Thinking of home brewing

One for two is a great start, TBH. Glad the mead turned out. Such a great hobby and you always learn and adapt. Even better if you get something drinkable while learning! Merry Christmas/Life, etc.

My Christmas brew was a great success. A smoked brown ale. Very tasty!

Rykin wrote:

The cider has been bottled. It is pretty rough. Will have to wait and see what it does in the bottle to see if it gets any better or not. I tried to make some apple jack by freeze distilling some of it, but it was unpalatable. I might try another cider at some point but for now I think I will stick with mead.

I do my beer from all-grain, but I find that the cider kit below is pretty amazing (I add more corn sugar than the kit says to do, and also add some extra sweetener at the end).

https://www.homebrewing.org/Cider-Ho...

Hobear wrote:

My Christmas brew was a great success. A smoked brown ale. Very tasty!

Sounds great, and also somewhat Christmasy! Brew successes are always nice to hear.

So after the long emotional rollercoaster of my first batch of mead it is finally bottled:

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/biFwx9y.jpg)

After sampling quite a bit of it over the past few months I only had a little bit more than three bottles worth. Here is a side-by-side picture of it with a bottle of Chaucer's:

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/wXFS6eJ.jpg)

The light makes them look about the same color but mine is actually a bit darker.

I have sampled some of the cider and it is starting to mellow out some. I think I bottled it too early though. Should have given it more time to let the sediment settle.

I put together a post on Imgur about the process I used for my second batch of mead.

Looking very nice Rykin! I'm loving the corked bottles. My beers are always the usual metal top, but it would be pretty cool to get a corking machine at some point if I brew something special.

I just bought a cheap hand corker off of Amazon. $16 and Prime.

Nice, thanks for the link. I had no idea they were so cheap.

Racked my mead a couple of weekends ago. Seems to be progressing nicely so far. Did my normal Imgur post about it. Working on three flavors: honey, strawberry, and cranberry.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/D4fGQl2.jpg)

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/1fyAl6j.jpg)

The strawberries had a bit of a Diet Coke & Mentos type reaction when I added them to the mead:

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/V9h4q16.jpg)

Now time for more patience. I plan on letting these set for around two months before doing anything else to them.

Yum!

Anyone have any idea how long you can store wine/beer after brewing it? This is at room temperature.

Those are really two different questions, and the specifics matter. The wine and the beer are going to have different shelf lives, and even the beer will be different depending on style and how it is bottled. Did you have something specific you were looking to store?

Depends. It could be years or it could be weeks. I am writing mainly for beer. Does it have a high ABV? Any pedio/brett yeast? What was the bottling process? Was it heavily hopped? Was is stored where no light could reach it? Did room temperature fluctuate with the seasons or was it a steady 50-55F basement temperature in a cellar?

This also applies to commercial beer as well as homebrew. The greater the oxygen and light exposure, the shorter the shelf life of the beer. Likewise, the lower the ABV, the shorter the shelf life. Warmer temperatures can shorten shelf life. Higher hopping rates also tend to have a preservative quality, though the hop contributions will fade with time. Also, brett and pedio will keep eating at the long chain sugars, using up O2 and producing CO2, extending the longevity significantly.

Open them and try them. If they taste like a wet paper bag or have skunked, you have your answer.

EDIT: Homer, I saw your question in the Beer thread and responded there specifically.

Racked my mead over the weekend.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/1BmSXCS.jpg)

I think I found a pretty good solution to keep the strawberry remains in the carboy for the strawberry one. I wrapped my auto-siphon in a nut milk bag (I didn't name this product) which allowed me to siphon a good portion of the liquid off. I then washed the bag and used it to drain the rest of the liquid. I ended up with a nice clean carboy full of a dark pink and pretty tasty drink. It needs to mature a bit, but so far it is promising.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/CcqUvEY.jpg)

My honey mead is also going really well, but the cranberry one is disappointing. It doesn't really taste much like cranberries at this point. It just has a bit of that generic red flavor like Kool-Aid or ice pops might have. Should have looked around more for actual cranberries instead of settling for the concentrate.

Here is an Imgur gallery with more pics/details.

Rykin, thanks for the running updates on this. They have been fun reads. Nice job on the filtering.

I am finally getting back to brewing again tomorrow in a big way; back-to-back 10 gallon batches for a Saison that is destined to reside for the next year plus in a shared, 60 gallon barrel. Brewing with my buddy on his electric system. I have been in the barrel group for a couple years and my friend got in last year. A year ago, I got 5 gallons of a Lambic style out, where it has remained in keg, untouched, since. We put in 10 gallons of an Oud Bruin recipe, which we will get out in 2 weeks or so. Each year, we rinse and steam the barrel after emptying prior to filling with a different, agreed upon recipe. We are very fortunate to have Levi Funk (Real name, now a pro brewer) participate in the group.

I have been thinking about trying another non-mead once this batch is out of the carboys. Like maybe just a sugar and water and yeast thing with lemons and oranges (maybe blood oranges).

I would respectfully suggest an Apple/cider based option, if you are keeping it non barley ferment. That said, interested in hearing whatever you choose to do!

bhchrist wrote:

I would respectfully suggest an Apple/cider based option, if you are keeping it non barley ferment. That said, interested in hearing whatever you choose to do!

I tried a cider and it didn't turn out so well

bhchrist wrote:

I am finally getting back to brewing again tomorrow in a big way; back-to-back 10 gallon batches for a Saison that is destined to reside for the next year plus in a shared, 60 gallon barrel. Brewing with my buddy on his electric system. I have been in the barrel group for a couple years and my friend got in last year. A year ago, I got 5 gallons of a Lambic style out, where it has remained in keg, untouched, since. We put in 10 gallons of an Oud Bruin recipe, which we will get out in 2 weeks or so. Each year, we rinse and steam the barrel after emptying prior to filling with a different, agreed upon recipe. We are very fortunate to have Levi Funk (Real name, now a pro brewer) participate in the group.

Nice, that sounds pretty cool. How much of a difference is there between brewing in a Real Barrel as opposed to just using cubes or chips?

Now that the weather is finally getting warmer and I'm all moved in to the new place I'll be starting up brewing again myself. First purchase though before that is going to be a keg and carbonation system so I don't have to rely on bottle conditioning, which has been a disaster for me in the past. Any suggestions from anyone on a good one for ~5 gallon batches?

BHChrist, I think I know what I want for my next brew. Interested in pancake beer after having a few great ones. Renegade Pancake Maple Porter & Saugatuck Blue Berry Maple Pancake Stout. My wife prefers porters but liked them both a lot.

How about a recipe suggestion? Partial grain extract ingredients is what I will be using.

d4m0: Full barrel vs cubes? Depends. With this barrel, it is the 4th or 5th beer. It is a sour barrel by design (was white wine I believe). Even with steam cleaning between brews, it has developed its own flora and character. I am in another barrel as well that is soured, but it was a Goose Island Bourbon Barrel, which means it was charred on the inside. Surprisingly, it has made for an outstanding sour barrel so far. That on created a ridiculously good Oud Bruin off of a Lambic recipe that was added on top of what was left (approx 5 gallons) in the unrinsed barrel. For the latest, we did rinse it out.

If you use cubes and reuses them post ferment, you can perhaps develope a similar “barrel character” but you are going to likely be limited as to the length of the ferment. The key is to always keep the barrel “wet” so it never dries out.

Hobear: I borderline despise maple in my beer, so I am a bad one to ask. It is right there with vanilla for flavors that can come across as fake and overwhelm a beer in most cases. Coconut is similar. If done well, they can be great. Unfortunately they are rarely done well. Blueberry fits in there also. Love all three out of my beer but it takes something very special to make them work in a beer for me.

FYI, it took about 12 hours to brew back to back 11 gallon batches. Yesterday was a long day. That said, it was very rewarding to hit our target OG and volume on the button for each beer. It almost felt like we knew what we were doing.

Rykin: Keep up the good work. Your meads look great.

With things thawing out, I finally managed to get back to brewing after a winter hiatus. I've got a Czech pale lager just finishing up fermentation -- I used Sterling hops and the sample I pulled the other day tasted fantastic -- and I've already got a Vienna lager and a Schwarzbier planned for the yeast cake (WLP838).

I've also got a starter of a mixed Brett culture (Omega "All the Bretts" OYL-218) going, which will be for a 100% Brett IPA I'm still figuring out the recipe for. Anyone else play with Brett primary fermentations? This is my first go at anything Brett.

LupusUmbrus wrote:

Rykin: Keep up the good work. Your meads look great.

With things thawing out, I finally managed to get back to brewing after a winter hiatus. I've got a Czech pale lager just finishing up fermentation -- I used Sterling hops and the sample I pulled the other day tasted fantastic -- and I've already got a Vienna lager and a Schwarzbier planned for the yeast cake (WLP838).

I've also got a starter of a mixed Brett culture (Omega "All the Bretts" OYL-218) going, which will be for a 100% Brett IPA I'm still figuring out the recipe for. Anyone else play with Brett primary fermentations? This is my first go at anything Brett.

Mmmm, Schwarzbier!

I like Omega's stuff quite a bit. No 100% Brett fermentation, but I have used their Where da Funk? "fake Brett Trois + real Brett" blend a couple times as well as one of their others for a sacch + Brett/pedio longer term sour. Where da Funk is my go to blend in my dry hopped Gose.

In talking and reading those that have gone 100% Brett, don't expect much in the way of Brett funk if you are doing more of a standard fermentation (assuming, given the IPA style). Michael Tonsmeire brewed THIS with a similar strain to Where da Funk. Also did one in 2012 with the same fake Brett Trois WL strain that was brewed by Modern Times Brewery in 2013.

If you haven't already, I highly recommend reading Milk the Funk's Wiki (100% Brett Page and All Brett Blends). These are incredible resources that have helped me a ton in using Brett strains and blends. Keep us up to date with your results and what you wind up doing!

Brewed at home for the first time in a while on Sunday after getting my hands on some Triple Pearl hops, which I have been wanting to use for close to two years but supply has been non-existent. Decided to do an Session NEIPA single hopped with the Triple Pearl.

Brewing went well. A great mash that held at 155F. Target was 154F, but I assumed there would be a drop of a degree or two in my 10 gallon Igloo mash tun. I forgot that when the grain + water is near the top (I had around 9.75 total volume in the 10 gallon tun), there is virtually no lost temp. Heck, close enough for me. I wanted an even Cl/SO4 ratio of around 90 ppms and a pH around 5.2 based on reading up on Michael Tonsmeire's experiences. Used the Heady Topper/Vermont Ale Yeast. My brew pot is just big enough that I was able to use both the front and back burners on the gas stove, which helped the boil greatly.

I decided to try a no chill approach, basically, letting the wort come down to pitching temperatures naturally. I left it on the stove under the running hood for a few hours then sprayed the the kettle lid with Starsan, put it on, and took it out into the garage, where it sat until I got home from work yesterday. Transferred to the carboy, pitched the yeast, and set it up in a temp controlled fermentation fridge to be held at 65F.

Here is where we come to my likely screw up: Hop extraction. The total time was greater for both my 60 minute addition as well as my flame out addition. Because I did not remove the hop bags (idiot) 10-20 minutes into the flameout steep, I am sure the alpha acids kept on coming out. I will probably have a higher bittering rate than planned on. No sense in worrying about that now. Usually, I use a hop spider. This time, I got lazy and just tossed in hop bags. Hopefully, the mid fermentation dry hop additions followed by the keg dry hop additions still shine through.

Edit: This was also a full volume "Mash in a Bag" recipe, in that I lined my mash tun with a BIAB bag designed for the cooler, added the full volume of water, and did not sparge, other than to squeeze some of the liquor out of the bag with the grain. It makes clean up soooo much faster/easier. Dump the grains in the back, rinse out the bag then the tun, and done. No grains caught in a braid filter that is no longer needed. Best ~$6 brewing purchase I have ever made. I could sparge if I wanted, but love getting all first runnings, even if it means using more grains to compensate for the lower efficiency. Heck, I have added extra grain to the mash post drain and done a second, lower abv mash.

This will be much shorter than yesterday's post.

Maximizing Hops in Beer. This is an amazing article by Scott Janish from a couple years ago based on studies and research of the impact of different hopping regiments in beer. I wish I would have seen it before today.

Actually, his whole site is fantastic, from his articles to his charts to things like the hop oil calculator.

Just pulled the trigger on SS dip tube filters that can be used in keg for dry-hopping loose pellets inkeg as well as when transferring dry hopped beer from a carboy with an autosiphon.

Scott Janish is fantastic. Him and Michael Tonsmeire are probably the two individuals I will always make time to read blog posts from; barring maybe the brulosophy crew.

I've finally gotten around to putting together my kegerator! I've had various parts for it laying around for months now - I assembled and painted the collar for it last fall - but I've finally put it (mostly) together. I'm so psyched, and looking forward to getting beer flowing on all the taps.

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/hUKTEzC.jpg)

Very nice, Lupus! A classy set-up for sure and puts mine to shame. Mine is a way too old fridge with stickers everywhere that I bought off another homebrewer a few years ago.

Hey brewers, I'm going to brew something like a good new england IPA this weekend (which should be nice and ready for memorial day!) and I'm looking to pick up a keg and a carbonation system so I don't have to deal with bottling any more. I found this one: keg on morebeer but I'm not sure if it's overkill or what. I usually brew 5 gallon batches. Then there's the carbonator, which is another large expense. This one seems like it would work.

Is this pretty much going to be a $400-500 expense no matter what I do?

d4m0 wrote:

Hey brewers, I'm going to brew something like a good new england IPA this weekend (which should be nice and ready for memorial day!) and I'm looking to pick up a keg and a carbonation system so I don't have to deal with bottling any more. I found this one: keg on morebeer but I'm not sure if it's overkill or what. I usually brew 5 gallon batches. Then there's the carbonator, which is another large expense. This one seems like it would work.

Is this pretty much going to be a $400-500 expense no matter what I do?

The first is definitely overkill but interesting. The Blichmann Quick Carb, while I have heard good things about, does not replace a CO2 tank or regulator, it goes inline to speed up carbonation. For $180, I am patient enough to wait 24 hours to a week, depending on my carbonation method. I don't need my beer in 30 minutes for that price.

Basically, you need:

5 Gallon Keg - Usually, a used Corney (Cornellius) ball lock keg. These are the old soda kegs or new ones being sold. Ball locks are much more common that pin locks, which require different equipment.

CO2 Tank - size is up to you. I have a 10 gallon and a 20 gallon. A lot of people go with 5 gallons. I got a great deal on the 20 gallon tank from another home brewer that I couldn't pass up.

Regulator - Either a single body or a double body. This is what allows you to regulate the psi of CO2 going into the keg. The single allows for only one pressure, the double allows for two. If you ever think you will get to the point where you have two kegs on tap at the same time, the double allows you to have (1) different carbonation levels on each beer (English Mild vs. Belgian Tripel) or (2) prep a second keg or rapid carbonate without unhooking the CO2 from the first keg.

Tubing - Gas tubing and Draft line tubing. If you get a kit, this is likely included, typically with a picnic tapper for the draft line. If you go the built in route, tappers are another conversation.

Teflon Thread Tape - The yellow variety, which is thicker and intended for gas. Nothing stinks more than to have a leak in your CO2 tank/fittings and discover the tank you filled last week is now empty.

Tools - Whether you get a kit like THIS or a socket set, you will want a way to remove the posts from the kegs for cleaning the posts and poppets.

Optional:

Tape - Seriously, tape of some sort to label your keg with what is inside. Not a big deal with one, but even with two, it is nice to know what is what. I bought this 10 pack of colored electrical tape 5 years ago. No residue, goes on and off easy, color code beer/equipment (purple is Brett/sour equipment).

Northern Brewer has this basic kit for $180, minus the CO2 tank and they have a 10 pound CO2 tank for $120.

You will need to find a place locally that will fill, or "charge" your CO2 tank. Welding supply and fire fighter supply shops are the most common. If you have a local home brew club, ask them. Some places can be jerks to home brewers, others are sweet as pie. Some will fill while you wait, others you drop off and pick up the next day. It is always good to know before making plans.

Feel free to shoot me more questions, either here or via PM. If it is useful to others, lets keep it here.

Edited to add additional info

Thank you bhchrist! I'll keep it here, hopefully this info is useful for others looking to expand their brewing operation. That basic kit is essentially exactly what I was looking for - something that includes pretty much everything. One question, where do you bring an empty CO2 tank to get filled?