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Been keeping an eye on diy for a brew thread never thought to look at gws because I'm a large idiot. Excited for Sunday where I try my hand at an extract wee heavy. It'll be slightly interesting because I'm trying out several new equipments at once. My 9 gallon digiboil should be here tomorrow, my anvil 7.5 gallon fermenter arrives today and for once in my life I'll also be using a way to actually measure gravity with a refractometer. (I spent a lot of my life doing 2.5 gallon batches in an apartment so never wanted to waste any.) In about 3-4 weeks I'll also be stepping into brew in a bag to do a irish red for the spring.
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Jan 6, 2021 01:53
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| # ¿ May 7, 2024 07:36 |
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Thanks, it's a good call and I did read.up.on thst and am aware that I'll need to get a pre fermentation brix reading and plop it into a calculator because of the alcohols. My previous method was just check for airlock activity within 24-48hrs of the pitch and let it sit for 2 weeks or whenever I felt like bottling / had enough bottles to do it. I just figure it'll be nice to have some numbers to go along with it and see if I'm getting the numbers I should be. My homebrew game is very relaxed generally.
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Jan 6, 2021 02:52
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Pillow Armadillo posted:Wouldn't a hydrometer be sufficient for the measurements you're trying to take here? Sure would, and a refractometer is sufficient as well as requiring just a few drops of liquid.
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Jan 6, 2021 12:13
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Welp I'll see if I it works for me or doesn't I see a lot of folks say it works well enough they don't use a hydrometer. At this point I have enough beer I cns probably spare some for hydrometer readings.
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Jan 7, 2021 02:24
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I need to figure out my correction factor.
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Jan 7, 2021 02:46
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Realistically I just want to test if my beer is done or not with 3 readings of the same across 3 days. My current method of 'welp it's been 2 weeks I guess it's done' At this stage I don't really care too much about numbers. I might care when I do brew in a bag but we will see.
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Jan 8, 2021 00:47
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Sooo did not quite think about the consequences of boiling 6 gallons of water in my kitchen for multiple hours. It's raining from the ceiling 100% next time will set up an exhaust fan for when the lid comes off. tater_salad fucked around with this message at 22:47 on Jan 10, 2021 |
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Jan 10, 2021 21:54
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Eeyo posted:Hope you're ok! I'd think the problem is the whole boil since it's usually done lid-off. That's where you lose all the liquid (for a big propane burner at full boil it's like 1 gal/hour). Oh it's 100% the boil, I have an electric kettle and it's below freezing so if like to stay inside. I feel if I start runing a fan out the window I'll be okay. Also the 9 gallon kettle exits a lot higher than my stovetop 5 gallon. Bottle chat: Rinse when they come to me and inspect if they have poo poo in em after the Rinse they go.(I have friends that are better at bottle hygiene than others). Then a trip in the dishwasher (dry agent turned off). Then day of bottling thru take a dip in one step. tater_salad fucked around with this message at 12:09 on Jan 11, 2021 |
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Jan 11, 2021 12:07
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i was thinking about brewing this weekend again then I Realized I don't really have a second seed mat for heating, although my current yeast is 55-75°f capable so currently monitoring the temps of my fermenter to see if I can ferment 2 at the same time.
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Jan 12, 2021 15:57
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rockcity posted:Assuming your current beer will be a week in at that point, it will be largely done fermenting and the temp should be a lot less important. It might be done it's a 1.100 Beer and I pitched last night, so if I brew sunday it wont be a week in .. we'll see how it all goes and what activity looks like with low temps.
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Jan 12, 2021 21:03
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Jhet posted:You really don't need a seed mat for brewing. I've only used them for saison/farmhouse and belgian yeasts/styles. I've always left my English style yeasts go at basement temps (62-70F), and most US strains do fine in that range too. It might take an extra day or two, but it's homebrew so I don't worry too much about that. Low temps are sub 60, and then you should just make lagers/kolsch if you can. I'm scared of lagers, my temp probe was showing 58 on exterior of the fermenter. Next beer is an irish red and wyeast 1084 is looking for 62+ degree so I'll just do the seed mat wrap again. My wee heavy should be okay once it gets rolling I like to keep a little heat in the fermenter till it gets moving then it'll be all fine because it should generate enough heat to keep itself moving for a bit.
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Jan 12, 2021 21:39
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I usually use spring water since I wasn't aware that extracts might already have minerals and haven't had a bad tasting beer due to water. (My Christmas with had too much bitter orange peel in it). I'm going to keep using spring water since Im not yet ready to sperg out into water profile territory.
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Jan 18, 2021 17:20
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First all grain (biab) is ready to transfer to the fermenter today. Super excited, even hit my expected gravity numbers (actually a touch over) so excited to see how it turns out.
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Jan 25, 2021 14:52
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just chiming in to say I'm super excited for my next planned beer, I'm able to use malt that's grown and malted locally. They also have hops but generally only sell to breweries, have a friend who pretty much knows everyone in my area, including a few of the breweries that use their hops, hoping they pull through for a 100% locally sourced organic farm to table beer. Oh god I feel dirty saying those words together.
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Jan 26, 2021 16:11
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rockcity posted:Sometimes you can email the hop farm and they’ll sell smaller bags directly in person. I did that with Crosby Hop Farms in Oregon. They don’t advertise it on their website but I figured asking couldn’t hurt. The guy even gave me a tour of the whole facility. yeah we will see what my friend with connections can scrounge up ( he gets a portion of all my beer brewed). I dunno if they really even have anything left being that it's winter.
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Jan 26, 2021 19:17
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Jhet posted:They won't have fresh hops, but if they process the hops themselves they'll likely have dried cones/pellets. If they send them for processing then they may or may not keep them in cold storage themselves. Unless it's a really small farm they shouldn't be running out in their storage until July. Most breweries aren't going to have the money or space to install cold storage to store hops for a whole year. That said, they may have already sold everything and not have anything for spot purchases, or even do less than 11# at a time. If you're in the PNW you will have no issues. If you're anywhere else except maybe Michigan this is a task that takes more legwork. I'm not sure if they process or just have whole, afaik they only sell hops in bulk to breweries which may be long gone due to being in the northeast. My LHBS carries their malt but their hops is only a passing mention on their site. I know that they grow hops becuase I've driven by.
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Jan 26, 2021 21:04
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yeah I usually buy gallons of generic spring water from my local store
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Feb 3, 2021 17:12
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Do you have a gravity measuring device (Refractometer, or Hydrometer)? Don't worry at all about the secondary it's a useless step unless you're doing some kind of addition, or letting it sit for 6+ months. If you can't measure if the Beer is done (measuring the gravity), you can be safe.. wait for the airlock to stop bubbling, then wait a week or so to bottle. Your yeast wont die.. My beer sits for weeks in it's primary before I get to bottling usually (I bottle carb). You'll be fine.
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Feb 8, 2021 16:14
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Kraftwerk posted:I have a hydrometer and that beer/wine thief device from fermatech. I'm just worried that taking a reading during the fermentation process could harm the brew or contaminate it when I open the lid. get a spray bottle from the dollar store.. spray the rim with your solution then open it up. after fermentation gets rolling you should be okay with not having infections. If you're super worried just wait about 2 weeks or so, most yeast will be done at that point really, generally I only see 3-7 days of vigerous fermentation then you might get some finishing up / cleaning up of the yeast. Yeast won't die if it sits for a month.
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Feb 8, 2021 18:22
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Kraftwerk posted:So if I understand this correctly, yeast will consume sugars until it consumes most of it and there's none left to eat. Once it has done this the yeast will become idle until more food is put into the mix (priming sugar). Yeah the way it works: Yeast eats the sugars to about X% (based on your yeast strain's attenuation) then it kind of hangs out it's not like it'll die off and become gone, it's still just chilling just slowed down. then you add more sugar to carbonate for bottling and your yeast will be all "WOOHOO FUCKIN MORE SUGAR lets eat this poo poo it and fart out CO2" Starsan will last awhile.. I usually brew once every few months and just refill my spray bottle at that time, never had an issue. Yeast will be suspended in the wort / beer when you transfer to bottling bucket, all the dead yeast and stuff will be at the bottom in the trub.
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Feb 8, 2021 20:29
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^^ double check your seals are good. Might be your compressor is dying or it's leaking coolant. My stupid rear end syphon has a leaking seal... I won't use it for big beers because that's a lot of air introduced. Maybe I can f with it a little. I should just buy some more buckets with spigots. tater_salad fucked around with this message at 01:05 on Feb 9, 2021 |
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Feb 9, 2021 01:02
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my altbier was one of my favorite beers, I need to make a full 5 gallon one again, maybe doing it all grain if I can fit it all.
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Feb 9, 2021 14:04
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I usually just stick some of my onestep solution in there.. (Some day I'll switch to starsan, I just use onestep kuz it's what I started with)
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Feb 10, 2021 14:21
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Kraftwerk posted:So I pitched my yeast for this begian blonde ale on Saturday. It’s Friday afternoon and there aren’t any bubbles coming out of the fermenter anymore. The airlock is quiet and I’ve noticed small beads of condensation along the tube inside. Hopefully this doesn’t mean I just sucked back fluid into the fermenter. The water level in the airlock dropped, likely because it bubbled out with the star San foam maybe. Maybe.. without testing gravity for a constant result 2-3 days you can't tell. When did it stop bubbling? There may still be less active fermentiation happening still. I would probably go with bottle next weekend.
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Feb 12, 2021 19:49
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Mr. Wiggles posted:Hello, homebrew thread. I'm sure this has been answered a zillion times before, but if you would indulge me please. i have no experience with this but I believe lots of folks back-sweeten stuff with something like stevia which adds sweetness but not fermentable sugar.
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Feb 19, 2021 19:47
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I'm in the northeast and my basement is always below ferm temps. I wrap a seed mat around my fermenter and then tape my inkbird to the fermenter, and then a blanket around everything to keep some of that temp in. I set my inkbird to 1° differential. My beers usually come out as expected with the yeast. All in it's like $60 bucks as the inkbird controllers are usually on sale regularly. Yeast generally have a narrow range of temps that they work well in, and generally the higher in that range they are the more esters you get. (See yeast package for details)
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Feb 25, 2021 14:57
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Check out anvil. Their 7 gallon buckets are like 129 or less. I love mine. It has a tap.on the side that's hooked up to a racking arm that adjusts so you can keep it out of the trub. Don't use glass it's dangerous. Yeah I just clean mine with a bursh and sanitizer it hot water. tater_salad fucked around with this message at 02:28 on Feb 27, 2021 |
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Feb 27, 2021 02:26
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Yeah I mean I should say glass is generally impractical if not handled properly. Yeah I brew seasonal beers and haven't really harvested yeast at all since I'm changing up my yeast white a bit. Like my last 5 beers all used different yeast, and honestly for $5-10 a batch i don't see myself harvesting yeast. tater_salad fucked around with this message at 03:13 on Feb 27, 2021 |
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Feb 27, 2021 03:11
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It's not about the strain.. it alike if you use us05 all the time you cns harvest the yeast and reuse it a few times.
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Feb 27, 2021 20:12
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It depends so you want to do brew in a bag. I'd recommend 15-20 gallons in that case. 10 gallon can hold about 15lbs of grain so if you like big beers then you may want to go a little bigger
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Mar 4, 2021 01:39
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I have the 9.25 gal 110v kegland digiboil (with the mash setup: false bottom and grain basket) it's not terrible to get up to temp, about 40 mins or so to get from room temp water to mash, then about 40 mins to get from mash to boil. You can't do BIAB with it unless you have the false bottom or you cause the temp sensor error out. It has a +/- 5°f temp gradient which isn't ideal for mashing but it works. it is however 159 for the digiboil and 75 for the BIAB kit. If I were to do it again I'd probably just have shelled out for the robobrew as it ends up costing about the same once you add up the digiboil, BIAB kit, and a pump. I don't think there's a huge difference in the hardware, jus the control panel functionality etc. NOTE: the size is an issue if you want to do brew in a bag of big beers. If you want to do stouts etc you may not be able to get 6 gallons out of it becuase the grain +water is going to be tough. I will be keeping a close eye on doing a minimal water mash this Sunday with 12lbs to see if I can fit more because I'd like to do the bells expedition stout kit from bells becuase It's nearly 18lbs of grain, which needs 5 gallons of water (and still room to fit that 18lbs of grain. (They say 18lbs is the max, but it'll be a tight fit) tater_salad fucked around with this message at 20:36 on Mar 5, 2021 |
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Mar 5, 2021 20:34
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I mean just because the barrel is 15 gallons doesn't mean you need to fill it all the way you'd still want headspace.
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Mar 6, 2021 03:26
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Yeah my bad I was thinking of fermenting in the barrel not aging in there.
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Mar 6, 2021 03:59
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I had a turd of a brewday trying new things. My BIAB basket utilizes like 2 gallons of water before I can reach my grain, so I was trying to do minimal water and I killed my efficiency, at least I had my bag of emergency DME. Then I miscalculated my boil off rate and ended up with lots more beer than I think I should have (like 1 gallon more). Basically I still made beer and it'll be good just not what I wanted it to be.. it'll end up lighter for sure I did end up buying a lovely $26 amazon pump today and will try and do some recirculation as well next brew since I have so much water that's not even in the grain, and this'll let me sparge a little easier by doing a recirc especially since I'll be usign a lto more water than I need (going to just assume doing full volume mashes)
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Mar 8, 2021 17:51
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calandryll posted:The only concern about basement brewing is condensation from the boil. My father and uncle are working on my basement setup over the next few days. I've seen a lot of people use high end kitchen hoods to remove the moisture but I'm wondering about using a shower fan. Can pull about 110 CFM and pretty quiet. Worst case is I get it installed and doesn't work out I can always put in a larger system. My kitchen is pretty small. and I use one of those 2 fan window fans and have it running to blow air out of the window once I take the lid off. I pretty much brew right near the window. https://www.amazon.com/Lotus-Analin-9-Inch-Window-Portable/dp/B076FDD4G5/
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Mar 9, 2021 12:47
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I live in the northeast.. my basement is maybe 62-65 max in the summer in the winter my fermzone gets down to 55. My beer sits in a box wrapped up with a blanket and has a seed mat & inkbird sensor taped to it. When I was in my apartment i found the coolest closet for my mister beer in a cooler and put it in there since my laundry room was too warm in the summer. Recently I've also been including a hello-fresh bag reflective bubble wrap bag that someone tossed my way. tater_salad fucked around with this message at 21:29 on Mar 9, 2021 |
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Mar 9, 2021 21:27
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Not sure about your specific stuff but maybe williams? They had my anvil stsinlesst fermenter for less than anyone else (and also had it in stock)
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Mar 11, 2021 12:05
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OSU_Matthew posted:So it looks like brew in a bag is the way to go for getting started with all grain, right? I've just started BIAB so maybe not the best for these answers. Yes you may lose some efficiency doing a BIAB since you aren't sparging, I tend to still "sparge" since I've got a kettle with a drop in BIAB cylinder. I pull the cylinder up and out of my water and then slowly pour some water heated on the stove over it. I've had decent results form my LHBS grinds but it will 100% be dependent on the grind from your LHBS. I felt like why not get a grain mill too, because GADGETS! I grabbed "the Crop duster" from austin homebrewing, it was 80bucks so after I mill like 400lbs I'll have saved my money on the .20/lb surcharge my store charges for grain. Mostly I got it so I can buy base grains in bulk and save a little / store it for longer Tip for BIAB: Keep a pound or two of dry malt extract to style (pale or dark usually) so if you miss the target gravity just add some DME it to hit it. No clue on hop spiders I just usually add with a sock or toss it in since my kettle has a ball valve on the bottom that helps me keep the junk on the bottom when I transfer to fermenter.
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Mar 13, 2021 14:41
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Kraftwerk posted:Any suggestions on the replacement yeast or how to get the grains in small enough quantities? you can get Windsor ale yeast online in the USA, if you need a replacement just use X british ale yeast that's around Grains you'll just have to buy in 1lb quantities. I have so many remnant grains I ended up just buying a milll so I can keep my grains along longer. tater_salad fucked around with this message at 19:24 on Mar 19, 2021 |
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Mar 19, 2021 19:17
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| # ¿ May 7, 2024 07:36 |
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more falafel please posted:Some LHBSs sell grain in bulk, so if you go in you'd be able to buy just what you need. Otherwise, yeah, buy in 1lb quantities -- nothing ought to be more than like $3/lb at most. yeah I can buy uncrushed sacks of base of 55lbs or so from 1.25-1.75 per lb, The smaller "made from sacks" of base for about 1.79-2.50/lb depdneing on style +.20/lb if I want them to mill it
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Mar 19, 2021 20:05
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