Homebrew thread

[TommyTurnips]

I considered making the chocolate stout kit and adding some of the hershey chocolate syrup that they sell in costco but I think there is some other stuff in there that would have a negative effect on the brew. Maybe some pure cocoa would be better. I might make the kit again some day.

Yesterday I made a clone of Pliny the Elder by Russian River, I have high hopes for this one, it was so delicious even in unfermented wort form that I drank the whole hydrometer sample. It's so hoppy and I haven't even added the two weekly dry hop additions yet. Instead of my usual whole hops, the recipe box came with hop pellets which I told myself I would never use again because they were so hard to remove last time when transferring from the kettle to the fermenter. But with the help of my trusty grainfather whirlpool paddle on the end of a drill I was able to whirlpool them all to the bottom of the kettle. Much better than last time where I spent ages filtering green sludge through a tea strainer.

[TommyTurnips]

I couldn't wait, I bought hop rhizomes and planted them. Three varieties, I got Cascade, Centennial and Mount Hood. Hopefully I get some results.

[Ferris]

I got the first shoots about 2 weeks after planting mine so you should see something before April. Fingers crossed!

[TommyTurnips]

Hopefully! It might be a bit early, but then the instructions on the rhizomes says to plant them during the winter months. I decided to go ahead and buy them now because the other site I looked at was out of stock of cascade and centennial, so I decided to pre-empt a possible rush of people planting hops in the spring. I'll post some pics in a bit when there is some growth.

[Calistan]

I haven't made a brew in over a year. I need to remedy that, especially since my girlfriend went to the bother of buying me a massive pot for my brewing (also over a year ago). I'd spent some time looking here and there for a 20 litre pot but couldn't find anything - she went one further and got me a 70 litre pot. Overkill but it's the thought that counts. Am I OK using this on the hob? It's obviously massive and probably covers all four of the rings. One of my last posts in this topic I was exploring the idea of returning to some extract brewing but Ferris said I should just do a boil in the bag brew which I've never done before and would be an exciting new venture for me.

[Sebastian Cobb]

I had a break as well, as I was getting a little too in to my high strength concotions. I've got a lager that's been ready to be bottled for a about 3 weeks now but haven't got around to it.

I've got all the bits for my rotokeg now, I reassembled it but when I gassed it half full of water to check the seals it did leak, although I think I over-tightened the top plate will need to have another go at that. It's a bit of a faff when everything's covered in vaseline tbh.

[Blue Jam]

Going to get back into homebrewing here too. Now I'm a gluten-free fussy twat I have been looking into gluten-free homebrew so I can still enjoy a nice stout, and apparently a proteass enzyme supplement like GlutGone can be used with practically any kit to nuke all the gluten.

Think I'm going to give that Wilko Chocmeister kit a go, get some chocolate stout done in time for Christmas.

[Ferris]

I've also had a break, never have any bastard time. My hop plant is doing alright so I'll use that for a dry hop which means I should really brew this week or the next.

Sounds like everyone is getting back on the horse!

@Crenners a massive pot is fine. 70l is a monster but you can use it fine.

[kenneth trousers]

@Crenners I'd electrify your 70l pot if I were you.
We (me and my brother) electrified our 50l kettle with 2x 2400w elements. Took hours off the brew day, saved money and allowed us to boil outside.
If you do, make sure that each element is run from a different ring main, so upstairs and downstairs.

[Calistan]

Very strange - do my posts show up as Crenners? I am Calistan, not Crenners. No idea how I ended up logging into his account, all very bizarre.

Sadly Kenneth I have no access to an outdoor area as we live in an upstairs apartment and also I'd be petrified of burning the place down so electrifying the pot is out of the question for now.

[shoulders]

I think he just got you confused. I did a couple of times early on just because of a slight crossover of interests and turn of phrase.

[Ferris]

I think he just got you confused. I did a couple of times early on just because of a slight crossover of interests and turn of phrase.

Yup rumbled. Crenners posts in the thread fairly regularly and I didn't check properly when replying - the identical avatar also threw me.

[TommyTurnips]

70 litres is fine for a pot, they say you should use a pot that's bigger than the size of the brew that you're planning to make. I have a 62 litre keggle pot that I use on the patio with mah propane and mah propane accessories. I too use brew in the bag, it's convenient for combining your mash tun and brew kettle into one. Don't listen to those who say you shouldn't squeeze the bag. Squeeze the fuck out of that bag.

I'm taking a slight break just to do some maintenance on the kegerator. I'm letting the kegs empty out so that I can put new rubber seals on the posts and lid and modify the gas lines.

I have some home grown hops but it's not really enough to do a brew with. The cascade did very well, the centennial has about five cones and the mount hood has just died off without flowering at all. I think they need to go in the ground to prosper so I'll plant the cascade in the spring.

[Calistan]

Think I'll chance the 70 litre pot on the hob. First need to buy the bag and look into what I should make as my debut bag brew. Also need to have a look at my buckets - the last time I brewed something I had a fright when I noticed a tiny leak in my newly-bought fermentation vessel so I had to quickly santisize my old bucket and transfer the brew. Very stressful. My girlfriend will be away for ten days in the not too distant future so that will be something to do one Saturday or Sunday.

[NattyDread]

Has there been any winemaking chat in this thread yet? I'm going to have a bash at some bramble wine as they're great this year. Just made nine jars of jam so time to try something else with them.

I've made a white wine kit before, which was surprisingly good. Never done a fruit/country wine though. It'll be about time as I've loads of demijohns sitting in the shed doing nowt.

I was planning on doing this recipe, but open to any other tips. https://www.theotherandyhamilton.com/blackberry-wine/

I've read it's supposed to be quite decent while still young so may even be drinkable at Christmas, not counting on that though.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Finally got round to bottling me lager, was either busy or completely forgot it was there until Sunday night and I had no time to do anything a few weekends on the trot. Looks like I pitched it 02/07 lol.

[Ferris]

The lazy man's hobby.

Harvested my hops last weekend prior to dog sitting cos hops are poisonous to dogs and "what if I accidentally poison them?!"

2oz, not even enough for a dry hop really. Quality. In the freezer as well cos I've not brewed in ages.

[TommyTurnips]

That sounds like loads! That's about 56 grams. I reckon three 18 gram hop additions in the boil and you'll have a decent beer. I just weighed in.. 15 grams of cascade. Ah well. In the freezer they go. I haven't harvested the centennial yet because they don't look quite ready yet.

[Ferris]

Using them is a bit different from the pellets we're all used to. I think my ~6oz from last year were equivalent to about 2oz of pellets.

First year it's nice to get something off them, but the plant is mainly just establishing rootstock etc. Second year plants (as long as they're planted correctly and get enough sun etc) go like mad and you can end up with a kilo of hops or more.

[TommyTurnips]

So is your plant now a second year plant? I thought it died off. Did it sprout in the end or is this a new plant? I only recently went back to hop pellets as I couldn't filter them properly I think due to just lack of experience, not using a bag to filter the green sludge and a good whirlpool paddle on the end of a drill bit. I used to be evangelical about whole leaf hops. The hops plants will be going in the ground next year, I'll rip up a bit of patio and plant them. I think they are held back by being in pots.

[Ferris]

Sadly life got away from me a bit last fall/winter and I forgot to bring my hops inside until they'd properly frozen solid at which point they were fucked.

I planted them anyway in the spring, but they remained dead which is fair enough because Canadian winters can get pretty cold - second year plants survive because they have deep roots and don't freeze entirely unlike the ones in my pots.

As a result, I had to start from scratch this year with a new rhizome which was frankly complete gubbins and only managed to get going in mid-May by which time it was never really going to succeed. I'm going to trim the branches off and bring the pot +roots inside, and leave it in the unfinished bit of the basement over winter. Then as soon as I can next year, I'm going to get it in the ground and hopefully it'll grow like mad and establish itself enough not to need bringing indoors next winter and I'll be laughing.

That's the plan anyway. This time next year Rodney, we'll be hops millionaires.

[Blue Jam]

Anyone doing a dead Qvin/King Chas-themed brew? I might call my next one "Gout Stout"

[Sebastian Cobb]

Nothing themed but I picked up the bits to do a pilsner kit and a diy firey ginger beer today.

[Ferris]

I still have 3x 20 litres of kit I've not used like a twat.

Must start that but you've got work and uni and kids... never find the time.

[Pink Gregory]

Has there been any winemaking chat in this thread yet? I'm going to have a bash at some bramble wine as they're great this year. Just made nine jars of jam so time to try something else with them.

I've made a white wine kit before, which was surprisingly good. Never done a fruit/country wine though. It'll be about time as I've loads of demijohns sitting in the shed doing nowt.

I was planning on doing this recipe, but open to any other tips. https://www.theotherandyhamilton.com/blackberry-wine/

I've read it's supposed to be quite decent while still young so may even be drinkable at Christmas, not counting on that though.

Blackberry & Elderberry wine more or less every year (making apple+pear+grape wine this year), reliably very good if heavy on the tannins.  I'll have to see if we wrote our recipe down.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Was going to kick off a ginger beer from scratch but weighing up my bin of dextrose I reckon I'd be cutting it fine so will have to get another sack of that first I reckon.

[Ferris]

Got the all clear to buy a kegging system.

Watch this fuckin space.

[TommyTurnips]

Got the all clear to buy a kegging system.

Watch this fuckin space.

It's a game changer. Are you buying or building? I heard some of the ready made kegerators can be quite poorly put together, and of course that's the more expensive route and if you build then you can make one that's customised for you. I bought a hotpoint fridge with the biggest interior capacity I could find and drilled a hole in the top and fitted a tap tower. It helped that I found a page on a homebrewing forum where someone had made a kegerator with the same fridge so I knew it was safe to drill through the top without hitting any wires or coolant lines.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Anyone noticed sugar costs rising? I typically buy 25kg sacks of dextrose that last me about a year, looking at my email the last couple were just under 25 quid but looking online you're looking about 40+ now.

[Brian Freeze]

Apologies for reading bugger all of this thread but I've a question about the alcoholic ginger beer that @Sebastian Cobb mentioned somewhere else last week.

The recipe calls for brewers yeast but Ive only got baking yeast. Was hoping to knock some up tomorrow but dont know if the baking yeast will do the job?