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Prepare yourself for a newbie post. I've been thinking about starting up brewing for a while, but living in the San Francisco area's given me no end of beers to try, so I was thinking about doing something different like Mead. The process is basically the same, but with different fermentables, right? There's no specialty equipment I've got to be aware of? Second, the only recipes I've found (written in a form I can understand) are from instructables or other sources of dubious quality. I'm looking for a recipe that isn't too sweet, has some fruity flavors like apple or something, maybe some spices, and if I wanted to give it a bit of a fizz, I just add in some more sugar before the aging process, right? If there are any relevant posts anyone's aware of in any of the 500 plus change pages in this thread, I'd love to be pointed at them, too.
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May 9, 2014 20:45
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Marshmallow Blue posted:EDIT: Napoleon, if you want a super simple write up as far as newbie mead making. I can whip one up. I need to do it for my blog anyways. For a first-time brewer? That'd be a godsend. I've been in the research phase for a week or so, and I get a fair amount of what the more complex recipes are saying, but having a really simple step-by-step guide in plain english that explains what to do, what that is doing, and a bit of a why would be really helpful until I've got a couple of brews under my belt. EDIT: As far as sweetness, I was trying to say I don't want it to be sweet. I don't mind some sweetness, but it'd be nice on the dryer side.
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May 9, 2014 21:40
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hellfaucet posted:Is there any good way to make a decent gluten free stout? My sister drinks Omission, which removes the gluten after the beer's been brewed. I don't know how they do that, but it's worth looking into because I can actually drink that without tasting sawdust.
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May 11, 2014 21:49
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Fluo posted:If I recall on a homebrew scale it depends on how Gluten-Intollerant they are they should fall into one of the 4 camps: Celiac, with my cousin bordering on Allergic. I'd say whatever they do is worth figuring out.
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May 12, 2014 02:02
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Just bought my first bucket. One bucket. I'm going 100% budget here for my first brew. Bought a pre-built ingredient box for an English Ale, an airlock, and some iodine sanitizer. LET'S DO THIS. I know the next obvious step is to buy a secondary fermentation carboy or something like that, but does anyone have any suggestions for cheaper stuff to add on if I decide I want to continue? If this first batch turns out to not be poison, I was thinking of getting a simple Hydrometer and that lab thermometer I saw a page or so ago for  . Anything else cheap worth getting?
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Jun 1, 2014 23:49
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I've already got some 750ml resealable bottles.  Just enough for the 2.5 gallons I'm making. The best part of the prepackaged stuff I bought is that it's got all of the ingredients divided in half (except for the yeast, but the guy at the store threw some at me for free that was supposed to keep the sediment together). My bottling plan right now a funnel and either pouring super carefully or using the spout at the bottom. I guess it's going to depend on how tall the sediment pile is going to be. I'd rather not use a suck siphon because germs make gross beer, but I have no idea where to start, really. I see all kinds of stuff at the store and online. Anyone have suggestions?
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Jun 2, 2014 02:35
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I finished my first batch of beer today. English Brown Ale. The boiling and mixing wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it was going to be. It's mostly a bunch of waiting. The guy at the store told me the boxed up ingredients would be in halves, but when we finally opened it we discovered that was not remotely true. I don't have a 6-gallon pot, so this was kind of a problem. I decided to boil up 3 gallons in a jam pot, which was about 4.5 gallons, and chill the rest of the water for when the brewing process was done. This is okay, right? I've seen some people do it. Anyways, I finally pitched the yeast at about 3:00, and I had the hardest time not getting up and looking at it every ten minutes to see if it had started bubbling. Finally, a bunch of bubbles formed around the airlock, and the domed cylinder that rises and falls was jammed up in the cap. I was panicking that I had filled the airlock wrong and went about looking at videos and poo poo for whether or not I completely screwed up. 20 minutes later it was burbling and bubbling as intended. It's a yeast feast right now. I cannot be happier about kitchen chemistry. Can't wait to crack one open for my 21st! Marshmallow Blue posted:mead blog! Where is your blog? I'd love to read that. DISCO KING fucked around with this message at 09:21 on Jun 15, 2014 |
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Jun 15, 2014 09:16
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  Oh gently caress there's wort all up in the airlock. I've just gotta wash this out with sanitized water and plug it right back on, right? It's gently leaking all over the lid. No explosions or anything yet. Chemistry is fun, guys 
DISCO KING fucked around with this message at 12:17 on Jun 15, 2014 |
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Jun 15, 2014 11:47
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It's already too late to change, but I might as well ask, I've got my batch of New England Brown sitting in the bucket right now, but when I brewed it I realized I couldn't fit all five gallons of water into my pot. What I did was shove two gallons into the fridge and put three into the pot to boil with the grains, then add the chilled water into the bucket with the brew. Will this come out diluted? I have a feeling it'll just be more concentrated in the three gallons and then dilute to near-normal afterwards, but I've got no experience and I want to know what I'm dealing with.
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Jun 17, 2014 23:36
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Jo3sh posted:As far as gravity, you'll be fine. A concentrated boil (where you add some of the water after the boil) is pretty common practice for extract+specialty grain brewers. I steeped the grains and boiled the malts, which were grain based. I'm figuring out the terminology- my bad. I did the temperature by eye. I make a lot of tea, so I can usually tell when something's about to boil. How important is a thermometer for the rest of the brewing process, though? A straight roiling boil should be fine, right? I can crank it up to maximum unless I've got an industrial grade kitchentop or something, right? EDIT: I just did what the store owner recommended, bring it to boiling, turn off the heat, dissolve the malt extract powder, bring it back to boiling and add the first round of hops.
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Jun 18, 2014 07:26
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I finally bought an autosiphon. I'm about 10 days to bottling, and I'm trying to find a way around the currently enormous amount of sediment. (I have a single bucket setup, you see.) I had the idea to siphon the beer into the canning pot (and maybe an extra soup pot) I boiled the brew in the first place. Could I then just dump the sugar solution right in, and bottle it straight from the pots? Do I have to stir the sugar to get it mixed up right?
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Jun 22, 2014 19:39
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 Been too busy to get around to posting it, but I finally bottled last week. eight 750mls, and sixteen 500mls, full to the necks. That's about 3.7 gallons from my slightly less than 5 gallon batch. My recipe recommended I use a 1 cup priming sugar, 2 cup of water syrup recipe for carbonating, but I left some in the pot because I really don't like the idea of my brand new bottles blowing up. A 5 gallon batch usually does get reduced, right? I lost some from the boil, lost some from evaporation, and lost some from it bubbling out of the airlock and all over the tub I put the bucket in. Anyways, it's been a week, which is standard "ready, but not aged all the way" time, from what I've learned. Should I try a small bottle? Does a week really change it that much? It's my first batch so I'd just like to know if it's going to be remotely drinkable. I don't have a "wine thief" or whatever that is. I did consider just using a turkey baster and grabbing some during the bottling phase, but by that time we'd thrown out all of the sanitized water.
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Jul 9, 2014 18:35
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My first brew, the English Brown Ale, officially turned out great (at least for a first attempt). It was a bit bitter for my tastes but nowhere outside a normal English Ale. There's a bit of a sediment problem but I hope to alleviate it in my next brew with a second bucket addition. That poo poo at the bottom is absurdly pungent. The other problem I'm having is a carbonation one, of all things. Some bottles are basically barleywine, and others are blowing tops off like champagne (but in the good way, no bottle bombs to speak of in over a month since bottling.) There are two theories: My caps are to blame, or I'm to blame. Firstly, I'm using resealable bottles (the ones with hinges) and I think the caps may not be sealed properly, giving me less carbonation in some bottles than others. I don't think that theory is nearly as likely as that I'm not mixing this poo poo up well enough when I add the sugar. I stirred it up pretty good with my siphon cane when I added it in, but maybe I should mix it up more? What's a good measure of "vigorously mixed"? Anyways, the way I'm handing it out and bringing it places, I'm going to be out of beer very soon. I'm looking for another recipe. I was considering a red or a porter, but really I want a recipe that's not super hoppy or ridiculously bitter, even though I'm okay with both of those things. Really, it's just got to be bomb proof. The brew supplier I go to has some pre-built packages that are based on award winning recipes but a lot of them have tons of hops. P.S. I'm officially trademarking Hopocalypse. Do not steal.
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Aug 1, 2014 10:37
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Hey, I've been out of the brewing game for a while, so I'm checking myself before I gently caress up and have five gallons of trash. Help and advice requested. I'm planning on making a mead recipe based on personal taste and general stuff I've found looking around books and the internet. So far I've got: 18 lbs of Orange Blossom Honey Lalvin D47 5 teaspoons Yeast Nutrient 1 Vanilla bean 5 Cloves 10 Peppercorns 4 Star Anise pods 2.5 Cinnamon Sticks 2 Oranges worth of juice, peels scraped for pith Up to 5 gallons spring water My cooking plan is to simmer it at 185F for about 20-40 minutes. Does skimming matter? Some sources tell me to skim, some don't. I forgot. If I don't skim, I'm cutting down the cooking time because other than pasteurization it's just to help break down the spices. I figure about 20-25 days fermentation. I have a hydrometer, and I plan to use it for measuring sugar levels, alcohol levels and getting the right amount of sugar for carbonation, but I don't actually know what the gravity should be if I'm going to carb it. I'd really like my bottles to keep from exploding. I'm aware that carbonation would dry out what little sweetness might be left by the end of the aging cycle, (and I'm fine with it being dry,) but is there any way I could make a carbonated low sweetness mead? Something with a final gravity just around 1.010? My last question would probably be about yeast energizers. Are they worth using? They're not expensive and I could have one delivered quickly, but my supply store doesn't carry it, and I've never touched the stuff before. I've heard about using as much as a teaspoon per gallon.
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Dec 21, 2015 02:10
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Jo3sh posted:First, with 18 pounds of honey in five gallons, it's going to come out fairly sweet and not bone-dry. I typically use 15 pounds in five gallons and don't end up with a dry result. I've heard D47 can go up to about 12-14%, so my current plan is to keep adding honey until the hydrometer hits about 1.1 specific gravity. Once fermentation stopped I was going to add some dissolved corn sugar to the bucket and bottle it, let fermentation and aging finish there (probably a few more months). I've also heard D47 ferments pretty fast. If it keeps fermenting for a long time, I'll let it keep going. Didn't know about the heating thing. I'll definitely look into not boiling this one, but coming from beer making I have this incredible desire to just soak everything in scalding liquid. 
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Dec 21, 2015 09:45
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I've got another question about my mead I've got going. As of approximately two and a half weeks, my gravity has dropped from 1.110 to 1.55, so I assume most of the fermentation's going to be done in a few weeks. As someone who usually just makes beer (and this mead is going to be carbonated) I'm naturally thinking it's about time to prime and bottle. My plan is to let the aging happen in the bottles as opposed to in the bucket. Is this wrong? I can't find any explanation as to why I wouldn't just bottle it and let the remaining yeast carbonate it. P.S., I helped my friend start a cider yesterday, and I had no idea how hard beer making was in comparison until I tried all this other stuff.
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Jan 11, 2016 06:50
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Just ran another hydrometer test on my mead, it's down to 1.005 already, after only two months! This means my alcohol content is around 14%. It's actually pretty drinkable already as well, although the spices and the orange peels/juice aren't showing through as much as I had hoped. It's still a drinkable, flavorful white wine style drink, and I am probably going to carbonate it to add body/mouthfeel. As always, I've got a question. I'm using Lalvin D47. it says it will ferment up to 14-16% abv. As I write this, the airlock releases a bubble once every 20 seconds, so I presume it's still converting the remaining sugar into alcohol/CO2 with some efficiency. My current plan is to add 3/4 cup of corn sugar to my 5 gallon batch (via simple syrup boiling) and add it to my bottling bucket like a beer. Question time. How much will this increase the gravity of my mead? Is the D47 going to pull through, or should I upgrade to E1118? Also, will this be way too much carbonation for this style of beverage?
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Feb 4, 2016 03:04
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Anyone got a good Braggot recipe? I tried my mead last night and it was really good. I think in a few months a Braggot would be a good follow-up to the honey experiment. There seems to be a huge variety in styles, which seems cool. Aside from fermentables, I'm mostly wondering how I'm going to handle yeast. Strong ale yeast seems a pretty obvious choice, but I've heard a lot about people using wine yeast. I guess I've just never really understood which was more important in the creation of a nice foamy head, the proteins in the fermentables, or the yeast's digestion (what it eats, and what it puts out).
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Feb 25, 2016 09:35
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ronaldreagan posted:My last batch was a pretty simple orange braggot That looks a LOT like the mead I made. Orange peels, orange blossom honey, high abv; looks good. That has a lot more fermentables than I've seen in other recipes. It looks like it wouldn't be too sweet. I'll definitely keep it in mind. If I go for something else I'll definitely post it, though.
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Feb 25, 2016 21:02
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Hey guys, I'm making a new cider with Martinelli's, peach syrup, and an orange. I was wondering what people recommend for carbonation. I've got some good clover and wildflower honey, cane sugar, or I was thinking I could make it slightly sweet and artifically carbonate it. Is that possible without a keg? Would there be a way I could force inject each individual bottle with carbon dioxide instead of either having a dry cider or a sweeter, uncarbonated one?
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Jun 19, 2016 01:01
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Alright guys, I can't find the answer on google so I'm asking you all. I have this peach/orange/apple cider I'm trying in a 1gal carboy with Lalvin EC-1118, and I am ready for it to be finished. I put a campden tablet in a few days ago, and the next day it was still bubbling away. I added another campden tablet after seeing that, and stored it in the refrigerator to cold crash. It appeared to be dead when I took it out of the fridge, so I shook it around for a few minutes to degas, and now that it's been warmed up to room temp, it's bubbling like crazy again. It's currently in the refrigerator at 37F, slowly bubbling. I wanted to leave it on the low end of sweet, or the very high end of semi-sweet, but now it looks like it's going to be dry, dry, dry unless I figure out a way to kill this yeast.
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Jun 27, 2016 23:45
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What temperature would I heat pasteurize the cider at? Would it damage the contents? EDIT: In the future, would something like Lalvin D-47 get the desired effect and also die on command? Are there other bomb-proof yeasts I can use for experimental batches that would also basically get me what I want? DISCO KING fucked around with this message at 06:19 on Jun 28, 2016 |
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Jun 28, 2016 03:41
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Everyone's information has been extremely useful. I did not crush the tablet, and that instruction was notably missing from the label, which was otherwise very clear. If that doesn't work, I'll let this full burn to drytown, arizona and have a fairly extremely alcoholic beverage. Not making this batch for myself, this won't be optimal, but I could probably just water it down, if it comes down to that.
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Jun 28, 2016 12:29
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Well, my peach/apple/orange cider doesn't really taste like anything. Pretty disappointing. At least it was only a gallon. Actually, I'd recommend one gallon batches every now and then (or just all the time) for trying weird stuff. If it doesn't come out right, who cares? It's only a gallon.
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Jul 8, 2016 08:19
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Hey brew thread, I've got an update/question. First of all, it has been nearly a full year since I started a five gallon batch of this Braggot recipe: https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/homebrew-recipe/an-english-braggot/ and it has finally aged to a point where it is drinkable. There were probably a lot of mistakes made, but it's turned out as a fairly interesting winter ale. First off, my recipe ended up with ~17% ABV, which is probably a negative overall. If I were to try it again, I'd definitely keep it around 10%, like the recipe suggested. Second is that the spices got really overwhelming and it's only nine months in that I can taste anything other than Galingale. I guess what I'm saying is, if you're going to make this recipe it will probably be better if you follow the instructions, unlike me. Otherwise, it's starting to taste really good. The ginger is taking on the role of hops very well, cinnamon's got some real exciting stuff going on. It's a nice ale. I've got a question for you all, too. I've been working on a five-gallon batch of blueberry wine. It is taking forever to ferment. I brewed a gallon test batch this summer (anyone who has not made a gallon of blueberry wine ought to try it) which took no more than two weeks to go from 1.076 OG to .99 FG. My current batch has been fermenting for two months now, and is barely in the 1.01 range. The yeast is Lalvin EC-1118, I've fed it fermaid, pectic enzyme, bentonite, and all of the remaining blueberry pulp for a month, before I did my first transfer. I actually bottled a gallon of it as dessert wine at 1.041, which was quite excellent, but the rest has been constant bubbling for a rather amazing amount of time. The 5-gallon carboy it's in is about half full, so the pressure may be messing with my bubble/timer method of figuring out how rapidly it's fermenting... but all of a sudden it's gone from bubbling every minute and a half to every 25 seconds. I cannot explain this, and while I'm not exactly worried, I have no idea how this could be happening. Is it possible the yeast has started some new colony on a leftover blueberry rind or whatever else? Is it just gurgling because of temperature changes? I've got no loving clue how a brew can slow down and then speed up so dramatically without some kind of intervention. DISCO KING fucked around with this message at 23:20 on Dec 17, 2016 |
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Dec 17, 2016 23:17
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Has anybody tried brewing with tea before? I did some google searching and it seems unpopular. They usually talk about off astringent flavors and similar things, but my favorite tea (the one that came to mind) is Assam, which is fairly malty and has a sort of earthy flavor. I was thinking about throwing it into a simple beer like a nut brown and seeing what happens, but I'm open to suggestions. I figure I buy a big sack of loose leaf, cheesecloth it, steep it when I add the aroma hops, take them all out when I throw it in the fermenter. I think I heard about Matcha powder in IPA's, but I think most of those have too much going on already. What I have learned in the last year of brewing is that being able to make good beer and being able to come up with recipes are very different skills, so... suggestions?
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Aug 10, 2017 08:45
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The side-by-side sounds like a really good idea. I'll have to get some tea and some beer together and figure it all out. Right now I'm thinking about making a simple beer and using the tea like a dry-hop for additional flavor. Again, something like a nut brown ale ought to be a good starter. I can really see the Matcha IPA working in our favor, but I'll pass for now. I definitely don't want to make a sweet tea, a strongly herbal tea, or an overly astringent tea. I think my Congou tea might be a good contender, lots of simple toasty flavors. I haven't gotten into pu-erh tea yet, (that's it's own  ) but some other forums have mentioned older pu-erh for a strong dark flavor. I was also considering white tea, until I realized it's just a younger, unprocessed version of Assam, which I already mentioned. I think that would go much better in a lactose stout. It's a typical masala tea, so it works with a lot of milk. I'll let you guys know if I decide to do anything with this. Thanks for the ideas.
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Aug 12, 2017 01:04
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I ran a tea test today. A bottle each of Newcastle Brown and a teaspoon of tea, in a mason jar in the fridge for 12 hours. It didn't go exactly as planned, I only had a half a spoonful of the Assam tea left, but it and the Panyang Congou worked surprisingly well. The Panyang showed a sweetness I don't usually notice from it, and with that toasty flavor it almost added a barrel flavor. I think I'd have to carefully moderate it in a recipe, but in low quantities it provides a sort of bright kick in the pants you can't get with hops. The Assam was predictably mild, but it kind of fit right in. I hardly noticed the body it added until I tasted the original again. This is definitely an experiment worth repeating, and even with less fizz, the mason jar method works pretty well (if they actually seal). I don't know that I'd do any of my green teas, or if I'd try any herbals, but it's worth checking out.
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Aug 21, 2017 03:42
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Let's also not rule out actual dish soap that may have been left in the fermenter.
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Aug 27, 2017 06:25
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There's also the consumer price point to consider when making expensive beers. I know people like to "session" beers, which is more common with low-abv, less expensive beers, but if I'm going out on a limb and spend $5-10 on a single bottle, it may be my only beer that day. It makes sense to me at that point to make the beer something you want to sip on for a while, with a stronger taste and a higher abv. It also takes more care to make a high abv drink that is good, so I think another part is definitely prestige for the brewer.
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Sep 1, 2017 20:18
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Hey everybody! I've got a recipe and a question. First up, here's the Belgian Pale Ale I made this summer. I made it during a heat wave with Belgian abbey yeast which gave it a lot of fun flavors, it went really well with the dry-hops. It was my first beer that was gone faster than it took to make. Style: Extract/steep two stage ale 7lbs Ultralight Malt Extract 8 oz Cara-Pils 4 oz Caramunich Malt 4 oz Special B Malt 4 oz corn sugar/candi syrup 60 min: 1 oz Perle 1 min: 1 oz Mt. Hood Dry-hop for 7 days: 2 oz whole Citra hops 1 package Abbey Ale yeast (White Labs) 1 Whirfloc tablet (15 minutes at boil) OG: 1.045 FG: ~1.005 Now I'm working on a Perry, which I've never done before. I've got 20 lbs of Bartlets ripening in my garage, and a liter of test juice measured up to about an OG of 1.059. In a truly serendipitous moment, I also have some grapes lying on my counter with a particular white fuzz growing on the skin. I've wanted to do a wild yeast forever, but I have no idea what to expect. Is there a treatment this yeast goes through to ensure it works, like going out of my way to create a starter? Can I just start throwing mushy grapes into the bottle and see what happens? I've also heard these yeasts vary considerably and can create cider that isn't worth drinking or will barely ferment before giving up. What of these things should I concern myself with? Can anybody who's done this before give me a rundown on their techniques for using wild yeast? EDIT: These are farmer's market grapes, and they came with a thin white layer on them from the bin. Double edit: Great, I guess I've got to buy beakers and petri dishes now. At least my meth lab is one step closer to completion, too. DISCO KING fucked around with this message at 19:20 on Sep 26, 2017 |
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Sep 26, 2017 18:31
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After all the suggestions, I think my next serious purchase is going to be a fermentasaurus. Probably the most interesting feature over a standard conical fermenter is the variable pressure seal. I was reading that brewing at high pressure is one of many ways to reduce fusel alcohols or other "hot" tastes, is there any evidence for this? Would that type of process work for wine/cider/mead? My last batch of mead only just got good enough to be worth drinking after about a year of bottle conditioning. Would a pressure chamber speed that up noticeably?
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Oct 13, 2017 03:29
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I'm gearing up for my next brew and I had a question about partial mash vs. steep/extract methods. When I'm not extracting sugars, the steep method is just fine for getting flavors out of chocolate/crystal malts, right? I'm going to be brewing the Citra Dark IPA that's been on brewtoad forever. The recipe goes something like this: 7lbs liquid amber extract 1 lb corn sugar 1 lb crystal 60L 12 oz chocolate malt +5 oz citra .5 oz @60 .5 oz @20 2 oz@1 2 oz dry hop 12 days +whirfloc +Safale American All of my beers so far have been steep/extract. I'm not against a partial mash, but I've got no practice. Steep/extract is just so simple with my turkey fryer setup, I'd prefer that right now. But, if I did I could do the mash separately from the rest of the boil, right? That would mean if I gently caress up my mash, I could just dump it and buy some more chocolate/crystal malts?
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Oct 15, 2017 17:56
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pacmania90 posted:I dissolved all the sugar in to the water and then added the mixture to the cider. Didn't add sugar straight to the cider because I didn't want to spend extra time stirring everything together in the fermenting bucket with the lid off. Wanted to minimize the exposure time to ambient bacteria. The fermentation temperature was a pretty constant 68-70F so I'm not too concerned about that. I've made the same mistakes as you and I've learned a couple of lessons so far. First off, patience. Alcohol heat can take a really long time to wear off, my first mead ran about 13%, using champagne yeast like yours. I let it sit for three months and it was completely undrinkable. After half a year I started hate-drinking it until it was gone so I could move onto a new project. By the time I had finished, a year had passed since fermentation start and it was dead perfect. All the subtle balance, bright flavors and spice kicked in, right when I got around to the last three bottles. It really sucked, because if I had just been patient the work (and cost) of five gallons of mead would've seen fruition, but I got impatient and drank hot poo poo. I can't even recommend making large batches of high ABV anymore unless storage is really not an issue. I moved four one gallon carboys for stuff like that ever since and haven't looked back. The other important point is alcohol content and yeast choice. 14% is really, really high. I know this because my second beer was my "eh gently caress it" beer, which ran 18.5%. It was never drinkable, and I had to toss it. You have to think of the alcohol like a flavor, just like everything else. If there's a lot of alcohol, there needs to be a lot of support, either in sugar content, acid content, or some other flavor. You could also choose a different yeast. Champagne yeast doesn't do a lot to help, I find it leaves as little flavor behind as it can.
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Oct 23, 2017 04:35
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Skellyscribe posted:Is bottling wine appreciably different from bottling beer, besides not adding priming sugar? This weekend I plan to bottle blueberry wine that has been aging since early summer. I have saved up and cleaned screw-top wine bottles. Kill your yeast like everybody else says, doesn't really matter how, and I recommend transferring it one last time after the bacteria's died out and letting any particles crash before bottling. I also recommend sitting on a few bottles for a while. Wine takes longer to condition, and if your abv is above 7%, it's worth it to hold out for at least 6 months. I've started saving an individual bottle from each batch and I plan on opening one in a few months, when it'll be 2 years old. It's really worth holding onto it for that long if you can.
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Oct 26, 2017 02:17
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Are the bottles themselves free of residue? I noticed some mold growing in mine once on bottling day, cancelled the whole thing and bought a bottling brush. But, as usual my bottles were brown and I didn't notice until I held it up to the light, and looked down the neck. If you have a lot of sediment it can build up, and sanitizers may not get all of it. My 2c.Biomute posted:Hmm. My imperial porter turned out kinda hot and estery between a ripping fermentation during the first 24 hours, chocolate nibs and coffee beans soaking up too much bourbon when I tried sanitizing them and possibly leaving the additions in the fermenter for too long (80g each for a week in 5 gallons). Will it mellow out with time? Ballpark figure? I don't even drink my beer until a month after it's been bottled anymore. It'll make a huge difference and you'll definitely regret any bottles you drank previously.
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Oct 31, 2017 00:57
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Hey everybody, I moved up my Citra Dark IPA schedule a week so instead of bottling on Thanksgiving Day, it might actually be available during the holiday. It's been sitting in a carboy for about a month and there's been no additional sediment collected. I was wondering if I should repitch some yeast before bottling? I usually give it 2-3 weeks to be ready, but I'm hoping 7-9 days will be enough. P.S. https://www.brewtoad.com/recipes/citra-black-ipa-bc7279 
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Nov 10, 2017 18:43
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I've heard nothing but good things about the Zymatic, the one with a big bucket for all grain. I'd hold off until someone can speak better about their reliability, durability, etc. but the usability is supposed to be a dream. Machine washable parts? Check. Set it and forget it? Check. Makes stuff consistently? Check. In a few years if the price goes down and people still like their old models I'd consider one, too.
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Nov 12, 2017 22:32
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It feels real good getting asked to bring beer for Thanksgiving. Any of you make a seasonal for Thanksgiving or do you all just save it for christmas?
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Nov 24, 2017 06:09
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| # ¿ Apr 26, 2024 18:30 |
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I'm having similar problems with my RIS. I had about a gallon of trub and as soon as I transferred it, fermentation stopped.  The recipe called for the dregs of a previous beer as a starter. After two weeks I figured it was a good time to move it, finish it out in secondary with all the additives and age for a month. This batch started at 1.090, transferred at 1.030 on thanksgiving weekend, and has stayed exactly there the whole time. I had some leftover starter from the initial pitch I threw in there, but I think it's gonna need a kick in the form of some champagne yeast. It's also possible leaving it in the garage where the temperature is now varying from 42 at night to 75 in the afternoon probably isn't that great either.
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Dec 13, 2017 21:11
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