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Myron Baloney
Mar 19, 2002

Emitting dimensions are swallowing you
I've made a few pretty decent batches of cider using pasteurized juice and Nottingham. I decided to make a higher gravity cider and used enough additional apple juice concentrate for an OG of 1.080. Doing something new made me all kinds of panicky so I racked to secondary after 6 weeks and added more juice to top up (the yeast cake smelled faintly of soy sauce so maybe it wasn't completely stupid who knows). I now have a wild yeast pellicle forming (confirmed by microscope, looks like brett?) and sg has been stable at 1.010 for a week. I was originally planning to bottle in another week gravity permitting but now I'm guessing it's going to eventually go drier than the notty would have (prior batches all ended around 1.008) - I don't mind experimenting with brett flavors or whatever (last hydrometer sample definitely had something new in it) I just don't want bottle explosions. Any way to guess how long at 68F wild yeast will typically take to do whatever it wants to do?

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Myron Baloney
Mar 19, 2002

Emitting dimensions are swallowing you

Daedalus Esquire posted:

So I just bought a root cluster for Fall Gold raspberries. My plan is to use them got make a framboise that will be gold/yellow instead of red. Anyone ever try brewing with non-red raspberries? I've never even tasted a non-red raspberry but apparently the fall gold ones are really sweet so I'm worried it might not have that sour pucker that framboise normally have.

I haven't brewed with them but I've made preserves with them - definitely not as sour as regular raspberries, but they're still very tasty. Cooked down on the stove they tasted like apricots, so still at least a bit tangy.

Myron Baloney
Mar 19, 2002

Emitting dimensions are swallowing you

Roundboy posted:

my holy grail is finding cappable 750ml bottles. I can get some great craft beers locally and reuse the bottles, but a proper source for these would be awesome.

I just buy lots of sparkling apple juice. My kids get that instead of soda for treats so it goes fast, and at around $2.75 a bottle it's only slightly more expensive than new champagne bottles at the brew store.

Myron Baloney
Mar 19, 2002

Emitting dimensions are swallowing you
I just made an easy extract patersbier recipe (inspired by the NB kit) and had to dip into the dog's emergency simethicone supply (Bloodhound/GSD mix, every meal he inhales scares me) as I was out of Fermcap and poo poo was boiling TOTALLY OVER while I was running around making my kids smell the hops. People say I'm a good cook but gently caress cooking food I only love brewing.

Myron Baloney
Mar 19, 2002

Emitting dimensions are swallowing you

immortalyawn posted:

So, something I mentioned in an earlier post, I would like a bit more info on.

Cooling the wort before pitching seems to be a major thing, and I have read there are a few ways of doing it in this thread.

The thing I mentioned : Boiling 15L (~4gal) with my malt+hops, transfering it into the fermenter and then topping up with 10L (~2.5gal) of cool water to help reach approx pitching temp (possibly having it in a water/ice bath as well depending) before adding yeast. (using a 25 or 30Lt fermenter)

Is this do-able?

1) Is diluting the wort this way detrimental to the whole process?

If not...then...

2) I know time and aeration are the enemy at the point before pitching, but if you used a sterilized autosiphon in my above idea and filled from the bottom of the fermenter filled with wort, wouldnt this limit aeration enough before pitching? (inserting and removing a copper cooling coil would do far worse wouldnt it?)

This idea is all purely based on me not having enough space on a stove top or big enough pots to create big wort with. (upgrading equipment is not an answer)

This might all be basic stuff to most here but, I ask here because most results I get on a Google search are at Home Brew Talk, and I have read some stuff on there I already know is very questionable.

To add to what's already been said, just remember how much heat you have to get rid of - 4 gallons of wort just off boil plus 2.5 gallons of ice water is still going to be around 150F or 65C which is still too hot for plastic or glass fermenters. With a partial boil (search using that terminology if you want to do more reading) you want to get the wort in the kettle cooler first before you add the chilled water. Most people do it by putting the kettle in a cold water or ice bath and stirring with a sanitized spoon. When I do this with 2.5 gallons of wort in a 3 gallon kettle I can get to pitching temp in 15 minutes easy.

Myron Baloney
Mar 19, 2002

Emitting dimensions are swallowing you

Roundboy posted:

i should know better because its only been 24hrs.. but even though i had activity in that cider smack pack, left sitting for 3 hrs, i feel that i should have done something different or added a starter to my cider + honey. Im hoping it wasnt TOO high for the yeast to start in.
The only thing that comes to mind is yeast nutrient - neither apple juice nor honey are naturally very well equipped.

Myron Baloney
Mar 19, 2002

Emitting dimensions are swallowing you

Fluo posted:

I got a question as I've spent hours hunting and hunting, does anyone know what I should be looking for or where I could get a 1 inch to 1/2 inch tubing adapter? Badly need one but can't seem to find anything close. :(

A hose barb reducer (or reducer coupler may be the other common term) that large that steps down that much might be hard to find in one piece in any material you'd want to use. You could probably more easily find 1" to 3/4" and 3/4" to 1/2" reducers with barbs on both sides (brass and CPVC anyway, no idea about stainless) and put a short piece of 3/4" ID in between. And there are barbed reducers/adapters with male pipe threads on the intermediate sides and then you'd use a female coupling to join them. I think larger adapters with hose barbs are pretty commonly used for hot tubs and garden ponds if that helps.

Here's one for example but can't tell if it's PVC or CPVC or what
http://www.thepondguy.com/product/576?CA_6C15C=730009880000005113

Myron Baloney
Mar 19, 2002

Emitting dimensions are swallowing you

fullroundaction posted:

:siren:EXPERIMENTAL DATA INCOMING:siren:

I was interested to test the "carbonation makes your gravity rise" concept that was talked about briefly a couple pages ago.



Pic was taken when the (sodium-free) water was still too violent to keep the hydrometer in one place. A couple minutes after the big bubbles stopped I was able to get a steady reading at 1.002, which really surprised me since I (for no reason) believed it would be a more trivial amount. After 30 minutes it dropped to 1.001 and after 1.5 hours it was 1.000.

So myth confirmed, at least at the extreme end of carbonation.

Also my standard hydrometer tube is about 8oz when filled to the top, in case anyone needed to know that for some reason.

That's backwards - dissolved gas lowers water density. Beautiful example of expectation bias in an experiment though.

Myron Baloney
Mar 19, 2002

Emitting dimensions are swallowing you

withak posted:

I think air bubbles clinging to the hydrometer and causing it to float higher is where the inaccuracy is anticipated in this case, not in the actual density of the liquid.

That sounds right I guess.

Myron Baloney
Mar 19, 2002

Emitting dimensions are swallowing you

fullroundaction posted:

I'm not sure what you mean by that. I expected a different result and was surprised by the one I got.
Ha sorry I was just being flippant. I don't think that the effect on gravity gas in solution has makes all that much practical difference in brewing other than the bubbles on the hydrometer thing that was mentioned - I think you'd have to pull a vacuum on a sample to really degas it. On the other hand this would make a great new .99999~=1 argument on the internet.

Myron Baloney
Mar 19, 2002

Emitting dimensions are swallowing you

nominal posted:

Whelp, I somehow clicked the wrong box somewhere on my last grain order and now I have 22 lbs of munich instead of 20 lbs of pilsener. Anything that can get rid of large amounts of this at a time besides Octoberfests? I do use munich pretty often, just not 20 lbs of it.

Maybe a doppelbock with just a little dark crystal or chocolate malt or an all-munich alt? Now I'm thinking I have to make an alt next.

I just bottled a belgian single and forgot to put the little black tipguard on the autosiphon cane. Looked in the bottling bucket and it was murky as gently caress. Oh well if it doesn't settle in the bottles I can tell people it's a wit.

Myron Baloney
Mar 19, 2002

Emitting dimensions are swallowing you

Roundboy posted:

i was all about throwing cherries in a beer, but recently i had a cherry ale that had WAYYY too much cherry. subtle is better.

edit: it was this in fact : http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/113/37400

Depends on the beer and of course individual tastes - New Glarus Belgian Red (hoping it comes back this year with what looks like a good cherry harvest) has the equivalent of a pound in each 750ml bottle. Some people find it too sweet but one complaint I haven't heard is too much cherry.

Myron Baloney
Mar 19, 2002

Emitting dimensions are swallowing you

wattershed posted:

So this was pretty cool, White Labs did a nifty comparison of the same ciders dosed with various WL-branded ale/lager yeasts. People (judges, brewers, and the tasting room patrons) voted on them and here are the results:

http://www.whitelabs.com/cider

Basically WLP002 and WLP028 (english ale and edinburgh ale, respectively) were consistently thought of as being the best yeast for cider, and using WLP810 SF lager yeast is a poor idea.

I haven't used WLP028 but WLP002, S-04 and Nottingham have all worked out well for me. Nottingham has the most neutral flavor, S-04 and WLP002 taste pretty much the same to me, but the White Labs has consistently been the least attenuative so if you want residual sweetness that might be a good choice. I'll probably just use S-04 from now on as it's the cheapest and easiest to find - my local grocery that has a small selection of homebrew supplies even sells it. I've tried the usual bunch of sweet mead and cider yeasts and none of them did much for me, so that test pretty much confirms my biases.

fullroundaction posted:

Is there any way to make carbonated cider that's not bone dry and worth drinking if you can't back sweeten (I don't keg)? So far I haven't been able to get anything to not drop to under 1.000 and its never that great.

E: last attempt was with US04 and organic cider from the grocery. No preservatives obviously.

I think your three realistic choices are: (1) Do what I do - ferment fully dry, bottle condition, and sweeten to taste in the serving glass. I usually just dump a splash of Sprite or ginger ale in the glass. This is also a good way to develop a genuine taste for dry cider (2) Use a non-fermentable sweetener - I can stand the taste of lactose but splenda, sugar alcohols like xylitol, and nutrasweet all taste like rear end to me. I guess tastes will vary so try these. Also, I remember the Mad Fermentationist had an article on how boiling down and caramelizing apple juice as part of the must left sugars that some yeasts couldn't ferment that led me to this similar article at Ryan Brews (3) Live on the edge where glass shrapnel is cool and pasteurize in the bottles on the stovetop. I keep meaning to set up some kind of strong steel vessel with pumped hot water circulation to pasteurize a batch of bottles all at once outdoors but it's not an urgent thing now that I like it drier.

I guess there are a few more wacky ways - if you can get your hands on low-nitrogen cider apples and live in a similar climate you could keeve like they do in Normandy (basically starving the yeast for nitrogen and getting a stuck fermentation on purpose) but I bet it works out cheaper to just buy French cider (Bordelet Brut Tendre is only around $8 a bottle around here). You could also go the ice-cider route and by trial and error figure out exactly how much alcohol it takes to kill your chosen yeast in the bottle while still getting enough carbonation, or go all out and use the Champagne method.

Myron Baloney fucked around with this message at 01:54 on Jul 20, 2013

Myron Baloney
Mar 19, 2002

Emitting dimensions are swallowing you

ChiTownEddie posted:

Northern Brewer is having flat 6$ shipping for the next 24 hours. I think I'm going to pick up a kit or two. Now to decide what to get...

Oh perfect :homebrew: I wasn't going to brew this week but I guess I will now. Is "I've got saison out the rear end" considered a polite way to invite people over to drink?

On another note I just bottled some 5-month old Nottingham-fermented cider with champagne yeast & a can of concentrate for the first time. I know conventional wisdom says it's safe but it was still around 1.006 and I'm going to worry about it anyway. I'm keeping a PET bottle of it right on my desk so I can't forget about it.

Myron Baloney
Mar 19, 2002

Emitting dimensions are swallowing you

Turds in magma posted:

Has anyone here cloned a unibroue beer? I want to try la fin du monde, but wyeast isnt currently making their canadian/belgian strain. Anyone had any luck culturing from the bottle?

Secondhand - when a friend and I were discussing beers we like he mentioned he'd cultured dregs - it starts slowly, like a day or two without much activity, but really takes off after that. It works fast and cold crashes pretty well.

Myron Baloney
Mar 19, 2002

Emitting dimensions are swallowing you
Lacking cider apples or crabapples I've used bottled tannin made for wine in both cider and perry and it works well, and for that matter I use LD Carlson acid blend too. I refuse to feel bad about additives as long as I'm using less than the average wine kit uses (I'm well below that bar so far).

As far as sweet/dry cider goes, I suggest trying some commercial examples - and I mean cider not apple alcopop (not that you can't like them but none of them are even close to truly dry, and none would taste like apple at all if they weren't backsweetened with juice and/or apple extract with sugar). A good example of just-sweet-enough is Bordelet Brut Tendre which you could contrast with the same maker's drier and more expensive Argelette. I think you'd find that what most of us think of as "apple flavor" is really mostly sugar.

Myron Baloney
Mar 19, 2002

Emitting dimensions are swallowing you

Midorka posted:

This post has sparked some debate in the comments due to the last paragraph:


Because of this a user claimed that since their beers are unpasteurized/unfiltered that it dramatically lowers their shelf life to only a few days. I argued that the beer would only have such a short shelf life due to the plastic bottles they package into, or poor sanitation, which I deducted because he said the beer turned sour.

Can anyone with more knowledge chime in on this?

It seems likely that they ferment with a mixed culture including god knows what either on purpose or because of bad sanitation. Plastic bottles should be good for at least a few months worst case so I doubt the bottles enter into it. I could see liking the immediate effects of fast and loose wild fermentation on flavor in young beer and then just never letting beer get old. I suppose filtering or pasteurizing might help but they'd have to get any dirty processes out of the way for it to do any good, and maybe such treatments would unbalance the whole mess and take away the unique flavors they liked in the first place. Kind of reminds me of my attempts at spontaneously fermented cider - seriously fantastic for weeks and then predictably taking some kind of bad turn.

Myron Baloney
Mar 19, 2002

Emitting dimensions are swallowing you

ScaerCroe posted:

Just made three batches with it, and Doc is right. WL565 is supposedly Dupont.

This is probably the 500th time it's been asked, but don't some say WY3724 and WL565 are different from each other? Maybe different from the start or because of different selection for traits over time. The Dupont brewmaster has been quoted saying they use a blend of 4 yeasts for fermentation, and we know that they centrifuge it out before bottling and reyeast with the prime (all from Farmhouse Ales) but I haven't seen anyone claim to know what the bottling strain is. All I know personally is I like 3724 a whole lot.

And speaking of saisons, my wife kindly bought me a Petite Saison d'Ete AG kit from Northern Brewer which I busted out today. It's the first time I've used a kit from them, and I kind of expected it to be pretty pale - recipe claims it's 3.3 SRM and Beersmith agrees. Mine is more like 10 SRM. I boiled a bit longer than 90 min so maybe some of that is on me but has anyone ever had NB mess up the grain bill in a kit? It's said to be 4.5# pils, 2.75# Vienna and .75# torrified wheat - but when it comes in one bag who the hell knows. It looks (and smells) like they may have given me Munich 2 in place of the Vienna or something. I imagine it'll turn out fine but I'm wondering worst case what could have been in that bag.

Myron Baloney
Mar 19, 2002

Emitting dimensions are swallowing you

Donald Kimball posted:

My first batch of Northern Brewer's American Wheat went pretty well. Never got any bubbling within my airlock, but I'm pretty sure the yeast was doing its job:



After letting the beer sit in bottles for a little over two weeks, I cracked one open and enjoyed my work. The clarity is nowhere close to the picture at NB, but it's still beer! What could I do to improve clarity in future batches?

I'm not a huge fan of the bitterness imposed by hops; for future recipes, can I just forgo adding the called-for amount of hops to cut that bitterness?

Finally, I love pumpkins and pumpkin ale, and I'd love to brew my own. Any recipe suggestions?
Well a wheat beer may have some cloudiness as a normal thing due to proteins from the wheat (there are ways to clear it but many would say don't bother), and some yeast strains may contribute too - suspended yeast is definitely part of the traditional flavor profile of some wheat beers to the point where it's customary to swirl the last half inch of beer in the bottle to get the settled yeast into the glass. If you want less hop bitterness try a bavarian-style wheat beer recipe or maybe a belgian-style wit - these will typically rely on flavors the yeast provide and have less hop presence.

Myron Baloney
Mar 19, 2002

Emitting dimensions are swallowing you

ChiTownEddie posted:

Does anyone have a really solid Bitter/ESB/english mild type recipe they wouldn't mind sharing?

I got this dark northern mild out of the HBT recipe pile (made by a mod named Orfy)

6 gallons 80% efficiency
OG 1.037
FG 1.012
color 20 SRM
23 IBU
Nottingham yeast 65F one week and up to 68 after that (I used S-04 at the same temp for one batch and the notty was better IMO)
bottled after 2 weeks with about 1.8 volumes of carbonation

5.5 lb Maris Otter(75%)
1.5 lb crystal 60L(20%)
6 oz chocolate malt 450L(5%)

mash at 158F (with S-04 I mashed at 156)

60 min boil
1 oz fuggles 45 min
1 oz fuggles 10 min
(second batch I used 50/50 EKG/willamette for both additions and liked it a little better)

The thing I've learned about milds is don't fear the crystal, most look like way too much but it works out.

Myron Baloney
Mar 19, 2002

Emitting dimensions are swallowing you

Jerome Louis posted:

Anyone do the whole brew in a bag technique and have good success with it? I just ordered an extract kit but I also got a 10 gal megapot so that I could start doing all-grain batches quickly. I don't think I have room for a cooler mash tun or HLT yet so I was going to start my foray into all-grain doing BIAB. From what I've been reading my efficiency could be reduced so I should be mashing with a bit of extra grain, but I'm curious hear about it from any of you guys that do it.

Also... do I need a stir plate to make a good starter?

My BIAB efficiency is higher than I got with a mash tun - pretty much always 80% or a bit higher. I mostly make beer below 1.060 though, I expect I'd see it drop with higher gravity. I use a lot of wheat; that and anything else without a husk gets thrown in the food processor for a few pulses. Barley gets a fine double grind in a crappy corona mill. I also mash over heat on an electric stove (canning elements rule) and stir quite a bit. I dunk sparge in a second pot and that gets me a few points. I think what you'll get just depends on your method - I could easily see myself getting lazy and dropping the extra work grinding, stirring and dunking and then I'd just have to buy a little more grain. Some folks who know BIAB suggest your beer will be better if you don't chase efficiency so hard - who knows.

Myron Baloney
Mar 19, 2002

Emitting dimensions are swallowing you

Beer4TheBeerGod posted:

How does that compare to the 3711?
I've made basic pils/wheat saisons with 3711, 3724 and 3726. So far 3726 is the fruitiest and tartest of the 3, 3711 is lemony and lightly spicy and has that smooth mouthfeel, and 3724 (still my favorite) has lots of spice and moderate fruit and tartness (when fermented at 90-95F). I don't think you have to jack the temp up for 3726, I pitched at 70F and let it come up by itself in a room at 75F and it hit FG of 1.003 in 13 days. They'll all get down close to 1.000 if done right but 3711 is the most forgiving.

Myron Baloney
Mar 19, 2002

Emitting dimensions are swallowing you

more falafel please posted:

Yeah, I was going to pitch 3726 around 70-75 and then keep it at ambient of 72 or so (so, getting up to almost if not 80 internally) unless it stalled out.

This reminds me: I got a submersible aquarium heater: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006MMJ8EE/ref=oh_details_o02_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 for potentially heating a Saison in a water bath, since I use Better Bottles and I'm not super comfortable putting a heater on them directly. If I do use something like that, how important is water circulation in order to keep a consistent temperature? I was just going to use a rope tub with the carboy/heater in there.
I found putting a little submersible pump or powerhead in the tub helps a lot in getting uniform warm temps - without it only convection carries warm water away from the heater, usually slowly enough that the heater turns off while the other side of the tub is still cool. I stuck the heater's suction cups to the side of a champagne bottle and sank that so it laid on its side on one end of the tub, making sure it wasn't touching the better bottle, and dropped the pump in on the other side. If you don't have a small submersible pump but you do have an aquarium air pump I'm sure dropping an airstone to the bottom would work pretty well too.

Myron Baloney fucked around with this message at 22:06 on Oct 4, 2013

Myron Baloney
Mar 19, 2002

Emitting dimensions are swallowing you

ieatsoap6 posted:

I made a BIAB with Wyeast 3787 a bit over a week ago. Everything went well and I hit my target OG of 1.065. I checked the gravity today and it was 1.005. I've never had a beer get down that low, so I'm trying to figure out what happened. My two main ideas are either a: the yeast is simply a monster or b: I added in way too much (table) sugar, at about 20% of the grain bill.

Any ideas?

Agreeing, 3787 will reliably get low fast. Probably my favorite yeast.

I bottled a batch of mild today, and I noticed after the first few that something was wrong, the caps weren't really on tight. I guess the capping bell on my Red Baron has stretched out far enough to suck after only 5-6 batches with it. I had to run out and buy an even crappier black plastic wing capper to re-crimp every bottle, which isn't going to work long term because I had one of these things in the past and it broke bottles after a while. Does everyone go through bells at this rate? Replacements are cheap so I guess I'll order several spares.

Myron Baloney
Mar 19, 2002

Emitting dimensions are swallowing you

ExecuDork posted:

I had a quick look through the last pages, and I didn't see anything. The OP says questions about home-making wine are OK, so here I go...

I've got a large amount of apples sitting in my freezer, ready to be smashed into submission and fermented to make apple wine. I've got enough to make a batch of cider, too, but that comes later.

The recipes I've found mostly talk about long secondary fermentation times, like racking every 3 months for a year before bottling. When I've made wine from grape juice it's ready in 6 weeks. Is it really necessary to let apple wine age out that long, or can I accelerate it and give bottles as christmas presents this year? I plan to get started this weekend, giving me about 9 weeks before I drive to my parents' place for christmas.

If I have to include "do not open before April" or something on the bottle label that'd be OK, but ideally (and knowing my family) it'd be drinkable by the time it goes into the bottles.

If I accelerate the breakdown of the apples with pectolase enzyme and leaving them in hot water overnight before adding the yeast, will that speed up the overall process?

\/\/\/ Good point - sorry, I forgot to mention that I plan to add about 5 pounds of sugar to the 25 pounds of apples. Also yeast nutrient and a good general-purpose wine yeast, and lemon juice.

If you're pressing 25 pounds of apples you're talking 2-3 gallons tops, 5 pounds of sugar would give an OG something like 1.13 and would ferment out (if any yeast would live long enough to finish) to around 20% alcohol. You want more like 1 to 1.5 pounds for that quantity. You could get it into bottles in 9 weeks but it won't be real pleasant to drink for another few months in my opinion - tastes a bit hot young and the apple flavor is really masked by that. Pectic enzyme is a fine idea but it won't really speed things up other than clearing quicker.

Myron Baloney
Mar 19, 2002

Emitting dimensions are swallowing you

Jerome Louis posted:

When adding priming sugar, should I base the amount of sugar needed off of the temperature of the beer after cold crashing, or temp of the beer during fermentation? I know it's a widely debated thing but has there been a consensus on this yet?
I'm sure there's a little leeway to fudge a bit, but I've bottled lagers using fermentation temp after they were lagered for over a month at 20 degrees colder - if that works I doubt a few days at 30 degrees below fermenting temp for an ale is any worse. I'm sure some gas from the headspace goes back into solution as the beer cools, I just doubt it's enough to make much difference. I don't keg but I understand that without shaking/agitating it takes at least a couple weeks at 12-15 psi to carb beer to 2 or 2.5 volumes - what fraction of that is going to get into the beer at ambient pressure and a quarter of the time?

Myron Baloney
Mar 19, 2002

Emitting dimensions are swallowing you

DontAskKant posted:

Can you still carbonate in bottle with cold crashing and or Campden tablets? Basically, can i bottle cider in plastic bottles and no dishwasher?

Depends - if you make a dry cider that you let ferment to completion (which depending on yeast can leave a trace of sweetness but not much more) then yes, it's just like bottle-carbing beer, no need to cold-crash or add anything to retard the yeast. This is what I do, if I or someone else wants it sweeter I add a splash of sprite in the glass.

I think you're probably talking about sweeter cider though and that's different. If you bottle a naturally sweet cider, let it carb, and then throw it in a cold refrigerator it's going to keep fermenting, although slowly. As a rough guess you get a volume of CO2 for every 2 gravity points that ferment. PET bottles hold 10 volumes max and more than 7 just makes a foam cannon which is hard to get more than a sip out of. You'd probably have a few weeks in plastic bottles to drink it all before it gets too spritzy and I'd expect volcanic gushers by the end - at this point it's close to bone dry anyway. I would only ever dream of doing this in plastic bottles. Because it's being consumed young I would not boost the sugar/alcohol in any way, just straight apple juice.

A trick to get around this is to use non-fermentable sugar to sweeten, like lactose or splenda or xylitol. If you like the taste and body those contribute then you're all set - ferment fully dry, add stuff to get it as sweet as you want, add priming sugar, bottle. I don't like the taste of any of those in cider so I haven't done that.

Using campden and sorbate stabilizer is going to make natural carbonation impossible, but it's fine/standard for bottling still cider. The best solution for having carbed sweet cider is going to kegs. It opens up a ton of possibilities for back-sweetening, carbonation level, fruit additions, etc. With a keg you can stabilize or not as you like, because you can vent a cold keg if you have to, to get rid of the gas building up. And you can bottle some after carbing in keg if you've used stabilizers.

To really belabor this, there is a "natural" way to bottle-carbonate sweetish cider, it's called "keeving" and it involves starving a fermentation of nitrogen by starting with low-nitrogen apple juice (no fertilizers, mature trees), pulling more yeast nutrients out by precipitating out pectins and whatever will stick to them with CaCl addition, and slow cold fermentation. Normandy sweet ciders for example are made this way. It's probably not a practical route for most of us.

One of these days I'm going to try to pasteurize a batch in bottles - but no way I'd try the stovetop or dishwasher methods, maybe outdoors in a heavy steel container with pump and controller to circulate and maintain temp of the hot water.

Myron Baloney
Mar 19, 2002

Emitting dimensions are swallowing you

BLARGHLE posted:

I think people are really overestimating the danger of stovetop pasteurization. I've done it several times, and of the few bottles that have popped, not one of them has even knocked the lid off the pot. They're just like little depth charges, not shrapnel-flinging hand grenades.
I guess, but I don't assume a high level of experience when people ask about it. Not many people make cider at all much less know their process well enough to know where their bottles are pressure-wise. A little too hot because of cheap thermometers, overcarbed bottles, sloppy timekeeping, no experience canning, a lot of things could go wrong. It's also not the ones that break in the pot that worry me - stovetop is usually done several at a time, pulling them out hot, reheating the water and putting more in. It's the thought of one going off in my hand or on the counter that I see as a problem. There's no way you can call that safe for most people.

Myron Baloney
Mar 19, 2002

Emitting dimensions are swallowing you

BLARGHLE posted:

True, and dropping one right out of the pot would probably be pretty bad...

Since I've never tried it, can I ask if you've kept any bottles long enough to see if you got full pasteurization rather than just knocking the yeast population down? Any gushers or whatever after several months of warm storage?

Myron Baloney
Mar 19, 2002

Emitting dimensions are swallowing you

Thufir posted:

I tried to wash some yeast for the first time by just scooping (with a sanitized spoon) some trub out of the bucket, but now that I've washed it it doesn't seem like that much is left.

Is this enough to build a starter from /should I start with a smaller starter and step up to a larger one? This is wyeast 1028 and that's a 12oz jar. I'm thinking of using it in a ~6% stout.

I think the rule of thumb is about 1 billion cells per ml/30 billion per ounce with fresh slurry - I think of "standard" slurry as just enough liquid mixed in to pour with. Looks like maybe an ounce or just under if handled that way. I use http://www.yeastcalc.com/ to see what I need to do with it. The part I'm in the dark about is how time affects viability - I get around that by just always using or tossing it within a few weeks.

Myron Baloney
Mar 19, 2002

Emitting dimensions are swallowing you

Duxwig posted:

Im a first time brewer and someone a few pages back told me I should be making an atleast ~2qt starter slurry if Im going to make a starter at all. Whats benefits for less liquid?
When making a starter with liquid yeast you're using 2 quarts of wort but the yeast harvested from it and pitched is equivalent to the washed yeast slurry referred to above. There's really no benefit to a starter under a liter or so, which is the size I usually make - but then I make mostly milds, patersbiers, and other low gravity ales. I think 2 quarts is pretty much the standard size starter for mid-gravity ales when starting with a smack-pack or White Labs vial.

Myron Baloney
Mar 19, 2002

Emitting dimensions are swallowing you

hellfaucet posted:

Welcome to sulfur city. I'm still trying to get the farts out of my cider. :smith:
If it's not aging out you could try bringing your cider into contact with clean unoxidized copper in some way. Slow stirring a few days in a row with a copper whisk, racking through a hose with a piece of copper pipe attached to it, straining through a copper wool pad, etc. It works but don't overdo it, copper in solution does have a taste.

Myron Baloney
Mar 19, 2002

Emitting dimensions are swallowing you

ChickenArise posted:

You can look it up and see what ppm gets 'dangerous.' It's fairly safe, though. At commercial levels, there are safer, similar products, but they don't all seem to be available to homebrewers. I keep fermcap nearby when I brew and I'll use it if I'm about to have a mess on hand, but 1-2 drops usually does it (note: I'm not brewing stuff or on a system that would tend towards massive boilover).

As far as I know this is a baseless scare - dimethicone has pretty much zero bioavailability. I squeeze the guts of one 150 mg capsule of Phazyme (simethicone, which is dimethicone with added silica gel) into 5 gallons of beer to avoid boil-over, my wife takes 2-3 capsules every few days for gas. There is a "recommendation" to not exceed 500 mg per day. I wouldn't bother with it if I was boiling in a bigger kettle or felt like spraying foam down for the entire boil, but there's no reason to fear it at all. I'm willing to bet that unless you use organic grains only there are far worse things of synthetic origin in your beer. Found a toxicology study - http://online.personalcarecouncil.org/ctfa-static/online/lists/cir-pdfs/pr228.pdf

Myron Baloney
Mar 19, 2002

Emitting dimensions are swallowing you

Fluo posted:

Haha!

So today I brewed a basic 4% (ish) British Bitter.


(The two on the right)

Problem is, I don't know never had this before but its got this weirdness too it:


The other one is fine but this one just looks... well like that, first time I done a stirplate starter and put it in didn't really look at it before I added it but is that just the mass amounts of yeast my stirplate made compared to the shake method or has something gone wrong? (Photo taken 3minutes after pitching).
Just looks like cold break material to me.

I'm about to make my first ever trip to Whole Foods in search of emmer wheat, I want to make a wit using it. I've given up on finding it malted although I know a domestic maltster or two have turned some out in the past. If that fails then roggenbier is next on the list.

Myron Baloney
Mar 19, 2002

Emitting dimensions are swallowing you

Jose Valasquez posted:

I've got a sweet stout that has been fermenting for a couple weeks now. OG was 1.074, right now the gravity is at 1.028.
Does that seem reasonable? I was expecting a little bit lower but I don't know what all goes into what the FG reading should be.


Recipe for reference:
1lb black patent malt
12 oz crystal malt 75L
6lb pale extract
1lb light dry extract
1lb lactose
1lb brown sugar
3.2oz molasses
2oz cascade hops

What was your yeast (and if liquid did you make a starter), and what were temps? looks like around 62% apparent attenuation now, to hit 70% you'd have to get to 1.020 or so. Between the lactose etc and an extract-based recipe you might be pretty near done.

Myron Baloney
Mar 19, 2002

Emitting dimensions are swallowing you

Dead Inside Darwin posted:

Does anyone have any experience with the Brew In A Bag method of all-grain? My dad's made a batch but it wasn't ready when I was there for Thanksgiving. It sounds like it has a lot of promise for those of us who don't really have the room for a multiple-step all-grain setup.


e: I also have no drat idea what to do for SS, someone's getting like $100 of stuff
I do it a lot, that way I can do everything in the kitchen. It saves time and space, and since I mash on the stove I can easily do step mashes which is handy as I like saisons and wits. I really only make beers that start under 1.06 (in 6 gallon batches), I'd want a hoist to lift a grainbag heavier than 13 lb or so. I don't know how BIAB got pegged as a low efficiency method, I'm always over 75% and often over 80% - the keys are a fine crush (almost flour really), stirring a good deal, longish mash times (75-90 min), and keeping the mash pH in the vicinity of 5.4 to 5.6

edit: No experience with no-chill, I'm way too impatient to put more waiting time than necessary into brewing.

Myron Baloney fucked around with this message at 05:26 on Dec 2, 2013

Myron Baloney
Mar 19, 2002

Emitting dimensions are swallowing you

Marshmallow Blue posted:

would double crushing for BIAB increase your efficiency?

To add to what's been said, I just did Northern Brewer's dry stout kit this morning with BIAB. I re-crushed the grain using my cuisinart - didn't feel like getting the messy old Corona out. I came up with 5.7 gallons at 1.050 - around 88% efficiency. Estimated OG for the kit at whatever efficiency they guesstimate is 1.042 for 5 gallons. They say Maris Otter is good for efficiency and I guess it is. I also used a syringe of hopshot for the first time - not a drop of wort lost to hop trub, it was the highlight of my day.

Myron Baloney
Mar 19, 2002

Emitting dimensions are swallowing you

BLARGHLE posted:

Anybody brew any stouts? My girlfriend wants me to try to replicate Guinness, and I wanted an opinion on a recipe I found online- http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f68/guinness-draught-clone-100740/

My only real question is with the amount of flaked barley. 3lbs of it seems like an awful lot in a 12lbs grain bill.

I've made some good stouts in the past, although never all-grain, and none that I would have considered a Guinness clone, so I'll defer to others' experience here.

I think the flaked percentage is fine, that must be pretty close to Guinness' mash ratio, but that recipe is a little bit bigger than Draught, which is fine. You could use some rice hulls if you're worried about a stuck sparge. The temps must be strike temps, ignore all that and figure it all out for your system based on something like 152F for the mash temp. The extra step of adding a soured beer or two works well, but I just add 4 oz of acid malt to the mash. I heard Guinness dropped the traditional "secret ingredient" some time ago in favor of a lactic acid addition in secondary.

I don't know if it's in the thread there, but the trick of using a kitchen or medicinal syringe to suck up a few ml of beer from your pint and shooting it back in really does simulate the head of a nitro-poured stout pretty well.

Myron Baloney
Mar 19, 2002

Emitting dimensions are swallowing you

Thufir posted:

My brewing resolutions are:

- Pitch tons of yeast
- get a kegging setup
- I've never tried to recreate one of my brews so I'd like to do that.

Brewing resolutions - brilliant idea because regular resolutions are boring as gently caress.
- more long-term thinking for the pipeline, I'm cracking open eight-month-old beers, some of which were disappointing at four months, and amazing myself with how awesome they are.
- getting my poo poo together for lagers. I'm always the one defending lagers in discussions with friends but I've been jury-rigging cold ferments so far. Time to get serious.
- getting into wine and giving up on cider (unless the batch aging now turns out good, I bet maybe it will...)
- figuring out how to not suck at dark ales. I had to power-drink a batch of dark mild recently as it was over-carbing like crazy, I guess S-04 finally feels like getting off its rear end once it's in the bottle.

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Myron Baloney
Mar 19, 2002

Emitting dimensions are swallowing you

Angry Grimace posted:

Yeah, sorry. That post is pretty unintelligible; I don't even understand what I was trying to say there.

But I just don't see the point in aging out something if it tastes bad to begin with. Tasting green/not ready and tasting bad aren't the same thing. I guess if you have a lot of space or vessels to hold stuff in, but I don't.

Sorry if my comment earlier set this aging thing rolling. I wouldn't claim that aging beers in general regardless of style would be helpful. I was kind of lit up and referring to a couple saisons I'd made that aimed to be more or less Dupont clones. It would have been better for me to say "this tastes good now that I've finally treated it like the traditional brewers would have", as I tend to start in on beer as soon as it's carbed. I guess I pay lip service to traditional styles and methods but often kind of take shortcuts, thus the sense of (maybe false) illumination when I actually did one thing in a more traditional way. It's interesting that in Markowski's Farmhouse Ales book there are several quotes stating that some traditional saisons may have been not super pleasant fresh, which was fine because the beer was only scheduled to be consumed in 6-7 months - who knows what that might mean to a homebrewer buying commercial malts and yeast. All I know is that I've made a lot of saisons using a lot of recipes that I drank up within a few months, good but not great, and when I finally let a couple batches (both made with WY3724) get a few more months on them they both finally had that elegance and balance that "actual" Belgian saisons have. Maybe just confirmation bias or something but I had fun with it.

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