/ck/ - Food & Cooking

also,

Extracts vs Partial Mashes vs All-grains

For now me and my friends (m8s) are using Extracts for the ease of use. But soon we would like to upgrade our techniques to incorporate the later.

How much harder are All-grains from extracts?

Batch 37, a Flemish sour brown, should be bottled this week. No pictures, because I'm 200 miles away right now.

>>4874456
> Pic related but not our batch

Good, 'cause there's not enough headspace.

Last question,

Wort Chiller vs Plate Chillers vs Ice bath.

Obviously were using an ice bath for now, because were broke engineering students; but we would like to upgrade.

is plate chiller worth the money? or can i get away with a copper wort chiller? And do i need to use a pump for the former?

>>4874466
Three Floyds bitch asses don't deliver to my state. I missed out on Municipal Waste's beer. Fuckers.

>>4874466
>How much harder are All-grains from extracts?
As long as you have the equipment for it, not much harder at all. I went straight to all-grain for my first batch ever, and it came out amazing. I didn't have a mash tun though so I used the brew-in-a-bag method. Worked great, still use it.

>>4874475
yeah, were using a plastic carboy for our primary. Idk why they wouldnt use a 6.5g if they were going to have that much liquid in.

>>4874479
Same here man, NJ fag

>>4874480
Im thinking about doing all grain for the Belgian

My friends dad is a caterer, so i have access to alot of supplies

>>4874466
>How much harder are All-grains from extracts?

It takes a lot more equipment and time, but it's not too hard. My advice would probably be go big or go home. I built a 2-gallon mash tun on the cheap and while it's a great learning experience, it's kind of a pain to use. The bigger you go, the less you have to worry about about heat loss and the easier it is to maintain a constant temperature.

>>4874478
Dunno, I've always had good results with the bath. I probably should have invested in a wort chiller though. Would have made a good father's day present too.

>>4874482
You can make a pretty inexpensive mash tun using a big igloo cooler.

>Wort Chiller vs Plate Chillers vs Ice bath.
Good vs Better vs Bad

It also depends on the ambient temp of your water. I live in florida so I have to run a prechiller through icewater for my wort chiller. I hear plate chillers are worth it, but I have never used one myself. And most of the time you are using the pressure from the hose, so a pump isn't necessary specifically for the chiller.

>>4874490
How should i transfer my wort from my pot into the plate chiller?

>>4874490
>I hear plate chillers are worth it

I don't know, the reported sanitization and clogging issues have kept me away from them.

>>4874516
>the reported sanitization and clogging issues have kept me away from them.
That's true. They due require a lot more maintenance. That's why I've stuck with the simple copper wort chillers, I think. easy to clean, easy to maintain.

>>4874508
>How should i transfer my wort from my pot into the plate chiller?

You're right, you would probably need a pump for that. I didn't think it all the way through.

>>4874519
I was thinking about elevating my wort pot high enough so that gravity would hopefully push it through ... thoughts?

>>4874532
I thought about including that idea in my last post.

...after a quick bit of research it appears that it DOES work, however it is quite slow and requires you to be very mindful of not clogging it up. Easier to buy a cheap pump IMO.

brewed wine with my dad for awhile that's about the extent of my experience, turns out decent considering how cheap it is.

>>4874546
Whats fermenting/sit time on a gal of wine?

>>4874555
The main fermentation process for any beverage is on the order of a few weeks.
The racking time can go from a few months to years, depending on how you like your drink.

I'm starting a batch of wine (from a kit) with my mom tomorrow. Should be fun. I've only done beer from a kit once before. I want to make cider as well.

Where are you getting your cider juice?

What methods do you use to sanitize equipment?

How do you sanitize huge buckets/carboys efficiently?

I'm a total newb, but I want to start making lots of stuff! (Cider, mead, beer, wine). I have access to good wine grapes/juice.

Also, what site/book do you guys use for your information? There's SO much stuff, having a little guidance would be awesome.

I've currently got a watermelon wheat fermenting right now. I let the wheat beer sit for a week in primary and then racked it into a secondary with some watermelon juice I made from pureeing and straining fresh watermelon. I'm going to let it sit for a week and a half (maybe two weeks, any suggestions?) in secondary before bottling, then wait three weeks for that to be done.

>>4875344
The Art of Fermentation is a fucking awesome book, and it's on bookos.org

https://thepiratebay.sx/search/fermentation/0/99/0

>>4875336
> Where are you getting your cider juice?

I use bottled Langer's cider and Treetop concentrate to boost the alcohol. It makes for a nice clean cider, but it's certainly not the most sophisticated product.

> What methods do you use to sanitize equipment?

Star San

> How do you sanitize huge buckets/carboys efficiently?

Put a few inches of Star San in the bottom and let it sit for a few minutes. Roll it around on the side for a few minutes to sanitize the walls. Cover the top of the carboy with plastic wrap, and invert it for a minute or two. Just don't shake it, or you'll end up with a carboy full of foam.

>>4875344
I started out with Charlie Papazian's Joy of Homebrewing and would definitely recommend it. John Palmer's How to Brew is a comparable resource and is also available online. Radical Brewing is one of my favorite books because it really gets the creative juices flowing. If you're into the history of the traditional styles and want to perfectly duplicate them, Designing Great Beers is an excellent resource, if a bit dry.

And then of course there is the internet. Homebrewtalk is a great forum, though it's hardly the only one. Then there are a number of excellent free tools. Beer Recipator (http://hbd.org/recipator/)) has a good recipe generator and carbonation calculator. Green Bay Rackers have some nice mash calculator too (http://www.rackers.org/calcs.shtml).).

>>4874456

The homebrewmen also seem to have vanished.

I'm ashamed of myself, I took my first step into homebrewing, but started with shit. I made a gallon of kilju in a milk jug with a balloon airlock. I even made a siphon hose out of a ethernet cable.

It's awful, but I successfully turned sugar, water, and baking yeast into alcohol.

I'm working on my first ginger beer, and the instructions given to me by the place I bought the stuff from were to check it after a certain amount of time every day until the F.G. was the same two days in a row. It's been four days since then and still moving around, have I fucked up?

>>4880854
>and still moving around

What does "moving around" mean? Is the gravity still consistently going down? And how long has it been since you pitched the yeast?

I've got 5 gallons of elderberry port sat in a fermenter in my kitchen. Initial fermentation was really rapid, it's calmed right down now. Should be good to rack & bottle at new year, and I'll start serving it at Easter I think.

>>4880857
Sorry, didn't mean to be so unclear there. Was told to add yeast then start checking with hydrometer after 6 days. my initial reading was 1.030, it's been 10 days since then and these are the readings I've gotten daily:
1. 1.020
2. 1.022
3. 1.014
4. 1.023

>>4881125
Give it at least 2 weeks. Ten days is the absolute minimum before I'd start taking gravity readings, and only if I was in a hurry. You're also doing something wrong with the measurements if they are increasing, and have such a large dip in them. Make sure bubbles aren't forming on the hydrometer, and correct for the temperature. A cheap digital thermometer from Walmart can make all the difference.

>>4874456
homebewing!

>bewing

hehe

>>4876368
>Just don't shake it, or you'll end up with a carboy full of foam.
I like to shake up my star san a lot to make sure the foam gets everywhere and sticks to everything for long enough. Supposedly properly diluted star san isn't harmful at all, and most people just rack directly into their carboy full of foam. It's also fun watching the foam snake out of the carboy as you fill it with wort.

This was p. good.
I should make more for the new year...

>>4883055
It's going to foam up anyway, I just try to keep it to a minimum. And yeah, the foam wont hurt anything. I've actually heard that Star San is actually beneficial to yeast once diluted beyond sanitization levels.

>>4883858
Cool, but not homebrew.

>>4883991
This then?

>>4884186
This has most of the failing pointed out in pic related.

In addition, ~16% mead is almost certainly going to be pretty shitty without a year or two of aging. I've got a batch that's been in the bottle over two years, and it is still pretty hot.

Why do these always say to use bread yeast? Go down to a homebrew store and grab a pack of US-05 or EC 1118 or something. It cheap and will give you a better product.

>>4884283
>>4884186
It sounds like that's basically 'Joe's Ancient Orange Mead' recipe, which people say is quirky but works.
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f80/joes-ancient-orange-mead-49106/
I made it from those directions and it came out OK. That mead image seems OK too for steps 1-4 but only if it's a requirement to use materials easily found in a grocery store. I suppose a sealed jug of water should already be sanitized, and I most people don't heat the honey before use. Step 5 sucks - 2 weeks is way too short to be safe if you aren't checking with a hydrometer (balloon activity doesn't count for anything) and 'pouring off' isn't really an acceptable substitute for siphoning unless you like really yeasty mead. I'd say use the JOAM recipe/process instead.

>>4874456
No pics, but I have recently finished a 5 Gallon batch of Mead, which I bottled into 19 1-Liter bottles and have been sharing at LAN parties. I used about 13lb of Raspberry Honey, a box of raisins, and kept the yeast well-fed and happy with nutrients about once per week during fermentation. Added some bentonite a couple weeks before bottling which made it turn out pretty clear, though I would have liked it a bit more clear. All in all, It turned out pretty good: Balanced, Semi-sweet, semi-clear, decent ABV (due to moving I didn't get to actually measure but i'm estimating around 12-14%). Fairly standard batch with no real experimentation... I'm thinking next time I'll try a Melomel or Acerglyn. Although the last time I tried an Acerglyn it tasted like dog shit.

I currently have a 5 Gallon batch of hard cider in its first week of fermentation. Pretty standard as well... just 5 gallons of storebought pasteurized apple cider with 1 lb of brown sugar for adding extra ABV. Planning on bottling it around 1.05 FG so that it will end up sparkling (although I'm a little worried about making bottle bombs)

Also have an interesting beer in the works. Saw the recipe at my homebrew store, called "Lenin's Tomb". It's an Imperial Stout, using Scottish Ale yeast with a mix of Dark and Amber malt, along with Chocolate and a few other specialty malts. I can post the exact recipe if anyone's interested. It's supposed to finish around 8% ABV, and I tend to like the stronger imperial ales so I'm excited about it.

>>4884552
Oh and I forgot to mention about said beer...

This beer literally exploded my airlock the other day so I'd be careful if you're interested in making it. The scottish ale yeast apparently has a very active fermentation with a LOT of krausen, which clogged my airlock within 24 hours and sent the whole bung/airlock combo flying across the room (and broke the airlock in half) I was luckily home at the time and was able to substitute a blowoff tube for the airlock to get it under control. It remained active like that for about 2 days straight and has just now calmed down to the point where I can put another airlock on.

>>4874456
How is your carboy so full? I only made a few batches before losing interest so I don't have much brewing experience, but then first batch I did filled the carboy up as much as yours. On the first night after making it the pressure got so high that the airlock blew off the top and put a hole in the ceiling, while foam simultaneously spewed out of the carboy like an alcoholic volcano.

>>4884283
becasue some people don't live within walking/driving distance of a homebrew store.

Also the recipe works. Mine turned out similar to a dessert wine.

I made another batch replacing the spices/orange/raisins with about 2/3 of a pound of ginger and some black tea, which also turned out pretty good. I need to make more of it actually.

>>4884552
>Planning on bottling it around 1.05 FG so that it will end up sparkling (although I'm a little worried about making bottle bombs)
I've made essentially the same recipe (I used dextrose instead of brown sugar), and it fermented out to 0.990 or so. If you're planning on bottling at 1.050, it will almost certainly make bottle bombs. If you meant 1.005, then I dunno, maybe it'd work, but that technique still seems risky.
I'd say let it ferment out completely to a stable FG, then just add priming sugar before bottling, the same way you would for beer (1oz dextrose/gallon). That worked out for me when bottling my apfelwein.

>>4884590
That might be fermenting apple juice. It doesn't foam up with krausen like beer, so you can fill it up that high in the primary. If that pic was beer in primary, then you're right, the airlocks probably exploded within hours of taking that photo.

>>4884610
Correct, I meant 1.005. I've seen this method posted on a number of cider websites but you may be right, may be unreliable to try.

Might you know of any way to keep a naturally sweetened sparkling cider? The problem I have with fermenting it out completely is that it ends up too dry. I've been considering using Campdens around halfway through the fermentation but then I'll kill the yeast and be unable to bottle with carbonation. The alternative, backsweetening, limits me to using only nonfermentable sugars like Stevia or Lactose and those just taste nasty in the finished product or in Lactose case, give it that milky cloudy feel which I'd rather avoid. Any opinions would be appreciated...

>>4884632
I've only made the one dry cider, so I don't know if there's any special techniques for sweet cider, but what you said sounds right - you'd have to keep the yeast active and add an unfermentable sugar like lactose to the recipe in order to bottle with natural carbonation. If you could keg, of course, you could just kill the yeast whenever you want and carb with CO2, but that requires spending like $200 on equipment. I guess you could also ferment it dry and add something sweet when you're drinking it.

>>4884552
> Planning on bottling it around 1.05 FG so that it will end up sparkling (although I'm a little worried about making bottle bombs)

It would probably be easier to add priming sugar after the primary fermentation is complete. That way you can more accurately control the carbonation levels.

>>4884590
Your airlock was clogged or otherwise rendered non-functional. If it's working properly it would not be possible to build up pressure.

>>4884602
> becasue some people don't live within walking/driving distance of a homebrew store.

Try the internets. Shipping dry yeast won't cause any problems.

>>4884632
Without a keg it's pretty tough to get both sweetness and carbonation. I've had some luck with Wyeast 4184 "Sweet Mead" yeast, but it doesn't seem to be particularly consistent. You might try an ale yeast like Safale US-05 or Wyeast 1272 (my personal favorite). They won't finish nearly as dry as some of the wine yeasts, and the flavor profile should work well with cider. As long as you keep the OG down (your 5 gallons of cider + 1 pound of sugar should be fine), you won't have to worry about exceeding the alcohol tolerance of the yeast.

>>4884691
Whoops, forgot to mention the third sweetening option. Put a splash or two of fresh juice in the glass before pouring the cider.

>>4884602
northernbrewer.com

There. No excuses now. Get some decent yeast.

A fr8end g9t m3 a mead kit... that is still sittinfbin its box as I wait for coldrr weather and deciding what I want honey and addition ingredients I want.

Got an oatmeal milk stout in primary atm. I'm going to rack 4 gallons of it into small 1 gallon carboys with different flavors. I'm doing this for Christmas so I can give them as gifts.

So im racking onto:
1. Vanilla beans soaked in 4oz of bourbon (this will raise the abv by about 1%)
2. Cold brewed coffee and cacao nibs
3. Orange zest and cacao nibs, sort of a play on a chocolate orange.
4. will just be the plain stout

need good ideas on a flavor for #5. I was pondering mint extract and cacao nibs but idk how that would turn out. Thoughts?

>>4885671
Cinnamon/Apple?
Ginger is also nice this time of year.

>>4885671
Prunes and spices, a play on sugar plum faries.
Southern Tier has a Plum Noir that is fuckin amazing.

>>4885671
If I were to try and infuse vanilla into something I'm brewing (ginger beer), would it be better to drop it in during primary fermentation or just before racking?

>>4874456
Fuck your fancy shit. One time I got this shitty juice, poured in sugar, yeast and raisin juice (made it myself) put a condom with a hole in it over the top for an airlock, waited a few weeks and got passed-out drunk. It was like cranberry wine, but with this stupid halfassed carbonation. Shit burned my throat, like a really sugary drink. It worked though.

>>4885671

I wish I had access to my copy of Radical Brewing; there's a couple pages dedicated to interesting shit you can put in stouts.

>Some ideas:
cherry
raspberry
chipotle + chocolate
chanterelle
mint + chocolate
spruce (maybe)
Christmas mix (cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, etc)
smoke (toss some pasteurized rauch malt in the secondary)

Unfortunately it's a little late to go for a barrel-aged character as that takes some time to prep for.

>>4885725
Secondary, I read somewhere that the flavor can become muted if vigorous fermentation is still occurring. Also, if you're going to use beans and not extract you need to soak them in enough vodka to cover for about a day so you don't risk infecting your batch. This can also help extract some alcohol soluble flavors from the beans.

>>4885746
Hmm, interesting.
On the barrel aging note, I've had success in the past with steaming bourbon barrel chips to sanitize and chucking them into secondary for about a month or more. Creates quite a good faux barrel aging process.

>>4885752
Thanks for the tip!

>>4885671
How about some kind of chili pepper, serrano or jalapeno or something? Apparently capsaicin is soluable in alcohol, so you could try to make something spicy.

>>4885761
I actually didn't know that you could buy bourbon barrel chips, but now that I think of it there are lots of toasted oak chips on the market for wine making.

>>4885794
Yep, they're made for smoking meat actually. In specific I've used jack daniels and buffalo trace smoking chips. Works great, give it a try some time.

Hey for anyone who brews all grain, did you know you can dry out the spent grains in the oven and make a tasty flour out of them in a blender? I tried that out after my last brew and made these cookies:
http://brooklynbrewshop.com/themash/recipe-spent-grain-peanut-butter-cookies/
They came out really good, the dried spent grain and spent grain flour gave the cookies a nice dark color and substantial texture, and they're not too sweet. Though, heed the comments that say to cook for 10 min instead of 12.
I just brewed again today and i'm drying more spent grain in the oven. I think I fucked up the beer (missed my OG by .007), but at least I'll be able to make more tasty cookies.

>>4888326

I've been meaning to try that sometime.

Also, try a Hot Scotchy while brewing.

I'm having a go at brewing a hard cider at the moment, I've only ever brewed beer before but thought I'd try something different.
I hydrated and pitched ec-1118, that was about 4 days ago.
Does cider get a krausen and has anyone got any experience with this particular yeast?

>>4888789
Cider typically doesn't form a krausen. It doesn't really have the compounds needed to form a long-lasting head.

As for the yeast, I've only tried it once with a mead. It fermented very dry and came out really hot (pretty much undrinkable), though that last part may have to do with the mead pushing 15% ABV.

>>4888792
When I look in the fermenter it has bubbles like a soft drink and I can smell the CO2 so there is some action happening.
Might need to get myself a hydrometer so I can get a better idea of what's happening in there.