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Ratbones posted:I got my first batch of beer fermenting away now! Hopefully it turns out. The kit I got came with a bucket with a carboy for a secondary, but reading How To Brew online, the author suggests that maybe racking to a secondary is more risky than advantageous due to possible contamination and what not. What do you guys think? Is conditioning in the secondary worth the risk of contaminating the batch? It seems like it should be... Depends on what you're brewing. I only really consider a secondary necessary for additions that would be adversely affected by an active fermentation (e.g. dry hopping), or excessively long aging periods (i.e. sours).
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Dec 31, 2011 20:01
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Magua posted:This took too long to post, but here's a picture of my Secret Santa beer and goon (crazyfish's) chickenscratch. I only discovered after I had sent the package that Goose Island is distributed around you  Should have sent more 3F instead.edit: Also j3rkstore, I've got your vienna lager in my fridge right now and I'm planning on drinking it tonight. Might dip into the hefe too depending on what kind of mood I'm in.
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Jan 7, 2012 19:05
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Plastic Jesus posted:Thinking of brewing an Imperial Blackberry Wit. I don't really like fruit beers, would someone who does be able to weigh in on the following? Can't really comment on the blackberries, but I wouldn't use Irish Moss in a wit. Irish Moss is a clarifier, and cloudiness is a good characteristic of a wit.
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Jan 15, 2012 19:13
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Daedalus Esquire posted:Speaking of ciders, I just took a hydrometer reading of mine and HOLY CRAP did it get dry: 0.992! I had an estimated OG of 1.079 (didn't have a thief at the time and had to rely on the estimate) which means I'm looking at just short of 12%. What yeast did you use? That sounds like the kind of cider I want to drink.
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Jan 16, 2012 20:27
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Jo3sh posted:I would hesitate to say "spoiled," but the theory is that the "extract twang" comes from stale extract. Unfortunately, a lot of shops just don't do a lot of business and can't turn over their stock that fast. Buy from a retailer you know has good turnover and you won't have to worry. This is primarily why I won't buy LME or the Brewers Best kits at my LHBS anymore. DME has a much better shelf-life. I'll happily buy anything else at the LHBS though.
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Jan 17, 2012 02:48
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chiz posted:do you guys have any suggestions for good youtube videos/channels for beer brewing? I've found a couple but they are either two minutes long or made by slow adults, see here While it's not always super instructional, Brewing TV hasn't done me wrong: http://www.northernbrewer.com/brewingtv/
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Jan 20, 2012 03:47
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Imasalmon posted:What does he get wrong? It has been a while since I saw it, but it didn't seem too bad. As I recall, his hop schedule was weird, and he didn't really elaborate on the specific recipe, but, overall, the process was pretty standard for a basic mini-mash recipe. 1) Sanitizing with bleach (though that's not really a huge cardinal sin, it's just not optimal) 2) Shoving everything in his fermenting bucket and risking scratching the hell out of it 3) 20 minute boil 4) Boiling the specialty grains 5) Calling hop additions at flameout 'dry hopping' 6) Using commercial ice as topoff water (IIRC this risks infection) 7) Using non-amber bottles This is just what I remember off the top of my head. I love Alton's show, and it's part of what got me interested in brewing. Just don't take it as gospel.
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Jan 20, 2012 06:34
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I guess my kit Belgian Tripel proves the old brewing adage that time heals almost everything. I brewed it 7/1/11, and even though when I first had it it was a harsh mess, it's mellowed a hell of a lot since then. There's still a strong banana presence, but the very unpleasant harsh alcohol burn is completely gone. Makes me wish I had more than a dozen of these left.
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Jan 22, 2012 20:20
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Scottw330 posted:Which kit did you have? I'm about to help my friend brew a Brewer's Best Tripel kit he just got, and it's supposed to have an OG of 1.086 The very same. I think my big mistake was using the wrong yeast. I think it could turn out really well with less aging using a yeast that is actually made for high temperatures (Wyeast 3787 comes to mind) rather than the Nottingham packet that came with it.
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Jan 22, 2012 21:29
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. Way more than any other beer I've brewed! If it's the same kit I could see why it might have some alcohol burn.
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Scottw330 posted:Did you use a starter for the Nottingham? Every time I've used Nottingham I didn't use a starter, and it took forever to start fermenting. I'm thinking for an OG of 1.086, a starter might be important. Nope. Just dumped the yeast packet in the wort. Probably was another mistake I made, but I didn't know any better.
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Jan 22, 2012 22:14
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indigi posted:Autosiphon supremacy Seriously. I had one friend denounce auto siphons but I've since determined that person to be a total homebrewing quack. Auto siphons rule.
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Jan 25, 2012 06:12
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1) Did assload of reading about brewing. Picked up a Brewers Best Belgian Tripel kit and starter equipment pack, along with swamp cooler and aluminum brewpot. 2) Bought glass carboy for secondary and had no idea that secondaries were not considered necessary anymore outside of long conditioning periods or post-fermentation flavour additions. 3) Tasted tripel. Hot, alcoholic mess. Made vanilla porter. 4) Left porter in the secondary too long. Almost zero vanilla flavour. 5) Designed own recipe for key lime wit. Insanely delicious. 6) Porter not so bad anymore. 7) Tripel has mellowed a lot and is drinkable! 8) Getting gear together for 5 gallon batches of kitchen-based all-grain, currently brewing partial mash kits from Northern Brewer. Still obsessed with brewing.
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Jan 25, 2012 21:34
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I'd say it's half about price ($8 bombers vs same price for a gallon of the equivalent homebrew) and half about being able to brew what you want to drink. No one makes a lime wit (except for the mediocre Blue Moon seasonal) so homebrewing allows me to make a couple cases for myself and my friends pretty much whenever I feel like it.
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Jan 25, 2012 22:39
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Local Yokel posted:Thanks for the advice gents. Going to combine a few ideas and go get supplies tonight. I sent this to ya in a PM from memory, but I'll post my recipe from my notes for the benefit of others (big thanks to the goons who helped me fine tune this one): code:
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Jan 26, 2012 02:35
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Cointelprofessional posted:When I was in Hawaii, I had Maui Brewing's delicious Onion Mild ale made with Maui onions. I would like to make my own and am looking for advice. I emailed their brewery, but haven't heard a response so I turn to you. I don't think I can really help, but I had an idea one drunken night to make an onion saison. Very interested to hear how your experiment turns out.
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Jan 26, 2012 23:46
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For those of you who want to pick up a 2L erlenmeyer flask for making yeast starters, this one seems to be the best price around at $14 with prime shipping from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005QDP82Q/ref=ox_ya_os_product It just came back into stock and I don't actually own one so I can't speak to the quality, but the price seems right.
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Feb 7, 2012 22:30
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Splizwarf posted:How good a deal is that? My LHBS charges a little more than $30 plus tax for one of those, though it's usually the shipping that kills you buying it online.
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Mar 7, 2012 20:12
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Cointelprofessional posted:FYI Northern Brewer is having a 15% off sale on all their beer kits right now until the 20th. Use the code: MakeGreatBeer Good timing, I was just about to reup anyway. The oatmeal stout and Surly Bender partial mash kits I brewed in January were outstanding (the stout was a particularly big hit).
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Mar 13, 2012 16:52
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Bad Munki posted:According to the manufacturers, it's good until it goes cloudy, and you can re-use it. Months. From what I've heard, it's basically indefinite if you use distilled water, as the main reason for starsan degradation is salts in the water (it's also what makes it cloudy). If you have pH test strips, if the pH of the solution is 3 or less it's still effective. I am not an expert though.
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Mar 23, 2012 00:09
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I had Founders Curmudgeon's Better Half not too long ago, and I'd love to brew a clone of it. More or less it's an old ale aged in maple syrup bourbon barrels. I figure that the best way to go would be to basically do this: 1) Brew up an old ale (anyone got a good standby recipe? Partial mash or AG are both okay) 2) Add some fenugreek seed to the boil (to give maple flavours, as I've heard maple syrup ferments out) 3) Age it on bourbon-soaked toasted oak chips in the secondary for a while. I've heard that maple syrup basically just ferments out and you don't get a lot of maple flavour from it. Anyone else that's brewed with maple syrup have comments?
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Mar 23, 2012 00:13
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Did my first all grain yesterday. Underestimated the amount of time I would need. Wound up mashing in at about 4 and I had yeast pitched at 8. I hadn't finished my cooler mash tun yet (still leaky) so I wound up doing the lauter and batch sparge in my bottling bucket with a paint strainer bag. Efficiency wasn't awful for a hackjob method like that (a calculator puts me at about 68%) and having lovely temperature control on my sparge, but you gotta do what you gotta do. I'll probably have my mash tun finished before my next all grain adventure, so hopefully it'll be better next time. My experience *really* makes me want a kettle with a ball valve now. Pouring 5 gallons of wort into a carboy is no joke. On the plus side, my Spotted Cow clone attempt is happily bubbling away right now. Wyeast 2565 is crazy aggressive - bubbling nearly 2-3 times a second! edit: I want to start buying grains in bulk and crushing them as I need without having to take trips to the homebrew store. Should I save some scratch and go with the corona mill, or go all out and pick up a Barley Crusher? Money isn't really tight, but I like to save money where I can. crazyfish fucked around with this message at 01:32 on Mar 26, 2012 |
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Mar 26, 2012 01:30
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I think I remember the debate too, and it wound up being something like glass being better than better bottles for permeability, but by such a tiny margin that it doesn't really matter unless you're doing some incredibly long bulk aging (i.e. sours, but if you're aging sours you really want to do that in glass for infection reasons anyway).
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Mar 30, 2012 23:11
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Had one of the last bottles of my key lime wit yesterday night that I brewed in November. Unfortunately, I found that I had accidentally used a screw top bottle and the seal was bad, meaning that I had close to zero carbonation and a crazy amount of oxidation. I understand now what people mean by the 'wet cardboard' taste. Yuck.
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Mar 31, 2012 21:15
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nwin posted:now I know with ipa, the longer it sits on the shelf, the worse it gets. Is it the same for actual hops? Or could I just freeze the unused portion and it would be fine? Hops do lose a little of their luster as they age (aged hops are used on purpose in lambics), but if they're kept cool (refrigerated or frozen) and vacuum sealed they'll be fine for at least 6 months and possibly longer.
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Apr 1, 2012 08:56
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I'm thinking about trying a pseudo-lager sometime soon. In the homebrew secret santa, my santa sent me an absolutely phenomenal triple decoction Vienna lager. While I don't have the setup to do either a lager or a decoction mash (all-grain on my stovetop), I think I can sort of half attempt to approximate it by doing a step mash (which I most definitely can do) and either using a super clean ale yeast or a lager yeast at ale temps (according to an episode of Brewing TV, Wyeast's bavarian lager strain works for this). I think I'd be able to keep the temp around 60-62 or so through most of the ferment with a swamp cooler. Has anyone ever done a pseudo-lager before?
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Apr 9, 2012 17:37
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Huge_Midget posted:Look into making a Kolsch. It straddles the line between lagers and ales. I actually just used the Wyeast Kolsch strain to make a clone of New Glarus' Spotted Cow. I'll have to see how the higher ferment temps made it act; I'm probably going to bottle it tomorrow. If it wasn't clear from my post, I was planning on doing an all-Vienna malt pseudo-lager. Hope it comes out half as good as j3rkstore's.
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Apr 9, 2012 17:51
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il serpente cosmico posted:Sorry for the thread necromancy, but I'm glad this turned out well for you. It's one of my favorite beers. This is the one I got in my secret santa and it was loving delicious.
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Apr 10, 2012 17:20
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What are everyone's favourite brewing books? So far I've read through all of Brew Like A Monk and Designing Great Beers. I liked BLAM. While DGB was a very good reference, it was pretty dry. I've gotten into all-grain recently, and I think I'd like a book that has some stuff on mashing theory (how the different steps work, etc.) and books on how to formulate recipes. Any recommendations?
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Apr 11, 2012 01:05
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Splizwarf posted:What's the smart way to drink a bomber? I don't buy them because the beer gets warm before I'm done. I keep glasses in the freezer for normal 12oz beers, but I don't think I've seen anything big enough, and I'd be worried about the same thing, heating up too fast. Open bomber. Pour. Put bomber of remaining beer back in fridge. You could put a wine stopper in the top if you want.
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Apr 13, 2012 21:54
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MalleusDei posted:Pushed the seal on the lid of the fermenter in to the wort with the air lock (fished it out with a sanitized arm) I did this on my first brewday and the beer turned out fine.
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Apr 17, 2012 00:19
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theDoubleH posted:Is it possible to bottle in plastic? Festival season approaches, including events that allow outside booze but not glass. I don't see why it wouldn't work, besides perhaps shelf life, but they'll be gone quick. Would they carbonate OK? If you had a kegging setup you could bottle in plastic straight from the keg right before you go and not really have to worry about that. Makes me wish I had the space for a keg setup 
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Apr 18, 2012 22:34
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I did a Spotted Cow 'clone' with the Wyeast Kolsch strain and it tasted Kolsch as gently caress. I can imagine it being a completely different beer had I used something like 1056.
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Apr 21, 2012 03:21
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BerkerkLurk posted:That looks great to me. American ale or German wheat yeast, depending on what you're looking for. The former would be good for something like Leinenkugel Summer Shandy (they use lager yeast, actually, but I never saw the point, then add lemon extract) and the latter you can use for German Russ (what they call half wheat beer, half lemon soda). Or whatever the hell you want, lots of Shandy options out there. Also try adding some grated lemon peel to your priming solution when you boil it before bottling. That assumes you're bottling, of course.
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May 9, 2012 19:00
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I hate my cooler mash tun if only because it leaks and no matter what combination of random washers or o-rings or teflon tape or whatever I try it still loving leaks. I bought some aquarium sealant and hopefully that fixes things once and for all, but I like the idea of being able to remove the spigot.
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May 11, 2012 18:33
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zedprime posted:I have a Teflon oring, in addition to the tape on the threads and so forth. I can turn the valve to new orientations and it reseals after a couple drips. The leak isn't at the valve itself, I should clarify. The leak is at the pipe nipple where it enters the cooler, right at the wall. Water dribbles out the bottom of the hole fairly slowly (though at least enough to make a paper towel noticeably wet within a half hour) no matter what random o-rings/etc I wind up putting up against the hole.
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May 11, 2012 22:16
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I don't know how or why, but through some crazy combination of washers I finally have a MLT that doesn't leak! I'll be celebrating Saturday by brewing Saq's new world quad all grain with a starter of 3787 on my new stirplate 
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May 18, 2012 04:01
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Docjowles posted:To be fair, Wyeast 3787 without a blowoff tube is basically an IED. I found that out the hard way this morning. No explosion luckily. Yet. Edit: Rigged up a blowoff tube. The blowoff water is shaking so much I'm surprised there *wasn't* an explosion. crazyfish fucked around with this message at 14:26 on May 20, 2012 |
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May 20, 2012 14:13
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Angry Grimace posted:Weird question: I just went to check on my stout and amber, and holy poo poo was the bottom of my freezer filled with CO2. Like I stuck my head down there to check the thermo-strip and I got a strong, painful burning just by breathing in. Is this bad and/or should I try to move that out somehow? Co2 is heavier than regular air, so I'm not that surprised.
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May 22, 2012 02:35
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Not to mention that you can bottle from a keg, too, if you want longer-term storage. I think Blichmann makes something designed expressly for this purpose.
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May 27, 2012 21:44
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Sirotan posted:Cracked open a bottle of my fourth batch of homebrew last night, and thankfully unlike #3 it's not poo poo! However, I'm disappointed with how much gunk is floating around in it. I dry hopped 1oz of Centennial pellets in it, and there was a bunch of that in the bottom of my glass. It's also really not at all clear, even though I used some irish moss this time around. I did a 3oz pellet dryhop with no hop bag. All I did was sanitize a paint strainer bag and used it as a screen on my auto siphon when I transferred the beer out of secondary to the bottling bucket.
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Jun 4, 2012 14:47
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