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So, speaking of clubs... The half-assed shop near me has changed hands, and the new owner seems very interested in actually, you know, running a shop that serves homebrewers, which is really nice. He also seems very interested in building a community and a club. I still know a few guys from a former club (formerly sponsored by a shop that went out of business), so we're going to think about spinning that back up, with the sponsorship of the new owner. We're going to start out casual and see what interest there really is, but it seems likely that we will have to be more formal at some point. Does anyone have a good guide to how to actually start a homebrew club? I am guessing such an org would need to have bylaws and officers, insurance and paperwork.
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Apr 15, 2019 16:47
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Drone posted:So, the problem is that Brewers Friend says that Bestmalz BEST Pale Ale malt has 0 diastatic power. Diastatic power (DP) is the ability to convert starch into sugar. Virtually all modern malts have plenty of it, enough to convert themselves and also some adjunct grains that don't have any diastatic power of their own (e.g., flaked corn or rice, unmalted wheat). That's definitely a bug. All pale ale malts have plenty of diastatic power, and Bestmalz is no exception. Here's their page on the stuff: https://bestmalz.de/en/malts/best-pale-ale/ It lists a DP of 250WK. For comparison, here's an English pale ale malt, listing a DP of 140-228WK: https://www.simpsonsmalt.co.uk/our-malts/best-pale-ale-malt/ (look on the EBC tab) So, yeah, Bestmalz will work just fine, and it's the software that's buggered, not the malt.
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Apr 29, 2019 16:42
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Drone posted:How about calculating (even with just a rough guess) my mash volume and pre-boil amount based on the goal of getting 3.75 liters into my fermentation jug? I'd be mashing and brewing on a stove top so I'm sure I lose a poo poo ton of water, but I don't want to overestimate things wildly either. You might want to get an idea of how much boiloff you will get per hour before you start brewing. Put maybe 6L of water in the pot you are going to use, and get it boiling. Get a moderate boil, but one that is definitely turning over the water. Start a timer and let it boil for one hour. Then turn off the heat and let it cool. When that's all done, measure the water you have left. The amount you lost is a pretty good first stab at your boiloff rate, in liters per hour. Let's just say, for the purposes of this discussion, that you lose 2L of water per hour. And you have to add to that some absorption. I usually figure that my mash will absorb about 1 US pint of water per pound of grain. That's very close to 1 liter of water per kg of grain - close enough for homebrew, anyway. Yours might be less if you squeeze the bag to get extra liquid out, but let's use 1L/kg for now. So then you work backwards. You want 3.75L in the fermenter. You're going to lose 2L in a 1-hour boil, and another 1L in absorption. So you should use 6.75L of water to start. Again, all these numbers will vary depending on your process and equipment, but you can get to a good starting place twith this kind of process, then tune things as you figure out how your setup works.
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Apr 29, 2019 16:59
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Are any of those electric systems available (or convertible) in 240V in the US? I have 240 in the garage where the lathe used to be, so I've been kind of kicking around the idea of getting one for simpler brewdays, which might let me brew more often.
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May 6, 2019 16:40
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Cool, thanks for the pointers on those e-brewing systems, guys. The BrewZilla rig looks a lot like what I was hoping for.
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May 8, 2019 20:24
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I am entertaining a fantasy that I will take a road trip to the PNW late this summer - August / September. For the homebrewing portion of the trip, I would be interested in buying good local juice to make cider and perry, and also a fair whack of hops, just because why not? Any suggestions for farm stands, hop yards, or other places to visit?
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May 19, 2019 01:31
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That's the three-roller one? I take it the malt gets through the first gap okay, but the third roller is the one that won't catch? What is the diameter of the rollers? I see the site describes them as 6" long, but doesn't state the diameter. FWIW, I have a 2-roller Cereal Killer, which gives the roller diameter as 1.25". It is not geared either. So far my only complaint is that it won't crush the pebbles that sometimes find their way into the hopper. I did have a feed issue on the last batch, but I do tend to keep it set up with the gap as tight as it will go. I just twisted one of the adjustment knobs while it was running, and it cleared right up.
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May 28, 2019 17:20
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Huh. That's weird as hell. I can't think of a single reason why that would be happening.
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May 28, 2019 19:33
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I think you're okay, too. Lagers are just slower than ales, of course, so the slow progress you are seeing is not completely out of the envelope. Part of that is just a function of the lower temperature you are using. I think you do have a slight underpitch for a lager, but I don't think the beer is destroyed or anything. I say let it keep going. As the gravity gets closer to your target, let it warm up into the 60s for a few days to finish and clean up diacetyl, then cold crash it for bulk lagering for several weeks before packaging.
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Jun 2, 2019 18:28
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Because of the lower temps usually used with lager yeasts, the received wisdom is that it takes something like 400 billion cells to ferment 5 gallons of lager. But that's also a number that is based on commercial brewing, where tank time costs money and the goal is to ship beer quickly. In homebrew settings, 200 billion is very likely just fine.
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Jun 3, 2019 03:09
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rockcity posted:Crosby Hop Farms. Cool, thanks for the tip. Still planning / testing ideas for the trip. I have time off the first two weeks of September. No idea whether it whether it will come together or what, but as long as I am dreaming... I'd still like to know of any good farm stands or cideries that sell juice, especially pear juice, for cider. Yakima and Bend areas are the general targets.
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Jun 8, 2019 03:11
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illcendiary posted:Sure enough, this got down to 1.012 today. Will give it another day of diacetyl rest and then crash it. Awesome news!
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Jun 8, 2019 19:20
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Scarf posted:I'm working on an imperial stout recipe for later this summer, and I'm shooting for a ton of body/mouth feel and probably gonna go north of 155*F for the mash temp. Wanting to keep it pretty high in abv by the end, could I adjust the mash thickness to get the best of both worlds? Full body AND highly fermentable? It's just my opinion, but there's so much body already happening in a RIS, just because of the richness of the wort, that you don't really need to fatten up the mouthfeel with a high mash temp. I think it would be easy to cross over into oily and cloy. I typically mash my big beers pretty thick (~1.1 qt./lb) to get them to fit in my tun, but I aim for 149-150^F so it doesn't end up like molasses. Jo3sh fucked around with this message at 21:09 on Jun 14, 2019 |
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Jun 14, 2019 21:07
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And, at least around here, chest freezers are rarer and more expensive to get at garage sales and such.
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Jun 26, 2019 16:58
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At my wife's request, I am going to make a raspberry mead. I found a brand of raspberry juice concentrate ("FruitFast" brand) that seems okay, if a bit expensive, and will allow me to avoid issues related to the pulp, sanitation of whole berries, and so on. The concentrate comes in a 1-quart bottle, which seems to be equivalent to about 6 quarts of juice or about 8 quarts of fresh berries, based on random snippets of information I have gathered around the web. So, for a five-gallon batch, I am thinking: 12 pounds orange blossom honey nutrients and minerals for yeast health 1 quart of the juice concentrate water to make up five gallons Wyeast dry mead yeast. When it's all fermented, I will keg rather than bottling to make a sparkling mead. Any thoughts?
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Jul 10, 2019 22:47
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Cool, that's good to know. As it happens, Fermaid O is what I have on hand, so it seems I am already ahead.
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Jul 11, 2019 03:11
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Scarf posted:I know it's crazy to think about since it's still July, but is anyone else getting excited for Fall/Autumn? Even my wife, who hardly drinks, has noticed that I haven't brewed anything dark recently. So yes, I will be brewing an export stout next brewday. I just hope it's not a million degrees while I am brewing it. I recall something very similar last year - I had this beautiful stout on, but it was still hot (easily through September around here). Jo3sh fucked around with this message at 02:34 on Jul 23, 2019 |
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Jul 23, 2019 02:28
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Since I have two CO2 bottles, I have been thinking about just buying a second single-body regulator and putting a couple of gas lines on that. That way, I would be able to go portable without disrupting my serving setup, or I could set up the other reg to run another pressure.
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Jul 23, 2019 22:14
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Yep. noble gas law - pressure goes down when temperature goes down. If you let the tank warm up again, it will "grow back" the gas you "lost."
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Jul 25, 2019 16:19
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Shouldn't be a problem. In a beer fridge environment, they may start to look scabby pretty quickly, and stainless is going to be nicer looking for longer, but the zinc plate ones wouldn't hurt anything I can think of.
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Jul 31, 2019 16:35
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Put a gallon of prepared star-san in a keg, and use CO2 to push it through the lines, shanks, and faucets. Throw away the first pint of beer you draw, then drink the second one.
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Aug 1, 2019 18:50
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I've been brewing with my regular municipal water supply, and I have been unhappy with my hoppy beers. I think I am going to try making water from RO for my next hoppy batches to see if that makes the difference I am looking for. What kind of water profile would you all suggest?
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Aug 2, 2019 18:31
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Do you guys have any interest in custom 3D printed faucet handles? The one shown here is 120mm in overall length, or about 4.75 inches. It has printed threads that fit directly on 3/8-16 faucet hardware. I can make them say whatever I want, obviously, but at this size ten characters is about all that looks good. And, of course, I can print them in any colors I can get filament for - this is just what I have on hand. I'm doing them for each recipe I have, but they could just as easily have style names (STOUT, PORTER, IPA, etc.), your name, or whatever.
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Aug 13, 2019 03:40
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Ghostnuke posted:gently caress yes. if I send you a pdf of my logo, can you see if it's too complicated to print? I'm willing to give it a try. PM it to me or send it to my throwaway address - wthiwd at gmail. Scarf posted:Absolutely interested! Cool deal! Let me know in a PM the parameters of what you want. After looking at my costs and such for this, it looks like $20 each is a fair price for the type I have posted pics of. Shipping in the US will be USPS priority, with tracking. Should be $8 for as many as I can get into a small flat rate box - easily a dozen, I would think. If you want these outside the US, we probably would need to discuss a bunch of things - thread sizes, shipping details, import duties, and such.
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Aug 13, 2019 19:26
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drat it, I meant to put this in the previous post. Here's what the handles look like installed. I completed functional testing last night, and they work great!
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Aug 13, 2019 19:27
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I just pulled a sample off my raspberry mead. It's down to about 1.006 from 1.108. It's also completely delicious.
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Aug 20, 2019 03:01
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Mine isn't properly an ESB, but I like it a whole lot. It's sort of an English/American hybrid that started as a Best Bitter. Colt .177 For five gallons: 4.5# / 45% Briess Ashburne Mild 4.5# / 45% Maris Otter 1# / 10% Crystal 40L Mash at 152. OG ~1.045 1 oz Cascade @ 60 minutes 1 oz Cascade @ flame out. About 39 IBU Use White Labs 023 Burton Ale or Wyeast 1275 Thames Valley. I ferment at 62 Fahrenheit ambient temperature.
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Aug 21, 2019 22:46
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Scarf posted:Got the tap handles in from Jo3sh and they're fantastic! Super happy with them! Awesome! Glad you like them!
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Aug 23, 2019 16:19
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Vlex posted:As a recent lurker but long time beer lover, I must say I'm kind of surprised by the love for British bitters and such in this thread. Most bitters/milds/ales I can get in the UK taste like water that has somehow managed to rot. As homebrewers, we can make beer that tastes good to us, not just what the public expects, or what is popular, or what gives the best ROI. We may be drinking better bitter than is served in most pubs over there - at least, as far as our own palates are concerned.
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Aug 26, 2019 18:31
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Just pulled some summer sausages off the smoker. These are going to be awesome beer snacks - sliced thin, with crackers, cheese, mustard, etc.
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Aug 26, 2019 21:50
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Another thing I have been working on today: 3d printed grates to turn a drywall mud pan into a drip tray. I'll probably affix the finished tray to the fridge with neodiddlyum magnets again, but options are still open.
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Aug 27, 2019 00:20
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El Pollo Blanco posted:So I'm wanting to get into doing biab partial mashes, or maybe small batch all grain biab, and I'm curious to know roughly how many kgs/lbs of grain can be mashed in a 15L/4G kettle? I think a 15L kettle is about as big as my stove can handle for reliably boiling 11-12L of wort, and I don't have space to store an induction plate and larger kettle. In my 15 gallon kettle, with a false bottom installed, I generally find that I top out around 32 pounds of grain. I think you could get 8 or 9 pounds (3.6 - 4 kilo) in your kettle with BIAB, although I would work up to it to manage your ratios and your process.
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Aug 27, 2019 01:19
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robotsinmyhead posted:Did round 2 of my Voss Kveik pale ale for an event in October. [...] getting it up to ~88ish. I'm very interested to hear how your batch comes out. I was telling my wife about your batch, and now I am under direction to make something with kveik for my next batch. Do you get big blowoffs with such a vigorous ferment?
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Sep 9, 2019 16:24
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gamera009 posted:I’ve been brewing with the kveik both at home and professionally, and in both scenarios (1/2 - 4.75 bbl) higher temp, and underpitched brings out the most orange, fruity aroma. Flip side of it, is that it really needs rigorous oxygen and nutrient to really shine and ferment out everything in around 36 - 48 hrs. I also typically try to give 1-2 days diac rest, before I crash to 45 for dry hopping or 35 for fining. Today, I picked up the Omega Voss Kveik strain, and here's my idea: I'm going to brew an IPA wort with lots of citrusy hops in it. Say 1.065 or so. Eleven to twelve gallons to the fermenter. I'll pitch the pack, no starter, into wort at about 80 degrees and do O2 injection. I'll set the thermostat on the ferment fridge for 85 ambient, which should let the fermenting beer get up to 90 or so if it wants to. Omega says their pack is the appropriate number of cells for five gallons at 1.060, so double the beer volume represents a good underpitch, and 80-90 degrees seems hot to me, but it's well within Omega's temp range for the yeast. Does that seem in line with your practices?
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Sep 13, 2019 00:27
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robotsinmyhead posted:Is it normal to choke the outlet back manually with a ball valve? I'm not 100% sure there's one on there, but I could fit one. Yes, completely normal.
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Sep 18, 2019 15:37
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You could run different grist compositions, but the same weight and the same program, plus different hop schedules and different yeasts. That way, the mash side would be very similar, and you could really groove that side of things. And you'd get different beers out of it.
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Oct 12, 2019 02:24
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honda whisperer posted:Brewing on the back porch come with a huge extra risk of contamination? Nope. I've brewed exclusively outdoors for more than fifteen years now, and I've never had any issues with it. I boil with no lid, but I put the lid on for chilling. Once the fermenter is sanitized, I keep the lid on it to keep things from falling in.
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Oct 16, 2019 15:48
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Toebone posted:What do you outdoor brewers do with the hot water coming off a chiller? I don't use mine to water plants, as it's pretty hot, at least at first. I have at times just let it run into a gutter or storm drain, but with my current brewing location, it's easiest just to run the exhaust hose into the shower.
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Oct 17, 2019 19:58
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I don't think so. In a commercial brewery, it can make for a slightly more efficient mash. At homebrew scales, a two-roller mill is just fine. I use a Cereal Killer that I like a lot.
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Oct 25, 2019 02:35
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calandryll posted:Do you oil the rollers? I had an issue last brew day with one roller not really moving too well. No, I've never had to oil mine. Do you have the ends of the idler roller set the same? It seems like it could bind if it were cockeyed.
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Oct 25, 2019 14:41
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