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indigi posted:No, it's fine. Two hours in some deoxygenated water is nothing compared to over a week at the bottom of an alcoholic, hop-loaded, nutrient-depleted beer. The yeast was just dormant and needed to wake up and start reproducing in a high gravity wort so it's not too surprising if it's sluggish. Panic if it's 72 hours and you see no signs of fermentation. With that extra headspace and a small volume of beer it can be a while before the yeast is kicking off enough CO2 to be noticeable.
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Jan 4, 2012 13:52
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Retemnav posted:Passed out bottles on New Year's from my first brew in over a year, and got rave reviews for my coffee stout. And of course, that's the recipe I didn't write down loving anywhere, so now I can't remember what hops I used. Dumb, dumb, dumb. Is there much hop character to it, or is it all coffee and dark malt? If it's the latter it probably doesn't matter much what you use as long as it's mild and inoffensive. East Kent Goldings or Fuggle might be a good choice.
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Jan 4, 2012 16:08
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Docjowles posted:Is there much hop character to it, or is it all coffee and dark malt? If it's the latter it probably doesn't matter much what you use as long as it's mild and inoffensive. East Kent Goldings or Fuggle might be a good choice. I've also found Northern Brewer goes well where a coffee/chocolate kind of bitterness is wanted.
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Jan 4, 2012 18:26
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Went to my first homebrewers meeting and tried many of the beers they brought, a lot of good ones there. The guy I'll be brewing with made a nice pale ale, had a nice hop profile to it. I enjoyed it.
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Jan 4, 2012 18:51
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Docjowles posted:Is there much hop character to it, or is it all coffee and dark malt? If it's the latter it probably doesn't matter much what you use as long as it's mild and inoffensive. East Kent Goldings or Fuggle might be a good choice. I think my recipe was shooting for an IBU of around 40. Yet another thing I don't remember cause I didn't write it down. It was pretty mild, so I'll probably be safe doing whatever. I'm thinking I'll try redoing it this or next weekend as my first 5 gallon batch.
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Jan 4, 2012 21:59
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I brewed on Monday, this was my fourth batch and second I've done that wasn't just out of a Brewers Best kit so I'm still getting the hang of things. On my last batch I used a bunch of leaf hops and jammed my autosiphon when I was transferring chilled wort to the carboy. Then I broke the autosiphon trying to clear it. This time I just used a couple muslin bags as hop socks. That worked much better but this was a seriously thick wort (this was an extract recipe for an imperial stout) that got soaked up and trapped inside the bag, and I ended up losing some volume of the wort that way. 1) Do those stainless tea balls work better for this? I guess I'd need a few per boil to make sure that there's enough free space for the wort to get in and sop up the hoppy goodness. 2) This recipe called for topping off with clean water once I got it into the fermenter. Could I have topped up straight into the kettle up to the appropriate OG, then transferred the whole shebang into the carboy, or is that not safe? I use an 8 gallon kettle so I could have fit the full 5 gallon volume in there. That would have made the gravity readings easier since I could've just dropped a sanitized hydrometer into the kettle rather than using a thief out of the carboy, and it might have thinned the wort out a bit to where I could have gotten some of it back out of those stupid hop bags.
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Jan 4, 2012 23:54
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Jo3sh posted:Well, my summer trip to Oregon went great and I got to meet a couple goons. Surprisingly enough, beer was involved. Any goons live in Las Vegas and want to get together for a glass? Or will I run into J. Random Brewgoon somewhere? I'll be in town the weekend of the 28th - 30th of this month. I'll be staying on the Strip, but should be able to get mobile. Oh and let me know if you got the Triple 7 brewery or whatever it is downtown. When I went there it sucked but I had a friend go back and he said the beer was better
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Jan 4, 2012 23:55
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kitten smoothie posted:2) This recipe called for topping off with clean water once I got it into the fermenter. Could I have topped up straight into the kettle up to the appropriate OG, then transferred the whole shebang into the carboy, or is that not safe? I use an 8 gallon kettle so I could have fit the full 5 gallon volume in there. If you have the kettle space, by all means just boil the full volume and ignore the top-up step. But be warned that on most stoves, it will take forever to get ~7 gallons to a boil and then forever to cool the wort to pitching temp afterward. This is one of the many reasons people upgrade to the outdoor propane burner setup with some sort of wort chiller if they decide to get at all serious about brewing. They're major quality of beer and quality of life improvements.
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Jan 5, 2012 00:06
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kitten smoothie posted:1) Do those stainless tea balls work better for this? I guess I'd need a few per boil to make sure that there's enough free space for the wort to get in and sop up the hoppy goodness. The hops are still going soak up some of the wort, regardless of what container they are in. At least with the hop bags you can squeeze some of the fluid out (with a sterile implement) but I have no idea if it affects quality at all. I lift the bag out and let it drip for a minute or so and call it good.
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Jan 5, 2012 00:17
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My porter started at 1.08 on the nose and won't drop past 1.024 (been there for 10 days). I was shooting for 1.018 or so, any way to knudge it lower, or should I leave well enough alone? I've tried swirling the carboy to reinvigorate the yeast, but the lazy fuckers are just lying there in the trub. Edit: 1.024, not 1.022 Plastic Jesus fucked around with this message at 01:49 on Jan 5, 2012 |
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Jan 5, 2012 01:06
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First mini-mash today and missed my og by ten points. Fuuuucking hate trying to mash on the stove in a 5 gallon pot. Going back to speciality grain and extract. Saq made me feel bad about myself by using extract - well, ya gatta do what you gatta do.
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Jan 5, 2012 02:11
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Noghri_ViR posted:Oh and let me know if you got the Triple 7 brewery or whatever it is downtown. If I get downtown, I will make a point of stopping in for a glass over there and report back.
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Jan 5, 2012 02:47
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Jacobey000 posted:First mini-mash today and missed my og by ten points. Fuuuucking hate trying to mash on the stove in a 5 gallon pot. Going back to speciality grain and extract. Saq made me feel bad about myself by using extract - well, ya gatta do what you gatta do.
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Jan 5, 2012 03:03
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Jacobey000 posted:Saq made me feel bad about myself by using extract - well, ya gatta do what you gatta do. I think the bias exists because when people are dedicated they typically go to all-grain, which means most of the people using extract are new brewers who don't have the knowledge, experience, or attention to detail people develop when they invest a bunch of money and time into an all-grain setup. By far the bigger contributor to final product goodness is yeast handling - proper amount of vital cells, nutrients and aeration, fermentation temperature control, avoidance of oxygenation. I also don't see the point in drawing a bold line between mini-mash and steeping. When I do a "mini-mash" on the one or two extract recipes I regularly use (which both loving own) I use the same process as I did when I steeped: mix the grain in once the water's around 160*, turn the heat off, and come back in 30. Even with a small cooler setup you're not going to be doing much more than that.
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Jan 5, 2012 04:29
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Plastic Jesus posted:My porter started at 1.08 on the nose and won't drop past 1.024 (been there for 10 days). I was shooting for 1.018 or so, any way to knudge it lower, or should I leave well enough alone? I've tried swirling the carboy to reinvigorate the yeast, but the lazy fuckers are just lying there in the trub. Warm it up a couple degrees and maybe give it another swirl if you're feeling fancy. I have no problem hitting 70-72 when the ferment slows to keep the yeast active. Beyond that, there's not much else to do unless you want to pitch krausen or something to try and get the last tiny little bits of fermentables out. It's also entirely possible that 1.024 is just where it's going to end. 1.080 is pretty drat high OG, and 1.024 is 68% apparent attenuation. What was the yeast?
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Jan 5, 2012 04:39
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Hypnolobster posted:Warm it up a couple degrees and maybe give it another swirl if you're feeling fancy. I have no problem hitting 70-72 when the ferment slows to keep the yeast active. Beyond that, there's not much else to do unless you want to pitch krausen or something to try and get the last tiny little bits of fermentables out. Yeast was Safale-05. I've only used it once before, for a beer of similar OG, and it finished at 1.020. In both cases the initial fermentation started quickly and was freaking nuts for a week. My apartment is basically 63-67* at all times, so I don't know if the yeast doesn't like the booze or the temp, or if that's just what it does. I think I'll wrap it with a hot water bottle and a towel and giving another swirl. It tastes fine, just a little thick, you know?
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Jan 5, 2012 05:18
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Carbonation should lighten it up on the palate, but higher than anticipated FGs really stick in my craw as well. Had a few early extract batches stall out on me and I've hated it ever since even though they wound up tasting fine.
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Jan 5, 2012 08:05
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Docjowles posted:If you have the kettle space, by all means just boil the full volume and ignore the top-up step. But be warned that on most stoves, it will take forever to get ~7 gallons to a boil and then forever to cool the wort to pitching temp afterward. This is one of the many reasons people upgrade to the outdoor propane burner setup with some sort of wort chiller if they decide to get at all serious about brewing. They're major quality of beer and quality of life improvements. I've got a wort chiller already (the first batch in ice water was the last straw) but I do totally need to get a propane burner. I've got a $150 gift certificate to my LHBS that I wanted to blow on some all-grain equipment, and so if I am to do that I'd need a good burner anyway. I'm not keen on spending hours outdoors in freezing weather so I guess this will probably wait two months or so until we're into March. In that meantime I also want to spend a fair bit of time experimenting though. I've been reading up on the BIAB technique and it seems like it might be fun to just whip up a 1-gallon batch on the stove every other weekend. Any caveats with that? I understand up front it certainly is not going to have the economy of scale of doing 5 gallons at once but I'm doing this more for the fun of making something and learning, and not so much to have a shitload of beer that's cheaper than buying it at the grocery store. The fact that I get beer out of it and it tastes better the more I do it is gravy. I assume I could just start out finding a recipe that looks promising to me, and cut the grain/hop bill in 1/5? Would a gallon jug wine bottle (only the finest from E&J Gallo) be adequate for fermenting if I used some fermcap to keep things from growing too much? kitten smoothie fucked around with this message at 08:46 on Jan 5, 2012 |
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Jan 5, 2012 08:41
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Yes to all those questions in the last paragraph. My advice would be to pick a couple hops you want to try and brew a bunch of single-hopped pale/amber ales, this way you can actually use a bunch of late additions won't be stuck with .5oz and .33oz of different leftovers from such small batches and no way to use them besides a kitchen-sink brew.
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Jan 5, 2012 09:15
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Actually, never mind. Reviews are too terrible to consider this useful.
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Jan 5, 2012 16:25
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kitten smoothie posted:I assume I could just start out finding a recipe that looks promising to me, and cut the grain/hop bill in 1/5? Would a gallon jug wine bottle (only the finest from E&J Gallo) be adequate for fermenting if I used some fermcap to keep things from growing too much? I've had problems with blowouts on 1-gallon carboys w/ 1-gallon batches in them, so you might consider a blowout tube instead of just an airlock. I actually started doing 1.5 gallon batches and splitting them into two 1 gallon carboys for fermentation, which worked much better for me. Plus you can try a couple of different infusions at a time if you want.
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Jan 5, 2012 16:40
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One more kegging question: Do I need to buy any of the special kits to clean and sanitize the kegs, or will it be easy to clean them with normal sanitizer?
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Jan 5, 2012 16:51
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They can be sanitized with normal sanitizer, certainly. For cleaning, OxiClean or PBW do a very good job, just as they do for fermenters and other equipment. Since that's all stuff I would use whether or not I had kegs, I don't really think that qualifies as a special kit.
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Jan 5, 2012 16:59
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^ Cool, thanks. I just wanted to make sure there wasn't any additional equipment I needed or anything for cleaning them.
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Jan 5, 2012 17:18
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All my cider is bottled now, I didn't have enough bottles so I had to put the last into plastic bottles. I am a bit fearful it might be screwed because when I opened the bucket there was a layer floating on top, looked like mold. Filtered it away and trasnferred to a new bucket I had just sterilized. I tasted it and it tasted like it always had so I just bottled it along with some extra sugar. I think it happened because after I transferred the stuff for clarification there was hardly any activity so no Co2 was made to get displace of all the oxygen inside the bucket. Maybe in the future one could inject carbon dioxide somehow and push out the air? Or maybe just add a little sugar to allow some further fermentation. 
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Jan 5, 2012 17:22
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Imaduck posted:^ Cool, thanks. I just wanted to make sure there wasn't any additional equipment I needed or anything for cleaning them. The only keg specific cleaning tool I bought was a dip tube brush.
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Jan 5, 2012 17:23
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His Divine Shadow posted:Where'd you get the sweet bottle cases from?
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Jan 5, 2012 18:12
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JohnnySmitch posted:Where'd you get the sweet bottle cases from? Those are the standard 24-bottle cases here in Finland, I got the cases along with empty bottles from my parents who've had them in a shed for ages.
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Jan 5, 2012 18:54
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His Divine Shadow posted:Those are the standard 24-bottle cases here in Finland  what size bottles are they? 341ml or 500?
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Jan 5, 2012 18:59
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mewse posted:
330ml is the standard size for the small bottles, the green and slightly bigger one on top are both 500ml bottles. The plastic ones on the side are 1.5 liters. e: also whats so amazing about all of this? I honestly don't get it. His Divine Shadow fucked around with this message at 19:52 on Jan 5, 2012 |
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Jan 5, 2012 19:28
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I wish they made shorter, more squat airlocks. I'm gonna have to build a new shelf in my fridge cause the airlocks are always right up against the ceiling and any movement can dislodge them or the airlock. I get worried easily.
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Jan 5, 2012 19:44
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His Divine Shadow posted:e: also whats so amazing about all of this? I honestly don't get it. here in canada we are standardized on 341ml twist-off bottles and they come in cardboard cases. it's worse in the united states where bottles aren't really standardized and afaik their average twist-off bottle isn't reusable because of thin glass. having cheap reusable plastic crates for bottles would be great, and 330ml non-threaded bottles would also be great for homebrewing, because what i'm using right now is threaded bottles with cardboard boxes that are slowly falling apart.
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Jan 5, 2012 19:51
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Oh I see. I dunno what the case itself costs but I don't think it's that expensive. Nowadays people usually never buy whole cases like these anymore, when you see them in the store it's usually just there for picking a few individual bottles from. Most people nowadays go for the cheaper 6 and 12 that are just paper cases that you rip apart. Threaded bottles though I have never seen here except for a few cheap brands in the German Lidl stores, other than that, those types of bottles are non-existent here.
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Jan 5, 2012 19:58
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indigi posted:I wish they made shorter, more squat airlocks. I'm gonna have to build a new shelf in my fridge cause the airlocks are always right up against the ceiling and any movement can dislodge them or the airlock. I get worried easily. Jam a hose in and run it to a bucket of sanitizer. Should allow enough clearance and still vent properly, although it'll take up more space overall.
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Jan 5, 2012 20:17
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I think returnable crates full of returnable bottles like that are still used in some parts of the world, but here in the US, returnable bottles are gone or nearly gone. A shame, too, as now homebrewers get bottles of varying shapes and sizes, and they are thinner and weaker. A standardized, high-quality bottle would be a pleasure to use.
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Jan 5, 2012 20:18
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Jo3sh posted:I think returnable crates full of returnable bottles like that are still used in some parts of the world, but here in the US, returnable bottles are gone or nearly gone. A shame, too, as now homebrewers get bottles of varying shapes and sizes, and they are thinner and weaker. A standardized, high-quality bottle would be a pleasure to use. Actually I've been seeing a lot more states on bottles to return. I can't recall what it was but something had at least 10 states it could be returned to for $0.05, which shocked me.
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Jan 5, 2012 20:21
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Midorka posted:Actually I've been seeing a lot more states on bottles to return. I can't recall what it was but something had at least 10 states it could be returned to for $0.05, which shocked me. That's a little different, though - or at least it is here in CA. Those deposits encourage recycling, which is grand, but the old way was actual reuse - the bottles would get washed and refilled rather than being melted down and recast.
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Jan 5, 2012 20:25
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Jo3sh posted:I think returnable crates full of returnable bottles like that are still used in some parts of the world, but here in the US, returnable bottles are gone or nearly gone. A shame, too, as now homebrewers get bottles of varying shapes and sizes, and they are thinner and weaker. A standardized, high-quality bottle would be a pleasure to use. These bottles here are returnable, I think the crates are as well but why would I want todo that. Infact now that I think about it, 99% of all bottles are returnable, you get 10 cents for every 330ml bottle or 15 cents for an aluminum can of the same size. More for bigger bottles.
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Jan 5, 2012 20:25
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His Divine Shadow posted:you get 10 cents for every 330ml bottle same value with canadian system
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Jan 5, 2012 20:28
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Looks like morebeer is taking pre-orders for rhizomes. Tempted to order a cascade to try my hand at it. I even bought a book that was supposed to be about growing hops and it had like ten pages. Anyone know of any good guides out there? Really needing some ideas for a trellis and how to cope with growing in the midwest.
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Jan 6, 2012 05:06
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