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Hypnolobster posted:Thread needs more pictures. Alright, here's a picture. The yeast cake was more of a yeast slush, and as I was nearing the end of bottling, I was getting more and more yeast in the siphon. I ended up holding the siphon above the yeast layer, as the little cap on the bottom did nothing. On the final two beers, I figured gently caress it, it'll all settle out in the fridge. Here's what I got.  I figure with a careful pour I should still get 4/5 of a beer out of this.
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Apr 19, 2012 07:05
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So I'm looking for a beer to brew with the intention of aging it for a year. I'm thinking of a simple barley wine - maybe just maris otter and a pound or two of brown sugar, bringing it to somewhere around 1.090 or 1.100. Hop it up to 100 IBU. I'll be pitching it on a US-05 cake. I'll probably throw some oak in the fermenter for a bit, because I love oak. How does that sound? Does it need more, like crystal malts? What about hops? I'm figuring that the hops will fade over time, so it doesn't really matter what I use, but maybe not.
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Apr 26, 2012 03:43
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To roughly define the terms, dunking grain in hot water without worrying too much about hitting an exact temperature is steeping. With some grains, it gives the beer flavor, aroma, and color. Mashing is similar, but it focuses more on extracting fermentable sugars from the grain. It needs to be done more carefully, to make sure you keep the grain at just the temperature you need. It can affect the alcohol level, consistency, and other characteristics of the beer, beyond just flavor and color that you get from steeping. Some grains can be steeped, others can only be mashed, and still others can only be mashed when they're sitting next to other grains. The definitions are a little blurry, since some conversion is probably happening when steeping. But generally, when we say steep, we mean "drop it in some hot water and don't worry about it," and when we say mash, we mean "make sure that you are accurate and consistent with your temps and volumes for chemistry reasons."
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May 1, 2012 17:27
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My one and only infection was a coffee stout, and I blame the coffee, although really, who knows. If I do it again, I'll probably cold brew the coffee than bring the temp up to 180-190 for a few minutes to be safe.
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May 2, 2012 04:07
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Also, one time I made a black IPA and my thermometer broke, which I didn't realize until thirty minutes into the mash. So take that into account.
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May 2, 2012 04:14
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I used to track my brewing finances carefully, and I figured out that my original starter equipment would pay for itself in 6-7 batches, and my all-grain upgrade would pay for itself in 5 batches. There have been smaller equipment upgrades, but overall, even including equipment, I've gotten more (and better) beer than I would have gotten had I simply bought it. But then, if I hadn't been brewing, I doubt that gallons and gallons and gallons of beer would make its way through my apartment each year, and I doubt that would go around giving out beer to my friends and family like I'm the beer family. So my overall beer costs have gone up, while my total cost per ounce of beer has gone down. But mostly I'm doing it because I like making it, drinking it, and giving it as gifts.
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May 10, 2012 02:34
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I was at a farmers market with a flour stall, on a trip up in Washington State, where all they grow is grain. They were selling small bags marked "grain for beer brewing." According to the person there, it's a mix of red and white wheat. I don't know if it's malted or unmalted. Is there a way to tell by looking at it? And outside of wheat beers, what's the effect of adding a small amount of wheat to, say, a red or brown ale?
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May 20, 2012 15:46
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Another question about doing a cereal mash with unmated wheat. I'm assuming that the wheat should be crushed like normal grain, before being boiled?
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May 25, 2012 05:48
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Awesome. One more question - I'm using a small amount of this unmated wheat for symbolic reasons. (My brother found it at a farmer's market where he lives, and I want to be able to include it.) Here's the grain bill: 66% 6 lb 0 oz American Two-row Pale 37 1 ~ 22% 2 lb 0 oz Rye Malt 29 4 ~ 6% 0 lb 8 oz Crystal 80L 33 80 ~ 6% 0 lb 8 oz Wheat, Unmalted (Wheat Berries) 25 5 ~ 1% 0 lb 1 oz Roasted Barley - 550L What if I just skip the cereal mash out of laziness and confusion, and mash it like normal? If doing so won't ruin the beer, I'd rather do that, even if I don't get much fermentable sugar or flavor from the wheat.
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May 25, 2012 06:36
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global tetrahedron posted:I'm making NB's Patersbier kit, using WY3787. Anyone have experiences with this kit, or this yeast in particular? Some people on other message boards say to start cool with this yeast and let it warm up over time. I recently brewed 3 batches of basically this for my wedding. I use a swamp cooler to keep it cool, then pop it out after a few days of fermentation to let it warm a bit. The temperature makes a big difference - warming it after two days of fermentation gave it a much more "belgian-y" flavor than warming it after three or four days of fermentation. (And the fermentation usually did last about 4 days with that yeast - a little longer than many strains, in my experience.)
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Jun 11, 2012 00:20
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global tetrahedron posted:I have a pretty rollicking fermentation underway; it was bubbling nicely after only an hour or two after i pitched the starter. By 'cool' what temp are you talking? I don't have much temp control atm but the basement to my apartment building is around 70-75. My apartment itself (2nd floor, no AC) is probably in the 80s. That's mostly why I am doing Belgians these days, I love them, for one, and then two, if it's gonna be hot, I guess I might as well bear it and go for some yeast that can handle it. Fermenting this entirely in the upper 60s, I got a pretty neutral flavor. Bumping it up to the low/mid 70s, I got a lot of yeast flavor - don't know what would happen in the 80s.
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Jun 12, 2012 03:47
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YASD posted:Bottling day tomorrow! Anyone have any good tips/priming sugar recipes? Also, is it OK to bottle into a glass growler or is that a bad thing? I've used swing-top growlers successfully. I wouldn't trust the seal on a screw-on cap.
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Jun 17, 2012 21:10
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I just got an awesome gift of a million spices and odds and ends. Heather, chamomile, juniper berries, cardamom, bitter orange peel, and more that I'm forgetting. Anyone have any beers that they really like with these ingredients?
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Jul 7, 2012 17:37
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I pay special attention to beers over 1.080 or so. That's where my efficiency really starts to suffer, that's where I put extra effort into aeration, and that's where I worry more about full attenuation. For a 1.040 beer or a 1.075 beer, I don't do anything different other than pitch more yeast. So on my setup, I think of 1.080+ as "high gravity," but it's certainly not hard and fast.
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Jul 9, 2012 03:50
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indigi posted:You won't get a complete hot break on the late-addition extract if you don't, though, which could make the final product a bit cloudier or prone to slightly quicker spoilage due to higher protein content, but overall I doubt it'd make a noticeable impact on your first half dozen or so batches and wouldn't affect the shelf-life at all unless you're planning on cellaring for 18+ months. I thought you don't get a hot break at all with extract. (Or maybe just not much of a hot break?)
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Jul 10, 2012 10:59
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Get water+grain to within a few degrees of a specific temperature somehow, hold it at that temperature for an hour somehow, and separate the liquid from the solid grain somehow. That's what I wish someone told me before I started trying to understand How to Brew.
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Jul 23, 2012 06:41
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Does anyone here make charcuterie? I'm considering getting a fridge or chest freezer to make into a fermentation and meat drying chamber, since they both need roughly the same temperature ranges. It seems like that would work to me, but maybe I'm missing something?
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Aug 18, 2012 13:53
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I just got a kombucha scoby, so I'm about to start fermenting tea. I know that commercial kombucha has >1% alcohol, but I'm curious about these recipes I see online. They often call for 1 1/2 cups of table sugar for a 1 gallon batch. After fermentation, there's some residual sweetness, but not much. I have no idea what the tolerance of this scoby is, but if it's anything like beer yeast, how much alcohol is being produced? Angry Grimace posted:1.000 isn't that uncommon in meads and ciders from what I know. They don't have a lot of unfermentable sugars and they take a long time to mature, right? Some of the ciders I've made have come out under .950. That was tart.
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Apr 22, 2013 14:49
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| # ¿ May 21, 2024 08:07 |
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I'm pretty sure that freeze distilling/concentrating is specifically allowed, to the point that commercial beers can make eisbocks with the same permitting any brewery needs.
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Apr 26, 2013 16:20
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