely need the gas on there won't be enough CO2 in the keg to carbonate the beer (not in the tiny amount of headspace), the trick I learned is to carbonate via the beverage disconnect - this way you can keep the keg right-side up while you're shaking it, and the dip tube goes all the way to the bottom. I refrigerate my beer for 48 hours to make sure it's as cold as possible and then shake for 10 minutes at 30psi with the gas on (gas should audibly be bubbling through almost the entire time). I adjust up or down depending on the style but that's the average.
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Oct 12, 2012 04:50
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Super Rad posted:You definitely need the gas on there won't be enough CO2 in the keg to carbonate the beer (not in the tiny amount of headspace) quote:make sure it's as cold as possible quote:30psi
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Oct 12, 2012 05:04
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We're thinking about doing a batch of mead for a dorky Game of Thrones premier party next (spring?) and I was looking at the NB kits last night and they seem kind of boring. 2 quick questions: 1) Anyone have any experience with doing additions/what did you do/how did it come out? 2) I see that you continually feed the yeast throughout the process, so should I bother with a yeast starter? (Wyeast 4021 Champagne Yeast) I like making starters so if the answer is "you don't need to but it certainly wouldn't hurt" then I probably will anyway.
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Oct 12, 2012 14:50
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fullroundaction posted:We're thinking about doing a batch of mead for a dorky Game of Thrones premier party next (spring?) and I was looking at the NB kits last night and they seem kind of boring. 2 quick questions: 1) I have used vanilla, ginger, black cherries, and oranges before, which all turned out pretty good. I have tasted cinammon/vanilla ones before as well (commercial mead) which I did not care for very much. Look up an established recipe, and scale it to the size of the batch you are doing. 2) How big of a batch are you doing?
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Oct 12, 2012 15:53
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Feed the yeast throughout? I've never heard of that. My mead came out just dandy without anything more than pitching once at the start, racking 6 months later, and then forgetting about it for a few years.
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Oct 12, 2012 15:54
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fullroundaction posted:We're thinking about doing a batch of mead for a dorky Game of Thrones premier party cobalt impurity posted:I just bottled my blackberry mead, so I thought I'd share a bit. In addition to this, I have also done a ginger recipe, strawberries, and an orange and spice recipe based on Ancient Orange. If what you're adding isn't too acidic then it's perfectly fine to throw it in when you pitch. Honey is already pretty inhospitable to microorganisms so you don't want to go too crazy. The first time I did the Ancient Orange was also my first batch of anything ever, so I followed the recipe and just added orange slices along with the clove and cinnamon. It turned out fine except I used bread yeast and it had to age for a good 8 months before it was pleasant. I also had to back-sweeten this since it was too dry for my tastes, but to fix that I'd just use more honey at the beginning and a better yeast. The ginger was an early addition too. Just peel it, slice it up, toss it in. For this and my subsequent ones, I use Wyeast 4184 "Sweet Mead" yeast. It turned out great except the ginger flavour was too weak based on the recipe I had, so I'd recommend at least 2 ounces of ginger per gallon. The strawberries and blackberries had their own set of problems that I now know how to solve. You can do these both in primary and the fermenting process will help macerate them and get the flavour out without you having to puree them or anything. Put them in a closable mesh bag because dealing with all that pulp is a nightmare if you can't just pick up the bag and toss it out. You will also want to use pectic enzyme to keep fruit meads from getting hazy; supposedly they also bring out the fruit flavour more, but  . Mine were very fruity but still have the distinct honey characteristics. In a glorious display of idiocy, I tried to intensify the orange flavour in my latest Ancient Orange by adding just juice and zest instead of whole orange slices. It brought the pH down to 3.8 and killed off my yeast almost immediately. I had to pitch some bread yeast to keep me from completely wasting it all. If you're going to use a high-acid juice, add it in secondary. As for continually feeding the yeast, I have never done this. I added all my nutrient up front, oxygenated the must, then pitched. Haven't had any problems with stuck fermentation or bad flavours or anything. A yeast starter would certainly help, but constantly babying it during primary isn't necessary. Just make sure you make your starter out of the honey you intend to use and some nutrient and not DME or anything that will dramatically change the flavour.
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Oct 12, 2012 15:57
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ScaerCroe posted:2) How big of a batch are you doing? Most likely 3 gallons. I'm not sure I can get through more mead than that in a year. Bad Munki posted:Feed the yeast throughout? I've never heard of that. Unless I'm misunderstanding the recipe - it's not worded very clearly: http://www.northernbrewer.com/documentation/meadkits/ArtisanalGeneric3.pdf (read the part under BEYOND BREWING DAY – FIRST ONE TO TWO WEEKS) Edit: the 5 gallon instructions have more feed times it looks like. Awesome advice, thanks for this post!!! fullroundaction fucked around with this message at 16:11 on Oct 12, 2012 |
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Oct 12, 2012 16:07
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fullroundaction posted:Most likely 3 gallons. I'm not sure I can get through more mead than that in a year. I'll help, okay?
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Oct 12, 2012 16:15
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Bad Munki posted:Feed the yeast throughout? I've never heard of that. My mead came out just dandy without anything more than pitching once at the start, racking 6 months later, and then forgetting about it for a few years. I haven't made mead myself so I won't say much more, but I've heard from a number of sources that doing several nutrient additions over the first couple weeks can cut out that whole "forget about it for a few years" step. It's good to go after a few months without the harsh flavors people associate with lovely young mead. You're not feeding it constantly so maybe that was misleading. But instead of one big rear end nutrient addition up front, you're doing 3 or 4 over the first 2 weeks of fermentation. fullroundaction posted:1) Anyone have any experience with doing additions/what did you do/how did it come out? It's not for all palates but the best mead I ever had was a homebrew infused with jalapeno peppers. So good.
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Oct 12, 2012 16:19
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Is it a big deal if my primaries ferment around 72 degrees and my secondaries sit around 64 degrees in my basement? I have kind of a smallish house and can't fit all my carboys into one closet upstairs. Also, does putting secondaries on the basement floor gently caress poo poo up at all? My first batch of amber (first batch ever) tastes kinda weak, wondering if maybe this is why.
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Oct 12, 2012 16:34
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hellfaucet posted:Is it a big deal if my primaries ferment around 72 degrees and my secondaries sit around 64 degrees in my basement? I have kind of a smallish house and can't fit all my carboys into one closet upstairs. I would imagine that you would want it the other way around, with the primaries at 64 and the secondaries at 72. Typical ale yeasts ferment best in the mid to high 60s - the exothermic reaction of fermentation will cause the beer to gain a few degrees over ambient.
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Oct 12, 2012 16:44
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Docjowles posted:I haven't made mead myself so I won't say much more, but I've heard from a number of sources that doing several nutrient additions over the first couple weeks can cut out that whole "forget about it for a few years" step. It's good to go after a few months without the harsh flavors people associate with lovely young mead. My oldest mead is 1 year and 1 month. My youngest is 5 months because I forgot about it. They are both quite drinkable and the only harsh flavour was from lovely yeast. Leaving it for years would certainly improve the flavour, but really isn't necessary if made well. e: and now I want to try an ancho infusion.
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Oct 12, 2012 16:50
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Docjowles posted:I haven't made mead myself so I won't say much more, but I've heard from a number of sources that doing several nutrient additions over the first couple weeks can cut out that whole "forget about it for a few years" step. It's good to go after a few months without the harsh flavors people associate with lovely young mead. Well, in my case, the "forget about it for a few years" thing wasn't entirely intentional, I'm just really loving good at not ever seeing things I leave in plain view. My mead literally sat on the wall end of the kitchen peninsula under a brown paper bag that entire time. The paper bag meant it transformed to "meaningless pile" in my mind and then it was three years later. I did taste it when I racked it around the 6-month mark, though, and it was perfectly good then, too. I'm not convinced it actually changed over the following years. However, I do have some small-batch mead plans in the near future, so if feeding the yeast will help, I'd certainly be willing to give it a try. I just don't think it's absolutely necessary, though. 
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Oct 12, 2012 17:01
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I can't find it right now with a quick search but there was a study published in the 70s? that showed the benefits of yeast nutrients in mead fermentations. They found that not adding them resulted in long, drawn out and often stuck fermentations with the associated off-flavors from stressing the yeast. That may be somewhat less of a concern these days with better quality yeast strains and sanitation. The nutrient blend in Fermaid-K is based off of the results in that study. I rehydrate dry yeast with Go-Ferm Protect, 1.25 g Go-Ferm and 25 mL of water per 1 g of dry yeast. Then at the first sign of fermentation, usually 24-48 hours later, I add the first nutrients, 1 g Fermaid-K and 1 g DAP per gallon of must. I add the same amount of nutrients a second time about 2 days later. This is supposed to be done at 1/3 sugar depletion and it usually drops 100 points by the end, so if your must started at 1.110 then you end up adding the first nutrients at 1.100 and the second at 1.080. Every day from pitching I'm stirring up the lees with splashing to oxygenate, and then without splashing after the second nutrient addition until the fermentation is complete. Is it necessary to do all of that? No, chances are everything will work out fine and you may just need to let it age longer. However with the cost of honey these days I don't want to take any chances. I think the NB instructions omitted adding one nutrient sachet at yeast pitching time and just mention adding the second 48 hours later. Or they meant adding one 48 hours after pitching and the other 48 hours after that. Either way it shouldn't make a big difference. My process is based on the mead making instructions from MoreBeer: http://www.morebeer.com/public/pdf/wmead.pdf Champagne yeast is going to make very dry mead. I recommend Wyeast Sweet Mead if you're serving to people who don't know mead and except honey = sweet. It is supposed to leave some residual sweetness and from my experience it clears up really quickly, much faster than other wine yeasts I've tried.
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Oct 12, 2012 19:39
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LaserWash posted: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? I tried searching for an answer to this. Can someone help answer this?
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Oct 12, 2012 19:50
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LaserWash posted:I tried searching for an answer to this. Can someone help answer this? I've left kits out for a month or two and they made good beer anyways. This time around I'm keeping them in the freezer since I have room, LME too.
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Oct 12, 2012 20:00
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I'd keep malt and malt extract at room temp and airtight. Yeast in the fridge, hops in the freezer. That should be good for up to a few months.
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Oct 12, 2012 20:05
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What about crushed specialty grains?
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Oct 12, 2012 20:06
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Also fine at room temp and airtight.
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Oct 12, 2012 20:13
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Thanks guys. I wonder how long Star San stays good in the bottle. AHS has 8 ounces for $8 and then 32 ounces for ~$16. Seems to me I should just go with the big bottle.
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Oct 12, 2012 20:18
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Cpt.Wacky posted:Champagne yeast is going to make very dry mead. I recommend Wyeast Sweet Mead if you're serving to people who don't know mead and except honey = sweet. It is supposed to leave some residual sweetness and from my experience it clears up really quickly, much faster than other wine yeasts I've tried. We went back and forth about this, mainly because everyone in our house loves super dry champagne and wine, but obviously when serving it to the general public they're going to be expecting something more desserty (and honestly I don't dig super sweet mead to begin with). When you say "very dry" to you mean like "burn my tongue dry" or "this isn't really representative of mead and could just be any generic white/dry wine"?
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Oct 12, 2012 20:41
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LaserWash posted:Thanks guys. As long as the pH holds, basically forever.
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Oct 12, 2012 20:43
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I was thinking about doing a bourbon barrel aged Imperial Stout (since I've gotten a few of them I really liked recently) in the somewhat distant future and I was thinking - what if instead of just putting in some oak cubes and pouring a bit of bourbon in there, you just got some unaged (clear) corn whiskey (i.e. moonshine), poured it in the mason jar with the cubes and just left the cubes in there to age until you wanted to use them for beer - then you could just add the cubes directly. Wouldn't that approximate aging in an actual whiskey barrel closer than just pouring in a semi-random amount of whiskey? Or is just aging on oak cubes + pouring in some whiskey just as good? I'm just thinking aloud on this based on something I read in Gordon Strong's book that pouring the whiskey in is not nearly as good and fairly obvious in taste (but I'm not entirely certain he's not just in weird Gordon Strong-Zen-of-Brewing-bullshit mode) Angry Grimace fucked around with this message at 21:31 on Oct 12, 2012 |
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Oct 12, 2012 21:29
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fullroundaction posted:We went back and forth about this, mainly because everyone in our house loves super dry champagne and wine, but obviously when serving it to the general public they're going to be expecting something more desserty (and honestly I don't dig super sweet mead to begin with). My experience has been "bone dry". You can always back-sweeten with non-fermentables like stevia, xylitol or whatever.
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Oct 12, 2012 21:37
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Trying a bottle from homebrew batch #6, my first all-grain that I also made with hops from my mom's garden. It's pretty good! 
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Oct 12, 2012 21:45
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Bad Munki posted:Feed the yeast throughout? I've never heard of that. My mead came out just dandy without anything more than pitching once at the start, racking 6 months later, and then forgetting about it for a few years. From my experience, the forgetting about it for a few years is an integral part to producing good mead. But yeah, simple as can be, all you need is a packet of yeast for a five gallon batch. I haven't had a batch yet where the yeast stopped short of their potential. Edit: I did you yeast nutrient and energizer from the get go with every batch. If you want, adding 12 pounds of fruit in either primary or secondary is a nice addition. Just make sure to pick up some sparkaloid to clear everything out. fullroundaction posted:Most likely 3 gallons. I'm not sure I can get through more mead than that in a year. Mead gets better with age. Brew more, and if it sits for a while, it's not a big deal. dohminator fucked around with this message at 04:59 on Oct 13, 2012 |
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Oct 13, 2012 04:48
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Angry Grimace posted:I was thinking about doing a bourbon barrel aged Imperial Stout (since I've gotten a few of them I really liked recently) in the somewhat distant future and I was thinking - what if instead of just putting in some oak cubes and pouring a bit of bourbon in there, you just got some unaged (clear) corn whiskey (i.e. moonshine), poured it in the mason jar with the cubes and just left the cubes in there to age until you wanted to use them for beer - then you could just add the cubes directly. Wouldn't that approximate aging in an actual whiskey barrel closer than just pouring in a semi-random amount of whiskey? Or is just aging on oak cubes + pouring in some whiskey just as good? I'm not sure why you'd think soaking them in moonshine would emulate a bourbon barrel. If you don't want to add straight bourbon just soak the chips in bourbon for a few weeks, and pour off the liquid and just add the straight oak chips/cubes/spirals/whatever. The oak will soak up some of the bourbon but you won't have whatever weird flavors you get from adding it straight. Or you could just buy a used whiskey barrel: http://www.homebrewing.org/Used-5-gallon-whiskey-barrel_p_2187.html I've got 2 of these, one for personal use and one for our homebrew club. I just did an imperial brown ale in my personal one and am doing a winter warmer in the club one. I'm brewing a barleywine today for my personal barrel. It's pretty fun having a tiny barrel around.
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Oct 13, 2012 11:12
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Josh Wow posted:I'm not sure why you'd think soaking them in moonshine would emulate a bourbon barrel. If you don't want to add straight bourbon just soak the chips in bourbon for a few weeks, and pour off the liquid and just add the straight oak chips/cubes/spirals/whatever. The oak will soak up some of the bourbon but you won't have whatever weird flavors you get from adding it straight. I guess I was just thinking aloud about how they actually would age a barrel itself which would be to put some cask strength whiskey in it for a long time (which is basically just moonshine if its not aged); I have no clue how long it takes for oak itself to absorb a significant amount of liquid. Buying an actual barrel would probably be way too much though, I think that's something I would do if I had a clue what I was doing. You're probably right though, I'm probably thinking about it too hard - just using regular rear end bourbon would probably work exactly the same. Angry Grimace fucked around with this message at 11:42 on Oct 13, 2012 |
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Oct 13, 2012 11:37
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My homegrown Brewer's Gold hops (tart/fruity English variety) are just about dry and ready to be used in my annual Harvest Brewer's Gold IPA. I typically do a SMaSH beer and dry hop the poo poo out of it, as I like to taste the influence of these hops, but I would like to switch it up a little this year. I was thinking of doing an English IPA recipe with a good malty backbone to complement my English hops. Anyone have a recipe they swear by?
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Oct 13, 2012 17:55
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Sup brewing thread, What yeast do you all use for your cider? I'm looking for something that'll get me a bit drier than Strongbow, but not super dry (not gonna use champagne yeast).
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Oct 13, 2012 21:36
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Does anyone know of a good Southern Tier Harvest Ale clone, or perhaps knows what hops they used?
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Oct 13, 2012 21:54
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Mr. Glass posted:Sup brewing thread, I like the Sweet Mead yeast. Most yeasts will get ciders bone dry unless you stop fermentation or add unfermentables, that one leaves a bit of residual sweetness with straight juice.
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Oct 14, 2012 01:40
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Toebone posted:I like the Sweet Mead yeast. Most yeasts will get ciders bone dry unless you stop fermentation or add unfermentables, that one leaves a bit of residual sweetness with straight juice. Awesome, that's the one I was looking at. Hopefully I can find it locally, most of the places around here don't seem to have a super great selection of yeast 
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Oct 14, 2012 02:05
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Sooooooo I just spent almost 90 minutes trying to boil 3, then, 2 gallons of water and it sat at 206 degrees for the last 45 minutes of that. Hooray for having a lovely loving stove. I've probably lost 25% of the water I put in to start, which I expected, but this is definitely not even close to a rolling boil. I've got bubbles, but not the big bubbling boil. Should I even bother to continue on to adding ingredients or am I needing a hotter burner? a mysterious cloak fucked around with this message at 03:29 on Oct 14, 2012 |
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Oct 14, 2012 03:12
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