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Drone_Fragger posted:Hmm, I suspected it might add haziness but wasn't sure, it certainly seems to have haziness that hasn't settled after I boiled it (which I believe is when most stuff crashes out as the proteins get hosed up by the boiling?) . It's not really an issue as long it's drinkable, and yeah, first attempt so I'm not too worried. Expect haze regardless, the methods to produce crystal clear beer are more advanced and basically all beginner homebrew will be hazy. I bet you will be surprised at how good your first batch is (unless you completely ruin it like I did with my first attempt).
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Dec 31, 2018 05:30
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Drone_Fragger posted:Oh, that's more because the Carboy isn't graduated and I'm an idiot who didn't leave space for the foam when I was topping up the cold wort with cold boiled water. Not sure why I didn't think of that, I've been to no end of breweries and have seen how much foam there is. Yeah, generally speaking you want maybe 25% headspace for the yeast krausen (foam) to rise. I ferment 5.5 gallons in a 7 gallon fermenter.
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Dec 31, 2018 05:38
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rockcity posted:Yeah, generally speaking you want maybe 25% headspace for the yeast krausen (foam) to rise. I ferment 5.5 gallons in a 7 gallon fermenter. That always worked for me, until I used Wyeast 3787. It was like I popped Menthos into a bottle of Coca Cola, it just kept coming and coming. Had to empty my half gallon blow-off container three times and it still wasn't done.
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Dec 31, 2018 16:44
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I am about to make my initial brewing equipment purchases as I want to start brewing meads and ciders. I want to start small with 1 gallon batches so I’m not wasting money if I screw it up. I am probably going to get two or three 1 gallon car boys with stoppers and airlock, but I had a question. Has anyone used the smaller, 3 gallon plastic conical fermenters available like the BrewDemon or the FastFerment? They certainly look like they’re awesome, but at 50ish bucks each I don’t want to spend the money if they suck.
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Dec 31, 2018 23:33
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The brew demon is kind of a bitch to clean but it's otherwise a pretty decent ferm for how inexpensive it is. Can also use a Mr. Beer if you don't *need* a conny e: hmm I don't remember them being $50 you might as well get a normal PET fermenter at that point Syrinxx fucked around with this message at 00:30 on Jan 1, 2019 |
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Dec 31, 2018 23:37
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I would say to start small before you scale up. I have not used one of those plastic conicals, but I haven't heard raves about them, either. For that money, I would probably look into a 3-gallon PET fermenter like a Fermonster or something, rather than a conical - but that's just my preference.
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Dec 31, 2018 23:38
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Skellyscribe posted:Expect haze regardless, the methods to produce crystal clear beer are more advanced and basically all beginner homebrew will be hazy. I bet you will be surprised at how good your first batch is (unless you completely ruin it like I did with my first attempt). My pale ale (first beer in ~8 years) turned out surprisingly clear without any of the added finings so it's definitely possible to get it not hazy. I could probably read a newspaper through a pint glass of the stuff. It may be because I used dried malt extract and some steeped grains (so less proteins maybe?).
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Jan 1, 2019 06:06
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Eeyo posted:My pale ale (first beer in ~8 years) turned out surprisingly clear without any of the added finings so it's definitely possible to get it not hazy. I could probably read a newspaper through a pint glass of the stuff. It may be because I used dried malt extract and some steeped grains (so less proteins maybe?). There are a lot of factors, and yeast choice is a big thing. Extract with steeping grains really won't be much of a difference unless you've got a bunch of wheat/similar grains in there. Barley can drop very clear, and getting extra trub into the fermenter won't bother clarity any. Yeasts usually used for pale ales/bitters all tend to flocculate better than saisons and especially wheat beers. Time spent conditioning will also help with clarity too. It's pretty awesome when you've made a beer without chill haze and it's super clear, but it's not the only way to do things. Drone_Fragger posted:Anyway, When sparging, was I meant to actually wring all the liquid out of the mash? It's not ideal because you're more likely to extract tannins, but it's not the end of the world. The haziness you see during fermentation is just the yeast. I don't think you mentioned what style or yeast you used and if you're dry hopping, but that's going to have more to do with haze than squeezing your mash grains. For the first batch, just be patient and watch what it's doing, you'll learn a lot about the process. Don't be afraid to smell and taste it at any stage. Also, I once brewed an Imperial Stout. I woke up one morning with yeast all over the wall and ceiling as it had thrown the airlock and made a giant mess. That was with Wyeast 1084 Irish Ale yeast. It doesn't always do that, but it does like to throw enough krausen that I typically use a blow off now. With lager yeasts I might fill the fermenter to within half an inch of the top. Amount of krausen is really yeast dependent. High amounts of wheat I've found to impact it a little, but it's mostly the Wit yeasts. In my brewing lately... the Czech Pilsner I made is lagering currently in less than ideal circumstance, but I don't have room in my keezer for it. The Traditional Bock is happily working away on top of the yeast cake from the Pils. My birthday present to myself this year was 4 more kegs, so I'm happy to have more storage capacity for this sort of thing. I'm under 100# of malt left from having purchased too much a while ago, so I have a couple Belgian styles (tripel, golden pale) and an IPA with cryohops that are up next, and then there's 55# of continental pale ale malt left for about a half dozen saisons in spring/early summer.
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Jan 1, 2019 16:30
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BobbyDrake posted:I am about to make my initial brewing equipment purchases as I want to start brewing meads and ciders. I want to start small with 1 gallon batches so I’m not wasting money if I screw it up. If you are looking at small batch ciders or cysers and want to save a few bucks, you may be able to find decent apple juice that comes in gallon size glass jugs that can be reused as fermenters. Remember to account for needed headspace though - they’re not well suited to exactly one gallon batches unless you’re step feeding in something liquid after the growth phase is mostly done.
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Jan 2, 2019 02:48
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I've never used rice hulls before, at what ratio do you guys add them to a grist?
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Jan 3, 2019 22:40
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ChiTownEddie posted:I've never used rice hulls before, at what ratio do you guys add them to a grist? I use the very scientific method of adding a handful if I'm using more than about 10% rye or wheat. Maybe a second handful if I'm over 40% rye or wheat. If it's looking too sticky when I start to vorluaf, I'll add more before I get to sparging into the kettle.
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Jan 4, 2019 00:01
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ChiTownEddie posted:I've never used rice hulls before, at what ratio do you guys add them to a grist? A pound of rice hulls is a fuckload. I have used a pound in a five-gallon batch of 60% wheat beer without issues.
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Jan 4, 2019 00:02
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Jhet posted:Time spent conditioning will also help with clarity too. I've had some beers that look pretty as soon as they're drinkable, but the simplest / easiest way ( at least when bottle conditioning ) is to put them somewhere cool-to-cold and forget they exist for a while.
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Jan 4, 2019 02:16
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triple clutcher posted:It's amazing how true this is. Tonight I opened a bottle of homebrew that'd been sitting in my fridge for at least two months, and after pouring it was clear enough to read through, whereas when fresh it was completely opaque. If only because I have access to huge amounts of it, I tend to toss in a bit of clarex and biofine when I want it super clear right away.
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Jan 4, 2019 04:27
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gamera009 posted:If only because I have access to huge amounts of it, I tend to toss in a bit of clarex and biofine when I want it super clear right away. Biofine is pretty cheap and is a decent thing to keep in the cabinet. It's about $3 over at morebeer for homebrew sizes for multiple batches. Clarity Firm/Clarex is more expensive that I'd keep on hand as it's $4 per batch. Honestly, if you don't share with vegans, gelatin fining is probably the cheapest option I can think of after just using time. I'll do gelatin for beers that I'm trying to turn quickly because I have a ton of it in my kitchen anyway.
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Jan 4, 2019 05:15
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Jhet posted:Biofine is pretty cheap and is a decent thing to keep in the cabinet. It's about $3 over at morebeer for homebrew sizes for multiple batches. Clarity Firm/Clarex is more expensive that I'd keep on hand as it's $4 per batch. Honestly, if you don't share with vegans, gelatin fining is probably the cheapest option I can think of after just using time. I'll do gelatin for beers that I'm trying to turn quickly because I have a ton of it in my kitchen anyway. The second advantage of clarex is that gluten-free people can drink it when dosed correctly. Gave it to two people with Celiac with no problems!
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Jan 5, 2019 02:13
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gamera009 posted:The second advantage of clarex is that gluten-free people can drink it when dosed correctly. I was just having this conversation this last week because three of my family members are Celiac. This is only mostly true. Clarex should take it down to under 20 ppm, and probably closer to 10 ppm. I know it's supposed to fall under the FDA threshold for GF but it can't get the GF label. And at the end of the day it will really come down to how badly people react to gluten. Some won't even notice. Then there are some friends of the family who would get very violently ill if there were any at all. We have to basically scrub my mother's kitchen and use metal equipment. No wood that's touched flour can ever touch that food. That said, clarex is really awesome, but really raises the price for a batch for most brewers.
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Jan 5, 2019 06:19
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Wait wait wait, there's a product out there that reduces gluten content of regular (barley/wheat) beer to under 20ppm and doesn't affect flavour? Am I reading this right? This is pretty fuckin revolutionary if so, what with the current gluten-free trend.
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Jan 5, 2019 19:33
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hot cocoa on the couch posted:Wait wait wait, there's a product out there that reduces gluten content of regular (barley/wheat) beer to under 20ppm and doesn't affect flavour? Am I reading this right? This is pretty fuckin revolutionary if so, what with the current gluten-free trend. ClareX reduces chill haze by cleaving proteins at proline(?) apart. Most people testing lighter ales and lager report down to 10ppm of gluten based on the immunoassay available.
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Jan 5, 2019 22:05
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gamera009 posted:ClareX reduces chill haze by cleaving proteins at proline(?) apart. Most people testing lighter ales and lager report down to 10ppm of gluten based on the immunoassay available. That sounds right from what I remember. It splits the amino acid and then it precipitates out of the solution. I don't think the testing used measures less than 10ppm, but I wouldn't be surprised if it were less. As for revolutionary, it's not bad. They label as gluten reduced and Stone has a good offering and New Beligium has a couple that are basically indistinguishable from their glutinous counterparts (which probably don't have much anyway as clarex is a common fining agent). The additional testing isn't particularly cheap, and it's not completely prohibitive for the larger breweries. It doesn't surprise me that it's not caught on for the smaller brewers for labeling/testing. It's one more step that isn't going to be super useful for making back the cost.
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Jan 5, 2019 23:14
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Trying to solve the "I wish I could brew more, but I have two children under 2 years old" dilemma. Buying a Brew Bag from The Brew Bag to line my 12 gallon Igloo Mash Tun. Don't really need it since the mash tun already has a manifold, but dammit if cleaning a mash tun sucks rear end. The idea I have in mind, along with my recent sous vide purchase is the following: 1.) Heat up mash water using the sous vide in the mash tun about 2-3 hours before mash in. Bought one on internet last week that you can schedule through a wifi/bluetooth connection to the internet, 1100 Watts should be plenty of power to heat up 5-8 gallons of water overnight/early morning. 2.) Mash in about the time that the family wakes up, do the regular 60 minute mash. 3.) Drain (and maybe rinse with a little cold water). 4.) Boil for 60-90 minutes as per usual and pull bag full of spent grain out, dump, wash out cooler, and dry. 5.) Drain wort to carboy(s), put in temp controlled freezer and clean 15 gallon boil kettle. 6.) Chill. I think if I get water, hops, malt crushed, water additions added, etc. in the days before, I'm looking at a 2 hour brew day (maybe ??? - not considering the small amount of time required to mash in). Something that can easily be accomplished on a day where my oldest (20 months old) is taking one of her 2-3 hour naps and when my wife is home to take over most of the care for our 6 week old. LaserWash fucked around with this message at 06:09 on Jan 7, 2019 |
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Jan 7, 2019 04:43
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So, I've had that same issue. I can get my brewday done in about 3.5 hours if I do a normal brew and cleaning. I do sparge though, and that takes time that I haven't found a way around to my satisfaction, not sure if you do a no-sparge or full boil mash, but don't forget the time it takes. Here are some other tricks I've used successfully. Try a 15 minute mash, at 152 most of the conversion is done and you only suffer a small efficiency drop. Try a 10 minute boil (good for late addition only IPAs and Pale Ales, and also means you need less volume to start, sucks for melanoidin creation from a longer boil, but it's an IPA and melanoidin malt is a decent compromise). Try no-boil raw ale methods and go with kveik or mixed yeast/bacteria pitches (easy for gose and sour many things). Hire a babysitter for a few hours (it's still cheaper than going golfing as far as hobbies go). I've seen people use a 4-hours mash because it's what they can fit in their schedule. If you have a hose, use it to spray out the screen. Then it's easy to wash. Hell, use it to rinse out everything into a garden bed. Whatever is growing there will love the little spent grain/hops that goes in there and gets composted or eaten by worms. Some of those methods are great and churn out great beer, but they're not a one size fits all styles solution.
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Jan 7, 2019 06:16
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Doing another batch of mead, I have some basic questions on steeping spices. I'll be doing 2 gallons of water with 5 lbs honey. I want to steep some coriander, clove and orange blossom. How would I go about doing this? Do I keep everything whole or should it be ground? I have some steeping bags from a brew store so I figured I'll just throw everything whole into one and let it boil in the water for 5 minutes. Recommendations on spice quantities and steeping time/method would be helpful.
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Jan 7, 2019 07:35
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LaserWash posted:Trying to solve the "I wish I could brew more, but I have two children under 2 years old" dilemma. Jhet posted:So, I've had that same issue. Same for me. I have started milling my grains the night before. Usually I did this while I was heating up my water so I wouldn't have saved any time, but instead of heating up cold water I now walk to the shower to fill some buckets with warm water, add a kettle of boiling water from the kitchen and it only takes a few minutes before everything is at mash temperature. Don't know why I didn't think of that before.
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Jan 7, 2019 09:56
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I don't like using hot water from the taps because it comes from the water heater instead of straight from the main city line. Who knows what kind of gross poo poo is in my water heater, not to mention the mineral content difference.
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Jan 7, 2019 14:55
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Can anyone recommend a good "Keg Starter Kit" that comes with a bottle, regulator, and some kegs? I'm still having a lot of lovely leakage problems that I've just been chasing endlessly and frustratingly for months. I'm to the point where I'm not even brewing or drinking my beer because blowing through a bottle of gas is a waste of time and money. I had some initial luck cleaning up some kegs and doing leak tests on them, but the problems crop right back up. I think I have it figured out, everything is tight, then I wake up the next day to a blown bottle of gas, $15 refill and a half hour drive just to do it all again. I'm ok with the money part, so I'm just gonna throw cash at this problem to fix it rather than continue to gently caress around with it. New regulator, new bottle, new kegs. Start from scratch. I'm even 50/50 on switching to Sanke kegs and figuring it out from there. If anyone has any advice on that, I'm all ears.
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Jan 7, 2019 15:29
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robotsinmyhead posted:Can anyone recommend a good "Keg Starter Kit" that comes with a bottle, regulator, and some kegs? I just bought a 4-pack of kegs from AIH and they all arrived in really good condition. One had the flat oval lid (race track keg), but they all arrived in good condition and held pressure great. The have a starter keg kit that is similar to the one I bought. I bought my keg starter kit stuff from Keg Connection and it was all in good shape when I got it. I haven't had any issues with it once I got my hoses on and secure (they didn't come connected on the stuff I bought). The kegs I got with that kit are not as nice as the 4 from AIH, but I haven't had any issues that didn't just need me to change the rings. Most of them will come with taps though (or at least picnic taps), but AIH has one that doesn't. https://www.homebrewing.org/5-Gallon-Ball-Lock-Keg-System-w-2-USED-Kegs-to-Build-Kegerator-7_p_1503.html
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Jan 7, 2019 16:28
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robotsinmyhead posted:Can anyone recommend a good "Keg Starter Kit" that comes with a bottle, regulator, and some kegs? I'm still having a lot of lovely leakage problems that I've just been chasing endlessly and frustratingly for months. I'm to the point where I'm not even brewing or drinking my beer because blowing through a bottle of gas is a waste of time and money. I can't remember if it was brought up but did you ever replace the plastic o-ring on the inside of where the regulator mates to the CO2 tank?
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Jan 7, 2019 18:22
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rockcity posted:I can't remember if it was brought up but did you ever replace the plastic o-ring on the inside of where the regulator mates to the CO2 tank? I'm aware of that o-ring and it's on my list to get a new one on my next fill. That part seems to be fine, but I can't tell.
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Jan 7, 2019 20:10
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robotsinmyhead posted:I'm aware of that o-ring and it's on my list to get a new one on my next fill. That part seems to be fine, but I can't tell. Might as well just get a new one. It’s fairly critical to get a good one that isn’t pitted and mates well.
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Jan 7, 2019 20:34
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robotsinmyhead posted:I'm aware of that o-ring and it's on my list to get a new one on my next fill. That part seems to be fine, but I can't tell. Yeah, if you haven't tried it, it's at least worth checking out. I once blew an entire paintball CO2 bottle because that washer fell out when I was travelling with it to do serve a keg at an event. I had to send a friend to go rent a CO2 tank for the event. That was a stupid $20 mistake.
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Jan 7, 2019 20:36
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Yeah it just feels like I'm going backwards with this stuff. First it was just a post on a keg, then full kegs, then multiple kegs, then my regulator spontaneously started leaking, now possibly my tank itself. Aside from loving up by swapping out some incompatible poppets, I don't understand why these little problems keep popping up. Adding to the frustration is other people with kegging setups not offering any substantive feedback. YES. I have in fact put leak detector on my kegs. I have a giant bottle of it. I use it all the time, but we're talking about leaks literally starting overnight and it's messing with my head. It's some real gremlin poo poo going on here.
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Jan 7, 2019 21:03
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robotsinmyhead posted:Yeah it just feels like I'm going backwards with this stuff. First it was just a post on a keg, then full kegs, then multiple kegs, then my regulator spontaneously started leaking, now possibly my tank itself. Yeah, I wish I had any other ideas. The only times I ever had anything leak it was either a sticky pressure relief valve and I just actuated it a couple of times and it sealed up or a hose clamp that needed to be snugged up a bit more.
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Jan 7, 2019 22:41
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Popete posted:Doing another batch of mead, I have some basic questions on steeping spices. I haven't tried those, but here is a handy starting point from someone who knows more than me that covers amounts for all of them: https://denardbrewing.com/blog/post/Spices/ If you're starting from scratch in terms of a recipe, making a concentrated tea is a good idea because you can easily do some testing in smaller volumes. I'd make a separate concentrated tea of each, and allocate a portion of your batch to testing in small volumes, maybe increase the batch size a bit so you'll have enough to test. Screw around with small amounts until you've got it how you like, then you can scale up to figure out your addition to the bulk of the batch. You could also add stuff directly to the mead. Unfortunately, how long to leave spices in is going to vary by recipe and by spice. Likewise for whole/ground. My general preference is crushed but not ground, because I'm paranoid about adding powder that isn't nutrient or fining agents.
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Jan 7, 2019 23:49
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robotsinmyhead posted:Yeah it just feels like I'm going backwards with this stuff. First it was just a post on a keg, then full kegs, then multiple kegs, then my regulator spontaneously started leaking, now possibly my tank itself. it ain't rocket science man. put your regulator on the tank, turn on the tank but shut off the flow valve on the regulator, leave it over night. did it leak? no? then add the next piece and leave it overnight. did it leak? no? then add the next piece...
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Jan 8, 2019 14:35
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See here's what I mean. I know this. I've done this multiple times. I've recently had popup leaks occur in my regulator that hasn't been touched in 2 months while I'm pressure testing kegs, so I think I have a keg pressure problem, isolate it, fix it, then put it back in the system and it's "leaking" again. I'm having leaks backtrack through my system or pop up spontaneously all while trying to nail down troublesome kegs and it's extremely frustrating. It's super easy to say how this is supposed to go, pressurize your system for a week straight, then come home a day later to a blown bottle of gas for no reason. edit: I'm gonna drop this cause it's circular and I'm just really frustrated by it. I'm either gonna switch to Sanke kegs or scrap like 6 of 8 of my kegs for being irredeemably lovely. robotsinmyhead fucked around with this message at 20:07 on Jan 8, 2019 |
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Jan 8, 2019 20:02
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robotsinmyhead posted:See here's what I mean. I know this. I've done this multiple times. I've recently had popup leaks occur in my regulator that hasn't been touched in 2 months while I'm pressure testing kegs, so I think I have a keg pressure problem, isolate it, fix it, then put it back in the system and it's "leaking" again. I'm having leaks backtrack through my system or pop up spontaneously all while trying to nail down troublesome kegs and it's extremely frustrating. poo poo doesn't just "pop up in your regulator". I'm guessing you hosed something up when you changed the bottle 100 times cause of your leaks. post which model you have, some of them require a washer and some don't. the ones that don't often have a washer built in that gets worn out over time.
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Jan 8, 2019 20:48
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eviltastic posted:I haven't tried those, but here is a handy starting point from someone who knows more than me that covers amounts for all of them: https://denardbrewing.com/blog/post/Spices/ Good ideas and thanks for the link. I think I'll go the crushed route for the cloriander/cloves, I was worried about grinding them too finely but I think crushed should work fine in a mesh bag.
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Jan 8, 2019 21:22
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Also I bought some Sichuan peppercorns for a different use this weekend but after opening them up and smelling them fresh (before roasting) they smell fantastic and now I really want to do a mead batch with them. Has anyone use them in a mead/brew before?
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Jan 8, 2019 21:24
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So I've got a charity event coming up at the end of March that I'd like to brew for. Last year I did a Sorachi Ace Saison that seemed to get a a few likes, but was definitely in the weird category. I've still got 12oz of that hop along with Amarillo and Cascade. I've got small amounts of Galaxy and Citra around as well. Does anyone have experience using SA in anything other than a Saison? I'd like to try an IPA with it, but I'm not sure if I should go full on weird with the hop(bittering, flavor, and aroma additions) or just use it for bittering.
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Jan 9, 2019 01:07
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