What are you brewing, /ck/?
I've got some mead and cider almost finished fermentation and ready for clearing.
I've got 40 bottles of orange ale in bottles right now. Gonna give one a try next Tuesday to see how it is.
>>7521409
Ginger beer tastes a lot more alcoholic but I was retarded and didn't set up any way of measuring the content.
Tastes good with the Chili and Ginger kick.
Probably get one of those big jars and do it properly soon.
On Friday I am trialing a recipe for a new house beer for my brewery using Brewer's Gold and Sorachi hops as they're readily available and fuck all else is.
How long is to long to stay in secondary and bottle conditioning for a stout or an IPA?
Does anyone know any good places to find large glass bottles like in OP's pic?
The ones I usually see are part of an overpriced homebrew set.
>>7521469
They're called carboys and a 5 gallon one will run you somewhere near 30-35 dollars.
Just look to see if you have a local homebrew store that sells them or order one on Amazon.
I'm thinking about doing apple cider w/champagne yeast, suggested recipes? Don't wanna have to age it for more than 1-4 months if possible, first time making this stuff.
Also some anon on here said they were making peach cider with vanilla and cloves. Anyone have a recipe for that?
I've got some blueberry apple cider going and a nut brown ale, I think they're both ready to get kegged but I'm just waiting until I get an empty keg and I want to dry hop the brown ale. No rush I guess.
>>7521409
brewing 30bbl red IPA today. been a long couple of weeks, brewing double batches mon-fri. have been a professional brewer for about a year and a half now, would be happy to answer any beer related questions if anyone cares.
>>7521467
depends on abv for stout. IPA I would say a month or so. you want hop aroma to be fresh and it starts fading around then. a monster stout could benefit from 1-3 months conditioning.
>>7521449
what style of beer? I'm a fan of sorachi ace as a finishing/dry hop, but not usually by itself.
>>7521546
cider is usually just fermented apple juice with sugar added for abv... for the peach cider, I would puree 1 lb peaches/gal and ferment with apple juice in primary, then add one vanilla bean split and scraped and one whole clove for a couple of days before packaging.
>mead
>not a meme drink
>>7521546
Champagne yeast is my least favorite for cider. It doesn't leave as much apple flavor as ale yeast does, or even a less aggressive wine yeast like D47. So far my favorite yeast for cider is Mangrove Jack's M02 cider yeast.
>>7521489
I got a chipped one from good will for $5
>>7523018
What kind should I use to make something like Crispin? It's not very sweet and dry I guess.
I brew as opportunity allows. I never buy shit. I just bottled a cherry mead and blueberry wine. The mead has so much honey taste, despite being fermented to .999, that it is kind of disgusting. Gotta find something to mix it with.
I fucked up. Made over 10 gallons of kilju(but with 4 bottles of concentrated juice) and it's starting to turn to vinegar due to me being lazy/cheap and not having a proper lid on the buckets, just a cookie sheet thjat doesn't even cover the bucket lid the whole way , and even if it did, wouldn't make a proper seal.
Btw, anything I've ever made with oranges ends up tasting like shit. Gonna forgo that forever from now on.
I have some blueberry wine clearing right now.
>>7521446
nice one, sounds good.
drank all my sour rauch beer within a couple of days. It was so low alcohol I was drinking it with lunch like lemonade. weird at first but the combination of sour and the smoky/savoury with an extremely dry finish it almost made it a meal in itself. very good as an accompaniment to pork.
Also bottled the strong, un-soured rauch bier. FG: 1.015 7.8% ABV. got about 19L out of my 23L batch, left an unusually big trub on the bottom. Probably leave it about 2 month before I crack open the first bottle.
Made my second batch of mead on the 25th.
Fermenting much better now that time avoided the mistakes I made with the first batch.
I used meadowfoam honey, if the finished mead carries over even a hint of the flavor it's going to be the best thing ever.
How long should I age mead before bottling?
The wine I made was drinkable in less than two months, but everyone keeps saying that mead needs many months or even years before it's acceptable to drink.
Got a mango-habanero mead I just started
Doing an Irish Stout for winter,
>>7525206
when it reaches a stable gravity, it is ready to be bottled. bottle conditioning is common -- all of my meads have bottle conditioned and improved over time. you don't need (or necessarily want) the mead to stay on primary for too long.
>>7521596
can you brew something decent with cooking yeast? Like the most beginner friendly thing
>>7526168
A good enough yeast is like two dollars, just buy it. If you're looking to brew beer, then you really don't want to use cooking yeast.
T. not professional brewer
I bought a gallon of organic apple juice, added baker's yeast, sugar, and let it sit in a dark room temp place for about a month. Did i make an alcohol?
>>7526222
>added baker's yeast
You done goofed, but yes, you will have alcohol. It probably won't be as strong as regular cider and might taste slightly different.
Don't forget to add an airlock.
>>7526256
I cant *legally* buy alcohol yet, what could i do different next time to make it stronger?
>>7523378
Maybe you can save your work by distilling it? I've made apply brandy from cider/wine before but not from some that had started to go bad.
>>7526222
>>7526256
Yeah, airlock and sanitation are major factors.
You should be able to order brewing yeast off Amazon without issue for next time.
I've heard that baking yeast actually has decent alcohol tolerance, enough that it is often used for distilling endeavors, though not as tolerant as distilling yeast.
You could try re-using the same yeast until it adapts to the conditions, but it may mutate unpleasantly in the process.
As for me, I've got a weizenbock at 1 week ferment so far. Planning on 3-4 weeks in fermenter then a couple months in bottles before I taste it.
>>7526379
I'm a poorfag with no means of building a distiller or buying the parts. The best I can muster is freeze distillation.
>>7526222
Are you in prison?
I'm hoping it's going to come out like an American brown ale:
3.3 lbs pale LME
3.3 lbs Munich LME
1lb Amber DME
Steeped:
1/2 lb Caramel 60L
1/2 lb chocolate grains
1 oz cascade for 60
1oz cascade for 30
1 oz centennial for 15
Nottingham ale yeast
The fermentation went ape shit after 12 hours so I had to do a blow off.
I'm going to ferment it in a primary for 2 weeks, then a secondary for 2 more before bottling
>>7526265
Buy some Alcotec 48 turbo yeast. Faster and among the highest alcohol tolerances. However you can only get them in much bigger packages than the standard 5 gram (I think?) packages other yeasts are available in. $7 vs $1-2, but you get much more for the money. Just use a little and refrigerate the rest for future use, as it will die at room temp. Despite the claim, it takes more than 48 hours. More like 2 weeks for everything to stop on its own.
With alcotec, a standard airlock probably won't do, maybe another setup I forgot the name of with a tube going into a bottle of water. Or you can just be like me and leave the cap unscrewed slightly.
Currently brewing 3 gallons of kombucha a week, 1 gallon of ginger beer a week (refining the recipe), and have 5 gallons of beer going. 10+ gallons of beer bottled and conditioning right now.
And I still buy beer every week, its such a horrific cycle
got some mead fermenting now
>>7526908
whats that ginger beer recipe like
>>7527250
Alcoholic or non-alcoholic? Really the major difference is how much sugar I add. And I usually add some citrus to the alcoholic stuff because I'm not worried about getting the ending ABV under .5%
Pic related was my most recent batch (batch number like 5-7 depending on how you count it). Definitely need to up the ginger, I recently moved down from making 3 gallon batches so my amounts are still a little off.
Also might halve the yeast added (again). I think the more it struggles it starts letting off weird flavors/cool flavors. Like this one had a strong lemon taste to it.
[spoiler]i actually dumped the batch and remade it with the same recipe, so that weird smell note isn't relevant[/spoiler]
I've currently got a just honey and water (with some raisins) fermenting in the closet right now. This Saturday I'm going to rack it to a new container and add three pounds of blueberries to it and let it go till activity stops. rack it and make sure it's still, then add another pound of blueberries to it for a couple days. I really want the blueberries to come though if you couldn't tell. Used 7.5 pounds of honey for 3 gallons.
I've also got a bochet going with an ale yeast that I'm going to flavor with grains of paradise, not sure if anything else will go into that one. It was a pretty interesting experience caramelizing 4 pounds of honey for this one gallon batch though. The hand I was using to hold the spoon I was string with ended up turning yellow and my house smelled like toasted marshmallows for a couple days. I've never actually seen honey turn black before, I have to admit it was pretty neat.
>>7527320
non-alcoholic.
want to homebrew ginger beer for moscow mules as fuck paying 7 dollars for a mediocre 4-pack.
want a STRONG ginger kick
>>7527432
Only problem with my recipe is it isn't that sweet, its pretty dry. I'm going to be brewing some more this weekend so I can let you know (I'll probably make a thread for it) and let you know how it is as a mixer.
If you want a kick I'd say do like 15 oz of ginger per gallon you make. 9 was okay but not where I wanted it.
>>7527441
alright, ill keep an eye out for your thread.
thanks friend
>>7527450
My pleasure, I'm actually teaching a class on homebrewing soda this summer, so I thought it might be a good idea to get a headstart on explaining everything to people
Also pic related is my closest from like a month or two ago. There are now like twice as many boxes filled with either beer/kombucha + beer blend, or just empty bottles ready to be used
>>7521409
Dad homebrews
Makes the house smell like eggy-farts
>>7527554
What does he brew? When I make beer it smells flowery as fuck. Ginger beer? Gingery as fuck. Wine? Grapes of course. Is he fermenting eggs and or sauerkraut?
>>7527561
I have no fucking clue but I will ask next time it smells like farts
How can you get your alcohol to taste "good" like none of that strong shitty alcohol taste, he made cider, but it had that awful taste and wasnt sweet at all, he used a fuckton of good apple juice so I was confused as to why it tasted bad
>>7522331
>Oldest fermented drink
>meme drink
It's just hipsters who think that mead should taste like honey water, which is why most commercial meads up up like shit.
>>7527785
use a yeast for sweet sparkling wines
>>7522331
I'm making a wine from some old-ass Fruit cocktail that expired in 2012
>>7527817
My meads usually taste like dry white wine, but my latest tastes like fucking honey water. Totally fermented out all the sugar but it's still honey as all fuck. I can't figure out how this shit is possible. Only thing I did differently is that it's one year bulk aged in the carboy, compared to my usual bottle aging. I guess maybe it's because it sat on lees for a year? It's kind of disgusting.
>>7528568
Just distill it dude, it might taste good as a spirit
>>7528568
The taste of honey is derived from more than just sugar. In any case, I'm sure that you can find someone who loves the taste of honey water to help you finish off your current batch
>>7528626
Shit, that's a good idea. I only have one bottle left though. I drank it anyway because I'm an alcoholic.
>>7528652
lol, well shit
I'm gonna make my rose hip wine today. Unfortunately, I think I only have enough hips for a half gallon.
>>7528681
Rhodomel?
>>7528692
That's a mead.
I get started on my cider too. Once these apples defrost, I'll smash them in this plastic bucket with this 4x4. Is this a safe and sanitary way to make cider?
>>7528743
Forgot picture.
>>7528745
Inshallah
White, sparkling wine.
I dont think itll be that good, its not perfectly clear.
I'm a genius.
I feel drunk already.
Straight 16% mash for distilling!
Now I just gotta figure out how to press it. Any ideas? I'm imagining a round board screwed to the bottom of my masher, then stringing a rope around the whole thing and twisting the rope to tighten the whole thing. Drill a hole the bottom of the bucket.
>>7521446
Brewing some ginger beer as we speak. Mixed in a little grape concentrate just to give it a little more flavour. First batch was awesome.
>>7528548
It's probably alcoholic already, you freak
>>7528869
is dem some red wings i see?
>>7528978
Police issue Maxitred from the 90s.
>mfw about to add bentonite to my mead
>mfw going to rack my cider today
>>7521409
mead, about 5 liters
Can I get some help?
Got my very first 2 brews fermenting..
One is a kolsch the other a cream ale.
I have had a problem getting the wort down to a cold temp before pitching the yeast. However, i think i have this problem solved which i will show wirh my next batch. So my questions are..
>how big of a difference does it make if the temp is at 90 f in the wort compared to the 75 f the yeast calls for?
>IS there any harm in adding more yeast a day later?
>I sterilized all my equipment, but how wpuld I know if something contaminated my wort?
Thanks bros
I just bottled, but I was recycling bottles and only one wasn't twist-off so I guess the rest will go down the sink. At least it was only 1 gallon
>>7532474
Get a copper immersion chiller. You'll get the wort from 212 down to 70 in 20 minutes or so.
By pitching at 90 vs 70 the yeast will ferment your wort faster... also when it really starts going it generates even more heat.
Your final product won't taste as good- you may have fusel alcohols being produced, excessive esters, etc. If the yeast calls for 65-70 try and keep it at the low to mid of that spectrum.
Shouldn't harm anything adding more yeast a day later, but why would you if you've already pitched your yeast? (assuming you pitched the right amount)
Here's a link to a yeast pitching calculator:
http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html
You'll know if you have a contamination when fermentation's done, or at the tail end... instead of tasting like good beer, it'll taste like shitty beer.
Here's some good reading on common off flavors:
http://howtobrew.com/book/section-4/is-my-beer-ruined/common-off-flavors
I'm back. I forgot to take a picture while pressing. None of my inventions worked, so I wrapped it in cheese cloth and hand squeezed that shit. I got a bit over a gallon. Here's some stirring and happy yeast. I heated it up a little to add sugar to bring it up to 1.080. The yeast seems to have really taken to it. No pasteurization, so it'll be survival of the fittest.
I'll see you in a year, with cider vinegar, probably.
My last 6gal batch is still aging. I need to find the time to bottle it.
>>7521469
Do yourself a favor and get a Speidel. Carboys are a fucking pain in the ass to clean and if you've ever dropped a glass one you'll know why
>in b4 use a carboy holder or milk crate
>>7534675
I have several large plastic carboys and they're easy as fuck to clean. I got a small hose attachment for my sink and I just set them on a chair in front of the sink, fill them 1/4 the way with water, swirl it around and dump. Do that two or three times and they're clean. Sanitize before each use and you're golden.
I'm not saying those things you're talking about aren't as easy or possibly easier, but cleaning a carboy isn't hard. Now I will give you that I don't use glass carboys anymore because I like not having any possibility of huge shards of glass cutting me if I accidentally hit some special spot and the whole thing decides it's going to crack. Seen too many accidents to even bother with glass over 1 gallon any more.
>>7521469
look for a water store (place that filters your tap water and sells it back to you) and they usually have a lot of glass bottles. Look for a low-key one though not some trendy ass hipster place.
>>7534961
>water store (place that filters your tap water and sells it back to you)
What the fuck? We don't have those where I live.
>>7527450
Since this thread is still going I decided I'd just stick it in here, starting my ginger beer, its colling right now because i'm 2poor to get a fancy chiller
The ingredients, 1 pound (16 ounces) of Wegmans Ginger
~2 ounces of muslim honey
and 1/8th of a teaspoon of yeast
>>7535179
Rinsed the ginger, getting ready to cut it up
>>7535181
My friends got me a shitty food processor as a joke, but I secretly love it
>>7535184
bag it up so I don't have to filter it when bottling, although some ginger in the end product isn't minded
>>7535191
Got 1.25 gallons of water to a boil. I honestly don't know how much is boiled off during the hourlong mashing process but I except about a quarter of a gallon, but who knows
>>7535197
Its cooling now, once it reaches about 93 degrees I'll add the honey, I don't want the flavor to degrade too much. Enjoying a nice homebrew right now, mix of kombucha and beer; pretty much an IPA racked with kombucha for the lactobacillus. Its pretty good. Pics taken yesterday, I was too lazy to take a new one; the grounds covered in snow now : (
