Author Topic: Homebrew - Any tips? (Read 54558 times)

Gilgamoth · « **on:** June 27, 2009, 02:05:13 am »

I'm thinking about finally starting to make my own homebrew. I'm planning on hard cider (my favorite drink) since I'm only like a 5 minute drive away from a cider mill (they do custom batches by request). Do any of you out there brew your own beer, cider, or whatever? If you've got tips, I'll take 'em.

(Yes, it's legal to brew at home where I live, but not legal to transport it for some reason...)

Urragra · « **Reply #1 on:** June 27, 2009, 03:12:02 am »

Sooooo Cider tasting at Gilg's place!

Moz · « **Reply #2 on:** June 27, 2009, 03:36:11 am »

I had a friend who did home brewing, years ago. He used to put the carboy containers in a closet because the brewing needed to happen in a dark place, but he was brewing beer, I don't know if cider has the same light sensitivity. He also used to wash the bottles in the bathtub, in a bleach solution before bottling. So, some extra closet and tub space are the only tips I can think of. And some kitchen space, he used to have to use the stove to do something to the hops, I think he was boiling them. This is all going from memories of about 20 years ago.

I looked into homebrewing a few months back, and found some websites that have starter kits and books for sale.

Gilgamoth · « **Reply #3 on:** June 28, 2009, 01:25:49 am »

I think the ultra-violet light in sunlight might kill some of the yeast in the brewing process, thus avoiding sunlight with the carboy. With hard cider, you can pasteurize the cider prior to brewing via exposure to UV, as an alternative to normal pasteurization . I'm not sure if my local mill does UV or not. The UV treatment kills the natural yeast in the cider, letting you control the fermentation via added brewer's yeast.

I'm in WA state. For some reason, the State lets us brew at home, but doesn't let us transport it. Anyhow, should be a good state to brew cider, if you know what I mean. I'm about a 3 hour drive to apple country.

Scylda · « **Reply #4 on:** June 28, 2009, 08:43:05 pm »

I'm a pretty big homebrewer, mostly beer but I'll do a batch or two of mead a year, plus a few batches of cider over the years. This fall I'm thinking I'll have a another try at cider, maybe wine.

To address some of what's been said, I never use bleach. Bleach has to be rinsed off, which if nothing else, adds another step. I use Iodophor/BTF, which is a no-rinse-required sterilizer. In wine-making they use potassium metabisulfate, a.k.a. Camden tablets.

Light is never your friend, though. I always have carboys covered or in the dark. I only use blue or brown bottles, since the clear and green ones don't block the bad part of the spectrum.

From my reading into cidermaking, there seems to be a minor school of thought that you can use the yeast that naturally occurs on the fruit in addition to what you pitch--i.e. use raw unpasteurized cider. But it's been a while since I've looked into it.

Gilgamoth · « **Reply #5 on:** June 28, 2009, 09:56:39 pm »

Ooh, thanks for the tips. Some of that is new to me. My local homebrewer's shop sells non-bleach sanitizers. Would you still want to rinse it out afterwards though? Does tap water contaminate the carboy? I do have relatively hard water, but that's just minerals.

Scylda · « **Reply #6 on:** June 30, 2009, 03:23:21 am »

I don't rinse out the iodophor. For instance, while I'm soaking a bunch of bottles to bottle a batch of beer, I'll invert them and let them drain while I'm soaking another bunch. Bleach has a long contact time, whereas iodophor is just a few minutes. My place doesn't have a dishwasher, but if you have one I've heard that you can just run a full load of bottles through to sterilize them... no personal experience, though.

If you've got hard water, you may want to tweak it a little, depending on what style of beer you're going to make. For some styles to be "authentic", you're supposed to mimic the water qualities of the area of the world that style is from. I try, but I don't sweat it too much. Relax, don't worry, have a homebrew, etc.

One thing you may want to check is if there are demonstration days, either through a homebrew club in your area, or your local homebrew shop. Actually seeing someone go through the steps would be super-helpful. I know I made a lot of mistakes in the beginning that would have been easily avoided.

Gilgamoth · « **Reply #7 on:** June 30, 2009, 04:51:09 am »

Well, my current plan is just for making cider, not beer. (I'm assuming that the 1+ month brewing/aging cycle (35+ days) for the cider in my current plan will make me impatient and then try some faster small batches of beer though.) I'm currently looking at doing a 5-gallon batch, made from local unpasteurized cider with the natural yeast killed by campden tablets, sweetened and using a proofed yeast starter, fermented for about 3 weeks, syphoned into a 2nd bucket with extra sugar for another week, bottled, then aged for at least 1 week. From what I've read so far, that should give me a relatively dry sparkling cider at around 5-6%abv. If this works well, I'm going to do several concurrent batches and let them age for as long as I can stand. Cider doesn't last very long in my general vicinity...

Redmond City water = blech. If I was going to make beer, I would steal tap water from my parent's house. 20 minutes away from me, but the water is really really good over there. Its from an unpolluted aquafir.

I tend to obsess over details, initially gorging my mind on information, create a plan, then execute said plan. I'm in the create plan phase now. I'll probably buy most of the supplies tomorrow. I can't "relax, don't worry, have a homebrew" until long after I've started!

Thanks for the extra sanitizing tips.

Gilgamoth · « **Reply #8 on:** July 01, 2009, 10:06:11 pm »

Well, I've got the brewing supplies now. I still need to sanitize the gear, buy local cider, and proof the yeast. I'll see if I can post a pic of the setup once its in action.

Gilgamoth · « **Reply #9 on:** July 06, 2009, 04:04:22 pm »

Okay, I'm brewing now... won't be racking/bottling for 3 weeks. Maximum potential alcohol is approx 8.3% based on a hydrometer reading of 1.063 @ ~ 84 degrees F. Brew temperature will be approx 71, which is a bit high, but is around the mid-range for the yeast I used (Lalvin 71B-1122). I've read that cider likes temperatures of around 60 degrees. The wine yeast would barely even be active at that point. Maybe that's the point?

Update: There is an odor of fruit and yeast in my apartment now, almost as if I was baking some sort of desert 24/7. Its kind of nice...

Gilgamoth · « **Reply #10 on:** July 13, 2009, 01:42:06 am »

Okay... now I'm brewing a brown ale alongside my cider. Outside of it boiling over once and leaving a foaming sticky syrup residue ALLLLLL over my kitchen, everything is A-okay.

What I really want to do is make a maibock lager, but I think that will have to wait until the winter, as I don't have room for a 2nd refrigerator, just for lagering. $:-\$

Urragra · « **Reply #11 on:** July 13, 2009, 05:10:09 am »

*waits for samples*

Gilgamoth · « **Reply #12 on:** July 13, 2009, 02:54:41 pm »

Quote from: Urragra on July 13, 2009, 05:10:09 am

*waits for samples*

Gilgamoth would gladly supply, but WA state forbids the transportation of homebrew beyond the home except when in small quantity (1 pint???) and when being transported to a expedition, and only when a judge is the only one drinking said homebrew. A bill to change that particular state law passed the state house and senate. My governor hasn't signed it yet, AFAIK. (She made a better Attorney General, grumble grumble...)

Moz · « **Reply #13 on:** July 13, 2009, 03:29:48 pm »

Glad to hear the homebrewing is working out, in spite of the syrupy mess in the kitchen

Freaden · « **Reply #14 on:** July 13, 2009, 04:49:37 pm »

Where did you get your homebrew kit from Gilg?

Gilgamoth · « **Reply #15 on:** July 13, 2009, 08:34:41 pm »

Quote from: Gavin on July 13, 2009, 04:49:37 pm

Where did you get your homebrew kit from Gilg?

There is a shop nearby my place. Here is their webpage: http://mountainhomebrew.com/. A shop like that sells everything you need to make beer, except for water. You can buy online from a variety of stores, but when buying the basic brewing supplies, you should probably stop by a brick-and-mortar shop. I've also been using this book as a reference as I learn: http://www.amazon.com/Brewmasters-Bible-Gold-Standard-Brewers/dp/0060952164/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1247517102&sr=8-1

Also, I got my cider from here: http://www.pugetsoundfresh.org/farm_profile.asp?farmID=232 If any of you are in the Puget Sound region, you should try the Minea's fresh unpasteurized cider (pronounced like "mini", as in miniature). It's really good. You can buy it frozen as well, if its a long drive home.

Freaden · « **Reply #16 on:** July 13, 2009, 08:40:50 pm »

Thanks Gilg for the info, best of luck to ya!

Gilgamoth · « **Reply #17 on:** July 16, 2009, 07:07:24 pm »

Hmmm, transferred my brown ale to the secondary fermenter today. I swear it looks and smells just like Newcastle Brown Ale. Mmmm.

Not sure on the taste yet.

Lesson learned: plastic fermenting buckets are cheap and great for racking/bottling, but as a fermenter, the plastic lids are the weak spot. I'd say the buckets are good for a one-time use as a fermenter at most. Best to stick with glass or plastic carboys instead.

Update: It looks like my state's governor actually did something good for a change... she just signed the bill to change the law on homebrewing in WA. As of July 26, I'll be able to transport my homebrew outside of the home, limited to 20 gallons.

Gilgamoth · « **Reply #18 on:** July 25, 2009, 02:19:26 am »

Dang... I just took the "final gravity" reading for my cider. It puts the alcohol-by-volume at over 8%. I tasted some of it. It is extremely dry and a little yeasty.

Urragra · « **Reply #19 on:** July 25, 2009, 02:24:08 am »

Is that good?

Moz · « **Reply #20 on:** July 25, 2009, 03:02:29 am »

The over 8% part sounds good

Not sure about the yeasty part, though. I'm not even sure what yeast tastes like.

Gilgamoth · « **Reply #21 on:** July 25, 2009, 08:13:52 am »

Anything over 6% is a bit strong for cider and most beers in my opinion. (Strong Scotch Ale at 7% ABV is nice. Tasty and packs a punch!) The best cider I've ever had was labeled as 6% ABV, but I'm sure it was really less than that, probably closer to 3-4%.

When you make bread, you can smell the bread-maker's yeast up until it's baked and cooled down. As I understand it, the yeast should settle to the bottom of the bottle after fermentation is 100% complete. When you open the bottle of homebrew, you're supposed to pour it into a glass and leave the last 1/4-inch where the yeast is. When you drink a bottled heffeweisen, its really noticeable.

Hmm... it will be legal to share homebrew outside of my own home in WA State in about 22 hours.

Urragra · « **Reply #22 on:** July 26, 2009, 01:18:30 pm »

Well timed then sir!

Moz · « **Reply #23 on:** July 27, 2009, 03:17:16 pm »

Good news about the law being changed, hehe.

That's good to know, about the desired ABV percentage. My memory might be fuzzy, but when I was in the UK I recall having a clear cider that was 10%. Maybe that wasn't true cider, but more like the cider equivalent of a wine cooler. My favorite beer of all time is a British ale I had called Castle Eden. It wasn't terribly strong, but it had a wonderful flavor and was easy to drink. I was never able to find it here in the states, even in stores that stock a lot of imports.

What about stout, you guys like stout? I know a lot of people don't like it, but personally I enjoy it as one pint kind of thing.

Gilgamoth · « **Reply #24 on:** July 27, 2009, 04:34:33 pm »

Very strong and clear cider is common in England, I read. It's like their equivalent of malt liquor, in terms of cost and alcohol content. Sounds a lot better though, doesn't it?

I'd drink stouts more often, but they often have milk by-products in them. (I'm a fairly strict vegan.) Technically, that would be cream stouts I can't drink. I've had others that were alright.

The #1 beer for me has to be the Maibock though. Nothing beats a proper Maibock. When I was in my last year of college, I has joined the school's Kendo club (Japanese sword-fighting). For a college club, it was amazingly well-supplied and visited by some of the best teachers in the country (and world, if you don't count Asia). After each Wednesday practice, a group of us started to stay behind and practice some Iaido as well (sword-drawing techniques). One of the teachers stayed with us for that, then we all went to a local brew-pub. The beer and food was really really good there. We'd talk about kendo, academics, life, and anything else for hours and hours. The beer was so good, we'd drink too much and then have to wait for an hour or two outside in the spring nights, sobering up, talking even more. I learned more those evenings than I did in school. (My grades increased around 50% that year too!) The brew-pub only served a Maibock for a few weeks that year, right at the end of April (not quite May, but who's complaining?

). So many good times...