/diy/ - Do It Yourself

[Anonymous No.591443]

Any homebrewers here?

[Anonymous No.591454]

>>591443

From the thumbnail I thought I'd misclicked onto /r9k/ and it was another pissbottle thread.

[Anonymous No.591470]

Yes I am. I'm also working my way into commercial got an apprenticship hopefully get a paying gig down the road

[Anonymous No.591484]

>>591443
Yes, >>587956 and >>589406

[Anonymous No.591499]

yep.

I've been doing it for about 5 years.

[Anonymous No.591608]

Yep, this is the place.

My kegs are running out, I gotta make some beer. Dunno what to make, though, anyone got a good recommendation for something that's ready to drink quick? I made something like that recently, this recipe:
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f68/coconut-cream-stout-competition-runner-up-394244/
It was delicious right out of the primary. Might try it again without the coconut, but sort of want to try something different also.

[Anonymous No.591727]

>>591608
You want something quick go with a cream ale.

[Anonymous No.591732]

>>591608
you can get the fermentation down to like 5 days but bottle carbing still takes 2 weeks. if you can force carb in a keg then you can make drinkable beer pretty fast.

[Anonymous No.591740]

>>591608
Honestly most beer is better aged to. In breweries they can do some tricks to help speed it up like oxidase the shit out of their fermentation tank.

If you want something like that for your homebrew set up I've seen people use fish pumps. But you need to have a healthy ass starter and your efficiency rating has to be pretty spot on.

Force carbing is a must to if your about the no waiting game, but some of my most stand out beers were to green at first, in the closet for awhile and bam

[Anonymous No.591819]

>>591608

Go with a light ale or like a 20 min boil kit

[Anonymous No.591827]

/ck/ is better for homebrewing threads, really. But it's all good.

[Anonymous No.591832]

>>591740
Yeah, most of my beers have needed a while to lose green-ness. But when I'm out of beer I know I won't have much patience to let a beer age, so that's why I'm looking to brew something quick.

>>591727
Might try that, thanks! Never tried using corn/rice before.

[Anonymous No.591837]

>>591740
>But you need to have a healthy ass starter and your efficiency rating has to be pretty spot on.
what does this have to do with aerating your fermenter?
If you have a big healthy starter already, why aerate at all? We usually aerate mainly when the yeast is old, not of enough volume, and/or lacks vigor
What do you mean by efficiency rating?

[Anonymous No.591839]

>>591608
I've made this dark english mild several times, and it is ready real quick. I was drinking it at 10 days. It gets more chocolately as time goes on.

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f67/mild-mannered-ale-ag-e-uk-us-52776/

[Anonymous No.591944]

>>591837
>>591837
It's three parts of a good fermentation.

Good efficiency = right amount of fermentable sugars for your yeast. That's why you take the gravity readings before and after your

The more oxygen at the beginning the easier it has digesting sugars. Adding it later can produce bad tastes.

[Anonymous No.592052]

Anyone have a recipe for the most basic beer you could make, for instance in a post apocalyptic scenario?

[Anonymous No.592056]

>>592052

New Albion Ale is probably the simplest I've seen:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-bS3CGrPec

It's a SMaSH using two-row and cascade hops.

In a post apocalyptic scenario you'll probably end up using whatever is available. Beer is pretty flexible, so just about any grains will work and hops are optional.

[Anonymous No.592255]

>>592052
you could make beer with grass if you really wanted to or any organic plant matter. What it tastes like is another thing

[Anonymous No.592279]

I made kvass once, it tasted okay. Does that count?

[Anonymous No.592290]

>>592279
fuckya
kwass is awesome

[Anonymous No.592511]

>>592056
Agreed, a SMASH although you can get by without hops if you use some bog nettle or others for bittering.Additionally, you can make your own caramel/crystal malt easily.Even black malt.So if you've got 2 row you can do anything.

[Anonymous No.592526]

So im making straight sugar wash, is there anything I can add to make it not taste like shit? I heard something about apple cores but looking for confirmation.

Will be distilling twice

[Anonymous No.592540]

>>592526

for 5 gallons add a small can of tomato paste.

The yeast need nutrients and can't live off sugar water alone

[Anonymous No.592547]

>>592540
ive got some yeast nutes as well, how much should I add with the toma paste?

[Anonymous No.592548]

>>592526
>>592540

Im trying to make 15 gal of wash, so say 2 large cans of tomato paste? And how many pounds of sugar? Last question is how do I dilute it to the proper level for yeast?

[Anonymous No.592752]

I try to think of a brewery project where I could use fresh mint leaves in a secondary fermentation.

What do you think could be a fitting beverage with minty aroma? Apple?

I think of something refreshing for drinking it in summer, possibly in the evening at a larp event. Refrigeration will be diffucult in that scenario though, preferably it must be something that can be drank as it is. minty cider? Some other ideas?

[Anonymous No.592762]

>>592752
I love mint. I think it would be really good in a dark chocolately beer, but that's not really something one would want on a summer day.

I make a mulberry cider every summer, I think it would taste awesome with some mint. Mint, berry, apple, mmmmm.

I did the Jacob's ladder at a renaissance faire once and won a ton of sassafras. Maybe you could make one of those/rootbeer. They're flavored with wintergreen which tastes pretty minty. Warm rootbeer is usually frowned upon though.

Also, if you want to grow it yourself mint comes in pretty much any flavor you can imagine.

[Anonymous No.592777]

>>592762

I have my garden full of mint, it is the reason I got the idea :-D

The question is just what to combine it with. Mulberries are nothing that grows here. uring summer i could easily get relatively cheap strawberries, though not in a number to make it the main source of sugar, economically speaking.

[Anonymous No.593835]

Hey guys, pretty much starting out here but just wondering would it be viable to combine pale malts with caramel malts?
Maybe 80% pale, 20% caramel?

[Anonymous No.593849]

>>593835
Yeah but sounds like a lot of caramel to me. Doable, but I imagine it would come out pretty sweet? Depends on what style you're goin for i guess. Throw it in beersmith or brewtoad or whatever beer program and see what it looks like.

[Anonymous No.593904]

My roommate and I just stared our second batch of beer. This time we went for a more complex recipe after finding out that brewing is easier than we thought it would be. This time we made a batch of Goat Scrotum Ale.

Pic related, it's been about 31 hours since we pitched the yeast. Lots of activity going on in that carboy.

[Anonymous No.594444]

It's about time. Have mead that's been aging for six months, finally getting to at least a palpable stage (First ever ferment, so I used Fleischman's so it's taking forever to even be OK). My half gallon apple cider experiment got racked off the lees a few days ago and is in secondary. I have my first batch of beer going. 5 gallons of English Brown Ale from the Brewer's Best recipe. It smells a bit hoppy right now, but I think it will mellow. Will be bottling and allowing it to age another 3 weeks or so here soon, hopefully this weekend.

[Anonymous No.595212]

>>592526
What kind of yeast are you using

[Anonymous No.595334]

>>591727
Awesome for spring/summer, nice light and crisp

[Anonymous No.596772]

>>591443
Anyone have any good no-boil recipes? I'm sick of apfelwein, but I'm not serious enough to get a boiler

[Anonymous No.596829]

>>596772
Do you have a stove? Standard low-equipment beginner beer practice is to only boil half your wort (using extract), so if you're making 5 gal then you've only got around 3 gal on the stove, which is doable with a big pot from walmart or something, with 2.5 gal sanitized water in your fermentor. Then you just mix it together after the boil. More info (and also a recipe, but you can pick whatever extract recipe/kit) in the first chapter of How To Brew - www.howtobrew.com

Or of course you could just do a full boil/all grain with a smaller batch on a stove as well, like 1 or 2 gallons. You can even go as big as this guy (though it looks pretty difficult with that much volume) - http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/easy-stovetop-all-grain-brewing-pics-90132/

There isn't really any no-boil beer recipe unless you're talking about making a barely-hopped sour beer like a berliner weisse (which would still require you to heat up water for the mash anyway).

If you're talking about anything besides beer, though, maybe pick up a wine kit or try grape juice? Or try Joe's Ancient Orange Mead recipe.

[Anonymous No.596837]

>>596829
I'm ok with non-beer recipes.

And the stove idea wouldn't be bad, but don't I need a way to rapidly cool the wort, as to not attract bacteria? Would putting the pot in the snow for an hour or so be an option?

I just don't want to open any cans of worms that would drain my wallet, cuz my buddy does some serious brewing, and also spends a fuck-ton on supplies. I just want to get drunk for cheap

[Anonymous No.596858]

>>596837
You do want to cool the wort as fast as possible, but AFAIK it's only a risk if you leave it open for a very long time (like overnight) before pitching the yeast. If you can cool it down within an hour or two then it's not going to be much of a risk. Putting it in the snow would probably work pretty good for that. I used to just fill up my sink full of ice and water and throw the pot in there (I think that's the technique described in the book I linked). If you can cool it down faster it's better, but that's mainly to prevent 'chill haze' which is just sort of a cloudy look to the beer if you cool it down too slow. It's not a big deal.

If you do want to try making a 5gal extract beer, I'd recommend getting a recipe or kit for whatever style you like, using dry malt extract and steeping grains. Should be around 30 bucks for the extract, grains, hops and yeast for a normal 5gal batch. Liquid extract is OK and usually cheaper, but it has the potential to be stale. Steeping grains give extract beers more character. Check for a local store, or check northern brewer.

[Anonymous No.596960]

Started force carbing 2.5 gallons of a sweet wine I made. Gonna bottle into ice cold 750ml swing top bottles sometime a week from now. I have to overcarb it to compensate for the bottling without pressure. Should be an experiment!

[Anonymous No.596977]

>>596960
Sounds neat. I've never tried it, but have you seen this thread?
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/we-no-need-no-stinking-beer-gun-24678/
Supposedly that gives better results than just pouring it into a bottle (which I have tried with crappy results)

[Anonymous No.596980]

>>591443
I'm actually planning some brewing this weekend. Never done it before, so i was going to do some simple sugar wine (keep seeing it listed as inmate brew on youtube), more out of curiosity than anything

[Anonymous No.596985]

>>596977

Thanks for the link! I'll try some of these methods. Prolly gonna just put a length of hose on my picnic tap and go for that way, but depressurizing the keg is a good tip!

[Anonymous No.596986]

>>596772
I make wine and mead. I never boil or heat anything. There are many good recipies out there using store bought juices and frozen concentrates.

My favorite is blackberry wine made from seedless blackberry preserves from walmart.

Recipe for 1 gal
3 18 oz jars seedless blackberry jam
water to 1 gallon
1 tsp pectic enzyme (to breakdown the pectin in the jam)
wine yeast of your choice

There is generally enough sugar already in the preserves so no more is needed, but you can add a pound if you like.

Mix everything together including the pectic enzyme and let sit for 24hrs before adding yeast. wait 4 to 6 weeks then rack and wait some more or bottle and drink

If you can rack and have the patience to wait at least six months before bottling and or drinking, you will be rewarded with a wine that tastes as good as any $20 store bought wine I have ever had. Wait a year and a half and it will blow your mind. Total cost $8 per gallon.

[Anonymous No.596988]

>>596980
do you mean just sugar and water? Go for it if thats what you want, but that's probably not going to be something you want to drink. I've heard of people doing that if they plan to distill it, but not just as wine. I mean, idk, i've never had it, but sounds gross.

If you use apple juice (w/o preservatives) or something instead of water you'll probably get something drinkable. It doesn't really make things any more complex to make cider.

[Anonymous No.596990]

>>596988
Yes, sugar wine will be nasty. If you are going the cheap route at least get 1 gallon of apple juice, add 1/2 pound sugar. You will get something you can at least drink, won't be fantastic unless you let it age (min 6 months)

[Anonymous No.596992]

>>596960 here

>>596986
That idea seems comically simple to me. I'm gonna have to try it.


Here is some unfiltered apple juice I found at a new supermarket. It was $6 for the juice and the jug(!!). I mixed in enough sugar to bring it up to 21*Brix, added some yeast and an airlock. I'm gonna use some finings to get those apple sediments to drop out.

I used Lalvin D47 on both this and >>596960. It's not my favorite yeast to use, it gives me cheap hoochy wine flavors. I put this batch in my ~50*F closet once it got going. Hopefully that solves that problem.

Lavlin E1118 has been a long time favorite of mine tho.

[Anonymous No.596995]

>>596990

well fuck, You mean this? >>596992


I made 5 gallons of sugar wine once. It was 4%abv, super sweet. I had to mix it with koolaid powder to make it KIND OF palatable. It was still gross. Even then, my worst of desperate alcoholic friends couldn't drink it. Wound up going down the drain.

Tortured yeasts will give you terrible flavors. They need nutrients and plain sugar water doesn't have them.

[Anonymous No.597003]

>>596986
Do you know what kind of starting gravity you got for that?

[Anonymous No.597004]

>>596992
Yes, trust me on that one, you can also make a nice strawberry wine using preserves. My best wine and meads have always come from the simplest of methods and recipes.
Ec1118 is a great no fuss yeast, but my experience is it can really blow through flavors with it's strong ferment.
My current favorite for wine is lavlin 71b-1122
My favorite for mead is kv-1116
I live in a warm state and I just can keep it cool enough for d47

[Anonymous No.597006]

>>596995
All right, I will make an addendum, it will be good right away if you backsweeten it a little after it is done

[Anonymous No.597007]

>>597003
Yes, right around 1.085

[Anonymous No.597009]

>>597006

You're not stepping on any toes, it's not a pro recipe by any means lol.


>>596960 This was like five jugs of white grape/peach juice, with a bag of frozen pineapple in the primary. Backsweetened with an additional jug mixed with like two cups of sugar.

[Anonymous No.597016]

>>597009
No prob, When I started years ago I just didn.t have the patentience to let things age, but I always took 1 or 2 bottles from every batch and stuck them in a high closet. When I started cracking open those bottles at 1 or 2 years of age I was shocked at how good they had become.

I just recently opened a 3 year old bottle of vanilla mead I made and it was truly glorious. Unlike anything I have ever tasted commercially. I now understand why they called it the nectar of the gods.

[Anonymous No.597022]

>>597016

Being in college, wine goes fast. This is the longest aged stuff I have. A gallonish of (D47 scarred) dandelion wine, the jar is (extremely acidic) concord wine that I squished myself. The six packs are of a (overcarbed) cider I made. Some are spiced with nutmeg and cinnamon, some are not.

There is a reason they stick around.

[Anonymous No.597028]

>>597022
I understand. The solution for a college guy drinking right away is to back sweeten. (by back sweetening I mean raising the gravity with sugar, not nessecarily so much to make it a wine cooler) If you take that overly acidic concord grape and add some sugar then stick it in the fridge so it won't blow up it might be pretty good. Back sweetening also will balance the acid. I like to use 71b-1122 because it also converts more malic acid than other yeast.

[Anonymous No.597246]

Dammit /diy/

I'm a fairly seasoned craft brew drinker, not many styles I haven't had. These threads make me want to brew so bad. I've looked into it before, researching different hops and malts and such.

But it all just seems so overwhelming. Seems like it takes so much knowledge and a lot of practice and trial and error to get things right.

I wouldn't even know where to start. But I guess everyone's got to start somewhere. Maybe I'll put my foot in the door soon.

Any tips for a complete newbie?

[Anonymous No.597323]

>>597246
It does take a lot of trial and error (and equipment/research) to get things exactly right, but when they're wrong it doesn't result in disaster, it results in BEER. The only way to irredeemably screw up a beer is a bad infection, which has yet to happen to me (and if you like sour beers, who knows, even that could turn out drinkable).

My first few beers were extract half-boil on a stove, which is pretty typical for newbies (see www.howtobrew.com chapter 1). I bought an ingredient kit from my local homebrew store, just followed the instructions without knowing much about what I was doing, and the end result was 48 bottles of decent beer (that I thought was great since I was the one who made it). Other people drank and enjoyed the beer, and were surprised I made it. If I had given that beer to someone who knew what they were talking about, they would have told me that the appearance of the beer is too hazy from cooling too slow and from improper racking technique. There were estery banana flavors from the yeast that are inappropriate for the style (APA), due to fermenting too hot. The final gravity was a little higher than expected and it was a bit too sweet, maybe due to poor yeast health or carmelization of the extract or something. It had a lot of problems, but it was still beer.

So, your starting point with the most basic equipment will probably be a beer that is at least OK and you'll enjoy, and it could be really tasty too (try a stout!). Then you'll have a series of minor problems to overcome and find solutions for by changing your process or equipment.

[Anonymous No.597562]

>>597246
the great thing about beer is its as complex or as simple as you want it to be. Do you want to get a water report and add burton salts or other chemicals to get a certain water profile? you will get an amazing beer.

want to just dump 155degree water on top of some grains and let it sit keeping the temperature there? still a pretty damn good beer

[Anonymous No.597582]

>>596960
as long as you keep it as cold as possible during bottling, it should work out fine
Depending on how much you did overcarb it, you may find it hard to bottle it without spraying foam everywhere tho

[Anonymous No.598371]

>>596986

Three jars of jam, half a sachet of yeast, and one messy, messy kitchen later, we're trying the blackberry wine.

Three jars of blackberry smuckers came in around ~16*Brix, and I had to supplement with some grape jelly I had in the fridge.

[Anonymous No.598414]

>>598371
Good luck, I am sure you will enjoy. Did you use the pectic enzyme? If not it will still be ok. It just will not get clear and remain cloudy.

[Anonymous No.598424]

>>598414

I did not due to me not having any. I've heard mixed reviews about using it after fermentation has ceased, but 1 cloudy gallon of wine is not the worst thing ever.

[Anonymous No.598534]

>>593904
there are easier ways to do this

[Anonymous No.598536]

>>593904
and you should also buy a proper air lock

[Anonymous No.598635]

>>598371
Hi

[Anonymous No.598649]

Red Table Grape and Hibiscus wine.

Absolutely fucking awesome.

[Anonymous No.598677]

>>598649

>im a gril btw

[Anonymous No.598711]

>>598677

You'd best be a hibatchi, then, if you're a gril.

[Anonymous No.598883]

Currently steeping speciality grains for beer. Will post updates as things progress.

[Anonymous No.598902]

*sees thread and eyes his foil-covered, 5 gallons or Queen Anne's lace honeydew honey mead, hiding in the corner, that's been aging since 2012*

Patience, patience...

[Anonymous No.598905]

>>598902

I dont know what the fuck youre

>implying

but I added the extract

[Anonymous No.598906]

and now I added the kent-golding hops


capcha: and seetis

[Anonymous No.598920]

Fuggle hops....

[Anonymous No.598927]

Ten pounds of ice, two gallons of water, and a sachet of yeast later, it's 5 gallons of soon to be beer

[Anonymous No.598939]

Just made an ESB last month with Goldings and Fuggle. It's goood. Not sure if I undercarbed it or if it's normal for the style, though. I used the priming sugar suggested by some calculator. It's carbonated but pouring it doesn't really make a head, maybe a thin layer of white that fades away.

[Anonymous No.598943]

>>598939
Has it been in the bottles very long? Sometimes it can take a few weeks to get them nice and carbed. Maybe put them in a warmer area. I had a batch do what you described once. Turns out I accidentally only put in half the priming sugar I should have...still good though.

I just made a Dry Irish Stout today, should be nice and ready when St. Patty's rolls around. Froze my ass off though.

[Anonymous No.598973]

>>598943
Irishman here, it's Paddy's day or St. Patrick's day. Patty's day, or anything patty, is horrifying. But I hope you enjoy your stout for it nonetheless.

[Anonymous No.598985]

>>598943
It's been 4 weeks so far. But yeah, basically that's what I did - use half as much priming sugar as I normally do. I usually use 5oz/5gal but I only used about 2oz/5gal. That's because I read that ESB is supposed to be less carbonated than most other styles - actually only .75-1.3 volumes according to the BJCP site. I'd guess this is actually a bit overcarbonated compared to that, but I swear when I bought a commercial ESB it had a good head on it, though. But maybe that was overcarbed for the style too, i dunno.

[Dizzy No.599052]

>>592056
>New Albion Ale
my first thought was this image

[Anonymous No.599069]

>>599052
Now I definitely want to make some

[Anonymous No.599133]

>>598927
update from friend...

[Anonymous No.599142]

>>599133
Welp, now ya know, always use a blowoff tube when fermenting in a carboy. For the first few days, at least.

[Anonymous No.599145]

>>599142
Also not sure where you're keeping the carboy, but if there's light around then wrap it in a tshirt or towel or something. Light skunks hops.

[Anonymous No.599152]

>>599142
>>599145

This is why I like brewing at his house because I can just defer most of the mess onto him, lol.

[Anonymous No.599169]

Was thinking of getting into homebrewing. Can someone give an explanation about how to make home made cider for a first timer? What materials I need for that? How long is the process, what needs to be done during it?

[Anonymous No.599187]

>>599169
Here is a very simple recipe for a dry cider using costco apple juice. I thought it was pretty good and prefer it to most super-sweet commercial ciders:
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f25/man-i-love-apfelwein-14860/

The basic idea is:
Combine apple juice and sugar.
Place in a sanitized container with minimal exposure to unsanitized things that may carry bacteria/wild yeast. (i recommend using Star San or other no-rinse sanitizer to sanitize anything coming in contact with the juice)
Add brewing yeast per yeast directions.
Keep at room temperature for 3 weeks or so allowing co2 to escape but without allowing foreign yeast/bacteria to get in (so, use an airlock of some sort).
Siphon ("rack") cider into another temporary container (usually a plastic bottling bucket) without disturbing gross dead yeast at the bottom.
Combine with appropriate amount of sugar for carbonation (to make the residual yeast slightly active again to produce CO2).
Put into beer bottles w/ caps.
Wait another couple weeks to carbonate before drinking (or let age longer if desired).

If you want to make a sweet carbonated cider, that would be a different process that I have no experience with, but it's more complicated.

[Anonymous No.599243]

>>599169

See >>596992

[Dizzy No.600134]

>>599133
all is not lost. this has happened to me before. pull off the airlock, clean and sanitize it, put it pack on, act like nothing happned. >>599133
he worst is probly over so no worries. next time get some clear hose from the hardware store and make a blowoff tube. its cheaper and 10x better than an airlock

[Anonymous No.600155]

>>599133

Both of the brews I've done so far have done that. The second one that I started on Sat. clogged the airlock and built up so much pressure that it shot the airlock so hard into the ceiling and broke it. I should have just put on the blowoff tube in the first place, but I thought the first time may have just been a fluke.

[Anonymous No.600421]

anyone sleep in same room and their fermenter ( beer)
due to my current living situation I have to keep fermenter in my room. this comes with problems

> the smell
ehh I don't mind the smell it's quit warming
> this noise from airlock bubleing
this keeps me up most nights for the first week of fermentation. I made a sort of sound proof box to queit down the noise but it's still not enough
> co2
now this could all be in my head, not 100% sure. I have a fan going 18 hours a day and my windows open but curtains shut. but this still doesn't seem to be enough since I wake up all hours of the night with a head ache and feel like shit, I grab a drink of water and drink it outside then go back to sleep. seriously though is this a real problem or am I just imagining things I need to know before I go out and buy some wood, screws, carpet and extractor to build a nice little fermentation box for a fermenters

also I have a question about kegs that I'll ask later on

[Anonymous No.600462]

>>600421
according to this guy you produce 25 gallons of CO2 for each gallon size of your batch throughout fermentation:
http://forum.northernbrewer.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=50663&start=0
I guess if you have a really tiny room with no ventilation then that could be an issue. CO2 is heavier than air so you might want to put your fan on the ground to get airflow down there.
If you're fermenting in something clear, it's probably a good idea to put it in a box or something anyway to keep light out.

[Anonymous No.600478]

>>600462
thanks. still thinking of building a sound proof box

also has anyone turned a 50L keg into a fermenter?

[Anonymous No.600507]

>>592540
i just use brown sugar instead of white and add a handful of raisins, boil it all and let it cool off then pitch. worked like a charm, got 5% abv with lavlin 1118, only 10 bucks and 2 months for a 5 gallon batch, including carb time

[Anonymous No.600509]

>>596990

I just use grape mio and as my old friends dad would say, whatever gets you drunk

[Anonymous No.600563]

>>600478
No, I use sanke kegs for kegging though, if that's the kind of keg you're talking about. You can remove the middle bits just by removing one spring clip (it's kind of a pain in the ass to remove though):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npUA8DvngVw
MAKE SURE IT'S DEPRESSURIZED FIRST
And then it's just a metal container with a hole in the middle, so you could just plug it up with some kind of airlock.

[Anonymous No.600847]

Well this happened today...

[Anonymous No.600850]

If you guys are thinking about doing this, don't. Unless you have a lot of beer you don't want, or enjoy mopping your floor three times just to get rid of the sticky footprints.

I started at nearly two hours ago, and just got done cleaning. This stuff foamed like nothing else. When filling the bottles, the wine reached it's triple point and the point at which wine turned into foam became undefinable. Things were sprayed. Cabinets were soaked.

The only thing that gave me solace was finding out that by pouring from lip to lip, you can push the foam out of the bottom bottle, and it will suck into the top bottle. This was my only saving grace.

I think the picnic tap causes too much turbulence in flow, at the worst possible point.

I sat both bottles and keg in icy water to cool them as much as possible. I wrapped the slack ~4 feet of hose between the keg and the tap in the icy water as well. This kept things pretty chilly.

[Anonymous No.600851]

I wound up losing enough wine into the ice water, that it started to look like wine itself.

[Anonymous No.600853]

>>600850
>>600851

Fuck, those white edges.


All in all, I think I only managed to bottle a little over half of what I actually made, around a gallon and a half. With any luck, these bottles will not explode in my fridge or on my shelf.

Thanks for watching, I'm never doing this again.

[Anonymous No.600927]

>>600853


RIP in peace 2014-2014

[Anonymous No.600932]

>>600927
holy crap, get them in the fridge!!
I have heard that belgian style bottles and swing top bottles can withstand more pressure than regular bottles. Neither are as strong as champagne bottles though.

[Anonymous No.600935]

>>600932

The green swingtops are champagne bottles.

The one that broke was a thin Stone brewery bottle. Whoops.

[Anonymous No.601097]

Okay guys. I'm a complete noob. Did the "troll" recipe as my first brew and it turned out just fine. So this time i bought real wine yeast and god juice. It stopped fermenting after a couple of days, which i found a bit suspicions. I'm sort of doubting the result, since i don't have equipment to measure the SG. So i really only have this picture to guess from, what do you guys say? - does it look clear enough or should i try to restart fermentation?

[Anonymous No.601123]

>>601097
what do you mean by 'it stopped fermenting'? do you mean airlock activity stopped? Whats your airlock and could there be a leak? What was your recipe, how much juice/sugar? Does it taste sweet at all?

[Anonymous No.601141]

>>601123
- Airlock activity stopped, yes
- Not as far as i can tell, see picture attached*
- I used this recipe, but for a 1.5 gal. batch. http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f25/man-i-love-apfelwein-14860/ I see where i probably went wrong; looking back i forgot to put the dextrose in..
- It's very pretty sour, not in a vinegar way though..
Do you think there's any chance it can be saved?

[Anonymous No.601150]

>>601141
If that's a bucket, sometimes co2 can leak out the sides. The airlock isn't a reliable way of determining when fermentation stops. Did you mean it's been 2 days now, or it's been a couple weeks and you just thought it stopped on day 2? If it's been at least a week and it doesn't taste sweet at all, I'd say it probably fermented out. The only way to know for sure is a hydrometer. But if you pitched a full packet of wine yeast into 1.5gal of just apple juice (which is like ~1.050), then that should be way more than enough to ferment out without a stuck fermentation, unless the yeast was super old and dead. Stuck fermentations usually happen when you've got way more sugar in the must and not enough yeast.

You can add the sugar that you forgot now if you want to boost the ABV more, fermentation should start back up, you'll just have to wait for it to finish again. Or you could just leave it as it is and wait for it to clear and try it.

[Anonymous No.601160]

>>601150
It's a bucket yes. The lid just seems so tight though.. It's been a month. I think i'll add some sugar, if it doesn't restart the fermentation, it should at lest sweeten it a bit (i guess), The yeast was 2 weeks old (from when i bought it), so i'm guessing that wasn't the prob.Do you have any advice on how much sugar i will need to use?

[Anonymous No.601190]

>>601160
I don't think sugar will make it sweeter, it'll just add alcohol. Wine yeast has a high attenuation and will pretty much eat all sugar. Your wine yeast has a max alcohol tolerance that depends on the yeast, it's somewhere around 12-15% if it's Montrachet. Up until it reaches that ABV% it's going to eat whatever sugar you give it and turn it to alcohol. Right now I'm guessing you're at around 6.5% ABV if you started around 1.050 and ended at 1. But who knows without a hydrometer...

If you want it to be sweeter then you either have to put so much sugar in that the ABV maxes out (difficult to predict), or you can 'backsweeten'. There's a few ways to do that, most simple is you could add an unfermentable sugar like lactose or artificial sweetener. That would still allow the yeast to be active and you could carbonate it in bottles. Or you could stabilize it by killing/inhibiting the yeast and then just add any kind of sugar (frozen apple juice concentrate might be the best for cider). That would prevent any carbonation in bottles since you killed the yeast. Either way before you backsweeten, you should siphon it to another container to leave the yeast cake at the bottom behind.

If it's really sour like you said I guess it's also possible you got an infection. I'd expect there to be a little bit of sourness in cider fermented completely dry, but a lacto infection would also add a lemon juice sourness. Not sure how to tell the difference unless there's a pellicle growing on top.

[Anonymous No.601419]

Just got directed here from /ck/. Was slack for a while, back at university and I need some beer.

Want to set myself up with a minimal equipment partial mash or all grain set up. Thinking about buying an urn for BIAB.

Want to keep it light because I plan on going on exchange in 1-1.5 years.

[Anonymous No.601451]

Any blogs or Youtube channels or podcasts people like?

[Anonymous No.601483]

>>601190
Well there's no pellicle growing on the surface. unfortunately i can't get frozen concentrate where i live, but i think i'll just add a cup of sugar or two and see how it goes from there. Thanks for the advice, it has been very educational! - I gotta get a hydrometer though, it would make everything much easier..

[Anonymous No.601507]

Pulled this out of one of my herbalism texts any thoughts on what this would taste like? I have loads of wine beer ale and even absinthe recipes in here.

[Anonymous No.601515]

I know nothing about brewing

Can I just put some apples and yeast into a jam jar, leave it for a month and then have cyder?

I don't want to buy a load of expensive specialist bottles

[Anonymous No.601518]

>>601507
I'm not a mead expert but I guess is it would taste strongly like those spices in a drink about 13% ABV that is dry with only a little residual honey sweetness.

I guess the egg white is yeast nutrient, I'm not sure the point of the toast. 6qt to 2.5# honey is not a lot of honey compared to most modern mead recipes, but i suppose they're accounting for evaporated water over the course of simmering it for a whole hour... if it boiled down to 1 gallon then 2.5# honey would be normal for a dryish mead around 13% (though how dry/sweet depends on the yeast). Most people do not boil the honey (because it loses some flavor), and those who do only heat it up so that it's pasteurized.. I'm not sure the point of boiling it for a whole hour, honey doesn't need to be broken down or sanitized, and just sitting with those spices for months should be enough to extract their flavor.

I looked it up a little and gathered that using egg whites and boiling is what 'old' mead recipes used to recommend... but I'm not sure if that means like 'ye olde meade recipes', or just how people made mead in the 80s, heh.

>>601515
You can ferment in whatever you want as long as it's food-grade, you have some kind of airlock for CO2 to escape from, you sanitize everything, and you have ~15% of the container empty as headspace to allow for some bubblin'

[Anonymous No.601546]

>>601518
>>601507

I think the egg white is a form of fining. The proteins would coagulate in the boil and pull some stuff out of suspension, possible dust from the dried herbs. With todays filtered, crystal clear honey and post-ferment finings, I dont think this would be necessary.

The simmer is to infuse the spices, which you strain out before fermenting. I agree that if you're adding them to the ferment, you dont need to simmer for an hour. I'd bring it up to a boil and then cool it down.

Skip the toast, I've seen recipes that use toast or bread covered in yeast but they're mostly "country wine" recipes that are made in crocks or use balloons as airlocks.

[Anonymous No.601561]

>>599133
aw man this just happened to me, so glad i had it in the bathroom, was a mess...

[Anonymous No.601624]

>>591727
Decided to go with a cream ale to quickly fill my last empty keg, just bought:
7# 2-row
2# flaked corn
0.5# flaked rice
1oz 4.5%AA hops for bittering
US-05
Total cost me about $18.25 at the LHBS. Hope it's good because damn that's cheap for 5 gallons.

[Anonymous No.601627]

>>598649
Hibiscus wine sounds fanastic.

[Anonymous No.602103]

>>601507

I would stay away from that recipe. There is nothing to gain with boiling the honey nowadays, regarding the high quality and perfect purity we already get.

Get funky with herbs and spices, but otherwise use the modern methods with purestrain yeasts, yeast nurturing salts and so on.

[Anonymous No.602114]

>>602103
>>601546
>>601518
Thanks

[Anonymous No.602321]

>>591443
man where do you get those big ass glass jugs? im fermenting my brew in a fucking kerosene can, never used for kerosene of course.

[Anonymous No.602336]

>>601546
Yes egg whites are a finning agent/clarifier. The commercial clarifier "superclear" is basically 1/2 egg whites and 1/2 chitosan. But I would not recommend using one of the ultra filtered "walmart" crystal clear honeys for making mead. Get a local or regional "raw" or unfiltered honey. May take longer to clear, but the results are night and day compared to the crap they sell at walmart or any typical grocer.

[Anonymous No.602337]

>>602321
Those look like Carlo Rossi 1 gallon wine jugs, or Motts 1 gallon apple juice jugs

[Anonymous No.602355]

how long does bottle carbing usually take you guys?

[Anonymous No.602360]

>>602355
beer usually takes around 2 weeks ( more or less)

[Anonymous No.602361]

>>602360
Awesome, thanks
I thought it was 1 week, but I'm glad I waited before cracking one open

[Anonymous No.602363]

>>602355
Extremely variable. Depends on what you are carbing and how long you let it ferment before bottling. If you fermented till clear over a few months, than bottle carbing will take a long time (months?) If you bottle after say 4 weeks, than carbing can be as short as 2 to 3 weeks.

[Anonymous No.602378]

In a moment of poor judgement i tried to make mushroom cider but it looks pretty sketchy. How safe does this look to drink?

[Anonymous No.602407]

Primary:
blueberry melomel
Cherry Apple cider
Secondary:
Papaya melomel
Ginger mead
Strawberry cider

Just bottled this weekend:
Pilsner
Mijiu(Chinese rice wine)

I pasteurized my mijiu and since it's the first time I've bottle pasteurized I'm nervous as he'll I did something wrong even though I know it's pretty much impossible.

[Anonymous No.602615]

>>602378
Is it foam at the top? It's a little hard to tell when it's in a green bottle.
I'd say you try to give i at smell when it should be done, if it smell strangely or if the surface looks like the picture, you shouldn't drink it

[Anonymous No.602655]

>>602378
>mushroom cider

[Anonymous No.602688]

>>602615
I haven't opened it but i'm pretty sure its fungus not foam

[Anonymous No.602689]

>>591443
Pour some coca cola in your brew. Gives it a great tang.

[Anonymous No.602709]

>>602688
just keep it around and harvest the mushrooms then.

If you added yeast, the balloon filled up, and it fermented alcohol, there's probably nothing living in there that's going to harm you. Word on the Google street is that no known human pathogen can live in an alcoholic and low pH environment like cider/wine/beer. But if it's infected by something that's not going to give you a disease, it's still probably really gross and you won't want to drink it anyway.

[Anonymous No.602775]

Does anyone out there have any experience with small kegs?
As in, 1 or 2 gallons?
I was thinking of doing some small batches but didn't want to do a lot of bottling
How much does something like that cost?
Any recommendations on places to find the equipment?

[Anonymous No.602794]

>>602775
No experience with smaller kegs, I know they make 2.5 gallon corny kegs. But getting set up for that would be no different or less expensive than getting set up for large kegs - probably at least $50 per keg, $50-100 for CO2 tank, $50 for CO2 regulator, $25 for gas line/beer line/fittings/picnic faucet. You also need fridge space to store it when carbonating. If you go that way, check Craigslist for used stuff.

I also remember hearing on youtube about these mini-kegs that you prime like a big bottle and dispense with co2 whippets. Quality seems dubious, but might be a possibility if you're short on space/cash:
http://youtu.be/nwVANzSc3us?t=1m44s

Not sure how much bottling you've done before, but bottling a 1 gal batch isn't a big deal, especially if you've got swing tops. Chug a bunch of Grolsch and keep the swing top bottles.

[Anonymous No.603002]

How much honey would I need for a one gallon brew?

And how do I stop the liquid inside of my three piece airlock from being sucked into the brew?

[Anonymous No.603140]

>>598534
>>598536

Please explain to me the easier methods. I'd love to hear them, especially if they are better than the methods I've been following from Papazian's book. Also, the giant blowoff tube is to allow the krausen to escape if it bubbles up past the top, and the end of the tube is sitting in water. It functions exactly the same as a "proper" airlock, and won't get clogged if the krausen enters it.

[Anonymous No.603246]

>>603002
2 to 3lbs per gallon

Make sure you don't overfill the air lock. It has a line on it, and don't fill your jug up too high

[Anonymous No.603278]

i brew some mean white lightning, i still wonder why fermenting is legal in canada but distilling isnt...

[Anonymous No.603280]

>>592526

molasses

[Anonymous No.603318]

Any Ausfags here? Where the fuck can I buy a racking cane?

All the ones I find online are in US stores and I don't know if there's any physical stores near me.

[Anonymous No.603380]

>>603318
bump

[Anonymous No.603480]

>>603318
If you can, get an autosiphon instead of a straight racking cane, it'll make your life easier.

[Anonymous No.603690]

>>598536
you should suck a cock fag

[Anonymous No.603819]

>>603480
Something like this?
http://www.ibrew.com.au/products/syphon-outfit

[Anonymous No.603826]

>>603690

[Anonymous No.603862]

>>603819
ah, I mean this:
http://www.ibrew.com.au/collections/beer-pumps-hoses/products/easy-siphon-3-8

[Anonymous No.603866]

>>603862
So what's the difference between them?

[Anonymous No.603877]

>>603866
If you've got a siphon that's just a cane & tube then you need to start the siphon by filling the tube with sanitizer, then let the sanitizer fall out into a seperate waste container until the siphon starts running with only your brew. Then you stop it and transfer it over to the container you're trying to siphon into. It's also possible to do this and not get a very good siphon and end up with an air bubble at the top.

With the autosiphon/easysiphon, you just pull up and push down on it and the siphon starts.

[Anonymous No.603880]

Last year, my friend and I came up with a recipe for hard spiced apple cider with honey and cinnamon. It was a rather potent blend that would end up with an alcohol content around 8.5%. It smelled absolutely delightful, and we stored it in a massive 10 gallon vat. We let it sit for months, and we had even purchased decanters to put it in, so that we could sell them and give them out as gifts.

But about a week or so before taking it out of the fermenting process, the apartment above me had a pipe burst while I was at work and everything in my apartment was destroyed. Our apple cider was ruined. We poured it out in the street, and for a couple days, whenever you walked outside you could smell the scent of hot, baked apples and cinnamon.

Captcha: Risky Distributing

[Anonymous No.603888]

>>603877
That does sound a bit easier. I was originally going to just use pre-boiled water which would probably get me yelled at by other brewers.

[Anonymous No.603903]

>>603888
Ah yeah that works, too. You'll end up racking a lot though, might be a bit of a pain to boil and cool water for that every time. The other thing about the autosiphon is it makes it a bit easier to clean and sanitize tubing since you can use it to pump the sanitizer through instead of just submerging it and hoping the whole thing fills up.

>>603880
That is The Saddest Thing.

[Anonymous No.604100]

no room for distillers in here, eh?

[Anonymous No.604560]

Any rummers here?
doing my first homebrew, do i keep the sediment on the bottom?

[Anonymous No.604822]

>>603278
They're afraid of idiots selling each other methanol

[Anonymous No.604998]

>>604822
No, it's just that distilled alcohol represents too much of a store of portable, concealable value. It has often functioned as a currency in the past.

In Canada, most of the price of liquor is tax. If people could get pure grain alcohol for next to nothing from their buddies, they wouldn't pay $20/liter in the store, and the government would lose a lot of tax revenue.

[Anonymous No.605005]

I've got a recipe for just about the easiest, cheapest thing worth drinking:
- get a gallon jug of water (preferably spring water -- something that you think tastes good)
- pour off a little of the water (maybe put a liter or so it in a clean container)
- put 3 cups of sugar in the water
- optionally wash a lemon or lime, cut it into slices, put it in the water
- wash and grate a chunk of fresh ginger, put it in the water
- add some yeast (I use fast-rising instant baking yeast, super yeast or champagne yeast would probably work better)
- put the lid on and shake it up
- loosen the lid so it can rattle, but you can't lift it straight off
- store somewhere reasonably warm until maybe a week after it stops bubbling
- rack it: siphon or carefully pour off into a clean container, leaving the sediment in the bottom (I usually put it in a clean pot, wash the original bottle, and then pour it back in through a funnel)
- it's optional but recommended to let it sit another month and rack it again

Now you've got ginger beer concentrate. Mix with cold club soda to serve (and maybe simple syrup and some lime or lemon juice, if you like it sweet and cirtrusy).

[Anonymous No.605060]

>>605005
I can't even imagine what this prison hooch tastes like. If you have to mix it down with club soda, sugar, lemon lime etc. just to palate it. No thanks

[Anonymous No.605077]

>>604560
No you siphon everything except the sediment

[Anonymous No.605466]

>>605060
You brew it to mix with club soda so you have a carbonated drink, without having to worry about bursting bottles or your drink going flat. And you brew it to dilute so it takes up less storage space and keeps for a long time, even in an unsealed container, without refrigeration.

I don't use sugar or lemon juice, myself, but some people only like sweet drinks.

I make the same thing without ginger, and can mix a very convincing counterfeit Smirnoff Ice, or brew an excellent hard iced tea.

Call it "prison hooch" if you like, but there's nothing nasty about it. It doesn't have a rich, complex flavor like a good beer or wine, but it makes a nice simple mixed drinks, like you'd make with vodka. Very cheap way to pregame.

I also do cider this way, just using apple juice concentrate mixed to double strength, then diluted with club soda. Tastes a lot like Strongbow.

[Anonymous No.605585]

>>605466
Ok man, I was drunk and just trying to rustle your jimmies. This is actually a sugar wash recipe that is similar to the one I use for distilling. The citrus actually helps keep the yeast happy and from producing to many fusel alcohols. If you add some nutrient of some sort you will actually get a cleaner product. According to my calc, your recipe should produce around 9% abv.

[Anonymous No.606634]

>>591454
>another pissbottle thread.
I don't even want to know.

[Anonymous No.606639]

>>591443

Is that some sweet jenkem?

[Anonymous No.607217]

Does anyone have any tips for someone who wants to try making rice wine?
and, >>602378, what kind of mushrooms did you use?

[Anonymous No.607225]

Could this be used to make cider? No harmful chemicals or anything?

Also, honey mead information anyone? What yeast, how long to age etc.

And is there any ways to make kilju more drinkable/taste less like crap?

[Anonymous No.607229]

>>606634

[Anonymous No.607231]

>>607229
lol, I have a water bottle sitting next to my monitor that looks exactly like that, but it is beer and tea

[Anonymous No.607236]

>>607225
>Could this be used to make cider?
Sure, don't see why not. I'd probably suggest you just use real apple juice instead, but if you want to ferment that, it'll work.

>Also, honey mead information anyone? What yeast, how long to age etc.
You can use any yeast, what you choose would probably depend on how much honey you're starting with and where you want to end up in terms of alcohol and sweetness.
Some yeast info:
http://www.meadmadecomplicated.org/mead_making/ingredients/commercial_yeast.pdf
If you've never made mead I suggest you find a recipe on a mead/homebrew site and just follow it exactly. 'Joe's Ancient Orange Mead' is often said to be a good first mead.

[Anonymous No.607248]

>>607217
those cheap white ones that you usually use for cooking.

[Anonymous No.607263]

Has anyone tried using Ice-tea for cider making?

[Anonymous No.607265]

>>607225
I made mine with white wine yeast and four whole vanilla beans for 15L, cinnamon. cheap honey will work but aim for the most artisinal honey you can get. the darker the better generally. cheap honey tends to be made in honey factories with little access flowers and more access to troughs of sugar water. there have also been cases of synthetic honey with fructose/glucose mixes being added to what we consider to be honey.

[Anonymous No.607465]

hey just wondering if i can use ANY food grade plastic container as a fermentation bin providing it can be sealed adequately?

[Anonymous No.607481]

>>607465
With a hole drilled for an airlock, and preferably #1 (PET) or #2 (HDPE). Other types of plastic are more oxygen permeable, which *could* cause oxidation. It should also probably be something taller than wide, so that you can minimize racking losses.

[Anonymous No.607491]

>>607265

> cheap honey tends to be made in honey factories with little access flowers and more access to troughs of sugar water. there have also been cases of synthetic honey with fructose/glucose mixes being added to what we consider to be honey.

Is it legal to sell products like the ones you describe as "honey"?

When I buy something that is labeled as "honey" in Germany, it is, naturally, 100% honey.

Have finished my last mead several days ago, I used a darker Honey ("waldhonig" or "forest honey", a darker honey that usually has a more intensive, spicy aroma). I really like the aroma of the mead made with this stuff.

[Anonymous No.607641]

>>607481
Not true, it is not that they are more permeable to oxygen. It is because they will leech chemicals and compounds into you alcohol. Even food grade plastics are subject to micro oxygenation over time, long time.

[Anonymous No.607738]

would a water dunk like this work? Assuming I'd clean it out, but would it? It has to be food-grade, considering it's storing water, and that (one would think) requires food grade plastics.

I've always seen home brewers brew in white buckets tho, or glass carboys, but would clear plastic like that work?

College student, haven't got access to glass carboys and we have a few of those dunks laying around here anyways from drinking water (tap water here is shit quality)

[Anonymous No.607744]

>>607236
Problem is, I can't find any "real" apple juice around here, been to multiple stores and been up and down the aisles, but nothing.

Thanks on they honey as well!

[Anonymous No.607877]

>>607641
I think #4/#5 are as safe as #1/#2 to not leech any nasty chemicals into your brew, but I think they are not as recommended for long-term storage since they are more O2 permeable than #1/#2. You're right that all plastic is somewhat permeable, but there's varying degrees depending on the type. How much of a degree and how much time it takes before it matters, I have no idea, I just keep hearing the #1/#2 thing parroted, heh.

>>607738
If it's a container, has a hole for an airlock, and not #3/#6/#7, it works as a primary. Clear is fine, but if you're making beer or anything with hops then make sure to cover it so it is not exposed to light. Mead/Cider shouldn't matter though.
Ideally use a fresh unopened bottle, so the contents will already be sanitary. I kind of get the impression you haven't planned how to sanitize stuff, so the more factory-sealed stuff you use the better. If you do use an old bottle, make sure you sanitize it.

>>607744
Can you find apple juice concentrate? I guess maybe that's a long shot if you can't find apple juice at all, but that's another good option. The thing that sucks about the juice you mentioned is it already has some amount of table sugar added, probably because it's a cheaper way to make the drink sweet enough instead of using the proper amount of concentrate. There's nothing wrong with adding some sugar if you want to boost the OG/ABV, but ideally the more fermentables that come from fruit the better.

[Anonymous No.607902]

>>607481
thanks for the info this really helps!

also what do you men by racking losses, ive never heard of that before (newbie)

[Anonymous No.607904]

>>607877
im shopping on amazon for some, ive got some glass carboys but they are only 1 litre and i wouldnt get much from that and the big glass carboys are about £30 and d rather brew in plastic and get my technique down for now as not to make a bottle bomb

[Anonymous No.607935]

>>607902
After primary fermentation you've waited for most of the inactive yeast and other crap in your brew to sink to the bottom, so there's about 1-2cm of junk at the bottom of your vessel. "Racking" to another container (for secondary or kegging/bottling) means just to siphon the good stuff off the top and leave the crap at the bottom behind. When you leave the crap behind, you can't siphon perfectly, so there's always some wine/beer left over. Like maybe ~1cm of good liquid on top of the crap - those are your "racking losses". So if you were fermenting in some absurdly wide and squat tub, 1cm of liquid would be a lot more volume than if you were fermenting in something tall and skinny. It's not really a big deal, it's just a reason I wouldn't choose a fat tub.

>>607904
There's a brand of PET bottles called 'Better Bottles' that are made for homebrewing and many people prefer them to glass carboys. They cost nearly as much as glass, though. Lots of people just use food-grade buckets to ferment in. That's a good option, and it's cheap, but they are only good for primary.

For primary you can use basically anything food-grade, you're aiming for the capacity to be ~20% or more bigger than your batch size so that it can bubble up a lot without clogging your airlock. But for secondary (if you secondary at all), you want your container to be as close as possible to your batch size so that you minimize the empty space, because long-term exposure to oxygen after fermentation is bad.

[Anonymous No.608198]

so I tried making that milk wine (kvass maybe, can't remember what its called) and it definately curdeled. does this mean that the fermentation I wanted didn't take place? also the curds smell sour should I eat them anyway?

[Anonymous No.608201]

>>591443
test

[Anonymous No.608312]

>>608198
Not Kvass, you're thinking of Kumis. What was your recipe? I don't know anything about making Kumis, I looked it up but couldn't find any recipe besides this (which seems kinda questionable)
http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=32430

[Anonymous No.608330]

>>591470
Apprenticeship with who? And how'd you go about setting it up?

[Anonymous No.608579]

>>608312
I used whole milk, about as much yeast as I would use with the same amount of cider and a little sugar, since I couldn't find an actual recipe myself. I dont even know where you buy lactose, but it should be in the milk already. Definately didn't shake it everyday so maybe thats why.

[Anonymous No.608638]

>>608579
I don't really know anything about Kumis OR chemistry, but I'll pretend to for the hell of it.
So according to this guy:
http://www.scienceworld.ca/what-made-our-milk-go-bad
Sourness and curdling of milk are two different things. Sourness comes from lactic acid (from lacto fermentation). But curdling comes from the way milk proteins change their structure in a lower pH environment. When milk spoils, more lactic acid => lower pH => curdling. However, fermenting ethanol also lowers the pH of a liquid, so I would assume that even if you only had ethanol fermentation, the milk would still curdle. So curdling just tells you SOMETHING happened in there, but not what.

However, based on the wiki article for it, I think you want both types of fermentation for Kumis anyway. Brewing yeast can't ferment lactose, so the only ethanol you produced would be from the sugar you added. If you saw airlock activity, you probably fermented ethanol, since lactic acid fermentation doesn't create CO2. Lacto bacteria can ferment the lactose, and apparently most of the point of Kumis was breaking down the high-lactose mare's milk into something drinkable. You didn't add that bacteria, but I guess it would naturally be in the milk. Milk always spoils and it's always from lacto bacteria, after all.

Anyway, as long as you fermented some alcohol in there, I think the liquid should be safe to try, at least. No idea about the solids, though i guess it'd be alright too. If you saw airlock activity and it smells sour then it sounds like you got both types of fermentation, so maybe you got something close to what Kumis should be, minus the consistency if you didn't shake it.
Not Kumis, but I also saw this recipe which looks kinda neat:
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f30/milk-mead-spin-koumiss-instruction-recipe-info-381045/

[Anonymous No.608721]

>>607935

> there's always some wine/beer left over. Like maybe ~1cm of good liquid on top of the crap - those are your "racking losses".

I usually let this run through three coffee filters in a row and regain a clear liquid without yeasty flavour. This has, of course, come into much contact with air and oxygen, so it will propably not last very long. But I bottle it and consume this early, so nothing goes to waste.

[Anonymous No.608861]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Litre-Plastic-Water-Container-Grade/dp/B008MQB6TI/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1394139620&sr=8-2&keywords=food+grade+water+container

will this container do, its what ive been thinking of then just drill a hole and whack a carboy on top

[Anonymous No.608879]

>>608861
>HDPE
Yeah, looks good to me.

[Anonymous No.608881]

>>608879
thanks i couldnt see the HDPE on it though?

[Anonymous No.608884]

>>608881
>Product Description
>High density clear Polyethylene
Also good that it's clear, but if you're using hops then store it in the dark.

[Anonymous No.608889]

>>608884
nice thanks, i was thinking about using these as well for bottling http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kitchen-Craft-Glass-Cordial-Bottle/dp/B00A6DCJEQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1394396486&sr=8-1&keywords=glass+bottles

cos there cheap and have flip lids, you think they will last or?

[Anonymous No.608898]

>>608889
Clear bottles aren't appropriate for beer because of hop skunking. Should be OK for cider or mead, though. Not sure about wine.

Swing-top style bottles are great, though, and usually heftier than beer bottles. I use old Grolsch bottles. I hear you need to replace the rubber gaskets every once in a while, but I haven't had to replace mine yet.

[Anonymous No.608905]

>>608898
nice i bought some brown bottles instead got 40+bottle capper and bottle caps for £40

hope it all turns out okay, im making an irish stout, il post back in a few weeks when its ready, wish me luck
and thank you for your help, DIY is one of few boards left where legitimate advice is handed out

[Anonymous No.609285]

Get on my level, just kidding but.
Found alot of things in our barn that i think might be equipment to make moonshine or some else alcoholic drink, what do you guys think?

[Anonymous No.609289]

>>609285
Lots of these plastic cans with long pipes on them-

[Anonymous No.609291]

>>609289
And this i have no idea what it is

[Anonymous No.609293]

>>609291
and why i belive it is for moonshining is all these numbered jars

[Anonymous No.609306]

>>609293
>>609291
>>609289
>>609285
do not touch anything, leavei mmediately, never speak of it to anyone. this is clearly a meth lab. they will kill you if they know you know.

[Anonymous No.609334]

God DAMN I'm so hyped. I cracked one of my homebrew beers last night a few days early (waiting for the 3 week mark to drink in bulk) and it TASTED LIKE BEER. There was a slight off flavor, but I've already isolated how to fix it all by myself! Homebrewing is so fucking great.

[Anonymous No.609443]

>>609306
No that's mustard gas.

>>609285
Call the cops bro. That shit don't look like home brew for anything you'd want to drink.

[Anonymous No.609467]

>>609306
8/10
would bang on floor of dirty squat while high on meth.

[Anonymous No.609575]

Questions from a first timer.
>I forgot to proof the yeast before adding it to my mix
Is my shit fucked?

[Anonymous No.609591]

Don't use anything in a still that isn't Stainless or copper or teflon. Not plastic, rubber, nylon, steel, zinc. Use nothing but lead free silver solder on joints.

[Anonymous No.609679]

>>609575
Depends on what you were brewing. For wine/mead or things that have a long fermentation I never do a starter.. High abv beers using standard yeast, I usually do.

A slow fermentation isnt necessarily bad though. But if it inst rolling within 24 hours, repitch asap.

[Anonymous No.609681]

>>596992
Get standard cheap apple cider juice (americans call this apple cider, brits only call alcoholic cider, so the label depends on where you are) from the coeler section. It has chemicals that will prevent yeast from replicating, but not fermenting.

Use some corn sugar to get good starter going, then add it to the juice. It will continue fermenting.

[Anonymous No.609683]

>>596992
As far as yeast goes, E1118 is my old standby for meads, nice and dry and high abv.

I recently used a White Labs saison yeast on cider, was hands down the best cider I have ever had. The White Labs yeast is not cheap, but it works damn good.

[Anonymous No.609699]

>>609681
This is not true, yeast have to replicate to grow and ferment. Some store bought cider/apple juice will have sobates in them. This can inhibit your fermentation. Just look for the ingredients. ascorbic acid etc ar ok.

[Anonymous No.609701]

>>609699
mix with water, use resistant yeast that can grow in presence of preservatives.

[Anonymous No.609702]

>>609683
Give lalvin kv1116 a try. Also high abv but with less fusel alchols that ec1118 can give ( although ec1118 is an excellent all purpose no fuss yeast for mead)

[Anonymous No.609806]

>>609679
Woke up this morning and it's rolling good. Curious though, what are some faster brewing recipes. (Making mead btw)

[Anonymous No.609965]

Hello /diy/ brewers. I have been lurking around this forum for some time but I haven't posted anything. Thats all going to change tonight.

I want to share with you my experience with brewing. Im very new to this and there were two main reasons why I got started:
-/diy/ got me interested in brewing with all the nice stories and pictures
-I moved to Finland to study and the price of beer here is too expencive for a student like me

So in november I got an old keg kind of a device from my grandmother. It holds 30L(~8USgal) and can take pressure up to ~12 bar(~170psi). This kind of kegs were used in Estonia for home beer making for a long time. Just throw the ingredients in and that that. The main downised is that you cant remove the yest from the keg but then again you can ferment under high pressure and it does not leave that yeasty taste. Ive made beer in it three times now and so far things have been better than expected. The first time was kind of light, but the second and third ones came out like real beer. And the price of the beer is more than three times cheaper than the cheapes local beer. So all in all home brewing has been a great success and will save me lots of money during my studies.

But this is not all. Last month i more brewing equipment and I made my fouth beer, which is bottled now and waiting for this weekend do be tasted. And on last sunday i started ~6 gallonsof banana wine and another set of beer in my kegthing.

To everyone who is still concidering wether to start the brewing hobby, I say do it. You will enjoy the process, the beer itself and atleast in northern Europe you will save alot of money.

[Anonymous No.610153]

>>609965
I'm curious how you use the keg thing. Do you ferment in the keg and just let the CO2 pressure build up, and that carbonates the beer, so you just serve from the same keg you fermented in? That seems like it would be an awful lot of pressure though, you must bleed it off sometimes or I would guess it would be super overcarbonated or explode... But if it's really that simple, that's awesome.

[Anonymous No.610282]

The keg kas a tap in the bottom, that is a bit higher than the bottom end of the keg. The top has a screw-on plate with a valve to let out pressure and a pressure gauge.
For use, the top plate is opened, the "beer" is poured in and then the plate is reattached firmly. I usually let pressure out every morning and evening when its around 6 bar. In the end when its time to drink there is about 1.5 bar or less inside and thats enough for carbonation of the beer.

[Anonymous No.610482]

>>610282
Click on the number of a post to respond directly to it.

[Anonymous No.610524]

>>610482
Thank you. I didnt know that.

[Anonymous No.610871]

Can I filter mead (with a coffee filter)? I bottled they too soon and have some sediments in the bottles.

[Anonymous No.610883]

>>610871
Get a hose, disinfect it and very carefully siphon off the clear stuff from the gunk. I know it's painful to never get that last half inch of liquid gold but it could cause off tastes later on.

[Anonymous No.610977]

Just built this mill today, 2 inch stainless steel rollers. I just need to make a hopper now. It's going to be nice not having to go to the brew shop whenever I want to make a batch.

I need to find some small fermenters now though, around 3 gallons would be nice. Might have to settle for those jugs of cheap wine.

[Anonymous No.610994]

>>610871
Just leave the bottles alone and the sediment will drop to the bottom after a few months and it should be clear. Just don't pour the last little bit in the bottle into your glass. You could try to filter it too, I don't have experience with that, but the effort and oxidation risk doesn't sound worth it to me if you've already got it in the bottle.

[Anonymous No.610995]

>>610871

Yes, you can. Read what I wrote here:

>>608721

I would siphon off the clear liquid and bottle it, let the rest run through several coffee filters, bottle this and use this first.

[Anonymous No.611003]

>>610977
noyce

but i dont see any motor mounts on

dont be a peasant pls

[Anonymous No.611011]

>>611003
It could be hooked up to a drill if I really wanted to, but I prefer the human powered approach....maybe if I already had a motor I'd use it. Still need to make a handle, which I really did not put much thought into.

[Anonymous No.611037]

Anyone have any good infections? Pic related, was a porter that didn't make it

[Anonymous No.611122]

Bova, what are you doing on DIY, i didnt even know you used 4chan.

[Anonymous No.611167]

Yeast farmed 100 grams of lalvin QA23 from a half a gram making cider, then used it all as pitch to make a liter of high proof moon wine. Total investment $10

[Anonymous No.611264]

>>611037
Airlock suck back allowing vinegar flies to get in can be a bitch.

[Anonymous No.611410]

>>611264
why did you make a jug of jizz?

[Anonymous No.611484]

>>611410
That is what you end up with when a brew goes bad.

[Anonymous No.611516]

>>611037

I never had one until now. What went wrong?

[Anonymous No.611626]

I'm drinking some of my first batch of cider. It turned out pretty well for having no clue what I was doing. It's strong, decent sweetness, the only downside is I had it at too high a temperature for the D-47 yeast I used, so there's a little bit of a gasoline aftertaste that goes away if I chill it for a few days. It was a great experience and I learned a ton... I have 11 gallons bubbling away as we speak.

[Anonymous No.611628]

>>611626

Yeah, D-47 needs cool, cool environment. I've had estery hooch flavors just letting it go at room temp (72*F). I always try and put it in a cool bathroom if I can

[Anonymous No.611636]

>>611516
I was making sauerkraut in the other room around the same time. I'm thinking that some of the lactic acid bacteria found its way into the fermenter

[Anonymous No.611637]

>>611264
Have you already ruled out bacteria on the skin of the watermelon already? Or did you hit it with the metabisulfide before you started fermenting?

[Anonymous No.612137]

Is cider gunk good for anything?