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For the Bouchet, I split the caramelization into two batches, a half pound got lightly caramelized, ~15 minutes, another half pound was burnt black, ~30 minutes. I was hoping to get a wider variety of flavors, and hopefully not just burnt overtones. I'll give another update when I bottle it. It's got a lot of interesting flavors right now, in addition to the heavy 'burnt marshmallow' taste, there's a lot of heavy caramel and almost a flan-like flavor. I'm interested to see how it'll shake out once fermentation is complete.
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May 20, 2018 00:20
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Napoleon Bonaparty posted:I decided to try making Bouchet a week ago. I saw a video on Youtube with a guy burning the poo poo out of his honey and going "yeah that was on purpose" so naturally I bought some cheap as hell costco honey and gave it a try. After reading the literally ancient recipe it was based on, I noticed the instructions describe using "beer cake" to start the "cold boil" which I translated to "pitch some beer yeast", so it's gonna have US-05 just for fun. It already tastes good and it's halfway done. Is it kosher to backsweeten Bouchet? I think it would be good. One thing I remember Michael Fairbrother from Moonlight Meadery saying was to never backsweeten with honey, as raw honey tastes completely different to fermented Mead.
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May 20, 2018 00:38
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peepeepants posted:Thanks for the feedback. I'm going to switch the hops with citra. How much residual flavor does the using honey leave? I'm afraid the yeast will not leave much behind after fermentation. Just make sure to use them at the end of the boil and not for your bittering hops. Some people complain of off flavors from citra for a long boil. I’ve had good results with honey in the fermenter leaving good flavor. Pick a good tasting honey and it will do fine. Weak or flat will be weak or flat after fermentation.
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May 20, 2018 02:33
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Flea Bargain posted:One thing I remember Michael Fairbrother from Moonlight Meadery saying was to never backsweeten with honey, as raw honey tastes completely different to fermented Mead. That's why I backsweeten with honey, though. I want the taste of the original honey. What do they recommend backsweetening with?
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May 20, 2018 03:54
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How long would you guys say a yeast cake would be good for in a fridge? I just dumped the sediment from the bottom of the fermenter (swirled with small amount of leftover beer) into a big mason jar in the fridge 2-3 weeks ago, might be another 2-3 weeks before I get a chance to brew. Didn't give it any wort to munch on or anything. I had another crack at rice wine last month and sampled it this week. Rice cooker seem like the way to go - certainly less of a PITA to prep. The Angel Rice Leaven batch was surprisingly undrinkable; cloyingly sweet and pretty chalky, whereas before it came out OK, if a little boring. The one with rice balls was nice - a bit sour with some slight bitterness and alcohol burn, but enjoyably so. I'm gonna have to try more experiments - want to nail down a good process/recipe and then scale up batches. I also cracked open one of my pumpkin spice ales that I brewed last October (misread the recipe and did tbsp instead of tsp spices/vanilla, was gross at the time)... glad I let that one mellow as opposed to dumping it like my first instinct, it's very nice now. Ethics_Gradient fucked around with this message at 08:10 on May 20, 2018 |
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May 20, 2018 08:07
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Ethics_Gradient posted:How long would you guys say a yeast cake would be good for in a fridge? I just dumped the sediment from the bottom of the fermenter (swirled with small amount of leftover beer) into a big mason jar in the fridge 2-3 weeks ago, might be another 2-3 weeks before I get a chance to brew. Didn't give it any wort to munch on or anything. I've kept mason jars of yeast in the fridge for 1+ years which I then use to make a starter. If you're wanting to directly pitch it and not make a starter, than probably about 1-1.5 months before you're going to want to consider making a starter. I just overbuild my starters and safe some of that these days, but I haven't noticed a difference between that and when I'd save slurry (provided I'm actually pitching enough yeast). You don't need to give it anything to ferment, as you're encouraging it to be dormant with the temperature. Leaving it under the fermented beer will be a good thing, but decant it off if you don't want it in the next product. I love the yeast balls for making rice wine. The worst part of making a large batch is cooking all the rice. I like to add macerated fruit or juice to it before serving too. Pop a garnish in it and it's suddenly fancy. It makes a good base for a lot of other flavors (strawberry+basil, yum). E: I should say I've had fewer fusel/hot alcohol flavor when I stir the rice when it's starting to ferment. So after a day or two of the koji working, and once you start getting a bit of liquid coming out, then once it's starting to break down completely, I stop stirring it and leave it to ferment by itself. Jhet fucked around with this message at 16:04 on May 20, 2018 |
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May 20, 2018 15:00
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Next time look at boiling temperature information vs boiling time. The temp actually plays a big role in the flavors you get.
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May 21, 2018 01:14
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Napoleon Bonaparty posted:That's why I backsweeten with honey, though. I want the taste of the original honey. I believe the gist of that was about having enough residual sugar that you don't need to backsweeten. Apparently having the honey in there the whole time can smooth out some of the raw honey flavor, so that may not be what you're going for. I can't really say based on my own experience. eviltastic fucked around with this message at 16:57 on May 21, 2018 |
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May 21, 2018 16:51
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This bouchet I'm making, for example, is only going to reach ~6% abv, which is greatly within the tolerance of most yeasts I can think of, especially US-05. That means I have two choices, I can backsweeten after adding sulfites, or I can increase my sugar content ( , higher %abv); but the finished product will take much longer to finish and condition. It will also likely be too strong for some people I know, which is one of the reasons I kept it lower. The backsweetening will definitely introduce a different flavor than a finished mead product, but I find the first thing to blow out the airlock in a mead is the honey aroma. I think it adds a different dimension to the wine than without it. Sometimes I'll even throw a dab of the original honey in a 'dry' wine to finish it after I campden the batch. I just think it gives it a better character. The honey will age in the bottle though. I don't know if there's a practical difference between sitting on the mead the whole time, or sitting on the mead "long enough".I guess my questions are this, now: What is in raw honey I wouldn't want in my finished product, or what is fermenting that I don't have plenty of in the mead already? If I have a lowish abv goal (we ARE talking mead here), what are my options for making a non-dry finished product without backsweetening? I could keep experimenting with beer yeasts and go for low-attenuation, or just campden early, too. Would it be totally weird to make a concentrate mead and water it down, like a gallon at 30:70 honey:water until the yeast croaks, then add water until it's a 2-3 gallon batch? Edit: VVV @Marshamallow Blue, I agree on the orange blossom 100%. It's my favorite to backsweeten with and has the most distinguishable aroma of any sugar I've ever used. Probably 80% of my backsweetened meads are orange blossom honey meads. DISCO KING fucked around with this message at 19:58 on May 21, 2018 |
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May 21, 2018 18:09
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Napoleon Bonaparty posted:
Totally raw honey (ie the good stuff), will have wild yeast in it, but that shouldn't be an issue if you hit it with stabilizers. You shouldn't worry too much about needing to ferment the honey to get a smoother back-sweetening flavor. They're pretty similar, and in some cases, the new honey addition adds a nice touch in moderation. For example orange blossom really holds that aroma when added after fermentation.
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May 21, 2018 18:26
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Anyone have experience with using brett. claussenii? I'm looking at a 10gal barrel that used to be a single malt whiskey barrel that I am going to full on dirty-bomb with a combination of a claussenii and lacto to produce a really sour, lightly funk, whiskey sour beer. I don't think I can get my hands on the drie strain unfortunately.
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May 22, 2018 02:38
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Anyone ever dump watermelon juice into the chilled keg for watermelon wheat? Ive made watermelon wheat beer a couple times but both times dissapointed with the watermelon flavor after fermentation.
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May 23, 2018 06:59
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Otto Von Jizzmark posted:Anyone ever dump watermelon juice into the chilled keg for watermelon wheat? Reduce the juice down to a syrup, otherwise you're just watering down the beer. Or cheat and use flavoring. Most commercial breweries cheat.
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May 23, 2018 13:10
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Otto Von Jizzmark posted:Anyone ever dump watermelon juice into the chilled keg for watermelon wheat? I have done exactly this. One full watermelon's worth of juice is great for a 5 gallon keg.
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May 23, 2018 20:39
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I'm a big fan of Shandy-style fruit additions. Add the juice into the keg AT kegging instead of fermenting it and you'll get a lot more flavor. It adds some volume, so remember that, and you can't ever bottle from the keg and recondition in the bottle (there's unfermented sugar in the juice/fruit and your bottles will asplode). The Blueberry Sour I do is made this way and it's infinitely easier than trying to add the juice during fermentation.
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May 24, 2018 12:00
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When you do that, is there worry of it slowly overcarbonating? It takes me a while to kill kegs at my place so that was always my worry. I have an event in October that I serve at and I might do one of these there because the keg will get killed in two hours.
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May 24, 2018 19:41
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All this talk of dealing with the fruit juice in the keg has me wondering about doing a force carb, and having potassium sorbate (that's the yeast killer, right?) in your keg alongside the juice.
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May 24, 2018 20:29
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Nth Doctor posted:All this talk of dealing with the fruit juice in the keg has me wondering about doing a force carb, and having potassium sorbate (that's the yeast killer, right?) in your keg alongside the juice. Yes, often used in conjunction with potassium metabisulfite which does the yeast/bacteria killing. The sorbate keeps existing yeast from multiplying. You could get away with just using the K-meta or campden tabs to kill what you have unless you want extended shelf stability at room temps.
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May 24, 2018 20:41
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Jhet posted:Yes, often used in conjunction with potassium metabisulfite which does the yeast/bacteria killing. The sorbate keeps existing yeast from multiplying. You could get away with just using the K-meta or campden tabs to kill what you have unless you want extended shelf stability at room temps. How frequently do beer makers use preservatives like this? I've been doing a lot of fruit wines (soon to start with grapes), and they all recommend using campden and sorbate, but I rarely see that for beer.
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May 25, 2018 07:50
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The kegs are cold (presumably) so there's no worry about fermentation happening. If you warmed the keg up above 45 or so for a while, there's a chance it'd start to referment. You can definitely add something kill off that yeast if you're worried.
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May 25, 2018 12:36
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Would anyone here be interested in buying my Catalyst conical fermentor? I’ve used it a couple of times and it works great, but I’m downsizing my stuff and just don’t have the spare room to justify keeping it when buckets take up so much less space.
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May 25, 2018 14:31
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Dirk the Average posted:How frequently do beer makers use preservatives like this? I've been doing a lot of fruit wines (soon to start with grapes), and they all recommend using campden and sorbate, but I rarely see that for beer. Almost never. But that’s because beer is usually fresher than wine, and the yeast we want will be dominant. That and it can’t be done for bottle conditioning. You can do it in a keg and force carb, and you can bottle force carb too, but yeast tends to not be a problem and can actually help clean up packaging off flavors for beer brewing. That and if you’re leaving beer to age, you probably don’t mind if the yeast help change the flavor profile (either old/strong ales or mixed fermentation).
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May 25, 2018 15:12
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Even those who do want to "lock in" flavor development or whatever, usually do so by pasteurization.
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May 25, 2018 15:41
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Dirk the Average posted:How frequently do beer makers use preservatives like this? I've been doing a lot of fruit wines (soon to start with grapes), and they all recommend using campden and sorbate, but I rarely see that for beer. I think there are some regulations against using them in beer, but I may be mistaken.
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May 25, 2018 15:51
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Dirk the Average posted:How frequently do beer makers use preservatives like this? I've been doing a lot of fruit wines (soon to start with grapes), and they all recommend using campden and sorbate, but I rarely see that for beer. For commercial brewing, you can do stuff unavailable to most homebrewers to fight secondary fermentation such as filtering before bottling and pasteurization.
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May 25, 2018 16:18
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JohnnySmitch posted:Would anyone here be interested in buying my Catalyst conical fermentor? I’ve used it a couple of times and it works great, but I’m downsizing my stuff and just don’t have the spare room to justify keeping it when buckets take up so much less space. I may be interested in a few months. Finally buying my own place with a basement where I'll be able to expand operations- I'm not expected to move in until late July though.
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May 25, 2018 16:40
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Just got back from vacation in England, Belgium, and Germany. Holy poo poo is Belgian beer amazing (and Augustiner/Andechs in Germany). Loved me some beers that you can't really get (or are a little price prohibitive when you buy them) in the US. Delirium Tremens, La Trappe Quad, De Halve Maan Blonde, etc. etc. all amazing and usually no more than the cost of a pint at the local taproom. Who's got a recipe they want to point me to to get my Belgian brewing started (since I've never done it before)? I'm looking at Dark Strongs, golden strongs, and Blondes in particular. Something similar to any of the beers listed above is a bonus. Tripels used to sorta, kinda be my thing, but I've tired of them. BTW, holy gently caress, you can get a Chimay Blue in the bottle at a french fry stand for the price of less than the tube of fries. Here (Texas) it's like $4-5 per bottle. Also brewing related: Went to Cantillon. I described it to a friend who doesn't brew as a brewer's pilgrimage (just to see the cool ship). I swear I saw brewing Jesus as I looked over the half door to the cool ship. Gonna harvest some dregs from the bottle I bought and try my hand at a Geuze/Lambic program.
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May 25, 2018 21:48
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Getting kinda pissed with my kegging. I've had good luck burst carbing kegs, but I'm starting to realize that almost all my beer is kinda flat. I put this new one on 40psi for like 5 days, offgassed it, hooked it up, repressurized to serving, and it's super foamy, but the beer isn't really carbonated. For this specific beer, I want an effervescent fizzy thing, but after the foam clears, it's pretty dead. I just went from 18in serving lines to 36in and it didn't change anything. I know I'm leaving out a bunch of info I'm just kidna venting right now.
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May 25, 2018 23:43
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36 inches seems REALLY short. I went to 15 FOOT lines and am super happy with the rate of the pour and the amount of foam I get. Got 3/16'' line from Amazon for super cheap.This stuff: https://goo.gl/w8G1dm Also do a modified version of the shaken keg like a baller method and can have a beer carbed up pretty nice in a few days.
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May 26, 2018 00:02
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LaserWash posted:36 inches seems REALLY short. I might give that a shot.
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May 26, 2018 00:39
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robotsinmyhead posted:Getting kinda pissed with my kegging. I've had good luck burst carbing kegs, but I'm starting to realize that almost all my beer is kinda flat. I put this new one on 40psi for like 5 days, offgassed it, hooked it up, repressurized to serving, and it's super foamy, but the beer isn't really carbonated. For this specific beer, I want an effervescent fizzy thing, but after the foam clears, it's pretty dead. Carb stone is a better means of carbing than burst carb in my experience.
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May 26, 2018 04:01
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gamera009 posted:Carb stone is a better means of carbing than burst carb in my experience. This is true. I have one to make carbed water and it takes no more than 2 days to make a batch at 30 PSI and 45F. I should get one for my beers too I guess.
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May 26, 2018 10:26
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gamera009 posted:Carb stone is a better means of carbing than burst carb in my experience. Oh man I hadn't even considered this. Guess I'm buying that today.
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May 26, 2018 13:23
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They're pretty cheap to buy. Amazon sells a few varieties. I think Morebeer or NorthernBrewer sells a combo corni-lid that seals and has a port for carbing as well. You can always throw one onto the CO2 inlet of your corni and go from there.
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May 26, 2018 15:21
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LaserWash posted:Holy poo poo is Belgian beer amazing The Belgian candi syrup company (uhhh... candi syrup inc?) has a whole recipe list and some look pretty darn good. I have a mind to try their St Bernardus quad recipe, as well as a number of others I've thrown into my beersmith recipe pile. Of course, it's an advertising scheme in its own way to sell syrup, but I've actually read some good brew logs in forums while I google madly for answers to esoteric questions. http://www.candisyrup.com/recipes.html
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May 26, 2018 18:11
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Napoleon Bonaparty posted:The Belgian candi syrup company (uhhh... candi syrup inc?) has a whole recipe list and some look pretty darn good. I have a mind to try their St Bernardus quad recipe, as well as a number of others I've thrown into my beersmith recipe pile. Of course, it's an advertising scheme in its own way to sell syrup, but I've actually read some good brew logs in forums while I google madly for answers to esoteric questions. Love that page and have fantasized a lot about those recipes. The German beers with candisyrup tho.  Really like the idea of the 100% Pilsner + 2.5 packages of 180 syrup Westy 12 clone.
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May 27, 2018 03:07
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LaserWash posted:Love that page and have fantasized a lot about those recipes. The German beers with candisyrup tho. The 180 is worth it, but the lighter it gets the less interesting they are to the point of it being pretty much just syrup. Yes, it’s a bit more fermentable, but I haven’t had issues with just using other sugars that haven’t been inverted. The flavors just really don’t seem to carry, and their lightest just seems to get drowned by every other flavor (malt and yeast) so it’s not something I’d use again. I would like to give the 240 a try, could be good.
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May 27, 2018 04:22
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Yeah the 180 and 90 are legit for doing quads and dubbels, I scoffed at the price at first but they’re 100% worth it. I just use Demerara for my singels and tripels tho
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May 27, 2018 13:17
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I suspect they are a bit of a scam. I have never heard of a Belgian brewery using anything but straight up sugar or clear syrup. I just stick with table sugar and If I need burnt sugar and dark fruit flavors in the beer I have a bit of special B in the recipe.
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May 27, 2018 13:47
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Biomute posted:I suspect they are a bit of a scam. I have never heard of a Belgian brewery using anything but straight up sugar or clear syrup. I just stick with table sugar and If I need burnt sugar and dark fruit flavors in the beer I have a bit of special B in the recipe. Definitely are a bit of a scam. You can make invert sugar at home and caramelize it yourself too if you want. Works okay, but it does take a little practice. The standard gravity is a little higher, it unless you’re doing scale and it’s cheaper than other sugars, then it doesn’t balance out. There’s definitely no reason you must use them, and I’ve used other caramelized and roasted sugars to good tastes. End of the day, do what works for you when brewing. So long as you’re making beer or something that would be considered close enough (ignore the Germans), do what works and tastes good to you. I personally love Special B and I once found some C180 malt that was awesome.
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May 27, 2018 16:43
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