Homebrew thread

[Ferris]

Also I planted hop rhizomes and the fuckers are sprouting.



You'll have to zoom right in there, but there's two unmistakable red/green vines coming up. Very exciting.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Yeah I doubt it's the lack of sugary stuff that's slowing it down. Might be temperature, 16c is a bit too cold really. Won't kill the yeast or anything, but will deffo slow it down.

Stir it up, leave it somewhere warm and you're laughing.

Will do. 16c is a bit low but that was morning-ish. Things worked fine over winter but then I removed the morning heating programme as it got warmer and then there was a cold snap.

I did have another brew that took a while or at least there was a long tail on the airlock still bubbling occasionally, but I replaced a slightly cracked lid (it still sealed enough to bubble regularly during the start of fermentation) so I left it a bit longer - based on the amount it dropped (a couple of points over a couple of weeks ending up slightly lower than when I typically bottle things) I reckon I'd have been fine bottling it anyway, one of my bins has a rough edge round the bung and leaks so much the airlock doesn't bubble and I've been going by reading just fine on that.

[ASFTSN]

Got my first ever batch undergoing primary fermentation now. Went to bed yesterday despondent about it just sitting there dead quiet and now I've woken up and the fucker's burbling through the airlock like anything. I took the coat I'd put round the fermenter to insulate it off, as it had actually reached 24C and the krausen was creeping up round the airlock tube a little bit. Seems like my fears about termperature were needless.

[ASFTSN]

Tell u wot, actually it seems a little bit over-excitable. Krausen keeps mooching up round the airlock and bubbling my tap water out the top, popping the cap off. Read about blow outs and blow off tubes (lol), do I need to worry about getting something like that or just keep topping up my airlock with tap water?  Dead (beer) soon?

[Ferris]

Tell u wot, actually it seems a little bit over-excitable. Krausen keeps mooching up round the airlock and bubbling my tap water out the top, popping the cap off. Read about blow outs and blow off tubes (lol), do I need to worry about getting something like that or just keep topping up my airlock with tap water?  Dead (beer) soon?

The airlock is there to stop the wort fermenting aerobically (is it keeps the air out) but if you have enough CO2 coming out to push water out the airlock then think about puncturing a balloon - the constant pressure out means no air is getting in so you could even take the airlock off if you wanted.

People install blowoff tubes in case fermentation gets so vigorous krausen gets in the airlock and blocks it (either completely or partially), which allows pressure to build in the fermenting vessel until it explodes and gets sticky shit everywhere. This has never, in my 10+ years of being a lazy brewer, come close to happening to me[nb]though if you have a 3 part airlock that can't really happen and it functions as a blowoff tube when necessary anyway[/nb].

After 24hrs it'll calm down but if you're worried you could put a tube on for a day. I've never bothered but if you get the spare room covered floor to ceiling in beery sugar water you might get in trouble.

[Ferris]

To add: 24c is very warm so the yeast is probably going gangbusters but will calm down as it cools as well.

[Ferris]

Also I planted hop rhizomes and the fuckers are sprouting.



You'll have to zoom right in there, but there's two unmistakable red/green vines coming up. Very exciting.

Hop vine update:

[ASFTSN]

After 24hrs it'll calm down but if you're worried you could put a tube on for a day. I've never bothered but if you get the spare room covered floor to ceiling in beery sugar water you might get in trouble.

Cheers - it was vigorous enough that it was chucking out any water in the airlock within 15 minutes of topping it up and foaming all over the lid, which didn't seem very sterile and was getting annoying. The flat's small enough that the idea of a spare room is laughable so yep - beerpocalypse in the hall sounded worrying :)

I sterilised everything, got out the hacksaw and MacGyver'd the fuck out of the end of the airlock, a cheap siphon from Wilko, a jar and some sterilised water:

[Sebastian Cobb]

As I've mentioned before I've got a leaky seal on one of my bins and it's never caused me any grief but there's no way it's keeping the beer under co2 rather than air. So I did some digging on homebrew forums and it seems to be more about keeping things (fruitflys) out rather than keeping the oxygen away:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/airlock-really-needed.338053/

That's impressive mcgyvering nonetheless.

[Ferris]

Lovely job!

[ASFTSN]

As I've mentioned before I've got a leaky seal on one of my bins and it's never caused me any grief but there's no way it's keeping the beer under co2 rather than air. So I did some digging on homebrew forums and it seems to be more about keeping things (fruitflys) out rather than keeping the oxygen away:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/airlock-really-needed.338053/

That's impressive mcgyvering nonetheless.

My frantic googling before I ran down the shops earlier led me to the same thread - I can definitely see how people are comfortable doing without. We're coming up to the season where clothes moths attack us big time here and I can just see one of those lairy fucks getting in. I suppose I've got it if I need it in future!

[Sebastian Cobb]

Yeah honestly I think the best post in there is that it's a $1 insurance policy.

My point was meant as a reassuring 'don't panic if it's not quite right'.

[Blue Jam]

I sterilised everything, got out the hacksaw and MacGyver'd the fuck out of the end of the airlock, a cheap siphon from Wilko, a jar and some sterilised water:

Ahahahahah I do love a good bit of MacGyvering. I did something similar with my last batch when I realised my cheapo 23l fermenter couldn't contain all of my last batch so I poured some of it into a 2l Pepsi bottle and used a length of siphon and a gym water bottle as an airlock. "The Beer Bong" as it became known in our house. Turned out absolutely fine.

[MojoJojo]

Anyone seen/used these new fangled hipster brewing machines?

https://thegreatergood.co.uk

I had a moment of madness and bought one, and have done my first batch. It's very meh overall.

Pros:
- the beer is definitely OK, and better than some of the homebrew I've made with a lot more effort and equipment. I tried an IPA, which is probably not a good beer for it as the aromatic hop flavours won't go into a concentrate well.
- it's a nice piece of kit, solidly and well put together. The packaging was quite cool as well, you pull a bit of cardboard off and the box flaps open like a flower. I know it sounds wanky buy it was a real "wow" moment.
- the price per pint is pretty good.
Cons:
- fitting into the fridge is a bit of an arse. I took one of the salad drawers out, and my fridge isn't small.
- the beer is only OK. I couldn't say it was better or worse than those mini kegs of Hobgoblin you can buy from the supermarket - which are also similar in price.
-you don't really do anything, so there's no reward from making it. Not even a bubbling air lock to enjoy. Just a cleaning job at the end.
-design niggle - there's a fiddly triangle know thing on the back which you need to open to "tap" the beer, and then close when you're finished. But it's on the back when you've got it shoved in the fridge so it's annoying to turn.

Overall it reminds me a lot of a sodastream - a not too expensive gadget to make low quality fizzy pop at a price comparable to low quality fizzy pop from the supermarket. It's not bad, but the only clear benefits it provides are a reduction in packaging waste, and the kits are a space efficient way of storing a lot of potential beer which is helpful if you're a prepper or something. I will use it again, and will try some more of the beer styles (I'll try and pick styles that are more likely to work well from concentrates), and I don't regret buying it, but there's just no great reason to buy it.

[TommyTurnips]

So if you buy that thing and then you serve it when it has finished fermentation, presumably you end up with a massive yeast cake in your freshly served beer. There's got to be some sort of transfer process to get rid of that yeast. Looks like a glorified extract kit maker. It would be a big step backwards for me as an all-grain brewer.

[Ferris]

Yeah I think that's what MJ was referring to on "washing out". I'm not a fan of those specialized kit-type systems, they seem a very specialized niche to me but for some people I imagine they're perfect.

I'm back in the game, by the way. Picked my new gear up last weekend - came with a free extract kit so will take a stroll down memory lane and do that at some point. Promised the father in law and brother in law I'd let them help me brew next time I did it, so will have to get my mash tun and grain bag ready for round 2.

[TommyTurnips]

Yeah I think that's what MJ was referring to on "washing out". I'm not a fan of those specialized kit-type systems, they seem a very specialized niche to me but for some people I imagine they're perfect.

I'm back in the game, by the way. Picked my new gear up last weekend - came with a free extract kit so will take a stroll down memory lane and do that at some point. Promised the father in law and brother in law I'd let them help me brew next time I did it, so will have to get my mash tun and grain bag ready for round 2.

I made this chocolate stout extract kit a year or so ago https://www.wilko.com/en-uk/wilko-stout-brewing-kit-18kg/p/0468416 mainly because the label made it look like the most awesome beer ever and i fancied a kit for old times sake. However, it actually ended up as a regular stout. Not too chocolatey at all. Just an alright tasting stout. It really made me miss all grain brewing. This is probably going to sound like i'm looking down my nose, but I definitely felt an increase in the quality of my brews when I went all grain. No offense to those who make extract kits. I get it, I've made loads of kits in my time, they definitely have their place and it depends on how far down the homebrew rabbit hole you want to go and how much time and money you want to invest in it, but I feel like it's like a whole different world if you make the switch. Better brews and more freedom to make exactly what you want.

I'm brewing this weekend. I bought the ingredients to make a clone of Brewdog Chaos Theory which is a single hop Nelson Sauvin IPA. Should be fun! One thing I find is that my gravity doesn't get down to where it's supposed to be. Usually finishes at around 1.020 so I bought a whirlpool paddle that fits onto the end of a drill. So now I can whirlpool and hopefully aerate the yeast so that it ferments all the way out.

[Ferris]

Big Nelson Sauvin fan, it's a really interesting hop. Criminally underused.

I completely agree on the all grain vs extract brewing. It's really not that much more equipment either - you get a brew bag and a big pot, a big spoon, and a meat thermometer; you can mash in your boil vessel and put the big pot in the sink with cold water to chill it down. Probably $40 extra up front (25 quid?) plus cost of a big steel pot and the whole process becomes more fun and much cheaper.

Totally get why it intimidates people or causes issues because of storage space or whatever though, no shade at extract kits.

[MojoJojo]

So if you buy that thing and then you serve it when it has finished fermentation, presumably you end up with a massive yeast cake in your freshly served beer. There's got to be some sort of transfer process to get rid of that yeast. Looks like a glorified extract kit maker. It would be a big step backwards for me as an all-grain brewer.

So you brew with the keg face down with the opening on the front attached to a sort of base thing, which you remove at the end of fermentation, and that is where most of the yeast goes. I still had a few little bits come out, and the result is a bit cloudy.

Absolutely not a replacement for proper home brew - the results are impressive considering how little effort involved, but not actually that good in the grand scheme of beer. I'm not sure it really calculates as homebrew.

[TommyTurnips]

And I suppose that if one really wanted to make one of those kits for it that look to me a bit like bottles of medicine or dettol, then there's nothing stopping you from using your old fermenting bucket and doing it that way. Life hack!

[ASFTSN]

"Racked" (as I believe you cool kids say) my first batch into a pressure barrel this afternoon and just finished cleaning everything up. Some observations from a total first timer with a small flat and nowhere really applicable to do all this stuff:

• Not having a hose attachment thing for my kitchen tap meant I had to really work to get water into vessels as I couldn't jam them under the tap. I used a big 3l jug to transfer liquid around.


• I'd never have been able to do this without having a second fermenting bucket on hand. I used it for cleaning kit, mixing up large batches of sterilised water, leaving water for my wort in to stand while campden tablets did their work etc. I'd have been fucked without it.


• Cleaning/sterilising an autosiphon is a pain in the bum. Having all the hard plastic sections as well as the tubing meant it had a tendency to flail around and touch all of the less clean areas of my kitchen, and I still had to just hope for the best when it came to rinsing out steriliser from it by just pumping it. Same with pressure barrel to a lesser extent.


• I had Cleaner/Steriliser ('contains sodium silicate) and some no-rinse Steriliser (Sodium Percarbonate). Initially I used both one after another in a paranoid fashion, but I started to not trust the latter, coz it seemed to leave a sort of chalky residue on stuff, and not actually dissolve that well in colder water. Didn't really want that in anything. So I just began to use the cleaner/sterilise and rinse until I couldn't smell chlorine any more.


• The amount of water this hobby uses is nuts. Not so much the actual wort but the endless cleaning/sterilising/rinsing, though if I'd had a big sink I could fill up it would have been better. Kept getting boring eco-worry voice in the back of my head. I'm sure there's much worse things you can do though.

Anyway, looking forward to drinking it all. Thanks again to thread for the help.

[Sebastian Cobb]

It's a lot easier to do all that in the bathroom!

I have a bathtub but tend to pour my steriliser out of my bins into a watertight plastic box (about 2x1ft) so I can throw things like the syphon tube and stirrers into. In a place without a bath I did this in a shower cubicle unscrewing the shower head and using the hose to fill things (I still do this with the shower attachment in my bath).

I tend to syphon in the bathroom too - by putting the bucket on a chair and the destination bucket underneath it. I then carry that bucket into the kitchen as the surfaces are higher and easier to bottle from.

[ASFTSN]

Good shout on the watertight box, I might have to get one next time. I could try the bathroom but I got paranoid about black mold spores (I went nuclear on it last time I cleaned but it slowly comes back) not to mention my long hair gets everywhere.

I should also mention I'm trying out Blue Jam's ale bread recipe posted upthread!

[TommyTurnips]

• The amount of water this hobby uses is nuts. Not so much the actual wort but the endless cleaning/sterilising/rinsing, though if I'd had a big sink I could fill up it would have been better. Kept getting boring eco-worry voice in the back of my head. I'm sure there's much worse things you can do though.

Anyway, looking forward to drinking it all. Thanks again to thread for the help.

Get a spray bottle filled with sanitiser and spray it onto everything that the beer will touch. For things like bottles I dip them in a washing up bowl full of sanitiser. If you are using sanitiser from a homebrew shop then there's no need to rinse the sanitiser off of your equipment afterwards as it is non toxic food safe sanitiser. Remember, "don't fear the foam". That's why it says "no rinse sanitiser" on the bottle. Hopefully this will save you some time and water.

[ASFTSN]

Cheers Tommy - wish I had a photo now of my gear after using the no-rinse stuff as it really was streaky to the point I couldn't see through a plastic jug. So that's ok to pour consumables straight in? Also wonder if you have any thoughts on keeping a spray bottle of this no rinse stuff, it says on the side it should be used within the hour which is at odds with how I've heard people talk about other stuff like StarSan etc (which I assume is different to Sodium Percarbonate?)

[TommyTurnips]

As long as it's no rinse sanitiser you'll be fine. I've never had any problems from letting the beer touch the bubbles. Infact I heard that rinsing can even undo the good work that your sanitiser has just done, as the water sat in your pipes may not be the cleanest. You only really need a small amount of the concentrated solution diluted in water to make a lot of sanitiser. I don't have the instructions in front of me but I think my bottle says a teaspoon sized amount. I've never used starsan as it was usually hard to find in the uk, but I just bought some from the malt miller so I'll give it a try soon. Also I've never discarded sanitiser,  I've always kept it in the spray bottle. I'm not sure if that is the correct thing to do but I've never had any infections.

[Ferris]

I'm a starsan in a spray bottle man, I'd recommend it and I'm dead lazy so you know it's good shit.

[bgmnts]

Probably been mentioned in the first 23 pages but has anyone had a go at making mead?

[Ferris]

Probably been mentioned in the first 23 pages but has anyone had a go at making mead?

I think SirHenry had a few good posts on it earlier in the thread, can't find them just now though.

[TommyTurnips]

I'm a starsan in a spray bottle man, I'd recommend it and I'm dead lazy so you know it's good shit.

I think I made my first two extract kits by repeatedly filling and boiling the kettle to fill my bucket with hot sanitiser before thinking there's got to be a better way than this. Then I was spray bottle all the way.