[Homebrewing] Or how I learned to stop worrying and brew my own damn beer

minirhyder

Tried my apricot ale and it didn't turn out so good.
It tastes all sour and champagne-ey. What could cause this?

CaptainPeacock

That's a bummer. Thinking about using additives makes me nervous at this point, with the risk of infection and whatnot.

oldsak

CaptainPeacock wrote: »

Is it ok for that blowoff water to get dirty? Or do I need to kep changing it until fermentation dies down?

I put the blowoff tube in a starsan solution so it should be sanitary even if it's dirty.

oldsak

I ended up brewing a saison and adding chamomile to the last 20 minutes of the boil. I bottled Saturday and took a sample. I think it's going to come out quite nice. The chamomile is mostly in the nose and doesn't overpower the other flavors.

I think I'm going to do one more saison and add honey this time (haven't decided on the chamomile). Anyone have any input as to whether I should still use belgian candy if i'm using honey?

lazegamer

minirhyder wrote: »

Tried my apricot ale and it didn't turn out so good.
It tastes all sour and champagne-ey. What could cause this?

http://www.howtobrew.com/section4/chapter21-2.html (recommend this one)

or

http://drinks.seriouseats.com/2013/03/how-to-indentify-off-flavors-in-beer-skunked-beer-diacetyl-dirty-draft-lines.html

CaptainPeacock

Saison seems like an interesting brew. What are it's expected characteristics?

I'm thinking my next batch should be a Dubbel. Anyone have any experience/tips to share on that subject?

Cincitucky

I'd like to try that saison. Last one I had was Behemoth from Three Floyds, awesome brew.

Got mango into a secondary and it's already fermenting away.

After setting up the blow-off hose.

Went out for a rainy fourth and the mango is floating to the top with CO2 coming out the blow-off in a furious manner.

This mango blonde ale better turn out good. What a pain in the ass it is to dice up a dozen mangos and get them into the fermenter. Tried getting ten pounds by guessing on the weight prior to cutting them up and I was off by two pounds. If anyone wants to have it for future reference on a five gallon batch, get fourteen mangos. It should net you ten pounds.

CaptainPeacock

Just checked the gravity in anticipation of bottling Sunday and we've reached 1.016, OG 1.062. Looks like King Robert's has gotten a little stronger this go round. Only different ingredient is that we used Light malt extract instead of Ultra Light. Tasted the sample and it was a little sweeter than I remember the first batch being at this point. Looking forward to having it all conditioned and ready in time for NFL season

Cincitucky

@CaptainPeacock Do you have anything that compares to your King Robert's brown ale? Even after reading King Robert, I was thinking of Robert the Bruce Ale by 3F.

Checked the mango ale gravity the other day, was suprised to see how low it read, went from ~1.061 to 1.007. Tasted the sample after checking and I'm not able to make a good judgement on it yet. Maybe it will changes after conditioning for a few weeks. I kept getting different flavors during each taste of the sample. It could be that it turns out good and complex but I'm too simple of a man for complicated beer flavors.

CaptainPeacock

Its the Nut Brown Ale re ipe from MoreBeer.com, which I've renamed after King Robert from Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones.

Makes you want to hit somebody.

Cincitucky

Threw together a Zombie Dust clone last night, dubbing it Zombie Puss.

Learning about the drawback of a home with no central air and the hot summer days. There's virtually no place for the fermenter to rest that's at the optimal temperature. Had to rig up a plastic container for the fermenter to rest in and periodically placing frozen bottles of water in the tub to hold the temp lower.

Might have to hang up the brewing equipment after this batch and for the entirety of future summers. Too much of a hassle to constantly monitor temps.

CaptainPeacock

Unless you go the lager route. A temp controlled fridge will alleviate your environmental problem.

Capt Howdy

I plan on making a habanero Russian Imperial Stout. I found a clone recipe for Stone's Russian Imperial Stout.

Plan on using 4oz of cocoa powder during the primary, and another 4oz during the secondary. I'll put in ancho, habanero, and spicy Mexican oregano during the primary. Repeat and add cinnamon and vanilla during the secondary.

Anyone see any faults here?

And yes, its my take on Mexican Cake.

Cincitucky

Are those spices put in immediately during the primary? I would expect the stout to go through the primary without the spice additions then rack to your secondary with the spices for two weeks.

Not saying it can't be done according to your original plan, just wondering if the spices pose any threat of an infection or they have no risk potential.

Haven't had a spicy brew, though I am interested in trying one. Any recommendations?

Rderdall

Hey all,

My wife bought be a homebrew kit for Father's day, and I've got my first batch of Brooklyn Brew Shop's Summer Wheat Ale in the fermenter and am about a week and a half away from bottling. I bought an IPA kit as well, and plan on brewing that immediately after my Summer Wheat is bottled. It's a small kit, (only makes 1 gal) but I'm really pumped about making my own beer. My goal is to successfully make a couple of set recipes and then start to experiment with changing recipes that I like. I just wish there was a way to know if my changes are good without waiting a month for my beer to develop!

A funny story about my brewing process, after boiling my mash and sparging the grains, I dumped my spent grains in my kitchen garbage. This was on a Thursday night. We travelled for the weekend, and came home on Sunday evening to a house that stunk like every rotten thing I'd ever smelled. I thought a skunk had gotten into our house, but discovered that the spent grains continued to break down over the weekend and just smelled SOUR. So, from now on, my spent grains are going straight into the garbage bin in my back alley!

I'll post pictures of my Summer Wheat bottling and then the IPA brewing in a couple of weeks.

Capt Howdy

Cincitucky wrote: »

Are those spices put in immediately during the primary? I would expect the stout to go through the primary without the spice additions then rack to your secondary with the spices for two weeks.

Not saying it can't be done according to your original plan, just wondering if the spices pose any threat of an infection or they have no risk potential.

Haven't had a spicy brew, though I am interested in trying one. Any recommendations?

The spices and peppers will go in at the final 10 minutes of primary, and begining of secondary. I will sterilize them in vodka first.

The best spicy beers I can suggest are hard to get. Mexican Cake and Stone Jungle Heat. This is my take on Mexican cake.

Mexican Cake is hands down the best beer I've ever had. And I've tried a lot of beers.

CaptainPeacock

@rderdall If you can help it, throw them into a yard waste or compost bin rather than the garbage. Or you can cook with them.

Rderdall

Do you have any recommendations for recipes using the grains?

Nova_C

I hope to be posting to this thread in the near future!

I bought a winemaking kit with the goal of brewing mead. A co-working of mine makes a really, really good mead, so he's guiding my initial foray into DIY alcoholism.

CaptainPeacock

There are lots of recipes online, for things like homemade granola and such.

Cincitucky

Granola with malt grains?

Gonna rename the Zombie Dust clone from Zombie Puss to Zombie Dust Bunnies. Apparently "puss" is revolting enough of a word to cause potential drinkers to lose their thirst, even if its the almighty 3F Zombie Dust.

I'd like to get a temp controlled fridge except its a very low priority item right now. The frozen water bottle method has been working quite well, holding the fermenter to a 70 degree temp. Its a bit higher than what the recipe called for but its within the generally accepted temperature range. Though I'm suprised how explosive the initial fermentation was and how quick the krausen fell back into the brew after only two days. Still have some CO2 action. Might rack the brew for dry hopping quicker than expected.

CaptainPeacock

I've had vigorous fermentation both times so far, and from what I've read its due to the worr being too warm at time of pitching.

Cincitucky

Hopefully nothing comes from that wort and fermenter from being too warm for a short period of time. Knew I was playing with fire with this last batch. My pitch temp was around 75-77 and the first twelve hours of fermentation was at 78. Could have prevented that high of a temp if I cooled the water the fermenter is sitting in before letting it do its thing.

CaptainPeacock

It's going to get warmer when the yeast start reproducing and doing their best to get started. That's why pitching temperature should be slightly lower than fermentation temp. That's what I've come to understand anyway.

Cincitucky

Dry hopping question. Transfered to the secondary and added the hops. It doesn't appear the brew is leeching up through all the hops, so some are sitting there not getting their alphas drawn into the brew.

Is it typical to use a sanitized utensil to push the hops into the brew? I was going to use a sanitized bottling wand to push the hops into the liquid.

Yoshua

Picked up my kit today. Also picked up some extra's since I want to do mead, and given the time to ferment I would rather do that in it's own containers so I can continue to do beers. I still need to pick up a cooler to convert to a mash tun/lauter tun as well as decide on a recipe. I am leaning towards starting with an IPA since I really like them and the recipes for them seem fairly simple. Later I want to do a barley wine and a coffee oatmeal stout.

I'm probably going to photograph my first batches of mead and beer. Is there any objection to me posting them here for feedback?

CaptainPeacock

Post away!

minirhyder

Oh god pleasseeee post the pictures.
We love pictures!

Nova_C

So today I turned this:

Into this:

Oh god I hope I didn't fuck it up.

minirhyder

Fuck, that looks good.
Tell us more! What are you aiming for? What's your recipe?

Nova_C

I'm using Joe's Ancient Orange Mead. I got it here.

I used brewer's yeast instead of bread yeast (The recipe calls for bread yeast) on the advice of a co-worker who makes his own mead (And it's stellar. Oh my god so good).

As far as aiming for? Um....not making myself go blind? :P This is the first time I've home brewed anything, so I hope it turns out good. Once I feel comfortable with the process, I'll start experimenting. One I want to try next is a blood mead that's made with cherries (Not blood).

japan

Had a go at this last week.

Aiming for a special bitter with only light malt extract and all Challenger hops (simplest recipe I could come up with for a first attempt). Boiled and started it fermenting last Sunday and took the first gravity reading today. Came out at 1.006, which is lower than I expected. Didn't have anything with which to measure the original gravity, but I calculated it to be 1.050, but it might actually have been higher because I ended up with less liquid than I expected because of the boil losses.

The sample I took for the gravity tastes like beer, so this is encouraging.

CaptainPeacock

Get yourself a hydrometer, stat.

japan

I've got one, but I didn't when I made up the wort. Since it's dry extract with a predictable gravity contribution, I don't have any reason to suspect that the initial gravity is miles off what I expected it to be.

giltanis

The fermentability of extract varies quite a bit depending on the type and brand. Also, the temperature of the fermentation and your pritching rate can change the attenuation.

Does it taste and smell normal? If the gravity keeps getting lower or it starts to smell weird it may be infected.

japan

Tastes and smells like beer, no noticeable off-flavours.

I have a suspicion that it might be a simple matter of having overpitched the yeast (because it's a small batch) and it having chewed through the entire sugar content in pretty short order. Going to take another reading in a couple of days and see what's what.

mittens

Hi homebrew thread,

I made a pumpkin spiced ale Saturday, which I've never done before, and when I tasted my wort's O.G. sample, it had a pretty harsh, bitter taste. Do you think that's because of the pumpkin (doubled from recipe) or spices (added a bunch more than recipe called for)? This was on suggestion from others that the beer turned out not spicy or pumpkin-y enough. I'm hoping everything will mellow out over time. I'll transfer to secondary on Saturday and take another reading/sample, but I'm wondering if anyone here has experience with pumpkin beers.

(N.B. filthy extract brewing peasant here. No space for all-grain where I live)

japan

Another gravity reading on my first attempt.

I did look up how best to use/read a hydrometer and suspect the last reading may not be right - I'm using the tube it came packaged in and the surface tension has a tendency to stick the hydrometer to the side of the tube. So, taking extra care this time to make sure that the hydrometer was freely floating the reading is probably closer to 1.010. If you let it stick to the side it reads lower (at 1.006, you may or may not be surprised to hear) because it's sitting at an angle and the meniscus climbs higher up the side of the tube.

Need to see about getting a proper trial jar.

mittens

I found giving the hydrometer a spin as you drop it into your sample helps a bit with the "sticking to the sides" issue

CaptainPeacock

Not to mention getting the air bubbles off the side. Spinning it knocks those off, so they won't mess with the reading.