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Midorka posted:I'm finally pulling the plug on an STC 1000 and came across two options. Option 1 and option 2. One is cheaper, but they seem to be the same thing. Am I missing anything? I'm guessing the 110v won't work in America while the other one will? 
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Aug 23, 2013 03:58
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The mead saga continues! Measured it today and it's at a nice 1.028, but when I graphed it, it appears that it's still got PLENTY to chew through! 11.29% so far according to brewer's friend. 
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Aug 23, 2013 04:25
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Syrinxx posted:US power is 110v 60Hz. I have option 2 (the cheaper one) connected to my freezer in my USA garage at this very moment Cool thanks. Now this item gets free shipping if I spend $25. Anyone got any suggestions? Vanilla Beans are ridiculously expensive even on Amazon and few places contribute to the free shipping.
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Aug 23, 2013 04:27
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quote:BIAB advice One last question, though: how the hell do you guys clean out the nylon bags? I've been trying for a while now and there's still stubborn bits of grain clinging on to the mesh. edit: wattershed posted:Just in case you forgot about this part...you're gonna want to boil that topoff water and let it cool, don't just add tap water to it and call it a day. Now, I say that having cut various corners in regards to sanitation in the past and it hasn't bitten me in the rear end yet, but that's best practices. 
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Aug 23, 2013 06:25
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NEED TOILET PAPER posted:Thanks for all the tips guys. So far, everything seems to be working out just fine--I might actually have enough space to pour some cold water into the wort after the boil to bring the temperature to safe levels for my glass carboy. I have to say, my first foray into BIAB has been pretty tiring, but most of that is from the sanitizing work that's standard for any homebrewing style (it's been a while since I last brewed so I'm way out of practice) and from generally hauling around a bag full of fermentables. Still, everything should be ready for the yeast in less than an hour, and from there it should be like a week and a half until bottling, at which point I'll report back with progress. Just in case you forgot about this part...you're gonna want to boil that topoff water and let it cool, don't just add tap water to it and call it a day. Now, I say that having cut various corners in regards to sanitation in the past and it hasn't bitten me in the rear end yet, but that's best practices. And regarding the bag, honestly, it's easier to let the thing dry and knock the grains off later. Once it's free of the grains and there's just trub residue left, you could get away with machine washing it cold and line drying it.
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Aug 23, 2013 07:22
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Roundboy posted:Rehashing this as Im shopping for ingredients and finalizing my recipe. To your point about pumpkin additions - a buddy who makes a great pumkpin porter uses canned puree baked @ 350 with brown sugar, and adds it to the last 10 min of the boil. It does impart a good flavor then. Once i figure out how im going to filter it, ill probably adjust the sugar additions to take that into account. I do 5 gallon batches with a 10 gallon cooler mash tun and a 14 gallon kettle. My 14 lbs of grain + 2 lbs of pumpkin filled my cooler to a little under 4 gallons, so you might have an issue with volume once you add water. I guess there's no reason you can't split your grains up. RagingBoner fucked around with this message at 10:49 on Aug 23, 2013 |
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Aug 23, 2013 10:45
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Midorka posted:Cool thanks. Now this item gets free shipping if I spend $25. Anyone got any suggestions? Vanilla Beans are ridiculously expensive even on Amazon and few places contribute to the free shipping. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0937381683
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Aug 23, 2013 11:38
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wattershed posted:Just in case you forgot about this part...you're gonna want to boil that topoff water and let it cool, don't just add tap water to it and call it a day. Now, I say that having cut various corners in regards to sanitation in the past and it hasn't bitten me in the rear end yet, but that's best practices. If there's anything viable living in your tap water you are probably already making GBS threads bricks from parasites.
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Aug 23, 2013 12:16
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I top off with filtered tap water without issue. Beanzilla is offering 25 vanilla beans for $25 shipped,and they arrive quickly. Paladine_PSoT posted:The mead saga continues! that seems like a really slow ferment also chart time! 
Roundboy fucked around with this message at 15:13 on Aug 23, 2013 |
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Aug 23, 2013 13:29
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I laughed at loud at this. Thank you. Bottled 15 gallons last night, and every bottle went through an Oxi soak / clean water rinse / StarSan bath  Brewing a 2-row/Chinook SMaSH with Conan yeast this weekend. The starter smells amazing, can't wait to try an actual beer with it 
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Aug 23, 2013 14:19
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I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you're not being snarky. I last brewed a mild and right before that I brewed a Southern English brown ale. But if you are being snarky because of my hop addition suggestion then let me know, we can talk about our differences rationally instead of being passive aggressive. vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv Yup, pulled the trigger, thanks! Edit: What else do I need to get for this? I see that a lot of people bought a power supply cable with it? I guess that I connect the ST1000 to the power supply cable then plug that into an extension cord where my fridge is also plugged into? Midorka fucked around with this message at 15:40 on Aug 23, 2013 |
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Aug 23, 2013 15:29
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Midorka posted:I'm finally pulling the plug on an STC 1000 and came across two options. Option 1 and option 2. One is cheaper, but they seem to be the same thing. Am I missing anything? I'm guessing the 110v won't work in America while the other one will? America runs on 110v and both specify that they're 110v units They look to be the exact same thing.
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Aug 23, 2013 15:31
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Midorka posted:
Google "STC 1000 build" and you'll see what people have done, there are multiple ways to set it up.
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Aug 23, 2013 15:52
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Midorka posted:I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you're not being snarky. I last brewed a mild and right before that I brewed a Southern English brown ale. But if you are being snarky because of my hop addition suggestion then let me know, we can talk about our differences rationally instead of being passive aggressive. It's a really good book, probably my favorite in that series.
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Aug 23, 2013 17:36
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Roundboy posted:that seems like a really slow ferment It is, but when my wife and I split the sample holy crap was it good. Slightly more acidic than I would like, so I'll have to get a testing kit and raise it a tad probably.
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Aug 23, 2013 17:38
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Paladine_PSoT posted:It is, but when my wife and I split the sample holy crap was it good. Slightly more acidic than I would like, so I'll have to get a testing kit and raise it a tad probably. that is a good reminder.. pulled a sample to see acidity, and it is up there. Time to add more potassium bicarbonate to mellow that. I am 1.01 now .. 10% abv
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Aug 23, 2013 17:51
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Josh Wow posted:It's a really good book, probably my favorite in that series. Thanks for the recommendation then, I'm going to check it out as I really enjoy a low alcohol brown ale.
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Aug 23, 2013 17:53
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Paladine_PSoT posted:It is, but when my wife and I split the sample holy crap was it good. Slightly more acidic than I would like, so I'll have to get a testing kit and raise it a tad probably. Have you been tracking temperature aswell? I'd like to see some stats on that.
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Aug 23, 2013 17:54
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Marshmallow Blue posted:Have you been tracking temperature aswell? I'd like to see some stats on that. I've kept it at a solid 70 for a month and a half now. Yeast is a blend of Wyeast 4184 and 4632 (sweet and dry mead) edit: That explains the sudden change from cloudy as gently caress to mostly cloudy. the sweet mead yeast is floccing out now that it's over 11% Paladine_PSoT fucked around with this message at 18:27 on Aug 23, 2013 |
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Aug 23, 2013 18:21
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why a blend? how does that affect the overall sweetness one way or another ?
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Aug 23, 2013 18:24
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Roundboy posted:why a blend? how does that affect the overall sweetness one way or another ? No, I started with sweet mead yeast intending to taste it after ferm was complete, then ferm stalled so I decided screw it, dry mead.
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Aug 23, 2013 18:28
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Paladine_PSoT posted:No, I started with sweet mead yeast intending to taste it after ferm was complete, then ferm stalled so I decided screw it, dry mead. Yeah, honestly in the mead community we don't usually endorse the use of those "Mead Yeasts". They are extra finicky IF you get them to start, and they stall 10 times out of 11. You're better off with dry wine yeast packs (RedStar or Lalvin), and making starters for those if you need.
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Aug 23, 2013 18:35
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Marshmallow Blue posted:Yeah, honestly in the mead community we don't usually endorse the use of those "Mead Yeasts". They are extra finicky IF you get them to start, and they stall 10 times out of 11. You're better off with dry wine yeast packs (RedStar or Lalvin), and making starters for those if you need. I'm not too familiar with the mead community, do people usually build starters with liquid yeast? I would imagine that the relatively low cell count of liquid yeast and high gravity of mead would be a pretty good recipe for stalled fermentations.
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Aug 23, 2013 19:04
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internet celebrity posted:I'm not too familiar with the mead community, do people usually build starters with liquid yeast? I would imagine that the relatively low cell count of liquid yeast and high gravity of mead would be a pretty good recipe for stalled fermentations. Most folks use dry wine yeast packs (dry yeast not dry sweetness) and pitch extra if needed since they're like a dollar. The big issue with mead musts is they are void of nutrients the yeast need to be happy and healthy. I'm sure if you babied a 7$ pack or vial of WYeast / White Labs into a big starter and loaded the must with nutrient (which you should do anyways), you would get it to pull though. But at the end of the day you just spent more money, and more time on something that has a bad track record at the end of the day. I should note that I'm only speaking to the "Mead" wine yeasts, and not liquid Wine yeasts in general. When you select a regular wine yeast strain is gives you some other characteristics. The mead yeasts you get. HONEY HONEY HONEY, LOOK HERE HONEY FLAVOR HONEY AROMA. HONEY SWEET rear end  HONEY HONEY. as a description. If you don't believe me, look for yourself http://www.wyeastlab.com/he_m_styledetails.cfm?ID=202 .
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Aug 23, 2013 19:26
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Marshmallow Blue posted:The mead yeasts you get. HONEY HONEY HONEY, LOOK HERE HONEY FLAVOR HONEY AROMA. HONEY SWEET rear end That's just a copy/paste of the BJCP style for sweet mead. The best and pretty much only book dedicated to mead-making, The Compleat Meadmaker by Ken Scramm, only talks about dry yeasts so that's what people tend to use for making mead. The actual description for Wyeast Sweet Mead isn't all ZOMGHONEYHONEYHONEY: quote:One of two strains for mead making. Leaves 2-3% residual sugar in most meads. Rich, fruity profile complements fruit mead fermentation. Use additional nutrients for mead making. I suspect a lot of the problems people attribute to the liquid strains are due to not accounting for certain factors like cell count, pH, nutrients, oxygenation and stirring up the lees daily. With dry yeast you can pitch a few packets and power through the fermentation.
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Aug 23, 2013 22:17
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Is compressed o2 generally reliably sterile? I'd consider making some way to hook up a low pressure valve to my filtered racking cane and oxygenating that way. otoh I could totally see doing something hilariously wrong and ending up with o2 coming out of the wand at like 200psi blowing must through my ceiling.
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Aug 23, 2013 22:44
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No known organisms can live in pure oxygen, so you should be safe. MoreBeer et al also sell little HEPA filters you can install inline with some tubing but it's pointless when using pure O2.
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Aug 23, 2013 22:53
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Cpt.Wacky posted:That's just a copy/paste of the BJCP style for sweet mead. I actually got a lot less hop flavor and aroma in my last batch and I'm wondering whether its due to overpitching. I used two packets of US-05 in a 1.072 batch, which is admittedly overkill. I'm thinking I should try again but switch to either one packet or make up a liquid starter.
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Aug 24, 2013 00:09
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It seems counterintuitive since we can't live without it, but oxygen is really loving toxic stuff.
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Aug 24, 2013 02:11
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Angry Grimace posted:I actually got a lot less hop flavor and aroma in my last batch and I'm wondering whether its due to overpitching. I used two packets of US-05 in a 1.072 batch, which is admittedly overkill. I'm thinking I should try again but switch to either one packet or make up a liquid starter. I was referring to mead specifically since the gravity is higher than a typical beer and the honey doesn't really have anything in the way of pH buffers. So the pH looks fine when you pitch but two days later it really low. The same goes for nutrients. I would be interested to try splitting some beer batches and over or underpitching once I find a few recipes I like enough to brew again though, for science.
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Aug 24, 2013 02:31
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I've got a question, I've ran out of starsan and it's the middle of the night. I went down to walgreens and bought some povidone-iodine. I'm doing an extract kit and I'll only be boiling 2.5-3 gallons on my stove. How can I go about getting the rest of my clean water to make up the 5 gallons? Just boil some more? I'm thinking that I probably shouldn't use iodine water. Anyone else deal with this before?
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Aug 24, 2013 07:25
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davey4283 posted:I've got a question, I've ran out of starsan and it's the middle of the night. I went down to walgreens and bought some povidone-iodine. I'm doing an extract kit and I'll only be boiling 2.5-3 gallons on my stove. How can I go about getting the rest of my clean water to make up the 5 gallons? Just boil some more? I'm thinking that I probably shouldn't use iodine water. Tap water is completely sterile. The only thing you ever need to sterilize is anything that touches the wort after the boil, which is most likely just your fermenter and a big spoon. Edit: I know it's cliché, but you have to really, really, really screw up badly to infect a beer. Anything that might infect it has to out-compete the massive inoculation of yeast that you pitch. It is very unlikely for that to happen. There's a reason beer was reliably made for thousands of years before germ theory of disease existed. RagingBoner fucked around with this message at 07:56 on Aug 24, 2013 |
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Aug 24, 2013 07:42
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Unless you are milling grains, sanitation is vastly overrated. I've done many a brew with just basic "kitchen" sanitation and it's been fine. They were quickly drank, yes. If aged they would have shown . . . something. But for the first 6 months or so you are fine. After that, the beer can get "gushy" but then you can be all smug and say it is a complex bug beer people just don't get. Unless you mill grains or have something else going on that would kick a lot of particulate matter into the air that would also have bad things for beer in it. That is bad. Very bad. Don't brew with "basic kitchen" sanitation under those circumstances. Unless you want the funk. Rinse your primary out with hot water from the shower and just brew as normal. It will be fine. Iodine water is just a bad idea. From an environmental perspective alone. If you are super concerned, when you dechlorinate your water do it in your primary, then use that water. That will help kill/weaken anything that could be problematic.
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Aug 24, 2013 07:59
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Man, I've been using starsan water to complete my 5gal volume. I guess I can take back this $15 bottle of iodine and just use diluted bleach for sanitizing my stuff then. [edit] Thanks for the quick input guys
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Aug 24, 2013 08:00
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davey4283 posted:Man, I've been using starsan water to complete my 5gal volume.  How does that not make your beer ULTRA loving acidic/inhospitable to yeast cultures?
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Aug 24, 2013 08:24
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Uh... it just.. doesn't? I mean they said don't fear the foam in the dvd 
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Aug 24, 2013 08:42
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davey4283 posted:Uh... it just.. doesn't? The foam, or a tiny bit left over, but a gallon? 
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Aug 24, 2013 10:07
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davey4283 posted:Man, I've been using starsan water to complete my 5gal volume. I thought that's what you were saying in your first post, but I wasn't sure. I know starsan is supposed to act as a yeast nutrient in the proper concentration, but I'm surprised you've made any decent beer doing this... It's very unorthodox, to say the least. I'd stay away from diluted bleach too, it can be difficult to completely rinse, and can impart some terrible flavors. I'd go for a 5 minute oxyclean soak instead. But, again, if you clean your fermenter with good warm water, a dab of dish soap, and a soft cloth (no scrubbing!), you will be fine. I sanitize my stirring spoon and wort chiller in the boil. You'll find homebrewing, as with most hobbies, has a very vocal minority of enthusiasts that freak over the smallest details. That's where these ideas of microchip lab sterility and very inconsequential flavor boogy men (hot side aeration, under-oxygenation, etc.) come from. Are you very new to homebrewing? Edit: I'm not saying that completely un - oxygenated wort will work well either, but I just don't understand people buying oxygen stones to get things absolutely perfect or worrying about yeast starters to the milliliter. If you have a good recipe, with quality ingredients, and don't do anything really crazy, then odds are your beer will turn out pretty good. For instance, there's one guy on the forum that was using starsan solution to top off his wort, and his beer ended up fine. How crazy is that? RagingBoner fucked around with this message at 10:43 on Aug 24, 2013 |
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Aug 24, 2013 10:37
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RagingBoner posted:Edit: I'm not saying that completely un - oxygenated wort will work well either, but I just don't understand people buying oxygen stones to get things absolutely perfect or worrying about yeast starters to the milliliter. If you have a good recipe, with quality ingredients, and don't do anything really crazy, then odds are your beer will turn out pretty good. What you said is absolutely true, you can make beers that will generally turn out pretty good with really basic equipment and minimal time investment into the process. Where stuff like fermentation chambers for temperature control and yeast cell counts and oxygen stones come in is when you've nailed the making pretty good beer consistently and start looking for the causes of the little things that keep your beer from being great. I started out making beer with two 1 gallon pots and my fermenting bucket in my water heater closet and you could drink it. I quickly upgraded to a 3 gallon pot and putting my fermenting bucket in front of an A/C vent and it was pretty good. Next step was to build a fermentation chamber and chill it with frozen water bottles. Then a 5 gallon pot, wort chiller and a step to partial mash brewing. Then a 10 gallon pot, propane burner and a cooler for all grain. That got me to a stable range of pretty good to occasionally really awesome. After that I started really paying attention to starter size and my beer got more consistent. Then I got a chest freezer for fermentation temps and it made my ales even more consistent and got me started on lagers. Since you need so much yeast for a lager I built a stir plate. At this point I'm making really good to awesome beer pretty much every time, the only real duds being due to recipe design or a mishandling of some reused yeast. So I went and bought an oxygen stone to help my reused yeast out and to improve my lagers. At this point I can at the least make a solid beer of any style there is. I no longer have meh batches that you have to drink just because you made it and the best part for me is that more and more often I make a beer that is better than any commercial example I've had. It's still somewhat rare, but it's happening more frequently and wouldn't be had I not continued to refine my techniques and upgrade my equipment.
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Aug 24, 2013 12:17
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Goon bottle brewers, How do you store and sort your bottles (clean/sanitized vs. unclean/used)? The best method I've figured out is to label my 6-pack carriers with "clean" and "dirty" with post-it notes. The square headed Kraut in me wants a better way to store my bottles. Give me some ideas.
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Aug 24, 2013 15:57
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