the homebrew blogtrain

[MadJohnShaft]

Made batch number four tonight. I held 4 lb of grain at 155 for an hour  - it was sticky sweet so it must have worked. I am ready to do all grain. I'm going apeshit with the hops.

Also, I adore Powered Brewery Wash. I cleaned out an ancient korny keg and an old 5 gallon bottle (filled in the shower) with a couple scoops of PBW and by the time I came back a few hours later they were spotless. They were in my garage for 10 years. Amazing.

http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/powdered-brewery-wash.html



It's not this dark - it's very amber.

[MadJohnShaft]

Although it has not started fermenting. My yeast pack was firmly swollen and I cut it apart.  I will wait a few days - should I toss a little yeast nutrient in there ? I would rather leave it alone.


Update: looks to be starting. It might be high gravity plus a little too cold.

[RacerX]

My yeast pack was firmly swollen and I cut it apart.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Beta Cloud]

dandelion wine.

pics soon.

yup.

[Beta Cloud]

DANDELION WINE.

made TWO and a half gallons of this shit.



the fuck.

[Beta Cloud]

flowers. three quarts. picked from the grounds of a former INSANE ASYLUM-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richardson_Olmsted_Complex
i work there at the New York State Psychiatric Hospital in Buffalo N.Y.
ironically, my mom would call dandelions, "crazy flowers" when i was a kid.




brew for three days to a dandelion tea-



shit looks clean right?-



yeast is primed and nutrient is diluted-



FERMENTING.



shit is bubbling like sci-fi props in the back of a frankenstein movie now.

[MadJohnShaft]

I kegged up batch three and it is excellent and somewhat dark smooth and foamy. Yeah me. I miss having the bottles for portability and gifts but I sure don't miss the work.  I am glad I started looking into how to do partial mash correctly and I think I am ready to try a stove top all grain.

Re: Dandelion wine...

Bread yeast? Not champagne or wine yeast?

I don't see much barrier to trying this - the parks are covered in dandelions and they don't poison. Worth doing? Seems the time investment is huge. I think I have everything else including wine bottles.  I only have 5 gallon carboys so I'd need to take a chance and use those or go buy some 2.5 gallon ones.  I would need corks- does the beer push down capper work for wine bottles too?

[Beta Cloud]

I kegged up batch three and it is excellent and somewhat dark smooth and foamy. Yeah me. I miss having the bottles for portability and gifts but I sure don't miss the work.  I am glad I started looking into how to do partial mash correctly and I think I am ready to try a stove top all grain.

Re: Dandelion wine...

Bread yeast? Not champagne or wine yeast?

I don't see much barrier to trying this - the parks are covered in dandelions and they don't poison. Worth doing? Seems the time investment is huge. I think I have everything else including wine bottles.  I only have 5 gallon carboys so I'd need to take a chance and use those or go buy some 2.5 gallon ones.  I would need corks- does the beer push down capper work for wine bottles too?

glad your brew is kegged and poppin'-
and it's champagne yeast, "red star" brand. my dad used to do it with bread yeast, ack! it's actually pretty simple. and i tasted the stuff in the half gallon, thinking 8-9% already so i'll rack in a few days. weird, all the recipes i read say 6-8 weeks primary...
also, my buddy tried to make some in a 4 gallon, (quadrupled the recipe). and it died. he may have had bad yeast or nutrient, but no bubbles of love.

here's the recipe i used, but tons of others on the net-
3 qts dandelion flowers
1 lb white raisins
1 gallon water
3 lbs granulated sugar
2 lemons
1 orange
yeast and nutrient

Pick the flowers just before starting, so they're fresh. Trim all green from flowers. Put the flowers in a large bowl. Set aside 1 pint of water and bring the remainder to a boil. Pour the boiling water over the dandelion flowers and cover tightly with cloth or plastic wrap. Leave for three days, stirring twice daily. Do not exceed this time. Pour flowers and water in large pot and bring to a low boil. Add the sugar and the peels (peel thinly and avoid any of the white pith) of the lemons and orange. Boil for one hour, then pour into a crock or plastic pail. Add the juice and pulp of the lemons and orange. Allow to stand until cool (70-75 degrees F.). Add yeast and yeast nutrient, cover, and put in a warm place for three days. Strain and pour into a secondary fermentation vessel (bottle or jug). Apply airlock. Leave until fermentation ceases completely, then rack and add the reserved pint of water and whatever else is required to top up. Refit the airlock and set aside until clear. Rack and bottle. This wine must age six months in the bottle before tasting, but will improve remarkably if allowed a year. [Adapted recipe from C.J.J. Berry's First Steps in Winemaking]

[MadJohnShaft]

Hey! That's the recipe I was reading.  The dandelions are all gone to seed around here, I'll need to keep eyes open for the next blooming time.   The parks don't poison or fertilize anymore.


I found a few yellow ones in the backyard though, seems picking the green bits off a dandelion flower is a lot of damn work.

[khoomeizhi]

yup. we did a gallon of dandelion mead, and that called for a whole gallon of dandelions. super fucking tedious, separating bits, aided greatly by a decent-sized thumbnail as a 'blade'.

[Beta Cloud]

Hey! That's the recipe I was reading.  The dandelions are all gone to seed around here, I'll need to keep eyes open for the next blooming time.   The parks don't poison or fertilize anymore.


I found a few yellow ones in the backyard though, seems picking the green bits off a dandelion flower is a lot of damn work.

SHAFTY, the flowers are crazy here still. come to NY, i'll hook you up!

i'm keeping in mind that we can make wine out of ANY tea.
you can make a batch of tea from whatever you like; earl grey, ginseng, green tea... whatever.
add sugar of some sort and yeast of some sort. ferment.

hmmmm...
i got half gallon growler bottles and airlocks and an imagination.
green tea, (brewed strong), clover honey,(made some mighty fine cider with it in the past), and a nice brit ale yeast... always had great results with nottingham. could be nice.
just wish i just had the time. 

[Beta Cloud]

yup. we did a gallon of dandelion mead, and that called for a whole gallon of dandelions. super fucking tedious, separating bits, aided greatly by a decent-sized thumbnail as a 'blade'.

nice!
put on some good tunes, have a nice drink on the side, and some good company.
tedious but fun.
hell, throw a 'dandelion wine' preparation party!

[JemDooM]

What does it taste like? I guess you need all those raisins and lemon to sweeten it dandelion is bitter, I wonder if it keeps it's powerful diuretic properties too!

[Beta Cloud]

What does it taste like? I guess you need all those raisins and lemon to sweeten it dandelion is bitter, I wonder if it keeps it's powerful diuretic properties too!

they are initially sweet as raw ingredients jem, but after fermentation...
dandelion as tea is acidic and fragrant giving flavor and tannin, lemon and orange are acidic and semi sweet giving flavor, and i never use raisins because they raise the alcohol content too much.
with the recipe above after a month or two; it yields about 9% ABV!
as far as diuretic properties, alcohol dries you out.
if you want a diuretic elixir, you can ferment for a short time to make a low, (or no), alcohol batch probably, just as ginger beer or birch beer or ginger ale were traditionally made with yeast as a source of carbon, (not carbonated after with carbon gas as sodas are made now), if you wish i guess. this stuff is good tasting HOOCH. not for everyone.
congrats on the marriage by the way!

[JemDooM]

Thanks beta! fascinating stuff hmmm I want to try this, btw 9% wow that's cool!

[khoomeizhi]

done a lot of tea-meads. lapsang souchong, pu erh, se chung (roasted oolong), just started a 3-gal 'blue' (unroasted) oolong batch. good shit. not a huge fan of green teas, but will probably do that too at some point.

[MadJohnShaft]

Give us a for example recipe....

[Beta Cloud]

Give us a for example recipe....

seconded.

[khoomeizhi]

ok for example:

1 gal of lapsang souchong mead

2 lbs local wildflower honey
1 tsp yeast nutrient
enough tea (brewed pretty strong) to almost fill a gallon with that ^ stuff. (i wanna say something like 8 Tbsp dry tea leaves to start)
sometimes some halved raisins

brew the tea, mix in the honey while still fairly warm, 'cause it makes it easier, then the nutrient/raisins.
allow to come to room temperature.

pitch yeast (i only use wild cultured yeasts, so need to start working that bug up for ~3 days prior. 1 cup of good water, 2 tsp sugar, grated fresh ginger and or turmeric, or appropriate seasonal produce [local blueberries or grapes work well, so can some flowers], with regular stirring, and more sugar and ginger or whatever added every couple days. i can talk more about making yeast bugs if ye want)

i usually start 1 gal batches in a big 1 gal jar, and leave them there for the first week or so, and stir/whip it as often as i think of it the whole time (extra oxygen to start things off is good for mead), then into carboy. then slow going: first carboy for ~3 months, rack off lees, second carboy for another ~6 months. bottling.

f'r example.

i always go dry with my meads. this would be in the 13 or 14% abv range i think.

[MadJohnShaft]

Got it. I guess I need some smaller carboys then.  I wonder if could make Yerba Mate mead/wine that way?



I have a simple mead going now, should I rack off into a second clean carboy now? It's been about two months I guess.  Should I add any yeast nutrient to get it going a bit or ?   

[khoomeizhi]

my understanding is that using retail yeasts it goes much faster than my timeline. did you taken a og reading? tasting or testing would tell you. might be ready to rack. if it still tastes sweet, it's not. if it still seems to be going/bubbling, i'd leave it, too.

and mate: hell yes you could, i've had some. had some fancy-ass 'dry-cannabis'd' (made during harvest season out in california at some point, apparently) weed mead too.

[MadJohnShaft]

The taste of Yerba Mate is about the same - like branches and leaves.

I have a OG meter but I never take a reading. I will start doing that.

[Beta Cloud]

ok for example:

1 gal of lapsang souchong mead

2 lbs local wildflower honey
1 tsp yeast nutrient
enough tea (brewed pretty strong) to almost fill a gallon with that ^ stuff. (i wanna say something like 8 Tbsp dry tea leaves to start)
sometimes some halved raisins

brew the tea, mix in the honey while still fairly warm, 'cause it makes it easier, then the nutrient/raisins.
allow to come to room temperature.

pitch yeast (i only use wild cultured yeasts, so need to start working that bug up for ~3 days prior. 1 cup of good water, 2 tsp sugar, grated fresh ginger and or turmeric, or appropriate seasonal produce [local blueberries or grapes work well, so can some flowers], with regular stirring, and more sugar and ginger or whatever added every couple days. i can talk more about making yeast bugs if ye want)

i usually start 1 gal batches in a big 1 gal jar, and leave them there for the first week or so, and stir/whip it as often as i think of it the whole time (extra oxygen to start things off is good for mead), then into carboy. then slow going: first carboy for ~3 months, rack off lees, second carboy for another ~6 months. bottling.

f'r example.

i always go dry with my meads. this would be in the 13 or 14% abv range i think.

what the fuck i'm talking about! thanks for the response my bearded friend-

i feel a bit weird about homemade bugs, though i did make a nice homemade yeast once from organic apple slices once for a cyser. i cut a coupla' slices, put it into a plastic water bottle, filled it with tap water, then 'burped' it for two weeks. shit was aggressive; made a nice cyser with non-sorbate store bought juice and commercial honey though.

kudos!

[khoomeizhi]

i've read a bunch of things that talk about how wild yeast can fuck up everything, off-flavors, aftertastes, etc, but i've never had a problem at all.

[MadJohnShaft]

Moved the mead off to a clean carboy - can't say it tasted all that great but I won't worry about it for anoth couple months.

Making beer #5 today. If I don't type that here I won't know what date I made it.



Kegging beer #4 - it's only 3 weeks since I made it but all activity has clearly stopped. It, along with #3, can sit in basement fridge for a while to age a bit.


Life is so much easier with Star San, PBW, and my new siphon hose.