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I have a Beer Gun V2 and it's just "good". Despite bottling at least 40 bottles of beer over the course of 3-4 different batches, there is always a noticeable drop in carbonation. There's probably no way around that. I've read reviews from people that claim no loss in carbonation, but they claim to be doing it the exact same way I'm doing it, so ymmv? Also - just a gripe but - the manual for it is pointlessly complicated and I wish they'd spent the $5 just to put a proper quick-reference booklet in the case instead of the copier-printed and stapled paper.
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May 27, 2020 17:51
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Drone posted:Maybe interesting news to the other European homebrewers here: I just got an email from Brouwland that apparently Five Star products (StarSan etc) are going to be permitted for sale in the EU again, and it sounds like Brouwland is the sole distributor? Why were they not allowed in the first place?
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May 27, 2020 17:51
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Brouwland hosed up on complying with EU import paperwork when importing large quantities of chemicals. Local homebrew shops in Norway might be receiving stock from Brouwland as early as the second week of June.
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May 27, 2020 17:55
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robotsinmyhead posted:I have a Beer Gun V2 and it's just "good". Despite bottling at least 40 bottles of beer over the course of 3-4 different batches, there is always a noticeable drop in carbonation. There's probably no way around that. I've read reviews from people that claim no loss in carbonation, but they claim to be doing it the exact same way I'm doing it, so ymmv? Ahhh good to know. Well, at this point, anything would be an upgrade over me just using my growler-filler tube out of my perlick faucet. Also, I'm thinking about moving away from my immersion chiller now that I'm using a pump. Which do folks feel would be the better balance between efficiency, cost, and finickiness: Plate or Counter-flow?
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May 27, 2020 17:57
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Drone posted:Maybe interesting news to the other European homebrewers here: I just got an email from Brouwland that apparently Five Star products (StarSan etc) are going to be permitted for sale in the EU again, and it sounds like Brouwland is the sole distributor? I asked my wife (she works in chemical regulatory) about this a while ago, and the issue with EU reg for those products is that the registration and testing needs to be done by the importer of record. So it wasn't as easy as Five Star registering anything or using things that are food safe, it was a multi-stage issue. So that's great that they were able to solve their REACH registration issues. That can also be an expensive thing to do, so that's awesome and I hope you get only the regular import markups and not a large price increase as well.
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May 27, 2020 18:05
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I've been using Braumarkt's knockoff starsan for awhile now and still have a ton of it, so at least I won't have to worry about that first batch of Star San flying off the shelves before buying any.
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May 27, 2020 18:07
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Hexigrammus posted:A neighbour's been paying me in beer in exchange for a bit of logging on her property. The beer/hour rate is pretty good but it's been reminding me how much I like Pilsner Urquell and eventually the trees are going to run out. Not a clone but this beer hits the same buttons on my tongue that Urquell does. It's not really a recipe, more of a rough outline: It has the benefit of being so simple that I think I make a better quality wort since I'm not juggling poo poo. Malt - all Golden Promise, infusion mash 150F, I think it approximates the malt flavor of PU as well as any other shortcut method (for 2 gallons around 3.75 lb at 70% efficiency) Boil 90 min, first wort hop with around 20 IBU of Saaz, than a bittering charge of about 10 IBU at 60, last addition 10 IBU of Saaz at 20. 35-45 IBU of mostly or all Saaz goes a long way towards getting close to a Czech lager IMO. A shorter boil is probably fine if you hate long boils (for 2 gal that would be .5/.5/.75 oz if your Saaz are 2.5%AA like mine) I use whirlfloc at 5 min, chill as low as I can after flameout, and refrigerate the wort. At 50F I pitch 2 packs S-23 (for 5 gallons) and my fermenter goes into a swamp cooler using frozen water bottles to keep it under 52F for the first two days, then I let it get up to 54 until it's 1.025, then warm to 64F for a couple days to deal with diacetyl. At terminal gravity I cold crash it to 33F and let it lager on the yeast for around 2 weeks, then I bottle. I kind of like dry yeast for lagers, making a liter of liquid yeast starter for each 2 gallons blows. If you use W-34/70 or S-189 or another of the lager yeasts that people have found work well warm you can simplify temp control a lot, running fermentation 64-68F the whole way like an ale. I like S-23 but fair warning it's not a clean yeast, done warm and/or underpitched it's super fruity, although it does age out pretty well. Bonus trivia, recent genetic testing suggests that S-23 and Mangrove Jack M84 are the closest things available to Urquell's H-Strain (of course with PU they pitch at 38F and only let it get to 46) For yeasts that don't drop fast consider fining with gelatin or polyclar.
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May 28, 2020 03:53
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Is there a good place to browse/order, uh, extract kits? Ingredient kits? I don't really know what they're called. I have a recipe/supplies for a stout but I'm not really in the mood for that now that it's getting warm, and I also mostly enjoy drinking after going for a run.
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May 28, 2020 04:03
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BAE OF PIGS posted:Is there a good place to browse/order, uh, extract kits? Ingredient kits? I don't really know what they're called. I have a recipe/supplies for a stout but I'm not really in the mood for that now that it's getting warm, and I also mostly enjoy drinking after going for a run. Most of the home brew shops have kits you can look at. Brewersfriend.com has user submitted recipes and you can search by extract kit. Extract is pretty easy to modify to what you want to brew though, so if you have a particular hop you want to try, you can easily take extract to whatever gravity, and maybe steep some Vienna/Munich/crystal to add some variety in profile and hop it up.
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May 28, 2020 05:41
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I've enjoyed the kits I've gotten from morebeer for the most part, and they were reasonably priced and shipped fast. Northern brewer lists whats in their kits if you want to shop there or piece it together yourself--they're not owned by AB Inbev anymore if that makes a difference to you. Basically any online or local shop probably has kits or can put one together for you, so shop wherever is most convenient during these times.
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May 28, 2020 08:42
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So, I made my first batch of beer, a fairly uncomplicated IPA and well, I learned a lot. As in I made a bunch of mistakes. My set up worked pretty well, but I had a couple of malfunctions that in hindsight were obvious and the wort came out at about 1030 OG. I'm pretty sure the reason was a combination of milling the grains wrong (don't have a mill, forgot to ask for the grain shipment pre-milled, had to improvise) and I completely misunderstood the whole sparging thing and did that completely wrong. At least I didn't contaminate the wort, and it did start fermenting albeit it's not terribly active. I plan to spike it tonight with some pasteurized/boiled honey solution, a boiled mango puree and the dry hops to see if it can be saved and the ABV upped some. Probably gonna have to ferment a little longer than two weeks if it takes, we'll have to see how slow the honey gets eaten. Maybe it'll turn out like a hoppy mild braggot? Probably gonna get dishwater. We'll see. I've ordered up some more stuff and I'm gonna try again next week and do it right, as well as racking my fireweed mead over to secondary.
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May 28, 2020 09:08
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It's been a long time since I bought an extract kit, but I eventually switched to buying them from Northern Brewer instead of from my LHBS, because the Brewer's Best kits from the LHBS were always old as hell, so all the LME would be oxidized and it was impossible to make a beer less than like 15 SRM. Northern Brewer's kits seemed like they were packaged to order with fresh (or at least fresh-ish) ingredients, and you can pick what yeast you want and stuff.
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May 28, 2020 16:09
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Nice piece of fish posted:So, I made my first batch of beer, a fairly uncomplicated IPA and well, I learned a lot. As in I made a bunch of mistakes. Congrats! Any brew day that ultimately ends up with something drinkable is a win!  Regarding the slow start to your fermentation, what yeast did you use? Did you just use a single package, or did you build a starter? What temp are you fermenting at?
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May 28, 2020 17:02
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Scarf posted:Congrats! Any brew day that ultimately ends up with something drinkable is a win! Well, here's hoping. Tasting just the ferment it's got an amazing hop flavour, but 5 days into the ferment it's at 1010 and appeared stalled... So I added the boiled puree and the pasteurised honey and it immediately got very active in the airlock. Might just have been starving. I'll be happy if it ends up in general beer ABV territory at bottling, which I'll probably have to delay some. I used commercial beer yeast, dry from the brewshop. I'll check the exact kind tomorrow. Two packs, rehydrated it (and it got active enough to nearly explode my sterilized jar, but I'm experienced with sourdough so I'd removed the gasket). Fermenting at 19-20 degrees Celsius, but my heating chamber is subpar. The insulation seems to work well but the heater doesn't and the temp sensor seems to fluctuate between 18 and 20 but the average should be around 19. Gonna have to do something clever about it.
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May 28, 2020 22:05
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Nice piece of fish posted:Well, here's hoping. Tasting just the ferment it's got an amazing hop flavour, but 5 days into the ferment it's at 1010 and appeared stalled... So I added the boiled puree and the pasteurised honey and it immediately got very active in the airlock. Might just have been starving. I'll be happy if it ends up in general beer ABV territory at bottling, which I'll probably have to delay some. Hey congrats on the first brew. Going back down memory lane and you are ahead of the curve compared to me hah hah. A final gravity of 1.010 seems about right for an IPA but maybe someone can correct me. I alway use this chart on brewers friend as a general reference https://www.brewersfriend.com/2017/05/07/beer-styles-original-gravity-and-final-gravity-chart-2017-update/. It should be interesting to see what happens with the honey and fruit. Might add a bit of a drier finish which I find goes well with a fruity hoppy flavour. If nothing else a few weeks in the bottle makes the final product alot better in my experience. Did you record how much honey and fruit you added? If so you could probably estimate your final ABV using and online calculator.
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May 29, 2020 12:31
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Mr.Sloth posted:Hey congrats on the first brew. Going back down memory lane and you are ahead of the curve compared to me hah hah. A final gravity of 1.010 seems about right for an IPA but maybe someone can correct me. I alway use this chart on brewers friend as a general reference https://www.brewersfriend.com/2017/05/07/beer-styles-original-gravity-and-final-gravity-chart-2017-update/. Thanks for a great resource, that link will come in handy. I did in fact record the amounts (record everything, always, thanks thread!) and I'll try and math it out from my OG read after work, that's a super tip!
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May 29, 2020 12:41
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Nice piece of fish posted:I used commercial beer yeast, dry from the brewshop. I'll check the exact kind tomorrow. Two packs, rehydrated it (and it got active enough to nearly explode my sterilized jar, but I'm experienced with sourdough so I'd removed the gasket). Gonna put my wager on SafAle S-05.
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May 29, 2020 18:14
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Nth Doctor posted:Gonna put my wager on SafAle S-05. You're pretty good at this.  Mathed out my abv based on the sugar content and the calculated end ABV is 4.58 but I'm guessing it's not gonna ferment out completely at bottling. However, I am adding sugar for priming at bottling so on the balance I'm hoping for around 4.5?
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May 29, 2020 18:34
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Finally ready to cold-crash my cali common, but I broke my drat hydrometer and need to swing by the shop and grab a new one today. The Tilt hydrometer floating in the fermenter has been steady for the past 3 days, but I want to make sure with a traditional hydrometer reading. OG: 1.052 FG: 1.012 After 7 days at 55*F, the gravity dropped to 1.020. At that point I started the D-rest for 7 days @ 66*F since I was predicting it'd finish at 1.015. Pleasantly surprised that apparent attenuation hit 77% as White Labs lists it at 70-75%. Also, this is my second brew using my Tilt hydrometer. I've been really happy with it; mine consistently reads within 1-2 gravity points of my hydrometer readings. The bluetooth isn't great for me since I'm in a stainless fermenter, and a freezer/chamber. I have to open up the door to the chamber to get a signal from the Tilt. Not too much of a hassle for me though. Scarf fucked around with this message at 19:22 on May 29, 2020 |
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May 29, 2020 19:19
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Look at putting together a TiltBridge. I use that in conjunction with Fermentrack to log all of my stuff. The TiltBridge hardware can be had for like 13 bucks and can record through my SS Brewtech and small fridge no problem.
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May 29, 2020 20:41
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calandryll posted:Look at putting together a TiltBridge. I use that in conjunction with Fermentrack to log all of my stuff. The TiltBridge hardware can be had for like 13 bucks and can record through my SS Brewtech and small fridge no problem. Oh sweet, good to know. Appreciate it!
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May 29, 2020 21:15
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If I'm not mistaken Tilt has their own RasPi distro to do the same thing as well.
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May 29, 2020 22:03
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Managed to order some yeast and hops to stock up for brewing this summer. It’s been months since I’ve fermented anything. I have to bottle everything again for a while, which is annoying, but I got a couple mixed ferm blends from the Yeast Bay that I’m going to try out, and a pouch of Hornindal kveik. Aside from that my collection of yeast is 1 sachet of S04. I’ll have to step it and start running it on repeat for a while I think. When did yeast get so expensive? It’s all $10 a packet now and I could have sworn it was $6 not that long ago. I know this sounds like old man complaining, but that seems a decent increase in only a couple years time. Also, my LHBS only seem to carry Wyeast, and only the popular strains right now, so yay...
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May 29, 2020 22:16
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calandryll posted:The TiltBridge hardware can be had for like 13 bucks and can record through my SS Brewtech and small fridge no problem. That's good to know - I had not jumped at the Tilt because I was worried about getting out of my steel fermenters and my ferment fridge.
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May 29, 2020 23:34
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What's really cool about Fermentrack, you can control the temperature remotely. Also give you a nice graph that is interactive. I haven't built the complete controller yet, have all the parts and printed the box but been lazy.
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May 29, 2020 23:40
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Is there a guide or method for taking a 5gal recipe down to 1gal or is it just 1/5. Not sure how it all behaves together. Recently got back into it and want to make a Japanese rice lager with added apples I had in ikebukuro.
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Jun 1, 2020 16:22
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Krataar posted:Is there a guide or method for taking a 5gal recipe down to 1gal or is it just 1/5. Not sure how it all behaves together. Recently got back into it and want to make a Japanese rice lager with added apples I had in ikebukuro. For the most part you should be able to just go 1/5. Water volumes might be weird, i.e. you might have more boiloff by percentage. I like keeping distilled water around so I can top off if I boil off too much.
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Jun 1, 2020 16:34
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Hop utilization is slightly different, but not different enough to matter. Just 1/5 will get you to what you need. Just be mindful of variation in measuring, as small variation is going to be more noticeable.
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Jun 1, 2020 16:37
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I bought scales to more accurately measure. Getting back into it after years away. Hoping to build a keezer, so I'll let you know how it all goes.
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Jun 1, 2020 17:17
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Myron Baloney posted:Not a clone but this beer hits the same buttons on my tongue that Urquell does. It's not really a recipe, more of a rough outline: It has the benefit of being so simple that I think I make a better quality wort since I'm not juggling poo poo. Thanks! Bookmarked for a fall project when I might be able to keep the required temperatures in one of my storage sheds. I also need to do a bit of studying before I get back into this hobby.
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Jun 1, 2020 17:59
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I couldn't see anything in the OP about this, but forgive me if I am asking something that has already been asked in last 967 pages: I am brewing my first ever homebrew, using an IPA kit, and I set up the primary fermentation at the weekend. I went to check to see if there were bubbles flowing through my airlock yet, and the airlock lid was missing and I cannot find it. I know I put it on, and no humans have been into the shed where the beer is brewing, so I have two questions: 1. Has a mouse nicked my lid? 2. Is my beer now hosed? The airlock is this type:  I had a spare bubbler airlock lying around, so I've put that on the brew now, but I don't want to poison anyone by giving them tainted beer!
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Jun 2, 2020 14:46
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Scientastic posted:1. Has a mouse nicked my lid? A mouse is now wearing it as a hat. Your beer is (almost certainly) fine.
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Jun 2, 2020 14:53
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Kaysette posted:A mouse is now wearing it as a hat. Your beer is (almost certainly) fine. Counterpoint: your beer fermented SO loving HARD it blew the cap directly off of the airlock. Unfortunately this whipped it right around the far end and it's back to just being malt syrup in your fermenter. Your yeast, however, is going to colonize (  ) Mars.
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Jun 2, 2020 15:01
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Kegged 10 gals of cali common last night and hooked up the CO2. Pulled a sample today and man, I've missed having this beer on tap... Light-ish body, full flavor, great summer lager. I need to brew my baltic porter soon so it'll be ready in time for Christmas. That one is gonna hurt the wallet a bit, but it's so drat good.
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Jun 2, 2020 20:28
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Scarf posted:Kegged 10 gals of cali common last night and hooked up the CO2. Pulled a sample today and man, I've missed having this beer on tap... Light-ish body, full flavor, great summer lager. What's your recipe for the baltic porter that it's expensive? Or is it just that you need a bunch of yeast in addition to the hops/malt?
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Jun 2, 2020 21:03
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Jhet posted:What's your recipe for the baltic porter that it's expensive? Or is it just that you need a bunch of yeast in addition to the hops/malt? Pretty much, plus some "premium" ingredients like Maris Otter, original molasses... and this will be the first time I'm scaling it up to 10 gallons
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Jun 2, 2020 21:11
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Gotcha. If it helps to rationalize it, I just remind myself how much buying 48 (96) 12oz bottles/cans of something commercial like that would cost me. If you figure only $10 for a 4-pack.... Yep, going to brew my own. It’s why I look at pound and had pounds of hops for only $20 and just click order. Can you get a full 25kg sack of MO from your LHBS or a group buy? That really put it into feeling better about brewing awesome things.
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Jun 2, 2020 21:25
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Has anyone got a flavoured ginger beer recipe they'd like to share (either alcoholic or not)? I'm not normally a massive fan of the stuff, but I took a break from alcohol over Lent and discovered Bundaberg's lemon myrtle ginger beer which was actually quite nice. (I don't keg so assume bottle priming)
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Jun 2, 2020 21:49
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Jhet posted:Gotcha. If it helps to rationalize it, I just remind myself how much buying 48 (96) 12oz bottles/cans of something commercial like that would cost me. If you figure only $10 for a 4-pack.... Oh for sure, it's still 100% worth it comparatively. And as biased as I may be, I prefer my baltic over anything else on the market that I've tried so far. Yeah, MO is my go-to for base malt, so I really do need to just buy a full sack at this point and have it on hand. Ideally I'd like to always buy my base malts in bulk and only go to the shop for some specialty malts. I've yet to ask the guys at the shop, and even if they don't usually sell bulk, I might get a pass being a regular. Seems like all of my recipes have at least one of the following: Maris Otter Munich II Pilsen
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Jun 2, 2020 22:20
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Scarf posted:Oh for sure, it's still 100% worth it comparatively. And as biased as I may be, I prefer my baltic over anything else on the market that I've tried so far. It's possible they won't give you a bulk discount, and it's possible you'd need to order ahead, but there's no reason your LHBS wouldn't sell you full sacks. It's just less work for them.
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Jun 2, 2020 22:24
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