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El Pollo Blanco posted:If I'm getting really terrible efficiency with pils/wheat grists on my setup, but 80% efficiency with ale malt grists is the most likely culprit mash ph being too high? Eh, probably not; with a 50-50 grist and soft water you would see a pH ~0.15 higher. This can have an impact sure, but I would bet the main culprit is that you've just lost 50% of the hulls that usually help with your lautering. For sure, adjust your water, but you might want to look into mixing your grains once or twice during the mash and adding som rice hulls.
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Oct 22, 2020 12:58
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Just found out I have celiac after getting an anvil all grain brewer. Great, good thing I like cider. Had anybody experimented with vanilla in a cider? I want to make one for Xmas and trying to think of ideas and how to do it. My cyber boch came out so good too. 
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Oct 22, 2020 14:03
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Vanilla bean in secondary / after ferment is done. Also, check it regularly, a little vanilla goes a long way, quickly. Also, that really sucks. Have you looked into mead and or wine? None of which requires heating, though I guess you could get a condenser top for "essential oils". And depending on how sensitive you are, some yeasts are marketed as being gluten free, Nottingham is the common one, I think.
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Oct 22, 2020 14:30
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I seem to be getting more sensitive by the day, but was talking about opening a brewery with some others one day. A long shot dream but still sucks. I'm going to try a sake this weekend, I have done wine or mead but I'm not opposed to them. I just liked beer, and pizza. I'll manage
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Oct 22, 2020 14:42
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There's enzymes that make beer genuinely gluten free. Ivory Bill in Northwest Arkansas does it. Im 90% sure one of the owners has celiacs, too.
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Oct 22, 2020 14:50
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I'll look into it. Thanks for the info
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Oct 22, 2020 14:51
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Yeah I’m sorry to hear that! I guess you can try naturally gluten-free malts? I don’t know much about them, but there are some specialty malt houses that make millet and buckwheat malt. Apparently they need process adjustment since their gelatinization temperature is higher than barley. And I’ve definitely been curious about sake. It’s fascinating since it’s fundamentally a different process from beer, you’re converting the starch to sugar using enzymes from aspergillus fungi simultaneously to the fermentation with saccharomyces. I don’t know how hard it would be to make the koji myself since it takes a way different method/tech to brewing since it’s an aerobic fermentation at warm temperatures in a humid environment. I think someone posted about making koji in the Japanese food thread a while back if you’re at all interested in doing that part yourself.
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Oct 22, 2020 15:06
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Krataar posted:I'll look into it. Thanks for the info There is some really cool stuff being done by the “Zero Tolerance” Facebook group, they have a wiki too I think. Like exogenous enzymes among other things, some really cool and technical brewing with a lot of interesting science. And now you get to experiment with home malting of non barley grains, not to mention things like Clarityferm for gluten reduced beers.
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Oct 22, 2020 15:40
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Yeah you've added a difficulty step maybe but brewing great beer is still very much on the table.
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Oct 22, 2020 15:59
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Eeyo posted:And I’ve definitely been curious about sake. It’s fascinating since it’s fundamentally a different process from beer, you’re converting the starch to sugar using enzymes from aspergillus fungi simultaneously to the fermentation with saccharomyces. I don’t know how hard it would be to make the koji myself since it takes a way different method/tech to brewing since it’s an aerobic fermentation at warm temperatures in a humid environment. I think someone posted about making koji in the Japanese food thread a while back if you’re at all interested in doing that part yourself. Koji is stupid simple to grow. You get a starter of it, smash it up and mix it all up into the warm barley, and leave it in a warm humid place for a few days while it turns into a white fuzzy pliant mess of awesome. I haven’t done a brew with it yet myself as I haven’t figured out a process of how to measure conversion of it yet (there is one, but I’m not sure if anyone has published it). But then you can mash in cool and ferment like normal. Brewers Clarex aka Clarityferm can get a normal brew down to under 20ppm gluten, which is below tolerance levels for very many celiac sufferers. But it’s not zero and does not leave everyone feeling okay. Process and control of the clarex is pretty important for getting it under 20ppm too, but is possible. I’ve not done vanilla in a cider, but have done a lot of other variation. You’d want to steep the vanilla after primary fermentation is slowing or it’ll blow off a lot of that aroma. Vanilla is one of those for me that could easily go into too much, but you can use a high quality extract as they’re alcohol based and test dosage in a small glass prior to doing the whole batch. Make your own by sticking the pulp into your spirit of choice.
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Oct 22, 2020 16:12
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Here's the making koji post from forums user POOL IS CLOSED if anyone was interested. https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3651363&userid=0&perpage=40&pagenumber=34#post491646194.
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Oct 22, 2020 16:16
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That’s a good post, but you don’t need all that setup if it’s intimidating. Concepts put out are spot on, so definitely follow along with it. You can get away with sealed humid environment (plastic bag or lid) and a warm place (I use seed starting mats). You can add a small tray of water on the mat to hold humidity if you need, but putting a lid on the koji container is easier. You can get active koji from most Asian groceries I’ve been in too. They also sell koji rice that can just be blended up and mixed with your intended fermentation skipping the step of growing the rice. You’ll need the same control for growing the koji on barley though, and that takes up a lot more surface area. Koji barley beer is on my eventual to-do list, but I think I want to get a round of spontaneous done as soon as the weather cooperates.
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Oct 22, 2020 16:48
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Anyone have experience harvesting yeast from conical fermenters? I treated myself to a SS Brewtech this summer with the intention of harvesting; now that its fall and I've switched from kveik, I'm wrapping up a mild fermented with 1099 Whitbread. I did a trub dump on day 2, and today (day 12) I went to harvest. It started off with more gnarly looking trub, then transitioned to beer without seeing a nice creamy plug like I've seen in videos (eg. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCIjR1dipWc), and what came out was really low in volume compared to what I know is at the bottom of the fermenter after a brew. And 1099 should be a good flocculator!
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Oct 22, 2020 18:55
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ThePopeOfFun posted:There's enzymes that make beer genuinely gluten free. The owner was on Basic Brewing Radio (podcast) 6'ish months ago. Go back and look at the archive.
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Oct 22, 2020 20:20
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LaserWash posted:The owner was on Basic Brewing Radio (podcast) 6'ish months ago. Go back and look at the archive. Link for the curious, Casey Letellier, December 5, 2019. He's a good dude. Awesome bartender before he had the brewery.
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Oct 22, 2020 20:24
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thotsky posted:Eh, probably not; with a 50-50 grist and soft water you would see a pH ~0.15 higher. This can have an impact sure, but I would bet the main culprit is that you've just lost 50% of the hulls that usually help with your lautering. For sure, adjust your water, but you might want to look into mixing your grains once or twice during the mash and adding som rice hulls. I'm doing biab and squeezing the poo poo out of the bag, and only lost a little more to grain absorption with the 40% wheat grist. Also mixed the grains 3 times pretty thoroughly during the mash. Might try going to a 90 min mash. I see a lot of people who do biab say they lose 5-10% efficiency when doing wheat heavy grists, but my drop in efficiency is nearly 30%. calandryll posted:Most likely. I usually replace about 0.5 lbs of pils with acidualted malt, which is pils adds a bit of lactic acid to the mash. It helps get my pH into the 5.2-5.6 range. Will try this next time, cheers!
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Oct 22, 2020 23:42
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One version of my kolsch was pils wheat combo and I was around 70ish for efficiency replacing some of the pils with acidulated malt helped jump it into the 80s. I'm also doing biab.
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Oct 23, 2020 01:41
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boba fetacheese posted:Anyone have experience harvesting yeast from conical fermenters? I've never done it on a homebrew scale, but have on a brewery scale. In the video you posted he was pulling the yeast after having transferred the beer out, is that what you are doing as well? You want to make sure your head pressure is really low so that you don't shoot a channel straight through your yeast cake, especially if you're harvesting with beer still in the fermentor. Also make sure to open the valve really slowly for similar reasons. Really flocculant yeasts can be a double edged sword cause they stick to the walls of the tank more than less flocculant strains, so all that yeast might still be in your fermentor. If thats the case try to harvest your yeast sooner, on day 4 or 5.
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Oct 23, 2020 18:52
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Josh Wow posted:I've never done it on a homebrew scale, but have on a brewery scale. In the video you posted he was pulling the yeast after having transferred the beer out, is that what you are doing as well? You want to make sure your head pressure is really low so that you don't shoot a channel straight through your yeast cake, especially if you're harvesting with beer still in the fermentor. Also make sure to open the valve really slowly for similar reasons. No, beer was still in the fermenter. I will probably be bottling this weekend, and I guess then I'll see whether I tunnelled through the cake or if something else happened. Lotta different advice out there about when to harvest!
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Oct 23, 2020 20:50
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boba fetacheese posted:No, beer was still in the fermenter. I will probably be bottling this weekend, and I guess then I'll see whether I tunnelled through the cake or if something else happened. Lotta different advice out there about when to harvest! Typically at about 70-80% of the way to target FG, you should see enough flocc to harvest.
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Oct 25, 2020 16:55
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Anyone doing some electric brewing in a basement and have tips/recommendations? Seems like pre-built systems are everywhere now (looking at the SS Brewtech 1V). My biggest concern is figuring out ventilation. I have a lovely 2x1 basement window that I'm hoping to just route some dryer exhaust pipe and a high-CFM fan through, is that a dumb idea?
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Oct 25, 2020 22:44
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I have an avantco 3500 I use in the basement with an induction capable pot. I tried using a regular fan, but there's so much moisture that I swapped to https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B07GB8PD7M/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_RjFLFb3GFWGT2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1 and put a bucket below it to catch drips. There's a lot of drips, but it definitely works too minimize humidity indoors
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Oct 25, 2020 22:54
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18 Dummy Juice posted:Anyone doing some electric brewing in a basement and have tips/recommendations? Seems like pre-built systems are everywhere now (looking at the SS Brewtech 1V). My biggest concern is figuring out ventilation. I have a lovely 2x1 basement window that I'm hoping to just route some dryer exhaust pipe and a high-CFM fan through, is that a dumb idea? Look into a steam condenser, specifically the steam slayer from brew hardware.
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Oct 25, 2020 23:26
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Spike also makes a steam condensing lid. I'm going to be getting some kind of condensing lid when I finish my basement build.
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Oct 25, 2020 23:59
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I haven’t home brewed since taking the plunge professionally (eesh, 10 years I guess) and this is the first time I’ve heard about condensing units on the home scale. That’s great! I sold an electric brewing system about two years ago because I didn’t want to deal with installing a hood and now I (almost) regret getting rid of it.
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Oct 26, 2020 00:26
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So, my kölsch hit my target og and fg pretty spot on, looked nice and clear so I'm excited to try that after conditioning. Never had it so that'll be cool. Bottled my cyser. It uuuuh.... Well, thing is, I forgot that apple juice has sugar in it. I also used a fairly hardy wine yeast. So it ended up at 20,5% abv. Whoops. But, it also tasted really good right out of secondary so I'm gonna store it for a while and hope. Bottled my cloudberry mead. Potential disaster. I don't know what or why but it came out very dry and just highly acidic. Ended up around 16% abv which is a 1% higher than expected, and had a bad case of pectin haze... But after bottling it cleared almost completely in a week. I don't get it. I cold stored it for a week. Anyway, might as well store it for a while and see how it goes.
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Oct 26, 2020 10:59
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Bottled my melomel. It was pretty bitter for some reason. Gonna give it until summer before trying a bottle.
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Oct 26, 2020 11:06
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Weird. What kind of honey did you use?
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Oct 26, 2020 11:21
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Nice piece of fish posted:Bottled my cloudberry mead. Potential disaster. I don't know what or why but it came out very dry and just highly acidic. Ended up around 16% abv which is a 1% higher than expected, and had a bad case of pectin haze... But after bottling it cleared almost completely in a week. I don't get it. I cold stored it for a week. Anyway, might as well store it for a while and see how it goes. I think cloudberries are a little tricky, I made a cloudberry wine and it tasted somewhat harsh and "hot" even after dilution to 12% and a year in the bottle. Could be they just really need to age, or maybe some extra back sweetening? I didn't really manage to pick any this season so I have to wait until next year before I can try again. 
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Oct 26, 2020 11:46
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big scary monsters posted:I think cloudberries are a little tricky, I made a cloudberry wine and it tasted somewhat harsh and "hot" even after dilution to 12% and a year in the bottle. Could be they just really need to age, or maybe some extra back sweetening? I didn't really manage to pick any this season so I have to wait until next year before I can try again. Quite possibly. Cloudberries are loving weird and the seeds probably input a lot of tannins, incredible amounts of pectin in them as well, and they contain so many enzymes and poo poo that they are probably not actually optimal for flavouring but do all sorts of weird things to a brew... but the taste is also so goddamned good. I'll let you know if aging helps mine any.
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Oct 26, 2020 15:35
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Sooooooo many excess apples, and so few options to store them till spring honey harvest. Deer will eat well this winter.
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Oct 26, 2020 16:25
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Cloudberries, despite tasting so delicious and a little sweet, can be surprisingly acidic. You run into the same problem with raspberry and blackberry wine. I'd be interested in cloudberry wine though, the only way I can normally get cloudberries is in preserves. Very occasionally previously frozen, but those aren't great for baking. You can also use pectic enzyme to help with your pectin problems, but if you're using fruit instead of juicing then it won't work very well and fining is better at the end of the fermentation process.Hasselblad posted:Sooooooo many excess apples, and so few options to store them till spring honey harvest. Apple juice freezes? Although that would require room in a freezer which is often hard to come by at this point of the year for anyone with a garden.
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Oct 26, 2020 17:34
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Im making Cyser right now, and for whatever reason the 3 piece airlock cracked and broke overnight. Ive literally never had an airlock randomly break, what the heck.
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Oct 26, 2020 17:40
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Bread Set Jettison posted:Im making Cyser right now, and for whatever reason the 3 piece airlock cracked and broke overnight. Ive literally never had an airlock randomly break, what the heck. Huh, I break them far too often where I tend to buy them in bulk. Just putting them in and out of some of the rubber bung holes (heh) will cause them to break at the seam of the plastic. The 1 piece airlocks will break the same way on the stem, but they tend to stay put for longer ages so I break fewer.
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Oct 26, 2020 17:44
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I 90% of the time use S shaped airlocks, and theyre the same 5-ish I've used for a few years now. This 3 piecer came with the jugs. Also to be clear it broke along the sides, not the stem. Like cracked around the main chamber part of the airlock. Anyways my Cyser is probably fine!? Day 2 is definitely not a day where it would be prime for infection hahaha ugh  If not, I'm making 2 cysers anyway with different apples. If one gets infected, at least I have the other one!
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Oct 26, 2020 17:48
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Bread Set Jettison posted:I 90% of the time use S shaped airlocks, and theyre the same 5-ish I've used for a few years now. This 3 piecer came with the jugs. Also to be clear it broke along the sides, not the stem. Like cracked around the main chamber part of the airlock. Your cyser is fine. Any infection isn't going to come from switching out an airlock. Much more likely to come from unpasteurized apples, but that's not usually a bad thing. That is a strange place for the airlock to break, but your brew day is going to be fine. If you left it for two weeks without an airlock though, then it's much more likely to be infected (with a swarm of fruit flies and probably acetobacter).
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Oct 26, 2020 18:57
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Jhet posted:Your cyser is fine. Any infection isn't going to come from switching out an airlock. Much more likely to come from unpasteurized apples, but that's not usually a bad thing. That is a strange place for the airlock to break, but your brew day is going to be fine. If you left it for two weeks without an airlock though, then it's much more likely to be infected (with a swarm of fruit flies and probably acetobacter). Thats also true. Also I know Im being a bit dramatic about it, because the Lalvin EC-1118 I'm using has a "competitive factor" so wild yeast is gonna be minimal anways.
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Oct 26, 2020 19:10
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Bread Set Jettison posted:Thats also true. Also I know Im being a bit dramatic about it, because the Lalvin EC-1118 I'm using has a "competitive factor" so wild yeast is gonna be minimal anways. Oh good. I always worry about people who get dramatic about little things like that. Best practices are “easy to follow, harder to understand” sort of territory. That EC-1118 will just devour your ferment. I like it when I aim to make a really dry sparkling cider and it does a good job at it. I have kombucha to bottle this week myself, and another 2-3 weeks before my most recent mixed ferm saison is done conditioning. And I need to get more propane and brew some autumn beers (which means lots of hops). Probably do two less complicated (IPA and Belgian pale maybe), and then put in another round of mixed ferm (maybe spontaneous?).
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Oct 26, 2020 21:49
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broseph posted:Look into a steam condenser, specifically the steam slayer from brew hardware. Thanks for the responses. I was hoping to get away without a steam condenser. I like being able to use an immersion chiller (helpful for lower-temp hop stands), and using a SC kind of precludes that. I know condensers also use a fair bit of water, though probably not as much as an immersion chiller. I'm in the middle of a historic drought in MA right now, so I've got water conservation on my mind. 18 Dummy Juice fucked around with this message at 00:23 on Oct 27, 2020 |
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Oct 27, 2020 00:21
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18 Dummy Juice posted:Thanks for the responses. I was hoping to get away without a steam condenser. I like being able to use an immersion chiller (helpful for lower-temp hop stands), and using a SC kind of precludes that. I know condensers also use a fair bit of water, though probably not as much as an immersion chiller. I'm in the middle of a historic drought in MA right now, so I've got water conservation on my mind. You could use a hood of course, but you'd need to make certain all the steam is going up a hood and outside, and that the remaining humidity isn't going to wreck your basement. I would do a steam hood above the kettle and connected to the venting/fan. That will do well enough, but you may need a fan sufficiently powerful to pull all the humidity out of the basement. A dehumidifier for after you're done brewing for the day would probably do the trick to get anything left over.
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Oct 27, 2020 00:41
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