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Been collecting empty 1 gallon glass jugs and yesterday my girlfriend found a deal at Samsclub on clover honey so we did some impromptu smallbatch mead making where everyone in the house went nuts and picked their own additions for their own jug (fun!). I've been wanting to try using straight up Fleischmann's yeast for brewing mead(I use it all the time for bread) just to see what would happen, so I made a starter a few hours before using 3 packs (active dry), 3 cups of water, and a cup of sugar. The response from the yeast was immediate (and violent) and it almost blew straight out of my 2L flask about 20 minutes after pitching. I guess that step wasn't necessary and simple re-hydration would have been fine :P All of our batches were actively fermenting only a couple hours after pitching, though the ones with heavier additions didn't really start rolling until this morning. Can't wait to give a trip report on what worked and what didn't ... we're just glad to have something fun to do while the big carboys are tied up 
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Nov 21, 2012 16:38
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So you just got some honey, put it in your growler, then added yeast? That sounds simple enough and possibly fun enough to just try.
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Nov 21, 2012 16:48
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I'll be interested to hear about your results with the bread yeast. On a related note, does anyone have a favorite dry yeast to use for cider/apfelwein? I know the original HBT recipe calls for Montrachet, but I have not personally used that strain. Any others I should consider? I'm asking because I have an old friend visiting for Christmas, and I would like to send him back home with a few things he can use to get a basic batch going, and there is no homebrew shop near him. The idea would be to put a few packets of yeast in his luggage together with an airlock, a bottles of Star-San, etc.
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Nov 21, 2012 16:50
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I used Red Star champagne yeast. It ended up at .997 FG I think. I thought it was great, it really was like an apple champagne, but I also let it age for 8 months. Unfortunately I knew most of my friends wouldn't like it so I had to back sweeten up to 1.004 or so. I used yeast nutrients a few times throughout the ferment as well.
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Nov 21, 2012 17:19
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I just tried some Montrachet cider at a recent homebrew club meeting and while it was a very good cider it was also (as expected) bone loving dry. The cider tasted like a tart white wine with some decent apple aroma towards the finish, but if I kept it in my mouth too long my teeth would start to ache. I'd personally lean towards a less-attenuative ale strain like an english ale. Unfortunately when I tried the WLP English Ale on some unpasteurized cider, the yeast was not able to out-compete the natural bugs so I think these "lazier" yeasts are not a good match for unpasteurized cider.
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Nov 21, 2012 17:25
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Daedalus Esquire posted:I used Red Star champagne yeast. I did that once, too, and it settled at 0.995. HO-LEE CRAP that was dry. Super Rad posted:I'd personally lean towards a less-attenuative ale strain like an english ale. I did S-04 once and it eventually ended up being good cider and not too dry, but it took a long drat time to flocculate. It had a pretty yeasty flavor until it settled out. EDIT: This guy likes Nottingham.
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Nov 21, 2012 17:29
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Midorka posted:So you just got some honey, put it in your growler, then added yeast? That sounds simple enough and possibly fun enough to just try. We used empty wine jugs, but yeah. Fill half way with water, dump honey in, shake it up, top off with water and pitch yeast. We decided to do all of our organic additions in during the initial fermentation so that they can (hopefully) provide the yeast with all the extra nutrients honey is lacking. Pic of a few of ours:  In order: oranges, black tea/lemon/ginger, roasted coconut/fresh pineapple. We'll rack off of all that crap in a couple weeks. We also have a big batch using all the fancy stuff from Northern Brewer ... but the point was kind of to see how low-tech we could go and still make something tasty.
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Nov 21, 2012 17:29
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When making cider is it necessary to sanitize it in anyway? I was thinking about picking up a 1 gallon jug of some local cider to see how it turned out. I want something on the sweet side for sure so I'm guessing I should use a beer yeast? ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Awesome thanks! vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv What do you mean by sulfite it? I'm sure I could Google it, but you're here now! Midorka fucked around with this message at 17:46 on Nov 21, 2012 |
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Nov 21, 2012 17:31
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Midorka posted:When making cider is it necessary to sanitize it in anyway? I was thinking about picking up a 1 gallon jug of some local cider to see how it turned out. I want something on the sweet side for sure so I'm guessing I should use a beer yeast? It depends on the juice and how it has been treated. If it's straight off the press and into jugs, yes, you should probably sulfite it before pitching yeast. I used to live near an orchard that sold its juice refrigerated to slushiness just so that it would not spontaneously ferment. If it's been pasteurized or otherwise stabilized (nonchemically, that is), you can just put it in a sanitized fermenter and add yeast. If it's been preserved through the use of sorbates or other preservatives (this is monumentally unlikely in the case of local orchards, I think) you may want to skip it as the preservatives may interfere with the yeast you pitch.
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Nov 21, 2012 17:38
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Jo3sh posted:I'll be interested to hear about your results with the bread yeast. I've done all of my meads with D-47. Goes to 14.5% abv every time. You can balance the sweetness around that!
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Nov 21, 2012 17:55
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What kind of yeast would you use for a semi sweet cyser?
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Nov 21, 2012 18:04
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Midorka posted:What do you mean by sulfite it? I'm sure I could Google it, but you're here now! Add Campden tablets or K-meta to the must. The easiest way to do this is probably to crush up one Campden tab per gallon of must and add it to the must, wait 24 hours, then pitch your yeast. hellfaucet posted:What kind of yeast would you use for a semi sweet cyser? I use Wyeast Sweet Mead a lot and it works nicely.
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Nov 21, 2012 18:09
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fullroundaction posted:We used empty wine jugs, but yeah. Fill half way with water, dump honey in, shake it up, top off with water and pitch yeast. We decided to do all of our organic additions in during the initial fermentation so that they can (hopefully) provide the yeast with all the extra nutrients honey is lacking. Pic of a few of ours: Doing off the cuff mead like this is definitely fun, just don't expect too much. Adding your flavorings in primary can be hit or miss. Like you say it can provide some nutrients but I prefer adding them directly through Fermaid-K/DAP. Some people claim that a lot of the flavor will exit with the CO2 in primary. You also need to be careful with adding citrus because it can lower the pH to the point it stresses the yeast (which may already not have enough nutrients). That being said, my first batch was Joe's Ancient Orange with baker's yeast, an orange, raisins, cinnamon and cloves and it turned out alright. My second use of baker's yeast didn't turn out as well but that's part of my mead yeast trial for a future post. e: Forgot the whole reason I came to post - MoreBeer has a site-wide 10% off code THANKS01 that seems to include even Blichman stuff according to HomebrewFinds.
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Nov 21, 2012 19:08
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Jo3sh posted:Add Campden tablets or K-meta to the must. The easiest way to do this is probably to crush up one Campden tab per gallon of must and add it to the must, wait 24 hours, then pitch your yeast. Thanks for answering both questions I had. I think I'll be doing this very soon, it seems like a fun project that would be ready by Spring.
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Nov 21, 2012 19:25
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http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f80/joes-ancient-orange-mead-49106/ This the bread yeast recipe that has been posted here several times and I love it. Great flavor, and balance and very hard to screw up. I don't see any reason to pay more for yeast unless for the value of experimenting. I'm about to make a 5 gallon batch. The one thing I would add to this from experience is that while you don't need to rack to secondary, it really cleans up nicely with 3-4 weeks off the yeast.
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Nov 21, 2012 19:42
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Cpt.Wacky posted:Doing off the cuff mead like this is definitely fun, just don't expect too much. I spend too much time spergin and not enough time "doing". This is an attempt to learn by trial/error on my own, since after spending some time on other homebrew forums I'm convinced that half or more of the collective brewing knowledge-base is old wives tales and antiquated/vestigial practices. For instance the PH thing you mentioned. That's something that pretty much everyone parrots, but if you actually read about the species of yeast (it's the same whether you're using ale or bread, though sometimes different strains) you'll see that it ACTUALLY THRIVES at the PH levels that straight up orange juice contains. In other words, it's basically impossible to shock it with citrus additions alone.
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Nov 21, 2012 20:57
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Alarbus posted:I've done all of my meads with D-47. Goes to 14.5% abv every time. You can balance the sweetness around that! Cool, thanks for the suggestion. I had a packet lying around, so I threw together a fast and dirty experimental cider using juice and agave syrup I had on hand.
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Nov 21, 2012 21:02
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Any tips for adding bourbon and oak to an imperial stout? I don't want them to dominate the flavor so I'm thinking 4-5oz of bourbon and 1.5-2oz of medium toast French oak chips for 6 gallons of a 9.1% RIS. Will that come through enough to be noticed without overpowering everything else?
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Nov 22, 2012 00:27
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I know its mead-chat right now, but one last thing on cider. Don't be afraid of potassium sorbate in cider. I used 5 gallons that listed k-sorbate on the label, dumped em in a Carboy with honey and maple syrup and added four packets of the redstar yeast. Fermented fine and healthily with a fairly large yeast cake on the bottom. In doing some research since it was too late to get cider anywhere but the grocer, I found out that potassium sorbate won't actually inhibit fermentation, but it will inhibit reproduction. I guess the idea is that if they pasteurize cider then add the k-sulfate, there will not be enough yeast for it to ferment before consumers drink the whole jug. Sure it raised my yeast cost, but I probably could have just done a starter and had the same outcome.
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Nov 22, 2012 00:56
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Did the Brewer's Best Cream Ale with with the WLP080 Cream Ale yeast. The end result was pretty good. Very light and crisp, with some citrus notes that I wasn't expecting. OG was 1.039, FG was 1.008 or so. There seems to be a lot of flocculation in the beer though, much more than the Honey Ale and Honey Porters I did. Is that the kind of thing cold crashing would fix, or is that just the nature of the yeast?
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Nov 22, 2012 01:11
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Quick dumb question: Should darker ales (In this case a porter) condition for longer to let the yeast settle? The last batch I made was good, but quite yeasty. It fermented for two weeks and conditioned for two weeks. Should I have let it sit for longer? If so, can I take it out of the fridge or have I hosed it up already?
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Nov 22, 2012 01:19
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internet celebrity posted:Any tips for adding bourbon and oak to an imperial stout? I don't want them to dominate the flavor so I'm thinking 4-5oz of bourbon and 1.5-2oz of medium toast French oak chips for 6 gallons of a 9.1% RIS. Will that come through enough to be noticed without overpowering everything else? Use cubes instead of chips if you can get them. Chips will turn that beer into an oak bomb in a hurry. The other thing you can do is oak the bourbon and blend the oaked bourbon in the beer to taste. Worst case, you add more unoaked bourbon.
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Nov 22, 2012 02:21
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internet celebrity posted:Any tips for adding bourbon and oak to an imperial stout? I don't want them to dominate the flavor so I'm thinking 4-5oz of bourbon and 1.5-2oz of medium toast French oak chips for 6 gallons of a 9.1% RIS. Will that come through enough to be noticed without overpowering everything else? I've been aging a Robust Porter with bourbon-soaked oak cubes. Soaked them in Maker's for about three days, then put only the cubes into the carboy, where they've been for a month. The flavor is developing really nicely the longer they're in there. My impression, seconding the post above, is that oak chips are for a quick and simple hint of oak, but will become overpowering due to how thin they are. Cubes add a much greater degree of complexity since the depth of the roast varies more due to the depth of the cube. Since I'd imagine you're going to age that stout for a decent period of time, I'd def. go for cubes.
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Nov 22, 2012 02:48
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internet celebrity posted:Any tips for adding bourbon and oak to an imperial stout? I did one ounce of medium+ toast cubes in 4 oz of Jack Daniels and then dumped the whole deal into the keg in a RIS; worked great, and was neither overpowering nor lost.
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Nov 22, 2012 02:51
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fullroundaction posted:I spend too much time spergin and not enough time "doing". This is an attempt to learn by trial/error on my own, since after spending some time on other homebrew forums I'm convinced that half or more of the collective brewing knowledge-base is old wives tales and antiquated/vestigial practices. Yeah, most things get distilled down to a "rule" and no further thought is given to it. Yeast do best in pH 3.7 to 4.0. Honey pH is average 3.9 but can be anywhere from 3.4 to 6.1 depending on the type, source, weather, processing and so on. I saw different sources say orange juice is 2.8 up to 3.5 and lemon juice is going to be lower. So it's possible that you end up with something below 3.7 under the right circumstances but most of the time it's not a big deal to ignore it.
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Nov 22, 2012 03:31
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My kegging supplies arrived today!  Unfortunately I can't set up the kegerator until at least the weekend when I can borrow a hole saw to mount the Perlick faucets. In the meantime, any advice for someone completely new to kegging?
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Nov 22, 2012 03:37
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I'm interested on kegging advice as well. I've got a full CO2 tank, lines made up, a clean keg, leaks tested for, and beer ready to keg. Just waiting on my temp controller to get here. So excited to not have to clean bottles anymore.
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Nov 22, 2012 03:56
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Galler posted:I'm interested on kegging advice as well. I've got a full CO2 tank, lines made up, a clean keg, leaks tested for, and beer ready to keg. Just waiting on my temp controller to get here. So excited to not have to clean bottles anymore. Sounds like you got it covered! Watch a couple YouTube videos of people force carbonating their beer. Honestly, I like just letting them sit at 12 PSI for a week or so, but if you're impatient, it seems to work. Caution: Attach the CO2 line to the liquid stem to avoid flushing liquid into your gas lines.
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Nov 22, 2012 05:30
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Does anyone have any good recipes/pointers for a decent refreshing summer beer? I'm looking for something perhaps on the simpler side that I can portion some off of for experimenting with fruit/wild yeast. I'm thinking of equal parts wheat malt extract and barley, perhaps with some steeping grains as well (I have about 1.9kg pale malt and 10g Horizon hops lying around), and playing around in the Hopville calculator with various quantities to somewhat fit a wheat style. Also even low attenuating ale yeasts will go nuts in cider. I just made some that comes off as more of an apple goon.
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Nov 22, 2012 08:31
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fullroundaction posted:In order: oranges, black tea/lemon/ginger, roasted coconut/fresh pineapple. Do you punch down the fruit so it doesn't start rotting? I ran into this problem with my one gallon fermenter, I couldn't quite swirl it enough and opening it every day seems too risky.
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Nov 22, 2012 13:54
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ExtremistCow posted:Do you punch down the fruit so it doesn't start rotting? I ran into this problem with my one gallon fermenter, I couldn't quite swirl it enough and opening it every day seems too risky. I've never done this before, but I planned on racking the must off the additions after primary fermentation ends to specifically avoid that problem. Then before bottling if the flavors aren't quite what I want I'll probably rack for a third time back onto more stuff for last minute adjustments. Making a watermelon wheat beer with a whole watermelon in the carboy has taught me to never trust organic matter for more than a week or two at a time 
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Nov 22, 2012 16:04
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Nanpa posted:Does anyone have any good recipes/pointers for a decent refreshing summer beer? I'm looking for something perhaps on the simpler side that I can portion some off of for experimenting with fruit/wild yeast. I'm thinking of equal parts wheat malt extract and barley, perhaps with some steeping grains as well (I have about 1.9kg pale malt and 10g Horizon hops lying around), and playing around in the Hopville calculator with various quantities to somewhat fit a wheat style. You could make a low ABV saison. They are basically just pils malt with a citrus hop and either Belgian or French saison yeast. I plan on making one with Sorachi Ace hops this summer.
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Nov 22, 2012 17:36
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Gothmog1065 posted:Quick dumb question: Should darker ales (In this case a porter) condition for longer to let the yeast settle? The last batch I made was good, but quite yeasty. It fermented for two weeks and conditioned for two weeks. Should I have let it sit for longer? Well if the problem is with too much yeast in suspension you want to keep it cold to encourage more yeast to settle out. In the case of a beer being too "green" you certainly could take them out of the fridge and let them sit for a while - yeast are resilient.
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Nov 22, 2012 18:14
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According to a formula I stumbled upon, maltodextrin yields 40 gravity points per pound, per gallon. I'm probably going to end up having between 4 and 4.25 gallons when I bottle the beer I made 2 weeks ago, and when I took a gravity reading the other day it was at 1.004. I imagine it might be a bit lower than that when I do bottle since there was still some bubbling going on. Using this formula 40 gravity points x lbs maltodextrin ÷ gallons I'd get between .008 and .010 extra gravity points by adding 1 lb of maltodextrin when I bottle, depending on how much volume is left when I transfer to the bottling bucket. That'd get my FG a little closer to where I'd want it, but I was wondering if 1 lb might be a bit too much? I know barely any of that is fermentable, but I don't know if there's any limit to how much maltodextrin you'd want to add at that stage. Anyone have any experience/thoughts on adding that much? I don't want to get cotton mouth drinking my beer.
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Nov 22, 2012 23:44
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Is there any substantive reason to use dextrose over sucrose when bottling? I'm out of the former and I'd like to know whether I absolutely have to pick some up.
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Nov 23, 2012 01:20
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JawKnee posted:Is there any substantive reason to use dextrose over sucrose when bottling? I'm out of the former and I'd like to know whether I absolutely have to pick some up. They're a bit different by weight but there are a bunch of conversion charts available
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Nov 23, 2012 01:41
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Midorka posted:You could make a low ABV saison. They are basically just pils malt with a citrus hop and either Belgian or French saison yeast. I plan on making one with Sorachi Ace hops this summer. Thanks for the recommendation, but I ended up going for a German wheat beer (just to try and use up some stuff I already have around), but I'll probably try a Saison next. Style wise, it's mostly defined by the yeast, yes? (in terms of being a rustic/seasonal/whatever is around type)
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Nov 23, 2012 06:00
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E: Dropped my boring opinion on saisons. Advice: drink saisons every day. Semi-related: has anyone seen Bell's Oarsman around lately? I haven't been able to get it in a year+ and I loved having that on hand for sessioning. fullroundaction fucked around with this message at 07:54 on Nov 23, 2012 |
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Nov 23, 2012 07:42
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I'm thinking of brewing my first batch of beer soon, and I've been reading the link provided in the OP "How to Brew" by John Palmer. I have a bit of a silly question, and I haven't been able to find a good answer through google, as everyone seems to have a different opinion. Does using priming sugar add any off flavors to your beer? If so, do most of you experienced brewers do forced carbonation? I think for my first batch I will probably use a priming sugar solution, just because that's what this guide says... I was just curious about everyone's opinion on it. I think for my first batch I will brew a Pale Ale, and use the same type of hops for bittering, and finishing. That's not crazy, right? I just want to be able to really identify what flavors/aromas individual hops give off, and I think that's the best way to do it. e: Sorry if these are stupid questions I should have been able to answer myself by googling/reading the whole guide, I tried my best... but I felt like the answers I was receiving through google were inadequate. The guide says that priming sugars add no off-flavors in the small amount I'd be using, but when I googled it, some homebrew forum users claimed otherwise, hence why I asked. Kudosx fucked around with this message at 13:02 on Nov 23, 2012 |
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Nov 23, 2012 12:56
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Priming sugar won't add any off flavors and using only one type of hop throughout a batch is a great way to get a feel for different hops. Don't worry about what homebrew forums say, they're filled with a lot of good info but also a lot of people who have no clue what they're talking about. Just stick with How To Brew and this thread to get you started and you'll be fine.
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Nov 23, 2012 13:45
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