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Steps thus far: Father-in-law buys me a 'class' at LHBS and I buy a kit from a "you-are-allowed-to-buy-one" coupon my wife made me. Buy a too small pot, buy a bigger one at a restaurant supply place but I now know is also too small. Bought and auto-syphon, stainless keg set, and refractormeter (b/c I already broke 2 hydrometers). I haven't really bought that much in a year, odd. Beer names: I go for nerdy and obscure as gently caress references. 1) Cyborg Anthropologist [pale ale] - talked to some dude about this woman who was the only one in her field, named it thus. 2) Wampa Slayer [wit] - watched too much Star Wars 3) Biere de Chateau Picard [french biere de table] - too much Star Trek 4) Vegabond Gingered Ale [papzain recipe] - lazy and stolen 5) [dark saison] - just moved to Maine and hated my job/life too much to care 6) Cascade Bitter Failure [US hopped bitter] - Goonfleet jokes~ coupled with beer 7) Big Fat Cran [Cranberry Wheat] - hated my job (again) and didn't care 8) Red Barn [Red Farmhouse] - inspired from my uncle's big rear end red barn and connects between #9 and future farmhouse beers 9) Uncle Braggot [2x1gal experiment] - Uncle sent 4 containers of honey and wanted to brew with them. One pitched with US-05 and the other dregs from a local brew & jolly pumpkin. His farm is in MI, JP is in MI - thought it fitting. I used spend a decent amount of time lamenting on names (where applicable) and even tried to to make a label for each brew. I still do this even though I mostly keg and don't even has access to a printer anymore.      Obviously still trying to find my "style" but I have fun finding images for inspiration and what not. Jacobey000 fucked around with this message at 16:58 on Jan 26, 2012 |
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Jan 26, 2012 16:50
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^^^ 3 cups? Holy loving mother of god.kitten smoothie posted:I was kind of thinking of just printing on plain paper and then using premix wallpaper paste to stick it, but I'm wondering if there are better ideas. If that's what people do, any good tips for print dimensions for a standard bottle? There is always the milk trick. You pretty much just print, cut and brush/dab a tiny tiny amount of milk to the back of the paper, let it dry and away you go. I bought .75" circles from onlinelables.com - way, way too small to be of any use but now that I don't have a printer I just write on them stick 'um and roll ghetto style. Jacobey000 fucked around with this message at 02:51 on Jan 27, 2012 |
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Jan 27, 2012 02:48
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Cinnamon Bastard posted:Oh. Right. Bottles. For bottling. The things I don't have for that thing I have to do in about two weeks. I found that buying Trader Joe's 6 packs is a cheap and easy way of getting bottles. The beer is 'decent.' Also:  Cracked open two of my braggots during "the big game." It is shocking how much of a difference there is already after 11 days. The dregs are pulled from a local brew and a Jolly Pumpkin, and I've got to say - the little critters in the JP really really come though and to a fantastic job blending in flavor with the honey. US05, is 'okay' but gets better with while warming. Think I'll let them age a lot more before I crack open the 1L bottles.
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Feb 6, 2012 15:08
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DrBouvenstein posted:Though I don't know how I'd sterilize the apricots...though I guess StarSan is safe to get a little bit of in the beer, so I could just soak them for a few minutes, let them drip dry, then toss them in? Lol,  Just chop them shits up, freeze them, and rack on top of them in secondary. Pretty much the same way with all fruit tbqh.
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Feb 6, 2012 18:42
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DrBouvenstein posted:I didn't think freezing would kill any nasties...sorry about being stupid, I was just reading a couple other places and people were always saying how they only used canned or frozen fruit because it gets pasteurized, so they didn't have to worry about 'sanitizing' their fruit...one guy said he dunked his is boiling water for a bit before adding them. I wasn't trying to make you feel stupid, I just had an image in my head of someone spraying apricots with star san. I was being too goony apparently. You aren't going to be killing any of the buggies - but your beer will already have booze in it making it pretty hard for the ones to worry about to grow. By freezing it you'll be bursting the cell walls that hold in the sweet sweet candy so when they warm up (in your beer) you'll be ready to soak it all up. Boiling water would work if you are worried, but honestly, it's not really a big deal. I racked on top of 5lbs of fresh (minched & then frozen) cranberries in a beer, I was worried too - but it came out without any funk (apart from way too much cranberry). You really do not want to 'cook' the fruit either though, because pectin and 'burning' off some flavors. Also: as a a tip, buy a thin mesh bag, weight it and rack on that, you'll want to jump off a bridge trying to rack off of the fruit. e: cryme posted:You could always soak them in vodka for a while before you add them to your secondary.
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Feb 6, 2012 20:27
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JohnnySmitch posted:Thanks - that fixed it! Now I just need to monkey around with the magnet positions to get it to not kick the stir bar, and maybe add a resistor to get the fan speed down more. I know this may seem obvious to some, but make sure to start the fan/bar together don't try to place the flask with stir bar on while the magnet is spinning. Jacobey000 fucked around with this message at 16:02 on Feb 13, 2012 |
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Feb 13, 2012 15:20
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icehewk posted:Do any of you have experience growing hops? I have some land available to me with a hillside facing south. I was thinking of using the hillside and putting up two 7 ft poles running north and south with a wire running between them, which would make for easy harvesting. A cursory google shows that people have successfully grown them with 5 ft and 12 ft poles on level ground. Father-in-law has some growing up on cords behind his garage, nearly 20ft in height (hillside) from tip to dirt. They will go loving nuts, very quickly. Year two is when they really settle in, but you can still harvest cones after the first year. Also, just had a baby ~4d ago and want to brew a small beer with my baby boy's weight. Was thinking 1/2 Vienna 1/2 2 row with Columbus hops? Maybe? Any ideas? I'd like to use half of two base malts (my wife and I) and then some kind of US hop.
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Feb 21, 2012 02:17
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Darth Goku Jr posted:You are fine - for future reference, don't use a solid plug even when conditioning - there is almost always some left over co2 etc that will want to get out.
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Feb 27, 2012 02:53
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Spergio Leone posted:Just on a personal level I cook with stainless steel and cast iron so have an affinity to iron-based stuff. I understand aluminium would be hella lighter but yeah, the denting/scratching potential puts me off a bit. Maybe I will bite the bullet and spend a load in a catering supply shop. The cheapness of the beer brewed will ease it out, right? Right? Just make sure you get a big pot. I bought a 5 gal and regret not getting at LEAST one more gallon larger.
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Mar 5, 2012 14:06
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ChiTownEddie posted:Do you guys ever do something like a mini batch (1-2 gallons) to try out a recipe? Is it as simple as scaling your normal recipe down? Yes, & yes. I did a two gallon batch of braggot, and then split it to two one-gallon batches to try out using honey and attempt something with a touch of souring.
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Mar 21, 2012 21:58
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Kegged my Rye Farmhouse Stout a couple of days ago - will be dropping to serving pressure today. It's a cluster gently caress of a recipe and I'm not sure how I feel about it. One thing I'm walking away with though is I'd love to use French Strisslespalt again - those hops smell like fruity pebbles and would be totally kick rear end in a less complicated Belgian/french ale. They got completely buried from the roasted rye and the spicy yeast (3711) in this batch. My wife suggested doing an IPA with them... a Belgian Strisslespalt IPA-style brew - it sounds so wrong, but would it be right?
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Mar 23, 2012 14:16
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indigi posted:Strisselspalt Yeah, I loved the aroma of them, and hate to see it get buried by other hops or malts. Maybe a super simple Belgian?
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Mar 24, 2012 20:12
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Spergio Leone posted:Is there a risk of oxygenation if I pop the screw lid on my fermenter now that the bubbling has slowed a week into the brew? I know people take hydrometer readings all the time but this buddy of mine said there is a risk. I realize contagion lies everywhere etc but how paranoid should I be? Play it safe and leave for another week when it's most definitely done? Technically there is always a risk of contamination every-time you open the fermentor, oxygenation at your stage is painfully unlikely - unless you shake the ever living poo poo out it for no reason at all.
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Mar 26, 2012 12:48
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zedprime posted:Are there any brett veterans still poking about the thread? Any recommendations on how to make something not unlike Bam Biere with commercial strains? Jolly Pumpkin uses a blend - if you want the flavor, just pitch the dregs. I did this for a braggot I brewed and there was most defiantly a 'jolly pumpkin'-esque flavor profile coming forward after just about a month.
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Mar 28, 2012 11:58
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ChiTownEddie posted:So is the best time to add something like Cranberries to a beer...in secondary? I dont want a punch in the face of cran, just some extra flavor + maybe a bit of tartness. When I made my cranberry wheat - I used 5lbs of cranberries (for 5 gallons) blended them some and racked ontop of them (in secondary) for about two weeks. That is WAY too much (for me), I'd go with 1lb depending on how much you want. Just got an idea, a chocolate cranberry stout would be loving awesome (@5lbs/5gal). What I did with the cranberry wheat ale was pour 'pink and black's with Young's Double Chocolate anyway... Yes. if you use [a lot] cranberries - make a chocolate cranberry stout.
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Apr 12, 2012 22:56
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Pictures? Picked up my two bags last week... now I just have to carve out time to brew. Also, gently caress me, I need a cooler to mash in.
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Apr 19, 2012 14:06
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goons posted:3711 chat I've done 3 brews with 3711 in the past year and I can tell ya it does spice quite well. It also changes a lot with a little bit of time. I fermented warm - room temp - each time and they all came out great. It is a loving beast and a hungry one at that. Any brew tool will tell you 80% attenuation but from the ones I've brewed, it's closer to 90%+ This doesn't mean you are getting a 'dry' beer though. At the warm temps I got great spice favors as a young beer which later subdued to a more clean 'sasion' style. I've also pitched the yeast 3 ways, w/ a starter, from package and from a yeast cake. There wasnt much difference in its ability to chomp though the sugars. It'll be 'done' after a few dad, but I'd let it bottle condition for a couple months if you can, even better when it's been sitting in a cold keg the same amount of time. One thing I really love is its able to do dance along with any beat. I've done a roasty, almost porter, with it and its spice profile does great along the Simpsons chocolate malt. A red rye, that after a month or two in a keg, then another in bottles sings sweet melodies with the mellow rye. And finally a keg of sweet stout with 3711 is on tap in my fridge that bridges the gap between a Maine winter and spring quite nicely. 3711 rules, and its fun to see where it goes. Don't fear putting it through the paces.
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Apr 20, 2012 02:53
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Spergio Leone posted:I now know what to do if I'm short for a project. I'm drinking a kit tripel now which is nice and complex but am just imagining how it would have turned out if I'd thrown in a brand-name Belgian yeast. Yeah, I find yeast to be the coolest part of all of this. I'm tempted to buy more apple juice at whole foods (1gal carboys on the cheap) just so I can pitch a slew of yeasts. I'm reading Farmhouse ales as my going-to-bed book and it's really got me thinking about how forced into styles we (american/brits) are as well as the fact that we are lead to believe that adjuncts=bad mostly because of all the 'Lite' bashing done by the homebrew community at large. As an example: most biere de gardes have about 20% of their 'bill' as sugars like sucrose.
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Apr 21, 2012 13:56
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TenjouUtena posted:A few questions. 3 oz of dry hopping sounds super aromatic! How many do you think you can drink before you get tired of it? Also, why do you boil 90 when your first hops are at 60? Guessing here: color/flavor when you boil longer you get more 'caramel' flavors. But I dunno if 90min is long enough to do so - someone correct me.
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Apr 22, 2012 18:20
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Ubik posted:Have any of you used caraway seed in a homebrew before? I have a project coming up that might make use of it, and I'd like to know if any of you have any experiences to share. I would never use caraway seeds because they are what makes a good rye bread taste like poo poo - just my opinion. Question: I've come down with the feel-like-shits and I ground my grist already on Saturday - I know I've got to brew asap, but how long before it starts to wane?
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Apr 23, 2012 12:05
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Butt Soup Barnes posted:We're not quite ready to go all-grain, so how would we go about brewing an 8-10% beer using extract? Are there any sites out there that have recipes for extract brews? There are a gently caress load (more than you could ever go though) of recipes by style here: http://hopville.com/styles they'll say if they are extract or not. You can select different 'levels' after selecting 'style' ( IE http://hopville.com/beer-style/imperial-ipa-recipes/extract-with-specialty-grains). What I used to (and still) do is go to Northern Brewer/Morebeer/Austin Homebrewing and check out a the recipe sheet listed on their website. This will give you the best idea for what to formulate for extract brews. I also read what the description says about the brew, see if I want to add this or that check out hopville for ideas, check a couple books and then decide on what goes in. You can almost always get away cheaper than a 'kit' if you buy the ingredients separately. Even better if you know your want to brew a pale ale and a stout (as an example) right after each other and see if you can match up some of the ingredients and yeast to save more monies.
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Apr 27, 2012 14:14
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So I'm going about doing all grain bass-ackwards and bought 110lbs of grain and now need a thing to make the poo poo in. I'd like to go the cooler route with a false bottom. 5 gal seems just fine, but am I doing myself disservice by not just getting a 10gal size? Also, false bottoms, is there an online retailer that makes "the best" [reasonably priced] ones - ie not blichmann? I'd like to not 'skimp'.
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May 3, 2012 22:54
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kaempfer0080 posted:Any advice would be appreciated. Cold crash before bottling for at least 12 hours.
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May 6, 2012 19:48
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Docjowles posted:Haha. I can relate to that. Every so often I get a bug up my butt to have a nice lager... *3 months later* This is pretty dang helpful: http://www.northernbrewer.com/brewing-calendar/ If you live in the googleverse you can just add it in to yours (+google on the bottom right).
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May 21, 2012 12:06
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ChiTownEddie posted:Northern Brewer is having a sale on some of their hops right now: Indeed they are. Picked up 4lbs of hops I've ever heard of: Styrian Aurora, Styrian Bobek, German Opal, German Smaragd. All the descriptions sounded nice and I love to try new things. I've got 100+lbs grains to plow through still, as well. Gone be good summer.
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May 24, 2012 03:12
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drewhead posted:Did you seriously buff out your converted keg? I'm not trying to criticize or be a dick, but at the same time I'm laughing pretty hard. People do this all the time. Two dudes in my LHBC were talking about getting the right pads, spending 5 hours to get them 'shiny' and so on. Not that I don't think it's a massive waste of time, some people just like things just so. I'm a slob by no means, but when I'm boiling sugar water in a metal can, I dunno if I care enough to make it shiny.
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Jun 2, 2012 11:02
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Kaiho posted:There's this product {sperglordvideo} that I've seen but it involves quite a bit of pre-preparation... Why is haziness one of those things that make people do crazy/dumb poo poo?
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Jun 8, 2012 13:06
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zedprime posted:CO2 Seconding this, I freaked out on my first co2 tank too. I've been nearly at zero on my (cold) co2 tank for 4 beers now. Jo3sh posted:Grainchat If you have a nice brewery nearby talk to them about getting your group by shipped to their place. Our homebrew club in Maine does so with a super awesome small brewery (Rising Tide). I payed something like 30 cents per lb on wheat malt and Canadian 2-row; it's shocking how much it's worth it. There was a dude in the club who even ordered something like 14 bags all by himself - so it could be worth it if you are crazy enough to order by yourself. On my own brew news - I made a wit beer that rocks face pretty hard using German and Styrian hops. They were on SUPER sale via NB and thought why not give them a whirl. Fantastic aromas and super tasty overall. My take away: Don't fear hops you can't pronounce and/or are unfamilar with.
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Jun 24, 2012 03:05
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global tetrahedron posted:You'd probably want to make a yeast starter for beer of that size, but yeah, it's not really that hard at all. Just one little extra step. if not this, buy two yeast packs
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Jun 25, 2012 02:24
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Mud Shark posted:I really wish that non-traditional hop growing areas would start farming them. This, a thousand times this. I think the areas of the US that make lovely wine (I'm looking at you Michigan) should grow hops instead, as I believe they grown in the parallel. There should be some kind of farm campaign or some-such thing. Honestly, a nice big hop patch in the rear end end of a U-Pick farm could draw in the bearded folk if the info was out there. Funny enough, the chef at the place I work at was talking to a large farmer about growing something on his hilly land and I piped in Hops. From what I understand the guy was pretty interested.
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Jun 29, 2012 04:32
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I do a hella ghetto all grain, speaking of BIAB. I use my bottling bucket with a course bag as my mash-tun. It works okay, but my efficiency is somewhere in the high 50s to low 60s. I mash-in and stir, then cover a couple of old blankets we have. I do an alright job of hitting my mark now that I know what to expect. Just as a viable option for those looking to go all grain but for about six dollars worth of extra investment. I've got my personal favorite beer I've made thus far on tap right now. It's bring-a-tear-to-your-eye perfect on these hot as hell days too. It's a wheat beer with a dash of dark roast wheat, black peppercorns, and tasty floral hops. Recipe here: http://cobdavis.com/beer/2012/Whore-Garden.html
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Jul 2, 2012 03:33
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indigi posted:Wit yeast has a really particular profile that I don't think would blend well with earthy or more floral types. This is just not true at all. What sort of hops do you think they use in Belgium?
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Jul 10, 2012 13:24
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Cpt.Wacky posted:My buddy wants to brew some mead and he has fixated on the idea of a sea salt and caramel mead. The only ideas I had were bochet (burnt mead) or some LorAnn caramel flavor. Just adding salt, probably at bottling time, seems wrong too. I'm only going to let him do 1 gallon because it will probably be terrible. Maybe look for salted caramel? Or just salt some caramel and add it to secondary? If it were me, I'd find some good caramel sauce and use that - paying attention to the ingredient list. Or just make my own caramel (easy as gently caress) and toss in a handful of sea salt then rack on top; look for smooth caramel or caramel sauce recipes. E: Joining a homebrew club may be one of the best things I've done. Some dude just GAVE me his old banjo burner. Snaps. Jacobey000 fucked around with this message at 02:03 on Jul 17, 2012 |
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Jul 17, 2012 02:01
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Paladine_PSoT posted:Anyone know any good beers that come in swingtop brown bottles? I'd love to have a few of these lying around for transport to parties. Protip: I bought three 1L bottles to do just this. Works really well for not lugging a bunch of bottles around and isn't nearly as big as a growler. They also nicely work out for a dinner too.
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Jul 20, 2012 12:23
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Hypnolobster posted:coffeedrank I would think that co2 would create a decent amount of 'tartness,' if that makes sense. I would think what you'd be getting is if you took sparkling water and poured it into an iced coffee. You may want this, I'd just mix this up first before you go wasting gas. I've made 'carbonated water' for ma lady in a 5 gallon keg between brews before. It's likely one of the easiest things I've ever "made" before.
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Jul 24, 2012 02:39
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recent posts posted:extract hate While most of this is/could be true. I think it should be stated that extract brewing is still making beer, it is still going to be very tasty, and you are no less of a human being if you use extract. I think that sort of 'hard line' speak from another, maybe more knowledgeable brewer can be hard on someone who is either looking at getting into brewing and may be scared off of investing in all-grain as well as making those who use extract feel bad for doing so. We should maybe try to avoid chastising people for dipping their toes in the pool while we splash around in the deep end.
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Jul 24, 2012 19:32
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Angry Grimace posted:Watermelon extract Honestly, I think this is going to be the only way to get any kind of watermelon flavor whatsoever out of a beer.
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Jul 25, 2012 13:26
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No love for Nielsen Massey?
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Jul 25, 2012 22:35
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All this 1gal batch chat has reminded me that I'd like to take 2nd runnings off all of my brews (2gal if I can) and pitch the same franken-yeast that I've got; it's WB-06 and some sour-blend thing another brewer gave me. It's wheat yeast and regular sac and buggies of some sort. This a good idea or a great idea?
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Jul 27, 2012 15:49
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Yeah, but that much isn't just going to be out of style its going to be pretty dang sweet because of the unfermentable sugars.
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Aug 3, 2012 01:59
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