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Northern Brewer is doing a buy-one-get-one-free sale on Better Bottles for the next couple days. Pretty sweet deal.
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Oct 22, 2012 22:39
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Northern Brewer is out of stock on Sterling at the moment. Anyone have a good replacement? I use 1 oz of Sterling at flameout in a lite lager. Trying to ramp up production a bit in anticipation of holiday parties tapping me out. e; to clarify, I'm looking at it primarily for the citrus flavor/aroma. Looking at like hops with that in mind, I am thinking Centennial? A bit higher AA, but I can add a bit less than I would've otherwise. Nephzinho fucked around with this message at 23:07 on Oct 22, 2012 |
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Oct 22, 2012 22:53
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Docjowles posted:Northern Brewer is doing a buy-one-get-one-free sale on Better Bottles for the next couple days. Pretty sweet deal. I still haven't even started brewing yet, but I've amassed close to $4000 in equipment. Saturday I replaced the thermostat new keezer with this much more interesting LCD panel, graph, and rotary encoder number for maybe $30-40 in parts. 
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Oct 23, 2012 00:40
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CapnBry posted:Saturday I replaced the thermostat new keezer with this much more interesting LCD panel, graph, and rotary encoder number for maybe $30-40 in parts. Build notes? Raspberry pie or? Also: Going back to "brew no more than 100 gallons" - there is a dude in my local homebrew club that bought 50 gallon blichmann kettles from a local brewery to do his brews in. He plowed through his 15+ sacks of malt from the group buy in a couple weeks. Dude is chill as gently caress and only brews sours now, has 2 full size barrels, and an amazing collection of brew poo poo in his basement. So envious.
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Oct 23, 2012 01:07
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Drove 40 mins to my LHBS today to pick some supplies I had convinced myself I needed and got asked what I was brewing tonight, I replied "The Cream Ale kit from Northern Brew-" he immediately interrupted with "Stop cussing at me, sir." And immediately broke down via price how much more I would save if I bought from them directly. Heh. This hobby owns.
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Oct 23, 2012 02:20
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internet celebrity posted:So, I don't really do a whole lot of lagers but I have a Munich dunkel fermenting right now. It's pretty normal for lager yeast to make all kinds of god awful off-flavors during primary fermentation, right? I tasted my gravity sample the other day and it was way worse than any batches I've done with ale yeast. OG was 1.050, I pitched 2 packs of Fermentis 34/70 into 5.5 gallons at around around 75 degrees and put it right into my fermentation chamber. It's probably because you pitched at 75*. When you do that the yeast start working cause it's nice and warm, but then you chill it about 25-30* pretty rapidly to get to lager temps. This makes the yeast start to go dormant and slow down. So by the time you hit your actual fermenting temp you have a bunch of stressed out yeast doing the work. Always pitch 2-4* below your target fermentation temps.
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Oct 23, 2012 02:32
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NB is a little pricey but you can be assured that the stuff is fresh since they move so much volume. MoreBeer is usually cheaper and I like their style a bit more. My LHBS is still very new and basically gouging on everything. I think it's because they're just ordering from Midwest Supplies and marking it up, so I only go when I need something right away.
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Oct 23, 2012 02:33
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Goddamnit NB I went to look at the carboy sale and 3 hours later I'm checking out with $170 worth of crap. :shakefist: Looks like I'm rush-brewing some mead, Saison de Noel, and a "let's see what happens" Gose recipe I'm taking a leap of faith on before I leave on vacation in two weeks.
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Oct 23, 2012 02:48
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Josh Wow posted:It's probably because you pitched at 75*. When you do that the yeast start working cause it's nice and warm, but then you chill it about 25-30* pretty rapidly to get to lager temps. This makes the yeast start to go dormant and slow down. So by the time you hit your actual fermenting temp you have a bunch of stressed out yeast doing the work. Always pitch 2-4* below your target fermentation temps. Well, we'll see what happens. I guess next time I'll chill it overnight in the fermentation chamber before pitching since my tap water can't get it under 75 with my wort chiller.
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Oct 23, 2012 03:42
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fullroundaction posted:Goddamnit NB I went to look at the carboy sale and 3 hours later I'm checking out with $170 worth of crap. :shakefist: I got at less than $50 shipped  Still ~$46 more than I should be spending right now but I really need some more fermenters (one for this weekend even) so gently caress it.
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Oct 23, 2012 04:00
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Question: I'm trying to brew lemon wine / hard lemonade, and I'm not sure what's happening. I racked it off 2 days ago, and tried to when I add the syrup for sweetening, there's about a 5 second delay, and then a gently caress-ton of bubbles. Did something manage to survive the first dosing, and is my batch likely ruined? It tastes a little off, but I'm not sure if that's the tartness that I have to sweeten out, or something that's wrecked it. It's sweetened, sulphited, and airlocked right now.
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Oct 23, 2012 04:35
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Docjowles posted:Northern Brewer is doing a buy-one-get-one-free sale on Better Bottles for the next couple days. Pretty sweet deal. Goddammit, out of stock on 6 gallons  I was gonna buy a pair of BBs and a wine kit.
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Oct 23, 2012 05:01
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Cinnamon Bastard posted:
I don't think anything can survive potassium metabisulphite so I doubt it hitched a ride. The bubbles could just be co2 trapped in the liquid, or a change in temp between the sugar and "wine." I don't think critters of any creed will react that quickly to additional sugar. E: Theoretical question of my own: If I brewed a high gravity beer, pitched my yeast (with starter) and let it go till it can't take anymore then finish off with a champagne yeast - would it be a strange amalgamation of wine/beer yeast or be a great idea for dropping the fg of a huge beer? Jacobey000 fucked around with this message at 12:20 on Oct 23, 2012 |
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Oct 23, 2012 12:17
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Ok, well then maybe it just tastes bad. I'll let it sit and settle, then keep taste testing and progressively sweetening, and see if it ever gets drinkable. Thanks.
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Oct 23, 2012 13:18
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My only experience with champagne yeast was with my cider, but that stuff will *really* chomp away at sugars. I realize apple cider is probably almost all highly fermentable sugar, so I don't know how it fares with longer chain sugars, but I had a FG of .996 when it was done. I would guess that it will bring you lower then you want to be, but this is totally a guess based on very limited experience.
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Oct 23, 2012 14:23
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Jacobey000 posted:E: Theoretical question of my own: If I brewed a high gravity beer, pitched my yeast (with starter) and let it go till it can't take anymore then finish off with a champagne yeast - would it be a strange amalgamation of wine/beer yeast or be a great idea for dropping the fg of a huge beer? If your starter is big enough you won't need champagne yeast. I had US 05 create 11% alcohol and an FG of 1.01 in 30 hours. Your mash temperature and grain bill has the biggest effect on FG. When you brew a high grav beer, reduce the relative amounts of specialty malts since your attenuation will be less than in a smaller beer. There's several things you can tweak to end up with a dry high gravity beer.
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Oct 23, 2012 16:31
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Jacobey000 posted:Build notes? Raspberry pie or? I decided to build myself a keezer. I actually still haven't finished my electric brewery so some might say this is a bit premature, but when you're waiting on a crucial part and you run into an open box GE 7.0cf chest freezer on sale for $150 at Home Depot, a more religious man might take that as a sign. The first thing that bothered me about this device was that this was in the description quote:Exterior power-on light shows you at a glance that the freezer is turned on That might sound mundane enough but what it really means is that it has a light on it that tells you it is plugged in and the thermostat is set to anything but "Off". "C'mon guys," I complained to my buddy who had come over to share a glass of a new scotch he had found, "you can't make the light only come on when it is on?". "If you're so smart, make your own thermostat," my friend replied. That's not something you say to an engineer. We beleive that if it ain't broke, it doesn't have enough features yet. So let's make a thermostat! So here we have the original, boring GE thermostat with its condescending green power light and vague temperature knob. I don't know what units this thing is in, but where I come from we have more temperature values than 1 to 9.  And from the inside you see it is just a relay on the hot line of the compressor. I laid down to look inside the compressor compartment and almost fell asleep it was so basic. But look at that! There's a thermowell hole going into the freezer which would sure make a convenient place to put my temperature probe.  For those who don't know, to remove the connectors from the existing thermostat, there's a little tab in the center of each connector you have to push down to disengage the locking mechanism and they pull right off. If they don't come off easily, the mechanism isn't disengaged  I pulled their gas tube out and eyeballed it against a DS18B20 one-wire temperature sensor. They looked to be about the same size, and the transistor easily slipped into the thermowell. I set to work and gathered up components. Parts ran under $15 plus $15 more for the LCD. Basically it is an ATmega328P microcontroller talking to the LCD via an I2C port expander (MCP23008), PWM lines controlling the RGB backlight color, a connector for a rotary encoder to set parameters, and a $2 5V A/C relay. I added some connectors and slipped myself into the hot line of the compressor. I've also got a 12V power supply for the thing which will be wired in to the existing wiring as well once I get that far.  This is where I hit my first snag. While the DS18B20 fit into the existing thermowell, about two or three inches into it, there was a point where the tube narrows that the probe won't fit through. The DS is about 4.5mm wide and the existing gas tube was about 3.2mm wide. Poking around in the hole, it felt like the narrowing was only in the bulkhead going into the freezer, and then widened back out on the other side. I have a tool for making narrow holes go away: a drill. Inserting the drill at a bit of a wonky angle I fired it up and I could feel the bit cutting my way to freedom with tragedy stuck. The cheap bit bound up and snapped off in the hole. My suspicions were correct though. The piece of the drill bit that was on the other side of the hole was in a larger tube than the narrow bit and, welp, wasn't coming back out from this side. "How can I make this situation worse than it currently is?" I pondered overnight. There's no going back. The drill bit chunk in the hole meant the old thermostat won't go in all the way any more, so I was dubious if it would function properly. If you're going to break something, break it good. I wanted to get my temperature probe inside the chest without running any wires on the outside so I considered cutting into the hump. Are there any coolant lines in there though? The answer was just a magnet away. Magnets. How do they work? Well the inside of the chest freezer is lined with non-ferrous metal, which means the magnet won't stick to it. The coolant lines are made from ferrous metal, which means you can feel the lines by waving a magnet around along the walls.  From what I could feel the top of the hump doesn't seem to have any lines running through it. However, the insulation here is about 4" thick so they could be buried in there. The side of the hump is loaded with coils. I busted out the hole-maker and made a hole down into the compressor compartment. I'll clean this up a bit with a nice rubber grommet at some point, but I'm also going to run wires for a DC air circulating fan through this hole so I'll do that first. From the top:  And inside the compressor compartment. I reused the black gunk that was holding the original wires in place. The red splotches on the pristine white metal may or may not be human blood extracted through endless toil.  Here's what the LCD looks like currently. It has the current temperature, run time, duty cycle, and a bar graph of the temperature. The color of the text changes depending on what the controller is doing. The RGB LED is fully PWMed so I can mix it to get any colors I want. Once I finalize all this I'll mount it in the space occupied by the original thermostat. I've just got to cut some hardboard to fit the old hole and install it somehow. Why didn't I just buy a single stage temperature controller? Well, if I did that there'd be a lot lower change of me ruining something, so where's the fun in that? Plus this is pretty small (the circuit board is 2"x2"), connects into the existing wires (no Lowe's run to buy an outlet or power cord to cut up), I can customize it how I want, and most importantly it has a freakin' graph!
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Oct 23, 2012 16:57
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hellfaucet posted:OK, so apparently I did well for my first couple batches because 10 gallons of beer came and went way, way faster than I thought. My buddies hit my kegs pretty hard this weekend so far. I know this is a little late, but for this purpose I like to make SMaSH beers, and my favorite is: Austrian Pale Ale 12# Vienna Pale Malt (3.5 Lovibond) Hopping is usually: 1 oz @ 60 min 1 oz @ 20 min 1 oz @ 05 min Whirfloc @ 05 min with whatever hops you have on hand. Obviously Hallertau or some other Germanic hop is preferable, but not needed. I have had good results with Cascade or Simcoe as well. Mash at 150F for 60 minutes. Ferment at 65-68F with some US-05. Drink fresh and in quantity. With this type of beer you can really tune into your favorite hop variety's flavor. It has got a beautiful color when it clears.
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Oct 23, 2012 17:01
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crazyfish posted:Goddammit, out of stock on 6 gallons Unlike last night, you can now order even though they're out of stock, and they claim the better bottles should ship next week. Got a pair of 6 gallon BBs and a wine kit. So you don't have to go digging through the rest of the page, Northern Brewer, coupon code BETTER6 (BETTER5 for 5 gallons).
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Oct 23, 2012 17:28
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It stinks that shipping is so expensive through Northern Brewer, it really makes the carboy deal not much cheaper than my LHBS. Thanks for the link though, ordered two still.
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Oct 23, 2012 17:51
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Midorka posted:It stinks that shipping is so expensive through Northern Brewer, it really makes the carboy deal not much cheaper than my LHBS. Thanks for the link though, ordered two still. The shipping only ran about 13 bucks total for a wine kit and two better bottles for me, though I guess it helps being not *that* far from Minnnesota. My LHBS charges $26 each for 6 gallon bottles, but since I'm in Chicago we also get dinged with a 10% sales tax.
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Oct 23, 2012 17:53
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Has anyone here smoked their own malt? I'd be interested to learn about your process, particularly time, temperature, and wood.
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Oct 23, 2012 17:55
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crazyfish posted:The shipping only ran about 13 bucks total for a wine kit and two better bottles for me, though I guess it helps being not *that* far from Minnnesota. My LHBS charges $26 each for 6 gallon bottles, but since I'm in Chicago we also get dinged with a 10% sales tax. Whoops I almost orderd 14 items and shipping was $13, including a stainless steel brew kettle that I wishlisted ages ago. $34 for two 6 gallong BB carboys is great.
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Oct 23, 2012 17:59
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Went to order a better bottle and accidentally came away with a disposable oxygen can regulator and one of those SS growlers .
Prefect Six fucked around with this message at 19:01 on Oct 23, 2012 |
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Oct 23, 2012 18:55
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T houghts on this recipe? 3 gallon SMaSH, going for an ESB but since I'm doing BIAB I don't always hit my target gravity. But they usually turn out pretty good and beerlike. I'm mostly doing SMaSH to get a pin on what different ingredients are like. Haven't been doing all-grain for long: 7 lb Maris Otter mash @ 154 1 oz EKG @ 60 min .5 oz EKG @ 30 min .5 oz EKG @ 10 min 1 oz dry hop Hopville puts this at an OG of 1.060 and has it finishing out around 1.016. I'm going to estimate I'll miss the target gravity by a few points. Also trying to decide between Nottingham and S0-4. Thoughts on yeast? Leaning towards S0-4 @ ~65 degrees? I want to eliminate any major ester tastes to focus on the malt and hop flavors. global tetrahedron fucked around with this message at 19:20 on Oct 23, 2012 |
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Oct 23, 2012 18:57
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Jo3sh posted:Has anyone here smoked their own malt? I'd be interested to learn about your process, particularly time, temperature, and wood. Can't help directly as I haven't tried it (yet!) myself. Just starting into the hobby myself, but I was reading a seemingly in depth article about this just earlier today. Its in the back issues of Brew Your Own magazine, Dec. 2008 pg. 28, but I believe you can find it in their archive if you're a member or perhaps your LHBS may have a collection. It may exist elsewhere online even: "Smoked Beer" - by Chris Colby was the article.
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Oct 23, 2012 18:59
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global tetrahedron posted:T houghts on this recipe? 3 gallon SMaSH, going for an ESB but since I'm doing BIAB I don't always hit my target gravity. But they usually turn out pretty good and beerlike. That looks pretty spot on for what you're trying to do. I'd say either one of those yeasts would work, but I'd maybe lean towards the S-04
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Oct 23, 2012 19:29
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Very impressive so far! I'm jealous of people with DIY electronics chops. And the welders in this thread, for that matter.
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Oct 23, 2012 21:43
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So, now that I'm back into brewing and I have something going in my fermenter, I need to come to a decision about a secondary vessel. This will be for secondary fermentations as well as short aging on wine. Way back in the past when I used to do this, I always used glass carboys, but I've been reading recently that a lot of people use plastic fermenter buckets for these purposes as well. It occurs to me that I don't really know of any reason to go with one or the other. Thoughts?
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Oct 23, 2012 22:20
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Mr. Wiggles posted:So, now that I'm back into brewing and I have something going in my fermenter, I need to come to a decision about a secondary vessel. This will be for secondary fermentations as well as short aging on wine. Way back in the past when I used to do this, I always used glass carboys, but I've been reading recently that a lot of people use plastic fermenter buckets for these purposes as well. It occurs to me that I don't really know of any reason to go with one or the other. Thoughts? Oxygen permeability is generally not a concern unless you are doing sour beers that need extremely long (year+) aging and have extra unpleasant side effects (acetic acid) from the extra oxygen. At that, I also almost never do a secondary. I generally do all my primaries in Better Bottles and if I need a large post-primary flavour addition (fresh fruit, etc.) I would either do the primary in a bucket and toss in my flavour additions after primary is done without racking or rack from a better bottle into a bucket for the same purpose.
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Oct 23, 2012 22:31
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Mr. Wiggles posted:So, now that I'm back into brewing and I have something going in my fermenter, I need to come to a decision about a secondary vessel. This will be for secondary fermentations as well as short aging on wine. Way back in the past when I used to do this, I always used glass carboys, but I've been reading recently that a lot of people use plastic fermenter buckets for these purposes as well. It occurs to me that I don't really know of any reason to go with one or the other. Thoughts? A 5-gallon carboy will have less headspace than a 6.5-gallon bucket so there's less risk of oxidation. If you're doing proper sulfiting or purging bottle with CO2 before racking then it's not a huge deal. I age my stuff for quite a while so I like to free up my buckets and use glass carboys for aging. On the other hand buckets are a hell of a lot easier to clean out if you're adding more fruit after primary. Does anyone have direct experience with the GrogTag labels? I was thinking about doing two generic designs, one for mead and the other for cider, and leaving big empty spaces to write in the details of what type, abv, etc. Is that realistic? They say the labels are reusable, but how many times? 5? 100?
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Oct 23, 2012 22:37
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Mr. Wiggles posted:It occurs to me that I don't really know of any reason to go with one or the other. Thoughts? Glass is heavy, slippery, expensive, and fragile. Its one advantage is that it is impermeable to oxygen. PET carboys such as Better Bottles are light, durable, and easy to handle, but still somewhat expensive. They are also very impermeable to oxygen, nearly as good as glass. They can be scratched easily if you use a brush to clean them, but PBW and OxyClean are good about removing gunk without the need for scrubbing. Plastic buckets are light, durable, even easier to handle, and cheap. They are somewhat more permeable to oxygen, but not to a level that has presented any issues with my beer over the years I have been using them. They can also be scratched, but because you can actually get your hands in them, there's no need to flail around corners with a brush to remove gunk, and they are cheap enough to replace if they do get damaged. I brew almost exclusively in buckets. I do have one batch of mead in a PET carboy, because mead is supposed to be quite susceptible to oxidation. A lot of people like Better Bottles, and it's hard to say they are wrong as it's a great product. Glass seems to be falling out of favor as the price rises and PET gains acceptance. If budget is no issue, the Cadillac approach is to give Morebeer a call and order up a stainless cylindroconical fermenter or six.
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Oct 23, 2012 22:44
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All good responses, thanks. I'll just do it in a bucket then - easier to get wood chips out of, I'd imagine.
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Oct 23, 2012 23:14
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The only thing that has kept me from using buckets is the need to gauge how far down my racking cane is - how do you bucket brewers deal with that issue?
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Oct 23, 2012 23:26
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Super Rad posted:The only thing that has kept me from using buckets is the need to gauge how far down my racking cane is - how do you bucket brewers deal with that issue? Not sure what you mean - I use a racking cane clip on either a bucket or a carboy. I can't see into the liquid on a bucket so I usually just push it down until the liquid isn't running clear then pull up an inch or so.
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Oct 23, 2012 23:51
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Super Rad posted:The only thing that has kept me from using buckets is the need to gauge how far down my racking cane is - how do you bucket brewers deal with that issue? I'm not sure why I would need to, honestly. 1) pull airlock and stopper 2) put sanitized autosiphon body into fermenter, lowering slowly until it touches down in the bottom corner of the fermenter. 3) drop distal end of racking line into keg 4) insert racking cane portion of the autosiphon into the top of the autosiphon body 5) lift the autosiphon body about 2 inches 6) push the racking cane down, starting the siphon 7) lower autosiphon body back into the corner of the fermenter 8) gently lift up the near edge of the fermenter and put a roll of masking tape under it 9) have a pint while the beer transfers. Yes, I get a little sediment, but the little standoff dealie on the bottom of the autosiphon keeps it from being an annoying amount. Every racking cane I've ever used has had something similar.
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Oct 24, 2012 00:04
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Got some stuff in the mail today: And it's a sunny day tomorrow! Time to brew. Also, my latest IPA has been in the bottle for just about 2 weeks now but it's hardly carbonated. I get a slight hiss, no head, and no noticeable movement in the glass. Could this just be the high ABV (somewhere over 9%) slowing down the process for the yeast in the bottles, or is something else afoot? I'm not terribly pleased with how it tastes (came out too sweet and malty), but no sour or off tastes.
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Oct 24, 2012 05:39
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Big beers take longer to carbonate, don't worry yet. Let it go another 3 weeks then try another bottle. Proper carbonation will also help cut through the sweetness a bit. Also just to be sure, you're carbonating the bottles at room temp, right? If they're sitting in the fridge they'll never carb up properly.
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Oct 24, 2012 05:44
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Yup, I've got them in a garbage bag lined box in my storage room, which is usually in the low to mid 70's, with no daylight. Good to hear that it'll just take a while longer, I put more money and time into this batch than usual so it'd be a shame to have it not turn out.
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Oct 24, 2012 05:56
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Does anyone grow their own hops here? I couldnt seem to find any threads on it. I was just wondering if anyone had some good advice for a beginning hop farmer.
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Oct 24, 2012 13:39
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