/diy/ - Do It Yourself

I have a batch bulk aging now that I need to bottle.

Making any alcohol follows the same process, the only thing that changes is what sugar one uses, and the yeast. Wine uses fruit, beer uses malted grain, whiskey uses corn, etc. Grains usually need to sprout to convert their starch reserves into sugar.

Note, you'll get much better results with yeast strains that are meant for brewing rather than bread yeast (if you use bread yeast, learn to harvest and pitch your yeast again, as it will slowly become better in your environment).

Hops make a nice addition to drier meads. Sweet meads usually need a little more aging.

Also a real airlock system is cheap, and will last longer than a balloon.

1/3

I love making mead, I do beer once and a while but mead is what I like the most. currently I've got 6 gallons of mead in second fermentation, only problem is I let the yeast eat all of the honey so before bottling I need to add a little more honey for taste. Pic is of my first try at making mead.

I'm thinking about getting into kombucha. Does anyone else do this?

Just brewed a second iteration of my green tea honey beer. Gona brew another batch tomorrow so ill have ten gallons for summer. Tasted my MArzen which has been lagering for a month, fucking delicious. 6 more months till its done. pic related my maple syrup stout

I'd love to make my own booze but i'm afraid that the yeast can produce methanol and other dangerous shit instead of normal alcohol. (This may be a stupid question, I don't know anything about brewing and distilling). Are those instructions shown here completely safe?

>>201015
Brewing fruit produces methanol, but not in high enough amounts to be a problem. Distillation of fruit-based liquor can concentrate the methanol to dangerous levels, so don't distill it unless you know about heads/tails in distillation.

>>201015
If you use brewing yeast it's very safe because it doesn't produce methanol and if something goes bad you'll smell it.

>>201051
>brewing yeast doesn't produce methanol
Go back to school.

>>201070

You should go back to school, everyone knows that it produces a flux field.

>>201051
>>201077
This is why nobody takes /diy/ seriously.

>>201123
>implying they take other boards more seriously
>taking 4chan seriously
ishyfddt

>>200303
where are 2 and 3?...

my setup.

all bottled now. the brown one is good :3

wtf are you guys talking about its perfectly safe cave people made this shit you can as well

To the OP why do you use oranges? Just for flavor or is it have chemical properties like grapes do that act as a clearing agent. Beer brewer here never made mead but i just got a 3 gallon glass carboy for doing mead in

>>201155
Not OP, but I have a little experience with brewing several different kinds of drinks. Mead doesn't need clarifying and oranges wouldn't do it anyway. Oranges are for flavor. I CAN say that you should peel the oranges first because fermented peels give it a smell of compost. Oranges are a fantastic addition to hobo cider, but the peels are twice as important to remove from it.

I started 2 batches of mead about 3 months ago (1 orange and 1 sack mead) and the other day I checked my sack mead and it had little foreign invaders! I guess the vodka level on my airlock (vodka used for sterility, of course) had dropped enough to let mold get in. Thing is, I racked it to another bucket, made sure there were no floaties in it, tried a sip, and then sterilized it with some sulfites. The sample I tried tasted pretty much exactly like what I would expect, so I'm going to go ahead, re initiate fermentation, and hope for the best.

Now everybody laugh at me for my misfortune.

Currently aging a nice honey mead that's been going since early December. It's sitting at about 5% alcohol, and has a nice taste to it.

I'll be aging it until summer is done, most likely.

Pic related, it's from 2 months ago.

My first go at apple juice and feijoa cider. 18 litres apple juice, cider yeast, sliced the feijoa and boiled with 1.2 kg raw sugar. OG 1060.

Drinking chocolate stout turned out OK, currently drinking a peach & clover lager.

bottling a large amount myself tonight
irish stout
house pale
dunkel wiesen

im really excited about the dunkel and house pale they tasted great going into the secondary so once i get some carbonation in them they should be amazing

I just finished bottling some hobo cider. It was really dry, due to being left alone while I handled some serious financial business. I should have done it two weeks ago. Anyway, I think it's salvageable.

>>201295

How do you save it? lactose?

>>201334
Nah, just let it mellow a bit longer.

>>201533
If it's yellow, let it mellow
If it's brown, let it mellow

>>201677
That works well for alcoholic beverages, but not so much for roommates and toilet usage.

>>201533

How does that fix it? Or am I silly in thinking the brew is dry because all the sugars have been converted?

>>203120
There are still some sugars left, but not much. But sugar isn't the only thing that flavors a brew either. With time those flavors will mellow out and it will taste fine, though it will always be drier than I had intended.

>>203215

I've made more beer than cider, so on the learning curve.

For carbonation is it the same as beer? I keep reading that guys chuck sulphate in the secondary to kill the yeast, but would need for carbonation?

Would either of you mind sharing some recipes? Ive been experimenting with homebrewing for the past couple months and Id love to hear some recipe suggestions.

>>204819
I'm just finishing up my maple mead. I dumped an absurd amount of honey and maple into it, and used bread yeast to boot (which tends to produce a lower %abv), so this stuff is just ungodly sweet. I'm calling it Maple Candysnap. It needs to age for a few months, but so far, not bad.

Just for the extra nausea factor, I think I'll backsweeten it a bit more. "Alcohol syrup" is what I really had in mind for this batch.

One thing to keep in mind is that yeast needs nutrients. It gets plenty from the natural ingredients in beer and most wines, but it needs some help with mead. A handful of raisins works okay-ish if you absolutely have to use them, but I would recommend boiling an extra packet of yeast as an alternative. Dead yeast makes for great yeast nutrient.

Also, please use a proper yeast strain if you can. Bread yeast honestly isn't too bad, especially if you age your brew for a while, but it's just worth it to pop 70 cents for the proper packet so all the pro brewers stop laughing at you.

If you want to get drunk as fuck and/or you have a recipe you know will turn out amazingly, make like 5 gallons at a time. If you want to experiment with tastes and recipes and if you want to try a new recipe, make 1 to 3 gallons. A single gallon will produce 4-5 standard wine bottles' worth. If it's beer, just make the big fuck-off bucket of the stuff. Carboys are cheap, and it may be worth it to pick up 5 1-gallons rather than a 5-gallon, just so you can make a tremendous variety for the same price, and especially if it's only for personal consumption.

So much "WHY!?" In this thread.

What you need:
1 6 1/2 Gallon Glass Carboy
1 5 Gallon Glass Carboy
5 Gallons of Organic Non Pasteurized Apple Juice
One whole nutmeg
A few cinnamon sticks
A fistful of cloves
A pot big enough to boil one gallon of that cider in
Choose one (or more, fuck it why not?) of: Honey, Maple Syrup, Molasses, Brown Sugar so that shit isn't so damn dry tasting
1 package of liquid Champagne or English Cider Yeast
A fermentation lock. Fill this half full of water or everclear.
A siphon. DO NOT START YOUR SIPHON WITH YOUR MOUTH. YOU WILL CONTAMINATE YOUR CIDER WITH BACTERIA AND FUCK IT ALL UP. SHIT TYPED IN CAPS IS IMPORTANT. SERIOUSLY, DO NOT START THE SIPHON WITH YOUR MOUTH.
50 or so clean glass bottles. Save some of the pop off types from micro brews.
50 or so sanitized BRAND NEW bottle caps
A bottle capper
Iodine for sanitizing shit.
A bottling bucket.

The process:
Make sure anything that your cider touches is clean sanitary.
Combine one gallon of cider with your spices and choice of sweetener. A cup or two of sweetener should suffice. Boil that shit for at least 45 mins. Add that to the 4 gallons of
cider you should have waiting in your 6 1/2 gal carboy. Ferment for one week and then rack (siphon) it to your other carboy. Ferment for another week or until you see no activity in the fermentation lock and carboy.

The carboys don't cost more than $60 combined. Don't be a cheap ass man, that shit is a good investment. If you don't want to use carboys use 5 1/2 gallon CLEAN (NEW) plastic buckets with a hole in the top big enough to fit a fermentation lock.You can use growlers if you don't want to clean so many bottles, or do what I did and invest in some Cornelius kegs.

How long do you usually age your mead? I've never made one but I'm interested.

For the beer brewers, anybody do all grain?

What kind of honey do you guys use? O can't find any unprocessed like some recipes recommended.

>>205100
*I can't

I feel guilty posting my blog in every brewing thread, but here it is, blackberry mead again:

http://manlyprojects.blogspot.ca/2012/03/i-used-to-be-adventurer-like-you.html

>>205058
I keep a bottle of JAOM for cooking, which I started using the day I bottled it. For the drinking stuff, it really depends on the mead. If it's awesome right away, drink it as you please. If it's kind of questionable, wait 6 months or a year or two. I usually go for 6 months, minimum.

>>205100
I just use cheap-ass clover honey and flavor mainly with fruit, spices, and sometimes other sugars. If you want to get fancy (and somewhat more expensive), try your local farmer's market or search for a varietal honey shop. But yeah, processed honey works just fine for plenty of mead recipes.

>>205138
Thank you, that's exactly what I needed to know.

wheres a nigga get cheap honey?

>>205162
Milking bees, obviously.

When I'm making cider, does the container need to be airtight? I would just like to use the same container that the apple juice came in, and the same screw on lid.

>>205039

That is ridiculously, needlessly complex. I used this recipe and my cider turned out fan. Didn't sanitize shit.

what does the sugar do in the process of wine making?
I get that i have to add grapes, sugar and yeast in certain amounts, but how do the chemicals interact to produce wine?

>>205173
The sugar is food for the yeast. Yeast are tiny single-celled organisms which metabolize the sugar and poop out ethyl alcohol (the good stuff). It's not really a chemical reaction so much as a self-contained, carefully controlled microorganism feast.

They feed until their own waste (the good stuff) shuts em down by sheer concentration.

bump

>>200313

did you poke holes in the plastic wrap before attaching it to the jug?

>>205170
that's luck, not an argument for why you don't need to sanitize. It's not like everything in your kitchen has nasty bacteria on it at all time that will out-compete the yeast you do put in your mead/beer/wine/cider/etc., but it certainly could.

>>205162
Costco. I just picked up 6 pounds for $14. As far as honey goes, that's insanely cheap.

>>205170
Oh god why...
It could be so much better with just a bit more effort. Sanitize to prevent your cider from turning to vinegar (especially in the long-term), add a few sticks of cinnamon, use brown sugar instead of white sugar, and a few grates of nutmeg.

An airlock is like $3 to buy or make people.

>>205188
thanks for that, so the more sugar the higher the alcohol content?
Theres a trade off in it isnt there?
I mean would it not be as sweet if the alcohol content is higher?

can someone please answer my question? If I just tie a couple of napkins (with small holes poked in them) over my cider jugs, will I be alright? I'm a minor, I can't buy airlocks without arousing suspicion.

>>205206
There reaches a point where the environment becomes so booze-rich that yeast can't survive anymore, no matter how much sugar you add.

If you want something sweet, you can dump your yeast in an environment that is sugar-rich and it will pig out as much as it can before shutting down, which will give you about the maximum %abv. Alternately, you can do something called backsweetening, where you dump the yeast in a sugar-neutral or sugar-poor environment, wait for them to ferment everything you gave them, strain/kill them off, then add sweetener to taste. This will produce a sweet but low-alcohol beverage.

>>205222
Why don't you get an airlock, then drop a tin can (with plenty of headroom) or something to cover it up?

>>205224

why can't you just answer my question?

can i put lemons instead of oranges in my mead?

would it taste like shit?

>>205231
Read the rules next time. Now that we know you're a minor we can't directly answer your question about how to make something that we know you're going to make alcohol with. But you should just look at the pic that started this thread. I think what you're looking for lies in plain sight.

>>205361
Yes you can! The great thing about mead is it's so hard to go wrong. If you like lemons go right ahead with that. The flavor might be different then you're expecting but should still be good.

>>205222
Bad idea. Napkins are porous and any moisture on them can be a breeding ground for bacteria that will vent into your brew. At the very least, get a balloon and poke a hole or two in it. Hell, a freaking condom will do the trick, and you can get them free from nearly anywhere these days.

>>205361
It would probably take a bit more sugar to counteract the sour from the lemons, but you could make a lovely lemonaid-flavored mead. Go forth and experiment, my good sir! And be sure to peel the lemons. You can zest off all the yellow stuff and squeeze in the juice, but try to avoid the white pith. It's very bitter and takes some time to age out.

>>205377
Whoops, sorry, missed that bit of information. Please don't ban me for being an accomplice to...whatever crime that is.

>>205377

I've decided to backsweeten my maple mead with a fuckton of brown sugar. :3 This will truly be a dessert mead to remember.

I wouldn't drink a single drop of your guys piss. Why wouldn't you at LEAST get champagne yeast or equivalent. This makes me want to cry.

>>203271
I've also done more beer than cider, but I've made a few batches of cider. I have never carbonated them, so I can't say for certain, but I would prime it like beer and dial in the carbonation from there.

>>205377
Well, aren't you a faggot.

>>205767
Y'know, I've read plenty of stories about great meads made from bread yeast, and I think it gets railed on unnecessarily much of the time. It produces a respectable %abv of around 13-14% on average, doesn't rape the flavors (and IF there are off-tastes, they can be aged out in a few months, which you should be doing anyway), and it can metabolize nearly any kind of sugar you throw at it. Is it perfect or ideal? No. But is that any reason to immediately throw out any batch containing it or to automatically discredit any mead made with it? Of course not. Good booze is good booze, and bread yeast doesn't immediately turn the best of recipes into manure.

>>205222
Just make a blowoff tube.
hook a tube from the top of your fermenter over into a container of water.(so that co2 can go out but nothing can go back into the fermenter)
Also it can prevent a mess if your fermentation gets wild

DIY fermenters I made a while back. The black piece I drilled out was a plug for a 1/4" pipe. If you can get something you don't have to drill out, even better.

Many fruit juices already contain quite a bit of added sugar. When using these juices is it still necessary to add additional sugar?

Also, does anyone know a good ratio of yeast needed per fluid ounce?

>>206202
i usually do 1 gram of yeast per gallon

>>206202
Oh hell yes. If you don't dump a fair amount of extra sugar in there, the finished product will be very dry and very tart, and the yeast likely won't reach the maximum %abv.

>>206202
I add one pound of honey to two gallons of cider. It seems to do it.

>>205794

Will be bottling next week, checked the gravity yesterday and it was at 1.000 , so if the same again Monday will rack off. Tastes fine, just a little sharp as I left the pulp and skins in the brew. A month in the bottle should help that.

if I wanted to make something a bit stronger (closer to 70 or 80 proof) would I still be able to safely or is that too risky of getting contaminated with methanol?

>>206515
Yeast starts to die off around 15%. No methanol concerns from fermentation.

To get much more than that you need to distill. During batch distillation, you'll want to be careful and dump the heads and the tails to avoid concentrating methanol and other unwanted compounds.

>>206515

I'm in NZ where this is legal, I understand you discard the first 50ml as the methanol comes out first, then you are good to go.

Found a link. Assuming legal in your country;
http://homedistiller.org/intro/steps

>>206519
is there an easy diy way to distill? or for that matter what are the heads and tails? like the head of beer? seen it mentioned a few times in this thread but not really explained. Also how can i tell if it has become contaminated by methanol

>>206515
The stongest commercial yeast I know of only goes to 40 proof. There are some industrial yeasts that can go higher but not by much. The best way to get high alcohol concentrations is distillation. You do run the risk of concentrating the methanol as well if you don't know what you are doing.

>>206524
ok thanks ill look into that
>>206526
40 proof isn't bad. just wanted something something stronger than beer/wine. might do that if distillation proves too much of a hassle

>>206530

You can always cheat and just partially freeze the brew, water freezes at a lower temperature than alcohol.

>>206525
Keep in mind that distilling is illegal in America. The heads and tails are the beginning and end products as the solution is distilled. The first X millimeters will be methanol, the next Y will be ethanol, and the end Z will be fusels.

Also stills have a habit of exploding from time to time. So be cautious about that.

ONLY DISTILL IF YOU KNOW WHAT THE FUCK YOU'RE DOING. If you bjork it up, you'll go blind, get caught in an explosion, or get arrested. A still is somewhat expensive, even a DIY version that's actually safe and effective.

>>206535
thanks >>206524 gave a good read up on it. but i might try using a stronger yeast first. if that doesn't satisfy me I'll look more into it

>>206526
not him but do you remember which yeasts are that strong? or should i just do some research

>>206541
My local brewshop sells it for making punch. Brew, clarify and add flavouring. Can't find online with a wuick search but there are similar products.
www.whitelabs.com/gravity.html
www.wyeastlab.com/he_d_yeaststrain_detail.cfm?ID=52

>>206544
thanks, will look into those

Can you use your own flora to make alcohol?
Like put some of your own poop, or swab your crotch and culture it on an agar plate with tetracycline. Then isolate the colonies and grow them on selective media for alcoholic fermentation.

Think it would work? How would it taste?

>>206596

Wouldn't that be like, Ultra Jenkem?

If you're distilling, don't measure heads and tails by volume unless you know the actual volume of these compounds in your mash. Instead, go by temperature. Throw away everything that comes out below your target temperature, which should be higher than the boiling point of whatever compound you're removing that has the highest boiling point. 65F is the boiling point of methanol (I think), so it should be a temperature higher than that. Ethanol doesn't boil until around 170F, so you should be good throwing away the heads until well into the 80 or 90 degree range.

All that said, do your own research and make sure that you're paying attention to temperature at all times, this will tell you what vapors you're removing and you can come up with a better starting point for when to throw out your drippings.

>>206638
No, it would be a yeast culture from your nuts. I wouldn't use it, but it's just a culture, whereas jenkem ferments the poo itself instead of culturing it.

Been making turbo cider for a few years now. Got it pretty much spot on

pic is a Grenadine and Apple cider mix which tasted like a sweet rose wine and blew your head off

>>206596
Might work. Couldn't find any online ressources to backup my assumption, but when making wine the grapes were pressed with bare feet. Consideríng the amount of yeast bacteria living on healthy skin, it would be highly unlikely at least part of them wouldn't end up in the juice.

>>206670
Assuming you could pick up and isolate a wild yeast strand from the sea of nasty bacteria living on you, there's no way to tell what kind of yeast strain it is. It would most likely be a strain of wild yeast that would produce strange and unsatisfactory results, assuming it could ferment the sugars present at all.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candida_albicans
^the most common strain of yeast found on or in humans. Not known for its alcohol-fermenting properties.

>>206707
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saccharomyces_cerevisiae
tl;dr it's thought this species of yeast accumulated on the skins of grapes, not the skins of feet.

Furthermore:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yeast#Beer
Mindfuck. Baking yeast is a perfectly valid yeast choice under many circumstances.

I'm an ex-homebrewer who loved to brew but hated so much to bottle the whole 18 liters batches! I was decently proficient at beer and now I'd like to experiment with mead (considering cider too but one thing at time). The fact that I never ever tasted or being in the same room with a mead bottle or glass shouldn't stop me I guess... :)

I also not like it so much fruit taste nor sweet taste itself, would it be possible (or recommended) to brew a mead with just:
- water
- honey
- yeast (would use some ale yeast)

If it can help I still have White Labs yeast nutrients.
Thanks for help

>>206807
> It would most likely be a strain of wild yeast that would produce strange and unsatisfactory results, assuming it could ferment the sugars present at all.
This is how wine was first discovered, accidentally, from yeasts that naturally grow on grapes.

>>206845
And now we've successfully isolated the most efficient strains of brewing yeast. They can be picked up at any store for under a buck. Any yeast that lives on or in the human body is not brewer's yeast, and actually has an astounding chance to make you extremely sick. Why would you even bother?

>>206840
Yeah, that should work fine. Go easy on the honey if you want to err on the side of dryness.

>>206914
Thx for your answer! If I understand correctly you suggest to use few honey so the sugars are fully converted. Can you provide a recipe for circa 1 gallon of mead? I'll convert in liters to fit my 5 liters glass carboy.
Thx again!

>>206918
Let's see...the JAOM recipe calls for 3.5 pounds of honey per gallon, which is sweet enough to counteract the bitterness of the pulp and still end up quite sweet.

I would start with about 2 pounds per gallon, I think, with a beast of a yeast that can hit 16-18% abv. That should give you a very dry mead with full sugar conversion and one hell of a proof. From there, you can decide if you'd like to backsweeten or add flavors or whatnot.

>>206925
And what if I use only a generic ale beer yeast (lets say that anything above 8-9-10% requires a lot of hope)? Should I divide in half the honey quantity?

I see you use also bread yeast: does it require some special trick or is just dissolve it in warmish water -> pour into the wort?

>>206926
Personally, I'm a fan of bread yeast. It can get up to 13-14% no problem. I think 2 pounds for bread yeast will still be fine, though all the sugar may not go to full completion. It'll still be plenty dry, but there will be a few undigested sugars.

Oh also remember your yeast nutrient. Mead is very nutrient-poor, so the yeast need a little help. Surprisingly, dead yeast makes a wonderful nutrient. Just boil a couple of packets and dump those in with your living yeast.

>>206937
I'm saving all your info, thank you! Last question (then I will not bother you again, promised!).
On bottling: I guess that priming is not needed but with sugars not fully converted isn't it dangerous? Will bottles endure through the 6 months aging process? I have strong glass bottles for sparkling wine, but...

>>206952
use strong bottles and keep them safe. a lot of brewers use in bottle fermentatipn to carbonate.

>>206952
The mead should go clear and fermentation should completely stop before you bottle. Any remaining gas production should be manageable. If you're really paranoid, you can bottle using wine bottles and tea corks, which are water-tight and air-tight but will pop out before the bottle breaks.

>>206959
>>206969
I got all the info I needed, thank you very much for your patience! :)

>>206972
Oh my pleasure. Just glad I could help! :D

>>206952
I wouldn't call it dangerous, bottles tend to pop the bottom off at the seam. I'm sure you've done it yourself, having brewed monster beers yourself. You might lose a few, but if you do you know to bottle it a few days later next time. Just keep it somewhere easy to clean.

Broke and wanna get drunk for really cheap? Here is a recipe!

Instructions
Things You'll Need:

* Small funnel
* 1 clean plastic milk jug
* 1 packet of yeast
* 2 cups white sugar
* 1 can juice concentrate (defrosted)
* Water
* 1 large balloon

1-Put the funnel into the opening of the milk jug.
2-Pour the yeast, sugar and fruit juice concentrate into the jug.
3-Put the lid on the jug and shake the mixture together.
4-Take off the lid and use the funnel to fill the milk jug with water.
5-Put the cap back on and slosh the mixture around while holding the cap down with one hand.
6-Take the cap off and stretch the balloon over the mouth of the jug.
7-Set the jug in a cool area for about three days. You will see the balloon fill with gas from the alcohol forming in the drink. The drink is ready when the balloon deflates.
8-Store the drink in the refrigerator.

PROTIP :
-The longer the drink sits, the more alcoholic it will become.
-Choose juices that are not acidic to make the best alcohol drinks. Strawberry or peach juice makes some of the best batches.

wow alot of people jerking themselves off here in this thread about how much they know about making cider mead beer etc. also distilling in america isn't illegal by the way.

>>207068

Really? I'm not seeing a circle jerk, just some heads up for new brew friends.

>>206937

Dead yeast? is that brewers yeast? IIRC bakers yeast is active and brewers yeast is depleted.

>>207057

Do I have to filter once its done? What is the approx amount of % alcohol after 3 days?

Thinking of trying this as my first home brew since i fucking love strawberries.

>>207082

Not poster. I've never made Hobo cider, not sure, maybe 6% after 10 days. Freeze it for a couple of hours and pour liquid into a jug and you might hit 10%.

>>207068
http://wiki.homedistiller.org/Legality#United_States

"What all this basically comes down to is ... 1. Americans can own a still, but it must be no larger than 1 gallon, and may only be used for water purification or the extraction of essential oils from plants. 2.Dealers/manufacturers of stills in the United States must surrender any address or other info on any customer who buys a still to the BATF, when they request it.(no warrant is required.)

What this means is that anyone who buys a still in America can at any time expect a knock at the door and a man with a badge demanding to see what is being done with the still they bought."

In America, it is very much illegal to operate a still to produce drinking alcohol without the proper permits.

>>207068
>distilling in america isn't illegal by the way.
You're right. It's not, so long as you pay your taxes on it. Good luck getting a tax ID to pay on.

I got my still from Mile High Distilling. The dude TIG welds them himself and use's high grade stainless steel, go check it out.
milehidistilling
I got the portable 4 gallon one, I can't remember, havent used it in a long time.

>>205039

I have some 80% Apple / 20% Orange juice that was on special, I'm thinking of your recipe plus some star anise or maybe just a tablespoon of 5 spice.

>not using real, self-pressed apples to make fantastic scrumpy

>not working in a cider factory's lab as a supervisor and understanding fermentation like a boss

>not getting paid to drink mass produced cider in work

>not being able to steal all the equipment, yeast, fermaid, diammonium phosphate, sodium metabisulphite, peracetic acid and sterile water you need to make top quality homemade cider and selling it to local bespoke bars at £2.50 per bottle

>being a regular 4channer

Pic related, there's air in the top to add a small measure of oxidisation, and allow the production of traces of acetic acid. These two were blackberry and strawberry with cider, and didn't get sold, because they were fucking lush. Used honey to sweeten after fermentation to dryness, NaMBS to slow fermentation to low levels while still allowing for secondary fermentation in bottle, producing a delightful carbonation.

Making more this autumn, but I hate using apple conc or bought juice.

so more sugar means a higher alcohol content?
and less means it tastes more like grapes/honey/whateverthehell you made it out of?

>>207110
>>207110
Its not illegal or taxable up to a certain amount i know for beer and wine its 50 gallons a year per person, so if you have a gf or roommate you could theoretically make 100 gallons.

>>209086

To an extent, however the yeast can only "eat" so much.

>>209086
the yeast consumes sugar, and uses it to produce alcohol. once either the yeast or the sugar runs out your drink doesn't get any more alcoholic. (or if the yeast gets killed by too high alcohol content, usually 15-20%) any more sugar than the yeast needs just makes it sweeter

>>209186
Brewing is fine. The BATF amount is 100 gallons per year, or 200 gallons per household.

Distilling requires a tax stamp from the BATF.

>>209224

Unlimited brewing here. Which is just as well as I'm making 30gal a fortnight.

Then again household consumes 2.5 gal a day so only just keeping up.

Anyone tried wild yeast? best way to catch?

hang around the drugstore and wait to spot a girl buying monistat

>>200963
I do! Its a lot of fun and creeps people out. I've had great success with black teas

>>209073
Stealing is for niggers.

>>209186
FERMENTATION is legal and untaxed up to 5 gallons per legal-age drinking adult in the house.

DISTILLATION is taxable from the first drop.

>>209541
*55 gallons, not 5.

>>205222
I didn't know that minors were not allowed to buy one way valves from the pet-shop

>>205170
Been looking for this for some time.

>>206141
Hawaiian Punch FTW!

>BREWING ≠ DISTILLING

.

>>209611
They were $2 a jug and I have 2 children. For $4 I was brewing the same day I bought the punch and ingredients.

>>209619
I have atalented /diy/eralso, but, to be honest, in my house, I drink the majority of the Hawaiian Punch!

I wonder what fermented Fruit Juicy Red would taste like...

>>209620
OMFG I forgot about the word filters!

>*kìd

ITT: Underage B& circumvents legal drinking age law by making ghetto-tier boozeahol.

>>209702
Ghetto tier is cutting a hole in a watermelon, tossing in a cup of sugar and some yeast spread and leaving it until you can push a drinking straw through the skin.

Bump to keep alive.

>>209988

I was talking to a jailbird the other day. what they did was get a pumpkin, cut around top, remove seeds, fill with sugar, toss in a marmite (yeast spread, like vegemite etc) on toast. leave until soft. Enjoy.

another homebrew thread on the front page

>>210841

>>210852

Why not keep to this thread? you a /b/eta ?

I'm planning, in another week, to make a 2 gallon batch of braggot. I'm going to start by steeping 1/2 pound of rolled oats at 160F for 1/2 hour, then adding 3 pounds of honey and 1/2 pound of molasses before fermenting.

Any thoughts from the meadmakers here?

whats the best (not necessarily easiest) way to get into brewing beer?
Not sure if i can trust those brewing kits..
how did you start?

If I was to follow the instructions in OP's pic, would it be okay to filter it when transferring the mead to a clean container?

>>211020
Just add some gelatin to it. The gelatin will make the grit heavy so it coagulates at the bottom as it goes inactive. You then siphon it off the sludge when you bottle.

I've been thinking of fermenting almonds and so far the only spices/flavorings I can think of is clovers, any ideas of what else to add?

>>211197
I've heard that the oils in nuts make brew taste like rubbing alcohol.

>>211222
Oh thanks, I'll take that into consideration and find something else

Alcohol is a drug. Get out faggot.

>>210957

Beer kits. Then bought a few more barrels to play with. Turned excess fruit into wine, added grapes to a lager, not too bad actually. Made a couple chocolate stouts.

Just get into it! Keep everything clean, I use a lot of bleach instead of sodium metabisulphate.

>>211372
So is coffee. Get over it.

>>211372
>>211372

>>207057
How big is the jug and how much water should I add?
What's the ratio of water to mix?

>>211522
I'm not that guy, but the ratio of water to juice should be according to whatever juice you use. Be sure to check the ingredients for preservatives if you plan to brew from it. But if you're going to go ghetto enough to brew sugar water, you might as well just make mead.

>>210957
I started with the English Bitter kit that came with the plastic carboys (if you plan to start brewing get 2 fermenters/carboy from the start: easily you save money and they will surely be useful!).
The hopped kit will get you used to the process involved and train you to keep the stuff clean just like says this wise anon >>211480
I used bleach myself, cheap and effective. I evolved from kit to malt extract, then I've gone back to kits. Then to time constrains I stopped. But I somewhat miss it...

I've had OP's recipe fermenting in a cabinet for about 4 days now. The balloon inflated after half a day. Only thing is, the pressure required to push CO2 out of the holes is high enough that the balloon will never properly deflate, and while I can see a froth on top, I can't really tell if new bubbles are rising. With this in mind, how will I tell if when it's ready to filter and bottle?

Thats not mead, its melomel. Just sayin.

also making alcohol is not hard, u put yeast and sugar(hoey for mead) together and let them ferment, use some sort of water to collect the alcohol produced by the yeast. If u wanna make pure wine use grape juice, applejuice for cider and pear juice for perry.

>>211602
> pear juice for perry

I love pears, but the flavor seems to mellow to hold up to alcohol... need to find some of this.

>>211600
>With this in mind, how will I tell if when it's ready to filter and bottle?

After about a week or two you can rack it. This means you transfer the brew from the container it's in to a new container. When you do this add a little unflavored gelatin to it, then you won't need to filter it. You let it sit for 2 more weeks and then you bottle it.

As for knowing if there are new bubbles forming, look a the bottom of the foam layer.

>>211566
>>207057
I've actually made this before, it's apparently called sugar wine.
it's interesting about using non acidic juices because I used lemon juice and it turned out okay, didn't let it ferment long enough because it was my first attempt at brewing all together so it was mediocre to say the least.

started my ghetto apple brew on the 30th at 2pm est.

>>211799

Looking good. I bottled mine on May Day. Will give a taste test in a fortnight.

>>211566
I'm looking to start off with a smaller batch, around 2L or so.
How would I modify OP's measurements for that, and would it take faster to reach a drinkable stage if there is less?

>>201252
Please explain to me how you'd go about making a non-honey mead.

>>211914
>How would I modify OP's measurements for that, and would it take faster to reach a drinkable stage if there is less?

You would divide by 2, which I would think would be obvious from your desire to make half as much.

And no it isn't faster from being in a smaller container because it will accommodate less total yeast.

I would also recommend buying or making an airlock.

>>212108
>>212108
Many meads are made with fruit and such. Specifying "honey" alerts non-aspies to the fact that the mead is plain.

Brewed some of this god-tier shit back in September. It's amazing now. I made a 1 gallon batch and got a good 4-5 wine bottles worth out of it. Sat and got drunk off it staring at the city lights with a girl who supposedly doesn't drink.

Good times.

Hey guys I'm looking to make some booze for a gathering in a weeks time, what do you recommend that's quick and (hopefully) easy? I notice that mead takes several weeks, anything quicker or is my timeframe too small?

>>212146

You could make beer in that time, but it would be flat and a little sharp. 2 weeks is drinkable, but at least 8 to 12 weeks is my preference.

>>212155
agreed but to me is worth mention that beer is easier to get it wrong at the first attempt. takes more equipment, also

>>212134
>>212108
Mead = honey
Melomel = mead with fruit
Honey mead = redundant designation for mead
Honey wine = alternate name for mead

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mead

Relax, sit back, and have a homebrew.

>>209073
Let me guess, you're from the westcountry...

Followed the guide in the OP, it's been fermenting in my closet for three days now, and it looks good. In what time frame might mold or other nasty parts show up in it, just out of curiosity?

I'm also thinking of experimenting a little and adding strawberries instead of oranges; Think that'd have a nice taste?

>>212523

If you kept everything clean, there should be no unwanted infections.

Any fruit is fine. Almost any plant will ferment. In honour of 4chan I made a sage beer a few months ago. Bit strong, but very refreshing,

Anybody ever make sake? Making a koji starter and wondering if anyone has tips.

>>212530
I was pretty much OCD when it came to cleaning everything.

Maybe I could get some fresh mint and add it to a brew. Wonder how that'd turn out...

>>212540

Add to a Chocolate Stout maybe?

A few ideas over here;

>>199259

>>199259

>>212540
you should try lemonbalm.

PRO TIP: Make low-calorie mead by substituting artificial sweetener for sugar in any of the recipes on this thread.

>>212646

From a frugal point of view, would lactose do the same job?

>>212655
Yes! And if you have no lactose you can use use condensed milk or non-dairy creamer.

>>199259

never homebrewed before, but I'm planning on making something for me and my friends to celebrate my 21st in september. Assuming the image in op is accurate, would I be able to substitute any fruit, juice and/or sugar for the honey and fruits? And has anyone tried using pineapple before?

>>212663
And if I were to use condensed milk would the resulting drink end up creamy like Kaluha or just milky?

>>212694
I hope you are not this stupid

>>212695

How stupid?

cool

>>212694

You can ferment milk, but adding to a brew is not generally a good idea. I have added milo to a stout kit, seemed to be OK, will try another sample at 4 weeks. I added some Irish Moss to soak up some of the proteins.