homebrew general

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>>1151847
>what does dandelion wine taste like?

It only uses the flower petals so it won't taste like grass or weeds. If you have too much green parts in it the flavor will become bitter. It is a very delicate floral flavor and easily overpowered by all the other ingredients. A dandelion mead is almost all honey flavor. A dandelion wine made using tea for tannins will be almost all tea flavored. Raisins for tannin = raisin flavor. Banana for nutrients and it doesn't overshadow the floral with fruity all that much if you use 1 banana for 5-6gal. If you use brown sugar or spices, it will taste more like that and so on. If you cook the petals instead of steep them you really bork the flavor.

Thus, a bit of tannin powder, white sugar only, a bit of yeast nutrient, a bit of acid powder, Vintner's Harvest "CY17 Saccharomyces Cerevisiae" yeast (for best floral results), spring water, and a ton of dandelion petals.

>>1151874
very interesting

you've made it before?

Does anybody actually make applejack anymore? Is it good?

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>>1151964
what exactly do you mean by that? some people refer to it when talking about different methods of raising alcohol content (freezing, distilling) but I don't which is more "proper"


maybe or not related, is pic pleb tier?
tried it and it was pretty good

>>1151847
Hey, that was my wine! i just gave two bottles of it to my sister for her birthday. Right now i'm doing blueberry wine and mead but the fermentation is stuck at 1.04 on the blueberry.

>>1151987
well it looked tasty

might be able to get some blueberries and wild raspberries this summer, depends on how the weather goes

>>1151992
Oh, it is. I was just surprised to see it. I'm going to repitch my blueberry and put a heater on it again. I think a few cold days killed the yeast

>>1151964
I make applejack and my stuff is delicious

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>>1151961
Many times, just not as much as I'd like.

>>1152199
what about seeping them in another clear alcohol to extract flavor?

usually they're growing all over the place when it finally warms up

>>1152265
That's an infusion, which has no real place in a homebrew thread unless you brewed kilju or finished sugar wine then did it.

My wine stopped fermenting after only a week or so but is still cloudy. I'm going to let it settle for a week before I rack it - is it going to taste like pure sugar now?

>>1152317
>is it going to taste like pure sugar now?
you mean if the yeast didn't do enough

you'd be surprised what can happen in just a week

A thread on /ck/ last week reignite my interest in brewing. I always had interest in brewing but always let it for tomorrow.

Last week tried kvass with simple flour bread and banana jam and it turned better than I expected. Using brewing yeast + sanitization makes everything 100% better.

Yesterday started a batch of ginger flavored kilju (ginger ale) using Lalvin 1116. I'm keeping volume low (only 800 mL) so if things go wrong I don't lose a lot of materials.
I'm interested in playing with wild yeast and I would like to sour my fruit wines but I don't know if it is possible. I'm reading Steinkraus' Handbook of Indigenous Fermented Food and that is a really interesting book.

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Has someone made tinctures or drinks from yarrow? I've been interested in this plant since seeing this page on erowid https://erowid.org/herbs/yarrow/yarrow_info1.shtml
Can someone confirm or debunk these claims about yarrow's effects? I have these plants growing in my backyard so it'd be good to know.

How do you check to make sure what you made wont blind you?

>>1152695
>burgers and their blinding booze
We are all blind here.

>>1152637

There's videos on youtube that show how to collect your own yeast from the environment around you.

It's not that difficult if I remember. You set out a jar of sugar water or fruit juice outside overnight, with a piece of cheese cloth or something over it to stop bugs getting in but still allows air in, then you take your now inoculated juice and smear it on petri dishes and allow the cultures to grow, then you can separate off different yeasts and cultivate them, add them to your different brews and test how well they perform, alcohol production, taste, etc.

pretty cool

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>>1152695
You never need to worry about that unless you are distilling grappa. If grappa is incorrectly distilled it will have too much methanol in it and will seriously harm you or even kill you.

All other types of distilling are safe from that, even if incorrectly done. All types of fermenting alcohol are safe from that. The amount of alcohol you'd need to drink in order for the minuscule methanol amounts to harm you would kill you from ethanol poisoning long before the methanol harms you.

When someone illegally uses denatured alcohol added to fermented or distilled alcohol it will be extremely dangerous, causing harm and death. denatured alcohol has methanol in it as well as some other poisonous substances. It is only used for industrial purposes or fuel.

This latter reason is why you need to ask people how they made their distilled alcohol. Some people are dishonest/ignorant and don't know that denatured alcohol can kill you. Only drink distilled alcohols from people whom you trust and have a good track record.

Poorly or badly made fermented alcohols, which are infected and bad for your health, will be so nasty tasting that it would take a herculean effort of gag reflex to actually drink them to get sick. Even then you'd throw it up and/or have the shits for 1-3 days, not fun.

>>1152695

If you are only making wine or beer then there is no worry of going blind, the methanol produced by yeast is tiny when it's diluted in the volumes of liquid found in wine and beer.

the only time you risk going blind is when you distil. When you distil you are essentially evaporating the volatile compounds (the ones we are interested in methanol and ethanol) out of your starting alcoholic brew. you heat up whatever alcohol you want to distil, when it reaches a certain temperature the volatile compounds will start to turn to vapour, this is what you allow to rise up the still column, down into the condenser where they turn from a gas back into a liquid and this is your high proof ethanol. methanol is the first to evaporate since it has a lower boiling point than ethanol, so the first liquid to exit your condenser will be methanol, you collect this in a separate vessel, you can either keep it to use for cleaning or throw it down the drain or use it for fuel for a little camping stove or for a lantern, many uses.this is the time people may get eager to taste their spirit and accidentally consume methanol ( don't know how because it smells different to ethanol). once you have collected the first little bit of methanol that comes out, then the ethanol is the next to start boiling off, this is what you keep and drink, then as you near the end of the run, when you ethanol has almost all but turned to vapour, you're done. as you near the end of the ethanol production the distillate starts to become weaker and weaker as the boiling point of the liquid in the still rises and more water is evaporated along with the ethanol, you don't really want this, you can keep collecting but not for drinking. then you are left with just the water in your still and all of the ethanol has been removed.

>cont.

>>1152717


>cont.

ethanol also happens to be the antidote for methanol poisoning. so when methanol and ethanol are combined your chances are greatly reduced of going blind at all. so even if you were to accidentally drink methanol, as long as it was mixed with a sufficient quantity of ethanol or you consumed ethanol soon after, it would likely make you feel very ill and give one hell of a hangover but wouldn't blind you necessarily.

so you can see, with wine and beer, because you have such a large overall volume of liquid (water) then a smaller amount of ethanol, then a tiny amount of methanol, the amount of water + ethanol makes any tiny amount of methanol produced harmless, and by tiny i'm talking, nothing to even remotely worry about.

I'm not very good at explaining things and there is a lot more detail and things to know but this is the general idea.

I've been considering brewing my own "hooch" as a basic introduction into brewing. The directions are quite simple. In my next post, i will attach my terribly handwritten copy of what i learned from a video

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>>1152969
Please correct me if any of this information i have written is incorrect! +any suggestions at all?

>>1152695
Just an amendment to what the others said, a lot of shady distillers during prohibition would cut (increase the amount) their product with methyl alcohol, or would use stills that used parts from car radiators, which could contain lead, methyl alcohol, and ethylene glycol. At some point during prohibition, the government regulated that poison was to be added to alcohol products, so that if someone tried drinking them, they would become ill or dead. This was called denaturing, if I recall correctly.

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>>1152970
>containers
Looks good, but if you're buying juice why not use the container it comes in?
>burpers
Air locks are fun to watch I guess but not too important. I'd consider them low priority. Plastic cling wrap, aluminum foil, latex balloon, or even an unlubed condom works great for this purpose. You can even get away with leaving the lid partially unscrewed, the vessel should have positive pressure so its pushes the nasties away. Despite having various stoppers and lids I use plastic wrap most of the time
>yeast
You'll get alcohol but it makes a huge difference in outcome. EC1118 is good general purpose if you're looking for a wine yeast. It's pretty mean and tolerates sugar, alcohol, and temperature well
>boiling
Skip this and avoid juice with preservatives except in cases like skeeter pee. Even then just let it sit out a few hours, no need to boil. Sorbate, sulfite, and benzoate are the ingredients to avoid. There are plenty of pasteurized juices with only ascorbic acid as a preservative, yeast are cool with that one.
>add water
A hydrometer is very helpful here. You can measure sugar, potential alcohol, as well as work backwards to estimate how much alcohol you have. Hydrometer is the easiest way to tell if fermentation has stopped/stuck.

>>1152970
>>1153003
This will work but there are easier ways of getting your feet wet. I'd suggest buying a large bottle of juice without preservative. Rehydrate the yeast before pitching,sprinkle the packet in a small amount of warm water and let it fall. This increases the amount that survive compared to sprinkling on the juice directly. There are no hard and fast rules outside of sanitization. Starsan is what I use but bleach(rinse the shit out of it) or heat can work. 5 gallon HDPE buckets from walmart are cheap and safe to use. HDPE or PET are the better plastics options. For bottling use whatever is convenient. Boxwine bags, plastic bottles, glass bottles,etc.. Make sure fermentation won't restart in the bottle though, it can explode with too much pressure. If you plan to sweeten after you'll need to stabilize(sorbate/sulfite) or pasteurize to prevent refermantation.

It's fun just to play around. Make the recipe up as you go, just take notes in case it's good and you want to remake it.

Anyone know a good source for 1 gallon glass jugs? Grocery store says people don't return those, couldn't find any at the recycling center, don't particularly want to pay $8 plus a bottle... Closest I've gotten are 250's from a wine bar downtown, however they don't serve anything that comes in gallon jugs.

>>1153052
Got a valu village nearby? Check what they have to offer

My wine has finished fermenting but is still quite foggy after a week or so after finishing. How can i better clear the wine before bottling?

>>1153210
It really depends on what is causing it and what type of wine it is. read up

https://winemakermag.com/715-using-fining-agents-techniques

>>1153210
Let it bulk age, rack to secondary. Do this repeatedly til it's clear.

If you use sodium metabisulfate to sanitize your equipment does the brew inside take on a lot of sulfites or is it negligible.

>>1153257
I personally like to use a splash of 70% isopropyl alcohol, and then I rinse well with water about three to four times.

>>1153052
They're pretty affordable on amazon when you buy more than one (IIRC 4 bottles with lids was 25 bucks), but if that's too much then homebrew supplies tend to have them five bucks a pop. If you order online then shipping will probably equalize that.

You can also try health foods and hippy stores. One of mine in town has some dammed good unfiltered apple cider in glass gallon jugs for 8 bucks. You can even make some cider, then keep the jug after to get the most mileage.

Is moonshining talk allowed on this board, friends?

>>1153459
go for it

I'm interested in starting a hard cider brew. I know I'll do it more than once so should I do 5 gal for my fist try or buy gear for a 1 gal brew and then move up to 5 gal the second time?

>>1153462
Definitely one gallon. If you've never brewed before then there is a high chance you'll fuck up. Better to waste 1 gallon's worth of ingredients instead of five times as much.

>>1153460
Just distilled my first batch of brandy from red table wine from the store as a try out tonight with my new copper alembic, really slow at a low temperature.

It's honestly as good as €30 per 0.7L grappa for about a third of the price. And this is store bought stuff with alcohol tax on it. I'm hoping to dip under €5 a bottle for top tier liquor desu.

>>1153210
What's wrong with foggy wine? All wine was foggy for most of human history, I would cherish it. I've read that some wine snobs actually prefer unclarified wine because it has more flavour.

Unfiltered beer is delicious as well so they might be on to something.

>>1153462
Definitely 5 gallons. If you aren't retarded you won't fuck up. 1 gallon is just enough to piss you off and make you wish you had made a decent batch size. I just tasted an apple cider brew I did 5 weeks ago on Sunday and it was amazing.

>3.3lbs munich LME
>3oz torrified wheat
>1oz Saaz
>4.5gal apple juice(cloudy shit in glass jugs from whole foods)
>safale05

The only thing I'd have changed was maybe some pectinase, it never cleared even after cold crashing and gelatin fining. I don't have my notes handy but it came out around 6%abv.

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>>1153467

I've been itching to do some shining lately, maybe a vacuum still. I've seen a couple builds similar to pic related and want to try it if I can do it without fucking up my only keg.

I was thinking of removing the liquid fitting and dip tube and screwing on something going to copper tubing and a worm condenser. Vacuum would be on collection, so there will be a valve between the worm and collection.

Two people said it sucked their keg in at 28inHg, so I'd stay at 27 or 26. 55%abv in collection will boil at room temperature at 28inHg anyway. One person soldered a 0.25" sheet around their keg and said it held up to 29 so there's always that.

>>1153475
I'm gonna go 5 gal. It's not worth the money to buy 1 gal then a 5 gal. Whatever I do I'm using lots of sugar for lots of alcoholic goodness

>>1153475
That sounds pretty good, do you do a boil?

>>1153478
I'm really new to this stuff, but what's the benefit of a vacuum? I've never heard of it, all I know is pot stills, column stills and reflux column stills.

>>1153478
>28inHg

Fug. Anything past 23inHg usually starts to get dangerous with regular vessels. 26inHg is as much as I go with glass canning jars for sealing dehydrated food.

>29inHg keg

Double fug.

>>1153479
Just sanitize and you're good to go. Buy star san and a spray bottle and infections are pretty much impossible. Just wash everything that'll touch the brew and spray it with diluted star san, it's no rinse so it's really convenient too. I have more than 200 liters brewed and have yet to encounter a spoiled bottle or brew.

>>1153479

Sounds good. I primed with undiluted frozen apple juice concentrate. I like using the syrup for increasing alcohol.

>>1153480

Yeah, lme and ~enough water, 15 minutes steep for the wheat and 60 minute boil for the hops.

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>>1153482

It lowers the boiling point. I'm wanting to get going with induction cooktop for brewing indoors so this would work nice with the keg in a hot water bath and the shitty 1.8kw I can throw at it. I could be wrong because I'm shit at chemistry but I believe it works the same as your pot and reflux stills, it's just done under vacuum. I'd do it like a pot still and just add thumpers as I see fit. Maybe even add on a manifold at the worm so it's easier to switch collection vessels and make cuts.

>>1153494

There are some crazy people out there. I guess if I had to choose I'd rather an implosion and alcohol to liquid everywhere than explosion and alcohol to fire everywhere. Both said it sounded like a cannon going off. I can't even imagine what 29inHg must be like, that had to be a because I can shits and giggle thing. Condensing would be a bitch.

Pic related is reinforced keg. It got me wondering how much harder it would be to just make my own keg from scratch using sheet metal and a couple bowls at the ends. Then I could use something less retarded than 19/32" - 8 for fittings. With triclamp flange on top it could attach a proper still head on the thing.

>>1153724
You can alter an existing keg to your needs by removing and welding on what you want. That'd be far easier and safer than trying to make your own.

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>>1153783

I thought about buying a spare lid and brazing a tc flange to it. I've seen corny fermenting lids predrilled with 3/4" hole that go for less than a used intact lid. For vacuum apparently it's just a matter of placing it on upside down.

I don't know that it'd be any safer than making my own but it certainly would be easier. I don't mind a little extra work if it's exactly what I wanted though. Maybe later once I get more toys for the shop.

The first pic doesn't even need any real work though, as best I tell it uses the fittings already on the keg. The hard part is finding and fixing all the leaks.

>>1153724
Why would you want to lower the boiling point?

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>>1153937

It just sounds fun. Needing less heat would be nice, on 120v 20A the best induction top I can get is 1.8kw. I can reached needed temps in a hot water bath. Cooler vapors so condensing would be easier provided they aren't too cold. For something like gin/absinthe/soju/eaux de vie it might give more delicate flavors, less heat induced changes. No worries about scorching if I'm a lazy shit that dumps the whole wash solids and all in the boiler.

You know how us autists get tunnel vision. I haven't even made one run and I already picked a best and only way in my mind. It's probably easier to just slap a hole on a kettle lid and make a gasket with ptfe tape wrapped cardboard but where's the fun in that?

>>1154223
I see. What kind of volumes of wash are you considering?

I'm running my 10L copper potstill on a 1000w hotplate and while warm-up is very slow it certainly gets the job done.

It helps that I have my still set up on my desk so I can fuck around online during the run.

>>1154255

My keg is 5 gallons so I could probably do 4 gallons at most. For the kettle I'm looking at 5 to 10 gallons. 4 gallons sounds like a lot so I wouldn't want bigger. 10L is a good size. I guess it's the same amount of runs for low wines relative to whatever boiler is used, but I've always been more of a beer guy so 4 gallons would take a while to drink.

I found a recipe on rice vodka I'd like to try. Steaming is bullshit since my regular way of making rice goes faster and doesn't seem any better or worse tasting for chinese style wine. Sake might be another story but that's too much work. I'd bake up a shitload of rice and let the mold and yeast go at it. Forum guys are saying it's very clean with little heads. Not to sound tinfoil but I already buy lots of rice, it's less suspicious looking then suddenly going through 20lbs of sugar each week.

>>1154372
>rice vodka
Could you mind sharing, anon? From what I can tell most rice wines rely on inoculating with a starter like koji or something, which is pretty hard to come by so I've been looking for alternatives.

>>1154389
not the guy that you're replying to and not an expert, but i'm pretty sure you can just use amylase

alternatively you can chew the rice and spit it out to get some enzymes going
t. saw it in an anime

>>1154389
just add some enzymes m8

>>1154372
>Forum guys are saying it's very clean with little heads.
I think I got obsessed with the same rice wash as you that way.

>>1151987
Any recommended resources on mead? I'm coming across a lot of information but a lot of it is contradictory, and I'm by no means an experienced brewer (though I do love booze).

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>>1154389

Sure, the recipe is Uncle Remus' Rice Vodka.
>>>http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=47996

I plan on modifying it somewhat and playing around with it. Amylase is good, but the wines I've done use a simultaneous saccharification with those poly cultures you get in chink shops. It's similar to koji in sake but a one pot set it forget it type deal. The mold breaks down the starches and the yeast do their yeasting. It's sold in packages of jiuqu, dried yeast balles, or something like that. I just bought what matched the picture. The fob staff at those places barely speak english anyway so it's difficult to ask for help. Ignore the ingredients, it says just flour and yeast but they've always worked when I try to make the good stuff with it. Cost was $3.95 for a 12.3oz bag.
Essentially it's cook rice, mix powdered ball(<103F), put in jar, wait, strain solids, pasteurize, bottle.

If you're interested in more reading there's a lot on Researchgate if you search for shit like Enzymatic extrusion and other rice winey terms. Ideal ratios is 1:100 amylase:rice. Correct pH with lactic acid to 3.5ish, I can't remember the best atm. A paint stirrer and drill should make short work after you've mixed the two if you go that route.

>>1154414

Did you ever try it? It almost sounds too good to be true.

>>1154429

You could read all day. It takes forever to age so just google Joe's Ancient Orange Mead but use a proper yeast instead of the shitty one he suggests. It's a good recipe when you do that. That's as good a starting place as any really.

1lb honey and water to 1gallon is ~5% abv, you want 9-16%. Honey is no good nutrition wise so add nutrients and/or extra shit to help the ferment along. Make some beer or wine too, that way you can let the miracle of time work it's magic on the mead.

>>1154453
Thanks very much mate - I'll give it a look now. As for nutrients, I'll have to look into that too - I'm in NZ and was thinking of using pure manuka honey, and most of the local meads I've seen are just fine with just that. And as for extra flavour I've got a couple of ideas kicking around already - we have wild blackberries all over my back yard so I thought that'd be a good start, and I was thinking of trying something with ginger and lemon after that.

Not homebrewing per se, but has anyone tried the Brewdog Elvis Juice? It looks pretty much exactly what I love in a beer (strong, hoppy, citrus), but I've not had the chance to try it yet. If it's any good, I might try a clone of it for my next batch.

>>1154448
>Did you ever try it? It almost sounds too good to be true.
Not yet. I've only distilled store wine so far. Next step is apple juice with sugar and champagne yeast and after that it's a rye bread wash.

I think I'll try to figure out rice after that.

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>>1154389
Pretty simple really. I bought 40g Aspergillus and made koji rice by steaming the rice, innoculating at 86F and holding under those conditions with a heating pad. You can buy the aspergillus from gemcultures in Washington state on the internet. $26 for 40g which makes a shitload of sake. Pic related.

>>1154499

I've been looking at the awamori stuff. I'd like to try that just because of the black mold meme, it should get some interesting reactions at least.

I thought the lower temperature ranges led to more protease production though which isn't as useful for rice. Why 86F? I'll have to check out gem cultures. $26 isn't too bad, I'd just need something to turn the heating pad on and off.

>>1154448
Thanks anon, I was planning a trip to the local chink mart soon so now I have the perfect excuse to go.

Also, not sure how practical it is but here's a pretty neat paper on traditional fermentation methods in East/Southeast Asia I was looking at earlier.
>>>http://www.fao.org/docrep/x2184e/x2184e09.htm

>>1154581
>86F

That's what the instructions I found said to do. After thee first 12 hours, the fungus activity starts producing it's own heat so that you don't even need the heating pad anymore. I've had it get up to 115F just on it's own and that's with uncovering it and stirring every 12 hours.

That Gem Cultures was the best deal I could find.

>>1151847
So... why doesn't the homebrew general have a sticky?

Im vaguely interested in homebrewing, but the general doesn't have a readme in the OP i guess

>>1154791
Sticky idea seconded. Would love to contribute, but I'm only one batch into my homebrewing journey and far far from knowing what I'm talking about at this stage.

Hi guys, real amateur here with a question. i've already made2 batches of beer (a stout and and IPA), as well as mead, hard apple cider, and some cranberry juice hooch all with sucess.

what are some other easy to make home brew ideas i can do?

Is orange juice ferment-able ?

Got 3.5 gallons of imperial stout working. 3.3 lbs hopped malt extract canned beer kit;porter style. 3lbs light malt extract. 1lb amber malt extract. 1lb chocolate malted barley. Should give a abv of 9percent at $37 for the batch

>>1154829
>Is orange juice ferment-able ?
definately. I made a batch of orange wine for distilling, but ended up drinking a lot of it because it was so good

>>1152717
Doesn't methanol also burn a different color than ethanol?

>>1154839

excellent! would conventional store bought orange juice from concentrate work?

>>1154888
yes i did it with juice from concentrate.
not sure about you're country's regulations on fruit juice, but for example in germany anything labeled as fruit juice has to be fermentable by law.

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>>1154886
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxd_CH2NIWE

>>1154891
Canadian here, and thanks for all your help as well as the cool facts.

hit the jackpot today at an estate sale

7 gallon jugs and various alcohols all free
they must have been doing it for a while since I got some plum cordial that has been aging for 39 years....no joke....that stuff is pretty potent too

>>1154791
unless the goal is toilet wine, there would be a lot of potential info that could go any number of ways

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum.php

>>1154916
That's why you put a pastebin in the OP

>>1154919
for every one person that says "do this, this way", there's someone else who will say "no, do this instead"

if the point is to come up with specific resources for starting out, eg. HB forums, then sure, but otherwise the amount of info out there is massive, with many different opinions

>>1154916
Seconding homebrewtalk.
I see a lot of questions that need a more in depth answer than 4chan gives space for, and have been answered by professionals or at least very experienced amateurs on hbtalk.

Im looking to make azeotropic alcohol (or close to it, anyway). I know I'll need to distill it, but i don't want to waste a lot of resources. So, what is a good approximate method to maximize alcohol output?

>>1155131
by azeotropic you mean 96% alcohol?
if you don't want to build or buy a distill, I read about another method somewhere:
you basically replace the lid of a pot with a bowl, that you cool with icewater and put a cup in the middle to catch the condensating alcohol.
this should probably work a little like a reflux still, since the alcohol in the cup will vaporize again.
You probably have to run this method 3 to 4 times to get the alcohol content high enough.
I have never done this though.

>>1155131
If reflux still is too complex, then just make a simple, basic still and distill shit several times.

Does anyone here know anything about pickles? I just put some into a brine and then read an article saying you need to remove the chlorine in the water first, which I didn't. I am using rubber airlocks, should I stop now because they will rot or am I ok?

>>1155296

Chlorine is there to retard bacteria growth. I've never done a lacto ferment outside of a rice wine context. Boiling water should knock the Cl out, so if it doesn't start you might could pour some liquid off and boil so you don't have to mix another brine. Did you use special cultures or just let it start on it own?

>>1155322
Let it start on its own. I'll try a pour and boil. I put them on last night so I worry that they may be dying as I type this but we will see

Started fermenting a batch of beer using unboiled city water, how fucked am I?

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I finally racked my blueberry wine today and checked the short mead. It should already be drinkable but im going to wait til we go to the renn fair

Very new to homebrewing, I've made one batch of mead and racked it the other day. It had a starting gravity of 1.080 and when I racked it for the first time it's gravity was at 1.00 I used lavlin d47 yeast for a 1 gallon batch with 3 pounds honey. It tasted dry and had a very alcoholic taste, from what I've read that's normal and it should mellow out after it ages?

>Made my own Sake
>Tastes bad
>Still gets me fucked up

どうしよう~

Im >>1155131

What would be an acceptable water/sugar/yeast ratio for lots of ethanol? I've been reading up on "fermentation stress" and that sort of thing, but I'm not sure how to deal with it for my case because the articles just talk about "low" percentage alcohols (~10%). Am i going to have to accept these percentages and just distill it, or can i get yeast to reach 30%+ in (i think it's called) the wash?

Will the yeast kill themselves with the booze if the concentration is too high?

>>1155738
Most you can get from yeast is around 20% with optimal fermentation.

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I was thinking of trying to make some applejack from hard cider. Pointers?

Do I literally just brew the cider, boil some of it, chuck more yeast and sugar in it, let it sit for another two weeks, then freeze it and drip off the alcoholic bits? Are there any dangers for someone relatively new to producing alcohol at home?

I have my first attempt at a yeast culture started.

Very small, about 5 tablespoons of mixture. It's something like 1:4:16 parts yeast, sugar, water, with some high pulp 100% OJ thrown in after. The temp is kinda low right now, but it should reach room temperature soon enough

It's covered with a cloth for air intake, and has no light.

How often should i check on it? Im just trying to maintain a live culture right now

>>1155425
what kind of yeast do you use to make mead?

>>1156135
I used a Red Star Montrachet that i bought from amazon.

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>>1156112
Bumping with a high voltage outhouse

I was in the last homebrew general, just finished a batch of Kilju.

Just started another one, and it's been maybe 6 hours, and there's yeasty gunk in my airlock.

Did I not leave enough room, and is there any way I can salvage it?

>>1156324
just wash it out?

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I have a conundrum: I have a batch of ginger "beer" (more like kilju but lower ABV - straight turbinado fermentation with loads of ginger and some spices) I racked to a carboy on 4/2 (2 days ago). I intended to just bottle from the carboy that night and added about 120g turbinado as priming sugar.

Should I add another 120g when I bottle for bottle conditioning (would the yeast have consumed that sugar already?) Ultimately it shouldn't matter as I'll be bottling mostly to PET and champagne bottles, but I'm curious.

Alternatively, should I just leave it in secondary for a little and see what happens? I'm pretty amateur and have only done a few batches of this stuff, none of which have really had the flavor I wanted. I'm kind of curious what some time in secondary would do. I still want to be able to carbonate in the bottle, though.

>>1156324
During the primary phase, there's a lower chance of contamination because CO2 is constantly forcing out the air in the vessel, and the yeast are active, so they can out-compete anything that gets in there. So, it's generally not a big deal to quickly remove the airlock and clean it, or switch to a blowoff tube if it's really going crazy. By the time the yeast die off, the alcohol usually keeps undesirable microbes out.

>>1156532
Best course is to wait out the time for a bottle conditioning phase in the secondary and then add more priming sugar before bottling. It's tricky to tell where things are after the secondary phase is over. Sometimes yeast need to re-acclimate for days during bottle conditioning before they consume the priming sugar.

>>1156112
24 hrs in or so, it's smelling a bit not so yeasty. Not bad smelling per se, just not yeasty. Maybe it's from products of the yeast? Honestly i think it smells a touch like booze, but it's hard to say. There is still plenty of yeast smell

>>1156642
I put it in a half gallon jug of sugar juice with OJ. Is the specific gravity of the starter culture supposed to be higher or lower than the actual juice?

>>1156532
I'd wait for it to ferment out and add another 120g. It usually takes a few weeks for bottles to fully carbonate, but I think the fermentation happens mostly in the first several days and then most of that time is waiting for the CO2 to dissolve into solution? So maybe it's mostly fermented by now, but I'd play it safe and wait another week or two. If you add twice the priming sugar then even if your bottles are sturdy enough to not break you're going to have a really over-carbonated drink that will probably end up on the ceiling when you open it.

>>1156656
It hasn't really done anything since i put it in the jug...

>>1152652
>https://erowid.org/herbs/yarrow/yarrow_info1.shtml

I've never ingested it but I know from experience in the backcountry that crushed leaves and flowers are an outstanding antihaemorhagic. As for the rest, i couldn't tell you.

Is freeze-distilled applejack usually sufficiently alcoholic to be shelf-stable and sterile after only one distillation?

>>1154429
The Compleat Meadist is a good book to get.

>>1156863
http://www.distillingliquor.com/2015/02/13/how-to-make-applejack-freeze-distillation/

According to this you can get up to 45% alcohol if your freezer is cold enough, making it pretty damn shelf stable.

I'd worry more about the methanol present in the final product, though.

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Just transferred my first batch of homebrew to the secondary. It smelled great and has a nice color to it but I'm a bit concerned about this sediment I found around the edge of it on the walls - will this give the beer a nasty flavor? There was also thick paste at the bottom but I assume that's just the spent yeast.

>>1157159
That's normal, it's dried krausen.

>>1157170
Great
It left a bit of a ring on my bucket though, what's the best way to get it out? Soap, water, and scrubbing?

>>1157191
Don't scrub, get pbw or oxyclean. Soak it and rinse.

Can someone explain why methanol is an issue if the same volume of alcohol is consumed?

For example, say you drank 1 bottle of wine (750 ml of liquid) with 12% ethanol (90 ml) and .02% methanol (.15 ml)

Why would distilling that same bottle and drinking it make it more harmful? Assume the same volume is theoretically reduced perfectly to four 45 ml shots at 50% alcohol

>>1157222
Because when you distill something like wine, you're essentially concentrating whatever's in it that has a lower boiling point than water, in this case both the ethanol and the methanol.

Just based on your example, 0.02% or 15 ml ethanol in 750 ml becomes 2% or 3.5 ml ethanol in 180 ml, which is considerably higher. But then again, when you distill anything you always discard the foreshots, which contain most of the methanol (which has a lower boiling point than ethanol and comes out first) anyway, so I wouldn't worry about it too much.

>>1157244
oops meant to say 0.02% and 2% methanol, not ethanol

>>1157222
You're right, it's not an issue. Except for the obvious fact that there's less water in a distilled drink, so easier to be dehydrated or drink too much or whatever.

>>1151847
Is there like a beginners guide/infograph? I want to get into home brewing if only for cheap goon to get smashed at parties

>>1157222
Methanol has a lower boiling point than ethanol, making it enrich at the start of distillation. This makes the methanol/ethanol relation bigger, which is bad.
Since ethanol competitively inhibits methanol metabolization to formic acid, which is the real killer, drinking a bit of methanol with a lot of ethanol has little to no adverse effects.
A small amount of methanol in your non-distilled drink isn't bad because 1)You're not getting a lot of it 2) You're getting a lot of ethanol at the same time, making it less dangerous 3)It isn't enriched like it can be if you don't throw the foreshots away and decide to bottle your distillations by the order it comes out of the still.

>>1157309
depends on what you want to make

>>1157353
I want to make Belgian Trippels and Imperial stouts

Transferred my first homebrew into my secondary yesterday. This thing has been through shit temperature changes, crappy city water, an underfilled airlock, and a very long cooling phase yet it still smells and looks great. Hopefully the taste will match up

>>1157418
Get yourself equipment for brewing beer. You might want to start with extract brewing, and move on to BIAB/all grain as your appetite grows. That is what I did and it's been a great ride.
I don't know how easy it's to make imperial stouts or tripels with extract brewing, but you should be able to make strongish stouts with partial mashing and extract brewing.

homebrewtalk is a good resource for most of what you'll need to know, and John Palmer's how to brew might be good too. The latter can be found in the internet, though it's an outdated version IIRC.

Just wanted to tell you lads I'm getting cunted on my fresh made brandy.

Made from store bought wine, but I'm getting the hang of it. Next stop is distilling kilju.

I'm having a bit of trouble with theory in cider:

>started with crystal clear shitty apple juice
>after few days must gets turbid
>keep turbid for 5 days
>now clarified again and have a white bottom

So I would say that during initial fermentation the yeast cells multiplied too a greater mass than they made the juice turbid. Now after 5 days they started decanting because they died? (sugar levels are lower). But if was the case I would have lots of bubbles. If I have lots of bubbles then the yeast is breathing as much as while the juice was turbid. If I have the same yeast population why they went to the bottom of the liquid?

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>>1157309

If you just want cheap you have plenty of options. Beer is even doable with a little rednecking it.

You might like kilju, take it all the way to the yeasts alcohol max and then mix it. It will taste shitty but anything is drinkable with enough sugar and acid, maybe bitterness if you want to try that. 8lbs of sugar, 4 or 5 gallons of water, maybe some nutrients to help things along. From here you just yeast and wait. You can keep adding sugar 2lbs at a time until the yeast die. Depending on the yeast you choose this could be from 10-20%abv.

You can only go up from here, provided you keep stuff like poop and cum out of it. If I were on a budget I'd get a bunch of apple juice, some dried malt extract, and an ale yeast. Skeeter pee seems easy but some people try to follow the recipe and have trouble. It's always just sugar, yeast, water, and extra shit. I don't win any awards but I sure as hell get drunk. I really like using lots of hibiscus in my skeeter pee.

The trick is always making a big starter. Sprinkle yeast in juice, maybe add some old yeast goo from an old batch that you boiled, shake and swirl it a lot, let it fall clear to pour off, add more good liquid and repeat until you're ready to add to you booze-to-be.

>>1157742

Some yeast are bottom fermenters. Cider doesn't have the same protein content as beer so maybe it's harder to foam or stay up top, gravity still plays a role here.

If you see bubbles it could be the yeast or it could just be carbon dioxide coming out of solution despite yeast inactivity. 5 days isn't ridiculously fast, a hydrometer will help out a lot here to see if fermentation is finished.

>>1157353
By goon i mean basically anything cheap that will get me smashed.

>>1157842
Yeah doesit have to be proper brewing yeast or can you just use Baking yeast. Remember, not going for taste

>>1157742
When the yeast gets inactive, it falls to the bottom. It does not really die, dead yeast imparts a bad flavor on the drink.
Assuming you didn't use a lager yeast, the turbid phase was the most active fermentation phase. It might still ferment, mind you, it's just not as fast as in the beginning.
So nothing is wrong, just wait till the airlock activity ceases, and bottle it/switch to secondary or something.

>>1157913
For kilju, it can be either, but champagne yeast might get you to bigger abv and is probably faster. Baking yeast might have problems with high abv.

>>1156315
Try streamgage

>>1157913

I'd go with like something like lavlin k1-v1116. Brewing yeast would be kind of shitty here. Even if you do chuck a handful of raisins in your yeast are not having a good time, you want something used to bad conditions. Ec1118 is another good one. If money is a concern and you can't just keep a permastarter by pitching half and topping up with fresh juice/boiled yeast goo then go with distillers yeast. It's the same price as bakers yeast, ~$8/lb. Buying a small packet is under $2 for most dry wine yeasts and you can build up population so it's actually cheaper in some ways.

>>1157954
I'm using mead yeast.

Now my yeast is at the bottom but still active. I'm using a recipe from homebrew talk that says to "age" the cider for 3 weeks to improve the taste.
I would let the cider age in the fermentator but do I need to move it another container but separate from the bottom fisrt? If i let the cider age with the bottom then the cells will die give a bad taste?

>>1158031

It can contribute off flavors, but champagne is expected to have those so I guess it's down to taste. 3 weeks isn't really long enough for autolysis to become a concern. They could clean up some of their by products giving a better product than if you went ahead and moved to secondary. 3 months I might consider it, if for no other reason concerns of oxidizing as HDPE is fairly gas permeable.

>>1158031
What >>1158071
said. Your cider can easily rest on the yeast for a month (or maybe 3), there shouldn't be any ill effects from autolysis. If you want to bulk age it in a fermentor after that, then you should probably look into racking it, but I found my cider turned out pretty good by just letting it sit in the fermentor for 3 weeks and then bottling it. Was ready to drink 3 weeks after bottling.

Would really appreciate if some of you lads could look at my recipe and give some feedback. I've never even drank a dark IPA so I've got no idea what to expect from it, I just thought it could be a fun way of using up some ingredients from my first batch without making exactly the same beer.

https://pastebin.com/TeLKgSRy

>>1158358
take this with a grain of salt, but
-that amount of munich should give you quite a bit of maltiness.
-The choco malt should bring, well, chocolatey aroma and taste to the beer. I've made a brown ale with 150g for 18 l and it really does impart a chocolatey taste. With that amount, the taste should be noticeable, though it shouldn't be overbearing.
-Your procedure seems a bit odd. Why do you feel the need to dilute your wort with 14 liters of water after the boil? You're going to end up with a really really weak brew.
-you should really try a dark IPA so that you can see if that's what you like. No reason to make 20 liters of beer that you can't stomach, right?
-use a scale when deciding the amount of priming sugar to use AND use a priming sugar calculator to decide on the correct amount of sugar. For example
https://www.brewersfriend.com/beer-priming-calculator/
Other than that, seems fine if not absolutely smashing. I highly recommend drinking what you'll brew first, then you can discern what things in your brew are good and what aren't.

>>1158382
>Why do you feel the need to dilute your wort with 14 liters of water after the boil? You're going to end up with a really really weak brew

I can't remember if I'm being honest - I made the recipe a couple of months ago when I was initially planning this batch, and I think I followed a basic procedure on some other website. I've never tried the all-grain method before. What would you recommend instead?

>No reason to make 20 liters of beer that you can't stomach, right?

True, although with my first batch I ended up giving most of it away anyway. Enjoy the process of homebrewing more than the actual drinking I think.

>use a scale when deciding the amount of priming sugar to use

Is something off with my calculations? I'm pretty sure I used one of those charts and, although again I can't remember my reasoning exactly, I think I worked it I picked an amount that would give the beer a good head, because that's how I like to drink it.

>Other than that, seems fine if not absolutely smashing.

Cheers man, thanks for the feedback.

Can a salt/pepper grinder be used instead of a grain mill? They're much cheaper.

>>1158396
For the first, use some type of brewing recipe builder, like brewmate, beersmith, brewer's friend, brewtoad etc. to get the right mash and sparge volumes. You should also be using a hydrometer to ensure you're hitting your target specific gravity. After the boil, you should measure your OG and dilute if needed. I mean, with the sort of grain bill you're using, and 12l mash+16l sparge, you'll end up with pretty much 20l of wort post-boil, and the gravity will be AT MOST 1.059, assuming 100% efficiency, which frankly no one will accomplish. Adding another 14l of water to that will make that maximum gravity to be 1.035, which will be a 3-4%brew.
You might also make the mash water a bit hotter- you'll lose some temperature since the grain isn't at 67 C and you'll most likely want the mashing temp be at 67C. Some brews you're going to want to mash a bit hotter, some a bit cooler so it just makes life easier to use a calculator. For the temperatures, you might want to read a bit about the different enzymes that work on the beer at different enzymes and what sort of differences there are, but 67C is the norm.
As for the priming sugar, it's just that the amount of carbonation in a brew is highly dependent on the type of brew, so if you're making anything other than an IPA, you'll want to adjust the amount of sugar. Another point to consider is that the cup of sugar can have air pockets etc., so a scale is prety much the easiest way to ensure that you'll end up with a properly carbonated (not too much, not too little) brew. You'll need a scale if you're going to measure hops anyway, so it's not an unnecessary investment.
But yeah, happy brewing. I hope I'm not coming off as too negative or anything - homebrewing is not really as much a science as it is an art, and it's really forgiving, so as long as you get the basic things right (OG, hop amount, etc) it'll be good.

>>1158182
Can you ever age cider for more than a month?
From what I've been reading on brewtalk:

cider or any other fruit wine
>shouldnt age more than weeks
grape wine
>age at least for months, don't drink straight after fermentation
mead
age for 1+ year

Is this correct? I'm trying to learn why you should do this but I still cannot explain what is happening during the maturing phase. I'm reading a book about phenolics in food and maybe I'm wrong but the idea of aging is to turn some alcohol into phenols and remove the yeasty taste. Is this yeasty taste caused by residual living yeast in the beverage that dies or decant during the aging or I'm wrong?

>>1158418
Do you mean aging in bottles or fermenter?
My cider (no added sugar, only freshly pressed, self-gathered apple juice and yeast, so 5% abv) is still in prime condition after I bottled it at September. Was drinkable after 3 weeks of bottling. Don't know about the phenols or anything, but there's still a very slight yeasty feel to it. Nothing oppressive, just something you'll notice when tasting it.

I'd guess that if it's very strong cider it would need more aging. Like if your cider is in the 10% range, it'll need more than a few weeks to mellow out.

>>1158418
Dry ciders definitely improve with age just like any other kind of wine, as long as you've sanitized well and can minimize exposure to oxygen. I've heard people say back-sweetened ciders maybe don't keep as well? I've never backsweetened though, so I dunno. The dry apfelwein I've made definitely got better after 6+ months in.

>>1158421
whats the difference between aging at bottle and fermenter? Bottles would be without bottom (yeast mass) and fermenter with bottom?

So even with a lot of aging you still had yeast notes? Any idea why? Is it positive or negative in your opnion?

>>1158448
In fermenter, there is the possibility of oxidation, but there's also a lot of live yeast to process unwanted things away. In the bottle, there's no risk of oxidation, but there's less yeast so if you have lots of fusel alcohols or a "hot" taste, it'll go away slower. I guess.

As for the yeast note, I'm guessing it's just how the cider ended up being. IMHO it isn't negative or positive, I hardly notice it, and it doesn't bother me. Everyone I've had taste the cider has been happy with it, so it's fine. Your choice of yeast might have some sort of impact on it, as well as your choice of apples, the tartness of the cider, if it's sweet etc.

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Why is siphoning recommended as opposed to filtration?

I was planning on trying to make some hard cider, but after reading on about it for a while, it seems everyone directs you to siphon it into the secondary vessel, and there seems to be no way to do that in a sterile manner without buying extra equipment. Why not just secure a filter over the end and pour into the secondary vessel directly?

>>1158699

Sterile filters are pricy and will clog quickly unless you use pressure. I've been working on an idea using a filter to collect and wash yeast based on glass fiber filters but that's mainly for propagation. Pouring introduces a lot of oxygen which you probably want to avoid, and the air is full of germs and shit.

Those carboy caps with the two things sticking out top may be what you're interested in. Racking cane down one, tubing from cane to receiving vessel, tube on 2nd cap thingy, air filter on tube, then whatever you pressurize with to start the siphon(blow, compressor, or gas tank).

If your heart is set on filtering they have various plate filters. I'd just get a 10" water filter housing and connect between two kegs. Run starsan through it, run c02 or N2 through it, then your drink. Keep in mind the difference between absolute and nominal filters though. If you're filtering yeast you'd want something under 1.5um. An absolute Polyethersulfone filter and housing with one o-ring cap were about $140 through McMaster-Carr. That'd be a lot better than the shitty meme kits using water filters or slow and cloggy paper filters. A giant ghetto buchner funnel out of a modified HDPE bucket and triclamp ferrule sounds like a fun project too.

>>1158721
It wasn't so much that my heart was set on filtering as that it seemed the cheaper option; the whole point of wanting to homebrew alcohol was to save money because I'm a broke-ass college student, so having to blow an extra 10$-20$ on a tool to start a siphon irks me. But I suppose there's no helping it if I'd have to buy a special filter to filter out solids reliably/quickly anyhow; either way, I end up spending more.

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>>1158725

Time will settle most big things out, but I hate waiting so I use sparkolloid or gelatin. Those pain in the ass auto siphon aren't your only option. The simplest is a length of tubing and a condom type thing. Put tube in liquid, 'condom' and suck other end, kink once enough liquid to start siphon, remove 'condom' and let it go. I built a similar with tubing and a nylon tee with short tube on the the middle barb. I suck on middle tube, kink, liquid flows through tee into other one.

If it's cheap and minimalist you can get by with pouring. It might hurt the product slightly but unless we're making gran cru cabs and tripel IPAs it's really not that noticeable. Clogging is your biggest problem with rigging a filter. There's multiple solutions but pic related might get you started. Cheap funnel, make a plate thing with more holes, put inside funnel, coffee filter in funnel, decant through filter.

If your fermenter is small enough you can pour it I'd just try to carefully decant off into smaller bottles. I started out that way and it was good enough. The last bottle or two might have a little yeast but it will settle with time and you can then decant again into your glass. I don't think a coffee filter will appreciably make it any better than just carefully pouring. Save money and develop a good pouring hand. Old timers say that's how you can spot a moonshiners kid, they're able to pour from one bottle to another without the stream touching the opening. It's illegal but who knows, might be a way to get cash for more cheap wine or shine.

>>1158738
Thanks, I'll jot all this down!

I wanna make a saison. Anyone have any experience/recipes/advice?

Why are sanitizing compounds recommended for cleansing vessels as opposed to, say, boiling water?

>>1158935
They are quicker, safer, and boiling water will warp/melt plastic vessels.

>>1158935
Boiling does not kill instantly, is dangerous, and hard.
Though they're not recommended for cleansing. They're recommended for sanitation. You can't sanitate something that is dirty, so you'll have to clean it first.

>>1158939
>>1158940
Ah, I see. What of the foam/film/residue such compounds leave behind, though? Rinsing with tap water'd probably defeat the purpose, so... do I just keep some sterile water on hand for that, like a covered pot of water that's been boiled beforehand and left to cool?

>>1158942
Use a no-rinse sanitation solution, like star san or other phosphoric acid-based sanitizers.
Other solutions such as iodophor have to be rinsed away. You can use sterilised water, spring water, etc.

Since the water in my country is clean, I'll just use tap water to rinse after cleaning and spray afterwards with star san. Haven't had a single infection, be it fermentor or bottle, with my over 200 liters of brews, so it works for me.

>>1158948
Ah, I see. So that's why I see people talk about that brand a lot. Thanks!

I live in Hawaii, so the water quality is pretty great, so maybe I'll give the Board of Water Supply a ring and see if they have stats on how sterile it is. It'd be great to just be able to use tap water, if I end up sticking with off-the-shelf stuff that does leave a residue behind.

>>1158935
bleach

Making cider from 100% apple juice - do I even need to add sugar? I'm going to use champagne yeast and I assume it's the same procedure as any wine

>>1158964
>do I even need to add sugar?
yes

>>1158838
I don't have much experience but I just kegged a saison based on this recipe:
http://www.themadfermentationist.com/2009/11/hoppy-french-saison.html
and used this yeast blend: http://bootlegbiology.com/product/the-mad-fermentationist-saison-blend/
Based on how it tastes now it might be a bit more bitter than what I wanted, but may be different once it carbs up. Otherwise seems like it will be pretty good. Fermented it hot at around 80F so I got a whole lot of... uh... saisony flavor from the yeast. Can definitely smell lactic acid from the bacteria but it doesn't taste that sour.
I think it's good to mash low, like 148F like that recipe says, to get it as dry as possible.

A year or two ago I made a couple saisons with Danstar Belle Saison yeast, I like that it's dry yeast so it's cheaper and convenient and it apparently my beers fermented out really dry, down to 1.000. I don't think it had an awful lot of character from the yeast, though, so I was a little disappointed with that. Not sure what temp I fermented at, though, I took bad notes as always.

>>1158738
Say; if I were to jack the cider I'm making through freeze distillation immediately after primary fermentation, would that obviate the need to worry about solids/sediment in the mixture at all? How much of that would just get caught in the ice and not come out into the final product?

>>1158967

I think im gonna give this a try for my next batch. Thank you! This recipe sounds great

>>1154461

Lalvin EC-1118 is a good mead yeast, so is 71B (esp. with fruits, can give it a little banana-ness, though)

Add the fruit in during the secondary fermentation for the most fruit flavor, you can do it in the primary but it isn't as good IMO. Some claim it'll decrease your chances of contaminating the batch as well but I don't know for sure.

>>1155510

Plain honey mead usually has a pretty alcoholic taste when it's freshly bottled in my experience, yes. It mellows some as it ages but still can be a little moonshine-y.

Does dandelion wine work with all of the "not-dandelion" dandelions? Carolina false dandelion, all the yellow-flowered lettuces, etc?

I just want a kegerator, I'm over all these bottles that need to be washed and sanitized before bottling.

I have had my last brew cold crashed for over a week now as I keep putting it off.

How important are additive yeast nutrients, anyhow?

Theoretically would one be able to brew kilju or even a shitty cider by just mixing sugar, yeast and a liquid into a coke bottle, leaving it for 2 weeks and then siphoning the liquid into a different bottle? Looking to make cheap af piss

>>1159133
Yes.
Make sure to either use a balloon, a condom or an airlock to make sure your bottler does not explode, or leave the cap a bit open to let the pressure out.

Also remember not to fill it too full, as the yeast will foam quite a bit, and if it's too full it'll come out, one way or the other.

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>>1152199
Wait, wut?
Those plants aren't dandelions.
They look like queen-anne's lace.

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>>1159127
>How important are additive yeast nutrients, anyhow?
Depends on what you're fermenting.
Pure honey and water supposedly really need nutrients, but I've made blackberry mead with just honey, water and blackberries.

Speaking of honey, I've tried making bochet, which is honey and water, but you boil the honey for a long time before adding it to the water.
This caramelizes the sugar in the honey, and makes the flavor more interesting.

I used my usual nutrients (raisins and tea), but it stalled at 6.5% alcohol content, not sure why.
I bottled it despite the low content because I didn't want to mess with the flavor by reducing the sweetness.
Apparently it kept fermenting, because now (6 years later) it has a light, delicate carbonation.

I'm about to try bochet again, but this time with either apple juice or maybe some diluted orange juice for more flavor (and nutrients).

Put yeast into some apple juice with sugar in it to get the right gravity
Yeast looks very strange today, almost like bacterial cultures
Should I just assume it's infected and dump it out, or does apple juice make the yeast look weird sometimes?

>>1159417
Let it ferment for a day or two, take out a small sample and give it a taste. If it tastes awful it's contaminated.

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>>1159417
Here's a pic

>>1152714
So basically I can just ferment sugar in water with bakers yeast and not die? What about the hangovers?

Sorry I'm new here. And a bit drunk. ;_;

>>1159446
Yes. The only reason you would die is due to alcohol poisoning and/or maiming yourself when drunk. So don't go near roofs when drinking your hooch, anon-kun.
Hangovers should not be worse than when drinking other drinks like beer or wine, but you never know with these things.

I aged my mead in a carboy for 3-ish months then racked into handles. Handles have been aging for a month or so now, and there's still sediment forming. Should i decant the handles into clean vessels now, wait and do it later, or just ignore it?

>>1159446
>What about the hangovers
Drink water before going to sleep.

Something is wrong with my cider. I started a batch 10 days ago and it clarified 3 days ago. Since it is hot here (around 27ºC) I though it was over and tried to drink today but it feels too hot or too alcoholic. I doubt it really contain that much alcohol since I didn't add extra sugar in the start. So is this hotness caused by vinegar? I wouldn't say it is vinegar but maybe I just don't know.

>>1159468
It means it fermented too hot during primary fermentation or you didn't pitch enough yeast.

This guy here: >>1159235

I just realized all my yeast packets are years old (6-8), and I doubt they'll still work.
Looking for a good mead yeast, emphasis on high alcohol content.

Suggestions?

>>1159479
make a starter with them

>>1159479
WLP707 California Pinot Noir Yeast and WLP750 French Red Wine Yeast both have alcohol tolerances over 15%.

I'm going to be brewing a Belgian Golden Strong Ale, using weyermann pilsner malt. Is it worth it to do a step mash or will a single infusion at 65c do?

>>1159417
>Should I just assume it's infected and dump it out
Never do this. At least try it, worst case scenario is it tastes bad.
Anyway your pic doesn't look like a bacteria pellicle, probably just yeast rafts.

>>1159455
IDK what you mean by Handle, but if it's in a final bottle then keep it there, if it isn't then bottle it. No reason to keep racking it around & exposing it to more air.

>>1159235
Hmm. I wonder if I should spring for them just out of caution's sake. They're quite cheap at my local homebrew shop, anyhow.

Any suggestions how to distill without buying a dedicated still? Mostly just want to try it out and see how things turn out.

>>1159547
How about freeze-distillation?

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>>1159547
A lot of people convert pressure cookers because they alreayd have a good seal. Just add some copper tubing and make a worm and run it through a bucket of cold water.

Plenty of stuff on youtube.

>>1159557
I should add, some of them advise against aluminium for some health reason.

>>1159558
aluminum is fine as long as it has on oxidation layer

>>1159485
>make a starter with them
Ummm, If the yeast is too old, and is presumably dead, how can I make a starter?

>>1159487
>WLP707 California Pinot Noir Yeast and WLP750 French Red Wine Yeast both have alcohol tolerances over 15%.
A little Googling shows this to be a fairly expensive liquid yeast ($7-8 per vial).
Can I culture this stuff myself for later use on future batches?
For a similar price, I can get 10 packs of Lalvin Bourgovin RC 212, which seems similar to the WLP750.
Lalvin EC-1118 gets good reviews on Amazon for mead, and supposedly has 18% tolerance.
Thoughts?

>>1159612
There will still be some viable cells but not many, it depends on how frugal you want to be.

>>1159612
Given the time you're going to invest in your product, do you want to skimp on the most important part of the fermentation. Consider how much you're going to spend on the honey. Is 7 dollars really too much?

>>1159639
>Consider how much you're going to spend on the honey. Is 7 dollars really too much?
Maybe it's my Scotch heritage, but $1 would be too much if I could get the same results for 50 cents.
At least tell me I could use one vial to pitch two 5-gallon batches at the same time?
And what about using a bit of the dregs form one batch to start a new batch when the first is done?

>>1159647
You could do a low gravity mead and then use the dregs for four simulateous high gravity meads and one low grav mead so you can re pitch it.

Oi how much Yeast & Sugar (white) would i need for 1.8 (round to 2) litres of Apple juice? Using Baking Yeast

>>1159675
I've heard figures of 1g yeast/gallon and 1lb. sugar/2.5 gallons of juice

May experience an off-taste using bakers yeast though; not sure how much alcohol tolerance it'd have, either

>>1159675
mr malty dot com

>>1159694
>>May experience an off-taste using bakers yeast though;
I think you meant to say that your brew will taste like ass, as you are not using dedicated brewers yeast.

t. various yeast maker shill

>>1159703
Dont care that much about taste, as long as it'll get me smashed

My 2l bottle of mead has been fermenting for about 20 days now. I'm going away for a couple of weeks, will it still be fine when I get back?

I'm using a proper airlock, not some ghetto balloon thing.

>>1159717

Lavlin k1 or economic is like $1 a packet. You can be cheap by making a starter and just feeding it like with sourdough, just pour off half for use and let it repopulate. It's nasty enough that it's worth the $0.01/batch if you do 100 batches.

>>1159662
>You could do a low gravity mead and then use the dregs for four simulateous high gravity meads and one low grav mead so you can re pitch it.
Hmmmm...
Kind of like the starter this guy >>1159485 suggested for my old (probably mostly dead) yeasts, but with the better WLP yeast.

I'm still lost as to why you can't just put a tiny bit of yeast in any size batch.
I guess you want to make sure the proper yeast gets a head-start on any accidental yeast that gets in the carboy despite the sterilization?

Do you have any numbers to go with this plan?
How much of the dregs from the low gravity mead, how big does the low gravity mead need to be, etc?
Do I have to wait for the low-grav mead to finish fermenting, or can I just start a single gallon batch, wait a few days until it's going strong, then move a pint each into two five gallon batches?
It seems like that would work.

>>1159718
>I'm going away for a couple of weeks, will it still be fine when I get back?
I've left mead in the carboy for months and not had a problem.

>>1159718
In 20 day you might risk the airlock going dry. The cylinder airlocks don't dry out as fast, I heard.

I would at least put it in a place where it's less likely to be molested by fruit flies and such.

>>1158358
Just give this a quick bump in case anyone else is able to answer

>>1159737
>Im still lost as to why you can't just put a tiny bit of yeast in any size batch.

If you pitch a low amount then the yeast will multiply like crazy and produce a bunch of esters and off flavors you don't want in your brew.

>>1159464
That doesn't work and you know it. Hangovers are not just dehydration.

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This brew is 7g of bakers yeast, about a cup of sugar in 1.8 litres of Apple juice. This is at 24h mark. Looking healthy?

>>1159872

Its alcohol too I guess, but store bought beer and wine also has that in it. Drink water or drink less booze. It's a simple formula.

>>1159947
>While the causes of a hangover are still poorly understood,[2] several factors are known to be involved including acetaldehyde accumulation, changes in the immune system and glucose metabolism, dehydration, metabolic acidosis, disturbed prostaglandin synthesis, increased cardiac output, vasodilation, sleep deprivation and malnutrition. Beverage-specific effects of additives or by-products such as congeners in alcoholic beverages also play an important role.

>>1159953

I couldn't follow the link to [2] so I can't really say if that's bullshit or not. It's worth a try though, just do things that fix those things. Like drinking more water or less booze. It's a simple formula.

>>1159945
looks good, just keep it hidden from your parents

>>1159612
If you use a liquid yeast then you should probably make a starter either way unless you're doing a small batch. Liquid yeast vials have a lot less viable yeast in them than dry yeast packets, and you need to start with plenty of yeast if you're planning to make a high-gravity, high-alcohol mead. But then if you make the starter twice as big as you need it, you can save half in a sterilized jar in the fridge or whatever. Then just keep doing that and your $8 yeast can be used multiple times as you make more meads.

Buuut, if you don't have a specific reason to use a certain yeast other than you want it to have a high alcohol tolerance, you should just use some dry wine yeast IMO. Its way cheaper, contains more viable yeast, and you won't need a starter - just pitch 2 packs if you need more yeast cells. Liquid yeast isn't higher-quality by nature of it being in liquid form, it's just that a wider variety of yeasts are available in liquid form, so if you specifically want WLP750 then you'll have to buy the vial.

Do you think a water filtration system + UV light purifier would be sufficient to consider water "sterile" for the purposes of rinsing things?

>>1159986
Thanks.
I think you've got me leaning towards Lalvin EC-1118.
I can get 5 packets for $6.75 total.
There's no warning about it dying in transit if the weather's too hot.
And your post makes it sound like it's actually a more reliable product.
I've always used the dry stuff before anyway.

>>1160010
Chlorine is the main issue with city water. Lots of city water systems don't carry enough bacteria to cause a noticable decrease in brew quality. A brewery here in Detroit recently did a study and found the metro city water to be effectively as clean as distilled water, and a charcoal filter may be used to remove chlorine to help fermentation.

>>1160010
a filter might be a good idea, but even plain tap water can be fine

Gonna make a Belgian Golden Strong, first time doing so as I have only made pale ales before. How does this recipe and method sound?

6kg Pilsner
0.2kg Carapils
0.5kg Table sugar added at 30min left of boil.
0.5kg Pale Ale

I get 80% efficiency with my setup so that should give me around 1.083 OG after 90min boil, with it finishing at 1.013 FG after fermentation is complete. Est ABV of 9.3% and a color of 8 EBC.

55c protein rest 20mins
64c sacc rest 60mins
76c mash out 15mins

90min boil.
30g Saaz and Styrian Goldings at 60mins
30g Saaz and Styrian Goldings at 20mins
That should give me about 27IBU

Fermenting with 3 packets of mangrove jacks M41 Belgian Ale yeast. Rehydrated before pitching.

Pitching at 18c and ramping up to 27c over 6 days, 1.5c rise per day by using an Arduino modified STC1000 in control of a fridge and heat wrap.

I don't wanna stuff this up as it cost about $51 for all the ingredients.
Is the ABV 9% too high? Will it have hot alcohol or fusel alcohol flavors?

>>1160049
Probably going to need to bottle condition it for 4 months.

>>1159429
...
I'd say that's bad anon.
Yeast doesn't really cluster, as far as I know. Or grow fuzz.

>>1160059
Yeah, I was planning on bottle conditioning it for 6 months minimum. I am just a bit unsure on the recipe as it was just something I threw together and used the BJCP style as a guide.

>>1159429

It looks rough but fuck it. Siphon from under and see what happens. Just make sure your transfer stuff is cleaned and sanitized very well after. Unless it's horrible tasting it might pull through.

I sometimes get an oily sheen on top which seems like infection to me but it doesn't really taste bad. Another time my airlock went dry and I ended up with a thick blue-green cap floating in the carboy. It didn't taste bad so I kept it.

>>1159547

At the most basic you need a sealed system only open on the take off. A pot makes a good boiler. A gasket can be made with ptfe tape wrapped around cardboard to seal lid on boiler with a little pressure. Cheapo pots have screwed in handles so you might be able to just unscrew and jam a still head in there or make the hole bigger with a small round file. The copper coolant line makes for an easy still, same idea as pressure cooker, just some extra redneck engineering. I've been eyeing some super cheap pots on eBay. I might grab the 19L pot and try soldering a 1.5 or 2" triclamp ferrule to it then a tri clamp tee with a copper scrubby or two in it and worm condenser it. That'd be a pot still but gives a taste for the process. From there I either find other uses for it or go further and add a triclamp spool to make a nice 3 or 4' column. Then it's dual purpose, tee on pot for pot, tee on spool on pot for reflux. The only real difference is a cold finger in top of tee or an end cap. Tees are about the same price as elbows but far more useful.

How much agitation should one give to hard cider in primary fermentation? Should I just swirl the bottle around once a day or something?

>>1160190
I gave it another day and it tastes fine and is fermenting rapidly, I think it was just slow to start

>>1160200

I typically split a bottle of apple juice between two bottles and swirl when I feel like it. It builds a nice starter for, then I just prepare my cider and dump the yeast in.

>>1160200
>once a day
No. You shake it really good before pitching. After that you don't move it.

How big does this stock pot look to you? Listing says it's 20L, but I don't know if it looks that big in the pic. Also, any reasons why buying second-hand would be a bad idea? This is at literally 10% of the price of what you'd pay for a new one, so I'm interested.

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>>1160442
Always forget the bloody pic

>>1160442
>>1160443
It looks smaller than that to me but I'm shit at estimating these things, especially from a picture.

Maybe it's 20L to the brim.

>>1160446
To be honest I don't really need a full 20L, 15L would do me fine.

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>>1160443
That looks like it's made of aluminum, and it looks about right for a 20l kettle. I'd go bigger, personally, if you're planning to BIAB or go all-grain.

I found my 8 gallon kettle on ebay for $60 shipped. Double-clad stainless bottom, and heavy AF walls. I see the *exact* same kettle in brew shops for ~$200 with a bulkhead valve and thermometer.

I spent $40 for the parts and put them on myself, boom, $100 savings. Etched in my own graduations with some salt water and q-tips, and it's been great.

>>1160448
Have you visited any thrift stores? Mine has tons of old canning gear in it every time I go. A dead old ladies' enamelware canning pot is probably the cheapest brewing vessel imaginable.

I wouldn't brew anything in an aluminum stockpot. Especially not beer.

>>1160472
poor old cunts, they leave behind great cocktail glasses and brandy snifters as well

>>1160472
No, but I'll give it a go. Didn't really consider second hand, but thinking about it there's no real reason why I shouldn't use something just because it's been used before.

>>1160472
Aluminium is fine to brew with. Just dont clean it with caustic.

http://beersmith.com/blog/2010/08/17/aluminum-vs-stainless-best-beer-brewing-pots/

What's the lowest FG you've gotten to (with beer). I started making yeast starters and now get beer down around .007

>>1160681
You may have been under pitching before

I brewed the belgian today and it all went fairly good. Got close to my numbers but when it came time to clean up I noticed the bottom of the pot had black scorching.

Will this impart a nasty flavour?

>>1160681
0.998 with a braggot using mead yeast (yeah, not entirely beer, but it was half beer so whatever)
Usually I hit somewhere between .010 to .016

The way you mash your beer has a lot to do with your fg. If you mash so that you get a lot of fermentable sugars, then you're going to have a low fg. If you mash so that you get a lot of non-fermentable sugars, you're not going to hit a low fg no matter how you pitch.

How important is concealment from light to the process of fermentation? Would it suffice, if one is low on space and must keep their vessel in a room which is perpetually lit, to merely cover it up with an opaque sheet of something? Or is a more total darkness and stillness preferable?

>>1160764
All beer should be kept in the dark as the hop stuff reacts with uv light and causes skunk

>>1160765
How about stuff without hops, like cider?

>>1160788
light isn't very good for most things but less of a problem when hops aren't involved. Covering it with a sheet would probably suffice.

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Two blueberries and a mead, just pulled out to take a picture last night and stop the blues ferment.

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New to brewing can you add crushed up hard candies to a mash? Not to replace sugar but used in conjunction to impart a flavor to a shine? Been looking for an answer for ages and cant find anything.
My current mash is looking at being a 5gl with cornmeal, dried fruit mix, sugar, and crushed butterscotch. Yeah or nay?

>>1160851
are the cylindrical waterlocks much superior?

>>1160853

I'd get that imitation butterscotch flavor they use to make butterscotch candy with instead I've seen it at Kroger and Walmart on the baking aisle.

It sounds interesting, are you making schnapps?

>>1160929
Theyre easier than using a hose and cup if you need to move your carboys around, and easy to sanitize. As long as you have something to let the gas out and keep the air out, it doesnt really matter as long as its kept clean on the brew side.

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>>1160929
Compared to these, they are superior. You can disassemble them for cleaning, and they flow better. I like the noises from the S-types, but I think they restrict the gas flow a bit too much. I've had more blowouts with them than the 3-part airlocks.

>>1161113
>>1161135
Thanks lads. I use that S one on a 10L carboy but I'll think I'll get a cylinder when I move on to brewing vats.

>>1160853
You distilling it? Column still is gonna strip that flavour, and sugars get stripped out by the yeast, so even if you pot still it, your gonna get funky chemical flavours left after the candies lose their sugars.

Good luck though.

>>1160759

I wonder why more people don't brew braggots. I've only made one 5 gal batch but it's some good stuff, really unique.

>>1154839
Care to post your recipe?

>>1160853
I wouldn't. If you want it to taste like butterscotch, I'd play with flavourings or home-made butterscotch rather than the whatever weirdness that comes in butterscotch candies from the grocery store. All sorts of weird stabilizers and preservatives are used to mass produce candies and they'll interact unpredictably with brewing yeasts. If you make your own butterscotch you can better predict how the yeast will interact with your adjunct: extra lipids (fats) tend to cause yeast to stall, lactose from milk is not digestible by yeast and will make the ferment taste sweet (provided you don't get a secondary infection by lactobacillus), brown sugar is fully fermentable but the unrefined "molasses" flavour will remain and give the product a somewhat rum-like flavour (though straight molasses will just taste like astringent rum and bitter molasses chews). Brewing sites and resources often have handy guides for what sort of adjuncts impart what sort of off-flavours and odours. Not all off-flavours are undesirable; you'll notice that some English ales will taste a bit like bananas, which is deemed undesirable by some beer cultures and desirable by others. That sort of thing.

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Pomegranate peach rape-honey mead.

Making a UJSM for the first time to try making whiskey with my new pot still. Have only used column stills till now, but bought a pot still head and looking to give it a go. Any gotchas I should look out for? I'm using White Labs bourbon yeast and a standard UJSM recipe for the mash right now, what tips and tricks do you guys have?

>>1161135
though the downside of the 3 piecelock is it can suck the lock liquid into the fermenter if there's a sudden temp drop. Overall I agree, S locks suck.

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Hey /hbg/, have a quick question:

I've got these various substances all dated for best before 2013. Before I throw them out, are there any that aren't particularly affected by going past that date?

Can provide a name list if the pic isn't big enough.

>>1161767
Ditch the yeast and the isinglass (Vinclear) for sure. Yeast is mostly dead and I think liquid isinglass only lasts like a month in the fridge.
Others might be OK if kept sealed, but I don't really know how those things break down. They're really cheap so if you're going to rely on them then it's probably worth it to spend the pound(?) on new stuff that will last the next several years.

>>1161797
Thanks mate, appreciate the help.

>They're really cheap so if you're going to rely on them then it's probably worth it to spend the pound(?) on new stuff that will last the next several years.
Yep I'm pounds. Was hoping to salvage some of it, but as you said it costs nothing in the long run to get more here.

Guys i think i fucked up.
>Got a new still and wanted to clean the flux and everything out of it.
>Scrub it first with soap and water.
>Works a bit.
>google says vinegar and salt work well
>works alot holy shit
>works too good turns blue and oxidizes the inside of my still.
>fuck, so i neutralize it with bakeing soda and scrub it out with soap and water
>looks like ass need to try again
>oxidation gone but still a little patina inside
>run it through 1 gallon of water
>open it and its all patina'd inside, no greens or blues but definatly not shiny (sp?)
How the fuck do i fix this? I feel so fucking stupid. I dont want to poison myself or anyone and im pissed i spent this much money on an all copper still just to eat shit trying to clean it.

Tl;dr i fucked my new still up with vinegar and salt and dont know how to get the inside shiny and safe again. Im new halp.

>>1161925
If it is clean, as in no solid deposits on it.
Soak it in starsan for a few hours then rinse off with distilled water. Should be nice and shiney as the starsan works like a mild acid cleaner.

>>1161675
>rape-honey
hmm

>>1161935
bee rapist!

>>1161930
Noted thank you hoss.

>>1161925

Citric acid is what you want for cleaning things when you need an acid (besides Star-san, that's phosphoric acid), it does everything vinegar does except you can mix it to whatever concentration you want and it doesn't smell.

>>1161930
Shouldnt even need to rinse the star san it wont hurt anything and would be dumped with the heads.

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So I've got my starter going for my first attempt at cider. It's bubbling away, now. But I have a question about sugar ratios.

Lavlin EC-1118 is supposed to tolerate alcohol percentages of up to 18%, right? And I've heard ratios of 1lb sugar/1gallon=1%ABV. So to get up to that target of 18% for 5 gallons of cider, would I have to throw in... 90 lbs of sugar? That seems... odd. Is that right? I feel like I've missed something here.

>>1162155

Its more like 1lb/5gal is 1% abv. 1lb/1gal is ~6%abv. 2lbs/gal apple should max you out. K1 is a little more tolerant of temps and low nutrients but still high alcohol tolerance, it might be worth experimenting with.

>>1162024
>>1161930
So could i do a cleaning run with either of these? As in mix with water and boil it through the system so i can get it into the worm and throught the thumper and everything?

>>1162155
Basically you determine your ABV by knowing how dense the starting must is (original gravity), how dense the finished brew is (final gravity), then you can use an equation to determine how much sugar got converted to alcohol. If you want to be sure of this, you need to measure it with a hydrometer. There are calculators online for this, just search for ABV calculator.

If you want to estimate, take a look at the hydrometer table here:
https://mpesgens.home.xs4all.nl/thwp/sugar.html
According to that table, if you are using an apple juice that already has 100g of sugars per liter, and then you add another 252g of sugar per liter then you'll end up at 1.135 original gravity. That would give you 18.4% Potential ABV.
"Potential" ABV would assume 100% of sugars got converted to alcohol, which practically doesn't happen - it would depend on your yeast and how much of the sugars in your brew are actually fermentable. But since you're mostly using table sugar, which is totally fermentable, it would probably be pretty close.

I think using that much table sugar in a brew sounds kinda gross, though... but IDK, I've never tried it.

What are some good traditional Kvass recipes? Everything I tried so far tasted like shit compared to the original,except for apple.
And, is it proper to let it ferment for several days, or just overnight?
And, I use powder yeast, what's the appropriate yeast to sugar ratio?

>>1161675
How the fuck are those bottles called?

>>1162398
Flip top bottles?

>>1162240

yeah, should be just like cleaning a coffee machine, you run the acid stuff through there then plain water to remove anything else it loosened up.

>>1162319
>>1162230
Hm. Alrighty, thanks. That seems like a lot of sugar to throw in all at once, so maybe I'll space it out a tad. I don't have that much on me at the moment anyhow, so eh.

>>1162398
Swing top

>>1162474

Its probably better to step your additions anyway. Osmotic pressure pisses yeast off. That's part of why honey tends to be so clean.

>>1162645
What if I were to put it into a simple syrup solution? You know, cut it with half the sugar's weight in water, stir it on the boil 'till it clarifies, wait until that cools to room temperature- would that negate the shock, somewhat, of dumping that much sugar in at once?

Making my first batch of samogon/sugar shine lads.

It's great.

>>1159945
Looks fine. You should be able to pick up an airlock pretty cheap though. Replace that balloon. Also not sure where you have left that bottle to ferment. It almost looks like a cupboard, in which case it will start smelling pretty strong without ventilation.

So I somehow defied all knowledge I have of the world and blew up a demojihn by getting cocky with cooling too fast, and so I'm looking for other ways.

If I were to cool the wort while still in the metal pot immersed in an ice bath, is the pot at as much risk from the rapid cooling as the demijohn was, or am I safe to go from 100 to 0 as fast as I like?

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These are my first three batches all bottled on Sunday. I have a bochet cyser with orange blossom honey (14%), traditional orange blossom with cinnamon (15%), and a blueberry, vanilla, lavender melomel with orange blossom honey (17%).

>>1163323
Metal brewpot should be fine. I've cooled all my brews using my stanless brewpot and an ice bath.

>>1163330
Pretty, I like the labels. Except blue waffle, that's disgusting

>>1163332
That's good to hear, mine is stainless too.

Thanks!

>>1163323
>>1163332
Wouldn't an immersion chiller be more practical if you're working with a pot?

>>1163339
I'm not operating consistently enough to justify an immersion chiller yet.

>>1163323
>>1163338
Also, you should never heat up and cool glass much. It'll develop lots of stress and will eventually blow up or otherwise break, making you lose at least the brew (as you noticed).
The instructions my LHBS gave me were not to wash my demijohns with anything hotter than 30-40C water, or I might risk breaking them. I'm pretty sure they can withstand much more temperature than that, but I'd rather not risk it.

>>1163339
That's a lot of money, you know. And I already have a pail in which my brewpot fits quite nicely. Gets the temps down to pitching temperature in half an hour to an hour, which fits my needs.

Is there anything wrong with using food grade purpose made fermentation vats?

Or phrased differently, is there a specific reason to go with glass carboys? They seem impractical to me.

>>1163343
>>1163349
I thought they were around a hundred bucks or something. Not a big investment for something you'll be using for years to come.

>>1163347
Yeah I learnt that the interesting way. The thing is, I already knew that, but I think doing it so many times before made me cocky with just how fast I could go.

>>1163353
Around that, but until I'm pumping out my 15 gallon batches consistently again I can't justify it over a massive ice bath and a good stir.

>>1163350
plastic fermentation vats can get scratches during cleaning, which can make your brews more susceptible for infection. Also, if you happen to have an infection, it can be quite an ordeal to get rid of it.

That said, they're a lot easier to clean than glass carboys, a lot cheaper, stack up nicely, and you can fit a spigot to them for easy sample taking. I also find them easier to siphon the brew away from, as some carboys can't fit an automatic siphon inside them.

Personally, I use fermentation vats/buckets, and smaller demijohns for starters. If one ever goes bad, I'll just replace it. So it pretty much comes down to your personal preference. You could also get a stainless steel conical if you were made of money, since those have even more good points about them, with the downside of being expensive.

>>1163353
you can make an immersion chiller for 35-50$.

and theyre simple to make

Looking into purchasing this as my first cook.
http://www.northernbrewer.com/nut-brown-ale-extract-kit
Will I also need to buy some hops or do all of these include it?

>>1163357
Thanks.

I plan to mostly make mash to feed the still, so cleanliness is a bit less important than for beer brewing. Seems like vats are the way to go.

>>1163394
That kit comes with 1 oz of fuggles hops. So no, it doesn't require them to work, but if you like more hoppy brown ales, then you might want to have some.

Bottling my first brew Thursday - will I be able to taste test it the day of or should I wait the two weeks after bottling for the beer to be primed before I sample it?

>>1163461
You can sample it just fine. For example, I usually taste the gravity sample, as I can't really pour it back in the fermenter. Bear in mind, though, that the finished product can taste much better than your sample. So whatever you do, do NOT pour it down the drain just because you don't like the sample.

>>1163465
That's what I figured, thanks!

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Just put a 5 gallon batch of apple-bochet mead in the carboy.
I boiled 12 pounds of honey for about an hour before adding 3 gallons of water, and a gallon of frozen apple juice concentrate.
The starting gravity was 1.08, which seems a little low.
I'm using EC-1118 yeast and I added raisins and Lipton tea for nutrients.
It's been 6 years since I made a batch where I paid attention to the gravity. And I don't remember what numbers I've had in the past, but 1.08 sounds low.
Online calculators seem to say I'll top out around 10.5% alcohol, and my old stuff was about 14% ABV.

Any ideas? Am I going to need more honey or sugar to get up to 12-15% ABV?

Should I prime a hard cider with sugar before bottling like I would for a beer?

>>1163855
If you want it to come out sparkling, then yes.

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Just bottled some sweet cran-raspberry and sweet grapefruit, so i figured i'd take a lil family photo

The swing tops are for tasting it as it ages, i just throw in whatever i cant fit in a bottle without having ridiculous headspace

All in all: pineapple melomel, mango melomel, dry and sweet ciders, and the above mentioned

>>1163330
Fucking kek

>>1163330
>cuckwine

>>1162155
Well, I've fed about 8 pounds of sugar into around 5 gallons of cider. It's still bubbling away and has developed quite a head of foam from what I can see through the glass. Is that normal?

On a separate note, has anyone ever made a gose? I love that stuff.

Sparged my last batch of beer at 80c for experimental purposes, the tannin extraction is real. I heard its like sucking on a teabag and counted understand what hey meant, now I know.
Still gonna drink, does the job well.

>>1164243
What do you use to kill the yeast?

Probably the best place to ask this.

I'll be making my own 'conical' fermenter over the summer and I was wondering why would I make the bottom conical as opposed to a square pyramid shape?
Is there any major disadvantages that I should consider.

Thanks.

>>1162647

That's what I've done in the past, but you might as well add some acid to invert it. Yeast can handle sucrose fine but if you're heating it anyway why not add a little cream of tartar? I usually halfass my measurements using the 'that looks about right' method. I poured the syrup in a 1 gallon jug and shit started precipitating so I must have done something wrong, but I'll just heat it up a little before adding and give a good stir. Even with the crystals it's still better than pouring straight sugar. I'm trying to make a 17% kilju so the amount of sugar is already measured for the recipe. If I hadn't done it that way then volume measuring is no good.

>>1165519

They do sanitary welds in the industry so 60 or 90 degree angles mean more welds and are harder to clean. There is also the matter of the yeast falling out differently with straight walls and angles as opposed to a nice conical frustrum. That's about it for disadvantages I can think of. A big advantage would be better use of space. I always liked the squared vessels from an aesthetic point, but they have practical advantages too. I'm not too concerned about being sanitary on the small scale, even doing one batch a week the extra time for cleaning and sanitizing isn't too bad. To get better compaction you could just give it a few bonks now and then to simulate remuage the frogs do in sparkling wine bottle conditioning.

How will you be making it? I'd love to get a TIG welder but I don't have any experience, or a power supply for that matter. I've been thinking about using plastics to make a plain cylinder. It's still a work in progress but I'd notch the ends and join them overlapping with solvent fusion leaving about 3 or 4mm gap which I'd fill with plastic rod/plastic welding. That's more for fun though because there are so many 5 gallon, 30 gallon, and 55 gallon HDPE vessels available for cheap, and even trash cans if I needed an odd shape like 10 or 20 gallon Brutes.

Source: My ass

>>1165536
Thanks. If it's only a sanitary issue I can sand down any welds, I suppose the yeast may settle in the corners also which I didn't actually think of.
I am a metal fabricator by trade so I can tig weld it up myself, I also have access to a brake press so that I can fold the stainless sheet most of the way around. Possibly into an almost cylinder if need be and leave 1 seam.
And I know a guy who has a cnc lathe too for any little threaded bits.

I know a guy who converted a keg into a fermenter which got me thinking about making my own for fun.