Home Brew Gurus

[drew]

So, santa (satan?) delivered a brew kit. Aside from reading what came with it, then reading a little more elsehwere, what advice/tips does anyone have?


Besides making meth or LSD.

[Rikadyn]

buy star-san, and dip everything that will even remotely touch the beer in it

[G'day Mate]

Try to keep the temperature at 20C (68F?) and give it two weeks to ferment.

Great hobby, home brewing. You can keep it simple and make decent, cheap beer or take it as far as you want and make awesome, complex (yet still cheap) brews.

[Tom Servo]

Seconding the star san recommendation, I also hear that Powdered Brewery Wash (PBW) is great for cleaning your gear between brews.

I also highly recommend a wort chiller, it's a pain in the ass to get boiling wort down to a low enough temp to put into the fermenter and pitch the yeast into.

Lessee, what else have we learned so far since we started doing it...

Make sure you have good yeast. We had a few of our first batches go bad, and I think it was due to crappy dry yeast. One of the beers didn't appear to ferment at all, and it was stored under pretty reasonable temperatures. Since we started going with liquid yeast bought from a local shop (it's especially easy to tell if the yeast are good with the Wyeast smack packs - if it doesn't inflate after smacking, then the yeast sucks), we haven't had the same issue.

I'd recommend getting a beer thief and a hydrometer for checking gravity. Helps to let you know when fermentation is done, though you don't want to do it too often because every time you drop that beer thief into your beer, it's another chance for contamination. Also, buy two hydrometers, it's really easy to break them so you want to have a spare on hand.

An auto-siphon will make your life easier.

Get something to carry any carboy in (there are straps that you can use to carry it). It'll be heavy when it's full of beer and prone to breaking if carried wrong.

Practice a few times with the bottle capper before you start bottling your beer, just so you're not practicing on full bottles.

Be very careful of boilovers when adding hops or late LME additions. We nearly had a boilover last time we added the hops, and previously we did have a full boilover after adding a late batch of LME (we had ambitiously/foolishly decided to try to grill outside while brewing inside and had left the pot unattended after adding the LME). If it starts to boil up, lower the temp and stir like a madman until it stabilizes. If it boils over, you will not have a fun time cleaning up the mess.

Put any containers of LME that you have in hot water prior to brewing. That stuff is thick and will be a pain in the ass to pour out unless you warm it.

Finally, there are videos on Youtube of just about every phase of the brewing process. I find them invaluable, just bring one up on my phone when I'm about to do the next step.

All that said, we still haven't had a single beer out of our "real" kit, we've only drank stuff we made with a 2-gallon "Mr. Beer" starter kit. We're brewing up two batches from Northern Brewer currently. The first was the official W00tstout 1.0 kit (Stone/Wil Wheaton/Drew Curtis of Fark.com's collaboration). It's been through primary fermentation and definitely passed the taste test as it was good enough to drink already, now it's sitting in secondary with oak chips that have been soaked in Knob Creek bourbon to simulate barrel aging and will be bottled in about a month. The second batch is due to be bottled next weekend, it's Northern Brewer's coffee stout, only with some extra liquid malt extract and yeast in an attempt to bump the ABV. We ended up with a gravity of about 1.092 to start, so that's a good sign that we'll be able to get it to a reasonably high ABV. You may want to wait a few weeks until we get a chance to drink some of what we've made, just to see if we have any idea of what the hell we're talking about.

[drew]

The kit came with a thief/hydrometer, just about everything (she got the mega-deluxe bells/whistle kit).

I'm still in the stage of setting it up (rather, finding a suitable place for it, being in an apartment, it's a little limited).

It came from Northern Brewer as well with thee two 6 gal bottles and bucket (and the biggest spoon I've seen in a house).

[pl8ster]

Hells yeah. I'm brewing my first batch on 1/1/15, also have a Northern Brewer kit. Looking forward to it.

[Tom Servo]

We've been extremely happy with the Northern Brewer stuff. Do not hesitate to hit up their online chat support, Michele has done that numerous times and they've been happy to guide us through modifications to existing recipes as well as just making sure everything is shaping up as we expect.

I may have to hit up Austin Brewing Supply though, they have a Jester King Black Metal kit that I'm itching to brew.

[drew]

I'm planning on starting with the Irish Ale kit she got me (they told her it's their most popular). After I (hopefully) get the hang of it, I may start Macguvering shit.

[G'day Mate]

There's a guy on YouTube called ... CraigTube I think? He has tonnes of great beginner videos, albeit with a lot of waffling aboot.

[Rikadyn]

PBW is great but if you don't follow the directions, you can get rings/film that will never come off

[Random]

I may start Macguvering shit.

No way.

:toast:

[drew]

:hard:

[pl8ster]

Finally brewed my first batch of Caribou Slobber Brown last night. I'm sure I screwed some things up, and I'm worried that my yeast is not yeasty enough - today at lunch it didn't look like it was doing too much, fermentation-wise. I also was so excited to pitch the yeast that I didn't mix/aerate the wort mix before the yeast went in. So we'll see...I'm just going to be excited if it's drinkable.

That being said, are stouts any more difficult to brew than other beer types? I want to brew stout!

[drew]

Ditto! I've been looking at Guinness Clones, but I think it's beyond my (non-existent) skills, at this point....

[G'day Mate]

The main thing about Guinness, IMO, is the creamy texture you get from those nitrogen bubbles, and as far as I know they're impossible to do for simple home brewers.

[Rikadyn]

it's not but you need a kegging set up

[G'day Mate]

Yep, I guess that's what I meant by "simple".

Another thing; it's good to see so many brewers here!

[Tom Servo]

FWIW, the stouts that I've done have not been irish stouts and don't really need the same creamy head thing. I didn't think they were too horribly complicated, the biggest thing was temperature management. But for the most part it was "put grains into bag and steep until water reaches 170", take grains out, add a bunch of malt extract, get to a boil, add hops, let boil for a long time, lower temperature really quickly, add to fermenter with water, shake around a bit, add yeast, and close the fermenter up. That said, I still haven't drank any, and our coffee stout tasted oddly of peanut butter, which is unfortunate since I don't like peanut butter.

[Rikadyn]

Yep, I guess that's what I meant by "simple".

Another thing; it's good to see so many brewers here!

simple keg system is like 120-200 dollars.

[pl8ster]

Last night when I got home from work, I had definite fermentation going on :up:

Would love to be one of those guys who has a kegerator setup, but my first task is going to be to procure some kind of wort chiller, because by the time I brew the next batch, it's not going to be 16F outside...

[SportWagon]

In the early 1990's I brewed several batches in 5 gallon (what looked like) pickle buckets. Just used the time recommendations. Never had any problems like Tom described, and mostly if not always the yeast was dried. Various British kits, all cheating with sugar IIRC. One was a Barley Wine, and it ended up definitely well north of 8% by hydrometer and human judgement.

I used plastic bottles with screw lids which greatly helped.

Basically I believed everything a local home-brew store told me. "Use this pink stuff for sterilization". Didn't ever seem to see either contamination or fermentation problems (might happen with insufficiently rinsed equipment?).

Once I tried using two kits of malt instead of any sugar. That resulted in a very mild mild. (Oh yeah, at one point I ended up with more kits than I really wanted because my father gave me some of his malt inventory after his diabetes set in).

Lets see. The spare hydrometer does sound like a good idea. And I believe I did crack a carboy once (before putting beer in it), but I don't really recall how.

P.S. Many commercial craft-brew stouts call themselves "Imperial Stout", and this seems to mean almost no head.

[Rikadyn]

Last night when I got home from work, I had definite fermentation going on :up:

Would love to be one of those guys who has a kegerator setup, but my first task is going to be to procure some kind of wort chiller, because by the time I brew the next batch, it's not going to be 16F outside...

Make one, they're fuck simple to make either a immersion or counterflow, though i'd say immersion is simpler (buy a coil of copper tubing, coil it around something that fits in your pot [my case was a keg] and and some hose connections viola chiller for at most 60 dollars)

[Rikadyn]

P.S. Many commercial craft-brew stouts call themselves "Imperial Stout", and this seems to mean almost no head.

low to low-normal carbonation is appropriate for the style

[KillerB]

I've not gotten to brew since I moved west, mostly because I don't have a location that I can temperature control like my old spare bathroom.

I also need a wort chiller because I can't just stick the wort in the snow anymore. :lol:

[speedpimp]

#YeastMode

[pl8ster]

Drew, are you going to rack yours to secondary fermentation? I was planning on it, but for various reasons am coming up on four (!!) weeks in primary and I've heard that some people don't bother with secondary at all, so...

Curious to hear others' thoughts on this as well.

[Rikadyn]

never bother with secondary, usually primary to keg, and keg to bottles if i'm bottling (have a Blichman Beergun for it as well). Only time i'd secondary is if it was going to be aged for a long period (3-8 months) of time to get off the yeast cake.

[pl8ster]

That's kind of what I've been reading. The Northern Brewer kit for my brown ale called for a two-week primary and a four-week secondary, so I'll just need to figure out exactly how long I'm going to keep it in primary.

[Rikadyn]

I'd bottle at 2 maybe 3, I secondaryed one beer, and when I tried to bottle carbonate it, it was flat because not enough yeast to create full pressure. basically unless it's a lager, where it needs the cold conditioning step, whenever you hit final gravity, it's good to bottle.

[Tom Servo]

I did a secondary for the pseudo bourbon-barrel aging (i.e., dropping some oak chips in bourbon overnight, then putting them in the secondary with the beer). Otherwise, yeah, I'm hearing it's not worth bothering with the secondary.

Now, here's my issue with my other, non-secondary'd beer: Carbonation just doesn't seem to be happening. It's coming up on four weeks now and it's still pretty flat. Just from poking around, it sounds like maybe the temps have been too low around here (in the 60s mostly) and that high gravity beer tends to take longer to carbonate anyway, but it's still a pain in the ass. At any rate, all the advice I'm getting is to just be patient, but is there a good way to tell if it's carbonated without opening the bottle?

[drew]

I made my first batch. It foamed up and bubbled out of the airlock pretty profusely, for the first 48 hours. Then the Kraussen [sp] receded, and it's stopped bubbling out of the airlock.


So, I think it's a flop.


Fuck.


Steeped grains for 20 minutes (per recipe)

brought to boil, added malt
brought back to boil, added first hops (60min)
Boiled for 60 min (added second hops at 30 min)
Cooled (as fast as I could) to 80º (recipe said 78, but I thought 2º wouldn't hurt much)
Sanitized everything while it was cooling, once it got to 80, put in carboy
added yeast
swirled around for a couple minutes, stuck airlock in stopper (sanitizer in airlock).


After 24 hours it was foamed up nice, and gurgling constantly. At 48 hours, foam was settled and little/no gurgling. After 72 hours, nothing on both accounts.

As far as secondary fermentation, I'm not sure it's worth the effort now, as I'm pretty sure it's shit in a bottle now.

So, again...fuck.

[pl8ster]

I don't know, mine didn't do anything at first and then the second day was gurgling, which it did for a few days, then the kraussen settled down and it's been that way for...about three weeks now.

I'm not going to pass any judgment until I've cracked open a bottle, and even then, I'm going to give myself some leeway since it's my first batch. I think half the fun will be adding it to Untappd :D

[Rikadyn]

It should be fine Drew.

Most fermentation activity occurs within the first 48hrs, after that it's slow breaking of the sugars into alcohol, though you may not see any activity it's likely that it is continuing (airlocks are not a good measure, only gravity readings are). Also the kraussen doing that is why eventually most of us switch to blow off tubes instead of them for primaries. Only takes one airlock getting plug and exploding bucket...

[drew]

yeah. I realized (after talking to my brother in law), that I didn't do a gravity reading at the start, so, whoops.

I suppose that'd be the best way to determine if it's "done". Guess we'll find out soon enough.

I think after this, I'll try some of the smaller 1-3gallong brew in a bag shit. It's a simple matter of storage, or lack there of with the 5 gallon batches.

[Rikadyn]

I did a secondary for the pseudo bourbon-barrel aging (i.e., dropping some oak chips in bourbon overnight, then putting them in the secondary with the beer). Otherwise, yeah, I'm hearing it's not worth bothering with the secondary.

Now, here's my issue with my other, non-secondary'd beer: Carbonation just doesn't seem to be happening. It's coming up on four weeks now and it's still pretty flat. Just from poking around, it sounds like maybe the temps have been too low around here (in the 60s mostly) and that high gravity beer tends to take longer to carbonate anyway, but it's still a pain in the ass. At any rate, all the advice I'm getting is to just be patient, but is there a good way to tell if it's carbonated without opening the bottle?

Not really, you could shake a bottle to try and get it to form a head inside, but then it'll never form as good of a head if at all when you pour it. The annoyance of carbonating is the main reason I switched to kegging and forced carbonation.

[Tom Servo]

Question for you kegging/forced carbonation folks - Can you then bottle some of it? Right now, we're really hoping our coffee stout gets fizzy in time for my father's birthday in 2 1/2 weeks. We want to be able to give him bottles of it. If you can bottle what comes out of a forced carbonated keg, we could do that with our wootstout that we've been working on for a few months and have that ready in time.

[G'day Mate]

I often give the odd bottle away under the instruction "don't open it until two months from now!"

But to answer your question, yes you can. You can get a special thingy for doing it, or check out what this guys says (http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/we-no-need-no-stinking-beer-gun-24678/).

[drew]

Just transferred it to the secondary fermenter and it Started bubbling through the stoppper, so, maybe.


The bottom of the first one was an unholy mess. When I added some water and loosened it up, it got dumped into the toilet.

I have to say, I've seen Taco Bell/Jager Bomb aftermath that were less vomit-inducing to look at that what came out of the bottle.

No it's the waiting game. two weeks, I'll bottle it, and see what the fuck happens.

[Rikadyn]

Question for you kegging/forced carbonation folks - Can you then bottle some of it? Right now, we're really hoping our coffee stout gets fizzy in time for my father's birthday in 2 1/2 weeks. We want to be able to give him bottles of it. If you can bottle what comes out of a forced carbonated keg, we could do that with our wootstout that we've been working on for a few months and have that ready in time.

I'm not sure anyone but me here actually kegs, but yea you can. If you keg depending on how you intend to fill,I recommend a Blichman Beer Gun, but it's not the cheapest option out there but it's one handed operation. The other way is just put a piece of tubing over the tip of a picnic spout or other faucet and run it into the bottom of the bottle. you might want to over carb just a bit doing that method.

[Tom Servo]

Nice little response to Budweiser's Super Bowl ad:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCgkTeuJkR8

[G'day Mate]

Heh, I liked Budweiser's ad - I thought it poked good-spirited fun at us beer-wankers.

[G'day Mate]

Behold my new invention, the "Bottle Drowning Machine":

http://photos-f.ak.instagram.com/hphotos-ak-xaf1/t51.2885-15/10865011_612028048897397_726888459_n.jpg

[Tom Servo]

One amusing thing about the Budweiser ad: They just bought Elysian brewing. Who make a peach pumpkin ale. Which the commercial made fun of.

[pl8ster]

Bottled my first batch last night, couldn't resist leaving one uncapped to have uncarbonated at room temp. Actually not bad at all, really surprised how well it turned out given the issues I had at the front end and the fact that I took it upon myself to go off-script with my first batch (skipped secondary fermentation, left it for 5 weeks).

So it looks like the first batch from Plaid Brewing Industries LLC is a moderate success.

And Drew - I bought (36) 22oz bottles from my local shop, thinking (correctly) that filling a bazillion 12oz bottles was going to be a giant PITA. Plus, I started stockpiling 12oz bottles too late in the process and wasn't going to have enough of them at my disposal. Perhaps best of all, no labels to worry about this way. Anyway, it turns out I only needed 25 of the 36 bottles, but I do plan on giving some away, so I'll be ready to go for next time.

All in all, super stoked. Going to resist the urge to crack open one of the sealed bottles in the next two weeks.

[drew]

I think I'll be bottling tomorrow. Recipe said one week in primary, 1-2 in secondary. It will be about 8-9 days in each.


Still no sure if it's shit yet. So, we'll see.


As for the bottles, she got me 48 12oz bottles with the kit. So we'll start with that. :)

[Tom Servo]

I'm still waiting for carbonation on my end. The weather is supposed to be *much* warmer for the rest of the week, so the bottles will really be getting up above the 60s for the first time since I bottled them. I'm hoping that's going to kickstart the process for both the one that's now about 5 weeks old and still not fizzy as well as the one we just bottled this weekend.

[pl8ster]

I'm wondering about that as well. I'm pretty limited in where I can keep my bottles this time of year since it's so cold outside and much of the house stays pretty warm because of the woodstove. I've got the bottles in a closet that stays at a pretty constant 56-58F which is a little cooler than I'd like, but the basement is closer to 50 and the [closed for the season] Man Den is colder than that.

But honestly, I'm so thrilled that I created drinkable beer that I'll be glad to enjoy it flat if I have to.

[Tom Servo]

Everyone's been telling me you've got to have the bottles up in the 70s or so for carbonation to actually take effect. I definitely know the feeling, I've had three of our coffee stouts despite the fact that they are flat as all hell.

[Rikadyn]

yea to carbonate it needs to at least be the same temperature that the yeast needed during primary

[G'day Mate]

Keeping it above 20 is best as it will take much longer to carbonate at lower temperatures, but it will eventually happen anyway.

[G'day Mate]

By the way, if you guys are looking for a friendly community where they don't mind people asking the same dumb questions over and over then the Coopers forum (https://www.coopers.com.au/coopers-forum/) is a good place.

[pl8ster]

I could bring the bottles upstairs to carbonate, but the temp up there fluctuates between 65-75, depending on whether the woodstove is going or not. Would that be too warm, or would the fluctuations be unwanted?

[Rikadyn]

at this point it's not that big of a deal, warmer will work faster, there shouldn't be enough fermentation in carbonating to worry about the problems

[Tom Servo]

We've been hit with a pretty strong Santa Ana out here in LA, tied our record high temperature for this date today. I put the boxes of bottled beer near the south-facing windows, covered, so they'd get warm but not getting direct sunlight.

I gave them a little roll and, lo and behold, when I held them up in front of the sunlight there were lots of little bubbles rising up through them. I think they're finally carbonating, and I could not be happier.

[G'day Mate]

I'm making mead ...

http://photos-h.ak.instagram.com/hphotos-ak-xap1/t51.2885-15/10326652_582779658525399_1977318389_n.jpg

[drew]

I'm bottling tomorrow. It got put on hold Monday, because I couldn't find a good way to drain the sanitized bottles. So I ordered a 48-bottle tree.

Slope, meet slippery...

[Rikadyn]

technically i just poor the sanitizer out as i am filling bottles. like dump 3, fill cap repeat

[G'day Mate]

A vinator is a handy thing too

[drew]

Bottled, tastes like beer, so we'll see.

Ended up with 41 bottles. One partial at the end of the bucket, and one busted neck while capping..

[pl8ster]

On the DVD, they kept saying "don't fear the foam" so I took their advice; I filled the carboy when there were still Star-San bubbles in there, ditto with the bottles.

How did you bust a neck? Hulk smash?

[drew]

Was testing the force of capping. Apparently, I found its limit. Broke it nice and clean though, as opposed to exploding all over the counter in a flood of beer and blood.

I may go the Grolsch style on the next batch. Yes, they're a bitch to clean, but at least I know they're sealed. I'm wondering how many I bottled today won't have shit for fizz in 2 weeks.All the caps have the indent from the capper, so we'll see.

Ditto on the foam. If nothing else, this was a learning first experience. I think I know a lot better ways to do something the next time, as well ad maybe buying some additional kit to make life easier.


I think the biggest of which is the 22oz grolsch bottles and smaller batches. Sanitizing 48 bottles in a bucket can suck my ass.

[pl8ster]

Ugh, 48 bottles. Time is money, and I decided it was worth it to save time sanitizing and not having to worry about labels by buying 22 oz. bottles. I used 24 of them, which wasn't too bad from a capping standpoint. Can you buy the Grolsch bottles, or are you going to start drinking them now? You'll need about 24 of them for the next batch :D

[drew]

Researching that. Pretty sure you can just buy that style of bottle.

The problem is, we're in an apartment, so real estate isn't really available.Two cases will be hard enough to deal with. I see a small secondary fridge purchase in the near future, which we also have no room for.

[Rikadyn]

you can buy them they're fucking expensive

16 http://www.homebrewing.org/16-oz-Amber-EZ-Cap-Swing-top-bottle-case-of-12_p_4126.html
1l http://www.homebrewing.org/1-liter-Amber-EZ-Cap-Swing-top-bottle-case-of-12_p_4131.html

[pl8ster]

Damn, my 22oz bottles were about half of what those 16oz bottles are selling for. Worth putting the caps on myself for sure.

[SportWagon]

I tended to use litre plastic bottles. Sometimes even the odd 2 litre empty pop or beer bottle. Bur the occasional 1/2 litre, too.

1 litre = 33.814 US oz = 35.1951 Imp oz

[Rikadyn]

if i was home i'd grab this:

http://www.homebrewing.org/Set-of-Four-5-Gallon-Pin-Lock-Kegs-Used_p_3179.html

[Random]

If you can find this (https://untappd.com/b/gordon-biersch-brewing-dunkles-25th-anniversary/704325) locally, it's another tasty source for the "self-capping" battles.

[Tom Servo]

It's been about six weeks since we bottled one of our beers and it's still flat as all hell. The other one has been bottled for two, kept in the same conditions, and it's already carbonated. Does it seem reasonable to dump all of it back into a bottling bucket with some priming sugar and rebottle? I'm wondering if we fucked something up when we did it the first time, as it also doesn't taste sweet at all, like the sugar hasn't been processed.

[Rikadyn]

high contamination risk in doing that, plus you'll introduce hella oxygen into it making it stale

possible causes:
1)not enough yeast in suspension: this is what got me on my belgian quad, i did a secondary like they recommended and it cleared, but took all the yeast with it in the process and never carbonated.
2)capping leak: not able to build pressure in bottle to carbonate.

[Tom Servo]

Rats. Well, I wouldn't think it'd be a yeast issue. The beer that's flat was only done in primary in a fermenter with a spigot, bottled straight from that. The other beer that's actually carbonating fine was transferred to a secondary and spent two months in there, then siphoned back into a bottling bucket and bottled from there. Also, as far as capping leaks, I'd figure that that would only happen to *some* bottles, not all of them (or at least every one we've tried so far, but really none of them are showing any real signs of life).

[pl8ster]

That sucks. I think dumb luck was on my side with my first batch, because the only thing I'd change about it would be to have it less cloudy, but I am just geeked over how well it turned out otherwise. Carbonation is a go, but I'm leaving it in the warm-ish upstairs for another day or two in case I can get a little bit more carbonation going.

[drew]

My two weeks in bottle is up in a week. Remains to be seen if it's going to be flat.

[Rikadyn]

have you opened and checked one? Sometimes they don't necessarily foam in bottle (for various reasons)

[Tom Servo]

Yep, I've opened 3 or 4. Basically each week after the first couple I've taken one out on Friday evening, put it in the fridge to cool, then drink it on Saturday.

The first week they were dead flat. The second week there's the tiniest hiss when I open the bottle, but it might as well be completely flat, and there's been no change over the past few weeks on that front.

[Rikadyn]

yea then problem is most likely yeast based. sucks but it happens.

[Rikadyn]

Idea: you could, and I in now way am saying you should, nor am i telling you how easy it would be, just distill it and have whiskey...

[G'day Mate]

From my Instagram (@davidbrewsbeer) ...

https://scontent-sjc.cdninstagram.com/hphotos-xaf1/t51.2885-15/s306x306/e15/10261296_561957307256927_2116105870_n.jpghttps://scontent-sjc.cdninstagram.com/hphotos-xap1/t51.2885-15/s306x306/e15/10326652_582779658525399_1977318389_n.jpghttps://scontent-sjc.cdninstagram.com/hphotos-xaf1/t51.2885-15/s306x306/e15/10611160_1578680115694158_1063016506_n.jpghttps://scontent-a-sjc.cdninstagram.com/hphotos-xap1/t51.2885-15/s306x306/e15/10724232_361242144034448_1135944460_n.jpghttps://scontent-sjc.cdninstagram.com/hphotos-xfa1/t51.2885-15/s306x306/e15/10802998_383942081760904_1553012746_n.jpghttps://scontent-sjc.cdninstagram.com/hphotos-xaf1/t51.2885-15/s306x306/e15/10808536_670501963070789_2060054852_n.jpghttps://scontent-a-sjc.cdninstagram.com/hphotos-xaf1/t51.2885-15/s306x306/e15/10954062_1388260431487061_1310361303_n.jpghttps://scontent-a-sjc.cdninstagram.com/hphotos-xfa1/t51.2885-15/s306x306/e15/11007869_850838938296206_730641506_n.jpghttps://scontent-a-sjc.cdninstagram.com/hphotos-xap1/t51.2885-15/s306x306/e15/1168879_657169870986601_727192437_n.jpghttps://scontent-sjc.cdninstagram.com/hphotos-xap1/t51.2885-15/s306x306/e15/1799815_245509028961879_106190151_n.jpg

[Tom Servo]

For all of my complaints about my other brew not coming out right, we finally cracked open the one that we brewed before it but took a good 4 1/2 months to come to fruition. It's absolutely delicious.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xfp1/v/t1.0-9/10941510_1061459637204226_8162964244470660803_n.jp g?oh=594df40af227b8313f0d47de3739bcc6&oe=55B833F5&__gda__=1435201957_e848447f40726a6e7d0338e6107d2d8 e

[SportWagon]

Looks good and right!

[drew]

Sweet.

I'm in the dilemma of having limited space to make brew. So it took 6 months to make 2 cases, and 6 days to drink it....

I don't have room for "staggered" batches, at least the 5 gal. I may start on some smaller all-grain BIAB, then I can have a couple doing their thing.

[pl8ster]

I'm still on my 'try all the beers' thing when the budget allows, so I've been going through mine slowly. And even though it may be summer by the time I get another batch going, I'm still going to brew a dry Irish stout.

[drew]

I found a Guinness clone, but at this stage, it reads like the recipe to fucking alchemy.


I'll stick with the pre-made stuff for a while until I feel like getting all Rambo on the shit.

[G'day Mate]

What's the recipe? Might be able to dumb it down a bit ...

[drew]

Guinness Draught clone

(5 gallons/19 L, all-grain)
OG = 1.038 FG = 1.006
IBU = 45 SRM = 40 ABV = 4.2%

Guinness Draught, the kind found in widget cans or bottles, is an Irish dry stout. Guinness has a sharper roast character and more hop bitterness than Murphy's. The key to making a great clone is using roasted unmalted barley (or black barley) with a color rating around 500 °L. Do not use roasted barley (300 °L), roasted malt (500 °L) or black patent malt (500 °L). The yeast strains listed below are reputed to be from Guinness. Make sure the dark malt is crushed adequately, but not turned to powder or dust.
Ingredients

5.0 lbs. (2.3 kg) English 2-row pale ale malt
2.5 lbs. (1.1 kg) flaked barley
1.0 lb. (0.45 kg) roasted barley (500 °L)
12 AAU East Kent Goldings hops (60 min) (2.4 oz./68 g of 5% alpha acids)
Wyeast 1084 (Irish Ale) or White Labs WLP004 (Irish Ale) yeast (2 qt./2 L yeast starter)
0.75 cups corn sugar (for priming)
Step by Step

Heat 2.66 gallons (10 L) of water to 161 °F (72 °C) and stir in crushed grains and flaked barley. Mash at 150 °F (66 °C) for 60 minutes. Stir boiling water into grain bed until temperature reaches 168 °F (76 °C) and rest for 5 minutes. Recirculate until wort is clear, then begin running wort off to kettle. Sparge with 170 °F (77 °C) water. Boil wort for 90 minutes, adding hops with 60 minutes left in boil. Cool wort and transfer to fermenter. Aerate wort and pitch yeast. Ferment at 72 °F (22 °C). Rack to secondary when fermentation is complete. Bottle a few days later, when beer falls clear. If beer is kegged, consider pushing with a nitrogen blend (see the Jan-Feb 2005 issue for more information on this).
Guinness Draught clone

(5 gallons/19 L, extract with grains)
OG = 1.038 FG = 1.006
IBU = 45 SRM = 40 ABV = 4.2%
Ingredients

14.5 oz. (411 g) Muntons Light dried malt extract
2.66 lbs. (1.21 kg) Muntons Light liquid malt extract (late addition)
1 lbs. 6 oz. (0.62 kg) English pale ale malt (3 °L)
10 oz. (0.28 kg) flaked barley
1.0 lb. (0.45 kg) roasted barley (500 °L)
12 AAU East Kent Goldings hops (60 min) (2.4 oz./68 g of 5% alpha acids)
Wyeast 1084 (Irish Ale) or White Labs WLP004 (Irish Ale) yeast (2 qt./2 L yeast starter)
0.75 cups corn sugar (for priming)
Step by Step

Place crushed grains and flaked barley in a steeping bag. In a large kitchen pot, heat 4.5 qts. (4.3 L) to 161 °F (72 °C) and submerge grain bag. Let grains steep for 45 minutes at around 150 °F (66 °C). While grains are steeping, begin heating 2.1 gallons (7.9 L) of water in your brewpot. When steep is over, remove 1.25 qts. (1.2 L) of water from brewpot and add to the "grain tea" in steeping pot. Place colander over brewpot and place steeping bag in it. Pour diluted grain tea through grain bag. Heat liquid in brewpot to a boil, then stir in dried malt extract and hops and begin the 60 minute boil. With 15 minutes left in boil, turn off heat and stir in liquid malt extract. Stir well to dissolve extract, then resume heating. (Keep the boil clock running while you stir.) At the end of the boil, cool wort and transfer to fermenter. Add water to make 5 gallons (19 L), aerate wort and pitch yeast. Ferment at 72 °F (22 °C). Rack to secondary when fermentation is complete. Bottle when beer falls clear.

Wang, Dang, Sweet Guinness Tang

To get that "Guinness tang," try this. After pitching the yeast to your stout, siphon 19 oz. of pitched wort to a sanitized 22 oz. bottle. Pitch bottle with a small amount of Brettanomyces and Lactobacillus. Cover bottle with aluminum foil and let ferment. When beer in bottle is done fermenting, pour it in a saucepan and heat to 160 °F (71 °C) for 15 minutes. Cool the beer and pour and pour it back in the bottle. Cap bottle and refrigerate. Add to stout when bottling or kegging.

[Rikadyn]

wyeast 1084 is my favorite yeast

[G'day Mate]

The second recipe is the one you should go with. Are you comfortable steeping grains and boiling hops for an hour? Here's how an extract brew day goes for me ...

1. Heat water in a big pot to 70C for steep
2. Steep grains for 30-45 minutes
3. Remove grain bag and sparge (ie. "rinse" them so that goodness-water runs down into your pot)
4. Fill pot to 10L and bring to boil
5. Add liquid or dried malt extract, be careful not to cause a boil-over, swear a lot when it boils over anyway
6. Do hop additions over the next hour (or however long is called for)
7. Cool pot down a bit in the sink then strain into fermenter and add ice to cool it down further (I'm the only one I know who does this but it works. You need a lot of ice though)
8. Top up and pitch yeast
9. Begin patience phase

If all that stuff sounds alright then you should be ok with that Guinness recipe. If any of the steps don't make sense let me know.

450g of Roast Barley is quite a lot too, so I imagine it will be a very stout stout and not like the guinness you get out of a can with the nitrogen widget.

[pl8ster]

Screw that, I'm just going to go with Northern Brewers' Dry Irish Stout extract kit and see how that turns out. I'm still in the 'holy sh*t, I can make beer!' phase and am not ready to get all mad scientist yet.

Plus, if I'm being honest, regular Guinness isn't even my favorite stout :eek:

[drew]

You goddamn communist.

[G'day Mate]

http://theliquorshack.com.au/content/images/thumbs/0003748_coopers_best_extra_stout_375ml_bottles.png

[pl8ster]

Well, Guinness Foreign Extra Stout might actually be my favorite. But this one is almost as good (though like the Guinness FES, I can't get this locally anymore either):

http://www.heritageukhampers.co.uk/image/cache/data/OHACEXT-520x520.jpg

And I'd love to try that Coopers.

[G'day Mate]

Incidentally, the best stout I've ever made was very simple. Just these two fellas filled to 23L (use both yeast packets):

https://distilleryimage1-a.akamaihd.net/fc9ea39aa3f811e2b45022000a1fb3cd_7.jpg

If you give it a chance to age for six months or more then it's amazing.

[Tom Servo]

You're all wrong. This is the best stout.

http://www.theperfectlyhappyman.com/uploads/mikkeller-beer-geek-brunch-weasel.jpg

[pl8ster]

I saw that at my local but it was something like $10 for a 12 oz. bottle. Worth it?

I mean, I wince when I pay $4 for a 12 oz. bottle of Green Flash Double Stout, and that's another one near the top of my list. But $10, daaaaamn.

[Tom Servo]

I consider it 100% worth it, but then again, I don't buy it often. It's like a special occasion beer for me.

That said, when we went to Stockholm last summer, it turned out our hotel was 3 blocks from the Mikkeller taproom there. We probably went twice a day.

My other option that's significantly lower in price is Speedway Stout (who, incidentally, just did a collaboration with Mikkeller):

http://www.beerfm.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/AleSmith-Speedway-Stout.jpg

[G'day Mate]

Well, it turns out the stove in my new house is spectacularly shit. Tried to bring 12L of water to the boil to test my suspicions and sure enough it took nearly an hour and then couldn't hold the boil when I took the lid off.

Time to get an urn :cool:

[drew]

Yep, I think I may get the propane burner plate and do it that way. Which will also make it so that I have to do the boil/possible messy work on the patio, and not turn my kitchen into flypaper.

[Random]

The side benefit to the big burners is that you can do *real* Chinese cooking on them. Standard stove burners don't (reportedly) get hot enough.

At least that's what the Intertubes tell me.

[G'day Mate]

In my near future ...

http://www.unicornkitchenware.com.au/img/product/247x175_52foodequipment.jpg

[drew]

The side benefit to the big burners is that you can do *real* Chinese cooking on them. Standard stove burners don't (reportedly) get hot enough.

At least that's what the Intertubes tell me.


That too. I love stir fry, but an electric stove negates the purchase of a proper wok.

[G'day Mate]

Got the urn plus another two fermenters :D (one is just for bulk priming, or perhaps racking and crashing)

Good times ahead. Currently at under 50% capacity with only 113 bottles of 8 different types of beer in stock. The horror!!!

[Tom Servo]

My big challenge now is to figure out how to brew while trying to reuse as much water as possible (especially when an immersion chiller is involved).

Also, flat beer is still flat. Really gotta do something about that.

[drew]

Want me to bottle up rain water and send to you? :)

I know things are grim there in that regard. We get a t-storm every day between now and October...

[Rikadyn]

My big challenge now is to figure out how to brew while trying to reuse as much water as possible (especially when an immersion chiller is involved).

Also, flat beer is still flat. Really gotta do something about that.

you might need to consider a pump and second immersion chiller. pump water from vat through beer, into 2nd chiller in vat of ice water, and then back into primary vat.

[Tom Servo]

Yeah, I was also just considering making sure to hang on to whatever water we run through it to save for cleaning or use for other purposes. Just need a few buckets.

[G'day Mate]

Next ...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S94Lhp-bv8M

[drew]

I just watched that video (not realizing you linked it here), haha.

That said, my brother in law got me an immersion chiller. All I can say is, damn. Sink/water/ice was about 40 minutes to high 70 deg (20C). Chiller hooked up to the washer spigot: 12-15 minutes.

Got a batch of Rogue Oatmeal Stout going now.

[G'day Mate]

Only problem with chillers are that they're expensive, so I've bought a 25L water container in the meantime so that I can "no-chill" my first batch.

[drew]

My immersion chiller was a "freebie". I donated my old PC to my B-i-L, and got four boxes of home brew supplies in return.

3 gallon carboy (for smaller batches), some brown "Grolsch" bottles (500ml), and an all-grain kit for an Oberon Clone.

The stout is still gurgling away pretty good at the moment

[Tom Servo]

Just weird aside. Asked around for some advice on our *still* flat coffee stout (it's been bottled for a good 4 months now). One of the ideas was to put in carbonation tabs and see what happens. So, we popped all of the tops, dropped tabs in, and recapped. We'll see what happens. What was weird is that one of the 22s, out of all the bottles we had, was fully carbonated. Not crazily carbonated like it got all of the priming sugar, it was just perfect. Every other bottle was flat.

[Rikadyn]

Just weird aside. Asked around for some advice on our *still* flat coffee stout (it's been bottled for a good 4 months now). One of the ideas was to put in carbonation tabs and see what happens. So, we popped all of the tops, dropped tabs in, and recapped. We'll see what happens. What was weird is that one of the 22s, out of all the bottles we had, was fully carbonated. Not crazily carbonated like it got all of the priming sugar, it was just perfect. Every other bottle was flat.

that's probably what happened then, didn't mix/dissolve the sugar well enough

[G'day Mate]

Tom, are you sure your bottles were sealed correctly? What sort are they? PET, swing-top, crown-seal or twist-top?

[G'day Mate]

In the meantime, I just ordered 5kg of marris otter malt, 100g of citra hops and US-05 yeast. Time to come up with a hop schedule for my first all-grain brew :)

http://cdn.badassdigest.com/uploads/images/26997/hulk_color_header__index.jpg

[Tom Servo]

I'm guessing crown seal, though I'm definitely not up on that terminology. They're just standard, non-twist off bottles that we've capped with a capper.

What gets me is that if it didn't mix, I'd expect that one bottle of a five gallon batch to have been a full-on bottle bomb. Also, the seal thing seems weird since one batch of beer came out great and the other didn't, and they were bottled in the same bottles with the same caps and the same capper. *shrug*

[drew]

Ok, so, stout is bottled (second batch over all).

Two peculiarities:

1: I used bigger/Grolsch style bottles (16oz/500ml), my 5 gallon batch gave me 28 of those and 1 12oz bottles. Adding it up, there appears to have been a loss of 160oz? Oddly enough, the 41 12oz bottles out of the last batch is nearly identical in net/final volume. Is this normal?

2: After bottling and cleaning the bucket, I noticed a bunch of sugar sludge (from the priming sugar). Can I expect a batch of flat? I'm afraid I fucked that up, because I didn't mix it with the beer well enough from the fermentor.


Fingers crossed. The gravity test put it at a final od 1.01 (OG of 1.07). So, in theory, I have some 8% stout. It tasted pretty good from the gravity test tube. I guess we'll know in two weeks.

[Tom Servo]

An 8% stout sounds quite nice right now!

[G'day Mate]

First BIAB is under way :)

[G'day Mate]

So, here's what I learnt from my first BIAB (first all-grain in fact) and no-chill experiences yesterday:

1. I lost a lot of temperature when adding grains!

Yup. Went from 70.5 down to 65.5, which was more than expected however I was taking care and adding them pretty slowly. Having said that, pre-grains it was easy to stir up the water to get a more accurate temperature reading, but post grains I may have been measuring from a colder area. Next time I'll probably start at 72.5 and take more measurements.

2. My old quilt cover did a great job at holding the mash temperature

Hooray!! Next …

3. My pulley system was invaluable - I would have made a hell of a mess without it

I'm referring to a pulley I suspended above the urn which I used to lift the grain bag out. It meant that I could lift it with one-hand while I got the strainer underneath it with the other. And in another incredible feat of foresight, I use this big wooden box thing as a table and usually operate with it upright but this time turned it on its side. If I hadn't done that then there wouldn't have been enough clearance.

4. You can make a hop spider without making a hop spider

I decided to try and fashion a hop spider out of a new grain bag (which tuned out to be three new grain bags) that I'd recently bought, but ran out of time. Then I realised that I could just pull a small bit of the open end of the bag through each of the urn's handles and use those resealable clip things to stop them coming back through again. Another win! Might put marbles or a spoon or something in it next time though … maybe. Maybe not. Will need to wait and see on that one.

5. Be prepared for insects

Once it got rolling a lot of the local bees showed up as I was brewing outside. I also pulled the most evil looking fly Iv'e ever seen out of the urn with about 40 mins left. Don't know how long he was in there for, but I'm sure he died a happy death.

6. Whirlpooling works really well

I believe the jury is still out regarding whether it's entirely necessary, however I did just one whirlpool 20 minutes after flameout (which is when the hop bag came out), left it 10 minutes and was greeted with a nice, neat little pile of crap (hot break?) at the bottom of the urn.

7. I don't think there's as much in the urn as there appears to be

When adding the water - which was in the form of those 10L casks - I drew marks at the 20 and 30 litre marks. At the end of the boil it looked like there was 27L left, which is exactly the capacity of my 25L cube, however a lot less than that went in. I thought perhaps the spreadsheet (IanH from Aussie Home Brewer created this - it's great) had accounted for too much boil-off when predicting 24L at the end of it but perhaps it was spot on. I'll know the answer to how much tomorrow night, but either way I'm going to aim for either much larger (2L extra) or occasional much smaller (to fit in the 21L cube I have which holds 22L) batches.

8. Foam in your cube is annoying …

… because when you squeeze the air out it gets all over your legs.

9. None of it was very hard

If you've done extract then you can do BIAB. As usual though, I had asked a lot of questions beforehand and so drew on a good amount of information and others' experiences.

10. Oh yeah, that is except for squeezing the cube at the end of it; that bit was hard.

I reckon with the amount of cycling I do I'd have pretty strong legs but the last step was an absolute bitch. I might invest in some kind of strap/ratchet system to make it easier.

[G'day Mate]

Ever watched one of those tediously boring home brew videos on YouTube?

Well, be bored no more! I've just started a channel called Fast Homebrew and here's my first one:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jCAX2_5alY

[G'day Mate]

I'm having fun with this :)


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Phf5Mhy4dh4

[drew]

Dave, dump the wort into a 5 gallon (19L) drink cooler (one of those igloo things) a few degrees higher than your target temp.


I had to steep mine for 15 minutes at 160 (71C), I put it in the cooler at 165. After 15 minutes, it came out at 160.

The blanket/kettle thing looses too much too fast.


Another alternative is to turn on the oven and set it at it's lowest temp (in US, it's usually 200F/93F). For a longer steep, this may be the way to go.

[G'day Mate]

Are you talking about my strike water temp? I only actually lost 1 degree during the mash, but yeah, pouring the 5kg of grains into the urn cost a bit more than expected.

[G'day Mate]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0z35MooyoU

[SportWagon]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oK1yG7LtHLU&feature=youtu.be

Yup, still whoring out my homebrew videos :D

4 minutes tests the attention span a bit.

I haven't watched with sound yet.

So was that an emergency hops run you needed to make in your car part-way through?

[G'day Mate]

Yeah, four minutes is pushing the boundaries for "fast homebrew", but if you could still watch it without sound that's ok.

The emergency run was for juniper berries :)

[G'day Mate]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCobDlmDBtg

[G'day Mate]

Better put this here too ...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0CLR9VKMPY

Oh, and this one which I forgot earlier it seems ...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAg_Ig77jm8

[G'day Mate]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMG0yYLswao

[Tom Servo]

Just brewed up a batch of Jester King's "Black Metal Stout". For once, original gravity was actually just about perfect (expected was 1.082, I had 1.084).

I also made a yeast starter for it. Starter seemed a little lethargic. We had set aside the time to brew though, so we figured that's just how a starter is. Now that it's two days into fermenting and there appears to be zero activity, I'm pretty sure that yeast is dead.

I'm assuming there's no real problem with just getting some new yeast, making a starter overnight, and then pitching it in the morning?

[drew]

I pitch it every morning.

[G'day Mate]

I Googled it (http://jesterkingbrewery.com/introducing-jester-king-black-metal-imperial-stout) ...


Black Metal Imperial Stout, a.k.a. Suds of Northern Darkness, a.k.a. Iron Sword, a.k.a. El Martillo del Muerte. Black Metal is a cruel and punishing beer fermented by the sheer force of its awesome will. We are pretty sure that Kreator wrote the song “Impossible Brutality” about this beer while drinking it during their Extreme Aggression Tour.

Black Metal Music played to beer during fermentation.

:lol:

OG > 1.1 though! Wow!

[Tom Servo]

Heh, well, at least this recipe called for 1.082, so not quite that severe.

Friend is making a starter for us right now since we don't have any yeast on hand. Bringing it by tomorrow, so hopefully that'll save it.

Have to remember to put on some Mayhem for it as soon as the yeast goes in.

[G'day Mate]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/68/Dead_and_Euronymous.jpg

:hard:

[Tom Servo]

Indeed. If there's a better fermentation song than "Chainsaw Gutsfuck", I don't want to know what it is.

[drew]

:lol:

[Tom Servo]

Looks like my hunch was right about which song to play it. The Chainsaw Gutsfuck Black Metal Stout came out pretty damn good. Still tastes a little on the malty side, but it's actually pretty close to what I remember the original tasting like. Carbonated, too!

Going to have to make another batch of this soon, but first there's a w00tstout to brew.

[G'day Mate]

Hmmm, this video's not really funny enough to put in the meme thread


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gi0FwTWoqSI

[G'day Mate]

This one's not all that funny either ...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ih3jg3Xdcvs

[G'day Mate]

http://i375.photobucket.com/albums/oo193/insaneogram81/redredredred.jpg

[SportWagon]

Your nasty bug was sort of funny. I discovered I can use the autogenerated CC. So it talks about "some hope additions".

[G'day Mate]

My favourite recipe


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isPe3_esFXM

[Tom Servo]

We usually open our Christmas presents early, because we don't want to drag them all the way down to see my folks. My wife got me a kegging system. My wife is awesome.

[drew]

Nice!

[G'day Mate]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwcEAReUpPo

[Tom Servo]

Just cracked open a 5 month old Black Metal...we still have a couple of bottles lying around. Holy shit did it benefit with aging, it is goddamn delicious.

[G'day Mate]

BrewDog just published the recipes for their entire back catalogue! 215 recipes in total

https://www.brewdog.com/lowdown/blog/diy-dog

[Tom Servo]

BrewDog just published the recipes for their entire back catalogue! 215 recipes in total

https://www.brewdog.com/lowdown/blog/diy-dog

Holy crap, this is like a gold mine. I had no idea they did a collaboration with Nøgne Ø and Mikkeller. That looks outstanding.

[SportWagon]

I can't tell if it includes Santa Paws or not. (no time to track down actual list right now)

[G'day Mate]

http://i375.photobucket.com/albums/oo193/insaneogram81/santapaws.jpg

[G'day Mate]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyJsCYk8F8I

[Tom Servo]

I really have to get back into brewing again. We still haven't really figured out our brewing situation in our new home, and now any plans to start kegging are on hold after the emergency shower repairs.

Doesn't help that another batch failed to carbonate, which took the wind out of our sails pretty good.

[Rikadyn]

It only took one batch not carbonating for me to move to kegs.

[G'day Mate]

I've never had a batch not carbonate. Some have been under-carbonated, but even if they're slow they get there in the end.

[Tom Servo]

I've had two so far and have no idea what I did differently that caused them not to carbonate.

[G'day Mate]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFiSKSQX_-c

[drew]

I haven't made a batch in over a year.

It may be time.

[SportWagon]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUtc5Jo66AY
seemed to suggest your products are panned by critics. [at least one critic]

I do hope that video was pre-approved by anyone who might disapprove... ;)

[Rikadyn]

http://i.imgur.com/DHaP2nR.jpg

finished our brewing stand

[G'day Mate]

Anyone made cider before? I did a few experimental batches yesterday ...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CD3ZN4_Uyhc

[Rikadyn]

Cider itself? no, have brewed Cyser(apple mead) and Graf(beer cider hybrid from the Dark Tower series of books) books though.

Now having watched the video

Champagne yeast can ferment beyond 1.000sg, I had a mead go from 1120 to 0970.

easier would have been to ferment in bulk, then back sweeten. Do you plan to carbonate this?

[Rikadyn]

http://i.imgur.com/xvrZZ5tl.jpg

We decided to get labels for our stouts

[drew]

Nice!

I haven't made a batch in over a year and a half....

I have some ideas, but not the resources (for now).

Space in the apartment is pretty limited too.... I need a house.

[G'day Mate]

Pish posh. I was brewing in an apartment for years. You just need to be creative with space!

[drew]

I need to be creative with income. That's the biggest inhibitor.


I've got 4 carboys and enough bottles to empty them.

[G'day Mate]

Unless you're not drinking at all, isn't brewing far cheaper?

[drew]

I've found that it works out to be about $20-25/case to brew.

[G'day Mate]

Actually, thinking about it a bit more, Australia has so much tax on alcohol that perhaps the savings I experience are much greater than elsewhere.

I put in a $45.90 order yesterday (delivered) that will make about three "cartons" of 24x375mL bottles.

One carton of beer from the store will cost $45, so I'm making it for a third of the price. That's the store-bought cost of shit beer though - if I want a carton of better quality beer it's $55-60, and craft beer would be well above that.

Also, if I want to make shitty beer I can make 23L (2.5 cartons) of it for about $25 ... and even that will probably be better than the store-bought shit beer. If I want to make really shitty beer then it would be under $10 for 23L.

[drew]

If I had the space (for another fridge), I'd just keg it, bottles are a pain in the ass

[G'day Mate]

They are, but the thing I like about bottles is that I can have 10 or more beers to choose from at any given time

[drew]

Again, that is the space thing. We have two walk in closets, both stuffed to the ceiling with shit NOT beer bottles. I don't have the facilities for more than one maybe two "flavors" at any one time.

Unless I turnd out patio/porch into a walk-in cooler. I'm sure the apartment place would love that

[Rikadyn]

I've found that it works out to be about $20-25/case to brew.

That seems kinda high, our Stout comes out at 5/22oz but it's a 7% stout with some expensive ass adjuncts.

Our Session IPA comes out to around .04 and ounce or .48/12oz

[G'day Mate]

Nothing worth putting in the jokes thread here. Same old same old. Hopefully I don't get done for violation of some unknown law with this one ...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yfE7ByA3Sw

[Rikadyn]

Session IPA 10g All grain


10lbs 2-Row
5lbs Maris Otter
1lb C20
1lb Biscuit
1lb white wheat
wort hops - .5oz Citra .5oz Mosaic
60min .5oz Citra and Mosaic
20min .5oz Citra
15min .5oz Mosaic
10min .5oz Citra
5min .5oz Mosaic
WLP090 San Diego Yeast
1oz Citra and Mosaic dryhops per keg for 1 week

[G'day Mate]

What's the volume? And is C20 shorthand for crystal of some colour?

Oh hang on, g is for gallon, not gram :lol:

Man, that's a big batch!

[Rikadyn]

10 gallons
c20 is crystal/cara 20

It's not that big. Our chocolate stout mash bill for 10 gallons was 37lbs, and we made it twice

[G'day Mate]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b04LKR6_7zU

[Rikadyn]

Do yourself a favor and get like 250grams of cacao nibs for better chocolate flavor

[G'day Mate]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FjWEsaDJvY

[SportWagon]

Youtube's first followup suggestion is Inventors Who Were Destroyed By Their Own Inventions.

[G'day Mate]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiC0kiQ6BUY

[G'day Mate]

More spam ...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9U9qo2kHHbg

[G'day Mate]

Not funny enough for the memotivational epic fails thread:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToL4hFZv9IA

[G'day Mate]

Moooooooooooore spam:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXbbYZU0mYo

[novicius]

:up: :up:

[G'day Mate]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzLMNGkyTWc

[G'day Mate]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcV6Ib2NR4E

Just stout :cool:

[G'day Mate]

Anyone ever pay attention to diastatic power?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCu1jPeBM4M

[G'day Mate]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuKqapJTXnM

[G'day Mate]

Boy, this thread's been dead a while! I probably overloaded it with videos.

Digging it up again to brag about getting two prizes in the state competition this year. Not sure whether they're 1st, 2nd or 3rd yet, but god damn I thought my British Strong Ale was amazing and happily it's one of the winners. I even made sure to put some aside several months ago so that I wouldn't drink them all before I could enter :lol: Hooray! Off to the national championships!

[Tom Servo]

When we bought our place, we were going between trying to do the brewing inside or on the back patio. Inside is good except for trying to get a water source for the immersion chiller. Outside lets us use a hotter burner and we have a water source for the chiller, but drainage is a problem back there. It's been 4 1/2 years and we're still stuck in analysis paralysis.

The fact that we kept having beers come out flat pretty much took the wind completely out of our sails, especially since I don't think we've ever figured out why it happened.

[George]

https://www.ft86club.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=56097&stc=1&d=1383380241

Glad to see people sticking with hobbies and extracurricular activities. I seem to make less and less time for mine lately.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ov_ByEAACok&ab_channel=TheGift

[G'day Mate]

Inside is good except for trying to get a water source for the immersion chiller.

No-chill!


The fact that we kept having beers come out flat pretty much took the wind completely out of our sails

Yeah that's a bit more difficult. Were you bottle priming? If so, how much sugar in what volume? And do you use detergent to clean anything?

[Tom Servo]

It's been like 5 years so I'm pretty hazy on details, especially things like amounts of sugar. We generally put priming sugar in a bottling bucket, then siphoned the wort into that, then bottled from there. The amount of sugar would presumably have been what was called for in the recipe we were following.

[G'day Mate]

Yeah that's what I do too - it's called "bulk priming". I usually dissolve the sugar first so that it mixes well, and use 6-7g/L depending on style.

I guess another cause could be bottles not sealing properly?

[Tom Servo]

I figured the main thing I could do wrong with that priming is not mixing it together well enough, but then I'd think you'd expect some bottles to be ultra-carbonated while others were flat, but they were all flat. Similarly, it's hard for me to imagine that I just managed to screw up capping every single bottle, but I guess that's possible.

[drew]

I decided if I want to give it another go, I'm kegging next time. bottles are such a pain in the ass. I found myself using bigger and bigger bottles each time so there were less to fuck with.

Of course, I won't be doing it at all as long as I'm in an apartment....

[G'day Mate]

Well, I got a second and a third out of the four beers that I entered. Pretty happy with that :up: One of them got 42.25 which is a very high score. Another of the beers totally bombed though :lol: On the judges' feedback, one of them speculated that it must've been a bad bottle and I suspect he must be right.

[Tom Servo]

It's not home brewing, but one interesting thing happened out here. Epic Brewing from I believe Salt Lake City, Utah, makes an imperial stout with a bunch of variants called Big Bad Baptist. Big, tastes like coffee/chocolate, that sorta thing.

All of them lately have been sour. From what I hear, the entire batch this year was infected. I've reported that to a couple of the local stores but they still keep them on the shelves. I'm a little surprised the brewery hasn't tried to recall them.