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Cpt.Wacky posted:The Lalvin site describes the characteristics of each variety: http://www.lalvinyeast.com/strains.asp Based on that, it appears my memory was faulty - I used D47, Côtes-du-Rhône, for my mead.
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Dec 9, 2014 20:17
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Cpt.Wacky posted:I assume you mean Lalvin and not lavlin. They offer several different wine yeasts. If you don't want it dry then stay far away from the 1118 and 1116 which are champagne yeasts. The Lalvin site describes the characteristics of each variety: http://www.lalvinyeast.com/strains.asp I got 10 gallons of cider from a place that does pressing (I don't think it's actually an orchard? The property seemed very small) out in the way-way-west suburbs of Chicago this fall. Did 5 gallons with S-04 and the other 5 were going to be Brett trois -- but by the time I had my stirplate free to build up a starter for the Brett, it had defeated the 5 Campden tablets I threw at it and had started fermenting on its own. I through the Brett vial in there anyway just for shits and giggles. Pretty good cider unfermented anyway, so I'm hoping it makes something tasty.
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Dec 9, 2014 20:54
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It's pretty hard to find proper cider apples in the US. Most of the apple varieties grown here are cooking or dessert apples. The kind of cider you get from orchards here is good for drinking, but maybe not the best for fermenting. (Hard) cidermakers usually use a blend of apples to get the proper acidity/tannin/aromatic balance. I have had a few Granny Smith-only ciders that were pretty good, though. I've also heard of people throwing in some crabapples. The coolest thing about the GBBF was definitely the ciders. The beer was OK, but we have plenty of great beer in the US. There's really nothing in the US like the cider in the UK. Normandy cider is great too, but I have a really hard time finding that in the States.
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Dec 9, 2014 21:15
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I must not have taste because the 3 gallons of store bought cider from Mystery Apples (probably Honeycrisp, though) fermented well and was delicious
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Dec 9, 2014 21:38
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I've made cider at home, but it's like, not even close to as delicious as proper cider made by proper cidermakers. I think it's kinda like home winemaking. Too much of the flavor comes from the raw materials, and the raw materials are too difficult to source. With homebrewing you can use literally the exact same barley/hops/yeast as the pros. That doesn't mean you can't make decent wine/cider at home, but it's difficult to make wine/cider better than the pros.
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Dec 9, 2014 21:45
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Checking in after posting yesterday: Turns out my fermenter wasn't sealed properly after all, which I realized after undoing all the tape and pitching the other packet. I didn't put enough pressure to close it all the way, because I'm an idiot. As soon as I locked it into place and put it back it started bubbling vigorously. Egg on my face! Thanks for the help, posh spaz. Hopefully it turns out drinkable still!
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Dec 9, 2014 23:05
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Axe Master posted:Checking in after posting yesterday: rig up a blowoff tube man, that second yeast packet is going to tear poo poo up
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Dec 9, 2014 23:20
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JawKnee posted:rig up a blowoff tube man, that second yeast packet is going to tear poo poo up It'll probably be fine. Yeast need oxygen to reproduce. Most of the oxygen has probably been scavenged by now since the first yeast has reproduced a lot. 1 pack of dry yeast isn't that much yeast compared to how much is already in the wort.
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Dec 9, 2014 23:23
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A local awesome brewery just put all of their recipes, along with some brew logs up on brewtoad. This is awesome. https://www.brewtoad.com/users/17921/recipes
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Dec 9, 2014 23:29
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ReaperUnreal posted:A local awesome brewery just put all of their recipes, along with some brew logs up on brewtoad. This is awesome. Avery does that as well: http://averybrewing.com/brewery/recipes-for-homebrewers/ I think it's an awesome way to get people thinking/talking about your beers, a good way to sell beers when people compare the two, and sell more when their clone comes up short. It also buys a lot of free goodwill among homebrewers, who tend to buy a lot beer. It's not like another brewery is going to start selling clones of their beer.
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Dec 10, 2014 02:57
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posh spaz posted:Avery does that as well Hm, I have a Czar in the fridge now. Perhaps I will try that out for Happy New Beer '15.
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Dec 10, 2014 03:52
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Any water experts out there? I want to know what you think of two different water profiles, what would you brew with each, what would you correct, etc.: Water Profile Number One:   Water Profile Number Two:  FWIW, the first one is the local water in College Station, TX straight out of the tap. The second one is the one I usually brew with, Hill Country Fare Spring Water out of the bottle at a grocery chain called HEB in Texas. Wondering if I should go RO and build, stick with the bottle, or go with the tap water.
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Dec 10, 2014 15:47
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Is this for extract or all grain? A couple of thoughts: Very high sodium: This is the worst part of that first water profile. I go by the rule of thumb of keeping sodium under 60ppm. If I'm reading it correctly that water is at 193 ppm. That means you'd have to make a 25:75 tap to RO water mix just to be at the high end of my limit. At this point I'd probably just go pure RO water and build my own profile. High sodium is sour and harsh tasting and can be poisonous to yeast. Low Calcium: Calcium has a very mild effect on flavor. It's main purpose is for healthy yeast. Calcium would have to be added for just about every beer. Current levels may be acceptable for some lagers. High alkalinity: Best for dark beers if you're brewing all grain. Light beers obviously still possible with acid addition. High Chloride to Sulfate ratio: Favors malty beers as opposed to hoppy beers. All in all I would just recommend going with the second option and building your profiles from scratch. If you're doing all grain, you'll need a number for alkalinity and you'll most definitely have to add to it, especially when brewing dark beers. If you're doing extract don't worry about hardness. https://sites.google.com/site/brunwater/water-knowledge Fantastic resource and spreadsheet I use for my water profile needs.
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Dec 10, 2014 16:30
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LaserWash posted:Any water experts out there? I want to know what you think of two different water profiles, what would you brew with each, what would you correct, etc.: I would generally go with tap and work from there. I agree the sodium is pretty darn high but you shouldn't notice a salty flavor until approximately 250 PPM in the finished beer. You may be able to just split Tap to Bottled to drop the Sodium numbers. That being said I'm terrible on the water chemistry front. Since you're in B/CS take a trip out to New Republic and ask Dean what he does with their water. If I recall correctly there's very little additions necessary for most of what they're brewing over there.
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Dec 10, 2014 17:14
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Zaepho posted:I would generally go with tap and work from there. I agree the sodium is pretty darn high but you shouldn't notice a salty flavor until approximately 250 PPM in the finished beer. You may be able to just split Tap to Bottled to drop the Sodium numbers. That being said I'm terrible on the water chemistry front. I'm all grain, BIAB. My Frau and I go to New Republic quite frequently. Next time I see Dean I'll ask what he does to the water. Would it be fair to say that profile 2 is better enough than profile 1 to justify the cost of the bottles I buy at the store, ~$3-4? Does anyone here just take carboys to the grocery store and get their water from the machines that are outside of the grocery stores? I'm pretty sure they use RO there, but haven't checked. LaserWash fucked around with this message at 19:08 on Dec 10, 2014 |
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Dec 10, 2014 19:03
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Can't really look at the profile since I'm on my phone, but bru'n water is the bees knees
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Dec 10, 2014 19:33
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Zaepho posted:I would generally go with tap and work from there. I agree the sodium is pretty darn high but you shouldn't notice a salty flavor until approximately 250 PPM in the finished beer. You may be able to just split Tap to Bottled to drop the Sodium numbers. That being said I'm terrible on the water chemistry front. oops quoted wrong post pretend I quoted the water report itself Those are kind of small for me to read - does that bottled water have 26 ppm nitrate? Holy poo poo if it does. It looks like your tap alkalinity is over 300 ppm, if so I'd do some or all RO just because of that, at least for light colored beers. You can go 100% tap and then use a combination of acid, sour malt, CaCl and gypsum in the mash, and/or pretreat by boiling and/or using pickling lime beforehand but buying RO is cheap and way easier. All my soft water beers taste far better to me than the ones I used to make with hard alkaline well water, and I really like the taste of my well water. If you use a calculator like Bru'n Water or Kai's Calculator it'll give you a more concrete idea of what to try. Here's one version at Brewer's Friend http://www.brewersfriend.com/mash-chemistry-and-brewing-water-calculator/
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Dec 11, 2014 00:16
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Sodium needs to exceed roughly 250 ppm before the beer tastes salty. High sodium isn't great, but it has to be really high before it fucks poo poo up. Martin is a cool and smart dude.
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Dec 11, 2014 00:27
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Note to self: Don't brew if you know you will not have time untill 4days later to clean out the mashtun.  The smell is worse than baby vomit and it feels like it sticks to everything 
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Dec 11, 2014 01:04
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Fluo posted:Note to self: Don't brew if you know you will not have time untill 4days later to clean out the mashtun. I learned this lesson when I left spent grain in the trash on Friday and went out of town until Monday. God the whole house reeked like death for a week.
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Dec 11, 2014 01:19
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Alright, I need some options for overcarbonated beer bottles. I have an RIS that I want to be at 2.5 volumes, but I mistook how much trub was in the bottom. I now realize that the sugar I put in would place the bottles closer to 4 volumes and therefore bottle bombs. I have a couple of ideas: 1) Pop caps for a day to reduce some of the CO2 2) Immediately transfer to a cold environment for a time to crash yeast (i just don't have that much storage space tbh) 3) Heat pasteurize gently. Any other ideas/suggestions?
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Dec 11, 2014 02:40
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ScaerCroe posted:Alright, I need some options for overcarbonated beer bottles. I have an RIS that I want to be at 2.5 volumes, but I mistook how much trub was in the bottom. I now realize that the sugar I put in would place the bottles closer to 4 volumes and therefore bottle bombs. I have a couple of ideas: How carbonated are they now? I'd probably go with uncapping and recapping right away if they're overcarbed already. Maybe try the heat pasteurized if they aren't yet since you can get them when they're just right. I've found putting my old overcarbed beers in the fridge made them worse. Like they were nearly ready to exploded with bottle caps shooting off as I opened them, but the others that hadn't been chilled were nowhere near as bad when I went to dump them.
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Dec 11, 2014 05:02
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Does cider produce krausen like beer? If I'm fermenting cider in a growler, how much head space should I leave?
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Dec 11, 2014 14:50
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two_beer_bishes posted:Does cider produce krausen like beer? If I'm fermenting cider in a growler, how much head space should I leave? not really - it does produce some, but it's a much looser foam that dissipates more quickly I've found, and doesn't leave yeast rafts or anything like that. leave some room - and also don't ferment in a growler unless you're certain it can handle the pressure
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Dec 11, 2014 15:41
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JawKnee posted:not really - it does produce some, but it's a much looser foam that dissipates more quickly I've found, and doesn't leave yeast rafts or anything like that. leave some room - and also don't ferment in a growler unless you're certain it can handle the pressure Thanks, I'll be using an airlock so pressure won't be an issue.
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Dec 11, 2014 16:10
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two_beer_bishes posted:Thanks, I'll be using an airlock so pressure won't be an issue. early morning so I confused ferment with condition, yeah you'll be fine
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Dec 11, 2014 16:15
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I just started brewing and only used extract cans so far, but it looks like I already messed up. First brew came out fine. Then my meter broke, and I did the second brew by winging it. Definitely drinkable, but it has a strong taste similar to brown sugar (which I didn't use) and is quite sweet. I tasted the third brew just now and it has the same dark sugary taste and sweetness. However, the extract was completely different. Could it be that I left both fermenting too long before bottling, all the yeast died and what I'm tasting is sugar that wasn't converted? Is that even possible? It was at 68 for a week, then I transferred it to a clean container to remove dead yeast and left it at 68 for another week. I have since read that transferring it to remove dead yeast is outdated and it's best to leave it as is.
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Dec 11, 2014 16:55
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Your yeast won't just die out by hanging around in the beer unless the alcohol gets pushed to crazy levels or you somehow heat it up into the hundreds. How are you throwing yeast in? Vial, packet, etc? While vials can be dumped in packets require a little more prepwork. I believe that a dry packet can be directly dumped in but it'll take them way, way longer to get their poo poo together and Wake Up but I might be completely wrong on that. I see you left it for a week in primary and racked to secondary, that might have not been enough if the yeast weren't really awake when you tossed em in Basically more info please before I keep spouting probably irrelevant things
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Dec 11, 2014 17:03
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If anything it probably didn't finish fermenting, but if that's the meter you broke then I guess you won't know till you get another one. Watch for bottle bombs!
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Dec 11, 2014 17:19
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Yeah, thirding that it didn't finish fermenting. Sweetness is generally related to one of two things, unfermentable sugar additions during the boil or an underfermented beer. I'm guessing you under pitched your yeast and it took a little longer for things to get moving and you racked to your secondary too soon.
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Dec 11, 2014 17:36
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Thanks for the feedback. All the extracts were Brewferm tins. I throw the yeast in straight from the packet. Read about waking it up in lukewarm water, but just as many people saying to just throw it in, so I tried that. It definitely started fermenting after less than a day. Bubbling waterlock couple of times a minute, big load of foam, all that. This process died down almost completely over the first week before I moved it to the secondary. Secondary has some movement in the waterlock, but it wasn't more than a few bubbles per day. No bottle bombs in the 70+ bottles so far, but I got a new meter for the next batch so hopefully this won't happen again. Just can' stop wondering what it was that went wrong. I understand what you guys are saying, but if it started fermenting and died down it is unlikely the fermentation didn't finish, right? Unless the temperature get too low and the yeast falls asleep, but I have full control of the temperature.
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Dec 11, 2014 18:48
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The yeast still do a lot of work after the initial crazy bubbling. Did the beer have a krausen when you transferred it? A week seems like a crazy short amount of time to keep in primary. How long did it stay in the secondary? Incomplete fermentation is the most likely culprit. Add others have said you'll never know for sure until you can measure your OG/FG and make sure the FG is either where you expect it to be or that it isn't changing over time. I personally don't use a secondary unless I'm doing something like a fruit addition. I say it's for sanitation purposes but it's actually because I'm lazy. Beer tastes fine to me.
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Dec 11, 2014 18:57
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Every dry strain has an optimal rehydration temp. Generally they tend to be on the high end. Keep in mind that the yeast will cool the water quite a bit, so you most likely want the water temp around 110 or so to hit 105 with the yeast slurry. I wouldn't bother rehydrating with lukewarm water. It's basically just as bad as dumping it in straight. 11g of dry yeast has 220b or so cells with 90% viability. A smack pack or vial has 100b and you'd be hard pressed to get a pack that has been handled well enough to get 90% viability from. So to make a long story short, if you dump dry yeast directly into the wort, you will kill about half. 220b * 0.9 * 0.5 = 99b. So even dumping straight in you will get more viable yeast than in a vial. However, IME having a fast healthy ferment is crucial to making good beer with proper attenuation within a reasonable amount of time, and I don't feel one vial consistently provides enough yeast, but a properly rehydrated dry pack usually does. I always use a starter with wet yeast for that reason.
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Dec 11, 2014 19:08
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ZIGfried posted:A week seems like a crazy short amount of time to keep in primary. With a normal strength wort and ale yeast, it should hit FG within 3-5 days given a healthy ferment. The best Hefeweizens I've made were bottled within a week of brewing and peaked at 2 weeks old. The only time you really need a long primary is if your yeast wasn't up to the task and your ferment was anemic.
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Dec 11, 2014 19:14
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With secret santa just around the corner. Can everyone post some tips for packing and shipping bottles for optimal success rates? Also. Ive been deprived of brewing for far too long 
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Dec 11, 2014 19:28
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ScaerCroe posted:Alright, I need some options for overcarbonated beer bottles. I have an RIS that I want to be at 2.5 volumes, but I mistook how much trub was in the bottom. I now realize that the sugar I put in would place the bottles closer to 4 volumes and therefore bottle bombs. I have a couple of ideas: You could always try popping caps on half the batch, and pasteurizing the other half, assuming the half you pop caps on isn't already too carbonated. I always undershoot my carbonation a bit when I'm pasteurizing, because otherwise you end up with a lot of broken glass and wasted beer/cider. Marshmallow Blue posted:With secret santa just around the corner. Can everyone post some tips for packing and shipping bottles for optimal success rates? Yes, tips please! I can't just show up on my santee's doorstep this year, unless I want to drive like five hours each way.
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Dec 11, 2014 20:00
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Marshmallow Blue posted:With secret santa just around the corner. Can everyone post some tips for packing and shipping bottles for optimal success rates? Someone did a good post about it last year and I know I found some stuff online. I suggest a few things. Get a prepaid shipping label so you can bring it in all sealed up and drop it off, no questions asked about what's in it. Double box it, smaller box inside a bigger box with more packing materials. This is more protection and also some sound insulation so the shipping company won't hear sloshing liquids and start asking questions. I put each bottle in it's own gallon zip lock bag, taped up, just in case there was breakage. Vacuum sealing would be even better.
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Dec 11, 2014 20:08
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Marshmallow Blue posted:With secret santa just around the corner. Can everyone post some tips for packing and shipping bottles for optimal success rates? Bottle shippers are your best bet. If you don't have access this is how I pack things: 1) Assume that this is what your package is going through: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Q6_9A90cUk 2) Seal each bottle in it's own individual ziplock bag so any breaks or popped tops will be contained. If your box begins leaking FedEx or UPS will trash your box. Yes, there are cases where boxes are delivered or returned to sender, but those are few and far between. Most of the time they will just throw it in the garbage. 3) Pad each bottle individually. If you have bubble wrap use that. Otherwise crinkle up a bunch of newspapers and loosely wrap each bottle multiple times. After you've wrapped your bottles wrap them again and tape the wrapping on just to make sure. Assume that each bottle is going to be banging around against each other. You want to make sure there are no exposed parts of bottles that could knock into each other. 4) Line your box with packing material. Do not use styrofoam peanuts. They don't offer any protection because your bottles will just settle. The best idea is to again use crinkled newspaper. Create a padded layer on the bottom and don't forget the sides. Your bottles won't just be banging against each other, but also against anything else that's stacked on them and against them during transport. Put additional layers of padding between each layer of bottles. Make sure things are packed firmly, but not too tight. You want tings to be cushioned but firmly seated in place. 5) Packing your box in another box is optional, but worth the time and money just to make sure. I rarely do it, but generally if you take your padded box and throw it in a larger box that has a layer of styrofoam peanuts on the bottom and sides it will create an extra cushion so even if the whole things gets dropped or crushed it's just the outside layer. That's pretty much it. I've been shipping beer for a while and never had a broken bottle using this technique. The key is really just remembering that once you hand off your box no one is going to handle it with as much care as you do.
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Dec 11, 2014 20:12
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Metal experts - are there any possible issues with fermented beer touching aluminum?
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Dec 11, 2014 21:12
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| # ? Jun 7, 2024 01:33 |
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If I want Zhukov-level thickness in a homebrew stout, what types of specialty malts should I be using?
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Dec 12, 2014 02:16
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