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I'm not trying to clone Bam Biere, I was just using it as an example of something with hallmarks of brett without over doing what it means to be a saison. I was never considering 100% brett for this beer since as mentioned I really want the stuff associated with a saison primary. The summary of my post is basically fishing for either a vouch for a Wyeast or White Labs blend, otherwise a recommendation of what strain of brett to pitch in secondary that won't be counter to a saison.
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Mar 30, 2012 01:58
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Going to be doing my first bottling tomorrow. Pretty excited, however judging by my hydrometer my beer is only going to be around 3.9% alcohol. Little bit disappointed with that. Hopefully I didnt take a great OG reading. Brewing with the Cooper's kit which came with "Brew Enhancer 1" as the sugar to add. Didnt really think anything of it at the time, but it turns out its a blend of dextrose and maltodextrin. Doing my own research I just figured out that maltodextrin isnt consumed by the yeast, so finding out what Brew Enhancer 1 is composed of makes this all make sense. Oh well. I'll just have to get my friends to help me blow through this batch so I can start on the next one. And I suppose this will also be a good lesson in what the positives maltodextrin can have. OK so my next batch is going to be a pilsner. Now coopers recommends using their 1 kg box of "Brew Enhancer 2" which appears to be a mix of dextrose, dry malt extract, and maltodextrin. Now does any of the dry malt extract get converted to alcohol or is it just the dextrose? However, I've done some research and it looks like people also make this with 1 kg dextrose, and 500 mg of dry malt extract. Would it turn out crazy if I made it like this?
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Mar 30, 2012 02:23
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Cowcatcher posted:Sorry, I didn't mean brewing -- the recipes I'm looking at use a "fermentation bucket" and then they transfer the must to a carboy. I'm just wondering if I have to transfer the must at all or can I just ferment it in the same carboy and then top it off with water once the must is done. You can do it all in the carboy if you want but it's a little harder to aerate the must and stir it up during primary. You don't really want to do primary for a 5 gallon batch in a 5 gallon carboy because it will foam up, come out the airlock and make a mess. You can use a blowoff tube, but it's easier to just use the fermentation bucket that has plenty of headspace. It can also be easier to get the lid off and stir up the must during primary, compared to having to rock a very full carboy enough to mix it up. Ideally you would mix the must up in a big pot on the stove, rack it into a fermentation bucket, add the yeast nutrients, aerate it by stirring vigorously for a few minutes, then pitch the yeast. Keep an eye on the fermentation with hydrometer readings and add more nutrient according to whatever schedule you decide to use. When primary is finished then you'd rack to a carboy where it's ready for flavoring with fruits and/or spices (although some put them in the primary too). Carboys are best for aging the mead since they'll have small headspaces. You may want to rack one or more additional times depending on how much stuff settles out on the bottom. I strongly suggest not topping up the must. If you do, make sure it is boiled water that has cooled, preferably from jugs of bottled water. The chlorine in tap water can cause some really foul off flavors, don't ask me how I know. I've used mostly Lalvin dry yeasts so far. I was surprised with how well baker's yeast worked though. I'm pretty happy with how Lalvin DV10 turned out with my latest cyser, but I don't really have enough experience to talk about the different varieties. The main mead making book is The Compleat Meadmaker by Ken Schramm. He has a list of about 15 different types of yeast (with specific strain numbers from the commercial yeast labs) and a paragraph each describing them. If this is your first time brewing mead or brewing at all you might want to try starting with a few 1 gallon batches for practice. It's also a good way to try different yeasts. Mix up 5 gallons of must and pitch 5 different yeasts, or experiment with different spices or fruits in each one.
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Mar 30, 2012 02:28
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Les Oeufs posted:Going to be doing my first bottling tomorrow. Pretty excited, however judging by my hydrometer my beer is only going to be around 3.9% alcohol. Little bit disappointed with that. What was the actual number you got for OG and FG, and how does it line up with the kit's recipe specs? There just aren't that many variables to mess up in an extract kit, so it's pretty hard to miss your intended OG unless you added way too much water. It can be hard to MEASURE it accurately, though, since it's tough to get the extract to fully and evenly dissolve. So one reading might be super high and another might be super low, but in reality you're fine. If the FG is above say, 1.018, it's probably not done and if you bottle you're sure to get bottle bombs.
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Mar 30, 2012 03:21
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Cpt.Wacky posted:compared to having to rock a very full carboy enough to mix it up. Is it okay to just pick it up and shake it? How vigorous is too vigorous?
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Mar 30, 2012 03:40
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Splizwarf posted:Is it okay to just pick it up and shake it? How vigorous is too vigorous? If you're stupid strong, sure. I use glass carboys so one of those full of liquid is pretty drat heavy. The goal is to get the lees mixed back up into solution. Rocking usually works but sometimes the lees can pack down and it's easier to use a nice long spoon. I suppose that would work in a carboy too if the spoon was small enough to fit in the neck, but it's easier in a bucket with the lid off.
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Mar 30, 2012 05:25
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Cpt.Wacky posted:If you're stupid strong, sure. I use glass carboys so one of those full of liquid is pretty drat heavy. The goal is to get the lees mixed back up into solution. Rocking usually works but sometimes the lees can pack down and it's easier to use a nice long spoon. I suppose that would work in a carboy too if the spoon was small enough to fit in the neck, but it's easier in a bucket with the lid off. Roughly 70 pounds if it's glass, not that bad if you can pick up your kids. I'd imagine two people working together with a carboy carrier (the strappy style) could shake one pretty easily too. Keeping it sealed is appealing. We are doing a mead soon, got a huge bucket of honey ready to go.
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Mar 30, 2012 05:37
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Cpt.Wacky posted:You can do it all in the carboy if you want but it's a little harder to aerate the must and stir it up during primary. You don't really want to do primary for a 5 gallon batch in a 5 gallon carboy because it will foam up, come out the airlock and make a mess. You can use a blowoff tube, but it's easier to just use the fermentation bucket that has plenty of headspace. It can also be easier to get the lid off and stir up the must during primary, compared to having to rock a very full carboy enough to mix it up. I've made a one gallon batch with baker's yeast and either I was incredibly lucky or it's very easy to do a small batch. I got a few 50l carboys (used and very cheap), and that's why I wanted to ferment in the carboy - I don't have a huge bucket and I didn't want to do a smaller must and then top it off with water. In case I am fermenting in a bucket, I have to make a hole in the lid and insert the airlock, right?
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Mar 30, 2012 14:05
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Make sure there's a rubber grommet in the hole, to make a good seal with the airlock. My LHBS sells them and I'd imagine a hardware store would too (dunno what section, though).
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Mar 30, 2012 14:15
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Grommets suck rear end. Use a stopper.
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Mar 30, 2012 15:37
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The buckets my LHBS sells have a lid with a large hole for a stopper. The hole is just big enough to get the thief in for samples too.
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Mar 30, 2012 15:54
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Doing my first direct-fired mash tonight. I'm pretty excited about it, as my cooler mash tun has pretty much poo poo-the-bed (delaminating plastic on the inside from usage). I'm going to do a thinner mash--probably upping the water from 1.3qt/lb to 2 or 2.5....at least as an initial precaution. Any other tips? Does anyone else direct fire their mashes here?
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Mar 30, 2012 15:59
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Jo3sh posted:Grommets suck rear end. Use a stopper. Mine keep backing themselves out of the carboy (and I don't mean slowly under pressure, I mean quickly, right after racking), and I bought one of every size in case it was because I had the wrong one. I didn't, they all do it. Haven't had any grommet problems yet, though. v  v
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Mar 30, 2012 15:59
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Splizwarf posted:Is it okay to just pick it up and shake it? How vigorous is too vigorous? Please please be careful when picking up and shaking carboys. My wife had one explode in her hands while sanitizing a few weeks ago. She was extremely lucky to only get a single cut. I strongly recommend tilting on the ground and rocking rather than picking them up. I've broken a few carboys now, and it's never a clean break, pieces get everywhere. Our LHBS owner has stated the worst accidents he's ever heard of was from breaking carboys. Anyway, just want goons to be safe. 
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Mar 30, 2012 17:47
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Trane posted:My wife had one explode in her hands while sanitizing a few weeks ago. Um what? How? Did she bash it against something? I've broken two myself. One I was cleaning; filled up with ~160F water, and then thermally shocked it with tap at ~50F. Sat there and looked at it and felt incredibly dumb. The second I dropped with a 1.082 wert I had just finished. It literally bounced, and then on the second hit looked like a building that imploded.I had too much cleaning ahead of me at with that one to have time for being pissed at myself. Point being, both times I've broken a carboy it was clearly my fault. They don't tend to just explode.
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Mar 30, 2012 20:58
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drewhead posted:Um what? How? Did she bash it against something? ...why not just get a PET one? I mean, is there a legit reason to buy a glass carboy over plastic? (Also I did the same thing you did, only when I put almost boiling water into a plastic carboy, instead of shattering, it sorta melted and shrunk.  I then owed my friend who lent me his equipment a new 6gal carboy. My excuse was it was my very first batch of homebrew.)
Sirotan fucked around with this message at 21:29 on Mar 30, 2012 |
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Mar 30, 2012 21:18
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Sirotan posted:...why not just get a PET one? I mean, is there a reason legit reason to buy a glass carboy over plastic? I might be wrong but I believe glass carboy has way less 02 permeability than PET does?
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Mar 30, 2012 21:26
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drewhead posted:Um what? How? Did she bash it against something? To be honest, we aren't completely positive on the actual cause. It was brand new at the time, so it's possible the glass had a flaw we didn't notice. She had put in a gallon-gallon and a half of sanitizer and covered the opening with saran wrap, picked it up with both hands and shook pretty vigorously. In the past, we've covered it with foil, so it's also possible the lack of any pressure relief could've built up inside. I agree that I've broken two carboys (on one instance, that sucked) and it was clearly my fault. This was a very strange accident, so just wanted to warn folks of the possibility. lazerwolf posted:I might be wrong but I believe glass carboy has way less 02 permeability than PET does? That's my understanding as well, I've never used PET bottles, but have had success using plastic buckets for primary. We tend to dryhop and use oak chips as well, and for longer periods of secondary/conditioning I greatly prefer glass. R2Brew fucked around with this message at 21:37 on Mar 30, 2012 |
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Mar 30, 2012 21:34
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PET degrades over time and contaminates whatever's in it with antimony and other fun stuff. Glass shouldn't leach anything during non-mad-scientist usage. Glass is easier to clean, too, is much less likely to harbor bacteria or mold, and lasts forever. And it looks nicer. 
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Mar 30, 2012 21:45
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I am borderline retarded, so anything that makes it harder for me to break it, lose precious booze and injure myself is important to me I swear we've had this debate before, and someone pointed out that opening your glass carboy even once to take a gravity sample lets in more O2 than diffuses in over an entire year in plastic. So that advantage seems moot to me. And my Better Bottles are plenty easy to clean; just fill with PBW solution and forget about them for a couple days. Dump it out and they are good as new.
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Mar 30, 2012 22:42
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I think I remember the debate too, and it wound up being something like glass being better than better bottles for permeability, but by such a tiny margin that it doesn't really matter unless you're doing some incredibly long bulk aging (i.e. sours, but if you're aging sours you really want to do that in glass for infection reasons anyway).
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Mar 30, 2012 23:11
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Could I get some feedback on this brew? I'm aiming for a refreshing yet flavorful hot weather rye wheat. I wanted some sweetness from the honey malt to balance out the tart from the wheat and rye malts, but never having used it before I'm not sure what a good amount would be. It fits within the Weizen style guidelines with the exception of IBUs, which I'm attempting to use to insure against using too much honey malt as well as help stand up to the rye. 
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Mar 30, 2012 23:12
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Glass is less permeable than PET like water is less flammable than rocks. Plastic byproducts is almost kind of a worthwhile reason if you are worried about such things. I have trouble putting it into perspective considering I am using that vessel to make poison to drink for fun.
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Mar 30, 2012 23:16
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icehewk posted:Could I get some feedback on this brew? I'm aiming for a refreshing yet flavorful hot weather rye wheat. I wanted some sweetness from the honey malt to balance out the tart from the wheat and rye malts, but never having used it before I'm not sure what a good amount would be. It fits within the Weizen style guidelines with the exception of IBUs, which I'm attempting to use to insure against using too much honey malt as well as help stand up to the rye. I have a rye witbier fermenting right now, so I can get back to you in a few weeks?  For what it's worth I used 15% rye malt.
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Mar 31, 2012 00:31
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zedprime posted:Glass is less permeable than PET like water is less flammable than rocks. I just wanted to say that this is the best post.
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Mar 31, 2012 00:46
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Anyone worried about breaking a glass carboy, I have one awesome piece of advice. Get yourself some plastic milk crates. They are the best thing ever for holding 6.5 and 5 gallon carboys. the 6.5 gallon ones fit like a glove, and make carrying them so much easier. They also absorb shock well enough to prevent most major disasters.
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Mar 31, 2012 03:01
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icehewk posted:Could I get some feedback on this brew? I'm aiming for a refreshing yet flavorful hot weather rye wheat. I wanted some sweetness from the honey malt to balance out the tart from the wheat and rye malts, but never having used it before I'm not sure what a good amount would be. It fits within the Weizen style guidelines with the exception of IBUs, which I'm attempting to use to insure against using too much honey malt as well as help stand up to the rye. That recipe looks pretty solid to me, although 70% rye and wheat could make for one hell of a stuck mash. I would use some rice hulls and do a beta glucan rest for at least 20 minutes. You could get by with just 8 oz of honey malt and still get a decent flavor from it in a beer like that, although 12 oz definitely wouldn't be too much.
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Mar 31, 2012 09:52
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For some reason, I never got around to drinking much of my IPA I bottled a month or so ago, and now it seems way overcarbonated and dry. It's not a bad flavor, but I basically have to de-gas it with a fork if I want to drink it without it actually burning my throat from over carbing. I can't wait to move to kegging in a month or two.
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Mar 31, 2012 11:21
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Sirotan posted:...why not just get a PET one? I mean, is there a legit reason to buy a glass carboy over plastic? I recognize that this is an honest question, but you should know the answer(s) have sparked holy wars in the past. I just like glass better. The O2 argument is a bunch of hooey as far as I'm concerned given the time in which most homebrew is consumed and the issue with plastic wearing out can be mitigated somewhat by cost factors. If you're going to ferment in PET you might as well go for a bucket as many people in this thread do. But I'm not here to tell anyone that what I like is better than what they like. Go PET if you like and miss out on all the fun and interesting stories about how you broke your glass carboy if that's what you want.
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Mar 31, 2012 15:22
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Direct fire mashing was a success. I've struggled with mash pH in the past--really only making stellar stouts/browns/milds because our water has too much residual alkalinity. SOOOOO, on an impromptu pale ale brew to empty all the residual hops in the fridge using base grains and carafoam, we decided to resurrect a technique previously considered irrelevant the ACID REST. This works. I was floored. Dropped our pH down to 5.3 in the mash. We didn't have any additives to change pH by more conventional means because this was an impromptu brew. Pretty psyched to see how this turns out. All our pales have either started with an astringent taste or have degraded into that, and it seems to be a product of our ignoring pH.
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Mar 31, 2012 15:30
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My first brew day. I have just heated the water and I already had a screw up. The water was practically boiling and my lovely floating thermometer still read 120F. Then my daughter accidentally broke it on the counter. So my wife ran out and bought a digital candy thermometer at the supermarket. It read 209F. Back on track now! Steeping my Belgian dubbel grains now. How do I go about aerating the beer when I put it into my Mr. Beer? Should I just shake it around after I pour it in? Whisk it? (edit) LME is delicious. The Dregs fucked around with this message at 16:52 on Mar 31, 2012 |
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Mar 31, 2012 16:11
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The Dregs posted:LME is delicious. DME makes the best ice cream malts ever. Alt.binaries.sticke-bunnies today, another crack at a Dusseldorf altbier.
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Mar 31, 2012 17:35
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Docjowles posted:I have a rye witbier fermenting right now, so I can get back to you in a few weeks? Oy! Can't keep crushed grains waiting around that long, else I'll just keep munching on them. How much wheat did you use? Josh Wow posted:That recipe looks pretty solid to me, although 70% rye and wheat could make for one hell of a stuck mash. I would use some rice hulls and do a beta glucan rest for at least 20 minutes. You could get by with just 8 oz of honey malt and still get a decent flavor from it in a beer like that, although 12 oz definitely wouldn't be too much. How do I do a beta glucan rest? I'm using BIAB so there's no drain to be plugged up. Think I'll still throw in some rice hulls for insurance/cleaning.
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Mar 31, 2012 17:55
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icehewk posted:Oy! Can't keep crushed grains waiting around that long, else I'll just keep munching on them. How much wheat did you use? 35% pilsner malt 35% flaked wheat 15% rye malt 15% flaked oats The Dregs posted:How do I go about aerating the beer when I put it into my Mr. Beer? Should I just shake it around after I pour it in? Whisk it? Yeah pretty much, pour in as vigorously as you can and shake it around.
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Mar 31, 2012 18:34
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Had one of the last bottles of my key lime wit yesterday night that I brewed in November. Unfortunately, I found that I had accidentally used a screw top bottle and the seal was bad, meaning that I had close to zero carbonation and a crazy amount of oxidation. I understand now what people mean by the 'wet cardboard' taste. Yuck.
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Mar 31, 2012 21:15
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zedprime posted:Glass is less permeable than PET like water is less flammable than rocks. I use glass carboys for stuff like cider just because I have a couple that were given to me, found cheap, etc. I don't like using them at all. I've broken one once and cut a clean 3" incision into my right ankle between the ankle bone and the Achilles tendon. It was easily the worst cut I've ever had (and I get lots and lots of minor injuries, so that's saying something). Starsan and blood look very awful together on the laundry room floor. Be loving careful with glass carboys, those fuckers can literally kill/disfigure/handicap you. Half an inch away and it would have cut right through my goddamn Achilles tendon.
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Mar 31, 2012 22:47
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My wife bought me a brew kit for my birthday from Brooklyn brew shop or something like that. It's a 1 gallon kit that came with some grain and hops for an ipa. If I like this, can I go somewhere and buy hops and grain and use this kit, or am I goin to need to buy some other stuff? I know I could go to their website and buy their premade kits but I wanna see whats out there...as it seems I could buy the stuff cheaper elsewhere.
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Apr 1, 2012 02:40
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Most ingredient kits are going to be malt extract, specialty grains, hops and yeast. You can buy all of those individually at a local home brew store or online from places like Northern Brewer, MoreBeer, and a dozen others. Most of them sell kits they put together from their bulk ingredients, with some approaching 50 cents per bottle. 1 gallon batches are fairly small. Most recipes are targeted at 5 gallons but they can be adapted to 1 gallon. You may have trouble buying hops in small enough quantities for single 1 gallon batches though. Assuming it's this type of kit you're still going to need priming sugar, bottles, caps and a bottle capper for bottling. I'm getting back to beer brewing this weekend and I started with a Blonde Ale extract kit this afternoon. I pitched Safale US-05 with the wort at about 77 F. Ambient temperature is going to be 63 F and I'm reading that the sweet spot for US-05 is 65 F, so with the extra heat from fermentation I should be pretty close, right? I also read about raising the temperature near the end, what effect does that have?
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Apr 1, 2012 03:04
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Cpt.Wacky posted:Most ingredient kits are going to be malt extract, specialty grains, hops and yeast. You can buy all of those individually at a local home brew store or online from places like Northern Brewer, MoreBeer, and a dozen others. Most of them sell kits they put together from their bulk ingredients, with some approaching 50 cents per bottle. That is the kit I got...the instructions don't mention priming sugar at all...but I need to pick up a capper and some caps...I've been saving bottles though.
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Apr 1, 2012 03:25
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nwin posted:now I know with ipa, the longer it sits on the shelf, the worse it gets. Is it the same for actual hops? Or could I just freeze the unused portion and it would be fine? Hops do lose a little of their luster as they age (aged hops are used on purpose in lambics), but if they're kept cool (refrigerated or frozen) and vacuum sealed they'll be fine for at least 6 months and possibly longer.
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Apr 1, 2012 08:56
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