/ck/ - Food & Cooking

[Anonymous No.15894218]

Anyone else ok /ck make their own alcohol?
I have 2 blueberry maple wines, a cranberry wine and Welches grape juice wine

[Anonymous No.15894237]

>>15894218
>Welch's grape wine
Not purple drank wine
Ngmi

[Anonymous No.15894259]

>>15894218
I brewed beer a couple times. Flavor turned out great but I haven't been able to get the carbonation figured out. In about 3 years I'll be moving out to some land I own and I'll start keeping bees. I plan on making mead at that time.

[Anonymous No.15894260]

>>15894237
Ive made purple coolaid wine before. Drank it only because it was alcohol.

[Anonymous No.15894278]

>>15894259

Ive made beer it allways turns out nice. The carbonation is the hard part, theres calculator's online to help ya get the right level. Meads nice aint my thing but i make them for gifts mostly

[Anonymous No.15894280]

>>15894259
Use a beer priming calculator. Input the volume, temperature, and desired level of carbonation, and it will tell you exactly how much sugar you need to add before bottling.
https://www.brewersfriend.com/beer-priming-calculator/

[Anonymous No.15894346]

>>15894280
Thats what i use. Works good

[Anonymous No.15894560]

Homebrew beer and mead. Hoping to expand into bourbon, but I know I can't wait around for 2 or so years for something to age.

[Anonymous No.15894883]

>>15894218
How do you sanitize your equipment? Can I use low bleach water or should I get Starsan or something?

[Anonymous No.15894903]

>>15894883
Oxyclean

[Anonymous No.15894915]

>>15894883
You can use a bleach water mix. Can find the amount online. Starsan is cheap as shit at your local home brew store.
I just use soap and water

[Anonymous No.15894916]

>>15894903
For real? Here’s my contribution btw, I got some moonshine punch I’m working on.

[Anonymous No.15894930]

>>15894916
Yep. Unironically.

[Anonymous No.15894945]

I make about 50 gallons of plum each year. I've got 2 old plum trees on my property. 75 lbs of sugar, 20lbs of raisins, water to top the giant fermentor I have. We used syrah yeast last year. After fermentation I age it in a used wine barrel for 1 year. Then I age it 2 years in the bottle before drinking. Last year's batch is tasting fantastic after around 6 months in the barrel.

[Anonymous No.15894950]

>>15894945
Plum wine* and I get around 250lbs of plums from the 2 trees..

[Anonymous No.15894985]

>>15894945
>>15894950
Very cool anon. Any pics of the final product?

[Anonymous No.15894987]

>>15894945
Damn thats fuckin awesome

[Anonymous No.15894993]

>>15894280
You have to add sugar before bottling if you want that strong carbonation? There's gotta be a different way? I'm very anal about anything added-sugar.

[Anonymous No.15895009]

I brew a shitload of beers. Currently got 3 stouts on the go- American stout, an export stout aged on oak chips, Tonka and bourbon and a chocolate chilli stout ( cacao nibs, dried ancho, dried chipotle and fresh Hungarian wax)- a Flanders Red and a saison currently being aged on Muscat grapes.

[Anonymous No.15895011]

>>15894993
You can force carbonate with a keg

[Anonymous No.15895074]

>>15894985
This is the only one I have. Comes out crystal clear. 15% abv. I bottle it in wine bottles. I think we got around 180 bottles last year.

[Anonymous No.15895229]

>>15894993
You could bottle it before it finishes fermenting, and let that carbonate it, but that would be very difficult and unreliable, as it would be very hard to determine how much CO2 will be produced in the end. You could also use a keg and carbonate by injecting pressurized CO2, but that requires a whole lot more equipment than normal bottle carbonating.

I use drymalt extract as the bottling sugar, which is what my home brew is mostly made of anyway.

[Anonymous No.15895242]

>>15895229
The only problem with bottling before its finished fermenting is you can make a bottle bomb. Speaking from exp

[Anonymous No.15895254]

>>15895011
Don't do this, force carbonation is gash

[Anonymous No.15895261]

>>15895229
That's not how you prime bottles for natural carbing. Your advice is dangerous.

[Anonymous No.15895284]

>>15895254
I never do. Prefer to natural but if he scared of sugar its really the only way

[Anonymous No.15895300]

>>15894993
The "added-sugar" is eaten by the yeast and turned into mostly carbon dioxide so you can really just calm down and get the calculators going.

[Anonymous No.15895316]

>>15894218
I used to do this in college. I'll attach some pictures. All my neighbors loved me cause I'd just show up with five gallons of wine every week.

[Anonymous No.15895322]

>>15895316

[Anonymous No.15895326]

>>15895322

[Anonymous No.15895329]

>>15895316
Nice man i allways show up to partys with a couple gallons. The fuckin hangover from hell the nexy day tho

[Anonymous No.15895340]

>>15895326
I used grape juice concentrate, three of those cans per, the rest water, added some sugar, can't remember how much, and used a red star champagne yeast from Amazon. I think I had it clocked as ~$35 to make five gallons of wine, materials included, a little more for the first batch but cheaper after that cause you have to buy a few things.

It's a really fun project, I think everyone should try it at some point.

[Anonymous No.15895367]

I make a couple a gallons of 160+ proof rum every year. Its a very forgivinng brew to ferment. Take a least a year of aging to be drinkable.

[Anonymous No.15895445]

>>15895261
I'm advising to use priming sugar just before bottling and after the batch is fully fermented or to carbonate with pressurized CO2, and not to carbonate it by bottling before the fermentation is finished. Even though its theoretically possible, there is no simple way to determine how much unfermented sugar is remaining, and you're as likelly to end up with bottle bombs as flat beer.

[Anonymous No.15895526]

>>15894218
I make beer. I'm almost out of this one - a Galaxy-Kveik Porter. I was actually about to start a thread asking advice on what to make my girlfriend. I made her 8 gals of blackberry hefeweizen a few months ago, and she demo'd it in a month.

>>15894259
>>15894278
>>15894280
overdoing it, underdoing it, or just not having the body to retain it?

[Anonymous No.15895546]

>>15895300
>>15895284
it doesn't have to be table sugar (although, that is an easy way to do it, and very easy to calculate). It can be powdered malt, some refrigerated, and re-boiled leftovers from your mash or kettle, honey... there are options.

[Anonymous No.15895566]

>>15894218
i made blackberry wine one time with berries i picked and i keep buying any blackberry wines i see in the store and none of them have been as good as mine. idk how to cope from here

[Anonymous No.15895573]

>>15895566
Make another batch - find a good supply/supplier of blackberries.

[Anonymous No.15895585]

>>15895526
>>15895546
>it doesn't have to be table sugar
Yeah, you can use pretty much anything, and the priming calculator gives measurments for over a dozen different priming ingredients. I've used dry malt extract, corn sugar, and granulated table sugar.
Corn sugar is good cause its pretty flavor neutral and is a very fine powder so it disolves easily.
I prefer DME for the flavor of the finished product, but you should disolve it in hot water before mixing it.
Table sugar I find affects the flavor somewhat, and it also should be fully disolved in some hot water before mixing, or you'll end up with sugar granules at the bottom of your bottling bucket and the incorrect amount of disolved sugar in your bottles.
>overdoing it, underdoing it, or just not having the body to retain it?
If you follow the calculator you shouldn't end up overdoing it, but you can end up with an undercarbonated product if you consume it before its finished, and how long it takes to finish can vary greatly,.

[Anonymous No.15895599]

I'm alcoholic that isn't concerned with taste. I just use turbo yeast to whip something up in a few days, and use the air still I bought to make vodka when I need it. Sure it taste like shit, but its 6L of 80 proof nectar for $14 of materials in a place where a 375ml bottle of vodka cost $16.

I used to also make cider, so I'll probably use the spare bucket I have to make some of that over the next few month since I'm tired of buying beer.

[Anonymous No.15895602]

>>15895585
>how long it takes to finish can vary greatly,.
>cont
Bottling it when it still has lots of yeast in suspension, then letting the bottles carbonate at a warm temperature, it can be carbonated in a matter of days. But if you lager it and let most of the yeast settle out of suspension until its clear, and keep the bottles at a lower temp (eg basement during winter) it can take weeks to fully carbonate.

[Anonymous No.15895610]

>>15895599
The tax jew fears the home brewer.

[Anonymous No.15895637]

>>15895585
I usually just let my mash tun percolate the last of the nonsense through while the kettle boils. I keep a cup of wort back (3/4 for imperial anything), and usually get 1/2 cup of the dregs of the sweet wort. That goes in the fridge while the beer does its thing, then I boil it down to half a cup, and prime with that for anything heavy. Lighter bodied beers will usually get a bit (a gram or so) of dextrose, honey, brown sugar, or DME, just to get the effervescence right. It's more art than science at that point, but it seems to get me in the ballpark every time.

[Anonymous No.15895985]

>>15894218
I made my own mead! First batch ever. I accidentally forgot to de-gas it when i was done, and now it gives bad gas pain when you drink more than a couple shots at a time.

Can i fix it? I bottled it 1 month ago

[Anonymous No.15896338]

just go to /diy/, there's a cool /hbg/ homebrewing thread
fuck this board, no one here actually cooks
it's just advertisments for fast food chains and youtube cucks

[Anonymous No.15896361]

>>15894218
I make a traditional fermented whale blood wine that's extremely delicious and very healthy. My mother is an Eskimo so we are permitted by law to kill a certain type of whale.

[Anonymous No.15896382]

I actually got some bottles from a neighbor garage sale. How do you guys make the juice? Do you get it pre squeezed or if not how do you go about juicing many pounds of fruit?

[Anonymous No.15896760]

>>15895526
>blackberry Hefeweizen
Dude that sounds pretty good.

[Anonymous No.15896804]

When I was 19 I used to make homemade wine in gallon jugs from grape juice and apple cider. My moms best friend got drunk on my wine with me and gave me a lap dance while my mom was asleep in the other room, Best day of my life.

[Anonymous No.15897378]

>>15896760
For a beer that started as literally "What do women like?" it was pretty good. I forget what my choice of hops and yeast was exactly, but I remember I went for a good amount of clove on the yeast to balance out the fruit, and something more tropical on the hops, probably Calypso.

She might get a pear Marzen this time around.

[Anonymous No.15897443]

>>15895445
>Even though its theoretically possible, there is no simple way to determine how much unfermented sugar is remaining
That is exactly what gravity samples are for

[Anonymous No.15897456]

>>15895602
>Bottling it when it still has lots of yeast in suspension
Creating bottle bombs that will be full of horrible sediment

>then letting the bottles carbonate at a warm temperature
Producing esters and other off flavours from your yeast and ruining any flavour/aroma hops added

>it can be carbonated in a matter of days.
It can but it's shouldn't, there's a few good reasons why this is not standard practice.

>if you lager it and let most of the yeast settle out of suspension
You're confusing lagering with cold crashing, you can cold crash any beer

[Anonymous No.15897462]

>>15897443
They're close enough to ballpark it if you trust your readings and math, just don't aim for more than 3.3atm (depending on your container) and you should be good.

[Anonymous No.15897476]

>>15897462
I mean, it's not really a ballpark though is it, that's literally the function that gravity serves.

[Anonymous No.15897484]

>>15897456
Just playing devil's advocate - certain styles and certain yeasts do play nicely with warmer fermentation/conditioning temps. A lot of Belgian and Bavarian yeasts will move from banana and clove to pineapple and fruit punch. A lot of Kveik yeasts will do interesting things at higher (and lower) temps, but it's usually pretty tasty in the end.

but yeah, most yeasts do not perform well above, or even at room temp, and nobody wants a mouthful of soapy trub.

[Anonymous No.15897496]

>>15897476
Ballpark mostly because of the accuracy of the reading, depending on the tool used. If you're using a floater, you're measuring in quarters and halves, which is easily good enough to get within 10% of a final target. If you're taking accurate measurements, you'll get accurate results.

[Anonymous No.15897507]

>>15897484
Yeah you're absolutely right, if you're making hefeweizen and crank up that heat then that's where all those esters come in which is great if you aiming for that but surely that should be happening during primary and not during conditioning?

>Soapy trub
Exactly

[Anonymous No.15897515]

>>15897496
>A floater
Do you mean a hydrometer? Which come in various scales so your quarters and halves thing is just bullshit.

You're backtracking because you're wrong and it's hard to watch.

[Anonymous No.15897520]

>>15895637
>That goes in the fridge while the beer does its thing, then I boil it down to half a cup, and prime with that for anything heavy
That's good advice if you want soured wort to add to your brew. Which is actually great if you're making an Irish Dry Stout

[Anonymous No.15897560]

>>15897520
It doesn't really get time to sour in the fridge, and the reduction keeps any critters from souring the beer in the bottles.

>>15897507
The pineapple flavour only seems to come out during conditioning (for me at least). I'll give it a few days at a reasonably warm room temp, cold crash (again), and keep it cool for the rest of the month.

[Anonymous No.15897575]

>>15897560
>It doesn't really get time to sour in the fridge
Fair enough, I usually leave it in the fridge for a day or two to add to dry stouts or for any Belgian style soured beers

>The pineapple flavour only seems to come out during conditioning (for me at least).
Depends on the yeast I guess but I'm pretty sure over-pitching or warm temps in primary would do the same thing. Pineapple is quite a subtle flavour so it might be imperceptible until the malt/hops profile has mellowed out a little?

[Anonymous No.15897604]

>>15897515
I don't trust my hydrometer to be accurate/calibrated within closer than 10%. If yours has proven accurate, that's fantastic. Mine's proven to be close enough to get within 1/10%. If I need accuracy, I slip a sample in with the samples at work with a $20. If I'm conditioning an active fermentation (which I don't. Who would? It's not a thing because it doesn't work well), I'm probably aiming more for proof of concept than anything else, and allowing for a bit of dynamic to the measurement (your active fermentation will not sit still, and so will act on the floater somewhat)... and ultimately winding up with shitty beer in the process.

[Anonymous No.15897609]

>>15897575
I'm talking end result in the beer. I'll definitely have to delve into the why's of it at some point, but I only seem to be able to bring ethyl butyrate forward in late stage secondary, or conditioning... it probably relies on dead yeast.

[Anonymous No.15897729]

>>15896361
Pics or it didn’t happen

[Anonymous No.15897813]

>>15897609
It relies on alcohol

[Anonymous No.15897825]

>>15894218
I got into the hobby last autumn. So far i've made:

>Bilberry wine
Foraged some wild bilberries, mushed them up and fermented with water and sugar. Took ages to finish because i didn't know what i was doing but the end result was great.

>Cloudberry melomel
Got some honey from a relative and foraged for some cloudberries, this time the process was a lot smoother but the cloudberries were a let down (probably because i didn't crush them). Tried wine bottles for the first time but i bought shitty corks so the bottles look sloppy af.

>English-style ale
Threw together a ghetto-rig from household items for the mashing and tried using some semi-wild hops my folks grow in their garden. Overall the brewing was a success but i severely overestimated the bitterness-level of the hops and theres no aroma.

Next im thinking either a porter with commercial hops this time or a cherry wine when the season hits. I really enjoy it as a hobby but it's defo increasing my alcohol consumption

[Anonymous No.15897848]

>I don't trust my hydrometer to be accurate/calibrated within closer than 10%
Sounds like you need a new hydrometer then bro because you could tell that range apart with your own tongue.

>If I'm conditioning an active fermentation (which I don't. Who would? It's not a thing because it doesn't work well)
You're talking in a garbled mess, you can't condition something that hasn't finished fermenting? It goes without saying.

>I'm probably aiming more for proof of concept than anything else
Then get a refractometer poorfag

>your active fermentation will not sit still, and so will act on the floater somewhat
Which is why you take a final gravity readings once it's stopped. So this variable is irrelevant.

You seemed confused about terminology and unfamiliar with equipment and how to calibrate it properly, maybe familiarise yourself so you have a better understanding of its functions and limitations.

[Anonymous No.15898023]

>>15897813
The ethyl end, sure. Yeast can/do produce butyrates in intermediate stages, but usually in relatively small amounts, and usually cleaned up very well by the later stages. Usually heat gives ethyl and amyl ethanoates and acetates, with some phenols sometimes... so cloves, bananas, pear/nail salon. Dead and strained yeast can give off butyric acid, but nowhere near what something like a Clostridium infection would.

Sorry, that's a long winded tl;dr maybe.

[Anonymous No.15898049]

>>15897848
You're going to take a final gravity reading... while it's in the bottle? The concept we're running with here is that it's going in for conditioning before secondary's completed. You have to go back.

[Anonymous No.15898102]

>>15895526
>Galaxy-Kveik Porter
How'd you find the Galaxy worked with that style? I've had some IPAs using only Galaxy that I really enjoyed, very New England style but with a touch of herbaceous backbone like a West Coast ale.

[Anonymous No.15898107]

>>15898102
I kept it subdued. I was hoping to coax some cherry out of it... landed in sour plum-nectarine territory. It's good but brighter than I was aiming for.

[Anonymous No.15898120]

>>15897825
>tried using some semi-wild hops my folks grow in their garden
Which varietals were they? Depending on the alpha acid concentrations you probably boiled them in for too long and thus you got more of the herbaceous qualities extracted that overpowered the fruitier acids. If they're fairly high in alpha acids (say above 10-12%) then I'd use them in the final 15 mins or so of the boil while using a lower AA hop as a bittering hop for the entire boil. You can also do a secondary fermentation and dry hop if you want more aromatics in future brews but for porters they probably won't need it.

[Anonymous No.15898123]

>>15898107
That sounds pretty good though. I love a good diverse fruity style of porter and would drink the shit out of that.

[Anonymous No.15898136]

>>15898123
I'm just glad I kept it fairly dry with the kveik. If I'd have gone for a heavy dessert stout with this, it might have been pretty bad... or good with vanilla or oak and a bit more mid-L malt. Maybe I'll try that next time.

[Anonymous No.15898748]

>>15898023
It's just the esterification of butyrate acid

[Anonymous No.15898756]

>>15898049
Are you drunk? You take the final gravity readings towards the end of primary to literally make sure that it's time to move to secondary. Unless you're adding additional sugars, racking on fruit during secondary then you're going to take more. You're not conditioning during primary.

[Anonymous No.15898769]

>>15898120
>Which varietals were they?
No clue, thats the thing. It's some unknown strain from like 50 years past and it probably has been crossbred to oblivion. I made a tea with it to test if it was even viable and it was very bitter so i just grabbed approximate measurements from online recipes.

I boiled one half in a cloth bag for the entire hour and another half at 5 mins. After tasting i tossed some into the fermenter to "dry hop" but that most likely did nothing. I'm getting a faint herbal or grassy aroma yes, but theres no perceivable bitterness. Might be the bag was too fine or something too. If i ever end up using them again i'll up the volume significantly

[Anonymous No.15898791]

>>15895526
My two times the beers came out almost completely flat. And those that did have carbonation were not consistent at all.

[Anonymous No.15898868]

>>15898791
How do you normally prime them?

[Anonymous No.15898886]

>>15898748
Which has to be available to esterify with a free/easily snatched ethyl or butyl group. You don't want to make anything that produces a lot of butyric acid all at once, or you'll need an eons long conditioning period with super-happy yeast to avoid the beer tasting like literal vomit. The quick hot flash in late secondary/early conditioning seems to boost the pineapple flavour and aroma without any trace of puke stench.

[Anonymous No.15898971]

>>15894218
I have been brewing beer for 20 years at 6 gallons a month. I started brewing kombucha and jun 10 years ago at a rate of about 3 gallons a month. Fuck the government and their taxes on alcohol. I can brew better beer for pennies.

[Anonymous No.15899147]

>>15898886
As far as I understand it, you've essentially got it backwards.

[Anonymous No.15899171]

>>15899147
Which part? The result is from practice, not theory.

[Anonymous No.15899482]

>>15899147
>>15899171
I've probably been looking at the wrong esters. Isobutyl acetate also yields pineapple