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So references here. First using some sort of water calculator of your choice that spits out you need x grams CaCl (solid) for such and such profile. For the calculations; x = g CaCl as specified by water calculator SG = specific gravity of your CaCl solution you made, my current solution is ~1.131 so yours may need to be a little thinner to measure if your hydro can't do that y = g/L = (-684.57)+(175.12*SG)+(509.45*SG*SG) z = mL = (1000*x)/y u = g CaCl liquid = z*0.998203*SG You could probably simplify the equation a bit, and if you see some error let me know. This has worked really well for me. I find it easier to measure things by mass than volume, so that's why I worked this down that u value. broseph fucked around with this message at 21:15 on Sep 28, 2020 |
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Sep 28, 2020 18:10
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Brewed today for the first time in a while. Longer than I had really thought, though - a look at my notes shows that I last brewed in June. I did manage to hit very close to my goals, though - I got 11.5 gallons (plus 1800cc for the yeast starter) at 1.042. The recipe calls for 1.044, so I am calling that a win. I've had the yeast on hand probably since June as well, so it's nominally past its use-by date, but that's what starters are for. It's my regular house pale ale, but I subbed in a few ounces of Carafa for a nice brown color for fall drinking. Should be delicious!
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Sep 28, 2020 23:54
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I've bottled the first batch on my new setup, so I'm going to try tackling a dark beer soon. I want to do some kind of generic stout-ish beer. I've got roasted barley and chocolate rye. What kind of proportions do people usually go for with roasted grains/malts? Like is it even proportions of roasted barley/chocolate, or a bit more of one vs another?
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Sep 29, 2020 04:26
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There's no real convention with dark malts; I've seen pretty much all possibly combinations being used. Still, if you want people to share their approaches and compare them I'll say that I don't really go heavy on roasted barley; I would maybe do so if I were to brew an imperial or a dry irish stout, but I don't really brew those styles so... My Oatmeal Stout is like 5:2 Black Malt:Roasted Barley and about 3,3% or 7 oz of roasted barley in total. My Robust Porter is 5:1 Chocolate:Black Malt and about 1,7% or 3,5 oz black malt in total. I generally like focusing on one dark malt and using the other to add a little something. That's not an uncommon approach I think, and if chocolate malt is involved it's often the main player, but it's all good. thotsky fucked around with this message at 16:19 on Sep 29, 2020 |
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Sep 29, 2020 15:53
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After making a few ok beers(Mediocre extract Imperial stout, decent all grain Amber ale, mediocre all grain Belgian Tripel) I tried making a weizen and I have no idea but I think I hosed up horribly. Used 50/50 pilsener & wheat, and ended up with this monstrosity, I didn't even know beer could turn out this color. Are wheat beers more complicated to get right than other ales? Its still very inmature, but for the others I could at least get a sense of their positive qualities by now, not for this one. It is watery, insipid, watery and low on taste. I'll still let it go for a few more weeks & carbonated but might be my first dumped batch.  
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Oct 3, 2020 01:30
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What temperature did you pitch your yeast at? Did you use a starter? Seems like your questions are focused on the malts, is there a reason you're assuming the wort is out of spec?
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Oct 3, 2020 02:52
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That looks like an ok color for a hefe if you've pulled a sample from the fermenter before it's reached fg? What's your recipe?
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Oct 3, 2020 03:00
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Pillow Armadillo posted:What temperature did you pitch your yeast at? Did you use a starter? Seems like your questions are focused on the malts, is there a reason you're assuming the wort is out of spec? Pitched a bit high at 20°c, no starter. I am assuming its the malts because I have pretty much had the same process for the past 2 brews and they turned out ok, except for the yeast strain. Tastewise I think it is supported because for the Amber I really managed to bring out the caramel notes with some caramel malt and for the trippel I got some of the typical belgian flavors out of the yeas, but for this wheat beer it just tastes completely blah and unappetizing. Maybe in the end bottle conditining will make a bigger effect on this than on the previous ones, but it seems like an uphill climb. El Pollo Blanco posted:That looks like an ok color for a hefe if you've pulled a sample from the fermenter before it's reached fg? Its the penultimate sample before bottling in 3 days if the gravity remains constant. I've never actually seen a wheat beer wort, so maybe it is normal, but it just seems so striking to be so white/pale. Recipie was very simple comparatively 13L batch 2kg wheat 2kg pilsner 20gr magnum @ 60 30gr saaz @ 15 Lallemand Munich 11gr
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Oct 3, 2020 04:45
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Did you miss your mash temp? That’s what’s made watery beer for me before. The 50/50 grist should be fine and it will be very cloudy when young, but that also looks like the yeast hasn’t flocculated much if at all yet. Carbonation will help texture a bit, but if it’s thin going in it might not help unless you went high enough. I think higher carbonation is normal for style too, 2.8-3.0 vol?
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Oct 3, 2020 06:31
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Couple beers ago I made a hefe that was bleh for the first week or so in the keg. A couple weeks later it had cleaned itself up and drat good. Mostly the sulphur/egg fart going away.
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Oct 3, 2020 17:06
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So my pear wine (see a few pages back) turned out pretty nice! I lost one bottle because I had tried to cork a bottle that was originally a screw top -- won't be making that mistake again. Other than that it's surprisingly bubbly, way more than the last time I made it. I still feel like I could "clean up" the flavor a little, it's still kind of funky, though not nearly as much as when I was letting it just sit on the must for 3-4 weeks. Siphoning into a carboy after the first week made a big difference. On that note, though, I still got plenty of sediment during the siphoning, and I'm wondering how to reduce that. I could definitely improve my technique, as it was more or less resting on the bottom of the bucket, whereas I know I should probably clip it so it isn't all the way down. But obviously one way or another, stuff will get through. I know wine filters are a thing, but I'm not sure if that's for the first racking or just for the bottling. I certainly wouldn't want to remove yeast too early. Perhaps I should just put a hop bag over the terminal end of the siphon? I know that won't remove all sediment, but there are some pretty big chunks. I've got a year to think about it, so no rush...
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Oct 5, 2020 14:06
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Sir Lemming posted:So my pear wine (see a few pages back) turned out pretty nice! I lost one bottle because I had tried to cork a bottle that was originally a screw top -- won't be making that mistake again. Other than that it's surprisingly bubbly, way more than the last time I made it. I still feel like I could "clean up" the flavor a little, it's still kind of funky, though not nearly as much as when I was letting it just sit on the must for 3-4 weeks. Siphoning into a carboy after the first week made a big difference. I have resigned myself to the reality that you will lose volume every racking, and I am willing to do 3 racks before bottling. In the future I am going to compensate by starting off with a TON more must than what I want the target amount to be at the end.
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Oct 5, 2020 15:48
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Jack Keller (who sadly died recently) often provides in his recipes higher sugar content than apparently appropriate for the target ABV because he anticipates that you'll be topping up with water at racking. He does suggest topping up with a similar wine otherwise, but if you don't have an extensive country wine library on hand like him that seems a little impractical. I sometimes make my must with a litre or so extra and keep that in a separate container for topping up. For the first racking I don't worry too much if a bit of sediment comes along - a bit of lees is supposedly even beneficial in younger wines - but I'm more careful in later rackings. I prop up one side of the container so it's at an angle and aim to keep the racking wand intake at half the depth of the wine (adjust as you go). Did your pear wine drop clear, Sir Lemming? Did you fine it to get it to bottling so fast? I started a pear wine too around the beginning of August. I've racked once so far but its still pretty murky - I don't expect to bottle before next spring.
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Oct 6, 2020 00:49
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Anyone know of a commercial kegerator that would be able to fit 4 2.5 gallon corny kegs? I want to make a seltzer/soda kegerator for the kitchen. If I did small kegs I could have a new one cold and carbed up when the old one kicks. Leaning towards a commercial kegerator because they're usually a bit bigger inside than minifridges, and I don't think I want a keezer in the kitchen.
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Oct 6, 2020 05:17
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The KOMOS/KegKing/KegLand/WhateverTheFuckItsCalledNow kegerator supposedly fits 4 ball lock cornies.
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Oct 6, 2020 05:48
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The new master x model fits 4x 6 gallon kegs (barely) so it should fit 4x 2,5 gallon ones right?
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Oct 6, 2020 07:29
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big scary monsters posted:For the first racking I don't worry too much if a bit of sediment comes along - a bit of lees is supposedly even beneficial in younger wines - but I'm more careful in later rackings. I prop up one side of the container so it's at an angle and aim to keep the racking wand intake at half the depth of the wine (adjust as you go). I would be shocked if I were doing it right. The last time I did it, I only had one container for the whole thing and didn't siphon (I poured it all directly from the bucket, through a funnel with a sieve, into bottles). This time I added a secondary fermenter and a siphon. I'm not sure if/when I'll expand my repertoire beyond that. I wasn't sure how long to wait; I was waiting for a while for the bubbles to go away but they never did, which I think was the first thing I asked about in this thread. I took gravity readings to make sure the fermentation was done and then went ahead and bottled. Waiting longer didn't really occur to me, honestly.
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Oct 6, 2020 13:36
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thotsky posted:The new master x model fits 4x 6 gallon kegs (barely) so it should fit 4x 2,5 gallon ones right? Isn't this the same thing as the keg land? How many rebrands of basically the same product are there now after the kee schism?
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Oct 6, 2020 16:21
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On the topic of repeated racking for wine. How much time should I wait between racks? Are there visual signals I should be looking for? For what it's worth, I'm at 9 days of fermentation for my first mead batch and the bubbling has finally just about stopped. My plan is currently to rack in a day or two and then just wait and see before maybe doing it again in another week. Any suggestions?
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Oct 6, 2020 16:30
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The Strangest Finch posted:On the topic of repeated racking for wine. How much time should I wait between racks? Are there visual signals I should be looking for? Is it stuck? Take a reading with your hydrometer and see if it is close to the FG. If your FG is close to what you expected then you are ready for racking. If not re-cap the carboy and see if any more bubbling comes about, if no then it is 'stuck' and that's another ball-o-worms. Also, sanitize everything like it owes you money.
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Oct 6, 2020 17:15
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piss boner posted:Also, sanitize everything like it owes you money. Now having a mental image of walking up to Bob: "Hey, Bob, you got that $20 you owe me?" <fogs Bob with Star-San>
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Oct 6, 2020 17:18
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The Strangest Finch posted:On the topic of repeated racking for wine. How much time should I wait between racks? Are there visual signals I should be looking for? Primary fermentation of mead is slow, and you can expect a primary of a 12-14% mead to go 4 weeks, easy, though you should rack before 6 weeks to avoid autolysis issues. 9 days is normally way too soon to rack. Fermentation might be slow, or maybe your seal is faulty so gas is escaping and not bubbling. Do you have any idea if it's just stuck (as in, you have a wayy too high stable gravity reading for a FG)? Myself, I basically rack from primary after about 4 weeks though if there's activity I might wait a bit, then I leave it in secondary for about 4 more weeks until I'm certain fermentation has stopped. If gravity is still moving after 8 weeks (which it totally can!) I might rack a final time, but if it seems stable enough I usually bottle at that point and let it age out in bottle. I got myself a new toy though, a small cone fermentor with a lees collector so I don't have to take the risk of racking. Gonna be sweet to see if it works, it could be a massive timesaver.
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Oct 6, 2020 19:55
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Sir Lemming posted:I would be shocked if I were doing it right. The last time I did it, I only had one container for the whole thing and didn't siphon (I poured it all directly from the bucket, through a funnel with a sieve, into bottles). This time I added a secondary fermenter and a siphon. I'm not sure if/when I'll expand my repertoire beyond that. I wasn't sure how long to wait; I was waiting for a while for the bubbles to go away but they never did, which I think was the first thing I asked about in this thread. I took gravity readings to make sure the fermentation was done and then went ahead and bottled. Waiting longer didn't really occur to me, honestly. I wasn't trying to imply you were doing it wrong! Just asked because my pear wine seems like it's going to take a fair while to clear and I wondered if yours had dropped clear faster of if you'd just decided to bottle cloudy. Nothing wrong with that, I've definitely polished off a couple batches of wine while they were still raw and bubbling because I just wanted something to drink soon.
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Oct 6, 2020 22:50
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Nice piece of fish posted:Primary fermentation of mead is slow, and you can expect a primary of a 12-14% mead to go 4 weeks, easy, though you should rack before 6 weeks to avoid autolysis issues. 9 days is normally way too soon to rack. Fermentation might be slow, or maybe your seal is faulty so gas is escaping and not bubbling. Do you have any idea if it's just stuck (as in, you have a wayy too high stable gravity reading for a FG)? I havent pulled another sample yet, but I'm still getting the occassion burp on the valve. Sounds like I can expect it to stay there for awhile though. Maybe I'll pull a sample in another week if it's still bubbling away and go from there. Thanks!
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Oct 6, 2020 22:55
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gwrtheyrn posted:Isn't this the same thing as the keg land? How many rebrands of basically the same product are there now after the kee schism? That is keg land. It's all designed and made in China anyway. Keg Land advertises itself as a company that innovates, and perhaps this is true for some of the smaller plastic stuff, but the kegerator are oem shelf ware as far as I know.
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Oct 7, 2020 00:36
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The Strangest Finch posted:On the topic of repeated racking for wine. How much time should I wait between racks? Are there visual signals I should be looking for? My biggest concerns in regard to racking are: - Leaving too much headspace - Introducing o2 into the liquid during transfer With the former I grabbed a can of Argon to provide a protective layer against o2. With the latter, I am SUPER careful to syphon gently. The longer you let it settle, the more compact the lees will get (and easier to avoid when syphoning). From what I gather, you'd have to leave the mix unracked for months before lees would negatively affect the flavor. A great channel for all things mead that covers stuff like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsOd9rWRcSU What kind of mead are you brewing? Hasselblad fucked around with this message at 04:57 on Oct 9, 2020 |
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Oct 9, 2020 04:54
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thotsky posted:That is keg land. It's all designed and made in China anyway. Keg Land advertises itself as a company that innovates, and perhaps this is true for some of the smaller plastic stuff, but the kegerator are oem shelf ware as far as I know. My understanding is all of these brands were formerly keg king, an australian company. Then, a couple years ago there was a schism--depending on who you ask, either kee doery tried to cut his investors out of the business by going around their back since he was working directly with their chinese suppliers or kee doery was forced out of the company for other unknown reasons. It wasn't until after that where that kegerator started showing up in the US under brands other than keg king, and I suspect they're all dealing with the company that owns the kegland brand since thats the one that actually calls it series x now, and I believe is the chinese owned part of the schism. That and williamsbrewing and morebeer switched to kegland and a house brand respectively and previously they were the only two online retailers carrying the keg king kegerator that I was aware of, and northernbrewer uses the series x name rather than series 4 There's like a 40 page thread about it on aussiehomebrewer but i'm not going to go back and reread it again. I'm not sure that the kegerator is actually "oem shelfware" or at least it probably didn't start life as such.
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Oct 9, 2020 06:21
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I own one and it works pretty well. The noise it makes is unfortunately severely underplayed (and quite an annoying pigeony hooting sound). I also don't get how they're on version 4 of their regulator and yet it still has a manometer of which 15% or so is useful.
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Oct 9, 2020 09:17
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Brewed my rye lager last weekend, upped the rye this time from 25% to 30%. It was absolutely delicious last time, but the rye didn't come through quite as prominently as I'd wanted it to. Hopefully this does the trick.
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Oct 9, 2020 15:35
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Hasselblad posted:My biggest concerns in regard to racking are: My recipe was for a very simple very dry mead as that's what I tend to enjoy. Fruit additions look super-interesting though and I'll definitely be trying some of that out in the future. Knowing that I have months makes me feel a little better about it, because its only a 1 gallon batch I'm hesitant to pull multiple samples to check gravity. If I can safely wait for a month or so before I rack then I'll just do that. If fermentation has well and truly stopped when I rack can I forgo an airlock on the second carboy? I'd rather not have anything explode but on the other hand it seems like if fermentation is finished then gas production (and increasing pressure) shouldn't be a problem anymore.
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Oct 9, 2020 15:58
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The Strangest Finch posted:My recipe was for a very simple very dry mead as that's what I tend to enjoy. Fruit additions look super-interesting though and I'll definitely be trying some of that out in the future. There is really no downside of having the airlock on the second carboy. edit: Almost forgot... if you rack while it is still a little active, it will create co2 which provides a protective layer. Sounds like you may be beyond that point though. Hasselblad fucked around with this message at 18:03 on Oct 9, 2020 |
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Oct 9, 2020 17:57
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If you have CO2 from kegging you can also get an airstone and bubble in the solution after transfer. It’ll drive out O2. But if you don’t also keg beer, you probably won’t have these things. Wine makers will add sulfites to control O2 at the end, but I don’t remember if they add during early racking. More important to keep fermentation going right and slightly lower risk because of active fermentation. If you’re just fining and bulk aging though, a tiny amount of Potassium metabisulfite might be appropriate, but you’ll need an accurate gram scale to hit the right concentration. I like mead making and drinking it, but no one else around me does, so I stick to fruits and grains usually, so take what I say with a grain of salt.
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Oct 9, 2020 18:11
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I wonder how hard it would be to cobble together a hose with airstone and attach it to a c02 can.  Sanitizing the stone between uses would be a slight concern.
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Oct 9, 2020 18:15
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You can just boil the stones and then thread it back onto the end of the hose. It’s really easy to do for small investment. Attaching them to CO2 lines for inside kegs was a thing a couple years ago, so they’re still available in a lot of shops.
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Oct 9, 2020 18:23
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Jhet posted:You can just boil the stones and then thread it back onto the end of the hose. It’s really easy to do for small investment. Attaching them to CO2 lines for inside kegs was a thing a couple years ago, so they’re still available in a lot of shops. I have a keg lid that has a gas post on it and a barb on the inside for quick carbing. I just use it for seltzer, though, because I gotta have that spicy water.
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Oct 9, 2020 18:25
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thotsky posted:I own one and it works pretty well. The noise it makes is unfortunately severely underplayed (and quite an annoying pigeony hooting sound). I also don't get how they're on version 4 of their regulator and yet it still has a manometer of which 15% or so is useful. Just curious what the noise is coming from. Is it the refrigerator part in addition to normal compressor noises? I was thinking about getting one once i bother to move since it's a good size and has some form of tempterature control built in. I'd probably not be using the included lines or regulator though since I already have a better regulator
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Oct 9, 2020 18:27
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gwrtheyrn posted:Just curious what the noise is coming from. Is it the refrigerator part in addition to normal compressor noises? I was thinking about getting one once i bother to move since it's a good size and has some form of tempterature control built in. I'd probably not be using the included lines or regulator though since I already have a better regulator It's the liquid or gas or whatever bubbling/moving through the system. I mean, the fan will be noisy too if you have it on, but the fridge does not really hum like a normal fridge... "hooting" is really the best way to describe it. It gets better when you've got a full fridge, especially if you're willing to keep the fridge at normal fridge temps (3-5c) rather than close to freezing, but you do notice when it turns on.
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Oct 9, 2020 18:39
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Im currently doing a diacetyl rest for a doppelbock Im brewing right now. Im planning on lagering it for 6ish weeks, but also adding fig to it. Should I add fig at the top of secondary, as Im lowering the temp or in the last two weeks. I know haze will be a thing Ill battle, which is why Im inclined to put it in for two weeks at at the beginning of secondary, and then fish it out to let the lagering process (hopefully) clarify it more. But I'm guessing the last two weeks may give a fuller fig flavor to the beer. Thoughts?
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Oct 16, 2020 14:07
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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?
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Oct 22, 2020 10:11
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| # ? Jun 11, 2024 14:47 |
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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.
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Oct 22, 2020 11:09
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