/ck/ - Food & Cooking

>get a big glass container
>sterilize it
>fill it with a 1:4 mixture of sugar and water, you can use some fruit juice if you want
>add a packet of yeast, don't stir
>seal it TIGHT, you don't want any airborne bacteria getting in there, so make it airtight
>place it in a dark place like under your bed
>wait a week
Congratulations, you just made booze.

...And I just dropped $90 on a homebrew setup for two batches...

Let me know how it turns out. Thinking about rigging up a store-bought apple juice container for hard cider once my spare airlock comes in with my beer kit.

>>4689683
Or a glass bomb. Shouldn't there be an airlock in there somewhere?

>>4689701
Nah, that's only if you let it sit for like two weeks or its really really hot. This is more like opening a can of soda, no big deal

>>4689683
a week isnt going to be any where close to long enough
also you need a place for gas to escape

>>4689701
You're right, the pressure can get to the point where you're screwed if you leave it, screwed if you open it. The picture i included shows my sketchy airlock, theres a straw glued in place letting carbon dioxide out into the water, which wont let oxygen in. It's worked so far.

>>4689690
I've made a batch of store bought apple juice cider before, but I have really low budget equipment, if you can call it that. I use brown sugar and freeze concentrate it, it turns out really nice. How do you prep and finish yours/how are you planning on prepping/finishing it?

>>4689683
I've made this before, 8L of it was my most recent batch, but it turns out weak, the wine I've made fucks you up better, have anything to offer on wine?

>>4689727
If its just strength you want, keep a couple inches of air in the container and let it sit for a month instead of a week.

>>4689731
I tried that too, drank a liter of it and didn't feel anything other than slightly more tired. I have some of it in my freezer right now, freeze concentrating it to see if that helps.

Someone once said red star baking yeast was closest to a wine yeast with regards to function, anybody know how much truth there is to that? And are there any negatives to using turbo yeasts?

come on homebrew fans, speak up!

>>4689683
>don't stir
congrats on slowing down the process
>seal it TIGHT
congrats on building a time bomb
>1 week
congrats on making a piss-weak brew

>>4689774
Thank you! My thoughts as well.

>>4689774
Have you any recipes or methods you'd care to share?

Drinking some homemade peasant cider.

Tastes like vinegar with a hint of rotten apple taste

>>4689799
I'm sorry to hear your cider experience was that awful. A number of factors could have made it turn out shitty, but don't bash homebrew cider, if you do it right, even with bread yeast, it can turn out damned good, and if your freeze concentrate it its even better. Can you tell me how you or one of your acquaintances made this decaying peasant cider you speak of?

>>4689793
It's quite enjoyable even without aging, but aging in glass bottles at 13C/55F for at least 6 months makes it even better.
whatever you do though, don't age it in plastic and don't age it too hot. Room temp is ok, but not ideal, fridge is too cold

>>4689850
A spiced citrus mead, nice, I like your style. I haven't tried a mead yet but I think I will try making yours. Thanks for the awesome recipe

>>4689869
I'm also doing an experiment into ginger mead with 1 pound of ginger root shredded and mixed in instead of the orange and other spices.

Yes. cleanliness is every thing. Also, save your 2 liter soda bottle, gatorade bottles and suchlike to put the beer in. the first time you make it probably is not gonna be very good. It's like homemade wine. As proud as you are of it, it most likely is not gonna win any awards. And if you think you will have and endless supply of inexpensive beer or wine, you are wrong. unless you like grape juice, bakers yeast and a balloon, or terminal shits from some thing that tastes like keystone. or for that matter, distilled anything. ( aside from the law,and tv shows, you can really hurt yourself) I know how, but I find it miles ahead just to buy something I like. Its a hobby, not a profession. It's like chicken eggs. or chickens. Sure they are nice, and nice to gather eggs, but chickens are dumb, smelly , lice infested( which are vectors for bubonic plague) and you still must buy some grain, not to mention be in heatless enough to chop the head off, scald , pluck and gut it. and the same goes for hogs. no wonder so many true farmers are quite ok with vegtables. After that, you say... I think I'll just have a vegetable plate . Sorry if I got off track. but most times, once you get into mass production, the quality goes out the window or you have to price it soo high that most people cannot afford it.

>>4689890
Ooh nice, I haven't played around much with spices yet, I've mostly been experimenting with low budget ferments and bread yeast. I'll get better supplies very soon though. So far I've made a nice wine, a cider, some sadly weak kilju, a white/brown sugar honey/agave mix, and right now i'm cooking up some lemonade and I'm about to start another wine batch and try a brown sugar+small amount of juice mash. It's becoming a very fun hobby, being interested in biochemistry helps as well.

>>4689911
you make alot of great points, and I applaud your metaphor usage, well put. Cleanliness is definitely the first thing you must be sure of. Bottles will always come in handy, wether for fermenting, storage, or transfer. Also, with regards to bakers yeast wine, balloons make it taste alot worse, my lemonade setup up works well for the aforementioned wine, and if you let it sit for a week or two after its done, and get rid of live and dead yeast, it can taste pretty nice. Your point on mass production is pretty true, you really need to care about what your making for it to taste good. ALso, distillation is very dangerous, even if you do it right, you still have flammable gasses floating around....near an open flame or source of heat to boot.

>>4689814
Bought preservative free grocery store juice, dumped into sanitized jug with a little bit of sugar and some champagne yeast, shook up and airlocked. let sit for 3 weeks. bottled with a little sugar and let sit for another week. drank

>>4689939
also it's illegal to distill without a license in most places, so there's that.

>>4689947
What I would suggest, should you be willing to undertake this adventure again, is to use a hydrometer when you add your sugar, it allows you to control how dry the cider will turn out/how much sugar you should add. Another good idea would be to hydrate the yeast in a bowl with body temp water and a pinch of sugar for 15 mins before putting it into your jug. Another point, aerating the mixture before you put your airlock on is a good idea. Also, I myself use brown sugar, it makes the taste a bit better. Lastly, try freezing some of the water out of it to make applejack, its pretty good. If you do try again, good luck, I hope it turns out much better than last time.

>>4689968
That too of course, though legality would be the least harmful to your health in my opinion, its the methanol or explosion risks I'd be more worried about.

>>4689999
also a thing about methanol, the boiling point is about 10C less than ethanol, so when distilling the first shot or two will be where most of the methanol is, since the methanol boils first

>>4690022
Yeah, ideally you want to get rid of the heads (methanol) and the tails (fusel oils mostly) but keep the hearts (ethanol), so that you get clean, drinkable booze. I can guarantee too many people have attempted distilling improperly and failed horrifically, which is unfortunate for them. I have considered attempting it for a homebrew vodka, but due to my inability to do this in a legal area, and my lack of an electric stove, I have not.

Easiest and most popular mead recipe out there, it also tastes great for the limited effort in making it.

http://www.gotmead.com/index.php?option=com_rapidrecipe&page=viewrecipe&Itemid=6&recipe_id=118

You should make this mead, it's more reliable than one you found on some imageboard, the whole meadmaking community knows of this recipe.

>>4689705
Troll information.

This >>4689683 would actually make soda, not booze, but you need to put it in the fridge or it will explode.

>>4690046
Hm. Perhaps. They appear relatively similar, both sound wonderful, I suppose I could just make both at the same time, no harm done. Thanks for the suggestion, once I've started my brown sugar mash and my wine, I'll make both meads.

>>4690065
Thank you. You are correct. Pressure and CO2 need to be dealt with appropriately, bad things happen otherwise, personal experience, I will post in a moment.

>Alright, so, that pressure/CO2 story I >mentioned... When I first started homebrewing, I >began with a 16oz brown sugar mash and a 16oz >apple juice white >sugar mash, with my straw based airlock >(pictured at the top). 4 days into fermentation
>I was leaving for the weekend so decided to,
>like an idiot, bottle them. I get back, they are
>near bursting with pressure. I release one
>under a plastic bag and slowly, all is well but
>for the loud noise from the cap flying off and
>the pressure being released all at once.
>The second on didn't go as well, and 3/4 of >the contents of the bottle went all over my >bathroom. Half fermented super carbonated
>brown sugar water isn't fun to clean up in
>general, but spattered across every surface of
>a bathroom, and yourself? It's worse
> the point is be careful with CO2 and pressure
>or things explode.

>>4690095
wow greentext fail sorry

>>4690095
I normally keep all my brews in my shower/tub for 24-48 hours until they settle down foam production. However, now that I use large diameter blow off tubes, there's usually not a problem.

>>4690101
I find that refrigerating them works well for getting live yeast (if any remains) to sink to the bottom to allow for siphoning, plus it decreases the foaming a lot. Do you brew beer or ?

>>4690115
I brew wines and meads. Some yeasts I use create massive amounts of foam in the first two days, but will simmer down and even out after that. So, there's always a chance of a clog and a blowout. I only cold crash if I have to and that's after the fermentation should have stopped, but didn't or there's a haze I'm trying to get rid of.

Kilju. It's basically fermented sugar water. I'm srsly surprised there are commercial versions of it, I guess it's flavoured.

>>4690156
It is good for making mixed drinks, however, I recommend clearing it and aging it, but then it'd not be kilju if you did that. lol

>>4690154
I haven't tried brewing any beers yet though I probably should. Yeah, I don't cool them during fermentation.

>>4690156
Yeah, I'm still trying to find the perfect set up for this, one of them I used a small amount of grape juice for yeast nutrient and for flavour, it turned out nice, but just plain white sugar and water doesn't turn out as strong or tasty as it's supposed for me. It mixes well with OJ though.

>>4690171
This is true. And yeah, the whole point of it I guess is fast, cheap booze in large quantities, flavor or quality generally isn't a main concern. I've tried to get mine as clear as possible, and aging for a month does improve the flavor. Freeze concentrating it works well too.

So far whats fucked me up the most out of everything I've brewed has been the wine I made. Its easy to make and set up, but the main goal here was cheap.
Buy:
>64oz generic grape juice, avoid preservatives, make sure it's not artificially flavored, it can come from concentrate thats fine.
>White sugar, I use 1.5 cups for this recipe
>Bakers yeast. Not bread machine yeast, or fast rise. Any brand should work, though like I mentioned earlier I've heard red star works the best for booze.
>Bendy straws
>Hot glue gun and glue sticks for it
Begin by washing your hands, cleaning up an area and sterilizing a knife or drill. Remove the cap of the grape juice, drill or stab a hole in the lid about big enough for a straw to fit through but a tiny bit smaller. Next, squeeze the short end of the bendy straw into the hole so that the long end is sticking out of the top of the cap as well as the bend. Then, put a glue stick in the hot glue gun, heat it up. Keep testing it to see when the glue can come through. As soon as it can come through the gun, affix the straw to the cap on both the top and bottom of the cap. It's important that the glue is as low of a temperature as possible while still functioning, if it isn't, the glue will melt the straw. Make sure the straw/lid/airlock object is air tight, so that air can pass through the bottom of the straw under the cap, through the cap, to the top, above the cap. When that is done, place a small amount of body temperature water into a small bowl, and add 2-4 teaspoons (play around with it see what works best), and add a pinch of sugar to the yeast water. Let that sit for 15 mins. Meanwhile, free up some space in the 64oz juice bottle by pouring 1.5 cups of it into a measuring cup, another cup in a glass to drink. Mix 1.5 cups of sugar in the measuring cup with the 1.5 cups of juice already in it, stir a bit. Now pour the juice/sugar mix into the grape juice bottle, scrape any sugar thats left behind (will be continued)

from the measuring cup into the bottle. Place your clean hand over the mouth of the bottle, shake it. Remove your hand, wash your hands again. Pour the yeast water into the bottle. EVerything should fit into the bottle and there should be 2 inches or so of air space. Shake again, wash hands again. Screw airlock lid on. Put the other end of the straw/airlock into a pre-sanitized bottle or cup full of water. Store in a room temperature or slightly cooler dark area. If all goes well, bubbles or foam will be seen. In 3 days, remove the lid, again with clean hands. Place hand on opening, shake. There will be pressure. Release slowly or it will foam like a shaken soda bottle but worse. Once you have slowly released pressure, screw lid back on. Make sure the other end it still submerged in water, and wait 4-7 more days. There should be no bubbles or foaming at this point, if there is, wait until there isn't. Once there isn't, cool it in your fridge (with airlock), once cool, siphon into one or more new containers. Drink now or let it age, it'll be good either way. Enjoy!

>>4690188
I should not be saying this. that is called apple jack. if you have a basic understanding of chemistry, you can freeze it off. it don't taste very good raw alcohol, and the leftovers make ok stuff to cook or braise. but that is a hard roe to hoe.

>>4690529
...why would you take a farming implement made of metal and wood used for cutting stuff like plants and dirt to a wad of fish eggs?

>>4690529
Well, were I using cider it'd be called applejack. Yeah, the term has taken on some unfortunate associations. Yes, biochemistry does come in handy, thats part of why I enjoy homebrewing so much. Freeze concentration (or freeze distilling, a common misnomer) has produced pretty tasty results or me in the past, I haven't tried cooking with any of my homebrew yet, thanks for the idea.

Does anybody know what would happen/think I should brew up some of the blueberry pomegranate juice I have in my fridge?

>>4690590
what preservatives has it?

>>4690609
Nothing that'd cause problems, its the PH and the nutrients I'm worried about.

>>4690609
That and while it tastes great now, it might taste awful if I ferment it.

>>4690613
I'd say go for it. If you can't find yeast nutrient, black tea leaves work just as well. Most yeast can go fairly low on pH, so don't worry too much on that. You wouldn't be able to drink it yourself if the pH got low enough to kill the yeast(pH 2), the most that will happen is the yeast will slow down.

>>4690634
alright, thanks. I'll have to try out the tea leaves as well, good advice.

>bump

No one else?

bump

bumping

>bump

Currently I have 3 5ga carboys with cider that will turn out at about 14%, then after freeze fortification around 20-22% (depending on how cold it gets next winter). For my cider I have been using some honey a friend of mine gets from his hives, and apples from my wife's uncle's orchard.

I have a 6ga carboy I am currently making mead in for another friend of mine who made some blackberry honey this season, used quite a bit of black berries along with it to give it good flavor.

Then I have like three 1ga growlers that I experiment with, I would have to ask my wife whats in them because she made the last batches.

>>4691256
Sounds pretty awesome, do you spice the pressed apple juice at any point? And does the honey take awhile to ferment out? The blackberry honey blackberry mead sounds delicious, I hope that turns out well. Experiments are always nice, my favorite so far was a brown sugar/white sugar/ honey/ agave water/apple juice mixture. It came out cidery and dry, with an interesting assortment of flavors. Thanks for sharing by the way

So my friend and I have decided we might want to do a ginger and sugar (don't know what kind yet) mash with black tea leaves for yeast nutrient. Does anyone have any advice on fermenting ginger?

>>4689662
Homebrewer here, will answer any questions that I can.

>>4691951
Have you had any experience fermenting with lemon juice or ginger? Like I mentioned in the original post, I'm trying out a hard lemonade but tips on how to do it better would be appreciated. As for the ginger, once I've done my brown sugar batch and my wine today, as well as the meads soon, its what I want to try next. Any input?

>>4691966
No experience working directly with lemon juice or ginger, but my guess would be you would want to add those flavors in as part of a "dry hop" after the primary fermentation is completed. That is just a guess without googling it though.

What are you using for your base? Malted Barley? Lemonade?

>>4691966
Can yeast even survive lemon juice? Hard lemonade is just made by mixing malt liquor and lemon flavor. you don't ferment lemon juice.

>>4691977
For the hard lemonade, I started with about a 1-6 lemon juice to water ration, and added 2 cups of sugar (all in a 64 oz container) and added some boiled yeast (for nutrient, not fermentation), then the live yeast. I've made kilju before but it's been too weak to get me drunk, and while the flavor isn't intolerable, it isn't the best, so I figured I'd play around with hard lemonade.

>>4691984
I know how most hard lemonades are made, unfortunately I'm in a low budget/low supplies situation. I'm using a modified version of this recipe >http://skeeterpee.com/?page_id=17 .
WHile lemon juice itself can't ferment, I've been led to believe it's presence during the fermentation of the sugar makes the final product taste a lot better.

How does one use egg whites for clearing a brew?

>>4692233
>How does one use egg whites for clearing a brew?

I've never heard of this, but I've just used the commercially available products (if I use anything at all) like irish moss or whirfloc

>>4691984
>>4691996
>>4692005
I'm interested to so how the lemon juice effects the fermentation process. My guess is that it would make it too acidic and you would need to add something to balance it out if added before the primary.

I'm sure you've google'd it and checked out places like homebrewtalk:
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/making-hard-lemonade-230200/

He adds in potassium carbonate to balance the Ph

>>4692313
Yeah, I've done alot of internet research, homebrewtalk is a good place for info. So far the lemon juice has killed off some of my yeast and fermentations moving slowly, but it's still working. I wonder how the flavor will be... and I wish I had PH stabilizers, I haven't gotten better equipment yet.

>>4692382
Check out places like morebeer.com for random shit you might not have. They ship for free (as long as its not a glass carboy) and its really fast. I ordered a complete kegging system (including soda keg and co2 tank) from them and it was at my doorstep 6 days later. For free.

Plus all of their extract kits come with all-grain directions, which is what I use (with BeerSmith) to come up with basic recipes

>>4692382
>>4692394
Here's a link for their water modifiers (calcium carbonate included):
http://morebeer.com/category/brewing-water-modifiers.html

>>4692394
>>4692410
sweet, thanks. I'll check it out and order stuff when I can, much appreciated for the good site.

>>4692417
They are great for most things.

Another GREAT website is http://www.bargainfittings.com/

They ship for a flat $5.00, and have some of the cheapest fittings and conversion kits available.

>>4692421
>http://www.bargainfittings.com/
sweeeet. Definitely using both of these when I'm able. Thanks again

>>4692430
No prob bob.

Prior to prohibition, we were a country full of local neighborhood breweries. Similar to the bakeries. We are experiencing a renaissance in the beer world, and seeing people getting into the hobby only means good things for the future.

>yfw you go downstairs, pull a liter of your favorite homemade brew off of the tap, and flip on the tv to watch your baseball team

>>4692450
This is true. It's so much more satisfying, knowing, hey, I fucking made this, and you know what? It tastes damned good!

>>4689662
Anymore homebrewers wishing to offer up tales, ideas, or wisdom and such?

>>4692790
Sanitize everything.

As for tales, my very first homebrew batch was done in a 6.5 gallon glass carboy. I after I kegged it, I was debating whether or not to clean right away. I decided not to be a lazy faggot and get it done, so I cleaned and sanitized the lines, cleaned and sanitized the fermenter and put it in its stand, and just as I go to turn away I hear a CUHRACK-CHING-CHING and turn around to see the glass carboy broken all over my drive way.

At least it happened AFTER the beer was in the keg. I probably would have hurt myself if I wasted all that precious ale.

A question on freeze-distilling/applejacking/etc.

Won't you end up with a high concentration of Methanol?

>>4692796
Sanitation is #1.
Thank the booze gods for the timing of that breakage! It's always a horrible thing to know good booze was just wasted after so much effort.

>>4692799
Yes, your methanol and ethanol concentration increases, but theres no more or less of either thand before, you can just drink more of it. IE 14% cider, 2L. Freeze 1L water out of it, you have 280ml of ethanol, and a negligible amount of methanol either way, it's just a matter of how much water it's in.

>>4692804
I know at first I was completely pissed, then I though, "what if it had happened 30minutes earlier?!" and I nearly wept for joy that my precious amber liquid was safe in it's pressurized metal case.

>>4692811
> you can just drink more of it
by this I meant in a shorter period of time.

>>4692814
Exactly. It makes what you made even more special than it already was.

>methanol

FYI, methanol trolls are old Homebrewmen thread trolls.

>>4692841
I don't quite get what you're getting at...

Dick's Hard Lemonade is still going... it's smelling pretty sulfurous which is probably them munching on the dead yeast at the bottom of the bottle. I hope the amount in which their doing this isn't enough to ruin the flavour. It should be done by friday, we'll find out then I guess.

Anyone else wanna post before OP goes to the land of Netflix?

Bump

>>4689662

You can make hard cream soda, and hobo wine. You just need champagne yeast, but it works with normal yeast, AFAIK.

Those are easy projects. I guess you could also improvise and make a cross between sweet tea and beer without investing too much in rare cereals and grains. Not sure how that'd turn out.

Be careful with the moonshine, though.

>>4693677
How does one make hard cream soda? And yes I suppose they are easy projects, but it is a good place to start, no? Also, I don;t think I'll be distilling anytime soon, legality is a minor problem, it's the safety I'm worried about. I'd prefer to use proper equipment that'll do it right and leave no chance of fire or explosion. Thanks for sharing, it's much appreciated.

>>4693722

I think you let it ferment longer.

>>4693727
ah that would make sense....

Do any of you "accept donations" from people for your homebrew? If you make good homebrew on the cheap you can definitely turn a nice profit if you have some interested alcoholic individuals.

I'd suggest only accepting donations from friends and family that you trust, just to be on the safe side.

>>4691279
I use either corn sugar or honey, and I don't really taste until after 9 months. So I cannot say which takes longer to ferment out. Usually I have the yeast die due to being drowned out by alcohol before I have the sugar gone.

Bottled a 5ga carboy of apple along with cinnamon, cranberry, nutmeg, and cloves. Smelled amazing, tasted amazing, but the wife decided to bottle more than 2ga of it in unclean bottles because she wasn't paying attention.

Was pretty lame wasting such good quality booze as that, but I guess as that boston brewing company guy on the commercials says
"I can make more"

>>4693747

I'm the guy with all the carboys. Usually I only accept "donations" in the form of clean new bottles or ingredients. A guy at the farmers market gave 5lb of honey in exchange for the promise to make good cider out of it. Friends buy ingredients for me to make booze out of.

>>4693770
This mead recipe only costs me like 20 bucks to make. The most expensive part is the goddamn honey.

1 gallon recipe = 4 wine bottles full

12 bucks a wine bottle = 48 dollars

I could probably accept a 15 dollar donation for it, but I'm accepting donations from friends and I don't wanna be a Jew.

>>4693780
There's gotta be cheaper recipes out there than that for maximum profit.

>>4693747
I do, but I do plan on being extremely careful about it, as I have been. In your opinion, what would be a fair donation if you took into account a glass of cheap (but tasty and boozy) homebrew wine?

>>4693755
Sounds delicious. A shame about the contamination, it's always sad to see good brews go to waste. While it is true you can always make more, each batch tastes a bit different, no?

>>4693770
That is a good policy. I do something similar, though I haven't taken donations in the form of equipment yet, great idea.

>>4693783
My wine recipe (higher in the thread) is really cheap, less than I'd say 10 dollars a gallon, and it comes out tasting pretty good, and having a good alcohol content. You could then sell the wine for a similar amount as the mead, perhaps even ,more considering (correct me if I'm wrong) wine generally has a higher alcohol content

>>4693806
It depends on how much it costs to make it, how much profit you're interested in, the taste, the wealth of the individuals you're selling it to, etc

I'd give a sample to someone you know who is interested, see if they like it and throw out a reasonable, or steeper price, see how they respond, be willing to play hardball, or sell it for less.

>>4693822
Sorry, could you link to your post? I'm scanning over the thread and can't find your specific post.

>>4693826
yeah, I'll test out the waters. thanks.

>>4690360
>>4690363
these posts. It's cheap, and easy, comes out quite nice and it'll get you drunk

Someone in this thread mentioned hard cream soda, but never fully explained. I can't find shit online about making alcoholic cream soda, this sounds so interesting, anyone have anything on it?

Any other obscure homebrew, too? I don't like just following beer kits, I wanna get into making interesting homemade ciders, etc.

>>4693913

You can find the instructions to make hobo wine. Knowing yeast metabolizes sugar into alcohol in anaerobic conditions, I'm confident you can adapt.

>>4693923
So you're saying that wine could be replaced with cream soda for one of these recipes?

Sounds interesting, I'll try it.

>>4693953

I guess it could, but I don't recommend it.

Some dude once said "if it burns green, waste it, if it burns blue, it's OK". Since you're not distilling it, I don't think you'll be able to burn the fumes, though. I just wouldn't drink homemade alcohol unless I used trustworthy ingredients and reverse osmosis water.

>>4693953
I meant that you could have cream soda take the place of grape juice, if I didn't make myself clear.

test

>>4693963

Oh, you can make both at the same time.

Cream soda is just sweet water and vanilla. You can use yeast to make it carbonated, it's one of the oldest carbonated drinks...people could make it at home.

>>4693913
Uh hm...You could try fermenting agave nectar. I may have mentioned earlier that I fermented a mixture of brown sugar, white sugar, hone, and blue agave nectar, with 1/4 apple juice 3/4 water. It turned out delicious. You could always try something like that

>>4693953I'll definitely have a go at fermenting sodas, sounds fun. I found a yeast online that someone had selectively bred to ferment mountain dew, or at least the particular blend of ingredients in mountain dew. Sounded interesting.
Anybody here have experience breeding yeasts???

3 days left until dicks hard lemonade should be done. It had a nice head of foam today, and smells less sulfurous than yesterday. It looks like the yeast finally overcame the PH conditions and have reached the peak of fermentation speed. I'm hoping it turns out well, I'll keep you all updated, pictures and info will be put up on friday.

Experimenting with brewing ciders, sodas and other shit is way more fun than following a beer kid.

Posted this on /diy/ posting it here too

Let me make it clear, YOU CANNOT DRINK ENOUGH HOMEBREW BEER OR WINE TO SUFFER FROM METHANOL POISONING.

No matter how bad you fuck it up, your brew wont produce enough methanol to hurt you. Methanol is present in all store bought beers and wines. You would have to drink gallons and gallons of that or homemade brew to feel any ill effects.

Methanol starts becoming dangerous when you DISTILL and CONCENTRATE the methanol. This is why moonshine can supposedly make you go blind. However, throwing away the 'heads' and the 'tails' (the first and last ~50mL for a 5 gallon batch) you can avoid the buildup of methanol. This is because methanol comes over just before the ethanol and other fusel oils and hangover nasties come over later in the process.

tl;dr
There is NO significant amount of methanol in homebrew beer or wine, UNTIL you distill it.

Let this be /diy/ and /ck/ precedent. Tell your friends

>>4695548
Yes, we know. People are only concerned about methanol in distillation. For example, freeze distillation, where methanol cannot be removed as easily

>>4695567
Methanol can't be removed at all in freeze concentration. Only water or other substances with a freezing point near or higher than water. Just to clarify, not to bash.

just a bump before OP is busy for a few hours.

>>4696143
I made 5 gallons of grape, apricot, and peach wine today

Just got into this thread, been scrolling through, I keep hearing whispers about hard cream soda, but haven't heard a clear word about how one would go about making it.

There's also nothing I can find on Google, or anything else about making such a concoction, I'm new to brewing, so I'm a little afraid of experimenting, I'd feel more comfortable if I at least had a lead on how to make it.

Anyone?

>>4696197
Ooh, I haven't had peach or apricot wine, nor have I brewed it, is this a first time attempt or a repeat? If it has gone well/goes well, I'd love to know your recipes.

>>4696212
I think if you fermented a store bought, sugar (not corn syrup) based cream soda with little to no preservatives, it would turn out well. Or, you could make your own cream soda, then you don't have to worry about preservatives or sugars. Instead of stopping the fermentation at carbonation, let it continue. These are just basic Ideas, I can do more research and post results in a few hours

I'm gonna try making some prickly pear mead.

>>4696222
Thanks for the reply.

What kind of yeast would you use for the fermentation? I've only ever used bread yeast for a mead recipe that I've made, I'm not very experienced.

>>4696230
Very unique, I wonder how it will end up tasting? How much are you making?

>>4696229
I personally have been limited to bread yeast fermentations myself...though I have done research on other yeasts, i just haven't been able to buy them yet. I think a cider yeast or a turbo yeast would work out well if you want to use something other than bread yeast, but bread yeast would work fine. Red star might be your best bet, obviously no bread machine or quick rise yeasts.

>>4696234

I'm looking to make about 4-5 gallons. I've made plenty of homebrew beer before, but never mead. Not too sure how it'll taste, but I tried one of the prickly pears and it tastes similar to watermelon.

>>4696240
A watermelon-flavored mead sounds very much worth trying. I hope all goes well, how long do you plan on aging it, if at all?

>>4696249

I'll age it at least 6 months, probably closer to a year. I might to shoot for 18 months, but I'm not sure I have the patience for that.

>>4696278
Yes, patience is always an issue. I find that it's nice to have a quick, easy, cheap, brew constantly running so that you have something homemade to drink while everything ages.

>>4696214
I'm making it using a wine recipe formula I found in a book
I used one gallon of orange juice and two pounds each of grapes, apricots, and peaces. The apricots and peaches were canned without sugar added. I also added 2 1/2 gallons of store bought water bought water, 17.5 cups of sugar and a blue red-star yeast packet

>>4696294
Sounds very interesting...I'm saving a screenshot of this for when I'm done starting all of the other batches I have planned.

>>4696316
here's the formula in the book
S =.02 x A x T - (.01 x W x P )

S= sugar added, in ounces
A= the alcohol percentage your yeast can work
T= total amount of must you want in ounces
W= the weight of the fruit in ounces
p= percentage of sugar from fruit

>>4696324
keep the percentages as whole numbers, not decimals

>>4696324
Thank you much. I always appreciate a good recipe.

>>4696333
I have brewed beer before, so this is my first time making wine, but I'm glad to help.

Bump before bed

I just finished bottling a saison.

>>4696543
Excellent, if you drink it soon, tell us how it turned out!

>>4696238
Turbo yeast is only good if youre going to distill. it makes a lot of off flavors

In college before I turned 21, I made hobo apple wine a few times. All I used was apple juice (no preseratives), sugar, and baking yeast. I made my own air lock and let it ferment in the closet for a few weeks. Then I would bottle it and age it in the fridge for a few more weeks. Always came out really dry.

Great thing to do if you're a minor. Bitches love it. Just don't skimp on the sterilization and air lock.

>>4692790
Don't add hop pellets while the wort is boiling, it'll boil over and get encrusted on your stove top

Bring the heat down, add shit, then bring it back to a boil

Gonna make a Wee Heavy soon, for the fall/winter. It'll be my first partial mash brew too, so I'm a little nervous, all I've done is extract for my past 3 batches. How much different is the process?

Also I need a good name for it. I was thinking, like, The Kurgan or something

>>4697082
that's awesome, I wish I had done that

>>4697082
I find it so strange that you can't drink until 21 in the US.

OP here
Anyone interested in distilling should head over to my new distilling thread instead of here, thanks!
>>>/diy/504142

>>4697108
I don't understand it either. It only makes the binge drinking worse

>>4697108
It sucks, let me tell you. Thats part of why I enjoy homebrewing so much... it gives you an opportunity to get ahold of alcohol when the law won't alow you to. More importantly, it's a fun pursuit that can produce many different results and can stick with you for your entire life if you let it.

>>4697115
>>4697108
you can thank liberal middle aged soccer moms

>>4697096
I'll remember that when I start brewing beers, I'm limited to meads, wines, etc for now.

>>4697108
>>4697115
Also that combined with the open container law is bullshit, promotes secret binge drinking even more

>>4697096
>implying I'm using a stove stop to do my boil

Converted sanke keg on a propane burner masterrace reporting in.

>>4697120
You really only have to be concerned with boil over if the pot your using doesn't have a few gallons of headspace.

>>4697123
Mine's a 6gallon kettle so there's not a lot of room

I don't do huge batches

>>4697119
>>4697122
The laws themselves really do just increase the likely hood of underage drinking and underage drinking related crimes. How are people supposed to know their own limits if instead of being allowed to find them, they are simply told "it's illegal".

Cointreau is really expensive so i make my own.

it's easy-
1. get some overproof vodka, i use 100 proof smirnoff. it doesn't really matter what brand or anything.
2. get about 6 good oranges and 1 lemon. (navel oranges aren't the best for this, valencia or tangerines, or clementines or mandarins have the most flavor)
3.zest or peel off strips of just the outer part of the oranges and lemons (avoid the pith)
4. let the zest dry- if you want to do it fast do it in a very low heat oven. then put all your zest into the vodka and let sit for at least 48 hours.
5. strain out the zest.
6. add simple syrup/sugar until it tastes like cointreau

it's delcious by itself or in cocktails. really makes a difference in a good margarita as opposed to cheap triple sec.

>>4697139
not saying this should apply to other illegal things, it's just that alcohol can be handled responsibly. Whereas something like heroin.... yeah no.

>>4697140
Well done, frugality at it's finest. I'm saving those instructions, thanks

Dicks hard lemonade update. No sulfurous smells whatsoever today, and I stand corrected from my previous update, it's definitely chugging away faster today than it was yesterday. Due to that speed, there was a very minor blowout. That is all, new progress update tomorrow.

OP is going away from computer for 5 or 6 hours, talk to you all later

Aight let's do this.

>>4697868
Almost forgot to put in the raisins.
Left is with dark honey and some ginger and oranges, right light honey and only oranges.

>>4698038

>>4698042
youll switch them out into glass jugs at some point yeah?

>>4698045
I plan to do that, I thought maybe after the balloon goes limp? Or what would you suggest?

This is a really good jenkem thread. Mmmmmmmm

>>4698088
>they don't drink diet Coorsweiser lite
>they are the ones that enjoy fermented shit
>not me
>p-please believe me

>>4698042
Update: both balloons went up as promised. Will store in closet.

>>4698240
just to make sure, you did pierce the balloons so the CO2 can escape, right?

>>4698379
lol I remember that one anon that didn't. I use 5-9 stickpin pricks. Of coruse, now I use blow off tubes.

Quality thread, Homebrewmen.

Someone should compile all the recipes posted here, I found a wine recipe, a mead recipe in this thread, etc.

Anyone have a good cider recipe they'd like to share, though?

>>4696294
i was on acid when i posted this

>>4698790
Recipe based posts
>>4689850
>>4689869
>>4690046
>>4690360
>>4690363
>>4691996
>>4692005
>>4696324
>>4696294
>>4697140
>>4697868

>>4698939
lol. really?

Don't worry everyone, homebrewer who takes his shit way to seriously checking in. I built this entire setup myself, fully temperature controlled, automated.

Feel free to ask questions.

>>4699149

And an action shot.

>>4699155
How long have you been homebrewing? I started recently, 5 months ago.

>>4699169
>>4699169


About 3 years now. How has it been going for you so far? Are you brewing all grain or extract?

>>4699180
Unfortunately I haven't actually been able to brew any beer yet... I've been limited to wine and the like. I'm getting equipment and space as well as money to take all homebrewing more seriously very soon though. What would you suggest for a first time brew with regards to beer?

>>4699190
that really just depends on your motivation and financial level. I would say dive right in to an all-grain brew (don't waste time with extract brewing IMO). Then from there you can literally chose almost any style of beer you want, it's not like an amber is appreciably harder or easier than a stout or an IPA. Just don't go with a lager or a hybrid where you need temp control, but for a nice standard ale if you do your research any base style should be achievable really.

>>4699223
alright. thank you much, I appreciate the sound advice.

>>4698379
>>4698410
Of course, I made 8 holes with a needle. They are barely visible though, but pressure in the jugs seems to be ok. Looks like it's fermenting nicely. Any advice on when to bottle the stuff? I thought maybe after the balloon goes limp, which would according to the recipe be in 1 month.

>>4699237

Any time. I wrote that last response right before bed so it wasn't as coherent as I wanted, so to elaborate; extract brewing takes less time and money (as well as less skill and knowledge IMO) but also makes less authentic tasting beer. An all-grain batch takes quite a bit more knowledge and skill (as well as monetary investment for equipment) but the beer you produce is literally just a small version of what's produced at a commercial brewery.

>>4699149
>>4699155
>dat pump action
>dat three-vessel system
all of my HNNGGGGGG

I have a keggle right now, with two other sanke kegs awaiting conversion to make a three tier system. On a scale of 1 to 10, how easy would you say having your pump-fed three-vessel system made your brewing?

>>4699876
I was under the impression extract cost more.

For example, my APA recipe I made last cost me around $15 for all-grain, whereass the extract would have cost me upwards of $30

>>4699885


Like an 8. There's a lot of tweaking that had to happen to get my temperature correction system to be accurate for the mash tun and it's definitely more cleaning than the 'ol orange cooler method, but it's super fucking fun to make beer on!
Just spend the $150 on a pump and do a one tier, because then you can get a plate chiller for heat exchange post-boil and not have to dick around with those stupid coils.

>>4699887

$15? Did you make 4 gallons of 1.030 OG APA? That seems pretty damn cheap for a properly hopped APA in the correct gravity range.

Regardless though, I was talking specifically equipment costs and time investment into both your actual brew day, and learning the steps for all grain.

>>4699876
Alright, thanks for reiterating. I'll keep that in mind

>>4699892
>I was talking specifically equipment costs and time investment into both your actual brew day, and learning the steps for all grain.

True, getting the proper equipment is more expensive than doing a basic extract, but IMO over the long run it's completely worth the investment. Which is why I went straight to kegging when I started brewing.

>$15? Did you make 4 gallons of 1.030 OG APA?

unfortunately on the brew day I didn't have a my hydrometer (I accidentally purchased the liquor one instead haha) so I only got a final gravity reading. Don't remember off the top of my head but it was probably around 5%, I could definitely feel it after a couple pints.

I also have a local homebrew supply store that is pretty cheap. I basically used a modified version of Morebeers APA II beer:
http://morebeer.com/products/american-pale-ale-ii-extract-beer-kit.html

They have a PDF of the grain bill and hop list for an all-grain version.

Doesn't have a lot of bitterness to it, but plenty of hop presence in the flavor and aroma (which is what I was going for).

>then you can get a plate chiller for heat exchange post-boil and not have to dick around with those stupid coils.

God those fucking coils. I live in florida and had to make a 2nd coil to run through an icewater bath because our tap water only gets down to 78 degrees at the coolest. Chilling things in this heat is a bitch.

>>4699904

Ok yeah, 12 lbs of grain is a pretty small beer, but at my homebrew shop that would still be about $18, then you need hops and yeast which would bring it to around $25-$30 for the batch which is what I usually expect for a medium ABV beer. I think magnum hops smell like fart, but Cascade and Willamette are delicious so I'm sure that's a great beer. Probably didn't get a lot of magnum character anyway since that was the 60-minute addition.

>>4699922
>Probably didn't get a lot of magnum character anyway since that was the 60-minute addition.

This. I wasn't thrilled about it, but all of the reviews said it worked, so I went with it. Came out breddy gud.

I did a price check on Morebeer and your estimate is about right: $25.25 for everything before the yeast.

Looking at the prices the yeast and the hops are about the same. I saved money in the grains, definitely. My place must be cheaper for some reason (or the guy that rang me up couldn't do calculations properly).

Of course if you buy in bulk it also becomes cheaper.

>>4699054
liquid

>>4699149
Can you let me know a source of good all grain recipes? I have only brewed a Scottish ale brewer's best kit I got from the local zymurgist so far, but I'm ready to move on.

>>4699978

Yep. http://www.amazon.com/Brewing-Classic-Styles-Winning-Recipes/dp/0937381926

Absolutely amazing beers. Every single recipe in the book.

ALSO, if you want to get weird,
http://www.amazon.com/Radical-Brewing-Recipes-World-Altering-Meditations/dp/0937381837

I love that book as well.

>>4699936

Yup, and White Labs vials are about $7 each now.

>>4699978
Not that anon but for my recipes I generally start with a search in some of the homebrew forums like homebrewtalk.com. I'll check out which recipes have the best reviews/most replies and compare them.

Also using a program like beer smith is a must so I don't have to worry about what my water amounts or strike temp needs to be.

>>4699981
Awesome I'll have to get that winning recipes book

>>4699989
good to know

>>4697104
Re-bumping my question

>How much different is the process?

>>4700017
As far as I understand it, you would just need a grain mesh bag for your steeping grains. Take care not to leave the bag on the bottom of the boil vessel.

>>4700017
Instead of using a malt extract, you're just steeping more physical malt grain before you add everything else

>>4700037
Oh that's it? Wow I've actually done that before without knowing it

>>4700017


It's basically just making extract beer but steeping some grains like you make tea. You can handle that for sure.

Once you're doing all grain you have to deal with vorlauf, lautering and sparging, but for a partial mash you're good to go.

>>4700017
Also, if you have the volume in your kettle for it and the capacity do boil all of the water, you can easily use the Brew-In-A-Bag method and do an all-grain batch, skipping the extract entirely.

It's often looked down on as a poorman's mash but it works, I've made great beer using the BIAB method.

>>4699691
Yes, when the balloons fall it is time to rack and crash the yeast. Once it is no longer active you can bottle.

>>4700552
Slow down there tiger. The yeast is still working even if it is not actively fermenting. It continues to clean up the brew for another week or two.

>>4700552
>>4700567
So I'm good to go when the sauce becomes semi-clear?

>>4700572
Honestly you can rack it as long as you're sure primary fermentation is done.

You could also do an expirement: Rack one right after and let another sit for another week or so, and see if you notice any difference and which one you think tastes better.

>>4700567
And give the yeast time to disembowel their selves all over your brew and make it taste nasty and need longer aging times? Nope. Always crash your brew just before it is totally done to prevent off flavors. You can cold crash it, hit is with potassium metabisulfite/sodium bisulfite and potassium sorbate; in that order or it won't work quite right. This allows your brew to halt residual fermentation, prevents yeast from stressing and exploding their cells thereby tainting the brew with bad flavors, and prevent any surviving-dormant yeasts from being able to reproduce later on when/if you backsweeten or when you rack and inadvertently start up an aerobic fermentation from stray oxygen getting in.

>>4700581
>all this disinfo

Whatever you say bro. I bet you think that you HAVE to secondary ferment and that anyone who only does one primary vessel makes shit beer.

>>4700586
Beer? Wine and mead is what I make and this poster is making mead. It isn't disinformation either. If you don't know what someone is talking about do some research on it first before replying. Stop trolling, please.

>>4700597
My apologies. Please continue chucklefuck.

>>4700597
>>4700610
Also, when you saw "brew", it implies you actually "brewed" something.

themoreyouknow.jpg

>>4700615
say*.

>>4700581

That shit doesn't happen instantly, Holmes. Yeast will continue to actively ferment for many days after you stop seeing visible fermentation (if you'd ever used a hydrometer you would know this) and yeast autolysis doesn't usually happen for quite some time. I've sat beers for over a month with no ill-effects.

Source; I do this for a living

>>4700705
I'm talking about mead and wine. Not beer. I do it all the time too. Autolysis only happens when yeast is stressed or you're aging on the cake. To prevent that from ever happening you simply crash and rack.

Source: I own my mead and wine making business. I'm not an employee. I'm the father of the Homebrewmen.

What brewery do you work at?

>>4700731

Well of course you crash and rack but your first post made it sound like you we're fear mongering people into only fermenting for a week.

>>4700774
When the balloon falls over there's no longer enough positive pressure inside the brewing container to prevent suck back. The balloon will no longer act like an airlock. When you use a standard 3-piece airlock you rack when the bubbling gets to 1 per minute. Letting it go less than that can cause suck back. With a balloon you don't have bubbles 1 per minute and instead use its deflation as the indicator. Normally, the balloon will go limp around 1 month, (as the poster I was replying to also stated >>4699691 ), but that really depends on the recipe. With mead that is about average for balloons.

Update, nothing too special seems to be happening, though I think I may need to ferment it longer, which means it won't be done tomorrow like I planned. I'll have to include pics and other info another day, maybe sunday or monday.

So what are some negative side effects of exposing whatever you have fermenting to higher temperatures? like between 70-80 degrees. . .

>>4701327
It can stress the yeast and cause off flavors. 70-80 F I assume, which shouldn't be a problem for all top-fermenting yeasts since that is the proper temp rang. Bottom-fermenting yeasts like it much cooler. Regardless, it is the temperature fluctuation that causes the most stress on yeast. So, even if something is a bit high or a bit low it will be okay in the long run. If the temps rise and lower slowly over time it will be okay. If the temps spike and dip quickly then yeast will be very stressed and can die, autolysis, and make nasty flavors and smells.

>>4701414
Alright thanks for the info, I appreciate it

Started my wine batch and my brown sugar batch yesterday, checked today and they're fermenting like crazy, CO2 production is insane. I'll be posting updates on these as well as Dick's Hard Lemonade tomorrow.

>>4702022
Update on all 3 batches.
Hard Lemonade's fermentation has slowed down but it is not done yet, other than that nothing to note.
Brown sugar batch: It appears the yeast I'm using loves brown sugar.... it's expelling a ton of CO2 still, pic related, btw the floating objects are raisins (cut in half, yeast nutrient substitute).
Wine: Going just as it always has, it's the most predictable, it'll chug away at a steady rate like it has been, nothing too special to note there (pic related for this as well).
Better explanation of pic: The bottles are in insulation (keeps the temp controlled), and my airlocks are submerged in a bottle of water. Brown sugar batch on the left, wine on the right.

Any advice for an underageb& trying to make his own booze?

>>4703186
all the materials are completely fine for an underage to buy. It's illegal for underage to produce or be in possession of alcohol, so don't get caught

>>4703186
This is literally a whole thread about how to make homemade booze from everyday ingredients you can purchase. Are you so young you can't even read?

Also, reported.

>>4703204
in murrukuh you can't drink til you're 21.

>>4703204
He may have meant tips for underage people specifically. And why report? Could be 18, 19, or 20.

I too am a university student looking to get into homebrewing beer to cut down my alcohol expenditure. Is it worth it for me to invest in a starter kit such as this http://www.homebrewwest.ie/brewsmarter-premium-starter-beer-kit-without-heating-belt-best-value-2744-p.asp, or just go with a scaled up version of OP's pic, or >>4697868

>>4703303
Guy who you quoted here, all that stuff cost me 24€ with spices and everything, so while you're thinking about what to do you might as well just start brewing mead.

>>4703303
OP here
The beerkit will make 8 gallons of 4.5% abv beer.
My wine recipe will make 3 gallons for about 20 dollars, between 10 & 14% abv.
The guy responded about the mead already, but thats 2.64 gallons for 34 dollars, I don't know the abv.
If you're looking to get the most booze for your buck, go for the cheap wine recipe.

>>4691951
I have a question. I live in S. America and I'm having a hell of a time finding hops. Here it's called 'lupulo' but you can only get it imported and you have to be a brewer or large company to do so. What can I substitute for hops in making beer? I have almost everything else (I think). Thanks.

>>4703358
Just to show the math behind my reasoning
8 gallons X .045 (4.5%) = .36 gallons of alcohol, 60 including kit (the beer itself would be cheaper than the wine if you weren't buying the kit)
60$ worth of the wine is 9 gallons X .1 or .14= .9 gallons to 1.26 gallons alcohol
I don't know the abv of the mead but it's 12.87$ a gallon, whereas the wine is about 7$. Looks like if you buy the canadian blonde prep materials buy themselves it about 18 dollars for 8 gallons or 2.25 dollars per gallon. SO... with all of that said, it's up to you to decide now

>>4703377
This was also OP fyi.

>>4703370
Try mugwort, or maybe juniper berries.

>>4703382

>juniper berries.
Like gin? Will my beer taste like gin?

>>4703377
Good value either way, thanks. But I'm wondering, would buying the kit make the brewing process so much easier and make the beer taste so much better that it would be worth it? Also, there's a cheaper version that comes without carbonation drops and brewing sugar, how necessary are those? Finally, would that "beer" equipment be just as ideal for making wine?

>>4703352
I made a very small (500ml) batch of mead in a sports bottle, balloon and bread yeast. I have alcohol, but it refuses to clear despite repeated racking and it tastes pretty shitty.

>>4703389
Hm. If you used juniper berries it might have a similar flavor to gin, but I'm not sure, I've heard of it being used in ales and in place of hops though so I figure it's worth a shot. Mugwort was used for a long time before hops though, so if your looking for a more traditional beer.... either way, its going to taste different without hops, maybe you could try both, find out which one you like better.

>>4703389

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/hopless-beer-283411/

>>4703403
Thanks. I just asked a friend if I could get mugwort (Artemisa) at the market and she said we could. So that's a big help. Thanks again.

>>4703389
It will have a slight piny flavor.

Look up some ancient ales, we didn't always have hops. You can add herbs and spices. Or things that would increase the intoxicating effects...

>>4703393
What the fuck are carbonation drops? Drop a little priming sugar into each bottle before filling and aging. Beer carbonates itself.

>>4703412
>http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/hopless-beer-283411/
>>4703406
>>4703403
Thanks anons. One question though, if hops are only used for offsetting the sweetness of the fermented sugars, how do I know how much to add? If it's not hops and it's another herb, how do I gauge an acceptable amount so that the flavor isn't overpowering? Trial and error? It's as good a rule as any but maybe a little guidance...?

>>4703393
>But I'm wondering, would buying the kit make the brewing process so much easier and make the beer taste so much better that it would be worth it?
Well, it'd be a nice place to start, building your own setup can be difficult, whereas the guys who made this kit already know what they're doing. So I can't say for sure, but yeah, it'd probably turn out better than with a homemade kit and be worth it.(at least for now, once you have more experience thats a different story).
>Also, there's a cheaper version that comes without carbonation drops and brewing sugar, how necessary are those?
Carbonation drops are just glucose and sucrose in a compressed, easily measured, cough drop like form, they will help if you are just starting. As for brewing sugar, it's generally just corn sugar, so it will affect the flavor of your beer if you use different sugars but thats not necessarily a bad thing.
>Finally, would that "beer" equipment be just as ideal for making wine?
For cheap, simple wine all you really need is a sealed container you can attach an airlock to, and some grape juice, sugar, and yeast. If you want to really homebrew it up with wine, and move away from the simplest stuff, you need different chemicals and materials than a beer kit, you'd want a wine kit.

>>4703408
No problem, anytime. Make sure you do a little research on brewing with it though.

>>4703416
>Carbonation drops are just glucose and sucrose in a compressed, easily measured, cough drop like form

yeah, without hop you'll want a bitter element. >>4703408
artemisa can also be a common name for wormwood or less commonly, tarragon. Not that these wouldnt work

>>4703421
Do a little research on brewing with juniper/mugwort/spices. I'll do some myself later, if you check back in later tonight I'll try to have some info for you.

>>4703432
>>4703408
Note, there is a difference between mugwort and wormwood. Wormwood is what they used to make absinthe.... so unless you want some green fairy beer (which would be fun and interesting but possibly dangerous, like absinthe) I suggest using mugwort.

>>4703215
Lel, yes, I'm 18. And no, I don't have fancy equipment, not even balloons/airlocks/anything, other than a few empty bottles lying around the house.

>>4703423
Thanks for the information. They also sell these special bottles http://www.homebrewwest.ie/coopers-ox-bar-24-500ml-pet-bottles-better-than-glass-bottles-837-p.asp.. Would that be getting frivolus, or would re-using normal plastic coke bottles taint/de-carbonate my beer?

>>4703470
Glad I was right haha. If you don't want to buy any equipment and just want cheap, easy alcohol, go for this. >>4690360
>>4690363 thats my wine recipe, it tells you everything you need to know for the most part. Where I live, roundy's grape juice is 3 dollars for a 64 oz container. Lets say you wanted to make 3 gallons.... thats 6 of those 64 oz juice containers, and then a bag of sugar (4lbs), and some bread yeast (2.50 for 3 packets). Thats 22 dollars or so. If you follow the instructions, you'll have 3 gallons of wine in 1-3 weeks, depends on how dry you want it to be and whether or not you're okay with there being live yeast in your booze.

>>4703436
the only thing dangerous about absinthe is the high alcohol content. Thujone wont make you trip. it was the swill of choice back in the day and unscrupulous producers would add not-so-good chemicals to mimic the louche effect in higher quality absinthe, which combined with alcoholism could put you in a green fairy stupor.

>>4703485
Well, they are reusable, cheap, and seem to improve the quality of your brew, but if you dont want to spend 12 dollars, reusing clean (use hot water, bleach is optional) plastic (glass is better but plastic is fine) bottles should work. They won't taint it as long as their clean, and their built to hold soda, so the carbonation should be safe too.

>>4703490
Exactly, you never know how some peoples bodies will react though, and alcohol mixes with various chemicals in strange ways sometimes. However, you are correct, theres very little danger posed by it.

>>4703412
You caught my interest. However upon searching for a vague term; like ancient ales (I will continue to refine my search mind you), I only really found Dogfish brewery and a few other uninteresting links.

That being said, do you have any resources available for me to look into?

Hard Lemonade is slowing down, but not quite done yet. Wine is going at a steady pace. Brown sugar batch is still bubbling like crazy but just a bit less than yesterday.

I once accidentally pitched a packet of sea monkey nutrient into my mead (it was in the same drawer where I keep my yeast packets and they look similar at a glance)

>>4706028
Noooooo. How badly did that turn out???

>>4706028
lol that'll be weird. Most of those are algae and yeast. I'm not sure if they yeast and algae are sterile or not. Report back.

>>4706028
How did it taste?

>>4703956
The thing he is talking about is called Gruit. Beer with herbs or spices instead of hops.

>>4706080
Many thanks.

>>4706072
I realized the mistake before stirring and most of it landed on the orange slices floating on the surface (it was a melomel rather than a straight mead). I didn't want to throw all that honey away so I racked it, pitched yeast and it fermented as usual. I drank a bottle and it tasted ok (this was back in Jan, I aged the rest and am saving them for christmas)

>>4706097
Well thats good, glad it didn't end as badly as it could have.

bump before afk

Considering making mead in the future just for something to try. I have several "local" options when it comes to honey (around $7 per pound). However, Publix/Walmart offers 2.35 pounds of honey for $10, so I'm considering that.

I wonder if the store-bought honey is inferior when it comes to making mead.

>>4707746
Well, the better the honey tastes, the better the mead tastes, so it's not necessarily a price or store bought thing, it really comes down to what you like and if there are any additives in the honey or not.

Mead often tastes bad at first but will improve after a few months of storage. I'm not sure why this is but I heard it was something to do with the sugars in honey.

Google a "quick mead" (or short mead) recipe if you don't want to wait.

Canadian here, instead of using honey could you use maple syrup?

>>4709445
You could go with nothing more than sugar and yeast nutrient, so yes. Would be interesting to see how it turns out. But you shouldn't call it mead, of course.

>>4709445

>>4709445
Jost vineyard over in nova scotia makes a maple wine
it's kind of gross actually, it's like drinking maple syurp.

I can contribute this. Never tried it. Is it a viable option, I have all the materials just need to buy ingredients.

>>4689890
I make ginger stuff. No spices. Just ginger, sugar, and yeast. I like to mix it with lime juice, simple syrup, and club soda to make lime ginger beer.

>>4709519
No. The CO2 needs to escape. And storing it in plastic containers for a long time is bad. Try these:
>>4690046
>>4689850

>>4709524
get some proper ginger beer plant ya dingus

>>4709544
I understand why the plastic Isnt optimal. But it's covered with napkins so co2 should escape right?

>>4709519
>>4709554
Seriously, stop posting that shit.

>>4709554
CO2 needs to go out, but you also don't want fresh air going in. So either use a balloon and make some holes with a needle, or do what OP did (seal it tight, put in a straw that ends in water).

>>4709569
Aaahh gotcha thanks

Started a batch of Joe's ancient orange mead today. It's pretty similar to some of the other mead recipes on here. The homebrew forums that this is on though have over 150 pages of replies over the course of 6 years or so. Lots of helpful info
>pic related: my mead

I like make mead.

check this guy out. makes some killer wine and real easy to do, its cheap but is good and really gets ya fucked up. https://www.youtube.com/user/TCRivers

check this guy out. makes some killer wine! real easy to do, its cheap but is good really gets ya buzzed you can do it at home and don't need to buy a bunch of stuff either.

https://www.youtube.com/user/TCRivers

>>4709569
>>4709576
Just get a real airlock and rubber stopper from a homebrew supply store. It'll set you back all of $2.

>>4709546
Well, I like to brew it the kilju way because I get high alcohol content and it keeps well.

Then I don't have to worry about it losing the carbonation or going bad or anything. Ready to go for months and months.

>>4709660
>check this guy out. makes some killer wine! real easy to do, its cheap but is good really gets ya buzzed you can do it at home and don't need to buy a bunch of stuff either.

>https://www.youtube.com/user/masaoHF

Update: Lemonade is very slow, I will be ending it tomorrow, probably gonna cold crash it, rack it, and do a taste test. I might add more lemon juice, but probably not more sugar, I might mix it with oj, or I might freeze concentrate it. I can't decide yet, but either way I'll post images and info tomorrow. As for the Brown sugar batch, its slowed down a bit but it's still going faster than the wine, and the wine has also slowed down a bit. I'm not sure what my next project will be, I'm thinking meads (like I mentioned earlier in the thread). After that, a ginger and black tea brew I think. Just keeping everyone updated, I'll post again tomorrow.

>>4709850
>homebrew supply store

Those are pretty rare in some parts of the world. Ordering online or DIY is some people's only solution.

bump

>>4710603
$1.30 free shipping at
http://morebeer.com/search?search=airlock

>>4711606
> Order must contain $59 worth of qualifying items to ship free. Non-qualifying items may still ship on the same order (and will be charged for shipment)
http://morebeer.com/content/shipping_policy

Just ordered yeast, nutrient, tubing and some airlocks. Running that bootleg dorm since I'm not 21. Going to try to make cider, but we'll see if I end up with cider or wine when it's finished.

Starting homebrewing at uni about two and half years ago. First batch was cidery nectar of the Gods, the next three vinegar that aged to drinkable but not palatable.

The rest have been pretty good.

Just a simple gallon demi-john with a bubble airlock, apple juice, sugar, strong tea and yeast.

I managed to get my hands on some old watercooler bottles and I'm gonna up the scale with those. Think my airlocks and bungs will fit them but if not then I'll try the balloon method.

Thinking about making Kilju according to the recipe found here, maybe with some tweaks.

http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=3559

>>4711627
huh, well would you look at that. My orders are always over $60 anyway so I never noticed.

You can always do the simple rubber tube in a glass of water. I know a lot of breweries that do just a bigger version of this.

OP here: Final Hard Lemonade "Update". The hard lemonade is finally done. I definitely would like to make it again, next time I'd use the proper lemon juice to water ratio. It turned out pretty good, I like the flavor better than Kilju's, but it has one somewhat similar to that of kilju, just tarter, and slightly less sweet, with an unplaceable but not unpleasant undertone. My other brews are still going, they have anywhere from 3 days to 7 days before they are done. I know some people may frown upon not aging your brews, but for the ones I'm making right now (not neccesarily the ones I will make in the future) the main goal is cheap, fast, easy, and that it taste good. So far so food. Thanks for listening!

I, >>4711680, just stopped by the grocery store on the way back from work. Apple cider was on sale. It's normal to bring 6 gallons of apple cider to school right?

R-right g-guys?

>>4712410
Absolutely. Anyone asks, you just really like your cider :D

>>4712335
I've been on /b/ too much.

That is the exact same discoloured look that aged semen has.

>>4713027
Those were fake. Semen becomes clear after about 15 minutes.

>>4699149

-brewery process control systems; i'd like to build an automated homebrew system. Where can I learn about this shit?
-where did you get your kettles?
-approximate cost of your whole setup?
-why not a gravity system?
-your favourite beer style?

>>4713027
Haha well I can assure you it is 100% semen free. I would be disgusted by the sorry individual who mixes semen with homebrew....

>>4714780
isn't semen fermentable? Hmm...

>>4714800
Please don't.....that wasn't meant to give anyone ideas....

Bamp

>>4711680
>>4712410
My room smells like bread now. Thanks assholes.

On a serious note, I broke the tip of one of the airlocks because I'm a dumbass, but my test batch is going. I didn't want to use glue like other in the thread so I stopped at Target and picked up some sticky tak to use as a sealer. I don't really expect this to be amazing, I used regular apple cider from the store so no solids. As long as it's drinkable I think I'll be okay though,

OP here. Update on my brown sugar batch and my wine: They have both slowed down, but the wine is still slower than the brown sugar batch. Most of the sediment at the bottom of the brown sugar batch is yeast, but theres still a tiny bit of sugar I think, so it's still slightly supersaturated. The wine sediment is now just dead yeast, so it is no longer supersaturated. I plan on brewing some weak pre-tequilla with 12oz of blue agave nectar, and about 45 oz of water, with maybe some black tea leaves for nutrient? Or possibly just raisins again. Then I'll freeze concentrate into a stronger, but still weak, tequila flavored beverage. Once the wine and brown sugar batches are done, I'm doing two meads side by side, 2 different recipes, to see which turns out better. Thanks for listening, I'll keep you all updated.

>>4715391
>My room smells like bread now. Thanks assholes.
Well, that'll happen when you brew. Store some baking soda near it to help with odor control.
>On a serious note, I broke the tip of one of the airlocks because I'm a dumbass, but my test batch is going. I didn't want to use glue like other in the thread so I stopped at Target and picked up some sticky tak to use as a sealer. I don't really expect this to be amazing, I used regular apple cider from the store so no solids. As long as it's drinkable I think I'll be okay though.
You might want to dissolve some sugar in it to make it stronger. I use 3 cups white sugar for every gallon of normal cider/juice.

>>4715414
I added frozen apple juice concentrate and some brown sugar. I think I'll add a bit more brown sugar in the morning since I didn't add much earlier and I don't feel like waking my family up right now.