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Kaiho posted:Sorry to post again, but I really would appreciate any comments/criticism on the recipe at http://hopville.com/recipe/1689922 (especially as regards to the crystal malts and hop bill). I'm looking for it to be zingy with loads of classic American hops on the nose. Should I up the dry hops do you think? Drop the carapils and replace it with a pound of light DME and take your 30 minute additions and move them to flameout.
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Mar 28, 2013 16:24
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| # ? Jun 6, 2024 22:34 |
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bssoil posted:I recently moved to New Zealand and had to leave all my brewing stuff behind overseas I think the basic technique of BIAB is not to have to sparge at all so I guess the full-volume mash is for efficiency? That said, it seems like a bunch of people do sparge their BIAB. From the one time I did it I would also recommend having some sort of false bottom (like a cake cooling rack or a vegetable steamer) you can put on the bottom of your pot to keep the bag off of it and also a large and sturdy strainer to put your heavy bag of grain in to drain and/or sparge. I tried to use a smaller, normal-size kitchen strainer with a partial mash and it was too small and a huge mess, so I got something like this http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/double-mesh-stainless-strainer.html and it is way better.
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Mar 28, 2013 16:26
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I have been slowly rebuilding my supplies and have brewed two partial mash beers. But I do not really like the extract flavour. Also, I realized that doing a partial mash takes ~ the same amount of time as a full mash. So I hope to soon acquire the last items I need to do BIAB: a big-rear end pot, a copper coil and a bag. (Anyone know where I can find a bigass pot in NZ that does not cost hundreds of dollars?)
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The takeaways from pepper talk: taste your peppers before cooking/brewing, wear gloves while handling (I've had home-grown habaneros that had as much spice as a grocery store bell pepper)
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Mar 28, 2013 16:41
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My experience is parallel to PBCrunch's - it takes some good hot weather to make good hot chilis. My aunt in the San Fernando Valley grows some absolutely deadly Thai and Vietnamese varieties, but my parents, who live on the beach further north, can't grow hot peppers at all. I'm halfway between the two, so I might or might not have any luck, but I am going to try. The jalapenos I have been getting from the grocery store show every sign of being the TAM variety discussed earlier, and may also have been grown in Seattle.
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Mar 28, 2013 16:49
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hellfaucet posted:I own this burner and love it! It's an amazing workhorse and will be viable for any of your upgrades for a long, long time. I got this one with the anticipation that I'd be doing 10-15gallon batches within the year and haven't been happier. I didn't need to replace it once I upgraded. It boils 5 gallon batches without flinching. Beer4TheBeerGod posted:I own this one as well and love it to death. Thanks. I pulled the trigger on this and a 10 gallon pot, hopefully it will work out well. Midorka posted:Get this set-up instead. I can boil 6.5 gallon volumes with little worry about overflow, as long as I'm there to manage the boil at the start. I can't think of any reason not to get this over something else unless you wanted something more future proof. Even so the burner is plenty strong. I manage rolling boils with this thing at less than half power. I was pretty sorely tempted, but went with the bigger pot just to keep myself safe against expanding the size of my brews in the future.
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Mar 28, 2013 17:10
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RiggenBlaque posted:20 minute boil? I boil my starters for literally 5 minutes max I've been doing 20 minute starters forever. The little sheet that originally came with my yeast starter kit had that as the timeframe. So I seriously only need to do it for 5 minutes?
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Mar 28, 2013 17:23
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I only boil for a few minutes, usually until I can see that the DME has been fully dissolved into the water. I'm not sure what the benefit of boiling more than that would be, but maybe there's a good reason since everything I've ever read says 15-20 minutes v v
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Mar 28, 2013 17:39
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hellfaucet posted:I've been doing 20 minute starters forever. The little sheet that originally came with my yeast starter kit had that as the timeframe. So I seriously only need to do it for 5 minutes? I don't do mine for more than 5 minutes either. The idea of a 15 minute starter is for sanitizing the extract, but its tremendous amounts of overkill and I've never heard anybody claim they had an infected starter by not boiling enough.
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Mar 28, 2013 17:39
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Welp. Looks like my life will get a bit easier. Thanks guys...
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Mar 28, 2013 17:52
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I was at the grocery store and feeling bored, so I bought a gallon of apple juice and some yeast. Boiled the juice with cinnamon sticks and brown sugar and it smelled really good. Cooled it to 100F, threw it in a disinfected glass jug I have, tossed the yeast in, plugged it with an extra airlock I have, and shook the poo poo out of it. Without 2 hours it was bubbling like mad. Very cool. It's shocking that kids haven't figured this out. Related to that, I actually had a friend argue against reforming homebrew laws by saying "then kids will have access to alcohol." It hurt my head because he does not understand how absolutely stupid easy it is to do, legal or not. I don't think he really believes that, but that was his reasoning as to why certain stupid politicians are fighting it so hard in certain states. On the beer front, I was talking with some friends and apparently I missed the "shake the everliving poo poo out of pitching the yeast" part. I did and it exploded with bubbles and was bubbling a good while, but has calmed down to really no bubbles. However while shaking it a noticeable amount of beer came out from under the lid so I assume it's not close to airtight (even though it feels like it should be), so I guess gas is escaping through there. This wouldn't be a problem if I didn't find out my hydrometer was shattered yesterday. Back to the HBS!
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Mar 28, 2013 18:04
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Saint Darwin posted:It's shocking that kids haven't figured this out. This was also my exact thought after making my first cider (as in: remorseful that I didn't know about it in high school). Thank god all teenagers are morons.
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Mar 28, 2013 18:18
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Saint Darwin posted:I was at the grocery store and feeling bored, so I bought a gallon of apple juice and some yeast. Boiled the juice with cinnamon sticks and brown sugar and it smelled really good. Cooled it to 100F, threw it in a disinfected glass jug I have, tossed the yeast in, plugged it with an extra airlock I have, and shook the poo poo out of it. Man that seems like a lot of work. Here's my ghetto process: 1) Open apple juice. Pour off a glass and drink it. 2) Pour in some honey, agave syrup, or sugar - 8 to 16 ounces per gallon depending on what I feel like and have on hand. Try to use a fresh container, or at least one that looks clean. 3) Screw the cap back on and shake the everloving poo poo out of it to mix and dissolve. 4) Take the cap off and dump in some dry yeast. Wine yeast works great, beer yeast also works but tends to take longer to taste good. Just regular old Fleischman's from the grocery would probably work fine too. 5) Put on a stopper and airlock. I don't sanitize or boil anything except the stopper and airlock. I figure it's all pasteurized or otherwise shelf-stable, so it's clean enough to brew with. If you were, say, 17, and did this once a week, no one would ever look askance at you for buying the stuff and you'd have all the hooch you and your friends could ever want. Hell, you could probably get your mom to buy ingredients as part of her regular shopping trip, but even if not, it costs a few bucks and maybe ten minutes to assemble. When it's fermented out in a few weeks, careful pouring into another jug would get it (mostly) off the yeast and it's party time.
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Mar 28, 2013 18:23
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Saint Darwin posted:I was at the grocery store and feeling bored, so I bought a gallon of apple juice and some yeast. Boiled the juice with cinnamon sticks and brown sugar and it smelled really good. Cooled it to 100F, threw it in a disinfected glass jug I have, tossed the yeast in, plugged it with an extra airlock I have, and shook the poo poo out of it. It's officially the new trend everybody!  Saint Darwins Turbo Juice Fill your empty fermenters with Apple juice and yeast that poo poo! But I wish I had a time machine knowing how easy this is, I could have been a kingpin of tweeny house parties. Plausible deniability because of time machines not having been invented yet. My Turbo Juice is getting close to being done fermenting, and in just over a week, I'll bottle carb it to free up my carboy for some more meady adventures. Turbo Juice (TM)
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Mar 28, 2013 18:44
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fullroundaction posted:This was also my exact thought after making my first cider (as in: remorseful that I didn't know about it in high school). Thank god all teenagers are morons. The buddy that got me into brewing started making hard cider when we were ~18. But he had no god drat idea what he was doing so it tasted awful and usually gushed like crazy. That put the rest of us off it for a few years til he started producing drinkable beer, at which point the brewing obsession caught me good. Mostly we stuck to raiding our parents' liquor cabinets and/or getting older friends to just buy poo poo. But yeah now that you say it I am kind of surprised kids getting drunk on prison wine isn't more of A Thing. Docjowles fucked around with this message at 18:50 on Mar 28, 2013 |
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Mar 28, 2013 18:47
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Docjowles posted:
I mean technically, couldn't you make your own boos by leaving your Kool-aid out too long? Or is the gravity on that sugar water too high for yeast to get started? Edit: According to Google, This is actually A Thing. With more than a page of relevant results!
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Mar 28, 2013 18:54
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When I was 18-19 I did dump yeast in some grape juice. However I literally just put grape juice in a suntea container, dumped yeast in, and put it in the garage. Terrible idea.
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Mar 28, 2013 18:58
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hellfaucet posted:Welp. Looks like my life will get a bit easier. Thanks guys... Yeah, I'd say 90% of the time I take it off the heat in under less than 2 minutes after it starts boiling. I've been making starters for years and have never, ever had an infection.
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Mar 28, 2013 19:31
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Out of curiosity what can I expect if I left a lagering yeast (Wyeast 2007) to ferment in my room temperature house for 24 hours before I realized it belonged in my 50F garage?
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Mar 28, 2013 20:05
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Beer4TheBeerGod posted:Out of curiosity what can I expect if I left a lagering yeast (Wyeast 2007) to ferment in my room temperature house for 24 hours before I realized it belonged in my 50F garage? Fruity esters.
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Mar 28, 2013 20:16
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Jo3sh posted:Man that seems like a lot of work. Here's my ghetto process: So, for science, I have to ask, does this result in even a remotely enjoyable beverage? How long do you need to let it sit, just a few weeks tops, right?
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Mar 28, 2013 21:11
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wattershed posted:So, for science, I have to ask, does this result in even a remotely enjoyable beverage? How long do you need to let it sit, just a few weeks tops, right? Two words my friend, Turbo... Juice...Alright in all honesty. I haven't tasted mine yet. From my experience with Cider and Mead and other non-beery things: If it's sweet enough, It can mask any of those yucky young flavors. Turbo Juice is all about quick turn around times with no heed to award winning drinkability (This doesn't mean it should taste liek crap either). So between Saint Darwin, and I; We'll have some results soon enough. Stay Turbo... I mean tuned, my friend.
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Mar 28, 2013 21:18
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In my experience of just dumping yeast straight into store-bought apple juice (should I put that on my resume?) if you use pretty much any ale yeast it'll shred through the sugars and you'll hit 1.000 in a week or less, but bread yeast (Fleischmanns) tends to take about twice as long. If you don't mind a "yeasty" flavor than in my opinion Fleischmanns cider tastes best super young (or even while it's still fermenting). In general it's not a very pretty yeast to work with if you can help it.
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Mar 28, 2013 21:25
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If it is anything like the fermented grocery store juice + sugar mixtures that I have done, it will be boozy as hell at first but will mellow out some after something like a few months to a year. YMMV.
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Mar 28, 2013 21:27
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I also added a few cups of brown sugar to mine for some bonus sugars.
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Mar 28, 2013 21:30
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wattershed posted:So, for science, I have to ask, does this result in even a remotely enjoyable beverage? How long do you need to let it sit, just a few weeks tops, right? It's completely unterrible. I even have a friend who prefers this over all of the other stuff I make - he's just not a beer person. As a non-teenager, there are so many yeast strains to choose from that you can easily find something that gives a result you like, from dry as a bone to fairly sweet. I've been very happy with Wyeast Sweet Mead. I let it sit in the fermenter for four weeks usually, and then off to the keg. You could bottle it if you wanted to. It does improve with time in the package, but it's pretty good as soon as it's carbonated. *Real* cider is much, much more work and requires blending of apples and all that good stuff. Apples for apple juice make a pretty bland hard cider by comparison, but it actually is pretty pleasant. Another fun thing you can do with high-test cider (or beer, or really anything above 10% ABV) is to freeze it and throw away the water ice. This makes applejack, a traditional American beverage, and it can be as strong as 35 or 40% alcohol. Serve in liqueur or akavit glasses.
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Mar 28, 2013 21:49
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Jo3sh posted:It's completely unterrible. I even have a friend who prefers this over all of the other stuff I make - he's just not a beer person. As a non-teenager, there are so many yeast strains to choose from that you can easily find something that gives a result you like, from dry as a bone to fairly sweet. I've been very happy with Wyeast Sweet Mead. I let it sit in the fermenter for four weeks usually, and then off to the keg. You could bottle it if you wanted to. It does improve with time in the package, but it's pretty good as soon as it's carbonated. Doesn't applejack have methanol in it?
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Mar 28, 2013 23:03
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As a teenager, I put some orange juice along with some bread yeast in an Erlenmeyer flask and even fashioned a blowoff tube for it. It didn't turn out too terrible. I wasn't into drinking; I just wanted to see if it would work.
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Mar 28, 2013 23:08
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Angry Grimace posted:Doesn't applejack have methanol in it? Why would freezing cider produce methanol? No, it doesn't.
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Mar 28, 2013 23:18
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Angry Grimace posted:Doesn't applejack have methanol in it? Nope. Fractioning by either heat or freezing can't make anything new - it only separates one thing from another. If the concentrated jack had enough methanol in it to hurt you, it would also be present in the cider. You can drink the cider by the pint if you want (although the stuff I am talking about with the added sugars in it is pretty strong so it's a really bad idea to have that much), and drinking a few shots of jack is effectively the same thing, just with less water in it. gently caress, beaten
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Mar 28, 2013 23:19
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Even if it isn't actually harmful, freezing doesn't allow you to throw out the more volatile molecules (including methanol) that can help contribute to hangovers like you can when distilling with heat.
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Mar 28, 2013 23:30
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But if those molecules are present, they are also present in the cider. If you can drink cider without issues, you can drink jack without issues.
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Mar 28, 2013 23:41
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It is only a question of volume. If you were to drink the same volume of hard cider and the same volume of apple jack (a pretty bad idea) you would consume a lot more methanol by consuming apple jack.
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Mar 28, 2013 23:53
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Jo3sh posted:But if those molecules are present, they are also present in the cider. If you can drink cider without issues, you can drink jack without issues. Yeah. I was saying that distilling with heat lets you discard any unpleasant stuff produced during fermentation, freezing does not. Neither technique creates anything that wasn't already in there at the end of fermentation.
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Mar 28, 2013 23:59
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True. But if you drink it to equal volumes of alcohol, you will get the same amount of methanol - none, or maybe a trace. Seriously, guys, you can't make methanol by normal fermentation at home in I'm not denying that heat fractioning gets rid of bad-tasting stuff, and compounds that could contribute to a hangover, but you can't poison yourself with jack any more than you can with cider*. It's just not possible. * Yes, you can poison yourself with cider, or beer, or the purest distilled spirits - ethanol is only the least toxic of the alcohols, and people can and do die from alcohol poisoning. Drink in moderation, folks. Edited for greater accuracy. Jo3sh fucked around with this message at 00:17 on Mar 29, 2013 |
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Mar 29, 2013 00:02
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I have a tart cherry cyser right now that loving owns. I'm not dead.
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Mar 29, 2013 00:28
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From what I understand of methanol, there's a couple unique problems for grain alcohol. Because the wash that is fermented is done grain and all, more methanol is produced from non-sacharomyces yeast chowing down on cellulose in the grain. The biggest problem is that the first tails is going to be the entire volume of methanol present. In freeze distillation, any methanol present will still be equally distributed throughout the entire volume. Dilution is the solution to poisoning. Applejack and eisbock are totally fine. If you are paranoid, the cure for methanol poisoning is to drink more ethanol so I'm sure you can work something out.
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Mar 29, 2013 00:37
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All I know is that everytime I read an article on it on Wikipedia, it always has a section claiming freeze distillation produces/concentrates methanol. 
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Mar 29, 2013 00:56
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Angry Grimace posted:All I know is that everytime I read an article on it on Wikipedia, it always has a section claiming freeze distillation produces/concentrates methanol. Freezing does concentrate it, but the total quantity consumed is what fucks you up, not concentration. If you are able to freeze a pint of cider down to a shot of apple jack you still have exactly the same amount of methanol in there (not very much).
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Mar 29, 2013 01:00
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Yup, it's like comparing a growler of beer to a handle of bourbon - even though they are close to the same volume, drinking one in an evening would get you pretty buzzed and you would not want to drive for a few hours, but drinking the other in the same timeframe would be extremely unwise.
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Mar 29, 2013 01:03
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| # ? Jun 6, 2024 22:34 |
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I can never decide how long to dry hop beers. I have done 2 weeks, 1 week, and even gone as low as 4 days one time. There has got to be diminishing returns on flavors extracted versus hop freshness at some point. What are your guys thoughts on length of dry hopping? Has anyone done a side by side test of different time frames of dry hop and noticed a difference?
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Mar 29, 2013 01:45
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