Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?

[kenstogie]

I am only doing Extract brewing and hey it's pretty easy and makes great beer. But how much of a pain in the A$$ is AG, how much more time/effort does it take, and how easy is it to screw up?? Thanks!

[landhoney]

Originally Posted by kenstogie

I am only doing Extract brewing and hey it's pretty easy and makes great beer. But how much of a pain in the A$$ is AG, how much more time/effort does it take, and how easy is it to screw up?? Thanks!

It does not require that much extra equipment, it does take longer but once you get your process down I could do it in my sleep. Smoking a cigar while brewing also makes the time involved seem even less.....time consuming, for lack of a better phrase (as I actually enjoy the brewing process a lot, but maybe not cleaning up). Once you get your system and the process down it's difficult to mess up. I use a turkey fryer, cooler with homemade copper manifold (for mashing and batch sparging), and copper immersion wort chiller (also homemade and works great). I do 5 gal batches (which is plenty at the rate I like to brew and how much I consume).
The benefits are more complete recipe control and options, and control of mash temps which allows more flexibility in how dry or sweet the final beer finishes. There are other advantages, but those are most important to me. You might save some money not having to buy extract, and you're making beer essentially the same way professional breweries make beer, I like that.

[kenstogie]

Well gonna brew one of my kits tonight not sure which one so I thought I'd mention it here. Plus I wanted to bump this thread and give it a little life!

[willbreathes]

Hey all, somewhat new here.. been lurking for a while. Figured I will start in an alcohol thread because I know a bit more about that than cigars.

Currently got an Irish Stout finishing up, and more than ready to have an Amber Ale go through the brewing process.

Sadly nothing in the fermenter...But still have some oatmeal stout from the last brew session. Planning on a red and an IPA next.

Pretty cool homebrew related video:http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boing...ring-mach.html

[BlackDog]

Well, I bought a homebrew start-up kit last evening, plus an extra bucket for primary fermenting. A buddy has an extra carboy he's giving me, so I can have two beers in secondary fermentation at the same time.

http://www.midwestsupplies.com/brewing-starter-kit.html

I also got two extract kits, their Liberty Cream Ale, and Ferocious IPA, a clone of Surly Furious. The guy who helped me said it's a dead knock-off of Furious, and was made with Surly's cooperation.

For any of you who live in the Mpls area, I found the people at Midwest Supply to be very helpful. It's basically a small warehouse. The place was busy, I wandered around a little bit until I found someone to help me. But once I found someone, he was super helpful.

[kenstogie]

Congrats on the Homebrew kit. Once I got my kit and learned how to use it my purchase of beer essentially stopped. I now plan ahead for the beer I am going to need and brew accordingly. FWIW I have heard good things about MW supply. Not that I am an awesome brewer even though they all turn out great but one piece of advice.....

"Cleanliness is next to Godliness"

Well, got me some Caxtons Bitter and some of their Real Ale bubbling away. When they've vacated my fermenting vessel I'll be doing some Woodfords Wherry...that stuff's amazing it just takes AGES to settle fully for some reason, so I thought I'd get a few gallons (or ten) of some other stuff ready first so I can leave the Woodfords Wherry longer to before I get tempted into drinking it too soon.

[BlackDog]

Well, I had to make a trip to Midwest Supply to buy a larger kettle. The stock pot we have in the cupboard isn't as large as I remembered it being, so I bought a heavy 5 gallon kettle. But otherwise everything seemed to go well with my batch of Liberty Cream Ale. It took quite a while for the wort to boil, but it did eventually boil. I think 4 gallons of water is the max my electric stove can handle. I boiled one gallon of water seperately and then chilled it to cool the wort faster. And I sucked up some hops when siphoning over to the primary bucket, but I doubt that's a big deal. I pitched with Safale US 05 yeast. Overall it took longer than I thought, but I think it went OK. I used a lot of sanitizer.

I also made a starter for the Ferocious. I'll do that one a night this week. I'm going to use a blow-off tube on that one, since I'm sure it will bubble over out of the primary bucket.

[landhoney]

Brewed a Saison on Sunday, yeast was wyeast 3724 Saison and the dreggs from Fantome Hiver made into a combined starter.
Brewing a Quad this weekend with a friend coming to visit from Miami.

[BlackDog]

Just finished brewing a batch of "Ferocious," a clone of Surly Furious. The house smells like grapefruit times 10, and I've only used half the hops. The other half get dry-hopped in a week.

[BeerAdvocate]

started a Toasted Coconut Porter last night. It will spend a few weeks in primary before I add a pound an a half of toasted coconut to secondary!

Originally Posted by BeerAdvocate

started a Toasted Coconut Porter last night. It will spend a few weeks in primary before I add a pound an a half of toasted coconut to secondary!

Sounds delicious!

I make a bourbon-oak-vanilla porter every year, I may have to try a little coconut as well.

[BlackDog]

When I made my Ferocious last night, everything went right according to the receipe until the very end, and then I made several errors. I don't think any of them are show stoppers, but I got careless.

1) When I was hopping at the end, I was supposed to take the 2 oz of hops, split it into 5 batches, and add them at 20, 15, 10 5 and 0. But I mistakenly only made 4 groups, but still followed the 5 hopping time schedule. So I didn't have any left to toss in at 0 minutes.

2) When I was rinsing off my stir paddle after I stirred the wort I had chilling in ice, I accidently sprayed water into the wort.

3) When I finally had everything done and the bucket sealed up, when I was putting the airlock on I pushed the rubber gasket through the lid and into the bucket. So I had to open the lid, pour the wort back into the kettle, get the gasket, and do it all over again.

Hopefully neither of the last two compromised the sanitation of the wort. I had a strong yeast starter, so hopefully the yeast will get cranked up quickly and knock out any nasties that may have gotten into the wort.

[BlackDog]

Originally Posted by BlackDog

Hopefully neither of the last two compromised the sanitation of the wort. I had a strong yeast starter, so hopefully the yeast will get cranked up quickly and knock out any nasties that may have gotten into the wort.

Originally Posted by kaisersozei

Warren: #3 would be the only thing that might cause me some concern, but not really all that much. Quick fermentation should ease your anxiety!

The fermentation was underway nicely when I got home from work this evening. I set the bucket up with a blow-off tube into a gallon water jug, and I counted 32 bubbles in 30 seconds. It's really chugging along. The lid is even "domed" a bit from the pressure in the bucket. Hopefully the strong fermentation has aleviated any sanitation problems.

[BlackDog]

I just racked my first batch over to secondary. It's the Midwest Liberty Cream Ale extract kit, with the addition of 1 lb of flaked corn. I used Safale US 05 yeast. It was in primary for 2 weeks at about 67 degrees, and had a strong fermentation for the first few days. There is about an inch of gray creamy yeast left in the primary bucket. The beer tastes OK; like flat, thin beer, maybe a little hefe weizen-ish. If I'm reading it right, the gravity is 1.10.

Does everything look OK? I was expecting it to be much clearer than this by now.

[kaisersozei]

Originally Posted by BlackDog

I just racked my first batch over to secondary. It's the Midwest Liberty Cream Ale extract kit, with the addition of 1 lb of flaked corn. I used Safale US 05 yeast. It was in primary for 2 weeks at about 67 degrees, and had a strong fermentation for the first few days. There is about an inch of gray creamy yeast left in the primary bucket. The beer tastes OK; like flat, thin beer, maybe a little hefe weizen-ish. If I'm reading it right, the gravity is 1.10.

Does everything look OK? I was expecting it to be much clearer than this by now.

Hmm. I'm not trying to be a dick, but I've never had a beer look like that in the secondary. On the other hand, I've never used flaked corn, so that might have something to do with it. In any event, I wouldn't worry about it.

[BlackDog]

Originally Posted by kaisersozei

Hmm. I'm not trying to be a dick, but I've never had a beer look like that in the secondary. On the other hand, I've never used flaked corn, so that might have something to do with it. In any event, I wouldn't worry about it.

After doing some reading, I believe that when I added the corn, there were not enough enzymes from the malt to convert the corn starches into fermentable sugars. Last week I added some amylase enzyme and a new yeast starter. The amylase enzyme converts starches to sugar. The wort looks a lot better now. Still hazy, but not as cloudy as that picture. I may rack it over to a clean carboy and add some Biofine to help clear it further before I bottle it.

[kaisersozei]

Warren: #3 would be the only thing that might cause me some concern, but not really all that much. Quick fermentation should ease your anxiety!