|
Hello thread. I have 3gl of vienna/wheat beer fermenting, it's about a week in. I wanted to add fruit to it, but wasn't sure what to add. I found a quart mason jar of preserved blueberries in my pantry. They're about a year old, but were packed in a 1:1 syrup and canned in a boiler for whatever the amount of time ended up being to safely can them. There was lemon juice added for acidity too, but that's not too important at this stage. If I were to sanitize the outside of the jar, I should be able to safely add them to my ferment. I am curious about the additional sugar I'll be adding on top of the fact that it's 1qt of berries/syrup. Should I drain the syrup? It seems like a decent amount of flavor. I'd imagine by looking at the jar I have just over a pint of berries in the thing. What would my process look like to use this stuff? Or should I even bother? I'm aware fruit purees and what not exist for brew/wine I was mainly curious on using a thing I saved.
|
#
?
Jun 12, 2014 00:21
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 17, 2024 20:03 |
|
|
apricot is my favorite flavor to add to wheat beers e: going through secondary should just convert those sugars to extra booze
|
|
#
?
Jun 12, 2014 00:24
|
|
|
Toxx posted:Hello thread. I have 3gl of vienna/wheat beer fermenting, it's about a week in. I wanted to add fruit to it, but wasn't sure what to add. I found a quart mason jar of preserved blueberries in my pantry. They're about a year old, but were packed in a 1:1 syrup and canned in a boiler for whatever the amount of time ended up being to safely can them. There was lemon juice added for acidity too, but that's not too important at this stage. If I were to sanitize the outside of the jar, I should be able to safely add them to my ferment. I am curious about the additional sugar I'll be adding on top of the fact that it's 1qt of berries/syrup. Should I drain the syrup? It seems like a decent amount of flavor. I'd imagine by looking at the jar I have just over a pint of berries in the thing. What would my process look like to use this stuff? Or should I even bother? I'm aware fruit purees and what not exist for brew/wine I was mainly curious on using a thing I saved. I've got no idea what all goes into preserving fruit, but in terms of the fruit plus syrup, that should be fine. Both the fruit and the syrup will contribute sugars, so you'll have a second mini-fermentation for a few days, but otherwise adding fruit to beer is pretty straightforward. Depending on how strong the fruit flavor is, I think something like 1 lb/gallon is a good ratio, although I'm particularly fond of blueberry wheat stuff (see: Sweetwater Blue).
|
|
#
?
Jun 12, 2014 00:46
|
|
|
Question for you guys who build your water from RO. Do you add minerals to the water as you heat it or do you add them directly to the mash? Do you also keep the same mineral profile for infusion/sparge water? The first time I tried building my water I decided to mix up a big batch of water all at once to keep my mineral profile consistent. I figured the entire water volume I needed and used a couple of 5 gallon fermentors to mix it all up before heating anything. It was kind of a pain in the rear end and I'd like to not do it this way again if I can avoid it.
|
|
#
?
Jun 12, 2014 01:55
|
|
|
internet celebrity posted:Question for you guys who build your water from RO. Do you add minerals to the water as you heat it or do you add them directly to the mash? Do you also keep the same mineral profile for infusion/sparge water? That's to my taste though and I'm sure if I were a professional brewer I'd say that all the water should be mineralized because that seems more accurate to me.
|
|
#
?
Jun 12, 2014 02:33
|
|
|
Sounds good on the fruit. I started with an OG of .066, I just didn't want to end up with rocket fuel or some kind of hot alcohol.
|
|
#
?
Jun 12, 2014 05:16
|
|
|
internet celebrity posted:Question for you guys who build your water from RO. Do you add minerals to the water as you heat it or do you add them directly to the mash? Do you also keep the same mineral profile for infusion/sparge water? Adding as you heat or directly to the mash seem to amount to the same thing - as long as the mash happens with them in it's good (I add as I heat). I figure out the additions I need for the total water volume and then just divide that by the ratio of mash to sparge volumes (actually Kai's spreadsheet does that for me), and then I also slightly acidify my sparge water with lactic acid as the spreadsheet recommends to bring the alkalinity down there - as much of the mash's buffering power is going to be used up at that point. edit: my Hommelbier-yeast patersbier looks to be through the active part of fermentation after a day of volcanic blowoff, it's been 36 hours yowza. Myron Baloney fucked around with this message at 14:50 on Jun 12, 2014 |
|
#
?
Jun 12, 2014 14:45
|
|
|
Noob alert. So I just started my first batch two days ago. Brew day went well for the most part, I used Norther Brewers deluxe starter kit with their caribou slobber ingredients pack. Fermentation appeared to start within 12 hours and by the following morning I had a thick layer of krausen on top of the wort and air was moving out of the airlock at a steady pace. However, this morning the layer of krausen has disappeared and activity in the airlock is much less than before. I was under the impression that the foamy krausen layer would be around for a week or two and go away only when there's nothing left to ferment. Is it time to panic, or should I just wait it out another day or two? \/\/\/\/\/\/\/ Thanks for the info. I'll probably take your advice and give it a week before moving on to the secondary fermentation, just to be safe. DecentHairJelly fucked around with this message at 15:10 on Jun 12, 2014 |
|
#
?
Jun 12, 2014 14:53
|
|
|
DecentHairJelly posted:Noob alert. Disclaimer: I've only made like 5 batches. But... I bought my kit from Northern Brewer, and my first batch was the Caribou Slobber. My fermentation went very quickly as well, probably finished within a day or two. Part of that was probably that I was fermenting at a little too high of a temperature. In any case, I let it sit for a few days, moved it to secondary per the directions, let it settle out for about 2 weeks, did all the bottling and.... It was perfectly good, very tasty, beer. Your fermentation may or may not be completed. But even if it completed already, that's not a reason to panic. Your batch will be fine, and the beer will be good. If you have a hydrometer to use that's really the only way to determine if fermentation is actually completed. If you don't I'd give it at least a week. It won't hurt it to sit for a bit. Word to the wise though: I didn't know this until after like 2 or 3 batches, but even though the directions call for using all 5 oz. of priming suger, you shouldn't use all of it. When you get ready for bottling day, go to Northern Brewer's Priming Calculator and figure out the correct amount of sugar to add so you don't overcarbonate your beer.
|
|
#
?
Jun 12, 2014 15:03
|
|
|
Basically, what he said. The majority of your fermentation will happen in the first couple days. The actual length of this depends on what yeast your using, yeast health, temperature, starting gravity, and characteristics of the fermetables, but the majority of your fermentation is done in 1-4 days for ales. I found a couple blogs with some plots of gravity (remaining sugar) over time for their brews.   One thing to note, however, is that there can be a fairly long tail on this process, and fermentation activity is still going on even days out when you see little airlock activity. If you give it somewhere around 2 weeks, you'll probably be getting 95% of the fermentation that's going to happen most of the time. And it doesn't hurt to leave it longer. So if you're in no hurry / don't have time to bottle it, leaving it for 4 weeks or more is totally fine. EDIT: And you really don't have to use a secondary for most brews. Secondaries are great if you want to clarify your beer or add something like fruit to it, but moving it to the secondary won't affect the actual flavor much. You're risking oxidation and infection every time you transfer your beer; these are rare, but if there's no need to take the risk, why bother? Imaduck fucked around with this message at 17:38 on Jun 12, 2014 |
|
#
?
Jun 12, 2014 17:35
|
|
|
Imaduck posted:Although your kettle is 10 gallons, you're only going to be doing 5 gallon (+ a little for boil-off) batches, right? Is your current kettle 5 gallons? Fill it up to the top with water and see if your kitchen stove can get it to boiling. If that works, you're good to go. A friend of mine can do this on his electric burner just fine. If worst comes to worst, you can still brew a little under volume and top off at the end. This will hurt your efficiency a bit, but you can always compensate with more grain / some sugar additives. I think I'll try boiling 5 gallons of water with my current kettle on my stove to see how that goes. My next beer will be all grain one way or another, cost savings among other reasons. On another note I just bottled my double ipa and the sample taste I took definitely tasted like a warm, uncarbonated double ipa so I'm excited. adebisi lives fucked around with this message at 18:40 on Jun 12, 2014 |
|
#
?
Jun 12, 2014 18:36
|
|
|
I've brewed extract for years, finally just got a dual cooler setup for all grain. Any advice on a first style to try? I've been leaning towards a wit, just because it will be ready right at midsummer.
|
|
#
?
Jun 13, 2014 03:39
|
|
|
Saisons are virtually impossible to screw up, especially during summer. House recipe: 80% 2row, 10% rye, 5% wheat, 5% oats, 35 IBU noble hops, 3711 yeast. I keep it around 4-4.5% so I mash higher, which is traditionally a saison nono but whatever it works. fullroundaction fucked around with this message at 04:56 on Jun 13, 2014 |
|
#
?
Jun 13, 2014 04:53
|
|
|
pugnax posted:I've brewed extract for years, finally just got a dual cooler setup for all grain. Any advice on a first style to try? I've been leaning towards a wit, just because it will be ready right at midsummer. I'd probably steer clear of anything with wheat in it for one of your first all grain batches. You want to be comfortable with getting your mash temps right and draining the bed effectively before you add in wheat to the mix. Wheat tends to clog easily because it lacks a hull, and basically turns into mush if you're not careful, and many wit recipes include multi-step decoctions, etc. Go with something super simple and straightforward like a brown or pale ale. Give yourself room for error.
|
|
#
?
Jun 13, 2014 06:12
|
|
|
Any recommendations for backsweetening cider? I was thinking either a frozen apple juice concentrate or plain table sugar, but I keep hearing horror stories about bottle bombs.
|
|
#
?
Jun 13, 2014 06:56
|
|
|
you could use lactose or splenda, but maybe just adding some fresh apple-juice would work?
|
|
#
?
Jun 13, 2014 07:01
|
|
|
You can use apple juice concentrate instead of priming sugar when bottling (1 can per 5 gallons has worked well for me) but it is going to ferment out, leaving you without much sweetness. You'll either need to use something non-fermentable (Splenda, lactose) or kill the yeast with campden and either force carbonate or have still cider.
|
|
#
?
Jun 13, 2014 11:36
|
|
|
Toebone posted:You can use apple juice concentrate instead of priming sugar when bottling (1 can per 5 gallons has worked well for me) but it is going to ferment out, leaving you without much sweetness. You'll either need to use something non-fermentable (Splenda, lactose) or kill the yeast with campden and either force carbonate or have still cider.
|
|
#
?
Jun 13, 2014 13:57
|
|
|
My local brew on premises joint has gone out of business so they're selling off all their stuff A mate of mine picked up the majority of their hops last weekend, which I missed out on being away for my wedding anniversary I picked up a 50L fermenter and what was left of their spec grains yesterday  Mostly dark stuff; dark choc, light choc, roast barley, black malt, wheat malt, light crystal and caramalt I weighed out the light crystal this morning, there's about 20kg there and it's nice and fresh tasting  Best part of all, I got all of this grain for the princely sum of $10 and $30 for the fermenter
|
|
#
?
Jun 13, 2014 22:29
|
|
|
Pretty sure I've narrowed down my infections to one thing - Pedio in my bottling bucket. Popped a standard Amber and it was starting to get "ropey". *shutter* I tried pouring (near) boiling water in the bucket last bottle day (when the amber was bottled) but it seems to not have worked. Time for a new one.
|
|
#
?
Jun 14, 2014 02:53
|
|
|
Time to make more sours too i hope!
|
|
#
?
Jun 14, 2014 11:45
|
|
|
Marshmallow Blue posted:Time to make more sours too i hope! Whether you like it or not 
|
|
#
?
Jun 14, 2014 15:09
|
|
|
Oh no. Apparently my fermenting fridge/keg fridge got unplugged. It is dire in there. I wanted to brew tomorrow but I'm going to have to spend a bunch of time nuking the poo poo out of my keg and the fridge. Grossssss. Anyway. Figure a double brew day (and watching soccer!) of summer saison (3-4% + 3711 + orange peel + sorachi ace) and the base of my raspberry wheat.
|
|
#
?
Jun 14, 2014 18:11
|
|
|
Just got back from NHC 2014, I honestly could go a number of days/weeks without having a beer after that relentless attack. Each day started at 9am (if you wanted the good seminars) and yesterday everyone pretty much drank from 9am-11pm, and then god knows what other people did, I went to my bed, smoked a bowl, and passed out. I woke up this morning without any desire or craving to drink beer, but goddamnit, I did because it was complimentary in each seminar. I highly recommend the event for anyone thinking about going next year, I attended some loving awesome seminars, got to show off my beer at Club Night, and got a ton of awesome feedback from cool people I look up to. Got to meet Chip Walton (Chop & Brew), Michael Dawson (Wyeast BM), Tasty (BN), Denny Conn, and a number of other cool homebrewing legends. Most importantly, attended a lecture and got a chance to have Mike Tonsmiere (Mad Fermentationist) taste my beer and tell me it was insane, but good. Super stoked, flying high, and couldn't drink another drop of beer. I didn't poo poo for 3 days. Goddamn. NHC 2014, righteous.
|
|
#
?
Jun 15, 2014 04:16
|
|
|
I finished my first batch of beer today. English Brown Ale. The boiling and mixing wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it was going to be. It's mostly a bunch of waiting. The guy at the store told me the boxed up ingredients would be in halves, but when we finally opened it we discovered that was not remotely true. I don't have a 6-gallon pot, so this was kind of a problem. I decided to boil up 3 gallons in a jam pot, which was about 4.5 gallons, and chill the rest of the water for when the brewing process was done. This is okay, right? I've seen some people do it. Anyways, I finally pitched the yeast at about 3:00, and I had the hardest time not getting up and looking at it every ten minutes to see if it had started bubbling. Finally, a bunch of bubbles formed around the airlock, and the domed cylinder that rises and falls was jammed up in the cap. I was panicking that I had filled the airlock wrong and went about looking at videos and poo poo for whether or not I completely screwed up. 20 minutes later it was burbling and bubbling as intended. It's a yeast feast right now. I cannot be happier about kitchen chemistry. Can't wait to crack one open for my 21st! Marshmallow Blue posted:mead blog! Where is your blog? I'd love to read that. DISCO KING fucked around with this message at 09:21 on Jun 15, 2014 |
|
#
?
Jun 15, 2014 09:16
|
|
|
  Oh gently caress there's wort all up in the airlock. I've just gotta wash this out with sanitized water and plug it right back on, right? It's gently leaking all over the lid. No explosions or anything yet. Chemistry is fun, guys 
DISCO KING fucked around with this message at 12:17 on Jun 15, 2014 |
|
#
?
Jun 15, 2014 11:47
|
|
|
Napoleon Bonaparty posted:Oh gently caress there's wort all up in the airlock. I've just gotta wash this out with sanitized water and plug it right back on, right? It's gently leaking all over the lid. No explosions or anything yet. Yeah just be careful that the opening to the airlock doesn't get clogged because then pressure will build up until it explodes off and sprays beer all over the room/ceiling. Definitely invest in some Fermcap or (more reliably) a blowoff rig (shove tubing into your bung instead of an airlock and put the other end into a growler or pitcher of sanitizer)
|
|
#
?
Jun 15, 2014 11:53
|
|
|
Speaking of big messy krausen, I got a couple of questions  When you have it all blow up into your blowoff tube, is it worth taking off the tube and carboy lid/adaptor and cleaning it all or just leaving it be? My current brew got all up in the tube and I just left it but I hope I haven't don't something dumb  Also, most of my brews so far have been pretty similar in that I get a decent krausen after 2 days and another 2 days or so I later it falls away, this time round its been up for over 5 days and is still very thick, is this normal/OK? E: APA, 94% 2-row, 6% 60L, 1.050 OG, 1.011 currently, US-05 yeast simmyb fucked around with this message at 12:14 on Jun 15, 2014 |
|
#
?
Jun 15, 2014 12:11
|
|
|
So I decided to just go straight American Pale Ale for my first foray into all grain. 10# 2-row, 1# each Carapils and 10L, .5# Victory, bittered with Columbus and finished with Citra and Simcoe. Wish me luck.
|
|
#
?
Jun 15, 2014 15:51
|
|
|
Napoleon Bonaparty posted:
Hivemindmead.blogspot.com i think or google hive mind mead. Awesome to hear about your first batch! Prepare to 
|
|
#
?
Jun 15, 2014 16:45
|
|
|
pugnax posted:So I decided to just go straight American Pale Ale for my first foray into all grain. I'm basically in the same exact situation. I just got a dual cooler all grain setup for my birthday and will be starting soon. I'm going to do an APA for my first too. I'm also planning to start kegging with this batch as well. I have my kegerator and kegs, I'm just waiting for my butcher block countertops to come in so I can install it with the counters.
|
|
#
?
Jun 15, 2014 23:27
|
|
|
rockcity posted:I'm basically in the same exact situation. I just got a dual cooler all grain setup for my birthday and will be starting soon. I'm going to do an APA for my first too. I'm also planning to start kegging with this batch as well. I have my kegerator and kegs, I'm just waiting for my butcher block countertops to come in so I can install it with the counters. Rad, kegging is the best. I typically only bottle beers that I am going to want to hang on to (ie barleywine), mostly because I hate the idea of spending all sorts of energy on a beer and then handing the keys over to corn sugar right at the end. I'd like to get some sort of counterfiller/beergun set up so that I can archive beers that I keg. Brew day went well - besides a potentially high mash temp (now I know to repeatedly check the temperature in multiple locations) everything seemed to go smoothly. Hit the target OG, but we'll see how fermentable it actually is. Made an 18oz starter, and the beer is definitely rocking out this morning. Fingers crossed. I changed the hops schedule to 60m .5oz Centennial, 15m 1oz Amarillo, 5m 1oz Citra.
|
|
#
?
Jun 16, 2014 13:04
|
|
|
Jacobey000 posted:Pretty sure I've narrowed down my infections to one thing - Pedio in my bottling bucket. Popped a standard Amber and it was starting to get "ropey". *shutter* I have had two buckets do that, one with what was looking to be a Stone Levitation Clone of the ages. Now they are lambic/sour buckets.
|
|
#
?
Jun 16, 2014 13:41
|
|
|
ChiTownEddie posted:Oh no. Just did a Sorachi ace Saison, but mine was 8.5%. Let me just warn you that dry hopping 2 oz of it might be a little over the top. I think I also added .75 oz @ 60, .75 oz @ 10... or whatever equaled out to around 40-45 IBU. Still very drinkable, but the Sorachi is truly 'in your face'. It might be nice with orange peel, have you brewed it like that before? I still have 4 oz of sorachi I have to use.
|
|
#
?
Jun 16, 2014 14:43
|
|
|
extravadanza posted:Just did a Sorachi ace Saison, but mine was 8.5%. Let me just warn you that dry hopping 2 oz of it might be a little over the top. I think I also added .75 oz @ 60, .75 oz @ 10... or whatever equaled out to around 40-45 IBU. Still very drinkable, but the Sorachi is truly 'in your face'. It might be nice with orange peel, have you brewed it like that before? I still have 4 oz of sorachi I have to use. I have not brewed it before. I was thinking they might play well together. Probably won't actually dry hop, just flameout with the sorachi ace/peel and whirlpool. Hopefully based on your experience (and way more hops :P) it'll be a bit more subtle and in line with the lower abv. I didn't actually get to brew (again) on Sunday because I spent the entire day cleaning. Boring. At least I have all clean fermenters, fridge, and stuff.
|
|
#
?
Jun 16, 2014 16:18
|
|
|
ChiTownEddie posted:I have not brewed it before. I was thinking they might play well together. Probably won't actually dry hop, just flameout with the sorachi ace/peel and whirlpool. Hopefully based on your experience (and way more hops :P) it'll be a bit more subtle and in line with the lower abv. I think orange might work. In my experience, I got huge dill flavor and some lemon in the background... Really it tasted exactly liked it smelled (surprise!). I might also go orange or some herb to compliment it when I try again in a month. I did have good results w/ El Dorado/Apollo and some lemon peel in a Saison... I used the yeast cake from that for the Sorachi batch, too.
|
|
#
?
Jun 16, 2014 18:14
|
|
|
Smack pack of Thames Valley Ale took three days to swell. If it stalls in this mild, i'll just toss in some trappist and watch the world burn. 
|
|
#
?
Jun 16, 2014 21:30
|
|
|
It's been a while since I brewed anything(mead in april), but I still have a shitload of beer that needs to get drunk, so I'm getting together stuff to do a berry wine. I'm thinking something along these lines: 12lbs frozen mixed berries Granulated sugar to bring it up to 1.080-.090 Maybe a can of grape concentrate or something? Tannin/pectic enzyme/acid blend/yeast nutrient 5-6gal water Champagne or Cotes des Blanc yeast Put everything minus the yeast into a fermenting bucket to sit for a day, then add yeast and stir vigorously. Stir or shake daily until gravity reaches 1.000. Rack to secondary, add clearing agents and stabilizers, degas, and leave to clear for a few weeks. Rack again, back sweeten with sugar and/or concentrate(and maybe another couple teaspoons of pectic enzyme?), and leave it to clear again. Bottle when it clears completely, and age for however long it needs. I have never made wine(unless you count high gravity cider and mead), so I'm going off of things I've seen written elsewhere. I'm aiming for something in the 10-12% abv range with a medium-light body and semi-sweet fruity taste. I was going to just get a wine kit from my local shop, but they're quite expensive, and I can throw this together for half the price. I'll probably do that next paycheck, if the big July 5th party doesn't leave me destitute(it probably will). Thoughts? Suggestions? BLARGHLE fucked around with this message at 23:24 on Jun 16, 2014 |
|
#
?
Jun 16, 2014 23:16
|
|
|
So my magnetic beer pump has fried, it wasn't the most expensive pump in the world (£45) and the place I got the 24dc magnetic pump at only does 12dc version now and don't really want to deal with the wiring again. Was wondering if anyone knew any great wort transfer pumps which were robust and did the job? March pumps is what most people use right? I can't seem to find anywhere in UK or Europe that sells March Pump 809 (Magnetic Drive Pumps). 
Fluo fucked around with this message at 09:49 on Jun 17, 2014 |
|
#
?
Jun 17, 2014 09:28
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 17, 2024 20:03 |
|
|
Fluo posted:So my magnetic beer pump has fried, it wasn't the most expensive pump in the world (£45) and the place I got the 24dc magnetic pump at only does 12dc version now and don't really want to deal with the wiring again. Was wondering if anyone knew any great wort transfer pumps which were robust and did the job? Not sure if you can find them in the UK easily but Chugger pumps are the somewhat cheaper alternative to March pumps, and from all accounts they work just as well.
|
|
#
?
Jun 17, 2014 17:15
|
|
