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I believe Acerglyns are specifically meads with maple in them, but I could be wrong. An all-maple fermented beverage could be called Maple Wine or Whatever The gently caress You Want because there doesn't seem to be a traditionally-established name for it yet. I could be wrong, though. I had a couple questions for the thread. First, I have a blackberry mead that's getting ready to be bottled, and while I got the haze out with pectic enyzmes, there is a good bit of pulp that is sort of just floating in the bottom third of the fermenter. I've already racked it off the lees once, so I know almost none of it is yeast, but is there some way I can keep that pulp out of my bottles without losing 1/3 of my mead or having to buy a $50+ filtration kit? Can I just get a fine coffee filter, sanitize it, and put it into a funnel? My other question was what is everyone's opinion on hydrometers vs. refractometers? I have no qualms about doing a bit of math, so does a hydrometer offer any advantages in exchange for all that must that goes to waste? Are they more accurate than refractometers?
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Sep 21, 2012 08:09
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Just started cold crashing my Rye IPA I did almost 3 weeks ago. Hit its target OG and FG and smells amazing! Chinook + Citra is seriously the best hop combo, its got this crazy citrus (grapefruit and lime) + tropical fruit (mango and passionfruit) thing going on that I just can't get enough of. Kegging this thing Saturday seems like a long time to wait. The rye (14% malted rye) seems a little subdued but the sample was still really yeasty, I seem to recall WY1450 floccing a lot better than this. 36 hours cold crashing should drop it nice and clear.
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Sep 21, 2012 08:36
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cobalt impurity posted:I believe Acerglyns are specifically meads with maple in them, but I could be wrong. An all-maple fermented beverage could be called Maple Wine or Whatever The gently caress You Want because there doesn't seem to be a traditionally-established name for it yet. I could be wrong, though. rage-saq posted:Just started cold crashing my Rye IPA I did almost 3 weeks ago. Hit its target OG and FG and smells amazing! Chinook + Citra is seriously the best hop combo, its got this crazy citrus (grapefruit and lime) + tropical fruit (mango and passionfruit) thing going on that I just can't get enough of. Kegging this thing Saturday seems like a long time to wait.
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Sep 21, 2012 09:10
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It's apple-picking season and there's plenty of farmer's markets that sell their own no-preservatives pasteurized cider. I've had good success brewing partial mash homebrew and I've got the equipment, and after putting out a huge quantity of vanilla porter I'd like to give sparkling hard cider and maybe apfelwein a try. This page seems to be pretty comprehensive, right down to yeast types: http://makinghardcider.com/index.html Would I be able to use the same Lalvin E-1118 yeast for both the cider and apfelwein, just so long as I bottle the cider and leave the apfelwein to ferment for a couple extra months? Or should I be using an ale yeast for the cider and the Lalvin for the apfelwein? Also, if I want really nice and clear cider, should I use this gelatin method with a secondary racking for around five or so days? Any other goonbrewers have useful cider pointers?
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Sep 21, 2012 14:12
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I haven't used the Lalvin yeast, but I have used a champagne yeast on cider. I like a drier cider, but the champagne yeast left it bone-dry. If you or your friends are used to sweet commercial ciders or the French style stuff, apfelwein is a bit of a shock. You could always do a batch of apfelwein with the champagne yeast and a batch of cider with a cider or ale yeast to get a better feel for how they're different. Cider is so easy to get started and keeps so well that it's easy to experiment a bit. Personally, I tend to let my cider sit for a while (about 2 weeks to ferment and 3-4 more to finish and clear) before bottling to make sure enough of the sugar is used up, but I also add about 2 pounds of brown sugar, made into a syrup, to my cider. That gives it a nice caramel-tasting finish. I've tried doing small batches with the natural yeasts found in untreated ciders, but that's a pretty mixed bag. The good batches were only good for a little while, when they had just a bit of fizz. The longer they sat, the more vinegar-y they got. I've also used a cider yeast (The White labs liquid culture) and it leaves more sweetness and a little more apple flavor than the champagne yeast does. You can use other yeasts to ferment cider, too - I know some people like Nottingham ale yeast. This year, I am thinking of making a batch of ginger cider (with cider yeast) and another batch with a trappist ale yeast to see how that turns out. For clarity: I've never used gelatin, but racking to secondary and keeping it cold for a while before bottling or kegging made a big difference for my last batch of cider. Sionak fucked around with this message at 15:16 on Sep 21, 2012 |
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Sep 21, 2012 15:09
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Sionak posted:Personally, I tend to let my cider sit for a while (about 2 weeks to ferment and 3-4 more to finish and clear) before bottling to make sure enough of the sugar is used up, but I also add about 2 pounds of brown sugar, made into a syrup, to my cider. That gives it a nice caramel-tasting finish. I was under the impression that cider took much longer, that's interesting. I have access to a bunch of fresh-today/yesterday unpasteurized cider but I thought I was looking at 6+ months and don't have the fermenters to spare for that long.
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Sep 21, 2012 15:21
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Champagne yeast will definitely chase down and consume every drat bit of sugar in your cider or apfelwein. I did a batch a few years ago - I forget the OG, but it was pretty high, and it finished at 0.995. It was far too dry for my taste. I have had good luck using Wyeast Sweet Mead yeast for apfelwein; I find it leaves behind just enough sugar for my taste. I also did a batch that used Safale S-04, and I found it had a bread-dough/yeast flavor that I did not care for. That diminished over time, but it was never quite as good as other batches I have made.
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Sep 21, 2012 15:26
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Follow-up question: if I want my cider to have just a little bit of fizz, how much dextrose should I boil into water if I'm going to prime akin to beer? Sionak, I like that idea and will be borrowing it. Is it just a matter of 2lbs brown sugar, just enough water, boil, cool, and add to the fermentor with the cider?
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Sep 21, 2012 15:26
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Yes, that's what I do. 2 pounds of brown sugar per 5 gallons of cider. It will boost your final alcohol content a bit as well, of course. As for time: I know some people say to let your cider sit for 6 months, but I honestly didn't notice a huge difference between batches that I let sit for 2 months versus longer. Some friends of mine did try making cider more like an ale and had issues with overcarbonation, so you probably don't want to rush it too much. For fizz: it's hard to get cider more than a little fizzy, in any case. I'll have to check my notes when I get home to see how much sugar I used for priming. I think it was pretty comparable to what Palmer recommends in How to Brew for an English style ale, though. Sionak fucked around with this message at 15:49 on Sep 21, 2012 |
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Sep 21, 2012 15:44
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Sionak posted:Yes, that's what I do. 2 pounds of brown sugar per 5 gallons of cider. It will boost your final alcohol content a bit as well, of course. Two pounds? I carbonate 5 gallons with about 5.5 ounces by weight of plain table sugar and it comes out pretty drat carbonated - I'm shocked you haven't blown up every bottle you have! I mix 5.5 ounces into 2 cups of water, boil it for about 5 minutes, and then rack on top of the resulting syrup in the bottling bucket.
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Sep 21, 2012 15:50
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I think he's adding the 2 pounds of brown sugar for primary fermentation, rather than at bottling.
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Sep 21, 2012 15:55
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That's right. The 2 pounds of brown sugar is mixed in with the unfermented cider before pitching the yeast. 2 pounds at bottling would be incredibly explosive. 5 ounces sounds like about what I've used for bottle carbonation in the past, but I kegged the last batch and couldn't remember exactly.
Sionak fucked around with this message at 16:01 on Sep 21, 2012 |
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Sep 21, 2012 15:59
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Sionak posted:That's right. The 2 pounds of brown sugar is mixed in with the unfermented cider before pitching the yeast. 2 pounds at bottling would be incredibly explosive. 5 ounces sounds like about what I've used for bottle carbonation in the past, but I kegged the last batch and couldn't remember exactly. Whoops. My reading comprehension fails early morning.
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Sep 21, 2012 17:29
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cobalt impurity posted:My other question was what is everyone's opinion on hydrometers vs. refractometers? I have no qualms about doing a bit of math, so does a hydrometer offer any advantages in exchange for all that must that goes to waste? Are they more accurate than refractometers? I bought a refractometer right as I started going all-grain. They're great to spot check the sugar content of your wort as a single drop will cool to reading temps in seconds. I definitely wanted it just to make sure that we were converting properly If anything refractometers are probably more accurate for the OG reading, but the problem is with the FG reading - alcohol skews the refractometer reading and although there are formulas to correct they seem less accurate than a hydrometer reading. Now that I have the all grain process down to second nature, I hardly ever use the refractometer any more. I still use a hydrometer exclusively for reading FG and usually by the time I'm done brewing the sun has gone down and so I use a hydrometer for the OG reading as well. In short they are pretty cool and definitely the best thing for OG readings, but really they aren't worth the expense for brewing beer. You mentioned "must" so obviously if you are harvesting grapes they are worth it cause you can spot check the sugar content of various grapes.
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Sep 21, 2012 17:37
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cobalt impurity posted:I had a couple questions for the thread. First, I have a blackberry mead that's getting ready to be bottled, and while I got the haze out with pectic enyzmes, there is a good bit of pulp that is sort of just floating in the bottom third of the fermenter. I've already racked it off the lees once, so I know almost none of it is yeast, but is there some way I can keep that pulp out of my bottles without losing 1/3 of my mead or having to buy a $50+ filtration kit? Can I just get a fine coffee filter, sanitize it, and put it into a funnel? How long has the mead been sitting? It can take months and multiple rackings for them to clear up. If you're in a hurry it couldn't hurt to try a coffee or paint filter. I like using my refractometer to track the progress of my mead fermentations every day. It's a lot less waste and I'm opening it up to stir up the lees every day during primary anyways.
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Sep 21, 2012 19:00
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Angry Grimace posted:This is correct. An Acerglyn is technically a mead/maple mix, but I've seen the term used for full on maple fermented drinks too; full maple fermented beverages doesn't seem to be a "thing" yet so its just calling it whatever you want. That it hasn't caught on yet is somewhat eyebrow raising to me given that fermenting practically everything is popular now. I was mainly talking about the yeast, I watched it settle in the sample that I poured. I'm sure with the rye and the dryhopping it wont get totally clear like other beers do.
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Sep 21, 2012 19:30
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Super Rad posted:I bought a refractometer right as I started going all-grain. They're great to spot check the sugar content of your wort as a single drop will cool to reading temps in seconds. I definitely wanted it just to make sure that we were converting properly They're not as expensive as you think. http://www.ebay.com/itm/RSG-100ATC-...=item46077bdc85 I use this one to do pre-fermentation gravity measurements and I haven't had a problem. Doesn't work worth a drat post-fermentation, though, even with the supposed formulas to correct for alcohol presence.
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Sep 21, 2012 20:18
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All of this cider chat has got me excited to get mine. Initially I wanted 5 gallons, but I think I may try to get 10. Thinking of doing two, one with champagne yeast and another with cider yeast (if not more). Thanks for more inspiration goons.
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Sep 21, 2012 20:53
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crazyfish posted:They're not as expensive as you think. http://www.ebay.com/itm/RSG-100ATC-...=item46077bdc85 I use this one to do pre-fermentation gravity measurements and I haven't had a problem. Doesn't work worth a drat post-fermentation, though, even with the supposed formulas to correct for alcohol presence. Without a doubt they are great for OG readings and I should have bought the refractometer elsewhere than my LHBS, I paid maybe a little under twice that for probably an equivalent refractometer. It's too bad they aren't reliable after fermentation (or at least the correction formulas aren't).
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Sep 21, 2012 23:36
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What would this beer be considered? It's kind of a Witbier I guess but it doesn't usually turn out light and fluffy like a typical Witbier, probably due to the honey, and the fact you can't really make a good Wit with extract. I really do like it however and have made it a few times. It always turns out well and has almost a sticky/fruity character to balance out the spice. 60 min- 6 lbs wheat extract 1 oz German Hallertauer 15 min- .5 oz freshly crushed coriander .5 oz German Hallertauer 5 min- .5 oz coriander .5 oz bitter orange peel 0 min- .5 oz Hallertauer 1.5 lbs orange blossom honey pitched Wyeast 3944 at ~65ish, held at 65, for 3-4 days, then let temp rise Also been reading about adding oats? Just a little bit to make it smoother. Might try that next time. Any experiences with this? global tetrahedron fucked around with this message at 00:10 on Sep 22, 2012 |
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Sep 22, 2012 00:07
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I never lose any wort checking my gravity with the hydrometer. Sanitize the collector, the hydrometer, and the testing vessel first, then pour the wort back into the fermenter.
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Sep 22, 2012 00:26
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global tetrahedron posted:Also been reading about adding oats? Just a little bit to make it smoother. Might try that next time. Any experiences with this? Yeah adding oats will help you get a thick, creamy mouthfeel. You'll need to do at least a mini mash with some pilsner malt, though, or the oats won't do anything but add a shitload of unfermentable starch. I also started adding rye to my wits with great result, although it's not to style at all. I had a rye wit at Freetail Brewing in San Antonio and it was out of this world. The peppery character and what rye does to mouthfeel just go so well with a wit. Imasalmon posted:I never lose any wort checking my gravity with the hydrometer. Sanitize the collector, the hydrometer, and the testing vessel first, then pour the wort back into the fermenter. I always end up drinking the sample  It lets you know if the beer is still green and could use another week hanging out in primary.
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Sep 22, 2012 00:45
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global tetrahedron posted:What would this beer be considered? It's kind of a Witbier I guess but it doesn't usually turn out light and fluffy like a typical Witbier, probably due to the honey, and the fact you can't really make a good Wit with extract. I really do like it however and have made it a few times. It always turns out well and has almost a sticky/fruity character to balance out the spice. Disagree that you can't make a good wit with extract. Feed it a 1:2 proportion of flaked oats and some other self-converting specialty grain (I think aromatic qualifies but even straight pilsen malt works) as a steep and you'll add a nice little complexity to it. I usually go 4oz-8oz oats/pilsen respectively for 5 gallons, though I haven't made that beer in quite a while.
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Sep 22, 2012 01:19
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I'd ask this in the kegerator thread, but it dropped into the archives a while back. Is Perlick still considered the way to go for taps? I'm getting tired of picnic taps that get gross and the humidity from constantly opening and closing the kegerator. I'm hoping to put together my own serving tower, since the ones I've seen listed are super expensive and the taps don't seem as nice.
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Sep 22, 2012 02:48
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I always read about people sticking their heads into chest freezer-turned-fermenters and getting a big whiff of CO2 and thinking how dumb they must be to do something like that. Then tonight I opened my bucket to add hops for dry hopping and thought I'd just smell it to see how it was progressing and...yeahhhh........ 
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Sep 22, 2012 03:15
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Sionak posted:Is Perlick still considered the way to go for taps? Yup, Perlick forward-seal faucets are good stuff for homebrewers.
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Sep 22, 2012 04:52
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Question for the cider makers: how much would you expect to pay for 6 gallons of fresh organic cider, UV pasteurized but otherwise untreated? A woman at the local farmer's market offered to sell to me for about $80. Seemed pretty steep, but I don't live in a big apple producing region and it did taste really good. They're around every week so I don't need to pull the trigger right away, just wondering what I should expect as a ballpark price.
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Sep 22, 2012 20:28
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Docjowles posted:Question for the cider makers: how much would you expect to pay for 6 gallons of fresh organic cider, UV pasteurized but otherwise untreated? A woman at the local farmer's market offered to sell to me for about $80. Seemed pretty steep, but I don't live in a big apple producing region and it did taste really good. They're around every week so I don't need to pull the trigger right away, just wondering what I should expect as a ballpark price. In Maine, we've pretty much got the only apple harvest worth a drat in the US right now, and it's about 5.50 a gallon at the farmer's market. Planning on heading to our go-to orchard to mine and expect it to be at least slightly less. If it seems expensive this year, there is a good reason: most of the crop out west and in Michigan were killed off b/c a late cold snap that offed all the flowering buds.
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Sep 22, 2012 21:50
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Docjowles posted:Question for the cider makers: how much would you expect to pay for 6 gallons of fresh organic cider, UV pasteurized but otherwise untreated? A woman at the local farmer's market offered to sell to me for about $80. Seemed pretty steep, but I don't live in a big apple producing region and it did taste really good. They're around every week so I don't need to pull the trigger right away, just wondering what I should expect as a ballpark price. That does sound pretty high to me; I don't think I've ever seen fresh cider for more than $6-7/gallon. I suppose that would be affected by regional production, though.
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Sep 22, 2012 21:54
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For locally-produced organic (ie niche market), the sky's the limit, but $13/gallon? She might be able to sell it at that price but objectively it's not worth the money. That's absurd unless you're living someplace far from apples like the Southwest or in an expensive city (and in both cases it's not local anymore anyway). $10/gallon would be about the top end of what I'd consider sane, and that's still more than twice what I could get non-organic locally-produced cider for. Hell, I can get organic local-ish in our (pretty crappy) local health food stores for $6/gallon. I wish we had a local Whole Foods.  On the other hand, if you like how it tastes, maybe the jacked price doesn't matter?
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Sep 22, 2012 21:59
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Thanks, it did seem really steep. I live north of Denver which is not really orchard country, but still. I may see if I can find a better source.
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Sep 23, 2012 00:00
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Are whole hops the same by weight as hop pellets?
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Sep 23, 2012 00:45
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Yes, but pellets get a higher utilization due to being completely shredded so if you're converting use about 1:0.9/.85 ratio whole to pellet.
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Sep 23, 2012 01:19
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Okay, stupid question; I was rehydrating some dry yeast and I used the remnants of the water I heated up to sparge with. When I heated and then cooled it, I noticed some bits of the campden tablets in there, but I didn't think anything of it and then threw two packets of US05 in there. I then realized that Campden is used to kill wild yeasts. I ended up throwing that out and fishing out a spare packet of US-05 I had in the fridge but only used one instead of two (it's a 1.064 wort, so one is probably enough anyways). Would that bit of Campden in there have killed the yeast or does boiling it "deactivate" it?
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Sep 23, 2012 01:56
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Angry Grimace posted:Okay, stupid question; I was rehydrating some dry yeast and I used the remnants of the water I heated up to sparge with. When I heated and then cooled it, I noticed some bits of the campden tablets in there, but I didn't think anything of it and then threw two packets of US05 in there. I then realized that Campden is used to kill wild yeasts. I ended up throwing that out and fishing out a spare packet of US-05 I had in the fridge but only used one instead of two (it's a 1.064 wort, so one is probably enough anyways). Better yet don't rehydrate because there are ridiculous amounts in a pack of dry yeast. Barley wine day was crazy: 85% efficiency on the grain segement. I figure its due to the longer rest I did on purpose because of the low temp I went with, and the ridiculously long batch sparges because of the rye slowing things up in a single infusion. I had hoped to kill this years bag of starter/booster DME to get the gravity where I wanted it but I ended up using half.
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Sep 23, 2012 04:19
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Another weekend filled with homebrew stuff. This is addicting. Yesterday I made an immersion chiller with a pre-chiller out of copper and vinyl tubing plus a mash tun from a 48 qt cooler with a manifold of PVC pipe. I was pretty surprised at how easy both projects were. The chiller took about 45 minutes to make and cost about $50, the tun was also about $50 and took maybe half an hour plus the time needed to let the silicon sealant cure. I did an all-grain oatmeal stout recipe as my third batch today and I think it went really well. I wound up with a ton of wort (about 9 gallons) at just over 80% efficiency, which I think is pretty decent for my first mash (the extra wort was due, I think, to the "expert" guy at the brewshop modifying my recipe). The boil was a a pretty simple 90 minutes, and the chill took right about 25 mins. This is pretty amazing as the tap water here (Oklahoma City) comes out at 80+ degrees, so I think the chiller was working like a champ. I started at 2:30 and was all cleaned up by 6:30...not nearly as long as the other expert at the brewshop said it would take. The only problem I ran into was in the chill. I was doing it on my back porch (needed the hose) and the outside air temp was in the upper 80s. As I mentioned, the tap water here is in the low 80s. Our thermostat in the house we keep at around 80 also. So, I got the wort down to ~85 in about 10 mins, then the last 15 mins I was trying to get it down the last 15 degrees with a lot of ice and a lot more water. I simply couldn't do it. Eventually I got it to around 80, said screw it, and went back inside to siphon. When I pitched the yeast it was ~78, and I immediately put it in my fermenting fridge which was at 75. The yeast was WLP004, which calls for 70-75, preferably 75. I'm wondering how critical those last few degrees are. The bucket was in a chilled fridge within minutes of pitching the yeast, but the wort temp at the time I pitched was a few degrees higher than optimal. Should I make the effort to lower it those last few degrees? This will probably mean cranking the AC down to 70-something and using a lot more ice with the chiller.
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Sep 23, 2012 06:05
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I only have space in my fridge for one corny keg at a time and I just filled it to the brim last week. But I want to do another brew soon so I have something to toss in when I'm through with that. Was thinking of buying a second keg - there's no harm in filling a keg and letting it sit around in the cellar for a few months right? If I do I assume I should I do a pressurize/purge/pressurize cycle to make sure there's only CO2 covering the beer?
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Sep 23, 2012 15:48
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Question, on these extract kits, they say to start with 2.5 gallons of water for your boil and then you top up with water in the fermentator. I'm assuming this is meant for people with small pots. If I have a 10 gallon pot is there any reason I shouldn't start the boil at 5 gallons and top up back to 5 gallons once it hits the carboy?
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Sep 23, 2012 15:52
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hellfaucet posted:Question, on these extract kits, they say to start with 2.5 gallons of water for your boil and then you top up with water in the fermentator. I'm assuming this is meant for people with small pots. If I have a 10 gallon pot is there any reason I shouldn't start the boil at 5 gallons and top up back to 5 gallons once it hits the carboy? If you think your stove can actually boil all that, the best option is to start at 6 gallons or whatever you think will result in 5 gallons after an hour's worth of boil-off.
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Sep 23, 2012 16:30
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hellfaucet posted:Question, on these extract kits, they say to start with 2.5 gallons of water for your boil and then you top up with water in the fermentator. I'm assuming this is meant for people with small pots. If I have a 10 gallon pot is there any reason I shouldn't start the boil at 5 gallons and top up back to 5 gallons once it hits the carboy? It will take longer to get to boil point, and longer to cool off with a bigger pot for no increase in quality.
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Sep 23, 2012 16:49
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