Home Brewing Thread III: Return of the Son of Home Brewing Thread

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zedprime: Jun 9, 2007; yospos

internet celebrity posted:

I primed a batch of American amber ale with some old extract 3 weeks ago (calculated to 2.6 volumes, sitting at around 68-69 degrees). In retrospect this was a horrible idea because it's not very carbonated. I tried using a heating pad under the bottles but still nothing. Is there anything I can do at this point?

How long did you have them chilling before opening? It takes some time for the co2 to actually get into solution and at lower carbs in general its easy to think you've got flat beer if you aren't chilling for a couple days.

# ¿ Apr 17, 2012 17:06

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# ¿ May 18, 2024 15:53

zedprime: Jun 9, 2007; yospos

Huge_Midget posted:

It's basic gas law. Most gasses are more soluble in colder liquids. Which is why if you fill a growler or glass, it will foam less the colder the glass is.

Everyone's got an intuitive grasp on that. The time it takes to get into solution is a bit more elusive of an idea since everyone is used to it being more or less instant when, for example, putting sugar in coffee or DME in your boil. The mass transfer case for a vapor space is a bit different than solid immersion.

Also its all gases. You can intuitively think of it as the gas condensing into liquid. You can think of the solid case as it melting into liquid, hence warmer is better. I blew my mind the first time I put that together.

# ¿ Apr 17, 2012 22:57

zedprime: Jun 9, 2007; yospos

PokeJoe posted:

Is there any real point to using a glass carboy? I've always fermented in buckets but I got a carboy in that kit I won and I don't know what I would ever do with it. Maybe I'll make some mead and leave it in a closet forever.

Everyone jumped straight to the material discussion band wagon to ignore the fact that this seems equally about secondaries. And the point of secondaries is entirely about bulking up your pipeline. Want to "experiment with bulk aging?" aka you don't have bottle or keg space but want something ready to go the second you do? A secondary is cool for that because then you can get another beer going in primary because lets face it, you can never have too much beer.

I am getting caught out on my brew schedule because I am not following my own advice on this matter and having a pipeline of stuff ready to go for when running out conspires with being busy.

# ¿ Apr 24, 2012 02:38

zedprime: Jun 9, 2007; yospos

Hayden posted:

Buy this. I got mine for $20ish at Walmart.

Then go to home depot or wherever and buy this and this.

Remove the spout from the igloo, save the o ring, and attach the valve. Took me about 20 minutes, mostly because I was putting the o ring in the wrong spot, but it worked out great. When it was time to drain and then sparge I just put a strainer over my pot, but surprisingly little grain came through, and the wort flowed great. Made my life way easier.

PVC fittings in hot mash service is just begging for a comical but tragic structural failure pouring hot wort all over the floor as you cry over spilt beer. Maybe not today, maybe not a year from now, but its bound to happen. Splurge a bit on the more expensive brass. And if you are worried about the evil evil lead, well then you probably wouldn't like all the plasticizers or whatever in the PVC.

# ¿ Apr 24, 2012 23:08

zedprime: Jun 9, 2007; yospos

drewhead posted:

Which is why they make CPVC. CPVC is temperature rated up to 200F, rated for pressure, and is corrosion resistance. It's slightly more expensive in your local big box than PVC, but should be considerably less than Brass. For the purposes of a Mash Tun CPVC is fine.

If you want to go metal, go stainless. Go big or go home! Brass is for whimps.

Maybe I don't look hard enough but the giant hardware stores I've visited looked like they only had brass or PVC as far as having a variety of fittings goes. That doesn't preclude mail order, but then as a new pipefitter you can't check yourself by assembling the poo poo on the spot to see if it all fits.

Also stainless is a bit overkill for a plastic mash tun since that brass is probably going to be the most sanitary surface you got after a few goes. For that matter cpvc is great if they got them.

# ¿ Apr 25, 2012 16:45

zedprime: Jun 9, 2007; yospos

wattershed posted:

Speaking of chillers, my copper wort chiller has all these dark spots on it...most likely because I left it outside (under cover, but still exposed) without really cleaning it post-brew, but what's my best bet for cleaning it up on the outside (and inside)?

I have my AIO miracle cleaner in Oxi-Clean, but I've been told to keep it away from metals. I'd also rather punch myself in the face than manually scrub the whole thing, but if it came to that what should I use?

I'm pretty meticulous about my cleaning and sanitizing, I simply forgot the chiller was out on the patio after taking care of the beer last time and I'd like to avoid paying for more copper if I can help it.

I think Oxiclean is related to PBW, in which case it will dissolve copper, which is a good thing for cleaning if not something you want to do all the time. If its gone all statue of liberty pitted green its going to take oxiclean or vinegar plus mechanical scrubbing potentially.

# ¿ Apr 25, 2012 23:03

zedprime: Jun 9, 2007; yospos

wafflesnsegways posted:

So I'm looking for a beer to brew with the intention of aging it for a year. I'm thinking of a simple barley wine - maybe just maris otter and a pound or two of brown sugar, bringing it to somewhere around 1.090 or 1.100. Hop it up to 100 IBU. I'll be pitching it on a US-05 cake. I'll probably throw some oak in the fermenter for a bit, because I love oak.

How does that sound? Does it need more, like crystal malts? What about hops? I'm figuring that the hops will fade over time, so it doesn't really matter what I use, but maybe not.

Do exactly this post but consider drinking half of it after 2 months and half of it after a year.

Getting into personal preference stuff:
Brown sugar is kinda tarry, which isn't really a problem except when considering pairing with oak. For the love of god do not use crystal malts, it will be plenty sweet just because of the OG. US-05 will express a relatively high amount of non-aroma hop flavor even with aging so at least pick a high alpha strain with a flavor you enjoy.

# ¿ Apr 26, 2012 04:01

zedprime: Jun 9, 2007; yospos

Zakath posted:

Did my first all grain brew today, wasn't as stressful or difficult as I thought it would be. However, my effeciency sort of sucked, even though I tried a batch sparge. Here's the recipe: http://hopville.com/recipe/1307575/klsch-recipes/kolsch

I did a mash out with 1.5 gallons of boiling water to raise the temp up to the 165-170 range, although it only seemed to get to the low 160s. I mixed for about a minute or so, then drained into the kettle with a vorlauf to settle the grain bed. Then, I tossed in 3.5 gallons of water at about 170 and stirred the grains fairly thoroughly, and drained with a vorlauf. Should I have allowed the mash out to sit in the tun for longer? Do I just need to stir more? I ended up only getting about 66%, and I was hoping for at least 70%.

Did you only take 5 gallons of runnings? Depending on your boil off you can easily take 5.5-6, or even 6.5 which will boil down to 5 and some change, and then you lose the change to hops or trub or whatever. Over extraction exists but I wouldn't worry about it unless making a really low gravity beer.

Either way 66% is pretty good for a first shot. I generally leave my batches in for about 15 minutes before starting the drain since I am heating up the next batch anyway and it will give it some time to extract.

# ¿ Apr 30, 2012 00:48

zedprime: Jun 9, 2007; yospos

I know I love the bubblers because I have lost like half a dozen of the floating roofs for the 3 piece ones while cleaning

# ¿ May 2, 2012 20:42

zedprime: Jun 9, 2007; yospos

Thermostats with a large differential aren't bad as they are the simplest to use just sticking the probe somewhere in the air. Tighter differentials need you to insulate the probe up next to the fermentation vessel or use a thermowell.

E. Noticed the topic is more about serving fridges too, in which case it matters even less because finished beer isn't giving off heat.

# ¿ May 4, 2012 03:16

zedprime: Jun 9, 2007; yospos

2 isn't really really low for a bulk air temp controller. I was more thinking of the JC probe that's so popular that can be set down to 1, and often is because smaller variance is better right?

Temperature does so much to beer that the proof is really in the taste. There's little substitute for anything if you are making beer you like.

# ¿ May 4, 2012 04:02

zedprime: Jun 9, 2007; yospos

I ended up with a bag of grain out of sight out of mind, but tied up mostly tight in a trashbag to itself.

I was so confused when there'd be an occasional whiff of incredibly sweaty feet. I finally caught on that it wasn't ghost feet and by the time I got it to the dumpster my nose was dead for the rest of the day.

# ¿ May 7, 2012 23:11

zedprime: Jun 9, 2007; yospos

Depending on your clarifying steps you may want to take an extra one as your biggest issue will be yeast in suspension.

Or just bring a weizen or saison.

# ¿ May 9, 2012 00:26

zedprime: Jun 9, 2007; yospos

crazyfish posted:

I hate my cooler mash tun if only because it leaks and no matter what combination of random washers or o-rings or teflon tape or whatever I try it still loving leaks. I bought some aquarium sealant and hopefully that fixes things once and for all, but I like the idea of being able to remove the spigot.

I have a Teflon oring, in addition to the tape on the threads and so forth. I can turn the valve to new orientations and it reseals after a couple drips.

I am not entirely sure where the best place to get one is as I got mine from my dad's work. For that matter I am only mostly confident it is Teflon. Do they sell sheets of Teflon at the hardware store? It wouldn't be out of the realm of possible to just xacto yourself one if that's the case.

E. Oh also an easy mistake to make: did you wrap your Teflon tape in the right direction?

zedprime fucked around with this message at 21:21 on May 11, 2012

# ¿ May 11, 2012 21:14

zedprime: Jun 9, 2007; yospos

crazyfish posted:

The leak isn't at the valve itself, I should clarify. The leak is at the pipe nipple where it enters the cooler, right at the wall. Water dribbles out the bottom of the hole fairly slowly (though at least enough to make a paper towel noticeably wet within a half hour) no matter what random o-rings/etc I wind up putting up against the hole.

That's where its going to leak no matter whether your o-ring isn't quite the right type or if you forgot the teflon tape on the inside side of the nipple where it screws into whatever you are using to abut the o-ring.

# ¿ May 11, 2012 22:26

zedprime: Jun 9, 2007; yospos

I'm going oldschool and doing an extract batch on the stove top because I've been too busy to really want to do a mash on a weekend and doing the stove because my heat sticks need some touching up on leaky points. Doing a full boil and bridging the burners with a megapot is giving a far more impressive boil than I would have ever hoped for from a stove.

# ¿ May 13, 2012 19:07

zedprime: Jun 9, 2007; yospos

You'll easily blow out crap if you are trying to ferment 5 gallons in a 5 gallon vessel. Even a lightweight ale is good for a half gallon of krausen. Some strains it ain't much of a thing to start blowing off in a 6.5 gallon bucket even at normal gravities because that strain is such a monster. It's pretty common to use a blowoff hose once you get over loving the bloop bloop of an airlock for primaries for that reason. You basically run a hose from the bung to a bowl or otherwise something full of sanitizer. If you have a bucket with a lid that doesn't have a bunghole well its time to drill one where that stupid useless grommet hole is currently. Do this even if you want to use airlocks.

The almost lager ale strains still require a pretty brisk ~60F temperature to be almost lager.

# ¿ May 14, 2012 23:31

zedprime: Jun 9, 2007; yospos

Angry Grimace posted:

Tried to set up a chest freezer with a A419 to control the temps but instead of stopping at the 65 I set it at to test, it just went immediately to like 50 degrees.

I can't figure out what the deal is.

I just set it to:

SP- 65 F
dIF- 3
ASd- 6
OFS- 0
SF- 1

And then plugged it in. It turned on and started cooling down from about 73, but then when I came back in the room, the probe said 50 F and it's pretty cold in there. I might totally not understand how this thing is supposed to work, though.

I can't comment too much on the controller settings beside the differential but thermostat probes are generally big slow response thermistors and chest freezer coils have no other setting than really freakin cold so when measuring bulk air you can get some really anomolous readings before everything settles out.

Since you are testing it we are talking bulk air right? When you first get started and you don't have a load in there, it will tend to cycle on and off a lot at the beginning because the only way the bulk air is equilibriating is painfully slow convection currents.

# ¿ May 19, 2012 20:33

zedprime: Jun 9, 2007; yospos

Docjowles posted:

Good point. If the freezer's basically empty, try filling a big jar or small bucket with water and putting the probe in that, you'll get some more thermal mass and the temperature won't be so all over the place.

This is a good way to test basic functionality, but just to note at the 3 degree differential you can keep the moderating water in your final control solution which I've still heard is pretty popular with that differential, but I've also had really good results just using it to control the bulk air temperature. Once you have an actual load in there it works fine, even if you might still see some anomalous 50 something readings right after the compressor kicks off.

Or go all out, set your differential to 1, and insulate the probe next to the fermentation vessel. Or just go whole hog with a thermowell.

# ¿ May 19, 2012 21:24

zedprime: Jun 9, 2007; yospos

By any measure its really impossible to over aerate before fermentation on anyone's first go at it.

That is assuming they don't get a bug up their rear end to bubble pure oxygen into their beer first time around. You never can know about people interested in home brew.

Also he says he wants to use two fermenters? You can definitely not bother. Unless you can give a coherent reason on why you would want to that convinces yourself let alone others, there is zero reason to use a secondary fermenter.

# ¿ May 25, 2012 04:35

zedprime: Jun 9, 2007; yospos

I've found 48 to be a good compromise temperature close enough to cellar I'm not waiting forever for a glass to warm up while still keeping the serving line at a sane length. There's always resistive inserts if you'd like to keep it warmer without filling your freezer with loopdeloops of tubing.

Foam in the lines is generally a result of temperature differences. Foam in your glass is a result of unbalanced lines.

# ¿ May 25, 2012 10:02

zedprime: Jun 9, 2007; yospos

crazyfish posted:

Not to mention that you can bottle from a keg, too, if you want longer-term storage. I think Blichmann makes something designed expressly for this purpose.

You can fashion your own out of a couple of bottling wands and picnic taps for 1/10th of the price if you're feeling cheap. Bottling wands jam perfectly into a picnic tap so you have one on the liquid out and one connected up to your gas as the purge.

# ¿ May 28, 2012 00:51

zedprime: Jun 9, 2007; yospos

I jumped on the 3711 saison bandwagon, pitched it out of the smackpack, and I had bubbles within an hour. Evolution is cool.

# ¿ May 28, 2012 22:07

zedprime: Jun 9, 2007; yospos

tesilential posted:

Or you can be lazy and just chill the growler, turn your reg down to 1-2psi and pour very slowly. As long as it doesn't foam up a ton when you fill it, it should hold the carbonation for a long time. I've gone up to 6 months.

I meant more for bottles but yeah for nearly anything you'd want to do with transporting beer a careful growler fill will be more than sufficient.

The bottling wand in picnic tap trick is just something cool you can pull out when you're sending bottles into a competition and someone thinks you need a $70 piece of swag or they will never get to the judges without tasting like cardboard.

# ¿ May 28, 2012 22:11

zedprime: Jun 9, 2007; yospos

Pick up some milk crates for a quarter at the hippy produce coop.

# ¿ May 29, 2012 22:37

zedprime: Jun 9, 2007; yospos

If you're ready to buy like right now, Northern Brewer has a email deal for the next 2 days where you get that starter kit free if you buy a kettle and an ingredient kit from them http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/...tm_medium=email

The cheap kettle and ingredient kit are like the same price as the basic kit.

# ¿ May 30, 2012 00:48

zedprime: Jun 9, 2007; yospos

Including StarSan (and to a lesser extent PBW but you can get Barkeeps Friend from the grocery store) is like giving someone a free crack rock, I'm not sure why more stores don't include the good stuff in their kits.

# ¿ May 30, 2012 01:07

zedprime: Jun 9, 2007; yospos

Seaweed? Rendered horse bones? I think I will stick with my cloudy beer. The clouds mean it is full of protein and all the guys in You Look Like poo poo make it sound like there is nothing better than protein.

# ¿ May 31, 2012 02:34

zedprime: Jun 9, 2007; yospos

Its all simple until you pour your grain in your tun and then strike and you have the sudden realization that you didn't put any internals in. Who can guess what I did on Memorial Day now?

I transferred it into my boil kettle while I stuck a manifold in but it still got stuck cause of grain already in the drain valve and I needed to backflow some water. First runnings taste like diabetes fyi.

# ¿ Jun 1, 2012 02:34

zedprime: Jun 9, 2007; yospos

ChiTownEddie posted:

Looks great man and my god, I want this.
I really don't have any space in my new apt, but gosh I want to figure out a way to make it work hahaha.

Convert your fridge, only keep food on hand that will keep at cellar temperature.

# ¿ Jun 3, 2012 17:13

zedprime: Jun 9, 2007; yospos

Splizwarf posted:

City slicker trap sprung.

I'd trust well water before tap water. Most water companies don't actually know the residence time in their mains because they don't actually know what their mains network looks like because it was installed 50-70 years ago. They've mostly dialed in their free chlorine for the worst case scenarios but who really knows.

That said you are fine using tap water.

# ¿ Jun 5, 2012 15:33

zedprime: Jun 9, 2007; yospos

Splizwarf posted:

Well, at the house I live in currently, there's a shock filtration system that's bigger than me in the basement because the local aquifer contains bacteria that produce a sulphur flavor and apparently a couple of less-healthy things. According to local lore, it's not usually a dangerous problem but it flares after heavy rains.

City water, by comparison, at least has someone employed to constantly test it and adjust the mix or issue the various "No Drinking" or "Do Not Use At All" warnings. The "Oops We Added Sewage Again, Boil It If You Want To Drink It" warning was always my favorite.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to suggest that I like city water (gently caress that chlorine taste). This is about how well water can have way weirder un/underdocumented problems.

I think the take away is that everyone probably knows if their water is good or not by smells and past experiences.

# ¿ Jun 5, 2012 18:18

zedprime: Jun 9, 2007; yospos

Cpt.Wacky posted:

Good oxygenation before pitching and stirring up the trub/lees every day?

No personal experience but the experiences I've read are either crank it up to 90 and agitate or add a bit of syrup for a kick started secondary fermentation.

# ¿ Jun 8, 2012 09:42

zedprime: Jun 9, 2007; yospos

Meaty Ore posted:

I bottled my ale a few days ago as well. Didn't forget the sugar, though, and thank God I've got a huge mixing bowl with a pouring rim. Coupled with a funnel, I didn't spill a drop. However, I do want to know what I'm supposed to do with the trub. It's still sitting in the carboy with the airlock over it.

More food for the drain gods. Alternately scrape into the garbage but I figure a good microbial culture in your sewer lines would be a good thing for breaking up any lumps of oil and or poo poo.

# ¿ Jun 11, 2012 03:27

zedprime: Jun 9, 2007; yospos

RiggenBlaque posted:

Anyone have any boil pot recommendations? I only do 5 gallon batches, so I'm thinking a 40 quart pot is all I need and I'm not sure how much of a difference wall thickness and base width and things like that will make. I'm thinking something like the Northern Brewer stainless steel Megapot 10 gallons ($182.99 with ball valve), I'm having a tough time seeing why paying anything more than that would be worth bothering with.

Their valved version is just a bulkhead through a hole. You could probably rent a drill press and buy a couple bits (the first will probably explode or just dull before you get through) from Home Depot to put a whole in the side and get your own valve for tons cheaper if you have an ounce of diy in your body.

Getting it prevalved is one of the bigger wastes I've done. I figured it was integral at the price premium but nope, bulkhead.

Otherwise Megapots are awesome. Ease of cleaning of stainless, with the scorch proofing of aluminum since it's bottom is aluminum cored.

# ¿ Jun 11, 2012 23:19

zedprime: Jun 9, 2007; yospos

Kaiho posted:

What is you guys' favorite way of universalising recipes? I mean, I brew 5 gallon batches because that's what my setup is for, but if someone with a larger setup wanted a recipe from me, what would be the best way of communicating it without upscaling to specific size?

What I mean is, can I say something like "85% maris otter, 10% Crystal 80, 5% Carapils" to achieve an OG of 1.080? That would work for whatever size kettle, right?

But the hops are where I get stuck. It's easy enough to say "50 IBU worth of Nelson Sauvin" but not only are the calculation methods for IBU different, how do you generalize second/third/late additions?

Sorry if this is all brew101, I've only just encountered this issue.

The ibu methods probably won't lead to huge discrepancies but for a truly universal way to talk a out additions there are bittering units per gallon. A bittering unit is the alpha acid % times the ounces. Specifying it per gallon and for x amount of time with y type.of hop is about as universal as you can get.

# ¿ Jun 12, 2012 12:24

zedprime: Jun 9, 2007; yospos

PokeJoe posted:

I find NB to be around a similar price to my local place, so possibly the 2nd one.

A lot of local places end up a victim of scaling economies. If you are looking for absolute cheapest it can pay to check shipping on some of the big mail orders. It can still be interesting to check out a local shop just for the social aspect though, depending on your local club scene.

# ¿ Jun 16, 2012 07:13

zedprime: Jun 9, 2007; yospos

Kaiho posted:

Two weeks in primary, steady temperature and the krausen just isn't dropping. Is this what a stuck fermentation looks like or am I just being impatient? It started out as a 1.058 with hydrated s05 yeast and fermentation was vigorous and good-seeming from the start.

A stuck fermentation looks like your gravity readings never going down.

Sometimes you just have really good head retention and your krausen never really goes away.

# ¿ Jun 17, 2012 16:41

zedprime: Jun 9, 2007; yospos

I think every time someone comes to this thread with an "infection" it tends to be a particularly buoyant yeast raft and some carbonation.

Smell, taste, post pics.

# ¿ Jun 18, 2012 02:59

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# ¿ May 18, 2024 15:53

zedprime: Jun 9, 2007; yospos

Cointelprofessional posted:

I waited a few hours and it remained at 60. The motor continues to run though.

Also, does anyone have any experience with Lambics? I have one that's currently going through primary and in a week I'd like to transfer it into a secondary with some raspberries. Would I be ok to pitch a new lambic in the primary bucket? I know others have had great sour results when pitching onto months-year old cakes because the sacc yeast have died and all that's left are the bugs.

Usually a sign the refrigerant has leaked and is now at the north pole.

I think its strictly possible to recharge fridges but I'm not sure if its cost efficient since it has generally leaked for a reason and you will just end up sunburning some penguins.

# ¿ Jun 19, 2012 00:47

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Goons with Spoons > Home Brewing Thread III: Return of the Son of Home Brewing Thread

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