|
Just found my answer. More beer bought the Homebrewsupply.com domain but appears to be selling through their old kegconnection.com webpage. Looks like more beer just wanted the domain name.
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2021 22:51
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 4, 2024 11:36 |
|
|
That must have happened recently because I was still getting emails from homebrew supply. I bought some stuff from Austin homebrew and they've been quick turn around.
|
|
#
?
Oct 24, 2021 00:24
|
|
|
So my pear wine/cider started secondary fermentation at 1.06 gravity, and after a month it's only down to 1.04... That's a problem, isn't it? I was hoping to bottle this weekend, I was expecting it to be much closer to 1.0, naturally. There certainly seemed to be plenty of bubbling in both the liquid itself and the airlock every time I've looked at it (even though I know the airlock thing isn't always reliable)... I took a sip while measuring today and it does seem at least a little boozy, but definitely also very sweet. Do I just need to wait more, or is there something else I need to do to save it?
|
|
#
?
Oct 24, 2021 03:03
|
|
|
Just wait. Sounds like you have some malolactic stage happening. I’d consider this a good thing. Can’t rush these things. Better to wait it out until it finishes anyway. It’ll keep going in the bottles if you package early.
|
|
#
?
Oct 24, 2021 03:16
|
|
|
Ok. Another thing that just occurred to me is my house is finally starting to cool down a bit (summer lasts pretty long around here). I've never had to do anything to make sure my space is warm enough for fermenting, because it's never gone this late in the year (I started a bit late). But maybe I have to do something now? Last night the temperature of the cider itself was 70° F. Ambient temperature of the house overall is probably hovering between 65-75.
|
|
#
?
Oct 24, 2021 12:56
|
|
|
Sir Lemming posted:Ok. Another thing that just occurred to me is my house is finally starting to cool down a bit (summer lasts pretty long around here). I've never had to do anything to make sure my space is warm enough for fermenting, because it's never gone this late in the year (I started a bit late). But maybe I have to do something now? Last night the temperature of the cider itself was 70° F. Ambient temperature of the house overall is probably hovering between 65-75. Those temps are probably OK for what you're doing, but temperature control is a big help (and not at all costly to achieve) in terms of getting more consistency with your brewing. Heating is a fact of life for me here in Tasmania - given the chilly rentals I've been living in, there's really maybe only a month or two in summer I wouldn't worry about it. Downstairs where my gear is (which we don't heat) it's probably like 10-12C most of the year, if not colder on winter nights. I use an upright freezer to house my fermenters, and a reptile heating cord hooked up to an InkBird (cheap Chinese temperature controller) for the heat. I think the cord is starting to die or something (see my recent posts) but I've gotten a few good years out of it, and it wasn't very expensive. You can use seedling mats or an electric blanket or something like that as well. Definitely get a temperature controller of some kind; the InkBird has been rock solid for me and was less than AU$30.
|
|
#
?
Oct 27, 2021 09:12
|
|
|
Anyone have any data on the effects of mid-to-late-boil hop additions (30 - 20 min)? I know NEIPA advancements sort of phased them out, but they still appear to be in use in lager and saison styles. Just a holdover?
|
|
#
?
Oct 27, 2021 10:25
|
|
|
I've been watching some videos from David Heath's homebrew channel on youtube and he's a strong advocate for dropping to 30 minute boils and a lot of changes to hop scheduling. I can't remember which video it was he talked about it. I'll take a gander to see if any of the titles jog my memory. Edit: Quick find: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJPhdaJ4NHQ
|
|
#
?
Oct 27, 2021 15:02
|
|
|
thotsky posted:Anyone have any data on the effects of mid-to-late-boil hop additions (30 - 20 min)? I know NEIPA advancements sort of phased them out, but they still appear to be in use in lager and saison styles. Just a holdover? Some hold over sure. But the boiling does change the type of flavor you're getting out of them. So boiling for 2 minutes will get you something different than 20 minutes, or than an hour. I poked around on some of the grower sites for info, but you may have to look in academic brewing journals for a better answer about what compounds change over time and which just boil off. I do know that there is a marked difference in isomerization over time of course, but when it comes to flavor compounds versus aroma compounds, I don't know that I've ever seen a published study. Last I heard about it, there were some people working with the hop farms trying to study these things, but there's hundreds of variables and compounds just in the hops themselves that makes it a complicated question.
|
|
#
?
Oct 27, 2021 16:10
|
|
|
I guess some of these styles might benefit from high polyphenol and tannin amounts due to packing in more grams per liter of green matter, but generally brewers avoid that. I guess a short boil might drive off grassy myrcene, but leave stuff like geraniol and linalool, but I wonder if you can't get similar results with measured bittering and whirlpool additions.
|
|
#
?
Oct 27, 2021 17:34
|
|
|
someone at homebrew club brought his 100% crabapple cider experiment.. LOL that F-er was Tart and turned mouth into a desert so fast.
tater_salad fucked around with this message at 17:50 on Oct 27, 2021 |
|
#
?
Oct 27, 2021 17:42
|
|
|
I've got a stout kit on the go at the moment which I started on 4th October and the airlock is still bubbling sporadically (I haven't bothered taking any hydrometer readings yet, since I figure if I'm still hearing bubbling then fermentation definitely isn't finished). I'm guessing it's slow because it's a bit cold at the moment (probably about 15C/60F give or take) but whenever I've brewed before the primary is usually finished in 10 days or so. I just wanted to check something else might not be going on, because nearly a month seems a bit excessive?
|
|
#
?
Nov 2, 2021 16:17
|
|
|
oh no computer posted:I've got a stout kit on the go at the moment which I started on 4th October and the airlock is still bubbling sporadically (I haven't bothered taking any hydrometer readings yet, since I figure if I'm still hearing bubbling then fermentation definitely isn't finished). I'm guessing it's slow because it's a bit cold at the moment (probably about 15C/60F give or take) but whenever I've brewed before the primary is usually finished in 10 days or so. A month at that temp doesn't surprise me at all. They'll take a while to clean up when they're sluggish. Some ale yeasts don't mind being chilly, and stout yeasts tend to be in that club. If it were an infection the bubbling would be terribly difficult to even notice. I would recommend taking a reading though, it could just be the CO2 leaving your solution and be done anyway. If it's not already done, it should be soon even when chilly.
|
|
#
?
Nov 2, 2021 16:27
|
|
|
Took a reading - 1.016 (target is 1.008-1.014). Smells and tastes OK, so just slow as gently caress then I guess, I'll give it another week or two.
|
|
#
?
Nov 2, 2021 16:36
|
|
|
oh no computer posted:Took a reading - 1.016 (target is 1.008-1.014). Smells and tastes OK, so just slow as gently caress then I guess, I'll give it another week or two. That's not way out of bounds. If the gravity hasn't changed when you get back to it, it's not going to drop any more. and you can just package it.
|
|
#
?
Nov 2, 2021 17:30
|
|
|
Even if the airlock is still bubbling? I don't wanna risk bottling too early and ending up with this
|
|
#
?
Nov 2, 2021 19:31
|
|
|
oh no computer posted:Even if the airlock is still bubbling? I don't wanna risk bottling too early and ending up with this You have sanitation problems if that happens. And with a stout kit I’d be surprised if you got much lower anyway. If it was extract I would expect it’s already done. Just measure again in a day or two and if you read the same you should be fine to bottle. However, I would recommend moving it somewhere a little warmer for a day or two just to confirm. If it wakes back up when warmer then wait longer. If it still reads the same after being warm for a day then you’re at terminal gravity and should package.
|
|
#
?
Nov 2, 2021 19:42
|
|
|
Does crush size matter very much for specialty grains (crystal malt, roasted barley)? I've got a corona mill for another project and figured I could try it our for some specialty grains. I just did a test on a bit of crystal malt and it came out like this: I was going to do a long cold steep too, so I'd guess it would matter even less.
|
|
#
?
Nov 6, 2021 21:25
|
|
|
That depends entirely on your definition of "matters" , and also whether you're over or under crushing and what steps, if any, you are taking to mitigate that.
|
|
#
?
Nov 7, 2021 19:01
|
|
|
Hello, I am new to this thread and I have a pretty annoying problem with my brewing, hopefully someone here has an idea. I have been brewing for over a year, at first very simple fruit-juiced based "wines" in 1gal carboys, that has always worked well and I always have a batch going. This summer I got a 5gal carboy and did two batches of skeeter pee (https://skeeterpee.com/recipe) and those have worked well too. I did simplify the recipe; I don't have Potassium metabisulfite, sparkolloid, or yeast nutrient or any fancy product - it wasn't an issue both times. However, my last two batches in the 5gal carboys have been failures. The last time, I used mashed pumpkin + 12 cups of white sugar and it simply never started fermenting. After a few days, per a Redditor's advice, I put some EC-1118 in a cup of water with some sugar and waited a couple of hours for it to start foaming up and dumped that in the carboy to try to kickstart the brew. It didn't work. I dumped that in the drain, and now started another batch of simplified skeeter pee : 2 bottles of lemon juice, 16 cups of white sugar (inverted in water on the stovetop) and a whole bunch of strongly brewed tea, basically the same as my first two attempts that worked. It's been a few days, and once again nothing's happening in the carboy. Does anyone have a tip for me to save it, or at least how I could debug it? Should I do the "kickstart with EC-1118 and sugar" thing again, but add yeast nutrient too? Should I get pH paper and see if it's too acidic, try to alkalinize it somehow? I don't know what causes this. Clearly something else is interfering with the yeast. I do try and keep everything clean with Starsan, but maybe I dilute it too much and some bacteria is beating my yeast. Last question : does anyone know how long the unbrewed liquid can stay in my carboy (with airlock) and still be good? It doesn't smell off, just like yeasty sugary tea but it has nearly been a week. If I could get it to start this week and not have to dump out 20L of liquid again I'd be glad. Thanks for any advice.
|
|
#
?
Nov 8, 2021 03:42
|
|
|
Colonel J posted:Hello, I am new to this thread and I have a pretty annoying problem with my brewing, hopefully someone here has an idea. So, yeast need nutrition to multiply, and some yeast do better in acidic solutions than others. I’m not sure what your starting pH would be, or what yeast you’re pitching to start, but buying a bag of yeast nutrients will be very useful for large scale sugar fermentation. The number of cells that will eat the limited nutrients is higher, so you’re getting a stuck fermentation because they have nothing to eat in what’s probably an acidic environment. So, what I’d recommend is something that people who brew sour beers do, and that’s make a sour yeast starter a few days ahead. So go ahead and try adding the EC1118 now, but for your next batch start with a small 1gal batch and just dump that whole thing into the larger batch size. That yeast will be happy in acid okay then, and by adding nutrients they’ll have enough to reproduce and ferment. You can skip the rest and be okay, but the nutrients are very necessary and pretty cheap. If the batch you have smells yeasty it may be fermenting slowly, so you have time to get it figured out. If you have a hydrometer you can take readings a couple days apart to see if anything is happening.
|
|
#
?
Nov 8, 2021 04:29
|
|
|
Jhet posted:So, yeast need nutrition to multiply, and some yeast do better in acidic solutions than others. I’m not sure what your starting pH would be, or what yeast you’re pitching to start, but buying a bag of yeast nutrients will be very useful for large scale sugar fermentation. The number of cells that will eat the limited nutrients is higher, so you’re getting a stuck fermentation because they have nothing to eat in what’s probably an acidic environment. Thanks for the advice, I'll go get a bag of yeast nutrient this week. I use EC-1118 for everything.
|
|
#
?
Nov 8, 2021 04:37
|
|
|
Another rookie mistake is pitching the yeast at too high a temperature. If the liquid you're dumping them into is too hot (like a post-boil beer wort), you're just killing the healthy yeast you need for fermentation.
|
|
#
?
Nov 8, 2021 05:47
|
|
|
I have a traditional mead I wasn't able to check in on for a few weeks, it's been sitting in a cold garage ~10-12°c for at least 3 weeks after a healthy month+ at ~16-18°c. I checked on it yesterday and it's clear enough to read through with a nice dense layer of lees at the bottom, however it's still bubbling a little from the lees even at that temperature. What do I do?
|
|
#
?
Nov 8, 2021 07:09
|
|
|
Potassium metabisulfate is one method you could use to stop fermentation. In any case, you're going to want to siphon your mead off of the lees prior to bottling or packaging your finished beverage.
|
|
#
?
Nov 8, 2021 07:49
|
|
|
tinned owl posted:I have a traditional mead I wasn't able to check in on for a few weeks, it's been sitting in a cold garage ~10-12°c for at least 3 weeks after a healthy month+ at ~16-18°c. I checked on it yesterday and it's clear enough to read through with a nice dense layer of lees at the bottom, however it's still bubbling a little from the lees even at that temperature. What do I do? The answer is usually to wait longer. You could take gravity readings to see where it is, but it may not drop clear quickly at 10C and you'd want colder to get it to drop clear. Alternatively if it is finished fermenting (or you use KMS to make it stop), you can also use finings like bentonite to make it drop clear. Mead can take a longer time if you don't use the additives to make it finish quicker.
|
|
#
?
Nov 8, 2021 17:26
|
|
|
Oh it's clear it's the bubbling I'm asking about. I'll wait.
|
|
#
?
Nov 8, 2021 19:01
|
|
|
Update on my not-starting-Skeeter Pee : I followed the advice at https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/a-very-effective-way-to-start-skeeter-pee.310979/ and restarted another packet of EC-1118 in just water, sugar and nutrients. Once it was foamy, I added must little by little, each time waiting to make sure it got foamy again, and once my 1L bottle was full I dumped that along with more nutrient into the carboy. 6 hours later, it's slow but I get bubbles in the airlock! It worked! I'm so happy! edit: and the next day, faster bubbles and a nice layer of krausen. I'll always start my fermentations like this now. Colonel J fucked around with this message at 14:21 on Nov 9, 2021 |
|
#
?
Nov 9, 2021 05:03
|
|
|
Alright. After not having space to brew for most of the year, I finally carved out a space and have broken in this digiboil that I bought. It works great for heating mash and sparge water, but I’m not so sure it wouldn’t take twice as long to boil as my propane burner. I did a raw ale with Gambrinus ESB malt just lightly hopped with a hop tea. That malt is super malty and pretty awesome. Today was a Grissette with T58 yeast and HBC472 for flavor/aroma. Hitting numbers and volumes with just above expected efficiency is great on a small beer. Now I just need to find a place to put a keezer or I’m bottling all of this.
|
|
#
?
Nov 11, 2021 23:21
|
|
|
My digiboil is nice and it makes my brewday easy. Set the temp go drop the kids off and then brew.
|
|
#
?
Nov 12, 2021 01:08
|
|
|
I'm brewing a brownish ale for thanksgiving, S-04 fermented it down in like 2.5 days. Took an (early) sample and it smells very chocolatey, but has a bit of an ashy flavor. Hopefully won't end up too prominent, I'll probably give it another week in the fermenter then keg it for a week. I did an almost identical recipe about a year ago, using weyerman chocolate rye and roasted barley, plus a bit of crystal. But I don't think that one had an ashy character, it was nice and smooth. One difference was I had Briess organic roasted barley, and now I think I just have the conventional stuff, but I wouldn't think that would make a difference. This time I also used a mixture of 60L crystal and 120L crystal instead of just 60L.
|
|
#
?
Nov 13, 2021 02:27
|
|
|
I’m not sure why that would give you ashy flavors unless it was a bit stale or over cooked. It could also have gotten scorched in your brewing process to make it too. And it could also have been too low of a pH in your mash. There are plenty of options. Brown ales don’t really need roasted for more than color though. If you use too much you start into Porter territory. I can’t recommend Brown malt enough for brown ales. You don’t need them of course and can just use chocolate malt, but it has a great malty nuttiness and has a great color.
|
|
#
?
Nov 13, 2021 03:06
|
|
|
It could have been older malt, I got it in the bulk bin at my local homebrew store so I have no way of knowing how old it was. I was doing a cold steep + malt extract, would just the steeping grains have a big change in pH? And it may be closer to a porter in terms of roasted malt level. I'll have to see how the color turns out in the end, I think with the cold steeping it's less efficient at picking up the color.
|
|
#
?
Nov 13, 2021 18:53
|
|
|
I feel pretty done with brown ales at this point. For me, they sit in this awkward area between a pale ale and a porter; most of the interesting ones are either so dark you could argue they're actually the latter, and the rest are basically so strong they qualify as strong ales or barleywines. I'd rather have a pale ale or bitter at the low end ABV wise. Brown malt is a really interesting malt though. I've gotten some super ashy beers when adding coffee and cocoa nibs to beer. I've never been able to pin it to a certain type of roasted malt. It might be a mash pH or infection issue.
|
|
#
?
Nov 13, 2021 20:08
|
|
|
I wonder if the ashy flavor is from husked vs. dehusked malts. I have a great porter recipe that I like but has a burnt/ashy flavor when using black patent malt. I've got the ingredients to make it with black prinz but haven't put forth the effort yet.
|
|
#
?
Nov 13, 2021 21:21
|
|
|
PSA: Safale T58 nearly blew the airlock out yesterday and I needed to switch to a blowoff tube. This is a 1.043sg/11P beer that filled over a gallon of headspace. I've only ever needed a blowoff tube for Irish Ale yeast in imperial stouts before. It's still blowing through it strongly 36h later.calandryll posted:I wonder if the ashy flavor is from husked vs. dehusked malts. I have a great porter recipe that I like but has a burnt/ashy flavor when using black patent malt. I've got the ingredients to make it with black prinz but haven't put forth the effort yet. See, and I wouldn't use either of those in a porter usually, you just don't need them. I find that using the ultra black malts is only good for color correction in tiny quantities because they mostly taste terrible. Roasted malt goes in stouts and robust porters, and you can use Munich, brown, chocolate, and C75/C120 with a small amount of roasted or de-bittered black/midnight wheat for darker color at <5% of your total grist. The only Porter I've made with the color correction had 1.3% Midnight wheat (2oz). It was more than plenty. Chocolate malt will get it most of the way.
|
|
#
?
Nov 14, 2021 00:27
|
|
|
Jhet posted:See, and I wouldn't use either of those in a porter usually, you just don't need them. I find that using the ultra black malts is only good for color correction in tiny quantities because they mostly taste terrible. Roasted malt goes in stouts and robust porters, and you can use Munich, brown, chocolate, and C75/C120 with a small amount of roasted or de-bittered black/midnight wheat for darker color at <5% of your total grist. The only Porter I've made with the color correction had 1.3% Midnight wheat (2oz). It was more than plenty. Chocolate malt will get it most of the way. My recipe is about the same amount, just for the color correction. I use a bunch of chocolate in it, can't say off the top of my head but probably 10% or so. I just noticed the extra roast when I made it. A friend subbed midnight wheaton and it was more balanced.
|
|
#
?
Nov 14, 2021 01:06
|
|
|
How hard is it to make a good sour beer? Preferably without fruit or added sweetness. Does it keep without exploding bottles? I've brewed in the deep past before and I've been considering it lately, but I'm getting tired of the texture and dehydration-inducing sugars in beer.
|
|
#
?
Nov 17, 2021 06:45
|
|
|
HolHorsejob posted:How hard is it to make a good sour beer? Preferably without fruit or added sweetness. Does it keep without exploding bottles? I've brewed in the deep past before and I've been considering it lately, but I'm getting tired of the texture and dehydration-inducing sugars in beer. It’s very easy. They don’t explode any differently than any other bottled beer. The easiest method is to brew normally but with very few hops and add bacteria with the yeast, and then wait until it’s done fermenting and the gravity isn’t changing anymore. Then you package normally. You could also kettle sour, which is make wort, then add bacteria, then boil after a day or two, then add yeast and package when it’s done. This is how a lot of the sours are made at your local brewery that doesn’t specialize in sour beer. Both work fine at home, and some people prefer one to the other. It can absolutely get a bit more complicated, but that’s why the milkthefunk wiki exists and there are some good explanations of method there.
|
|
#
?
Nov 17, 2021 07:06
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 4, 2024 11:36 |
|
|
There’s also a few yeasts that produce lactic acid durning fermentation, for example lachancea, the most widely distributed example being philly sour. Although these tend to produce a lot of glycerol during fermentation, so if you’re after a thin, dry kind of beer with a lot of sour you may want to look elsewhere. I think it’s also recommended to pitch a specialized conditioning yeast strain for bottling as well rather than relying on the lachancea to carbonate.
|
|
#
?
Nov 17, 2021 19:44
|
|