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Just brewed 2 gallons of Apfelwein. 2 gallons of grocery store apple cider (no preservatives or additives), 1lb of dextrose, packet of champagne yeast. OG 1.070 - we shall see in 3 weeks or so how it goes.
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Mar 31, 2013 01:34
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Marshmallow Blue posted:It's officially the new trend everybody! Oh Oh my god Oh my loving god Bubbles stopped yesterday so I pulled it out and just tried it. I have thought long and hard about the appropriate emote but all I can come up with is  I can't find an emote of psyduck puking. Holy crap this is bad. This is undrinkable. It's totally alcoholic, but it's bad. It's like someone rubbed a piece of rancid apple on a bunch of slices of moldy bread, then juiced it all and dumped alcohol in it. If I served this to friends I would lose those friends. This reeks of teenage desperation for a buzz. This reeks of natural disaster survivor making alcohol the only way they can just to drink to forget what they've seen. I dumped it. It's gone. I just bought some cider yeast and I'm about to leave for the store to get some cider. We are doing this right proper. Not again. Never again. I'm sorry to let the homebrew thread down. Adult Sword Owner fucked around with this message at 01:52 on Mar 31, 2013 |
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Mar 31, 2013 01:50
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rigeek posted:Just brewed 2 gallons of Apfelwein. 2 gallons of grocery store apple cider (no preservatives or additives), 1lb of dextrose, packet of champagne yeast. OG 1.070 - we shall see in 3 weeks or so how it goes. Edit: I made mine with Montrachet yeast, 5 gallons of preservative-free apple juice, and 2 pounds of brown sugar. I also added some yeast nutrient since apple juice is a stressful environment for yeast. Hopefully less stress on the yeast will lead to a shorter period of time before this stuff is drinkable. PBCrunch fucked around with this message at 02:04 on Mar 31, 2013 |
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Mar 31, 2013 01:59
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PBCrunch posted:I made a five gallon batch of this three weeks ago. My plan is to let it bulk age for six or eight weeks and then put it in bottles. It is supposed to take a while before it starts to taste good. Yeah, I'll let it sit in the fermenter for ~3 weeks and then bottle it in 22oz PET bottles, and just forget about it for a couple months.
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Mar 31, 2013 02:00
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Never dump! You could have put that in the freezer and made applejack. You could have added acetobacter and made cider vinegar. There is always almost always an option or idea that someone will come up with if you ask in the thread.
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Mar 31, 2013 02:02
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Daedalus Esquire posted:Never dump! drat, well now I know. It was quite terrible and I was heartbroken.
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Mar 31, 2013 02:17
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crazyfish posted:A witbier will use a Belgian wit yeast (WY3944 as an example) and it's gonna have more yeast character than an American. Belgian versions are also generally spiced (coriander and orange peel) so you'll add a bit of complexity to it as well. An American wheat would be good in a shandy too, and I think either will be a crowd pleaser. I was thinking of taking am American wheat and adding some honey. Maybe starting with this recipe and adding a pound of honey. Is that a terrible idea? the yellow dart posted:I made a wheat pale ale hopped with amarillo, citra, and sorachi ace that was pretty awesome when mixed with lemonade (and by itself, obviously). It's a good style for that type of product. Awesome. Could you share the recipe?
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Mar 31, 2013 04:46
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Beer4TheBeerGod posted:Awesome. Could you share the recipe? It is on my other computer but if I recall correctly it was 1/4 wheat malt extract, 3/4 pale malt extract, 1 oz Amarillo and 1 oz Citra at the beginning of the boil, with the Sorachi Ace at 5 minutes before the end of the 60m boil. Only a little malt at the beginning, most of it at the 40m mark (I do not take good notes). I used an American Wheat ale type yeast. It was delicious albeit a little hoppy.
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Mar 31, 2013 07:30
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Docjowles posted:Haha I voted a week or two ago and, in all seriousness, voted for you. I need to go back and re-listen to your Brewing Network interview now that I know you're a goon. Thanks for the vote, I appreciate it. I've heard a few people mention that they voted for me because of my message. I'm hoping its going to be enough
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Mar 31, 2013 08:11
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Sorry to hear that, I had pretty much the same experience, best described as a cross between cat piss and apple goon/boxed wine. On the plus side it's slightly improving now as it seems to be turning to vinegar so it may be useful some day, if I had a use for ~9L of apple cider vinegar.
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Mar 31, 2013 08:13
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Okay, so I'm changing my lines and I decided to give Bev-Seal lines a try. I'm aware they're a bitch to work with in terms of getting them on the barbs; anyone got any experience with it?
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Mar 31, 2013 08:14
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A few of my lines are Bev Seal and they are kind of annoying. Boiling water is definitely your best friend when trying to get them on/off the barbs.
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Mar 31, 2013 14:31
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Brew day on Saturday. I made my chocolate bock, here's the final recipe. 4lbs muntons bock - hopped liquid extract 1# chocolate malt - steeped between 150-165 for 25 min 1# crystal caramel malt 60L - steeped between 150-165 for 25 min 1# dark spray malt extract (dry) 1# cacao nibs 12 oz sugar (its what was left in two of the open bags) Muntons standard ale yeast I don't have a big lobster pot to do bug boils in, so I had one gallon each in 2 pots. The grains were steeped in their own pot, and other pot was brought to a boil then taken off heat where the liquid and dry malts were added and dissolved. Then as suggested I brought it back to a boil for a few minutes. The two pots of wort, and the rest of the water were combined into a 5 gallon bucket to the five gallon line, maybe just a bit over it. Starting gravity is 1.053 already temp adjusted. When the fermentation is done, ill rack this onto the 1 lb of cacao nibs. I increased the nib count because the previously mentioned chocolate milk stout from a brew club buddy want quite the amount of chocolate I was looking for, however at beer was quite tasty. This is already fermenting along. It's really hard to not being able to see the brew in process. I'm so used to glass carboys for my mead. And taking the lid off those buckets is such a pain in the rear end too. Edit: in response to the  turbo juice catastrophe. It's very crucial that this finishes sweet to mask the grossness.
Marshmallow Blue fucked around with this message at 16:32 on Mar 31, 2013 |
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Mar 31, 2013 16:26
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What kind of juice and yeast did you use, and at what temperature did you ferment? Also, I do my ciders for 2 weeks minimum. Basically, when the sulphur smell goes away, I add a teaspoon of dissolved gelatin, then add potassium metabisulfite, then cold crash it, and rack into a keg. Then I add a cup of dissolved sugar per gallon, then force carbonate. I use store bought apple juice, but only the stuff with no preservatives from the dairy case at the supermarket, and I use whatever beer yeast I have laying around (usually S33 cultures from my stout I like to make all the time). Of course, this is less "turbo juice" and more "nearly actual cider" but it is still really easy to make. And it tastes really drat good. My guess is that your cider wasn't done yet, and the sulphur the yeast was putting off made it taste loving horrible. You should have waited at least another week before judging it. Why does no one ever ask before dumping their work? Edit: To be clear, I prefer young, sweet ciders that are still fairly tart. I do like more mellowed ciders too, but I can never wait long enough for them to mellow out.
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Mar 31, 2013 16:33
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Yeah, should have just gave it a month then bottled it and sat on it for year. Would have tasted totally different.
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Mar 31, 2013 16:49
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hellfaucet posted:A few of my lines are Bev Seal and they are kind of annoying. Boiling water is definitely your best friend when trying to get them on/off the barbs. I was going to use my heat gun, but I don't know if that's a bad idea or not.
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Mar 31, 2013 18:29
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I know I'm a little late on this, but for shandies consider making a more bitter pale beer -- think a northern German Pils like Jever. The bitterness counterbalances the sweetness of the soda. Plus that way you have a good beer as well as a shandy beer. For a different twist, brew a Koelsch and add some Coke. Coke is a more savory soda and Koelsch is a sweeter beer so the mix is quite pleasant. 17 year old me loved that stuff. Other good combinations are pale Weizens (Kristall or Hefe) with banana juice, sour cherry juice or banana juice and sour cherry juice. Very good. And, of course, Berliner Weisse. Plenty of great options for mixing things up. For a more British twist, buy the Better Bottle and use it to make cask ale. When the cask starts to turn, start making shandies. That keeps it nice and traditional.
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Mar 31, 2013 18:59
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Debuting my Game of Thrones mead tonight at a premier party. Going to try to get everyone hammered on some other homebrews first so they don't notice that it's Not That Great. 
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Mar 31, 2013 19:04
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Friends of ours this morning: "we have this big chest freezer, bigger than the one you have (14.2 cu ft), we have no room for it now, do you guys want it?" My wife: "oh I'm not sure if we n-" Me: "YEAH DEFINITELY" I have the chest freezer keg, the fermentation freezer... I guess I can stock up on hops and commercial stuff in this new one? Yay for Easter miracles! He (and by 'he' I mean my beer and ingredient hoarding) Has Risen!
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Mar 31, 2013 20:13
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RagingBoner posted:What kind of juice and yeast did you use, and at what temperature did you ferment? Also, I do my ciders for 2 weeks minimum. Basically, when the sulphur smell goes away, I add a teaspoon of dissolved gelatin, then add potassium metabisulfite, then cold crash it, and rack into a keg. Then I add a cup of dissolved sugar per gallon, then force carbonate. I use store bought apple juice, but only the stuff with no preservatives from the dairy case at the supermarket, and I use whatever beer yeast I have laying around (usually S33 cultures from my stout I like to make all the time). I forgot to check the juice to make sure it had no preservatives, and that may have messed it up. Really I think using a baker's yeast was also a problem. Right now I have some organic cider going (no preservatives, I made sure) and an actual cider yeast, WPL775, along with 2 cups of brown sugar and a bunch of cinnamon sticks. I'll give it way more time before checking. It's in an area I can't keep controlled very precisely so it's going between 65 and 72. edit: This is more to say "I've made something drinkable" than something I want to get into. It's horribly expensive per gallon (I assume if I was pressing my own apples it would be much cheaper and worth it, though) compared to making my own beer. It's going to have to be life-changinly better than premade cider for me to want to do it more often. The reason I got into beer is besides $15 a case for a good quality beer (minus the equipment investment heh) is because I have a lot more control over exactly what I get. With cider I don't really think that I have as much freedom to make interesting and varied final products, so this is more of "being able to say I've done it." But what do I know this is my first attempt. Adult Sword Owner fucked around with this message at 20:37 on Mar 31, 2013 |
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Mar 31, 2013 20:33
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I wouldn't even put turbo juice in the cider category. It does it no justice. Turbo juice is turbo juice
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Mar 31, 2013 21:02
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My cream ale froze in the kegerator  New fridge with a really really lovely thermostat. It either keeps the fridge at 58-60 or 30 apparently. I guess the thermometer I have hanging in it is pretty useless. What's a good temp controller? This one? two_beer_bishes fucked around with this message at 21:31 on Mar 31, 2013 |
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Mar 31, 2013 21:20
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Angry Grimace posted:I was going to use my heat gun, but I don't know if that's a bad idea or not. That stuff is a pain in the butt but it's totally doable. I bought a hundred feet off a group buy a long time ago and I'm using it for all my lines. Heat gun works, so does a gas burner. The problem with both of those is that it's easy to overheat and the tubing will kind of melt back and you have to cut it off and start again. The best thing is saucepan of boiling water and a tapered piece of metal. I use a thing I bought at Harbor Freight that is meant to flare copper tubing out but anything that will withstand the heat and has taper would work like a metal pen cap or whatever. Stuff the tapered piece into the tubing and put the whole thing into the boiling water. I found that the tapered piece of metal will retain heat and you can push down and flare the tubing out just a little. Once it's flared enough to take your barb you can start the barb in the tubing and put the barb and tubing end into the water and push down until it is fully seated. Don't let it cool until you have it where you want it forever. Hose clamps are not necessary and I've never had one leak a single drop. edit: This thing http://www.harborfreight.com/6-in-1-swaging-tool-66750.html It also worked well to flare out my Morebeer counterflow's wort tubing so I could sweat NPT fittings on for camlocks. Bruinator fucked around with this message at 23:13 on Mar 31, 2013 |
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Mar 31, 2013 23:08
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two_beer_bishes posted:My cream ale froze in the kegerator That's the one I use and it works great.
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Mar 31, 2013 23:42
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I did my first partial mash today, it was a Roggenbier with 5.25lbs rye malt, 2lbs rice hulls, 3lbs munich, 2oz Carafa II, and 12oz cara-45. I wasn't expecting anything amazing for my efficiency, but it only came out to around 50%, which seemed low, I was expecting 60-70%. Should I have thrown in some 2-row with this? I thought the rye and munich were supposed to convert themselves, but maybe I'm wrong on that. My process was to steep all the grain (loose, not in a bag) in 3.5 gallons of 154* water in a 10 gallon cooler for 60 minutes, sparge with 4 gallons at 168*, then add LME and bring to a boil. I threw in some DME after I took the gravity and saw it 9 points under, but I was hoping to figure out what went wrong for next time.
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Apr 1, 2013 05:21
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Munich malt can convert itself but it usually struggles. German rye malt is also very undermodified (basically, the Roggenbier breweries wanted to use unmalted rye but couldn't so they used the least modified rye they could get away with under the RHG). Plus rye is tricky and tends to lower mash efficiency anyway. Given the grainbill, I'd say that is pretty good.
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Apr 1, 2013 08:45
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I've been planning my next mead batch. I'm ever keen for your thoughts, Here's the planned recipe; It is for the Game of thrones mead group on Home Brew Talk. So this will be finished next year for the Season 4 premiere -The Cheese-monger's Reserve- 1 Gallon Recipe 3 lbs Orange Blossom Honey 2.5 lbs Bartlet Pears (These are what Trader Joes has right now, Subject to change by brew date in a week) X lbs Green grapes (see process) 1/2 oz Medium Toast oak chips Red Star Montrachet Yeast Planned Starting Gravity 1.124 Process notes This will be a No Heat method. Sanitize all my pots and equipment obviously. Going to dissolve the honey into a pot of spring water using a whisk (Awesome for aeration). This will put the gravity up to 1.108 or so. Next I will blend grapes in the blender and run the slush through a couple coffee filters to get just the juice and use the juice to get the gravity up to the starting point of 1.124. I'll stagger the nutrients into 3 phases. 1/3 Tsp at beginning, 1/3 after 2 days of fermentation, and final 1/3 at the 1/3 sugar break. This will also be aerated twice daily until the 1/3 sugar break. After fermentation completes down to 1.000, an ABV of 16%; I will stabilize the mead with campden tab and sorbate. After the stabilizers have done their dirty deeds, I will process the 2.5 lbs of pears using the same process as the grapes and top off with the juice, and age this out to beautiful clarity and bottle. Im guessing the dilution form topping off will drop a point of ABV or so, but it's impossible to tell at this point. So this will finish at a tentative 15% ABV. So what do you guys think about it? EDIT: Formatting stuff Marshmallow Blue fucked around with this message at 19:08 on Apr 1, 2013 |
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Apr 1, 2013 19:05
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Someone in my homebrewing club told me that using fresh pears can really act as a natural laxative. Otherwise, sounds really good, actually.
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Apr 1, 2013 19:34
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hellfaucet posted:Someone in my homebrewing club told me that using fresh pears can really act as a natural laxative. Otherwise, sounds really good, actually. Haha, gross. Serve with sharp smoked cheddar to counteract any laxative effects! Even if the laxative properties get lost by the likely little juice I'll get, who doesn't like smoked cheddar! EDIT: \/\/\/\/ Pretty much anything carbonated messes up the flow of things for me. But ain't nobody got time for that *Drinks more beer* Marshmallow Blue fucked around with this message at 20:18 on Apr 1, 2013 |
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Apr 1, 2013 19:50
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hellfaucet posted:Someone in my homebrewing club told me that using fresh pears can really act as a natural laxative. Otherwise, sounds really good, actually. That's what apple cider does to me.
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Apr 1, 2013 20:12
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Midorka posted:That's what apple cider does to me. Yeast alone leads to farts and poo poo.
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Apr 1, 2013 20:47
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This explains so much about my body lately...
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Apr 1, 2013 21:31
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hellfaucet posted:This explains so much about my body lately... If you're bowel movements look like your avatar, you may need to see a doctor.
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Apr 1, 2013 22:03
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Marshmallow Blue posted:
Your grape juice probably has a gravity below or maybe barely reaching 1.108 and will increase volume, not sugar concentration. Also, if the yeast can ferment that mix dry, your apparent gravity is gonna go below 1.000. eviltastic fucked around with this message at 23:05 on Apr 1, 2013 |
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Apr 1, 2013 23:02
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ChickenArise posted:Yeast alone leads to farts and poo poo. Marshmallow Blue posted:Serve with sharp smoked cheddar to counteract any laxative effects! In my case, adding cheese only increases the laxative effect.  Lactose intolerance. But goddamn, I love smoked cheddar.
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Apr 1, 2013 23:09
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eviltastic posted:Your grape juice probably has a gravity below or maybe barely reaching 1.108 and will increase volume, not sugar concentration. Also, if the yeast can ferment that mix dry, your apparent gravity is gonna go below 1.000. I was using the mead calculator on gotmead and grapes are pretty loaded in the sugar department. I planned the must for the yeasts supposed tolerance of 16%. If it does shoot over to 0.098 or what have you, that's okay too. Edit: So for some more exact science. 3 fluid cups of grapes as part of the total gallon with the 3 lbs of honey, also part of the 1 galon volume should be that gravity. If not ill just add more honey. Marshmallow Blue fucked around with this message at 23:29 on Apr 1, 2013 |
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Apr 1, 2013 23:19
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Marshmallow Blue posted:So what do you guys think about it? I like the idea of adding the pear after fermentation completes to preserve the more delicate flavor. You might try that with the grapes too. Either way I would sulfite any juice a day before adding it. Pectic enzyme is a good idea too unless this will debut for the next season.
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Apr 1, 2013 23:32
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Jo3sh posted:In my case, adding cheese only increases the laxative effect. ripened cheeses, like cheddar, contain so little lactose, you might be alright with them. if not, go for a solid, aged cheese. processed cheeses are crazy with the lactose, though. American cheese is often high on lactose content.
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Apr 1, 2013 23:49
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Imasalmon posted:ripened cheeses, like cheddar, contain so little lactose, you might be alright with them. if not, go for a solid, aged cheese. processed cheeses are crazy with the lactose, though. American cheese is often high on lactose content. This is actually parallel with my experience in that young or soft cheeses cause me far more trouble than old or firm cheeses. But why let the truth get in the way of a good
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Apr 1, 2013 23:51
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Jo3sh posted:This is actually parallel with my experience in that young or soft cheeses cause me far more trouble than old or firm cheeses. But why let the truth get in the way of a good you might not have known, and had been depriving yourself of delicious cheese. I never joke about cheese. As an aside, my 100% smoked malt lager is done and delicious. If anyone wants to try it, I am feeling generous and will send out a bottle. PM me. Imasalmon fucked around with this message at 00:04 on Apr 2, 2013 |
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Apr 2, 2013 00:01
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