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Cpt.Wacky posted:I'm planning to make up a number of 1 gallon batches of plain mead with different yeast varieties soon. I can document and post results if there's any interest. I'd be keen on hearing about this!
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Jul 27, 2012 11:05
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CalvinDooglas posted:Batches of 1-3 gallons would be awesome because the small size hedges against the loss in the event of a brewing error. If I spend $20 on 1 gal of beer and it sucks, it's no big loss; if it's good, I can always scale it up to a 5+ gal batch later on. I can probably spend $20 and get 5+ gallons doing some styles as all grain. On a different note, I have a buddy who owns a (licensed) distillery next to a brewery. He was talking to the brewer there about how I was looking for an internship for school and we'll be chatting tonight about me coming to work in the brewery.
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Jul 27, 2012 15:36
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Josh Wow posted:The point I was trying to make is that with such a small batch size there is absolutely no room for error. You might wait 3 weeks for your beer to be fully carbed before trying it, but if it didn't fully carb then you only have one more beer to try. Plus beers change over the course of just a few weeks, sometimes dramatically so. I've had beers I didn't think were great at first but after a couple weeks were good enough that I brewed them again. Correct me if I'm wrong but wouldn't a 1g batch yield a little over 10 bottles? I still don't think 1g batches are worth the time and effort, especially if the beer turns out really good. I am sort of interested in 3 gallon BIAB all grain batches but I don't really have the right sized carboy to make that happen. lazerwolf fucked around with this message at 15:43 on Jul 27, 2012 |
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Jul 27, 2012 15:41
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All this 1gal batch chat has reminded me that I'd like to take 2nd runnings off all of my brews (2gal if I can) and pitch the same franken-yeast that I've got; it's WB-06 and some sour-blend thing another brewer gave me. It's wheat yeast and regular sac and buggies of some sort. This a good idea or a great idea?
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Jul 27, 2012 15:49
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Partigyle is a great idea.lazerwolf posted:Correct me if I'm wrong but wouldn't a 1g batch yield a little over 10 bottles? I still don't think 1g batches are worth the time and effort, especially if the beer turns out really good. I am sort of interested in 3 gallon BIAB all grain batches but I don't really have the right sized carboy to make that happen. 8-10 bottles for the 1 gal batches I've brewed. I think 3 gallons is much more reasonable for a test batch. You can BIAB on the kitchen stove which means a hell of a lot less cleaning and digging out equipment, but you still end up with a bit over a case of bottles. Also a yeast starter isn't necessary most of the time. e: you can ferment 3 gallons in a 5-6.5 gallon bucket just fine but I wouldn't transfer it to a secondary* that size. Also a 3 gallon better bottle is like $20 so definitely pick one up if you're interested in 3 gallon batches. *I'm pretty much done with secondary fermentation. Unless it's a lager or a really big beer (that might spend a few months in the bucket) I just don't think it's worth the risk of contamination and the effort of transferring it. Galler fucked around with this message at 18:22 on Jul 27, 2012 |
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Jul 27, 2012 16:07
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Daedalus Esquire posted:I can probably spend $20 and get 5+ gallons doing some styles as all grain. You're not factoring in the several hundred dollars in upfront equipment costs, though, which is what Calvin wants to avoid. Even with BIAB you're talking about a propane burner, tank, wort chiller, and large pot.
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Jul 27, 2012 16:08
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wattershed posted:It's not nearly as wasteful though if you crank out 20oz of garbage instead of 5g. Nothing like planning for failure. I mean, sometimes you have to plan for contingencies (a major portion of my job is planning for 'what do we do if <unlikely thing> happens?), but in the case of hobbies, the much more likely case is that you will kick yourself for not having made more. I say get yourself a 3-gallon Better Bottle and do some 2.5 gallon batches. That's big enough to get a fair return on effort, small enough to take up a small amount of space and to not be economically painful if something fails, and an easy conversion factor from 5- or 10-gallon batch sizes.
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Jul 27, 2012 16:21
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Angry Grimace posted:I'm still confused about why the keg salesman *always* seem to recommend 5 feet of beverage line. I've seen guys from kegconnection, MoreBeer, etc. all recommend 5 feet as a rule with a bunch of science apparently behind it but I to a rule always get better results and less foam (if a slower pour) with 10 feet of line. Yeah, I was working off a 5ft line and it was always overly foamy. For my last keg I bought a 14ft line for mundane logistical reasons, and it was a perfect pour every time.
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Jul 27, 2012 18:15
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I need some advice, home brewing goons. A good friend of mine recently got into brewing and appears to be totally hooked. I think he's 5-6 brews in at this point. He's getting married in a few months and I wanted to get him a good gift related to the hobby. My initial thought was to get him some equipment to expand his capacity, but I'd probably get the wrong stuff. Then it hit me: I happen to be pretty good with photoshop so maybe I should get him some custom bottles and/or caps made! Would this be a good gift for a home brewer? Have any of you ever done something like this and can recommend a vendor?
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Jul 27, 2012 20:04
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Trustfund. posted:I need some advice, home brewing goons. A good friend of mine recently got into brewing and appears to be totally hooked. I think he's 5-6 brews in at this point. He's getting married in a few months and I wanted to get him a good gift related to the hobby. My initial thought was to get him some equipment to expand his capacity, but I'd probably get the wrong stuff. Then it hit me: I happen to be pretty good with photoshop so maybe I should get him some custom bottles and/or caps made! Custom caps: http://www.bottlemark.com/
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Jul 27, 2012 20:14
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Trustfund. posted:I need some advice, home brewing goons. A good friend of mine recently got into brewing and appears to be totally hooked. I think he's 5-6 brews in at this point. He's getting married in a few months and I wanted to get him a good gift related to the hobby. My initial thought was to get him some equipment to expand his capacity, but I'd probably get the wrong stuff. Then it hit me: I happen to be pretty good with photoshop so maybe I should get him some custom bottles and/or caps made! What would be a good gift depends what he already has. I've never seen a custom cap type thing and caps are pretty inexpensive. I personally like having blank caps too because I use a sharpie to mark what the beer inside the bottle is on the cap. The problem with labeling in general is that bottling is already a huge pain in the rear end and I don't label them because it takes a really long time to put labels on 50 bottles.
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Jul 27, 2012 20:14
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I have no idea if it's available on the hobbyist scale, but some bombers with a cool logo printed directly on the glass would be pretty baller. Like what Stone does, or New Belgium on their Lips of Faith beers. The stuff they use seems drat near indestructible so you could reuse the bottles across many batches. Maybe include a blank white patch to write in the name of the individual beer with a sharpie or something. vvv doh, that's too bad. Docjowles fucked around with this message at 20:20 on Jul 27, 2012 |
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Jul 27, 2012 20:16
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Docjowles posted:I have no idea if it's available on the hobbyist scale, but some bombers with a cool logo printed directly on the glass would be pretty baller. Like what Stone does, or New Belgium on their Lips of Faith beers. The stuff they use seems drat near indestructible so you could reuse the bottles across many batches. Maybe include a blank white patch to write in the name of the individual beer with a sharpie or something.
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Jul 27, 2012 20:18
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Angry Grimace posted:What would be a good gift depends what he already has. Yea that makes sense now that I think about it. He's currently using a kit similar to the one in the OP and says he "wants to move into kegs ASAP, but can't quite afford it right now." Is there any kind of standard equipment around $200-$300 I that would get him closer to that goal? He said he wants to make something called a keezer, if that gives you an idea of the direction he wants to go.
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Jul 27, 2012 20:36
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poo poo, for $200-300, you can just buy a keg kit straight up. (Note that the kit prices on that page do NOT include a CO2 tank or kegs.) http://stores.kegconnection.com/Categories.bok?category=*Homebrew+Kegerator+Kits%3ABall+Lock+Kits%3AStandard+Kits%3ABasic+Kits
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Jul 27, 2012 20:47
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Trustfund. posted:Yea that makes sense now that I think about it. He's currently using a kit similar to the one in the OP and says he "wants to move into kegs ASAP, but can't quite afford it right now." Is there any kind of standard equipment around $200-$300 I that would get him closer to that goal? He said he wants to make something called a keezer, if that gives you an idea of the direction he wants to go. Buy a chest freezer on Craigslist for like 20-30 bucks, buy a temp controller for like 50 (you sometimes have to manually wire them when they're that cheap), then buy either a kegging kit (~$180) or buy all the parts individually to save money: some kegs (like 40-50 bucks each), some lines, disconnects and taps (~20 bucks). Then all you need is a CO2 regulator and a canister. I'm not sure on how much the cheapest CO2 tank will cost, but a regulator is like $45 bucks new. I think altogether you wouldn't eclipse that $300 mark if you really looked around. Angry Grimace fucked around with this message at 21:09 on Jul 27, 2012 |
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Jul 27, 2012 21:04
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For the temperature controller, the Ranco ETC 111000 is <$50 on ebay (patriot supply is the poo poo, $46, free shipping) and I think that's still the de facto standard for kegerator temperature controllers. They're dirt simple to set up and wire. As for the CO2 tank, just don't buy a new one. You can generally get them from your LHBS and they'll handle refills (by way of just exchanging the tank) and hydrostatic testing and whatever. Unless you care that your CO2 tank has a few dings and scratches, in which case, 
Bad Munki fucked around with this message at 21:20 on Jul 27, 2012 |
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Jul 27, 2012 21:16
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A keg kit would pretty much be the best gift you could give a homebrewer. The kits can kind of be all over the place though so a possibility would be to get him a dual body regulator, CO2 tank, a couple kegs, and some cash so he can build the system just the way he wants it.
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Jul 27, 2012 21:20
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I have nothing but good words to say about kegconnection.com, after building my own, helping a friend with another, and having seen multiple people work with them. They're good folks and they'll get you what you need.
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Jul 27, 2012 21:20
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Awesome. I'm going to review these suggestions and put together a solid goodie bag. I'll make sure to run everything by you all first. Thanks for the help!
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Jul 27, 2012 21:28
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Sooo when sloshing around a carboy, the bubbling coming through the airlock is CO2 in suspension in the beer, right?? I racked an IPA to a glass carboy and chucked in the dry hops. Carrying it down to the basement, it got fairly churny on the way down. Paranoid about oxidation.
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Jul 27, 2012 21:40
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Thinking about getting a chest freezer for cheap on CL to use as a fermentation chamber. Is it ok to ferment in a closed space? VVV yeah CO2 poisoning is no joke, I didn't even think about that! lazerwolf fucked around with this message at 22:10 on Jul 27, 2012 |
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Jul 27, 2012 21:45
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global tetrahedron posted:Sooo when sloshing around a carboy, the bubbling coming through the airlock is CO2 in suspension in the beer, right?? I racked an IPA to a glass carboy and chucked in the dry hops. Carrying it down to the basement, it got fairly churny on the way down. Paranoid about oxidation. Yeah you're fine. That's pretty much the definition of an airlock, air only travels one way. And after a good strong fermentation, the gas in the carboy should be nearly 100% CO2. lazerwolf posted:Thinking about getting a chest freezer for cheap on CL to use as a fermentation chamber. Is it ok to ferment in a closed space? I do that all the time. Just don't start taking deep breaths when you stick your head down in the freezer to grab a carboy or clean; it's full of CO2 and you could knock yourself out. Sounds dumb but I'm serious 
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Jul 27, 2012 21:46
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And on that note, gently caress glass carboys, seriously. I feel like I am in mortal danger whenever I carry them. I know about milk crates/carboy straps but on principle, I hate lugging around 50 lb plus glass bottles. poo poo is scary. Especially when I've got to carry things down to the basement due to the temp. So glad I've got a better bottle.
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Jul 27, 2012 21:54
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lazerwolf posted:Thinking about getting a chest freezer for cheap on CL to use as a fermentation chamber. Is it ok to ferment in a closed space? I fermented an Imp. Stout and a Amber ale in there at the same time and it was pretty thick in there, but CO2 is really heavy and not going to just fly in your face, it will stay in the bottom of the freezer; I usually put my vacuum hose in the bottom every couple days to keep it from accumulating too thick.
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Jul 27, 2012 22:25
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lazerwolf posted:Correct me if I'm wrong but wouldn't a 1g batch yield a little over 10 bottles? I still don't think 1g batches are worth the time and effort, especially if the beer turns out really good. I am sort of interested in 3 gallon BIAB all grain batches but I don't really have the right sized carboy to make that happen. That guy was talking about doing 20 oz batches. I think 1 gallon is generally too small but it does get you 8-10 beers. For small batches 2.5-3 gallons is where it's at, since you end up with a case of beer. I do high gravity 3 gallon batches sometimes so I don't have to do a starter and don't have to worry about drinking 2 cases of 10% beer.
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Jul 27, 2012 22:35
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U.S. Barryl posted:Could someone describe the off flavors from fermenting at too high a temp? We keep our house around 72F year round, and pretty much every beer I've made has been "off" somehow. There's a certain twang? I can't describe it, but I'm wondering if it has to do with fermenting too hot. I don't think it's an infection, because deep down it still tastes like beer only not good. Besides, I sanitize things compulsively. I have a feeling you will find your pumpkin spiced beer is clearly your best yet, unless you over-spiced it of course  Temperature control may be the Single Most Important Variable in brewing beer. I would say it's even more important than sanitation. If you forget to wash your keg, your beer will probably be ok if you keep it cold, like you would during force carbonation and serving. If you ferment too hot, nothing will save it. I've found that with the common dry yeasts, nottingham, us 05, s04 that over 72* the beer becomes clearly "a homebrew" and over 76-77* becomes straight up bad or unpalatable. Green apple, cider, vinegar, alcohol, rocket fuel, and rubbing alcohol are commonly encountered flavors when your beer runs wild. I've got my first 5 batches of homebrew at the bottom of the pantry waiting for the day they will be drinkable. Every few months I'll try one just for kicks and they though they are crystal clear and awesome looking, they are now possibly even worse because everything except the off flavors has faded.  The good thing is most common ale yeasts finish up the fermentation within 2-3 days of it beginning. I once pitched half of yeast cake from a 6% porter into a 1.12 OG imperial stout. The next day the stout was at 1.016. I added sugar and ended up with a dry stout at 13% ABV that was fully done fermenting after 30 hours. The entire thing took place at 64-66*f and there were no off flavors. In hindsight I would have pitched much less yeast (maybe 2 cups slurry, tops) because the beer came out very neutral and way drier than any commercial stout. At that ABV it was a ridiculously easy drinking sleeper than surprised many friends/family. It drank more like a london porter than a marshall zukhov, but that suites my taste as I have been a fanatic about dry, refreshing beer over the past year.
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Jul 28, 2012 00:02
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tesilential posted:I have a feeling you will find your pumpkin spiced beer is clearly your best yet, unless you over-spiced it of course Thanks for your advice and the advice from everyone else. I'm bottling the pumpkin tonight, so I'll taste a final sample, but from smelling it earlier, I already know I did something right with this one. It was a big mistake thinking that my 72F basement was just fine for fermenting. I have several friends who don't attempt temp control and their beers are great, but their electricity bills must be through the roof keeping their homes so cool. If this current beer turns out great, I'm going to consider a fridge with temp controller, so I don't have to mess with frozen water bottles anymore.
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Jul 28, 2012 01:41
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Anyone ever made a fruit beer with fresh cherries? I have 4 pounds each of Rainier cherries and an unknown tart cherry in my freezer that I picked last weekend. I also brewed a blonde ale which I plan to rack onto the cherries in 2 different carboys (2.5 gal into each). I have heard a lot of mixed things about how to handle the cherries. From, do nothing and throw them frozen into the carboy to needing to pit each cherry, puree and pasteurize at 160 for 10 minutes then add pectic enzyme. At this point I was thinking of just heating the whole cherries to 160 for 10 minutes, mashing them up as best I can in the pot and adding them to the carboy like that, racking the beer over when it cools. Pitting hundreds of cherries by hand sounds like a huge pain. Anyone have any recommendations?
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Jul 28, 2012 23:07
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I'm actually curious about the viability of using wild yeast that's on the surface of foraged foods. There is an apple tree up the street that I've been given permission to pick from, and have considered doing another jar of fermented something with wild apple skin yeast.
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Jul 28, 2012 23:24
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CalvinDooglas posted:I'm actually curious about the viability of using wild yeast that's on the surface of foraged foods. There is an apple tree up the street that I've been given permission to pick from, and have considered doing another jar of fermented something with wild apple skin yeast. It can be done - there's a winery in the Napa Valley called Husch that does (or did) a "Renegade" Chardonnay by (they said) just crushing the grapes and then letting them go with no sulfites to knock down the yeast on the skins and no pure culture pitched. I recall it having a little funk to it but not a huge amount. When my wife and I were in their tasting room (this was maybe ten years ago), they told us it was risky and did not always work, but when it did, it was really good. I can agree with the good part anyway, but I was not there for any failures. I think it would be fun to press some apples and see how it turned out without intervention. I do recall that the one cider orchard near my old home town used to sell their sweet cider so cold it was slushy just to keep it from fermenting out, and when I asked them about fermenting it for hard cider they said it would definitely ferment, but then would go sour. So check it out and let us know.
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Jul 28, 2012 23:37
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Give it a shot! There's a good chance the flavor will be pretty funky but it should be safe. You might end up with your very own yeast strain that no one has ever brewed with before.
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Jul 28, 2012 23:46
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CalvinDooglas posted:I'm actually curious about the viability of using wild yeast that's on the surface of foraged foods. There is an apple tree up the street that I've been given permission to pick from, and have considered doing another jar of fermented something with wild apple skin yeast. Someone correct me if I'm off base, but this is more or less why we have lambic. Source: "Wild Brews". Historically, brewers in Brussels just happened to be near some cherry orchards. Wild yeast likes to grow on fruit. Belgian brewers conducted open fermentations--meaning whatever stuff in the air could just get into the wort--and hundreds of years ago people didn't even know yeast/bacteria existed so sanitation wasn't a big thing. They also fermented in wooden barrels because that's what they had. Microorganisms do very well in wood. Combine all these factors, and "wild yeast from foraged food" is basically why we have one of the most highly regarded beer styles in the world. TLDR it will produce booze, whether it'll be good is just up to experimentation. You could pitch some normal brewers yeast then add the apples in secondary if you want to hedge against it sucking. Seems like a perfect small batch experiment, though!
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Jul 29, 2012 07:41
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I'm a little late to the small batch chat, but I figured I'd give my two cents. I'm currently running baby's first homebrew kit. It's a 2.5 gallon Mr. Beer and I've just made my second brew. The first beer I made, the one that came with the kit, was extremely unremarkable. It sorta tasted like the day after a frat party. For the second batch I used a proper recipe from a local homebrew store and everything that could go wrong did. That said, I'm here drinking a beer right now that I made at a reasonable price point and it is incredibly satisfying. The fermenting vessel that comes with this kit is 2.5 gallons and it's a wonderful size. Ingredients for a high quality beer come pretty cheap at that quantity, so you don't mind as much if you mess something up. I get about 7 liters of beer per batch, which is enough for two people to get a little drunk. I'm really happy with this as an introduction to homebrew. The kit as it comes, with a can of hopped malt extract and a generic carbohydrate booster, is sufficiently simple as to give you confidence and winds up tasting at least better then generic adjunct lager. The brewing vessel is a great size for testing small batches of beer, but they're big enough to get you and a friend drunk. You can play around with the recipe or you can be like me and be totally lazy and leave it to ferment for a month before you bottle it and you don't care cause at worst you're only out a few bucks. Overall, it's totally worth the 25 bucks I paid at Ross. If you're at all curious about this hobby, you could do worse than to try one of these.
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Jul 29, 2012 07:42
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This isn't quite the right place to ask except that it's beer-related, but I'm having a little trouble coming up with the name of the little metal emblems that you see all over in English pubs, the ones of English breweries. What do they call those?
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Jul 29, 2012 11:04
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Coffee carbonated with 70/30 nitrogen/co2 phase 1 is complete. It did actually pour with a creamy head, carbonation in the coffee was incredibly low as hoped. As for flavor, I used a way too strong Nicaraguan that just didn't work cold brewed. Next phase is going to be a Panamanian. Possibly I'm going to try adding some lactose, which isn't very sweet at all but adds a lot of mouthfeel and body, perhaps furthering the illusion of creamy with the nitrogen. Possibly maltodextrin, too.
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Jul 29, 2012 16:54
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Detective Thompson posted:This isn't quite the right place to ask except that it's beer-related, but I'm having a little trouble coming up with the name of the little metal emblems that you see all over in English pubs, the ones of English breweries. What do they call those? Maybe posting a picture or three would help, but if you are talking about things like this, I just think of them as tin signs or pub signs. Or tin pub signs. I have also seen them called 'tackers' - the ones I have on my beer fridge have small holes at the corners for tacking them to the wall.
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Jul 29, 2012 17:02
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Docjowles posted:Someone correct me if I'm off base, but this is more or less why we have lambic. Source: "Wild Brews". Historically, brewers in Brussels just happened to be near some cherry orchards. Wild yeast likes to grow on fruit. Belgian brewers conducted open fermentations--meaning whatever stuff in the air could just get into the wort--and hundreds of years ago people didn't even know yeast/bacteria existed so sanitation wasn't a big thing. They also fermented in wooden barrels because that's what they had. Microorganisms do very well in wood. I really do not want wild yeasts in my beer this time (see my post about cherries a few posts up). While I see the potential there, I don't really want to waste a batch + 8 lbs of cherries right now. Plus, I already have a sour project going taking up one of my carboys for the next few months. I am curious how to handle these fresh cherries to just get some cherry flavor and not introduce any wild bugs.
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Jul 29, 2012 19:05
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hbf posted:I really do not want wild yeasts in my beer this time (see my post about cherries a few posts up). While I see the potential there, I don't really want to waste a batch + 8 lbs of cherries right now. Plus, I already have a sour project going taking up one of my carboys for the next few months. I would think you could simmer them at around 140 or so for 10-15 minutes without too much problem, then mash them w/ a sterile bowl and masher and dump into primary.
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Jul 29, 2012 20:36
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Welp, so far today I've been hit by a surprise thunderstorm just as I went outside to discover I also had a stuck sparge. Grain somehow got under the false bottom and TOTALLY clogged the little plastic tube that connects to the mash tun's ball valve ( ). Had to dump it into a bucket, disassemble and clean the mash tun, reassemble and sparge. Cool brew day.Edit: Hahaha it clogged again just now when I went to do my second batch of sparging. FML 
Docjowles fucked around with this message at 23:57 on Jul 29, 2012 |
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Jul 29, 2012 23:50
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