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crazyfish posted:This looks pretty cool: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/433436998/brewjacket-immersion-lager-beer-without-a-refriger?ref=thanks That's...really not a bad idea. I'm tempted to build one of my own. A less professional looking one should be doable for less than fifty bucks plus spare parts. Threaded stainless rod, cork, flat plate, thermoelectrics, controller, old PC power supply/fan/heat sinks. In fact, I've got enough drat thermoelectrics lying around that I could overbuild the heck out of it and make an immersion wort chiller...probably no way it tops just running water through copper, but might be worth looking into for sake of getting closer to or below ambient groundwater. Anybody know where I could find a flat-walled 10 gallon cooking pot? eviltastic fucked around with this message at 17:26 on May 21, 2014 |
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May 21, 2014 17:23
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eviltastic posted:That's...really not a bad idea. I'm tempted to build one of my own. A less professional looking one should be doable for less than fifty bucks plus spare parts. Threaded stainless rod, cork, flat plate, thermoelectrics, controller, old PC power supply/fan/heat sinks. It seems really awesome, wish I had the know-how to build something like that. Is there any other nice options for chilling that don't take a lot of space? I would get a modded freezer or whatever in a second if I had the space.
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May 21, 2014 18:14
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crazyfish posted:This looks pretty cool: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/433436998/brewjacket-immersion-lager-beer-without-a-refriger?ref=thanks I wouldn't want to be a first adopter - I've noticed that everyplace that sells thermoelectic camping coolers has lots of expensive replacement parts on the shelf right next to them. Compare to a dorm fridge: honestly not much bigger than a fermenter at half the price, built to go ten years minimum with zero maintenance, and can get down to 32F in any environment. Fully enclosed and insulated TEC wine coolers and camping coolers can't do better than about 35-40F lower than ambient, with efficiency really bad at the cool end of the range. Might be okay for fermenting with lager yeasts but lagering itself works in timeframes of months near freezing.
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May 21, 2014 18:38
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The one thing that had me concerned about the BrewJacket was this:BrewJacket posted:...allowing you to achieve cold crash temps in the mid 30s in just a matter of days.
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May 21, 2014 19:25
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Imaduck posted:The one thing that had me concerned about the BrewJacket was this: You don't typically drop down to cold crash temps early in the process. But still, ouch. I personally found that a chest freezer doesn't take up nearly as much room as you might expect. My freezer has a floor footprint of about 3 carboys and will comfortably hold 2 fermenters plus storage for other random stuff like hops. I don't drink enough to make a bigger freezer worth it as a fermentation chamber (and of course they do make smaller chest freezers for the floor space constrained).
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May 21, 2014 22:49
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Anybody have a good berliner recipe? Would like something with a nice "american style" tartness.
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May 22, 2014 02:32
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Bag of Sun Chips posted:Anybody have a good berliner recipe? Would like something with a nice "american style" tartness. This is my go-to technique and link for sour mashes. Really comes out nice, you want something more sour? Let it sit longer. Don't forget, fermentation drops pH too. e: Forgot link: http://anarchylane.com/blog/?p=1442 Jacobey000 fucked around with this message at 03:43 on May 22, 2014 |
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May 22, 2014 02:56
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Bag of Sun Chips posted:Anybody have a good berliner recipe? Would like something with a nice "american style" tartness. Here's mine, which is probably one of the best beers I've made. The recipe is straightforward but it's very process intensive. Mash as usual, run off, and boil for a minute or two. Cool it down to 115ish and pitch the lacto. You're going to need a kettle with a lid because it needs to ferment for 4-5 days in the kettle before you boil it again. Try to keep the temperature around 115-120. You need it warm to speed up the souring process and keep any potential bad bugs from becoming active. It also helps if you have some way to flush the kettle with CO2. Insulate it as best you can if you don't have some kind of temperature controlled space. From there it's business as usual. Boil for 15 minutes, chill, and ferment with your favorite clean ale yeast. I had a 4 day lag before fermentation started, probably from the low pH of the wort. Mine came out pretty darn tart. Definitely more tart than Bell's Oarsman. It also had a really doughy kind of malt character which I liked but was too much for some people. I made some raspberry syrup for it too which completely hid the doughyness and balanced the tartness nicely. internet celebrity fucked around with this message at 03:11 on May 22, 2014 |
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May 22, 2014 03:08
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Bag of Sun Chips posted:Anybody have a good berliner recipe? Would like something with a nice "american style" tartness. I do extract, but I'll use 2# each of pilsner and wheat DME with 0.5 oz of low alpha hops like hersbrecker or hallertau. Boil for a while, then I add Some straight lactobacillus to it and put it next to a heater for a week, trying to get temps around 100 degrees. Then I pitch a Berliner mix to finish it out. If you want some more complexity, pitch some jolly pumpkin dregs.
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May 22, 2014 03:12
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I'd been having issues getting US-05 to dry out a beer like I was accustomed to from when I started using it. Finally it took my most recent DIPA from 1.085 to 1.012 (with imo a decent amount of adjuncts). I credit my stirplate, a big starter, and a healthy dose of nutrient. Since I've built some non-awful pipeline, I also decided to try racking to secondary after a lengthy (for me, a lush) primary onto a bed of dry hops to squeeze out every last bit of goodness that I can.
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May 22, 2014 03:23
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Forgot to open up the airlock a couple times during this last cold crash. Opened up the freezer last night and one of my better bottles had taken on some Lovecraftian geometries. 
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May 22, 2014 16:59
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fullroundaction posted:Forgot to open up the airlock a couple times during this last cold crash. Opened up the freezer last night and one of my better bottles had taken on some Lovecraftian geometries. ooHHhh Pics please. So... you wanna be a home brewer huh? Well first you better learn a few things First things first, Relax, uh, don't worry, Second, uh, USE A loving BLOWOFF TUBE  I had to search my pantry for the stopper and airlock. And a bunch of pots and pans need to be washed for no good reason. It's a strawberry Lemon JAOV in which I took must off to make more head space (going to add it later as a top off) to avoid this crap... Happened anyways, Marshmallow Blue fucked around with this message at 17:48 on May 22, 2014 |
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May 22, 2014 17:45
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Just put this beer in the keg and I'm really proud of it: http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/132190/next-level-hoppy-thing First time doing purely whirlpool hops, none in the boil, and ended up being the first beer I got under 1.01 despite having 4.2% carapils and 5% crystal. The hops don't taste grassy at all and there's tons of flavor, which is good because I put 10oz in a 5 gallon batch. I might also dry hop it later. My volumes are weird because I use a homemade spreadsheet to determine how much trub will be at the bottom of the kettle and I'd rather spend ~$4 extra on ingredients to not have to feel like I need to suck up the trub. more falafel please posted:Yeah, it looks like they're sending me a new one. They also basically said "don't submerse the cord in a mash", I wonder if that applies to wort as well. Ohhhh I was assuming you had the "needle" probe. That one is waterproof, the other one is not. Basically any normal thermocouple will eventually crap out if you submerge them. I use the needle one for putting in a mash and the other one (with a clip) for boil and chill temperatures.
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May 22, 2014 19:08
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Feelin' good. My Belgian Dark Strong (brewed 3/23) is down to 1.010 FG, 11.68% abv, with 89% apparent attenuation. Theres some plum, slight clove, bread, some peppery alcohols, you cant really taste the alcohol at all, it comes across as spiciness. This one will get bottled and age for awhile, totally stoked.
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May 22, 2014 20:47
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Glottis posted:Ohhhh I was assuming you had the "needle" probe. That one is waterproof, the other one is not. Basically any normal thermocouple will eventually crap out if you submerge them. I use the needle one for putting in a mash and the other one (with a clip) for boil and chill temperatures. Oh, I do, that's why I was pissed. It's waterproof, but it's apparently not "wort-proof": Tanner Wheadon, the Most Mormon Name Ever posted:falafel,
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May 22, 2014 21:01
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more falafel please posted:Oh, I do, that's why I was pissed. It's waterproof, but it's apparently not "wort-proof": Lame. I guess I should stop doing that with mine, or stick it in a plastic bag or something.
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May 22, 2014 21:25
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Glottis posted:Lame. I guess I should stop doing that with mine, or stick it in a plastic bag or something. The funny thing is I've never had a problem with it in the mash, only in the kettle during chilling. Last batch I just used the stock probe and didn't keep it in the kettle, just took readings every so often. That worked fine. When I get the new one they're sending me, I'll probably just keep using it in the tun but not submerge the cord, and only use it for a few seconds at a time in the kettle.
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May 22, 2014 23:42
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crazyfish posted:This looks pretty cool: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/433436998/brewjacket-immersion-lager-beer-without-a-refriger?ref=thanks I've been sorta following this for a number of months now. Good to see they've gotten funded, and hopefully they can finally bring it to market. To me, it seemed like a good way to do temp control on indivdual batches without having to get everything on the same schedule or throw off the serving temp on your kegs or whatever. If you only ever have one batch at a time that would needs specific temp control, than this should be cheaper than a dedicated fermenting fridge or freezer(unless they've raised the projected price since I last checked- edit: yeah, it looks like it's gone up quite a bit), but any more than that and you're probably better off with a temp controlled chest freezer(assuming you have the space). I may or may not get one when they come out...I want to start doing lagers again, but I also want to get back into kegging, so I don't know...is what I would have said if it was still $200 or whatever it was originally. Now the freezer seems like the obvious choice, since you can do a lot more with it at once. BLARGHLE fucked around with this message at 15:36 on May 23, 2014 |
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May 23, 2014 15:28
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For those of you who watch or listen to the Basic Brewing video/podcast, I just had this painting commissioned to hang above my keg freezer: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152217326038401&set=a.10151704957173401.1073741832.247562328400&type=1 (linking to the artist's FB who just posted the finished product) I'm so excited to put this up. Also getting drunk and paying random dudes on the internet to paint me stuff is apparently a thing I do now.
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May 23, 2014 16:01
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I still use Beer Smith and love it, but they really get on my nerves with their inflated pricing for what should be inexpensive products. First it was Cloud storage at a 1000% markup, and now they are going circa 1995 with $25 DVDs. What the hell? http://tinyurl.com/q53ukgu
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May 23, 2014 16:18
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I've always considered Beersmith to be a study in terrible UI and feature creep. There are about 6 billion buttons and menus and poo poo that I don't need or want. Brewtoad does all the stuff I need although I'm waiting for them to paywall more stuff behind "Brewtoad Pro"
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May 23, 2014 16:59
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My only beef with Brewtoad is it gives you different OG/FG/IBU measurements sometimes depending on how you're viewing it (editing, public link, in a list, etc). As a web programmer I have to assume it's because they're rounding different numbers at different times depending on the page, but it's really frustrating to see "1.058 OG" while editing and then "1.060 OG" once it's saved (and not know which one is right). Other than that I love it.
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May 23, 2014 17:04
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My beef with brew-toad is lactose etc doesn't effect the gravity, other than that I like it. As far as #s. I NEVER hit my numbers so I don't care.
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May 23, 2014 17:15
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Syrinxx posted:I've always considered Beersmith to be a study in terrible UI and feature creep. There are about 6 billion buttons and menus and poo poo that I don't need or want. Brewtoad does all the stuff I need although I'm waiting for them to paywall more stuff behind "Brewtoad Pro" Even people I know who like Beersmith have issues with it. One of my brewing buddies tells me he has issues with different results depending on which computer he uses it on - he thinks there may be some wonkiness with the equipment profiles, although he hasn't been able to track it down so far. For me, the UI gave me the heebie-jeebies and I stuck with Hopville and now Brewtoad. I don't like the paywall either (and haven't bought the "Pro" service), but they have to do something to monetize the darn thing.
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May 23, 2014 17:40
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Oh and Brewtoad's Yeast db/search is suspiciously bad.
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May 23, 2014 17:46
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I found it pretty frustrating when I input a custom hop profile and had to re-enter all the info for every time I wanted to use it. And they don't have GigaYeast in their db yet.
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May 23, 2014 18:01
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I've found brewtoad to give too wonky of estimates and have already been "living" in beersmith this long anyway.
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May 23, 2014 19:51
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Jacobey000 posted:I've found brewtoad to give too wonky of estimates and have already been "living" in beersmith this long anyway. I've been using Brewer's Friend and really like it. The main problem I have is that it doesn't allow me to calculate strike water the way I like to: I like to assume my mash tun is preheated, which BeerSmith lets me do by putting in a specific heat of 0. So I build my recipe in Brewer's Friend and then just put the grain weight in a recipe in BeerSmith to calculate strike volume/temp. The main thing I like about Brewer's Friend is that I can work on it from multiple computers and my phone. The "cloud" stuff in BeerSmith is terrible, and it doesn't let you do any funnystuff like putting your folder in Dropbox.
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May 23, 2014 20:03
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My last two Decoctions mashes have gone something like this: Acid Rest: 95F Protein Rest 130F First Sach: Goal = 148, maybe hit 140F So I rush and boil a bunch of the decoction hurriedly, and get it to mid-150s as a compromise. But its always that same rest that comes in way too low. I have used calculators, traditional 1 qts/pound of grain, whatever, but I always seem to miss . Has anyone ever had this?
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May 24, 2014 00:16
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ScaerCroe posted:My last two Decoctions mashes have gone something like this: Always. I usually pull about 20% more than I think I need just in case. Better too much than not enough.
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May 24, 2014 00:35
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Just dumped in the whirlpool addition for this Butterball Pale Ale (American Pale Ale) Original Gravity (OG): 1.049 (°P): 12.1 Final Gravity (FG): 1.012 (°P): 3.1 Alcohol (ABV): 4.81 % Colour (SRM): 9.6 (EBC): 18.9 Bitterness (IBU): 45.9 (Average - No Chill Adjusted) 87.21% Pale Ale Malt 4.84% Munich I 4.07% Torrified Wheat 3.88% Caraaroma 0.7 g/L Galaxy (14.8% Alpha) @ 40 Minutes (Boil) 0.4 g/L Citra (11.1% Alpha) @ 0 Minutes (Boil) Whirlpool addition 0.4 g/L Galaxy (14.8% Alpha) @ 0 Minutes (Boil) Whirlpool addition 0.4 g/L Citra (11.1% Alpha) @ 0 Minutes (Aroma) Cube addition 0.4 g/L Galaxy (14.8% Alpha) @ 0 Minutes (Aroma) Cube addition 0.4 g/L Citra (11.1% Alpha) @ 5 Days (Dry Hop) 0.4 g/L Galaxy (14.8% Alpha) @ 5 Days (Dry Hop) 0.4 g/L Whirlfloc Tablet @ 10 Minutes (Boil) Single step Infusion at 66°C for 60 Minutes. Boil for 60 Minutes Fermented at 20°C with Safale US-05 Recipe Generated with BrewMate Smashed my efficiency for the second time after a long run of 60-ish% efficiencies was expecting 70% post boil but I hit 82%, so it should end up around 5.8% ABV Also decided to up the dry hop amounts to 15g/15g instead of 10g/10g (too lazy to updated the recipe) All Galaxy was super fresh first harvest pellets I won from Stone & Wood Brewery (they gave me 1kg), they smell AMAZING
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May 24, 2014 03:29
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Early trip report on GigaYeast: On 5/10, I grabbed a GoldPitch packet of their Vermont Ale yeast, aka Conan. I'm sure it was pretty fresh then, since my FLHBS had just brought it in. It's been sitting in my beer fridge since then, and today I made a starter with it. Yes, it's 200+ billion cells, but I'm pitching to ten gallons, so I wanted to step it up. It's a foil pack like Wyeast (sort of), but it's not a smack-pack, just a lot of yeast. Squeezing the pouch, I could feel that the yeast had sedimented pretty well (I had stored the pouch upright), so I was careful to shake it up well before opening. I boiled up 1800mL of starter wort (180g DME, water to 1800mL), then added the yeast. Only a few hours later, it's active in the flask. I'm brewing tomorrow, so I will report back on how quickly it takes off, how destructive the blowoff is, etc.
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May 24, 2014 04:46
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Hey, Marshmallow Blue, do you have links to your mead recipes? I'm planning on cooking up the other one you sent me next week, and I want to get at least one more small(or large) batch going at the same time. Also, I only have either 1 gallon jugs or 5/6 gallon carboys or buckets, and currently no room to buy 3 gallon carboys. If I wanted to do 3 gallon batches of things, could I just fill the headspace in one of those other carboys with co2 to get around oxygenation issues?
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May 24, 2014 13:50
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BLARGHLE posted:Hey, Marshmallow Blue, do you have links to your mead recipes? I'm planning on cooking up the other one you sent me next week, and I want to get at least one more small(or large) batch going at the same time. I don't even think it's an issue without filling it with co2 yourself. I have made all my beer in 30 litre buckets and I make 15 litre batches, as soon as the yeast starts working, the heavier co2 is going to push that air out.
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May 24, 2014 15:01
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Anyone have a good Wit recipe they'd like to share? I'm doing one this weekend to split into a couple experiments and need a solid base to start with.
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May 24, 2014 15:13
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Toebone posted:Anyone have a good Wit recipe they'd like to share? I'm doing one this weekend to split into a couple experiments and need a solid base to start with. 50% pils, 45% wheat, 5% oats. Coriander and orange peel. Amounts depend on if fresh or dried.
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May 24, 2014 15:32
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BLARGHLE posted:Hey, Marshmallow Blue, do you have links to your mead recipes? I'm planning on cooking up the other one you sent me next week, and I want to get at least one more small(or large) batch going at the same time. Yes, I'm on vacation at the moment but ill post it up when I'm back tomorrow or monday! How is that bochet going?
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May 24, 2014 21:52
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Sistergodiva posted:I don't even think it's an issue without filling it with co2 yourself. I have made all my beer in 30 litre buckets and I make 15 litre batches, as soon as the yeast starts working, the heavier co2 is going to push that air out. I think it's more of a problem when bulk aging or secondary fermenting with a lot of headspace. I don't know, the wine stuff I've read has all talked about leaving as little headspace as possible to avoid oxygenation. Marshmallow Blue posted:Yes, I'm on vacation at the moment but ill post it up when I'm back tomorrow or monday! As far as I know it's plugging along just fine. I was going to take a sample to measure and taste earlier, but I got called out to make a honda key instead. Maybe I'll do then if/when I get home this evening...
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May 24, 2014 22:45
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Cointelprofessional posted:Just siphon out the mold. Measure the gravity, then in a week or two measure again. If it remains the same, you shouldn't have to worry about gushers. Ok done this, hopefully it will be fine!  Also bottling Jo3sh's recipe for a Best Bitter today (only change was the hops). Will report back in 3-4weeks Jo3sh on what I think, think it's going to be great! Toebone posted:Anyone have a good Wit recipe they'd like to share? I'm doing one this weekend to split into a couple experiments and need a solid base to start with. Here is a strong wit recipe I've brewed before (I've scaled it down to 5gallons/19liters for you, normally do 40liters), tastes good! code:  Edit: A friend linked me this, reminding me to never super overcarb beer: 
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May 25, 2014 07:38
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Was wondering if anyone had a good base recipe for a pale ale? I'm getting my hands on quite abit of Sorachi Ace in wholeleaf form and pellets (will use the pellets to dryhop). But I don't think I have a tested base recipe yet for a hoppy pale ale, not an IPA type deal just 4-6% type recipe?
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May 25, 2014 10:48
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