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robotsinmyhead posted:I have a keg setup, but this cider would specifically be for giving out to other people, so I need to bottle it. I've never had much luck transferring from kegs to bottles (from tap) and I don't own a counterpressure filler. I'm not opposed to buying one, but my friend has one and says it's a gigantic pain in the rear end. I use these to bottle from the keg, and it does a pretty decent job. I usually fill up bombers with it, and haven't had any complaints so far. e: I chill my bottles before filling and set the kegerator to 32 degrees before trying to fill bottles - in order to reduce CO2 loss from the liquid. https://www.kegworks.com/internal-jug-growler-filler (need to find one compatible w/ your taps) I bet the beergun probably works a lot better, but $$$$$$. extravadanza fucked around with this message at 16:20 on May 26, 2017 |
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May 26, 2017 16:17
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I might grab that Beergun 2. I hate not being able to bring my kegged beers to brewclub, and even though it's $100, I'm sure I'll use the hell out of it.
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May 26, 2017 16:21
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RE: Cider dryness. To get truly sweet cider you do need to kill the yeast and it's best to start with a beer yeast and not a wine yeast (they tend toward very-dry). You can of course add sugars that the yeast cannot ferment (e.g. lactose), but they don't taste anywhere as sweet as sucrose, glucose, or fructose. Bottle conditioning and pasteurizing sucks. Buy a good beer gun and practice with it. yamdankee posted:A friend of mine bought these and is giving me one: 1) Use it. It may not get a lot of whiskey or oak, but there should still be some and you'll likely get some maple flavors too. 2) It's 10 gallons. Fill it completely if you're aging. Fill it 3/4 of the way if you're fermenting in it (ferment the rest of the 10 gallons in something else). Top off after it's done blowing out. 3) You can steam it to make sure it's fully swelled. There are a ton of resources out there that can better explain how to use it. Don't bother with starsan, it won't do what you hope it will do on that wood inside. Potassium Metabisulfite is a barrel user's friend for keeping it sanitary. 4) As many as you want. Once it's tasting neutral (2-3 batches at this point you'll be neutral), you can either take it apart and fire it again for fresh char, or use it as a neutral barrel for sours or whatever (and then you can consider waxing it too). 5) Whatever you think will taste good with maple and whiskey. Most people settle on something stronger, Imperial Stout or Barleywine because they'll stand up to the wood and whiskey character. Barrels are tons of fun. Don't lift a full 10 gallon barrel alone unless you like visiting your doctor.
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May 26, 2017 16:29
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Out of curiosity, has anyone tried The Last Straw bottle filler? I thought that one looked pretty interesting too.
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May 26, 2017 16:38
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yamdankee posted:1) Is using one still going to be worthwhile at this stage in the barrels life? Like is whisky to syrup it's end of life or is there some use out of them? 1. Sure. 2. Yeah, fermenting in it should be fine. You could also do secondary. Important thing here is that oxygen ingress is going to be pretty substantial in a small barrel, so if possible you would want to wax the outside of it. Also, limit the time your beer spends in the barrel. I would probably just do primary and the bottle right away to begin with. 3. Read the MilkTheFunk wiki for info on this, it depends on the state of the barrel and how much character you want. Likely you'll have to do more. 4. Until you're unable to plug any leaks / it falls apart / you give up on the thing. 5. Something strongly flavored and low hopped that can take quite a bit of oxygen. Imperial Stouts, Barley Wines etc.
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May 26, 2017 16:39
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Thanks so much for the detailed reply. I'll have to research steaming and how to use Potassium Metabisulfite. I have a 10 gallon and a 5 gallon brew kettle. 1 mashtun (Home Depot drink dispenser conversion). What's the best way to go about brewing 10 gallons with such limited equipment? I should probably just buck up and buy another 10 gallon pot? Or should I maybe do an imperial stout extract, buy two ingredient kits, and treat it as if I was doing a usual 5 gallon extract brew but just use double the ingredients using the 10 gallon pot? And when you say top off after active fermentation, you mean pour in the other 1/4 that was fermented elsewhere into the barrel?
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May 26, 2017 16:39
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yamdankee posted:Thanks so much for the detailed reply. I'll have to research steaming and how to use Potassium Metabisulfite. Yeah, after the krausen falls and it's working on cleaning up, take the rest that was fermenting elsewhere to add to the barrel. It's up to you how long you want it to spend in there. If you're doing primary, you probably won't need to leave it all that long. Secondary aging can be longer. Here's a link to the page Biomute was talking about. Don't read too much and get overwhelmed. http://www.milkthefunk.com/wiki/Barrel I only have 10.5 gallon kettles myself, so I just end up brewing the same 5 gallon recipe twice and blending them together.
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May 26, 2017 16:45
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You can also use the barrel as a blend base. Get a nice strong beer it and let it sit. Then when you are ready with another batch blend or to the right oak and flavor profile and use the leftover clean beer to fill it back up. That's how i use my two 15 gallon barrels but both mine are sour. My 5 gallon barrel is for experimental madness.
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May 26, 2017 18:20
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LaserWash posted:I basically have the summer off with my wife and the new baby and been thinking about bottling a bunch of big beers for future winters and special occasions. The times I've used my cobra tap+vinyl tube to fill bottles have been successful but messy affairs. I have $70 in Amazon credit. I'm highly considering the beer gun. The big improvement of the second gen is that they fixed the problem of the rubber seals on the end popping off by making it captive in the bracket at the tip, which is a big improvement. They also sell the beergun and accessories (tubing, connectors) as one box with a nice case for $100, whereas before it was two separate items for $75 and $25 respectively, with no case. Gen 2 also has an ergonomic plastic grip which is just a bonus imo since the gen 1 is by no means uncomfortable to use E: the important thing with bottle fillers is that they work best with cold, wet bottles to reduce temperature shock and nucleation sites. That said, it works fine with room temp bottles. There's always going to be some foaming.
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May 26, 2017 19:31
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So I think instead of making a strawberry wheat, I will take a rather boring saison I have in a keg right now (I fermented it in march and I don't think it got warm enough) and turn it into a strawberry saison. Any tips on putting fruit in a keg? I was thinking of making a cheesecloth bag and just tossing it in there for a week.
hot cocoa on the couch fucked around with this message at 18:40 on May 28, 2017 |
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May 28, 2017 00:49
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so the bottling day sample of my Cluster / Wakatu ale wasn't entirely awe-inspiring. Perfectly drinkable ( and I assume will improve with conditioning ), but it still tastes like the attempt at using up leftover hops that it was. Then I started a variant of Mountain Brew, hopbursting / dry hopping with Citra and Ekuanot. The wort isn't neon yellow, so I'm a bit disappointed. I bashed out a quick pale ale afterward to use up the rest of the hops and yeast, so at worst I still have that. Also -- is there any infection risk using blowoff tubes that have gotten cloudy / discolored? Mine are starting to look a bit gross, though as far as I can tell they're clean.
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May 28, 2017 02:50
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yamdankee posted:A friend of mine bought these and is giving me one: 1. You should get some awesome complexity if it has had whiskey and maple syrup in it! And the oak will likely be a darker char so it should hold some character. 2. Brew and ferment outside of it, let whatever is going in fully finish, cold crash and then transfer to barrel to age. 3. Keep starsan away!! I'll have to double check but memory is saying Citric acid and keeping it filled with the solution will keep it clean. Definitely check that. 4. If you do a solera style method you can get a few half-fills out of it, so you brew and ferment the full volume, then when you want to refill or pull some out, you rebrew and ferment half volume, pull half volume and replace. Our quad barrel is about to get its' 3rd batch in  As for style, I would lean toward a Baltic Porter, American barleywine or imperial stout as they'll likely work best with the whiskey and maple flavours compared to say a tripel. I would personally recommend pairing barrels to styles based on previous fills, so a tripel I would do in a very soft white wine barrel whereas a quadrupel we've done in a Barossa Shiraz barrel. Like with any flavourings, I recommend pairing them with something complementary. Brewing news - I rebrewed iteration 3 of my 40 point cherrywood smoked foreign extra stout on Saturday, it smells good. I have a starter of Franconian dark lager going for it now, 3L starter which will end up getting stepped up to 5L. Today I brewed a beer on 30% malted oats and a touch of light crystal, with a flameout addition of Brooklyn, cascade and simcoe that sat in there for 20 mins. Going to ferment it with Conan and double dry hop it. I need to also find an upright fridge or freezer to fit these new fermentasaurus fermenters. Due to height and size they don't fit any of my current fridges, which annoys me because it just means I'm due to start looking at replacing two of my brewing fridges. And one is more specifically suited to brewing with normal fermenters than these devices and I'm fairly confident all of the shelves are long gone
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May 28, 2017 13:58
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the yeti posted:So I think my malt cider has a pellicle (I say this looking superstitiously my sauerkraut and sourdough projects) So my graff is not infected, I pulled it down and it looked like just a bunch of protein accumultion or something held up by surface tension. Having tasted it, it's not very interesting either  When it was fresh off of primary fermentation it had a decent amount of spicy high temp belgian yeast taste, and a pleasant grain aftertaste, but as it's aged to dissipate the cider-yeast-fart character those other notes are dim to gone as well. Not sure if I should go ahead and bottle it and see if carbonation brings it back to life a little or think of something else.
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May 28, 2017 17:23
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Anybody using a Brewjacket? I'm trying to downsize my brewing setup, meaning going from 3 separate fridges (ferment, cold storage, and kegerator) to hopefully 1. I typically brew lagers and need to be able to maintain below 50°F. This seems to be the only hands off, non refrigerator option I can find. If it works I think it would totally be worth the money to get a couple of them, but I'm gonna have to get new primary vessels to go with them and don't wanna waste my time if they are too good to be true.
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May 28, 2017 18:33
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hot cocoa on the couch posted:So I think instead of making a strawberry wheat, I will take a rather boring saison I have in a keg right now (I fermented it in march and I don't think it got warm enough) and turn it into a strawberry saison. Any tips on putting fruit in a keg? I was thinking of making a cheesecloth bag and just tossing it in there for a week. Also, should I sanitize the cheesecloth bag?
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May 28, 2017 18:40
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the yeti posted:So my graff is not infected, I pulled it down and it looked like just a bunch of protein accumultion or something held up by surface tension. It was probably just yeast rafts then. I find that ciders have a hard time keeping the character of yeasts as they age, faster than beer does alone. Not sure why, but there's no reason to not bottle it. It can age just fine in bottles, and you can't off-gas any flavors inside the bottle. hot cocoa on the couch posted:Also, should I sanitize the cheesecloth bag? Yes. It's a good idea to put your strawberries in the freezer as well, and you may as well mash them up too. It won't pasteurize them, but it will knock back any wild yeasts on the strawberries so that your yeasts can stay in charge of the re-fermentation from the added fruit sugars.
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May 28, 2017 20:37
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The summer ale appears to be a success. Originally I was planning to transfer to my secondary and see how it tastes, but this weekend seems to be too busy. But honestly I don't think it even needs the transfer, it seems to have settled done quite well.
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May 28, 2017 20:51
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Most beers get by just fine without transferring to secondary. If it looks good, package it when you have a little free time.
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May 28, 2017 21:03
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Jo3sh posted:Most beers get by just fine without transferring to secondary. If it looks good, package it when you have a little free time. Edit: I mean, Vikings brewed beer without knowing that yeast existed, so I'm sure it'll come out fine.
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May 28, 2017 21:47
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Itll probably be fine but it wouldn't hurt to boil it first.
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May 28, 2017 23:16
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adebisi lives posted:Itll probably be fine but it wouldn't hurt to boil it first.
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May 29, 2017 01:57
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Tibalt posted:Boiling it before bottling? Wouldn't that prevent it from carbonating? It would, among other issues it would create. That's terrible advice, and I'm not sure that was even aimed at you. I would suggest it was probably advice on the cheesecloth bag for the fruiting talked about up-thread as it's a pretty common way to sterilize cheese cloths and fabrics for cooking.
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May 29, 2017 02:12
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I ended up just dunking the bags in star san and chopping up some fresh Ontario strawberries and dumped the bags in the keg. We'll see how it turns out in a week or so! Boiling was a good idea though, I'll do that next time if this works out
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May 29, 2017 02:58
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Jhet posted:It would, among other issues it would create. That's terrible advice, and I'm not sure that was even aimed at you. Edit: cripes Tibalt fucked around with this message at 03:11 on May 29, 2017 |
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May 29, 2017 03:03
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Tibalt posted:No, I agree. But honestly I was more looking to taste it, since I didn't have a hydrometer to make sure the OG was acceptable and was just hoping and praying. It looks fine, but I'm an anxious beermeister. go and buy a $5 hydrometer for fucks sake
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May 29, 2017 06:25
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JawKnee posted:go and buy a $5 hydrometer for fucks sake
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May 29, 2017 13:50
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Tibalt posted:I have one now, I actually bought it when I bought the beer kit - went right down the checklist from How To Berw . Unfortunately, I didn't realize I was missing an appropriate test jar until I already had the wort chilled. Literally anything deep enough for it to float is an appropriate test jar. You could measure your FG in a slurpee cup and your OG in the kettle.
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May 29, 2017 16:02
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Having a regulator that actually wants to work makes heating strike water a lot faster. Doing a American Pale Ale with some old school hops today (Chinook and Cascade, at the rate hops are changing these must be old school by now). Should be tasty. 87% GWM NW Pale Malt 8.7% C10 2.2% Carapils 2.2% Melanoidin 0.5 oz Chinook at 60 0.5 oz each Chinook and Cascade at 10 Wyeast 1968 ESB I cannot for the life of me figure out how much Carapils is the right amount. So many recipes just use 1lb, but that's way too much for me. Then I tried 8oz and that was still a bit too much. So here's hoping 4oz will give me good foam but not so much that it's impossible to pour.
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May 29, 2017 16:46
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rockcity posted:Literally anything deep enough for it to float is an appropriate test jar. You could measure your FG in a slurpee cup and your OG in the kettle.
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May 29, 2017 17:45
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Tibalt posted:Thank you, I didn't think of that, I never measure directly out of the kettle. I'll do that next time. Don't forget temperature adjustments when you're measuring gravity. Hot wort has a lower gravity.
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May 29, 2017 17:50
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Jhet posted:Having a regulator that actually wants to work makes heating strike water a lot faster. I've used half a pound in a beer before, but had less other crystal malts in there.
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May 29, 2017 18:13
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Well, my Kolsch has been cold-crashing for a few days now, but it's still awfully drat hazy - that probably has something to do with not having any Irish moss or Whirlfloc on hand for brewday. I dissolved some gelatin in hot water and dumped that in, so hopefully that will help pull some crap out of suspension. I'll probably keg tomorrow or Wednesday.
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May 30, 2017 01:25
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First bottling day this Saturday and I'm kind of stoked. 
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May 30, 2017 07:58
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Unfunny Poster posted:First bottling day this Saturday and I'm kind of stoked. That stoked feeling wears off after you bottle your first batch.
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May 30, 2017 13:23
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I find bottling kinda relaxing v v( provided I'm not spilling beer all over the floor )
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May 30, 2017 13:37
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triple clutcher posted:I find bottling kinda relaxing v I bottle over an open dishwasher door. Any and all spills are contained there and I just close it up when I'm done.
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May 30, 2017 14:25
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It took me about 3 years before feeling like I really just need kegs. So I'm buying kegs. Just doing a picnic tap for now because they get to fit into my current keezer until I install another couple outlets in my basement. I'm still going to bottle some things, like imperial stouts, Scotch ale, some sours, and some of the strong Belgian stuff (because I didn't wash all those champagne bottles to not use them).
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May 30, 2017 14:51
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I've been bottling for 3 years now and really getting fed up with it, but kegging is just too big a step. I wish there was some middleground between dozens of 12oz bottles or hundreds of dollars for a keg setup. I brew more than I drink and at least bottles are easy to give away or take to parties.
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May 30, 2017 15:00
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I never bottled. after helping my friends bottle a few batches when i started brewing I made my keezer because gently caress bottling.
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May 30, 2017 15:38
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BioTech posted:I've been bottling for 3 years now and really getting fed up with it, but kegging is just too big a step. I wish there was some middleground between dozens of 12oz bottles or hundreds of dollars for a keg setup. I was thinking about that, and growlers seem to be a not terrible solution to the beer to parties problem. I've been running into the problem of not having enough bottles for all the beer though, and I'm sick of trying to peel those metallic labels off all the bottles. If you pick up pieces and find a cheap CO2 tank you can get into it for about $100-150, but that's a single keg and expanding is still expensive. The expensive parts are definitely the carbonation parts, so I'm not sure it'll ever really get much cheaper. Still worth it for me.
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May 30, 2017 16:00
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