I keep losing the other brewing thread, so I decided to make a Grand Brewing Thread. :)
What do you all know about Midwest Brewing's kits? They have a Ale/Lager Kit of the Month (http://www.midwestsupplies.com/ale-and-lager-kit-of-the-month-club.html) that I'm looking at, and the kits look pretty close to what I find at our local brewing store. Anyone played with them?
Also, I was going to make five gallons of cranberry mead, but I've decided instead to make some cranberry lager. Any suggestions on what to be careful of when doing this?
Hmm. Found this recipe and really want to try it: Cranberry Cream Ale (http://byo.com/stories/recipeindex/article/recipes/102-fruit-beer/514-cranberry-cream-ale)
A revolution :ph34r:
Actually this thread reminds my I should pull my finger out and do some ginger beer, just a chase of cleaning everything.
My ginger ale (alcoholic) turned out incredible. :mmm: Definitely worth trying again.
I'm brewing all the piss with heady, foamy goodness that I'm going to spray all over this fucking thread.
Quote from: CountDeMoney on November 16, 2012, 02:23:04 PM
I'm brewing all the piss with heady, foamy goodness that I'm going to spray all over this fucking thread.
:(
Prohibition Now, Prohibition WOW!
Call me Anketell.
Hoping to hit a collaboration brew made of pale malt, rye bread, rye malt, and raisins with a farmhouse ale yeast we're calling Kvassholes.
Also going to refine my 3rd place old ale from a SMASH into a more balanced brew.
What kind of contests have you entered, Scip? I've considered entering a few, but I don't know anyone who does them, and I'm not sure how to get started with them.
I entered 2012 Sam Adams Longshot, and a Mississippi local BJCP contest. I've entered our Hattiesburg local casual competition for the past three years.
I pick and choose. If I have a beer I'm proud of, I enter it if I find a competition I like. But I always try to enter Mississippi competitions.
Do you have to use your own recipes for these things, or can you use someone else's, giving them credit, of course? Also, what should a person know before getting into one of these things? :ph34r:
Recipes are recipes, like any other recipes. It's a trade secret, but the only attribution is the description of beers as clones.
Buy some software, like Beer Smith 2. That will help a lot; they have a huge recipe database.
I use stock recipes and modify them based on my personal preferences. I like low-carbonation, heavy malt beers in the English style, and avoid brewing hop bombs.
The most important thing is to realize that those white plastic buckets wear out and get scratched easily. Transitioning to all-stainless was tough, but thanks to unscrupulous junkyards, achievable (they pay cash for illegal kegs, and the brewers usually won't take them back since they're all gross). Kegging is superior in ease to bottling, once you get the equipment.
Three things are required: attention to detail, Star San, and patience. I have brewer three bad batches, only one of which was wholly undrinkable, out of 24 batches, in just over 4 years. This is with no money, and a steep ramp-up into all-grain nearly immediately upon entering the hobby. Above all, trust no one about your beer when they review it to your face. Unless they are experiences home brewers, they will lie to be nice.
Brewing is about knowing what you like, and drinking what you brew. Otherwise, it's way too expensive a hobby for the skint (or those like me who are paying off student debt at a record rate and own two 13 year old cars). Brewing to a style helps you evaluate your quality control; that's the benefit of recipes and recipe programs like Beer Smith 2.
Above all, be humble and grateful when people drink your beer. I'm still working on that one.
WARNING: REVIVING A DEAD THREAD!
I've been on a brewing kick and wanted to share. My recent brews have been: Chocolate Stout (kit, pretty good), Cherry Scotch Ale (kit with additions, pretty good), Happy Holiday Ale (in the secondary, ready to bottle), Spiced Ale (kit with additions, really tasty!), Mugwort Chamomile Mead (dear god in heaven, this stuff is incredible, going in for a competition in January), Maple Treacle Mead (in the secondary, will need racked again before bottling), Spiced Cranberry Mead (in the primary right now, will be ready for xmas next year), and some ciders.
Several notes:
1) A hydrometer is a hell of a lot more useful than I once believed. How I brewed without that thing is a mystery to me. Even the mead is better when you actually pay attention to OG and FG. Who knew?!
2) Kits are okay, but I think I'm kind of past them now. I want more say in my ingredients, especially the hops.
3) Beer recipe calculators are awesome!
4) Starting in January, I'm going to start trying to recreate historical brews (think 11th and 12th century ales). I'll be shooting for one new historical recipe a month. I have one-gallon and half-gallon bottles ready to go. No point in brewing up five gallons of swill if I don't need to.
What have you all been brewing? :)
I brewed a Gose most recently and think I maybe oversalted it, but we'll see once it's bottled, carbed and cold. I came up with my own recipe for this one, and actually did it on the cheap since I had yeast, hops & sea salt already. Just had to buy coriander, grains, and extract.
I also brewed a Christmas Barleywine from a kit; from the samples I tried the spices were restrained, thankfully. I didn't want a fizzy Barleywine, so I used a bit less priming sugar than usual (half a cup). Taking a while to carbonate, but that was expected.
Most of the rest of my brewing this year has been IPA variants, with a boring brown ale and surprisingly good hefeweizen thrown in.
Quote from: merithyn on December 16, 2014, 01:45:53 AM
WARNING: REVIVING A DEAD THREAD!
Doing it again, but WAY WORSE!!!111 :P
I have a (roughly) two year old batch of mead that fermented half way using EC-1118 and then quit. Maybe 6% starting from 1.14 on the hydrometer. Six gallons. I had oranges and vanilla in there before I racked it the first time. I tried to restart it a couple times but it seemed to croak out once I pitched it each time. This week, when I got back from Utah I decided I was gonna make something happen with this one way or another (It tastes wonderful--it's just very syrupy, like Cardassians drink). So, I started my yeast yet again and this time I added must from the carboy a little at a time, making sure the yeast kept active as I went. Then finally put the whole thing into the main batch and now it's actually bubbling through the valve again.
Is there some kind of nuke yeast that will finish even sugary must with a lot of alcohol in it?
Brewed this with some colleagues some months ago, finally ready but it's far away and I haven't tasted it yet. :(
(https://scontent-ams3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/13934980_10154509368929548_4255171021864007851_n.jpg?oh=9951156549963c2b7bff8faa915582b8&oe=585AE725)
Well, I said I brewed, I was there drinking good beer while people were brewing it. :P
Quote from: MadImmortalMan on August 05, 2016, 04:38:16 PM
Quote from: merithyn on December 16, 2014, 01:45:53 AM
WARNING: REVIVING A DEAD THREAD!
Doing it again, but WAY WORSE!!!111 :P
I have a (roughly) two year old batch of mead that fermented half way using EC-1118 and then quit. Maybe 6% starting from 1.14 on the hydrometer. Six gallons. I had oranges and vanilla in there before I racked it the first time. I tried to restart it a couple times but it seemed to croak out once I pitched it each time. This week, when I got back from Utah I decided I was gonna make something happen with this one way or another (It tastes wonderful--it's just very syrupy, like Cardassians drink). So, I started my yeast yet again and this time I added must from the carboy a little at a time, making sure the yeast kept active as I went. Then finally put the whole thing into the main batch and now it's actually bubbling through the valve again.
Is there some kind of nuke yeast that will finish even sugary must with a lot of alcohol in it?
This is a great place to look for what kinds of yeasts to use for a variety of different things: https://winemakermag.com/yeast-strains-chart (https://winemakermag.com/yeast-strains-chart)
Quote from: Liep on August 05, 2016, 05:04:29 PM
Brewed this with some colleagues some months ago, finally ready but it's far away and I haven't tasted it yet. :(
(https://scontent-ams3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/13934980_10154509368929548_4255171021864007851_n.jpg?oh=9951156549963c2b7bff8faa915582b8&oe=585AE725)
Well, I said I brewed, I was there drinking good beer while people were brewing it. :P
That's about as close as some of my friends have come to brewing a beer when they've asked me to help. Every time they are about to do something wrong I'm all like JEEZ MOVE LET ME DO IT. I end up doing about 80% of the work.
I brewed a Hefeweizen and then a Dunkelweizen in June as my last beers before my summer brewing break. Hefe turned out awesome but the Dunkelweizen just tastes boring. Wanted it to be like Franziskaner.
I just racked a brilliant Black Strap Black Porter. Cannot WAIT to drink it in a couple of months. I used the kit for five gallons of London Black Fog Porter but added half a pound of molasses and two pounds of brown sugar to it. Upped the alcohol content and the sweetness just enough.
I've got a Pecan Pie Double Bock that I need to get the hops for, then I'll get that in the hopper, too.
Nice. I'm working on an Imperial Stout recipe that I'm going to let sit in a fermenter for months. How are you going to lager your doppelbock? I haven't played around with lagers yet.
I've got the system set-up for using our deep freezer, but I may just wait until the fall and do it The Olde Fashioned Way (allow the cooler days and nights to do the laugering for me). My friend does hers in her garage and it comes out fantastic that way.
A buddy of mine puts his fermenter in a swamp cooler and rotates in frozen bottles of water to keep the temperature a certain level. Too much work for me. I was going to get a chest freezer to convert to put kegs in, lager, etc. but I don't have space any more ironically since the wife bought me the beer fridge for the garage.
Okay, I want to make some mead.
What do I need to get? I mean other than the honey, yeast, etc... what gear do I need?
Quote from: Jacob on August 09, 2016, 05:46:29 PM
Okay, I want to make some mead.
What do I need to get? I mean other than the honey, yeast, etc... what gear do I need?
Keep in mind that I'm a failure so far, but you need big bottles or pails that seal, some air valves to cork em up with, and not much else. It isn't too hard.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008ACWSZU/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Valves. I put vodka in them, but you can just use water really.
I do use StarSan on my equipment though. It's basically acid sanitizer.
Quote from: merithyn on August 08, 2016, 11:16:44 AM
This is a great place to look for what kinds of yeasts to use for a variety of different things: https://winemakermag.com/yeast-strains-chart (https://winemakermag.com/yeast-strains-chart)
Thanks for that. :)