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Jo3sh posted:Honey is actually very simple - mainly glucose. I forget about Splenda and what not every time i have that conundrum. And i say to myself. Thats a good fact ill remember that. Then i go around peeps they cant have sweet bottle carbed meads.
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Feb 14, 2014 01:23
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Jo3sh posted:Honey is actually very simple - mainly glucose. Oh OK, I see, I didn't think of artificial sweeteners! I normally prime by getting the total amount of priming sugar, boiling with water then gently mixing through my fermenter an hour or 2 before bottling. I guess I can just add the sweetener into the boiling water and do the same? I guess I work out the dosage I need based on the recommendations for a cup of coffee or something and multiply that out to the 20L? EDIT: Also was I correct about the more complex sugars leaving more sweetness? e.g. Brown sugar and stuff like syrups?
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Feb 14, 2014 01:32
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For anyone considering making apple cider with Wyeast 3787 (The Best YeastTM), I'd definitely recommend it. For the first month or so, it had a pretty boozy smell. Now, however, it's fantastic. It's a complex, slightly tart and spicy shindig. Also, the whole "I can handle >10% like a champ" aspect is pretty sweet.
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Feb 14, 2014 03:25
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Vidaeus posted:was I correct about the more complex sugars leaving more sweetness? e.g. Brown sugar and stuff like syrups? Well, yes, sources of sugar with some proportion of complex sugars will be less fermentable. But virtually everything we think of as sugary is accessible to beer yeast, even though it only eats fairly simple sugars. Lactose is unfermentable, but virtually any other sugar that tastes sweet (sucralose isn't a sugar, it's a sugar alcohol) is pretty well fermentable. Sucrose, maltose, dextrose, fructose... all readily gobbled up by S. cerevisiae. Really, you have to get into dextrins before you have unfermentable sugars. Absent pasteurization, really the best ways to get residual sweetness are to: 1) choose a less attenuative yeast, and/or 2) make the OG so high that the yeast you're using cant get through it all before reaching the limit of its tolerance. A combination of these two is how I ended up with a sweetish mead. I used 15 pounds of honey in a five-gallon batch, and I used a yeast that finishes sweet. I also do this with cyser with pretty good effectiveness. Note, though, that I force-carbonate everything rather than bottle-conditioning, which eliminates the difficulty of priming after the yeast have gone to sleep.
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Feb 14, 2014 03:34
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ieatsoap6 posted:For anyone considering making apple cider with Wyeast 3787 (The Best YeastTM), I'd definitely recommend it. For the first month or so, it had a pretty boozy smell. Now, however, it's fantastic. It's a complex, slightly tart and spicy shindig. Also, the whole "I can handle >10% like a champ" aspect is pretty sweet. What was your OG/FG? I'm guessing you had to beef it up a bit with some sugar to get to 10%? The one cider I've made and consumed was way too dry, was up around 1.090 and got down to around 1.015 if I recall correctly, but it was with the cotes des blanc yeast and I wasn't aware how aggressive it'd be nor how unappealing extremely dry ciders are to my palate. I mix it with my saison to really enjoy it now, and that's great, so it's encouraging to hear using 3787 works to achieve the same effect I'm getting from my cider/saison blend.
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Feb 14, 2014 03:51
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From what little experience I have with ciders 1.015 is actually pretty good, most homebrew ciders I've seen end close to 1.000.
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Feb 14, 2014 04:20
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wattershed posted:What was your OG/FG? I'm guessing you had to beef it up a bit with some sugar to get to 10%? The one cider I've made and consumed was way too dry, was up around 1.090 and got down to around 1.015 if I recall correctly, but it was with the cotes des blanc yeast and I wasn't aware how aggressive it'd be nor how unappealing extremely dry ciders are to my palate. I mix it with my saison to really enjoy it now, and that's great, so it's encouraging to hear using 3787 works to achieve the same effect I'm getting from my cider/saison blend. Yeah, I threw in a few pounds of honey - ~4 lbs for a five gallon batch. OG 1.086, FG 1.001. Definitely dry, but delicious. If you're looking for a less dry cider, Wyeast Sweet Mead was fantastic. It'd go really well with a bit of cinnamon as well.
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Feb 14, 2014 04:28
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So here's an update on my quest to make a sweet cider / pasteurization. I backsweetened up to 1.04 or so (half the batch, because I didn't want to risk all of it). I also had a plastic bottle with the sweet stuff so I could tell when it was as carbonated as I'd like, and at that point I started pasteurizing. What I didn't account for, and haven't seen anyone mention specifically online, is that when you heat bottles up it's gonna shove the CO2 out of solution and raise the pressure dramatically. Maybe the bottles can handle 4.5 ATM (sierra nevada bottles) and I want 3 ATM in carbonation, but once you put 150 degree water on it, the pressure goes up to ~5 ATM. So really I'd have to have cut it off somewhere in the 2 range, because about 1/2 to 2/3 blew up in the cooler. The sound of bottles exploding is quite jarring so I could see how they'd do damage but they all blew up in a closed cooler and quite loudly. The ones that survived (and I carefully removed with thick gloves, eye protection, etc and then refrigerated before opening) tasted like Martinelli's to an eerie degree, but with secret booze. Anyway, this was a learning experience and I thought it was worthwhile just to know. It tastes good but the takeaway is that you can't carbonate past the level you want + heat expansion. Photo of the aftermath (I still need to work up the courage to remove the remaining good ones) 
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Feb 14, 2014 05:35
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Glottis posted:So here's an update on my quest to make a sweet cider / pasteurization. I backsweetened up to 1.04 or so (half the batch, because I didn't want to risk all of it). I also had a plastic bottle with the sweet stuff so I could tell when it was as carbonated as I'd like, and at that point I started pasteurizing. Yeah, when I said to err on the side of caution with the carbonation, I really meant it! If mine even go a day longer than I think they should, then I don't pasteurize. It sucks that you lost so many...I hope that batch wasn't too expensive. I'll probably still give the cooler method a try, but I doubt I'll be trying to make any sweet carbed ciders again until late spring/early summer. Also, the buy one-get one deal on 5 and 6 gallon bubblers is still going on over at northern brewer. I just ordered myself a couple of the 5 gallons to fill with wine/mead and hide in the closet. BLARGHLE fucked around with this message at 15:17 on Feb 14, 2014 |
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Feb 14, 2014 15:02
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Hey Internet Celeb are you heading to the Front Street competition tomorrow? We've got 2 beers entered and going to fill the trunk with tons of stuff if you wanted to meet up for a trade afterwards. Let me know! Kitchen Sink pale ale experiment happening this weekend (12 gallon batch split 3 ways with different dryhop techniques). Can't wait to post trip report.
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Feb 14, 2014 15:50
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I just bought four ball lock corny kegs.  I guess.
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Feb 14, 2014 17:29
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Hey Internet Celeb, Here's your stout!
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Feb 14, 2014 17:49
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fullroundaction posted:Hey Internet Celeb are you heading to the Front Street competition tomorrow? We've got 2 beers entered and going to fill the trunk with tons of stuff if you wanted to meet up for a trade afterwards. Let me know! Yep, I've got two beers in it as well. When are you getting into town? I've got some stuff in bottles and on tap if you want to come by. Let me know what your schedule is like, I don't have PMs so my e-mail is dmhamilton36@gmail.com Marshmallow Blue posted:Hey Internet Celeb, Here's your stout! Looks great, what do you think of it? I've still got some left if you want to do a bottle swap and taste them side by side. Don't I feel popular today 
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Feb 14, 2014 19:20
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internet celebrity posted:
I would, but I only have a few left, but mostly I'm afraid it pails side by side to the brewmaster's. I think it's very delicious. I think next time I'll do the full recipe with the extra DME and what not. But having everything prepped and ready to go was a great first step into BIAB. It was super roasty and I think the hops balance well with it. It's probably the most drinkable beer I've made, despite the strong roastiness. Like I feel like i could just down a 12 ounce and go for another.
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Feb 14, 2014 19:26
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BLARGHLE posted:CRITIQUE MY BEER!!!! Tell me which one to start with and I'll drink it tonight!
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Feb 14, 2014 19:34
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BrianBoitano posted:EDIT: If you don't get a kit, then this would be must-haves for me: So it looks like this is my nearest homebrew store http://www.farmhousebrewingsupply.com/ I'm going to stop by today to pick up my equipment and whatnot today. Sadly according to that they don't have a lot of that stuff. They do however have brewers best kits available. Are they any good at all?
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Feb 14, 2014 19:38
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Cool, emailing you in a few. For anyone who is interested, just got an email from the aforementioned competition and this is how the entries broke down this year: Lager/Bock/Hybrid 12 entries Pale/IPA 29 entries Porter/Stout/Barleywine 18 entries Belgian/Wheat 15 entries Amber/Brown 15 entries Specialty/Experimental 39 entries e: Taking place in Wilmington NC fullroundaction fucked around with this message at 19:58 on Feb 14, 2014 |
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Feb 14, 2014 19:56
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Harminoff posted:So it looks like this is my nearest homebrew store I'd be very surprised if they don't have all that stuff. They must just not have it on their site.
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Feb 14, 2014 20:09
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fullroundaction posted:Lager/Bock/Hybrid 12 entries Last year: Lager/Bock 4 Entries (+8) Amber/Brown 10 Entries (+5) Belgian/Wheat 9 Entries (+6) Porter/Stout/Barleywine 19 Entries (-1) Pale/IPA 16 Entries (+10) Specialty 25 Entries (+14) Up by a total of 42 entries, looks like my strategy of "brew decent beer in unpopular categories" isn't going to pay off as much as I thought. Home brewing exploded in this area in 2013.
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Feb 14, 2014 20:10
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Going to be bottling my Polish Old Ale soon here. Up next is a 2 Gallon batch of Triple Chocolate Tripel and a 3 gallon Petite Saison (Think session Saison 4.8% ish).
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Feb 14, 2014 20:39
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Marshmallow Blue posted:Triple Chocolate Tripel Holy mother of god post your recipe! I was wary of non-stout, non-porter chocolate beer until I had the Shock Top chocolate wheat. I'm a sucker for chocolate and that one was too short for this world (or at least my local grocery stores)
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Feb 14, 2014 20:44
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Glottis posted:Just bottled a case of cider (2.5 gallons) after adding 3 family size cans of apple juice concentrate and a couple cups of maple syrup. Went from 1.005 to 1.04. If I don't post an update it's because I waited to long to pasteurize and my apartment catastrophically exploded. What recipe did you use? I'm intrigued by your final results. Minus the explosions, of course. Also today I'm making 3 gallons of short mead with my girlfriend; 2 are using orange blossom honey with a "lemonade flavor" mead kid, we've had it before and it's great. The other one is the spiced kit like I sent out for Secret Santa. Speaking of which Bengy any luck making that?
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Feb 14, 2014 20:54
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BrianBoitano posted:Holy mother of god post your recipe! I was wary of non-stout, non-porter chocolate beer until I had the Shock Top chocolate wheat. I'm a sucker for chocolate and that one was too short for this world (or at least my local grocery stores)  Danger < This recipe is UNTESTED. It may require some serious tweaks. This is a 2 gallon batch (to go in the Mr. Beer Fermenter5 LBs Pale 2-row (BE) .25 lb Chocolate Malt .25 Crystal 60 (Helps chocolate malt be more chocolaty according to something I read on the internet somewhere and it worked well in my chocolate bock) Hops .25 Admiral 60 Min .75 Admiral 1 Min Secondary (just add in after primary ferment) 7 OZ Crushed up Dark Chocolate bar (Lindt 80% etc) 2 TBS Cacao powder Yeast SafBrew T58 If you want the SRM to be more to style Use cacao nibs in secondary for your third type of chocolate instead of the chocolate malt (but Last Time I used nibs, I got a kind of a metallic twang in parts of the beer) Again, it's all untested so the above recipe means squat really.
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Feb 14, 2014 20:55
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I don't think you need to worry about the color being out of style when you're making a chocolate tripel.
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Feb 14, 2014 21:01
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Just a small warning for using chocolate, try to find something with as close to 0 fat as possible. I made a chocolate stout with some Baker's chocolate a while back and it ended up greasy and rancid. To date it's the only batch I've completely dumped.
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Feb 14, 2014 21:03
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fullroundaction posted:I don't think you need to worry about the color being out of style when you're making a chocolate tripel. Fair enough. I'm sure you can even bump it up to a half pound each Crystal chocolate if you're feeling gutsy. My fiance loves chocolate beer and as a way to appease her (because I take up too much space) I always have to do chocolate brews every once in a while. EDIT: Sure wish you could order half pounds form Northern brewer. Double Edit: Noted, Maybe I'll have to use nibs again instead of the chocolate bar, or I'll make an extract from it. It's really the reason it's 2 gallons Marshmallow Blue fucked around with this message at 21:15 on Feb 14, 2014 |
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Feb 14, 2014 21:06
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Marshmallow Blue posted:EDIT: Sure wish you could order half pounds form Northern brewer. Make twice as much
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Feb 15, 2014 01:08
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ieatsoap6 posted:Make twice as much Do this. Beer4TheBeerGod posted:Tell me which one to start with and I'll drink it tonight! Whatever floats your boat! Aside from the cider, they're all probably about as good as they're going to get.
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Feb 15, 2014 02:35
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I have a batch that is overly bread-y. Way too much Munich for what I wanted. Is there anything to be done, or am I chalking this up to a learning experience? E: More context...it was supposed to be moderately hopped, but the breadyness overwhelms the hops haha. Toss more in a dry hop? ChiTownEddie fucked around with this message at 02:45 on Feb 15, 2014 |
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Feb 15, 2014 02:43
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Brew a lighter batch and blend?
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Feb 15, 2014 03:02
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After the icy storms, tons of forced overtime, and bad weather I finally got to kick off my first brew day in over a year. Sunny, 65F, and perfect. Had a few hitches, but managed to hammer out my dry stout pretty easily I'm looking forward to seeing how no-chill goes 
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Feb 15, 2014 03:05
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Welp, forgot there was a homebrew thread here. Handy, that. I'm still pretty new at this, only have 6 or 7 batches behind me. Excited for tomorrow though, this brew day will be a number of firsts: - New 10 gallon kettle should be way nicer to use - Not brewing from a kit (still extract, and not my own recipe - trying to clone Southern Tier's Iniquity) - First highish gravity beer, should be around 1.090 - Second time using a yeast starter, but this time I'm going to try decanting it. My starter has been going since Wednesday night, so per tips from a couple pages back, tomorrow morning I'm going to put it in the fridge to cold crash it. How long does it have to stay in the fridge for this to work? And once I pull it out, I just gently pour off the crap beer and then... what? Do I need to let it warm back up first? It's in a flask, do you have any trouble getting the cold yeast out?
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Feb 15, 2014 04:04
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Raised by Hamsters posted:Welp, forgot there was a homebrew thread here. Handy, that. I like to do 24 hours to make sure as much yeast drops out as possible, but 12 hours is fine. You'll see a noticeable cake at the bottom of the flask. Just gently pour off the starter wort and let the rest of the yeast warm up to pitching temperature while you brew (or pitch it cold, I don't know if it really matters except for the time to hit krausen). If you need to, you can always swirl the little bits that stick to the flask with a small amount of water to get everything out when you pitch it. Good luck!
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Feb 15, 2014 04:14
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Sistergodiva posted:What kind of malt can I have in a IPA in addition to the base malt? Was gonna brew tomorrow but apparently there is no simcoe or amarillo to be had in Sweden at this time I occasionally use carapils for head retention but fwiw it doesn't really add flavour. Basically a lower level Crystal, maybe a munich? There's a guy in my brewing club who does one with Rye that's pretty bitchin. I don't have his recipe but here is one I do have for a Rye IIPA: 3.8kg pale 1.5kg rye 500g caramel rye 380g carapils 500 carared 370 caramalt. 20g Citra and CTZ @ 60 mins 20g each Amarillo Gold, Cascade, Centennial and Chinook @ 5 mins 2pk Safale US05 or proper starter to suit. Mash @ 68.9C for an hour, up to 75.6C for mash out. This all assumes a 70% efficiency so once you have measured efficiency levels adjust.
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Feb 15, 2014 10:18
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I'm a fairly new brewer, on my own, but have been brewing with friends for a couple of years now. Since I've started doing my own, I've been missing my OG by .01 or more almost every time. Original problems with using too much water in mash/sparge have been resolved, and today my brew day was nearly perfect, yet I still came under. My main concern is that today's brew was a SMaSH with Munich. I know Munich doesn't have the diastatic power to convert adjuncts but I thought it could take care of itself. Would love some answers!
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Feb 15, 2014 18:30
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ajaxisarobot posted:I'm a fairly new brewer, on my own, but have been brewing with friends for a couple of years now. Since I've started doing my own, I've been missing my OG by .01 or more almost every time. Original problems with using too much water in mash/sparge have been resolved, and today my brew day was nearly perfect, yet I still came under. My main concern is that today's brew was a SMaSH with Munich. I know Munich doesn't have the diastatic power to convert adjuncts but I thought it could take care of itself. Would love some answers! You say you're coming in .01 under your intended OG, how are you calculating that? Are you doing kits or recipes other people post, or coming up with your own? This may be an issue where you need to understand your system and make adjustments for it rather than a process issue. For example I do 6 gallon batches so that I can put 5.25 gallons in my fermentor after I leave all the trub behind in the kettle. If I were doing a kit beer that was intended for 5 gallons my OG would come in "low" because of that extra gallon of wort I'm making. Post your recipe for your SMASH that you think came in low and we can let you know if your efficiency is actually low or if you're just expecting unrealistic numbers. Basically we need to know: -pounds of grain -volume of mash water -volume of sparge water -pre-boil volume -post-boil volume -original gravity Munich can certainly convert itself, my Munich Dunkel I have on tap is 95% munich, 5% melanoidin malt and it converted just fine.
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Feb 15, 2014 20:21
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Hello Brew thread, I'm very new to home brewing and while I am working my way through the few hundred pages of the thread I had a couple questions I wanted to get clarified up front. A couple of, probably stupid, questions; both general and related to specific issues with my first/second batch. 1. I bought a Northern Brewer starter kit, and watched the DVDs and youtube videos. During the siphoning, whether just racking or bottling, it shows placing the hose against the sidewall of the receiving vessel. I understand this is to prevent aerating the beer leading to oxidation. My question is, once I have the siphon going can I just submerge the end of the hose into the beer instead of trying to keep it pressed against the side? 2. Both my first batch and my second batch fermentation began around 24 or so hours after I pitched the yeast. In both cases the bubbling was extremely vigorous right from the get go, and stopped bubbling by about day 3. In my first batch, Caribou Slobber, I pitched the yeast at 65F and it stayed between 65 and 70 (It was 68.2F when I checked the gravity 11 days later). My second batch, Cream Ale, pitched at 62.5F and stayed at ~70. The cream ale reached its final gravity about 80 hours after pitching (I checked the grav when the bubbling stopped and it was the same later when I bottled). (Cream Ale OG was 1.044 @ 62.5F, Final 1.012 @ 70.2F) I just opened the first bottle of the Caribou Slobber and the flavor profile is fine. I assume the rapid fermentation are just related to the temperature of the apartment being ~70. But is too rapid a fermentation something I should be concerned about? (I intend to use some of my upcoming tax return to invest in a controlled temperature fermentation vessel anyway though) 3. While the flavor profile of the Caribou Slobber is pretty good, it is definitely a little over-carbonated. My cursory searching online seems to indicate this could be a number of different issues. Some information about the batch: Size: 5 Gal placed in the primary fermentor. I only ended up with 44 bottles though. A little got left in both the primary and secondary vessels since I was trying to leave behind the sediment. Brewing Day, Original Gravity: 1.052 @ 65F Racked to Secondary: 11 days later Final Gravity: 1.013 @ 68F Bottled: 16 days after racking (27 after brew day) Priming Sugar: 5 oz Corn Sugar dissolved in 10oz water added to beer that was @ 70.1F. First Bottle opened: 9 days after bottling with 36 hours refrigeration. I didn't use a priming sugar calculator. The recipe that came with the kit called for "2/3 Cup sugar dissolved in 16 Oz water" / The corn sugar packet that came in the kit had instructions on the front that read "Boil (the 5 oz bag) in 1 cup water for 7-10 minutes" I'm guessing that I simply used too much priming sugar? 4. Assuming I am right about the priming sugar, it means my second batch is going to be the same since it is already bottled. I used the same 5 oz Corn Sugar method for the Cream Ale as I did the Slobber. Would it be possible for me to simply move the Cream Ale bottles to refrigeration a little early to try and stop the CO2 production? Or will that be a problem since it would leave extra unfermented sugar? Or do I just chalk up my first two batches being a little gassy to learning and move on?
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Feb 15, 2014 21:07
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Capt. Sticl posted:Hello Brew thread, 1. Yeah, the idea is just to avoid the beer splashing around and getting exposed to the air. Once the hose is submerged in the beer, it should be fine. 2. Fermentation depends on a lot of factors, the strain, cell count, and viability of the yeast, fermentation temperature, etc. In my experience, my beers tend to reach final gravity (or at least, krausen subsiding and bubbling slowing down/stopping) with 3-4 days. One or two of them have been slowing down by 48 hours and done at like 60. There's nothing wrong with that, by itself, but a vigorous fermentation will cause the temperatures to rise more, and that can produce different or off flavors from the yeast. With most strains, that's usually fruity/banana-y esters and fusel alcohols ("hot", "boozy"). Depending on the beer, those flavors might be desired. It sounds like you're keeping stuff in the mid-high 60s, reaching 70, which is probably fine for most American Ale yeasts -- I'm assuming from the NB kits that you're using Safale US-05 or Wyeast 1056, which are happy in the mid-60s. It's still a good idea to invest in something for temperature control, even if it's just a bucket of water and swapping frozen bottles. Summer is coming  3. Yeah, you should almost never use the whole 5oz of priming sugar, unless the beer you're making is supposed to be very carbonated. 44 bottles @12oz each is 4.125 gallons, so that's gonna be super carbed for a brown ale. It's a mistake most people make the first few times, because the instructions specifically tell you to make it. 4. Yeah, the cream ale will probably be overcarbed too, but it's probably more to style there than in the brown. You can try putting bottles in the fridge early, but it'll be hard to judge when to do so. If you open one warm it's going to gush, because CO2 doesn't dissolve into liquids nearly as well at room temperature as it does at fridge temperature. You can also try to open them and re-cap them, which should release some of the CO2. I'd try that on a few at first to see if that gets you more like what you want. Personally, I'd probably just drink them overcarbed, but to each their own. And next time, yeah, use a priming sugar calculator. When it asks for the temperature of the beer, you want the highest temperature it's been since primary fermentation finished, not the temperature it is at bottling. This is because there's some CO2 in solution in the beer already, and the temperature determines how much of that has offgassed.
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Feb 15, 2014 21:52
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My first batch ever was a caribou slobber. They give you way too much priming sugar in their kits. Mine was really foamy and quite a bit over carbed.
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Feb 15, 2014 21:57
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Couldn't you just stirr it a bit? My friends made a really nice winter porter with safferon, juniper and cloves. It was a bit over carbed, but I just swirled it a bit and it was perfect.
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Feb 15, 2014 22:16
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