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Goon Homebrewers, I'm making a run to the brew store in Austin today and need a little help from the experts. It might be necessary for me to tell you what I have before I ask questions. I have a turkey frier, 7.5 gallon pot, and all the other basics that go along with doing basic extract DME/LME extract brewing. Since I'm thinking of going all grain today, it might be necessary to tell you I also have an IGLOO cube cooler, not too unlike this one: http://tinyurl.com/k6m78kt 1.) So as I said, I'm thinking of going all-grain while on my trip today because and it looks like something that could save some real $$$ in the future as brewing is something that I've really taken to in the 3 times I've done extract batches. I need advice on what I should be looking at while going to Home Depot and/or AHS to get parts. a. Am I correct in thinking that I ALSO need something similar to this: http://tinyurl.com/lqvw9oy to use as either a container for hot water or to mash into? b. How good of a container are the aforementioned coolers for going all grain for someone that would brew 3-4 times a year? c. Besides some ball valves, tubing, a good stainless spoon to mash in with, and a method for separating grains from wort, like a false bottom, would I be missing anything else? d. It seems to me finding the ball valves and tubing would be easy if I took the cooler to Home Depot and had someone help me with fitting it correctly, yes? What kind of material (brass, stainless, etc.) am I specifically looking for? e. I'd like someone to suggest a cheap false bottom or mechanism for separating grain from wort. Go. g. How exact do I need to be with water temperature when I mash in? I have a pair of homebrew store sold thermometers that I could use, I assume this is good enough. 2.) Also thinking of getting a yeast starter kit. ALL of the brews I do are low OG beers, I've never had an interest in the "big beers" and probably never will. Would a $20-30 yeast starter kit be worth the time and effort for a low OG brewer such as myself or am I better off investing the money elsewhere (i.e. saving the money for a chest freezer)? LaserWash fucked around with this message at 10:21 on Jul 7, 2013 |
# ? Jul 7, 2013 10:18 |
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# ? May 30, 2024 01:39 |
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LaserWash posted:Goon Homebrewers, To start - spending money on this stuff and only brewing 3-4 times a year seems kinda not worth it to me. a) yes and no. If you plan on sparging - yes (but not always). I've sparged into a bucket and used my kettle as an HLT. A cooler would help yes, especially if you were fly sparging. Those types are VERY popular for either. It's really your choice to use it for which. Your problem it seems, is that the cooler you said you already have, doesn't have a drain. You'll either need to buy a new one or drill a hole for it. b) Like I said before, it's great - but going all grain may be overkill for how often you brew. You won't see that much in the way of savings (just in ingredient cost). c) no - nothing else really. A "nice" stainless spoon is optional, could use a ladle from your kitchen if you want. Same result. d) Don't go to home depot unless you LOVE asking another guy about each individual piece. Just go here: http://www.bargainfittings.com/ e) get a bazooka tube, they are much cheaper and (from a couple posts here) less of a headache than a false bottom. You can find one anywhere. f) what happened to f? g) Pretty exact, but your thermometers should be fine yes.
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# ? Jul 7, 2013 12:13 |
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I was feeling particularly so I splurged for expensive-rear end Blichmann burner that matched my kettle (with the 2' leg extensions). Did nothing but make Tim Taylor noises all night while assembling it on Friday. Took over 3 hours to boil my 12 gallons of wort (my Walmart turkey fryer does it in about 45). Turned our normal 4 hour brew day into an 8 hour one <> Obviously we didn't have the settings dialed in perfectly, but you'd think that even then it wouldn't have quadrupled our boil time. Anyone have any experience/advice for fine tuning these things? We are unfortunately outside where we get slight breezes (enjoyed relighting the thing constantly!) and in direct sunlight, so it's really hard to see the flame levels. (Yes we've watched their YouTube videos and read the manual/reviews etc) SO FRUSTRATED RIGHT NOW
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# ? Jul 7, 2013 13:25 |
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I have a math problem again. 1/4 cup of sugar added to a full cup of boiling water makes a solution that is 1/5 sugar (basically). 1/4 cup of this mixture added to a cup of my cider makes the sweetness JUUUUUST right. How much 1:5 sugar water should I add to 4 gallons of cider to keep the ratio good? A whole gallon? If that's the case, I'm essentially adding a quart of sugar to 4 gallons of cider?
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# ? Jul 7, 2013 15:14 |
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What's the accepted limit for a 5 gal batch to sit in primary on the yeast cake? I'm at about a month but it may be 5 or 6 weeks before I get around to transferring it to the keg. It's supposed to be about 6% so additional time can't hurt for it to flavor up, correct? ( http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/le-petite-orange-limited-edition-extract-kit-w-specialty-grains.html )
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# ? Jul 7, 2013 16:30 |
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strikehold posted:What's the accepted limit for a 5 gal batch to sit in primary on the yeast cake? I'm at about a month but it may be 5 or 6 weeks before I get around to transferring it to the keg. It's supposed to be about 6% so additional time can't hurt for it to flavor up, correct? Straight up, don't even worry about it. You can have it sit on the yeast cake for ages.
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# ? Jul 7, 2013 16:35 |
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strikehold posted:What's the accepted limit for a 5 gal batch to sit in primary on the yeast cake? I'm at about a month but it may be 5 or 6 weeks before I get around to transferring it to the keg. It's supposed to be about 6% so additional time can't hurt for it to flavor up, correct? That short amount of time won't hurt at all, no. If anything it'll force you to let the flavor develop a bit instead of sucking down the whole batch in a week like I did when I made a similar recipe. There really is not time limit on beer sitting on yeast cakes nowadays, assuming they don't undergo any extreme environmental changes during the aging.
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# ? Jul 7, 2013 16:36 |
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Thanks beer bros. I also have a stout I'm letting age in primary for a bit, this alleviates my concerns. They are both sitting in glass carboys at 67 degrees temp controlled (chest freezer with Johnson digital temp).
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# ? Jul 7, 2013 17:15 |
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fullroundaction posted:(Yes we've watched their YouTube videos and read the manual/reviews etc) SO FRUSTRATED RIGHT NOW I don't exactly 'trust' those videos. I've only ever seen them used in the "MAKE IT CRY WITH RAGE" setting. So... I mean, I've seen one of those kick 55gal to boiling in 45min.
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# ? Jul 7, 2013 17:50 |
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So this is a very long thread and I'm a bad person so I'm going to ask a question. I didn't see anything in the OP about cider so I was wondering what a good resource for information on making delicious fizzy grown up apple juice is. I'm about to put in a few Dorsett Golden Apple trees in my back yard which should bear fruit next year and something I'm especially looking for is plans for an apple press and just some good advice on making cider.
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# ? Jul 7, 2013 22:08 |
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There is some cider discussion now and again in this thread, but it's mostly about making cider from storebought juice. I can't recall any discussion about plans for a press or anything, but I wouldn't mind learning about it also (even though SoCal isn't really apple country).
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# ? Jul 7, 2013 22:45 |
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Jo3sh posted:There is some cider discussion now and again in this thread, but it's mostly about making cider from storebought juice. I can't recall any discussion about plans for a press or anything, but I wouldn't mind learning about it also (even though SoCal isn't really apple country). I'm very excited to make more cider/cyser this fall once it's apple season in Michigan. Our crop wasn't destroyed this year thankfully and cider prices should be way less than they were the last two years. I had reasonable success last year, my cyser is just starting to really come into it's own after 4+ months bottle conditioning after 6 months in carboys. It finished high, but the sweetness is starting to blend much more with the rest of the flavors. Buying a press seems a little crazy to me, and messy! It's cool for sure, but I don't know enough about to apples to really start to base cider recipes on certain ratios of apples in a cider. An all-tart apple cider would be amazing, though.
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# ? Jul 7, 2013 22:53 |
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im new at this, but i made a 'cider' from store bought juice, using a wine yeast, and i wasn't to happy with the result. it got very dry, making me back sweeten after bottling, and since it was juice, all the apple flavor really left. my 2nd batch is cooking now, using proper cider (store bought 'juice' from whole foods, claims to be pressed 100% as is, so cider really) plus 2 lbs of honey I used a liquid smakc pack of actual cider yeast, so im seeinghow this will turn out. i dont mind dry, i just want the apple flavor to remain. In fact, im probably due for a test taste since im about 2 weeks in primary now. i have 1 gal carboys ready to go to further take it to new levels depending.
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# ? Jul 7, 2013 23:09 |
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I remember seeing plans somewhere in the wilds of the internet for a homemade fruit grinder and apple press. I believe the grinder used a (new) garbage disposal and had a big fuckoff hopper on it. I think the press was a repurposed food grade bucket with a plywood top attached to a scissor jack, it seemed to me like it would work pretty well, if you weren't a retard about using it and had some patience.
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# ? Jul 7, 2013 23:13 |
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Whelp, I somehow clicked the wrong box somewhere on my last grain order and now I have 22 lbs of munich instead of 20 lbs of pilsener. Anything that can get rid of large amounts of this at a time besides Octoberfests? I do use munich pretty often, just not 20 lbs of it.
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# ? Jul 8, 2013 01:55 |
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Try an IPA with Munich or something of the sort. I'm pretty sure Victory uses German malts specifically so I'm guessing a lot of their stuff has Munich.
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# ? Jul 8, 2013 02:00 |
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nominal posted:Whelp, I somehow clicked the wrong box somewhere on my last grain order and now I have 22 lbs of munich instead of 20 lbs of pilsener. Anything that can get rid of large amounts of this at a time besides Octoberfests? I do use munich pretty often, just not 20 lbs of it. Maybe a doppelbock with just a little dark crystal or chocolate malt or an all-munich alt? Now I'm thinking I have to make an alt next. I just bottled a belgian single and forgot to put the little black tipguard on the autosiphon cane. Looked in the bottling bucket and it was murky as gently caress. Oh well if it doesn't settle in the bottles I can tell people it's a wit.
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# ? Jul 8, 2013 02:24 |
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Experiment with some smashes. 22 pounds is two pale ale strength 5 gallon batches and Munich is light enough that it won't necessarily be cloyingly sweet.
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# ? Jul 8, 2013 02:27 |
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bengy81 posted:I remember seeing plans somewhere in the wilds of the internet for a homemade fruit grinder and apple press. I believe the grinder used a (new) garbage disposal and had a big fuckoff hopper on it. I think the press was a repurposed food grade bucket with a plywood top attached to a scissor jack, it seemed to me like it would work pretty well, if you weren't a retard about using it and had some patience. I make soooooo much cider from the apples we grow, but I just juice them with my Jack lalane power juicer.
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# ? Jul 8, 2013 02:45 |
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Perfectly Cromulent posted:Yeah, the hop additions came entirely from this Mr. Malty post about using only late addition hops. Granted, the beer in that recipe is a red which is not going to depend on hops for it's flavor in the same way as an IPA does. I modified the recipe with some Simcoe and a small dose of CTZ at 60 min. Well here's what we actually did with the IPA recipe today: 15 Gallon Batch 32 lbs 2-Row 2.5 lbs Crystal 40 1.5 lbs Cara-Pils 1.5 lbs Vienna Malt 1 oz Warrior (First Wort) 2.25 oz Columbus (30 min) 1.5 oz Citra (30 min) 1.5 oz Simcoe (30 min) 1.25 oz Chinook (30 min) 3 oz Centennial (15 min) 2 oz Citra (15 min) 3.25 oz Centennial (0 min) 2.5 oz Citra (0 min) 1.5 oz Cascade (0 min) 1.5 oz Centennial (Dry Hop 7 days) 1.5 oz Citra (Dry Hop 7 days) 1.5 oz Simcoe (Dry Hop 7 days) Safale US-05 Est O.G.: 1.061 Est F.G.: 1.016 Est ABV: 6% Est IBU: 68.7 Est Color: 7.6 SRM Added gypsum to the mash water. Mashed at 151 which dropped to 146 after 60 minutes. Wondering if we went a little overboard on the number of kinds of hops added. Maybe we should have just stuck to the Centennial, Citra, Simcoe combo with a small bittering addition. I'm excited to try it.
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# ? Jul 8, 2013 02:59 |
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Roundboy posted:im new at this, but i made a 'cider' from store bought juice, using a wine yeast, and i wasn't to happy with the result. it got very dry, making me back sweeten after bottling, and since it was juice, all the apple flavor really left. I'd be interested to hear how your taste test goes/went. I've currently got a batch of cider that I threw together as a spur of the moment thing about a week from bottling. My recipe was similar to yours, it seems - five gallons apple juice from the store plus 2 lbs honey and Wyeast 4184. I mostly made it because I was worried the yeast were about to go bad and it was dead easy. Still, I'm wondering how much apple and honey flavor will stick around. I haven't tasted the mead I made with the same yeast, so I'm not too familiar with how much residual sweetness it leaves.
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# ? Jul 8, 2013 03:04 |
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My terrible Saison (only 20 minute boil due to me not figuring out the heater went out, no backup, dropped entire packet as in the packing of my Saaz into the boil, added 2lbs of DME after the fact, no heat controls besides my hot extra room and leaving my house at 87 degrees daily) tastes acceptable after 3.5 weeks of sitting on the yeast and showing no signs of fermenting. Since it is at 1.004 from...wherever it was when I added the DME (it was a long day ok) I think it is just about done. Fake edit: this was the epitome of RDWHAHB
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# ? Jul 8, 2013 03:41 |
Got my last few batches of beer all kegged up, got the freezer cleaned up, redid a bunch of the woodwork on it, all ready to go...and it's now cooling. The compressor runs and sounds just fine, but it's not cooling the freezer. In fact, since the heat from the compressor is just radiating up through the wall under the hump, it's actually warming the inside of the freezer a few degrees. Really don't want to have to replace the thing.
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# ? Jul 8, 2013 04:05 |
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ieatsoap6 posted:I'd be interested to hear how your taste test goes/went. I've currently got a batch of cider that I threw together as a spur of the moment thing about a week from bottling. My recipe was similar to yours, it seems - five gallons apple juice from the store plus 2 lbs honey and Wyeast 4184. I mostly made it because I was worried the yeast were about to go bad and it was dead easy. Still, I'm wondering how much apple and honey flavor will stick around. I haven't tasted the mead I made with the same yeast, so I'm not too familiar with how much residual sweetness it leaves. I was going to type a bunch, but then i decided to just sample it right now and give actual results. after 2 weeks this past thursday, its sitting @ 1.04 from some unknown start (i really suck at this) but im going to assume a high start since cider + 2 lbs honey is nothing to sneeze at sugar wise. the taste is on the dry side, and i can get a slight hint of apple. i also taste a slight burn of alcohol (makes sense since this yeast tops out @ 12% or so) Im not detecting the huge apple flavor left over that this yeast was supposed to give, but i like it better then the previous wine yeast i used. but then again, that tasted fine during bottling. i hope it just stays like this. im leaving sat for the beach for a week, so when i get back that will give it a month in primary. I can then pull it out and do some test batches that i had in mind. 1 gal cherry puree, 1 gal hopped cider.. and the rest, i dunno, blueberry? leave it as is ? im planning on dropping some gelatin finings in.. i'll do that before i leave to let it sit. i also need to get a huge plastic tub to swamp cooler my next batch of honey porter. but i have to watch my bottle situation now.. this cider will put me about empty.
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# ? Jul 8, 2013 04:08 |
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the yellow dart posted:leaving my house at 87 degrees daily Do you incubate baby chick eggs and jaundiced newborns in your house for a living? Was your family killed by a falling A/C unit? That can probably account for your sharp attenuation though, so I suppose that's a feather in your pocket. Takes a hell of a lot to ruin a beer, so well done on avoiding that!
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# ? Jul 8, 2013 04:15 |
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nominal posted:Whelp, I somehow clicked the wrong box somewhere on my last grain order and now I have 22 lbs of munich instead of 20 lbs of pilsener. Anything that can get rid of large amounts of this at a time besides Octoberfests? I do use munich pretty often, just not 20 lbs of it. If you're set up for lagers you should try making a Munich Dunkel, 20 pounds will get you close to 10 gallons. My go-to 6 gallon recipe is: 12.5lbs Munich I (Weyermann) 0.3 lbs Carafa II for color 0.2 lbs Melanoidin (can sub double decoction) 1.75oz Hallertauer Mittelfreuh @ 60 0.5oz Hallertauer Mittelfreuh @ 5 min I generally do a two step Hochkurz mash, one step @ 145F for 40 min and one step @ 158F for 50 min before mashing out but I've tried it with a single infusion at 152 with good results. Feel free to sub in similar hops to about 20IBU As far as yeast goes I like WLP833 Bock and WLP838 Southern German Lager. WLP830 German Lager is OK but I prefer the other two. I also throw a pound or two of Munich in pale ales and IPAs from time to time since I like complexity it gives to the malt backbone.
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# ? Jul 8, 2013 04:21 |
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Yellow dart, that to me sounds like the right way to make a saison Bad Munki, sometimes chest/large freezers take 24-36 hours to get down to temperature. Air is kinda lovely, so if its empty and you keep opening it, it may take forever. If you have a few cases of water bottles, beer, etc throw them in there so when it is running and trying to cool down, there is something that will hold onto the cold a bit better. Could be hosed, or could just need a little time to balance itself out.
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# ? Jul 8, 2013 05:02 |
I let it run overnight and it had gotten up to 78 by the following evening according to the controller's probe. e: That's with 15 gallons of beer inside. Bad Munki fucked around with this message at 15:35 on Jul 8, 2013 |
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# ? Jul 8, 2013 05:07 |
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I brewed a 6.5 gallon batch of a Belgian Wit yesterday. It has lots of citrus zest, orange marmalade, coriander, and grains of paradise. 1.052 starting gravity and a little Maris Otter in the grain bill so it is a touch too high-test and a little too dark for the style, but I think it will be good. 5.5 gallons is in a plastic bucket fermenter and the other gallon is in a Carlo Rossi bottle. When fermentation is complete I want to add a little something 'extra' to the one gallon mini batch. This beer already has a lot going on so I am not quite sure what I want to add. Any suggestions? This was my second go-round using liquid yeast and actually making a yeast starter. That simple procedure makes fermentation jump off like a rocket. I tried the first bottle of the S&M Pale Ale (Simcoe hops/Maris Otter SMaSH) I made about a month ago. It has only been in the bottle for seven days but I couldn't wait to try it. It was my first all-grain beer. The body is pretty thin, which is to be expected with no specialty malts. The beer is very aromatic but the flavor is more subdued than you would expect from the piney smell. Overall I am pretty happy with it, especially since it was the first beer I have ever really 'made'.
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# ? Jul 8, 2013 15:10 |
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PBCrunch posted:5.5 gallons is in a plastic bucket fermenter and the other gallon is in a Carlo Rossi bottle. When fermentation is complete I want to add a little something 'extra' to the one gallon mini batch. This beer already has a lot going on so I am not quite sure what I want to add. Any suggestions? I like to add a little bit of chamomile tea.
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# ? Jul 8, 2013 15:44 |
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I had a beer this weekend (Cuda by Half Acre) that was german grains, kolsch yeast, and moasic hops. I need to make that beer. Or just use more moasic, tasted great. Also I kegged my raspberry beer but got a bit of raspberry in the keg and it keeps clogging it up haha. BUT WOO KEG E: Ugh this is like continuously getting clogged. Friggin raspberries. ChiTownEddie fucked around with this message at 17:03 on Jul 8, 2013 |
# ? Jul 8, 2013 15:59 |
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I just got three pounds of sour Michigan cherries from the local farmers' market that I want to put in the sour beer I've had aging for the last 9 months. What's the best way to prepare and add them? I'd like to keep the beer in the same carboy if possible, but I understand the need to avoid adding excess oxygen to the beer. I'm planning on removing the stems but not the seeds, but I don't know whether I want to freeze the cherries first or simply add them as-is.
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# ? Jul 8, 2013 16:29 |
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Standard procedure is to freeze then puree them then add. Freezing them breaks the cell membranes which allows the juice/flavor to flow more easily. Pureeing also helps with that.
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# ? Jul 8, 2013 16:39 |
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i was all about throwing cherries in a beer, but recently i had a cherry ale that had WAYYY too much cherry. subtle is better. edit: it was this in fact : http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/113/37400
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# ? Jul 8, 2013 17:37 |
Roundboy posted:i was all about throwing cherries in a beer, but recently i had a cherry ale that had WAYYY too much cherry. subtle is better. That's funny, I was just the opposite. I never ever liked cherry beer. But this one sampler pack I keep getting because it has awesome stuff in it has 4 dark cherry ales, and I kept avoiding them, but it meant I had an absurd ratio of cherry beer in my fridge to other stuff. So I started drinking them just to make them go away, and this one, it's actually really good. I still wouldn't drink more than one in a sitting, but I totally don't mind starting off with one, it's not bad at all. It's from here, although I don't see it on their list of beers: http://www.eriebrewingco.com. Their Presque Isle Pilsner is excellent, though, and I love their APA and Wee Heavy.
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# ? Jul 8, 2013 17:59 |
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Roundboy posted:i was all about throwing cherries in a beer, but recently i had a cherry ale that had WAYYY too much cherry. subtle is better. Depends on the beer and of course individual tastes - New Glarus Belgian Red (hoping it comes back this year with what looks like a good cherry harvest) has the equivalent of a pound in each 750ml bottle. Some people find it too sweet but one complaint I haven't heard is too much cherry.
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# ? Jul 8, 2013 18:14 |
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Don't make the mistake I did and just dump a huge can of cherries packed in syrup into your beer. I obviously wasn't thinking at the time, but the syrup turned into pure alcohol and tasted awful.
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# ? Jul 8, 2013 18:22 |
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fullroundaction posted:Don't make the mistake I did and just dump a huge can of cherries packed in syrup into your beer. I obviously wasn't thinking at the time, but the syrup turned into pure alcohol and tasted awful. yeah, you're going to want to rinse all the syrup off the cherries that come in light/ medium / heavy syrups. You can also just but a few pounds and de-pit and de-stem them all yourself. They will have more of a tartness to them that way.
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# ? Jul 8, 2013 18:25 |
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Thanks to whoever posted the BIAB wit recipe quite a while ago. We had a homebrew tasting right before going into the Seattle International Beerfest and the wit as a hit. I tasted a few wits from Belgium in the beerfest and mine compared very favorably.fullroundaction posted:I was feeling particularly so I splurged for expensive-rear end Blichmann burner that matched my kettle (with the 2' leg extensions). Did nothing but make Tim Taylor noises all night while assembling it on Friday. That's been my exact experience too. I'm also irrationally terrified of propane and explosions so that doesn't help but even pushing my comfort zone with the burner it still doesn't seem to perform like it should. Godsavethefritos posted:So this is a very long thread and I'm a bad person so I'm going to ask a question. Craft Cider Making by Andrew Lea is the best book I've read on cider making so far and I've read a few. The book is an edited and updated compilation of articles you can find for free on his website here: http://www.cider.org.uk/content2.htm I'm not sure what size trees you're putting in but the rule of thumb for new apple trees is to pinch off the fruit for the first year or two so that the tree puts more energy into developing itself before it goes into heavy bearing. Also, according to Orange Pippin the Dorsett Golden is self-sterile so you'll need another variety to cross-pollinate. It's an extremely early flowering variety so you'll want to keep that in mind when selecting another variety. hellfaucet posted:Buying a press seems a little crazy to me, and messy! It's cool for sure, but I don't know enough about to apples to really start to base cider recipes on certain ratios of apples in a cider. An all-tart apple cider would be amazing, though. Pressing can be messy for sure. Do it outside where you can hose things off afterwards. You don't have to worry too much about ratios. I've made good cider out of a single eating variety, and good cider out of a mix of everything I could get my hands on. Most books like recommend some ratio of bittersweet, bittertart, aromatic, astrigent/tannic etc. The problem is most of those are not grown commercially and until recently they weren't widely available from nurseries to grow yourself. It's not something I'd worry about until you had a good amount of cidermaking behind you already. bengy81 posted:I remember seeing plans somewhere in the wilds of the internet for a homemade fruit grinder and apple press. I believe the grinder used a (new) garbage disposal and had a big fuckoff hopper on it. I think the press was a repurposed food grade bucket with a plywood top attached to a scissor jack, it seemed to me like it would work pretty well, if you weren't a retard about using it and had some patience. Building a press itself is not that hard since it can just be some dimensional lumber, nuts, bolts and a bottle jack. But there are a few other pieces you need for the pressing process like a pressing bucket, pressing cloths or sacks and draining tray to collect the pressed juice. They can be improvised but it takes time to figure out how and locate the materials that will work. I used the Whizbang Cider Press plans. I did intially build the garbage disposal grinder but it was not very good. You have to cut the apples up small enough to fit into the disposal hole which takes more time and then it tends to get clogged up pretty often too. The motors on those disposals aren't meant to run for long periods and tend to overheat. I removed it and used a coupling to mount a general purpose electric motor and the whole thing tries to shake itself apart. It's really difficult to mount the heavy motor just right so that the coupling doesn't get destroyed. Late last year I started building a new grinder based on a plan from Woodgears.ca. I got it to the point of successfully grinding an apple with the hand crank and it looks like a good design. I need to replace the drum with white oak instead of red oak and set up a pulley and motor instead of manually cranking it since I'll likely be processing thousands of pounds of apples this year. I can go into more of the specifics here or another thread if anyone is interested.
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# ? Jul 8, 2013 18:59 |
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# ? May 30, 2024 01:39 |
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I added some white nectarines and black berries the other day. I chopped up the white nectarines and then put them in a colander and dunked them into star san. Then I placed them into a Ziploc bag and muddled them until they were a bit mushy. I tossed them in the freezer overnight and thawed them the next day. I dumped them into the carboy and racked the beer on top of them. When you use whole fruit instead of puree, it will float on top for a while. Given all the sanitation measures and the fact that the re-fermentation will push out all of the oxygen, there's little chance of mold growing on the floating fruit. The beer should eat all of the sugars over a few months while keeping the cherry aroma. It shouldn't be sweet like New Glarus, because they pasteurize/filter their beer before adding the fruit syrup. As far as adding the fruit to the existing carboy, the only option I can think of that won't introduce much oxygen is if you put all the fruit into a nylon bag and slowly lower it in through the neck. If you go slow and steady enough, there should be minimal sloshing. Cointelprofessional fucked around with this message at 19:06 on Jul 8, 2013 |
# ? Jul 8, 2013 19:04 |