homebrew thread #3

Whole grain ale and apple wine. Apple wine had stuck fermentation but it seems to be fine now.

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about 20L of hand pressed apple cider. Its not great, but its drinkable. (excuse image quality, camera is AIDS)

2.5 gallons of mead right now. It's my first batch and I'm worried that the basement might be too cold for the fermentation. Have not seen much activity since I started it.

>>1036247
How long ago did you pitch the yeast?

Getting my 100l tanks this week.
Apple season is upon us. Going to make 300l of apple cider this year.
Gonna use the 'traditional method' of bottle fermenting and I'm gonna test out controlled malolactic fermentation for the first time.
This year I'm going to make something that resembles champagne as close as I can. Going to store them for 3 years and see if there's any future to this shit or I'm just wasting my time.

>>1034756
been at work for about an hour now. just finished milling grains for 15bbl batch of IPA, water's hot and I'm about to start the mash.

will happily answer questions if anyone has any... been a pro brewer for about 2 years now (california).

>>1036370
how necessary is filtering beer if i am planning on using a conical fermenter?

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Just bottled my first batch. Managed to spill about half a bottle because the tube the kit came with is a pain in the ass. I should get something better for the next batch.

Only contamination I noticed was some mold on the outside of the airlock, so I don't think I screwed up too badly. Quite a bit of sediment in the bottles, but hopefully it will settle in a couple weeks when it's supposed to be carbonated.

>>1036349
Sounds great. Can you post some pics of your setup, please.

Sugar wash with raisins and ginger for distilling

>>1036331
I started the batch near the beginning of July, and I did see some activity, but it wasn't much. I set it in the basement at my folks house to ferment and have only had time to check it maybe once a week since, but every time there was barely anything happening.

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It's been a while since my last brew. Pic related was all the ingredients. Made approximately 5.5 gallons.

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>>1036858
Pic related was the final product. Not bad and was 8.5 ABV.

>>1036370
Any online guides to make beer not taste like shit.

Poke all you want. But i want to essentially make keystone light at home.

>>1036961
You won't be able to make it cheaper than keystone light costs. Make a kegerator if you drink a lot of a specific beer.

>>1036983
Agreed.

Brewed a Eureka IPA all grain, was inspired to use the hop by Dankosaurus from Cedar Creek. 2 Row, a small amount of Munich, Magnum to bitter then Eureka at 10 and flameout. For some reason I hit my pre-boil target SG and volume, but was off on my OG by 7 points. Never seen that happen before. Any clue what could have happened? My cooling times are very slow while I wait to afford a new chiller, hot groundwater and a 25 inch coil in a big boiler is causing 30-40 minute cooling times to hit 70, and 2 bags of ice. Could this have contributed somehow?

>>1037027
Oh no wait only 2 points. That could be accounted.for by slight misreading of volume lines in my kettle, right?

>>1036247
Mead takes as long as it likes. I would suggest the bomm (brims one month Mead)

>>1037412
Good mead takes no shorter than 1 year to make.

Hallo. I've been contemplating getting one of the "brewing for idiots" kits and a 5 gal jug for about a year, and had some disposable income today, so I've set my very first batch of beer.

The "kit" was basically malty goop (warts, I think they called it) and a little baggy of yeast. I added the malt and sugar to the keg with hot water, swished it around, added cold water and the yeast/lukewarm water mix.

I sat it in my closet for a few hours, the cooling liquid had pulled the yeast lock back a little. Now it's bubbling away! Life in the swill!

So anyway, I overcame the hundreds of voices shouting "do it right or not at all" and am hoping that I'll be able to catch the point when I need to bottle and second-ferment the stuff.

Mostly I just hope it's drinkable in about two weeks. I don't really care about it being perfect, even with all the equipment I still save about 100 $ on one 5 gal jug. After this batch I'll save even more per jug, compared to buying beer.

>>1038066
They still make kit and kilo kits? You had to add table sugar, right? That's fucking nuts.

BTW chances of you making drinkable beer are close to 100%, people did this shit without knowing any of the actual science behind it for almost 7000 years.

>>1038066
>"do it right or not at all"
I hate the purist rhetoric I see in these kinds of discussions.

The goal in my mind is two fold. To have fun. And to have something that you can enjoy afterwards.

If you have fun with the "hops in a bag" kits and that plastic beer ball, and you enjoy the end product. Then by all means keep doing it.

A lot of the bullshit being spewed about 'do it right or don't bother' just pushes people away from the hobby.

My brother and I got started as teenagers collecting apples from a defunct orchard near our house that had gone fallow. We tied trash cans into our home made wagon and spent all evening grinding apples and pressing them in equipment that we modelled after a meseum piece.

Everything got bottled up in 2 liter bottles we made mom clean and save all year. we kept them vented just enough to pressurize but not blow. No bubblers, no fancy sterilzation equipment, no purchased yeasts or boiling.

it was fun. Sometimes you got bottles that didnt do well. Sometimes you got bottles that were like suckling cherub jizz after it had just got done with a ten year cider only diet.

15 years later and i still have a strain of apple cider yeast saved from our years of culturing. Once a year during the fall my brother will take my culture for his brewery to do an apple run. Its always a hit.

>>1038114
Yeah, the kit said they recommended some brand sugar but that a kilo of table sugar works well also.

Yeah, they started selling these kits a few places after brewing caught some more momentum over here recently. Thanks for positive reply! :)

>>1038117
Thanks much for the nice anecdotes, I'm curious about how saving cultures from batch to batch works. Any quick and easy rundowns?

>>1038128
>I'm curious about how saving cultures from batch to batch works. Any quick and easy rundowns?

The fact you're making your beer or wine in a reasonably clean kitchen with filtered conditioned air with access to chlorinated tap water and dawn dish soap and glass or plastic vessels puts you lightyears ahead of any mid century monastics in the cellar making mead.

Personally i have a couple of big jugs that i ferment in. When I pour out the hard cider from a finished batch I just pour fresh stuff right back in. Once the fermentation on that particular jug starts getting too vigorous ill pour out 3/4 of the yeast once the batch is finished and start all over.

Having so much yeast the batches start fermenting almost instantly and bubble and burp FAST, sometimes too fast.

If you go after high brix, and high alcohol content youll stress the yeast and they'll start to die off. Most wild yeasts start pushing up daisys around 5%. The yeasts you can culture from the fruit itself if you keep them going can get quite used to 8-10 no problem while most commercial yeasts will push 15% regardless of their marked limits without too much trouble.

Yeasts grown on full juices will last multiple generations and even decades of culturing. Refined and clarified juices are not nutritionally complete but will still foster healthy yeast for a while. And rot gut from sugar water made just for distillation will pretty much kill your culture.

I only ever use full apple cider. But when my supply has run out ive kept the yeast on plain bottled apple juice just fine.

>>1038305
So if I chuck worts and sugar back in the jug when I'm done siphoning off the beer, I can just keep brewing, but quicker? Shit, son.

I've considered selling the beer to other students (I brew in my cupboard in a student apartment) if I manage to make it tasty and strong, but that would require a few more batches before I start. I want to feel more confident about the results, and more used to the process, before I ramp up production from 25 L to 100 L continuous.

I just finished putting together a brown ale and I'm fermenting it in my garage. It's at about 17-18C is that temperature okay or will it fuck the fermenting?

>>1038348
most guides will tell you to stick to washing your yeast between 3-6 times before getting a new starter.

Continual reuse allows the introduction of wild yeasts and can change the flavour profile.

When you're worried about flavours and finish you'll want to wash the yeast from the primary fermentation. The secondary fermentation stresses the yeast and it doesn't propagate well.

Theres plenty of guides on separating the yeast from the trub. "Yeast washing"

>>1038707
And another question: do I have to do the secondary fermentation in a cold area? I don't really have that, save my refrigerator, and it's closer to 4C than 10C.

What is the purpose of the secondary fermentation?

I can go out and buy a fugton of bottles, but alternatives would be grand. Honestly don't have any areas near my apartment that hold 8-10C. Even the bike garage is heated.

>>1038786
Here's the one thing you need to understand:
In every society we have dug up that left us artifacts, from desert to tundra, we have found the telltale signs of alcohol production.

If the directions you're following say keep the secondary in a cool area, then you can do that. If you don't have a cool area then feel free to completely ignore it.

Hell, If your instructions say to do a secondary fermentation and you're too busy or lazy or just plain cant be bothered to do it, then by all means, keep it in one stage.

It just doesnt matter that much in the end.

Like i said above you're already lightyears ahead of whatever swill they were making before the industrial revolution, let alone prehistoric man with a leather skin held together with sinew and oak tar.

Whatever you, yourself, produce no matter how you produce it will be quite drinkable.

Its as simple as sugary drink+yeast=alcohol.

Granted there are ways to improve the characteristics of your finished product. Maybe the yeast you bought says "ferments best at 72°f" but that doesnt mean its all shit if it gets up to 80°f because the only place you have free is in your garage in the middle of summer.

Take everything other than cleanliness in the directions as more of a suggestion. And in terms of cleanliness, hot water and dish soap is the starting point. Feel free to buy steritabs if you want. Or not.

>>1034756
Giving Kombucha a try, checked on my scoby yesterday night, grew pretty big since Friday when I started the culture.

Did a pumpkin beerror Monday, no pumpkin but 2 teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice. I will probably make it again with real pumpkin and adjust the spice if needed.

>>1036444
what scale, and how do you plan on packaging?

we do not filter here, and have great shelf life, beer stability, and clarity. we do use a fining agent (similar to gelatin), but if you have the ability to cold-crash (to 35F), filtering is unnecessary, assuming you have time for everything to drop out of suspension. filtering is what breweries do to save time, but I am convinced you lose a lot of volatiles and the beer gets less flavorful from the extra handling.

>>1036961
read a homebrew book. consult homebrewtalk.com.

>>1037063
>>1037027

your OG was probably off because of an efficiency issue. either your brewhouse efficiency is higher/lower than whatever was plugged in to your recipe, or your mash/sparge technique was inconsistent.

what efficiency did you put in and how do you sparge?

>>1038526
18c is a good temp.

Sadly nothing, however have been considering it for a while. After reading this thread I'm going to set up when I get paid next.

I converted a 5 foot haier chest freezer into a fermentation chamber and its the best brewing decision I ever made.

I make a lot of cider and my most recent batch was so smooth despite almost no aging. I made a gallon of applejack and it was also 10x smoother than my last batch. I used to use a tub with ice and a towel/t-shirt (swamp cooler) to keep my brew cool and this blows it away. Beer covers some most of the imperfections with hops and other flavors but cider really lets the controlled cold fermentation shine through.

I also recommend the 5' Haier fridge to you all. It has a defrost that can fit your temperature controller meter with little trouble and I fit a 6 gallon, 3 gallon and 5 liter carboy inside all at the same time. (the three gallon Better bottle needs to use a blowoff tube to fit in the lid). Its cheap and at walmart.

Seriously, using the freezer as a fermentation chamber has made my most recent batch of cider amazing.

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>>1040301
Temperature control is one of the best things you can do for your brew.

What controller did you use? I have a STC1000 that I wired up myself.

Protip for beginners: brewing is only difficult if you are doing something very specific.

I got started recently just by tossing some yeast into gallon jugs of juice and keeping the cap loose enough to vent. It's drinkable as soon as it basically finishes bubbling, but adding juice concentrate to sweeten, refrigeration, clarification, and rebottling all improve the flavor.

As Ms. Frizzle says: "Take chances, make mistakes, get messy."
Remember to take notes though, making the best cider ever and not knowing how to reproduce it is useless.

>>1039970
Small scale, I'm doing 10 L batches and plan to package in mini kegs or amber glass bottles. How is the cold crash done, how long should it be in 35 F?

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Any distillers here?
Mods before you ban, this is perfectly legal in many jurisdictions

>>1040913
Yeah, we have distillation threads once a while
And excuses like that won't save you if mods think your shit is banworthy.

>>1040913
Destilling in anything then copper is shit

>>1040905
you move the fermentor to a refrigerator or freezer for 2-3 days (more if you have the time to spare).

>>1040913
is that your setup? seems incredibly practical for my situation (have access to lots of kegs). does the tri clamp fitting hold pressure well? not worried about the gasket getting too hot? I'd love to know where you got the fitting/tower

>>1039972
Thing is I used Beersmith to create the recipe. I had extra wort in the mash tun but stopped collecting when I hit my correct volume, AND the wort I collected was my target pre-boil OG. In the past this has resulted in a spot on OG into fermenter, so my equipment is generally decently dialed in.

>>1040718
Yes, brewing was done originally by accident and then with little scientific understanding on both a homebrew and commercial scale for thousands upon thousands of years. It's super easy. The hard thing is hitting a specific recipe or recreating that recipe exactly, or making award winning beer. That's where the variables come in.

Also, I've noticed that it seems like the majority of 4chan on /ck/ and here do more cider making than beer brewing, but nowhere else in the homebrew community do I see that. What's the deal?

>>1041023
Cider is really easy to start with, you don't have to mess about with grains or malts or anything. Furthermore, it tastes good.
Though there also seems to be a cultural factor, a lot of people probably make beer because it's more mainstream and you can be certain other people will accept it.

>>1041021
ah, sorry don't think I thouroughly read your first post. did you get the correct post-boil volume? sounds like your burner was either running hot or cold, and you boiled off more or less than anticipated

>>1041041
That's what I am thinking. Any clue how much volume difference would equal roughly 2 gravity points? I don't know if that transfers to a lot or what. I'm not stressing over 2 points, not for a competition or anything, I just enjoy trying to perfect the process.

>>1041024
Ausfag here, not sure globally, but here cider is in resurgence, getting a lot more varieties in stock and lots more ppl drinking it.

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Well, looks like I should've let this ferment a bit longer before bottling it. Half of it ended up on my pants.

>>1040718
Very true. Beginners see us talking about setting up chest freezers for fermentation control to make our brews better but don't hear how that is not necessary to make great brews. I brewed for years in a swamp cooler making unique brews I preferred over store bought.

>>1041709
Are you me? I even had three bottles explode and send shrapnel 30 ft across my garage.

"well, guess that's done"

Pretty shit wine from a friends recommendation. Raisins rehydrated with lemons and mashed up with sugar added. Flavors were weak.

Going back to trying skeeter pee from the recipe recommended online for using up my lemons.

First time brewer from a bit further up the thread making stuff from liquid malt and sugar in my student apartment, here.

It stopped bubbling now, almost 8 days after it started. I've put about a gallon onto a glass "wine balloon" with some sugar to see if it will ferment some more, but it tasted pretty okay! Probably not a very high ABV%, and not the most refined of brews, but definitely drinkable, and definitely beer!

I really don't mind that it doesnt fizz, it's tasty and obviously has a little alcohol in it. :) Thanks for making me less insecure about the process, guys. This is not my last brew, I can say that much.

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Getting desperate in my war on fruit flies. May have to go nuclear. Any strategy advice??

>>1036349
Any benefit in heating the juice (not quite boiling) before a ferment? I'm not a fan of using campden to kill of yeasts, as they may affect the brewing yeast, but likewise don't want any nasty yeasts involved...

>>1041965
You can pasteurize without boiling and if that is the way you want to go I would always recommend it instead of boiling. 6 seconds at 160 degrees should do it. I bottle pasteurize a kind of rice wine and that's what I do. Do a quick google search and you will get a chart of temperature vs length of time to pasteurize.

>>1041927

I've had fruit fly infestations before. (Roommate left half a bottle of beer in his room for a week)

You can either buy fruit fly traps that look like little plastic apples, but they're like 5 bucks a piece.

Much more economically, get some small plastic containers and fill them up about halfway with apple cider vinegar. Add a drop of dish detergent to it, and stir. Make a bunch of these smelly fucks and strategically place them.

The fruit flies land on the apple cider, drawn to the sickly sweet, near rotten smell of it, and because the dish detergent reduces the surface tension drastically, they fall in and drown. Works great! Smells awful.

>>1040941
Stainless works absolutely fine. if you want to remove sulfates with copper, pack the column with pure copper scrubbers or raschig rings

>>1041927
Cover the top of the airlock with a tissue secured by a rubber band. Air still leaves no problem and fruit flies can't kamikaze your airlock anymore.

It worked for me before. I had basically no flies in the house but every single one that came would immediately zero in on my brew, enter the closet and kills themselves before I did this.

>>1041709
Also, I resolved my issue by keeping a bottle in the fridge, then chilling it in a salt-ice-water mixture.

Opened my last bottle just a crack to let the gas out, then it was happy.

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First brew, i used honey, raisins and lemons. My whole room smells like beer now.

>>1042444
Tell me what you did step by step
t. newfag

>>1042863
just like picture op posted

Student brewfag here.

So I went and splurged on a bunch of shit, bottles, capper, hydrometer, alcometer, thermometer etc. Can't make sense of my readings other than it's "ready to bottle". The alcometer was apparently made for stronger stuff, showed me "-1%" or something, while the scale went up to 100.

Did I fuck up? Is it entirely non alcoholic? I didn't think it would be, seeing how the yeast bubbled and all for like 9 days.

At any rate, I bottled 12 L of the stuff (drank/used wine balloons to experiment with the rest) and set a new batch of "brown beer".

The malt smelled a lot stronger, and tasted much more bitter. Managed to spill a bunch onto my shower floor and jug, spent fifteen minutes cleaning it up.

Waiting for the temperature to drop down to around 23C before adding the yeast and putting on the the yeastlock.

As for the bottling, I added 90g of sugar to the jug and stirred before I started to clean the bottles. It took a while, but I got into a system where I could clean 16 at a time and bottle 12 at a time. Only have two hands, so it was done in two different processes. Did my measurements before bottling, found 0,002-ish on the hydrometer and the aforementioned -1 on the alcometer. Both the floaty kind, but apparently different, from their buoyancy.

>>1042977
If you took gravity readings at the start and finish you can figure it out.

http://www.brewersfriend.com/abv-calculator/

>>1043249
Alright, is there a specific time after setting the brew I should measure? Should it have begun bubbling? Or is the reading "valid" from the moment I mix it all together?

>>1043258
Take a gravity reading before pitching your yeast and then another reading once it has fermented out.

If you are new to brewing beer, I suggest reading How to Brew by John Palmer.
http://howtobrew.com
Everything on that website is the same as in his book.

>>1041888
Do it again!

It's the most fun and addicting thing ever if you have the right mind for it. Of course, I went all in and became completely obsessed with it after my first extract brew and went all grain within 6 months, but one of the things I love about brewing is that just about anyone can do it with just a few dollars. It really spans the entire spectrum from systems that cost $10k to systems that cost $0. I've even seen all grain systems cobbles together from shit people had on hand.

>>1042977
I had never even heard of an alcometer and just looked it up. Sounds like they only work for distilled beverages.

Just use your hydrometer before pitching yeast and use it after/during fermentation, and use an online calculator to determine ABV. Make sure you account for temperature as hydrometers are calibrated to a specific temp.

I don't know your original gravity but based strictly off of my brews .002 is really fucking low. *****might***** be an infection given that heard heard certain bacteria and wild yeast can cause gravity readings that low. Could also be temp related.

To give an example my brews using "Chico" yeast (California Ale 1056/American Ale/ Safale US-05, the most popular beer yeast in homebrewing) typically finish out around 1.009-1.013 on the high side.

Anyone know any brewed Tea/coffee drinks? Kombucha need that specific strand of bacteria/yeast. And milk? I've already made Yogurt and it was alright. There are some other caucasian/central drinks but they again need their specific kind of yeast and bacteria.

>>1043431
I'm both of those.

I had great fun, it was exciting to finally see it start bubbling, and noticing it had stopped after 9 days was strange and new.

I still think it's alcoholic, but have no real way of checking. My hydrometer has "bottle" just around where it floated, so I don't think it's as catastrophic as you describe.

But of course, it's not impossible that it's some infection of sorts. I was pretty thorough and clean with pitching it, but not clinical, and I did it in the bathroom.

Also I didn't know when to do the initial reading, so now I've 1.030 to work off of. My chart says "potential ABV 3,4%" or something, which is a little disappointing, desu. I added about three ounces of sugar to the mix to see if that did anything to help my poor yeastbros.

It's really quite fascinating. The waiting period of 10-14 days makes it something I can spend time on now and then, and still get great gains from. I can absolutely see how it's catchy. Spent €100 on equipment and bottles just now, can't imagine I can't justify getting a cornelius keg and CO2 for myself for christmas next year or something.

Heck, if this goes right I can actually sell this shit.

>>1043925
Uhm, might have forgotten to mention I pitched a new batch of brown ale. Too lazy to check.

>>1043925
Bubbling ending after 9 days is nothing strange. Most fermentation finishes in the first week.

Don't freak out about hydrometer. Its only real purpose is to tell you the exact alcohol content of you brew. You can get a pretty good what it is simply by what you put in. The other purpose, making sure it is finished fermenting, is really only needed if you want to bottle super early or you are making mead.

>>1040953
The tri clamp has worked well for me. there isn't really any pressure in a booze still though.

Alright lads I have a couple questions. I just threw my mead into the fridge to cold crash that bitch. How long should I wait for it? Fermentation stopped a while back. Some anon suggested adding some more honey to backsweeten my brew. How should I go about doing that? Just adding the honey straight away and slowly stirring or heat up the honey with some water and pour in and stir? (mainly because pouring room temp honey can be a pain in the ass)

>>1044582
Cold crashing is just for making you brew clearer by pulling more yeast our of solution before you rack. Just leave it in over night and it will be good.

If you add more honey too it without killing the yeast fermentation will just start again. If you want to back sweeten you will need to add sorbate. If you don't want to add sorbate you can also pasteurize or use a nonfermentable sweetener (I recommend xylotol which is an alcohol sugar with the same sweetness as sugar.)

>>1044620
The fermentation process shouldn't start again because it's been dormant for 2 or 3 weeks. Just in case, I already have the sorbate on hand. But I still need an answer(s) to the latter of my questions.

>How should I go about doing that? Just adding the honey straight away and slowly stirring or heat up the honey with some water and pour in and stir? (mainly because pouring room temp honey can be a pain in the ass)

>>1044623
Dormant for 2-3 weeks means nothing. Fermentation could be finished for months and it would still start up again.

I would add the honey warm with a very small amount of CLEAN water so you can dissolve it in your fermenter without too much craziness. Cold crash afterwards because you will get things mixed up regardless.

>>1044658
>Fermentation could be finished for months and it would still start up again.
Sounds very interesting.

I use already purified, spring water.
Is that okay?

>>1044662
Not who you were replying too, but if you must add honey (which will activate the yeast again and may end up exploding your bottles) then mix it together with some spring water and bring it to a boil, then let it cool down naturally (usually for atleast several hours) and add the honey mixture to your beer slowly and without splashing.

The reason you want to boil the water is two fold. First, it will make the honey easy to disolve in the water. Second, and more importantly, boiling the water will get rid of all if the dissolved oxygen in the water. This is also why you let the water cool slowly without stirring it, and why you add it to the beer slowly without letting it splash. If you stir it or splash it you will just dissolve more oxygen in, which is what you are trying to avoid, unless you don't mind your beer tasting like wet cardboard.

Another alternative sweetener would be lactose, but it would be the same process of dissolving it in water, boiling the water, letting it cool without stirring, and adding it slowly without splashing. The up side of using a sweetener like lactose or sorbate is that you won't start fermentation again, which may take weeks to finish because of slower yeast activity, and which could definitely lead to exploding bottles in a month or so.

Basically, the rule is, if you add anything to your beer after fermentation, mix it with water first, boil the water, let it cool, then carefully add it to the beer. Never stir your beer after fermentation and always minimize splashing when you transfer it to a bottling bucket and during the bottling process.

>>1044682
I should also add, although you probably already know, that you should add a small amount of sugar just before you bottle so that the yeast has just enough to eat so it will carbonate the bottles. That sugar should be a simple sugar though, like dextrose or sucrose, so the yeast eats it quickly. Honey is a complex sugar that would take much longer to carbonate the bottles and is much much more unpredictable.

To add dextrose for bottle conditioning, it's the same thing. Dissolve between 1/2 cup and 1 cup of sugar in a cup or two of water, boil the water, let it cool, then carefully add it to the beer as you're moving the beer to a bottling bucket. Carefully adding the sugar water while you are syphoning is a good idea so the slight swirling of the beer as it is being transfered helps to mix the sugar in. If you are fermenting in the same bucket that will be your bottling bucket, just slowly pour the sugar water in, then let it rest for an hour or so to completely mix.

>>1044685
He is making a mead so he only needs to add the carbonation sugar if he wants it sparkling.

If he wants it sparkling that means no back sweetening unless he has a keg system to force carb.

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>>1034756
hello /diy/ I come from the far away board of /an/ I need advice on a long term c02 producing yeast recipe for my aquarium, do you know what would make for long lasting and low maintenance c02 production?

>>1034756
Brewing a small scale Honey Apple-Cinnamon mead. Needs a little more sugar, but so far it is pretty good.

>>1044981
Are you sure you want yeast to produce the co2? A tank that holds 5 lbs of co2 costs $50 up front and about $12 to fill. Throw in another $50 for a regulator and you have a simple solution that will last, maintenance free, for years to come. Depending on how much co2 you need, it may take months or over a year to deplete the tank, then another $12 gets you another year.

With yeast, it will require constant maintenance to keep feeding the yeast sugar and constantly cleaning and maintaining the vessel that is growing the yeast. I imagine you would have a seperate carboy for the yeast solution and just harvest the excess co2 with a piece of tubing, but getting the yeast to produce a constant amount of co2 will be tough. Sometimes it will produce more and sometimes it will produce less.

If you're sure that you want a constant hassle with endless maintenance rather than a worry free $100 solution, then the answer to your question is bread yeast with basically any type of sugar water solution, although I would start with something that is half table sugar (fast acting) and half honey (slow acting). Hope this helps.

>>1044620
>Xylitol

Be aware that though this IS an excellent antimicrobial sugar substitute, it is also a stupendously effective laxative on most people.Try it out before you commit to putting it in your brew.

>>1045054
you've successfully convinced me to buy a tank setup, thanks buddy.

And someone who's interest has been sparked, can anyone direct me the a recommended FAQ, for questions likes how safe is this?

>>1045375
Brewing is 100% safe. The only potentially dangerous thing you here is people talking about distilling.

>>1045375
See
>>1043267
That is a great begginers resource.

>>1040953
I have one like this. The tri clamp fitting will hold pressure but your still should be under little to no pressure anyway. I made my own gasket out of cardboard wrapped in ptfe and it seals great and is heat resistant. Instead of a 3kw immersion element, I used 2 x 2100w washing machine elements, requires no welding just a jigsaw with metal cutting blade and these seal perfectly also. I got the 2inch copper tube online and the fittings.

>>1044662
Yeast eat all of the sugars and then go dormant, it takes them awhile to actually die. So introduce new fermentation and there's a very high chance they will start up again.

>>1045375
I can't think of anything particularly dangerous about brewing. I've heard of people putting like way, way too much priming sugar in bottles and then the bottles get near 100 and start exploding because of the co2. That and dropping a glass carboy would be the only potential dangers I can think of, and I'd just get high quality plastic fermenters these days.

If you mean dangerous alcohol content or something, that's a distilling thing, not a brewing thing. Even if your beer gets infected the worst it might do is give you a little stomach ache, but there's an entire category of intentionally infected sour beers. None of it is going to kill you.

>>1036247
Take a gravity reading, then another a week from now. If it has the same readings fermentation is done. If you don't have a hydrometer taste it, if it tastes good to you its done.

>>1036497
Looks good. What is it?

>>1036859
Fukin Nice.

>>1041709
to avoid that you should let it rest in the bottle for a week or two. Taste it if its sparkling let it rest except for cider. You may put a blanket on the bottles against durt and so

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Last brew was saison

>>1041927
Dude. Refill your airlock!

Waah! My brew stopped bubbling after just 4-5 days! (last one took 8-10 days), what do?? Can I add more sugar? I fear my yeast might have died.. :(

>>1045918
Its most likely fine! Just give it time, but if your still unsure, give it a gravity reading and then another a week from now. If it comes out with the same readings re-pitch, if not give it another 3 weeks (if its mead).

>>1045918
And if you do end up adding sugar be careful not to add too much too fast. Picture mentos in a coke bottle.

>>1045925
>>1045926
Regular brown beer, not mead. Hope I don't have to re-pitch. Gonna get a grav-reading tomorrow.

>>1045918
What temp did it ferment at?
Maybe it was warm and fermented fast.
Take a gravity reading, I have had fermentation finish in 4 days you could bottle it if it has reached the expected gravity. But it is better to leave it for a bit longer so the yeast can clean up after themselves.

Sorry english not very good.

>>1046118
The batch was a bit warm (27-29C) when I added the yeast and bubbled vigorously the first days, so I assume you're right.

The cupboard in my apartment has around 21C constantly, so I think it's about that.

Will take a gravity reading now and return with results. One day into fermenting I got 1.030.

>>1046324
It sits at 22C, SG 1.002.

I added 50g sugar and put the airlock back on. Took off 4 liters before sugaring to ferment in a glass vessel (dont have enough bottles for fermenting anyways).

Tastes nice, but pretty watery.

>>1046324
With an original gravity of 1.030, not a surprise that it is done so quickly. There just wasn't that much to ferment. I expect that the total abv is probably around 2%-3%.

Describing a beer as 'watery' is another way of saying it has a light body, a feature that I would expect from a 2% beer. you didn't start with much malt, which means you didn't have a lot of sugar for the yeast and you didn't have a lot of proteins for the body. Based on what you're saying though, just a few days of vigorous fermentation seems right. You can bottle it whenever you like.

>>1046342
What should I do for the next (third) batch, if I wanna aim for something like 6-8% ABV?

I add about one kg of sugar to the mix now, do I add more? I can buy all kinds of "beer helper" powders that do different things, but what would you recommend?

>>1046346
What kind of sugar are you using? Just to be clear, If you want a beer that doesn't taste 'watery' you need to use malt, not table sugar. Dry malt extract or liquid malt extract are both fine, or get malted barley grain and mash it yourself (the hardest way), but honey, table sugar, brown sugar, etc, won't add any body to your beer. No matter how much alcohol you make with table sugar, it will always be a watery beer.

To determine the abv, you must use a hydrometer. However, as a rule of thumb, I find that a beer that has an initial gravity of 1.040 yields 3%, initial gravity of 1.050 yields 4%, initial gravity of 1.060 yields 5%, etc. Don't be afraid to go up to 1.080 or 1.090. Anything higher than that will be hard on the yeast, so you would instead start at 1.090 and add more malt after a few days when the yeast had fermented some sugar out.

>>1046351
I've bought kits of 1,8 kg liquid malted barley/hops and added a kilo of table sugar.

I guess I can add "spray malts" instead of sugar for the next batch, they sell it as "better brew malts". I'm just apprehensive about using more money than necessary per batch, considering the (ridiculous) cost of bottles etc.

My previous batch (10 days bubbling, then bottled/put in two carboys, then drank now 26 days after pitching) tastes almost like beer. I used a "lager" malt extract and table sugar. I think it's more than 4,5% judging from how two pints of the stuff feels compared to two pints of store beer, but I don't know how to test that other than using a breathalyzer, haha.

It's not too bad after letting it sit and mature for a few weeks, really. It was very watery in the beginning, but it's getting better. I suspect the brown beer will taste even more after maturing.

Thanks to all who contribute to this thread, this is fun!

Did one of those kits to start with, got 23l in a pressure keg with another week of second fermentation to go. Seen a nice recipe for a ginger beer and I've finally got enough bottles to not need a keg, going to start that off this week.

>>1045794
It's this stuff: http://brooklynbrewshop.com/beer-making-mixes/afternoon-wheat-mix
I bought two extra mixes along with the 1-gallon kit, but I'll have to get a better strainer and a siphon before starting either of those.

>>1045804
It's been in bottles since the 10th. I don't own anything to measure the specific gravity, but I think it's just over-carbonated. I just have to open it extremely slowly and it's fine.

>>1046324
Thats a bit warm. I brew my ales at 18-20c. 2 weeks in the fermenter then bottle them.

I need a 5 gallonish glass fermenter of some kind. With a plastic drain at the near bottom. Not right at the bottom because Ill be making kombucha and want to have room for yeast to settled without fucking up my drain.

Anyone know where to buy something like that? Is it possible to get a glass one and put a hole it is for a drain myself without fubaring it?

>>1047085
I know they sell the one or two gallon drink holder ones, and it's possible they make bigger ones but honestly siphoning ain't a big deal. What's the issue that specifically needs the drain hole?

As for putting a hole in the glass, I would not. Glass is harder than steel with none of the flexibility, and extremely difficult to cut or bore without fracturing or flaking and ruining the entire piece.

If I had to, I would try either a diamond floor tile bore bit, or melting a hole with a good torch. I don't know if either would work without the aforementioned fubar, but it's my best guess.

>>1042444


That looks like jizz anon

>>1043757
>bought kombucha and some kefir
>I thought it was normal kefir
>apparently it is some fag, kilju-like, bullshit called "water kefir"
I'm trying to put this shit on milk. The strains are different but who knows. 24 hours and the milk hasn't changed except for a slight fruity smell. Anyone knows what to do? The kombucha takes a week and the starter culture was coin sized so it'll be a while.

Just kegged/bottled a coffee oatmeal stout. High protien, high carb, 5% ish abv and about as much caffeine as a strong cup of coffee. Best way to start the day.

The equipment is getting shut down until the persimmons come in. I have a line on about 20 lbs, but they don't come in until late October down here.

Also got 2 gallons of raw orange blossom honey. That I've been hoarding since the spring.

Gonna stew down the persimmons, mix them with the honey, a few flavoring herbs, pitch a high and dry yeast, nutrients and oxygenate the hell out of it.

Made a 4 gallon batch last year and it was amazing.

>>1045375
Potential fires from boil-overs, burns and scalds from steam, etc.

Most hazards from brewing involve tripping, lifting badly, or mild burns. As mentioned, exploding bottles are rare, but they do happen.

Ultimately, brewing is one of the safest hobbies out there.

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Hey guys,

I like the helpfulness in this tread, great resource for new brewers. The attitude here is exactly where it needs to be, it's great to see new interests growing.

I'm hoping someone can steer me in the direction of a good recipe for a tropical hopped IPA. Some friends and I are going together on an order of NZ hops and I want to find the best way to combine them. Probably green bullet, nelsin sauvin, maybe motueka. Any thoughts?

Currently brewing a Smash (pale 2-row and citra) IPA that's looking great. Really trying to pin down the flavour of my favorite hops, part of a running series.

Is it possible to make beer from rice? Or rather, I know it's possible, but is it a good idea and would it require lots of special equipment compared to just buying some yeast and fruit from somewhere? Any good beginner's recipes that don't need a lot of special equipment?

>>1048232
You'll need a source of amylase, look up making rice wine at home.

>>1048232
Homebrewtalk has a huge thread on chinese type rice wine.

If you have an asian store they probably sell the "yeast balls" which contain all sorts of shit, cause like the other anon said you'll need amylase to digest the starch and produce fermentable sugars.

Plus you'll want to use sweet/sticky/glutinous rice (it'll be opaque white, not translucent) since it has more fermentable and tastes better.

There's also makgeolli which is korean rice beer, it is done similarly to the chinese rice wine, but it's not nearly as strong and uses a different starter, which I can't remember the name of now. It's basically a brick of like dried out wheat paste which is left outside to get infected with shit, you crumble it up in the rice/water slurry.


Or there's sake but that's a fuck ton more complicated to do the correct way, so fuck all that.


Anyway, you should definitely do it it's pretty cool how you start (for the rice wine anyway) with just steamed (or boiled) rice, no excess liquid, then through a simultaneous parallel fermentation the starch is broken down to sugar, then broken down to alcohols and you end up with a taste and strong (allegedly up to 20% alcohol) drink.


Last one I made I used thai sticky rice, ended up smelling of ripe cantaloupes.
Oh just remembered, the starter for makkgeolli is called nuruk I think.
But the chinese type rice wine I've made has come out much better than the makkgeolli I've made.

Hey /brew/ers, this thread got me interested in homebrewing.
However before I get to the real stuff (that would be mead), I figured I'd quickly try cheap hard cider just to experiment a bit, so I sorta followed instructions and mixed homemade applejuice with sugar and baker's yeast, and put a balloon on top of the bottle.
Looking good so far, the taste will probably be piss poor but at least I'll know it's possible.
Do I need to poke a hole in the balloon/bottle ? Am a bit scared that it could pop up if too much CO2 add up

>>1048913
>Do I need to poke a hole in the balloon
Yes, otherwise the pressure will cause the balloon to fly off and then you get the joy of an infected brew.

>>1047122
Doing kombucha and wanted to be able to add remove from a continuous thing without disturbing things.

The idea would be drain a bit off the bottom and add a little to the top carefully maybe a gallon at a time. And keep bulk at max fermentation. Just clean it once a month and move it then.

>>1047807
Wow, that sounds like an absolutely delicious brew.

>>1048915
how does brew get infected, and how can one notice it?

>>1048960
Unsanitized equipment can introduce the bacteria on it's surface to the brew. Also common airborne wild yeast & bacteria can just fall in (honestly I don't know how or why they are in the air, but they are). A brew is most vulnerable to infection before fermentation takes off, and it can be infected after fermentation too.

If it gets infected, you would usually notice a sour, vinegar, or rancid taste to the brew, depending on what's in there. "Infection" sounds scary, but really it just makes it taste bad - it's not anything that will hurt you, unless maybe you are stuffing raw chicken into your carboy or something.

>>1048977
I don't have any brushes that can reach the weird crinkly areas of my fermentation jug. But I used a powdered commercial "bottle and fermentation balloon cleaner" thing. It's similar to dish detergent powder, I think, with a fungicidal and antibacterial component.

I put it into the jug and shake like a madman for a few minutes before rinsing with water several times. It's hardly the perfect solution, but it's visually clean and free from odour, so I hope it's enough.

I'm not very strict on sanitizing my thermometer hydrometer or siphon once fermentation has started, but I rinse them thoroughly after each use, and flush the siphon with the detergent and water between batches to avoid any cross contamination.

I do the same for bottles and fermentation balloons, IE swish them around with some powder and hope for the best. Time will tell if I fuck up.

Update on my bottles mentioned here >>1043925 , I "taste-tested" the first one today! I chose one of the last bottles to be filled (with the most yeasty residue) but it looked almost perfectly clear in the bottle. To my surprise, the brew had a hearty bubble to it as long as it was in my glass, but it didnt react very violently when opened. (I did it slowly to prevent any potential foaming). All in all very pleased with my virgin batch so far. Now to have some more and see if I get drunk. Gotta empty the bottles for the next batch, you see!

>>1048953
I did a little research and it looks like there's glass drilling bits you can buy nowadays, might want to give one of those a go so long as you can bung it up properly. Sealing a tap on a curved surface inside and out can be tricky, but is certainly doable.
Sounds like a reasonable setup, so long as you're reeeeeally careful about avoiding contamination.

Thinking about making a (hopefully) quick sour/wild ginger cider... Good idea or not?

Got a spare 6.5 gal bucket laying about, thinking about getting 5 or so gallons of cheap apple juice, pitching some sauerkraut dregs in it and leaving the bucket outside in the sun for a few days to a week, hopefully get temps around 100-110º for the lactobacillus to take off and sour it, then bring it inside and toss a bunch of unpeeled apple and grated unpeeled ginger in for the wild yeasts and just see where it goes... Maybe add some dark brown sugar too? I dunno, don't want it too sweet but not too strong either. Hope to have something drinkable by Thanksgiving, though if I do 5-6 gallons probably let a few gallons age (if its any good).


In general the brewing gods seem to smile upon me, so maybe I'll just #YOLO it....

Thoughts, suggestions?

>>1049279
I can't comment on bacteria souring it but you will have no sweetness unless you chimically halt fermentation or add nonfermentable sugar.

>>1049291
Yeah I guess I'd be relying on the wild yeast to not be particularly alcohol resistant, but there's really no telling what it might do. Plus there's probably yeast all over from other things I've brewed which have unfortunately all been with EC-1118 which will definitely chew through anything lol.


I might have some chemicals to kill the fermentation left over from a wine kit though, I wasn't in any hurry so left it in secondary for a long ass time and it fermented all the way dry.

I watched a "most hardcore prison in America" documentary or some shit like that and they displayed how they make jail booze by putting fruit slices, water and sugar in a plastic bag. So I might try that.

>>1049298
You can make something actually good for not much more effort.

>>1034756
In the past I've made cheap mead but I'm taking on moonshining. I'm building my own still, which should be finished Tuesday. Basically my first run Im going to just make vodka and see how it turns out. Any tips? I hav an aluminum pressure cooker pot, from what Ive read people dont like it but it doesnt really matter if i use aluminum or not.

>>1049298
Here is my recipe for ghetto poorfag apple cider:
Get a jug, fill with juice from concentrate at roughly 2-3x strength (1-2 cans water per can of concentrate) and put bread yeast into it. If you want to wait a couple days get champagne yeast from amazon. Cover with a lid that won't hold pressure (loosely seated, playing card with a weight on it, whatever) and wait for it to start, then stop, bubbling on the surface (max 2 weeks, probably sooner). Add concentrate till it tastes like apples again and drink. Jacking (freezing, then separating the ice) optional.

>>1049372
Aluminum isn't great, high alcohol content plus high temperatures = really great solvent, could get aluminum in your booze. Best to get a stainless steel stockpot or keg, or go full copper, from what I've read.

Main thing is your cuts, make them small and numerous, easier to avoid heads and tails and shit that way.

Also homedistiller.org has fuck tons of fantastic information, primarily in the forum there.

>>1038786
warmer is actually usually better for secondary. i usually keep mine a few degrees lower thn the ferment temperature. during secondary the yeast are essentially supposed to be cleaning up off flavours produced early in the ferment. The cold is a stress for them (esp if an ale yeast) and makes them work slower, so a higher temperature will lead to faster conditioning and at this point they aren't creating new flavour compounds so it shouldn't be too much of a concern. i think the cold traditionally discourages growth of other microbes in the beer because the yeast are less competitive at this point. Although, lagering is another kettle of fish.

>>1040373
i would think twice about using the heat belt, you create hot spots in the beer. better off trying to raise the ambient temp

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>brewing thread
>its all just toilet wine tier garbage

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>>1041927
buy a venus fly trap and keep it near the airlock

fly trap keeps it bug free and gets some extra Co2 by being in proximity.

>>1046375
Reuse bottles, bro. I keg now but when I bottled I just cleaned mine in some Oxyclean Free with hot water.

>>1037518

If you ferment at the right temperature and do staggered nutrient addition, you can have something palatable in a few months. I generally agree, though, that anything *good* takes at least a year, largely due to the benefits of ageing.

>>1049803
You're welcome to leave any time.

Found this thread on a whim and it's leaked my interest. I'm thinking of starting simple, just some apple cider.

Are their any good sites online that you guys would recommend (or just general tips)?

>>1050086

Apple cider is a great way to start out, super simple. You can get a glass gallon jug of apple juice at most grocery stores for ~$10 or so (make sure it doesn't contain preservatives - absorbic acid [vitamin C] is alright, but everything else will keep your yeast from getting established). A rubber stopper (no. 6 or no. 7 size for a 1 gallon jug) and airlock will run you ~$4 or so, and you can pick up some yeast for ~$2 or so (there's one called 'cider house select' that you can find online that has yeast and nutrient already blended together).

Open up the jug, pitch the yeast in, put on the stopper and airlock, and let it ferment for 2-3 weeks. After that, rack it into another jug (or a bucket while you clean the jug it came in, then rack it back into the jug), leaving the yeast cake that has settled at the bottom there.

Let the racked juice sit in the jug for another month or so before bottling. Add some priming sugar if you want it carbonated (if you do, let the bottles alone for 2 weeks or so after bottling before drinking, otherwise you're good to go without waiting).

1 gallon jug will make ~9 12oz bottles.

>>1050101
Thanks for the tips. Any recommendations where/how I should store it? Does temperature matter?

>>1050125
It depends on your yeast. Whatever yeast you get should have instructions as to what temperatures are good for it to ferment at.

Generally you want something around 60-65 degrees Fahrenheit, but there's some room (+/- 10-15 degrees or so) for variance. Too cold and you put your yeast into hibernation, too high and you start getting fusels, which smell/taste like rocket-fuel. Age will gradually diminish fusels, but it takes a long, long time.

there was a neat documentary on making sake on POV....

http://www.pbs.org/pov/thebirthofsake/video/the-birth-of-sake/

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Just finished a 3 gallon batch

>>1050155
You got a good picture of that label? I'd love to take a look at it.

>>1049678
Yeah. That fridge died last week and I replaced it. Couldn't be bothered with cutting and resoldering the cord again.
So no more heat belt and I don't really get cold enough temps here to bother having it.

>>1049803
Post your brew then oh grand master of fermentation.

>>1048155
for a 5 gal batch
80% 2-row
10% malted white wheat
10% light munich
30 IBU bittering hops at 60
2oz nelson, 2oz motueka at 0
2oz nelson, 2oz motueka dry hop

>>1049061
you should be sanitizing your bottles and fermentor (iodophor, starsan, paracetic acid) before each brew, and cleaning (with pbw) after each brew.anything that touches your beer after you put yeast in it should be sanitized as well (auto-siphon, tubing, etc)

will just help with consistency in your final product

>>1049279
I would recommend buying a probiotic (goodbelly and swansons are the best commercially available options) instead of sauerkraut dregs. those use lactobacillus plantarum, which sours quickly and can do so in the 80-100F range, which is easier to maintain than 100+. 2-3 days is more than enough time, and make sure you don't allow any oxygen in (cover tightly and purge with CO2 if possible). oxygen = spoilage and mold.

from my experience, it is very rare to find a wild yeast that attenuates well. fermentation will stop and you'll still have a huge amount of residual sugar. I usually sour for 2 days and then pitch commercial yeast (wlp001 is my go-to). many people boil the wort after souring to avoid contaminating other equipment with bacteria.

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>>1049803

>>1049912
When buying store beer, I usually buy pint cans, not bottles. But I'll do a cost analysis on:
Buying empty bottles and malt.
VS
Buying bottles of beer.

Of course I'll be reusing the ones I've drank so far. Dunno the active ingredientin my cleaner powder, but it smells very clean. (no odour at all, not even of plastic or "water")

>>1050222
I'm running the tubes/siphon through with some clean water with detergent powder, several times before rinsing. Bottles I fill with hot water + detergent then rinse twice. Keg I shake like mad with hot water + detergent for about 5-10 mins then rinse 2-3 times with hot water. Nothing contacts "brew" apart from a funnel (cleaned with soap while cleaning dishes).

The real test will be batch 2, the one I ran a bit hot from further up. If this tastes good after letting sit in bottles, I know my process is somewhat acceptable.

I made 5 gallons of lemon Mead and 5 gallons of apple wine back in April and keep putting off bottling it. Meant to bottle it after a month or so. The mead is pretty good but the wine needs some artificial flavoring or something because right now it doesn't have any taste whatsoever

I plan on moving up to a 1bbl setup soon. I'd really like to do electric, but I have pretty much 0 knowledge about home electrical. Anyone know of a quick crash course that could teach me electrical basics so I can at least determine if I can even power that setup at my home? I'd be running two 5500 watt 240v heating elements simultaneously for that volume (plus whatever else is running in the rest of the house) which sounds like quite a lot of power draw when compared to typical electrical appliances.

>>1050394
by detergent, you mean soap? most homebrewers and pro brewers use no-rinse sanitizers. whatever comes in contact with the water you're rinsing with, could be contaminated... unless your tap water is sterile or you're rinsing with something I'm not thinking about. all groovy though, if it works do your thing.

Got my first kombucha batch. never had tasted it before. At first it tasted like a unholy menage of yeast and bacteria that had a fetish for dishwater. Then I liked it. Kinda. My colony is still thin as shti because the original one was as small as a nickel I got from mail. I'm having a problem posting images on 8/2 chan and I can't post pics for gods knows why

>>1041709
had a few bottle bombs myself, only seems to happen when i run out of fermentation drops and have to use a tea spoon of sugar.

Going to up my game to a BIAB on a 3 tier stand that im welding and switch from plastic to all glass hopefullt that will get rid of off flavours

>>1036497
Same happened to me my first try. If the mould never touched the beer so it should be okay for you.

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>>1041927
See
>>1045857
Liquid line is supposed to be here.
I hope you didn't ruin it

>>1051312
>fermentation drops and have to use a tea spoon of sugar.

You should really switch to bulk priming. It is great and you dont have to worry about bottle sizes then, just use whatever bottles you have.

Plus you have much better control of the carbonation levels over using the drops.

Assuming you have the brewing process down, is it actually possible to make a bad beer? Like, are there certain combinations of malts that will just taste like shit?

>>1051503

Yes. I don't know why anyone would prime by the bottle

My gf is making like 3 gallons of kombucha currently. It's pretty easy if your into it.

I bought a Grainfather while lit af.

Looks like homebrewing is gonna be a new hobby. Researching all this shit has left me even more confused.

Should I do step mash or just single infusion?
Only experience I have with brewing was making a few batches many years ago using prehopped goop.

Is all grain brewing really that hard?

>>1041927
get some mason jars and fill them with lemon pine sol about 1/2 cup and about half cup water. I have no idea why they fall for it but they will drown themselves by the hundreds in it.

>>1044981
just use bread yeast and fill a 2 liter bottle with 2 cups sugar water 3/4 from the top and throw in a few raisins for yeast nutrient. Replace 4/5 of the solution every two weeks and it will last almost forever.

Hi guys im new to the entire homebrew scene and was wondering How do you guys store your booze? And for How long can you preserve it?

>>1052586
Wow, what a crazy drunk purchase. Grainfather is alright though you will be wishing you had just bought a cheaper set up then spent a good bit more on a really awesome setup later, in my opinion. I hear that some of these single piece setups are great, but I just think you're better off building your own a la electric brewery or something like that. More control and less proprietary parts. Don't feel any buyer's remorse, though, you will make great beer.

All grain is not hard. Single infusion will do you for 99% of your batches, step infusions are almost never necessary unless using unmodified grains, most grain you use now are so well modified that they don't need any sort of rests. Step mashing can be beneficial if looking to really create a perfect beer for competition or commercial product, but in my opinion isn't worth it on a typical homebrew scale.

Research is great, necessary, even, but there is so much to learn upfront, your best bet is to get the basic idea, and just start doing batches. I went all grain after 5 extract brews, and it probably took another 5 all grain batches to fully understand how to hit all of my numbers and use beersmith effectively and that sort of thing.

>>1052840
Main thing to worry about with preserving beer is oxygen, which will make your beer taste like shit pretty quickly. Best bet for long term storage is just to bottle, though you only want to age certain types of beers. Sours, strong stouts especially bourbon stouts, old ales, quads, etc. Beers with little oxygen content will stay good, and even change character and typically get better, for years. I believe 5 years is usually considered the max from what I have seen on commercial bottles. This probably differs for lambics and geuzes which I think age more like wine and can be kept/blended for a long time.

>>1052919
Thanks for the advice! Do you also happen to know something about storing cider?

Second batch successfully bottled and capped now. Fermentation keg cleaned and rinsed and left to dry. Siphon rinsed and ready to pull out some of the "while we wait" balloons of impatiency beer.

This hobby is quite pleasing. I spent some three hours cleaning bottles and equipmonk, filling and capping, and I got a nice workout too, from shaking the keg clean.

The beer had a higher SG at bottling than my previous brew (1010 vs 1002), what does that mean for my final product?

I've also realized that unless I stumble across industrial equipment, making beer this way is only economically viable if it's a hobby. I don't think I'd do more than make up my investment if I sold this beer, not to mention time spent. Weird, huh. You'd think it was easier to turn a profit.

At least I've spent a whole lot less on buying beer in the stores and bars this past month I had my own. So I probably can't sell it sensibly, but I sure as heck can increase from one keg to two or three without really reaching diminishing returns over time spent.

Thanks for the support guys!

>>1052987
>The beer had a higher SG at bottling than my previous brew (1010 vs 1002), what does that mean for my final product?
You can expect it to be sweeter. More leftover sugars increases the gravity (and more alcohol decreases it a bit).
Though, 1.002 seems like a really low FG for a beer unless you added honey/sugar to it like a saison or something. So maybe you just got better at reading your hydrometer?

>>1053043
>So maybe you just got better at reading your hydrometer?
I read from the meniscus. Same method both times. I added more sugar the second round, to try and give the yeast some more nutrition. Next time will be trying to reach 1090 or something before adding yeast, and boost it further a few days down.

This batch certainly tastes more pleasant than the first one, that tasted a bit like dandelions before bottling to be honest.

>>1053043
ok, noob question.

what is gravity in context of brewing? english is only my second language.

>>1053220
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity_(alcoholic_beverage)#Specific_gravity

>>1052987
Depends. I've spent a lot on equipment because I love the hobby, but someone who already had knowledge and wasn't worried about getting in trouble could make money. I can make a 5 gallon batch of good single hop Chinook IPA for $16 and could do it for less if I bought hops in bulk. Buy base malt in bulk and you spend less than $1 a pound, specialty malts aren't that much and you can get them in bulk if you want. Overbuild your yeast by 100 billion cells and save it, so your yeast is free. Professional breweries will only harvest yeast for 10 rounds but I've heard of home brewers doing it for 20+ with no off flavors. Buy hops 1lb at a time and you can get them cheap. 2014 Chinook is $8 a pound on nikobrew right now, their stuff is well stored and still smells/tastes great. I'm sure you could do hefes, light lagers, dry stouts, etc (basic stuff with few hop editions) for just as cheap or cheaper.

I'm sure you could sell it to college kids or military guys for $40 or so easily. Maybe more in 6 packs? Just not worth the hassle or potential legal issues for me.

If you already knew what you were doing, you could build a mash tun for $30-$40 or less if you could scavenge equipment, 10 gallon aluminum stock pot for $40 or so, I see $25 carboys, then not much more for siphons, etc. If you're looking to get a barebones setup and make money it could be done for cheap, but I guess if you're going to do that why not just sell drugs or something?

>>1053070
1.002? What was your recipe? That's an extremely dry beer. Was it infected? Explain to me how/when/why you added more sugar. Generally that's not something you want to do. If you were using US-05 or some other "chico" strain yeast (001 California Ale, 1056 American Ale and US-05 are all considered to be the same yeast strain with slight variances). then 1.009 is usually about where those will finish out in a ~1.060 beer.

What kind of yeast should I use for mead making?
I figured I'd go with a wine yeast, no clue what strain though.

>>1052007
Do you hate IPA's? Make an IPA. You'll say it tastes like shit.
Everyone will have a style they like, so almost nothing will be universally "bad". Think Heineken that gets shipped to the US. tastes like dogshit to those who've had it fresh, but there are those that like the taste, even though skunked beer is generally considered "bad".

>>1053277
https://www.wyeastlab.com/he_m_yeaststrain_detail.cfm?ID=44
https://www.wyeastlab.com/he_m_yeaststrain_detail.cfm?ID=58

>>1053260
I'm not american. Don't assume your laws are the same as ours.

Checked now, it's 1500$ for a license and a whole lot of specific demands to the locale it's produced in, meaning I can't really do that unless I stumble across an old butchers shop, dairy or similar that's already made for food-grade hygienics.

Regarding selling on the sly, I don't understand what quantity you mean with "for 40$ easily". I doubt I could get more than 15$ per six pack of pints, and even that is just selling it for the same as cheap brands cost in the store.

I use malty goop. The beer tasted fine and got me drunk. Further up in this thread you'll see the same question and discussion.

I've made 6 batches of beer so far. They all come out drinkable, but there's always something a little off about the taste. I thought it was the water (was using tap water with campden tablets) so I bought a filter, but that wasn't it. I'm thinking it might be that my chiller is taking too long? I'm using an immersion coil and it takes about an hour and a half to cool down my wort even pumping ice water through it. Is that too long?

Once in never too often I brew ginger ale. I can't remember the last time, though. The baloon as air valve is genius, I guess I'm going after brewing me some more now.

>>1053388
>Don't assume your laws are the same as ours
I don't, but I do assume that pretty much any government is going to tax alcohol sales, they made sure to get their piece off of beer even in the middle ages.

>I don't understand what quantity you mean with "for 40$ easily".
I meant selling kegs full and getting them returned. Bud lite kegs are like $70 here or something for 5 gallons.I was just spitballing selling prices, I'd imagine you could get more if the beer was good, and they liked good beer, and especially if they were underage and needed a source for it.

>>1053393
Could be extract twang, or off flavors from yeast. I have heard chilling can cause off-flavors but the articles I read that in were about no-chill methods with hoppier styles. Make sure you are stirring your chiller around while the ice water runs through it, 5 gallons takes me around 30 minutes to cool down and that's full boils. I want to get a better chiller ion a few months.

All of my extract batches tasted weird, too. I went all grain and started using spring water from the store. I plan on getting some brewing salts and building my own water from RO soon.

>>1053704
Should've mentioned, I'm using all-grain. I'm using White Labs yeast too, so that's probably not the issue. Wish I could describe it but I'm not good at describing tastes I guess. Oh well, I'm planning on upgrading my brewing equipment soon so maybe that'll fix whatever the issue is.

>>1053728
Tell me more about your current setup. Do you make starters (I assume so since you're ag)? Do you control temps? Have you ever tried getting water jugs from the store (spring water, not distilled unless you build your own water)? Your water could just be really fucking shitty even with a filter, I kinda think that was my issue.

I need some assistance guys. What is the general consensus on how to backsweeten mead? I've crashed and used the sorbate.

I've got about 5 gallons of rum mash waiting for the still to be made, which I'll do in the morning.
Anyone have advice for a beginer like me?

>>1053885
RIP

>>1053853
Pure Honey

>>1053933
So don't dillute it by boiling it in purified water? Just pour and stir?

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Mead, two days since pitching.

>>1054146
see you in a year.

>>1053393
>>1053728
There's a million things that can cause flavors to be off, but one of the most common issues is esters from yeast due to high or inconsistent temperatures during fermentation, since regulating temp over weeks can be hard without special equipment. Also I agree w/ everyone else that you should try getting some spring water from the store. Anyway you might want to check this out:
http://howtobrew.com/book/section-4/is-my-beer-ruined/common-off-flavors

>my chiller is taking too long?
I don't think that should make any difference. If you take a really long time to cool the wort, that's a longer time the brew could be vulnerable to pick up some infection, but if the beer isn't gross then I doubt that's it.

>using White Labs yeast
Do you make a big enough starter? There's usually not really enough viable yeast in those liquid vials to have a healthy fermentation without doing a starter first - underpitching can cause some stress on the yeast and lead to esters/off-flavors or whatever. Try using dry ale yeast (dry packets have way more yeast cells than liquid) or use the Mr Malty calculator to make sure you're making a big enough starter for liquid: http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html

>>1050467
You'd need a 60A sub panel for that, at a minimum. If your house doesn't have at least a 100A service your going to need to upgrade.

Look at hot tub hookups, would be the same setup. Without seeing the equipment your putting in I can't really be any more specific than that.

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Need to hit the sac. but might as well contribute
15 gallon fresh cider. Plan on dry hopping 5 gallons during secondary then bottle carbonating end result should be around 5.5%. Rest of cider added half half white and golden sugar to achieve 5 gallons of 7.5% and 5 of 15%

>>1053393
it's probably off flavors from dead yeast and sediment. When I still made beers and even many wines I would siphon off into a new clean fermenting vessel every couple days. That sediment and lees that builds up on the bottom of the fermenter can really impact the taste negatively for those who are basically super tasters. It's a lot of work to siphon off every few days and into a clean sanitized properly container while primary fermenting but it makes for a very crisp tasting product with none of that off taste.

>>1054148
shhhh, don't ruin the fantasy they have

>>1054887
I have found that If just doing Ales and keeping them in primary of 2-4 weeks even with a cold crash, has no discernable difference if I was to rack to secondary after a week.

I'll use a secondary only if I'm doing an IPA with lots of dry-hops, or if I need finings.

>>1037518
>Good mead takes no shorter than 1 year to make.

I assume the two-week infographic OP borrowed from Reddit is prison-toilet-brew-tier?

>>1055610
I think "drinkable" is the operative word in that infographic.

>>1054887
literally no professional brewers do this. very few homebrewers do this. it does not help your final product and you risk contamination/DO pickup each time you transfer. would not recommend listening to this guy.

>>1055621
Are you a professional brewer? Most pro brewers are shit and value profits over quality. What he's suggesting isn't hard it just takes moderate sanitation procedures which you should be doing anyways.

Go to Ebay search stillman find the guy and buy yourself a thing to make essential oils or copy the design and stop fucking around trying to brew anything else.

>>1055934
Naw dude is correct. Homebrewing is actually moving away from secondary these days.

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My new batch of oatmeal stout is bubbling away happily.

>>1040913
You are dead, anon.
I' ve just seen I mod unsheathed his ban-sword

>>1056002
Nice. I just had to abandon an American Pale Ale due to a family emergency.

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Does anyone have an info graph how to make wine with really graphs or does someone know how I can make wine out of Concord grapes it would be incredibly helpful

>>1034756
Does it smell much while brewing?

>>1056553
You'll smell something somewhat sweet, as you'll basically have fruit juice sitting around. If its warm, it might encourage the production of sulfur, in which case it'll smell like eggs.

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I'm glad there is a thread already in this topic and this is only the second time I've been on this board.

I started making my first batch but I got a blowout and I had to clean my airlock. I'm a bit paranoid about an infection or any unwanted bacteria and yeast, but the thing is, I've also heard that open fermentation is a thing and having foreign bacteria isn't such a bad thing anyways.

What's everyone's opinion on this? Should I even care if some wild yeast or bacteria start to invade?

>>1056852
Open air is a thing, but is unreliable. You may get a lot of strong yeast, some weak yeast, and any number of extra flavors get imparted.
If you want consistency, or a verifiable timeline, you go closed. If you want "natural" or "historical" or "truly local" brews, you go open.

>>1056852
I've blown the top on a couple of batches because the airlock got clogged with hops. I was sweating bullets both times but never noticed an off flavor. One time the top was only off for a few minutes, the other time it was off all night. You are justified in worrying, but approach it like it will be fine and keep it going.

Also, I learned to do a better job of filtering hop particles out after that.

>>1056852
If you aren't expecting a big krausen, just use aluminium foil over the top of the bottle, use enough to go down two inches of the neck. It keeps out the nastys while still letting it vent, plus yeast prefer not having any head pressure.

Is there any drawbacks/downsides to using expired yeast? I have some packets of yeast that are like 1-2 years past their expiry/use-by dates and I'm curious about brewing as I've never done it before

>>1049803
>I'm so insecure about my inferior genitals that I feel the need to shitpost on an Indonesian pubic hair macrame forum.
Ftfy

>>1057170
You certainly can use expired yeast like that.

Just to make sure that it will work as expected, make a starter with it a couple of days before you brew. Just get a nice sanitized flask or jar, add around half a liter of water with some dry malt extract mixed in, add the yeast, and let it grow for a couple of days. By the time you brew, your starter will have more active yeast cells than a brand new package of yeast, regardless of the fact that it was expired. I always make a starter, even with brand new yeast, because it helps to ensure that fermentation starts immediately, and helps avoid any bacterial infections.

Don't be afraid to stir the starter often, since dissolving oxygen actually helps in this case. You want a starter with a specific gravity around 1.040 for optimal results. You can add more malt/water mixture after a couple of days if you want to make the yeast population even bigger.

>>1057307
Would I still add in the dry malt extract if I'm making Apple cider or Mead? Or would I use Apple juice/honey instead

Does forced carbonation affect the taste at all? Bottling is getting to be a pain, thinking about switching over to a kegging system.

>>1057307
I have read that it isnt recommended to make a starter when using dried yeast. Some say to just pitch more packets instead.

I always rehydrate my dry yeast for about an hour before pitching. I cannot get liquid here as it is too expensive and would have low viability by the time I received it.

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Tried out the new cider press yesterday, thing is fucking slick, made a wood barrel but wasnt happy with it, boards were too far apart and i kept blowing the bags open. fished a piece of 10" stainless pipe out of the scrap bin at work and cut grooves with a zip disc instead. Pasteurized it last night and let it cool, gonna pitch this afternoon.

>>1057377
Just use whatever fermentable you are going to brew with. Apple juice and honey are fine. A specific gravity of around 1.040 is ideal because you want the yeast to have enough food, but you don't want to overwhelm them with too much food.

>>1057464
From personal experience, I'd say that you don't need to make a starter if you are using *fresh* dried yeast packets, but if your dry yeast packets are old you would want to make a starter to ensure that the yeast is still active and to bring the yeast population up to what it was. Liquid yeast should always be made in to a starter because it doesn't contain as many yeast cells as a dry packet.

>>1057409
do it man, I switched a while ago and am never going back. No difference in taste(that I've noticed anyway), plus you always have beer on tap

I just found out where I can acquire a fairly cheap 5 gallon used whiskey barrel, so I look forward to doing my first BBA. I just need to find a good recipe, and decide between something along the lines of a robust porter or just go all out with an RIS. An RIS would be the biggest beer I've ever done, and I am curious if anyone here has experience doing 10%+ beers without adding pure co2. Will shaking be enough?

>>1054887
I would recommend against this method. Few homebrewers even transfer to secondary anymore unless for the purposes of long term aging or splitting batches for adjuncts. Certainly transferring every few days not only leads to a greater risk of infection but especially oxidation, which is one of your biggest enemies. Next to sanitation, the biggest thing that commercial breweries focus on is introducing as little oxygen as possible into the beer.

This will be my first AG recipe with the drunk impulse purchase Grainfather


3.7kg Ale Malt
0.5kg Munich I
0.5kg Wheat Malt
0.3kg Crystal Malt Pale

60min mash 66C
10min Mashout 77C

30g Cascade 60min boil
20g Cascade 15min boil
20g Cascade flameout
20g Cascade dry hopped for 3 days

US-05 at 18C for 14 days then bottled

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>>1058020
So far so good, except I forgot to put the filter on the pump inlet.

Had to go to the LHBS and buy a hopbag while it was mashing, so the hops wont block the pump when it comes time to use the CFC.

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>>1058148
Not so good now.

Small boilover and forgot to use hopbag when adding bittering hops. Plus I dont have that pump inlet filter installed. Hopefully a whirlpool and using the hopbag for the remainder will be ok and I can still use the pump for the counter flow chiller.

They joys of a new brewer.

>>1058235
What is your previous homebrewing experience? I strongly recommend investing on a $3 bottle of fermcap s to help with boil overs, also helps.with blowoff in fermentation and yeast starters.

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>>1056852
You can run a blowoff tube into a jar of sanitizer for the first couple of days, then place the airlock when it settles down.

>>1058542
>What is your previous homebrewing experience
Pretty much kit and kilo with steeped grains added and small boil of hops for bit extra flavour/aroma. Did that on and off for about 5 years so far.

trying a test batch of rice wine made with those yeast balls you get at chink stores.

kinda hoping it turns out- got a half gallon glass jar sitting on my bookshelf. depending on the taste/total effort I might spring for equipment to make larger batches and do long term bottling

>>1058681
Damn, I guess that's a big jump. Might take you a couple of brews but you will get used to it. I have heard that Grainfathers have trouble getting up to a good rolling boil because they are 120, surprised you had a boilover. How vigorous is the boil for you? About like >>1058235?

>grandpa has 2000 m2 vineyard
>each September he gets 600+ kilos of grapes and makes amazing wine from it
>last year I decided to ask him to save 3 bottles of wine for me, and to continue doing this for the following years, putting labels with thecurrent year on the bottles
>I'll start opening them in a decade or more
>he's more than happy to do this
>this year there was more than a ton of grapes, grandpa is happy as a lark
>the first day I helped him smash the black grapes and put it in 2 barrels in the basement
>the white grapes we left for the following day
>that day he went into the hospital, three days later he died
>4 hours ago was his funeral
>I never got to ask him about the details of winemaking and now I'll never have a chance to do it

>>1059944
jesus fuck anon... sorry to hear that man.

Ask your grandma if your grandpa kept a ledger or detailed notes or anything

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>>1059944
my condolences, bro.

Anyone know any good resources on going from homebrew to professional? Been brewing at home for years and me, my dad, and my brother are thinking about leasing an industrial building and starting up a microbrewery. We plan on talking to the local brewer's guild, but in the meantime I'd like to read up on how a professional brewhouse is set up. The equipment seems to be on a completely different level than my 10 gallon homebrew stuff.

>>1059944
That sucks. I hope what comes next isn't a dispute over inheritance and the closing of the wineyard or some shit like that.

>>1060434
> how a professional brewhouse is set up
I think the solutions for that are quite strongly based on what industrial machines your local industry can produce and install, unless you have a serious enough budget to get some of the best machines shipped to you from all over the world?

Someone made a generic wiki post, but you probably already knew most of this as homebrewer:
http://www.wikihow.com/Brew-Commercial-Beer

>>1060434
Remember that brewing is like 30% of your job and the other 70-80% is managing a business and dealing with constant crises. Study business at least as much as you study brewing.

Usually when you buy large scale systems you fly out somewhere to brew on that system for awhile and see how it works, I'd say any reputable company that fabricates brewing systems will do that. I have also heard that because so many breweries close that used equipment is very common.

>>1059913
Yeah it is a bit of a jump, but I was harvesting yeast and doing starters for my KnK brews so that side is fairly ok. I have a 3L erlenmeyer flask and a stirplate

Really need to get a refractometer for my SG readings, will just make it so much easier than trying to cool wort down to 20c so I can use the hydrometer.

I am In Australia so I have a 240v grainfather with the 500/2000 watt element setup, it does produce a nice rolling boil.

>>1060685
>Really need to get a refractometer for my SG readings
What stops you from getting one? They're only ~$15 bucks ordered from China.

>>1060688
Yeah, just ordered one from ebay.

>>1059944
Do you mean that two barrels of potentially amazing red wine are about to spoil in a basement? Don't let this happen, Anon.

I'm no specialist yet but my father and our family have a vineyard of similar size out of which we have been making wine for half a decade. I'd be happy to help.

Maybe you guys can help me
Some months ago, my dad and I decided to try homebrewing, because fuck it
We sanitized a 5l bottle of water, put the water, honey and bread yeast and left it like that for two months
Now I don't like honey, its too mellow for me. But when We tried it fresh from straining it through a cofee filter, I could taste the marvelous feel of the first non-mellow honey I had in my life...with a horrible sour taste that really fucked up all the batch
Now, we sanitized everything. Bread yeast is shit, but couldn't make that bad taste, I guess, and we made sure no rests of the yeast went to the new bottle we putted the mead into
Does anybody know what went wrong? Help would be much apreciated, all in all, I loved the experience

>>1060771
> two months
Uh, it's not beer brewed with powerful yeast. You may have to wait six months to two years.

If it's still too sour then, try if calcium carbonate doesn't help.

>>1060779
PS: Other option is that you indeed got too much "contamination" with Brettanomyces / Lactobacillus / Pediococcus , or let the yeasts ferment with too much oxygen available (so Brett produced lots of acid).

>>1060779
It's mead, two months are perfectly fine bro

>>1060782
Nah. 6-24 months with random yeasts.

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/lambic-sour-and-funky-mead-making-pt-1.html

2-3 months is kinda pushing it for mead even with the proper yeasts and a recipe that accounts for nutrients and stuff.

since when? the mead I tried after those two months had a decent ammount of alcohol, it just tasted like yeast
[spoiler]Wait, did you have to put the mead in the refrigerator after you racked it?[spoiler]

>>1060754
I thought we had to add sugar, but grandma said there was 25% sugar in the grapes already, so no additional sugar is required for the fermentation to begin. All I have to do now is wait ~40 days and seal it. What I'm left with now are 3 bottles from last year's wine and about 800 kg of wine in the barrels.

Thank you all for your condolences. I appreciate it.

>>1061336
>All I have to do now is wait ~40 days and seal it.
Was SO2 added or do you have tanks with inert gas and temperature control or something?

>>1061351
Nothing like that. Grandpa used standard barrels, pic related. Sugar is only added, if needed, nothing else. The temperature in the basement does not change. That's all.

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>>1061409

Started a second batch of the Training Wheels Berliner (recipe on HBT), and just tossed in yeast because I was lazy. Turns out the yeast was dead, so on Saturday night I wasn't sure what to do as my local homebrew shop is closed Sundays, thanks Catholics. I ended up throwing in what yeast I had on hand, which was champagne yeast. It seems to be doing well, it's dropped 20 points since then and I'm curious as to how it will turn out.

In googling "wine yeast in beer" I was reminded of how much bad information is out there on brewing due to the internet echo chambers. Either champagne yeast wan't going to attenuate fully due to it not eating certain malt sugars, or it was going to over attenuate and I'd have a really dry beer. There is clearly a right answer, but getting good information from forums is a crap shoot.

>>1061438
Champagne yeast will heavily attenuate the beer, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Certain beers use champagne yeast as a second yeast addition, or 'finishing' yeast just to get that dryness and low gravity. Some saisons even end up with a final gravity of less than 1.

>>1061440
That's my thought too, but the internet is full of shit opinions passed off as fact. I figure for a Berliner Weisse being really dry will pay off, so I'm not too worried.

>>1061351
If SO2 was to be added, his grandpa would have done it while filling the barrels.

>>1061409
What is the temperature like in the basement besides constant? It has to remain over some minimum value until all sugar is fermented or you can get unwanted sourness. But I guess wood barrels in a basement are enough for this, as your grandpa had good results. Is the amount of sediments in the bottles acceptable?

>>1061514
*Also, did you just crushed the grapes or pressed it and discarded the cake? What was your grandpa's process?

Just started another barrel of wine with California grapes.

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>>1061519
We crushed it using a tool similar to pic related, and put everything in the barrels, the cake and the juice. The first few bottles had sludge at the bottom, so I suppose I'll have to wait a little before I start draining it into bottles. I have no idea what the temperature is, but once the barrels were sealed, you only had to open the wooden tap and let the wine flow into the vessel. When summer comes back again, you take all the grapes and the wine left in the barrels, and you use them to brew this local drink, called rakia. Rakia could be made from peaches, plum, apricot, anything that ferments really. So you basically use the grapes to produce two different beverages.

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>>1062061
This is what the juice looks like now. You can smell the artemisia. Grandpa puts 2 or 3 small branches of it in front of the tap on the inside of the barrel so it does not get clogged.

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>>1059944
Too many feels....it's not even 9am yet

Will be making a beer next month. I've been fermenting for a while now (started fermenting stuff as a kid and the hobby stuck) but I've never done beer before.
Is a kit really better for the start? The process seems easy enough, put the malt into the water with the corresponding temperature, let sit until enzymes did their work, add hot water, let cool down, add yeast.
Seems fairly similar to making wine.


I don't really know what to brew though. Lager, Ale, Stout...the selection is so big.

I guess the hardest part will be to know the different hops and malts and to find out which combination really tastes great.

>>1062167
Beer is really rather very easy with good yeast. You can do all grain from the start if you prefer.

I personally am lazy and usually brew my stouts & ales and stuff from extract kits.
Doesn't actually add a lot of cost here (difference is like $5-8 or so for a 23-25L batch), but it shortens the work time required considerably.

> I don't really know what to brew though. Lager, Ale, Stout...the selection is so big.
I'd suggest some top-fermenting beer.

Stout is a good choice IMO. They're very tolerant and even can theoretically take some skunking from sunlight or the slightly stingy alcohol taste from using cane sugar rather than spray malt or whatever. Not that you should do it like that, but it'd probably still be really rather drinkable.

>>1060771
why did you filter it through a coffee filter? if it is sour, that means you did not sanitize properly, and that lactic acid producting bacteria infected your batch. how did you seal the bottle? my guess is you had oxygen get in there too. also, bread yeast is a waste of time. spend $10 and get a proper yeast

>>1060434
where are you from? my advice (as a current pro brewer) is to get a job at a brewery first and learn the ropes. I homebrewed for 5 years before working at a brewery (been here 2.5 years now) and I'm still not confident that I could run my own.

>>1060771

It sounds like you were trying to make mead. I did attend a mead making course once, and iirc you had to add some acid to it.
Because honey on its own does not provide enough acid to its own.
The error is described here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wine_fault#Mousiness

It does sound like that is the problem your having. Try changing the sanitizing procedure: Hot water, active oxygen tabs (dental prosthesis tabs usually are active oxygen). Rinse with hot water. This kills pretty much anything in the bottle. Water must be over 60°C to kill the bacteria.
If it's a glass bottle, pre-warm the bottle to avoid it bursting.

Another thing is that honey inhibits yeast growth. It is possibly to make mead like you explained, but it's harder to work with honey than just to try sugar water first. Once you get the hang of the sanitation procedure, you can move on to other ventures.

And once you've learned to find the right information on the web, it gets even easier.

>>1062198

Thanks anon. I just decided to order the Coopers DIY kit since I need a new fermentation vessle anyways.
How do you sanitize btw? I usually just do hot water and active oxygen tabs and rinse with hot water. Works quite well. Is cheap. Are the sanitizing solutions sold by homebrew stores worth it?

>>1062814
>Are the sanitizing solutions sold by homebrew stores worth it?

Yes. Get Starsan, make batches with distilled water and put a lid on the bucket and it will keep a pretty long time. Put it in a spray bottle and use that to sanitize most equipment, that's the easiest way. Nearly everyone uses starsan, it's just so effective and easy, and not expensive when you realize how much you can make with those bottles.

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Hello everyone, first time moonshining here. I was attempting to make moonshine vodka, as I was distilling, it smelled like vinegar, as I was told to boil vinegar first and clean the still and the coil, with that, after I boiled it, I washed it out, added about 1 and a half liters of wash into the still and began. I believe I burned the wash or ethanol, because I was using an electric burner for fear of it blowing up, because the pressure cooker I have is kind of wierd with the valves, and my thermometer was almost constantly reading 200-217° F.

After I threw out what I believed to be the bad stuff at the beginning, I tried some, and it tasted disgusting and didnt smell of alcohol, upon disassembly, inside the pot the wash turned from clear to a yellowish colour. Any tips or advice?

>>1063115
Yes. Use metric units.

>>1059944
Sorry to hear that winebro.

FYI there is much info on thepiratebayo

>>1063115
Just use Sodium Percarbonate to clean (3g per Litre) and StarSan(1.5ml per Litre) for sanitising.

>>1062814
>Coopers DIY kit

I assume you are from Australia? If so, where abouts are you located?

Setting up a data logger to monitor remotely wine vat temperatures. Next step is automatic temperature regulation at the near end of fermentation.

Thank you, Raspberry Pi Measure, Record, Explore.

>>1063682

No, I'm in Finland. Kotiviini doesn't have that much kits. The Coopers kit did look promising enough though, I recently moved and don't have any other kind of equipment here. Back in my home country it would be easier...
Still cheaper to brew on your own than to buy beer here, once you get over the costs of the equipment.

Btw, the tap water here is chlorinated. I don't wanna use that, but it should be ok if it's boiled, right? Else I'd have to buy jugs of water.

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>>1063688
The coopers fermenter is great. Easy to clean and no need for an airlock

Pic related, on the left is a standard 30L fermenter and on the right is the Coopers DIY fermenter.

I prefer the Coopers fermenter due to the removable krausen collar and the new design snap tap is really good.

>>1063688
Boiling the water will be fine. If you wanted to get pedantic you can use those jug water filters and cut an appropriate sized hole in a bucket for it to fit and filter water for your brew.

>>1063691

Nah. If it's fine to boil it it's ok.

>>1063690

Thought so too. I dislike airlocks because I noticed when I use them I usually get bad results for some reason. Even plastic bags with rubber bands work better for me.
My order should arrive soon, so I'm pretty excited about brewing my first beer.

The only sad thing is that with the tap I can't do what I usually do to keep temperature constant: Fill a vat with water, put in aquarium pump and place the fermenter inside. This allows me to keep temperature really constant over time. The results really improved when I started doing that.


Thanks for your great advice guys.

>>1055610
Just about everything in this thread is going to taste like Jamals mandarin orange and moldy bread pruno.

Last year I made a buttload of cider. One patch of 120l went bad and now I'm wondering what to do with it.
It's drinkable but I don't want to spoil my taste buds with off cider.
The ABV is about 8%. Currently it's under pressure in 0.75l champagne bottles.
I was thinking about distilling. Any other suggestions? Any distilling tips?

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>>1034756
kwas

I sometimes let it go for a week, so it contains around 5% ethanol that way (verified with destillation)

>>1063704
If it is a DIY distilling setup, make sure the column and condensor are copper, also put some copper scrap (pan scrubbers, cut up electrical wire) into the column to emulate a Vigreux column. This allows for fractional distillation (better separation of components 25°C in bp difference), also the copper reacts with volatile sulfur compounds which might be present and which are foul tasting.

Always take your time, do not use a flame but electric heating and preferably a sand bath or oil bath, to assure even heating. Use a thermometer, or if not, throw away the first fraction, you'll recognize it easily, it will smell like a fruity solvent (ethyl acetate) think nail polish remover, this fraction will also contain most of the methanol.

>>1063713
of course you can use a flame only if you use a sand bath - but better assure good water-cooling (Liebig condensor) and venting of fumes away from the flame

>>1059944
my condolences m8

>>1063713

Yeah ethyl acetate smells fruity. As described in this handy table:
https://jameskennedymonash.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/table-of-organic-compounds-and-their-smells-w12.jpg

When you actually mix these kinda acids and alcohols in the lab it really smells nice - "esterification". Also you get high even from chemically smelling them. Or not high, but kinda stupid in the head. Nice feeling.

I guess moonshine-anon hasn't washed the still thoroughly enough. Therefor getting some ester (the alcohol reacted with the vinegar - I speculate).
Try doing some runs with ordinary water. When that comes out clean try some shine again. Post results.

>>1063720

And as >>1063713 said - always throw away the first section. You don't wanna make your stuff poisonous.

>>1063701
>The only sad thing is that with the tap I can't do what I usually do to keep temperature constant

Thats why I use free 2ndhand fridges with STC1000/200 connected to control the ferment temperature. I really need it with summer's here being 40C and winter is only 10C.

>>1063701
>I'm pretty excited about brewing my first beer.
If it comes with a KnK brew, make sure you rehydrate the yeast as the 7g Coopers have with their tins is bare minimum to brew with and it will produce off flavours due to the yeast being stressed.

If you can make a starter with it, it would be best.

>>1063724

I will consider this.

>>1063722

Hm. Not that much space in my apartment. The temperature in my apartment seems pretty constant though.
For starters enough I guess.
When I have some more disposable income I'll try the fridges.

>>1063713
>not measuring the temperature at the column top to identify and separate fractions accurately

>>1063726

Yeah, you should measure gas temperature.

so I just started my first batch of mead, and its been about a week and I haven't seen any significant bubbling yet. should this be a reason to worry or should I just leave it alone?

>>1063892
Yeah, fermentation should be well on it's way by a week. It shouldn't take more than a couple days to start up, and probably finishes within 2 weeks.

Is it possible the CO2 being pushed out is just leaking out some other way from the container? Most of the time there's no problem, and you just don't have an airtight seal, especially a problem with buckets. The real way to check is to measure with a hydrometer and see if the SG has changed. If you didn't measure that or don't have a hydrometer, you should probably be able to see some difference in the liquid itself, some foaming up the sides or bubbles, or if not it should probably release some CO2 bubbles if you shake/stir it.

Otherwise you gotta consider if there could have been a problem with fermentation. Was the yeast (dry or liquid?) old and dead? Did you use too much honey so it was too sugary for the fermentation to even start? Did you not pitch enough yeast? Did you expose the yeast to any high temperatures? If you think it's not fermenting, pitch more yeast and make sure it's fresh and there's enough of it.

>>1063701
Temperature control for your fermentation is the best thing you can do. I always recommend temp control as the first upgrade to new brewers.

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Another brewday with the grainfather. No boilover as I was paying attention this time and I remembered to attach the pump filter.

Have to areate the wort via splashing method as I couldn't get a 2micron airstone for the aquaruim air pump.

Flow from the CFC is a bit slow, might buy a hop spider so the pump inlet can suck freely.

>>1063977
I made sure it was all sealed up tight, there's no way the CO2 could be getting out, and the yeast wasn't exposed to any ridiculously high temperatures (just warm enough to activate it before adding it to the must). I'll try and pitch some more tomorrow and see if that helps.

>>1064008

Yeah. As I said, I usually used a water bath, that worked quite well. My current room is not big enough for a modified fridge though...

>>1064048
why do you have a usb cord on it?

>>1064093

Maybe he's using a vibrator for constant mixing.

>>1064093
>>1064114
It is the programming cable for the STC1000+. It connects to an Arduino nano and you can upload custom firmware to the STC1000.
https://github.com/matsstaff/stc1000p
I use them to control my fridges and new grainfather.

>>1064126
Actually a pretty nice setup. So you can save temperature profiles too, I guess?

>>1064289
In a sense yes, I have the different mash/ferment profiles saved on my laptop and upload them to the controller. It only holds the one profile at a time.
You can also manually program the controller using the front panel.

Grainfather controller has alarm for when at strike temp, makes step mashing automated and then has alarms for hop additions in the boil. Can also set it up to control the pump automatically too, but I didn't bother with that.

The fridge controller allows for automated temperature changes.

Complete newbie here. What do you think about BrewPi for temperature control?

>>1064449

This sounds pretty neat. But Grainfather is expensive as a neat used car.
An SD Card for profiles would be easier to use though.
So I guess you can do Obergärig and Untergärig?


Must be nice. I'm still waiting on my fermentation kit. Should come on Thursday.

>>1049811

You just gave me an idea. I should direct my Co2 to a hydroponic setup...

>>1036497i always use some of the starsan or whatever dissenfectant water from the final cleaning b4 fermentation to fill my airlocks so that don't happen

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Hey guys so this is my first brew and I'm trying not to fidget with it. The bucket I bought didn't seal tight enough so it isn't airtight, but I am pretty sure the yeast is working because I've got positive pressure in my airlock. I'm making cider and I was wondering how long I should leave it before I check the SG?

Appearantly my order was sent to a pick up point. I really have no idea of the postal service in Suomi...

Well anyways, will go pic it up soon. Now the trouble I'm having is I don't have a vessle to boil 20l of water...yet.

fuck i forgot to bottle my stout, oh well, at least yeast just goes dormant.

>>1064686
it not sealing all the way isnt really a big deal since 5 gallon buckets are so small. unless your literally putting it outside with a fan blowing on it with no cover, its not gonna sour.

its been a while since i did cider, but i guess check in like 2 weeks, or google it, idk man.

Suggestions for somebody looking to make a lager? Live in cold-temperate area so I won't have to waste fridge-space on it with the weather being the way it is

>>1064626
I'm >>1063687

I only brew wine and run some food fermentations. Its seems awesome and I feel hugely silly for discovering this just now. Thanks for the tip. Are you RPI/Arduino savvy?

>>1064752
>Are you RPI/Arduino savvy?
I wouldn't say I'm experienced, but I learned about Arduino by making some simple stuff with sensors, buttons and encoders.
For RPi, though, I just use software that other people made.

>>1064760
So you should be fine for the diy part. I can't tell you about the bang for your bucks, though.

Tommorow I'm doing my first all grain brew, doing this recipe
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=42841
and going to try beer in a bag, should i do the whole 6.57 gallons they state in the recipe right off the start? What kind of temp should i shoot for before adding the grains? Around 160?

>>1064882
Yes and yes.

The grain will suck up some water that you can't really get back and you will lose temp when you dough in, so having the strike water hotter makes it easier to get to your desired mash temp.

>>1064882
I forgot too add to >>1064901

If you wanted you could hold back a gallon to sparge the grain. But most BIAB guys dont bother

>>1064901
Welp, didn't turn out like I hoped.
Was going to use our old 5hp roller mill that we use for cattle feed to crush the grains, but the thing was full of bird shit because someone left the door open, so I used the food processor, but results were not good, ended up with a SG of 1.032, not sure what to do now

>>1065519
I pitched, screw it,I'll drink my week beer

>>1064734
Go ahead and try it! Tell us how it goes.

>>1065519
Congrats on you first batch of Pißwasser

>>1065672
I'm ordering a mill today, prob the one off aliexpress, not having a repeat

I'm in the market for a ~5 gallon complete brewing system. I was looking at the Grainfather and the Blichmann BrewEasy. The Grainfather is pretty cost effective, but the BrewEasy seems closer to a miniaturized professional brewhouse setup? I'm brewing on a piecemeal rig right now and I really want to step it up. Anyone have any experience on these or other systems?

>>1065948
They seem expensive for what they are, desu. Are you limited on space?

>>1065948
A guy on here has bought one, he posted some pics of it.

>>1065732
I have a cheap 2 roller mill.

https://www.williamsbrewing.com/KEG-KING-MALTMUNCHER-DUAL-ROLLER-MILL-P4174.aspx

Does the job well

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>>1064725
I just bottled mine

>>1066139
Not at all, I just want something at a homebrew scale that allows me to have a lot of control over the brew process temperatures that I can't do with a cooler-based mash tun. Anything with a PID or BCS controller is going to be a little pricey, but I don't really see much alternative if I want the most control over the process and the ability to exactly repeat a recipe.

>>1066516
Grainfather with an STC1000+ allows for strike temp set, automatic mash temp rises and has hop addition alarms