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Brewed up the milk/sweet stout recipe from Brewing Classic Styles yesterday, the extract-with-grains variant. Anyone done this one before and can give me an indication of what I can expect, flavor-wise? I'm debating adding some chocolate or vanilla to the fermenter, or just leaving it go "clean" so I know how it tastes as a baseline for the future. It's likely a style that I'll brew again, if the product comes out good. Fermentation started super fast, too. After cooling it down then topping it off to 23 liters (I did a partial boil) and pitching S-04, the airlock started bubbling like 3 hours later. So fast that I almost got worried about it, then I remembered to RDWHAHB.
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Oct 24, 2016 11:42
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| # ? Jun 11, 2024 05:43 |
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I'm getting back into brewing, and I'd like to update my equipment a bit. I'm looking for: - A 10-15 gallon staineless steel brew kettle for use on a stovetop, BIAB. - A 5+ gallon stainless steel fermenter I mostly want to go stainless because I want things that are easier to clean and don't scratch up. I'm not too picky about price, but I'm thinking < $1000 total for these. Any preferred brands or recommendations?
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Oct 24, 2016 19:32
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I've been happy with stainless fermenters from Chapman. They make a 7 and a 14 gallon size. https://www.chapmanequipment.com/
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Oct 24, 2016 19:39
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Following up to my post above: I decided I'll probably swing by the shop on the way home from work sometime this week and pick up 100g of cocoa nibs and maaaaybe a vanilla bean for my milk/sweet stout. Correct me if I'm wrong, but basically I need to just: -Soak the cocoa nibs in a bit of vodka for a few days (just enough vodka to cover the nibs). Do I need to do anything special to the nibs beforehand? -If I decide to go the vanilla bean route (not sure if adding the vanilla will just make it over-the-top), it's just slice the thing lengthwise, scrape the poo poo out of it, then put said poo poo in a similar vodka infusion to the above for a few days? When I go to add the cocoa nibs and/or vanilla bean stuff + vodka to the fermenter around a week after pitching the yeast, do I need to bag it up first, or can I just toss it all right in? If I bag it up, can I just StarSan up a muslin hop bag and use that, since I have literally nothing else?
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Oct 24, 2016 19:46
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Drone posted:Following up to my post above: I decided I'll probably swing by the shop on the way home from work sometime this week and pick up 100g of cocoa nibs and maaaaybe a vanilla bean for my milk/sweet stout. Correct me if I'm wrong, but basically I need to just: Roast the nibs first if they are raw - they will give a bizare fruity flavor if they are not roasted first. You can put both nibs and vanilla into the vodka - if you do this, add it at bottling time. You just add the liquid, and this way you can taste it as you go and not over do it.
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Oct 24, 2016 23:03
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I just kegged an Amber ale after a pretty unremarkable brew and fermentation, and was surprised to see the hydrometer reading a good ten points above what I expected. OG was 1.054, expected FG was 1.008, measured FG was 1.019. Mash and boil went normal. I pitched a packet of US-05, got a pretty vigorous fermentation at 66°, bumped it up to 70° for another week once things slowed down, then cold crashed, added gelatin, and kegged. The sample tasted good, if maybe a little sweet, but certainly not cloying or anything. I guess I'll let it carb up and see how it turns out.
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Oct 25, 2016 03:12
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Der Penguingott posted:Roast the nibs first if they are raw - they will give a bizare fruity flavor if they are not roasted first. You can put both nibs and vanilla into the vodka - if you do this, add it at bottling time. You just add the liquid, and this way you can taste it as you go and not over do it. So it would go something like this: -Roast the nibs first if they're raw -- I think the ones sold at the local health shop are already roasted, but I'll check. -Do the vodka infusion with the nibs and the vanilla for a few days. -At bottling time, I always boil up a bit of sugar water (to prime the bottles), dump it in a clean empty bucket, and rack on top of that so the sugarwater gets an even diffusion throughout the beer. The only thing different here would be that I would also put the infused vodka (minus nibs and vanilla) in the bucket as well, and then rack the beer on top of it. I assume that sounds kosher? Is there really any major taste difference to doing it that way versus putting the nibs/bean into the fermenter? I'm not doing a secondary fermentation, just leaving everything in primary until it's time to rack out for bottling. I've also planned on a total time in fermenter of two weeks, which is my standard for the successful beers I've brewed so far (Yorkshire bitter, APA, American wheat), but I know a lot of people seem to say that stout should be left a bit longer. I don't ever do secondary fermentation, I just leave it in primary for the entire time. Should I do 3 weeks in this case, or is that too long to leave it sitting on the trub? Drone fucked around with this message at 07:10 on Oct 25, 2016 |
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Oct 25, 2016 06:57
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Drone posted:
Process sounds fine. You may want to soak the flavorings longer than a few days. I usually do a few weeks. The main reason to do it with a tincture is better control of the flavors. Probably also lower risk of contamination, but plenty of people put vanilla or cacao into the fermenter/secondary and it tastes great. Just don't add it while the beer is still fermenting - it will drive off some of the volatile aromas. The beer is done when the gravity is stable. It's not possible to say if it will be at two vs three weeks, but you won't pickup any off flavors from leaving it there for another week. The concern is the dead yeast causing off flavors, and it is not something you really need to worry about unless you leave the beer there for like 6mo.
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Oct 25, 2016 13:13
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Toebone posted:I just kegged an Amber ale after a pretty unremarkable brew and fermentation, and was surprised to see the hydrometer reading a good ten points above what I expected. OG was 1.054, expected FG was 1.008, measured FG was 1.019. Huh, I've only had stouts finish that high with US05. Could it be mash temp or some other unfermentable? I usually go 65 for 2-3 days, then ramp up to 72ish. My quick-turnaround IPA for Halloween is coming along. I think I'll cold crash tonight for ~24hrs then keg it tomorrow night. I don't expect it to be totally on-point for Saturday, but I'm going out of town for a funeral Thurs-Fri so my schedule got a bit hosed up.
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Oct 25, 2016 14:51
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Has anyone used any sort of rootbeer-esque spices/flavorings in a beer before? I'm thinking of doing some kind of an american brown or porter and adding something to give it a beer of a rootbeer character. I'm not sure I'm looking to add straight up rootbeer extract, but maybe a couple of the more traditional spices just to give it a subtle finish. I'm just not sure where to start with that. I'm definitely thinking tincture for this, I'm just curious if anyone has played with any of those flavors before.
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Oct 25, 2016 16:22
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Bell's Kalamazoo Stout has licorice in it - you might try a glass of that and see if it's something you like. Brewer's licorice is cheap and easy to get if you want to try something like that on your own.
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Oct 25, 2016 16:25
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Jo3sh posted:Bell's Kalamazoo Stout has licorice in it - you might try a glass of that and see if it's something you like. Brewer's licorice is cheap and easy to get if you want to try something like that on your own. That's probably one of the few Bell's beers I've never had. I might have to see if I can track a bottle down. Licorice was one of the things I was thinking of, probably wintergreen too. I think that would help with the finish.
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Oct 25, 2016 19:22
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I like the wintergreen idea. You might also use Northern Brewer hops, as they have a minty, herbal character.
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Oct 25, 2016 19:25
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I finished my triple hopped oatmeal cream ale. It's pretty good. Nice light flavor. Light bitterness but lots of dry hopped nose. A good session beer I think, which is what I was aiming for.
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Oct 26, 2016 05:15
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McSpergin posted:Yes I do!! I have one that just scored 40 points in our state comps here in Australia. If I remember I'll share the link but it was a good recipe featuring all Gladfield malts, with their redback, shepherds delight and aurora plus homemade candi syrup with plums. Shepherds delight is much like a special b, redback is somewhat like a biscuit and Aurora is similar to an aromatic. If memory serves Do you think making your own candi syrup added something? I was going to buy it because I'm lazy but I might reconsider if it improves the final quality of the beer. Any special reason you have so much wheat? I read recipes around and hardly any has wheat in it. At what temp and how long would you say I should mash? I read a lot of different things about the subject, some people advise to use the "traditional" Belgian way, which is going 63C->68C->73C->77C but cannot say what it exactly does besides, the Belgian always did it like this. Currently I'm thinking about going for 68C. Thanks for the tips!
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Oct 26, 2016 06:48
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If you are using well modified malts (which most available malts are) a single infusion mash will suffice. The step mash schedule you describe seems to be designed to ensure high attenuation depending upon the length of the 63C step, but you could get the same results with a 90 min single infusion at 65-66C. thotsky fucked around with this message at 15:14 on Oct 26, 2016 |
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Oct 26, 2016 15:03
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Biomute posted:If you are using well modified malts (which most available malts are) a single infusion mash will suffice. Truth about the infusion steps. I've done step infusions too, and while they didn't do anything especially amazingly different for my beer, it did teach me a thing or two about my equipment. So in the end, it was worth it for me, but I'll probably never do it again unless I'm brewing with someone else and they're interested in how it works and want to learn about it. There are way more opportunities to screw up your temps though, so you have to be vigilant.
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Oct 26, 2016 16:28
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Is it worth trying to make a double IPA without kegging? Every year my wife and I make a mixed 6 pack of homebrews for people for christmas, and this year we'd like to include a double IPA, because they're tasty. My issue is that I have no temperature control and no kegging. The temperature control is less of an issue with 1 gallon batches and using proper yeast (either WY1272 or Omega Hot Head) but I'm still worried about bottling. Especially with the extra oxygen intake. Completely unrelated, but my wife and I served our homebrew at Canada's largest cask festival. It was awesome, and by the end of the second day all 10.8 gallons had been drunk. Though I'm never again brewing 11 gallons in my apartment, and I'm never again using a wooden shive. 
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Oct 27, 2016 16:02
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ReaperUnreal posted:Is it worth trying to make a double IPA without kegging? Every year my wife and I make a mixed 6 pack of homebrews for people for christmas, and this year we'd like to include a double IPA, because they're tasty. My issue is that I have no temperature control and no kegging. The temperature control is less of an issue with 1 gallon batches and using proper yeast (either WY1272 or Omega Hot Head) but I'm still worried about bottling. Especially with the extra oxygen intake. I've made double IPAs and bottled them. You just need to be careful when you could be introducing oxygen into them at bottling. They'll be different than if you kegged them, but they still taste pretty good if you're making good beer. Temperature control might be more of an issue, but just keep them as close to the range you want to ferment in, or buy a yeast that doesn't mind a little warmer from your apartment.
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Oct 27, 2016 16:53
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Friends, due to a series of unfortunate events, I happen to have a corny of an IPA that's been un-poured for about a month. Ordinarily, I'd untap and clean the lines before letting it sit, but I didn't in this case. Beer's been sitting in the line and tap for that time. Should I replace the line, or will a basic wash/sanitize cure any nastiness that's accrued?
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Oct 27, 2016 16:59
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I think your lines will be fine.
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Oct 27, 2016 17:40
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Dangerllama posted:Friends, due to a series of unfortunate events, I happen to have a corny of an IPA that's been un-poured for about a month. Ordinarily, I'd untap and clean the lines before letting it sit, but I didn't in this case. Beer's been sitting in the line and tap for that time. Should I replace the line, or will a basic wash/sanitize cure any nastiness that's accrued? Why do you believe the lines are now bad? Unless your lines were somehow exposed to air, there is no real difference between if you were pouring or they sat there. If your line was disconnected and had some beer in it, that's a different story.
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Oct 27, 2016 20:43
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So I haven't brewed in a longass time mostly because I hate the bottling process, but I saw NB had a %off thing for their keg systems right now. I kinda don't want to be fussed with piecing together the poo poo so I'm alright paying a premium for a premade bundle if it's not exorbitant. Anyone here have personal experience with those systems? I was planning on just grabbing their single keg thing with the intention of adding a distributor etc later if I find the need. What else will I need to consider? I think that keg will fit in my current beer mini fridge if I take out the shelves & do some rearranging, and I can pick up a filled 5# co2 can for $60 locally. Worse comes to worse I'll grab a second small chest freezer or fridge & throw a controller on it. I'd like to try to minimize upfront expenses right now though, given that I haven't brewed in at least a year.
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Oct 28, 2016 22:34
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Hauki posted:Anyone here have personal experience with those systems?
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Oct 28, 2016 22:38
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NB made a house brand of yeast and it's $2 more than Wyeast
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Oct 28, 2016 22:42
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rockcity posted:Why do you believe the lines are now bad? Unless your lines were somehow exposed to air, there is no real difference between if you were pouring or they sat there. If your line was disconnected and had some beer in it, that's a different story. Idunno. I just figured letting beer sit in a line, static for a month or so would probably cause some form of "damage" to the line, be that in the form of infection, etc. Your point about oxygen is taken.
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Oct 28, 2016 22:47
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That tubing is pretty stout stuff. Just flush you line with a pint or so and call it a day. Everything in there is sterile.
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Oct 29, 2016 00:04
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Syrinxx posted:NB made a house brand of yeast and it's $2 more than Wyeast 
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Oct 29, 2016 00:15
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Syrinxx posted:NB made a house brand of yeast and it's $2 more than Wyeast If you're talking about Omega, that's not a house brand.
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Oct 29, 2016 00:37
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Der Penguingott posted:Roast the nibs first if they are raw - they will give a bizare fruity flavor if they are not roasted first. You can put both nibs and vanilla into the vodka - if you do this, add it at bottling time. You just add the liquid, and this way you can taste it as you go and not over do it. Yeah, they smell like brownies when you toast them  I am gonna skip the vodka because that's an extra $35 even for rotgut (  ), and try adding vanilla bean pod to the next go around of my Nutella stout. The toasted cacao nibs didn't infect the first one (which was very well received), at least. Right now I've got another batch of Fruit Salad Ale (basically a Coopers Pale Ale kit with 25g each of Amarillo and Cascade) about ready to bottle. I was debating adding some True Lime to it when I rack it to the bottling bucket, is this a bad idea? Ingredients are citric acid, lime oil, lime juice, ascorbic acid, and maltodextrin. If it sounds like it's worth a go, how much would be a good starting point for an 18L batch? Speaking of bottling, I seem to be some issues with uneven carbonation when I bulk carb. I boil some water for 20', add sugar, stir until dissolved, then put it in the bottling bucket and rack the beer over it. Is it worth more potential oxidation to give it a stir, or add the priming sugar mixture gradually as the beer enters the bottling bucket? Other: I had a Spanish beer that uses some seawater in the brewing, which I find really tasty and refreshing. Anyone ever brewed anything similar? Getting to be summer down here and I thought something in that vein might be nice.
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Oct 29, 2016 00:50
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More places just need to carry Mangrove Jacks dry yeast. poo poo is legit
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Oct 29, 2016 01:28
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Syrinxx posted:NB made a house brand of yeast and it's $2 more than Wyeast Omega is not a house brand. They're based out of Chicago and have been around since 2003. NB is an exclusive retailer of several strains that omega has formerly only had in pro-sized pitches. The reason they are priced higher is because they package them with 150 billion cells instead of white lab's or wyeast's 100.
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Oct 29, 2016 01:54
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robotsinmyhead posted:That tubing is pretty stout stuff. Just flush you line with a pint or so and call it a day. Everything in there is sterile. This. There is really no functional difference in a line on whether the beer in contact with it hasn't moved in the last month or if it's moving every day. It's still in contact with the same beer regardless. SCA Enthusiast posted:Omega is not a house brand. They're based out of Chicago and have been around since 2003. NB is an exclusive retailer of several strains that omega has formerly only had in pro-sized pitches. The reason they are priced higher is because they package them with 150 billion cells instead of white lab's or wyeast's 100. Also, why would you think that a smaller yeast operation would be less expensive than one of the largest two brewing yeast manufacturers? Just about every yeast company that is not White Labs or Wyeast is a few dollars more (Omega, The Yeast Bay, East Coast Yeast, Gigayeast). Even if it were NB making it, just because they are large company doesn't mean they have the ability to make yeast cheaper than a company that has been at it for quite a while. rockcity fucked around with this message at 03:06 on Oct 29, 2016 |
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Oct 29, 2016 03:01
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So my kegerator fridge temp keeps dropping even with the temperature controller on it, it's set for 62 (for fermenting cider) but the temp keeps dropping even though the fridge doesn't sound like it's on. The probe is in a cup of water in the fridge if that helps. Any troubleshooting tips? I'm using an ITC 308 controller.
Nerd Grenade fucked around with this message at 17:22 on Oct 29, 2016 |
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Oct 29, 2016 17:13
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What's the ambient temp around the fridge? In winter, my garage gets cold enough that I have to use the heating circuit to keep temperatures up in my ferment fridge.
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Oct 29, 2016 18:55
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I'm looking to try home brewing beer for the first time in about a week, once the stuff I ordered arrives. I got the Northern Brewing (it looked like it had the most stuff I wouldn't want to replace any time soon) kit plus a thermometer and hygrometer. My question is, the kit comes with a recipe kit. I definitely want to move toward brewing all-grain. Would it be a good idea to go ahead and make the recipie kit first to get used to how to brew and then try all grain or is all grain not that scary and I shouldn't have a problem hopping right in? I have 0 brewing experience but I do cook regularly including complex dishes, so I'm pretty confident I can follow a recipe. Edit: actually the more I read about it I'm not married to all-grain per se, I'd just like something a little more "from scratch" than what comes with the kit. Edit2 Reading even more I'm definitely starting with extract brewing. Are there certain styles that are easier to brew for a first timer? I love stouts/porters/Belgian style ale, like IPAs, brown ales and Saisons, and don't care too much for American style lagers or pilsners although a good pilsner is very good so I may try one down the line. Any of those jump out a decent starting point for extract brewing? Fork of Unknown Origins fucked around with this message at 20:29 on Oct 29, 2016 |
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Oct 29, 2016 19:48
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Man, been WAY too long since I've brewed. Relocated to Denver, CO, anxious to see how some of my recipes turn out with Colorado water... Hopefully going to give this hybrid brown a try in the next few weeks. British ingredients, brewed more like an American.  Is the 5% chocolate going to be too overpowering for a Brown?
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Oct 29, 2016 19:59
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Scarf posted:Man, been WAY too long since I've brewed. Relocated to Denver, CO, anxious to see how some of my recipes turn out with Colorado water... Hopefully going to give this hybrid brown a try in the next few weeks. British ingredients, brewed more like an American. Surely you meant "Binational Brown", since they speak English in Britain 
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Oct 29, 2016 20:54
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Drone posted:Surely you meant "Binational Brown", since they speak English in Britain Last time I talked to an Englishman I couldn't understand a drat word 
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Oct 29, 2016 21:12
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| # ? Jun 11, 2024 05:43 |
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Fork of Unknown Origins posted:extract or all-grain? There's lots of good beer to be made from extract. I think extract beers fall into four basic categories, each of which expands on the previous ones: 1) Prehopped extract, aka kit & kilo, aka dump and stir. This is Prohibition-level brewing, and I strongly suggest skipping this step as it's not going to make good beer. Basically, you use prehopped malt extract, add additional sugar, and mix in warm water to dissolve everything. Then you pitch the yeast that came with the kit. The provenance and health of that yeast is going to be questionable at best. 2) Unhopped extract, plus fresh hops and yeast. There are only a few styles of beer which you can make this way - hefeweizen is the only one I can think of, honestly. You use malt extract to make a wort, then boil it with hops to add bitterness, flavor, and aroma, then cool it and add good healthy yeast. You shouldn't start any simpler than this, IMO, and most people start with the next one. 3) Extract plus specialty grains. Working from a few basic types of extract and adding specialty grains for color, flavor, and mouthfeel, most of the styles you mentioned (stouts, porters, Belgians, IPAs) can be made with pretty similar ease. This basically involves steeping crushed grain in your brewing water when its hot but not too hot (under 160 degrees), then pulling those out and stirring in the extract. Then boil with hops, cool, and add yeast as above. 4) Mini-mash with extract. Down the road, you can move to a mini-mash. This is basically the same thing as above, but you'll add some diastatic grain (grain with active enzymes) and you'll hold the temperature more exactly for some period of time to let those enzymes convert starches to sugars. Then you'll add extract to make up the rest of your fermentables and proceed as before. There are lots of good extract-based ingredient kits out there, and you can also find a crapton of recipes to make - and you can certainly make your own as well. There's no reason to jump straight to all-grain brewing, although it has been done before. I brewed from extract for years before I managed to make the leap; I've known people (it might have been here on the forums or it might have been in meatspace) who brewed from extract only once or a few times before building a mashtun. Most people are probably somewhere in between. Extract-based beer requires less equipment (exception: BIAB) and a simpler process, but can still make very good beer - even award-winning beer. It will give you the opportunity to learn a lot of basics, including sanitation and most of the process. Later on, the mash is just a step to bolt onto your pre-honed process.
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Oct 29, 2016 22:09
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