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Noghri_ViR posted:How many people have sour mashed before? If so could you describe your technique? Did you do a whole mash sour or did you add a percentage of grain in after? What style of beer did you try souring? How long did you let it sour and at what temperature? I have never done this and would be interested in real-life advice. That said, a couple weeks back The Brewing Network (  ) had the brewmaster of Black Star Co-op in Austin on and he was talking about his sour mash Berlinner weisse. He said he did a bunch of trials and what worked best for him was souring the entire mash for 48 hours, then sparging and boiling as normal. Keep in mind this was a commercial system, maybe that would be too much or not enough on a homebrew scale.
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Nov 24, 2011 00:18
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I received a Festa Brew kit as a gift and I'm going to try a few of these before moving onto "real" brewing. Just wondering about sterilization... I'm anal as gently caress about cleaning, to the point where I soaked everything 24 hours with Diversol and hot water. Rinsed with sterile (boiled) water and started my siphon loaded with diversol solution, then siphoned about a litre of sterile water followed by the actual fermented wort (discarding/using the first portion for a hydrometer reading). 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.
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Nov 24, 2011 00:48
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NerdPolice posted:I received a Festa Brew kit as a gift and I'm going to try a few of these before moving onto "real" brewing. Just wondering about sterilization... If StarSan is available where you live, that's all you'll need for sanitation. That and some OxyClean Free to take on the really nasty gunk.
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Nov 24, 2011 01:13
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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.
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Nov 24, 2011 01:42
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indigi posted: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. In any case in the concentrations used it won't kill me, or so the MSDS says.
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Nov 24, 2011 02:47
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Star-San is so much easier to use than chlorine-based sanitizers like Diversol, I think when you get around to it you will wonder why you waited so long. I mix it in a spray bottle using distilled water, then just spray everything needing sanitation. Using a spray bottle like this means I use only a few ounces of prepared sanitizer for a batch, so the quart bottle of concentrate I have should last several years. To answer your earlier question, the rinse after using chlorine-based sanitizers is a good idea because chlorine can cause off-flavors in beer. Boiled water is probably the safest way to rinse.
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Nov 24, 2011 04:23
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Reposting reminder: Okay, here's the SA Homebrewer Secret Santa reg form. Registration is open until 11/30/11 and I will send assignments no later than 12/3/11. Please be aware of restrictions and packing requirements for shipping beer. Do your homework! Signup Form
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Nov 24, 2011 06:08
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The spray bottle of sanitizer tip is one of those things I don't know how I ever lived without. No rinse, and the foam is actually yeast nutrient? Star-San for life 
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Nov 24, 2011 06:09
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Iodophore is pretty good too (no rinse needed) if you are can't find starsan. I accidentally knocked the airlock off my second festabrew fermentation the other day. Hopefully nothing bad has happened. This was probably 3 weeks into the fermentation. Interestingly, I put a (clear) beer fermented from festabrew into the fridge overnight and tonight it was cloudy. It clarified as it warmed on the counter. That seems like it is a problem due to an improper cold break process - but this was store-bought wort. Could this be due to something I did wrong?
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Nov 24, 2011 06:10
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Nah, that's chill haze. With long enough cold storage, it will settle out, or just don't worry about it. Worst chill haze I ever saw was in the recent Stone/Baird/Ishii Green Tea IPA - the tannin from the tea caused massive haze when cold, but it was clear as a bell when it warmed up a bit. It didn't affect the beer's flavor at all - it was just cloudy.
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Nov 24, 2011 06:18
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Stove-top brewing: canning pot or stock pot? I use a stock pot now, but it can't handle more than a gallon.
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Nov 24, 2011 06:34
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Whatever pot you can get at a price that works for you and is large enough for your target process. For five gallons of partial-volume extract beer, 20 quarts is a very good size (but smaller sizes may work for you also). For five gallons of full-volume boil, 28 quarts is a good place to start, but be sure your stove can actually boil it. My first brewing pot was a 20-qt. enameled stock pot, and I still use it for pasta water and actual stock. Jo3sh fucked around with this message at 06:42 on Nov 24, 2011 |
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Nov 24, 2011 06:39
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I have a fun question for the homebrewing gurus on here. Our homebrew club just finished a barrel project where we aged Denny Conn's vanilla imperial porter recipe in a Jack Daniel's barrel for the better part of 6 months. Now, I unfortunately do not have my kegging setup done yet, and I need to bottle around 18 gallons of this porter. I'm assuming that after 7 months that the yeast is no longer active or viable, and that I need to figure out how to get viable yeast and enough sugar to bottle carb this beer. The porter is currently being stored in 3 separate 6.5 gallon carboys, and my bottling bucket holds 7 gallons. Any suggestions on the best way to go about doing this? Should I just buy another vial of the Denny Conn yeast strain and make a starter on my stirplate, divide it into thirds, pitch into the carboys, then add the appropriate amount of corn sugar solution to the bottling bucket, then bottle?
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Nov 24, 2011 20:58
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How soon can you get a kegging setup?
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Nov 24, 2011 21:05
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Huge_Midget posted:Any suggestions on the best way to go about doing this? You don't need very much yeast to carbonate bottles, so making a starter is unnecessary even for 18 gallons of beer. I think you'd be fine to buy a pack of the Denny Conn yeast and split it evenly between the 3 carboys. Then mix up your priming sugar solution in the correct amount for each batch and add it to the bottling bucket before you rack the beer on top. Repeat 3 times and you're done.
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Nov 24, 2011 23:40
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Themed Brew Day! Cooking up a Schwarzbier today.
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Nov 25, 2011 19:05
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So, we all know about the 'winter warmer' beers (my first extract brew is waiting a couple of weeks to clear as I type), but what are the 'seasonal beer' time periods throughout the year? Is there a 'time of the year' for lager, oatmeal, chocolate, oak, etc., brews? Or is it more down to just local water conditions, traditions, type of hops available locally, that sort of thing? I just imagine that it's similar to eating seasonal vegetables, like the autumn is when you expect to have pumpkin pie, that sort of thing.
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Nov 25, 2011 20:46
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Pretty much...think of what sounds good to drink in each season. In the summertime you tend to want light, easy drinking styles like wit or pilsner. In the fall, pumpkin beers and oktoberfest come to mind as well as "fresh hop" or "harvest" beers. Winter, the big dark warming beers like bock, barleywine imperial stout, Belgian quad etc. Spring's kind of a wildcard for me but I like to do saisons or hefeweizens.
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Nov 25, 2011 23:38
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So for my next beer I'm gonna do something of a strong porter with mexican chocolate and pasilla peppers. About what temperature should I mash at, maybe 155 or so? I want it to have some decent body, not watery, with a bit of residual sweetness too. Probably gonna use a quarter pound or so of some dark crystal malt to help with that. Also I was gonna use marris otter for my base malt. Recipe so far looks something like 7 lbs marris otter 1.5-2 lbs piloncillo/ panela/ whatever you wanna call it .25 lbs chocolate malt .25 lbs crystal 90 .25 lbs roasted barley 1.5 oz amarillo hops (in .3 oz doses at 60, 30, 15, 5, and flameout) which puts my little 3 gallon batch to about 35 IBU's. 2-3 pasilla peppers 3-4 little discs (bars? I don't know) of mexican chocolate Danstar Nottingham yeast Sound alright, suggestions, criticisms, anything? I'm happy with it but I don't know, this is my first recipe really. The pale ale I did last was just really simple, it was already pretty much the same as 2 recipes already posted. This has a bit more going on so any input would be appreciated. Otherwise I guess I'll just go ahead with it and see what happens.
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Nov 26, 2011 08:25
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Anyone have any suggestions for this recipe?code:
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Nov 26, 2011 18:29
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James Bont posted:So for my next beer I'm gonna do something of a strong porter with mexican chocolate and pasilla peppers. About what temperature should I mash at, maybe 155 or so? I want it to have some decent body, not watery, with a bit of residual sweetness too. Probably gonna use a quarter pound or so of some dark crystal malt to help with that. Also I was gonna use marris otter for my base malt. Recipe so far looks something like Swap the roasted barley with 10 oz of brown malt to get that chocolate aroma and flavor. I'd go bigger with a couple more pounds of MO, you can increase the dark crystal and chocolate to 8 oz of each. That will give you more sweetness and mouthfeel. Consider using another 8 oz of crystal 60 or something. Mash at 154*. I brewed a chocolaty porter with MO, 8 oz chocolate malt and 10 oz brown malt and 1# crystal 80. I mashed at 149* and it came out a bit thin for my tastes. Prefect Six posted:Anyone have any suggestions for this recipe? More finishing hops. Double or triple the 0 min addition. Dry hop with 1 oz chinook. VVV Darth Goku Jr posted:.75# of crystal for a 3 gallon batch? sounds a bit excessive to me. Oh snap! I didn't notice that. tesilential fucked around with this message at 04:54 on Nov 27, 2011 |
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Nov 26, 2011 20:06
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.75# of crystal for a 3 gallon batch? sounds a bit excessive to me.
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Nov 26, 2011 23:13
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Working on my first all grain batch today. 2.5 gallon Hefeweizen (cuz I love it and it's easy). Hit the pre-boil gravity spot on! About 73% efficiency. 
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Nov 26, 2011 23:42
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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: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 |
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Nov 27, 2011 00:40
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drewhead posted:Themed Brew Day! Cooking up a Schwarzbier today. Did that one you tried from me inspire you? I still have 3 of your beers in my fridge which give me the stink eye every time I open the door  I'm horrible about keeping the last few bottles of anything around because "when I drink the last bottle then it will all be gone"Next up for me: YumYum Chocolate Milk Stout  Grain Bill: 7.5 lb Maris Otter pale 1.0 lb Crystal 70L 1.0 lb Munich 10L 1.0 lb Roasted Barley .75 lb Chocolate Malt .50 lb Flaked Barley .50 lb Flaked Oats Bittering: 1oz Golding Aroma: 1oz Golding + 1 lb lactose @-15mins Standard 60 minute mash at 152, 15 minute batch sparge at 175 for an OG of 1.060. I just racked at 1.020 onto 10oz Ghirardelli unsweetened cocoa in the secondary. It tastes delicious even after only the primary fermentation and before the chocolate has had time to do its magic.
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Nov 27, 2011 01:49
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James Bont posted:Pasilla peppers. I spoke with a brewer out in Asheville NC once about his jalapeno porter and he said that batch to batch the heat changed because the peppers themselves had variability in their spiciness. Something to think about if you try and make multiple batches of the brew. Just installed a draft tower onto the fridge. When I first tap into a keg how long before I should start to worry about anything?
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Nov 27, 2011 05:10
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SweetSassyMolassy posted:When I first tap into a keg how long before I should start to worry about anything? Not really sure what you mean here. I usually start worrying when I know I've had a fair number of pints off it and it's therefore going to run dry pretty soon. As far as keeping well, beer in a keg will keep as long as beer in bottles. I had a half-drunk keg of Imperial stout get shoved into a closet once with no temp control whatsoever. When I hooked it up again a year or more later, it was still excellent. Even the beers I have on regular rotation tend to last a while; The Hareball is the beer I have that is getting close to kicking right now - I brewed it in mid-June. The IPA I brewed in late July or early August actually ran dry before the Hareball, but it was glorious all the way down.
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Nov 27, 2011 05:23
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First time going all grain doing BIAB and I think I did okay. I used BeerSmith's conversion tool to convert my Belgian recipe from extract to all grain and brewed this: 8.92 lb Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM) Grain 77.4 % 1.30 lb Honey Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 11.3 % 1.00 oz Tettnang [4.50%] (60 min) Hops 15.0 IBU 1.00 oz Hallertauer [4.80%] (15 min) Hops 7.9 IBU 1.00 items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 min) Misc 1.30 lb Candi Sugar, Amber (75.0 SRM) Sugar 11.3 % 1 Pkgs Belgian Ale (Wyeast Labs #1214) Yeast-Ale I didn't have time to make Candi Sugar, so I just used regular table sugar instead. Shot for a mash temperature of 152F my first time out since that straddles the line of mash temp ranges. I had a little trouble keeping the mash at that temp. Being new to using an actual propane burner, I think I made the mistake of killing the heat right when the thermometer showed the temp I was shooting for. I stepped away from the mash to get some things ready, came back, and I saw the thermometer reading something like ~155-158F! It was hard to tell the exact temp since the markings on the thermometer aren't precise (it came with the turkey fryer / burner). I guess I should've killed the heat a few degrees before my target temp. I ended up cracking the lid open on the kettle to let the mash cool down some. Let the mash sit for 60 minutes, then removed the grain bag and squeezed to extract as much of the wort that I could. Once I finished doing that, I grabbed a sample for the hydro reading. I read that I could determine my efficiency with a sample fresh from mashing. Boiled the wort for 60 minutes, which was easy to do with this burner. I couldn't believe I could get the whole 5 gallons boiling in like 10 minutes! So much better than the gas stove! In fact, it was nice to brew outside with the burner instead of the cramped kitchen. It really made the whole process fun and relaxing! So the boil finished and then it was just a matter of cooling it all down and pitching the yeast. And that was the end of my first all grain brew day. What this newbie learned: * Use a poo poo load more water to start with! I poured in maybe 5 - 5 1/2 gallons of water to mash with. By the time the mash was over, I was probably sitting at 4 gallons! Good thing I had the foresight to realize I might've hosed up and had some boiled top off water ready! * Seriously, use more water than you think. I wasn't used to how much water you lose in an all grain session. I was used to the combination of my lovely stove and extract brewing together not boiling off much water. After boiling with this burner, I probably evaporated another gallon or so of water and so I had to top off again! * Boilovers come fast and furious with a burner versus a lovely stove! Good thing I had the spray bottle at hand! * Unless it's just my thermometer or something, when mashing, cut the heat a few degrees before your target temp so that you hit it right. I did a quick check to see what my efficiency was for the just mashed wort. According to Tasty Brew's efficiency calculator, my number was poo poo garbage! I got a gravity reading of ~1.048, which puts my efficiency at ~60%! Was it because I maybe mashed too high? Or was it that my grains were almost 6 months old (yeah, I used grains I crushed 6 months ago). Or both?I tried to take a gravity reading of the final, boiled wort but I guess I didn't draw enough to sample. Even though the liquid filled the test jar half way, the hydrometer still sank straight to the bottom. I couldn't grab another sample since I'd already pitched the yeast at this point. Lame! TL;DR * All grain is fun as hell and makes you feel hecka pro! * Didn't use enough water, had to top off a million times. * My efficiency sucked hard and I don't know why. * Can't wait to brew again!
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Nov 27, 2011 06:40
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Dolemite posted:* My efficiency sucked hard and I don't know why. i've never brewed all-grain but i was just reading the all grain section of how to brew a few hours ago. it doesn't use the BIAB method so forgive me, i'll just point out a couple things that stuck out to me: - there's a calculation for a certain amount of mash water needed per pound of grain (i think it's 2 quarts per pound?) - he heats the water to ~165, pre-heats the mash tun (water cooler or whatever) with some boiled water, and then adds the water a jug at a time to the grain, stirring after each jug. he ends up at his approx mash temp, there's some calculation for this too. - i'd suspect your 6mo old crushed grain, because palmer says crushed grain stays fresh for a couple weeks. it probably keeps better un-crushed, i dunno anyway congrats on your first all grain batch  i'm in a tiny apt so i'm still thinking about doing my first mini-mash
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Nov 27, 2011 07:20
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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
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Nov 27, 2011 08:29
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Dolemite posted:
Congrats on your first all grain! Glad to heat it went mostly smoothly. I also learned a lesson about water volume with my first all grain. As they say, with BIAB it's all about the crush! Run your grains through the mill twice from now on. That alone gets me around 70-75%. Additionally you can rinse the grain bag with some hot water to wash out some more sugar. You could also raise the temp to 165* or so before removing the grains. If you are really concerned the best way is to use a larger volume of water to dissolve the sugars during the mash and then boil longer to get back to your target volumes. Did you end up using the starter from last weekend or did you buy new yeast? tesilential fucked around with this message at 10:00 on Nov 27, 2011 |
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Nov 27, 2011 09:57
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about my brewday
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tesilential posted:helpful stuff Thanks for the tips. Brown malt instead of roasted sounds like a good idea and should help with the flavor profile I'm going for. More crystal/ chocolate malt, I dunno. I might bump it up to a half a pound chocolate malt but the crystal I'm afraid of going overboard, I might bump it up to a half pound as well but I don't think it'll be too necessary. Hoping the beer will get more of it's sweetness/ body from mash temp/ chocolatey goodness rather than having to use more crystal. Oh also I've been meaning to ask, does all grain brewing just produce a lot more protein/ hot break poo poo than extract? My last brew was my first all grain and I hit my projected OG and stuff pretty much on point and was pretty happy about that, but it just seemed so drat cloudy. It's almost ready to be bottled now and everything has pretty much settled out and stuff so it doesn't look all stupid and cloudy anymore, just looks like delicious beer. So I'm not stressing about it really, just wondering if it's normal.
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Nov 27, 2011 10:15
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Jo3sh posted:Not really sure what you mean here. I usually start worrying when I know I've had a fair number of pints off it and it's therefore going to run dry pretty soon. As far as keeping well, beer in a keg will keep as long as beer in bottles. I had a half-drunk keg of Imperial stout get shoved into a closet once with no temp control whatsoever. When I hooked it up again a year or more later, it was still excellent. "Year old keg of I don't know what. Seems only half full... hmmm... better drink it." Would not have been my first response, but good to know that the goods will keep for that long a time after being tapped. Even though everything is sealed up, under positive pressure, and being back fed with CO2, I still wanted to be... cautious. Thanks for the info! Year old keg = year old bottle in terms of drinkability. Question: When you add wheat to a mash, what % of total fermentables for the wheat should you start adding rice hulls to the mash to protect against stuck sparges?
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Nov 27, 2011 16:18
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I have a Russian Imperial Stout that I've had sitting around for the past 3 months and I would like to bottle it and give it away as Christmas gifts. How do I ensure that the bottles carbonate? I don't know if the yeast is completely dormant, but I've heard that I may need to repitch some when I add priming sugar. Has anyone done this or can you offer advice? I also figure that when I give them away at Christmas, I'll have to tell people not to drink them for a few weeks so that they mature more and reach their intended carbonation.
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Nov 27, 2011 18:01
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The easy way is to sprinkle a couple grams of US05 into your bottling bucket with your priming sugar. It should carb by Christmas if you do it soon. Test one or three before you give them away to make sure.
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Nov 27, 2011 18:17
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alright, I haven't brewed in like 6 months, which was really getting me down. my kegerator had a pool of water at the bottom and was getting moldy, I had 4 empty kegs I'd been putting off cleaning, my tap hoses were filled with solid gunk, my fermenting buckets had been sitting half full of water in my closet for ages - it was shameful. spent about 5 hours cleaning everything yesterday, and went out and bought grain. I spent some time deciding what I wanted to brew, and I came up with a spiced rye ale for x-mas time, and a flemish sour, because I've never done anything like that before. so, I'm just sort of winging the recipes. looking for feedback, comments, whatever. spiced rye ale posted:4 lbs Pilsen Malt; Dingemans info oud bruin / flemish sour ale posted:14 lbs Pilsen Malt; Dingemans info I don't really know what I'm doing with the sour ale, I'm basically using http://www2.parc.com/emdl/members/apte/flemishredale.shtml as a guide since none of my brewing books talk about sour ales. I was planning on finding a bottle with active cultures and adding them to my secondary after a short 5-7 day primary with safeale 05? dunno
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Nov 27, 2011 19:26
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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?
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Nov 27, 2011 22:19
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Cointelprofessional posted:I have a Russian Imperial Stout that I've had sitting around for the past 3 months and I would like to bottle it and give it away as Christmas gifts. How do I ensure that the bottles carbonate? I don't know if the yeast is completely dormant, but I've heard that I may need to repitch some when I add priming sugar. Has anyone done this or can you offer advice? I had a stout sit in a fermenter for ~4 months and I bottled it no problem without adding any extra yeast.
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Nov 27, 2011 22:55
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SweetSassyMolassy posted:"Year old keg of I don't know what. Seems only half full... hmmm... better drink it."
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Nov 28, 2011 00:37
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SweetSassyMolassy posted:"Year old keg of I don't know what. Seems only half full... hmmm... better drink it." Well, I knew what was in it, and I knew I wanted more of it. I will admit I was a little tentative about it at first when I re-tapped it, but I would really hate to have found myself staring at it as it swirled down the drain, thinking, "poo poo, that smells really good." To add: there's nothing that can live in beer that will kill you and is does not smell and taste terrible. So if you find a keg that is half-full of beer, just check to see if it smells and tastes OK. If you don't immediately want to dump it, you have beer that is at worst past its peak. Jo3sh fucked around with this message at 03:41 on Nov 28, 2011 |
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Nov 28, 2011 03:04
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