/diy/ - Do It Yourself

>>549751
any tips for making mead? I have a source of good-quality honey, and 10 months experience brewing fruit wines, shine, and beers.

>>549751
Been waiting for one of these to pop up. Are there any good (relatively) quick mead recipes? Every one I've seen takes 6+ months. Ain't nobody got time for that.

>>549760
Making mead and not aging it for at least 6 months isn't exactly recommended. It'll be pretty harsh since it hasn't had time to age properly. Basically, you can drink it as soon as it has finished fermenting. I just don't recommend that.

OK, here's a few mead questions:

1. Do you skim the albumen off the boil?
2. How long do you boil for (if you actually achieve boil)?
3. What yeasts do you use ( I like champagne, but am open to suggestions)?
4. Ever use fruit with your honey?
5. How long you been at it?

>>549764
Fug. I'll stick with beer and cider I guess. Or find somewhere I can set my mead secondary and forget about it.

K, quick question. Trying to basically do a just barely refined version of what I would imagine the ancient Greeks/Romans would make (basically just a PET carboy, found wild grapes, using bread yeast, raw cane sugar instead of honey not bothering with hygrometer since those didn't exist back then, etc.)

Kept at 80F for primary fermentation. the huge majority of fermentation stopped day 5 (bubble every minute+ out of the airlock) I did a siphon into a clean HDPE bucket (only have one Carboy, just an experiment for now) cleaned the carboy and sterilized it, then re-filled the carboy with the wine, sterilized the stopper and airlock, put new filter water in the airlock, capped it all off and tossed it into the fridge. I see about a 5-6mm layer of sediment and yeast on the bottom (it's been in the fridge well over a week) and there's still a bubble coming from the airlock but far spaced out.

I'm not planning on really doing any fining or anything to clarify, I like the cloudy blush color I've got, here. Do you think I'm about set to do a final siphon and begin bottling?

To boot, this wine will be called "Riverbed Hoboshit" because the wines were found in a riverbed next to a bunch of hobo camps. That should be about as honest as I need to be about how very seriously I'm not expecting fine results.

I can say the first bit of the wine that got in my mouth during the first siphon, tasted almost like a store-bought wine. I guess adding a bit of brewed black tea to enhance the tannin profile helped since I don't have casks for aging in (obviously, Romans and Greeks drank a ton of fresh wine.)

>>549775
Boiling the honey really screws the flavor. Although recipes that call for this call for it because of the way the flavor has changed during the boil. Not all honey reacts the same to a boil.

>>549759
If you make good wine, it's very similar. Main differences are that honey is already super-acidic, so that you don't need any acid additions (and may even need carbonate in some cases), and that you'll likely want additional nutrient additions if you don't add any fruit (some people use raisins here).
>>549760
Many homebrew forums will recommend this recipe for newbies. I've personally never used it, as the methods seem a bit crude, but it claims to be ready in 2 months.
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f80/joes-ancient-orange-mead-49106/
Personally, most of my mead will take about 3 months till I'd consider bottling (I have one that's only aged a month and a half that tastes great, but that's an anomaly), but the longer you wait the better.
>>549775
1)I don't boil. I do skim if there's a lot of wax, but I haven't noticed much of a difference in either taste (my tastebuds are pretty average), or clarification time.
2)I add warm water (I'd recommend using purified/distilled water if you have bad water though), but don't boil. Boiling changes the flavor of the honey, which can be good or bad depending on what you're looking for (if you want to try something different, try cooking about 25% of the honey you're adding to the must. I accidentally did this in one of my earlier batches, and it added a unique character to it).
3)K1-V1116 - Lalvin is one of my favorites, as I like high-alcohol brews. Other's work well in different situations, but this is a good all-rounder for mead.
4)About 75% of the time. If you're wondering about a specific fruit, I'll answer to the best of my abilities.
5)Over 5 years.

Working on a batch of cider i'm going to freeze concentrate. Boiled 3lbs of honey to hopefully get a caramel flavor in the end, and added 4lbs of brown sugar. Used Kv-1116, plan to do a staggered nutrient addition plan to get max alcohol %. Then imma freeze this nigga at 0F -15F and possibly -25F to sort the alcohol from the water until i can light it on fire.
> Why? Because fuck you is why..

>>549871
>>549760
also, forgot to mention that emphasizing a healthy fermentation is one of the most important things in having something quickly palatable (though going light on the tannins will help that too).
>>549804
If you like it, drink it all you like. HOWEVER, I'd recommend not bottling it yet. I can't comment based on your specific wine, (since you don't want to use a hydrometer or any scientific method to determine it's fermentation rate), but 5 days is usually not long enough to complete a fermentation, and it was still bubbling when you threw it in the fridge. Chilling wine will "cold shock" the yeast, causing it to go dormant. When you remove it from the cold, the yeast will most likely wake back up and start fermentation again (if there's any sugar left).

What this means to you:
1)Your wine will end up carbonated. This is okay if that's what you're going for, but keep in mind that pressure will build up in the bottles and they have a chance of exploding later on if you don't pay attention to them or use champagne enclosures.
2)Your wine will keep sedimenting in the bottle. I know you cold shocked it, but that doesn't separate everything. You sound like you're okay with this part, but most people don't like drinking the dregs, so you probably want as little of that as possible.
3)This nigga is still young and is gonna taste a lot different down the line. But you're probably fine with that.
Personally, I'd take it out of the fridge, and wait at least another 2 weeks for fermentation to die down, but I go for still wines. If you want petilant, be careful about it and use lose fitting corks so you get cork launchers rather than explosions. If you like super bubbly, go champagne style or serve it straight from the carboy.
(Oh and next time I'd recommend dropping the primary temp to around 75F or so if possible.)
>>549877
Okay that's nice. Applejack is probably a good choice for this, as apples make things ferment stupidly quick. Do mind the fusels though.

And I'm going to bed. Will be back tomorrow if you've got any more questions.

>>549871
>1)I don't boil. I do skim if there's a lot of wax, but I haven't noticed much of a difference in either taste (my tastebuds are pretty average), or clarification time.
I have boiled a few batches, but gave that up in favor of skimming a long time ago.

The boiled batches cleared faster for me, but didn't taste as good.

One of them was actually drinkable at 2.5~3 months.

Riverbed Hoboshit here:

So I decided to go ahead and do a siphon, carboy wash, re-transfer, and while I was at it, I sampled the wine.

It tasted way better than I expected, given the water to juice ratio and the lack of a must (I had taken the seeds and grape skins out before primary fermentation.). There was ZERO sweetness, all of the sugar had definitely been converted into alcohol. However, the added black tea I suspect is what has given it this very tart/sour taste, it definitely gives the mouthfeel of a high tannin content, making the mouth and tongue feel slightly dry.

Overall, I'm pleased. This is going to get bottled up after a little while longer in the fridge (actually I need to get more bottles, I only have two prosecco bottles, I've got like 2.5 gallons of this stuff.)

I'm pretty pleased overall for my very first run. I have what is almost a store-bought wine, with pretty much zero effort besides harvesting grapes. I also have a natural blush color that most wine makers would kill to be able to naturally keep without any preservatives or sulfites, despite not being clear (though it definitely had cleared up some, there was a good half inch thick layer of non-yeast sediment at the bottom!)

Man, such a good buzz.
A small 8 oz glass has got me feeling a GREAT buzz.

>>549871

I find this strange. Honey is actually so poor in acids that it is general practice to add lactic acid to mead so it does not taste too bland.

>>550485
http://www.honey.com/images/downloads/ph-acidsinhoney.pdf
http://beerandwinejournal.com/potassium-ph-mead/
Not sure if trolling or just using practices from the 1950s. Honey already has a high acidity (pH=3.9!) and the pH can easily drop to a level at which fermentation is unsustainable (due to the acid that is created during fermentation). Adding more unnecessary acid at the beginning of fermentation will only put more strain on the yeast.

>>549877
be careful making liquor by freezing, while it will work and increase concentrations of alcohol, freezing will not remove the shit that you do not want to consume. If you go you wont be able to browse 4chan

>>549751
I tried to make some mead, and while it came out tasty I could never ever seem to get all of the sediment out when I racked. any tips?

>>550903
It also makes it taste horrific because all the fusol alcohols are also concentrated. It'd need to be filtered and aged for a rather long time to start to taste okay (years).

>>550904
You need a fining agent. There are a few kinds for specific types of sediment and hazes. Normally clay (bentonite) works well for this, but egg whites and Irish moss also work. Sometimes just chilling it really well works.

Have a picture of the Riverbed Hoboshit. Pretty, eh?

>>550904
Any specific way to use the clay? I tried and just added a little to each carboy, and while it did help the sediment fall out it there is still plenty left in the bottled stuff.

>>550923

Not the guy you're asking but gelatin has been used as a fining agent and is likely an easier method.

>>550923
Here, let Jack instruct you. You can learn a great deal here:

http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/finishin.asp

>>550940
Oh and more specifically, this section:

>Bentonite is a very fine clay which is readily available from North American winemaking suppliers. It has a negative charge in wine and removes proteins well. It is usually sold as a powder or as coarse but uniform grains or beads, but it can also be sold suspended in a gel.

>Bentonite is added according to the need for it. That is not a very precise answer, but let me explain. A dose rate of 1-6 grams per gallon is usually desired. The lesser amount is for wines that are almost clear, but a slight, unsightly haze persists. The greater amount is for wines that have real clarity problems. You have to judge the degree of severity yourself, but do not want to use more than necessary as it will impart an "earthiness" to the wine if over-done. The best thing to do is give the wine plenty of time to clarify on its own. I never add bentonite to a wine that hasn't been given six months and three rackings to clear.

>Bentonite must be hydrated before being used. Measure out the desired quantity (say, 2 grams). Pour 3/4 cup of boiling water into a small bowl (for 4 grams of bentonite, use 1-1/2 cups of boiling water) and add the bentonite. If you do not have a gram scale, one measured teaspoon of bentonite weighs 5.4 grams. Use a small whisk and mix the bentonite-water into a slurry. Mix for at least two minutes, working out any lumps that form. You want a creamy consistency. Cover and set aside for 24 hours. Do NOT skip this step! The bentonite will settle, so grab the whisk and whip it into a slurry again.

>>550940
>>550943
I did not hydrate the clay, next time I will.
I'm completely new at mead making, only done two one gallon batches- wine store guy suggested I stop doing one gallon batch and just do a three gallon batch- said it is much easier to rack ( though I think he was just trying to sell some plastic carboys)

>>550903
I don't plan on consuming very much at a time, but yea from everything I've read says it will cause a super hangover. This is more an experiment of just how high of an alcohol content can i achieve legally. This is not at all for everyday consumption.
>>550911
Oh yea comrade will be ageing this for a long ass time. Thinking of using some oak cubes to help mellow it a bit but i'm not sure.

>>550958
> This is more an experiment of just how high of an alcohol content can I achieve legally.

Ive don't this in the past- I found that I had slightly better results if the liquor was cooled to almost freezing, then an ice cube added. Seemed to get more to freeze then just letting it sit in the freezer.

>>550970
I have a chest freezer that is empty so the plan is to put in 2 5 gallon buckets full of ice and salt in the freezer then put the cider in liter bottles and submerge them. That way i can maximize the freezing process.

>>549880
>>549880
>>549880

Please see >>550912

What think ye?

>>550955
The taller your fermenter is, the less racking losses you're probably going to have. I make one-gallon batches sometimes, but it's always so sad to leave behind like 15% of the batch at the bottom of the fermenter. Actually, it makes me want to try to tip it and get every last drop out, which always ends in me sucking up more yeast and is a terrible idea.

On the other hand, an advantage to racking a one-gallon batch is you can easily cold-crash it in the fridge, if you don't have the means to cold-crash a larger container.

Anyway, the yeast strain you use also has an impact on how well it settles to the bottom - called flocculation. I don't have much experience with different wine yeasts so I don't know how big a difference there is between them, but if you happen to be using bread yeast there's a BIG difference between that and most wine yeast in terms of flocculation.

I dunno how accurate it is, but this guy put together a list of some of the attributes of different yeasts that are often used for mead making:
http://www.meadmadecomplicated.org/mead_making/ingredients/commercial_yeast.pdf

>>551085

My first wine (shown above) was done with a bread yeast. I had no problems seeing that stuff settle to the bottom when it was done fermenting, both during primary and cold crashing. A little bit of fining and I would have had a lovely clear wine, but I liked the haze.

>>551094
I've used bread yeast and wine yeast without any cold crashing or fining, and definitely noticed that wine yeast compacts better (well, I've only really used D-47, so that's what I mean by 'wine yeast'). The mead I made with bread yeast settled to the bottom for sure, but was quick to kick up a bit when moving the fermenter or putting in the autosiphon. Using gelatin or cold-crashing may or may not negate that difference, though, I dunno. I didn't know enough at the time to use those techniques, heh.

>>550852

No trolling. Every literature and every more professional recipe I know calls for lactic acid to raise the acid level from the normally 1-2g per litre to 5.5 to 7 g per litre by adding lactic acid or citrate. These aren't sources from the 50's but modern ones.

>>550852

You should also be aware that we are in no way using pure honey. Think of the amount of additional fluid you use. The solution's pH is by no means 3.9.

The main problem with mead and its fermentation is the high sugar content, therefore it is quite common to add the honey not from the beginning but in several batches after the yeast has used up its sugar ration.

>>550904
>I could never ever seem to get all of the sediment out when I racked
Rack rack and re-rack. Mead can take a LONG time mature.

>>550904
There are a few different ways to improve clarity/reduce sediment.
1)If you chill the mead, sediment will appear quickly at the bottom. From here, you can rack again.
2)Filtration - This has the drawback that it can add oxygen to finished mead (not usually a good thing), and can remove the compounds that give your drink flavor, but it will improve clarity without the need for chemicals or fining agents.
3)Fining agents - the other posts have discussed these pretty well, so I don't have much to add. If you have a haze though, Pectic Enzyme will typically help with that.
4)Patience and multiple rackings - Mead can continue to sediment for years if left unattended. Eventually everything will fall out, but not everyone has that kinda time.
5)Membranes, Yeast Immobilization, and spice/fruit-bagging
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/yeast-immobilization-magic-beans-fermentation-404698/
http://www.gotmead.com/forum/showthread.php?t=21542&page=4 (no paywall but requires registration)
There's some heavy science in this, but the basic idea is that it's possible to separate the yeast and the must by a membrane that is too small for yeast to pass through, but large enough for alcohol and nutrients to pass. This will greatly reduce the amount of yeast sediment, and thus speed things up. On the less technical end, if you're doing fruit or spice additions, putting the fruit mash in a cloth or nylon sack will lower the amount of fruit solids that get caught in suspension, also quickening clarification time.
>>550912
>>551032

It looks nice, though I'm not really accustomed to the color of blush wines. Hard to tell if this is the lighting, but it looks like you can see the keyboard behind it, which is a plus. Clarity will improve with age regardless though. And if you like the taste and buzz, it's a success.

>>551241
>but the basic idea is that it's possible to separate the yeast and the must by a membrane that is too small for yeast to pass through
I've never tried one of those filters, but I've heard that they can also remove the essential oils, reducing the flavor of the mead.

Have you tried it with and without? Thoughts?

>>551241

Oh, no that's not the keyboard you're seeing, that's the reflection of text off my monitor on the surface of the wine.

It's a god damned good buzz.

>>550955
>>551085
Having a bigger batch is nice for racking (plus one gallon batches always end up dead in a few days for me).

One protip though: Buy a few mason jars or varying sizes. When you're racking and get close to the yeast, start siphoning into the mason jars. This way, the first chunk of your rackings will be super-clear and have almost no yeast in it. The borderline stuff that you're sucking up gets cold shocked, and you can use that to top up your batch later on.
>>551145
>>551147
He has the right of it though. Acid additions should be done after the mead is finished, and only to taste. Remember that pH is logarithmic so that if you dilute a pH 3.9 to 3/4 water, you'll still end up with a pH of around 4.3. And it drops during fermentation. And this assumes you're not adding fruit, which will naturally add more acids. It obviously depends on the type of honey you get, but if you get a honey with a pH of say, 3.2, adding acid in the primary is like dumping a bag of fertilizer into a pond that is suffering from algae bloom.
Sugar content can be a problem if you're going for something sweet and strong, but using a starter following the "double the size of batch using must each day" will solve that problem. If you're going for a dry mead at 12% though, it's not a problem at all (still use a starter though).
And I'd argue that the biggest problem with mead is a lack of natural nutrients that you need to make up with chems or fruit, but I'd imagine you'd agree with me on that.

If you're looking for others that agree with me, here's the crib notes from the "Meadmaker of the Year" panel in 2010 where 5 MMotY holders discuss brewing techniques. My friends in the industry typically do the same regarding acids, and I don't know a single one who will add any pure acid supplements in the primary.
http://www.ahaconference.org/wp-content/uploads/presentations/2010/Mead_Maker_of_the_Year_Panel.pdf

>>551244
I'm still pretty new to it and haven't noticed a significant difference in taste (and most experiments I've seen have commented similarly), but it's still something I don't fully understand and am concerned about.

I'm pretty sure the benefit of using immobilized yeast over traditional filtration is that (aside from controlling the total yeast volume/cell count) you're only filtering what comes out of the yeast, and not anything that is present in the must itself. So depending on the size of the membrane, you may be filtering out fusel oils (which from my experience/reading you want to keep low anyway), but you won't be removing anything from the honey or fruit itself.

>>551247
Oh well. Happy drinking!

I'm gonna duck out for now. Will likely be back tomorrow, if not Wednesday.

>>551251

Thanks for your informative answer.

Yes, you use an acidometer and taste it after it is finished. I've never heard of anybody though that did not add acids and in many cases added a certain amount from the beginning. But generally I was also talking about adding the acid afterwards.

> "double the size of batch using must each day"

this I do not understand, what do you mean?


lack of nutrients is a real problem with honey and yeasts, I agree. I use a supplement for that.

I went for some apple juice and ground apple for the yeasts to have something to cling to.

My current mead will be a surprise, I do not know if it will be okay. The yeast I bought was "strange" and did not do anything after several days. I ordered some dry yeasts that arrived late so my roommate had to add the yeast after my instructions. Too bad he picked the WRONG yeast that I wanted to use for low alcohol cider instead of the highly alcohol tolerant yeast.

>>551301
I wish I saved this from the last thread so I could copy paste it, but...

The basic idea is that you are gradually acclimating yeast to the environment of your must. There's a ton of ways to do it, but what I do follows something along the lines of.

Prepare must that I'm creating. If I'm making a 5 gallon batch of 18% alcohol blueberry melnomel, I prepare it as if it were that. Pour the honey in, press/blend the berries, add them in.
Make starter with 1-2 cups of water and add honey (and minimal nutrient) bring it up to a gravity of 1.06-1.08 (Just some nice happy place for the yeast to start at. Doesn't matter if you're off). You can use apple juice/cider here if you like (no sorbates obviously), as it's probably the perfect environment to start off a fermentation, but I never have it. Put in yeast and stir vigorously. After 30 minutes, add 1-2 cups of your must in to double the size of your starter. Stir again. Wait 12-24 hours, then add 3-4 cups to double the size again (you can start doing staggered nutrient additions now). Every day, double the size of your batch by adding must until you get to the full 5 gallons or whatever.

The main idea is to make sure your get a really nice and healthy yeast culture with a high cell count rather than hoping a little packet is enough to get things started.
But also you're gradually adding the sugar so that the yeast doesn't get overwhelmed by the osmotic pressure of of some stupid 1.2 SG must.
(If this seems similar to the method for restarting a stuck fermentation, it is. It's also good for making sure the yeast don't die from shock of being added to a stuck 12% alcohol solution if you've somehow fucked up on a previous batch.)

You can obviously fiddle around with how you're doing it and there's tons of ways you can achieve the same effect, but this just seems to be the easiest way for me to get a consistently good fermentation going.

Just bought my first brew station. Basic bucket setup and a carboy. My first one will be a pre-made recipe kit to get the groove of it and how the process works. After that I am going to fucking around with recipes.

I dont have anything of value to add to this convo, but I'm pumped. I brew on Wed.

>>551462
Cool, what are you brewing?

>>550911
>>551240
>>551241

How long should I age it in a big batch? the last time I waited until I had racked a few times and then right into bottles. Better when aged in a bigger batch before bottling?

This may not be the right place to ask, but on some sites dedicated to distillation, there are sometimes vague warnings about using copper as the main construction metal, however there really is never any clarification on why that would be.

Ah and if this isn't the right place to ask tell me and I will delete this so you can continue on without me bothering you.

how hard is it to make malt beer?

>>551546
The advantage of bulk aging is that:
1)It's easier to rack/filter. If you bottle early, get sediment, and decide that you want to rack again, you'll end up with more waste than if you were using a large batch, and on top of that you'll have a bigger oxygen gap each time. With bulk aging you can top it up with more wine or using aquarium marbles.
2)It's easier to tinker with. If you decide you want to add oak or spices or sugar or acid, you can just throw it in rather than worrying about making each bottle the same. and removing the spices from each bottle.
3)You'll get a more consistent batch. (If you bottle early the top few might be great and the bottom few might be cloudy).
4)Seriously, fuck bottling. Bottling is probably 50% of the work that you have to do. The only reason you'll bottle is so that you get small portable vessels of wine that you can give as gifts or drink in 1 liter increments without worrying about the rest oxidizing.
>how long
Typically, you just keep racking it until you stop seeing sediment appear.

>>551609
I can't help, but I'm genuinely curious about this if anyone knows the answer.

>>551828
I've never made it, but I can tell you that, if you want it carbonated, it's probably a little bit trickier than making fully alcoholic beer. Which is easy.

You can carbonate two ways - add pure CO2 directly (kegging), or put in a closed bottle with a small amount of fermentation (bottle-conditioning). If you have a keg setup it would be very simple, but that's equipment you probably don't have or want to buy. You could simply not ferment it (like malta 0% abv), and just add CO2, or you could ferment it partially, add chemicals to halt fermentation and then add CO2 (like german maltzbier is apparently 1-2% abv?).

If you want to bottle condition, you need to put healthy yeast in a bottle with your sugary concoction. CO2 is a byproduct of yeast eating sugar (along with alcohol, but only a tiny amount of alcohol needs to be produced when carbonating a bottle). The thing is, if you leave the yeast unchecked with plenty of sugar to eat, they'll continue to grow and produce more CO2 until the pressure makes the bottles explode. You need some way to stop the yeast. I believe most people who bottle-carb soda use plastic bottles and just a tiny bit of yeast so that it'll carb slower, then they just put it in the fridge when the bottles are hard from pressure. Cold temperatures make yeast go to sleep - as long as the bottle never warms up again, the yeast will stop. Simple enough as long as you have fridge space. But if your plan is to ferment BEFORE bottling (to get 1-2% alcohol), in that case you wouldn't be able to kill the yeast with chemicals if you want carbonation. I guess you'd have to bottle the actively fermenting beverage, which sounds like the yeast would produce CO2 at a much more rapid rate and it could be difficult to find the right time (perhaps minutes instead of days?) to halt the yeast. But read about it, could be doable.

tl;dr: 0% abv easy, 1% abv maybe hard. Probably more experienced help can be found here: http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f95/

>>551835
I perhaps I bottled too early as well. I want small amounts, one or two glasses at a time- I almost never sit and drink more then that, and it may be a month or more between bottles. Gonna have to save this thread for when I do my next batch

>>551836
this I know
older copper stills used lead to join the pipes. This can leech into the liquid

>5 litre vessel
>4 pounds of honey
>2 oranges
>1 vanilla pod

Does this seem like a good recipe?

>>551969
shits thick. you trying to make fermented syrup??

>>551975
I used 4 pounds in 5l before and it came out the same consistency as wine.
Even pre-ferment it's only slightly thicker than water

>>551969
Yeah, that seems like a fine ratio of ingredients It reminds me of "Joe's Ancient Orange Mead", only with a little bit more orange and a different spice.

Just starting brewing my first 1 gallon test batches of cider and mead as a complete newbie. Two questions arising from stupid mistakes on my part.
1. Apparently I got the wrong size bungs (too large for the openings), but I was able to tape them in place. The cider seems to be airtight but the mead less so. I've since got the correct size ones. Is it worth opening them up again to put the right sizes in place?
2. When I started the cider, I didn't add any additional sugars. It's been about a week, should I bother adding any honey or sugar at this point?

>>551989

Bungs:
You'll probably be fine either way. Save yourself the trouble and just save them for the next time around.

Sugar:
You can add more sugar if you'd like. It wont be nearly as good though. The yeast reach a peak quantity of # of cells/mL around day 3 or 4 and start to die off thereafter. More sugar would just make the yeast work harder, giving you off flavors.

Enjoy your beer-strength cider, add sugar the next time around. If you dont like this batch, dont be afraid to dump it.

Thats what I like about this hobby is that you're not tied to anything you make if it's subpar. I made a batch of "whatever grains and hops sound good" beer this past saturday. It's going to taste like shit, but I only put about $7 into 2 gallons. Experimenting is how you find out what is good and what isnt.

>>551997
>Enjoy your beer-strength cider
I have no problem with this.
Thanks!

>>551989
I think you could add the sugar if there's room and you want to, but it's not necessary of course. There's plenty more yeast in there now than when you pitched in the first place. Note if your method is 'pour in the sugar and shake it', be careful because even though most of the CO2 escaped out the airlock there's still a bunch in solution ready to spray cider all over your house.

>>551969
I'd personally use less vanilla, but that's a matter of taste.
>>551989
Since you don't age cider for a long time, a slight air gap shouldn't be disastrous. Get bungs that fit though. You're gonna use them eventually.
And you can still add sugar if you'd like. Fermentation will probably pick up again if you haven't stabilized with sorbate. But judging by >>551998, you might not want to anyway.

>>552039
>Since you don't age cider for a long time
How long would you recommend? Worth racking to a secondary or just aging a bit more in the bottle?

>>551937
Ah that makes sense. Thank you anon.

>>552054
Okay, I'm not actually super educated on cider as I've only made a few batches of middling quality, but the most common opinions seem to be that you bottle it immediately (2 weeks or so) and that it only lasts for 6 months or so. (Due to lower alcohol content, it shouldn't last as long as wine).
(http://www.mrbeer.com/faq/FAQ-cider.php))
But just now I dug up a bunch of people who say they age it for months/years.
(http://forum.northernbrewer.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=55488))
I've only tried it the first way, so I don't know which of these are correct or if the other guys do something special to preserve it.

Okay so I know I'm the one who's trying to answer everyone's questions, I've got a few myself.

1)I'm fairly inexperienced in beer and looking to try making a Belgian (Dubbel or Tripel). If anyone has any proven recipes that they'd like to share, I'd be super-grateful.
2)Same thing with kombucha. I'm a noob here, and don't know where to start.
3)Has anyone ever worked with Holly Honey before? A while back I received some as a gift and it has a rather curious taste. I wasn't a fan of it raw, so I decided to ferment it, and now I've got a gallon of holly-honey-hydromel aging. There's no literature on it either, so I'm wondering if anyone has found good pairings with it, culinarily or in terms of alcohol.

>>549751
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/homemade-wine/

is this legit? assuming i poke holes into the balloon to let CO2 pass

>>552158
It's legit, but don't expect anything good out of it. If you're gonna be that lazy, might as well just be drinking Franzia IMHO.

Balloons do make decent airlocks in a pinch though, and you'd be correct in assuming to prick a single hole in the balloon (it stretches and will open up).

Also if you're gonna use any juices, make sure they don't have potassium sorbate in it as they prevent yeast growth.

>>549804
actually the greeks invented the hydrometer and by the time the romans came around viticulture was basically just as advanced as it was in the 19th century. the grapes grown were already hybridized into some semblance of the varieties we see today and were grown from cloned stock so that the entire vineyard had more uniform characteristics.

>>552173

The age period of wine I was trying to reproduce was BC, not AD. No hydrometer existed then.

Does anyone have screencap of Anon that homebrews with a wooden spoon ( cause he's a proffesional) and shoots empty wine bottles out of the air and makes love to virgins?

I woul appreciate that.

Dies anyone know much about the process with harder alcohols. Rum or vodka preferred. Fruits to use?

>>552179

You do know that the "time" of the ancient greeks was BC?

>>552165
right.

do you have any tips? I'm mainly doing this out of boredom so i dont bring much urgency to it.

>>552236
If you've got the time, http://www.gotmead.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=27&Itemid=13 is a pretty good place to start (chapters 9-16 are the most important I'd say). There's a few minor things in there I disagree with, but you've got to start somewhere. And even though it's a guide for mead, 90% of it still applies to wine (order a good grape concentrate rather than using store bought juice if possible.)

Quick question. I started some cider on Sunday and forgot to put pectolase in I remembered last night and when I opened the pot it has all gone from powder to a solid lump (it's two years old) so I've ordered some more online and hopefully will be here tomorrow.
Thing is I've come home from work this evening and it looks like the cider has finished brewing already.
I'm going to test the gravity in a bit and probably rack it off into another demijohn.
Will it be too late to use the pectolase if it comes tomorrow or Friday?

Pic related my cider

>>552362
tl;dr version, you're fine.

Pectic Enyzyme just breaks down the prectin in the fruit (slightly increasing available sugar and clearing up pectin hazes), so you should be fine even if you don't use it.

I've read that it works best if used either before or after fermentation, but not during. So you should be fine.

>>552366
Excellent thank you.

Think I might rack it off and add some honey for a second ferment. Then add the pectolase at the end

My mead is about to turn 4 months, and it seems like every time I taste it (once a week or every two), it tastes completely different. Is this the fabled rapid changes I've been told of that mead goes through after 3 months?

>>552652
I guess so, man, the same thing has happened to my meads.
I tried to make a strawberry melomel using ale yeast, and when I bottled it I was considering throwing it out because it tasted like salty ass with no hint of strawberry. Then I tried it 6 months later and it's a completely different beverage, it's actually good and has a strawberry aroma.

yo mead nerds
one word:
hibiscus
do it.

>>552684
Vanilla was here. Hibiscus is a pretty cool guy.

Racked my mead to secondary last night for ageing. Clearer than it was but its going to age here for a good long time unti it clears completely.
Finished up at 15% tastes really hot but fuck its less than a month old.

>>552684
That's my favorite. Brought it on a date once. Things went "well". She still swears that's the reason 9 years later.

>>551535
>>551535
I brewed a Belgian Triple and just got a stout and second fermentation bucket for tomorrow. Im stoked.

>>552684
Anybody make a simple ginger beer ? Thinking of using some hibiscus in a future attempt.

Just set up 20 litres of Ebbelwoi today, made from local apples :-)

Oh neat a homebrew thread, gonna dump a few of the things I've been doing.

1/3
Racking my all grain milk stout to bottling bucket 2 nights ago.

>>553869
2/3
All bottled up!

>>553869
>racking into plastic bucket from carboy.
I remember when I couldn't afford a second carboy. Those were wild times, man.

>>553870
3/3
Couple of experiments.
Left: 1 gallon of the milk stout aging on espresso and cocoa.
Right: I cheap ass grape wine ;_;

>>553871
What are you getting at? Its a bottling bucket.

>>553874
Isn't it easier to bottle from a carboy? That way you can see fluid level better.

Nothing wrong with using a bucket, but I've just always found carboys easier.

>>553882
Personal preference I suppose, the bottling bucket I use is easy to see the fluid levels through, it also has gallon and half gallon markings on it. Plus the spigot is positioned so all the trub gets left behind.

>mfw got my 7.5 gallon fermenter filled all the way up at my local cider mill for $18.

I tasted some of the juice when I got home and it blows supermarket shit away.

Colombian here, forgive me for my english.

I have been making mead for a few months following instructions as closely as I can, and tried different methods, but it always tastes strange and harsh. I'm suspecting the fault here is the high temperature, which is actually the lowest in my house (about 90º Farenheit all year and maybe 85º in colds days). Can heat really make it taste that bad? I've used several types of yeast recommended, but also bakers yeast and wild yeast from raisins, it always has a terrible flavor. Can heat really be so damaging to the mead taste? What are my options besides moving to cooler weather? Electricity is specially expensive in my city.

>>553907

Yes, high fermentation temperatures can lead to off flavors and fusel alcohols. If your coolest room is 90 Farenheit that probably means your temp inside of the fermenter is reaching towards 100, I can only imagine how gross your product is tasting (no offense). Aging periods can lessen these flavors but its easier to just not create them in the first place. If there are no cool places to stash your fermenter at your best bet is to look into making a "swamp cooler". It's really simple to do, I used to use one before I bought a dedicated fermentation fridge.

You basically need a container, like a plastic bin that your fermenter can sit in, wrap your fermenter in an old T-shirt this will help to cool it off via evaporation. Also, if it is still not cool enough you can drop in some frozen water bottles a few times a day or have a fan blowing on the t-shirt to keep it at the desired temperature.

Here's a link so you can get a visual: http://billybrew.com/swamp-cooler-homebrew

If done right this can keep your fermentation temps at a steady 65-70 degrees.

Best of luck!

>>553921
I've brewed in high temps before. If and when it causes bad results, they can be aged out pretty easily. I do it for specific floral notes. I use a tropical fish aquarium heater and set the carboy in a vat of water with the heater and put a blanket over top everything. This is the system I use.

You need to experiment and read up on how different yeast react to temps in the 90F range. Some are really not good for it and some will give the floral notes. I use it for floral meads to give them an extra scent and flavor kick.

>>553921
Also, a quick side note you only really need to keep this up during vigorous primary fermentation. Temperature control isn't that necessary during secondary/aging periods. Just make sure you keep it in a dark place.

I'm retarded and know very little about home brew but wanna get into it

any /diy/ guides? It's fall so I wanna try making a hard cider.
I have some wine yeast on the way but I have no idea what to do when I get it.

Can I mickey-mouse brew with household items like balloons and shit? Your patience is appreciated.

>>553975
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f25/man-i-love-apfelwein-14860/

Brewing is for faggots - get on my level.

>>554001
Are you married to your sister?

>>553925
>>553927
>>553921
Thank you so much, I find very interesting that bit about temperature being most relevant during primary fermentation. A few weeks in the cold shouldn't be much problem for me, I thought it to be most important during aging, but this changes everything. Thanks also for the tips on how to keep it cool, I appreciate it.

>>554003
Do you have a distributuon network of haggard street sluts as well? You fuckin hobo.

>>554001
Maybe instead of calling people faggots, you'd like to discussing distilling with us?

After all, you gotta get your alcohol somewhere, and we can provide some pretty tasty base alcohols for you.

>>554012
He's a /b/tard, he is incapable of discussion.

>>553975
Equipment you NEED:
-Any food-grade container that you can sanitize and you can put an airlock on. Glass carboys are nice, but just the container the juice comes in will work too.
-An airlock. A balloon with a pinhole in it works as an airlock (though i've never tried it).
-A way to sanitize stuff (Boiling things is an effective way to sanitize them, as is washing with bleach and then rinsing with sanitized (boiled) water. IMO you can assume sealed stuff from the store like bottled water and apple juice is already sanitized enough, so I don't heat that stuff. Star San in a spray bottle is a more expensive but much easier solution to sanitizing equipment)
-Bottles, caps, capper (If you want it to be carbonated. Bottles are free with beer (not screwtops), caps are cheap, and a red baron wing capper is $17 or so. Or drink lots of Grolsch and use the flip-top bottles with no need for caps.)

Equipment you really want:
-Racking cane and tube to siphon the good cider off the gross yeast sediment (some people say you can simply pour it off, but I can't really see how that would get good results. An 'auto-siphon' makes this way easier, but it's a little more expensive)
-Bottling wand and/or bottling bucket
-Secondary container of same size to use for clearing or bottling
-Hydrometer and wine thief (to know when fermentation is complete. If you don't have this, though, you can just wait a longer time after it seems done to make sure it's done)

>>554028
a siphon tube should be cheap enough.
Mine is a 1 metre tube meant to fish tanks and cost 50c in a local petshop.
The tubes need to be safe as fuck considering they're used in water filtration for a pet that will die by the school at the slightest sign of toxins.

>>554028
>>553991
awesome! thanks guys

>>554001

>crap keg still
>not good chemical glassware
>half-assed uncontrolled condenser and heat source
>chance of heavy metal content

I can understand the diy aspect, but seriously, you could've done a lot better than that.

Could you use this to make some shitty cider? Pic related, ingredients.

>>554734
Sure, I guess. I don't think any of that stuff would kill yeast. You'd probably have a better result if you just got some real 100% juice, but hey whatever, ferment everything and anything.

Nice night out for brewing. Waiting forever for my wort to boil (won this fancy pot in a homebrew club raffle, but have an awful cheap burner)
Making a cream stout, will eventually secondary on toasted coconut, based on this guy's recipe: http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f68/coconut-cream-stout-competition-runner-up-394244/
Sounds like it'll be a good beer for christmastime.

>>549751
I have never made mead before, but have made some cheap wine.

As a college student on a tight budget, what would you recommend?

>>555317
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f80/joes-ancient-orange-mead-49106/
Requires almost nothing to get started. Though depending on how big your budget/free space/timeframe is, I might have some different recommendations.

if i want to get started home brewing, is that homebrewtalk website a good place to start? i need pointers on equipment and procedures for a beginner

>>555318
I have all the free space in the world, and all the time in the world, the only real constraint is the economical one.

Also any recommendations on were to buy the honey? Online? Find somewhere local? Maybe I'll just buy some bees?

>>555329
When you have a specific question, if you google it HBT is usually in the top results, and probably where you'll find an answer. But as for one beginner document to read, if you're talking about beer, this is the place to start: http://www.howtobrew.com/intro.html

>>555334
cheers mate

>>555329
there and gotmead are probably the best two I know of.
>>555331
Dutch Gold (http://www.dutchgoldhoney.com/)) and Gunters are probably the best quality/cost ratio where I live (at least if you buy in bulk). If you don't live on the east coast, most likely somewhere else.

Local honey is good as long as you aren't paying $10 a pound or something stupid. And if you have the room/dedication to do beekeeping, that's more than I have.

I'd recommend avoiding store-brand honeys though, as half the time they are fake.

>>555318
>>555331
Also I posted before reading the link stupidly enough
(a lurker here, and hailing from /b/, were threads move insanely fast so I apologize for double posting)

>I used a Lavin yeast (EC-1118) in my wine making, and feel like making something with bread yeast would yield awful results.

You mentioned K1V-1116, which is a yeast that yields results of up to 18% alcohol.

I just read somewhere that honey is approximately 70% Fructose, Glucose and other 6 carbon chains that work for the ethanol reaction.

So if i was to substitute a lavin yeast that gets to 18% ethanol for the bread yeast, in a 1 gallon container, would I want about 1/.7*.18 = 25% of my solution to be honey to yield maximum (or close) amount of ethanol?

Or is there something I am not taking into account (some secondary reaction) that would cause me to need less (or more) honey/ maybe 25% honey would just be awful, and possibly substitute some sugars in with it to preserve the taste?

Basically I'm a newbie, just spit-balling Ideas, what do you think?

Thanks for your time.

Anyone ever fermented sirup of "Sugar beet"? How does it taste?
It is sold by discounters where I live and I was so curious that I bought a pot of it. I think about just Hobo fermenting some of it in a bottle with an airlock but I wonder how it will taste and if I should add other stuff for aroma.

>>555337
25% honey is about right if you're doing a stronger mead. Should taste fine. And using bread yeast isn't recommended for a serious batch.

If you're able to do 3+ gallon batches and can afford proper equipment (bucket, tubing, carboy), I'll try to throw up a more suitable recipe for a stronger yeast.

>>555350
I already own all that, I have a 3 gallon jug that I used for winemaking and a little one way valve that lets air out but not in.

>>549751
Hey guys!

Following advice in threads, here's what i'm currently trying:

>3 ballon airlocks
>1DIY airlock, fun to make.

smells like alcohol near the bottles, i'm getting hyped.

I had a couples issues with the 4th one, the balloon wasn't getting bigger, repitched some yeast and changed the balloon and we're now floating in space.

>>555372
Okay, here's what you're gonna do.
Buy 3 5lb jugs of honey. 1 clover, one Orange Blossom and the third can be either. Buy about 10 limes, a ginger root, and 1-2 sprigs of rosemary.
Wash limes, peel+wash ginger, wash rosemary.
Juice the limes and zest them. But the zest, rosemary, and ginger in a muslin bag if you have one. If not, that's okay but it's just gonna be a little harder getting 'em out later.

Make yourself a starter the same way you would while making wine with Lalvin 1118. Add water, honey, and lime juice till you get to desired sugar level. Add spices. Add starter to must when it's ready. Add nutrients as necessary. Each day, taste it until each spice gets to desired level. Spices should be ready after about a week, but feel free to take each spice out individually once it starts tasting appropriate.

Rack off into secondary as normal after about 2 weeks. Age as normal.

It might end up a little cloudy due to the ginger, and it won't taste anything like normal mead, but it's fucking life-changing.

>>555378
And if anyone recognizes this recipe and has had it before... Yes, I am who you think I am.

>>555378
Thank you, saved and will update this thread (or new if this one disappears) with my results.

>>555374
Theoretically the balloon airlocks should work - but I really recommend just buying some real airlocks (they cost next to nothing) as it greatly decreases risk of infection.

>>555818
also
>re-usability
>relative ease of use

>>555828

Also
>get to watch that awesome bubble release and gauge how your fermentation is going.

>>556067
Balloons are cooler to watch tho.

>>556068
Well just buy a lava lamp and look at it while the real men brew.

>>555818
>>555828
>>556067
airlocks on ebay are like 4$, bought a few now!

very stupid question but assuming my cider goes well, what could I do next? is mead okay?

>>556076
damn nigga, you got ripped airlocks are like $1.25 on midwest supplies. I usually get them at my lhbs for 80 cents though.

>>556076
Don't gotta wait for the cider man, start the mead now! It takes a long time for fermented beverages to be ready to drink (especially mead), so it's good to have multiple in progress at a time so you're not always waiting months for something to drink. Joes Ancient Orange Mead is the most often recommended beginner mead recipe, look it up.

Page 10 bump

My mead is not bunder beneath a lucky star...

The first yeast was dead. The second arrived late, m rommate had to add it because i was not there the weekend.
He added the wrong yeast (Steinberg, tolerant only until 10% alcohol, mostly for ciders).
I wanted to do a dry, hopped mead, I added honey for 13% of alcohol (the other yeast was sure to eat it all up, leaving only few sweetness behind).

Today I took a sample. It tastes really good. Still a little bit acidic but full on honey flavour with an aftertaste of hop. It tastes *really* dry. I REALLY wonder how this can be.

My vinometer told me it has about 10% alcohol content. So I ask myself why it is not sweet...The Honey that would have been converted to the 3% alcohol that the mead lacks due to the incorrect yeast should lead to the mead being pretty sweet. Anybody with an idea?

The second thing I ask myself is whether or not to pasteurize. I do not want exploding bottles and the yeast strain that was falsely used is known and notorious for slowly fermenting above their given tolerance. So I should go for deactivating the yeast because I can not say with certainty that there is no substrate for the yeasts left.

>>558475
1)A vinometer is only fully accurate on dry wines, so it might be slightly off. A hydrometer reading might tell you that your solids remaining, Sweetness taste wise though, you say that it's very acidic and you've added hops. Having a highly bitter and acidic wine will lessen the perception of sweetness, so it may actually be a matter of balance.
Lastly, did you measure everything correctly and track temperature? Tempurature changes (hotter=less dense) can account for a slight difference in density, pushing you maybe a percent one way or the other.

Pasteurization wise, I don't think it's gonna be a big problem as long as you've racked out most of the yeast. I'd just drink a bottle every month or two to make sure they're not ready to explode.

>>558475
I don't know about that specific yeast, but if you're unsure I'd just say wait a bit longer before bottling. Do a secondary if you can. Your mead will need to age anyway and it's easier to leave it alone when it's in the carboy.

>>558502

Okay, sadly I only had a vinometer on hand. Maybe my perception is off, did not think about that.
I measured in the correct temperature range.

>>558522

I plan to remove the mead from the yeast next monday, I am afraid of off flavours. It does not ferment anymore for quite some time now.

Doing a secondary would be possible of course. As far as I know the vessel should be completely filled in this case - problematic because I only filled the 10l glass balloon with 9 litres because I wanted to reserve some room for the foaming.
Aging would also be possible if I bottle the mead. I primarily use bottles like pic related so I could age them in a cool place and slightly vent them every two weeks in case of CO2.

If I pasteurize there is the problem with storing for a longer time at least if I do not find a way to sulfurize it afterwards instead of before.

>>558525
Personally (in little experience) I've never worried about a secondary being a little too big. Beermakers seem split over whether or not they care, since a little co2 will still come off the solution after transfer. But I googled specific to mead and you're right, it seems like everyone is pretty concerned with that, enough to go to the extent of putting marbles in their secondaries or watering down their mead. I dunno if that's a difference between beer and mead or just a difference in brewing culture. I guess nevermind then.

Yeast autolysis imparting bad flavors is another debated topic. Autolysis is definitely a thing, but from what I've read it takes months before there's any effect when aging.
w/rt champagne:
>After the excretion of amino acids by yeasts at the end of the bottle fermentation the concentration of amino acids remains stable for several months. Then it begins to rise again, slowly but continuously.
http://forum.northernbrewer.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=40113

So generally I think you're safe for a couple months on the lees, so don't feel like you need to rush it off the yeast. If it has been over a month, then I can't imagine you'd have a problem with bottle bombs since it did ferment out to the ABV you expected.

>>558539

I started the balloon barely a month ago. A lively yeast was only introduced pretty late and it is fermenting for three weeks now. It was a lively fermentation in the first week, barely any activity in the second week and no activity in the third week.

As far as I understand it autolysis is only a problem when the yeast starts to segment to the bottom of the container in spite of regularly shaking it, which is the case for between one and two weeks.

I do not have much experience in this whole regard, also concerning leftover space in the secondary container. That means I just try to emulate what the professionals have to say ;-)

I have put the balloon outside yesterday to limit the speed of possible autolysis (it is some 2°C outside). I will let it sit there until next monday, pull it off the yeast.

What I do afterwards I am not decided yet. Maybe I will go for just bottling it, aging it in a cool place and relieving pressure every two weeks (will see if there is any at all). TO be honest it would be quite strange if these 9 litres will survive long enough. Winter is coming, after all....

>>558569
Do you mean you've been shaking it after fermentation is done? If so, don't do that! That has a much higher risk of oxidization that just having headspace in your secondary. And stirring up the sediment isn't desirable - you want all that to drop out and stay put. Mead takes a long time to clear and disturbing that will just reset the process.

IMO I would rack to secondary regardless of your container situation, let it sit another month before bottling. You'll let it age, you'll get clearer mead, and you can put aside all fears of bottle bombs. You can age in the bottle, yeah, but if you bottle straight from primary a lot of sediment will end up in there, even if you rack to a bottling bucket first. I guess the headspace thing is possibly an oxidation issue, but I think it's less of a potential issue than having a bunch of nasty yeast in your bottles or, worse, having bottle bombs.

Also if your mead is outside in a glass container right now, make sure it's covered. Sunlight will skunk hops.

>>558692

No, but I've been shaking it when the yeast was active as per the instructions in some more or less professional manuals. I stopped it when fermentation slowed and stopped.

Segregation is already pretty good. I also have some ingrediences for clearing wines (silica sol) so I could also segregate the mead from the yeast in my other 10l balloon, treat with silica sol, clear it and bottle afterwards.

Never heard about skunking hops. Sunlight is in short supply at the moment, the container is made of green glass, so I think there should not be much UV radiation. But I can of course cover it with an additional blanket.

>>558727
Ah ok, I misunderstood then, plan sounds good!

Upon looking it up, hop skunking from UV is only an issue if the hops were boiled like in beer (post-isomerization, whatever that means). If you just dry hopped the mead it might not matter, I'd use the blanket anyway though. Definitely a concern if you boiled the hops though, green glass isn't really that great at blocking UVs

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Skunking

>>558754
err, rather not just UVs but other wavelengths of light too

>So I'm at the store last week, and see cider is on sale for $3.00/gallon.
>Wasn't familiar with the brand, so I bought some to try,
>Wattya know, it's some fucking good shit, so of course I buy ten.
> As soon as I get home it gets sugared up and tossed into the fermenting pail.
>Pitch the yeast, and go to bed congratulating myself on the great deal.
>Fast forward one an a half days, go to check on my projects.
>Water in the cider airlock is still dead level.
>"What the hell? I know the yeast was good and the cider was goo...."
> oh fuck I forgot to check for preservatives
>go out to the garage, check label on one of the jugs, of course Potassium Sorbate (for freshness and all that)
>Hang head in shame of rookie move, go and prepare yeast starter.

So all this week I've spent stepping up yeast starters, adding most of them to the cider, and waiting to see if it's enough yeast to bind up all the P. sorb so that they can start budding on their own. On the plus side, today the rate of CO2 bubbling off increased on it's own, so no more babysitting starter.

>>558771
Easy mistake to make. This is how we learn though.

>>558771
Funny, I just read this yesterday
http://www.fermentarium.com/homebrewing/winemaking/everything-you-know-about-potassium-sorbate-is-wrong/
Prior to that I thought sorbate killed the yeast, but I guess it's more complicated than I thought. I guess you already know this since you're doing starters, so you've still got a shot. Good luck!

>>558864
Worst part is I've been making hard cider for forever, and it's second nature for me check for preservative, but I blinded myself with dollar signs on this one.

I'm just glad I had time this week to preform remedial action on this batch, because lord knows I don't make nearly enough hot and sour soup to use up ten gallons of ACV.

>>558877
Shit, *perform.

>>558869
After spending all week adding yeast to the colony it's finally growing on it's own (or at least it appears to be based on bubble rates in the airlock.) From everything I've read about P. sorb it prevents yeast reproduction by binding to the cell wall to prevent it from budding and making new yeast cells. As such you should be able to defeat it by adding enough yeasts to effectively absorb it all and allow the rest to reproduce as usual. This weeks efforts seem to confirm that for me, as adding yeasts from the starter would cause CO2 to be produced at a set rate, but it would never "pick up" like it would in a normal fermentation. However with the most recent addition I seem to have hit a tipping point and the colony seems to be growing now.

>find an old jug of cider I forgot about last year because it tasted crap

>mfw I take a taste today

holy fucking shit what a difference a year makes, is 16% ABV normal for apple cider? Because I can dig this

>>558906
Nope. You'd have to add quite a bit of sugar to get the alcohol up that high.

>>558906
>is 16% ABV normal for apple cider?

Not really, and I drink Somerset Scrumpy with a nominal ABV is 8.2%: in the barrel it can hit 13% or so. 16% is rocket fuel; probably closer to Applejack than cider.

I really want to start brewing strong alcohol but all the need for a whole copper system will run a bit expensive, could i manage a system for brewing shine/whiskey without the need for copper?

>>558996
There is fermenting and distilling. Fermenting only make wine, mead, cider, beer, kombucha, tepache, sake, etc. Distilling makes moonshine, whiskey, tequila, vodka, and other spirits.

For just fermenting, all you need is a clean container that can hold liquid. Preferably 2 of them. It doesn't matter what they are made of, but glass and stainless steel are preferred, for flavor reasons if you are picky.

For distilling, you will need glass, stainless steel, and/or copper for best results. There's a lot more equipment involved with distilling. But, it can be bare bones and easy too.

I have around 20 liters of beer in a keg that can withstand 10 bar pressure. At the moment there is 5 bar inside. How much should the pressure be for the beer to have bubbles and not to come out of the keg as pure foam.

Here's a question.
What's the most idiot-proof recipe/process you know of?

>>558998
http://www.wikihow.com/Dispense-Beer

>>559011
Google, "hobo wine recipe".

>>558998
You're talking about your own homebrew that you put in a keg? It's more complicated than frat parties make it seem. The appropriate pressure for carbonating will depend on the temperature of the keg and style of beer:
http://www.brewersfriend.com/keg-carbonation-calculator/
You just leave the keg hooked up to the CO2 tank on that pressure for about 2-3 weeks and your brew should be carbonated.

As for not getting a glass of foam, you need to have a beer line with the appropriate length and diameter to provide sufficent resistance for the pressure so that the beer doesn't rocket out:
http://www.iancrockett.com/brewing/info/kegbalance.shtml

There's other factors as well, I'm struggling with my own system to figure out why I'm pouring all foam when my line is fine.

>>549751
My local thrift store has a few of those 5 gallon glass bottles for sale. Asking $39.99
Been there for weeks- What is a good price for those?
Is glass necessary, or can a guy use a plastic water bottle.?

>>559181
you can use plastic, but glass is superior.
The price seems around average.

Gday mate aussie brewer here...Try this small experiment ..Coles brand apple and cranberry juice and add Palm sugar instead of dex . Age it or dont leme know what u think I think it actualy could be a faster fermentation rate...More expensive but . Sorry half pissed laters

>>559181
>thrift store
>$39.99

Each? That's way too high for a thrift store selling second-hand glass like that. If they have been there that long offer then $15 each and buy them all. The most I ever spend for second-hand 5-6.5 gallon carboys has been $20. For the 15 gallon glass demijohns that are second hand I pay a max of $50.

See these prices for brand new carboys:

http://www.midwestsupplies.com/winemaking-equipment/fermentation-equipment/carboys-and-glass-jugs.html

>5 gallon; $31.99
>15 gallon/with carrying basket; $99.99

So, yeah, $39.99 is way too high for second-hand glass.

You can use plastic, just remember that all plastic leeches chemicals into the contents, especially when acidity and temperatures are higher than normal. Many plastics are also oxygen permeable which causes other problems in long term.

I personally prefer glass and stainless steel for all my brewing.

>>559243
just a reminder that those don't include shipping prices.

I still wouldn't pay 40 bucks for a second hand carboy, but buying a new one off the rack for 40 bucks is perfectly acceptable.

>>559181

Here in germany, you usually get 5, 10 and 20 litre glass balloons for free if you keep your eyes open. Nearly everybody had them and made his own wine and stuff. Everytime old folks die and their houses are cleared you can get them for free if you ask, they are usually just thrown away.

Too bad that my parents threw away some 20 litre balloons from my great grandfather without asking me :-(

How much honey would I need to make 54 liters of mead?

someone tell this ...I need someone with heeps of experience ..Fully got my fermentation finished to a simple sugar and apple mix.If i add a cordial with preservatives and a little more sugar would i be able to carbonate inside a bottle of would that preservative stop the process

>>559250
What is a glass balloon? Do you mean to say glass bottle, or is it really called a balloon in Germany?

>>559248
>just a reminder that those don't include shipping prices.

They cost about $30 at my local brew store. No shipping. I remember when they were $20 before the Mexico plant closed.

about to do a batch this weekend,
what kind of yeast do you recommend?
last batch I used lalvin 71b-1122
how big of a difference do the different yeasts make?

>>559274
also, was a bit confused by the wine store guy today, kept telling me about different colors of glass and its effects on the way the wine tastes ? couldn't really understand his accent so just nodded and went along, really loves his wine making and I just wanted to get in and out. anyone know what he was talking about?

>>559275
Sunlight destroys some things in wines. Mostly color is lost (which is why reds are protected with dark glass and whites are normally in clear glass), but it can affect flavor. A wine that uses hops will get skunked like a beer will if exposed to sunlight. Different wines are affected differently.

>>559274
>how big of a difference do the different yeasts make?

They can be a massive difference in flavor, raking difficulty, smell, mouthfeel, etc. This is why when a recipe calls for x yeast, you should try to use x yeast because it really does matter. Using another type means you've altered the recipe and you will not get the results that are intended.

I followed this recipe: http://www.stormthecastle.com/mead/fast-cheap-mead-making.htm
at the end of July. Despite some hiccups, the mead has survived this far. For quite some time, taste tests were really REALLY shitty, but in the past few weeks it's getting pretty tolerable. I'm planning on starting a new batch soon. I'm planning to go to a brick and mortar brewing store nearby and get some yeast to yield a higher ABV (this stuff is weak in that regard. I used fleischmann's), a gallon carboy (drinking, then cleaning glass milkjugs is a pain and a half), and a proper airlock.

My question is, what could I do to improve it? I had a stick of cinnamon in with the primary fermentation on top of the recipe's suggestions the first time around. Any other ideas?

>>550903
OBJECTION. He will only get the amount of fusols that he would get from regularly consuming a given amount of alcohol. There is no extra harm.

>>559268

Oh, I really thought it was the same in english. I usually am careful about direct translations.

We call things like pic related "wine balloon" or "gass balloon" (Weinballon, Glasballon).

A normal 1 litre wine bottle is still a bottle of course.

>>559316
Wrong. There is extra harm. If you drink a gallon's worth of fusols in a few shots it is a hell of a lot different than stretching the drinking out over the course of days to drink a full gallon.

With your logic it'd be okay to take a lethal dose of arsenic all at once simply because that's how much you normally consume over the course of a couple years without harm.

>>559460

I think he meant that if you consume a defined volume of alcohol in one go it does not matter.

Say if you drink 25g of alcohol it does not matter if you do this by drinking 500ml cider (5%) or 125ml apple jack (20%) made from this cider by "ice extraction". Both will contain the exact same amount of fusols.

>>559253
http://www.gotmead.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=745&Itemid=16
roughly 43 pounds +- depending on strength.

>>559415
I never knew such a thing existed. "Glass balloon" is certainly a fitting name!

>>559542

:D

They are extremely common in Germany, like I said. Every household had them and made their own fruit wines. Sadly, the ones by my great grandfather are lost now, I would really liked to have it to brew in an heirloom so to speak :-(

What do you usually use in the USA?
I generally like glass as an material. No micro pores like plastic, inert and a very "clean solution" all in all. Most balloons I know have a slightly bigger opening than in the picture.

I still got two from my father at least, one 10l and one 15 litres.

>>559598
most commonly these guys.

>>559598
indeed we have a few of them in our basement too, transparent with idk 20-30 liter i think some are quite big, but unexpected light
think my grands used it for cider..

hm Apfelwein

>>559600
How do you clean those from inside?
I mean, I've never been paying much attention to cleaning and sanitizing wine-related stuff (and it's never resulted in a problem as well), but there are some limits... and I got no idea how could you clean one of those.

I Poland we use either the balloon-shaped ones (and that's how we call it) or older design, similar in shape to >>552810 (which usually suck for some fruit wines as having too narrow opening).

>idk 20-30 liter i think some are quite big, but unexpected light
Handle with care, these are also unexpectedly easy to break.
I mean a little too hot water when cleaning and suddenly crack!
Or trying to lift a full one an holding it by the top only and ...
(hitting it won't break it that easily, this property is somewhat similar to eggs - thin but shock-resistant)

>>559614
One of these, hot water, sulphites.

>>559614
>How do you clean those from inside?

Extra long, bendable bottle brushes and spray wands (GET A SPRAY WAND THEY ARE AWESOME).

>>559614
I've always just rinsed the hell out of them with iodine sanitizer, but I've never brewed anything chunky or sticky.

Isn't it possible to swirl and rinse with marbles inside to scrub? This is probably not safe for glass carboys, but all my big ones are plastic.

>>559614
>>559685

Throw two or three handfuls of rice, wheat berries, rye berries, etc. in the carboy with a cup or two of water and a squirt of dish soap.

Shake it like a motherfuck, paying attention to any specific problem areas like handles, crevices and the bottom. It usually scrubs up pretty nice.

Dump it all down the garbage disposal, rinse several times with HOT water, store upside down to dry.

>>559685

I would do it neither with glass nor plastic. micro scratches in plastic are a haven for microorganisms. You can't get them out of there anymore so do not do this.

>>559685
>Isn't it possible to swirl and rinse with marbles inside to scrub? This is probably not safe for glass carboys, but all my big ones are plastic.

Glass can take a lot of abuse and if it scratches you can simple bake it to actually sterilize it if you want to. (pic uses stone pebbles to remove ancient crud from found bottles) With brewed stuck on stuff I'd use something softer like soaking in hot water then using just a bottle brush and spray wand.

>>559685
Is it bad that I always use a bit of bleach when I sanitize my carboys?

>>559749
porbably not

>>559685
Just use dry rice and a little water if the crud inside isn't too stubborn.

So recently, I started a 5 gallon batch of banana wine, it is bubbling significantly, and even rising to the point where I have to dump out some of the water. The banana pieces on top are dark and there is no major sediment on the bottom, so I I'm wondering if I wasted 20 bucks or not.

>>559749
I use dilluted bleach and rinse like a mother fucker. No problems, YET.

>>559749
No, it won't harm a thing. Just rinse well with boiled water.

>>559996
bubbling much -> producing some gas -> is there a chance to get something other than CO2?
I doubt it, you're on the right path.

>>559617
>>559749
sulphides? bleach? (yuck!)
I'd rather fail my wine than drink that...
maybe I'm just weird.

>>560083
>I'd rather fail my wine than drink that...

Why would you think you'd be drinking that?

>>560083
You're not drinking it. You're using it to clean the glass.
>>559996
should be fine. Replace the water in the airlock. Also, depending on how the bananas are looking, you may want to remove them in the next week or two.

>>559996
Bananas foam up wine like CRAZY. If you have the stuff, switch to a blow off tube. That way nothing bad will happen if it reaches critical mass.

>>549751
plis some recipe for 1lts or 33.81oz

Anybody have a good recipe for a first time brewer? Preferably one that doesn't take an excessively long amount of time?

>>549751
Ever made any prickly pear wine?
I have no earthly clue if this sludge is ever going to taste good.

Sundays are homebrew days

Making an esb today with the addition of wild rice (pictured) in the mash. Everything I've read sez it adds a nutty flavor to the beer. Anyone else experiment with odd grains in the mash?

>>549751
I have a question since there are so many brewers on this thread. I am a beginning brewer. I made some meads and wines and extract beers. Graduate college and no good jobs so now poorfag. Have equipment but no $ for good ingredients. What is the cheapest brew I can make from my food stamps that still tastes good? I know most concentrate is apple juice with flavoring. I have 2 carboys to fill by Christmas. Foodies come in the 13th.

>>549751
It's that time of year again.

>>561062
If you want your alcohol to taste decent you have to age it for quite a while.

Brewing alcohol requires patience for taste, if you don't mind vomitile nasty tasting crap, you could be getting drunk in about 3-4 weeks though.

>>561807
1 week with kilju, but it is nasty.

>>561807
>3-4 weeks
Nigga... no.

Grape juice, sugar, baker's yeast.

7-10 days for fermentation, then run it through a centrifuge to pull all the sludge to the bottom, syphon off the clear liquid.

>>561062
>grape juice with no preservatives.
>granular sugar
>Baking yeast

After 7-10 days, when fermentation stops, centrifuge that shit to pull the sludge to the bottom. Syphon it off the top. Done deal.
fleischmanns will do 12-14% ABV, I don't care what the company says in their official shit.

Just bottled my hop mead today. It tastes very dry as of now even though it should by all rights be sweet. Well, doesn't matter that much, the next mead is already planned.

Sadly, I could not get it clear, Pectinase and Silica Sol did not work.

>>561843
>Sadly, I could not get it clear, Pectinase and Silica Sol did not work.

Try "Bentonite".

>>559749
Invest in some Star San when you get the chance. Bleach works, but Star San will make your sanitation much much easier.

>>561843
Did you have fruit in your mead? Pectinase is for clearing pectin haze, from fruits. There's no reason to use it if you just used hops and honey.

I've never really heard of using silica, I looked it up and found this explanation:

"If you look in the wine making section of most HBS, they should have kieselsol, which is negatively charged silica gel. It is usually used in conjunction with chitosan, a positively charged polymer made from crustacean shells,(...) or gelatin, for fining wine."
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/silica-246152/

So it sounds like if you only used kieselsol without chitosan/gelatin/some other positively-charged clearing agent, then maybe it's not effective.

>>561712
see >>553991

>>561932


Yes, I used some apple juice and a ground apple in my mead.

Concerning the Kieselsol - I did not add gelatin, I just followed the manual on a well reknowned site and they used Kiselsol on itself, adding gelatin only if it doesn't work (I do not want to add gelatin though).

Will the Kieselsol be harmful?

>>561953
Not harmful, it just didn't work I guess. Your mead is bottled, it will probably improve a lot in the next few months, so don't worry about it. Just have a different plan for next time if you want to get it clearer. Maybe try it with the chitosan (the combination is sold some places as 'super kleer') or otherwise just plan for a longer time in secondary to clear on it's own. My meads have cleared pretty well with no chemicals and just a couple months in secondary.

Found a bit more well-explained info on fining agents here if you're interested:
https://winemakermag.com/26-a-clearer-understanding-of-fining-agents

Guise! Guise! It worked! My shit tier bread yeast - apple juice cider worked! It tastes great, suprisingly. Pasteurized it and put it in bottles so there wouldnt be carbonation. Does pasteurizing it freeze the taste or will it evolve over time?

>roose feels for my happiness

>>561997
no, pasteurization does not protect it, you still must drink it within a few weeks to avoid it going off

>>562006

If he truly pasteurized it all the yeasts are dead - hence no further carburization and no bottle bombs.

>>562033
yeast aren't the only thing that can cause the cider to break down and produce unpleasant taste. even under cellar conditions a bottle will eventually turn.
It won't become a bottle-bomb, but that's not all he asked and that's not a risk I mentioned.

>Does pasteurizing it freeze the taste or will it evolve over time

>>562049

Ah okay a misunderstanding then. I thought he meant carburization and bottle bombs.

Taste will of course change over time. But I guess he wont have made that much cider that there is much danger of this...

Best recipes for pale ale or IPA? Also is there an online supplier that sells good quality ingredients for beer?

>>562006
>within a few weeks
Eh, is this something odd specific to sweet cider? I've made dry cider and it certainly tasted better over the course of several months without developing any off-flavors, Same with any other alcoholic beverage i've bottled. But I've never made sweet cider.

>>562298
Extract or all-grain? For extract people say Northern Brewer and MoreBeer both go through a lot of liquid extract, so it'll probably be fresh coming from either of them. One of their recipe kits might be a good place to start. I haven't ordered grains online so I dunno, I get that from a local place.

I've never brewed before and wanted to get started on it, but I'm completely clueless.
My first question is about the containers and airlocks. I've looked on e-bay for proper carboys but it's all too expensive due to ports and taxes, is there any other place I should look? I live in Portugal, Europe btw.
Can I just use a normal 5 liter plastic water bottles and use a baloon with a pinhole as a airlock?

how long should it take to degass wine with a drill?

>>562607
not op, if you use a water bottle make sure it is PET 1, The 1 would be in the middle of the triangular recycling symbol on the bottom. As for the airlock you would be better off running a piece of hose into a glass of water, that way you can see how the fermentation is going too.

Oy hombrewmen. Anyone had success with a dark lager before? I got an all grain kit and it's fermenting right now, looks delish, but I'm not sure how to keep it around 45o F for the next few weeks. Ideas?

>>562607
Amazon should be a bt cheaper when it comes to shipping.

>>562687
Thanks

>>562748
I looked in amazon but what they had couldn't be shipped to portugal.

Currently have 4 gallons of mead brewing away. I caramelized half the honey before fermentation and it's much more active than my last batch where I did not caramelize the honey. Other than that, the recipe is the same. Any idea why this batch is more active?

>>562892
Cause you camel-ized it
Wouldn't you be more active with a camel around

>>562892

Because honey contains a lot of enzymes that are microbes-unfriendly that inhibit the yeasts.

Your heat treatment made these enzymes inactive.

Posting couple brewday pics, just for the lulz.

>>562899

>>562900

Some of the non-base malts used on this robust porter.

>>562901

Mash tun false bottom

>>562902

Ground malts

>>562903

Single infusion mash at 150.8 degrees F.

>>562904

Mashing for 1,5hrs

>>562905

Weighting some Fuggles for hop schedule.

>>562906

>>562907

Sparging

>>562908

Wort ready for boiling.

>>562909

Starting to boil

>>562704
how are you maintaining the temperature now? I can't imagine keeping a lager at temperature without using a fridge/freezer and temperature controller. If you can't use a fridge I guess you could try a swamp cooler setup with lots of ice and paying attention all the time (pic related), but that seems like it'd be pretty tricky.

>>562900
How much is a mill like that? My LHBS does kind of a shit job of milling the grain.

>>562911

Discarded malts and the false bottom from mash tun with silicone tubing as a gasket.

>>562913
Yo dry that out and make some cookies
http://brooklynbrewshop.com/themash/recipe-spent-grain-peanut-butter-cookies/

>>562912

Cant remember the price I paid for it, sorry. That one is the smallest one I have and I rarely even use it.

Random pic.

>>562916

Hops after boil.

>>562917

Thanks for the url. Seems like a good plan actually.

Cooling wort.

>>562923

And in to the bucket it goes. I also have glass carboys but I use them to make starters for bigger batches. This robust porter batch was 8 US gallons. Used two plastic buckets for this.

Give me a recipe for the most vile tasting highest alcohol content monstrosities you guys have created.

>>562897
I see. I didn't realize that the anti-microbial properties were affected by heating.

New to homebrewing, how important is sanitation? What's the worst that will happen from a bad contaminated batch?

>>562958
uh theoretically you could mix a bunch of sugar water and put in champagne yeast and it'd be really gross and high in alcohol as long as you use enough sugar.

>>562968
If a foreign yeast or bacteria gets in your wort/must and has it's way before the brewing yeast gets up to speed, then it the result will taste sour and (probably) awful. Whether or not it would still be safe to drink would probably depend on what it was infected with. Most of the most common infections (lacto, brett, pedio) are safe to drink and actually used in some styles of beer. But most likely if you didn't intend for it to happen, you won't want to drink it. If it's an aceto infection then it will literally be vinegar.

After fermentation, the beer/wine is more resistant to infection, but sanitization is still a concern. If a foreign yeast gets in before bottling (and is resistant to the alcohol content), it may be able to eat sugars that the brewing yeast could not, resulting in increased pressure in the bottles and explosions.

If you use Star San or other no-rinse sanitizers, sanitization is as simple as some squirts of a spray bottle on whatever is going to touch the beer and then waiting 10 seconds. Or pouring some in a carboy and shaking it around. Sanitization is really simple, it's cleaning that's a pain in the ass.

>>562981
How easy is it to tell if the batch is infected?
Are there any clear distinctions?

>>563010
This is the best write up of various problems including infections,

http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/problems.asp

>>563010
I've made about 30 batches of beer, and just had my first infection (that I could taste anyways). It got more and more sour, like drinking vinegar. Eventually I had to dump it.

>>562912

Doing essentially that. It's cool up here, not cold. An ice bath in water works, just have to re-freeze the ice every once or twice a day....yeesh. I;m sticking with ale after this.

>>562912
>>563028
Can't you just open the window? It's been getting cold around here lately.

I'm reading up on brewing guides to prepare for brewing my first mead and I have a somewhat simple question.
I'm supposed to get two containers, one for the primary and one for the secondary. Since I want to try with several types of mead right away I was thinking of getting 5 1 gallon glass jugs (fitted with the airlock) and making 4 different meads. This way once it's time to switch I'd just do one at a time, cleaning and sanitizing each jug used as a primary fermenter so I could re-use it as a secondary.
Now, if I got it right the primary fermenter should have a little extra room for the fermentation, but the secondary one should have as little extra space as to minimize the exposure to oxygen.
Does this mean I can't use the same container as both primary and secondary fermenters? What would be the effects of too much oxygen exposure on the mead?

>>564112
Either get a larger container for primary fermentation (preferably something easier to clean), use aquarium marbles (they should be sterile), or just top off the extra space using water or old mead.

Having too much oxygen is essentially the same as leaving a bottle of wine open. It'll start oxidizing and tasting funky

>>564120
>use aquarium marbles (they should be sterile), or just top off the extra space using water or old mead.
What do aquarium marbles do and wouldn't adding extra water affect the mead?

>>564122
aquarium marbles take up space. therefore you effectively have a smaller container.

Adding water would affect the mead (you just watered it down), but if you plan ahead of time, sometimes it's not a big deal.

>>564123
I do not want to invest in 8 containers right away, nor do I want to water down the mead so I guess marbles will be the solution.

>>564124
actually, maybe I'll just hold off on some of the water at first to leave room during the first few days of the fermentation and then put the rest of the water when it calms down.

>>564124
Well you could just go with 1 primary and 4-5 secondaries. Stagger the batches by two weeks or so., since you're gonna be waiting awhile for them to age. Then when you're re-racking stuff, either rack it into the primary first, and then back, or if you get the 5th secondary, you have that.
>>564128
that sounds kinda iffy the way you phrase it.

>>564129
Yeah, I guess the marbles are a better idea.

Doesn't the primary fermentation last for like 2 months?

>>564112

I think the suggestion to use a large primary (4 gal in a 5 gal carboy maybe) and split into 1-gallon secondarys is a good idea. You could avoid the problem of headspace in secondary and you would also minimize racking losses. If you have to leave an inch off the bottom from 4 1-gallon primaries, it adds up to a lot of wasted mead compared to an inch off the bottom of a taller 5-gallon container.

(IMO headspace in secondary isn't the end of the world, but if you can avoid it then that's better)

>>564208
The problem is that I want to try different types of mead, so I'd need different primary containers.

>>564211
If you want to experiment with different types of honey and yeast, then yeah you're right. But there's also a lot that you can experiment with in the secondary instead - you can backsweeten a dry mead to make a sweet mead, you can add fruits or spices or other flavor additions to make a melomel or whatever. I think it's a pretty common practice to make a big batch of basic traditional mead and then create 4 1-gallon batches of different flavors from that.

May I ask a stupid question, is US-05 the same strain as 1056 ?
And if a recipe calls for US-05 can I use 1056 and expect a similar outcome?
I heard it's the same thing repackaged.

>>564241
According to google, they're interchangable. But of course if you're planning to use the liquid yeast in a recipe that calls for the dry yeast make sure you use a starter.

>>564250
Thanks, I just have the dry 1056.

>>553907
Bro, your english is superb

>>562927

That was couple of months ago. Had a bigger batch brewday yesterday so I started it by tasting the earlier batches. Not too much ofc.

Thist time I didnt have my camera with me, but posting a couple of pics anyways.

>>564317

CIP washing the primary fermenting tank.

>>564318

Wrong pic. Thats a steam sanitized airlock. And heres the CIP washing.

>>562927
Are you a photographer or something? Gr8 photos. Awesome brew too, great seeing some higher-end AG stuff going on in these threads.

>>564217
But wouldn't different melomels require different types of honey and different ?
I'm planning on making 3 melomels (orange, peach and strawberry) and then a Metheglin (I've still yet decided what I'll use), 1 gallon each. From what I understood each of these would benefit from different honeys and yest, and I would also want to try with different levels of sweetness and ABV.
I've never brewed before though, am I way over my head?

>>564320

Shit, where'd you get those brewing vessels? They look like pharma batch reactors.

i don't know what the bump limit is on this board, but for the love of god when it comes time to make a new thread, could you use a picture that doesn't look like something from a septic tank?

some shiny brass or stainless steel, or a frosty mug full of your delicious brew. anything but the current pic would probably be an improvement.

Anybody ever try using Brett. to ferment? I found a bottle at the LHBS and beer emporium and was wondering how that stuff turns out

>>564422
if he did that people would assume it's another useless what beer do you drink thread.

>>564272
I thought 1056 was only liquid? Wyeast, right?

>>564402
You've got a lot of flexibility in brewing and there's multiple ways to do pretty much anything. Generally you'll hear a lot of conflicting opinions and often you'll just need to try it and see what works for you. IMO just make sure you're focusing on the basics - decent recipe, sanitization, yeast health, patience. Then consider the rest as you like.

Different fruits in melomels don't require different honey/yeast. But more experienced meadmakers are probably right if they say it's more appropriate for certain honeys or yeasts to be used with certain melomel recipes. But you can certainly make different tasty melomels out of the same base mead, and then maybe later you'd want to tweak recipes to get exactly what you want. But it's up to you how you want to experiment - 1 gallon primaries would work fine too, it just has the other issues. I got sick of using 1-gallon primaries because I hated wasting a lot at the bottom.

>>564433
Hmm.. I guess I'll use the same honey and yeast then.

So I guess my plan will now be getting a 30L container and 4 5L containers. I'll make 15L of primary in the 30L one and 5L of primary in the 5L one. The one I'm making separated will be with a different yeast so I can get 18% ABV.
After they're done in the primary I'll move the 5L one first, wash and sanitize that jug, and then move the 15L into the other 3 jugs.
Now I'll add the fruits and extra honey depending on the sweetness I want.

My question now is, how will it affect the taste if I only add fruit in the secondary to make the different types?
And the same question about the sweetness, if I want sweeter orange mead, for example, will it be ok if I add honey on the secondary? How will it affect the consistency?

>>564422
how about my lacto pellicle instead?

>>564427
I haven't yet, but I'm interested to. I think if it's used in conjunction with normal yeast then it produces a lot of funky sour flavors over several months of aging (like old brown and other sour styles) as it eats some of the more complex sugars and is under stress - but if you use it by itself it acts pretty much like a normal yeast and doesn't taste too funky.

>>564439
Also, is there any place I can check about recommended sweetness for each fruit? I do like sweet drinks, but maybe a sweet orange melomel could be horrible or something.
I was planning on final gravities between 1.006 and 1.020, with each mead having a different sweetness.
And again, I can just add the honey for the sweetness on the secondary, right? It won't mess with the final gravity?

>>564444
>>564439
If you add honey it increases the FG since you're making it sweeter. It would also probably restart fermentation unless you kill the yeast with some stabilizing chemical, there are various choices for that - sorbate, campden tablets, etc.

The 'basic brewing' podcast had an episode about the difference between fruit in secondary and primary, it gives different qualities:
http://traffic.libsyn.com/basicbrewing/bbr06-28-12fruitmeadexp.mp3
http://traffic.libsyn.com/basicbrewing/MelomelExperimentTracker.pdf
(if that doesn't work its on this page http://www.basicbrewing.com/index.php?page=basic-brewing-radio-2012 )

>>564448
Thanks, that'll help. I'll listen to it tomorrow, but at least according to the pdf then secondary is probably better.

>>564433
I bought my 1056 from here
http://www.craftbrewer.com.au/shop/details.asp?PID=851
In the description it says now available as dry yeast.

>>564660
Ahh yeah. I believe the generic term for that yeast strain is "Chico" - 1056 is the wyeast product number, WLP001 is white labs, US-05 is safale... that could be a different manufacturer entirely. But yeah, it's all the same strain.

>>564342

Im just a hobbyist photographer/brewer. I dont get any money from brewing/photography so I consider it as a hobby.

>>564419
That vessel on the left side is a german made cargo container for beverages, dairy, chemicals, pharma stuff and similar. It was customized a little to use as a primary fermenting tank.

On the right theres two DRU tanks for secondary fermentation phase. DRUs are insulated and have a better temperature control. That left one does not have insulation at all. 264 US gallons each.

Pic mostly unrelated.

2X 5Liter plastic carboy
photos taken 48h after setting all this up.
Maybe too early to worry, but bad mold like things appearing.
The carboy were washed like hell...
I added some homemade boiled pear juice in order to make some nutrients...

What do you think?

>>564860

Looks like yeast stuff to me, so you're probably fine as long as there isn't any white hair or fuzzy bits in it.

>>564868
Thanks, Yeah maybe, I did put 84 grams of yeast for 10 liters of liquid. (3 ounces of yeast for 2.6 gallons).
I will let you know if any alien foetus start to grow in these tanks.

Take me back to HomeBrew 101

Any good links recommended for somene wanting to brew their own beer for the first time with no knowledge/experience in the field?

>>564871

What kind of yeast are you using? 84 grams seems like an a lot for 10 liters. You could have probably used about 10-20 grams of yeast and still have it ferment properly.

>>564873

This is a pretty good tutorial for brewing beer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCW-SVPCw4Y

>>564878
I did put a big amount because i'm using regular fresh baking/beer brewing yeast

if you can read french:
http://alinecookandco.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Levure-fraiche-du-boulanger.jpg

it is a 42gramms "fresh bakery yeast"

First time winemaker and I think my batch got infected somehow. Or is this normal?

>>565196
I'm not sure what infection looks like in wine, but it's normal for it to get funky up there during fermentation. That doesn't look like any bacterial pellicle I've seen, but idk.

Just be patient and when it's done taste it and see if it tastes sour or vinegary. If it's infected now then there's not really any way to fix it, so you may as well leave it alone to do it's thing unless you desperately need that milk jug for something else.

I was told by /ck/ that you guys are more qualified to talk about brewing and things of that nature. I guys finished my first successful honey wine today and it tasted like tainted orange juice in a crest tube.
I went pretty simple since it was a test. I only did a gallon in a five gallon carboy if it matters. I had Great Value brand orange juice concentrate, honey, and a lot of(mostly in fact) water. I also used bread yeast.
What should my recipe be next time so it does not taste like god's wrath struck a peppermint orange tree?

>>565434
Do you mean you let 4 gallons of air in the carboy ?
if so, almost no fermention occur, because your yeast was able to reproduct and perform respiration instead of alcoholic fermentation.

It fermented, it tasted like wine, although it was shit.

>>565438
isn't alcohol still produced during aerobic fermentation?

>>565434
>finished my first successful honey wine today and it tasted like tainted orange juice in a crest tube
if you 'finished' it today you're still months away from drinking it. It needs to age after you ferment it.

>>565452
What is the need/effect of the aging process on the mead making? I'm in the process of research yet, but so far I never found any reference to aging. Provided the reason, how long this process takes?

>>565458

generally these fermented things just have different... compounds? substances? elements? that break down as time goes by and contribute to off flavors. Wine has tannins or something, mead has other stuff. Wine benefits from aging, cider does not, mead practically requires it. Give it a sip after 3 months, then 6, then a year. It won't be drinkable right off the bat. Shouldn't take more than a year.

>>565438
There's no reason for extra air in a container to have prevented fermentation. People have done open-air fermentation for ages and still do.

But yeah, just bottle that shit and forget about it and open it again 6 months from now, it'll probably taste totally different.

If you want to make another mead I recommend just finding a recipe on gotmead or whatever for a "traditional mead" (honey, water, yeast, then probably some yeast nutrients). Then if you want to add fruits or other stuff (not concentrate!), add it in secondary. I've had bad experience with fruit in mead primary too, I'm sure there's some trick to it but I don't know what it is.

>>565623

The mead I finished two weeks ago tastes great. I would not sign this out of hand.

So I've been making wine for a bit and want to start making beer. I've read that it is a lot more touchy with fermentation temperatures depending on the type of beer being made. So my question is what type of beer should I be looking at making? my main floor stays around 72 F and my basement about 68 F.

>>565835
68F is great for just about any ale. The exception that I know of would be belgian beers where you want to get fruity estery flavors from the yeast - those are best done at something like 80F. I like to put my fermentor in a big bucket of water to try to slow down temperature fluctuations (no idea if it works or not).

For lagers you need a temperature around 45-55F for fermenting and then cold storage ("lagering") at around 38F. So, if you don't have a way to keep it consistently at those temps, don't make a lager.

neigh

LIVE!

Quick question for a guy doing his first brew, what are the sorts of mistakes i should be aware of.