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robotsinmyhead posted:I've talked about this recently, but consider doing a mash that aims at a high OG in the 3gal/12l range, then adding water into the fermenter to bring it up to 5gal/20l range. I've been doing this lately and it's great. Shorter times for strike water, shorter boils, quicker chilling. Is there enough space in a 5 gallon pot for that 3gal range plus the space for the extra grains required for the higher gravity? Or am I missing something about ways to achieve the higher gravity?
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Dec 6, 2018 20:02
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I guess I don't understand how you're mashing your grain. I'm doing BIAB and using a calculator to inform where my volumes are going to be.
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Dec 6, 2018 21:15
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mehall posted:I think I'll settle on 2 gallons of full volume, that's still over a 24 case of standard small bottles, and I can do extract brewing if I want to do bigger volume, all of which would fit in the northern brewer starter kit. I was able to get two gallon BIAB batches out of a two gallon kettle, but it took a certain amount of ... creativity.
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Dec 6, 2018 21:29
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triple clutcher posted:what size are your "small bottles"? I do two gallon batches and can reliably fill eighteen 12oz bottles plus enough for a hydrometer sample ( 4oz maybe? ). Everything else is trub and yeast cake. I'd be using a 5 gallon kettle, to be clear. And okay, maybe not the full 24, I'm unsure how much loss I'll have from each stage inc. trub. That's the problem with this, I can't know the outcomes till I get started, but I want to decide on an outcome to inform my buying decisions!
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Dec 6, 2018 21:47
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Jhet posted:I have a 1600w induction and it wouldn't do the 24L+ for the start of the boil. 2200w should be better, definitely but it will take a little time still. I've got a 2200w element running on 240 proud Australian volts, it does take some time to get going, but it's not too noticable an inconvenience if you structure your brew day around it (start heating strike water first, then go mill the grain, etc). I run a pretty half-arsed kettle insulation setup of putting it on top of a folded-up towel and wrapping it in another towel, have got one of those car windscreen shades I've been meaning to measure, cut up and epoxy some Velcro straps to to make one that's more efficient. mehall posted:Follow up question from previous - sounds like if I want to do full volume biab, I need something like 50l capacity to allow headroom for all the water plus grain displacement. If you're trying to make the business case to your fiance (and they like to cook), an electronically controlled kettle can also double as a sous vide rig  Mine has a recirculating pump which runs the liquid from the bottom up to the temp probe at the top before it re-enters there, so it keeps everything at a pretty uniform temperature. If you are brewing indoors make sure you have a halfway decent extractor. I have done two indoor brews: one without any attempt to manage steam, and one in the shower for laughs (only place in the unit with an extractor vent, albeit one not meant for kitchen duty). Both times I wound up with wort residue on the walls and ceiling from the steam that I had to clean off. Supposedly my landlord is taking the opportunity during the current renos to put one in our kitchen now, we'll see.
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Dec 6, 2018 22:00
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My BIAB setup is two 1500w elements i bougt off aliexpress for £6 eache in a 33L plastic bucket, and while 20L batches are sketchy at best for big beers, I can reach that for a lot (limit is prob somewhere 1.060-65 og), and compensate with dry extract and/or do a cold water sparge when necessary.
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Dec 6, 2018 22:03
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Ethics_Gradient posted:I've got a 2200w element running on 240 proud Australian volts, it does take some time to get going, but it's not too noticable an inconvenience if you structure your brew day around it (start heating strike water first, then go mill the grain, etc). I run a pretty half-arsed kettle insulation setup of putting it on top of a folded-up towel and wrapping it in another towel, have got one of those car windscreen shades I've been meaning to measure, cut up and epoxy some Velcro straps to to make one that's more efficient. The kitchen extractor is one of these ones that just scrubs rather than vents, but we have big sliding doors in the kitchen, so I can crack that open, enough distance from the stove that it shouldn't affect the temperature even in the dead of winter. And I own the place.
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Dec 6, 2018 22:26
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Popped a bottle of the sour saison I was worried about turning out a bit acetic, and it turned out great. It clearly needed a few months to start carbing up after being allowed to sit for so long, but the culture came through. The acetic note is gone, or probably just melds well with the other acids now that it is carbed. It's got a nice fruity nose, on the vinous/cidery side, and there's some wheat and grain in the aftertaste. I would perhaps have preferred a slightly cleaner finish, but I tend to get this kind of note in wheaty saisons and it is not unpleasant.
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Dec 7, 2018 19:22
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I just saw a banner over on Brewtoad that they will be shutting down as of 12/31. Time to export all your recipes if you care. Also, what's a good, free, online recipe site these days? I'd also settle for an app, Android required. Is BrewCloud any good? Any other suggestions?
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Dec 9, 2018 17:09
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All of them have something wrong with them to be honest, even the paid ones. Brewersfriend is decent for the water chemistry integration.
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Dec 9, 2018 17:55
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Beersmith is like $20 you goons.
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Dec 10, 2018 02:12
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Yeah, but it's poo poo.
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Dec 10, 2018 02:46
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works fine for me 
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Dec 10, 2018 15:05
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I think Beersmith 3 was a big improvement over 2. It has streamlined a few things into the recipe design process instead of being in some different area. Still can be a pain in the rear end to use and it would be nice if the app wasn't poo poo.
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Dec 10, 2018 15:51
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I use BeerSmith2 too, but it's still pretty bad in a lot of ways. I mean, spend a little time on the user interface. It looks like a 2003 Microsoft Office database. But really, the calculations are not always right (hops utilization especially late additions), and there's about a 0% chance that I'm going to upgrade to Beersmith3 so I can pay a subscription fee for it. I've wondered about BeerTools Pro, and it looks like it might be a little better, but I can't be bothered to switch anything at the moment. Brewer's Friend is really probably the best online one for home brewing recipe management, but again I can't be bothered to switch and it's a $15 yearly fee if you want to store more than a few recipes.
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Dec 10, 2018 15:52
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I sub Brewer's Friend and I like it. $15/yr is a barrier to entry, but it's cheap enough that I don't think about it too much. For the first 2-3 years of my brewing, I used Brewer's Friend free version to punch out a recipe, then I'd just write it down and cycle it back through the calculator later if I wanted to change something.
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Dec 10, 2018 16:17
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I think hop utilization was fixed in Beersmith 3, I put together my own BIAB excel spreadsheet and it is pretty similar in numbers. But you are correct the UI is definitely a second thought. Doing BIAB with Beersmith is still a bit of pain. From what I see is that most of the software works with the BeerXML format so changing shouldn't be too hard.
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Dec 10, 2018 17:52
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Any suggestions on what to use for BIAB? Windows or Android
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Dec 10, 2018 17:54
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I use https://pricelessbrewing.github.io/BiabCalc/#Advanced for my water volumes and stuff, but I still build the recipe on Brewer's Friend. Kinda clunky, but better than winging it.
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Dec 10, 2018 19:28
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It's funny how brewing works sometimes. The Rye PA that I ended up making due to running out of other malt is tasting good now about when I thought it would clear up and stop tasting green. It had none of that extra cereal flavor and while I definitely need to go through my hops freezer and pull some stuff out to just age, it's tasting like a perfectly normal rye pale ale. Bit boring compared to a lot of things I make lately, but it's spot on for drinking a couple during a hockey game or movie. Brewing a bohemian pilsner this morning and I'm thinking that I'll just keep the starter going and build it back up and do a Vienna next. The only thing non-standard about the pils is that I'm trying out Pekko in place of Saaz this time.
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Dec 11, 2018 17:40
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So as I mentioned way back when, my cider smelled INCREDIBLY STRONGLY of hydrogen sulfide to the point that it stunk up the entire house when I moved it from the primary to the secondary. Well, it's been a couple of weeks, and I prepared to bottle the cider. Unfortunately, it still has a very strong hydrogen sulfide smell, despite letting it sit for quite a while. The cider itself tastes pretty great, but the taste is definitely marred by a wet swamp dog smell, so I held off on bottling it. Instead, I used my wine degasser to very vigorously stir the cider in hopes of releasing any gas. I'm hoping it'll help release the hydrogen sulfide and get rid of the smell. However, roughly 18 hours later, the smell is still there. I'm going to degas it again and give it another day, but am I being overly paranoid? Edit: the wild yeast cider I made came out fine at least. A bit tart and dry, sort of like crabapple. A lot of the floral notes I noticed before have disappeared. Tibalt fucked around with this message at 23:50 on Dec 11, 2018 |
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Dec 11, 2018 23:48
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Tibalt posted:So as I mentioned way back when, my cider smelled INCREDIBLY STRONGLY of hydrogen sulfide to the point that it stunk up the entire house when I moved it from the primary to the secondary. Well, it's been a couple of weeks, and I prepared to bottle the cider. Unfortunately, it still has a very strong hydrogen sulfide smell, despite letting it sit for quite a while. The cider itself tastes pretty great, but the taste is definitely marred by a wet swamp dog smell, so I held off on bottling it. I've never used K1-V1116, so I really don't know what to expect. I do know that a lot of cider ferments smell of rotten eggs, but they're not supposed to continue to smell that way. Are you certain that it's fermented all the way and didn't stall? Or maybe did it ferment hot and it's just smelling terrible still? What yeast nutrients did you use and how much? https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20668912 A further quick glance suggests that the rate of adding nitrogen can have a big impact in the H2S production by the yeast and that varies by strain. However, you're on the right track by degassing. Here's a page with some other steps you can try taking. I'd be concerned about the aeration step, but if you properly add 50ppm of sulfites then they'll keep oxidation at bay. And if you can still strongly smell the H2S, then no you're not being absurd. You should try to make it taste like you'd want to drink it. Also get a second opinion on the smell, maybe you're just very sensitive to it, but then you should still do those other things. You want it to be palatable for you, too.
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Dec 12, 2018 00:54
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Great! Thank you for the response. I used 1 tsp. per gallon of urea and diammonium phosphate yeast nutrient. Considering I didn't use yeast nutrient on the wild cider, that does seem like a probable cause. However, stalled fermentation that restarted in the secondary is a possibility - we had some pretty extreme weather variance around the time. Your link was broken, but I think I found something similar here: http://www.thevintnervault.com/index.php?p=w_m_tips&id=5781 I think I'm going to forgo copper sulfate, but degassing, re-racking, and aerating with sulfite powder seems like a pretty workable solution. I'm glad there's a solution - the cider really does taste quite nice once you get past the smell.
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Dec 12, 2018 01:30
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I would personally avoid the copper sulfate myself too. I don't have the lab equipment to make certain I was using the right amount. I would feel okay just racking the cider through a piece of copper if it came to it. I just wouldn't leave it in the tank at all. That page did say about the same thing, so you're on the right track. I like the part at the very end, skip the H2S "by avoiding Montrachet yeast". It's what I use in my cider half the time, but I never add nutrients. Could be a strain that has been trained to minimize it, but I honestly hadn't given it a thought. I've actually stopped racking my cider off the lees. I kegged 5 gallons from 2017 recently and it tastes great. I think that was a champagne wine yeast without pectic enzyme. Probably should have added a little malic acid, but it tastes good with or without a little simple syrup in the glass. Maybe my trick is to just not touch it for 6+ months and leave it at 50-60 degrees F? Doubt that would work on a larger scale, but it works for me.
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Dec 12, 2018 03:43
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I love montrachet yeast for mead. I do use nutrients though. Haven't tried it for a cider.
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Dec 12, 2018 17:41
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A piece of copper might suck the H2S right out. I had a rhino fart cider a few years ago and I sanitized my wort chiller and dunked it in for a few minutes and the smell vanished completely.
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Dec 13, 2018 01:47
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The combination of degassing, racking, and aerating with potassium metabisulfite seems to have done the trick, and the H2S smell has been significantly reduced. It was actually kind of fun, pouring from carboy to carboy through a funnel, letting it splash as much as I could without making a mess. I'm already thinking about next season - depending on how this batch works out, I'm debating whether to stick with the same recipe and incorporate the sulfite + aeration trick after fermentation ends, switch out the yeast, skip the nutrient, etc. I haven't even started dealing with back-sweetening or anything, and it already feels like there's a lot of room to play without a lot of actual work. But if it's not one thing, it's another. The spigot of my bottling bucket snapped clean in half while I was cleaning it! I honestly can't complain, it was the bucket that came in the first starter kit I bought, and it survived three moves and two hiatus, but still. I haven't been using it much lately, so I'm not sure I'll even buy a replacement spigot.
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Dec 13, 2018 05:54
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adorai posted:With the holiday season coming up, it's time to start thinking about widespread appeal. Despite my great brews that most everyone loves, my aunt keeps begging me to brew a "coors light" clone. I could probably just buy her a case of coors light, but I would rather make it myself to show her how much I love her. What do you guys think about something like this to appeal to miller/coors/bud crowd:
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Dec 17, 2018 04:51
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Merry Christmas! I got True Brews, by Emma Christensen. Lots of interesting ideas on different things to try - I'm not super into kombucha, but kefir and sake seem very cool, on top of the mead, cider, and fruit wine recipes.
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Dec 26, 2018 00:22
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Tibalt posted:Merry Christmas! I got True Brews, by Emma Christensen. Lots of interesting ideas on different things to try - I'm not super into kombucha, but kefir and sake seem very cool, on top of the mead, cider, and fruit wine recipes. I picked up The Wildcrafting Brewer by Pascal Baudar a while ago and it was pretty good. There wasn't much new information for me, but there were a lot of ideas that I've been using to do some smaller scale fermenting things. Some good foraging information too. I enjoy the fringe brewing books just as much if not more than the traditional style books for some reason. Maybe that's because there's already so much easily accessed info on traditional styles that I don't usually have the patience to sit down and read them. Somewhat ironic as I'm brewing a repeat recipe of a Traditional Bock today. I brewed the same recipe just under a year ago. I don't often repeat recipes, but this one turned out too well for me to want to really mess with. Even when I was trying to come up with a new recipe, it turned out 2oz of color malt off from the one I brewed before. So I just did the one from last year. Crazy that. It'll go atop the yeast from a pilsner I'm racking later when the wort is cool enough.
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Dec 28, 2018 17:14
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Got a Hot Rod Heat Stick to supplement the 120V heater in my Grainfather. Should speed things up nicely and give me a much better boil. Planning to test it out either Sunday or Monday brewing up a porter. I'm very curious to see how quickly I can heat things up with twice the power. MORE POWER (Tim The Toolman Taylor grunts).
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Dec 28, 2018 21:33
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rockcity posted:Got a Hot Rod Heat Stick to supplement the 120V heater in my Grainfather. Should speed things up nicely and give me a much better boil. Planning to test it out either Sunday or Monday brewing up a porter. I'm very curious to see how quickly I can heat things up with twice the power. Bought an 1100 watt Sous Vide this week. I will use it for heating up and scheduling mash water and then maintaining temperatures. Not sure if I want to go biab like a lot of Sous Vide brewers or if I want to keep my mash tun working the mash. This one has WiFi and an app where you can schedule the time you want it to start “cooking.” The idea of walking into a brewery with heated strike water is appealing to this father of two children less than 2 years old.
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Dec 29, 2018 13:14
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LaserWash posted:Bought an 1100 watt Sous Vide this week. I will use it for heating up and scheduling mash water and then maintaining temperatures. Not sure if I want to go biab like a lot of Sous Vide brewers or if I want to keep my mash tun working the mash. This one has WiFi and an app where you can schedule the time you want it to start “cooking.” The idea of walking into a brewery with heated strike water is appealing to this father of two children less than 2 years old. I use my sous vide for my sparge water. Works pretty awesome for that. I feel like it would take forever to get a good volume up to temp though. I’ve done some large high temp cooks with mine and it took way longer than I expected to get to temp. If you’re just setting a timer in a app though, it’s a lot less of a concern.
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Dec 29, 2018 21:17
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rockcity posted:I use my sous vide for my sparge water. Works pretty awesome for that. I feel like it would take forever to get a good volume up to temp though. I’ve done some large high temp cooks with mine and it took way longer than I expected to get to temp. If you’re just setting a timer in a app though, it’s a lot less of a concern. I used a calculator and it looked like 7 gallons’ish to about 160’ish would take about two hours. To me the appealing thing is walking in a room with pre-heated strike water, mash in and then come back for a boil one hour later. Seems pretty baller to me.
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Dec 30, 2018 03:10
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LaserWash posted:I used a calculator and it looked like 7 gallons’ish to about 160’ish would take about two hours. To me the appealing thing is walking in a room with pre-heated strike water, mash in and then come back for a boil one hour later. Seems pretty baller to me. Oh I agree. I’ve considered setting my grainfather up to do something similar. Though typically, I get up, start heating my water and use that time to make breakfast.
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Dec 30, 2018 03:46
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So, first time homebrewer here. The kit I got for Christmas required you to mash and sparge the barley, which seemed unusual for a first time kit (I was expecting malt extract and maaaybe some speciality grains to steep). Anyway, When sparging, was I meant to actually wring all the liquid out of the mash? I used a Nylon mesh bag to do so, since I didn't have a big enough sieve as the kit recommended. Looking around online it seems maybe I wasn't meant to do this since if you put real force on the malted barley you'll end up with all the random poo poo you didn't want being forced through the mesh as well into the wort. Is this going be a problem? It obviously hasn't killed it since it's bubbling away quite merrily now. Also, rip I overfilled the carboy and I had to jury rig a piece of PVC pipe and an empty soda bottle filled with steriliser to act as an overflow airlock, so I guess that's a mistake I won't be making again.
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Dec 30, 2018 22:56
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It might add some off flavors and haziness that won't clear, but you should still have something drinkable. Plus you get a mulligan on your first brew  Which kit is it? It seems a bit haphazard for a introduction to brewing.
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Dec 30, 2018 23:29
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Hmm, I suspected it might add haziness but wasn't sure, it certainly seems to have haziness that hasn't settled after I boiled it (which I believe is when most stuff crashes out as the proteins get hosed up by the boiling?) . It's not really an issue as long it's drinkable, and yeah, first attempt so I'm not too worried. I'll double check, my partner got it for me for Christmas so I should be able to find out from her. I get the feeling it's not self contained "kit" per se, but seems to be more that a home brew site here in the UK offers a choice of sets that they put together themselves and send out to you, rather than something like a coopers homebrew box that I've seen in stores before.
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Dec 30, 2018 23:51
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You're probably not going to end up with a NEIPA level of haze, and it's not the end of the world if you do. I'm more reacting to the size of the carboy being too small for your brew - just seems like an odd oversight, but it makes sense if you're not dealing with a recipe kit that's paired with a starter set.
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Dec 31, 2018 00:14
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Tibalt posted:You're probably not going to end up with a NEIPA level of haze, and it's not the end of the world if you do. I'm more reacting to the size of the carboy being too small for your brew - just seems like an odd oversight, but it makes sense if you're not dealing with a recipe kit that's paired with a starter set. Oh, that's more because the Carboy isn't graduated and I'm an idiot who didn't leave space for the foam when I was topping up the cold wort with cold boiled water. Not sure why I didn't think of that, I've been to no end of breweries and have seen how much foam there is.
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Dec 31, 2018 00:23
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