/diy/ - Do It Yourself

bumpin

Shit's tight nigguh.

Why are you using that tube and jar method instead of a proper airlock though?

>>161000
Also... are those... lemons.. in your cider?

>>161000
because I went to the homebrew store on presidents day and forgot it was presidents day, so they were closed. I have 9ft of tubing for siphoning into the second container, so I just used a snipped of that and drilled a hole in one of my stoppers as an airlock, same thing.
>>161001
orange slices for flavor

anyone else have pics?

>>161002
Alright, just a few questions though, as a complete and utter amateur who tried home brewing once and made something to strong to be palatable.

Do you cold crash?
What alcohol percent do you usually aim for?
How long do you usually leave this to ferment?

>>161005
No I don't cold crash, I just siphon and re-bottle.
I don't have a hydrometer so I can only estimate really. I usually add about 2+ cups of sugar per gallon, and then ferment until it's totally dry, so a decent %. If you get certain yeasts, like wine yeasts, they can withstand a higher alcohol percentage before they die, so it's really dependant on that. Last time fermentation took about 10 days.

I always love making this crap, I myself will get three to four of those concentrated juices. With those I really don't need to add much sugar, plus the taste is actually very good. I got my papers from the atf and such, so some times I will do just the water, yeast and sugar combo, then after the fermentation is done, I put it through the still, go from around 15% up to pure grain alcohol ordeal. Which in return can be used for fuel, medical needs like cleaning cuts knives etc, also just for good old drinking.

>>161006
you can sweeten your batch after fermentation with a NON-sugar, if you put more sugar in that will just re-activate the yeast and start fermentation over again, and you'll have a time bomb if it's in a sealed container. Check this out for sweetening/racking
http://makinghardcider.com/rack-bottle.html

op here, forgot to add that making alcohol is best while drinking alcohol. Nobody to drink with because it's almost 4am now ;_; still have 1/4 of this bottle left too

>>161009
I was looking into making a little pressure cooker still for my kitchen, that way I can ferment (this process) different things and then distill and make vodka/moonshine/rum etc.

>>161005
For drink ability:
Add sweetness. Or not. How sweet your cider will be is in your control. Of course you don't want to just add more sugar, dextrose or apple juice concentrate to sweeten your brew, because the yeast will just eat it right up and you will make gushers (or bombs)! In addition to your brew now being all over the floor, the yeast will have eaten all the sugar it will not taste sweet. Yeast do not eat xylitol (or stevia, Truvia©, Ideal©, erythritol, malitol, or Splenda©), so if you want it sweeter, add one of these.

If you have let your cider ferment until dry (i.e. it has almost stopped bubbling) nearly all of the sugar will have been consumed by the hungry yeast. The yeast are not all dead, they are just, uh, sleeping... waiting for more sugar. If you try to sweeten you cider with any type of "real" sugar, that sleepy yeast will spring back to life and will start to ferment again. If you keep giving it sugar, you will soon have apple wine--not the goal

You could do a mini still, just make sure you don't drink the first gallon that comes out, that has all the nasty crap in it that can make you go blind, or simply kill you. Also copper is the best way to go, some metals can actually poison the drink, plus the copper handles the heat much better. The ppl who have the really big stills, they will spend a couple grand on just copper alone.

>>161021
yeah I'm aware, I've done a ton of research, like I do on any project. Thinking of something like this:

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-a-still/

How much cinnamon did you use for that brew op?

>>161023
its liquid extract, only a little bit. The box is misleading, but you can throw a stick or two in for flavor also

>>161022


Lol, my friend had the exact same set up. I am glad you do your research before jumping into it. To many ppl do it without the research, dumb ass ppl will drink the first thing that comes out.

>>161027
yeah not advisable, although I've heard the blindness thing is somewhat of a myth, and only occurs after a lifetime of ingesting the initial distillate.

>>161028


Actually not that much of a myth, more or less comes from drinking to much of the first pour out, due to all the toxins in it. It's more rare for the blindness, death happens much more from that if any thing.

Next thing I am getting from the atf is for my shotgun, get my stamp for my shotgun to be classed as an AOW, then the paper work so I can trim my barrel down to 10 inches.

>>161030
why do you need the atf, for distilling? For fermentation, you can make 5 or 600 gallons per year, per person in the household, up to two people.

>>161031


Get the permit to make hard liquor. Where I live, without that you can get into huge trouble. Even if you don't sell what you make, they look at every way to make a buck.

http://www.cleveland.com/world/index.ssf/2011/12/india_probes_scores_of_deaths.html

>>161034


well I am out for the night, night all.

>>161035
crazy. Anyway, fermentation just started, and I have a video of my diy airlock if anyone is interested.
http://tinypic.com/r/rblljb/5

John Ciderman here

I bottled 5 litres of Grenadine and apple brew yesterday, just waiting for that bad boy to carbonate. Estimate about 8%

>>161049
nice, I have access to some 5gal water cooler containers that I might use if this batch goes well. Need a bigger stopper, then just scale up production. you have pictures of your setup?

Shit is bubbling away now, already getting fast.
http://tinypic.com/r/2py1560/5

I brew, but I'm not fancy about it. No hydrometer, I use old glass water cooler bottles for carboys and I sanitize everything using those blue sanitization tablets you can buy at restaurant supply stores. Other than that i always use champagne yeast because I find it works faster and yields higher alcohol concentrations. So I tend to add more sugar so it doesn't come out too dry.

I have a juicer I bought at a garage sale that I use. It works pretty well. If you have a local green grocer tell him what you are doing and he can hook you up with old bananas, oranges, strawberries, blueberries, peaches or whatever you like. Run the fruit through the juicer then boil with whatever you like. I like block honey myself with a little extra sugar.

Shit is tasty and the ladies love it. .

.

I've had some surprisingly not-terrible results with simply dumping some yeast into one of these and waiting a few days.

100% juice is definitely better than the other kinds though.

Cross posting from old thread:

If you're going to make moonshine at least distill it so you're not drinking liquid piss.

Here's my moonshine recipe. Get yourself a wine making pail. These are cheap and can be gotten at... wait for it... wine making stores. Pickup an airlock while your there. How to attach it to the pail is an exercise left to the reader. Wash the pail with bleach water. Soak anything that will touch the fermenting wash in bleach water.

WASH YOUR HANDS. YES, UNDER YOUR NAILS TOO.

OK. now everything is clean.

You will need

6kg white sugar.
2 multivitamins
1 can tomato paste
50g yeast nutrient
1kg molasses
500g bakers yeast (you can get bricks for cheap at a bakery)

In a large pot, boil the molasses, tomato paste and 400g of the bakers yeast with enough water to dissolve them. You're doing this to kill most of the yeast and sterilize the molasses and tomato paste.

Put the sugar, boiled yeast etc and other ingredient in the bucket and fill it 80% with water. Mix the last 100g of yeast with warm water and let it sit for 15-20 min. Then add, stir and put the lid on the bucket (with the airlock).

Put the bucket in your bathtub because the action of the yeast in the first 24hrs is very vigorous. The bucket may overflow with foam. If it does, it's a good sign.

In a week this thing will be done it's job and you now have 12-14% ABV wash.

If you're really desperate, you can drink this and get pissed out of your mind. It really isn't any more foul than Pabst Blue Ribbon (if you're into that).

If you have a modicum of self respect though, you'll have a still built by then and you'll make delicious vodka from this wash.

>>160975
For fuck's sake go get some proper yeast for brewing so everything you make doesn't end up tasting like bread.

>>161294
op here
It isn't moonshine UNTIL you distill it.
Alcohol is essentially piss from yeast along with c02, the other byproduct. Just because you distill it doesn't change that, it just concentrates it.

>>161365
the homebrew store was closed. It really doesn't matter, the main difference is alcohol tolerance that the yeast can survive in. This is very cheap with re-usable equipment, so maybe next time I will use better yeast. I'll do it again in 10 days or so.

Looks good, OP. You have a guide?

Not really, more like a culmination of reading online, but I'll tell you what I did
>sterilize everything
>warm up WITHOUT BOILING your juice on the stove
>while this is heating up, microwave to a boil a small cup of water (according to directions on the yeast)
>add yeast to water when it cools down to certain temp
>pour juice into pot on stove and dissolve any extra sugars you are using
>pour into sterile jug
>add extra flavoring stuff if you want (oranges/etc.)
>add your pitched yeast
>shake gently
>add airlock
>wait until bubbling stops
>siphon out from original container to a new, sterile container
>Leave the dead yeast/crap on the bottom of the original container
>sweeten with artificial sweetener if you feel that's necessary
>drink that shit

Hey guys, since this thread is up...I want to make some mead, but the only place I can put the equipment is outside in a shed. What's the best way to get the right temp out there? An old guy I know who used to brew beer suggested wrapping the jug in an electric blanket.

>>161387

Thanks, man. So, let me get this straight; you're only drinking the clear stuff you siphoned out in the picture, right?

>>161399
no, I didn't siphon anything out yet. I will be drinking the brown cider in the 1 gallon jug. That tube is jut going into water as an airlock. This lets it 'burp' out gas produced during fermentation. The yeast eats the sugar, and releases alcohol and c02. To keep it sterile while still getting out the gas, you need a 1 way system, which is why the tube is in water. Watch this video
>>161086
>>161086
>>161086

>>161394
I don't know what to tell you, it needs to be a certain temperature for the yeast to propagate. Too warm or too cold and they will either slow down or die. That's how people stop fermentation in some cases, by refrigerating it to hibernate the yeast. It's called cold crashing.

>>161404

Sorry, total noob here and I'm looking to setup my own cider this week. Mind indulging me one more time and explaining how to siphon out the good alc?

>>161411
yeah, check out the link in this post, it explains it really well.
>>161010

I just started up. Here's my entire system. There's probably tons of flaws in it.

Buy three of those 4ish pound (1.6 kg) bags of sugar and two bricks of compressed yeast, with each brick being at 907 grams. I take those five things and mix them together evenly in three 5 gallon buckets. I then fill the buckets 85%ish full with water, with the temp being what I think is about 75-80°F.

I then cap and seal the container EXCEPT FOR one 1/4 inch hose coming out the top, similar to OP's pic. I don't put it as far underwater, though. It keeps pressure from building up so much.

I let this ferment until it's not bubbling anymore. I then usually dump it into smaller, clear containers, like orange juice jugs or the like. I let it settle and siphon out the clear liquid and trash the bottom crap.

I take this and distill it. Haven't made it past that point with much, yet.

About my still, I used a steel semi air tank. I did a little welding and brazing get it exactly how I wanted it. I use a turkey cooker heater propane thing to heat it to about 180°F. It comes out the top, rises about a foot up through a copper pipe, then cools through ten feet that is run through a five gallon bucket filled with cold water. I bottle it in three gallon Culligan water bottles.

I wash and sterilize as much as I can when I can.

Not OP but also a noob brewer, need some help figuring a few things out before my first batch. Looking to brew beer and cider and looking for some good tips and recipes (I'm looking for ciders, lagers, maybe some IPA/Stouts). I'm going to be buying a glass container similar to the one in the OP's picture, what else should I be looking to pick up (I've heard plenty about airlocks for burping the brew but just as much about tubing used for the same thing).

>>161447

Where are you getting the container from?

How much yeast would I need for 4 gallons?

>>161466
one packet

>>161466
One packet indeed as the above poster noted.

But if you want to rock more than the recommended volume for one yeast packet, you can make a yeast starter and generally once you get good-enuff at brewing you should be making a starter anyway.

The gist of a starter is to give the right conditions for a thriving colony. Varies by what you're brewing but basically you rehydrate/dump your tube if using live yeast into some water, slowly add a bit of sugar (or wort or whatever) and work your way up to the final gravity. Don't overshoot the SG or your yeast will acclimate and divide for a specific osmotic pressure and when you finally dump them into the (osomotically weaker) brew you'll fuck everything up.

So hydrate yeast, add 1/4 strength by specific gravity sugary liquid of some kind, wait 6 hours, dump same again 1/2 strength, wait 6, dump 3/4, wait 6, and so forth. Proportions depend on how much you want your yeasties to colonize - if I was doing a 500L batch I'd probably need a good ten liters of finished yeast starter so I'd adjust accordingly.

>>161470

Oh wow, so the amount of yeast you need doesn't really correlate with total volume? Or is an increase of 3 gallons just not that significant...

>>161478
Yeast multiplies at an enormous rate. Some people make yeast starters (google it) for stouts or high gravity (shit ton of sugar) beers etc. Also you can reuse the yeast cake over and over again.

The yeast reproduces exponentially anyway. It's thriving eating sugar. After a day, it doesn't really matter. You just need to "infect" the batch.

>>161461
there a large brewing and wine making store in in my home town (about two towns over) and I can get alot of different sized glass containers, ranging from a few liter to a couple of gallons. I'm looking to start off relatively small and then with experience get bigger, what size would you suggest starting off with? Plus what would be some other gear to get (hydrometer, aid-seal, any types of yeast)?

>>161738
Yes, get a hydrometer if you have the means to. It's only going to help you be more precise. Just use any wine yeast if you can get them, they can withstand a higher alcohol tolerence and yield a higher %

1 gallon batches are cheap and easy and a good way to start. You can do a few at the same time

>>161738
also, you don't necessarily need to go buy glass containers. Mine is a carlo rossi bottle with the lable taken off.

>>161021
Dude, what drugs are you on? You throw away the first few shots... just the first gallon.

>>161753
yes you get rid of the first and last bits of the run. if you have a fullscale moonshine operation it would be a gallon or maybe even 2.

I'm using this recipe right now as my first. It's fermenting nicely, started it last tuesday or so.

http://www.stormthecastle.com/mead/fast-cheap-mead-making.htm forgot the link

op here, can't believe this thread is still up. Sure isn't /b/ /g/ /k/ /o/

>>161753
For an average homebrew, my understanding is you throw away the first/last 50-100ml or something like that.
Also, if you did this with apple juice and froze it to make applejack, would you run into any problems with the concentrations of nasty chemicals?

>>162360
had to look up applejack haha. I don't see any reason why that would cause a problem. I'm assuming the freezing method is used because the flavor for apple juice gets messed up if you boil it, so standard distillation would probably yield some less than tasty results.

>>161749
>>161751
Thanks for the advice /diy/ke. One last question, should I worry about carbonation once I'm getting ready to bottle? (have home brew from friends and when I cracked it open it bubbled).

>>162454
carbonation is determined by you/if you add sugar/yeast before bottling. You should be concerned if you are adding it on purpose, because you can create bottle bombs if you add too much.

>>162366
>>162360
"Jacking" concentrates ethanol AND methanol in the finished product, whereas traditional distillation lets you separate out the methanol and only keep the ethanol.

Of course if you sterilized everything well in the first place, you are unlikely to have much methanol to concentrate in the first place.

>>162360

you should worry about methanol. freeze distillation has a much higher chance of containing high amounts of methanol. unless you took an OG reading of your cider you cannot accurately estimate your abv throwing youre freeze distillation off

>>162539
reeze distillation, also known as fractional freezing, has long been used as a way to increase alcohol content of beverages like ice beer (e.g. Icehouse) and making applejack out of hard apple cider. You can't achieve the same alcohol concentration that you can with evaporative distillation, but the freezing method is cheaper and easier. Freeze distillation removes the water from the alcohols (ethanol, methanol, and fusel alcohols) instead of evaporating and condensing out the desired ethanol from everything else, as in conventional distillation. Methanol and fusel alcohols are generally considered undesirable (and hangover-causing) but they are present in undistilled beer and wine, and contribute to the flavor profile of ales and ciders. But at least with freeze distillation you can't accidentally end up condensing high concentrations of fusel alcohols by evaporating at the wrong temperature

>>162545

incorrect.

"From the fermented juice, with an alcohol content of less than 10%, the concentrated result contains 30-40% alcohol, is slightly sweet and usually tastes and smells of apples. However, freeze distilling concentrates all of the alcohol by-products of fermentation – including methanol and fusel alcohols as well as ethanol. Distillation by evaporation can separate these since they have different boiling points. With easy availability of grain, metal stills, clean water, and eventually pasteurization starting in the mid 19th century, cider and applejack were gradually displaced by other beverages and liquors. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, traditional applejack acquired a stigma as a result of its association with the older production process, and was less economical to produce than some alternatives."

- wiki, applejack

Regretably I may have been one of the first ones to suggest freeze distilling in this forum.

I am definitely not bragging. Only admitting I made a huge mistake. Yes it works. At least the 'bad' alcohols are diluted out a bit so they don't kill you or make you blind.

But the hangovers were just wicked bad. If you really want to distill I would say just go for it and make a real still and toss out the heads and tails to make some good clean whiskey. I knew some people in the past that had their own stills and you could get drunk as hell with almost no hangover.