I'm Homebrewing!

S

suTraGrow

Well-Known Member
CaptainCAVEMAN said:
I've been thinking about making my own beer for some time now, and finally got a chance to do it!

So I bought this 'complete' kit.

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Kinda funny, the kit had bottle caps, a bottle capper, and no bottles. the guy did not mention that.
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I wanted to brew a Corona-like beer, but the guy said I'd need a wort chiller(didn't even know what it was) and a spare fridge.

So I went for a beer that would not need those. It is called Snowed Under. I did not realise at the time, but it has honey and spices. I've never been much of a

sweetness kind of guy, so we'll see.

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Step one:

Clean everything. Joy.
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Put theese in hot water. They are syrup-like.

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Get water up to temp. It's a good thing I have this giant pot (16 quarts) or I would have had a problem right off the bat.

Suppose I would have been using several pots. The guy did not mention this either. That's a little bothersome because I bet the average person, eager about a new project, would not figure that out till they had shit opened up and all over the place and in several pots.

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Remove from heat and add grains in cheesecloth sock. Steep for 20 minutes. Theese are all step by step instructions that came with the beer ingredients, since different beers require different processes.
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Add malt and honey and first hops packaged.
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Boil for 45 minutes, then add final spice and hops packets.
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After 60 minute boil, the wort (pronounced wert or wurt) should be cooled as fast as possible. I did not get pics of this because I was busy with the ice and water bath in the sink and stirrung. I'm going to make a wort chiller before my next batch of beer.

Here's the fermentation chamber with the air-lock on top. After cooling the wort to 75f, it must be aerated, which is as simple as siphoning the wort into the fermentation chamber. I now know I should have used the glass carboy for fermenting, but it wont matter.

A specific gravity reading is done with the included hydrometer. My brew is now at 1.56 OG - original gravity, which will later be compared to final gravity.
Then yeast packet is added(or 'pitched').

Put the air-lock on and leave it alone for 10 days at normal house room temp. It soon started bubbling a LOT ant thos bubble smell kinda alcoholy and good!:-P
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Be Back with the rest soon. :peace:
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Exact same kit me and a few roommates started with 3 years ago. :-D same book and all.
We do all pure grain brewing now with a mesh ton and the works. SPend 60% less money wise, more yield and the beer in delicious.
Looking really good already.
 
G

growski

Member
suTraGrow said:
Exact same kit me and a few roommates started with 3 years ago. :-D same book and all.
We do all pure grain brewing now with a mesh ton and the works. SPend 60% less money wise, more yield and the beer in delicious.
Looking really good already.
Click to expand...
Yeap like sutra said, you have entered a world that once you start you can't stop. Staring with extract brewing is a great way to learn all about beer, fermentation process and the sugars that are responsible for giving you the delicious goodness in the bottle :).

As for your foaming during fermentation(This is called the Krausen) especially after making a brew full of sugars like honey and such, what you want to do is take your little air lock, instead of filling it with water, attach a hose to the tube inside it and run the house to a external bucket with water, think of the bucket with water as a extra sized aerator hehe.

This is very normal for the first 72 hours with sugar heavy beers, because the yeast has tons to feed on, but this is a good thing, a lot better then stalled fermentation.

Also like mentioned above, once you feel very comfortable with extract brewing, a time will come where you will read so much about all grain brewing there wont be a choice left but to try it. Especially since you can control the flavors, color and everything with a lot of ease, Not to mention with all grain you could almost brew double the yield for fraction of the price.

To give you an example, I love brewing porters and stouts very strong and flavored beers, and one fo the most expensive ones you can brew. When I used to brew those with extract, single recipe for a 5gallon batch was right around $65 - $70 Dollars, with all grain a recipe that yields about 7 gallons, everything costs about $40 bucks, and thats if we get creative with the hops, and other addons like coco etc etc.

The book that you have picked up, is also one of my favorite and iof not the best begineers books out there.

P.S. Definitely look into 5 gallon kegs, and carbing with Co2, the best investment ever, it saves you from the off flavors in your beer from the corn sugar you put in the bottles to carbonate, and you usually have 5 gallons of carbonated beer with in 3 days of kegging it. Not to mention the time and mess you save, when bottling the beer hehe, as for ganja beer, well there was a time we made a 13.2% Russian stout, that was aged for almost a month with 7.7g's of kief, all I will say is I never remember anything passed the third glass hehe.
 
CaptainCAVEMAN

CaptainCAVEMAN

Well-Known Member
Here's the Cherry Berry Mead recipe. It's not mine, I got it from homebrewtalk.com.


Recipe Type: Extract
Yeast: Wyeast 4184
Batch Size (Gallons): 5 Gallons
Original Gravity: 1.13
Final Gravity: 1.01
Boiling Time (Minutes): 15
Color: Amber
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 14 days
Additional Fermentation: 1 week
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 3 weeks
Tasting Notes: A nice meld between strawberries, grapes and cherries!

Hello All,

I made a Cherry Berry Mead last year and loved it...so a couple of weeks ago I brewed up some more and thought I would share!

  • 12 Pounds Light Amber Honey
  • 12 Pounds of Frozen Strawberries
  • 2 Quarts Welch's White Grape Cherry 100% Juice
  • 2 teaspoons of yeast nutrients
  • Wyeast 4184 Sweet Mead
  • 1 Gallons of Water

For my base I start by boiling a gallon of water....while the water is boiling I pour the honey in to a mixing pot, then I use the boiling water to get the rest of the honey out of the jug...when jug is clear, discard the rest of the boiling water (the hotter you make your base, the more cooling you will need to do). Now you have honey and water, its time to add the Welch's Juice and Yeast Nutrient....mix everything together and pour in to fermenter...add cold water to bring up to five gallons...mix or shake to combine ingredients and aerate.
At this point you will want to add strawberries...I prefer to puree my berries and place them in to the fermenter, its my experience that it helps speed the process and really brings in the berry flavor...the draw back is that you will need to rack it another time to get it crystal clear.
Pour in yeast and primary ferment for 2 weeks, rack to a secondary for 3 weeks and finally rack again for 1 week for clarification.
Bottle and let age for 3 months and give it a try...at 6 months it's a piece of art!
 
scroglodyte

scroglodyte

Well-Known Member
mmmmm......i can smell the wort. you'll be going whole grain brewing if you stay interested. cases of beer for 4$.
 
CaptainCAVEMAN

CaptainCAVEMAN

Well-Known Member
$4 cases of beer? Sounds damn good to me. Do you guys keg? I'm thinking I should head directly for kegging. Any advice? How much stuff do I need to buy? Is it worth it/superior to bottling? Other than the initial purchase it seems like it would be much better.
 
Nukebisket

Nukebisket

Well-Known Member
I bottle only, i live off the grid so an extra fridge is out of the question. Also with bottling your beers "bottle condition" unlike when kegging.
 
D

DaSprout

Well-Known Member
Yeah man. You had all that drink pr0n up. I loved where this thread was heading. Alot of great info. It's funny how you don't miss it until its gone. I took it all for granted.
 
CaptainCAVEMAN

CaptainCAVEMAN

Well-Known Member
DaSprout said:
Yeah man. You had all that drink pr0n up. I loved where this thread was heading. Alot of great info. It's funny how you don't miss it until its gone. I took it all for granted.
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I know man! What a terrible thing to have happen to a site where memory may not be our strongest trait.

I'll have to reconstruct a brew-total and move on!
 
CaptainCAVEMAN

CaptainCAVEMAN

Well-Known Member
Beer Kits - Snowed Under Ale, 7 Falls Amber Ale(not so good), Irish Stout, Honey Ginger Ale, Katie's Oatmeal Stout Each kit brews 5 gallons

Mead - Cherry Berry Mead 5gal, Joe's Ancient Orange Mead 1gal, Caramel Apple Mead 5gal, Gatorade Mead 1gal

Brew total - 37 gallons :D
 
D

DaSprout

Well-Known Member
Damn. I remember the picks of that stuff. I still want to try them out myself. Especially all those meads and stouts. And the ales. Damn. I can almost taste it now. I would spend sooooo much time guzzling.
 
CaptainCAVEMAN

CaptainCAVEMAN

Well-Known Member
[HR][/HR]
Recipe Type: All Grain
Yeast: Bread yeast
Yeast Starter: nope
Batch Size (Gallons): 1
Original Gravity: 1.100????
Final Gravity: 1.030?????
Boiling Time (Minutes): 1
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 2 months

Ancient Orange Mead (by Joe Mattioli)
1 gallon batch

3 1/2 lbs Clover or your choice honey or blend (will finish sweet)
1 Large orange (later cut in eights or smaller rind and all)
1 small handful of raisins (25 if you count but more or less ok)
1 stick of cinnamon
1 whole clove ( or 2 if you like - these are potent critters)
optional (a pinch of nutmeg and allspice )( very small )
1 teaspoon of Fleishmann’s bread yeast ( now don't get holy on me--- after all this is an ancient mead and that's all we had back then)
Balance water to one gallon

Process:
Use a clean 1 gallon carboy
Dissolve honey in some warm water and put in carboy
Wash orange well to remove any pesticides and slice in eights --add orange (you can push em through opening big boy -- rinds included -- its ok for this mead -- take my word for it -- ignore the experts)

Put in raisins, clove, cinnamon stick, any optional ingredients and fill to 3 inches from the top with cold water. ( need room for some foam -- you can top off with more water after the first few day frenzy)

Shake the heck out of the jug with top on, of course. This is your sophisticated aeration process.

When at room temperature in your kitchen, put in 1 teaspoon of bread yeast. ( No you don't have to rehydrate it first-- the ancients didn't even have that word in their vocabulary-- just put it in and give it a gentle swirl or not)(The yeast can fight for their own territory)

Install water airlock. Put in dark place. It will start working immediately or in an hour. (Don't use grandma's bread yeast she bought years before she passed away in the 90's)( Wait 3 hours before you panic or call me) After major foaming stops in a few days add some water and then keep your hands off of it. (Don't shake it! Don't mess with them yeastees! Let them alone except its okay to open your cabinet to smell every once in a while.

Racking --- Don't you dare
additional feeding --- NO NO
More stirring or shaking -- Your not listening, don't touch

After 2 months and maybe a few days it will slow down to a stop and clear all by itself. (How about that) (You are not so important after all) Then you can put a hose in with a small cloth filter on the end into the clear part and siphon off the golden nectar. If you wait long enough even the oranges will sink to the bottom but I never waited that long. If it is clear it is ready. You don't need a cold basement. It does better in a kitchen in the dark. (Like in a cabinet) likes a little heat (70-80). If it didn't work out... you screwed up and didn't read my instructions (or used grandma's bread yeast she bought years before she passed away) . If it didn't work out then take up another hobby. Mead is not for you. It is too complicated.
If you were successful, which I am 99% certain you will be, then enjoy your mead. When you get ready to make different mead you will probably have to unlearn some of these practices I have taught you, but hey--- This recipe and procedure works with these ingredients so don't knock it. It was your first mead. It was my tenth. Sometimes, even the experts can forget all they know and make good ancient mead.
​
__________________
Broken Leg Brewery
Giving beer a leg to stand on since 2006


I'm posting this recipe for future reference at my home-site.
 
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