Messages

1

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Lemonade in beer

« on: May 06, 2013, 12:38:17 pm »

My last brew I did a wheat with cascade and centennial. I really wanted to impart some more citrus flavor to the beer so I ended up cold brewing my priming sugar in a mason jar with the juice from 2 lemons, 1 orange and as much zest as I could get from each. I just made it at the same time as I brewed and then let it sit in the fridge for 2 weeks. I got antsy and popped the first one a couple days ago after letting them carb for a week. Tastes great, though obviously undercarbed. A lot of citrus flavor and it's full bodied so it's not too dry. It doesn't have the tartness of lemonade but  I think you could get to where you wanted if you did the same thing I did with a lot more lemon and added to the fermenter as primary was winding down or when bottling

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General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Birthday Beer Awesomness

« on: April 28, 2013, 04:13:45 pm »

+ a million to the puppies and I know what you mean with the amazon gift cards, I got a couple for christmas and that's exactly what they went towards

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General Homebrew Discussion / Birthday Beer Awesomness

« on: April 26, 2013, 05:12:10 pm »

I missed out on my last 4 birthdays due to training and deployments. My family made up for lost time this year with a new polar ware brew kettle, bayou classic burner and a gift card for my local Home Brew store to load up on the goodies. Anyone else get some awesome home brew equipment for their birthday's this year?

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General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Second thoughts on brewing

« on: April 19, 2013, 06:16:19 pm »

I'm currently working out batch number 11 and I still don't have a burner or chiller. As of now I've been doing stove top and when I bumped up to all grain I just ended up doing the boils in two 5 gallon pots. As for chilling, I live in Wisconsin so my ground water comes out < 50. I just fill up the bathtub and dump in a couple 5 gallon buckets of snow from my driveway. I think I was below 80 in about 45 min on my last brew.

Now that summer is coming around I'll look at getting a chiller and a burner so I can move outdoors. Otherwise who cares, you're making the beer so you're going to love how it tastes regardless. I'm sure some of mine were pure crap and they still tasted fantastic to me

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Yeast and Fermentation / Re: Funky Cider Smell

« on: March 07, 2013, 10:10:10 am »

Haha ok well let me try and run through these one by one. My friend is allergic to gluten as in celiac disease. However it's not terrible. She can handle gluten it just... ehem doesn't come out the other end in a nice fashion and it gives her terrible bubblegut. But that's if she decides to eat a loaf of bread or drink a twelve pack. As for using the DME in my starter, and making a starter in general for a gallon fermentation... I harvested this yeast from an amber honey ale I did about 8 weeks ago. I washed it twice and then had it in a Ball Canning jar in the fridge for the entire time. I wanted to use a starter to wake it up a bit before just tossing it in. I used the Honey and about a tablespoon of DME in the starter because I didn't want to shock the yeast with different sugars. I was hoping the tablespoon of DME would be enough to wake the yeast up, store up some reserves and then move on to the honey and other simple sugars found in the cider. As for boiling the cider, it was unpasteurized so I figured I'd give it a short boil just to make sure. I added the honey just as I turned off the stove top.

As for my next batch, you guys have given me plenty to think about. I'll let my friend try one of these when they're finished and see how she feels. That way when I have people over for brew days she won't be sitting there without a brew. Terrible feeling when you can't drink when brewing.


Oh and  back to my previous question. Anyone know where the production of H2S comes from when fermenting ciders?

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Yeast and Fermentation / Re: Funky Cider Smell

« on: March 06, 2013, 10:53:20 pm »

Interesting, good to know that it's across the board and pretty normal. Anyone have a timeframe on aging to get rid of off flavors? I was thinking something like 2 weeks in primary, then transfer out, washout the yeast bed to save it and then leave it in the carboy for about 4 weeks before bottling, let it carbonate for 2 and then let it chill in my mini fridge for about a month. Also if anyone happened to know some of the chemistry behind a cider fermentation and where the H2S is coming from that would be appreciated.

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Yeast and Fermentation / Funky Cider Smell

« on: March 06, 2013, 07:44:57 pm »

So I had about 2 cups of wildflower honey left over from this summer from a local farm. One of my friends is allergic to gluten which means beer for her is a no no. I realize gluten free beers are a possibility, but thats a thread for another time. Anyway I decided to brew her a up a quick 6 pack of cider using a gallon carboy I have left over from a roommate. I picked up a gallon of organic preservative free apple cider and I decided to use some left over washed yeast from a honey amber ale recipe (#1056 wyeast). I made a 2 cup starter 24 hours before hand using some light DME and some honey. Then boiled the cider for about 15 min with the 2 cups of honey. Cooled and pitched the starter. The lag time was about 20 min and it was going crazy by hour 4. But now 48hrs in, I'm getting some ridiculous rotten egg smell. Indicative of hydrogen sulfide. I realize that H2S production is possible and common with lagers however I've never encountered it with an ale yeast. Should I be worried about a secondary infection or just ride it out and see what's going on when it's over. The krausen has subsided and the fermentation is still very active though slowing. I figure in another 48 hours it will hit it's FG.

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Yeast and Fermentation / Lemon flavors in coffee stout

« on: February 28, 2013, 04:36:31 pm »

So I just brewed my first stout and I decided to make it a coffee flavored. I googled a couple of recipes and I think I ended up going with one from the AHA forum.  I cold brewed the coffee (Alterra Cafe Voltaire) for 24 hours to decrease bitterness and the finished wort smelled fantastic. I just racked over to the secondary after 6 days, and I couldn't resist grabbing a glass to taste. I chilled it for about 15 min in the fridge and then sat down with it. It tastes great and the flavor of the coffee really shines but I'm also getting some noticeable citrus: lemon and tangy. Used 1056 for the yeast, Fuggle for the hops. Any clue where that citrus came from? Was it the yeast, hops, or something I did?

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Kegging and Bottling / Re: Cold Crashing before bottling

« on: February 22, 2013, 12:52:33 pm »

Awesome thanks for the help

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Kegging and Bottling / Re: Cold Crashing before bottling

« on: February 22, 2013, 12:11:35 pm »

Yeast was a smack pack Wyeast 1056

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Kegging and Bottling / Cold Crashing before bottling

« on: February 22, 2013, 11:54:00 am »

I'm fairly new to the home brew experience and so far i've been very happy with the taste of my beers but not so happy with the amount of sediment i'm getting in my bottles. I've been using Irish moss, whirpooling at the end of my boils and I've been careful not to kick up sediment when I rack to secondary's. My question is about cold crashing in the secondary for a couple of days to a week before bottling. I just kegged my first beer and I had the secondary sitting in my garage for about 7 days before I transferred it over. The garage sits at between 39 and 40 in the winter so this beer went into the keg crystal clear. I force carbonate so I wasn't worried about dropping out the yeast. With this beer that I want to bottle though if I chill it for a couple of days before bottling will there be enough yeast left to carbonate or will I have to re-pitch at bottling and how much?

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Yeast and Fermentation / Re: Yeast for gallon sized fermentation

« on: February 19, 2013, 10:21:52 pm »

Yeah that's about right amount wise. He came over to help bottle my last batch and was a little upset that I get about 48 bottles out of each 5 gallon batch and he only got a 6 pack out of his christmas present. Regardless though I'd like to keep the fermenter because it can allow me to test out batches without brewing up a whole 5 gallons. Also I live in an apt in downtown MKE. My roommates don't really appreciate it when I swallow the kitchen to do my brews so I'm forced to trek an hour home to do it there. With one gallon test batches I could easily do it at my apt during the week.

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Yeast and Fermentation / Yeast for gallon sized fermentation

« on: February 19, 2013, 06:27:20 pm »

So my roommate received a small brewing kit for christmas that he finally got around to using. The kit came with a gallon glass carboy that I have claimed as mine now that he's finished with it. I figured I could use if for small test batches of recipes I would like to try. The brew shop that I get my supplies at (Brew & Grow) only stocks the Wyeast pouches. Obviously an amount of yeast tailored for 5 gallons is overkill for fermenting a gallon of beer. So what should I do? Would it be easier to make a starter and then pitch a portion of it and fridge the rest till I use it for a larger recipe, or can I just pitch the entire pouch and then harvest the yeast when fermentation is finished and then store it for a larger recipe. I'm going for ease and sanitation here. Opinions?

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Beer Recipes / Re: Bourbon Barrel Porter

« on: February 19, 2013, 05:48:08 pm »

Fantastic list that included almsot all of my favorites. I was stationed at Ft. Knox for 2 years with the 1st Infantry Division so I became somewhat of a bourbon snob during my many visits to the distilleries along the Bourbon Trail.. My go to has always been Makers or Knob so you can't go wrong there. I think you should nix Woodford, it's just not on par with other bourbons. It always tastes a little young and less refined. If you're looking for some spice to augment I would suggest a Knob Creek Rye. Makers and Knob Creek have a high corn content in the mash bill, something like 75% with just a touch of Rye. So you get a lot sweeter bourbon. If you want that flavor to really shine through with a little bit of snap, a Rye bourbon would be greater. Four Roses is another stellar bourbon even though they primarily export to Japan and are just starting to show up again in the States. Again it's more of a corn bourbon. Buffalo Trace isn't one I have a lot of experience with. Might I also suggest adding Eagle Rare? It's distilled in limited quantities every year, one of my all time favorites and I never miss a chance to snag a bottle if I happen to see it on a shelf.

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General Homebrew Discussion / Ruined threads on brew pot

« on: February 15, 2013, 05:39:50 pm »

I received a 42 qt polarware brew pt from my parents as a gift while on deployment last year. My parents bought it in nov 2011 but I didn't pull it out until now to use. When I tried to attach the spigot I saw that the threads have been pretty much sheared off to the point that I can only screw the spigot on 2 full revolutions before it refuses to turn any further. I can't return it because it was a clearance item from the brew shop and it was bought too long ago. I figured I could just solder the spigot to make it watertight. Would I have any issue with bacterial growth inside the spigot if I was unable to remove it or could it just stay on permanently?