Home Brewing Thread III: Return of the Son of Home Brewing Thread

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indigi: Jul 20, 2004; ^{how can we not talk about family

when family's all that we got?}

Hops Direct actually got all their leaves in, they just sold out of all the most coveted varieties on release day. I thought about getting a pound of Simcoe from Freshops that night but it would have cost about the same as retail, so I just got them locally. Gonna be refreshing that site at midnight on Monday to try and get some Citra or Amarillo or something pellets.

# ¿ Oct 21, 2011 14:10

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# ¿ May 15, 2024 12:16

indigi: Jul 20, 2004; ^{how can we not talk about family

when family's all that we got?}

Nope! Go for it.

rage-saq posted:

Jamil isn't pulling these numbers out of his rear end with no basis, there is a lot of science from PhD's and others on pitching rates for ales/lagers.

In George Fix's publication "Principles of Brewing Science" he stated that an optimal pitching rate for healthy beers without defects you are looking at 0.75 million cells per milliliter per degree plato ales, and 1.50 million cells per milliliter per degree plato for lagers.

One weird thing from that White/Jamil Yeast book was a section saying that if you're direct pitching from a fresh order (or vial/pack for homebrewers) of commercial yeast, you only need about half of the cell density usually quoted in recipes cause of the 90%+ viability and something else I forget. That whole bit, I think it was a paragraph at most, seemed contrary to everything Jamil's ever said on the subject, cause you'd think he would have mentioned it somewhere or have an option for that on his yeast calculator.

I can't tell if it's in there cause it's true or if it's in there as a concession to White for marketing his product as direct-pitchable while then going on to claim you normally (read: if repitching) need pitching rates way higher than a vial of White Labs contains.

I usually go with the sorts of numbers Jamil recommends unless I have a specific reason not to. That said, gently caress a 4 gallon starter, that seems absolutely ridiculous. Again, from that Yeast book, they explicitly state that you start to get rapidly diminishing returns (in terms of yeast growth and propagation) once your starter size increases past 1.8L. There's got to be an easier, more efficient, or cheaper way of growing up that much yeast.

tesilential posted:

I'm honestly not sure how easily or efficiently this will heat up 6 gal of water with the burner being as narrow as is and the pot being as wide as it is.

With an aluminum pot the flame area won't be a problem since it's such a good conductor. I'd be more worried about the dead space between the flame and pot.

What's the best way to get my burner to put out less soot? It's only really a problem when I jack it up to 80% or more, but even in the 10 mintues or so I let it rip that high it builds up a nice coating on the bottom of my pot. I've been futzing with the air intake vent thing without much success, but then I have no idea what I'm doing.

indigi fucked around with this message at 21:59 on Oct 21, 2011

# ¿ Oct 21, 2011 21:56

indigi: Jul 20, 2004; ^{how can we not talk about family

when family's all that we got?}

wafflesnsegways posted:

Pour them all into a bucket, add some sugar, and try again?

Definitely don't do that. If anything pick up some Cooper's Carb Tabs and just drop one in each bottle then re-cap it.

# ¿ Oct 22, 2011 04:25

indigi: Jul 20, 2004; ^{how can we not talk about family

when family's all that we got?}

stizu posted:

I am starting a cider brew tomorrow from our apple orchard. I am super stoked. I went to the local home brew place and got all the equipment and I was told 7 days after foam in the primary and thirty days in the secondary, does that sound right? I have seen up to three months mentioned on line.

Leave it in primary til it's done fermenting. The only reason to rack cider to secondary is to add spices/flavorings or to help clear it, but even so it will clear fine on it's own with extended time in primary.

# ¿ Oct 22, 2011 14:52

indigi: Jul 20, 2004; ^{how can we not talk about family

when family's all that we got?}

mewse posted:

Water? Like from the toilet?

I really am at a loss for words. What?

# ¿ Oct 24, 2011 01:42

indigi: Jul 20, 2004; ^{how can we not talk about family

when family's all that we got?}

gently caress a plate chiller, once I get a pump I'm just gonna whirlpool that bitch. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZiHTXf9Hps

# ¿ Oct 24, 2011 15:23

indigi: Jul 20, 2004; ^{how can we not talk about family

when family's all that we got?}

Jo3sh posted:

Amarillo and Citra pellets are up at Hopsdirect. Better hurry, though.

Already out of Citra

e: I got Amarillo and Willamette. I have some NB, Saaz, Cascade, and Simcoe already, so this should last me through the year. Might need to stock back up on a noble hop for Belgians/lagers at some point as I've only about a half pound left.

indigi fucked around with this message at 22:28 on Oct 24, 2011

# ¿ Oct 24, 2011 22:22

indigi: Jul 20, 2004; ^{how can we not talk about family

when family's all that we got?}

So my lager that was fermenting slowly finally bottomed out at 1.012 after ~6 weeks and tastes good, but has a decent amount of DMS aroma at 62*. I'd chalked this batch up as a loss already so I'm not too upset, but maybe I'll dry-hop it to mask it some.

I can't think of what in particular caused it since I've used this Pilsner malt plenty of times, and with a 100 minute boil + quick cooling it hasn't given me any DMS issues in other beers, but maybe the extremely weak fermentation wasn't strong enough to blow any residual DMS/DMS created during fermentation out? Maybe it's just due to just a weak, crappy pitch of yeast?

I know you can evolve most DMS out by kegging and carbing then bleeding CO2 out in a few cycles, but I don't know if I care that much.

Huge_Midget posted:

I managed to snag a pound each of Amarillo, Citra, and Cascade. I am freaking out right now though because I also need Simcoe. Were they available today from HopsDirect or are they not out yet?

I'd imagine they're gone. The whole leaves went in a blink.

# ¿ Oct 25, 2011 07:10

indigi: Jul 20, 2004; ^{how can we not talk about family

when family's all that we got?}

It could, but it'll probably just wind up more ale-ish than alt-ish at worst.

# ¿ Oct 26, 2011 19:04

indigi: Jul 20, 2004; ^{how can we not talk about family

when family's all that we got?}

I get a roll of Foodsaver bags and cut it up to have different sized bags. I'll cut it in half or thirds lengthwise and seal the cut sides with the sealer to make little .5oz/.75oz bags for high AA bittering hops. It saves about 3-4 minutes on brewday not having to measure out anything, which is gold.

# ¿ Oct 27, 2011 20:22

indigi: Jul 20, 2004; ^{how can we not talk about family

when family's all that we got?}

After a year you're going to wind up pitching a lot of unhealthy, dead, and dying yeast, starter or no. I'd just buy some new yeast rather than risk a ton of stress flavors and a possible a bad batch. Unless you're doing a Belgian, Nottingham is 1.50 a pack and a champion. I wouldn't recommend against using it for any style as long as you've got temperature control - at 58* it makes a nice pseudo-lager.

# ¿ Oct 28, 2011 01:25

indigi: Jul 20, 2004; ^{how can we not talk about family

when family's all that we got?}

The DME you'd need to make a 1L starter costs about the same as a pack of Nottingham, which you know will have high viability and vitality. You could probably pay for it by going through your couch cushions. Why even bother with the risk unless you absolutely need a hefe/Belgian yeast?

Jacobey000 posted:

Question: How long should I leave it racked on the mush? Because of the surface area I expect there to be a much faster transfer, no? Would I be doing it harm by leaving on there for a couple more weeks?

Not at all. The best solution would be to taste it every few days. I leave my fresh fruit beers on the fruit for 2-6 weeks.

# ¿ Oct 28, 2011 05:56

indigi: Jul 20, 2004; ^{how can we not talk about family

when family's all that we got?}

I'd imagine even with crumbs or dust in it, if you add it immediately after knockout it'll all warm up to pasteurization temps anyway.

# ¿ Oct 29, 2011 19:51

indigi: Jul 20, 2004; ^{how can we not talk about family

when family's all that we got?}

Why bottle tonight if that's even a possibility? High gravity beers usually benefit from more time on the yeast anyway. 1.02 from 1.08 is pretty good attenuation, but I wouldn't risk it either way til I had at least 3 days of consistent gravity measurements.

# ¿ Oct 29, 2011 23:04

indigi: Jul 20, 2004; ^{how can we not talk about family

when family's all that we got?}

Put it somewhere cold if you can. The extra two or three weeks in a chilly area will help it clear beautifully.

# ¿ Oct 29, 2011 23:14

indigi: Jul 20, 2004; ^{how can we not talk about family

when family's all that we got?}

Is it a hassle to learn to TIG weld and get access to the equipment to do it? I think I might actually be able to get my work to pay for classes, I'll have to look into it.

# ¿ Nov 8, 2011 02:28

indigi: Jul 20, 2004; ^{how can we not talk about family

when family's all that we got?}

That's definitely doable. Some people actually go all-electric, and it seems pretty easy and cheap. I'm sure if you google all electric brewing you'll find some easy how-to guides.

# ¿ Nov 8, 2011 03:58

indigi: Jul 20, 2004; ^{how can we not talk about family

when family's all that we got?}

CaptBubba posted:

Oh god I just pulled some beer from the keg, and I forgot the whole "alcohol thaws at lower temps" thing that chemistry does. I just drank some beer concentrate and it was not pleasant in any way.

Quick, call BrewDog and tell them about your new abv record-setting process

# ¿ Nov 8, 2011 04:19

indigi: Jul 20, 2004; ^{how can we not talk about family

when family's all that we got?}

I'd be afraid of how the coils and refrigerant would tolerate near-boiling temperatures.

# ¿ Nov 8, 2011 08:13

indigi: Jul 20, 2004; ^{how can we not talk about family

when family's all that we got?}

I have a question, how big a jerkoff am I

I soaked my carboy in Oxiclean for a week or two and when I rinsed it out I noticed a few tiny bubble-looking things at the corners. I thought they were just bubbles in the glass because they didn't rinse away or brush away with my carboy brush, and this thing is cheap and there are some actual bubbles in the neck. I just realized they may have been mineral deposits. Anyway, my Flanders Red's been in there for a few months now, what are the odds that it's ruined? That stuff's got to be at least mildly poisonous, right? I'm so sad that I may have to dump it

This is my cleaning SOP and I've never noticed anything like that before, in my bottles or in my buckets, but maybe I used too much of the cleaner that time. I don't know why this just occurred to me, but it did.

# ¿ Nov 11, 2011 08:50

indigi: Jul 20, 2004; ^{how can we not talk about family

when family's all that we got?}

What's your full recipe? It'd make it easier to give helpful feedback. That said, 2lbs of oats is a high enough percentage of the bill at 13.5lbs to give it oaty character and that should be enough Cara-pils to add some body, though you might not need it depending on your other ingredients and process.

beetlo posted:

Sounds reasonable enough. Otherwise the recipe is almost exactly the same as the hefe. Add sugar, a little more hops, and a medium color specialty grain for color (Vitus is extremely light and technically is outside the style guidelines but is still darker than Weissbier). Oh and something to clarify. Irish Moss I suppose...

Another strategy you could try if you're mini-mashing is get a couple pounds of pilsner/pale malt and mash it along with your extract at 149* for ~30-45 minutes. This would break down the sugars in the extract even further and help a ways toward high attenuation. I've used this strategy as well as using powdered amylase enzyme to ramp up the fermentability of extract beers with very good results.

indigi fucked around with this message at 22:35 on Nov 11, 2011

# ¿ Nov 11, 2011 22:32

indigi: Jul 20, 2004; ^{how can we not talk about family

when family's all that we got?}

Sounds like fusels, and you get rid of them by not making them. I doubt they'll ever go away once they're there, and I gave one batch that had fusel problems over a year in storage.

Basically keep fermentation temperatures down and pitch enough healthy yeast.

# ¿ Nov 12, 2011 05:26

indigi: Jul 20, 2004; ^{how can we not talk about family

when family's all that we got?}

Prefect Six posted:

What are the chances the Magnum I bought from Brewmaster's Warehouse is still 15.2% AA after sitting vacuum sealed in my freezer for two months?

They'll be close enough to 15.2% that it won't matter one way or the other. Factors like boil volume, gravity, boil strength, pH, how quickly you cool the wort, whether you use a hop bag, etc. will affect the IBUs more than .3% AA either way would. Hell, the ounce you got could by chance contain a sample of pellets that is higher or lower than the 15.2% AA bale average anyway.

# ¿ Nov 16, 2011 22:27

indigi: Jul 20, 2004; ^{how can we not talk about family

when family's all that we got?}

50% loss? Maybe if you store them in paper bags at room temperature. If you have them in the freezer vacuum sealed I'd be surprised if they lost 50% bittering potential over two years.

# ¿ Nov 17, 2011 02:37

indigi: Jul 20, 2004; ^{how can we not talk about family

when family's all that we got?}

Frigging bottle bombs on my ESB, I had to dump the batch already despite me not having time to enjoy a single bottle due to a crazy hectic schedule at work and me just forgetting I had them

Gravity was stable at 1.012 for a few days at ~68* with WLP023 and I left it in primary for a further 2 weeks after that just cause I had no time to bottle. Primed with Cooper's carb tabs. I'm thinking either infection or the yeast just flocced like gently caress (which is odd cause I didn't even cold crash) and wasn't really finished.

Luckily I have a couple mason jars of the yeast, I'll have to reuse and rouse a few times next brew. The taste I had out of primary was fantastic

I popped a bottle in the fridge to try tomorrow, hopefully it doesn't explode before then.

# ¿ Nov 17, 2011 07:47

indigi: Jul 20, 2004; ^{how can we not talk about family

when family's all that we got?}

Josh Wow posted:

The old owner of my LHBS told me that a majority of the people that used those carb tabs came back and complained about some kind of infection, so that's a possibility. Also if you had an infection in your primary I wouldn't reuse that yeast.

I've used them for about 15 batches now and never had this problem, and the one I saved to sample tasted really fuckin good (

). I think it was probably a residual sugar problem.

# ¿ Nov 17, 2011 18:26

indigi: Jul 20, 2004; ^{how can we not talk about family

when family's all that we got?}

tesilential posted:

What was your mash temp? 1.012 seems like a good FG with that yeast.

154. Maybe I should have saved a few more bottles in the fridge to see if any off-flavors developed.

# ¿ Nov 17, 2011 23:36

indigi: Jul 20, 2004; ^{how can we not talk about family

when family's all that we got?}

If you're talking about the syrup from Northern Brewer I'm sure it's good as all their other syrups, and I'm also sure you could make a pretty dynamite lager with just the Munich syrup.

# ¿ Nov 18, 2011 03:08

indigi: Jul 20, 2004; ^{how can we not talk about family

when family's all that we got?}

beetlo posted:

It's like a .5% difference in ABV. That HAS to gently caress up the flavor I'm going for. It was already on the high end for the style before I messed up.

Why not taste it first and find out?

# ¿ Nov 20, 2011 10:03

indigi: Jul 20, 2004; ^{how can we not talk about family

when family's all that we got?}

Has anyone ever used the French press/hot steep method of "dry hopping?" I'm thinking of doing that to my lager. I guess worst-case scenario is that it gets a bit watered down, which I'm fine with.

# ¿ Nov 23, 2011 23:17

indigi: Jul 20, 2004; ^{how can we not talk about family

when family's all that we got?}

NerdPolice posted:

Was the sterile water necessary? Would I be okay rinsing everything I sterilized with hot tap water? I feel like that is going backwards since tap water isn't sterile. Hot tap water would be way easier than boiling water for everything.

You're not really sterilizing anything, you're sanitizing it. A seemingly trivial distinction, but it's the difference between working in a kitchen and working in an operating room. Tap water has never given me any problems, and many other people use it just fine as well to rinse. You could boil it if you want extra peace of mind/to get rid of chlorine, but even if not, it'll be fine. Seconding the recommendation to get StarSan, though.

# ¿ Nov 24, 2011 01:42

indigi: Jul 20, 2004; ^{how can we not talk about family

when family's all that we got?}

Brewed up a brown ale today. Just sort of winged the recipe cause I've been too busy the past two months to brew and had to get back into it today. Based off the base recipe I used for my Cherry Pie Brown, which was loving delicious both before and after I added the cherries.

code:

8lbs    MO
1lb8oz  Toasted Flaked Wheat
1lb     Brown Malt
4oz     Crystal 40
4oz     Pale Chocolate

1oz Willamette @ 60, .5oz Willamette @ 20, 10 
Rehydrated pack of Notty

5.75 gallons, 1.050 OG, 23 IBUs

Should be nice and toasty with a solid malt presence and a hint of hops. Used flaked oats in the last recipe, decided to go with wheat here for a more bready, fluffy taste and texture. Hoping to bottle this stuff by next Wednesday at the latest and distribute for Christmas gifts. Does anyone by any chance have a link to that post in where the guy made colored wax tops for his bottles? I'd like to give that a shot.

e: tasted at pitching, was delicious. First time I've tried wort that actually contained all the qualities I was looking for when I came up with the recipe. Hopefully that carries over to the finished product.

indigi fucked around with this message at 01:42 on Nov 27, 2011

# ¿ Nov 27, 2011 00:40

indigi: Jul 20, 2004; ^{how can we not talk about family

when family's all that we got?}

Dolemite posted:

I couldn't grab another sample since I'd already pitched the yeast at this point. Lame!

Sure you could, go get that sample asap

# ¿ Nov 27, 2011 08:29

indigi: Jul 20, 2004; ^{how can we not talk about family

when family's all that we got?}

So my sour starter has actually started smelling like horse blanket, i.e. sweaty and butt-y. Should I just dump it and start over?

# ¿ Nov 27, 2011 22:19

indigi: Jul 20, 2004; ^{how can we not talk about family

when family's all that we got?}

I'd say 4-5 weeks before you want to decant and feed it again to revitalize them/keep them healthy.

# ¿ Nov 29, 2011 18:15

indigi: Jul 20, 2004; ^{how can we not talk about family

when family's all that we got?}

Dolemite posted:

4-5 weeks? Really? Now I know why my starter never went anywhere! I kept the harvested yeast from a previous batch of beer around for 5 months before trying to make my starter.

I was talking about a starter, specifically, that was presumably going to be direct-pitched into wort. Harvested yeast can keep 6-12 months if it's kept in the fridge and doesn't have a mess of trub in it, but you definitely need to step it up a couple times before it'll be ready to tackle another batch.

# ¿ Dec 1, 2011 00:57

indigi: Jul 20, 2004; ^{how can we not talk about family

when family's all that we got?}

Reporting in on my helles with Wyeast 2308 that had a very slow, weak fermentation: I increased the temperature to 58-60* after about 7-10 days of fermentation when it had only moved about 6 gravity points. Apparently if you pitch an adequate amount of I guess slow and unhealthy 2308 and ferment it a few degrees warmer than its recommended range, you get a lot of banana and pear. It tastes almost like a Belgian blonde.

It's good. I can't wait to demolish this keg, thinking about dry-hopping a bit with some Saaz to fancy it up a bit. Very, very loving delicious, but probably not repeatable, and I didn't mean to do this, and so I am a failure who cannot make beer.

# ¿ Dec 1, 2011 07:28

indigi: Jul 20, 2004; ^{how can we not talk about family

when family's all that we got?}

Went to the homebrew shop today to pick up some ingredients, forgot to get melanoidin malt. gently caress me, they're all an hour plus round trip. I guess I'll be making a less malty beer this go around

Also picked up US-05, but everything I've seen on the problem batches indicates that the end product is the same, it just ferments and flocculates slower than usual, which isn't much of a problem for me.

Does doing a concentrated boil have any effect on flavor/aroma hop additions besides lower utilization? I want to make a low gravity, hop-burst pale ale with high alpha hops and don't want to have the 60+ IBUs I'd get following my hopburst addition schedule with 12% AA Simcoe.

indigi fucked around with this message at 00:54 on Dec 2, 2011

# ¿ Dec 2, 2011 00:51

indigi: Jul 20, 2004; ^{how can we not talk about family

when family's all that we got?}

wafflesnsegways posted:

Now I'm worried that everything i've brewed has been slightly infected. Normally we drink it pretty fast, so its not a problem. But we're banking hundreds of beers for my wedding next year. What if they all turn into gushers right before the wedding?

Get a keg setup. Bottle from there if you have to. This way you can always hit it with campden after fermentation and knock out any wild yeast.

Did you taste any of the gushers? Did they taste infected? It could just be your beer wasn't 100% fully attenuated and the months of storage gave the yeast time to chew through those last .0002 gravity points.

Jo3sh posted:

So he doesn't make starters, he just makes a starter. Sort of a post-facto starter, sure, but that's what it is.

I feel like unless you're gonna put the wort at lagering temps while your starter gets going in that scenario you will wind up with more infected batches. And a starter at 1.100 OG isn't going to provide the best medium for yeast growth or give you the healthiest yeast when you do get around for pitching.

indigi fucked around with this message at 22:33 on Dec 2, 2011

# ¿ Dec 2, 2011 22:28

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# ¿ May 15, 2024 12:16

indigi: Jul 20, 2004; ^{how can we not talk about family

when family's all that we got?}

Daedalus Esquire posted:

Luckily, since it relies on O2, it only forms on the surface, so you can rack under it. Unfortunately for me, the reason it formed was that I racked to my bottling bucket, then my bottles didn't come through so I let it sit in there for about 2 weeks with a headspace full of oxygen waiting for my buddy to drop of the empties.

Next time boil 4-8oz DME and add it so the yeast will wake up, use up whatever oxygen was introduced, then fart out a nice blanket of CO2 to keep themselves safe.

# ¿ Dec 2, 2011 23:26

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Goons with Spoons > Home Brewing Thread III: Return of the Son of Home Brewing Thread

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