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Yeah I mean I should say glass is generally impractical if not handled properly. Yeah I brew seasonal beers and haven't really harvested yeast at all since I'm changing up my yeast white a bit. Like my last 5 beers all used different yeast, and honestly for $5-10 a batch i don't see myself harvesting yeast. tater_salad fucked around with this message at 03:13 on Feb 27, 2021 |
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Feb 27, 2021 03:11
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Paul MaudDib posted:here's some random thoughts Very much appreciate the effortpost! That’s actually one thing I was wondering, whether I needed to get a 50k btu propane burner to do this outside or whether my natural gas kitchen stove would be sufficient. I hadn’t thought about the potential mess in case of a boil over, that’s probably worth a dedicated burner all on its own... sad my camp stoves probably aren’t big enough to accommodate the pot. Thankfully I recently bought some fresh no rinse food grade sanitizing solution because we’ve been making a lot of Kombucha and some Mead recently. The brush is another good tip, I was planning on doing a dishwasher cycle first, but I wasn’t sure how to actually really clean in there. I’m used to home canning where it’s easier to scrub clean the jars and sterilize in the oven, but cold beer would probably just thermal shock the container if we tried that. The bombers are a really good call out, thanks for the heads up on that! I’ll hafta start collecting those. I was half wondering if there was some way to reuse the huge stash of growlers I’ve managed to accumulate, but the twist off being no bueno makes sense. I wasn’t sure if anyone made crimpable caps for growlers, similar to twist off bottles. Sadly I got rid of my kegerator a few years ago, but if this goes well I can definitely see myself getting a small keg setup for brews. Jhet posted:Don’t walk away when it’s about to start boiling. It will boil over on you, but if you’re there you can manage the heat and sneak up past the hot break. Hops can also cause this at the beginning of the boil, so it’s cool to back off the boil to control the foaming. Duly noted, appreciate the heads up!
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Feb 27, 2021 03:27
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calandryll posted:I use the brew bucket exclusively. I have two but haven't been brewing enough lately to put the second one into "production". But they are extremely easy to clean and I like them because of that. I have the brewmaster editions so I can stick a probe in there from my inkbird to control the fermentation chamber. I've been thinking about doing glycol in the future once I finish my brewery build. Seconding everything here. I got a very early SS Brew Bucket and have been using it for years. Dead simple to clean. I use mine in a chest freezer and lifting it out doesn’t disturb the yeast much at all. It’s well compacted by the time the beer is done. If I ever upgrade, it would be to a Spike Flex+, mostly for some of the added benefits like being pressure capable and bigger valves. I’m not 100% sure it would fit in my freezer, but the dimensions seem like they might. It would definitely be heavier, but I can pump wort into it when it’s in the freezer already from my Grainfather and pressure transfer out when done.
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Feb 27, 2021 04:59
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Jhet posted:
Yeah, I'm disappointed in mine for mead work, it's not as labour-saving as I had hoped at all. Think I might stick to a 5 liter demijohn in the future and use the cone as a flask filler.
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Feb 27, 2021 09:41
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OSU_Matthew posted:Very much appreciate the effortpost! I've done partial extract boils on a coil electric stove. NG is okay for partial, but it may still struggle on a full volume boil. It'll probably get there eventually, but big burners are a life saver. Also, read http://howtobrew.com/book/section-1/brewing-preperations/sanitation this thing on sanitation, or read the section on it in Joy of Homebrewing when it gets to you. Or read both, that's good too. Don't bottle in growlers. They're not pressure rated like bottles and can explode easily enough.
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Feb 27, 2021 10:01
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Hello brewing thread! I am about to start a wine brew with a kit and have a question. I have a bottle of raspberry couli which I would like to add to the syrup. It has >3% (less than 9g) of pectin in it, which can cause cloudyness. Will the finnings that came with the kit work on this? If not will it affect the taste? I am brewing for my own use (cooking and drinking) so I am not overly concerned about appearance. It will make up 9g of 23 litres of water 1.7 kg of syrup 4kg of sugar and 300g of couli. Thanks in advance!
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Feb 27, 2021 17:08
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If you have pectic enzyme it might work. I’ve not ever used it on jam, only on juice though. Bentonite and other finings don’t work on pectin either. So it’s either the enzyme or it’ll stay a bit cloudy.
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Feb 27, 2021 17:12
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Yeah, pectic enzyme works any time before or after fermentation and does a pretty good job breaking it down.
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Feb 27, 2021 17:48
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rockcity posted:Seconding everything here. I got a very early SS Brew Bucket and have been using it for years. Dead simple to clean. I use mine in a chest freezer and lifting it out doesn’t disturb the yeast much at all. It’s well compacted by the time the beer is done. Yeah, I'm really curious to try out pressure fermentation to see how well it works and the Flex is definitely something that interests me.
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Feb 27, 2021 19:43
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Jhet posted:There’s lots of ways to do it, and tons of conicals hitting the market. I’d say if you’re doing a ton of modern styles and love US05 then that’s going to be useful. If you’re more into other things, then a conical may not be your best immediate upgrade. Really depends what you’re most interested in doing. I don't understand the context of this, are conical fermenters known for limited temperature ranges or something such that this strain is one of a handful that works well, or what? I really love ESBs and they aren't available around here so that's my primary brewing goal, followed by a nice czech/bohemian pilsner. Random aside, one idea I had for holding sparge water was to use a sous-vide immersion heater on the top tank to keep it at a perfectly controlled temperature - I have a 1200W sous vide unit, could I make use of that? Paul MaudDib fucked around with this message at 20:12 on Feb 27, 2021 |
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Feb 27, 2021 20:09
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It's not about the strain.. it alike if you use us05 all the time you cns harvest the yeast and reuse it a few times.
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Feb 27, 2021 20:12
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Paul MaudDib posted:I don't understand the context of this, are conical fermenters known for limited temperature ranges or something such that this strain is one of a handful that works well, or what? Different yeasts need different things. Conicals are great for standard ale styles and other things that turn over quickly. Saisons and mixed ferm can do fine in them, but they take longer and you’d be dropping $800 on a vessel that possibly gets tied up for a longer time. They’ll be perfect for ESBs and if you can get it into temp control either in a fridge or with a glycol jacket then it’ll be good for pilsners too. The circulator might be able to keep up for your sparge water. It should say what it’s preferred volume of water is, but I’d guess it may start to struggle after 4-5 gallons. Really will depend on which one you have, but it won’t hurt to try.
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Feb 27, 2021 22:48
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What’s a good BTU for 10-12 gallon batches? I assume that’s into turkey fryer territory. What about 5-6 gal batches? Paul MaudDib fucked around with this message at 02:20 on Feb 28, 2021 |
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Feb 28, 2021 02:16
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Paul MaudDib posted:What’s a good BTU for 10-12 gallon batches? I assume that’s into turkey fryer territory. I made my first 5 gallon batch on an anvil burner. I’d recommend it too. It’s purpose built for up to 10 gallons and has modular legs so it can sit up high. The only complaint I have is mine didn’t come with a special dial. I have a red dial on the regulator so I have to eyeball how much power I’m putting in and can accidentally turn it off when trying to stop a boilover. https://www.anvilbrewing.com/-p/anv-forge-burner.htm
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Feb 28, 2021 02:37
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Just laid down another 23L batch of Joe's Ancient Orange Mead after a lot of procrastinating (bought the honey like, a year or two ago). Pretty painless aside from the one tub that had crystalised and took a while to get all liquidy again. Talk to me when I'm trying to clean chunks of fruit out of a slippery glass carboy in two months though. Hate that thing but worth keeping around so my SS Brew Bucket isn't tied up the whole time. Paul MaudDib posted:the SS Brewtech systems are extremely shiny. What do people think about those / which are the feature increments worth considering? I picked up the 7 gal Brew Bucket secondhand as a "treat yoself" thing a few years ago. I really like it - easy to clean and impossible to accidentally scratch while doing so, doesn't hold odours like plastic, etc. On the one hand you can buy like 7-10 plastic brew buckets for the same price here in Australia, on the other most of us are only doing 1-2 batches at a time and it is a lot nicer to use. Easy to clean out the bottom though I've never tried re-using the yeast. Lifting it up and setting it down gently should only disturb the sediment minimally. Personally I prefer an upright fridge/freezer rather than a chest for a fermentation chamber as it saves my back, and I can still stack 2 fermenters in there on the homemade shelf I built. The Brew Bucket is also great for bottling, though if you've fermented in it then you're faced with racking it off, cleaning out the trub, then racking back, which introduces an extra opportunity for oxidisation (I wouldn't bother). It works well for bottling the small 5L batches I sometimes do as experiments though.
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Feb 28, 2021 02:45
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I'm doin my first non kit brew tonight! We have a bunch of orange trees so I initially got into brewing to take advantage of that. I already have a 2 gallon patch of orange dessert wine fermenting, and now I want to do a beer. I figured I'd do blue moon clone and use some dried orange peel in the boil, but I also have my heart set on using my secondary for some added fruit flavor. Are there any particular pitfalls I should watch out for?
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Mar 1, 2021 21:13
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The only thing I’d say is that fermented orange juice can taste like vomit. Use lots of peels for the oils and maybe plenty of Citra at the end and in whirlpool and dry hop and it’ll be plenty of orange. You can use a little of the juice, but I don’t know the rate or tolerance of the vomit compound so I skip it for things that taste of OJ instead. I will say, when the Zombie Dust craze was still a thing, I did brew a clone of it and it tasted very much of oranges. So there are ways to do it with a ton of Citra that makes it work great.
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Mar 1, 2021 22:04
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Jhet posted:I've done partial extract boils on a coil electric stove. NG is okay for partial, but it may still struggle on a full volume boil. It'll probably get there eventually, but big burners are a life saver. Also, read http://howtobrew.com/book/section-1/brewing-preperations/sanitation this thing on sanitation, or read the section on it in Joy of Homebrewing when it gets to you. Or read both, that's good too. Thanks for the link! Been reading up what I can do so I don’t gently caress it up. Also bought a buncha stuff like a fastdry bottle drying rack and bottle sanitizer spritzer to help speed that whole process up. Kraftwerk posted:I made my first 5 gallon batch on an anvil burner. I’d recommend it too.  I also ordered a whiskey stout extract kit, which looks like it’s recommended to use a wort chiller. I have a bunch of Menards Funbux, so I was thinking about buying 60’ of copper tubing and and springform bender to make my own wort chiller, and solder some hose fittings on. Anyone here done this, and is there anything I should be aware of before I diy? I see there are sink adapters for hooking up threaded hose to the wort chiller, but since it’s outside could I just buy some garden hose and plumb it from the hose tap since it should theoretically never touch the wort? I’m not actually sure I could find any threaded faucet adapters for either of my sinks downstairs... how do you guys feed your wort chillers?
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Mar 2, 2021 13:38
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OSU_Matthew posted:Thanks for the link! Been reading up what I can do so I don’t gently caress it up. Garden hose is ideal. You're right, the hose water is never touching the wort, so it's fine. You can definitely solder hose fittings on, but you can also just use some tubing, garden hose->barb fittings, and hose clamps.
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Mar 2, 2021 16:09
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I bought one of those JaDeD chillers and hook it up to a quick disconnect on my kitchen sink. The sink only puts out the standard 2 gallons per minute, but this chiller hits within 10 degrees of the tap temperature within seven minutes as advertised. If you have a garden hose I think it's three minutes. In NYC, tap water is often below pitching temps, so I'm really happy with this buy, but they're not the cheapest. Edit: also burned the living poo poo out of my hand because this was my first time with an immersion chiller that could put out 2 gallons per minute of literally boiling water rather than the small stream of warm water I'd get from my old chiller. Rectovagitron fucked around with this message at 16:49 on Mar 2, 2021 |
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Mar 2, 2021 16:46
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more falafel please posted:Garden hose is ideal. You're right, the hose water is never touching the wort, so it's fine. Perfect, that’s good to know! Just picked up everything I need to diy a wort chiller and connect it to a garden hose. So it looks like I screwed up and the stockpot sitting in the basement is only 20 qt when I thought it was 30. That’s almost certainly too small to avoid a boil over, right? Since I’d much rather buy once cry once, what’s a good size and brew kettle you guys would recommend? Is 8-10 gallons a good goal? Do you guys eventually wind up buying more feature rich kettles over time?
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Mar 4, 2021 01:29
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It depends so you want to do brew in a bag. I'd recommend 15-20 gallons in that case. 10 gallon can hold about 15lbs of grain so if you like big beers then you may want to go a little bigger
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Mar 4, 2021 01:39
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OSU_Matthew posted:Since I’d much rather buy once cry once, what’s a good size and brew kettle you guys would recommend? Is 8-10 gallons a good goal? Do you guys eventually wind up buying more feature rich kettles over time? If you want to buy once cry once, probably Blichmann 15 gallon. That will give you headroom for 10 or 12 gallon batches. Probably not worth going high end for a smaller kettle unless you really use it a ton for small batches, if you want something in the 7.5 to 10 gal range just get something cheap. Paul MaudDib fucked around with this message at 06:04 on Mar 4, 2021 |
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Mar 4, 2021 05:55
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tater_salad posted:It depends so you want to do brew in a bag. I'd recommend 15-20 gallons in that case. 10 gallon can hold about 15lbs of grain so if you like big beers then you may want to go a little bigger This is great advice. I can manage with my 42qt kettles for 5 gallon batches, but I do a traditional mash/lauter. BIAB would need that 15 gallons of space and could manage 10 gallon batches of small beers too. I do wish I had the capacity for 10 gallons for spontaneous brew days. Brewing twice in one day is not exactly a blast.
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Mar 4, 2021 06:03
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So I haven't brewed in just under a year, and I'm going to soon. Unfortunately... I also didn't clean my keg out after the last brew ran empty. I haven't popped it open yet to see how grody it is, but it has been at fridge temperatures and (ostensibly still) on CO2 the entire time... how do I best go about cleaning this out, and what am I going to have to replace on it (I assume my beer lines definitely)?
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Mar 4, 2021 11:28
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Paul MaudDib posted:If you want to buy once cry once, probably Blichmann 15 gallon. That will give you headroom for 10 or 12 gallon batches. Probably not worth going high end for a smaller kettle unless you really use it a ton for small batches, if you want something in the 7.5 to 10 gal range just get something cheap. Thanks! Oh man, that does look nice... Inevitably knowing me I'll wind up crying twice here in a year or two... But in the meantime, for a 15 gallon 304 SS kettle with 18 gauge material and tri clad bottom, these AMCYL pots grabbed my attention. 120 for the pot with ball valve, 140 if you toss in the thermometer and bazooka screen. They look pretty similar to the SS Brewtech and like... should I hit buy or keep looking?
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Mar 4, 2021 14:59
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Drone posted:So I haven't brewed in just under a year, and I'm going to soon. Unfortunately... I also didn't clean my keg out after the last brew ran empty. Just did something similar. It wasn't horrible but took a while. Soaking with oxiclean did most of the heavy lifting. I replaced the lines. I also disassembled all my fittings and am glad I did. It wasn't funky but there was stuff caked inside.
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Mar 4, 2021 15:06
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If you're taking the whole thing apart anyway, might as well replace & lube up the o-rings. A new set is a couple bucks.
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Mar 4, 2021 16:00
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Toebone posted:If you're taking the whole thing apart anyway, might as well replace & lube up the o-rings. A new set is a couple bucks. https://www.homebrewfinds.com/kegparts has links to bulk o-rings and random other keg parts. I spent a couple bucks on o-rings once 7 years ago and I've got years to go on my stash.
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Mar 4, 2021 18:09
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If you are going to replace beer lines, I'd recommend the DuoTight and EvaBarrier lines. Make things much easier to replace if they get funky again. I haven't brewed much over the last year because I find I enjoy brewing more as a social event.
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Mar 4, 2021 23:05
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Paul MaudDib posted:If you want to buy once cry once, probably Blichmann 15 gallon. That will give you headroom for 10 or 12 gallon batches. Probably not worth going high end for a smaller kettle unless you really use it a ton for small batches, if you want something in the 7.5 to 10 gal range just get something cheap. Whelp, I did a buncha looking and wound up pulling the trigger on the Blichmann 15 gallon! The AMCYL pot wound up being ~180 with shipping and thermometer, and once it got into that territory I figured gently caress it might as well spend the extra little bit and with the recommendation. Found a G2 on MoreBeer! with a 10$ newsletter discount code and 13$ shipping for 350, which looked like a great price comparatively speaking, so I hopped on that. I figure this is a great excuse to have people over and hang out, and make some cool stuff to give out to family and friends. Also used my Menards rebate money to pick up 60’ of 3/8 copper coil and attachments to DIY a wort chiller, and bought someone’s equipment off Craigslist for a small 5 gallon kettle so I can do an extract kit batch this weekend. Also came with a free case of bombers and a carboy and some other stuff, which alone was worth what I paid for it. Plus the bottle fastdry rack, bottle spray sanitizer, pitcher, and a few odds and ends came in yesterday as well. Think I’m ready for this weekend! 
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Mar 5, 2021 14:47
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Speaking of kegging, my first batch in a long time is at the end of its lagering period in the basement fridge, and I have (I think) everything I need to get my first keg filled, I just need to run out and get my tank filled this afternoon. My problem is a bought another lager kit that I want to get finished and kegged before I get them both set up for serving, and I haven’t pulled the trigger on a chest freezer yet, so I just have the one basement fridge for beer space right now. Can I rack my first beer into the keg and seal it and throw it in a corner somewhere? Hook it up to gas and throw it in a corner somewhere? Or should I just keep it in the fridge on or off the gas while the second brew does its thing? I’m not sure if coming back up from lagering temps to the primary fermentation range of the second brew and then back down to lagering temps again would be good for it.
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Mar 5, 2021 14:55
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I am not sure how many people have barrel experience here, but here we go... So my buddy and I got a 15gal red wine barrel and have been having fun with it (a rye saison being the standout), but now it has started to develop too strong of a brett flavor for my buddy. We always thought around this time that we'd be going sour anyway though so I wasn't too worried (plus I'm a brettboi lol). He was wondering if there was any way to dial it back, like re-charring or something else. I am skeptical that (or any sort of cleaning) would do anything because I thought once a barrel gets some bugs that poo poo is in there forever. Since its not an objectively bad flavor we can just toss in other strains/bugs/etc and have it be part of a melange of wild stuff, right?
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Mar 5, 2021 16:07
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There’s a possibility you can clean it. Read this section on sanitizing for lots of info, but the short answer is steam. http://www.milkthefunk.com/wiki/Barrel Adding more funk won’t knock back what’s in there, but will change what you get out over time.
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Mar 5, 2021 16:36
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T-Square posted:Can I rack my first beer into the keg and seal it and throw it in a corner somewhere? Hook it up to gas and throw it in a corner somewhere? Or should I just keep it in the fridge on or off the gas while the second brew does its thing? I’m not sure if coming back up from lagering temps to the primary fermentation range of the second brew and then back down to lagering temps again would be good for it. Sure. Commercial kegs definitely aren't stored cold all the time. You can put it on gas at room temp, but it won't dissolve as much as if it's cold.
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Mar 5, 2021 18:06
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What do people think about the Brewzilla style systems (or other similar units)? Tight temperature control seems desirable and while they're not inexpensive, they're not that expensive compared to a higher end kettle, insulated mash tun, burner, etc. Heating on 110V seems dubious though, that might be a bit slow, and it's only a 9.25 gallon batch, so a bit less than two kegs.
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Mar 5, 2021 20:11
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I have the 9.25 gal 110v kegland digiboil (with the mash setup: false bottom and grain basket) it's not terrible to get up to temp, about 40 mins or so to get from room temp water to mash, then about 40 mins to get from mash to boil. You can't do BIAB with it unless you have the false bottom or you cause the temp sensor error out. It has a +/- 5°f temp gradient which isn't ideal for mashing but it works. it is however 159 for the digiboil and 75 for the BIAB kit. If I were to do it again I'd probably just have shelled out for the robobrew as it ends up costing about the same once you add up the digiboil, BIAB kit, and a pump. I don't think there's a huge difference in the hardware, jus the control panel functionality etc. NOTE: the size is an issue if you want to do brew in a bag of big beers. If you want to do stouts etc you may not be able to get 6 gallons out of it becuase the grain +water is going to be tough. I will be keeping a close eye on doing a minimal water mash this Sunday with 12lbs to see if I can fit more because I'd like to do the bells expedition stout kit from bells becuase It's nearly 18lbs of grain, which needs 5 gallons of water (and still room to fit that 18lbs of grain. (They say 18lbs is the max, but it'll be a tight fit) tater_salad fucked around with this message at 20:36 on Mar 5, 2021 |
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Mar 5, 2021 20:34
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Jesus, even with friends helping I can't finish 5 gallons before the quality starts dipping. 15 gallons of the same beer would be unthinkable.
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Mar 6, 2021 02:25
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I mean just because the barrel is 15 gallons doesn't mean you need to fill it all the way you'd still want headspace.
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Mar 6, 2021 03:26
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Uhh, you absolutely want right around 15 gallons in a barrel with Brett. Unless you really like vinegar. Even in a clean beer, the larger volume means longer aging, so more time for oxidation. Basically, if there’s not active fermentation pushing out the bung you want it as full as possible. I’m personally at the end of my last 10 gallon aged batch of Quadrupel and it’s just about on the down now about 4 years later. Heavy fruit and malt now with little oak (14 months in barrel), and the alcohol heat is minimal for 14%. I gave quite a few bottles away too. The only time I’ll do 10 gallons anymore is for the stuff going into my barrels and it’ll be mixed ferm or spon from here on. Or maybe barleywine. I’d opened one for dinner tonight, just so much fig and raisin character now and it’s delicious. I’m looking forward to sharing this with some friends in a few more months.
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Mar 6, 2021 03:43
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