homebrew general

File: DSC_0019.jpg (3MB, 3840x2160px) Image search: [Google]

3MB, 3840x2160px

Recently brewed my first batch. Just now I've gone to check on the bottles after having left them in a cool dark room for 2 weeks, and I've noticed this white sediment has built up at the bottom of all the bottles. Does anyone have any idea what this is, why it happened, and whether or not it's still safe to drink? I have no idea what it is - I removed all sediment prior to bottling, and all the bottles had been thoroughly sanitised.

>>1107582
Answer to my own question in case anyone else is wondering: turns out it's very common for bottle-conditioned beers, and the sediment is completely harmless (they're dead yeast particles or something like that). The best way to deal with it is to chill the bottle for a few hours before drinking, which helps to make sure the sediment doesn't mix with the beer when poured - that's exactly what I did, and I very much enjoyed drinking my first homebrewed beer.

>>1107582
>>1107618
Exactly, it's just dormant yeast.When you bottle condition a beer, the priming sugar added a bottling kicks off a secondary, small fermentation. This is what causes the yeast to produce co2 to carbonate your beer. It also causes them to reproduce. So once they finish eating the priming sugar and go back to sleep, they fall to the bottom. Generally in bottle conditioned beers you want to avoid pouring the last 1/4 inch or so of the beer.

I've been on a brewing hiatus for a couple of months after brewing 2-4 times a month for a year. About to get back into it with a zombie dust clone, but I am hoping for a sale on citra soon. $30 a pound is pretty hefty, I've seen it go $20 recently, hoping for a deal like that. Anyone brewed the clone recipe on homebrewtalk? Seems to be well received, that's what I'm using.

>>1107625
>>1107618
I humbly disagree.

It is yeast suspended in the beer at bottling, and not a result of bottle conditioning.

If you properly cold crash the beer prior to bottling (I give mine like 3 days in the garage), this can be avoided completely.

>>1108145
Apologies if it is obvious, but what is cold crashing? Anyway, I did a Google search after posting here yesterday and there's loads of people on homebrew forums saying it's common and that the yeast is harmless (healthy, even). It'd be nice to avoid it, but it wouldn't be the end of the world if my next batch went the same way.

>>1108193
>what is cold crashing?
put it someplace cold
yeast stops working
solids drop out, gets clearer
leave solids behind when transferring to bottles/2nd container

>>1108196
I thought the reaction that causes the sediment was something to do with how the yeast that's already been added to the beer reacts with the priming sugar - so would cold crashing the beer actually have an impact if that's the case?

>>1108209
some sediment drops out on its own during fermenting, but cold crashing stops the yeast and helps it even more

>>1108145
You're still going to have sediment at the bottom of the bottle. If there was no yeast at all in suspension when you bottled, bottle conditioning would be impossible. It's true that beer that hasn't been cold crashed or used with fining agents will have more sediment after bottling, and it's true that some strains will flocculate out better than others.

For example, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale is bottle conditioned and yeast sediment (albeit much less than in most homebrewed beers) is still present at the bottom and should not be poured, as in all bottle conditioned beers.

>>1108225
The exception of course being hefes and some belgian styles I should say.

>>1108209
It's not a reaction, there's just a bunch of junk in suspension and it stays in suspension for a long time. It looked like you put clear beer into those bottles when bottling, but actually all that white stuff was still mixed up in there, plus you probably sucked up some stuff from the bottom of the fermenter if you weren't super careful when siphoning. It just took weeks for all that to accumulate to something visible at the bottom of your bottle.

It is normal for there to be some stuff at the bottom, though, you can just reduce it if you're patient and careful.

>>1108225
We sell Sierra Nevada Pale Ale at my pub (in the UK), and there's no sediment at all - the customers would freak out if there was. Maybe it's different for the exported bottles.

Anyone here have experience making Kvass? Tried a few months back but just ended up with nasty alcohol. Are there any general guidelines on doing it, like yeast, sugar and time?

>>1108225
>>1108209
There will always be yeast in suspension, but the amount that you end up with at the bottom can be reduced to miniscule amounts - that's what I meant, though I should have elaborated.

Of course there will always be some yeast - but the point is that the lions' share of what ends up at the bottom is not from secondary fermentation in the bottle, but was already suspended in the liquid at bottling, and thus can be reduced.

When I switched from pouring as a bottling method to cold crashing + racking cane, the sediment has been reduced from 2-3mm on the bottom of a 0.5L bottle to not even covering the bottom entirely & limited to the edges.

>>1108226
I managed to not get a heffy hefe, somehow. Was clear as Crystalweizen, through no filtration and not intentionally.

Again - not the end of the world, obviously, but in dark beers and hoppy beer that's really not what I want. Saisons and wheat beers are fine - the yeast adds to the flavour there.

For my 2nd batch I'm looking to use up some of the ingredients from my 1st batch (pale ale) to make a dark lager - I have crystal malt, Munich malt, and citra hops. Will it be possible? What other ingredients would be characteristic for a dark lager?

hmmm, tasted my 2nd round of ginger ale at 1.5 weeks now and it was much better than the first

not sure if it's because the sugar has not all been fermented out yet, the better yeast, or some of the harshness of the ginger being lost in the 1st batch....alcohol level is not a high so far, I'll wait and see if it gets stronger

>>1108196
I'm not getting the results I want from that. I tried to cold crash my wine so I put it in a room that's about 50 degrees. It's been in there a week and it's still bubbling.

>>1110358
cold meaning fridge temps son....I've stuck mine outside for a few hours, just don't leave it long enough to freeze

Someone tried to do some mead?
i could need some step by step how to make some

>>1110358
I think you're supposed to do it after it's done fermenting, to sink the sediment faster.
You could use cold temps (close to freezing) to halt the fermentation, but it'll just start back up again if you ever warm it up.

>>1110406
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=49106

Hey /diy/
I got a 10$ beer brewing kit as a gift from my family for my birthday.
Do you think that brown rootbeer bottles would be decent enough to prevent skunky flavor? I've never tried brewing before.

http://www.staples.com/Refinery-3345022-Beer-Making-Kit/product_2396122

>>1110609
clean bottles meant for brewing?

plastic should be absolutely fine

>>1110610
I'm poor as shit. Soda seems to be rated to enough PSI. I've found it in brown bottles at my store. 5$ is alot better then 30$ or so that it costs for brown bottles, a capper, and bottlecaps online.

>>1110617
if you mean re-using plastic root beer bottles, it should be fine from a safety point

I don't know about the flavors leeching though; that's a big benefit of glass....disinfect and really get them clean

>>1110619
Ah.
Would it be stupid to use commercial beer bottles, and re-cap them?

File: 045c36c0-ce4d-4b73-85e9-ed9c6111fcc4.jpg._CB344386520_.jpg (153KB, 1500x842px) Image search: [Google]

153KB, 1500x842px

>>1110620
not at all, I think lots of people do that
of course then you'd need caps and a capping tool

I was looking at that recently myself for something I wanted to carbonate, but since I already had plastic bottles, that's what I used...

>>1110624
Mr beer bottles.
Fucking genius.
Any idea on how much sugar I should use when carbonating them? I'm getting 740ML ones.

>>1110628
there are online calculators you can try for that

varies with type of beer and bottles, but usually 1/2tsp to 1tsp per bottle

>>1108443
>I managed to not get a heffy hefe, somehow. Was clear as Crystalweizen, through no filtration and not intentionally.

Hm, are you extract or all grain? If extract, did you use wheat extract or regular LME? The first time I did a hefe (all grain) I ended up without much haze, I late realized I hadn't crushed the wheat well enough, you have to really set your crusher fine to do it right. Most of the haze in wheat beers comes from wheat proteins not from yeast.

Really wanting to get into wine making. The startup equipment cost is too rich for me right now, so I have lots of time to read up which is good I guess.

One thing I'm finding is that everyone tells you how important it is to "sanitize", but no one bothers to tell you what the hell that means. Can someone explain what exactly is meant by this?

>>1111254
>Can someone explain what exactly is meant by this?
remove any remaining bacteria or flavors that might contaminate the batch

either use super hot water (eg. caning), sanitizing tablets, or about 1tbl of bleach per gallon of water....never soap

>>1107213
There was a guy on /ck/ last week that was making potato vodka in his dirty trailer.


There haven't been any updates lately so I can only assume he died in potato vodka explosion

>>1111254
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=sanitize
wow thats hard

File: _0015559.jpg (643KB, 1280x960px) Image search: [Google]

643KB, 1280x960px

spent the afternoon sanitizing my gear and getting the Primary stage going of a BrewHouse Stout kit.
It smells so good already.

File: 0118-bere-grolsch-sticla-gallery-2-973x1395.png (963KB, 973x1395px) Image search: [Google]

963KB, 973x1395px

>>1110620
sure, if you can find ones with swing tops you don't need a capping tool. pic related

>>1110620
I only use repurposed commercial bottles (pop off only, no twist off). Get a bench style capper over the wing style if you can.

>>1110628
>http://howtobrew.com/book/section-1/priming-and-bottling/priming-solutions
read this if you want to carb your beer accurately for their style.

Has anyone done any oak ageing? I brewed a recipe that calls for oak cubes, but all I can find locally are oak chips. I'm planning on ageing this beer 8 months (atleast). I read chips are better for short term use because of the greater surface area. Does anyone have experience using chips in recipes that call for cubes?

Waiting on a delivery so i can start homebrew winemaking. Planning on setting up in my basement. Is mid 40s too cold for the yeast to work properly? Should I consider setting it up somewhere else that i can keep a small heater running?

File: 716IgW9evPS._SL1500_.jpg (90KB, 1500x1321px) Image search: [Google]

90KB, 1500x1321px

>>1112026
>mid 40s too cold for the yeast to work properly?

40 Fahrenheit i assume cause 40 Celsius is not so mild. 40f would be too cold as far as I know but you can get a brew belt to warm it up

>>1112026
way too cold

File: _0015566.jpg (705KB, 1280x960px) Image search: [Google]

705KB, 1280x960px

>>1111785
ITS ALIVE!!!

my yeast has gone nutz

>>1112026
Too cold for most ale/wine yeast. Maybe ok for lager though. I think upper 40's is okay for lager fermentation.

Make wine with lager yeast??

>>1111858
Pretty sure you just use the chips for a few days/weeks. I think I used chips for only a week once (don't remember exactly but it wasn't long) and got a pretty oaky result. If you want to have the wood in the beer for 8 months, definitely don't use chips, get cubes or a stave online.

>>1112093
I'm risking the same thing right now because I lost my blowoff tube

File: 410XsqHjDNL._SL1500_.jpg (31KB, 500x500px) Image search: [Google]

31KB, 500x500px

>>1112028
Would a heating wrap be better than the band? Does anyone have experience using them with a thermostat

Question, I got a 6gal cider that is finished fermenting, if I siphon it over to another carboy through one of those in line filters, will I still be able to get some carbonation by priming it? Or will that remove all the yeast?

I made a thread but I deleted it once I saw this one. How do I into brewing. I want to start doing minor beer brewing in the spring but I pretty much dont know anything. Any help is appreciated.

>>1113002
5 Gallon buckets will be your friend no matter what other advice you will get from people.

>>1112964
do you really need to filter it?

if it has settled long enough it should be fine just siphoning it

>>1113002
buy a kit

>>1113002
buy a starter kit (Bucket carboy siphon ect), a beer kit, and get accustomed to the sanitization techniques for each item. after a few good batches look to branch out, try different yeast and so on.

>>1112714
no experience with one but if you can control the temp and it's not too hot, it might work

>>1107213
how small can a brewing kit be, what is the minimum amount of space i need?

File: 1453632791352.jpg (6KB, 227x225px)

6KB, 227x225px

>>1113126
>>1113076
>>1113034
Thank you all

>>1113138
go to amazon
search beer kit

you can make small batches at a time, there's no requirement about having to use 5 gallon containers....but a space that can fit a 5 gallon bucket would be ample sufficient

more important is that you can maintain the right temperature

File: 15996164_1476058209091783_163384317_n.jpg (37KB, 600x800px) Image search: [Google]

37KB, 600x800px

First beer.
Did it last sunday at 2am.
How's it looking?

>>1113194
you probably should have left a bit more room at the top

>>1113199
well fuck.
Do you think it's fucked?

>>1113202
no, no, nothing that serious

but when it's really bubbling it can go up and overflow the airlock....you want to try and keep it clean and working

>>1113203
Ah. I'm the anon with the 10$ kit above, by the way.
It's got this hose that goes into the cap, and it advised putting the hose into a pitcher of clean water, which I did.

Is 10$ for grain, hops, a 1 gallon brewing container, some tubing, a cap and a rake a good deal?

>>1113205
even something that simple works just fine as an airlock

some people put vodka or other solution in theirs to kill any possible bacteria, but plan old water works and it's what I've used without issue

>>1113213
sounds fine

I paid $10 for just a jug, hops, and malt alone

make sure you get decent yeast

>>1113205
>>1113203
>when it's really bubbling it can go up and overflow the airlock
see mine >>1112093
this stout started life at a cool room temp 20c, while it was violently fermenting it shot up to 29c while the room stayed at 20c. this explosive foaming lasted a day and a half and I am about to rack it into the secondary

>>1113213
who knows what a $10 kit will taste like
it will probably, maybe get you drunk, but you can do that for less than $10 with grape juice, sugar, and bakers yeast, so ...
the kits I use are $60 for 4gallons and every bit as good as an average micro brew.
Really good yeast to upgrade that kit is around $15.

>>1113275
It was a gift, I plan on sterilizing it and doing mead once this fails.

>>1113218
It's got an airlock also, but it's saying to add it after a week.

File: 20170112_171801.jpg (2MB, 3264x1836px) Image search: [Google]

2MB, 3264x1836px

>DIY
>not harvesting your own yeast

>>1111254
>The startup equipment cost is too rich for me right now
You need a container and an airlock. That shouldn't cost you too much. I've made 3 batches of red wine successfully so you can ask away.
>Can someone explain what exactly is meant by this?
Mix campden tablet with some amount of water. Then wash your equipment with that water. That's it really.

Going to do my first batch this weekend and got a new stainless steel pot for it. I decided to boil some water in it to get a rough idea of boil off rate and realized that the pot turned much darker in color where the water was boiling. Is this normal? I cleaned the pot with water and soap but wanted to be sure I wasn't killing myself

>>1114013
Did the pot stay dark after you rinsed it out? If it did then it sounds like you got an aluminum pot and not stainless. If not then maybe there was just some junk in there?

I started AG with an aluminum pot, and people said to boil water in it a couple times to 'season' it or something - the inside got much darker and stayed that way. Then I used it for beer and it was fine.

File: _0015572.jpg (232KB, 960x1280px) Image search: [Google]

232KB, 960x1280px

>>1112093
racked and in the secondary, bottle in 2 weeks

>>1114013
>>1114126
Update, I am silly. The pot is indeed aluminum. Will probably give it one more boil to be safe

Anyone got links to a good starter set for an Australian? Definitely interested in trying to brew some ginger or plum mead.

>>1113719
how long does it take you to harvest a decent amount of yeast from that?
do you add yeast nutritients into that / oxigenize it or just let it stand for a few days/weeks?

>>1115192
I usually just shake it a few times a day and release and co2 build up. Takes maybe a week or so? Maybe less if it's warmer. Then I just add it to whatever I'm brewing. Or save half and add more sugar water to keep it going like a sour dough starter

Total amateur to the vrewing arts and first time thread visitor here, just had a couple questions.

Im not too interested in brewing beers or ales, rather spirits, preferably vodka, but I think these require more elaborate/expensive distilling equipment, is that true? Does anyone know what the distillation process for something similar to vodka would be? Is there any way to build this equipment yourself as oppose to purchasing it all?

Thanks in advance for any help and sorry for broken english.

Just bottled a small batch of cranapple wine. Turned out very crisp. Definitely pleased with the flavor profile, tastes like biting into a granny smith.

>>1113719
what am I looking at ?

>>1115642
yes it can be done and no it is not hard, however it can might be illegal so check with your local laws.
Assuming it is not illegal where you are the equipment plans and recopies are easily searchable online. you can also buy pre built stills but because of legality they are often sold as water stills, they work for spirits just fine.

>>1115879
at least in the states, unless you run around telling people you're selling the stuff, without the proper paperwork, the ATF is not going to break down your door

>>1113719

Or you can spend 50 cents and get laboratory grade specialized yeast and use that, and recover it when it drops out.

File: 14846054544221534964286.jpg (2MB, 2880x2160px)

2MB, 2880x2160px

>>1111486
I dont live in a dirty trailer. I live in a dirty house.

>>1115984
Your also allowed to own a distill. Just say its for distilling water. I bought my water distiller off amazon. Its fine. Need to make a wood stove for it.

>>1116076
HOME WORLD FTW!!!!

Just moved into a new apartment, and it's got a storage room I'm not sure what to do with. Thinking about getting into brewing and turning it into a brewery, how do I get started?

>>1116066
if it's only $0.50, it's probably not very good

I made some mead a couple years ago. It kept fermenting for AGES, a good couple months if not a year before I cleared it and moved it into bottles for storage. I let it age for a year or so now, partly because I heard it makes it taste better and partly because I do not drink a lot of alcohol anyway.
I tried some recently and it is too sweet for my tastes. Anything I could do to reduce the sweetness? Add it all back into a single jug and try restarting fermentation?

>>1116422
Depends partially on what you want to make anon and how much room you have. What do you want to make, beer, mead, wine, etc

>>1116434
The reason it kept fermenting for a long time is its OG was too high to begin with. You can try diluting and restarting fermentation.

>>1116501
Was thinking of starting with mead, eventually branching out into wine and liquors (anything but beer.) The storage room is pretty big, should be ample room. It doesn't have heating or air though, will that be a problem?

>>1116434
I have exactly the same problem and I'm too lazy to restart the ferment it so it's just been sitting in a carboy for over 2 years...

If your mead finished very sweet then it's probably either
A. The fermentation was not healthy so it petered out and 'stuck' before reaching it's full potential
or B. The yeast survived all the way up to it's expected alcohol tolerance, but the must was so sweet that it had no chance of fermenting dry in the first place.
If you have the data on what your OG, FG and yeast used was, then you can probably determine what happened. If A, then you can try to make a big starter and use the same yeast or pick a more alcohol tolerant one (like champagne yeast) to try to start it up again. If B, you might not have much success, but I guess you could try diluting it with water and then using a big champagne yeast starter. Either way, a starter is essential because if you just toss in a packet of yeast to a super alcoholic mead, it will just die.

I'd say if it's not absurdly sweet, though, just give it away to someone who likes sweeter drinks and make a new recipe for yourself.

>>1116751
If the room stays between like 58 and 78 F then you can make wine or mead in it. But it won't necessarily be good if the temperature fluctuates a lot or hits the high/low end of that scale.

If you want to make *good* wine or mead, then it should stay at a constant temp while fermenting, like around 68F exactly. That may require equipment, like a fridge with a temperature controller.

Anyway this is a good intro recipe for mead and it requires hardly any equipment or space:
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=49106

>>1116762
>Anyway this is a good intro recipe for mead and it requires hardly any equipment or space:
>http://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=49106

any other advice for someone wanting to try it?

>>1116432

Dude its literally professional yeast sold in tiny condom sized packages.

You can find it on Amazon but you'd gotta buy 5-10 of them. The brewing shop I use sells them individually.

>>1116914
>any other advice
Yah, don't use this recipe. I honestly don't know how this recipie is still published, considering how bad it is. The basics are all there, but don't put the whole orange in there, just the juice and some zest. Use a yeast nutrient instead of rasins. And for God's sake, DON'T use bread yeast! Just spend the $3-$5 USD for some actual brewers yeast.

The reason that everyone complains about this coming out too sweet is that bread yeast has been cultivated to make a ton of CO2 and a little bit of alcohol. Mead yeast or wine or champagne yeast, or even beer yeast for that matter has been cultivated to make a lot of alcohol and a little CO2. Paying a few bucks for the right kind of yeast makes all the difference in the world.

This guy has a ton of other problems with his recipie too, like adding water that hasn't been boiled after fermentation has begun, shaking it for aeration with the lid sealed, not even mentioning sanitization, etc.

In reality, it is easy to make. Just be sure to sanitize whatever you are going to ferment it in, mix the honey in with hot water and orange juice on the stove, cool it, add it to the fermenter, add whatever else you like, shake it to get some oxygen in there, cap it with a water check, then let it sit for about a year. If you did it right, it will be a violent mixture for a few days (replace the water check with a piece of tubing going in to a jug of water if it starts to shoot foam out the water check). After a few days it will settle down. Just don't mess with it. If you must, sanitize a turkey baster, quickly open the fermenter and use the baster to draw some of the mead out, quickly re-cap it, and taste how the mead is doing so far. It's not rocket science, but somehow the author of that recipe managed to do everything wrong.

>>1115856
>>1113719
Yeah, what is this?

>>1116943
+1 on fuck the bread yeast. I used lavalin D47, it was $2 and the mead turned out decent.

>>1116943
>>1117009
Bread yeast is probably what fucked me.
>>1116434

>>1116434
>>1117010

yeah, it might be salvageable. get some nutrient and repitch with a wine yeast.

>>1117003
>>1115856

looks like he's trying to harvest some yeast off plants. Yeast is everywhere, old school alcohol was spontaneously fermented with wild yeast. It's easier and more consistent to use store bought yeast. If you wanted to do a funky brett beer, this could be a cool experiment.

Next time I brew I will siphon off a gallon of wort for separate wild yeast fermentation.

>>1116931
and the cheap stuff is lousy unless your goal is toilet wine

>>1116943
I might try it with bread yeast anyway, I'd prefer sweet over awfully bitter

otherwise some yeast specifically for mead....I'll have to look for some nice honey

>>1117029
Then don't cheap out and use bread yeast, because that's how you get toilet wine. If you want sweet mead, find a yeast strain that will cieling at about 14% abv then calculate how much honey you need. Most homebrewers use wine yeast for mead.

>>1117029

ITS NOT CHEAP STUFF

It's like 50 cents for a half gram of yeast!

It's Red Star Cider yeast. It's good stuff. Its not the BEST by far, but its far from the worst.

>>1117025
>>1113719
but you'll be harvesting other kinds of microorganisms like bacteria mostly, I don't think that's good to brew with

>>1117086

That may be true, but in many cases it's intentional. Bacteria and Brett(wild yeast) are used in a variety of sour styles such as lambic, cuvee, kriek, and berliner weisse. Gingerale and cider can be made from scratch using the natural yeast that exist on the ginger/apples.

I'm not saying there aren't risks of ruining your batch, but it is possible, and it was done this way for 100s of years.

>>1116145
That game left a strong mark on people .

>>1116076
That is a weird looking dog

>>1111259
Wait, what? Why not soap?

>>1117695
soap leaves residue
bleach and other sanitizing chemicals for bewing, do not

>>1117695
soap does not kill unwanted bacteria (all bacteria really), it can also leave residue and taint the flavor.

>>1117696
>>1117698
Don't make the mistake of thinking that bleach doesn't leave residue. I've been screwed before by having just a tiny amount of bleach residue after sanitization. Basically, even a small amount of left over bleach can make the entire batch taste strongly like plastic.

If you must use bleach to sanitize, rinse it, rinse it again, and keep rinsing it. If you can afford the extra few bucks, just buy some Starsan or Idophore or something equivalent. Neither Starsan nor Idophore require rinsing (just drip dry) and they can sanatize in one minute of contact time, compared to bleach which is closer to an hour. To me, it's worth it to buy a sanitizer just for the one minute sanitization time, let alone that I won't destroy another batch with that God awful plastic taste.

Also, don't forget that when it comes time to sanitize, especially bottles, a lot of dishwashers have a 'sanitize' option. After that, everything in the dishwasher is sanitized until you crackers the door open. Very nice for 50 bottles at a time.

>>1117883
obviously one should wash everything out afterwords, recommended 3 times

I have yet to have any issue using bleach

>>1117883
is Starsan a cleaner or just sanitizer?

I have been using Diversol (pink powder) and it is a killer cleaner as well as sanitizer but it needs to be rinsed thoroughly

FYI there was just a nice segment on ask this old house about making mead...it's not online yet, but should be within a day or two and will probably be only for people in the US

http://www.pbs.org/show/ask-old-house/

>>1111254
If you want to start off cheap for wine making here's my old college method:
1. Find a bottle of grape juice without preservatives, but pasteurized, actually look at the ingredients, ironically store brand usually doesn't have them and organic does
2. punch a hole into a balloon using a needle, don't pop it
3. remove ~1 cup from the bottle and microwave for 2 mins
4. stir yeast into microwaved juice, let rest for 10 mins.
5. pour yeast/juice mixture back into juice bottle
6. place balloon over lib of bottle so the fermentation will inflate balloon
7. If balloon isn't self inflating after 1-2 days, repeate steps 3-6
Your wine should be done after 2 weeks or so

As time goes on, you can upgrade your methodology

>>1118008
>>1118143

I use diluted bleach.

Gotta rinse well, but it sanitizes the shit out of everything.

>>1111254

I've made a set up for 8 bucks. Not hard at all. Get creative.

>>1118143
starsan is a sanitizer

if you need a cleaner/detergent use PBW.

>>1118214
>>1118200
PBW sounds very similar to Diversol.

Diversol is a bleach + detergent and sanitizes in 20min and should be triple rinsed. The Starsan sounds nice but I feel like I would have to rinse it out anyway just to satisfy my OCD

>>1118197
aren't you killing the yeasts by putting them in boiling/really hot juice ?

>>1118300
one should not be trying to warm them up in anything hotter than 100-110

>>1118300
>>1118301
You want it to be around hottub temperature if you don't have a thermometer. The yeast activates around 100F. 2 mins might also be too much if you aren't using a crappy microwave like I was.

Also if you keep the juice lids, after they are done initially fermenting, you can add a packet/spoonful of sugar and close the bottle to carbonate it. The recipe also works with apple juice.

>>1118307

My yeast always activates at room temp.

Its not rocket science, it's making booze.

any sauce for quality honey that can be found at chain stores in the US?

or where to look to find local beekeepers?

>>1118311
I'll try that in my next batch. Thanks Anon.

File: fieri.jpg (278KB, 1111x1096px) Image search: [Google]

278KB, 1111x1096px

Hey bros, just started my first brew on Sunday, so 5 days ago. My instructions were to expect a lot of fermentation the first 12 to 72 hours, but I didn't really start seeing any until the 72 hour mark. Should I let it go longer than the recommended 2 weeks, or is this typical?

>>1118598
depends on the temperature

judge based on when activity slows and or it clears up, not just time

>>1110168
what kind of yeast are you using

>>1118392
WinCo has a couple different types of honey in their bulk food section. Almost certainly not as good quality as local honey, but it's probably 1/3 of the price and did better for me than whatever junk walmart honey I tried.

>>1118653
1st round champagne
2nd round us-05

>>1118683
no stores nearby....I wonder if sams club would carry larger sizes

I was going to check walmart anyway just to compare


checked for a local bee club to see if there are sellers, but of course, no one lists any kind of prices

Looking for my next beer to brew - looking through the Brewdog DIYDog book. Noticed some of them mention keg-only - does this mean some beers are only suitable to be stored in a keg? Or is it just mentioning how they happen to distribute it when they brew it?

For my first batch I made a pale ale, and I'd like to try something different for my second batch. However, I'd like to use up some of the ingredients that I have left over (citra hops, munich malt, crystal malt). Anyone got an idea for a fun beer I can try?

>>1118921
In general, any beer can be put in bottles or a keg. The big difference is whether you are going to have to naturally carbonate it in the bottle with priming sugar, or whether you have to force carbonate it with a co2 tank.

Homebrewers who get serious about it end up switching to kegging because it's a lot easier than the bottling process. With force carbonating, you can typically drink the beer just a couple of days after you keg it.

I started the ferment on my first wine today. Im doing a strawberry wine so i can give it to my sister on her birthday in a few months.

>>1118964
depends on how much you have left. I brewed a wheet beer with citra in it once

>>1118980
Oh right nice, thanks! It certainly would be easier and quicker than sugaring and bottling over and over. Maybe a project for the far future.

File: toiletwine.png (2MB, 936x1248px) Image search: [Google]

2MB, 936x1248px

does anyone have a good idea how to remove copper salts from the insides of copper tubes? I tried my luck with 20% vinegar, but I don't have any means to scrub the insides efficiently.
I'll probably just get another tube from the junk yard for my cooler

>>1119532
Mix a solution of starsan or something similar to a pH of 2.5 or so. Circulate or submerge in the solution. It'll clear it up

>>1119561
is it enough to just let it sit in acidic solution?
the vinegar essence I used should be around pH 2, and it dissolved some of the salts judging from it's color afterwards, but there's still alot of crusty bluegreen layer all over the insides

Is it retarded to brew or ferment anything in plastic bottles? I did it a couple time when I was a teen with Welch's grape juice, balloons, and champagne yeast, and it turned out pretty ok, but I was also a young tard with no sense of taste or knowledge of plastic leeching. These links do it and it seems like a cheap ass way to make some decent booze, but I don't know if it's unsafe. I wouldn't be using balloons or condoms, I have airlocks now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IlSmdCYo-M&ab_channel=gumbootiner

http://food-hacks.wonderhowto.com/how-to/turn-your-favorite-fruit-juice-into-cheap-homemade-booze-0148602/

I know a lot of people brew wine, beer, and cider in plastic buckets, but I wasn't sure if there were special differences between the plastics in those buckets and those in juice bottles that would make them safer for consumption.

File: 0022560_l[1].jpg (34KB, 1000x1000px) Image search: [Google]

34KB, 1000x1000px

>>1119532
Get a bottle brush or something similar, picture related, and tie a bit of cord to it. Drop the cord through the pipe. A little weight on the end helps. Pull brush through. If it's a very narrow pipe, like under and inch/25 mm, then a bore brush from a gun cleaning kit will work. Matching the size will be trickier, though.

>>1119685
They're usually just regular #2 HDPE, which is food safe. There is some concern with using plastic when ageing, but that's from oxygen exposure, not toxicity.

>>1119755
Awesome, thanks a ton man.

>>1119771
Sorry, got my plastics mixed up. #1 PETE is the clear stuff juice comes in, and it's perfectly safe to ferment in. #2 is HDPE, which is what plastic buckets and milk jugs are made of, it is also perfectly safe to ferment in. Neither have BPA concerns or anything else in terms of toxicity, the main concerns are oxygen permeability for long term storage. Other than the cleaning of plastic carboys (usually PETE) I prefer them to glass.

Do any of you guys who keg use 3 gallon corny kegs at all? I got one from craigslist and it has been fantastic. The fact that it fits in a normal fridge, without taking out shelves, is a convenience that I haven't seen many people talk about, but is a big deal for me.

File: 1373223252915.gif (408KB, 160x120px) Image search: [Google]

408KB, 160x120px

I just bought a beautiful 5 gallon copper still and am in the initial cleaning phases.
I have done three 1 gallon 50/50 water/vinegar runs as found in the instructions and online.
However, it is still coming out blue tinted.
When in look inside of the still there is a very obvious water line where it has worked, but there is still a lot of discoloration in the rest of the still and in the onion top

Should I be letting it run longer?
Try scrubbing it off?

>>1119685
Something worth mentioning about using plastics: when cleaning a plastic container, if you clean with a stiff brush it can actually gouge out little bits of plastic and create areas for un-wanted bacteria to grow. So be gentle and use a soft sponge when cleaning plastics!

>>1119834
Never seen a 3 gallon corny keg, but I'd love to have a couple. Do you know anything about them? History, etc? I'm planning on getting a few cheap 3 gallon plastic carboys for experimenting with small batches of mead and cider, and a 3 gallon corny would be perfect for aging and dispensing.

>>1119934
The key to plastic carboys is to just replace them frequently. I sort of tear them up with abrasive when cleaning them, but end up tossing them after several batches just for sanitization sake. They are so cheap that why wouldn't you? I have a couple of 5 gallon glass carboys just to use as secondaries.

>>1119561
>>1119696
I taped the tube up on both ends, filled ip up with 50/50 vinegar/water and let it sit for a day now.
It seems like it dissolved all of the crust. I'll probably still do a distillation run with vinegar through it to be sure.

File: 20170121_120010_HDR.jpg (2MB, 4160x2340px) Image search: [Google]

2MB, 4160x2340px

Im a piss broke student who is making wine from various juices and breadyeast.

Any of you masters have any advice to improve flavor or anything like that?

>>1120229
Spend two dollars on amazon for better yeast. Its important .

Do you guys have a beginner's guide on necessary start up equipment and possibly a few babby's first recipes?

>>1120229
Use a recipe (or have a good idea of what you're doing and what the result will be). There are recipes out there for using store bought juices.
Use the right strain of wine yeast to get the resulting sweetness/ABV you want. If you use bread yeast it's more unpredictable and doesn't drop to the bottom, so the result tastes yeasty/bready.
Shake it up a lot before fermentation starts, to give the yeast oxygen it needs to grow. Use plenty of yeast, don't be afraid to overpitch.
Try to keep it consistently cool but not cold, like around 68F.
Don't be impatient, let the yeast stop fermenting on it's own and then give it a couple weeks to settle.
Try not to jostle/splash and expose it to too much oxygen AFTER fermentation when racking/bottling.

>>1120305
if you're talking about beer:
http://howtobrew.com/book/section-1/a-crash-course-in-brewing/what-do-i-do

You don't have to use that exact recipe, any homebrew store will have plenty of "extract" recipe kits that you can use with the same equipment and process.

it there a better way to get wort out of a carboy(sans yeast) then the siphon method i just poured out my first attempt at brewing in frustration.

IF I DISTILL BEER WILL IT MAKE WHISKY?!

File: RK480LG_1.jpg (10KB, 490x525px) Image search: [Google]

10KB, 490x525px

>>1120333
What was your problem with the siphon?
An "autosiphon" makes it way more convenient. But even with a normal racking cane it shouldn't be that difficult.

>>1120335
the siphon i was using was a hard plastic tube the bent at one end and a length of plastic tubing and a plastic clamp thing (came from a kit from the Brooklyn brew shop) the problem was it would repeatedly stop flowing so I'd either have to demount the tube fill it with sanitizer to restart or suck on the tube to restart the flow after the fourth time i tried to put a paper coffee filter in a funnel to filter it that worked for about 30 seconds before the filter became clogged so i said fuck it and poured it down the drain. i'm asking in case i ever feel like trying again in the future.

>>1120335
this guy >>1120340 here how much would an autosiphon from a good maker cost?

>>1119906
Not answering your question since I dont know, but what still did you get and how much was it? I have been interested in distilling for a while.

This is a nice thread, and I enjoy these threads.

t. Tipsy homebrewanon

File: IMAG0076.jpg (3MB, 3024x5376px)

3MB, 3024x5376px

>>1120375
I got the 5 gallon pot still from The Copper Still Company. Found it new on Craigslist so only paid 300 as opposed to the website price of 430

>>1119906
Run it with cheap box wine and water

>>1120229
>>1120250
+1 on wine yeast. go to an italian grocery store, it's like 1$ and makes anything you ferment way better.

>>1120341
not that guy, i bought mine from a local homebrew shop. I think it was 15$. I don't recall the brand, it was just whatever they carried. I've had no problems with mine, it never gets clogged.

>>1120229
I dont know how broke you are, but as another student brewing on a tight budget I think you should be willing to put 50 - 100 dollars into this shit. You save the money you spent in few months.
Buy:
5 gallon brewing bucket with airlock: 15 dollars.
legit wine yeast: 2 - 4 dollars a batch, bigger the bag the cheaper per batch
yeast nutrition: 10 dollars for 10 batch bag
citric acid: couple dollars for a big bag, easily lasts 20 batches
optional:
wine clearer, like dollar a batch
autosiphon, I dont know less than 10 dollars
campden tablets: couple dollars for 50pcs, lasts 20 batches

then you can get even more fancy and start buying different flavoring agents

You should always buy 100% juice, a lot of the juice on market is like 4% juice concentrate with a lot added sweeteners and chemicals.
Try brewing these bigger 4 - 5 gallon batches, saves both money and time.
Try to control the temperature. Aim for around 68F unless the yeast or the recipe you use specifies otherwise.

You can make some damn good drink for damn cheap, if you are willing to read couple of guides and invest some time and effort into this.

>>1118311
Actually, you should always active dry yeast around 100F and then let it slowly cool into general fermenting temperature.
Check out cold shock for yeast.

>>1118392
You may want to try local farmers markets too if they're are any near you, or literally just call farmers that are near you and work out a deal

>>1120428
Does look very pretty. Hope it works out for you anon

>>1120516

My room temperature yeast goes in room temp must.

There's no shock because there's no temperature differentiation

>>1120428
Eau Claire?

>>1120340
As long as the container you're transferring from is totally above the container you're transferring to, the siphon shouldn't really stop... It can be a pain with the manual siphon to get it going good enough so that there's not a lot of air at the corner of the racking cane, though - an autosiphon totally helps w/ that and I recommend it.

But if you think it's getting clogged then you need to be more careful about disturbing and sucking up trub from the bottom. Actually, the autosiphon kind of helps with that too if you're doing it by yourself, since you can keep a hand on it at all times. I like to start the autosiphon with the sucking end in the middle of the fermentor, then lower it down carefully and hold it straight up so that it stays just above the trub. Don't try to use filters on the siphon, that'll just make it worse.

BTW beginners often think their small fuckups will ruin the beer, but don't worry, it's hard to ruin and you can almost always salvage it.

>>1120607
there is a farmers market during the summer, but the snow kinda puts a damper on that

a brew store nearby sells one kind of local honey, but it was about $5 for one bottle

>>1120608
Thanks m8. I decided to fill it with the water vinegar mix and let it sit overnight, looks nice and shiny and clean now.

>>1120449
Will do

>>1120781
If you mean the city, no. I am in California

>>1120851
Make sure you are putting a water/flour putty on all those joints as well so you don't fill up your room with alcohol vapor when you run the wine wash

>>1119943
I've only got one so far, picked it up from a guy on CL. I don't know the history of them, some seem just like short standard corny kegs, same diameter, same handles, etc, while others are too new to have been used for soda. They usually cost more than the standard 5 gallon, but it's worth it for convenience IMO.

>>1120229
You can buy 10 packs of D47 yeast on amazon for $7 or so. Get decent yeast, you can sprinkle 1/3 of a pack in 1 gallon jugs of juice and it costs you next to nothing.

>>1120860
Alright, that was in my instructions too. How do you clean/unseal everything after?

Started brewing a stout, after 3 days fermentation stopped. Added more yeast but nothing happened. A few days ago I made a mini batch of the brew with new yeast after racking the main batch into a new carboy. Glad to say fermentation is going in full swing. Any ideas as to why it stopped in the first place? Temp is a constant 68.

>>1120925
water with a dab of soap, fully rinse and dry after, and you're good.

>>1120850
I know at least near me there is a list of vendors at each local farmers market, organized by someone for each market. You might call vendors from those lists. I know honey tends to be seasonal so may be out of luck if you want something fresh, but honey doesn't really go bad so you should call around to ask about buying in bulk

>>1121120
I'm still trying to find a store that actually sells mead so I can see if it's something I want to try or not...before investing ingredients and time

if I do, I'll wait and check out the next beekeeper club meeting....the next free event doesn't seem to be till march though

Beginner here. Got a question on bottle priming beer. Most places I've read suggest that the beer needs about a week at room temperature to finish priming then at least another week or two to condition the beer, preferably much longer as it will get better with age. My question is do I only have to leave the bottled beer at room temperature for a week for the priming to finish then can I bottle condition them in the fridge for a few weeks/months? I have a bar fridge I can store them in no problem.

>>1121129
I leave them in room temperature for at least 2 weeks, just to make sure that the priming happens. In fact, I've stored some of my batches in room temperature for upwards of half a year and haven't noticed any off-flavors. But I digress.
I'd say that as long as you let your beer prime properly for a week or two, you can bottle condition them in room temperature/fridge no problem.
Just keep in mind that with some very strong beers, like trappist clones or imperial stouts, the priming might take longer due to weakened yeast and/or high alcohol levels.

>>1121140
Cool, thanks man.

>>1120957
Maybe you didn't start with enough viable yeast for the sugar content of the wort? Usually one packet of dry yeast is fine, but if the wort is especially high gravity (like a RIS) or if the yeast is old, it might not be enough. If you were using liquid yeast, you probably should have made a starter - liquid yeast packs have way fewer yeast cells than dry.
http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html

File: sugarwine.jpg (60KB, 800x661px) Image search: [Google]

60KB, 800x661px

>>1118197
If you're too cheap to buy grape juice, sugar (150g/l) + water + yeast nutrient blend (1g/l) + cream of tartar (1g/l) makes something champagne yeast can ferment without too much difficulty. Finished taste is perfectly acceptable IMO and surprisingly similar to a dry white grape wine.

>>1116434
Assuming you calculated the OG correctly, it's probably lacking in nutrients. And yeast nutrients for wine/beer don't include potassium because fruit/grain already has plenty, but honey is almost plain sugar and often doesn't so it probably needs some potassium source too. Making mead is a lot like making sugar wine.

>>1117029
>and the cheap stuff is lousy unless your goal is toilet wine
Nonsense. Dried yeast is just as good as liquid. The only reason to even consider liquid yeast is because your strain isn't available dried. What causes bad results is using the wrong strain, eg. beer yeast for a wine (but wine yeast will make non-disgusting beer).

>>1117695
Soap cleans (physically removes dirt), bleach sanitizes (kills germs). You need to do both, because bleach won't kill germs if they're hiding inside a chunk of dirt. Specialized homebrew sanitizers typically do both at once.

>>1121741
has nothing to do with whether it is liquid

if someone is buying the yellow packets of champagne yeast because it is the cheapest option, they shouldn't expect great results using it for other things

File: IMG_1566.jpg (1MB, 3888x2592px) Image search: [Google]

1MB, 3888x2592px

Does anyone know where to find bottles 9 oz. or smaller? Preferably 6-7 oz., I'm tired of giving away my 12 oz. bottles to friends for samples. I only make 5 gallon batches and invariably end up giving away half the batch.

Have to be able to be capped obviously or have the built-in stopper.

>>1121811
Check your local small crafts store (hobby lobby, etc). They have a nice selection of different shapes and sizes, and at minimum come with a cork stopper.

File: 2823155849_097d3256e1.jpg (96KB, 500x333px) Image search: [Google]

96KB, 500x333px

>>1121811
Corona makes small bottles; 7 Oz I beleive. If you have a liquor store around, I'm sure they will have some or can order some for you.

>>1121811
Sounds like a good excuse to make more beer.
Maybe you can find tiny used bottles, but buying bottles is expensive and sucks. You'd probably spend more on the bottles than the whole batch of ingredients.

Strawberry wine guy here, i think i shock killed my yeast on saturday so added more on monday. Current s.g. is reading 1.042, original was 1.110 where should it be when i move it 2nd fermentation?

>>1121987
Strawberry wine guy, you definitely shock killed your yeast.

Anyway, your original gravity is high, but not out of control. A gravity in the 10 40's is good for where you're at. Wait until it gets down to 1.020 before you re-rack it. Visually inspecting how it is fermenting is probably better than going off the gravity reading alone. Maybe, when you get a bubble in the water check once every 30 minutes or more, move it to a secondary. You're doing good, just use your best judgment.

The plan is to rack it late sunday, my clarity is already pretty nice so im nit worried there, and im still bubbling in the airlock about every 5 minutes.

Making a hard ginger ale should require less ginger than a ginger beer, right? Wanna do a five gallon jug. Only mine is plastic and all the YouTube Brewers use glass ones. Any tips on a home made air lock?

>>1122004
> Any tips on a home made air lock?

use tubing and a mason jar with a couple inches of water in it. Otherwise just buy an airlock they're like 1$.

>Wanna do a five gallon jug. Only mine is plastic and all the YouTube Brewers use glass ones

they might be worried about residual flavor seeping into future batches fermented in the same vessel. If you intend to use it for ginger brews only, I see no issue.

What is your recipe? How are you going to ferment it? with store bought yeast? or naturally?

>>1122021
I hear ginger and sugar should cut it, otherwise if I start getting fancy it'll be a ginger mead or ginger beer, so basically just ginger, sugar, yeast. It's not champagne yeast so roughly a pound of sugar per gallon, maybe more as I underestimated the weight of the bag that I free poured. Am just going to hope for the best. Smells a bit strong honestly, should have maybe used less ginger.

>>1122004
>mine is plastic and all the YouTube Brewers use glass
PET works fine. You only need glass if you're going to store it long term.

>Any tips on a home made air lock?
Clean balloon (or condom if you can get them cheaper) with a pinhole.

>>1122031
>should have maybe used less ginger
It's probably fine, the ginger flavor reduces during fermentation.

>>1121723
you can add syrup to that before drinking.

>>1122065
I only like dry wine, and it would be more expensive.

>>1121811
>>1121866
NO
DON'T DO THIS
Clear bottles let light skunk the beer. The reason Corona and other mexican beer companies can do this is because they don't use real hops but an extract of different hop bitterness molecule isomers, that don't skunk when exposed to sunlight.

>>1110406
http://www.wodanserben.de/board/metrezept-metbrauen-mit-qualit%C3%A4t/thema774.html
This is some very nice and complete guide for making mead, but it's in German, so maybe use Google translater, if thats an problem. There is even a formula to calculate, how much honey to use, depending on the yeast and vol%.
The recipe uses the "long fermentation" method, which should result in a high-quality mead.

>>1122145

I use to do this when I didn't have enough brown bottles. Instead I just kept them in a dark place until it was time to drink it.

>>1122049
Am also making a sparkling wine, but won't the bubbles go away if I freeze the bottle to disgorge the sediment?

>>1122577
You're planning on removing the yeast champagne style? You only freeze the neck of the bottle if you're doing that. But it's a lot of hassle when you could just pour carefully instead. I don't know of any reason you'd freeze the whole bottle and I don't know what would happen to the dissolved CO2 if you did.

File: Snapchat-725621495.jpg (341KB, 1080x1920px) Image search: [Google]

341KB, 1080x1920px

Doing my first actual run.
Two jugs of Carlo Rossi Cabernet, I've got 5 pints out of it so far, smells good.

Had to finagle a fountain pump and 10ft of copper into the condenser to act as a heat exchanger but it's working pretty well

File: _0015587.jpg (598KB, 1280x960px) Image search: [Google]

598KB, 1280x960px

>>1111785
>>1112093
>>1114232
bottled and almost ready to drink, got 23 1l bottles out of the batch and going by SG it should be about 4.75 alcohol per volume. I would love to get this up to 6-7% but not really sure how.

>>1120335
that autosiphon would come in super handy. how are they to clean?

>>1122757
Very easy to clean, since you can pump it up and down to push liquid through it. I just pump sanitizer through it before use, and then put hot water through it when i'm done.

File: 7346-T-siphon.jpg (287KB, 450x600px) Image search: [Google]

287KB, 450x600px

>>1120333

I've found instructions on making a nice little siphon. Barbed nylon tee then your vinyl or silicone tubing suck on one of the hoses to start it then just kink it. Might save a few bucks, just different cost/benefits in use compared to an auto. A spring bottle filler would really move things along nicely.

File: IMG_20170115_203832430.jpg (2MB, 3264x1836px) Image search: [Google]

2MB, 3264x1836px

>>1122757

What was the SG and FG?

In future batches you can increase your SG. Either by using less water, or adding more grains/extract (There are online calculators for this). You can also attempted to lower your FG by using a hardier strain of brewing yeast, improving fermentation conditions, pitching more yeast (making a starter).

>My latest batch, a funky Belgian Brett beer.

>>1122941
OG 1.04
FG 1.004

been thinking of improving my yeast
I tried less water in my previous batch and it didn't work out to well

>>1117114
Get a few petri dish, and with a bit of skill you can separate yeast from bacteria.

>>1122959
1.004 is pretty dry, so your yeast did just fine.
If you want a 6-7% beer then try using an OG somewhere around 1.060. You could just add more 2-row/extract/sugar to your current recipe, but I'd recommend finding a recipe online for the style of beer you want.

File: 20170129_195356.jpg (1MB, 3264x1836px) Image search: [Google]

1MB, 3264x1836px

Racked strawberry wine, kept the back end just because sister wants to see what happens. We call it strawberry booty wash.

hey guys.
I have a 1 gallon carboy, a cap for it, an airlock, tubing, a rake and a mr beer kit coming in the mail (Was a pricing error on amazon- got a kit for 20$, and it wasn't just a refill It's the long play IPA one). I just finished my first brew with the carboy, using up the malt and hops that were in the kit. Can I use the carboy for mead? And can someone tell me what to do? I'm kind of a newbie.

>>1123381
Also, Is it stupid of me to get a better yeast for the mr beer kit, split everything in half, and just brew it in the glass carboy?

Does anyone have a good recipe for hard rootbeer?

>>1123381
>Can I use the carboy for mead?
sure, no reason why not

though you should probably use glass to age it

>And can someone tell me what to do? I'm kind of a newbie.

read the thread? google it? read the directions?
if you're talking about mead specifically, I mentioned a segment on ask this old house a short time ago

>>1123382
>Also, Is it stupid of me to get a better yeast for the mr beer kit, split everything in half, and just brew it in the glass carboy?
yes to better yeast, but no to changing amounts unless you're making smaller batches
the proportions should stay the same

>>1123387
I was just going to divide everything in half. I heard that the barrel that comes with the mr beer kit was shitty.

This is the recipe I was planing to follow, but I was going to put a few quartered oranges in with it.

http://www.stormthecastle.com/mead/brew-1-gallon-of-honey-wine-mead.htm

>>1123389
yeah that is the gist of it

don't go to homebrewtalk unless you want to spend hours reading all of the different variations you could think of to make it

I plan on starting some here soon when I can empty out a jug

>>1123391
Thanks. I'm green as all hell and it's just what google could help me out with.
I tried researching on reddit and jesus fucking christ, they're crazy. One man made beer out of a chicken.

>>1123393
>One man made beer out of a chicken.
I
don't
even
want
to
know

To make beer at home without investing much, it's best to keep to one or two gallon batches, right? The stuff I see for 5 gallon batches is fucking yuge.

>>1123406
well, if you can buy in larger quantities it may be cheaper....but I would never make 5 gallons of something unless I'd made it before and enjoyed it

>>1123406
>>1123411
Brewing 5 gallons per brew quickly becomes more attractive if you're going all grain. The cost of the batch is comparable to a dinner in a fast food joint, and the work stays pretty much the same with 1 and 5 gallon batches.
I personally do pretty much only 4 gallon batches because of my equipment, but I wouldn't go lower than that.
Considering my batches are usually 2-6 $/gallon, it's not a huge deal if one recipe isn't on the spot. And considering the huge reduction in work/gallon with 4 gallons vs 1 gallon, there's no reason to go lower than 4.

>>1123406
5 gallon is popular because it's a standard keg size. I see no problem starting out with a 1 gallon batch if you already own a big enough pot and something to ferment in. I'd still try eventually get set up for 5 gallon brews though, 1 gallon batches are labour intensive for how much beer you get.

>>1122757
I've never used a secondary, do you actually feel like it does anything

Hey everyone, just getting into homebrewing and I want to start with mead. Had a quick question: what's a good natural alternative to yeast nutrient if I want to make a plain mead and not a melomel?

I've heard raisins work, but they may be low in nitrogen or provide an odd wine like taste.

>>1113275
it tasted pretty good.

>>1121811
Coke bottles? They're not cheeper, but you can recap the non twist offs.

>>1123646
I never really questioned why I do it, it is just instructed to do so with the kit.
But here is a good article on why to do a secondary

http://www.keystonehomebrew.com/2010/12/secondary-fermentation-pros-and-cons/

I think I will continue to do secondaries after reading it.

File: janstatus.jpg (4MB, 5312x2988px) Image search: [Google]

4MB, 5312x2988px

Waiting for mead to age is suffering. Just hit 6 months on my first 5 gal batch and it's still not 100% there.

The 1 gal batch tasted great at 6 mo. I just recently bottled it, although it's disappearing way too fast. I'm going 5 gal only from now on.

>>1123770
The fruit you use in the fermentation process doesn't effect the taste much. I used just oranges in my 1 gallon batch as yeast nutrient, then removed them after racking them the first time. The result 6 months later had no hint of orange.

File: 1485900045597.jpg (2MB, 1408x3420px) Image search: [Google]

2MB, 1408x3420px

>>1110406
Pic related gives you something quite drinkable. It's won't be amazing-top-notch honey wine, but enjoyable if one likes mead, especially for those who like sweeter mead.

Wine yeast greatly increases the quality and alcohol content. Stems like burgundy or port yield high alcohol. You can also always experiment with adding fruits, juice, spices (I only ever put an apple/apple juice in my mead for some acid) and especially the honey. If you use the cheapest honey (basically sugarwater) the mead won't taste like much. It'll taste like mead, but a good honey can give the mead many new facettes.
Mead really is not that hard to produce, just make sure you clean the container for fermentation. Hygiene is important, as always.

>>1123646
>>1124016
Racking to secondary runs the risk of oxidizing and infecting your beer, and I don't notice any benefit from doing so after having done batches with and without.

Yeast-induced off-flavors don't appear for at least 6 weeks after pitching, so unless you're bulk conditioning a beer for longer than that, there's really no point. Just keep your siphon slightly above the floor of your fermenter to avoid sucking up excess trub.

>>1122689
Depending on what type of washing machine you have, and if you're a commiefornian, you can use 20lb bags of ice everyone and awhile to cool down the supply tank (cooler), and then when ice melts, use bucket to bail hotter water into washing machine, add more ice to cooler, and use hotter H2O to wash your clothes (or at least no waste all dat water).

>>1124287
i am a commiefornian.
i stuck two twenty pound bags in the cooler and it worked perfect
I used the leftover water on my plants.

Hey guys.
A friend of mine doesn't like carbonation.
Should I just bottle the beer after the two weeks fermenting time?

>>1124825
How about you just try making some of the less carbonated styles, like some british ones, instead of leaving it completely out. Or just make wine/mead/sahti. But no, don't leave it completely out.

I'm doing 1 gallon of mead.
3 pounds of honey
one orange
icv d-47 yeast
yeast nutrient
yeast energizer

How long do you think this will be? I was hoping to have it done in ~4 months, is this wishful thinking?

>>1124825
as long as you let the ferment finish, beer will carbonate in the bottle according to how much priming sugar you put in. If you want less carbonation, just put in less sugar at bottling time. If you want NO carbonation, don't add any priming sugar, but that would probably be gross. Could do a couple test bottles w/ no sugar for your dumb friend if you really wanted to try it.
http://www.northernbrewer.com/priming-sugar-calculator

>>1124852
It'll be technically done in a month or so, you could probably bottle it after that long. But then it'll get better in the bottle over the course of years. At 4 months it'll probably be okay/meh.

>>1107582
Don't turn the bottle upside down if you don't want that in your beer. At the same time, the sediment is high in vitamin B.

>>1124945
So it's okay to bottle then? Cool, I'd rather not tie up my fermenting gear/space for that long.

>>1124945
>http://www.northernbrewer.com/priming-sugar-calculator

Are "Carbonation drops" jewish bullshit as i'm inclined to believe?

>>1124959
Carbonation drops are just a pre-measured amount of sugar to drop in a 12oz bottle.

If you want to fine-tune the amount of CO2 with any consistency then it's usually best to add the priming sugar to the whole batch in the bottling bucket instead of in individual bottles.

>>1124960
100% a Jewish scam. it's the most expensive way to carb a beer and if offers no way to control the co2 level for the style you brewed.

I'm a brewer working for a brewery if anyone has any questions?

>>1125494
When I mash in my water cooler, the sugar yield seems to vary wildly based on how much grain I use. Like if I make a small beer with 10lbs of grain, I might hit almost 80% efficiency, but if I try to brew a bigger beer with like 15 lbs of grain, it might be only like 60% efficiency. Do you encounter the same kind of problem in a pro brewery and just have to adjust based on the size of your recipe, or might I just be doing something wrong/weird w/ my setup?

>>1125757
80% is very good (almost too good without considering ph and tannin extraction) and suggests you are set up and performing a continuous sparge with a decently fluid grain bed.

We are happy with mid 70's in those circumstances all the way up to about SG 1.054 and while we hold on to them while performing checks we eventually discard any additional runnings once we have reached the desired level in the copper. We lose 2 points due to evaporation during a 60 minute boil and we know what our copper losses will be due to hops and trub based on experience and we know what amount of wort we need to end up with in fermenters so we are always recording data and optimising recipes based on that. If we came in high we'd have to dilute with water. If we come in low we have to decide if the remaining runnings are worth adding in and in the worst case we'd perform a longer boil. Shouldn't say, but many bad brewers use sugar and I know one very successful brewery who sparge the whole volume of liquid and dilute or add sugar AFTER the boil every single time because they record no data.

However 60's are possible for high gravity beers and batch sparging methods especially.

Sparge water becomes saturated and sugar can no longer readily move into solution as it passes through the grain bed. You can improve this by lowering the ph and keeping things hotter, but these changes can introduce other factors.

If you perform a continuous sparge you'll get better efficiencies by keeping the water level high on the grain and sparging slow and maybe a little hotter than you'd like, we sparge at 80C assuming at most a degree lost to equipment which is hot.

I'd think, maybe your bigger grist sit physically higher in the mash tun and as a result your water level sits lower and a proportion of your grain bed is dry and slightly channelling during your sparge. You could keep the water level high during the sparge and stop collecting when you've got your volume and just discard the rest

>>1125829
Or bring up the temperature. Or sparge slower. All these changes will influence the profile of the beer however, so it depends on what your goals are. Typically, bigger beers are more 'wasteful' with grain and have lower efficiencies, but the reward is higher abv and a rich malty taste.

You could argue that yeasts which have a reduced ability to ferment maltotriose are pointless, or that we should all mash to promote maximum beta amylase activity for the lowest possible final attenuation, but we know depending on your goals all these things have a place in brewing.

>>1125494

I'm curious about how you got into the industry. I started homebrewing about 2 years ago (all grain for 1.5 years) and I've been dreaming about going pro. What are your thought on going to college for brewing? Did your peers have formal training or just go pro after a few years of homebrew?

>>1125922
Nearly all the hip brewers I know did a degree and spent a couple of years at one of the big production breweries before moving into a trendy micro. Everyone else just working at average places just learns on the job, most of the good developmental brewers and guys with great palettes and understanding of recipes and ingredients have extensive experience in homebrewing.

Brewery work is not well paid and is mostly process control and procedure. There is almost endless cleaning and heavy lifting and most tasks are repetitive and messy. I'd think about if you'd enjoy that.

Going to start a small batch mead next week, hope it will be decent by september for a renn faire my family wants to go to.

went to walmart to look for honey and they actually had 3 smaller shelves worth of different brands....at least one I saw was made in the state and has a raw version too

1st timer here, just bottled first batch. I am not sure if I fucked it up? I had an extra two bottles worth of beer, so i tried it from that, it tastes off? Leaves a mildly sour/bitter taste on the tongue. What should I be looking for in terms of telling if it is a bad batch? It doesn't smell particularly bad or anything. Should I wait a week/2 and try a ready bottle?

>>1126590
Just did a quick calc of 2.5 gal to oz and having an extra 2 bottles seems reasonable.

Hey, do I need to bottle my brew? Was just planning on pouring it into glasses tonight for myself and a buddy. Is this safe?

>>1126592
How long has it been in the bottle? It should mellow out after a few weeks. If you're tasting a true sour flavor, there may be some bacterial presence.

It's a bad batch if it's truly truly undrinkable. A spoiled batch tastes bad, but will not kill you. Part of being a homebrewer is drinking your mistakes and learning from them. Tasting a mistake in the next 48 bottles is not necessarily a bad thing.

>>1126647
Beer should definitely be bottled to carbonate it. Mead and cider are pretty optional.

I wonder, are there any brews that don't require added yeast?

>>1126674
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambic

>>1126668
Just bottled, so 0 days. I had seen a bottling guide that said if you can drink it, its good to bottle, but the OG reading seemed right to me, so I decided to bottle it. I think I will just let it wait for now then.

>>1126647
if it isn't carbonated, no. You might want to rack it to reduce yeast sediment though.

File: WIN_20170206_02_59_25_Pro (2).jpg (84KB, 1280x720px) Image search: [Google]

84KB, 1280x720px

finishing up a batch of pineapple wine
it smells fucking delicious
is tastes fucking delicious
I usually just go for a high alcohol percentages with my wines, not this one, this isn't "get drunk" wine, this is "enjoy the flavor" wine

>>1126719
pineapple wine sounds amazing, which recipe did you use ?

>>1126674
(Some) Cider is traditionally done without adding any yeast. It ferments slower, but usually the yeasts found in apples are not too bad.

>Made a rhubarb wine
>Decide to drink it immediately
>Feel it tastes awful
>Can't stand it
>Experience deep shame
>Return to it 3 months later
>Tastes fantastic
Holy shit, I never realized just how big of a difference it makes to let it set.

Blew my mind.

>>1123770
>Hey everyone, just getting into homebrewing and I want to start with mead
Personal recommendation?

Don't start homebrewing with mead. Mead can be expensive and it takes a long ass time to get results. It can be utterly soul crushing if you fuck up. Do something with a shorter fermentation period so that you can master your form without making heavy investments.

>>1126719
thats just a piss pucket

Is there any downside to bottling still stuff (ciders/wines) in those 1/2 gallon growlers? Like I get that once it's open you have a lot more to drink before it goes bad. But an open bottle of 12+% alcohol wine in the fridge should last a couple of days, right? The homebrewtalk forum fags act like it turns into vinegar over night.

>>1127225
Oh yeah, if it makes a difference, I added sulfites when I racked to secondary (should I add them again before bottling?)

>>1118197
Thought I'd give this a go. Used beer yeast. Balloon was inflating but now its flat after 1 week. Still ok?

>>1126935
just like 30 cans of cheap canned pineapple and a cup of lime juice
also put in 3 liters of bottled pineapple juice, because after I sifted it I had less left than I wanted to have, and I didn't want to dilute it with water
almost didn't use sugar, there's a lot of sugar in pineapple already so it wasn't necessary, were I to make another batch I wouldn't put in any sugar
also the fortified wine yeast, wine enzymes, wine clearing, campden tablets etc
probably spent around $20 on the whole 25 liters, super cheap, highly recommend it if you're poor like me
>>1127195
>>>/r9k/

>>1120334
I also have a slight desire to know this

Will I die if I make some white rice, throw a slice of bread on it, pour water over it all, and drink the result of leaving it under a sink in a sealed container for a couple weeks?

Is it possible to make prison rice wine?

>>1127311
Why would you even do that.

>>1127323
advanced niggerdry

Not a brewer but I'm very interested, anyone brewed their own honey mead here?

>>1127225
Haven't you ever kept an open bottle of wine in the fridge? It lasts a few days, but it changes from oxidation. Sometimes for better or worse. But I'm not 100% sure you can rely on screw-top seals for long term storage - a slightly leaky cap could make vinegar before you open the bottle.

>>1127236
It's fine, probably still fermenting a little. Fermentation slows down and pushes out less CO2 after the initial rush, maybe it's just slowly leaking out. Give it another week before messing w/ it.

>>1127311
You'd die of how gross and probably barely-alcoholic the result would be. I think there is more to rice wine than just mixing rice and water, they use some kind of mold/enzymes (koji?) that break down the rice into simple sugars that the yeast can eat.

>>1127724
Last time my friend made it, something went wrong and he had to dump all 5 gallons down the sink just because it was that unpalatable.

File: kettle.jpg (67KB, 675x900px) Image search: [Google]

67KB, 675x900px

I graduated my kettle today. It's super easy to etch designs into stainless steel, but make sure to do it in a ventilated space.

>>1127311
If you added some malt to the equation, you'd basically have Bud Light...

But yeah, you need sacharrification to happen before it'll ferment, so you'll need some source of amylase to break down the starch. Nigger Africans in nigger Africa just use saliva, so you could try that. Just be sure to boil thoroughly before fermenting.

>>1127740

Old wine is thought of as the finest wine, and it's totally oxidized.

Oxidation isn't always a wine fault.

>>1127896
Hmm.

Is there basically anything that can be brewed without a starter culture of some kind? I'm genuinely really curious now, how did people make booze before you could buy bricks of yeast at a store?

>>1127931
See
>>1126688

>>1107213
for my first brew would an amber be a good kind to start off with?

also any links to good intro guides to homebrewing would be appreciated.

>>1127931
>how did people make booze before you could buy bricks of yeast at a store?
Leave juice in any kind of container long enough and it's either going to turn into booze or vinegar. And if you like what came out of it enough, you'd scrape what was at the bottom and put it in another batch.

>>1128103
Amber is a great first brew. It's light, simple, and includes all the basics of cooking and fermentation.

Bread and butter for learning how to brew is quite literally "How to Brew". It'll break down the process step by step, explain why you're doing what you're doing, and define common terms for you.

Having an experienced friend is probably the best way to do it, but that guide is the next best thing.

File: homebrew-fail-480x583.jpg (76KB, 480x583px) Image search: [Google]

76KB, 480x583px

Anyone have any fail stories?
I'll start

>2009, be me 16
>hear about booze from friends
>"hell yeah i drink"
>never touched the stuff
>parents are out of town, try vodka
>try a little too much vodka
>love the stuff
>decide to try to make my own
>follow basic steps i find in an old homebrew book my dad had
>i secretly set up a brew in my closet
>parents don't find out for months

This is where the fail comes

>16 almost 17 mind going crazy
>super fucking horny
>decide to cum in the brew
>immediately regret decision
>try to forget about it
>i actually fucking do
>time comes to finalize the process
>take out container
>i don't think that this is how it should smell
>look down to see frothy mess, with black dots floating around and shit
>go vomit in the bath tub
>parents come home
>oh god they can smell it from downstairs
>i try dumping the brew down the tub
>mom catches me while im in the middle of it
>fuck.wav
>make up some lie about trying to create a fallout shelter in my room, and how i was trying to store water but it went bad
>"i believe you"
>holy fuck how
>we all forget about it
>succeed at every brew i did from that day forward

>>1128196
Why on Earth would you jizz in your home-brew?
Like seriously, why?

>>1128196
>/b/ is here
Annnnnnnnnnnnd, fuck this thread.

I've been reading up on airlocks for my nigger brewing, and got to thinking: it's just a means to keep oxygen out of the brew, but letting CO2 or whatever other byproducts escape for the safety of the brewing vessel. It's a gas-tight one-way connection between your vessel and the outside world.

So instead of all these designs using glass bubs full of water connected by miles of tubing, why not just use a fucking spring-loaded check valve like you see on bike innertubes or the flappy reed kind like you see on inflatable toys?

>>1128329
My understanding is that you want the air pressure inside the fermentation chamber to be approximately the same as the outside, otherwise it becomes harder for the yeast to catalyze the alcohol, and that spring valves risk increasing the air pressure more than the water would.

But I'm not confident on any of this, so who knows.

>>1128329
You could do a balloon with a pinprick in it too.

i only drink what i brew myself for whatever reason

i made my first beer recently, some extract kit called "nut brown ale". didn't like it. yucky. too bitter. is an amber ale going to be the same?

i like the cider and mead i made

>>1128329
>glass bulb
>water
>miles of tubing

dude a s-lock is plastic, small and a couple of dollars. i also put vodka in, not water

>>1128329
A valve like you're talking about would be a total pain in the ass to clean and sanitize. A 3 piece plastic airlock cost $2USD, fits any carboy, is very small, and is super easy to clean. Not sure what you mean by miles of tubing.

>>1128329
When you see someone using a long tube stuck into something else as an airlock (blowoff tube), it's because they expect the fermentation to foam up and expand out of the vessel. If you don't use a tube going into another vessel then something like this can happen >>1128196 (the pic, not the desire to cum). They make dry airlock valves like you're describing, but if the brew foams up it could get clogged up and make a rocket/explosion.

>>1128378
Depends on the recipe. Those styles are in about the same range of IBU and final sweetness. Compare the recipes - a higher IBU and/or lower FG will probably make the beer taste more bitter. Or it's also possible you boiled the finishing hops too much (if there were any?) when you made the beer and got more bitterness out of it than the recipe intended. Anyway, just try a commercial brown ale or amber ale, see what you think of that, then you can probably find the stats on that beer out there if you like it.

If you definitely want a less-bitter beer try a cream ale, blonde ale, or maybe a sweet stout.

File: Snapchat-418092254.jpg (312KB, 1080x1920px) Image search: [Google]

312KB, 1080x1920px

Starting some blueberry wine, really sucks that my widemouth carboy is being used right now, was a real bitch getting all the blueberry into this

>>1128777
nice, blueberry wine is really good
you used just blueberries I hope
when I was brewing blueberry wine I found a package of raspberries in the back of the freezer and I was dumb enough to throw them in just for the hell of it, really sabotaged the color
still tasted great, but the wine became way more light-red than I wanted

>>1127311
You need some enzymes to convert the rice to glucose. Either from koji mold, malt, or pure amylase (available from most homebrew supply shops).

>>1127323
Rice wine is theoretically cheaper than sugar wine. But sugar wine is already very cheap and much easier.

>>1128378
>didn't like it. yucky. too bitter
Don't throw it away, you can save it by blending with your next batch which you'll make very low bitterness.

>>1111858
http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com/post1888/

Amongst all the dribbling there is some good info on oaking.

>>1127891
Did you do the vinegar, salt and 12 volt battery method?

>>1128836
6 pounds of blueberries, 4 pounds sugar, 2 gallons water, acid blend, tannins, nutrients, pectic.
Followed a recipe online exactly

File: 1477382755461.jpg (19KB, 500x380px) Image search: [Google]

19KB, 500x380px

Who's all grain here?

>>1129149
Salt water, q-tips, and a 12v Makita battery. Tool battery had a little too much juice though. Q-tips were burning, and I welded a tiny little spot where my forceps touched the kettle.

Worked great though.

>>1129200
I can do all-grain, but I like my beer above 8% abv, so I end up doing a partial mash more often than not. I should have bought the 10 gallon cooler instead of the 5. I can only mash about 12 lbs of grain, and my efficiency is shit.

I'm doing my second batch of hard cider and am using one of those kits from Brewer's best because the first batch I made with it turned out great. Is it worthwhile to add a pound of raisins to a 5 1/2 gallon batch?

>>1129215
You'll find that raisins will turn out tasting a lot like stale white wine when finished. Cheap source of fruit though.

>>1129205
>12v Makita battery. Tool battery had a little too much juice though

Thanks for that info, I was gonna use the same but at 14.4V. I might just buy a small rectangle 9V to do the job.
Using a 2lt jug to measure out my sparge water in the urn is really starting to annoy me.

My beer was very nice, but for some reason the colour was pretty thick and looked like muddy pondwater - hard to see in this photo through the bottle, (>>1107582) but you might be able to get the idea (btw >>1124957 I'm not actually holding it upside down, for some reason the photo flipped).

How do I get it clearer? Is it just a case of adding more water?

>>1129200
For the second time last weekend.

Pirate style red ale that bubbled over during fermentation. Should be ready by St. Patricks day.

Can someone rate the recipe for my 2nd batch?

Both in terms of the ingredients I've chosen, and whether or not the procedure I've explained is accurate, if you don't mind. I'm still very new to this and trying to explain everything as simply and straightforward as possible, so I don't get lost in the jargon. If you think there are alterations I need to make, please let me know. The style I'm aiming for is a hoppy dunkel (German origin style with an American twist, hence the name) - partly because I'm trying to use up ingredients from my first batch, and partly because I think it could be an interesting style.

http://pastebin.com/R9q1BimS

>>1129342
I'm stealing your recipe and giving it a more witty name.

>>1129363
Oh dear, I thought that the recipe was the weak part and the name was the strong part if I'm being honest.

>>1110406
I just drank some mead from my first batch, and have just yesterday transfered some of my second batch into secondary fermentation.

The method I'm using is 1 gallon of mineral water, 2.5-3 pounds of honey, wine yeast (EC-1118), and some yeast nutritional powder mixed together in a carboy. Add it all in and then shake it a lot until the honey and water are evenly mixed.

At that point add in any fruits or flavorings. Fruit adds more food for yeast as well. My orange mead uses 2-3 oranges sliced up, no skins and a handful of raisins. My other mead uses sliced up large apples, cinnamon sticks, and a few raisins. I'm planning on trying out some cherry mead at some point. I did some pretty drinkable strawberry mead with a large handful of chopped strawberries and raisins.

Whatever you chose tho, just mix it up and then put an airlock/balloon on it. I'm using airlocks that I'm extra sealing with some electrical tape.

Wait about a month to 45 days, then transfer the mead to another bottle using a handheld siphon pump. Airlock the second bottle and let it sit 1-2 months or until it's clear. Then bottle it, cork it, and drink it.

Pretty simple method. No heating or any complicated exact measurements. Just make sure to wash everything you are using well. I clean out my carboys with a few drops of bleach and a lot of hot water before using them.

>>1129168
that's gonna be real good, I tell you

hypothetically speaking, if I just kept adding sugar to my brew, what would happen?
could I get it up to like 30-40%?
would it taste like garbage?
why is it that 25% is generally seen as the cap for these things?

>>1129559
The yeast can only tolerate a certain alcohol level. Different strains can handle more or less though. For example, champagne yeast may be able to handle something like 15%-20%, but ale yeast may only handle up to 8%-9%.

At a certain point, the yeast just die from alcohol poisoning and you have to switch to distillation to get a higher abv.

>>1129559
It is my understanding that yeast die in an environment above certain alcohol percentage. Once you max out what that yeast strain can handle, you're just pouring sugar into your brew.

That's part of why brewing yeasts are better than bread yeasts when you brew- they have been bread to be able to survive in higher amounts of alcohol.

Different anon, related question. What happens if I try to distill mead the way I'd distill hard liquor?

I have hard crusty black matter surrounding the rim of my homebrew. Curious if this is just dead yeast and if so is it harmless?

>>1129610
That is not normal.

>>1129316
Cold crash the fermenter at 0c for at least 24hrs prior to bottling, that will help with reducing sediment but will not eliminate it.

Unless you go to kegging and filter your beer, you will always have sediment in bottles as when you add priming sugar the yeast grows a little again to eat the sugars and carbonate the beer.

You could also use isinglass/polyclar/gelatin to help clear it up.

File: Capture.jpg (172KB, 1677x880px) Image search: [Google]

172KB, 1677x880px

>>1129342
On beersmith it comes out unbalanced. But I don't know your equipment efficiency.

>>1129316
There's a few things that contribute to a beer's clarity. Mostly, it is just patience waiting for all the gunk (hop bits, proteins, yeast) to drop out of solution. Wait for it all to be on the bottom of the fermenter (the longer it sits the clearer it gets, but I don't think it's worth it past a month), then siphon very carefully.
The other thing is there is something called 'chill haze' - when the wort isn't cooled quickly enough post-boil, some proteins will stick around suspended in the wort.

>>1129610
If you're talking about in the fermentor, it's probably crusted up hops and gunk from when the fermentation bubbled up. Don't worry.

>>1129688
>415g of citra in inventory

You must really like citra.

>>1129688
How do I balance it? I have no idea how to use beersmith. As for my equipment efficiency, I've only just started out and I'm using pretty basic equipment, so I'm guessing it's pretty inefficient? How does that make a difference?

>>1129580
You'd end up with rum.

File: BlackBerrySweetMead.png (465KB, 477x598px) Image search: [Google]

465KB, 477x598px

Just letting this beautiful girl age up a bit. It's a black berry sweet mead i've been fermenting for 7 weeks. I already took the black berries out and just waiting for the rest of the yeast to die so I can rack it a few more times then bottle it. I checked it a few days ago and the alcohol level is at 15%. I named her Madison Sweet Black.

Hey guys
I'm the annon with the 10$ kit.
Just brewed a Mr beer kit, a long play IPA.
It's bitter as all hell.
Is their any way to homebrew stuff without making the wort by hand and not have it taste terrible like this? Also, are there any good Mr beer refills? i assume the gear's good.

>>1129780
Beersmith has a free 21 day trail period and you can do regedit to reset it.
It is a really good program for designing recipes and you can set your own equipme t profike and get it dialed in.

>>1130719
Extract is about the best easy/quick way to make good wort.
https://byo.com/mead/item/2129-extract-brew-day-a-pictorial-guide


The prehopped extract tins are a bit shit, the best thing you can do for the prehopped extract is to use light dried malt instead of sugar/dextrose and to control ferment temprature.

>>1130719
Check out https://club.coopers.com.au/coopers-forum/

Coopers/Mr Beer is the same company. There is good recipes on there. But you will have to add steeping grains and dry hop but its not that hard.
When I first started brewing I used a fair few of the recipes there and they always turned out good. Helpful bunch too if you need it.

>>1130663
that's a good looking carboy
what is that, like 4 gallons
also blackberry mead sounds funky fresh

>>1130725
Does it need to be reset? I deliberately doubled the hop content compared to the generic recipe I found, because I wanted to see what a more hoppy lager would taste like.

File: 450x450x41435-bmb-plastic-5gal-universal-lid-siphonless.jpg.pagespeed.ic.skuV4lNLdf.jpg (23KB, 450x450px) Image search: [Google]

23KB, 450x450px

>>1128777
Why do you do that to yourself instead of getting one of these?

>>1131014
6 gallon but yeah I flavored it with black berries so I'm excited to see how it turns out. Just waiting for it to clear up a bit now.

>>1131119
i already have one of those, its just in use. been spending too much money recently to justify buying another one

>>1131251
Know what you mean. Just blew most of my paycheck on chronical fermenter.