Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?
 

I have 2 fermenters (IPA and an EPA) both with seeming stuck fermentations.....

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?
 

10 gallons of Kolshe gonna brew another 10 tomorrow need lots of beer for sharkathonthis year. Plus I have my own personal stash.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?
 

5 gallon batch of American Pale Ale (APA) fermenting away...

http://i1174.photobucket.com/albums/...ps8550592a.jpg

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?
 

Looks nice Bryan. I have a APA going as well. Tried my hand at wet hopping this time around. Never done it before. Threw in a bunch of Cenntenial hops I grew in my backyard during the boil. Its got atleast a 1 1/2weeks before im ready to bottle. Very interested to see how this one comes out.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?
 

Thanks, I'm still pretty new to this home brewing thing.

Yesterday when I got home the fermentation process was slowing down (like it should), but I've got some odd looking stuff sitting on top. It's like whitish chunks. I wasnt sure if that is normal, or a sign on contamination.

Never heard of wet hopping, but I am interesting to hear about your results.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?
 

It sounds like just a normal part of the krausen (foam from the yeast) but with out seeing it its hard to say but it should be just fine.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?
 

Yeah, I think you are right. I checked today and those little clumps have dissipated. I tried to get a picture, but that proved difficult.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?
 

Just transferred my experimental small batch "Backyard Brown" into secondary: it's an American brown ale with roasted acorns, rosemary, and wet-hopped with Cascades, all from my backyard.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?
 

Damn Gerard that sounds very interesting. Have to let us know how that turnes out.

I got to serve as a judge in a home brew competiton today. Very interesting time. Got a chance to try a few that were absolutly amazing. Wish i could buy them in the store.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?
 

Brewed an Imperial Pumpkin Ale made with Brown Sugar, Maple Syrup and Dark Rum.
Probably wont be ready until Christmas but I am looking forward to it.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?
 

I need to brew before its to cold . I brew all grain usually 10 gal batchs

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?
 

I've got 5 gallons of an English bitter in the fermenter. Should be in the keg already but I've been lazy. Hopefully it'll be on the gas this weekend.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?
 

A Munich Helles is bubbling away, should be ready on New Year's Day

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?
 

Just got into this hobby a couple weeks ago. I did some reading and started my first batch last weekend. I bought an ingredient kit from the local supply store and my first one will be an American wheat ale.

I thought I did enough research, holy ish was I wrong. Every step I took I had a question about that I felt I needed to do more research on.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?
 

Today I kegged an Amber, transferred my Imperial Pumpkin onto some Kraken rum, and brewed a Nut Brown Ale

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?
 

Amber and a Pale. Getting stocked up for spring. :)

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?
 

We just got 2 five gallon batches into the fermenter, one is a dark brown my wife picked out and the other is an IPA I picked. Hers is fermenting now, mine looks like it's trying, just not going crazy yet.

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I bottled a 5 gal batch of coffee stout and a 5 gal batch of an anchor steam clone earlier this week. A 5 gal DIPA is in the primary right now and moving slow. I'll transfer it to secondary in two weeks, ferment for 9 weeks and then dry hop for one week before bottling that batch.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?
 

Just put a Belgian IPA into the fermenter and shes slowly chugging along. my pantry where i keep it smells amazing. I have 2oz of citra that i need to use up so i think im going to dry hop it with them

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?
 

Transfered an Amber Ale yesterday into the secondary with 2 oz. of Cascade

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?
 

The DIPA has been transferred to secondary to sit another 9 weeks before dry hopping for one week.
The coffee stout and steam clone have been in the bottles for two weeks, time to try them out! :)

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?
 

This weekend I brewed an IPA with Citra & Galaxy hops

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?
 

Nice, let me know how that comes out. I have a IPA on deck that i want to dry hop with Galaxy.

Right now im between beers. I have a belgian IPA dry hopped with citra bottle conditioning and Im waiting on the ingredients for a Blackberry Wheat.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?
 

I want to do a Belgian IPA next. Care to share your recipe?

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?
 

Certainly:
Ingredients : 8 lb. Belgian Pilsner malt, 1.5 lb. Wheat malt, 8 oz. Cara-20, 4 oz. Acidulated malt, 1 lb. Clear Candi Sugar, 2 oz. Sterling, 3 oz. Ahtanum pellet hops, 2oz. citra hops, Wyeast 3724 Saison yeast.

Used a standard single infusion mash at about 150-155.
Boil: 1.5 oz. sterling @ 60 mins, .5oz sterling 20mins, 1oz ahtanum & belgian candy sugar 15min, 1oz ahtanum 10 mins, 1oz antanum 5 min.

Dry hopped with 2 oz citra for 7 days.

My OG was about 1.066 and FG came in at 1.017. Came out really nice. Just cracked the first bottle last night. The citra added a really nice citrus note to it. Goes nicely with the fruity saison yeast.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?
 

Just bottled a blackberry wheat beer. Let the wife pick this one out and she helped me brew it. It overwhelmed the air lock and exploded all over my pantry on day 2 of fermentation. Used an American Hefe base put over 3lbs of mashed blackberry in the secondary for 2 weeks. No flavoring added. We shall see how it turned out in a couple of weeks.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?
 

I've got a kolsch in the fermenter right now. Should be ready for a keg this weekend. I've got ingredients for a late-hop pale ale, oatmeal stout and hefeweizen, but need more time to get some brewing done.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?
 

Right now fermenting my "Black IPA" with cascase and frugel Hops that have grown for a few years. CANT WAIT!! Also have a "Smoked Porter" Fermenting as well. It will be a good few months!!

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?
 

An Irish stout.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?
 

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Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?
 

Brewed a hefeweizen this weekend and it got a little explosive. Caught it before the pail lid blew off, but made a bit of a mess already.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?
 

I brewed an american hefe a few months back and it exploded in my pantry. Got krausen all over the ceiling, doors and walls. Sealed it back up and it keep right on going. On the other hand im fermenting a petit saison using White labs farmhouse ale yeast. Its a saison/brett combo.I dont think ive seen a single bubble in the airlock but its now down under 1009. Its amazing the difference in the yeast strain.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?
 

Looking for a bit of advice here. I've been wanting to get into home brewing for a couple of years and I'm hoping start of next year I'll start to have some time to dive in. My question is what level of starter kit should I go with? A simple Mr. Beer, your basic 5 gal. Starter kit or a step up with a 2 stages of fermenting carboys? Do I need a wort chiller or am I good without to start? If it matters I usually drink (and would most likely be making) Porters, Stouts, Irish Reds and the occasional IPA. Any thoughts or suggestions are welcome.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?
 

Just bottled a Porter. It's my first time doing that style. Now the hard part, waiting...

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?
 

Go with simple, quality materials and equipment. You can start with fermenting in a closed bucket to start with. Eventually, you definitely want to move to fermenting in a glass carboy. difference is that in the bucket, you will not be able to blow-off the fusel oils, which is the byproduct of fermentation. In a closed carboy system, you will blow-off this byproduct, which results in a cleaner tasting beer. Read up on this.
A very important thing to remember when steeping grains is the temperature of the water. The water temperature needs to be no more than 150 to 160 degrees. If you steep above that, you will likely get a bitter note to your beer from tannins leaching from the grain husks.
Another good tip is to look into Wyeast liquid yeast packages. Great stuff! You can make the exact same batch with a different yeast strain and get a very different style beer/ale.
Read up on your hops and their IBU's. Some hops like Cascade and Perle are very bitter and can result in overtopping what otherwise would be a great porter, stout or brown ale. The Noble hops are good ones to start with. Very forgiving, lower in bitterness, can be used for bittering or finish hopping. Great favors, too!
Good luck!

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?
 

Argentinian Malbec w/ grape skins (WinExpert kit)

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?
 

Coffee Porter, Strawberry Blonde, Cookie Monster Stout, & a Hoppy Amber

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?
 

I forgot all about this thread. I've been getting more and more into homebrewing recently, and have just started all-grain and making/modifying recipes. Currently in the fermenter (brewed last weekend) is an imperial amber, similar to troegs nugget nectar. I also have some double ipa's, similar to lagunita maximus ipa, that were bottled a few weeks ago and are ready to be tested. This one I split into two fermenters and did slightly different dry hopping to try to see what the noticeable difference is. I'm still experimenting around but it's been a lot of fun so far, hopefully we can get a little more movement in this thread, I'm always interested in learning more :tu

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?
 

Nice! Yeah, I moved to all grain about a year ago and have never looked back.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?
 

I was trying to baby step my way into it, learn one thing really well before moving on to the next. I'm still using my friend's setup for the actual brewing, which he has been piecing together. I keep a lot of good ideas in the back of my mind to make some cool stuff when I end up taking the plunge and building my own setup. For now I live in an apartment with little free space and he has a house a mile away, so I'm fine just using his stuff :D

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?
 

I hear ya. I used to brew in an apartment. Now I have a garage and I have a electric HERMS system using keggles. Love this system.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?
 

After helping my friend with a couple of 10 gal all grain batches, I've decided to get back into the hobby. I used to do partial grain years ago. Picked up a pico kit yesterday at the lhbs. Does 1 gal batches, which is perfect for me as I don't really drink more than 3 bottles in a week. Plus it will let me try some really experimental stuff, without making such large batches in case I have to pitch it. I plan on doing a brew in a bag (biab) setup, using a grain bag in the brew pot. That way I have one vessel for mashing, sparging and the boil.

First up I think is a Mexican Chocolate Stout.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?
 

Nice, definitely let us know the results.

I did a small (~2gal) batch of a Jade IPA clone when I first started on all-grain in case it got screwed up, came out as one of the best I've made. After wishing there was more I decided I can't do small batches any more :D

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Scotch ale

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?
 

:tu

Just finished the boil of a Thanksgiving Cranberry Wheat. Currently cooling before pitching the yeast. My Mexican Chocolate Milk Stout is bubbling away nicely.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?
 

Racked the stout into the secondary. FG was a bit high at 1.021, likely due to the too high of mash temps. Sample in the hygrometer tasted good though. :D

Gonna be chocolatety. Made a "tea" of 1C water, boiled then cooled to 180F, added and ounce of cacao powder, 1/4tsp cinnamon and an ancho chile. Steeped for 20 mins then filtered. Only got 1/2C of tea. Added that to the secondary with another half ounce cacao nibs, another ancho chile and 1/8tsp cinnamon. I'll bottle in two weeks.

Tomorrow is another brew day. My Xmas ale, a carrot cake dessert ale.

Also picked up the cranberries for the wheat, which I'll rack tomorrow into a secondary.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?
 

Sounds good Bob :tu

I brewed up what will become a vanilla oatmeal porter on Sunday, I used 1lb of oatmeal for a 5gal batch (approx. 16lb total of grains), I like my stuff really oatmeally so I'm guess that it wasn't enough, but I think it will be a good base to judge for future oatmeal porters. I plan on putting 5 split vanilla beans I the fermenter about a week out from bottling. This is my first time making an all-grain porter, but I did a partial mash a while back that used that many vanilla beans, I'm gonna use that as my guide and hopefully use the results to be able to fine-tune for future batches. This is one of my favorite style of beer, so if I can get it down I see many batches in my future :al

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?
 

Just bottled my first two batches, the Mexi-stout and cranberry wheat. If the conditioned bottles taste anywhere near as good as the samples, both are winners.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?
 

That sounds delicious Bob. The yeast that you're using for the wheat brew, is compatible with the cranberries? Just thinking of balance with the cranberries being a smidge more noticeable than the wheat.

Give us a report after it bottle conditions:tu

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I used Safale US-05, a dry yeast. It's supposed to be very clean/crisp which is what I was wanting since I knew I'd be adding adjuncts.