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I've been brewing root beer and am having difficulty with either the bottling or fermentation. Almost all of the recipes I've worked with say the bottles should be allowed to ferment 3-4 days 'or until hard.' In my attempts, they get extremely firm within 24 hours, distended within 48 and the one time I let it go longer than that... boom! I've filled the bottles bout 80% full and the general rule of thumb has been 1/8tsp of ale yeast per gallon. My questions are: - How important is it that they get 3-4 days fermentation, or is retarding it at 24 going to allow for enough carbonation? - Would I be better off modifying the yeast content and continuing to bottle at 80% full, or should I keep the yeast ratio where it's at and fill my bottles even less full? - How would champagne yeast react in comparison to ale yeast? - Any other suggestions on where the problem might come from.
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Oct 26, 2011 06:29
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mattdev posted:So I think I might try my first double brew day this weekend. I ended up with a poo poo LOAD of pumpkins from my CSA box and I figured I'd make the pumpkin beer from BCS again since it seemed to go over pretty well. What I'd do is prep my pumpkins the day before. It's been said before in this thread or the last, is to roast them for a more 'pumpkin' flavor. Depending on your setup, I'd brew the larger batch first and the smaller one second, because the second brew is going to seem to take much longer. The other thing I'd do is while one is cooling pre-pitch, I'd start the next one going. I also like to clean and sanitize during the boil period because there is a huge window of just standing around otherwise.
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Oct 26, 2011 14:46
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Monkeybutt posted:I've been brewing root beer and am having difficulty with either the bottling or fermentation. Almost all of the recipes I've worked with say the bottles should be allowed to ferment 3-4 days 'or until hard.' In my attempts, they get extremely firm within 24 hours, distended within 48 and the one time I let it go longer than that... boom! I've filled the bottles bout 80% full and the general rule of thumb has been 1/8tsp of ale yeast per gallon. Champagne yeast would with your current set-up be just as bad or worse, maybe a bit slower though. Is this all of the fermentation? i don't see why you couldn't do what home-brewers do and let all of the initial fermentation happen, then either add a small amount of sugar to the solution OR a measured amount of sugar in every bottle to insure safe, non-explosive carbonation levels
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Oct 26, 2011 15:23
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But since it's root beer, it would presumably have a lot of sugar in the drink for the yeast to go to town on. (the issue isn't how much yeast you add, it's how much sugar is available for the yeast to turn into c02. Generally speaking, the yeast will reproduce and keep on working until all the fermentable sugars are gone.) I think you would need to add something (sulfites?) to knock out the yeast when the carbonation is at the right level.
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Oct 26, 2011 15:37
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I think the idea is that he wants just enough fermentation to create carbonation, without eating up the sugar that makes the soda sweet. Monkeybutt, what you're trying to do is actually pretty difficult. There are a few safer, more consistent ways to make carbonated drinks, but they require hardware. 1) Get a kegging rig. Mix up your sodas in kegs, then chill them under CO2 pressure. This is how I and several others in this thread carbonate our beer, and it works very very well. It does pretty much require a dedicated refrigerator in addition to the kegging rig itself. Because root beer and other sodas are so high in sugar and don't have the inbuilt protections against infection that beer does (alcohol and hops), sanitation will have to be absolutely scrupulous. 2) Instead of a complete kegging rig, get yourself a CO2 bottle and regulator, together with some Carbonator caps. These are plastic caps that screw on to 2L PET soda bottles (which is what I think you are using now), and allow you to inject CO2 from a standard ball-lock fitting. This way, you can get by without the expensive kegs, and avoid having to get a second fridge. Mix up your soda in one or more 2L bottles, chill, and inject CO2 through the Carbonator cap. 3) You could just get one of those Sodastream machines that I have seen for sale various places. It seems like an expensive way to go to me, but I have heard people say they like it. and non-hardware options: 4) You could continue your ferment-and-chill process. The shortcomings of this method are obvious, but it's cheap. Is there some reason you are only filling the bottles 80%? The headspace just means that the gas produced by the ferment has somewhere to go other than into solution in the soda. Also, 1/8 tsp of yeast per 2L bottle seems like a lot - I think you really only need a few grains of dry yeast. 5) You could continue the ferment-and-chill process, mostly using unfermentable sweeteners, such as Splenda, and adding just enough sugar to create the carbonation you want. This sidesteps the whole overcarbonation / explosion issue, but not everyone likes the flavor of non-sugar sweeteners. It might take some tinkering to figure out how much sugar to use to get the carbonation you want. Jo3sh fucked around with this message at 15:46 on Oct 26, 2011 |
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Oct 26, 2011 15:39
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Monkeybutt posted:I've been brewing root beer and am having difficulty with either the bottling or fermentation. Almost all of the recipes I've worked with say the bottles should be allowed to ferment 3-4 days 'or until hard.' In my attempts, they get extremely firm within 24 hours, distended within 48 and the one time I let it go longer than that... boom! I've filled the bottles bout 80% full and the general rule of thumb has been 1/8tsp of ale yeast per gallon. When I have made root beer like this I would just put the bottles in the fridge as soon as they were firm. The cold stopped the ale yeast for going much further and creating bottle bombs.
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Oct 26, 2011 16:01
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So i brewed an alt and this is my first time with a thermowell and a thermostat blah blah. long story short my target temp was 60 (i pitched at 65) but i accidentally let it get down to 50. will this adversely affect fermentation in any way?
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Oct 26, 2011 17:19
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It could, but it'll probably just wind up more ale-ish than alt-ish at worst.
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Oct 26, 2011 19:04
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nesbit37 posted:When I have made root beer like this I would just put the bottles in the fridge as soon as they were firm. The cold stopped the ale yeast for going much further and creating bottle bombs. Some day I want to have a dedicated carbonated water keg, that I can just add syrups to. Sort of like Italian soda, I guess.
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Oct 26, 2011 20:51
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Darth Goku Jr posted:So i brewed an alt and this is my first time with a thermowell and a thermostat blah blah. long story short my target temp was 60 (i pitched at 65) but i accidentally let it get down to 50. will this adversely affect fermentation in any way? I did this a couple of times (down to 50) and it just took a bit longer for the yeasties to start.
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Oct 26, 2011 22:54
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Another sort of noobish question for you guys. How do you monitor the water temp while mashing/steeping/brewing/cooling? I find standing there with a lab thermometer is far from ideal. It reacts too slowly to temp changes, I don't like taking the lid off while cooling, and it's just a pain in general. Everything I have read says the floating types can't handle boiling water, so what good are they exactly? I'm thinking one of those remote probe meat thermometer type dealies. The probe can just sit in there during all phases of the brewing process. Any thoughts?
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Oct 26, 2011 22:56
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I don't know if you mean the electric meat probes, but I have one and it has immensely helped my brew day experiences. You can set alerts for when it reaches a certain temperature for various parts of brew day (heating strike water, insuring a rest stays above/below certain temps, cooling, etc) allowing you to focus on other parts of your day (drinking or i dunno, sanitizing. whatevah).
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Oct 26, 2011 23:02
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beetlo posted:Everything I have read says the floating types can't handle boiling water 150-160 is not boiling and you don't need to measure the temperature of boiling water (its capped at boiling point)
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Oct 26, 2011 23:16
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I use an outdoor wireless digital thermometer I got in the BBQ area of wal mart or $16. It has a little unit with a metal wrapped wire (BBQ proof) and probe. I just dip the probe in wort and go do my thing. The receiver stays with me and let's me see the temp up to 100ft away. Right now I'm cooking meatballs while sitting on the couch. I got sick of dropping $10 hand held units in wort and too cheap to buy thermapen at this time.
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Oct 26, 2011 23:19
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That's exactly what I mean. mewse: Taking a floating thermometer out of 160 degree water is not my idea of a good time. I want something that can stay in the wort the whole way. 1 less thing to worry about sanitizing is always good.
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Oct 26, 2011 23:22
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I have dial thermometers mounted through the wall of my HLT and mashtun. You could do the same with electronic probes. Mostly, I just use the Thermapen, though. Once I hit my strike temp, my process pretty much takes care of itself.
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Oct 26, 2011 23:29
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So, how good is this vacuum sealer? Newegg has them with a coupon for $24 shipped.
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Oct 27, 2011 17:55
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Tedronai66 posted:So, how good is this vacuum sealer? Newegg has them with a coupon for $24 shipped. Are you able to share the coupon? I have no experience with this vacuum sealer, but have been waiting for a good deal on one as well.
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Oct 27, 2011 18:39
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Seems like it gets reasonably good reviews on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Rival-Vacuum-Sealer/dp/B004JPU6XI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1319737760&sr=8-1 For $24, if it lasts a year, I think you're in good shape.
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Oct 27, 2011 18:50
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Yeah definitely would like to jump on that. What's the coupon?
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Oct 27, 2011 18:53
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tesilential posted:Are you able to share the coupon? It's just in their email flyer from today: EMCJKHC75
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Oct 27, 2011 19:01
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Tedronai66 posted:It's just in their email flyer from today: EMCJKHC75 Thanks! To current vacuum seal users, what types of bags are best for storing around 1# of leaf or pellet hops?
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Oct 27, 2011 19:07
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Obviously, pellets will be way more compact. I just use the gallon size Foodsaver brand bags or a similarly sized chunk of the rolled bag stock. When I go to use some pellets, I cut off the sealed line, take out what I need, then reseal the new, slightly smaller bag. FWIW, the reviews of the Rival unit say that they work with the Foodsaver bags. The bags are available at lots of places like Walmart, Costco, Target, and of course online.
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Oct 27, 2011 19:15
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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.
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Oct 27, 2011 20:22
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I'm fermenting a key lime belgian wit right now (protip: grating 2 ounces of key lime zest is a giant pain in the rear end) and once that's done in the primary, I'm going to bottle without doing a secondary and then brew another wit (this time with dried orange peel) and reuse the entire cake from the previous batch (wyeast 3944). Well, given that wyeast activators are expensive, I was thinking about doing yet another beer on top of the same yeast cake after the second wit is done, but probably not another wit. Reading wyeast's style guidelines, they say that 3944 works well in a dubbel, and I've had a hankering to incorporate more grain into my brewing process by going up to partial mash. Anyone have a favorite partial-mash dubbel recipe, or barring that, an all-grain that I could try my hands at converting?
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Oct 27, 2011 21:01
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Monkeybutt posted:I've been brewing root beer and am having difficulty with either the bottling or fermentation. Almost all of the recipes I've worked with say the bottles should be allowed to ferment 3-4 days 'or until hard.' In my attempts, they get extremely firm within 24 hours, distended within 48 and the one time I let it go longer than that... boom! I've filled the bottles bout 80% full and the general rule of thumb has been 1/8tsp of ale yeast per gallon. Since you are trying to do a root beer I am going to assume that you're NOT wanting it to be alcoholic root beer and the yeast is ONLY for carbonation. The short answer is yes, stop after the bottles are firm. Do NOT keep fermenting them afterwards. Throw them in the fridge to cold crash (this essentially means stop) the yeast. You can use any yeast type you like but be aware that each yeast will impart a different flavor. Ale yeast is the best in my opinion. I do note one thing, you said bottles as in plural. How much root beer are you making? You really should only make a couple bottles at a time because even with cold crashing there is no guarantee you won't have bottle bombs. The only way to save root beer is to pasteurize which you can't really do with plastic bottles without losing the carbonation.
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Oct 27, 2011 21:20
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Have this dubbel recipe kicking around, it came out pretty well but took a couple months to mature and really get good. This was a collaborative recipe through my homebrew club and if I was doing it myself I'd probably leave out the chocolate and up the Special B to like 5%, but it's not a big deal either way. Just convert some or all of the Pilsner malt to Pilsner extract and you should be on your way. I'm currently having efficiency issues which is why there's such a shitload of pilsner malt for a moderate gravity beer. code:Docjowles fucked around with this message at 22:10 on Oct 27, 2011 |
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Oct 27, 2011 21:25
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Tedronai66 posted:It's just in their email flyer from today: EMCJKHC75 Thanks dude. I used this as well 
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Oct 27, 2011 23:42
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Tedronai66 posted:It's just in their email flyer from today: EMCJKHC75 How long are these valid? I don't get paid for another week.
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Oct 27, 2011 23:52
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Docjowles posted:Have this dubbel recipe kicking around, it came out pretty well but took a couple months to mature and really get good. This was a collaborative recipe through my homebrew club and if I was doing it myself I'd probably leave out the chocolate and up the Special B to like 5%, but it's not a big deal either way. Thanks for this. I'm planning on doing a brew-in-a-bag partial mash in about 3.5 gallons of water, assuming that about a half gallon will get eaten up by grains. Given that most brewing guides recommend somewhere around 2 quarts per pound of grain, that means I should be able to do about 6-7lb of grain (thinking 1/2 lb cara munich + 1/2 lb special b + 5 lb belgian 2-row pilsner) in my mash and fill out the rest with DME as a late addition. Also, instead of buying expensive-rear end candi sugar, I might try my hands at making homemade dark syrup to cut down on costs. crazyfish fucked around with this message at 00:52 on Oct 28, 2011 |
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Oct 28, 2011 00:29
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Brewed my first beer (an ESB) two days ago, and it's happily bubbling away next to me in a 6.5 gallon fermenting bucket. I want to brew another batch (have some smoked porter ingredients ready to go). I have an empty glass carboy. Options: A) Brew the porter and stick it in the carboy to ferment. B) Rerack the ESB into the carboy after another day or two. C) Need to drive to the local brew shop and buy another brew bucket yall. Also- build or buy wort chiller? Using a friends for now, but I'll want to have my own.
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Oct 28, 2011 00:38
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Local Yokel posted:Brewed my first beer (an ESB) two days ago, and it's happily bubbling away next to me in a 6.5 gallon fermenting bucket. If the carboy is 5 gallons, rack the ESB into the carboy after fermentation is done (It stops dropping in specific gravity / the airlock stops bubbling. If the carboy is 6.5 gallons, then you can do either A or B. I have 3 fermentation buckets though, so you could just do C since they're cheap and you'll probably want another anyway. If you do this, don't forget an airlock for the new bucket.
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Oct 28, 2011 00:45
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Hello, first post in a homebrew thread I've been homebrewing since Memorial Day weekend and have progressed from partial to full boil to all grain, as well as from bottling to kegging with a 4-tap fridge (though I still bottle a sixer usually of most batches for giving away/archiving) Seems like my brewing buddy and I have been upgrading pretty fast but we always brew 1-2 times per week so even though we only moved to all grain a month ago, I already feel very comfortable with single-infusion mashes, getting 85% efficiency pretty routinely (yay for morebeer riverside's mill and 5.2 which does seem to give us that last 5%). I've been reading through thread #2 for the last month or so, I think I was fewer than 100 pages from the end before it moved from the goldmine to archives (plat only  )Anyhow doing two brews this weekend but I've only decided on one so far - a malty belgian golden ale looking something like this: 6# Vienna 3# Belgian Pilsner 2# Sucanat (some sort of unrefined sugar similar to turbinado) 4oz Honey Malt 4oz Aromatic Malt 4oz CaraVienne Edit: Also some crushed corriander, fresh organge peel, and perhaps some anise or grains of paradise late boil Mashing at 150* Shooting for 30-something IBUs using all Saaz hops (pellets for bittering and leaf for aroma - gonna be the first time using leaf hops). Even though it's definitely not to style we will be dry hopping with 1 oz of Saaz, I'd like to get a good idea of Saaz's bitterness/flavor/aroma profiles and I can't well not dry hop my first time using whole hops. Fermenting with White Labs Golden Ale yeast will start mid 60s and let rise to low 70s over the course of a week or so. Comments/suggestions? Also I was wondering whether or not it would be worth it to wait to add the 2# of sucrose until after some time in primary? For those of you who have done this - was it worth it to not simply add the sugar into the boil? How much water would I need to dissolve 2# sugar? How long should I wait before adding the sugar to the primary? Super Rad fucked around with this message at 00:57 on Oct 28, 2011 |
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Oct 28, 2011 00:55
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I (sadly) took a long time off of brewing this year to get (happily) married and go on a honeymoon, etc etc. This meant that a bunch of extract kits got left unused. The liquid yeast was in the fridge, so kept cold...but we're talking like a year and some they've been in there. I slap-chopped it and after a day and a half or two nothing happened, but on day three, poof - now fully inflated. Does this mean the yeast are OK and ready to go (he asked hopefully?). Would it be safer to brew a small starter?
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Oct 28, 2011 01:04
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kaishek posted:I (sadly) took a long time off of brewing this year to get (happily) married and go on a honeymoon, etc etc. This meant that a bunch of extract kits got left unused. The liquid yeast was in the fridge, so kept cold...but we're talking like a year and some they've been in there. I slap-chopped it and after a day and a half or two nothing happened, but on day three, poof - now fully inflated. Make a starter. If you see activity it's good.
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Oct 28, 2011 01:09
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ifuckedjesus posted:Make a starter. If you see activity it's good. Okee doke. I figured (hoped) that the activity required to poof the package would be good enough.
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Oct 28, 2011 01:20
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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.
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Oct 28, 2011 01:25
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Hm, too bad. That means I'll be throwing away 2 other liquid yeast packets too. I guess not that bad of a loss, given a waiting time of over a year like that. Better to not throw good after bad. There's no reason the ingredients would go bad, right? DME and LME?
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Oct 28, 2011 03:24
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kaishek posted:There's no reason the ingredients would go bad, right? DME and LME? DME has a long shelf life but LME darkens and gets off flavours, just a sec Brewing Classic Styles posted:Liquid malt extract typically has a shelf life of about two years if stored at or below room temperature, during which time its color will approximately double. The Maillard reactions that are responsible for the color change can generate off-flavors like licorice, molasses, and ballpoint pen aroma. Beer brewed with old extract syrup may have a dull, bitter, and/or soapy flavor to it. These flavors are caused by the oxidation of the phenols and fatty acid compounds in the malt. These off-flavors are part of a group that is collectively known as "extract twang." Homebrewers will often complain that they can't make good beer with extract, but it's usually just a matter of freshness. mewse fucked around with this message at 22:09 on Nov 14, 2011 |
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Oct 28, 2011 03:39
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LME goes bad, DME... much longer if at all. Also tasted the cranberry wheat beer I've got sitting on the cranberry mush going on two weeks and the chewy cranberry harshness has relinquished into a tart and tasty fruit beer. 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?
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Oct 28, 2011 03:43
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