Posted on 02/22/2013 3:33:05 PM PST by Red_Devil 232
Good afternoon/evening FReepers. Yep, it is Beer Thirty Time Once Again!
Happiness is a bubbling airlock! And a Cold Brew
Irish Stout Yum!
Good evening/afternoon brewers and winemakers. I bottled my oatmeal stout yesterday and will let it bottle condition for a few weeks before trying. Hope it carbs up nicely. I do not have any plans on brewing up another brew until the weather warms up a little. It is a little cool out side for me. My last try at making an acceptable Apple Cider is coming along well I popped a top on one and it was quite tasty and had a great carbonation to it. I will let it age for another month or so.
I hope all of you and your Brews and Wines are doing well. Stop by and share what you are brewing or let us know what your favorite brew, wine or spirit is.
Pinging the home brewing and wine making list.
Pinging the home brewing and wine making list.
The smoker you drink, the sober you up.
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Agreed.
Today we bottled some orange wine (made with fruit & concentrate), & I’m drinking the last bit that wouldn’t go into a full bottle. It came out quite well, with a good orange flavor. It’s a little harsh & will need some aging, but on the whole I’m happy with the result.
Tomorrow we catch up on other wine chores - racking some peach/apricot blend & a batch of strawberry.
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this beer sucks, but it's cheap and it's called Beer 30
Oops. Wrong URL. http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/1422/32918
And I have a red ale and a Spotted Cow clone in carbons right now
That’s funny. Years & years ago there was a beer available in Hawaii called Primo. I think it was less tasty than Bud Light, but everyone bought it because it was cheap, & in a hot climate you’re inclined to drink a LOT of beer. I was too young at the time, so I can’t testify to the taste.
Orange wine? Interesting.
The most interesting wine we’ve made was Banana, using dried banana chips. It smelled like sour milk in the primary fermenter, & I was sure we’d have to toss it. But we kept on racking, & following the recipe instructions, & little by little it lost that smell. It didn’t actually taste like bananas, but it was a pleasant wine. I’ve been meaning to try another batch, but have never gotten around to it. One of these days...
Trying to make hard cider for the first time tomorrow. Do you have any advice for a noob?
My only other experience was with dandelion wine about 6 or 7 years ago. It was okay.
This time, I visited a brewing supply store and got some proper equipment.
My wife brought me 2 cases of Three Floyd’s finest. One Gumball Head and one Robert The Bruce. I’m a very, very lucky man.
Basically all you need is some good apple juice, yeast and something to feed the yeast, like raisins boiled in some water to soften them. Crush the boiled softened raisins or process them a blender and add them to your apple juice then add your yeast. The raisins add nutrients that the yeast need that the apple juice does not have.
For five gallons of apple juice I use about 2 cups of golden raisins softened in a cup of water. Works well and keeps the yeasties active.
When enjoying your first glass, hold on to your chair, and don't try to stand up.............(been there done that!)
As a 7 month cider noob I recommend using at least 1/2 pound sugar per gallon and a ‘champagne’ yeast (like ec-1118). Shake up your juice well to mix in the sugar AND to aerate it.
During the winter you can hurry the cider along by setting the carboy in the cold for a week, after 7 to 10 days fermentation at room temperature, then siphon it into the containers the juice came in (clean and sanitize them of course).
Leave their tops loose!
Then after a week or so you can enjoy it: tighten the top the day before you want to drink it and carefully pour it so the stuff at the bottom doesn’t come out.
Sure it tastes better the longer you wait but patience is tough for us noobs.
Love my home made cider, great stuff and great fun!
i made some with fresh bananas using ginger as a secondary source of amylase and mashed it like beer. it came out well, but like you say no banana flavor. what it really tasted like was beer without the hops. i think with some hops it has potential
I would like to be on the homebrewers ping list. I have been lurking of the Free Republic for years and have diceded to come out of the shadows to help us form our consertive future.
I have been brewing for years. I encourage everyone to go all grain, to convert a sankey keg to a brew pot with bulkhead fitting. That everyone should mash in a 10 gallon cooler at least! and frement in kegs with a #2 stopper. That everyone should fire their batch over a turkey cooker. The reason for this is because:
1.)Extract brewing is too expensive. All grain is cheap and and adjunt grain can be toasted to desired lovebond number.
2.)5 gallon batches are too small, when you and a friend sit down and drink your brew your batch is almost gone in one sitting and for sure gone if 3 drink for two. The costs to buy this 6.5 glass this and 5 gallon glass that. Brew in converted kegs for next to nothing and frement in them for again next to nothing and yeald 3 Xs of 15 gallons.
3.) force carbonation is the only way to go, bottle conditioning is hit or miss and doesnt yield steady results. Force carb the whole keg and if you still care to bottle use a counter pressure conditioner and fill til your hearts content.
4.) life is too short and we in life only have some many batches in us... for very few dollars more than an initinal home brew set up you can be mashing whole kegs.
Other things... Buy whole sacks of grain in 50# or 60# this drops prices to around a buck a pound. Buy your hops on line from tons of hops in 1# bulk bags drops hop prices to below a dollar and ounce. If you live in the north plant a hops ribzone and in 3 seasons you will have crazy hops! Make a counter flow chiller, you will never get a bad batch. Recapture your yeast and wash it after your fist rack and you can reuse it many times again. Buy a 20# co2 tank or bigger and never worry about refilling it as you do with little ones. IF you get to this point and havent lagered, start lagering because only lagers are shelf stable, all ales will go bad after months. Once you got a keg set up drop two batches in a day, every brew day.
You can do all this for the cost of a mid priced pistol and get much more enjoyment out of it.
Brew on Brew up!
I am happy I am here friends!
You are added to the ping list.
So, you use raisins instead of sugar?
I will be using cider, BTW, and not apple juice.
...hold on to your chair, and don’t try to stand up.
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:)
Thank you.
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My recipe has 1 cup/gallon. Have you always used 1/2 pound, or is that based on experimentation?
Strike my last question about the quantity of sugar, as I realized after I posted that we are not talking about a significant difference.
Thanks again.
1 cup/gallon is just what I’d recommend for a first batch.
I was thinking that weighed 1/2 pound but I see it weighs .44 pounds. No problem, us noobs don’t have to worry about being off by 10%!
I use about a cup and a half depending on my mood.
What yeast are you using, are you using a carboy, and how big a batch are you making?
Of course when warm weather and fruit flies come back my system won't work anymore. I'll try oversweetening an ale yeast then. Hope it works. At worst I'll just get stoppers and airlocks for the bottles and drink it a little tart and flat!
"adding sugar to a certain specific gravity or degrees brix"
Of course I can't argue against doing things right, but a noob really doesn't know what he wants! I'm just at the point now that I can use that information intelligently.
No The raisins are a nutrient for the yeast. Most apple ciders do not have enough nutrients for the yeast to survive very long. There are commercial nutrients you can buy at Brew stores. The commercial brand I have used is Wyeast’s Yeast Nutrient. It is blend of vitamins, nitrogen compounds, minerals, zinc and amino acids to help you ensure that fermentation starts quickly and ferments completely. Results in a reduced lag time, more consistent attenuation, and better yeast germination.
Yeah, I’m plenty ready for an hydrometer now and will get one my next trip to the homebrew store.
Probably should have before, but I was using the same juice brands and could judt follow the recipe I liked.
It’ll come in handy force-carbing,that’s another thing I’ll try after I lose my free outdoor refrigerator.
Actually I’d profess an hydrometer is useful after one has done just a very few batches, just as soon as one has gotten the ‘hang’ of it.
I have a 5-gallon plastic carboy, so I am making 5 gallons. The yeast is Wyeast for cider and mead.
Okay, thanks.
I want to try to make wines out of the two of the three foods that are considered not to pair well with wine - asparagus and Brussels sprouts.
As you said, some day...
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