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Saint Darwin posted:Hold on, what in DC has good casks? The first thing that comes to mind is, of course, ChurchKey.  I mix up a lot of the smaller pubs, but http://www.dcbeer.com/tags/cask-ale has some more. Big Hunt has a cask on occasion but I don't think it's a normal beer engine. I was somewhere near Foggy Bottom recently where they had a few different Fullers beers on cask, but they didn't really tickle my fancy w/ all the diacetyl, but I know that I've popped into numerous other places with nice cask setups. Also I want a time machine to when Schlafly brought a plastic cask of dry hopped APA to Galaxy Hut; it was the best thing ever ever. fe: I just checked Fire Works' menu and they have Coffeehouse Stout on cask. I guess I'll be stopping in this weekend. Too bad it's not Cafe Royale.
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Apr 25, 2013 21:56
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This is not quite as ridiculous as the yeast spheres from the last page, but I found this article about freeze refermenting (read the article and it will make sense) a big beer to be quite interesting: http://www.homebrewtalk.com/entries/ice-concentration-to-resurrection.html
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Apr 26, 2013 00:38
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If you guys wanna sperg, these dudes put on some decent cask events: http://www.nerax.org/
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Apr 26, 2013 01:10
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crazyfish posted:This is not quite as ridiculous as the yeast spheres from the last page, but I found this article about freeze refermenting (read the article and it will make sense) a big beer to be quite interesting: http://www.homebrewtalk.com/entries/ice-concentration-to-resurrection.html That's a pretty clever solution to a sticky situation, albeit a niche issue. 22% ABV Beer, though? Ick.
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Apr 26, 2013 10:49
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RagingBoner posted:That's a pretty clever solution to a sticky situation, albeit a niche issue. 22% ABV Beer, though? Ick. Isn’t it also technically distillation and therefore illegal?
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Apr 26, 2013 13:07
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Beer4TheBeerGod posted:Isn’t it also technically distillation and therefore illegal?
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Apr 26, 2013 13:18
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Beer4TheBeerGod posted:Isn’t it also technically distillation and therefore illegal?
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Apr 26, 2013 15:31
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Has anyone got suggestions for interesting cider recipes? I've got a grapefruit cider conditioning now which is tasting pretty nice, but was wondering if anyone had done anything more exotic. Is it possible to do things with pulp? (I'm imagining suspending it in a extremely fine bag so it doesn't mix with flocculating yeast during fermentation)
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Apr 26, 2013 15:34
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I think I saw the same one you did, BerkerkLurk - as I recall, he even had a letter from the ATF saying it was ok. Maybe I made that part up, though.
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Apr 26, 2013 15:36
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Jo3sh posted:I think I saw the same one you did, BerkerkLurk - as I recall, he even had a letter from the ATF saying it was ok. Maybe I made that part up, though. IIRC it's the Gordon Biersch episode of the Sunday Session. They also said that their paperwork says something like +.5% ABV because that's the legal limit for fractional distillation/freezing, but in reality the beer gained much more in ABV than that. e: I still have their Eisbock sitting in my fridge from listening to that episode.
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Apr 26, 2013 15:43
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tonedef131 posted:I think the term "freeze distillation" throws people off. You're not actually distilling anything, your just concentrating it. All your proteins and sugars are still present, you didn't vaporize any alcohol, it's definitely still beer. I've seen Kulmbacher on sale at numerous beer bars with a two-way liquor license and excise never made a peep about, I highly doubt they are gonna kick down your door for moonshining because your beer got a little too cold. Availability of eisbock at the bar or store depends on your local distribution laws which tend to be a mess of alternating processing requirements and ABV and is potentially unrelated to the act of distilling.
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Apr 26, 2013 15:50
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tonedef131 posted:I highly doubt they are gonna kick down your door for moonshining because your beer got a little too cold.
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Apr 26, 2013 15:50
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Beer4TheBeerGod posted:Isn’t it also technically distillation and therefore illegal? I think as long as your at or below 24% I think you're okay. Lots of stuff is technically illegal but the ABC has bigger fish to fry than some dude making 25% beer in his closet. Also here's a Bochet I'll be bottling soon (12% ABV) So beautiful   and here's the 12%  Turbo Juice
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Apr 26, 2013 15:56
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BerkerkLurk posted:This is an excellent point, too. My friend dabbles in moonshining, swears no one has been arrested for it in decades (I seem to remember a few prolific moonshiners in the south getting arrested, but anyways), but when you don't even have a STILL, how would anyone find out? Does your friend have Google? I live in SC and people getting arrested for shining is a Real Thing That Happens. It's not the still that gets you arrested, it's the simple odds that once you start selling or distributing beyond your close circle of friends/family someone somewhere is going to run their mouth or tell the wrong person. People who drink shine (not as a novelty) aren't exactly the smartest cookies in the jar, and in these small towns everyone knows everyone so it's real hard to keep something like shining a secret, while at the same time trying to turn a profit.
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Apr 26, 2013 16:10
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BerkerkLurk posted:This is an excellent point, too. My friend dabbles in moonshining, swears no one has been arrested for it in decades (I seem to remember a few prolific moonshiners in the south getting arrested, but anyways), but when you don't even have a STILL, how would anyone find out? I've seen some peripheral evidence that there's a thriving underground scene for 'shine around here, too. I haven't yet talked to anyone who has admitted to me they distill, but I'm pretty sure I will eventually. EDIT: So far as I can tell, I think it's mainly similar to the homebrew scene around here - they make it because they can and because they're interested in the art and science of it, not as a commercial enterprise.
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Apr 26, 2013 16:14
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I'm pretty sure that freeze distilling/concentrating is specifically allowed, to the point that commercial beers can make eisbocks with the same permitting any brewery needs.
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Apr 26, 2013 16:20
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Yes, and from what I've read. Farm Winery licensed businesses in Mass can distill their wines and use it fortify their other wines.
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Apr 26, 2013 16:27
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I'm currently fermenting red wine in a 6 gal BB. Is it best never to use this as a primary for beer again or will some oxy and a good soak/sanitize make it neutral again?
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Apr 26, 2013 16:31
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Should be good to go after you clean it out. The whole point of PET is that it doesn't pick up colors and flavors the way some other plastics do.
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Apr 26, 2013 16:35
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Anyone have have experience with Wyeast 2565 Kolsch? I searched the thread and only found two mentions from crazyfish. I'm wondering about temperature and need for a blow-off tube. I picked up a smack pack on clearance, about 6 months old and did a starter, stepped up once. I'd like to put it to use but my fermentation freezer is full. My house stays around 62-64 F right now. I could manage cooling it in a tub of water with an ice bottle or two if it made that much difference.
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Apr 26, 2013 16:41
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wafflesnsegways posted:I'm pretty sure that freeze distilling/concentrating is specifically allowed, to the point that commercial beers can make eisbocks with the same permitting any brewery needs. Here's the statute, I think, including reference to the .5% mentioned by GB on the podcast. http://www.ttb.gov/rulings/94-3.htm
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Apr 26, 2013 16:42
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fullroundaction posted:Does your friend have Google? I live in SC and people getting arrested for shining is a Real Thing That Happens. Funny story though, he got run out of my LHBS for talking about stills to an employee. Two things: 1.) Dude, keep it to yourself. 2.) If you're selling distillation books maybe relax a little bit, you don't exactly have the moral high ground.
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Apr 26, 2013 16:47
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ChickenArise posted:IIRC it's the Gordon Biersch episode of the Sunday Session. ChickenArise posted:Here's the statute, I think, including reference to the .5% mentioned by GB on the podcast. I found the podcast I was thinking of. In there, they say that control of and decisions about distilling and exactly What That Is are now no longer under the purview of the BATF, and are controlled by the TTB (as you linked) - and since the TTB is all about taxation, from which homebrewers* are exempt anyway, they don't give a rip what we do. ----------- * Homebrewers defined here as people brewing at home for their own use and not for sale. Jo3sh fucked around with this message at 17:08 on Apr 26, 2013 |
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Apr 26, 2013 17:06
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Cpt.Wacky posted:Anyone have have experience with Wyeast 2565 Kolsch? I searched the thread and only found two mentions from crazyfish. I'm wondering about temperature and need for a blow-off tube. I picked up a smack pack on clearance, about 6 months old and did a starter, stepped up once. I'd like to put it to use but my fermentation freezer is full. My house stays around 62-64 F right now. I could manage cooling it in a tub of water with an ice bottle or two if it made that much difference. 62-64 should be good for 2565. I think I did mine around 68 and got some nice but not overwhelming esters. Worked real nice in my Spotted Cow clone  I don't think I needed a blowoff tube, but it's not like rigging one up is very difficult so I'd just say do it anyway (or use fermcap).
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Apr 26, 2013 17:13
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zedprime posted:But unless you are making eisbock with an ATF agent who is going to be able to tell because its not like you have a still. However, I work for a small gun manufacturer and am on pretty good terms with the local ATF agent, I'll just ask him flat out next time I see him.
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Apr 26, 2013 18:02
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I've been challenged to do this. Gotta come up with a really high ABV porter.
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Apr 26, 2013 18:05
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I can't imagine they'd care about freeze concentration. The real nasty alcohols that can kill you are from heat distillation (not to mention stills exploding, etc.).
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Apr 26, 2013 18:07
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Yeah, yeah, it's HBT, but seems like a basic enough primer- gonna try it out this weekend: http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/yeast-washing-illustrated-41768/ Wondering though- using the end product- 'jars' as a system of measurement seems a bit imprecise- i.e. how do you know how many jars at the end to pitch into your starter? This thread just says to put a 'jar's worth' into your starter wort. Given the hemming and hawing and Mr. Malty-this and starter-size that I see going around the internet it seems a little incongruous to just huck in one jar's worth of saved yeast. I ask because I just bought 12 pint-sized mason jars, would using just one of those, filled with saved yeast, be sufficient to make a sizable starter? In the interest of diversifying my yeast stores and cutting down on the purchase of more and more mason jars, I don't know if I'd want to save four whole jars of every variety of yeast I have. However, if that quantity of yeast is needed or desirable, then I can look to getting more mason jars in the future. global tetrahedron fucked around with this message at 18:33 on Apr 26, 2013 |
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Apr 26, 2013 18:08
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tonedef131 posted:Everything I've ever read draws the line at having an unlicensed still in your possession. It's perfectly legal to buy, build or own a still. It's illegal to use it for distilling alcohol without licensure and reporting and all that.
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Apr 26, 2013 18:31
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crazyfish posted:I can't imagine they'd care about freeze concentration. The real nasty alcohols that can kill you are from heat distillation (not to mention stills exploding, etc.). Isn't it more accurate to say that the first runnings from heat distillation are likely to have much more methanol vs. the increase in concentration per unit volume of methanol from fractional distillation? The use of heat or no heat isn't relevant to the production of methanol, but the process affects the ethanol:methanol ratios in different ways.
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Apr 26, 2013 18:55
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Freeze distillation actually does concentrate some pretty bad stuff as well
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Apr 26, 2013 19:03
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Even with that, you'd have to drink only the heads of the batch to experience any harm. The overwhelming majority of people who were hurt by bad alcohol were hurt by the amazingly nasty poo poo 'shiners would put in the batch to maximize profit, or by patent medicines. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamaica_ginger
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Apr 26, 2013 19:05
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Last I heard, drinking illegal home brew makes you go blind! I'd stay away from it if I were you. Read it on the internet somewhere is all. Just thought you guys otta know. Oh and some stuff about religion and being saved.
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Apr 26, 2013 19:18
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And the kids! Won't someone think of them? If we continue down this path, pretty soon we'll be playing cards and dancing.
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Apr 26, 2013 19:44
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Jo3sh posted:And the kids! Won't someone think of them? I guess someone should teach them to create Turbo Juice. But who has that kind of knowledge in these times. I bet even Siri could do it. Anyone have an Iphone that they can ask her how to make beer?
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Apr 26, 2013 19:56
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Siri says: Would you like me to search the web for "how do I make beer?"
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Apr 26, 2013 19:59
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She doesn't sound very smart. Anyways. As brew day approaches My recipe/idea for what to do next meter goes crazy and I change my mind a bunch of times. I think I've nailed down what I want to do. Ill have 2 open carboys as I'll be bottling both my bochet and wild blueberry maple. I also want ot have something more interesting for my blog than "here's what I'm doing!". So I was thinking along the lines of this. Boiling fruit and Color retention in meads. Some of the beer folks may not know. But everyone who's done a melomel with red berries or peaches and many other fruits, find that the color gets lost, faded, or changed. somewhere along the process. Strawberries fade and turn brown and peachy gold just goes away entirely. What I've found from what I've dabbled in Melomels is that when you boil the fruit you do get pectin, but color retention hasn't been a problem. So I'm setting off to get an answer through an experiment. Same recipe for both batches, but one will use boiled fruit and the other not boiled fruit. Ill add pectin enzyme about 1 month before bottling. (1 gallon batches) 1.5# Mesquite Honey 1.5# Orange Blossom honey 2# strawberries 2# peaches Lalvin D47 Yeast (great for fruit, and lees aging (good to minimize racking/ racking loss for big fruit melomels especially in these 1 gallon batches) Since adding unboiled fruit to the primary without treating with campden tabs could lead to issues, I'll be adding both rounds of fruit 1 day after fermentation begins, to keep sulfites out of the retention equation. The fruits are also added during primary to see how well the color is retained through the entire process, not adding the fruit a month before bottling. My hypothesis is that boiled fruit will hold color better than the non boil method. Marshmallow Blue fucked around with this message at 20:41 on Apr 26, 2013 |
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Apr 26, 2013 20:34
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How does the amount of headspace in bottling affect carbonation? My last bottled brew was an Imperial IPA, and I left the top ~1.5 inches of the bottle empty and still managed to get some good carbonation after a week. This time, I have a doppelbock with ~2 inches of headspace and after about a week it's essentially uncarbonated (there's some bubbles inside the beer but the head is essentially nonexistent).
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Apr 26, 2013 20:38
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Jo3sh posted:It's perfectly legal to buy, build or own a still. It's illegal to use it for distilling alcohol without licensure and reporting and all that. One of my local homebrew shops sells two big parts that if you happened to put one on top of the other would get you a complete still. They said it was something like buying those parts individually is nothing, but if someone buys them both they have to report the sale to the ATF and the buyer will likely get a call or visit to make sure they have an actual legal use for it.
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Apr 26, 2013 21:31
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global tetrahedron posted:Wondering though- using the end product- 'jars' as a system of measurement seems a bit imprecise- i.e. how do you know how many jars at the end to pitch into your starter? This thread just says to put a 'jar's worth' into your starter wort. Given the hemming and hawing and Mr. Malty-this and starter-size that I see going around the internet it seems a little incongruous to just huck in one jar's worth of saved yeast. Are you doing starters? I find it's infinitely easier to make a starter with an extra 500ml, which I save in a sterilized jar before pitching. It's super simple, clean, and has always given me enough yeast to build up the next starter. With washing I always end up with excess trub, no matter how careful I am. One advantage, however, is that you can usually save multiple jars of yeast. But I tend not to re-use the same yeast in enough quantity to make it worthwhile.
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