|
I’ve been making a fair bit of cider for the last year, but I recently got a 16 quart pot for doing some home canning, and I figured since I’ve got a big pot I might try my hand at making beer. I’ve poked around online a bit looking for this answer, but figured I’d try here, too. What’s the most that I could make in that 16 quart pot? I’ve got 1, 3, and 5 gallon carboys that I can ferment in and a few 6 gallon buckets, too. But I figure the pot size is the limiting factor—is that the case? Also, anyone here do cider? I just found this thread and haven’t had time to poke around it too much.
|
#
¿
Aug 22, 2022 20:03
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 8, 2024 02:38 |
|
|
more falafel please posted:Great stuff! Jhet posted:Great stuff! Nice! Thanks for all this! Now to actually look up how everything works. The boil in a bag seems promising. And nice to know about the headspace—I’ve been doing 2 gallon batches in the 3 gallon carboy and 3 gallons in the 5 for cider. The cider has been a lot of fun. My plan this year is to press about 12-15 gallons. With beer it’ll be nice to do something that doesn’t have to sit forever. I’ve been doing long secondary ferments on my cider, and with bottle conditioning taking longer than I’d like I’m just now starting to drink what I started last fall.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 22, 2022 21:44
|
|
|
Did my first homebrew this weekend! We went with a BIAB smash. Rhar 2 row and cascade. Verdant IPA yeast. I think things went relatively well. The main issue is that it didn't reduce like we expected during the boil (and I think I gave the grain bag a squeeze at the end of the sparge so we ended up starting the boil with more wort than we had intended). Then, we opted to do a slightly longer boil--72 mins instead of 60--to reduce things just a pinch. In retrospect I'd have probably just kept to the 60 minute hop schedule, fermented it in a bigger container, and dealt with it being a bit weaker than expected. I also should have used the 5 gallon instead of the 3 gallon carboy. By the time I went to bed it had started bubbling, and by morning I had to swap the airlock for a blow off tube. I was pretty nervous about hitting the initial gravity reading since I was crushing the malt using my motorized flour mill, but I think I got it just about right given the extraction (is 70% a decent target for BIAG?). I'll probably pick up some crushed malt soon so I have something better to compare things to while dialing in the mill. I'll also need to build a hopper for the mill. It does about a pound of grain just fine, but going through five pounds was kind of a pain. Here's what we tried. 5lbs rahr 2 row 2.7 gallons (had intended 2.5) OG 1.047/8 (the initial target was 1.052 with the 2.5 gallons and 70% extraction. It was 1.048 with the 2.7ish gallons) IBU 34.3 (expected ibu with 2.5 gallons and a 60 minute boil was 30.8) Like I mentioned above, we boiled for 72 rather than 60 minutes, so that impacted all but our last hop addition. 72 minutes .3oz Cascade 4.6% aa 42 minutes .3oz Cascade 4.6% aa 27 minutes .4oz Cascade 4.6% aa 1 minute .5oz Cascade 4.6% aa 2-3 oz cascade dry hopped for a few days in a few days. (Should I wait to hit my target gravity, or can I start dry hopping if I'm close--say 1.012 or 14 instead of 1.010)?) The big question I have is about flavor change from initial wort to finished beer. This was quite a bit more bitter than we expected. The initial taste was kind of like a 60-80 ibu IPA. Could my calculations have been that far off? I was just plugging numbers into the brewers friend calculator, and I don't have any real sense for how accurate that might be. Or will that initial bitterness subside as it ferments, gets dry hopped, and bottle conditions? We'd probably be fine drinking it if it stays that bitter, but it definitely wasn't what we expected. Homebrew is pretty fun! Now I see why folks get into it. I already want to do another brew next weekend.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 12, 2022 20:14
|
|
|
Kaiho posted:Yeah, you adding that much in the way of hops during the boil is definitely going to give you bitterness. All the haze kids only hop late/whirlpool/dry these days, so if that's what you were after you'll probably end up with a different beer to what you expected. To figure the hop schedule I essentially just googled the ibu of beers I liked, then played around with the calculator to hit that target (and I think just kinda copied other hop schedules that space things out with an eye toward later additions). We weren’t aiming entirely at a modern hazy, and wanted something vaguely reminiscent of a dry hopped apa. I was mostly just surprised because the bitterness was more prominent than I’d expect based on the number. I’m really looking forward to trying it out to see how it changes over the ferment then after the dry hopped. Yeah, the turn around time on this seems great. I’m looking forward to trying out a recipe and mixing up the malts. It’ll be nice to have a more concrete target, too.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 13, 2022 01:36
|
|
|
Eeyo posted:From the beers I've made, tasting the unfermented wort is usually more bitter than the finished beer, and it's kind of a harsh bitterness. I definitely remember tasting most of the beers I've made and thinking "poo poo that's way too bitter" and then it's quite nice once it's fermented and chilled. Not to say that your beer won't be too bitter, just that it'll taste different in one way or another once it's fermented. That’s good to hear. And about just simplifying the hop schedule as folks mentioned above. Should be fun to play around with in the future. Edit: Hey! It did taste a lot different. Activity had slowed way down, so I checked the gravity, and it was down to 1.09. The bitterness has backed way way off. Now it’s more of a pleasant taste that lingers a bit—although definitely more astringent then I’d like. Can’t wait to see how it progresses with dry hopping and then bottle conditioning. Boonoo fucked around with this message at 00:55 on Sep 14, 2022 |
|
#
¿
Sep 13, 2022 18:06
|
|
|
Anyone have any experience with or thoughts on purging with CO2 during the bottling process? Is it worth purging the bottling bucket before racking the beer from the primary? Or purging the bottles after filling? RIght now I have 16g CO2 cartridges for emergency flat repairs while cycling. And I've used them now and again with cider--mostly purging the secondary. But if it's something worth doing, I was thinking I might just get a 5lb CO2 tank and use that. It'd certainly be cheaper than the 16g cartridges.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 16, 2022 17:41
|
|
|
Good to know about the CO2. Thanks! Keeping an eye out of craigslist for something cheap and just practicing good technique seems like the best bet. We got our first batch bottled up the other night. There were a whole lotta tiny bubbles while I was siphoning, more than I’d ever seen before. At first I was worried, but in retrospect it’s more likely it was co2 bubbling out of the beer than air getting sucked in. I’ll have to do some test siphons to make sure.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 19, 2022 14:38
|
|
|
Cider pressing! I got to try out my cider press this weekend. The design for this rack and cloth press is mostly taken from Claude Jolicoeur's "The New Cider Maker's Handbook," with a few variations here and there. I ended up using a food processor and the grater attachment to grind the apples. And things ended up working pretty well--although I'll definitely be making the scratter from his book before next year. Using the food processor really slowed things down since I had to quarter most apples and constantly empty out the processor. The motorized scratter he has should do about 40 pounds in a few minutes. I bought a mix of apples--cortland, empire, mutsu, northern spy, golden delicious, ida reds--and picked 10-15 pounds of local crabs. Everything got sweated for 2-3 weeks (essentially, you just leave the apples out at room temp and any final starches convert to sugar, they lose some water, and get relatively soft), and I ended up pressing around 210 pounds. My efficiency wasn't the best, so I got around 13.5 gallons that I supplemented with one gallon of fresh pressed cider. I was hoping for closer to 17-18, but the press was trickier to use than I initially expected. There's definitely a learning curve getting the pomace in the cloths properly. I was really happy with my initial numbers. 1.056/7ish original gravity, 3.5pH, and the juice had a decent body. I think the tannins from the crabs really came through. I've got the following batches starting up now. 3 gallons wild 3 gallons WLP775 English Cider yeast 2 gallons Cote Des Blancs 1 gallon Safcider AC4 and then 3 funky gallons all blended with brettanomyces For these I have 1 gallon Wild+WLP648 1 gallon WLP775+WLP648 1 gallon sourdough starter+S-04+WLP648 (With this one I'm hoping to get a real funky sour blend going. I'll see if I can get any lactobacillus from the sourdough to work. Once I shift this to a secondary I'll probably try pitching some wort on the lees to see what happens.) Everything will get moved to a secondary with reduced headspace for about 8 months to year once these get closer to 1.010 or 15.     
|
|
#
¿
Oct 31, 2022 17:51
|
|
|
I’m planning on starting up a brett saison tomorrow that I’ll age through the winter—at least 6 months. I plan on co-pitching the rest of the WLP 648 and Lalbrew’s Belle Saison. I’ll end up with grain bill made up of what I’ve got around in keeping with the hodge podge spirit of these farmhouse beers. Probably stick to 10 or 15 ibu with a few late additions and aim for 5ish ABV. The one question I have is about mash temperature. Basically, should I go low or high. I know that normally with a saison you want to shoot for a low mash temp for more fermentable sugars and a drier finish. But since I’m using both a diastaticus yeast and a brett, should I ferment high for more long chain sugars that’ll get broken down over the long ferment I’m planning? Essentially, will a diastatic yeast and a brett work through everything and give me a finish near 1.000 regardless of mash temp?
|
|
#
¿
Nov 5, 2022 23:41
|
|
|
Jhet posted:I just mash as normal for these things, as you're only planning on 6 months. If you were going spontaneous you'd want to go starchy, but it's not necessary for mixed ferm to be good. I usually just aim for 148 and leave the yeast to turn it into beautiful saison. Don't need to go low on the hops either, there's no lacto in your mix to worry about. I usually won't go lower than 20ibu for this sort of thing, the hop expression will be fairly tame by the time it's ready for packaging. Nice! Thanks. Looking up spontaneous ferments lead me to turbid mashing. Starch and dextrins are what I didn't realize I needed to search for. Definitely more than I'd like to dig into in the short term, but should be fun to start looking at. Good to know about the hops as well. I'll have to see how long we end up aging it. The initial plan is to age it in a 3 gallon carboy, so we could always bottle up 2 gallons at the start of summer and rack the third into a gallon carboy to continue aging.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 6, 2022 02:24
|
|
|
Yeah, that was my sense as well. I'll keep it simple with this one and then maybe work my way up toward more complicated mixed ferments.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 6, 2022 02:45
|
|
|
thotsky posted:You don't mention pitching any lactic acid bacteria, in which case 10-15 IBU is quite low for a saison. A saison should be either quite bitter, or you can make it tart. Since you don't seem to be doing the latter I think you would get better results shooting for 30-40 IBUs. Thanks! I ended up bumping the hops some. I'll be curious to see how this turns out down the line. Also, good to know that there's still going to be wiggle room with the final gravity. I'm still getting used beer having different end points. Somewhat related--it ended up being an interesting brew day, and I could use a hand figuring out where I went wrong. Long story short: -The pre-boil SG reading was 1.050 (target was 1.052). -But the pre-boil volume was 1 gallon short (I didn't realize this until the boil was 40 minutes in). I figured this meant that the pre-boil gravity was way short. -I added a gallon of water and 1 pound of DME (what I had on hand). -The post boil volume was 14 quarts (the target), but the gravity was surprisingly high--1.067 (the target was 1.055). -We added 3 quarts of water and hit the target gravity (1.055) with 4.25 gallons instead of 3.5. Any clue what could be going on? I figured I messed up with the DME since I'd never used it before, but later I added the DME to the brewer's friend recipe without adjusting the ferment volume and it gave me 1.067 as the expected target. I added the extra 3 quarts of water and it ended back at 1.055. All of this leads me to believe that I must have either read the pre-boil gravity wrong or taken a bad sample of wort to check the gravity with. When we did that pre-boil check my wife and I both checked the hydrometer and got the same result (1.046 temp corrected to 1.050). Looking back at recipe, with 11 quarts pre-boil, our gravity should have been 1.070, and I'm having trouble imaging how it was so far off when the final numbers came back as expected once everything was accounted for. Is it possible that if I didn't stir the wort before taking the sample it'd be that off? Is there enzyme activity that happens post sparge but pre boil that could account for that? Is there anything with a pre-boil gravity check that I could be missing?
|
|
#
¿
Nov 7, 2022 05:02
|
|
|
Sashimi posted:How did you calculate a target pre-boil gravity of 1.052 and a target OG of 1.055. There's hardly any water boiling off in order to achieve that. Just off of what brewer's friend spit out. The plan was to go from 15 quarts down to 14 quarts. My boil off has be pretty limited--but this is only my 3rd brew, so I'm definitely still dialing everything in. (First time I went with the gallon per hour, and way overshot my volume). I did BIAB for the mash and then only added the DME when I added the gallon of water. So maybe I really didn't thoroughly stir the wort after we were done sparging. I just scooped a cup or two off the top for the hydrometer cylinder. I don't think I was really thinking about whether or not it had all fully mixed when I grabbed that sample.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 9, 2022 18:48
|
|
|
Do y’all end up back sweetening your ginger beer? The very first time I made it, I bottled it while it was still actively fermenting, and I think I just got lucky that it finished with the perfect level of carbonation and sweetness. This was just using the bug. I’ve never been able to replicate it. (This was well before I did any cider or beer, and I had a much more relaxed attitude about it all). With my most recent try, my bug fermented batch stalled while it was still real sweet, so I pitched some cotes de blanc, but I really wasn’t a fan of it bone dry. I ended up sweetening with erythritol, but I just haven’t been happy with it.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 16, 2022 15:04
|
|
|
Hmm, that’s probably the best way to go, especially if you’re already using it for mixed drinks.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 16, 2022 18:08
|
|
|
I was thinking about co-pitching kveik and lacto (l.plantarum probiotic pills) and fermenting warm in my attic. It’s probably around 90 this time of year. My only worry is that the kveik might go too fast for the lacto to properly sour. Anyone have any experience co-pitching with kveik? Or have any thoughts one way or another? I was thinking I may pitch the lacto 12 hours before the kveik. Also, since I’m not doing any hops during the boil, can I just do a 10 minute boil to sterilize? Or do I even need that? Any recommended hops for dry hopping once it’s done fermenting? I can’t decide if that’s a good idea or not.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 9, 2023 13:09
|
|
|
Thanks for the advice! We’ll see how it turns out. I’m hoping for a pretty quick turn around on this batch with the warm ferment.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 10, 2023 19:52
|
|
|
Just bottled it up! Ended up doing a 40 30 30 split with malted red wheat, pilsner malt, and maris otter. 60 minute mash, 10 minute boil, cooled to 90ish degrees. No hops. OG was right around 1.033. I co-pitched 5 or 6 capsules of l. plantarum and half a pack of voss kveik Monday afternoon. It had dropped to 3.2 pH by Friday, and I dry hopped with an ounce of Nelson Sauvin. I tried a cold crash in a trash can with ice and cold water, and it kinda worked—but I don’t think I’ll bother with it in the future. Really looking forward to it after it conditions. It was tasting pretty good flat.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 17, 2023 21:54
|
|
|
Kombucha’s fun! My scoby just hit its 10 year anniversary. I only actively make it every now and then, but when I do I like to keep any additional fruits/flavors to bottles or a secondary container. That way I can always just refill the main container after I peel off the older scoby layers. This may or may not happen with your first baby, but I’ve found that after a long layoff I need two batches to get things working right. It may be a good idea to start with a smaller quarter or half gallon before you make a bigger gallon+ batch.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 16, 2023 04:34
|
|
|
That kind of discoloration within/between layers looks normal to me. Mold will generally be on the surface, white to green to bluish, and usually fuzzy.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 17, 2023 16:37
|
|
|
There are a number of local homebrew shops that also do online orders. When my local doesn’t have a yeast I want I tend to order from Great Fermentations since they’re both relatively close and seem good. https://shop.greatfermentations.com
|
|
#
¿
Oct 4, 2023 17:15
|
|
|
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.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 21, 2024 19:24
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 8, 2024 02:38 |
|
|
calandryll posted: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/ Thanks! I had watched some of their how to videos a while ago. I'll dig back into it! Jhet posted: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. Yeah, that makes sense. I think I mainly just want to see if I can see a difference between brett and sacc and then peddio and lacto (and then maybe try and isolate those broad groups). If I can get a sense about what sort of bugs I've got going in the wild batch, that would be great--even without know about what specific strains are present. I was also thinking it would be fun to look at some of this under a microcope with my kids. Kind of a dull post for the top of a new page! Anyone making anything fun right now? I've got the wild beer I mentioned before. But my basement is about as cold as it's going to be, so I'm planning on doing a couple lagers. I made one last year that was single hopped with Comet, and I really ended up liking it. I'll probably repeat that with S-23 and then maybe try another with S-189 this year. Last year I bulk lagered for a few months at basement temps, but the bottles too forever to carb up. So this year I'm going to try bottling first then lagering. Boonoo fucked around with this message at 16:43 on Jan 22, 2024 |
|
#
¿
Jan 22, 2024 16:33
|
|