Author Topic: Homebrew - Any tips? (Read 54559 times)

Gilgamoth · « **Reply #25 on:** August 03, 2009, 05:53:37 am »

Both my cider and brown ales have carbonated by now. The cider is supposed to be drinkable now, while the brown ale is supposed to bottle-condition for another two week. I decided to try both of them. Here are the results:

The cider didn't seem to have carbonated, which would imply that the yeast was dead (very possible, since it brewed for almost 3 weeks). FYI, you carbonate homebrew by adding a small amount of some type of sugar just prior to bottling, which the remaining yeast will eat and turn into more CO₂. Also, the cider tasted terrible. It was definitely very strong stuff and had some good flavor notes, but it was totally ruined by an over-powering yeast flavor. (Perhaps it needed a fining agent?)

Thankfully, the brown ale turned out very well, even 2 weeks before it was supposed to be ready to drink. It tastes like a brown ale (slightly malty, not too bitter) and was perfectly carbonated. Light and refreshing. Ahhh.

Once this freak heatwave in WA is over, I'm going to brew an amber ale and try to figure out how to make drinkable cider.

Moz · « **Reply #26 on:** August 03, 2009, 03:23:20 pm »

And I thought cider was just fermented apple juice. I didn't realize the process of making it was that involved.

I have to wonder how earlier humans originally figured out the brewing process for beer, cider, and other things. How they figured out how to mix yeast, barley, hops, and a host of other ingredients to create a drinkable beverage. Their scientific knowledge was more limited back then. I wonder how many decades or centuries of trial and error it took to perfect the process.

Glad to hear the brown ale turned out well.

Gilgamoth · « **Reply #27 on:** August 03, 2009, 05:19:01 pm »

Well, you can make cider with the naturally-occurring yeasts in the fruit itself. If you don't chemically-preserve, pasteurize, or heat-treat the juice, it will have natural yeast. I used heat-treatment in my batch (low heat, not considered pasteurization). In other words, you CAN take raw apple juice, put it in a fermenter, and let it do its thing. Adding sugar just raises the alcohol level, while adding yeast changes the fermentation process and leads to different flavors and properties. Other additives are just for manipulating the outcome. Some people add cinnamon sticks for flavor, some add enzymes for clearing the yeast. It can be simple or complex. I hear that relying on natural yeast is a hit-or-miss proposition though.

There was definitely a lot of evolution involved in the history of beer. Using hops was a continental improvement. British ales used to use other herbs as bittering agents. Using hops instead makes a lot of sense since it has so much flavor and acts as a natural preservative. (Mmmm... fresh hops smell so good...)

I found another recipe for cider that looks even stronger and better managed. Now I gotta try it once the Summer heat winds down. I am such a sucker. This is one hobby that can easily explode... metaphorically .

Gilgamoth · « **Reply #28 on:** August 22, 2009, 07:22:34 pm »

Well, I've got an Amber Ale brewing now. I tweaked the recipe (divided and staggered the addition of hops during the brew) to make it a bit more well-rounded and slightly less bitter. I used a liquid ale yeast this time. I had never used one of those before. They cost like 3x more than the dry ale yeast packets, but give different results. It took nearly 24 hours for it to show signs of activity, which had me pretty worried. Would be a shame for the batch to go to waste. I spent about 2.5 hours on the whole brewing process yesterday.

Connor Altinus Mcleod · « **Reply #29 on:** August 23, 2009, 08:41:31 pm »

Now that is a bit of a time investment, When is the tasting?

Connor

Gilgamoth · « **Reply #30 on:** August 23, 2009, 09:53:56 pm »

I've got some malty brown ale that is ready to drink any time (37 bottles left). If any watchers are near Redmond (WA), they can stop by and pick up some samples. I also have even more cider, but its not drinkable yet (if ever...). My amber ale should be ready to drink by about Sept 20th.

The biggest expense right now is buying enough plain brown bottles (not the twist-off ones). With 100x 12oz bottles, 5x 64oz growlers, and 10x 22oz bottles, that only allows for about 3x 5gallon batches at any given time. I can produce this stuff a lot faster than I can drink it. All that cider is taking up 5 gallons worth of bottles too. Not sure if that will ever pay off. It costs me about as much to buy empty brown bottles as it does to buy full ones... but the ones filled with beer seem to be cheaper (thinner glass).

I think I'm going to try another cider and then maybe an ale-yeast version of a Boch-style beer. I can't do lager unless I move into a house with a cellar or get a 2nd refrigerator.. . which I don't have room for... plus it would probably trip the circuit breaker each time it kicks in and cut the power to my PC or consoles. $:-\$

Gilgamoth · « **Reply #31 on:** September 02, 2009, 02:07:52 am »

I bottled my Amber Ale today. It smells kind of like an IPA (almost like butterscotch, but less sharp), which is not one of my favorite types, but it will probably still be good.

I tweaked the recipe a little with the adjunct malts... but not by much. I'm hoping the final gravity reading I took (equaling about 3.4% ABV), really is the end of the fermentation as expected... or this batch might turn into an explosion of glass and beer.

Gilgamoth · « **Reply #32 on:** September 06, 2009, 02:05:11 am »

I just picked up a book about beer that was written by a physicist (Froth!, by Mark Denny). Its well worth a read. He challenges a lot of conventional wisdom in brewing and makes a lot of good points from his own casual research. He seems to take a "'good enough' is better than 'perfect'" approach to brewing though, as if he was a manager for software engineers.

Anyhow, I got antsy and brewed an ale-yeast version of a pale Mai Boch with some licorice root added. I used a "slap pack" style yeast packet (Wyeast #1007 German Ale). After adding the proofed yeast, the brew was very active just a few hours later. In Froth!, the author goes into the math surrounding yeast propagation. Makes a lot of sense. I think I will forgo using White Labs brand yeast (was nearly a dud when I tried it with my Amber Ale batch, implying that most of the yeast was actually dead when I bought it). Wyeast slap packs (fast and good) and Safale dry yeast packets (cheap but still good) seem to be a better choice. $:-\$

The last time I was in my local homebrew shop, this old guy in a wheelchair made fun of me for buying hops instead of growing my own. Tempting thought, but there are so many varieties...

Next, I will either make a Christmas brew or retry making cider.

Scylda · « **Reply #33 on:** September 10, 2009, 07:49:18 pm »

Quote from: Gilgamoth on August 23, 2009, 09:53:56 pm

The biggest expense right now is buying enough plain brown bottles (not the twist-off ones). With 100x 12oz bottles, 5x 64oz growlers, and 10x 22oz bottles, that only allows for about 3x 5gallon batches at any given time. I can produce this stuff a lot faster than I can drink it. All that cider is taking up 5 gallons worth of bottles too. Not sure if that will ever pay off. It costs me about as much to buy empty brown bottles as it does to buy full ones... but the ones filled with beer seem to be cheaper (thinner glass).

I've only had problems with reusing a couple of breweries bottles. New Belgium uses thin bottles--broken a few with my capper. Had good luck with the local stuff like Portland Brewing, Widmer, Deschutes. Full Sail does twist-offs on their 12oz bottles...I know that some people can get those to work, but I don't even try. I've moved to using as big of bottles as I can, and EZ-caps if possible. I've got a couple cases of 16oz cobalt blue EZ-caps, along with a case of 32oz EZ-caps. 9 or so cases of 22's also expedites things. Bottling with 16/22/32 plus a handful of 12's cut the time it took to bottle a batch significantly.

One thing to think about is setting up a RSS robot on your local craigslist in the forsale and free stuff sections for something like "homebrew -wii -psp -xbox". People are always moving from bottle to kegging, or getting out of homebrewing altogether, and dumping their equipment, including bottles... true story is that I picked up 6 cases of clean 22's for free. I've seen cases of EZ-caps for pretty cheap on occasion.

Gilgamoth · « **Reply #34 on:** September 10, 2009, 08:15:28 pm »

Ooooh, good tips. Thanks!

Scylda · « **Reply #35 on:** September 10, 2009, 09:00:48 pm »

Regarding cider... I've tried it in the past from juice with mixed results, like what sounds happened with yours. After my girlfriend and I enjoyed a couple bottles of perry this past spring, I made a mental note to do some research and watch for the pear season this fall. At the same time, a co-workers's dad got into winemaking pretty hardcore, and brews exclusively from concentrate kits. I'd talked with her about those kits, and we sampled a bottle of grigio...so she surprised me with one of the Vinoka/Spagnols Perry kits for my birthday. It's basically 6L of apple concentrate that you hydrate back up to 6 gallons, then add a bottle of pear concentrate/flavor when bottling. It's still too early to tell, but I have much higher hopes about this.

Gilgamoth · « **Reply #36 on:** September 11, 2009, 01:59:33 am »

Yeah, although the local fresh cider over here is really fantastic, it surely contains wild yeast strains and probably still has bacteria if it isn't heat-treated really well. I think my cider failed because of inadequate heating and/or a poor seal on the fermentation bucket.

I was planning on trying again with concentrate or a combo of that and juice as "turbo cider". Those commercial apple juice products are probably UV light-pasteurized. I'm not much of a pear fan, but perry does sound good.

PS. The Five Star brand Star San sanitizing solution seems to be a good product. Its a "no rinse" sanitizer too. Additionally, at very low concentrations (foam left on surfaces), it actually acts as a yeast nutrient. Umm... when undiluted it also eats through paint pretty quick and probably a lot more.

My hands have never been smoother though. Good bye, dry skin!

Gilgamoth · « **Reply #37 on:** October 13, 2009, 07:37:58 pm »

I have a cider that should be mature in about 1.5 weeks and my bock-ale that should be ready in 4 weeks. I'm running out of my amber ale. Hurry up!

Urragra · « **Reply #38 on:** October 13, 2009, 11:09:51 pm »

be closer, and I'd "help" you get rid of it... lol

Gilgamoth · « **Reply #39 on:** November 02, 2009, 02:57:10 am »

I'm still waiting for my bock-ale to mature. It was still "green" beer a couple weeks ago, although it reminded me of Duvel beer. Going to try again in a week or two.

The cider I made ended up tasting a bit like apple-stem, which is probably what you get when you use cheap apple juice as the base (some are reputed to be very good, but not in the US). I think it was still a success in that it fermented and that the yeast settled out in the primary and secondary like crazy. There is very little trub in the bottles too, so you can pretty much pour out the whole thing into a glass. I'm going to try it again with quality local cider (and juice concentrate added), using campden tablets (sulfiting agent) and the same yeast type.

Gilgamoth · « **Reply #40 on:** November 19, 2009, 01:44:30 am »

The bock-ale turned out very nicely, it just needed more like 2 months to mature in the bottle. Very tasty.

I've got a new cider brewing as planned, made from Braeburn, Pink Lady, and Fiju ciders from a local farm. I added a little brown sugar and some of the juice concentrate.

Next up is either an oatmeal stout (non-dairy) or a strong brown ale.

Gilgamoth · « **Reply #41 on:** December 06, 2009, 07:35:32 pm »

Well... I decided to do a Hefeweizen instead of a dark ale. Its brewing right now, with a healthy-looking active yeast. I limited the boil time for most of the "weizen" dry extract I used to just 10-15 minutes, so its supposed to keep it to more of a golden color, rather than brown.

My "good" batch of cider is still in its secondary fermentation. I hope that one turns out to be good...

Gilgamoth · « **Reply #42 on:** December 13, 2009, 03:43:50 am »

Okay, I'm bottling my "good" cider tomorrow. I did a gravity check, and it was close to 1.000, which should make it a very dry cider. Just like with the previous batches I've made, at this stage, it has a pleasant apple aroma, but a harsh flavor (this one seems spicy and acidic, reflecting the apple varieties flavor). I'm thinking that this batch will turn out well once it settles and matures. I'm not even going to crack open a bottle until its aged 2 months.

The cider I made from mostly Tree Top brand juice has actually improved nicely after 2 months of bottle-aging. It still tastes kind of artificial though, which is appropriate, I guess.

For those of you who were not present in LOTRO when it occurred, my batch of Hefeweizen turned into a bit of a beer volcano.

I made it a bit too strong and filled the fermenter too full. (Yes, beer can be "too strong."

) There was foam and yeast byproduct (the dark heads) shooting into the airlock chamber and fizzing out the top of the airlock lid. I moved it into the bathtub in case it was going to blow out the whole airlock. Thankfully, it didn't blow its top and there was very little to clean up after. The force of the volcano seemed to expell or force to the side the dark yeast byproducts that some brewers skim from the top of the head during the initial fermentation. That should make the hefeweizen have a cleaner taste, so this may have all been for the best. I've already racked it into the secondary fermenter, so this should be about 3 weeks away from being ready to drink.

The slow maturation time of my previous two batches (and one of my current) led to my reserves running low (oh no!!!), so I need to pick a new beer for my next batch. Any suggestions? No? Looks like it'll be a porter then.

Gilgamoth · « **Reply #43 on:** December 21, 2009, 02:45:43 am »

I bottled my Hefeweizen the other day. It's supposed to mature quickly in just 2 weeks, which is the same amount of time it should take to fully carbonate. In its current state, it tastes a lot like Paulener brand Hefeweizen (not a good one in my opinion), but with more of a banana flavor. This probably won't live up to my favorite local hefe, the one from the Ram brewpub. Of course, beer tastes a lot better when its not flat and at room-temperature.

I used something like 50% wheat malt in this batch, which is fairly high. I think a lot of other hefes are more like 30% wheat. Those probably have less of the wheaty tobacco smoke kind of flavor.

Gilgamoth · « **Reply #44 on:** February 12, 2010, 11:27:56 pm »

Quick update: The hefeweizen actually turned out really well. It changed dramatically after being bottled for two weeks. It tasted better with a little lemon though, but that is normal for most hefes.

I brewed a strong porter, but used a yeast strain (Wyeast 1968) made for ESB that is notoriously tricky. I also dry-hopped it, so it took much longer to get the hop pellet bits to settle out of the beer. This was a strong one, so I'm still aging it. It had a strong diacytl odor (think fake movie theater butter), which was supposed to have been eliminated by the long fermentation time I gave it. I'm hoping that will mellow in time. Since this beer was well-hopped, it should actually age well. Its been in the bottle for about 2 weeks now. I'll give it a try within the next month or so.

I'm currently about to finish brewing a blackberry pale ale. Its lightly hopped and had 4 lbs of blended blackberries added in the secondary fermenter. Its in tertiary now. I'll bottle it this weekend. It should be drinkable as soon as its carbonated in the bottle...

Next up: definately an Amber Ale. This was my favorite so far and begs a revisit...

Gilgamoth · « **Reply #45 on:** February 16, 2010, 08:00:16 pm »

I tried to Bottle my blackberry pale ale last night... until something went wrong. The flow from my bottling wand (spring loaded stem that attaches to a hose connected to the bottling bucket) seemed pretty weak. I figured that the valve in the bucket was clogged, since the liquid seemed fairly clear in the hose. Nope. The wand itself was clogged. I have to remove it and fill some growlers I had at hand. Tried to fill some 12oz bottles, but it was too foamy. I ended up throwing out about 2 gallons since that part ended up being kind of pulpy. I think blending the blackberries was a mistake. I've got 5 growler jugs and 2 12oz bottles out of the batch, which was only about 4.5 gallons anyhow.

I tasted a bit, and it wasn't great. The aroma was very nice, but the flavor was on the sour side (from the berries, not from anything bad).

I also tried one of my porters, since it was carbonated by this point. It was okay. I really really want to make a NORMAL amber ale now. I've had enough with experiments for a while. I can make an amber ale that is ready to drink in just a month, better after 2 months...

Gilgamoth · « **Reply #46 on:** February 26, 2010, 09:17:33 pm »

Amber Ale:

5.5gal batch
7.0 lbs dry light malt extract
1.0 lbs cracked crystal malt (120 degree L)
1 packet safale US-05
2 oz Cascade Hop pellets (bittering)
1 oz Northern Brewer Hop pellets (bittering)
1 oz Cascade Hop pellets (aroma)

Thoughts? Should I add another grain adjunct for mouthfeel or something? $:-\$ I'm trying US-05 to see how it compares to WLP001 (White Labs American Ale Yeast).

Scylda · « **Reply #47 on:** April 17, 2012, 12:18:03 am »

A little bump on the homebrew thread for Carbine, and the links I promised him.

Here's one of the local shops for me, and their information page: http://www.mainbrew.com/pages/infosplit.html. I'd read through the "First Batch of Beer Rundown", that should give you a good idea of the extract-brewing process. They mention a Starter Kit. Most, if not all, homebrew shops I've been to have these, or something similar. It's going to have all the equipment you'll need, except maybe a giant pot for boiling, but they'll have suggestions for what kind of pot to use, and where to get it. Also, you might check on craigslist in your city, since at least here in Portland there is a constant churn of people buying equipment, trying it, and deciding it's not for them and unloading their equipment.

One suggestion if you're thinking about taking the plunge and starting: check at your local shop and see if they have a demo day, or if any friends do it, see if you can watch them brew a batch. Reading through the instructions, it might be intimidating, but actually seeing it is another thing altogether. It's much easier than you might think. I've shown friends how before, and their reaction is usually something along the lines of "That's it?"

Further down that info page is stuff about wine and mead. Both can be fun and easy. There is also information about all-grain brewing. This is what I do, but for the first eight years or so I homebrewed I did extract brewing. All-grain gives you a little bit more control over what styles you can make, but it's definitely not noob-friendly in terms of equipment or work/time investment. You can make some terrific brews using extracts, though!

And sorry about the power drains. Spiders gonna be spiders, though.

Gilgamoth · « **Reply #48 on:** April 18, 2012, 02:13:33 am »

(Hello!)

Seems like most starter kits give you a 5-gallon plastic or glass carboy and a 6-gallon plastic bucket with or without a spigot. I like to use 2 plastic (PET) carboys (one 5 and one 6-gallon) and just save the bucket with spigot for bottling. I don't recommend using those buckets for fermentation. The lids don't seal very well, and they aren't very reusable.

I rack the wort into a 6gal carboy for primary fermentation, rack to a 5gal for secondary, then rack to the 6gal bucket for bottling. High gravity 5-gallon batches seems to like the extra room during primary, less likely to get gunk stuck up in the airlock.

I convinced some work friends to brew a batch with me over here. I just bought a condo in Redmond (WA) and have some extra space for home-brewing now. I wish I had the space and gear for all-grain though. Someday...