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Status Report: Novalager kicks rear end. Fermented by my front door which hovered around 62F. The website says you don't even need a diacetyl rest, so I skipped that. Right after it finished, I got COVID and lost my sense of smell of 4 days, so I didn't get a good sense of the beer, but it thankfully came back and it's a pretty amazing beer honestly. I'm gonna make another batch when I'm feeling better. Temp dropped down to 50F, so I ordered a heat wrap. By the way, don't get COVID. I did a pretty simple Lager with all Golden Promise and a bit of Caramunich, all Cascade hopped so sort of a American Pale Lager vibe. I winged a Hochkurz decoction/step-mash and it went ok? It's really tricky to get those volumes right.
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Nov 26, 2023 20:23
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The American Porter came out quite nice. Less robust than I was expecting at 8% Chocolate and 2% Black Patent, but then again my reference is Founders, which is pretty darn roasty. I got 16 Plato out of it which is nice and drinkable, but I am going to scale it up to 21 next time and really push the maltiness. The Dark Mild is very interesting. It's got a drying quality that makes it seem more bitter than the 15-20 IBU would lead you to believe. Going to try dropping the small addition of Munich malt and using a significant portion of Imperial malt to get closer to the historical "high-dried" malt next time I brew this. I enjoy the brown and amber malts l, but I think I will drop the pale chocolate and just use the darker brown malt that Simpsons had instead of the Fawcett one. Currently fermenting my Christmas ale. This year it's an Imperial Saison made with Norwegian malts and grains, and spiced with fresh ginger, rosemary and sweet orange peels.
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Nov 26, 2023 21:43
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Just transferred my cloudberry mead for fining. Out of four liters of must I got two liters usable, I think I probably badly misjudged the amount of cloudberry i needed and there's no way to get the moisture back out of them that I have access to. Lesson learned, I don't need that much. Taste test reveals... god drat. It is on the sweeter side, very powerful cloudberry and a whooooole lot of alcohol. Even being green it feels like a sip of whiskey. Not unpleasant though. No bad flavours detectable out of primary, which is a good sign. Think I'm going to have to bottle age this for a while. Hopefully the strawberry wine comes out a bit more dry.
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Nov 27, 2023 08:47
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Nice piece of fish posted:Just transferred my cloudberry mead for fining. Out of four liters of must I got two liters usable, I think I probably badly misjudged the amount of cloudberry i needed and there's no way to get the moisture back out of them that I have access to. Lesson learned, I don't need that much. Squish em in a colander, then mix rhe juice with sugar and 60% vodka to make a liqueur. You can decant after a week or two to fine it, but cloudy cloudberry liqueur is nice too.
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Nov 27, 2023 14:44
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I made a cloudberry wine a few years back and the flavour was intense, turned out great after a couple of years ageing. Sadly they're harder to find now I've moved south, but I'm jealous of your mead. Next year I have to really make a point of picking enough for another batch of something.
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Nov 28, 2023 09:14
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I brewed up a Polish lager today and next week sometime am gonna brew up a Belgian Trippel. I got a kegerator last month and am gonna have both taps going with my own beers for this year’s New Year’s party. I’ve been dying to switch to all grain. My next big purchase is gonna be a Grainfather G30. Any thoughts on it?
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Nov 29, 2023 01:10
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Detective No. 27 posted:I brewed up a Polish lager today and next week sometime am gonna brew up a Belgian Trippel. I got a kegerator last month and am gonna have both taps going with my own beers for this year’s New Year’s party. If you’re starting with all grain I don’t believe there is a better start than the g30. You can get cheaper mimics, or you can pay more for a more advanced system, but it’s so absolutely solid and easy to use that I would fully recommend. I have two in my brew on premises for classes, and they are so much easier to use for beginners than my advanced stuff. You might still be able to find one on a Black Friday offer.
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Dec 4, 2023 18:04
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These look cool but I can't say I got a spare grand.. I need to get back into brewing, I had 2 bad brews from waht I assume is hose water dripping in from the ruber hose on my coper cooler and I've been out of any desire to brew after I had to dump 2 cases.
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Dec 5, 2023 15:10
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Red Oktober posted:If you’re starting with all grain I don’t believe there is a better start than the g30. You can get cheaper mimics, or you can pay more for a more advanced system, but it’s so absolutely solid and easy to use that I would fully recommend. I’ll definitely be getting one after the Holidays then, maybe with tax money.
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Dec 5, 2023 15:28
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I know others have had luck with other inexpensive ones like the Robobrew. It's not as fancy but works from what I've had of their beer.
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Dec 5, 2023 16:22
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tater_salad posted:These look cool but I can't say I got a spare grand.. Does the beer taste bandaid-y, kinda like hose water? That's often from chlorine/chloramine in your water, which can get transformed into gross tasting stuff during fermentation. Filtering your water or treating it with metabisulfate (Camden tablets) typically fixes it. The free sulfates from Camden will offgas while your water is heating, so it's hard to dose it too much. I use a whole tablet for 10ish gallons.
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Dec 5, 2023 16:42
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An icebox/cooler and a big pot, or even brew-in-bag, work perfectly well for brewing at the homebrew scale. The main thing that the grainfather has going for it is that it is not as expensive as some of the alternatives.
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Dec 5, 2023 16:51
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more falafel please posted:Does the beer taste bandaid-y, kinda like hose water? I mean.. it's 100% the issue.. it tastes like hose water.. but it's bencause my chiller leaked hose water into the finished brea. Camden tabs (which I have) are kinda useless when The berew is done. I use spring water without chlorine. Issue was .. hose water contaminated the brew instead of reamaining in the chiller.. I"ve had 1 batch from a lont time ago that I just though was funky due to ingredients. But then I had 2 subsequet batches I hosed up becuase of it. I need to just get a better hose clamp or a few more and that should resolve problem.
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Dec 5, 2023 21:07
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thotsky posted:An icebox/cooler and a big pot, or even brew-in-bag, work perfectly well for brewing at the homebrew scale. The main thing that the grainfather has going for it is that it is not as expensive as some of the alternatives. I've had good success with my robobrew and doing BIAB with it.. only time I"ve had a problem was a bells expedition stout kit (back when bells was still bells and sold their own beer as a kit.. fuckin thing was like 16lb of grain AND 7lb of extract./ it was a bit much for a 10 gallon container.
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Dec 5, 2023 21:20
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tater_salad posted:I mean.. it's 100% the issue.. it tastes like hose water.. but it's bencause my chiller leaked hose water into the finished brea. Camden tabs (which I have) are kinda useless when The berew is done. Fair enough, I've just seen this happen a lot, and people will blame a few drops of hose water for their beer tasting bad, but will just use straight tap water. Here in Chicago they dramatically change the amount of chlorine/chloramine in the water depending on potential bacterial contamination, so it can be frustrating, one beer will be fine and the next one tastes like a hose.
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Dec 5, 2023 21:25
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it was more than a few drops.. if I had to venture a guess. somewhere between a quarter and half gallon of hose water.
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Dec 6, 2023 02:28
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more falafel please posted:Fair enough, I've just seen this happen a lot, and people will blame a few drops of hose water for their beer tasting bad, but will just use straight tap water. Here in Chicago they dramatically change the amount of chlorine/chloramine in the water depending on potential bacterial contamination, so it can be frustrating, one beer will be fine and the next one tastes like a hose. How often? The city's large enough they should be publishing water reports that you can take into consideration for your water profile. Where I am though, regardless every brew gets a campden tablet.
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Dec 6, 2023 15:09
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boba fetacheese posted:How often? The city's large enough they should be publishing water reports that you can take into consideration for your water profile. Where I am though, regardless every brew gets a campden tablet. They publish water reports, but the amount of treatment varies. We have a combined sewer system. When there's enough storm surge to overflow the sewer and water reclamation system, it dumps into the lake, which adds more, well, contaminants to the drinking water supply. So typically after storms, the water is more chloriney. I might have some of the details wrong, I'm not a city engineer or anything.
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Dec 6, 2023 15:22
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more falafel please posted:They publish water reports, but the amount of treatment varies. We have a combined sewer system. When there's enough storm surge to overflow the sewer and water reclamation system, it dumps into the lake, which adds more, well, contaminants to the drinking water supply. So typically after storms, the water is more chloriney. That’s accurate from the water dept in the city. They add more chlorine, so at least it was chloromine. This is a few years ago, but the idea is they can’t use chloromine because it does get sent to Lake Michigan. There’s usually a news item sent out when it happens too iirc.
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Dec 6, 2023 15:58
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I still haven't seen a single news item about it. I just know that after rain, the tap water has a significantly different smell due to the added chlorine. I can have slept through a storm and will know it's rained even without having a look outside for puddles.
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Dec 7, 2023 22:56
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Made a basic rear end double IPA that tastes real dang good. Did just bittering hops and tossed all the flavor hops in at flame out, then dry hopped with nectaron and a couple others. Makes for some really good flavor and aroma. Also my dad and I bought the local home brew store, in sure diving into retail in the age of amazon won't bite us. 
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Dec 26, 2023 00:58
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mad.radhu posted:Made a basic rear end double IPA that tastes real dang good. Did just bittering hops and tossed all the flavor hops in at flame out, then dry hopped with nectaron and a couple others. Makes for some really good flavor and aroma. Once the nearest store disappeared on short notice I sort of lost my desire to brew for a bit. So I'm not sure it's the best investment in the world, but there will certainly be some people who appreciate that you're still there.
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Dec 26, 2023 01:21
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I worked at a local homebrew shop for most of this year before being laid off, it's a fun job and I miss it a ton. Definitely don't do it for the money though, because there isn't any :|
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Dec 26, 2023 01:30
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You could say the same thing about the beer industry in general
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Dec 26, 2023 01:32
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Jhet posted:Once the nearest store disappeared on short notice I sort of lost my desire to brew for a bit. So I'm not sure it's the best investment in the world, but there will certainly be some people who appreciate that you're still there. My local shop exists because it is a local shop in a decent area. They have enough stock that a lot of the local breweries also rely on them for emergencies. Their prices are also on par with Internet so why not keep going to my local shop.
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Dec 26, 2023 01:57
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Jhet posted:Once the nearest store disappeared on short notice I sort of lost my desire to brew for a bit. So I'm not sure it's the best investment in the world, but there will certainly be some people who appreciate that you're still there. We're the only store in a large metro area, I think there's a real chance we can make it work. Can't be worse than getting laid off by tech companies every six months.
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Dec 26, 2023 05:51
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mad.radhu posted:We're the only store in a large metro area, I think there's a real chance we can make it work. Can't be worse than getting laid off by tech companies every six months. I’m pulling for you. The nearest stores to me in a large city are now 25-30 min away. I think if you can make it a place for people to come for small events you can get people in the door and happy to come around more often. Especially if you can host small shares in the space. Nothing homebrewers enjoy more than sharing their beer with others. E: the previously nearest place was considerably more expensive that any online retail pricing for even the stuff that comes from the area. I get that my city is expensive, but it was 30-60% more for basic ingredients. Jhet fucked around with this message at 06:24 on Dec 26, 2023 |
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Dec 26, 2023 06:20
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Jhet posted:I’m pulling for you. The nearest stores to me in a large city are now 25-30 min away. I think if you can make it a place for people to come for small events you can get people in the door and happy to come around more often. Especially if you can host small shares in the space. Nothing homebrewers enjoy more than sharing their beer with others. The permits for serving or having open beer at the business are kinda weird, but yeah, stuff like that is the goal. We're also hoping to move it to a much larger facility, that has enough room to start a taproom as well. Could be fun.
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Dec 26, 2023 06:24
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Tried my first kveik cider, but I noticed it's pretty dry; how do you all backsweeten? Was thinking about stabilizing the product and then putting some more apple juice back in to make the sweetening less likely to taste artificial, but that may be a stupid idea
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Jan 11, 2024 18:26
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Kveik will chew through everything, it's what farmhouse yeasts do! If you do go the kill yeast and add more juice route, make sure you've really killed it, or it might get going again.
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Jan 11, 2024 18:33
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Mr. Mercury posted:Tried my first kveik cider, but I noticed it's pretty dry; how do you all backsweeten? Was thinking about stabilizing the product and then putting some more apple juice back in to make the sweetening less likely to taste artificial, but that may be a stupid idea Add simple syrup to the glass. Backsweetening is possible, but it’s a pain to kill the yeast and while you can add sulfites that’s only delaying the refermenting problem. If you’re bottle conditioning it’s not worth the effort to be heat treating it either as it’s likely to not be 100% on the yeast killing.
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Jan 11, 2024 18:45
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2.5gal kegging! I keep my draft system at 36F/2C so maybe that's low enough to inhibit fermentation? Either way, I'll likely see if letting it carb up improves it any and move onto a new batch if not. Love being able to do little batches to dial things in
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Jan 11, 2024 19:15
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Mr. Mercury posted:2.5gal kegging! I keep my draft system at 36F/2C so maybe that's low enough to inhibit fermentation? Either way, I'll likely see if letting it carb up improves it any and move onto a new batch if not. Love being able to do little batches to dial things in It would ferment slower for sure. It's also way safer if it ferments a little more as it's unlikely to do anything but trip the pressure valve. In that case I'd cold crash, then add in the juice or your choice of sugar source and carb it like you normally would. You'll be able to tell the difference if it's starting to ferment in the fridge. But definitely the cider needs to be cold before you add the juice if you go this route.
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Jan 11, 2024 19:23
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Mr. Mercury posted:Tried my first kveik cider, but I noticed it's pretty dry; how do you all backsweeten? Was thinking about stabilizing the product and then putting some more apple juice back in to make the sweetening less likely to taste artificial, but that may be a stupid idea Are you planning on carbonating? If so are you carbonating in a keg or bottle carbonating? This will affect how you can backsweeten.
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Jan 11, 2024 19:39
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Jhet posted:It would ferment slower for sure. It's also way safer if it ferments a little more as it's unlikely to do anything but trip the pressure valve. In that case I'd cold crash, then add in the juice or your choice of sugar source and carb it like you normally would. You'll be able to tell the difference if it's starting to ferment in the fridge. But definitely the cider needs to be cold before you add the juice if you go this route. Would be great to have access to velcorin at a homebrew level.  SCIENCE!
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Jan 18, 2024 07:25
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gamera009 posted:Would be great to have access to velcorin at a homebrew level. I don't know, I think I'd have trouble finding a spot to put their dosing machine. Would be cool, but sulfites (and time) do well enough for home use in wine making anyway.
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Jan 18, 2024 17:17
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Bottled up some beer and cider that had been aging for 12-15 months. Two gallons of cider, one wild ferment+brett b and one that was an English cider yeast+brett b. I also bottled a gallon of a mixed ferment sour that had S-04, wild cider, sourdough starter, and brett. I think my sourdough has peddiococcus in it along with lacto and whatever yeasts if the ropiness I saw earlier in the ferment is any indication. All the batches were tasting good—I’m excited to see how they are carbed up. I’m also really excited about a new batch I started earlier in the month. I pressed about 20 gallons worth of apples this fall, and set aside 4 gallons for a wild ferment. I saved the lees (and maybe a quart of half fermented must) from the wild cider and pitched them into a simple, low ibu wort. It’s really developing nicely! Still bubbling away 3 weeks later. Slight hint of bubblegum aroma. Nice taste, no off flavors, no real sour or funk so far. In a month or two when it tapers off and the fg stabilizes I’ll bottle some plain, some with a Nelson sauvin dry hop, and maybe save a gallon to age long term. I plan on harvesting the yeast before I dry hop and using it along with some brett L for a mixed ferment sour with a semi-turbid mash. Anyone have any recommendations for info on getting started with isolating yeast strains—agar plates and streaking and the like? It seems like it could be fun to try and see if I can’t isolate some of what I’ve got growing in the wild cider and beer.
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Jan 21, 2024 19:24
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I did a presentation a few months ago for my club. Most of the information I used, along with my experience in isolating algal cells came from: https://suigenerisbrewing.com/index.php/category/yeast-wrangling/ Has some pretty good resources. Bootleg Biology also has a kit you can buy to help with wrangling.
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Jan 21, 2024 19:58
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Homebrewing is very different then it was before the pandemic. Yeast selection is terrible; especially saison and sour/funky stuff. Most hops are 2+ years old. Malts and cleaning supplies are very expensive and often sold out. It's a real shame.
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Jan 22, 2024 02:18
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Boonoo posted:Anyone have any recommendations for info on getting started with isolating yeast strains—agar plates and streaking and the like? The link posted is great, but isolating is difficult and you need extra steps to isolate individual strains that tends to require partial DNA sequencing. You could isolate out some of them and break out the bacteria from the yeasts. Brett and Sacch are possible too, but that’s as isolated as you can get with a microscope. I ended up just focusing on making my blends as I liked them, and left the rest to people with higher budgets. To do that I made a 5g batch and split it into different containers and kept the blends from the batches I liked most.
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Jan 22, 2024 04:56
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