Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?

[cherrybomb]

I agree, although I would say hoppy beers age pretty well if they are higher in alcohol (10% and up) Actually anything above 10% could spend some time in the bottle as long as they are bottle conditioned

[cherrybomb]

check out a review on thomas hard's rare english ale, they say it can age 20 + years I have had one from the 2005 vintage and one from 2007 and I can say there is a noticeable difference.

Originally Posted by cherrybomb

I agree, although I would say hoppy beers age pretty well if they are higher in alcohol (10% and up) Actually anything above 10% could spend some time in the bottle as long as they are bottle conditioned

Depends on what you're looking for, I guess. The hop character and bitterness will fade over time. IPA, DIPAs, etc are meant to be drunk young.

[ODLS1]

I have an American Pale Ale and Kentucky Common in the fermenters that I will be kegging and taking to family Thanksgiving. I have a big family and we like to drink. Brewing my Foreign Extra Stout this weekend, then probably an Imperial IPA.

[kenstogie]

Originally Posted by Scimmia

And yes, Northern Brewer is a good site, but being in Cali, I would suggest MoreBeer.com. In fact, they have a retail outlet pretty close to you from the looks of it.

My recent order was from Morebeer.com and I am pleased. I haven't made the kit's yet but I received my order right on cue and have heard many good things about them from homebrewtalk.com forums.

[BeerAdvocate]

Originally Posted by kenstogie

I never had a bottle explode (thankfully). I assumed that the caps would blow off. The actual glass blow apart?

Leaving too much headspace in the bottle can cause bottle bombs also.
I learned this the hard way on my 2nd beer I brewed. It was the last amount of beer in my bottling bucket and I didnt want to waste it so I bottled it and it only filled the bottle half way. I went ahead and capped.
Two weeks later, at about 4am I hear glasses shattering. Im still finding little pieces of glass in my brewing room in the basement.

[kaisersozei]

Originally Posted by kenstogie

I never had a bottle explode (thankfully). I assumed that the caps would blow off. The actual glass blow apart?

The only time I've ever had bottles explode was when I was storing a case of homebrew in my girlfriend's townhouse. She kept them close to a heat register in the winter, which likely pissed the yeast off and some of the bottles broke apart at the shoulder (right where the bottle neck starts.) Fortunately they were still in the box, but I lost about half my beer onto her carpet. She ended up marrying me anyway.

Originally Posted by Darrell

Is beer even worth aging?

The right kind of beer is, as others have pointed out. I have some holiday spiced beer and other high alcohol content homebrew from 1996/1997 timeframe, that I crack open on special occasions. Gets better and better.

[kenstogie]

How long does No Rinse last in a spray bottle or any other container?

Also what are the other options for sanitation and the pros/cons of them?

[ODLS1]

I would definitely get some Star San. It should last you a lifetime. Get a nice sturdy bucket (I use an Ale Pail) and 5 gallons of Distilled Water. Use 1oz of Star San per 5gal of water. By using distilled water it will last months, maybe even years. You can use tap water, but it won't work as well for as long due to the minerals in it.

I kegged my Kentucky Common earlier and sampled it. Tastes great. 6.75lbs of grain resulted in 5.2% abv, at about $10. I love it.

Originally Posted by kenstogie

How long does No Rinse last in a spray bottle or any other container?

Also what are the other options for sanitation and the pros/cons of them?

Depends on which "No Rinse" sanitizer you're using. The most common are Iodophor, Star-San, and One-Step. One-Step isn't really a sanitizer, more of a cleaner with a little bit of sanitizing ability. Even then, since it's bicarbonate based, it won't last long, a few hours would be it. Iodophor will last a bit longer, but it does break down, a couple of days would be stretching it IMO. Star-San, as mentioned, will last a long time, especially if you use distilled water. It's significantly more expensive, but it's much more convenient than Iodophor since you can keep it around, and it won't stain your equipment. You also don't have to worry about tasting iodine in your beer. Really, we're talking about pennies per batch, so even significantly more expensive doesn't have much effect in the end.

[kenstogie]

Great Story Gerard. "she married me anyway"

Thanks for the thoughts on sanitizer. I have been using one-step for the last 10 batches w/out incident but will look into the others.

I bottled my cider and used ordinary table sugar (boiled of course) for priming. I "sampled" a bottle today on a hike and am over all pleased, just a slight carbonation at this point but will develop. There's slight "odor" to it and I am hoping it will die with age. ABV is around 8% and it has some kick.

One-Step is basically the same thing as OxiClean, just with a different base material to make it easier to work with. Sodium Percarbonate becomes a weak hydrogen peroxide solution in water. This does well with cleaning and but only OK with sanitization.

If you look at the packaging, One-Step never actually claims to be a sanitizer. They can't since they have never proved that they meet the FDA required levels of sanitization. I got some One-Step with my first equipment kit, so I used it for cleaning until it was gone, but always followed up with Star-San as a sanitizer. After it was gone, I just used OxiClean Free. One benefit to this is that you're using an alkaline cleaner, then following up with an acid sanitizer, so it's a more complete system.

[kaisersozei]

One-step also does a great job of removing labels from bottles. Just soak the bottles for a few hours in a bucket with about a Tbsp or two, and the labels slide right off.

Bottled the OktoberFast Ale last night that icantbejon and JohnnyKay helped me brew a few weeks ago. Extremely clear coming out of the secondary, and tasted just right. I plan on salvaging the Irish Stout yeast that I used, but will get around to that later this week. Intend to use it in one of my stout recipes later this month.

I've got some cider in a primary right now. Started it on 11/12. Didn't think to by a hydrometer while at brew store so I don't have OG and will only be able to estimate my ABV based on the recipe I sort of followed.

Recipe as follows:
5 gal freshly pressed cider from local orchard (unpasteurized no preservative)
4lbs dark brown sugar
1.5lbs table sugar
WLP775 English Cider yeast

The orchard will do handshake type transactions on cider for unpasteurized and preservative free. Back in 2002ish PA passed the pasteurization/preservative laws. You leave them a bottle with a big enough opening for the tank nozzle and you get the stuff for $3 a gal.

While I was working at the cigar shop saturday the wife complained about the smell (didn't use yeast nutrient) and so I stuck a nato threaded gas mask filter on top of my vapor lock. No more fart smell. I was able to take blame for the fart smell the first couple days with my regular flatulence but while I was gone she figured it out. Should be racking to a secondary around thanksgiving and then bottling mid december. This is my first batch of cider I hope it doesn't taste like white wine. When I go to my secondary I will add some currently frozen cider to the mix which will start a bit more fermentation and I will attempt to crash it in the garage (cold in december) after two weeks, let it clear up and then bottle. I'll be going for slightly sweet with carbonation.

I have another fermenter going as of saturday. It's a recipe I got from homebrewtalk.com. It's called Graff and here is the recipe. http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f81/graf...-cider-117117/

Will bottle in about two weeks and drinking by Christmas. Hopefully.

[icantbejon]

I am waiting on the secondary process right now, which is going to end up driving me crazy. I would definitely prefer to get this stuff in bottles and then drink. UGH! But it's ok, I guess this stuff will be ready just in time for my parents to get in town for Christmas.

[kaisersozei]

Originally Posted by icantbejon

I am waiting on the secondary process right now, which is going to end up driving me crazy. I would definitely prefer to get this stuff in bottles and then drink. UGH! But it's ok, I guess this stuff will be ready just in time for my parents to get in town for Christmas.

Technically, you could go straight from the primary to bottling as long as fermentation has completed. Take a hydrometer reading to make sure you've reached the final specific gravity you anticipated. The beer will take a little longer to clarify in the bottles, and you may have more sediment to decant, but otherwise it will be fine.

I use a secondary on every batch I brew now, but not when I first started out.

Originally Posted by kaisersozei

The beer will take a little longer to clarify in the bottles, and you may have more sediment to decant, but otherwise it will be fine.

I don't buy it. 1 week in primary + 2 weeks in "secondary" vs 3 weeks in primary, I don't think you'll see differences like that.

[icantbejon]

I'm gonna wait a week I think. No real hurry, other than my own impatience. I'm just anxious to try my own beer. In the mean time, I'll just continue to drink Sam Winter Lager and wait. Might even go back to The Weekend Brewer and get stuff to make a new batch. That could be fun.

[kaisersozei]

Originally Posted by Scimmia

I don't buy it. 1 week in primary + 2 weeks in "secondary" vs 3 weeks in primary, I don't think you'll see differences like that.

Differences like what? Jon's beer was about 7 days in the primary.