Posted on 12/28/2012 3:43:55 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. Happy New Year to all! No partying planned for me. It will be an early night drinking a few of my Irish Stouts here. I am trying a Guinness Black Larger for the first time. I am not all that impressed at all. It has a thin/light mouth feel with a quick disappearing head. It has a slightly bitter after taste. Might be good ice cold on a warm summer day. Expensive $ 10.00 for a six pack.
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.
Hic!
No, but seriously...my wife has a 5 gal. carboy of pear wine that she has let sit (after the required initial rackings) for over a year. It is as clear as could be, I can’t wait. She continues to claim that she is going to bottle it soon. I look at it as a 5 gallon bottle.
Did she use fresh juicy, eat in the bath tub, pears? A pear wine sounds like it would be refreshing!
Yup, recently fallen pears from trees to which she was expectantly granted access. I’m very optimistic, even though this is our first wine experiment. We have been brewing delicious beers for almost over a decade. :{)
Yup, recently fallen pears from trees to which she was unexpectedly granted access. I’m very optimistic, even though this is our first wine experiment. We have been brewing delicious beers for almost over a decade. :{)
Just stopped by Sam’s Quick Mart in Durham NC. It’s just a little corner gas station, but has 1,400+ different beers for sale. Most Belgians I have seen since Brussels. I highly recommend them if you are in the area.
I live next to a Total Wines & More store that claims 1,500 different beers, but the little Quick Mart has a better selection. No homebrews for this guy tonight. Drinking a Berliner Weiss 1809 and then a Highlander Winter Ale.
If you like an excellent stout recipe, try the Murphy’s Dry Stout recipe from Mark & Tess (forget their last name as it is hard to spell) book “Clonebrews.” It’s an excellent stout that can easily be adapted to flavor additions.
I always keep a keg on hand. I make big batches and then split it into 10 different 5 gallon kegs for variety. Have added fruit to the kegs in a hop bag for flavoring.
At the moment, I am working on a 6 pack of Guinness Stout. Something has told me to steer clear of that Guinness Black Lager, so I have. In general I am partial to ales anyway (with Anchor Steam being an exception).
Here in Tennessee, wine and high gravity beers are sold in liquor stores as opposed the the supermarket. My dear wife made me an advent calendar from different beers she bought at the liquor store. When she checked out with her purchases, the clerk asked if she was hosting a tasting party and was quite amused to learn she was constructing an advent calendar.
My advent calendar was stocked with a variety of bocks, imperial stouts and pale ales, trappist and other belgian ales, and so forth. One advent ale that took me by surprise for its great taste was a Japanese ale (I don’t recall the name) I had never tried before. It was pleasantly and somewhat aggressively hopped. I’d characterize it between an American pale ale and an IPA.
Another favorite was the offerings from Innis and Gunn - particularly (and surprisingly) the rum finish oak aged beer. The oak flavor was smoky and especially pronounced in this beer. I highly recommend it.
I seriously need to get off my butt and resume extract brewing. My hiatus has gone on for too long. Happy New Year y’all!
Used to get Guinness on tap at the Plough And Stars back in the seventies- man, that was good stuff. The bottled Guinntss was nothing like it.
Saw a reply on an earlier thread about “lacto fermentation” and tried it with my turnips.
Delicious on the first try! Gave some to a neighbor and they love it too. Sort of like mild suerkraut pickles.
My cider-making has improved but what I made for Christmas was too weak. I cut back to one pound sugar hoping it would be ready quick and it was but it just had no kick at all.
Mark & Tess Szamatulski. I am looking it up now!
That’s the one. It is an excellent recipe book. I adjust the recipes and always use all grain. Another favorite from that book was my first homebrew “Blanc de Bruggs.” A Belgian Wit. I like it better than Hoegarden.
Just went to my bookshelf... It’s gone.
Taught my kids to homebrew. Now I must double check ingredients prior to brewing as supplies just disappear! Same with the good recipe books!
A FReeper posted a couple of weeks ago that he used frozen apple juice concentrate to back sweeten his cider, was that you?
Wasn’t me but it’s a popular thing to do.
In fact last trip to the store I got some frozen concentrate to experiment with but haven’t yet.
I’m very, very,very leery of bottle bombs...
Three weeks ago I bottled my first and second brews; Northern Brewer’s Caribou Slobber, and Northern Brewer’s Maibock. I ended up a few bottles shy of two cases, each.
However, I gave away two sixers to my neighbor for all the cases of empty bottles he’s supplied me, and I gave away another sixer to a friend who loaned me his 5G glass carboy, and another sixer to a friend who helped me brew and bottle the Maibock.
Between the ones I’ve given away, the ones I’ve drank, and the beer fairies, I’m down to less than a case of each!
Good thing I’ve got two more batches a week away from bottling; Northern Brewer’s Bourbon Barrel Porter, and Northern Brewer’s Grateful Dead Guy.
The FReeper mentioned he mixed three cans of the frozen concentrate with water to make a gallon then mixed it into his five gallons of cider. I wanted to ask why he didn’t just add the defrosted concentrate to his five gallons of cider? I bought some concentrate but am not expecting to add it in for a few months. I will bottle in PET bottles.
Yeah, I hear ya! My homebrews seem to disappear also!
Yeah I ‘d think he’d want to dilute it as little as he could. What I’ve seen referenced is using the straight concentrate.
I bottle my cider in 1/2 gallon jugs it comes in. They’re PET bottles but I don’t think as thick as bottling PET bottles and don’t have as many threads for the cap. Basically they didn’t have pressurized product in them originally and weren’t designed for it.
I’ve used a few Coke 2L bottles but I think they give a ‘plastic’ taste to the cider.
I’ve found that during the winter I can really speed up cider production: cold crash the primary when it’s done, rack, then after another week or so cold crash the secondary and rack again. Takes less than two months from start to finish and the only work is taking it in the house for the ferments and outside for the crashes.
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