Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?

Originally Posted by kaisersozei

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

I quoted what I was talking about. You said that bottling from the primary would take longer to clear and give you more sediment in the bottles, which I disagree with for the most part. Leaving the beer in the primary longer would do just as well as transferring to a bright tank.

[kaisersozei]

Originally Posted by Scimmia

I quoted what I was talking about. You said that bottling from the primary would take longer to clear and give you more sediment in the bottles, which I disagree with for the most part. Leaving the beer in the primary longer would do just as well as transferring to a bright tank.

My point was specifically to Jon regarding his beer, having only been in the primary for a week. In that case, he'd likely experience exactly those things that I mentioned if he bottled it without additional aging.

[kenstogie]

Well brewed ANOTHER batch. The MOREBEER's Scottish Export 80/- Schilling. A 22.50 extract kit! It said
Estimated Original Gravity would be 1.045-49 but.... it was way higher like 1.060-1.063 or sooo. not sure why but i ain't complaining either. bubbling like a mad man.

Any suggestions how long I should let it clarify??

[kenstogie]

For all you All-Grain guys\/\/\/

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KIT475: Kit (All-Grain) - Stout

** Only 3 left at this price! **
Sale Price: $24.95 $17.95 w/coupon code BEERDEAL

Originally Posted by kenstogie

Well brewed ANOTHER batch. The MOREBEER's Scottish Export 80/- Schilling. A 22.50 extract kit! It said
Estimated Original Gravity would be 1.045-49 but.... it was way higher like 1.060-1.063 or sooo. not sure why but i ain't complaining either. bubbling like a mad man.

Any suggestions how long I should let it clarify??

Bad reading. It's easy to do with a partial boil, the top up water didn't get mixed all the way. With an extract kit, there's no way to miss your target gravity that high unless you have way less volume than called for.

Personally, I would let it sit for 3 weeks, then take a gravity reading. As long as it's where it should be, it's time to bottle it.

Originally Posted by smokinghole

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.

This stuff has pretty much settled down. Will take a reading on saturday night and potentially bottle. Wohoo..

My high abv cider is still coming along nicely measured at 1.010 last night, tasted good, lots of alcohol already. I estimate I started close to 1.080 but didn't measure OG.

[MarkinAZ]

My new 'Williams Brewing' Winter 2009 catalog arrived in the mail today...

Originally Posted by Darrell

Is Northern Brewer a pretty good site to order from?
Also, what are "prime" conditions for aging beer?

Darrell, here are some sites I've used and for continuous reference:

http://www.williamsbrewing.com/

http://morebeer.com/

http://breworganic.com/

http://www.whitelabs.com/

http://www.wyeastlab.com/

http://www.freshops.com/

http://www.howtobrew.com/sitemap.html

http://www.realbeer.com/hops/

http://www.byo.com/

http://www.qualityales.com/index.php

http://www.maltosefalcons.com/

I think you'll find information in some of these sites to help in your homebrewing adventure...


PS. In regards to your 'aging' question, if you're brewing an English Bitter Ale for example, a prime temperature range is cellar conditions being between 50 - 55* in the bottle following the carbonation process...

[kenstogie]

Originally Posted by kenstogie

In addition to the Cider I have a Chocolate Porter/Stout brewing. It started as a porter but with an OG of 1.1 apprx and has pounds of Grains, 2 cans LME, 2 LBS of DME and 1 oz of hops. Plus 1/2 Lb of Carapills for mouthfeel. I am thinking it'll be more like a Imperial Stout when done. It's bubbling like a mad man. I imagine it will take a good 4 months before I want to drink it (at least) and will age nicely but I will certainly "sample" some along the way!

The actual OG was 1.08 not 1.1 but has started to develop nicely. It's turning in to Imperial stout taste wise IMHO. Tasted like $h!t a week ago but now not so much. I imagine that it will develop very very nicely, if I can keep my tastebuds off of it. I don't remember what the FG was but the ABV was 8-9%. I don't know if the yeast could take much more even if there was enough fermentables.

[BeerAdvocate]

Big brew day today.
Im doing an Oatmeal Stout and an Amarillo Pale Ale!
These should be done just in time for my SuperBowl party!!!!

This is hands down my favorite topic on this site...

Currently drinking a honey IPA that I burned during boil
it's tough getting used to a new propane burner.

New years day I brewed an old ale with honey, vanilla, cinnamon, and will add oak and whiskey to secondary

yesterday was a Scottish ale with grade A maple syrup from Welch's farms in upstate new York. I'll add maple chips soaked in 12yo glenfiddich to secondary

going to be fall before I keg these though.

I'm building a recipe for a 7% pilsner and will brew my honey red again for my brothers birthday before January is done

[Salvelinus]

Drat that maple sounds incredible.

Haven't brewed a batch in two months. And the last batch is gone. Better get on that.

[kenstogie]

Well finally bottled my Scottish Export after about 4 weeks in the fermenter. With all that Christmas stuff to do it was the earliest time I could do it. Have yet to try the carbonated version.

The Imperial Stout is starting to taste fantastic. It's amazing what a month will do for a "big" beer. Can only imagine what 6 months will do.

Found a hefe from summer that was hiding in the back of my brew closet and even though it was good it definately lost some of the flavor it once had. So I guess with those "drink early, drink often"

[kaisersozei]

Originally Posted by kaisersozei

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.

Just wanted to report that this turned out to be one of the best beers I've brewed in a long time. Clear, great head, excellent flavor profile. It went fast at the VCM Holiday Herf, I gifted a 6 pack to my CEO, and shared some with my family who are pretty much Budweiser-types--and everyone has loved it. If anyone wants a copy of the recipe, let me know. To turn out just right, though, you'll need to coerce JK & Ferg to help you brew it

[Mark C]

Thanks to Santa, I pulled the trigger and jumped into this hobby. Been making wine for years with surprisingly good results, time for beer. My keg supplies came yesterday, an Austin Homebrew chocolate raspberry stout kit came today. Should have root beer on tap this weekend (to appease my pregnant wife), and the stout a little further down the road.

[kenstogie]

Originally Posted by Mark C

Thanks to Santa, I pulled the trigger and jumped into this hobby. Been making wine for years with surprisingly good results, time for beer. My keg supplies came yesterday, an Austin Homebrew chocolate raspberry stout kit came today. Should have root beer on tap this weekend (to appease my pregnant wife), and the stout a little further down the road.

****Good Deal, it's a world of difference from "regular" beer. It's hard to drink that stuff.

****My scottish export turned out very nice btw!

AND


***My stout is mellowing soooo nicely. It's going through changes as time passes and it's only been about 2 months. Nice!!!

Going to a herf on Friday and bringing a 12 of my HB's. They always go quick. I highly recommend bringing you Home brew, then you can be the "beer" guy. It's kinda like being a "B" celebrity.

[cricky101]

I'm planning to give home brewing a try and am looking at kits to get started and was wondering if anyone had any suggestions about starter setups that have worked well for them.

I have access to the retail Northern Brewer store in St. Paul, MN and was looking at getting this beginner kit from them. They do have less expensive and more expensive kits too ...

Anyone experienced brewers have suggestions of anything it may be missing (other than bottles) that I should pick up right away?

[BeerAdvocate]

That is a good starter set from NB. I think its best to start out with 2 carboys.
I bought my starter kit from Midwest, they are a little cheaper.
http://www.midwestsupplies.com/brewi...s-carboys.html
It comes with 2 glass carboys, but for $20 less you can get 2 better bottles. I prefer glass.
The only other thing you need is a big pot. If you are doing all grain, I suggest getting a turkey fryer setup. If you are going to do extract on the stove, get a pot that is big enough to hold 2-3 gallons.

A braggot I call "BarleyMead"

1 lb Belgian Munich
1 lb Belgian CaraMunich
8 oz Belgian Special B
8 oz British crystal 50-60L
4 oz British crystal 70-80L
12 oz Belgian chocolate
4 oz Flaked barley
1 lb Flaked oats
18 lbs Honey
Wyeast 1098
Lalvin EC-1118
1 tspn Irish Moss
5 oz Corn sugar for bottle priming.

Mashed the malt & flake in 12 quarts water; 30 minute protein rest @ 122 F, 30 minute Alpha Rest @ 158 F, brought the water to 162 F add the roast and steeped for 30 minutes before doing a 6 quart batch sparge @ 170 F.

Boil the wort for 60 minutes, chill and blend with 6lb honey and pitched the Wyeast. O.G. was 1.086.

When fermentation has ended I’ll blend 12lb of honey into the beer, pitch the Lalvin yeast and let it ferment until the completion. Starting gravity last batch was 1.140, the batch finished at 1.018.

Near as I could figure the braggot was 24%-25% ABV, 5% from the grain 19% - 20% from the second addition of honey.



http://hbd.org/recipator/

[Mark C]

Originally Posted by BeerAdvocate

If you are going to do extract on the stove, get a pot that is big enough to hold 2-3 gallons.

Walmart sells a 22 qt stainless pot for $40, just grabbed one myself.

Anyone here keg soda? I'm having trouble with carbing my first root beer. I can't seem to get it to pour without foam. I originally tried force carb @40 psig, served at 30psig/38 F through 30 ft of 3/16" line and a cobra tap and all I get is foam. I thought I had a diptube leak, so I changed the o-ring, not much better. It looks like I've got CO2 coming out of solution in the lines, way too many bubbles. If I let it sit overnight, the lines are solid in the morning and the first pour (what was left in the line) is great. After that it goes downhill. Now I'm thinking I overcarbed it, so I'm purging the keg and plan to start over a little lower, maybe around 20 psig and work up from there. I was also thinking maybe I hadn't let the CO2 truly dissolve well into the root beer? I only left it under pressure for a day before I tried to pour, could it be CO2 is merely 'mixed' in the root beer, rather than dissolved, causing it to come out of solution faster? Though I was under the impression not enough time under pressure would give you a flat beer, not a ton of foam. Any thoughts?

[cricky101]

Originally Posted by BeerAdvocate

That is a good starter set from NB. I think its best to start out with 2 carboys.
I bought my starter kit from Midwest, they are a little cheaper.
http://www.midwestsupplies.com/brewi...s-carboys.html
It comes with 2 glass carboys, but for $20 less you can get 2 better bottles. I prefer glass.
The only other thing you need is a big pot. If you are doing all grain, I suggest getting a turkey fryer setup. If you are going to do extract on the stove, get a pot that is big enough to hold 2-3 gallons.

Thanks! That looks like a good way to go. I'm going to try to drive over there this week and check it out.