Anyone got anything interesting fermenting? I just bottled a batch of apfelwein that turned out... buttery. Also, an odd Arrogant Bastard "clone" recipe that didn't use any Chinook hops.
Hoping these turn out alright after some time conditioning
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midga"There's so much hot dog in Rome" ~digi(> ^.(> O_o)>Icrontian
edited April 2012
@MAGIC I don't know that I have a whole lot of time, but I'm pretty good at CAD.
Damn, I've been putting off starting to invest in kegging gear. Maybe I should dive into that next month. Bottling is really starting to lose its novelty
kegs are getting pretty expensive now. Soda companies ship in the syrup bags now so the kegs are rarely used. We need someone to go to China and source some specifically for homebrewing and provide a reasonable priced option.
FYI, the last iteration of my Red recipe above is delicious. Its sweet, great body, crisp. A very tasty cold summer beer.
The grain bill is solid, and I like the cali yeast, I am going to start playing around with the hops now. It should have been at 26 IBUs but I dont think it got there. Im going to try another with another half oz of magnum or something.
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midga"There's so much hot dog in Rome" ~digi(> ^.(> O_o)>Icrontian
midga"There's so much hot dog in Rome" ~digi(> ^.(> O_o)>Icrontian
edited April 2012
I was almost disappointed that I got mine two days before that went up, but upon closer inspection it has plastic buckets and not glass carboys. Great deal for someone who wants to try it but isn't sure whether it's something they really want to do. I will, in fact, be considering picking it up as a Christmas gift.
midga"There's so much hot dog in Rome" ~digi(> ^.(> O_o)>Icrontian
edited May 2012
Well, this is strike 1 for Northern Brewer.
Got the extract in yesterday, everything's great. The kit was scheduled to come in today. Well, UPS being the dicks they are didn't bother to come by my actual apartment so they could see the note that said to leave the 68lb package in front of my door; they instead just took it straight to the front office for me to carry back. That's okay, it wasn't so bad. The stairs kinda sucked, and after my attempt at starting running on Monday my ankle is being a fucker, but I got it up without incident (this isn't whining, it's complaining, but this is a bitch post so I'm being bitchy).
I opened up the box, started pulling stuff out, and noticed 1) there was no packing list and 2) it was missing at least half the contents it was supposed to have. It's got the carboys, the bucket and hose, the brushes, some blue round thing with a bunch of holes in it that looks like it fits on top of a carboy, and the auto-siphon. And that's it.
So, my starting brewing on National Homebrew Day will almost certainly not happen. I called them, and they're going to get the stuff to me, but I'm pissed anyway. I'm getting really sick of having to deal with this kind of crap when I get fairly expensive things shipped to me (*). If they get it to me in time to brew Saturday, then of course all is forgiven. I could, of course, drive up to the brew shop (apparently) in Lubbock, but the gas cost sucks, and driving in West Texas and being in Lubbock for any period of time are on the List of Ways I Like to Spend My Time somewhere below explosive diarrhea and watching reality television.
*I returned two basses to Musician's Friend toward the end of last year. Admittedly the first was just because I found out Ibanez's production quality has plummeted and the newer production run LH version of a bass I already had and liked was a piece of shit. Second, though, was the replacement Fender J I got just straight-up not functioning. The whole ordeal put me off so much that I haven't touched it since I got it in and made sure it wasn't crap or broken. =/ Also had a decent set of speakers come in half-busted, but that was my own fault I guess for buying something like that from Midnight Box. I didn't bother to return them...doubt they would have taken them anyway. Though, the shipped box was pretty fuxed, so it might have been UPS. I really don't like UPS. Or FedEx. Have dealt with too much crap with them out here.
tl;dr Fuck living somewhere that the only option for getting decent stuff is to be at the mercy of the Freight Companies and live with long, uncertain waits for your order.
Odd and misfortunate. Although overpriced... northern brewer is pretty reputable.
Im lucky enough to live within 10 minutes of 3 brewing shops. Grand Rapids, MI is a haven for craft/micro/homebrewing. I love it.
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midga"There's so much hot dog in Rome" ~digi(> ^.(> O_o)>Icrontian
Yeah, I probably overreacted yesterday posting that, but I's mad, bro.
They emailed me today to say they weren't going to overnight it, so I should have the stuff in Thursday. They are, however, giving me a $20 credit for their shop. This won't keep me from buying from them, especially since, like I said, the only other real option is Lubbock >_> I'm just supersad that I can't start brewing tomorrow =/
You know, it's ever-so-tempting to give it a shot, but I don't even have a one-step sanitizer, so it's really not worth trying.
Btw, any idea what that round blue plastic thing is for?
There are serveral ways to sanitize other than a specific solution. You can use bleach/water or boiling water, so if thats holding you back go for it. The blue thing is for sitting your carboy on upside down for drying.
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midga"There's so much hot dog in Rome" ~digi(> ^.(> O_o)>Icrontian
OH! Neat
And that's a good point...though how do you sanitize stuff with bleach and then keep it sanitized when rinsing the bleach off/out? The carboy seems like it'd be particularly challenging.
I may go out and get a thermometer and give it a shot. Of course, I don't have the instructional DVD either, but I think I'll probably be okay without it. I'll go through and see if I have the right stuff to do it.
All you really need are your ingredients, pot, spoon, siphon and a fermenter.
I'd recommend going to your local hardware store, picking up a 15ft section of 3/8 soft copper coil, a couple feet of 3/8 nylon tubing, hose clamps, and an adpater to connect it to your sink faucent. Make a copper chiller. This will run you about 20-25 bucks and will save you roughly an hour over trying to cool the wort in the pot submerged in cool water.
Just sanitize with the bleach solution and rinse w/ tap water. If you have any questions ask here or reference here http://www.howtobrew.com/intro.html.
I'd recommend going to your local hardware store, picking up a 15ft section of 3/8 soft copper coil, a couple feet of 3/8 nylon tubing, hose clamps, and an adpater to connect it to your sink faucent. Make a copper chiller. This will run you about 20-25 bucks and will save you roughly an hour over trying to cool the wort in the pot submerged in cool water.
I keep meaning to do this... the two homebrew stores closest to me sell pre-made copper chillers for like $60-80 depending on the day. So far, I've been making a run to the party store for bags of ice and just giving the brew pot a bath in the sink. It does take a little over an hour, that way
I'd recommend going to your local hardware store, picking up a 15ft section of 3/8 soft copper coil, a couple feet of 3/8 nylon tubing, hose clamps, and an adpater to connect it to your sink faucent. Make a copper chiller. This will run you about 20-25 bucks and will save you roughly an hour over trying to cool the wort in the pot submerged in cool water.
I keep meaning to do this... the two homebrew stores closest to me sell pre-made copper chillers for like $60-80 depending on the day. So far, I've been making a run to the party store for bags of ice and just giving the brew pot a bath in the sink. It does take a little over an hour, that way
Yeah, cooling is cut down to about 15-20 with a coil chiller. The counterflow one I made above cools from boiling to 70 in a single pass. Takes about 5 minutes to drain a 6 gallon boil. That cost about 35 to make. Well worth it though. Im all about time savings. I can get an batch sparge all grain day down to just under 3 hours if I go in well prepared.
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midga"There's so much hot dog in Rome" ~digi(> ^.(> O_o)>Icrontian
edited August 2012
Well, this past Friday I cracked open my first. The recipe made for a very pleasant hoppy ale that I will almost certainly be making (and improving upon) again.
Verdict: Damn Good Beer. I think I have gone through at least half-a-dozen since Friday.
Now my next goal is to get through George Fix's Principles of Brewing Science and start up a Left Hand Milk Stout clone
I thought about trying to make some Mead since it sounds pretty easy, I am trying to get my hands on a 5 gallon water jug from a water cooler, but I heard that air penetration in plastic can kind of effect the aging process if you let the stuff sit for a long time and I was planning on aging it for 2-3 years.
Is it really bad enough I should fork over the extra cash for a glass carboy over plastic? I only plan on brewing maybe once a year at most.
I don't know if there's any actual difference between the water jugs and plastic carboys, but if you're going to age it for that long, I'd go with glass just to be safe.
@d3k0y Glass is also a good choice because its more sanitary. Plastic can get scratched easy even while cleaning which leaves places for bacteria to grow. Plus for a 2-3 yr fermentation I'd be worried about the plastic leaching into your brew, it probably won't be a substantial amount, but why risk it.
Glass is great for long term fermentation and I find it much easier to clean. Seeing your intention of 2-3 years, it's probably a good bet.
The benefit of plastic, though is weight. It's much easier to move when you don't have 10 lbs of glass on top of your brew. Also, dropping a glass carboy can result in serious injuries and cuts.
I wonder if it would be worth it to do the original mix in a plastic jug (~6months) then transfer to large glass bottles for a final fermentation. Also is anyone familiar with doing Mead?
I wonder if it would be worth it to do the original mix in a plastic jug (~6months) then transfer to large glass bottles for a final fermentation.
Yep, that's fine. I've done it myself with several beers. Just to be clear though, the primary carboy is where all of the fermentation should take place. Secondary (the glass carboy) should only be aging. For beers and ciders the primary fermentation should take around 10-14 days. According to the site where I get most of my supplies, mead should be about the same.
Comments
Hoping these turn out alright after some time conditioning
2.5gal
6lbs american 2 row
1lb cara red
1lb crytal 40*
1lb flaked rye
60min mash at 152, batch sparge. 3.5 gal preboil vol.
.5oz cascade at 60
.5oz cascade at 5
2.75-3 gal volume into primary w/ california ale yeast, 2.5 gal into secondary.
It had a good flavor out of the secondary, been bottled for a few days. I might crack one tonight because im impatient.
The grain bill is solid, and I like the cali yeast, I am going to start playing around with the hops now. It should have been at 26 IBUs but I dont think it got there. Im going to try another with another half oz of magnum or something.
Thanks for the find @WagsFTW
Got the extract in yesterday, everything's great. The kit was scheduled to come in today. Well, UPS being the dicks they are didn't bother to come by my actual apartment so they could see the note that said to leave the 68lb package in front of my door; they instead just took it straight to the front office for me to carry back. That's okay, it wasn't so bad. The stairs kinda sucked, and after my attempt at starting running on Monday my ankle is being a fucker, but I got it up without incident (this isn't whining, it's complaining, but this is a bitch post so I'm being bitchy).
I opened up the box, started pulling stuff out, and noticed 1) there was no packing list and 2) it was missing at least half the contents it was supposed to have. It's got the carboys, the bucket and hose, the brushes, some blue round thing with a bunch of holes in it that looks like it fits on top of a carboy, and the auto-siphon. And that's it.
So, my starting brewing on National Homebrew Day will almost certainly not happen. I called them, and they're going to get the stuff to me, but I'm pissed anyway. I'm getting really sick of having to deal with this kind of crap when I get fairly expensive things shipped to me (*). If they get it to me in time to brew Saturday, then of course all is forgiven. I could, of course, drive up to the brew shop (apparently) in Lubbock, but the gas cost sucks, and driving in West Texas and being in Lubbock for any period of time are on the List of Ways I Like to Spend My Time somewhere below explosive diarrhea and watching reality television.
*I returned two basses to Musician's Friend toward the end of last year. Admittedly the first was just because I found out Ibanez's production quality has plummeted and the newer production run LH version of a bass I already had and liked was a piece of shit. Second, though, was the replacement Fender J I got just straight-up not functioning. The whole ordeal put me off so much that I haven't touched it since I got it in and made sure it wasn't crap or broken. =/ Also had a decent set of speakers come in half-busted, but that was my own fault I guess for buying something like that from Midnight Box. I didn't bother to return them...doubt they would have taken them anyway. Though, the shipped box was pretty fuxed, so it might have been UPS. I really don't like UPS. Or FedEx. Have dealt with too much crap with them out here.
tl;dr Fuck living somewhere that the only option for getting decent stuff is to be at the mercy of the Freight Companies and live with long, uncertain waits for your order.
Im lucky enough to live within 10 minutes of 3 brewing shops. Grand Rapids, MI is a haven for craft/micro/homebrewing. I love it.
They emailed me today to say they weren't going to overnight it, so I should have the stuff in Thursday. They are, however, giving me a $20 credit for their shop. This won't keep me from buying from them, especially since, like I said, the only other real option is Lubbock >_> I'm just supersad that I can't start brewing tomorrow =/
You know, it's ever-so-tempting to give it a shot, but I don't even have a one-step sanitizer, so it's really not worth trying.
Btw, any idea what that round blue plastic thing is for?
And that's a good point...though how do you sanitize stuff with bleach and then keep it sanitized when rinsing the bleach off/out? The carboy seems like it'd be particularly challenging.
I may go out and get a thermometer and give it a shot. Of course, I don't have the instructional DVD either, but I think I'll probably be okay without it. I'll go through and see if I have the right stuff to do it.
I'd recommend going to your local hardware store, picking up a 15ft section of 3/8 soft copper coil, a couple feet of 3/8 nylon tubing, hose clamps, and an adpater to connect it to your sink faucent. Make a copper chiller. This will run you about 20-25 bucks and will save you roughly an hour over trying to cool the wort in the pot submerged in cool water.
Just sanitize with the bleach solution and rinse w/ tap water. If you have any questions ask here or reference here http://www.howtobrew.com/intro.html.
Verdict: Damn Good Beer. I think I have gone through at least half-a-dozen since Friday.
Now my next goal is to get through George Fix's Principles of Brewing Science and start up a Left Hand Milk Stout clone
Is it really bad enough I should fork over the extra cash for a glass carboy over plastic? I only plan on brewing maybe once a year at most.
The benefit of plastic, though is weight. It's much easier to move when you don't have 10 lbs of glass on top of your brew. Also, dropping a glass carboy can result in serious injuries and cuts.
I have both, and have had no problem with either.
Just to be clear though, the primary carboy is where all of the fermentation should take place. Secondary (the glass carboy) should only be aging. For beers and ciders the primary fermentation should take around 10-14 days. According to the site where I get most of my supplies, mead should be about the same. Not I, but it's in the plans for sometime soon though.
Honey, meadowsweet, even a little hint of lemon... I need to make mead again.