 Made an error when speaking, it does not go all the way dry. Gets to about 1.002 and slows to a bubble in five minutes. Ferments in 14 days, Rack to secondary, allow week to clear and then bottle with NO priming sugar. Allow to bottle condition for a month in 68degrees or warmer. Creates very little trub or lees. This yeast was used twice before, and has been "washed" and is in the fridge waiting on the next batch now. Aldis Apple Juice is 1.060 regularly, 2lbs of sugar gets it to 1.070, 5TBS of yeast nutrient also. I dissolve the sugar into AJ in a pot on the stove. Put 1/2g of AJ and sugar in pot at room temp, turn burner to high and start stirring immediately. It will flash clear at about 100 degrees, get off heat right then, allow to cool slightly, add back to carboy. The foam/head you see is temporary and it is not fizzy or burpy at all. |
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I made my spring run to the LHBS today and came back with a little over 125 Lbs of grain, some hops that I didn't have in bulk and some yeasts that I didn't have on hand. I plan on getting two brews in this week, then head out backpacking and hit it hard when I get back.  I hate brewing in the summer. 
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Having to deal with the higher ferment temps does make brewing in the summer a bit of a challenge. Then again, I loved putting my set up on the front driveway, inviting friends over, cooking up a feast, drinking beer and making some brew. Fond memories of having impromptu beer socials at my house with the surrounding neighbors. Tough to be beat those times.
I wish I could find the article a local brew club guy wrote. He would buy large bags of 2-row and was able to see how many different variations of a brew he could make simply by using only that base malt. No specialty grains. He was smoking some for that flavor and he was also baking the grains to give him differing levels of crystal malts. Anyway, have fun with the brewing. I'm still out of it for now. |
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Here, maybe this will push some of you over the edge.
groupon Rochester's groupon today is for Midwest Homebrewing and Winemaking Supplies' brewing essentials kit for $64 which gives you the essentials kit, an extract kit (not the best but whatever, great for a gift for a first time brewer), and a $25 gift certificate for your next ingredient kit (maybe they'll let you use it for more than a kit?). TOTALLY WORTH IT! I already have all of the stuff in the kit but hey, its a great gift plus having a couple extra fermenters never hurt anyone (well, maybe a wallet or two). If you have groupon, GET IN HERE AND BUY IT UP!!! If you dont have groupon, SIGN UP AND BUY! |
| Been brewing beer about 15 yrs now got many gallons down the hatch and have 10gals mead waiting to be bottled. I have found that doing a starter in the carboy by using dme some water and shake the hell out of it then throw in your yeast starter about 1 day prior to brewing makes a great way to get most any brew off to a good start. Reading Yeast, The practical Guide to Beer Fermentation at the moment, has a lot of good info for the advanced brewer. |
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I figured I'd post in here before starting a thread. I'm wanting to start home brewing and was wondering if there was a preferred kit to get started. Welcome! I regularly shop at Adventures in Homebrewing. They've got a few different kits for beginners. Jay, Matt, and Tyler are great guys who I know personally. They won't steer you wrong. (You might talk to Jay's sister Keri as well, she's also a "great guy!") K |
I thought I would stop back in here and post. I ended up buying the deluxe kit from northernbrewer.com and brewed my 4th batch yesterday. I hit the AHS 20 Anniversary sale a few weeks ago and ordered 4 kits for ~$100 with free shipping, brewed 2 of them and have a Stout and Oktoberfest on the shelf. The first batch was a Nut brow Ale (bottled), then Phat Tyre (bottled), AHS Anniversary Irish Red (secondary) and an AHS Anniversay ESB (primary). II plan on brewing every 2 weeks if all goes well. I am even building a bar in the basement with a fermentation chamber and bought the fiance a new fridge so I could take the old one to the basement for a 2 tap kegerator and for lagering. Definitely check out homebrewtalk.com if you are considering jumping into the hobby. I'll have to try the apple juice thing, but I need to start making some apple pie shine again for the upcoming river weekends. 
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retested my Apple cider after adding about 1/2 gallon of more apple juice a month ago came out to 6.03.. I guess I am just gonna go with it. <input type="hidden" id="gwProxy" /> <input type="hidden" id="jsProxy" onclick="if(typeof(jsCall)=='function'){jsCall();}else{setTimeout('jsCall()',500);}" /> |
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Quoted: [3-22-2011] Brewed 10g of an Imperial IPA with 8oz of Citra and Cascade yesterday. Came out at 1.070 and the alphas on the hops put it at 102 IBU. Two more oz Citra going into dry hop in about 3wks. Ought to be a big enough IIPA for the spring/early summer.  Bottling this today. Citra is my new favorite hop from the taste/scent of this, big citrus/floral with good bitter to it [14 alpha  ] 9% ABV |
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another week before i sample my third brew (ESB)... hopefully the brown truck shows up monday with more heff stuffs.
I'm still going the extract thing... but only because of lack of funds. How To Brew and Homebrew for Dummies are great sources... I am glad I read through both of those. |
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another week before i sample my third brew (ESB)... hopefully the brown truck shows up monday with more heff stuffs. I'm still going the extract thing... but only because of lack of funds. How To Brew and Homebrew for Dummies are great sources... I am glad I read through both of those. I'm still extract brewing as well. I have 5 under my belt. My last was a Stout, it came out sweeter than I'd hoped for––especially since I used Safale US5 which was supposed to attenuate a little more than Nottingham. But hey, I can learn––and drink my mistakes!  I'd add Brewing Classic Styles and Brew Chem 101 to your library. Especially BCS if you're extract brewing as all the recipes are extract brews. I hope to do my first all grain brew on Tuesday with a friend from work who's a little more experienced than me. It's a great hobby; from an another noob homebrewer––Welcome Aboard!
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I'd do BIAB all-grain if my stove could handle it...
I'm half tempted to bribe my boss to make wort in the kitchens at work... 35 gallon steam jacketed kettle, lots of pots and burners, a 2 cubic yard ice bin that is nearly always full... I wouldn't even have to bring any yeast. Then all I would be doing is making wort. Pitch the yeast at home (which is less than a mile away) and let it sit. :) May need to do that. She lets me use the mixer and ovens for my holiday baking. :D |
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fun! :)
I got to taste my ESB carbonated today. tastes like a little LME scorched or something, slightly smokey but just barely. first couple sips were ok but at the end of the bottle it was pretty good. now to brew some heff and then bottle some applewine then start the dandelion wine. |
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I've had problems with cooling my wort in the summers down here. Our well water temp is around 70f in the summer, so getting it down to a safe pitching temp takes some effort. I use a refrigeration tubing coil heat exchanger to cool the wort. It works great down to about 110f. After that, it really slows down.
I recently bought a cheap 8 dollar aquarium pump from harbor freight to recirculate cold water through my heat exchanger in an attempt to get the wort temps down faster I stopped at a hardware store, and bought about 3' of 1/2" ID vinyl hose and a 1/2" male hose end, so I could hook it up to the heat exchanger. I put the aquarium pump in a cooler with about 20lbs. of ice and 4.5 gal of water. When the wort got to 110f, I switched from well water to water from the cooler. I let the water in the cooler circulate through the heat exchanger and back to the cooler for about 10 minutes. In that time the temp dropped from 110 to 70 and most of the ice had turned to water. So for 11 bucks, I've cut 20 minutes off the time it takes to cool down a batch of wort. I know. I should have taken some pics of it in use yesterday. I guess you are going to have to wait till next weekend when I make the Porter. |
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Sounds something like a counterflow chiller. No, it's more like a closed loop chiller. As it was running, the line running to the coil was sweating because of the cold water flowing through it. I should have measured the water temp coming back out of the coil versus the temp of the wort. For my next trick, I plan to turn 1lb. of maris otter to brown malt with only the help of an oven.
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Another 5gallons of heff in the carboy bubbling away and another five gallons of apfelwein in bottles. half of them carbed. :) twas a good rainy day off! Just bottled 5 gallons of Apfelwein in 1/2 gallon jugs, all still, but it is at 10% Abv, strong but not even a hint of hoochey taste, all you get is apples. This one will be amazing in about 6 months! |
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Has anyone ever made a lambic? I am wanting to start a batch of Lindemann's Framboise clone (liquid crack, that stuff is) but have been told that it's tricky to do right. Does anyone have any words of wisdom? Keep your lambic gear separate from your ale/lager gear and you should be fine. Also devote tons of time to letting it do it's thing. I'd do some reading on the subject though. |
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Has anyone ever made a lambic? I am wanting to start a batch of Lindemann's Framboise clone (liquid crack, that stuff is) but have been told that it's tricky to do right. Does anyone have any words of wisdom? Keep your lambic gear separate from your ale/lager gear and you should be fine. Also devote tons of time to letting it do it's thing. I'd do some reading on the subject though. Check out the Beersmith podcasts. Not the current one, but the one previous to that discussed sour beers. I have no experience with them, but they recommended the same as Eyespeck––keep your equipment separate. |
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Has anyone ever made a lambic? I am wanting to start a batch of Lindemann's Framboise clone (liquid crack, that stuff is) but have been told that it's tricky to do right. Does anyone have any words of wisdom? My club has a whiskey barrel that we drain and fill once a year. The last few years have been a flanders red, but this year (around Christmas), we'll fill it w/ a lambic wort and innoculate it w/ more of a lambic blend of bugs. Read Wild Brews by Jeff Sparrow. Great info on brewing sour beers. K |
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Just bottled the latest 6-gal batch of hard cider/wine. It's freakin' excellent.
5 3/4 gallons cider 6 lbs brown sugar 10 cinnamon sticks 20 bruised peppercorns Zest of two oranges 2 teaspoons tannin 2 teaspoons yeast nutrient Cote des Blancs wine yeast Some Irish moss as a clarifying agent 13% ABV, roughly $4 per gallon. Bite me, Woodchuck. 
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Got it on order, thanks!
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| Just ordered two Belgian Wit kits from Windriver brewing. I usually bump this up with some additional honey. It is a favorite around Christmas time, but this is for a family thing. Probably brew a big dark in your face for Christmas this year. I think they call it Iron Range strong ale. I Like to dry hop the kegs with my home grown Cascades, just enough to take your breath away. |
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Cooled off today, brewing a Kolsch since I have a fresh yeast cake I just racked off of and kegged yesterday. No sense letting good yeast go to waste.  Kolsch, which yeast did you use? I think I remember you mentioning only using dry yeasts; was that correct; how cool can you get it for fermentation? My "cool" spot is up to 68-69 deg F. I have a brew day planned (actually two––the other three weeks later so I can re-use the yeast in a stout) and I was going to go with a American Ale probably from Wyeast, but if a Koslch yeast or one of the "warmer" lager yeasts will work, I'll give them a try. What's your experience with this? Anyone else chime in too! Oh, I'll probably put this carboy in a large pan of water covered with a wet towel and set a fan to blow on it to cool it a few extra degrees. |
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Kolsch, which yeast did you use? I think I remember you mentioning only using dry yeasts; was that correct; how cool can you get it for fermentation? My "cool" spot is up to 68-69 deg F. I have a brew day planned (actually two––the other three weeks later so I can re-use the yeast in a stout) and I was going to go with a American Ale probably from Wyeast, but if a Koslch yeast or one of the "warmer" lager yeasts will work, I'll give them a try. What's your experience with this? Anyone else chime in too! Oh, I'll probably put this carboy in a large pan of water covered with a wet towel and set a fan to blow on it to cool it a few extra degrees. I used Wyeast 2565. I do use quite a bit of dry, but some beers require unique yeast strains and you have to go liquid. Yeah, you can make a swamp cooler. |
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I used Wyeast 2565. I do use quite a bit of dry, but some beers require unique yeast strains and you have to go liquid. I've tried that yeast only once so far and with good results. Coincidentally (or maybe not) it was with my first all grain batch too! I'm not sure style you'd call it. Maybe a bigger cream ale. (As per a friend's recommendation) I used 10lbs of US 6-row malt and a pound of honey malt. 1oz Hallertau hops at the boil, at 30 min, and at 10 min before flame out. I put two packets of the Kolsch yeast in it and let it sit for 3 weeks at 63-64 deg, and finally, to a corny keg for carbonation. It disappeared during my son's graduation/going away to the USAF party. All those people who tell me they only drink light beer were lining up for it!
Unfortunately, I don't have all the equipment to do all grain brewing and my coworker, who helped me out and supplied some of the hardware––oh and the malt––has been busy moving. So, my next batch will be extract again. I know I'll never repeat the recipe, but I'll give it a try and see what happens. Actually, with the premise that an exact copy won't really be possible, my liquid extract is .5lb wheat, .7lb munich and the balance is extra pale malt to total 7lbs of LME. I'll probably steep 3/4lb of the honey malt too, then put in a couple packets of the Kolsch yeast. In three weeks, I have another brew day planned and I'm going to brew the American stout out of brewing classic styles. I plan to save some of the yeast slurry from the above batch (As many of you here have suggested) and pitch it into the stout. I have some Nottingham and Safale US-05 in case I screw up somewhere. Someone here suggested Austin Homebrew Supply and that's where I obtained my LME: it's neat that they'll mix your LME for you so I all I have to do is measure water, heat, and mix. Since I still have my friend's brew kettle, I'll be able to do a full volume boil too. I have my own ice machine, and I made my own wort chiller, so getting the wort cool, is pretty easy. What I have to work on is getting the rest of the all grain equipment. |
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Just finished my 10 gal. batch of Belgian Wit. I added some honey from a buddies apiary to dry it out a little. It was awful hot and humid, but my yeast starter was running out of steam. Got it cooled down nicely and down to the basement quickly. All in all a very smooth operation, with no mishaps.
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I have a brew day planned next week. It’ll be an extract recipe (see my post above mnhornet for the make up of the LME) since I don’t (YET!) have an all-grain setup. So, help me out with my process. This will only be batch #7 for me and I’ve been reading—and rereading—John Palmer’s How to Brew as well as listening to a few podcasts. As far as style goes, I guess this an amber ale; I’m not really concerned with fitting a style as long as I have good beer!!
I have a large enough brew kettle to do a full volume boil—a first for me. Nothing complicated there. I may steep—depending on feedback—.75 lbs of honey malt for 30 mins in 154* water then bring to boil and add my LME (No flame while adding the LME to avoid scorching). Hops will be .5 oz—each—centennial and cascade at boil, and then .25oz—of each—at 30 min, and 10min—as per Brewing Classic Styles. My wort chiller goes in with the last hops addition for sanitizing. After flameout, I then chill to 60*. (I pump my water through the wort chiller from a cooler filled with ice water allowing me to get the wort cooled fairly quickly.) Ok, so this is where both processes come together, what do you next or how do you leave the cold break in the brew kettle? (I want good “clean” yeast since I plan a brew day in 3 weeks to brew an American Stout and I want to pitch the yeast from this brew into that batch.) I’ll probably try and swirl the wort then leave it set for 10 min or so, and siphon to my carboy. Once in the carboy—I just finished listening to another podcast about aeration—I’ll pitch the yeast (Wyeast 1010) then aerate with room air via an aquarium pump for 15 min. This is how John Palmer does it. I was looking at O2 setups today, but I’ll probably stay with an aquarium pump for now. The rest is just waiting. Oh, I’ll probably rig up a swamp cooler to get the temps <65* as my storage space is now 68-69*. Comments? |
| I brew in my garage. I throw my immersion chiller sanitizer in a 5 gal pail prior to putting it in the hot wort, and chill it with well water. I have a ball valve on my kettle, once I get the wort to temp, I pitch the yeast, and fill the carboys. To aerate the wort I sanitize a couple of drilled stoppers, and my thumb, and agitate the carboys all the way to the basement. It's not rock science, keep it clean. |
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Ok, so this is where both processes come together, what do you next or how do you leave the cold break in the brew kettle? (I want good “clean” yeast since I plan a brew day in 3 weeks to brew an American Stout and I want to pitch the yeast from this brew into that batch.) I’ll probably try and swirl the wort then leave it set for 10 min or so, and siphon to my carboy. Comments? Getting a good whirlpool and then siphoning from the edge should work fine to keep the cold break in the kettle. However, there are some that will argue that its not necessary and actually better to ferment on the cold break as there are protiens and lipids that the yeast likes. I've done both, and have had success w/ both! You'll still have some trub in your yeast, so don't think it will be perfectly clean! No problem to pitch the stout right on top of it. K |
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