the homebrew blogtrain

Volume · June 14, 2014, 05:47:53 AM

Made my first homebrew yesterday, single-hop cascade pale ale. I didn't bother with extracts and went straight for a all grain. I think I botched the sparge though, need to tweak my equipment a bit. It's bubbling, but the OP was only around 600-700 (1050 would have been optimal according to the recipe) so I guess it'll be a pretty weak beer.

MadJohnShaft · June 14, 2014, 07:38:38 AM

You should do an extract to practice - there's a lot of steps and learning the cleanliness part and bottling is substantial.

Speaking of bottling - I know there's some counter flow fillers that let you bottle the beer that's been carbonated in a corny keg (to avoid the extra carbonating in the bottles step). I guess I have to spring for this, I have too much gear now.

Volume · June 14, 2014, 05:30:46 PM

Yeah, probably should have, but it didn't seem like such a big step up between extract and grain. I've worked in labs so sterility and cleanliness aren't new to me. The most tedious steps were the heating and cooling since I did the brewing in my kitchen and don't have any efficient way of cooling.

MadJohnShaft · June 14, 2014, 08:47:34 PM

Yeah - if you don't have a wort chiller and no winter it's hard to cool it off. Bathtub.

I bought myself a counter flow bottle-filler gun. To insert already carbonated beer into bottles. I picked up some dry wine yeast packets - there's a blackberry tree in the parking lot by work I am going to pick when ready. I can get some currants from Dad.

khoomeizhi · June 15, 2014, 04:38:22 PM

blackberries grow on canes. if it's a tree, it's probably mulberry.

had a crazy mead circle at a festival i was at over the weekend. tried all kinds of weird homemade meads and assorted other fermented stuff, probably at least 25 bottles got passed, probably more. awesome to see that i'm not the only one making weird shit. of mine, we had the last bottle of my first batch of lapsang souchong mead (bottled 12/2012), and some fairly young oaked roobios-mugwort mead (bottled 2/2014). scored some empties afterward.

JemDooM · June 17, 2014, 06:29:43 PM

That sounds seriously awesome...

khoomeizhi · June 17, 2014, 08:56:06 PM

it was. and - i don't remember drinking it, but one of the empties i claimed has a label on it that says 'tomato/turmeric/peach'...

JemDooM · June 18, 2014, 10:00:12 AM

When you said weird I thought maybe plum mead or nettle mead, but that really IS weird, and cool...

I love mead

khoomeizhi · June 18, 2014, 05:01:42 PM

i was at a primitive skills gathering, so there were lots of pretty tripped out backwoods homesteady-type folks. a lot of cinnamon/chaga/damiana or birch/sassafras/spicebush type meads. good stuff.

Beta Cloud · June 25, 2014, 01:08:13 AM

dandelion wine update-

done fermenting.

transferred to secondary, two days. tertiary, two days. cold crashed two days-

clear and yeast free.

racked-

love the 'grolsch' type fliptop-quarts. no explosions.
tasted it, really nice tea/citrus flavors going on here, but a bit 'hot' still. will age a coupla' months, that'll mellow it.

will crack it as i brew my cider in early september. will give me something to drink with my buds as we make the cider to be ready for halloween.

dandelion wine in spring, cider in fall.
i'm like the "king of pagan hooch".
^killer band name^

khoomeizhi · July 05, 2014, 10:37:55 AM

bottled a gallon of wild grape mead this week. not as acidic as i was anticipating, probably coulda added more for secondary (=shoulda collected more). still good, though. will let it age a few months and let the flavor balance a bit before really deciding how it is.

will probably start a new something before too long...

Desertblues · July 07, 2014, 02:40:05 AM

Quote from: Volume on June 14, 2014, 05:30:46 PM
Yeah, probably should have, but it didn't seem like such a big step up between extract and grain. I've worked in labs so sterility and cleanliness aren't new to me. The most tedious steps were the heating and cooling since I did the brewing in my kitchen and don't have any efficient way of cooling.

Try this method http://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/No_Chill_Method. I've had no issues over a number of brews. I also use the http://beersmith.com/blog/2009/04/14/brew-in-a-bag-biab-all-grain-beer-brewing/. A great way to go grain with minimal outlay. I use a 40L hot water urn and it works a treat. There is some loss in efficiency but I can still brew beers that hit double figure ABV.

Beta Cloud · July 07, 2014, 02:47:36 AM

Quote from: khoomeizhi on July 05, 2014, 10:37:55 AM
bottled a gallon of wild grape mead this week. not as acidic as i was anticipating, probably coulda added more for secondary (=shoulda collected more). still good, though. will let it age a few months and let the flavor balance a bit before really deciding how it is.

will probably start a new something before too long...

i applaud you sir!
what 'wild grapes' did you use btw? also, what honey? also, what yeast?

recipe please?!?!

khoomeizhi · July 07, 2014, 06:16:01 AM

i used wild grapes i collected on the great smoky mountains shore of lake fontana last year (the wife and i go on an annual wild-fruit-collecting pilgrimage for our anniversary - these wild grapes, muscadines, and persimmons). anyway - these wild grapes: probably Vitis riparia, but the biggest wild grapes i've seen (most aren't much bigger than a half-centimeter but these were cm+ in diameter). more sour than sweet to just eat them.

local wildflower honey. wild yeast. started last july as a basic simple mead (1 gal: 2.5c honey+1 tsp nutrient+yeast+water) and then racked onto the grapes in the fall.

MadJohnShaft · July 08, 2014, 09:00:14 PM

The Mulberries came and went during a week of heavy rain and heat. Missed it. To tell you the truth, I brought home a handful and I didn't really like the taste.

Beer #4 has been aging in a keg in the fridge as it came out a little sharp. I will try it again in a week. I have one that might be ready to keg and the mead is sitting quietly in a carboy.

Is there any reason to rack the mead a second time to a new carboy or should I leave it alone?

khoomeizhi · July 09, 2014, 05:01:18 AM

only worth racking again if it drops 1/2 inch or more of sediment. otherwise let it roll.

khoomeizhi · July 17, 2014, 06:00:47 PM

just bottled a gallon batch of se chung (chinese roasted oolong tea) mead.

i love cryptic labeling.

khoomeizhi · July 17, 2014, 06:04:17 PM

also starting a new mead:

black like the souls of the damned

Beta Cloud · July 17, 2014, 10:36:08 PM

^GREATNESS.^

MadJohnShaft · July 18, 2014, 01:03:11 PM

Kegging #5 tomorrow. Too hot to brew unless I can move it outside.

Volume · July 22, 2014, 09:02:52 AM

Quote from: Desertblues on July 07, 2014, 02:40:05 AM
Quote from: Volume on June 14, 2014, 05:30:46 PM
Yeah, probably should have, but it didn't seem like such a big step up between extract and grain. I've worked in labs so sterility and cleanliness aren't new to me. The most tedious steps were the heating and cooling since I did the brewing in my kitchen and don't have any efficient way of cooling.

Try this method http://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/No_Chill_Method. I've had no issues over a number of brews. I also use the http://beersmith.com/blog/2009/04/14/brew-in-a-bag-biab-all-grain-beer-brewing/. A great way to go grain with minimal outlay. I use a 40L hot water urn and it works a treat. There is some loss in efficiency but I can still brew beers that hit double figure ABV.

Thanks for the tip, I'll have to look into that. I thought I'd botched the brew, but it turns out I only misread the gravity. It should still mature a couple of weeks, but it already tastes pretty good. I have to say I'm very pleased with the result, especially considering it was my first brew. It should have over 7% alcohol and around 40 IBU.

khoomeizhi · July 24, 2014, 05:33:27 AM

Quote from: khoomeizhi on April 12, 2014, 11:07:26 AM
new experiment.

so i've talked about yacon before. i grow a lot of it and sell it. juicy south american tuber crop that starts with a lot of 'pre-biotic' sugars (kinda goofy name for near-sugars that we don't metabolize, but that make good food for beneficial gut bacteria), which turn into more 'regular' sugars as they cure/age. there's a fairly hip-right-now product, yacon syrup, that is basically uncured yacon, peeled and juiced, then boiled down until thick. it's a low-glycemic sweetener, 'cause people don't metabolize those sugars, so not surprisingly rich natural-foods hippy chicks are all about it. was inspired during the process of making some syrup to sell to do this:

i'm not sure if/how alcohol-producing yeasts consume the pre-biotics (though i wouldn't be surprised if they just ate them up), so for this project i cleaned up a big pile of yacon (the last bit of this past year's harvest) and left them out curing at room temp in the house for a couple weeks. this should have converted a good amount of sugar. last night we peeled and juiced the yacon, then filtered and boiled it down 'til it hit 25% sugar (refractometers are a necessary tool of the serious scientist-farmer), and let it cool. that's now, with it still cooling. next step once it's down near body-temp will be to filter it again (cut down some on sediment) and add a yeast culture i've been working up for 5 days or so, and a bit of yeast nutrient. (after first saving out some un-yeasted must to store for topping off after racking). let it go and see what happens. my mostly-uninformed guess is that it'll take forever to ferment out, but we'll see. probably move it from the open-mouthed glass thing i start gallon batches in, into a carboy in a week or so.

so this project has been languishing on its shelf, pretty much since i started it. racking time had come, and i realized that when i started, i used a yeast bug that was started with sugar, and those yeasts didn't seem to know what to do with the mix of sugars and sugar-like molecules in the must. so i pulled the quart of must i saved in the freezer when i started and made a bug with some of that - no 'real' sugar - so i could raise me up a little army of yeasts that can handle the weird environment. it worked! new bug took off (all praises for blueberry season, pretty sure i cultured some good yeasts off some berries i picked) and we racked onto it last night. moving real well now. dunno why i didn't think of doing it this way in the beginning...

and i think we're actually going to bottle the earlier incarnation of this (yacon cyser - cured yacon juice + honey) soon. that's the one i started ON CHRISTMAS DAY 2011 and has been trucking along ever since. crazy shit. seems to be ready finally.

MadJohnShaft · August 07, 2014, 10:39:30 PM

Can you make a TV show already or what? What is the link to your YouTube channel? You need to get on it. I think that is mind blowing and that there is a big audience for this know how.

MadJohnShaft · August 07, 2014, 10:41:00 PM

These local guys are starting a CSB - community supported brewery - where you get beer by subscription. They have some cartoons to show how it works.

http://www.sketchbookbrewing.com/introducing-our-csb/

khoomeizhi · August 11, 2014, 04:18:13 PM

Quote from: MadJohnShaft on August 07, 2014, 10:39:30 PM
Can you make a TV show already or what? What is the link to your YouTube channel? You need to get on it. I think that is mind blowing and that there is a big audience for this know how.

it's blowing my mind too. i get what you're saying but i've got enough other, and more centrally important to the life i want to live, stuff that i need to put time and energy into that this stuff is pretty low on the list of priorities. as yet purely hobby.

we did finally bottle that yacon cyser last night. it's...pretty weird. not bad at all but it has a strange edge on the front end of the taste. hoping some (more) time will cure that. aiming to cellar most of the batch for at least a year before i really start expecting much. will take some of the rest around for show-n-tells with friends, etc. though. seems strong. feeling it after a little (probably less than a shot) taster right now. haven't eaten though...