homebrew general

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check this baby out
that's cloudberry, honey and a couple of vanilla stalks
spent almost $150 on this tiny little batch so it better turn out delicious

>>1165785
Neato. Never seen something quite like that before.

>>1165785
>spent almost $150

wat

Just finished a little 4 liter run of 90% through my reflux still. I've done a lot of wine and beer brewing and none of it can compare in all honesty. Also, it's legal here. If its illegal in your area do it anyway.

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So if I can keep feeding sugar in increments into the cider I'm making until the alcohol content kills off the yeast... why shouldn't I just do that? Will that negatively alter the taste or something? Is it important to have a slow boil of the yeast gently tapering off in terms of activity and fermentation over two or so weeks, rather than a sudden death due to the medium becoming too alcoholic to sustain life? And will bringing it up to 18% be sufficient to sterilize it for shelf-aging, or should I still pasteurize/boil/freeze-distill it beforehand?

anyone tried brewing with regular grass seeds? I used to make tea with it (mild taste but smells like delicious mash) and with that I tried wild fermenting it with raisins, the idea being that it'd be caveman beer. It ended up tasting like a sour and the batch was too small for me to notice any alcohol
This year I'm thinking of trying it again but actually pitching some yeast and maybe adding wild hops and maybe some berries

>>1166020
Higher alcohol content gives it a more dry flavor. Any additional sugar can give it a lot of sweetness which in my opinion makes me feel sick when im drinking the stuff. My recommendation is buying an alcohol hydrometer (15NZD) and deciding on a set percentage. Try stick around 8-12 % for cider otherwise it gets a lil nasty. Also dont worry about the yeast so much. Just let it eat through the sugar and then use finings to settle it all to the bottom of your fermenter. If you like it to be sweet (god forbid), add campden tablets to stop any further fermentation and add whatever you want. If you're after something more potent make a small still. as for the aging I have no idea. Doesn't last long enough here to see the results.

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1 gallon jar of rice with moldy chinaman balls. I pressed it yesterday and already clearing up nicely. Next time I'm making more.

Is it cheaper to brew or buy?

>>1166101
I get the feeling that this may be one of those hobbies that only shows a positive savings if you do it for a while, to offset the high introductory cost. If you take into account opportunity cost, maybe not even that.

It's fun, though, and I like the idea of being able to make whatever I want without being restricted to what's available locally.

I reckon if you're doing really cheap ass hooch with only getting drunk in mind, not anything fancy, it might be cheaper, though. Like, Kilju or something.

>>1165842
cloudberries are like $60 a pound my dude, and honey isn't exactly cheap either

>>1166101
It all depends on the ingredients, but in almost every instance, it is cheaper to brew.
get yourself a big carboy or demijohn or whatever and you can have 8 gallons of perfectly good (often better than store bought) beer or wine in a short time for next to nothing. it's an incredibly easy process and you can keep it incredibly cheap.

once the dandelions start growing properly I'll be starting a batch of dandelion wine, which will only cost me as much as the yeast and the sugar I put in it.

>>1166101

In my experience it's cheaper to brew.
Made 30 litres of IPA for €25

>>1166107
My man.
I'm also about to start a dandelion wine. I'll be off flower picking on Wednesday, they are already fucking everywhere here in Ireland.

>>1166101

Much cheaper to brew, it's untaxed and all the labor is done by you, no shipping beyond getting base materials, lots more flexibility with packaging, and no marketing or facility costs.

Scale does play a role but even buying ingredients for one batch at a time you should be under $15/gallon, and that's for the fancy stuff. $5/gallon is closer to what I usually do. Keeping an eye out for sales and stocking up is good.

The biggest cost is startup and new toys. At it's most basic you want a kettle to boil in, a fermentation vessel, a way to get kettle contents into fermentation vessel, and then bottles.

Aussies and bongs have boiled in plastic containers so that's an option if you have heating elements laying around and know how to wire them up. Alternatively creep through flea markets, thrift stores, craigslist, granny's kitchen, etc to get a cheap pot. I like brew in a bag. It's just like making tea where you pull the bag out and you have your good stuff left behind. voile makes a good brewbag, or you can use cotton but I'd feel a lot safer using synthetic materials. At walmart this means curtains or pillowcases. For transfering a short length of silicone tubing works, siphon it out but keep in mind the liquid is hot if you don't cool it, so don't suck to start a siphon and let it run in your mouth or anything crazy like that. Kink, fill with water, stick in pot, and let it flow into thing. maybe lightly clamp to pot so you don't have to hold it. HDPE buckets are great fermentors, walmart has them in paint section, any hardware stores sell paint buckets, I got mine on craigslist for $1/ea, just needed a quick rinse to get the ice cream out first.

Yeast is fucking expensive so build up a stockpile. Half pint jars are great, it just requires extra vigilance in making sure no doodoo gets in your stuff. They're happy to chill in the refrigerator for weeks, or you could use a cheap dry yeast, but that's still going to be $2-4/batch.

>>1166155
Very informativet thabk you, going to get into this hobby soon looks promosing

>>1166107
>cloudberries are like $60 a pound my dude
what are they?

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>>1166258
cloudberries are a berries that only grow in the mountains in the arctic circle
they are next-to-impossible to grow industrially and so all of the berries have to be picked in the wild, they are incredibly hard to find if you don't know a spot, and most of the countries they grow in have strict laws about picking them

generally a very hard berry to come by

it's not actually that good though, tastes kind of like a less sweet version of the raspberry with a hint of orange

>>1166300
interesting

>>1165778
So I'm trying to get into homebrew, but my only hangup seems to be finding honey.
Apparently I need 3 pounds of honey per gallon, and right now I can only find that much honey for about 50 bucks.
Where do you guys get your honey?

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Out camping, have homemade blueberry from last thread. I was rushed to bottle it before easter so now i have a lot of sediment in bottles. Still good though.

>>1166440
even walmart had raw honey packaged in the region

it was like $7 for 24oz....there was a 5lb jug of other stuff for $15

>>1166440
How large a batch are you trying to do? I did a 1 gal test run as my first and got honey from a farmers market

>>1166442
Hmmm I didn't honestly think of Walmart, the nearest one is like an hour away. Might give that a try.
>>1166443
I'm just gonna do two one gallon batches with my dad, I figured it'd be something to do together.

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>>1166440
...but yeah, looking for local honey can usually be a lot cheaper, if you're willing to hunt around a bit.

Want to start brewing beer what do? I know nothing of this

>>1166490
Y U NO RTFP

http://www.howtobrew.com

>>1166490
Is this gonna be your first time trying to homebrew something? Beer might not be the best place to start; it's a bit more complex than ciders and stuff.

>>1166514
He could do extract. Thats easy as.

>>1165996
Im about to make applejack, some sort of cranberry monstrosity, and a straight sugar rum. To go through my pot still. Itll be great.

>>1166300
Grannies at my market sell those for €10/kg.

>>1166107
They grow freely in my country.
Maybe I should do something with cloudberries this year...

>>1166555
Ah, I'm trying to make applejack too! Gonna try to freeze-distill it, though.

>>1166490
Buy a kit for something you will enjoy and don't get bogged down on details. Keep it simple.

>>1165778
I made toilet wine when I was 15, tasted like shit but got me hammered

>>1166587
Have still must brew.

bump interested in getting into brewing but want to start simple

any tips for guides, tools and where to get them or recipes?

>>1167153

theres a neat little site called google that has guides on practically everything

Hello, I've bottled several bottles of wine, but I'm not sure for how long the wine inside will be drinkable. Is it necessary to add something to the wine before bottling to last longer? Will the wine be fine in, say, 10 years? Thank you in advance.

Anyone know of a BIAB IPA recipe using Crystal and Munich malt? Got some I need to use up, but never tried BIAB before (had previous used them just for steeping in an extract mix).

Also, for a hop-heavy style like an IPA, does the malt profile actually matter that much? Do the tastes tend to come through still?

>>1167217
Actually I think I've just found one completely accidentally, so probably no need to find me a recipe (unless you'd just really like to share one). I'd still appreciate answers to the other questions though.

>>1167153
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum.php

what are some plants you can sow in your yard that are good to make wine out of?
I've already planted rhubarb seeds, and I'm gonna plant berry bushes, though those probably won't yield any meaningful amount of fruit for a few years

pumpkins maybe? do they make for good wine?

>>1167296
raspberries and strawberries can grow pretty well

>>1167209
campden tablets/powder
they basically kill all the evil bacteria, and halts your yeast (without killing it completely so you still get the aging effect), and just basically make it so the wine is much less likely to spoil in storage.

>>1167298
Appreciate it. Thank you.

How much does water quality alter the taste of the beer? I used to be fortunate to live in a place which is famous for its spring water, and I could gather really high-quality water whenever I wanted. Unfortunately I've now moved to London, and the tap water here tastes funny.

>>1167320
as long as the water is clean I don't really see it making much of a difference
you're literally putting grains in there to rot so it will become mildly poisonous and make you feel light-headed

but I don't know much about the tap water in london, might be some soap or chemicals in there if it tastes funny, that's not good for the yeast.

>>1167320

I'm not terribly knowledgeable on water but it can make a noticeable difference. They sell beer salts if you want to try hitting a certain water profile. I just make do with what comes out the tap, but I have well water instead of literal bong water.

>>1167404
>literal bong water

that reminded me:
one could also boil the water first to try to remove contaminants

dunno if its relevant or not but i used to "grow" and most municipalitys in the states use chlorine as a treatment which is not terribly conductive to growing. eventually i learned you could take a 5 gallon bucket of water and let it set out stirring twice a day for 5 days and all the chlorine would evaporate(term?) out of the water. like i said though i dunno if its relevant for the uk or brewing.

Any kvassbros here?
Gonna start a new batch when I'm back from vacation

>>1166300
They grow on swaps and bogs in the north not on mountains and you don't even have to go as far north as the arctic circle. They can be found as south as the southern coastal regions of Finland. Probably even more south somewhere like Siberia.

Can someone please recommend my Citra IPA BIAB recipe? First time I've ever tried all-grain, and I want to make sure I've got the process at least roughly right. Previously made a Citra IPA using extract method and it was lovely, so hopefully this will improve on that even further.

https://pastebin.com/66iH0A27

>>1167320
http://howtobrew.com/book/section-3/understanding-the-mash-ph/what-kind-of-water-do-i-need

Plus many other chapters on water there.

>>1167864
Looks good. I never go above 10% for each specialty malt, but I have never made an IPA so that amount of crystal should help keep a more balanced malf profile.

Do you use any brewing software to assist in your recipe making?

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Tell me what you know about ginger beer right meow

>>1167884
Cheers man. No recipe software, mainly because I'm still a complete novice (only done one batch to date) and I still can't make heads or tails of the one I have installed (BeerSmith). I think it'll be useful in future, but for now I'm just making do with what I can find online - that's pretty much just a combination of a few different procedures I found online, with my own ideas for grain bill and hops.

>>1167888
You can use beersmith for recipe formulation that is tailored to your own brewing equipment. It took me a little while to become proficient with beersmith. It is certaily much easier to use then the decade old ProMash.

>>1167864
Why did you decide on a 70c mash temp? Do you want a higher FG?

>>1167864
I'dsparge at 75c instead of 85c. You might get tannin extraction at such high sparge temps

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>>1167864
A bit heavy on the bitterness

I remember hearing that the time to take cider off primary fermentation and rack it is when the bubbles in the airlock are about two minutes apart. Is that a good rule to use?

>>1167864
I wouldn't use that much crystal, myself. It can get kinda sweet and bready. An IPA should also be pretty strong so I would use at least another 500g of pale or pilsner malt (otherwise it's a hoppy APA- and nothing wrong with that!). But yeah, it is a bit on the bitter side. Move some hops from 60 min to 0 min and dry hopping for more taste. Or just go ahead and brew it, and make a note of how it tastes and compare it to other recipes. Best way to learn. Who knows, maybe all that crystal manages to balance the bittering hops.

>>1165778
Can someone tell me what I need to start to get into beer brewing. I'd like to start making pils/hefeweizen because I need another hobby. I was thinking:
>Carboy
>Big pot
>Mesh strainer
>Airlock
>Stirring spoon
>Siphon (what kind?)
>Bottle capper/bottles

Am I missing anything? Tips for beginners? If it helps, I my hobbies are normally autistically precise like fly-tying and precision reloading.

>>1168082
Nevermind, I found my answer by actually reading the thread and this guys post >>1166155

Say, if I'm planning on turning my hard cider into applejack, should I still put it through a month or two of secondary first?

I've just bought a starter kit for home brewing beer. The instructions were fairly basic, add the malt to boiling water, then cold water, chill, pitch yeast and close up

I'm worried because people are talking about having their boil going for like half an hour.. mine was only a few minutes before the cold water went in (instructions didn't mention a time frame)

Hopefully the long boil is for people starting from scratch, rather than pre-sacheted malt?

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>>1168082
>>1168100

Sounds like you got it going, you already have a scale for measuring out chemicals. It's not an absolute need but a hydrometer is very handy and gives autismal numbers. They're ~$5 and something I would rather not go without. A thermometer will help with mashing, I used a candy thermometer starting out. Airlocks are a meme, but they're cheap and fun to watch.

A little note about bottle cappers: I hate those twin lever cappers. It's $50-$100 more but a little floor or bench capper will grow with you better and has better crimp allowing shitty screw top bottles. I dislike screwtop in general but they're easier to get for recycling and have more interesting shapes and colors. I like the baby miller 7oz bottles for my quick drunk trash drinks like skeeter pee. Blue is a pretty color and I'm not afraid of light, so bud platinums are a lot of fun. The screw tops are thin though, so low carbonation. The high carb'd ones need a better wall like normal tops or belgian if paranoid. I dropped the extra shekels for a champagne corker that bottles damn near everything. It has a beer crimper with extra bell for yurocuck bottles and a fuckhuge pincher for corks of all sizes. Belgian corks are the only tricky one, it needs to be rigged with a stopper or washer so the plunger doesn't push too far. Left is the one they call Portuguese, right is one they call Champagne/Italian. I'd wait for a sale as the two lever will still work, I'm just lazy and impatient. I payed like $115 + $20 for beer attachment and yuro/burger bells. For that much you could just pick up a coney keg and gas tank on craiglist to convert an old fridge/freeze into a beer on tap system. Then you only bottle for aging or gifts.

>>1168157
Having helped a friend bottle his first batch with a twin-lever capper, I can also attest to the fact that it just ripped the tops clean off of some of the more fragile recycled bottles we used. Maybe one or two out of a total batch of like 30-50.

It's a shame it's so expensive to step up to those better types of capper.

Why is this on /diy/ and not /ck/?
Seriously. I just happened upon this while I've been looking for it for the last several months. God damn.

Fairly new to beer, going full biab because it works really well in my apartment, and will soon upgrade to accommodate a larger batch size.
I've got an amber carbonating, a Vienna/lemondrop SMaSH fermenting (including a failed 1 gallon experiment that's going to end up a lite beer due to a water fuck up), and a gallon of orange ginger mead that I'll transfer to a secondary for bulk aging early next month.

>>1168124
You're doing extract from what I can tell, as far as I'm aware extract is the instant tea of beer brewing and you shouldn't need a lengthy boil. I go 90 minute boils using all grain, but I don't honestly know if Dimethyl sulfide is an issue with extract, which is the entire reason I do that.

Just a note though, from what I can tell boxed pack instructions tend to give you a lower time frame than you should use. It's more marketable to say a beer will be ready in 3 weeks, than one and a half months after all. Don't worry about the boil, but do let that beer sit for 3-4 weeks before you bottle, and 2 weeks afterwards.

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I want to offer homebrew in exchange for goods and services on sites like Craigslist. No money, just favors and goods.

How much trouble could I get in?
Alternatively, what would be the best (better?) way to do this?

I'm from Missouri if that helps.

>>1168165

/ck/ is honestly one of the worst boards on the site with the highest levels of shitposting and self reasserting pretentious opinions

>>1168191
homebrew thread on /ck/ die withing days to make room for the next fastfood or food gore thread

>>1167943
I was just following an online recipe which suggested ~70 I think, no more to it than that. What temperature would you suggest?

>>1167952
Noted, thanks.

>>1167958
Nice, which app is that? I actually enjoy quite a bitter taste - is it still too heavy on bitterness even if that's your preferred style? If so, how can I balance it a bit?

>>1168073
If I'm being honest, the inclusion of both the Crystal and the Munich was largely because I've got some to use up from my last batch (and don't have enough space at my place to keep hold of lots of spare ingredients, unfortunately). But I actually prefer hoppy APAs (my favourite beers are Shipyard and Sierra Nevada Pale Ale), so I might keep the malt level as it is and tweak the hops a bit to add more at the flavouring and dry hopping stage.

>>1168157
Thanks. I actually have an old bench bottle capper because I found it at an estate sale for $2. It looks like the one on the left, but not as large. I've also been saving bottles for about a year, so I think I'm good there, too. I'll look into the hydrometer and thermometer.

>>1168186
Similar question on the same note.
Would it be legal to rent my time and equipment out to people looking for a particular style/flavor, rather than selling anything in particular?
A craftbrew commission if you would.

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>>1168302
I saw somewhere a store was selling nochill wort in those 5 gallon water jugs, pic related. I edited because white jug on white background is a dumb idea.

Apparently they just transfer to it straight from the kettle. Tape a pack of yeast to it and call it a kit. I'd be less nervous doing it that way, they can come back later and rent/pay you to bottle. ATF could still find a way to push your shit in if they wanted I'm sure, but at least this way you stand some chance in court. It turns to beer in some other guys house and comes back to you already alcohol.

>>1168165
>Seriously. I just happened upon this while I've been looking for it for the last several months.
the previous threads should be linked in the OPs if you really want to read back

>>1168186
you're walking a fine line

>>1168302
>Would it be legal to rent my time and equipment out to people
if you're the one still making the alcohol and making money from it, probably not

>>1168222
68c will still give full body and the app is Beersmith for Andriod, nearly the same as pc version.

>>1168243
Get a refractometer instead, still cheap, significantly simpler.

>>1168695
Best thing I did was buy an ATC refractometer, easy to get OG quickly before boil, mid boil to see if you are on the right track to hitting your numbers and with the magic of maths you can use it for FG too, but I still use a finishing hydrometer to be sure.

>>1168082
Eventually you're going to need an old and heating mat for temperature control.

>>1165778
pro brewer here, happy to answer any questions you all might have. i'll start off with some tips.

hour long mashes are a waste of time, 30 minutes is usually more than enough for starch conversion (assuming your grains aren't anything too crazy)

fermentation temp control is essential for brewing american style beers (beers with 001, 090, US05, etc)

60 minute boils are pretty much always enough to get rid of DMS precursers in pilsner malts

crystal malts are quickly becoming irrelevant. one of the biggest scams in homebrew recipes/stores is selling you crystal malts for your IPAs or pale ales. if you want head retention and/or body, go with wheat/oats respectively. I repeat: crystal malts do not belong in hoppy beers.

also, I don't believe that hot side aeration does anything negative to the beer.

>>1168707
Swamp cooling though.

>>1168711
What's your favorite style/recipe?

>>1167864
150F mash temp, 170F sparge water. ferment at 68F
ditch the crystal malts
ditch the 60, 30, 15 minute additions, and simply split all your hops evenly to use in the whirlpool and dry hop
30-45min mash instead of 90

godspeed.

>>1168712
my daily drinker would be a hop-forward pale ale. something with citra/simcoe/mosaic/galaxy in the 5-6% range. if i'm looking for something more special I'll go mixed fermentation saisons or bourbon barrel aged strong ales. really I like most styles.

>>1168711
>hour long mashes are a waste of time, 30 minutes is usually more than enough for starch conversion
For a single temp infusion? or for all rests combined?

>>1168711
>if you want head retention and/or body, go with wheat/oats respectively.
What about Carapils/Dextrine malt?

I like to brew a APA and mash at 64c, while using carapils/dextrine to give head retention and fullbody/mouthfeel.

>>1168711
>fermentation temp control is essential for brewing american style beers
For all beers DESU

>>1168716
this is assuming a single infusion mash. these days grains are modified well enough that more than that isn't necessary, unless you're using raw grains, or a large percentage of non-barley grains

>>1168718
throw carapils in the trash. carapils/dextrapils give the same harshness/percieved sweetness as crystal malts. the only situation I would use dextrine malts would be as a small percentage of a grain-forward light beer, like a helles, for complexity. if you want the body and mouthfeel use 10% rolled or flaked oats. always mash with the oats on top, they tend to get gummy and clog false bottoms

>>1168719
I've had good luck with letting certain saison strains ride in ambient and get up into the low 90s, but for the most part, yeah.

>>1168712
a recipe for the american pale (assume 5 gal, 60% efficiency)
6lb 2row
4lb malted white wheat
1lb light munich (7-9L)
1lb flaked oats

150F mash temp for 30 min, 170F sparge

3oz citra, 3oz simcoe at whirlpool (30 min)
ferment 10 days WLP 001 before dry hopping
3oz citra, 3oz simcoe dry hop (3 days)

crash, keg, carb to 2.6

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>>1166131
I made this couple of years ago, couple of tips for you:

>Keep maybe 20cm of the stalks attached to the flower, then take the bunch to shade for at least an hour so the tiny black bugs will leave
>Cleaning part takes a fucking eternity if you try to get 100% yellow parts only, it's enough if you just remove the stalk and the flowerbed?
Don't know what it's in english but basically grab the yellow leaves and cut so that the thing where they are attached to gets left behind
>You need a shit ton if you're fermenting a full 25 liter batch
>If you make a smaller batch, use a narrow vessel like those couple liter glass bottles
>If you do it in the big fermenting vessel you will have a REALLY hard fucking time separating the yeast
>Even with the narrow vessel you should separate the liquid, pour it to another sanitized vessel and let sit for maybe a week before separating again

My batch was excellent, but sadly I made a small amount in a big fermenting barrel and had ton of yeast in the end product. The first glass you pour tastes amazing but after that it's just yeast flavour.

>>1168730
>I've had good luck with letting certain saison strains ride in ambient and get up into the low 90s, but for the most part, yeah.
Well temp control works both ways ya know, heat and cooling.

>>1168730
The pope disagrees with you.

>he doesn't use a STC-1000+ for automated ferment temp control

>>1168711
>60 minute boils are pretty much always enough to get rid of DMS precursers in pilsner malts
I tend to find that I get off flavours with a 60min boil for my lagers using a pilsner malt.

>>1168730
Can you post pics of your gold medal brew recipes.

>>1168745
fair enough. I've used chateau, weyermann, and rahr pils and 60 minutes has been enough. maybe you're using a different malt? or maybe your boils aren't hard enough?

>>1168746
any style in particular?

>>1166107
>$60 a pound
>>1166300
>not actually that good though
so why the fuck are you brewing booze with them instead of raspberries and orange (peel?)

>>1168769

>y do [fun whim] instead of [practical thing]

such is the internet desire to sin

>>1167744
At pet stores, they sell a liquid that treats chlorinated water so it's safe for various animals, mostly fish, but hermit crabs and such as well.

>>1168711
>pro brewer here
How do i get a job in a craft brewery?

>>1168711
If you haven't already, could you please answer >>1167864 ?

Planning on making a pear cider and a pinapple cider.

Any good advice regarding either one?

>>1168754
>any style in particular?
Any and all. I wanna brew them.

>>1168711
>hour long mashes are a waste of time, 30 minutes is usually more than enough for starch conversion (assuming your grains aren't anything too crazy)
Is there a downside to mashing for longer? What craziness would affect the time needed for the mash, just the diastatic power of the grains?

>>1169018
probably try and use a cheesecloth if possible to keep the solids together

When should i rack my wine? its been 7 days now since i started the fermentation. But it's still bubbling at an average of around a bubble/4sec. Its a white banana wine.

Also, you rack because you don't want the sediment to affect the wine. Is this because of the lees or other particles? Because I've also read that autolysis for yeast takes several weeks, so it shouldn't be the reason for the fast racking, right?

>>1168157
>skeeter pee
Never heard of this stuff before. Gotta try that out sometime.

>>1169280

It's bretty gud. Some people have trouble getting it to start but It's never given me any problems. I use EC1118 but want to try that k1 stuff since it sounds better from the description on homebrew stores.

I can't even remember the recipe. I pour the sugar and one qt lemon juice in bucket to let it sit a while with a shirt or towel on top of bucket. Rehydrate yeast and pitch into some juice off the shelf at the store. I have extra bottles so I pour off half the juice into an empty container and just swirl it whenever I can be arsed to aerate the shit out of it. By the time it's wanting to clear I top up the bucket with water and dump the yeasty juice in the bucket. A couple days later I pour another lemon juice in a bowl and let it sit overnight for sulfites to float out or something then add to the must. 3rd bottle goes whenever I feel like it. Since it has so much preservatives I might just pour in at secondary to count as the preservatives. Usually people backsweeten but I like to just make it retard strength and mix it like a spritzer at serving. That way folks can choose their sweetness/hoochness to some degree. I think the original clocks in at 10% alcohol though so it's already pretty boozy. He's not joking about having to warn people, the sugar and acid makes it sneaky.

Last batch I got one of those packs of hibiscus from the mexcrement store and poured the lemon juice on top. I figured it's kind of like acid washing yeast in that it might kill any especially bad bugs. It's a lovely color in secondary now but I've yet to fine. I have bentonite I never used but I'll probably just go with the usual sparkolloid.

It's cheap like kilju but drinkable. Dollar Tree sells 1qt lemon juice for $1.

>>1169244
>Because I've also read that autolysis for yeast takes several weeks
And it takes several months for it to start to have any noticeable effect on the taste.
Typically the reason for racking is simply because you want to separate out the sediment so that you can have clear wine. So it makes sense to wait until most of the sediment has actually dropped out, which isn't going to happen until well after fermentation stops. If you're planning to transfer to a secondary vessel then you could rack as soon as fermentation is done. If not, then I'd suggest keeping it a couple weeks longer than that in primary. Although if you have some kind of fruit solids in there, idk how/if that would affect things.

For experimental purposes i fermented sugar to avoid methanol and then distilled it. It doesn't catch fire, smells very bitter and doesn't have very distinctive alcohol taste to it. Would moonshine taste like vodka or is the alcohols taste less obvious? I have no idea about the abv since i didn't take readings while fermenting.

>>1169329
Sounds like you might have had your still too hot and ended up with a lot of water in your final product. How long did you ferment for? How much water did you use? How much sugar did you use?

>>1169337
3 liter container with 750 grams of sugar. Fermented for 3 weeks. I admit it might have been too hot as i didn't keep an eye on the still while it was going. It must have been around 90 celsius with quite a lot of pressure so water might have boiled as well. If i do another batch and leave it for extended period with constant heat is the mixture supposed to stop boiling at some point? My goal is to get the stuff to burn with ease.

Started up some ghetto gut yesterday after finding the thread. Done this once before with apple cider and bread yeast in a 2 liter.

Had about half a bag of frozen mixed berries, added anywhere from about ¾ - 1 cup of sugar, plus around 3 cups of water. Heated the water sugar mixture first, added the berries, got that to a simmer but I wasn't sure how much I had, so I didn't want to boil it down any.

Took the berry/sugar/water mix and blended it, then added it to this sanitized mason jar. Had a little left over, so I threw that into a smaller glass container and also started fermenting that.

Used bread yeast again, Fleischman's Active Dry to be specific. Bloomed it in a little warm sugar water first.

Actually had to clean up a minor overflow after an hour or so, poured a little out as well, but despite some exposure to the outside air, the yeast looks to be doing fantastically.

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>>1169340
And the picture I forgot to add

>>1169338
Try to go slow, and switch out containers often. The concentration of methanol, ethanol, and water will change over time, as methanol boils first, then ethanol, then water. Going slow means there will be more during the stage where you're getting a lot of methanol, then more time during the stage where you're getting a lot of ethanol.

I just looked this stuff up, so I'd mostly advise doing the same (looking up more information on distilling alcohol) if no one who is far more qualified than myself shows up to help soon

>>1169338
I've never distilled but I can at least say you could get way more alcohol in your ferment than you did. 3L water + 750g sugar would give you something like 1.095 OG which would yield maximum 12% ABV if your yeast attenuated at 100%, practically less (9-11%) depending on the yeast you used and how healthy it was:
http://www.brsquared.org/wine/CalcInfo/HydSugAl.htm
If you use more sugar overall, add some nutrients, stagger the sugar additions to let the yeast build up first, and use plenty of strong wine yeast or some of that super yeast that distillers use, you can probably get well above 18% ABV. I imagine that would be easier to get a stronger distillation from?

>>1169341
That's... not sealed on the top, right? If it is it's gon' explode

>>1169370
Nope, the lid is a little loose

>>1168715
>>1168995
Actually just seen you've already done this, so thanks for the advice - noted.

>>1166440
If you're near a Trader Joe's, they have mesquite honey for <$20 for 3lbs. A lot of guys on HBT have had good results with it.

>>1169340
>Started up some ghetto gut
The fuck's a ghetto gut?

>>1169329
>I shouldn't be distilling, the post.

Before you scald 95% of your body in third degree burns and possibly burn down your garage/house, please stop trying to distill alcohol...

>>1169469

Stop being a dramatic little bitch. It's his body and house. If he wants to face the 0.00000000000000000000000001% chance of that happening it's his choice.

>>1169467
I meant like, this is very improvised with what I already had at home

>>1169244
You don't rack before fermentation stops. After that in secondary, you wait longer until most of lees drop to bottom, then bottle or rack again depending on the wine. Red wine needs a lot of racking until it clears.

>>1169512
Not the guy your replying to, but that Anon did also say he didn't measure anything, didn't watch his still at all while it was going, didn't sound like he made cuts.

This is the opposite thing you want to do when your distilling, just because when high ABV alch is coming off, it's highly flamable. People should be a little careful with it. he basically makes it sound like his gives zero shits about safety or quality or anything.

Of course he can do what he wants but seriously.

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Question. I'm making hard cider, and I think it's almost ready to rack--the bubbles are getting further apart, and I'm planning on racking it when they're about a minute or two from one another. But I don't have another vessel of this size, so I was planning on putting it back into the (now thoroughly sterilized) containers in which the apple juice originally came for secondary fermentation.

My question is this; will the gas released in secondary be sufficient that I should worry about affixing airlocks to them, like a balloon or somesuch? Could I get away with just loosening the caps to let trapped gas out occasionally? Should I be concerned about it at all? How long should I keep it in secondary? A month? Two?

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>>1169695

I picked up pic related at walmart for ~$6. I thought it was clever, PET like better bottle/vintage shop but without the gas barrier. In reality the walls' shape are fucked to shit, in my poorly drawn diagram you see where the doodoo settles, so it takes some tricky moving around to get it to fall just right and repeated shock to knock it off the wedges/out of that little pocket on the handle. Huge pain in the ass. I wish I had snatched up those 5gal vintage shop ones for $15/ea last sale I saw.

Personally I'd let is sit in bucket until it's pretty well finished. Even racking from 1gal jugs is a pita, by the time I put in 2L soda bottles whatever sediment falls out is there to stay. If I'm impatient I'll put a heating pad on it to speed things along.

>>1169758
Won't letting it sit in the primary fermentation vessel get the taste of stanky dank dead yeast into the end product?

>>1169760

There's a lot that goes into off-tastes but from what I've read temperature, oxidation, and pitching rates plays the bigger role. I'm not the biggest cider guy so little disclaimer there. Apple juice has lots of fructose which yields more esters than say maltose dominant wort. You might not want to let it sit for months but I can't see 5 or 6 weeks being an issue. I've heard of guys going 5 months in primary without a problem, yet others say 4 weeks for a really light beer had noticeably different character in A-B testing vs 1 week primary.

I don't think it would taste bad if it sat but autolysis happens as it's part of the yeast life cycle. Loosening caps in original container occasionally is fine, just more work than I'd want. Glass can be tricky, if it's PET it will noticeably deform long before any risk of failure. The only warning glass might give is a slight bulging of the cap. A 5gal paint bucket is like ~$4 at walmart, you could transfer to that. Cleanliness is all the more important and HDPE is more permeable to gas than PET or glass but it's cheap and always good to have extra buckets around. You could drill and grommet a lid but that's $2 for the lid and they're a bitch to open. I just use plastic wrap like our aussie brothers.

>>1169767
Hmm.

Y'know, I think I'll just bite the bullet and bike the three and a half miles or so over to the warehouse district where the only local homebrew shop is. I'm being too much of a penny-pincher; I'll probably need another 6 gallon foodsafe carboy for whatever I make in the future anyhow, so I might as well spring for it and deal with the hassle of transport. That way, I can affix a proper airlock and all that jazz. Thanks for helping me decide.

Now that I think of it, there's still some headroom left in my primary vessel. Maybe I'll pitch another pound or two or four of sugar in; maybe just throw sugar in until it gets close to the lock. That way I can get as much alcohol out of these little beasties as I can before they choke on their own sweet, intoxicating exhalations. THEN I'll throw it in secondary.

Or... hm. Wait. If I feed it so much sugar the yeast die, there really won't be any fermentation going on in "secondary fermentation," will there? So that'd be a bad move, yes? What of this "malolactic fermentation" I keep hearing about?

I put gelatin in yesterday for clearing my beer, I was planning on bottling tomorrow but I cannot now. Will it be bad to leave it in the fermenter at 0c for another week?

my batch went for 3 days without beginning to ferment properly

threw something called "restart" in there (don't know what's in it but it just looked like yeast)

let it go for another two days, when it was apparent it didn't work I just threw a second package of yeast in to it

it's fermenting just fine now, but it has had enough yeast for 50 liters, but the batch itself is only about 12

is the excessive amount of yeast going to affect the flavor? also, the fact that it stood for 5 days just baking in a warm room without fermenting can't be good, right?

>>1169950
Well, the amount of yeast increases rapidly when it starts to ferment properly, so having extra at the start shouldn't matter too much

>>1168820
I mean from the way you described it, there doesn't seem to be a difference, and it's not like you couldn't put the money towards other equipment/materials

I have a question.

I am making at home 15 liters of witbier (it should be 20 but lots of losses). Yesterday i added yeasts and today morning it started fermenting like crazy and also the temperature is superhigh (i cant measure ti without opening but would say 20 maybe even 25 celsius).

Is high temperature risky during fermentation or can it make beer taste badly?

>>1170329
How the fuck did you lose 5 liters?

Are PETE bottles robust enough to be sterilized with boiling water without melting?

>>1170336
PET doesn't like heat so much, it rapidly deforms. Starsan is what I use but you could try bleach if you want something more likely to be laying around the house/grocery store. Boiling is not that great of a disinfectant even if the material can handle it.

Thermoplastics can be tricky here though, it's not the melting point you want to look at, but glass transition temperature. 67-81C according to Wikipedia

>>1170349
Thanks for the tip!

>>1170329
High temps cause off flavours but they can also be to style.

I brewed a belgian and the ferment profile that started at 18c and finished at 26c over 6days.

>>1169959
that's really reassuring, thank you.

How would I know if a cider I've made has gone bad?

I've been working on pinapple cider and it hasn't seemed to produce any CO2 from the airlock, but the taste is really off.
Should I abandon ship?

>>1170741
It could be:
Slow lag time before the yeast starts goin' (but it should start within like 3 days)
Your yeast was dead (Consider this if it's already been 3 days... you can pitch more live yeast in this case)
Your airlock is leaky and it's actually fermenting just fine (you'd probably be able to see a few bubbles or something on the surface. The real way to check is to use a hydrometer and see if the gravity has changed, but you may not have one.)

If it's been like over a week... well if it's alcoholic and not sweet then you at least successfully made alcohol and you can safely let it settle and then bottle and see how it turns out. It's normal for a brew to taste bad if it only just finished fermenting, but it shouldn't taste like vinegar, lemon juice or cheese. If you don't think it fermented at all, and you've just got like nasty yet sweet apple juice, then yeah probably dump it i guess?

>>1170770
>The real way to check is to use a hydrometer and see if the gravity has changed, but you may not have one.
A couple of the steps I initially went through while getting the cider together;

First off, the pinapple cider O.G. was about 1.050 when I first pitched the yeast. I didn't see any bubbling after 3 days, so I pitched a slightly different strain, added some yeast nutrient, and extra sugar. Still nothing after another 3 days, so I pitched some more yeast.

Since I added extra sugar, it's kinda hard for me to say what the O.G. really was. But checking the gravity right now, it's showing that it's 1.000~ which means that the alcohol content is pretty high.

Right now, my guess is leaky airlock. But the total lack of bubbles still confuses me. Regardless, I guess I'll just let it settle for a while to see how it goes.

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>>1165778
Just finished my hop trellis. I'm growing Chinook, Centennial, and Mt. Hood up here in the Pacific Northwest. The trellis is about 8 feet tall so I suspect with the number of rhizomes I've planted I'll get a good harvest probably next year. For now I'm just happy my /diy/ trellis is done.

Can't wait to brew this year too. We have an apple orchard on our property so I plan on making some nice cider and dry hopping that too.

>>1170786
Oh yeah, if it's at 1.000 then it's definitely a leaky airlock and it's probably done fermenting. Cider doesn't look as obvious as beer when it ferments, there's no krausen, just a few little bubbles on the surface. But yeah, even if it sucks now, let it clear and rack/bottle/carbonate. The taste can change a lot over time, more rapidly when it's young, and especially if it's really dry like what you've made.

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I'm always amazed that people don't post more pics of their batches they've made. I'm fucking ecstatic about my latest mead batch.

>>1171305
Is that how high I should be filling my jugs...? Shit.

>>1165778
I'm putting together a Mead this when's, might try to add hops to make it unique

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/diy/ you see these? You see how much grapefruit there is in this image? I just was just donated 200 lbs of these damn things. 6 full sacks of fucking grapefruit. And it was all going to go bad in a couple days.

Not wanting to risk grapefruit poisoning the gf and I spent 6 fucking hours juicing every last one of them damn things. We decided to make wine. Problem is I know fuckall about wine, or even brewing for that matter.

I already bought some bigass 5 gallon jar thing and some pickle buckets. I have no idea what the fuck I'm doing so if anyone has any tips or if anyone knows a good foolproof grapefruit recipe made specifically for idiots it would be most helpful.

>>1171587
>inb4 pour out juice and buy wine

my dayjob is working in a university physics accelerator lab. I would think I'm competent enough to not blow up my apartment, but if I do, well fuck it.

>>1171587
I might also make a new thread outta this since this is a legit rank amateur attempt at making wine.

>>1171587
I suppose you could take the same approach as with making cider out of fresh pressed apples? Drop campden tablets in it, make a yeast starter, pitch your desired level of sugar in it, throw it in, airlock it up? I wonder if you'd have to cut it with some level of water, though, for the yeast to be happy in it; grapefruit is pretty acidic, right?

I think you came to the right thread, in any case.

>Bottling some stout with my friend
>It tastes great even before we add dextrose and let it ferment some more in bottles
>two weeks later I open it it has a strong alcohol smell like when wine is really dry

IT KEEPS HAPPENING. It's always the same when we make something dark, it always gets that yeasty alcohol punch after you take a sip and the air flow from your throat to your nose and mouth. Fucking why?

Not to mention my friend said his bottles were amazing, no weird aroma at all.

>>1166104
Not necessarily. There are a lot of books detailing fit brew equip. I have this one
https://www.amazon.com/Brew-Ware-Adapt-Homebrewing-Equipment/dp/0882669265

>>1171607
Huh. Looks interesting. Tempted to grab a copy. Does it have much that you can't easily find on the web?

>>1171598
Did you try keeping it in the fridge for a few days before opening?

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Should hard-ciders be pasteurized if they are to be kept in shelf-storage for long periods of time?

>>1171635
>pasteurized
You can't pasteurize alcoholic beverages. Alcohol will evapore and you'll have cider without alcohol. You can use campden tablets.

>>1171661
Ah, I see. I'll look about the local homebrew shop for those, next I'm about there, then. So I just pitch one in before I bottle? Do they alter the taste appreciably?

I pasteurize my chinky rice wine but that's because it's a cluster fuck of microbes in the culture. I only make cider with pasteurized juice so it's not needed. Alcohol itself is inhibitory to most other shit.

>>1171634
I'll do that then. I did notice that the alcohol smell got weaker as the opened beer lost its bizz.

>>1171662
>So I just pitch one in before I bottle?
Yes but read on the suggested dosage. Try not to overdo it.
>Do they alter the taste appreciably?
They do if you overdo it. If you use it in correct amount the slight chemical taste disappears in time.
>>1171669
My guess is there's alive yeast circulating in bottle. They should settle down after a few days in fridge.

>>1169307
>>1169570
Thanks. I will wait for about 4 - 5 weeks after the fermentation stops to rack the wine. Its now bubbling once every 40 sec, so it shouldn't be too long off.

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>tfw it's illegal to distill in my state

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>>1171783
My god, son. Who did this to you? Was it the Mormons?

>>1171783
You should do something about that. Maybe form some sort of political party to take control of the means of distillation.

>>1171783
They won't give a shit as long as you don't try to start selling it.

>>1171790

NC. No Mormons.

>>1171791

It will be a Vodka October.

>>1171793

I feel like they'll still give me shit. My county got annexed into the city a few years ago which was bullshit. There are so many rules that simply weren't there. I can't even use a burn barrel without apprehension.

>>1171794
Just do it inside. Zoning is a different beast. Distilling mostly comes down to sales and liquor tax not being paid

>>1171794
>NC
why would a state right within the bosom of the revolution, one of the first to vote for independence, pass such a law

what manner of apostate cancer festers in your borders

>>1171799
Appalachia is where the term hillbilly comes from, and illegal distilling is what hillbillies did. The law is older than any person that's around today

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>>1169341
>>1169340
Progress after 5 days of fermenting. Most of the sediment, yeast or fruit, has settled. Before, bubbles were forming paths through the stuff on the bottom, but not today.

Any suggestions on how to proceed or what any of this means? I didn't really have a plan beyond making it alcoholic.

>>1171816
Tbh I'd give it up to 2 weeks total time, but that can depend heavily on what kind of yeast you used, and I'm not sure how long bread yeast would be functional for.

>>1171587

>section fruit
>put into blender
>blend till smooth
>make simple syrup
>add to fruit
>freeze
>enjoy grapefruit sorbet

>>1171843
Yeah it's still going a little bit. Spotted some bubbles in the debris in my picture. After it's ready, I'm gonna use some cheese cloth to strain the particulate matter out. The bread yeast dies at a lower alcohol % than brewing yeast iirc

>>1171848
It's hard to tell without an airlock, but depending on if it's easy to read for you, transfer it out once the bubble rate goes down to 1 or 2 per minute.

>>1171797

I don't know about NC but it varies wildy from state to state. That said, I don't know of any states when it's just zoning and taxes. Call up the ATF and say you'd like to pay taxes on the 3 bbls of moonshine you just made and you won't get any forms in the mail. You'll wake up next to your dead pets and a shotgun in your mouth that very same night. We weren't even allowed beer until president Carter.

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>>1171383
Well I'm making mead not beer so I can fill it up pretty far. Beer starts to make that foam while meads and wines don't make nearly as much. Even less so if you clean up the sugary residue from the honey after you stir it up. I always leave as little room for oxygen as possible.

>>1171801
Cops came onto my coworker's mom's property in NC once. They said they were looking for illegal activities. They found stills but didn't give a shit, said they were really looking for meth labs.

>Meth. The new moonshine.
Could be a good slogan.

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>>1172320
>Meth. The new moonshine.

>>1166300
They grow fucking everywhere here in Scandinavia.

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>>1167191
>giving Jewgle free advertising

Ive got a hard cider thats reaady to go, was thinking how do i check the alcohol content of it, and should i do that thing where you freeze it, take out the ice and increase the alcohol %?
Hoping for a minimum 15%

>>1172495
Pretty sure you need an alcohol hydrometer to get a read on how alcoholic your brew is.

So how long have you had your cider in secondary after initial fermentation? I was planning on making some and turning a portion into applejack too, so it'd be helpful to know how long to keep it in secondary.

>>1172560
been a few months, like 6 i think. Its ready for sure, just ageing i guess. ah right its called applejack.Not sure whether to make it or not, being my first batch and all

>>1172562
I figure I'll chance 'em and devote like half of my first batch to it. I like the idea of applejack; both the freezing and the higher alcohol content seem like they'd serve to make a more shelf-stable drink, which is nice, because I have no fridge-space.

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>>1172495

They make this thing called a vinometer, fuck if I know how to use it though. It only works in degassed bone dry drinks in the 5-15%ish range. I usually just take original gravity and final gravity and math it out from there to estimate ABV.

Alright, thinking this will be my next gallon experiment, anything horrifically wrong?
2lbs Maris Otter
4oz Flaked barley
2oz Chocolate malt
2oz Roast Barley
1oz Biscuit malt
1oz Smoked malt
Fuggle .6oz 60/15/5
English ale yeast
Dry hop in some cocoa, cinnamon, and vanilla

>>1173075
>anything horrifically wrong
Only the use of imperial measurements.

>>1173471
Yeah because fractional grams just roll off the tongue.

>>1173472
>base 10 is hard

LMFAO

>>1173476
Oh yeah, I totally don't know metric, nope that definitely isn't default in every american science classroom, nope not at all.

Hate to tell ya bud, but until someone in DC convinces a gaggle of retards to replace a lot of infrastructure, metric will never be relevant in the lives of americans (and at best they'd only be able to force people to learn distances), and as a result will never become their default thought when it comes to units of measurement.

Is it normal to lose lots of volume with a BIAB? Had my first attempt at it yesterday and, while I think it went alright, I only ended up with what looks like 10-12 litres of homebrew after starting off with 15 litres of water and adding 3 more for sparge. Ended up putting 3 litres of top-up water in because the wort looked pretty thick.

Where might I have lost volume? I did squeeze the bag fairly hard to try and extract as much as I could from it, although this was difficult because it was pretty hot still. Other than that I can only think that I might have lost quite a bit during the boil, and/or when I accidentally let some boil over near the start of the brew.

>>1173541
Also, but on an unrelated note, how important is it to get mash temperature perfect? I didn't realise, but the thermometer I bought just for this brew only works within the ranges of 25-40C (what a fucking useless thermometer), so I had to guess just by looking at the brew what temperature it was at. There's a certain amount of logic to this (judging size of bubbles, etc), but I'd be very surprised if I always managed to keep even within 10C of my target mash temp. How much can that fuck up the brew?

>>1173542
And lastly, this is the first time I've used a hydrometer, and the reading was '84'. Does this mean 1.084? Or do I need to convert the scale some other way?

>>1173471
metric is the devil's increment

>>1173489
I'm autist so it probably doesn't generalize well. I think in metric for weight, volume, and distance. I'm kind of stuck between C and F. For weather I know F but when playing with toys I remember C better. Even that's only because everyone uses C, Fahrenheit is better because of resolution. Fractions of an inch will never make sense to me though. 5/64"? Who the fuck thought that was a good idea? mm makes sense and sounds like candy, but I could live with decimals if we're doing inches. I have no friends but if I had to guess I'd say much of metric is just an old person thing or an asshole thing for people who want a 69/1337" drill bit.

>>1173541
It's normal to lose volume in the mash due to grain absorption, about a pint per pound of grain. You'll also lose volume from the boil, which varies depending on your pot and setup. If you want to measure that exactly you can boil some water for about an hour and find out how much you lose. I lose a little over a gallon per hour.
>>1173542
It's very important to get the mash temperature perfect, at least within a couple degrees. The enzymes (alpha and beta amylase) are only active at particular temperatures, so there's a narrowish range brewers use for converting starches (63-69C) and it makes a big difference in the fermentability and body of the beer if you mash on the cooler side (more fermentable) or the hotter side (more body)
http://beersmith.com/blog/2012/12/20/mash-temperature-and-beer-body-in-all-grain-brewing/
>>1173543
Maybe? Were you making a really "big" beer with a lot of grain? 1.084 is what you might expect from a double.
The other common measuring scale is Brix, so maybe it could mean 8.4 brix which would be 1.034. Which is pretty low, but it's possible you got unexpectedly low efficiency due to your unknown mash temps.

I wanna make vodka and I'm wondering how much difference would be in quality between corn mash and sugar mash?

I want to make kvass, it looks delicious

Can I use just about any bread yeast?
I don't understand all these google translate'd recipe sites

And how does normal rye bread work contra sourdough rye bread?

>>1173776
I made Kvass with my roommate freshman year of college.
We used pumpernickel bread, a lemon, and bread yeast. It was barely alcoholic, but Kvass isn't supposed to be super alcoholic.
Tasted a bit like a wheaty summer shandy.

>>1167887
great for Dark & Stormy/ Dark & Murky

>>1173786
>wheaty summer shandy
Sounds delicious
>pumpernickel bread, a lemon, and bread yeast
I will try this first and see if I like it, then make traditional kvass later. Thanks!

>>1171305
Looks bleedin brilliant. Good job

>>1173541
1kg of grain will absorb 1lt of water on average.

>>1173489
It could be easily afforded if USA decided not to be involved in any war for a single year.

>>1173810

What do you meme? You think avoiding metric is some kind of anti-war protest?

>>1166514
I've been brewing ciders and wines for a bit now. Been thinking about making some beer, but I don't really understand the process. Also I fucking HATE hops, and I've heard that low hop beers are harder to make for some reason?

What do?

>>1173860
>I fucking HATE hops
You little bitch

>>1173861

i kno u r (but what am i?)

>>1173860
>low hop beers are harder to make for some reason
There is less flavours to hide behind. If you have a very hoppy beer it will usually have a high malt flavour too. You can hide esters and phenols behind the strong hop and malt character.

Light hop beers are still easy. But temprature control during ferment is a must. Plus having perfect cleaning and Sanitizing practices

>>1173941
Interesting, thanks.

What's temperature control look like for beer yeasts? For most wine and cider, I'd describe it as "not too hot not too cold", but with a fairly wide tolerance.

>>1173733
Vodka is much more about refining than the mash. After it's been distilled a few times, the difference will be minuscule.

>>1166514
I started out brewing beer now i'm scared to brew wine or ciders :(
but really it's easy if you have any cooking experience, just remember sanitation and temperature control is key.

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Do any y'all niggas know a thing or two about cheese making?

I'm trying my hand at Mozzarella since it's quick to make and has instant results. So I bought some Lactase/Rennet tablets from GNC.

Any idea if this is going to work as a replacement for Rennet tablets? I'm trying to avoid opening the package in case I got the wrong stuff.
Pic related.

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Suppose I want to breed a strain of yeast with ultra high alcohol tolerance. How would I go about this?

>>1174305
Scientific method. Micropipettes, culture counting techniques, standardized feed

Grow a hundred samples of yeast to alcohol saturation. Pick the one that produced the most alcohol, and grow a hundred more samples based on it.

You are not really going to get any higher than commercial strains, fyi. It's a limit of their metabolism.

>>1174305
They're called turbo yeast. They say it produces nasty flavors so nobody recommends it unless you want alcohol for non drinking purposes.

>>1174360
He's more interested in tolerance than production rate, very different things.

>>1174565
I am pretty sure you are 100% wrong there.

Is it possible to ferment in a completely sealed vessel that can handle the pressure? I'm curious what would happen if that was tried. No airlock to relieve pressure, a full seal.

>>1174663
You could try a pressure cooker

>>1174663
I mean, it'd be carbonated as shit.

>>1174663

Its been done before, basically standard practice at this point. You can ferment at higher temps with lower risk of off flavors. Put a spunding valve on and you're good to go. If you shorten the dip tube racking becomes way easier and oxidation risk is almost completely eliminated.

>>1174663
from what I've read/been told, (most) yeast doesn't respond well to high pressure. my guess is you'd get some unique ester/phenol production, not necessarily in a good way. I'd also be willing to bet you underattenuate significantly.

>>1174655
You're right, i was unclear. Pick the ones that produced the highest concentration of alcohol.

Though if all samples are the same concentrations initially, that would also be the sample that produced the most alcohol.

>>1173795

Or you can buy a shitton of quality bread at a regular bakery, dry it, mix with raisins and sugar, add the water and let it ferment for a month. The yeast in the bread is enough.

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>>1173808
Thank you, just look how much it has cleared up. I plan on bottling it here in a week.

Is there a reasonable substitute for hops or no? I see most are naturally from a certain several degrees latitude north, but I live in the southern US and considered using ingredients all from my state - the yeast and starch source are easy enough.

>>1175057
Look into gruit. Maybe some bog myrtle?

>drinking alcohol

kek. enjoy your inebriation and good times with friends, losers.

So is there any downside to overboiling your wort other than the time investment?
Because I might have been foolish enough to think I could make a 5 gallon batch without nearly a large enough pot. So I was thinking of compensating by boiling off enough water from my mash to get all of the sugars to fit, hopping that up, and then using top up water to bring it to its final volume.

>>1175196
If I remember correctly, boiling can make the wort darker by sugar caramelization.
Don't know if there are any other things to consider, just remember that hop utilization is smaller with higher gravity wort, so you might need to add more hops than if you boiled it with a bigger pot.

There was a thread about this exact thing in homebrewtalk but I can't seem to find it now. I remember the consensus was that you can do it with little to no changes to the recipe with excellent results. So I guess you should go for it.

>>1175203
Fantastic I was actually looking for some good news, because I'm already about 3 hours into the process. I'm glad my beer will be fine because it seems this is just going to be my day now.

suppose you're an al/ck/y who ran out of booze money but still wants to get drunk.
What's the best you can do with no equipment and experience?

>>1175217
I'd do modified Skeeter Pee and shoot for 8-10% ABV.

Equipment:
>Empty 5 gallon bucket from walmart or hardware store
>Plastic wrap
>Bigass spoon from dollar tree

Ingredients:
>3 qt lemon juice from dollar tree
>8-10lbs sugar from sugar store
>2qt *juice, preservative free aside from ascorbic acid
>Yeast, EC1118 from ebay or local homebrew store

Clean and sanitize bucket. Pretty straightforward here, rinse out well and use a little bleach or starsan. If bleach rinse it very well after.
If you have tap water, put a little more than 3 gallons in the bucket to sit about a day with a towel over the top, get the nasty chlorine out.
Mix 1qt lemon juice, sugar, and enough water to make a nice syrup in a pot and heat. This breaks down sugar so it's easier to metabolize. Pour in bucket. Add a handful of raisins to the syrup while it's cooking if you want to be nice to the yeast.
Put yeast in your apple or whatever juice. It's better to split between 2 containers, be clean and shake/burp it alot. This adds oxygen and tells the yeast to make sex not alcohol. Once it stops hissing each time you crack the lid it's time, actually time a few hours ago but no biggie, pour in bucket and replace clean towel with plastic wrap. Wait a couple days and add another 1qt lemon juice, remember to let it sit out overnight in a bowl covered with towel to air the nasties out first. Add the 3rd bottle lemon juice whenever you feel like it, I usually add it when my bucket is done bubbling. this way I don't have to air the juice out and can let the preservatives preservatate my wine.

That's pretty much it. If you want to get fancy let it fall clearish and transfer to a carboy to get clear, you can add more chemicals to speed this up. You can also pour in 2L bottles(clean and sanitized) and they will fall clear with time or you can drink it while cloudy and enjoy the extra B vitamins. Alchies have B vitamin deficiency so this might not be too bad.

>>1175224
Thanks for typing that out. Looks like there are also plenty of youtube tutorials about this
Does it matter how much yeast you use or does the amount only has an impact on the time it takes?
also what does qt stand for

>>1175231
Other anon here
qt is quart, an imperial measure of volume.
If you use dedicated wine dry yeast, use all of the yeast. The packets are designed to be used with one batch of brew. If you put in only a tiny amount of the necessary yeast, the brew can take longer to finish and it might taste funny because of yeast stress. Using too much yeast doesn't really have any downsides, it should clear out in pretty much the same amount of time.

>>1175240
alright thanks
Quick question, what's the difference between the types of yeast?

>>1175242

There's a lot of differences but I mention ec1118 in particular because it's strong stuff. It can tolerate wider temperatures, pretty quick to finish, doesn't foam, and is available pretty much anywhere that caters to wine/beer guys for about $1/pack. You can read up on the stuff later if you like the hobby but mostly it's about the specific profile and environment conditions.

The reason for the juice to start the yeast is that lemon and sugar is shit as far as nutrients go. A starter with juice let's you build up a good population of yeast. The original Skeeter Pee recipe has you make it on top of a previous batch's yeast cake. It can be a bitch to get going without the old yeast cake or apple/whatever juice giving the yeast a head start.

I don't know why I didn't write this at first, but even more basic way is to get one of those one gallon jugs of apple juice and ferment in the container it comes in. You can add sugar or frozen apple juice concentrate to boost the alcohol but I think it comes out to around 6% nothing added. I'd treat it like beer and use a yeast like safale 04 or safale 05. Like other anon said, the dry yeasts are usually meant for one 5 gallon batch. If you make less you can add it all, or try to split between the 5 one gallon containers. Plastic wrap and a rubber band on top let's the gas out/keeps bug out, but beer yeast tends to foam more. If you want to get fancy you can dry hop with pellet hops for a day or two once it's done, but I havent done that yet. One day I'll put together a guide for lazy man's beer that's just a store bought dry hopped cider.

I'm going to be starting two small (5 gallon) batches of mead next month.

Anybody have any experience with it? There aren't exactly a lot of steps, just curious if it's easy to fuck up regardless.

>Going to start with store bought honey
>if the first batch turns out decent, a family friend owns a cherry orchard and I may be able to get a deal on cherry blossom honey from the beekeepers he rents apiaries from for a somewhat unique cherry blossom honey mead

>>1175525
I'm no mead expert but I think you're chiefly worried about 1. yeast health (pitching enough live yeast for the size/gravity of your must, and making sure there's enough nutrients for the yeast in the must to stay healthy) and 2. keeping a consistent and cool fermentation temperature (probably easy if your house stays at 68-70F, I live in a hot place so I will keep my brews in a tub full of ice water with a shirt over it). Then bottle it when it's done and don't open most of the bottles for like a year.

>>1171790
mormons made it legal a few weeks back

Yo I've made toilet wine (apple juice brewed in container it was bought in, dont hate my naming convention) NUMEROUS times and it always comes out tasting a bit funky.

Anybody know why this is? Tried different yeasts and tried brewing at a lower temp and the result was pretty much the same. Has an odd I guess dry flavour but with an unpleasant and difficult to describe taste.

>>1175525
Orange rinds can be a good supplement/addition for yeast nutrient.

>>1175535
I was just going to do it in my room, I have an AC in here and a ton of space, so temperature should be fine.

And yeah, the yeast thing has me worried, it's a living thing so I'm always worried about yeast (Same with baking.)

>>1175642
I was thinking about doing a batch with blood oranges but I figured I would just do a traditional, without any fruits or spices for my first couple batches.

>>1175613

What yeasts have you used? Any additional nutrients? It seems any time I try to do apple juice in the original container with wine yeast it comes out like ass, lots of sulfur. Now I pour in bucket, add nutrients, and use beer yeast. Edwort is a meme.

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>>1167887
Interested In this as well

>>1175020
Recipe?

>>1169294
I made a berry skeeter pee a few years ago, right after fermentation it was amazing, after ageing it was full meh. I think I would have liked the standard version better.

I'm making some banana wine that i'm going to freeze distill.

>>1174298
I started with wine and mead, and I'm scared to try beer.

>>1175646
For future batches if you feel creative, one of my favorites is with grape juice and brown sugar

>>1176499

Its not so bad if you use the LME and steeping grains. That was my first shot at beer and I was surprised by how well it came out. It finished a lot faster than me wines too. None of this week's fermenting bullshit, clear and in the bottle after two weeks.

>>1176499
Can you brew tea?
Because brew in a bag isn't much more complicated. It has like 2 downsides though. Doesn't handle high abv stuff like barely wine well (or so I've heard), and you can't have a weak back if you plan to make 5 gallon batches.
Probably only things you need if you already make wine is a lobster pot and a nylon bag. If you go for the 1-3 gallon range you can easily do everything with a range, oven, and sink.

>>1169758
My concern with using the water bottles as carboys is the handle area on the inside would be difficult to clean. Some of them are just cylindrical without the handle, I'd think they would be fine.

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Why is my bucket looking like this? I just racked my wine over.

>>1176132
I didn't use water in this one I substituted it for about 4 gallons of non preservative cranberry juice and non preservative mango juice. 12 lb of clover honey, yeast, yeast energizer. After a month of primary fermentation I added up 2 diced up pineapples. It's already been 3 months now and it smells strong and sweet. Can't wait to try it.

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Anyone experienced with electric brewing? I'm poorfag so taking inspiration from bongs and aussies. What about getting a plastic drum and slapping an element or two inside. Isn't this how AIDs started?

The only niggling is what do after element is screwed in, it's just held to the wall by locknut and a couple gaskets. I figure ground is for pussies so seal up the wiring with anything cylinder shaped and run the cable out back with body caulked up nice and tight to the kettle. Running a short cable with plugs gives more chances for zaps while also allowing the 240 to be plugged into 120 or 240 by a kind of ghetto extension cord with different outlet/plug on the kettle side to offer more site flexibility come brew day.

>>1166101
It depends on how you do it I have seen people spend $300 a batch or $25

I'm not picky so I go on the lower end

Where to get a nice 1L or 1.5L swing-top bottle?

Clear, non-tinted glass is a plus.

What is the most efficient way to kill yeast. I know freezing it will just put them to sleep until it's back to liquid. Would boiling it at 50-60 celsius kill the yeast and not effect the brew in any other way?

>>1178628
heat will defiantly effect flavors to what extent i don't know, if you have time the yeast will eventually die off themselves if they exceed any of their tolerances or run out of sugar. You can add potassium sorbate to stop yeast reproduction and therefore end fermentation in another few weeks

>>1178628

You'd high pressure if you're trying to kill the yeast. A partial vacuum probably wouldn't do much of anything.

Ok I asked a kind of similar question earlier, but hey I really want to avoid buying a bigger pot.

So say I want to brew 5 gallons worth of beer. Now say my pot just barely holds 4 gallons. Now would it be absolutely mad to brew 2 2.5 gallon batches one after the other, and throw them into the same carboy?

If I did this would it be better to pitch yeast with the initial 2.5 batch, or once everything has been mixed?

Also would it be necessary to perfectly split things, or could each component batch be different?

>>1179193
>would it be mad
No. Sounds very possible. You could also boil a higher gravity version and top it off with water to dilute it to proper gravity and volume, though that might only work on low-abv beers.

I'd mix the yeast in only after you've mixed the worts. No real reason but it feels right.

You wouldn't have to split things perfectly, but how do you mash? If you also mash in 2 parts, remember that you need some base malts in both mashes for them to have enough enzymes for proper conversion. So you'd need pilsner, 2 row or other enzymatic malts in both mashes, but you could have one mash have all the caramel malts and the other have all the adjuncts or other specialty grains.

Take this with a grain of salt as I haven't done what you propose but there doesn't seem to be anything fundamentally wrong in it. Hell, some commercial beers (For example newcastle brown ale) are made by mixing together two fermented beers. So your procedure isn't all that radical.

>>1179355
>You could also boil a higher gravity version and top it off with water
Not with a 4 gallon pot biab you can't. Trust me here the grain barely fits turns the sparge into a fucking nightmare.

Thanks for the base malt tip, don't think I would have thought of that.

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Alright boys, hows this

>Get apple juice with glass jar
>Maybe add sugar
>Put in wine yeast
>Plug bottle with airlock

I've seen people on youtube doing this, but their brew comes out like strong wine than cider
Would putting it in the fridge earlier fix this

>>1179964

>use wine yeast
>expect to get something other than wine

look for some different yeast, if you just go for the cheapest thing available, it will pretty much be wine

>>1165778
I'm really big into making mead, and I always have a problem with filtering all the dead yeast from the final product. I usually just rubberband a cloth patch over the end of the tube and that *kinda* works. I was wondering about some methods you guys use?

>>1179971
kek

>>1179973

as long as you let it ferment out, then let it sit to age, you should have no problem with it settling to siphon off

if adding fruit or other stuff to it during fermenting, use a cheesecloth bag to keep everything together

>>1178628
Heat would stale your beer.

>>1179964
Use a dry white wine or champagne yeast. They ferment pretty clean and will have minor impact on the flavor.

>>1179973
Just give it enough time and allow it to settle, then carefully rack. If it's still cloudy, it could be bacterial or a secondary fermentation. Are you adding SO2 to stabilize?

>>1166101
I just made a Duvel clone and its pretty close. A carton of 24 330ml bottles of Duvel cost $150-160 here.
My clone brew cost $52 and made 32 750ml bottles.

If only I didn't scorch it when boiling, it would have been a perfect brew. But it has a very slight burnt aftertase when it dries out on the tongue.

>>1179973
You want to filter at 0.5micron to remove yeast.

Just opened up my fermenting bucket for dry hop, and noticed a gunky layer on top. Beer underneath seems fine and the smell is ok, but there's just these few pools of gunk. I think it's the yeast - when I was initially stirring it in, there were a few parts that wouldn't mix in properly. I assumed they'd just dissolve in over time, but it looks like it hasn't.

Any ideas on what I should do now? Is it a problem?

>>1180148
You're not referring to the krausen are you? The mention of dry hopping makes me think this isn't your first beer, but I still have to ask.

Also if its a rogue colony that doesn't seem to have affected the beer itself, yeah scrape it off you'll be fine.

>>1180153
Honestly I hadn't come across that term before (it's my second batch, although I dry-hopped the first too), but I've looked it up and I don't think it's krausen. It's not so much an even foam as it is randomly distributed clumps.

>>1180157
Mind a picture then? My guess right now is still yeast colonies. Could be the fermenting yeast brought to the top, could be wild. If I'm right and your beer smells like beer, then you'll be fine, siphon around it.

>>1179964
I did this but with us05 ale yeast, came out damn tasty.

>>1180165
Unfortunately the dry hopping was the last thing I did before heading away for the weekend, I'll try to update tomorrow night.

>>1180148
Yeast rafts probably. Don't worry about it if so.

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We brewing today.

>>1180091
Also you don't have to worry about the beer being stale.

>>1180091
I made the Dragonmead Final Absolution clone (recipe is on HBT) and it turned out fantastic. Belgians are great for home brew IMO since they're so pricey to buy.

Woah, getting loaded off a dry hopped Fat tire clone. Sweet nectar.

>>1180703
My fat tire clone is on week 2 of primary, but didn't involve any dry hopping. Recipe?

>>1180716
I just kegged 2.5 gallons of it with 1 oz of whole leaf cascade hops. Delicious aromatics and foam without too many IBUs. Also used Brun leger to prime it.

>>1180719
>Brun leger
Interesting, I'm going to have to look into getting some of that after I fiddle around with regular brown sugar.

>>1165778
You faggots really have to hate yourself to actually drink this shit. Just buy some cheap wine or whatever if you're so desperate to get drunk.

>>1180827
On what planet does cheap wine taste like beer?

>>1180827
if you actually read any of this thread or the previous ones, you'd know most people here are not middle school kids looking to make toilet wine

>>1180827
ok, see >>1180445 that isn't a cheap brew system. It is one of more inexpensive One Vessel Brew systems, but for a user to own one, I'd say they brew more for the enjoyment or making their own beer and or brewing clones for much cheaper than buying retail.

>>1181169
Also a bitchin system to distill in.

>>1180827
Homebrew tastes a lot better than retail stuff if done properly.

>>1181214
Once I had my equipment dialed in, and got much more skilled, I found this to be true. I can make plenty of unique or just overall higher quality stuff than is on any store shelf. Plus it's damn fun.

>>1179976
That's what I was thinking is some cheesecloth. I'll have to go out and get some here soon.

>>1180066
I am not adding any SO2. It usually does come out kinda cloudy, I just assumed it was a mix of yeast that got stirred up and other sediment. I'm just trying to make my mead come out as clear as possible.

>>1180093
I'll keep that in mind, thanks for the advice.

Two weeks until I make my first homebrew.

Doing two 5 gallon buckets of mead. Wish me luck! I'd take pictures but since it's just cleaning things and filling buckets I doubt anybody's interested.

>>1181351
I recommend putting it in a cold place or refrigerator. Yeast drops quickly in when it is cold. You can also use campden to kill the yeast, then they'll drop the same.

>>1179964
>I've seen people on youtube doing this, but their brew comes out like strong wine than cider
Cider is literally apple wine though. It just doesn't have any added sugar.

>>1181642
Isn't the yeast different though?

>>1181461
Need photos of the buckets.

>>1181461
Do it, I want to make fun of some innocuous detail.

>>1181738
I want to join you. We can make fun of him together.

>>1166300
These grow wild in Norway, called Multe
20$ a kilo sold from street vendors in Oslo on sunny days

Just started a 10L hard cider brew.

I don't have a hydrometer. Should I just wait 1 week and assume its done?

Do you recommend carbonating/sweetening it?

Should I make an attempt to filter it when I transfer it to a new container(s)?

>>1181787
You wait until there's nothing left of the steak but the bone.

Wait until it stops bubbling, then you can transfer and add half a packet of gelatin to let it clear. Plain old vanilla kind from knox, not jello. Heat in microwave and occasionally stir until it's about 150F, then dump it in your secondary. It should be clear after a day or two. Filtering sucks unless you drop a lot of money on it.

>>1181807
>>1181812
Thanks.

How important is second fermentation? My plan is to just siphon it to a basic plastic container and add a small amount of sugar for carbonation. Then I'll bring the container to a party so we can drink it all in one evening.

>>1181828
Mostly it's for dropping clear and what little yeast left to scavenge up some of the nasty byproducts. I generally don't like my ciders young unless I use an ale yeast. Wine yeast takes a few weeks while to lose that green taste, but I've had people say I'm just being critical and it tastes fine. It depends on what you like. A little bit of sweet really brings out the flavor. Dry is good but not 0.994 dry. Bone dry cider doesn't quite taste like you'd expect.

I can be ditzy sometimes and miss a couple bottles when priming but it's not bad still. Kind of a bummer when you want to see the bubbles dancing up the glass though. If you want to get fancy try using malt extract instead of sucrose for bumping up the ABV and some pellet hops in during secondary. It's a lazy mans beer. Damn good too, the 8% really sneaks up on you.

>>1181828
Skip it. The big thing it's doing for you is getting the booze off the yeast before it commits autolysis. It varies how long that takes, but cider should clear up months beforehand. Really wines and meads are the 2 big things that really need to worry about dead yeast shitting everything up.

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>>1169340
>>1169341
Let it sit for 2.5 weeks or so, filtered out the sediment with a coffee filter, let it rest a few more days, and voila! Not clear, but it certainly tastes like wine. The few days spent after filtration removed a burning that was present in the test batch.

>>1181828
You can skip secondary if you're not planning on adding anything (like fruit or clearing agents like gelatin). It's not really a "second fermentation", it's just a second container that you can use to let more sediment drop out, or to add more ingredients.

If you do only a primary, though, leave it alone for a bit longer, like an extra week after fermentation stops. Then you'll give extra time for more sediment to drop to the bottom of the primary. Just be careful when siphoning suck up as little sediment as possible.

Here's a thought. What if I brewed a huge pot of tea, and used that instead of water to brew up a mead? Hell what about for a beer?

>>1181989
I use tea for the tannins sometimes. It adds a little bit of complexity to the drank. I don't go full strength though. Something like 6 bags for 5 gallons and I pull them out after boiling. I first used it in place of grape tannin for Skeeter Pee.

>>1181989
sounds like kombucha, but with higher alcohol content

>>1181992
So say I wanted to make some skeeter tepee of my own, did you brew that tea normally?

I've got the Mr beer oktoberfest and abotu a pound of honey, what yeast should I add?

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decided to take a sample of some of the sediment at the bottom, and look at it through a microscope, looks like the yeast is very much alive,
do I have to wait till the alcohol content kills off the yeast?

>>1183410
No. Just refrigerate for a few days and don't pour the yeast. Leave a little at the bottom.

>>1181968
that looks like the gunk in the bottom of the carboy after I sift my wine
I usually throw that out

>>1183534
we are at bump limit.