/diy/ - Do It Yourself

[Anonymous No.647463]

Any homebrewers out there? I was thinking of picking up homebrewing as a hobby. I'm wondering which starter kit I should by if any. Does anybody have any tips?

[Anonymous No.647465]

If you're up for some fun, try doing a google search for "Joe's ancient orange mead" this is a great starter which doesn't involve you buying a kit. :D

Very simple and good booze. ITS MADE FROM HONEY!!!!

[Anonymous No.647469]

>>647463
>Any homebrewers out there?
>Does anybody have any tips?

Tip number one:
Use the catalog. >>641540

[Anonymous No.647471]

>>647469
I already checked there. They say nothing about brew kits...

[Ribbons !36LF.2XSZI No.647474]

>>647463
whats your budget? If you're looking to do this on the cheap to try it out before committing a lot of money, I'd recommend something like this:

http://www.amazon.com/Maestro-Homebrew-Beer-Equipment-Siphon/dp/B002BTZZ5S/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1401776708&sr=8-7&keywords=homebrew+starter+kit

This would give you most of the equipment you need (other than a ~5+ gallon boiling pot... $20 at walmart).

Then I'd recommend going to your local homebrew store or looking online for an extract beer ingredient kit for your first brew.

[Anonymous No.647477]

>>647474
My budget is about $100.What I'm trying to do is get my feet wet and start with something small. I'll check out the kit you linked. If my first few batches turn out well, I'd consider making it into a hobby

[Ribbons !36LF.2XSZI No.647478]

>>647477
A kit like the one I linked would be the way to go if thats your budget. Kits range from $60-500+, so thats the low end. You should be able to get started if you get the ingredients (~$40) and that pot.

homebrewtalk.com has a TON of good information. I'd recommend watching lots of youtube videos and looking through the beginner forum stickies to get a better idea of what you're getting into

[Anonymous No.647480]

>>647463
I'm using the Northern Brewer 1 gallon starter kit.
It's cheap enough that you won't be out of a lot of money if you decide brewing isn't for you.
Pic related, currently brewing a Canadian Blonde Ale
Sorry for shitty quality, I have righter res of the full process if you're interested

[Anonymous No.647482]

>>647480
That is pretty cool. The thing that is selling me with going with a possible Northern Brewer kit is that they seem to have fresh ingredients. What do you think of your home brew kit?

[Anonymous No.647483]

>>647482
I love it. Making one gallon typically yields 7-9 beers. It's a lot of work but the point of a starter kit is to -
1. See if brewing is for you
and
2. Perfect the technique

No sense in making 5 gallons of beer if it tastes like crap in the end. The norther brewer kits have it all, even the bottle capper and bottle caps

[Anonymous No.647484]

>>647482
>>647482
My wife bought me the Mr. Beer kit for Christmas and I was hooked. Those kits are too easy though, you literally pour syrup (wort) into water, boil it, and you done with the brewing. Norther Brewer starter kits are grain kits, that' where it's at. The brewing process is more involved and the beer tastes way better. It's easy too

[Anonymous No.647485]

>>647483
I actually just thought of having to drink 5 gallons of skunk beer, You bring up a good point.

How flexile would you say the kit is? The main thing I want to do is try and create my own recipe. Would I be able to do that with this starter kit? ;

[Anonymous No.647487]

>>647485
>>647485
Brewing is flexible in the technique. If you want to make a certain type of beer the ingredients are typically the same for that type. For example, if you want to make brownies the typical ingredients are needed, but you can use different brand flower, add more or less sugar, bake a bit longer, etc.

With beer the largest ingredient is water, so start there. What kind do you like? Ozarka? Dasanni? Tap water? Each will change the flavor a bit. Want to boil it longer? Use less grains? In some cases add more of less of honey or baking chocolate or vanilla, etc. this is where you preference will change the beer flavor a bit. Here I'll post some pics.

[Anonymous No.647488]

First you need two pots, one with water. You boil and transfer the grain and water back and forth to get more sugar out of the grain.

Start by putting water into a pot, add the grain, and heat

[Anonymous No.647489]

>>647488
Next, pour the grain and water into the other pot using a steeper to catch the grain. The water that fell through is now full of sugar from the heated grain.

[Anonymous No.647491]

In the second pot boil more water (again your choice of what kind)

[Anonymous No.647493]

>>647491
What kind of water to boil? wut?

forgive me - I am not a homebrewer, but I am curious

[Anonymous No.647494]

Pour the water over the grain. As the water runs over the grain it extracts more sugar and falls into the pot

[Anonymous No.647497]

>>647493
Sorry I mean what you choose like Ozarka, Dasanni, tap water, filtered tap water - whatever kind of water you like to drink

[Anonymous No.647499]

At this point I'm still only using two pots but I switched the black one out for a bigger silver one.

Here again we transfer the steeper holding the grains to the empty pot, and pour the sugar water from the other pot over it. We are going back and forth, back and forth, to rinse the grain as much as possible to extract as much sugar as we can.

[Anonymous No.647500]

is that moley russel's wort?

[Anonymous No.647502]

>>647497
...there's a difference to what kind of water you use for brewing?

Ok, I know that tap water quality changes from place to place - but going full on out to invest in different kinds of water for brewing?

news to me

+1 new things I learned today

[Anonymous No.647504]

After a few times I decided it was good enough. Here's what it looks like
(You can discard the grain at this point or some people keep the grain and freeze it for later. You can make homemade bread out of it, never done it but I hear it's good)

[Anonymous No.647505]

>>647500
I forget the exact name

>>647502
ironic that water is the biggest ingredient, yet when you drink a lot of beer you wake up with a hangover craving water

[Anonymous No.647506]

Next open your hops. They typically come in pellet form, that's normal. I recommend breaking one in half and trying it. Hops taste gross and bitter but once you understand what they taste like you will never forget it. After that you will literally be able to taste hops in other beers and notice if they have a lot or a little, pretty cool.

[Anonymous No.647508]

Next add the hops to the sugary grain water

[Anonymous No.647510]

Now bring the water up to a boil and stir. We really want to get that hop flavor infused into the mix

[Anonymous No.647516]

After a while you can turn the burner off and let the mix start to cool. Here looking into the pot we can see some hops floating around. Remember hops come from plants so they don't necessarily dissolve into the mix

[Anonymous No.647517]

After the pot cools on the stove for a while transfer it to an ice bath to cool it faster. We are trying to get the liquid to reach about room temperature. Two reasons - We don't want to shatter our one gallon glass carboy by pouring boiling hot water into it; and; we don't want to kill our yeast by adding it into hot water.

[Anonymous No.647518]

Why are my pics getting turned sideways when I upload them, wtf?

[Anonymous No.647521]

As the wort gets cooler, the hops will start to bunch together

[Anonymous No.647522]

>>647521
Seriously wtf.
Sorry guys not sure why the inversion is happening

[Anonymous No.647527]

>>647521
The next part is tricky. You need to pour the mix into your glass carboy using a funnel, but you want to filter out as much hops as you can. I stretched an old shirt over the funnel and poured to catch as much of the hops as I could. (You won't be able to get them all, it's ok) here's whatnot looks like when you're done

[Anonymous No.647532]

>>647527
Now we add our yeast and cap.
Cap the carboy using your rubber stopper attached to a hose going into a gallon of sterilized water. Your starter kit will come with sterilization powdered you mix with water to clean your bottles, etc.
The hose is put into water so no air or anything can go back up into carboy.
As your beer ferments pressure will build up and escape through the hose as bubbles. Depending on what beer you brew it could bubble a lot the first few days. I brewed something one time and on the first day or so it was bubbling once every min or so, lot of pressure in there. The reason we use this setup at first is because over the first few days the mix can swell up a lot from the fermentation and sometimes escape the carboy a bit. It's really messy when this happens so in this case the spillage would just go down the hose a bit, and you can keep fermenting, easy cleanup later.

[Anonymous No.647533]

After a few days when you're sure the fermentation has died down a bit you can switch over to the traditional airlock

[Anonymous No.647534]

Anyone still lurking? I'll show bottling next if you're interested

[Anonymous No.647535]

>>647534
I am

[Anonymous No.647541]

>>647535
Cool

Let it ferment for at least two weeks. The fermentation process will slowly die down as the sugar gets eaten up.

Overtime the mix will settle. Notice in the airlock pic above, the bottom of the glass has a bunch of settlement. This is normal.

After at least two weeks it's time to bottle. Mix up some sterilization powder with water and wash out your bottles. I use my dishwasher rack to hold the bottles upside down to dry out for a min or so.

After the bottles are dry-ish, add sugar to each bottle. We are going to jump start the fermentation process again but this time cap the bottles so the air has nowhere to escape. The air is forced into the beer and this is how you get your carbonation.

[Anonymous No.647542]

Sorry again about the rotation, it's not on my end. Something must be forcing a rotation when I upload, not sure why

[Anonymous No.647543]

>>647542
Don't worry about it, Its fine

[Anonymous No.647544]

After adding the sugar we need to siphon the beer into the bottle. I don't have any pics because I needed both hands but you know how to siphon stuff.

here's a tip - open your dishwasher and put the carboy on the counter above it. Place your beer bottle (now with with sugar in it) down by the open dishwasher and siphon down to it. That way if some spills it'll just spill into the dishwasher, easy cleanup.

Also make sure you siphon and don't straight up pour it in because you want to keep as much settlement out as possible.

After you got the beer in the bottle place it in the sink to be capped

[Anonymous No.647545]

Next cap the bottle using your bottle capper

Important - do this in the sink, there is a possibility the bottle can break when capping it. Learning to use the bottle capper will take a few tries. I recommend you practice on some empty bottles first, learn what pressure to apply to get a tight seal but not too tight. I thought I'd bad ass it on my first batch and just do it with no experience. Ended up breaking a bottle and ruining a good beer :-/

[Anonymous No.647546]

Here's what it looks like when you're done

[Anonymous No.647548]

Put them somewhere to be stored for two weeks to carbonate and your done. The pic is from a bigger batch but you get the idea. Note the ones in the back I put a green dot on the cap. These were bottles I siphoned as much beer as I could and kept siphoning settlement to make a full bottle. The bottle has to be full almost to the top so the air will get tight in the bottle and force itself to carbonate.

[Anonymous No.647549]

Be careful not to fill the bottles too full or the air gets too tight and the bottles bust. When you fill the bottles leave about an inch to an inch and a half of space from the top. After this mess happened I now put my bottles in an ice chest to carbonate. Gotta keep the lid open but makes for a mostly easy cleanup if they bust

[Anonymous No.647550]

Here are two ice chests I had going. I divided them up by types of beer. Again note the dots I put on some lids so I know they are bottom of the barrel

[Anonymous No.647551]

When done let it sit in the fridge for at least three days to chill and settle. Every bottle will have a tiny amount of settlement on the bottom, it's normal. When you pour just dump out the last half inch or so.

The whole process takes at least a month -
Two weeks to ferment
Two weeks to carbonate
Three days in the fridge

You can let it sit longer if you want according to the taste you want to achieve

[Anonymous No.647552]

Some people make labels too, that's a whole other hobby. I made some crudely done ones using PowerPoint, printing on paper, and gluing to the bottle.

[Anonymous No.647553]

Here's some of mine

[Anonymous No.647554]

I put 5 stars on the label so you know it's legit

[Anonymous No.647555]

anyway that's all folks. It's 5:20 here and I have work at 8:00 shit
I'm grabbing some sleep but keeping the thread open, I'll check on it tomorrow if anyone posts something

[Anonymous No.647556]

>>647553
>>647554
Good stuff man, I like the labels too
Thanks for the dump
What would you say a batch typically costs you?

[Anonymous No.647559]

>>647556
$15-20 ish? Gets cheaper as you brew more gallons but gotta know what your doing first

[Anonymous No.647560]

>>647556
I taker back about $10
here-

http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/brewing/recipe-kits/small-batch-beer-recipe-kits

[Anonymous No.647643]

>>647517

Cooling it fast also causes a lot of proteins to coagulate in the solution and drop out, leading to a clearer beer in the end

[Anonymous No.647923]

>>647487
Are there really so many variables to take into account?

What's the difference in flavor depending if I use something in the mash/source of starch/boil with it? Is it something I'd have to test out for each ingredient?

What if I can't find any brewing tips for an ingredient I want to use?

[Anonymous No.647927]

>>647463
Buy the tools, and buy your own ingredients. Don't buy wine or beer packets, you might as well not even be doing it yourself then, and then why don't you just go buy some nicer beer from the internet? That's my tip, buy tools premade but not ingredients. To accomplish this easiest, make mead or fruit-wine. I'm sure beer wouldn't be too hard with hops or whatever grain you choose.

[Anonymous No.647951]

>>647480
hey man, your beer looks pretty dark for a blonde ale. how much light does it get? it should be totally in the dark otherwise you are compromising colour and hop flavour

[Crazium !cBlCsG1hN. No.647952]

>>647488
this step happens around 150F (plus minus 5F depending on how much you want to dry the beer out) you should keep the grains in the 150F water for 60 minutes

>>647510
this step tooks 60 or 90 mins depending on the recipe
first you bring up the beer to boil temps, wait for the hotbreak to happen and after it you add your 60 minute hops into a strong, uncovered boil
>>647517
cool it down to 70F as fast as possible

>>647533
ferment it between 65-70F beer temp which means about 5F lower room temp, google swamp coolers if your room is too hot
also wait 2-3 weeks before bottling to avoid bottle bombs

pitch a fuckload of healthy yeast, sanitize everything after the boil like mad, keep the temps

[Anonymous No.647953]

>>647502
there are a lot more things to learn before you start messing with water profiles. I wouldnt worry about it. all the homebrewing guys (palmer, strong, zeinisheff etc) usually recomend leaving that shit alone until you really know what you are doing.

just throw in a crushed up campden tablet to get rid of the chlorine

[Crazium !cBlCsG1hN. No.647954]

>>647951
the color in the fermenter is always misleading

if it will be still dark in the glass then his mash ph was too high and he caramelized/burnt the wort too much during the boil

also pitch 2 packets of rehidrated yeast into 5 gallon batches, the benefits are numerous, one should underpitch only hefes, saisons and some belgians

[Anonymous No.647955]

>>647489
this isnt really ideal methodology- you are going to be oxidating the shit out of your wort. you never want to expose your hot wort to oxygen.

draining the wort out of the bottom is a much better option.

[Anonymous No.647957]

>>647494
you dont really want to lauter with boiling water. It is going to break down the grain husks and give your beer a harsh/bitter grainy taste.

the hottest water you want to lauter with is 170F

[Anonymous No.647958]

>>647954
exposure to light can also change the colour of a beer. given that the carboy seems to be in the open this is a likely cause.

[Crazium !cBlCsG1hN. No.647959]

>>647953
the tap water has pretty low alkalinity in most of the US, in my country i should add calcium and boil the water before the mash otherwise the ph would be ernomously high
also i should us campden (metabisulfite) too

the best thing in the US that you can buy RO/distilled water really cheap, i am jelly

[Anonymous No.648028]

>>647463

Here are loads of homebrewer and a handful of commercial ones I think 3 atleast. Counting myself in.

>>647541

I too had a bottling day recetly.

[Anonymous No.648070]

https://www.youtube.com/user/NorthernBrewerTV/videos
https://www.youtube.com/user/ChopAndBrew/videos

[Anonymous No.648217]

>>647923
still wondering about this

[Anonymous No.648274]

>>647541
You can save some of that tedium and add the batch of sugar to an empty fermenter/ carboy and then siphon over the brew. If you do not ferment in a vessel with a spigot you'll be moving it over anyway, so feel free to save yourself some time.

[Anonymous No.648290]

So where do you guys get your recipes? Is there a general format you follow then add in other ingredients?

[Anonymous No.648329]

>>648290
I usually check out the recipe forum on homebrewtalk, pick something that looks good, then use some software (i use brewtoad) to adapt the grain amounts to get the target OG listed with my system's efficency. Usually I have to use more grain because my system really sucks for some reason, even though I use the same rubbermaid mash tun most other people use. I don't really get why, but eh, grain is cheap. I might also mess around with the bittering hops to use up old hops I have lying around.

[Anonymous No.648360]

>>648217
>>647923
I guess it depends on what your purpose is in using the ingredient. Generally I think it's like this:
The mash is where you'd put ingredients that you're looking for starch conversion from, like corn/rice/oatmeal/wheat/etc.
Late in the boil is where you'd put fermentable ingredients that don't need to be converted, like honey.
Secondary is where you'd put ingredients you're trying to get flavor directly from, like fruit/oak.
By default, I figure just put weird stuff in secondary. But depending on the ingredient I guess you might want to get flavors that only come out when boiled or steeped.

[Anonymous No.648433]

>>648360
Alright, cool. So what about something like a yam? That needs to be converted so it goes in the mash? Coffee beans too?

Vanilla in the late boil? Could you elaborate more on late boil stuff?

This is really helping me understand

[Anonymous No.648449]

This thread is relevant to my interests. I just finished building a Brutus 10. Although mine is a Brutus 15 with a 20 gallon boil kettle. You can go to a home brew shop and get a started kit there for around 100 bucks with all the basic things you need. They usually sell pre made recipe kits as well there.

[Anonymous No.648488]

>>648433
Coffee and vanilla are pretty common ingredients so other people probably have documented their results out there. I think I've seen it recommended to cold-brew some coffee (liquid) and then add it in secondary, since if you were to boil the coffee or leave the grounds in it would get too bitter. Yams would probably be the realm of experimentation, the mash might work but you also might end up with a goopy disaster.

You'd put something in the last few minutes of the boil if you want to add it in the primary but need the heat of the boil to sanitize it, help it dissolve, or if you think the boil is necessary to extract the flavor. Some things produce gross flavors if you boil them, though, which is why I would kind of default to putting something in secondary if I didn't know otherwise.

Maybe someone who experiments more with other ingredients will know better though, I usually stick with boring recipes.

[Anonymous No.648551]

>>648433

Easiest way to add vanilla is to make the extract simply by soaking the beans in whisky or similar stuff. Then add little by little dat shit to secondary or to keg/bottle. No need to boil. And you can sample the beer while adding it so its a huge bonus.

[Anonymous No.648706]

>>647493
Also, many brewers make corrections to the chemicals in their water to match the water-profile of certain towns or areas (Pilsn, Bayern, Vienna, etc.).

[Anonymous No.648828]

>>648706

You shouldn't try that unless you're starting with reverse osmosis water because its a blank slate. Unless you know the water chemistry of your source, don't try to add brewing salts. If your water tastes good plain, don't mess with it.

[Anonymous No.648882]

Just saw this thread so I thought I would put my input on certain things.

>You Do not want to have your beer in sunlight.
The UV rays of sunlight break down the sulfur bonds in the iso acids from the hops and makes your beer taste skunk and smell bad.

>water adjustments
Like the people said before don't try and do it until your more experience but if you have super hard water or it tastes weird buy some gallon spring water from the store

For those interested here's an excerpt from my SIEBEL textbook about the water composition of some famouse cities waters

And never mind it won't let me post it

[Anonymous No.649295]

>>648449
This looks badass, though I'm completely oblivious as to how it works.

[Anonymous No.649297]

I've been brewing beer for about 10 years now and I still just use tins of malt extract, fresh hops and some specialty grains.
I'm happy with the beer I make and in my opinion it's better then some commercial brews and heaps fresher and about a quarter of the price.
Maybe when I retire I'll have much more time to burn and try to learn how to brew some all grain.

[Anonymous No.650068]

I have a friend who likes to make the lunebeam. Instructions are all online and much cheaper than a kit. Tastes better than the store-bought junk

[Anonymous No.650497]

Is this thread alive? Here's some mead I just brewed. I'll bottle it soon and start another batch. I thought I'd ask here for some advice from people with more experience. What's your mead making process, /diy/? How do I make it strong but dry, I think I'll use hops from my back yard next time.

What I do is:
- heat the must, using as much honey as is sane
- add raisins and some acidic fruit, usually citrus.
- Then I add spices,
- pitch the yeast after letting it start in a bowl of water.
In pic related I used juniper berries, tea, and strawberries.
- I do an open ferment, because I don't own an airlock and don't need one.
- Then when it's done fermenting, I siphon the mead into new carboys and discard the gross stuff left in the old one.
- Then I let it settle and repeat until the mead is clear and without sediment.
- After letting it sit in its carboy with a lid on it for a few weeks, I bottle and then
- let it age
My picture is on the ledge in the sunlight, but I've made sure that that minute when I took a picture is one of the only ones it's ever seen much sunlight at all.

How can I improve?

[Anonymous No.650531]

>>650497
>How do I make it strong but dry
Well that would need you to be more specific about these steps:
>using as much honey as is sane
>pitch the yeast
First you need to know the alcohol tolerance of the yeast you're using. You can assume that, if you keep it healthy, the yeast will be active up until it reaches that ABV.
Say you're using Lalvin 71B - that has a tolerance of up to 14%ABV. According to online calculators, you could use an OG of up to 1.107 if you wanted to ferment out dry (FG of 1.000) before hitting 14%ABV. To hit 1.107 OG, you'd want to use 3 pounds of honey per gallon of volume of must. So, 3 pounds of honey and 71B yeast in a 1gal batch should yield a bone dry, 1.000 FG, 14% mead.

If you wanted the mead to finish a little sweeter, like maybe add .010 to the gravity, you could just add that to your OG. With a 1.117 OG, theoretically the 71B yeast would stop once it reached 14%ABV and you'd be left with a little bit sweeter mead around 1.010 FG.

[ban tripfags, nobody cares if (...) !!b53SCRAUQTp No.650540]

>>650531
Lalvin K1-V1116, "up to 18%".
About three pounds of honey per gallon. I think I used more like three and a half this time.

What does OG stand for? I'm reading a bunch of things right now, and using an online mead calculator.

[ban tripfags, nobody cares if (...) !!b53SCRAUQTp No.650545]

>>650540
It seems like my mead will be too sweet like this.
Specific Gravity and what is OG

[Anonymous No.650565]

Yeah, I'm using Specific Gravity, there are other units for the same measurement like Brix that i'm not familiar with.
OG is original gravity, what you measure with a hydrometer before the batch is fermented (basically to see how much sugar is in it).
FG is final gravity, the same measurement after fermentation (basically to see how much sugar remains).
Water has an SG of 1, and if you ferment a beverage down to 1 or less, you've basically fermented it out 'dry' because you've removed almost all the sugar.

It seems like if you use a yeast with 18% tolerance with 3.5 pounds of honey in a gallon, that should ferment out dry at around 16%ABV. If the mead you made was sweet, then it sounds like the yeast didn't stay healthy enough to finish fermentation. If you want to make 18% mead you should make sure you're pitching enough yeast cells to start with, and look into 'staggered nutrient additions'. It gets a bit more difficult to keep yeast happy when you're dealing with a high OG and high alcohol content (I can't give advice on that since the one time I tried to make a mead with a super-high OG it got stuck... and it's still stuck a year later because I don't know what to do with it.)

On the other hand, I see K1V as listed in many places as only 12-14% (like here: http://www.meadmadecomplicated.org/mead_making/ingredients/commercial_yeast.pdf ), so that's kind of confusing... but I guess the manufacturer's site lists 18%. You might want to look for people online with experience with that yeast.

[ban tripfags, nobody cares if (...) !!b53SCRAUQTp No.650568]

>>650565
I don't own a hydrometer, I'll pick one up this week before I start a new batch. I'm sure I used more than enough yeast. I'm going to taste it...

It feels pretty strong but still sweet, and kind of has a shitty texture, as if it's very slightly carbonated. It's still releasing gas slowly though, so I'll have another taste in a while.

[Anonymous No.650669]

>>650497
What do you think of growing your own hops? I'm considering doing this for my future batches of beer.

[Anonymous No.650720]

>>650669
I just planted mine the other day. One little cascade plant. it look pretty haggard right now. I dont think it enjoyed its experience being mailed

[Anonymous No.650727]

>>650568
A hydrometer is a good idea although honey doesn't really differ in % of fermentibility. Essentially you can use a calculator to determine your OG (amount of sugar before fermentation) without taking a reading.

With most champange yeasts you're more likely to ferment dry or hit their alcohol tolerance but it is important to also take into account the yeasts attenuation %. For beginning meads I normally suggest planning as a completely dry mead (as in the FG should be well within the yeasts tolerance). Once fermentation is done, you can use campden tablets to deactivate the yeast, rack off of the yeast cake, and then slowly add some more honey till it reaches the desired sweetness.

[Anonymous No.650799]

Last november I made a ginger and black tea mead
5litre vessel
4 pounds honey
1 pound ginger(grated and added directly to fermentation vessel, filtered out before cold crash)
enough tea for 4 cups
Had it ferment for a little over a month before cold crashing and bottling. It was nice back in december, good taste of ginger and fairly warming. Probably around 12-15%.

I just had some recently and it's gone from a 7/10 drink to a 9/10

[Anonymous No.651154]

Would this work?

[Anonymous No.651156]

>>651154
GODDAMNIT

[Anonymous No.651349]

>>651154
Basically yeah, that is how you make cider. But it omits a lot of easy and important stuff like >>651156 mentions.
Major issues:
You need to sanitize all containers that come in contact with the cider, or you run a much higher risk of infection.
You need to siphon the finished cider off top of the container, because there's going to be a ton of gross dead yeast at the bottom that will make it taste like shit if mixed in.
You probably want to use an airlock or balloon instead of a napkin to further prevent an infection ruining your batch. Especially if you're leaving it for 2 months.
More minor issues:
Most 5gal water cooler containers aren't really suitable for fermenting because they're made out of PVC, which lets a lot of air permeate and can oxidize your brew. PET or HDPE are good though.
You should use a wine yeast because it sticks to the bottom better, doesn't make it taste like bread, and only costs like 99c.
Basically just read this and do this instead http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f25/man-i-love-apfelwein-14860/

[anon No.651749]

holy crap!!! cool post I'll make some brew at home (or at least I'll try)

nice thread dude

[Anonymous No.651931]

Got my yeast balls,

Will start a rice wine in several days. I am really curious.

[Anonymous No.651939]

>>651931
Sweet! Let us know how it goes, that's something i've been interested in trying too

[Anonymous No.652328]

>>651154
If your only goal is to get really wasted for really cheap, then...Probably. I've done brews like this before, using a piece of cloth as an airlock. Honestly though, brewing with decent ingredients is so cheap I don't see the point in going this ghetto.

If you really want to do this, get a 5 gallon food-grade bucket instead of a water cooler jug. Most uBrew places sell them for like 2 bucks. Get a decent airlock+stopper. You should be at a grand total of 5 bucks by now. About the same as getting a water cooler jug, but VASTLY superior.
>will actually keep air out
>effortless to clean
>doesn't leech plastic flavor
The only downside is you might have to drill a hole for the airlock if the store didn't do it for you already.

If you really want to try the cheap apple-juice thing, go for it. It'll probably taste alright. I'd recommend that while you're picking up your cheap-ass bucket, you also pick up a packet of Lavlin-1118 champagne yeast. It'll be about a dollar, versus 50 cents for the bread yeast, but the champagne yeast will give you a higher alcohol content, and a better flavor.

Now don't be a fucking animal and sanitize your bucket. People get a bit nuts about this step, but I've made dozens of beers without a single issue by doing the following:
Take household unscented bleach, like you'd use for dishes or laundry, and dump a little bit into the bucket. Fill the bucket roughly a quarter full with cold water. Swish it around with the lid on, then pull the lid off and dump it out. Rinse with cold water once, and then dump it out, and repeat, rinsing more thoroughly the second time. By this point there should be no strong bleach-smell.

Now dump your apple juice in, pitch your yeast, pop the lid on, store in a cool dry place out of sunlight and wait until the bubbling stops or slows to less than 1 bubble/minute.

Now you'll need to siphon into bottles. Use mouthwash first. Discard the first inch or so.

Keep refrigerated to avoid explosions.

[Anonymous No.652332]

>>652328
Some clarifications:
>rough-pour the juice to mix air in with it so the yeast can breed.

>The reason you discard the first inch or so is that the bottom of the pale will have a lot of yeast sediment in it. Just wait for it to be clear before putting into bottles

>Explosions are a result of leftover sugar fermenting and building pressure in the bottle. Refrigeration prevents this by making the yeast go dormant. Also prevents the brew from spoiling.

>Sanitize the bottles it's going into as well, the same way, right before filling them.

>Don't be surprised if you see a layer of white stuff at the bottom of the bottles after a few days. This is yeast settling out of the mix. Avoid drinking it. It's not poisonous (actually very good for you) but tastes gross and will make you gassy. Most beers/wines are filtered, have chemicals added, or are racked several times to remove this prior to bottling. In some high-end european beers this is often a selling point. Just pour slowly to avoid disturbing it, and don't drink the last inch bit.

[Anonymous No.652937]

>>652332

>Explosions are a result of leftover sugar fermenting and building pressure in the bottle. Refrigeration prevents this by making the yeast go dormant. Also prevents the brew from spoiling.

I'd rather say you avoid bottle bombs by letting the brew ferment until it is finished before you bottle it!

If fermentation is finished and you have waited some time for the liquid to clear itself, fermentation will not happen anymore. Fermentable sugars have been converted into alcohol and CO2, non-fermentable sugars give the beer's "body".

For bottle carbonization you calculate how much sugar you have to put into each bottle for optimum carburization and prepare a sugar-water solution with a concentration that means that you can add 10ml solution into your bottle to get your desired carburization. No danger of bottle bombs this way.