/diy/ - Do It Yourself

>>1629466
Have (2) 1 gallon carboys fermenting some experimental mead and (1) 6 gallon carboy fermenting some vikings blood and (1) 7 gallon carboy making some traditional mead.
The (2) one gallon carboys are getting racked tomorrow. Yeet.

Just bought a "small beer" malt extract kit (made out of rye) made for brewing 0,5-2% ABV small beer and added more sugar than necessary. It will be like a malty tasting kilju. Added some hops into the bucket aswell.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_beer

>>1629470
>vikings blood
More info on this? Sounds tasty.

Gonna copy my post over from /ck/, didn't think /diy/ had a homebrew general.

I set a vat of 13 liters of mead four weeks ago, and it's still brapping away merrily. I've got a hydrometer, with the OG reading being 1.102 to 1.104, and the reading last week was 1.094. Trying to extract useful data from this is making me feel like a fucking brainlet. I could really use some help working out what kind of alcohol percentage I'm sitting on, and how much of the sugar I can expect the yeast to eat through, using WLP720 Blush Wine / Sweet Mead rated for 15% alcohol tolerance.

Four weeks in, and the vat is still merrily brapping away. Dumb question, but I need to wait for the brapping to stop before considering bottling, right? There's not a whole lot of info out there on making mead.

>>1629475
It's black cherry mead.

>>1629482
https://gotmead.com/blog/the-mead-calculator/

>>1629485
>tfw trying to use this calculator
I wish I wasn't so fucking dumb

>>1629485
>>1629487
>>1629482
https://www.brewersfriend.com/abv-calculator/
This one is easier to use

>>1629482
Seems a little slow but I don't know mead very well. General wisdom with beer is wait at least until the gravity is stable for 3 days. On your time scale maybe take biweekly readings to see when it's stable.

Your yeast 'should' attenuate to 75% or so meaning it 'should' end up at about 1.025. There's zillions of variables in brewing that can change stuff though is why it's still some art to the science.

>>1629492
Thanks for the input, I'll check it again tomorrow to see where I'm at. Can you give me an answer on when it's 'okay' to bottle it? Do I need to wait for the vat to stop farting?

>>1629494

It will probably take a while to ferment out. Did you add yeast nutrients and anything else to aid the fermentation?

I used the dry yeast by wyeast and it is slow in comparison to the other mead yeasts.

>>1629496
Wet yeast. https://www.bryggselv.no/white-labs/220065/wlp720-blush-wine--sweet-mead-vin-gj%C3%A6r-til-mj%C3%B8d-og-vin

Following https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ildRSUSWmc8&list=PL9CczC-hbfgLcQrRZYFvHEtlZeIW5q-NL advice, I made a tea of raisins, half an orange and two teabags beforehand and reduced it to a syrup-y consistency, cooled it down and added it to the mixture. Maybe like, quarter of a deciliter in total mass added? I would have boiled most of the vitamins away, but added a lot of raw material in the way of material for the yeast to work with.

>>1629494
It's OK to bottle when the gravity is stable. CO2 gassing means it's not done, but no gas doesn't mean it isn't done. Patience helps, really don't rush it. Most brews need time to age even after finishing fermenting. Leaving it in the fermenter two extra weeks is better than bottling it a week early.

>>1629466
>tfw made cider 5 weeks ago
>tfw still need to bottle
bottling is such a pain in the ass, but i don't have space for a kegerator

>>1629587
2-liter bottles if you're a monster.

>>1629466
Is this male or female or both

Just knocked up 6 gallons of this today. Says on the box it'll be 7.5% but it came out at 1.062sg. I guess it may get to 8-9% in the end. Dunno if it was any good, was on cheap from my local shop. Anyone tried it?

>>1629482

As a rule of thumb (and to stop myself testing the gravity every couple of days) When you think it should be nearly ready, carefully push the pressure out of the fermentation tub so the water trap is level. Check it a few times over the next few hours to see how fast the fermentation tub is pressurising. When the pressurising slows down it's then worth testing the gravity. Doesn't work with a glass carboy obviously.

>>1629752
Generic 3 liters if you're Hitler.

>>1629482
>There's not a whole lot of info out there on making mead.
Hahahaha you're one unresourceful dumbass

>>1629466
So question here. Making hard cider.

All the juice available to me has Ascorbic acid added as "muh vitamin C," but also a preservative.

Is it gonna tamper with my brew or is it chill?

>>1629752
>>1629806
original bottles it came in if you're a cheap fuck.

Never taking the juice out of the bottle to begin with, just pouring out a bit and only adding sugar and yeast then recapping until its time to serve if you're a madman.

>>1629587
Just store it in your stomach.

>>1630322
My understanding is that if the Ascorbic acid is the only preservative in it than it will be fine, wont tamper with anything.

any of you guys use sucrose as a fermentable for beer? I'm thinking about trying out table sugar instead of corn sugar next time, I've heard it'll make the beer taste awful and cider-y but I don't know if that's real or bruscience

>>1630584
baller. okay, so do i want filtered juice or stuff labelled cider (not hard)?

also, if i mull it, I do that AFTER fermentation, right?

>>1630752
use brown sugar not white i've heard

Does anybody here have a really good sour beer using red currants?

So I'm growing some Ghost Peopers this year and I had this autistic idea that instead of making a sauce I should make an alcoholic beverage out of them.

My question is do any of you have experience or have heard of others making an alcoholic beverage out of peppers? Would the Capsiacin even survive the fermentation process?

Does anyone know where to get really cheap, 1 liter glass bottles? Is it possible to store wine in plastic containers, like PET bottles?

>>1630985
Yea thatll work for racking your wine. Id ferment in at least five gallon bucket.

>>1630849
If you already have plenty of nutrients you shouldnt have to use brown.

>>1630848
Stuff labeled "cider", at least here, is just pressed apple juice, which should work. In my experience, the filterered crap, especially from concentrate, will have zero flavor left over after fermentation. Although it's probably healthier since there's less pectins and stuff to ferment into methanol

>>1630946
IIRC capsaician compounds can act as anti-microbial agents. I don't know if that would apply to yeast, but you'd probably be better off mixing it in as an extract after the fact.

Anyone tried cider sorbet? Any good recipies?

>>1630752
White sugar is the worst thing ever in beer. It has a nasty aftertaste. Use anything else. Suggested is more malt, but any fruit juice or other sugar is good.

>>1631418
>any fruit juice
hmm, might try this

>>1630752

Dextrose (often called brewers sugar) is the best basic form of sugar you can use.
It's cheap, a couple of dollars per pound.
Household sugar has a werid aftertaste and makes everything taste of sour cider.

I’ve got a pale ale fermenting in a carboy, but I have an absolute ton of shit sedimented at the bottom. First brew, should I just try to siphon off the top of it while racking? I probably didn’t cool it quick enough.

>>1630946
I wouldn’t add them as the main ingredient. One road you could go down is to caramelize them - if your oven can go as low as 250 degrees, that might work, then macerate them and add them to a wort. Capsaicin is only mildly water soluble and mostly fat soluble. Best bet would probably be to dehydrate them and make a purée, but unfortunately you’ll probably end up with just a spicy beer.
I would mostly de-seed them, dehydrate them, and try adding them to your wort to try and convert the very small amount of sugars. Then maybe add some dry ginger and a tiny pinch of anise to the hops during the boil and you might end up with something that goes well with some pulled pork tacos.

why did the universe make you have to wait two weeks, fuck.

I'm going all out on Belgians this summer.
I currently have a Quad, Trippel, and a saison brewing right now. Also got my hands on 6 gallons of northern spy must and pitched in some WY 3944 Belgian Wit yeast. Not a big fan of cider so I'm going to keg hop half and bottle condition the rest in corked bottles.

>>1632559
With a keg and temp control, you can easily get 5 day brews grain to glass.

>>1629466
could someone redpill me on home brewing.
what do I need?
any recipes you recommend?
etc

>>1632638
>what do I need?
You need to google "home brewing" and then decide what you want to brew. Then do more research. You'll also need a container to ferment in, a siphon to rack your brew off the lees, a container to siphon into, bottles for your final product, and it's strongly recommended that you get a hydrometer.
>any recipes you recommend
Again, google is your friend. Plug "JAOM" into the search bar.

>>1632524
I think it's good practice to siphon off the top anyway. Helps get a clearer beer and prevent the siphon from clogging up.
it's also pretty normal to have a good amount of sediment at the bottom especially for a first brew or when you don't use hop filters etc. I think my first beer had like 3-4 inches of sediment.
If you have an empty fridge, or freezer with a temp contoller, you can cold crash your beer which will drop yeast/sediment out of suspension. You would still siphon off the top but the end result would be a clearer beer if that matters to you.

>>1632622
whats your process for quickly carbonating a keg? I've tried various methods and my beer always tastes off for 2 weeks or so. I've given up and only do low and slow carb since that takes 2 weeks anyway.

>>1632638
>what do I need?
patience, mainly

>>1630323
>Never taking the juice out of the bottle to begin with, just pouring out a bit and only adding sugar and yeast then recapping until its time to serve if you're a madman.
i did that when i was underage. my friends loved me

I have one liter of 50% moonshine at my disposal. I feel like turning it into some kind of liquor, do you guys have any tips? Something relatively easy and tasty.

>>1632615
I love brewing Saisons, they are generally very easy and taste so good. My favorite thing is to make hefeweizen recipes but use Saison yeast.
>>1632638
If you're gunning for beer just order a basic homebrewing kit from Northern Brewer or Midwest Supplies. It comes with everything you need except recipe ingredients, cleaner/sanitizer, bottles and caps, and a brewing pot. I recommend dropping some good cash on a quality brewing vessel - I'm using an 8 gallon Megapot.
Pale ales are an easy first recipe.

After having 18 or so batches of beer under my belt I have made my first Mead recipe:
3 gallon batch with 114 oz. various types honey including 14 oz. of honey from my own bees. Placed the honey jars in a hot water bath and heated up water to around 105 degrees. Mixed everything together, topped up to 3 gallons and added 3 crushed up campden tablets. Pitched D47 wine yeast the next day, and today started a regimen of staggered yeast nutrient and energizer additions. I got some foam when I stirred it in so I'm hoping the yeast is at work already. Trying to ferment cool around 65F but my AC is old and has temperature swings. I'll keep y'all updated on how things go.

>>1630985
>Does anyone know where to get really cheap, 1 liter glass bottles?
imported german beer often comes in resealable glass bottles.

>>1633350
Dried cherries, a vanilla pod, and some oak cubes for a month. It's like ambrosia.

>>1633539
Not him but this sounds tasty. Should i char the oak before adding it to the mix?

i just put together 2 gallons of mead the other day. started with 5 pounds of cranberry honey, red star wine yeast, 2 gallons of poland spring water, and a nutrient tea of some water, a tea bag, a handful of chopped raisins, a clementine peel, and a small handful of red cedar berries. the brew is bubbling away. i hope i can steal some in a month for a music festival im going to. it would be nice to share with friends

>>1633975
But really is this shit even drinkable , I tried it years ago an was Ghastly an had me shitting like a sluice gate be opened /blown ,kek

>>1633975
>i hope i can steal some in a month for a music festival im going to.
hate to say it bro but mead can take up to a month or more just for fermentation, to say nothing of giving it time to age
if you have one month then whipping up a batch of beer might be a better option

>>1629466
https://imgur.com/a/GB9NSNr
The Story Thus Far.

So, now that the bubbles have nearly stopped, is it cracking time?

Cause some other things I've read said wait til they stop completely, and then let it sit and settle for another week even after that.

>tfw you go to keg and your co2 disappeared somewhere

Rainy New England brew day. I will not be deterred.

>>1636724
Well that got all kinds of fucked up.

>>1636725
Experiment with the orientation you hold your phone at when taking pictures for 4chan; exif data is stripped to protect anons from other anons, but it happens before the website figures out which way is supposed to be "up" on the photo. You'll figure it out.
>>1636029
Escaped from its tank, or the whole thing's awol?

>>1636029
Check your house for any CO2 goblins.

>>1636786
>Escaped from its tank, or the whole thing's awol?
tanks empty after sitting a couple of months unused. i told the homebrew man i swapped it from that it lasted 4 kegs but he said that was normal. seems low from what i've read.
i'm gonna go at it with a leak detector i can borrow from work

>>1636814
Classic case of a CO2 goblin siphoning from your tank.

>>1636814
keep in mind some info online that states a 5lb co2 tank will last 15-20 kegs applies when you're using co2 to dispense beer only. If you're using it to force carb as well that number is prob closer to 5-10. less if you also use a keg and co2 to clean you're lines.

my hefeweizens always taste like SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT
no clove or banana, just yeasty and grainy

>>1635792
Update: day 9. Was a momentous day. Decided to crack it for the occasion. Worst case scenario it's not fully done yet and there's still some sweetness.

Taste was decidedly awful. Drinkable, but still revolting enough it made me fear for my intestinal health to drink.

No sweetness for sure. Minorly sour. Mostly bitter. Still a bit of apple. And what I can only describe as instant tongue numbness, which is still continuing now several minutes later.

Dumped the entire batch down the drain. Deciding between trying again a second time, or just moving on, I'm not really into booze anyway, it was more of a science experiment.

>>1635792
>https://imgur.com/a/GB9NSNr
Wine yeast is the same price as bread yeast.

>>1629466
been drinking my own strawberry blonde, tastes pretty good
been waiting on my lemon shandy to finish fermenting so i can bottle, should be decent too
wish i could get the temperature control for making some lagers, but my setup for cooling is basically a bucket with ice water

>>1638214
sure but I don't know where to get it, and would probably have trouble getting to said place once I found out due to lack of usable car.

>>1638077
What's your recipe and method?

>>1638317
i've tried the northern brewer recipe which is 5.5 lb wheat and 4 lb pilsner and this time i tried to do an american hefe and used 5.5 lb wheat, 3 lb 2-row, and 0.75 lb crystal 10
same method i use to brew other beers and they come out fine, it's just wheat beers that suck

>>1638400
plus 1 oz tettnanger and i've used wyeast 3068 or white labs 300, 320, and 380 all separately.
previously i was making starters but i tried underpitching 320 this time and not really any difference.

>>1638220
Google is your friend. You can even have things shipped right to your door!

>>1638134
If you're going to do it again, I'd recommend either wine or champagne yeast, as bread yeast and beer yeast have too much intersecting flavour. Try a different juice too, as some added sugars ferment with a bitter flavour, so look for one without added sugar. It should still have plenty of natural sugar to ferment, even without the brown sugar. If you want sweet, most supermarkets have artificial sweeteners, and most of those won't ferment out. Most brew shops have lactose, which won't ferment either.

>>1632638
Keep in mind that if you want to get into home brewing beer, it's very easy for the costs to ramp up as you get more equipment to improve quality of life stuff. I've shed the notion that I'm home brewing to save money on beer long ago.

>>1632638
Ignore >>1638819 he obviously isn't just doing it for himself or as a hobby, a beginners pack has everything you need unless you want to go into kegging, but even then it's still cheaper to make it than buy it.

The biggest issue is the time commitment. You can't whip up a beer in 5 minutes, it takes potentially up to 6 weeks (faster if kegging) and you won't know until you open it. If you have a particular beer preference, ask the local brew shop for a recipe or something similar. Advice is always free, after all.

>>1638882
I'd say you need a temperature controlled fermentation chamber even as a beginner. Or make it your first upgrade, best thing for my beer quality was getting a free fridge off CL and buying a programmable controller for it.

>Needed a summer project last summer
>Bought a bunch of bottles and wine lids from the dollar store
>Bread yeast
>Goal: Make all the fruit wines I can
>Lemon
>Strawberry
>Raspberry
>Pine Needle
>Watermelon
>Grape
>Dandelion

Almost been a year, can start cracking those bottles and seeing what poison I have made.

>>1639370
Even that's not necessary, unless your house gets really hot or something.

>>1629466
i used to ferment my piss in jars. then i distilled it and sipped. incredibly pungent. was like drinking really sharp vodka that basically vaporized in your mouth.

>>1639703
Keep us posted anon

Making my first sour. Under the advice of my LHBS I bought acidulated malts, and was going to a secondary mash for one hour with those as the sole souring agent. My own research, however, lead me to buying goodbelly.

So, the plan is to do everything normal, then do a long (~3 day) secondary mash at as close to 90F as I can maintain (goodbelly lacto strain is supposed to be a good performer at lower temps). After that, I continue as usual and add some coreander and salt at flameout. A couple days before kegging, I'll add some cucumber.

Anything else I need to know?

Are those 5 gallon jugs from water dispensers safe to brew in? Got a pile of them and if they’re good to go want to fill them up with hooch.
Got a ginger beer going right now, probably gonna start another gallon then if the store has enough ginger start a 5 gallon batch of ginger champagne. Probably going to knock together a some skeeter pee too. I’d like to make some mead as well but at the moment I’m too poor to afford honey lol.
What’s some other cheap decent stuff to brew? Some graff? Would like to give that another go, maybe make it sour...

>>1640063
I'd say the 5 gallon jugs are fine as long as you clean and properly sanitize them, idk how you'd work the airlock on top, but I'm sure you can figure it out.
As for inexpensive stuff, in the fall I make apple cider, cause i can get apples for free from a dude who has too many apple trees on his property. If you can get a deal like that going it's pretty sweet. Or you can always make kilju

>>1640110
I don’t know if I can get apples for free but sweet potatoes are practically free in early fall, I’ve heard they make decent wine. Also fresh cider isn’t terribly expensive anyway, compared to honey.
As for the water bottles they look like they’d fit the normal rubber plug for a carbon, so that’s my plan. Also thinking some ginger beet wine might be interesting to try when beets are abundant and cheap.

Well boys I started a Black Lager last night. Unfortunately, had a gasket leak on my boiling kettle while I was letting it cool down, and had probably half a gallon spill out all over the damn kitchen. Decided to transfer her over to the fermenter (glass one) while still hot, so we'll see how she turns out.

I'm gearing up to buy my first brew kit from Northern Brewer in the coming weeks. Been wanting to start off with a 1 gallon until I'm confident enough to move up but I was wondering if I could bypass that altogether and just go right for the 5 gallon setup and just brew small batches out of it at first. Is there any problems I will run into with doing that?

>>1640437
Might have more stick to the walls/less recovery on a siphon when you use a big jug than a small jug, but otherwise no, shouldn't be too many problems with it.

>>1640488
Thinking i will start off doing 2.5 gal. Still need to buy a propane burner and possibly a plug in AC unit to put in my closet for proper ferment temps. Too hot here in an upstairs apartment to keep the whole house at 70°F

>>1640509
are you doing extract or all-grain? if you're starting with partial-boil extract you can do it on your stove-top when you start off.
If you have the space for it you can make a "son of fermentation chiller" it's made out of insulation foam, tape, a 120mm pc fan, and a temp controller. I was able to hold my temps in the mid-low 60's when ambient was about 80.

I'm going to start out with extracts but eventually want to do all grain. I'm thinking itd be better for me to do a 1 gallon with several fermenters as I want to experiment with different hop combos and eventually work my way into fruit incorporation and other ingredients. I think it will be a pain in the ass right now having to bottle 5 gallons each time as I'm low on space and cant have kegs. I want to have quantity over size of batches for my learning I think. As far as temperatures go I may do something cheap but it all depends on what my account looks like at the time. Might bite the bullet and get the ac

>>1640592
Take detailed step-by-step notes with each batch, it'll help you dial in your technique later on.

I work as a commercial brew operator . Ama and yes there are dead pigeons in our malt silos.

>>1629587
Growler it. Make sure you get caps with the molded on rubber ring and not the shitty paper insert.

>>1633353
Update: A week and a half later my gravity's at 1.01 which is 10.65% ABV! Much higher than I expected. I put the mead in a secondary and am hoping fermentation slows or stops completely. The sample I tasted was really good! On the verge of semi-sweet and dry. Gonna age a few months then bottle.

I've heard of some people using ale yeast for their meads and getting a silky mouth feel. Anyone have a recommendation? I was told by another brewer that Wyeast is always a good option but it's pretty expensive

>>1630946

I don't know if ghost peppers would be too hot, but the use of spicy peppers in mead is a capsicumel. I remember seeing a viking festival on the east coast that had a vendor who made a capsicumel with habanero peppers, so ghost peppers should work.

>>1632638

Depends on what you want to brew. I went with mead because it's a bit easier, more versatile, and you can get in to it for about $20. Beer is harder IMO because it's easier to screw up and requires much more work, and therefore more expensive. That being said, it's just my opinion and if you have the time/money or are more of a beer person, don't let me stop you.

For mead though, you just a 1 gallon jug of spring water, 2-3 lbs of honey, and bread yeast to make a show (plain) mead. Alternatively you can look up Joe's Ancient Orange Mean (JAOM), which is designed to be extremely cheap and simple and requires the above ingredients + raisins and oranges

What is the easiest way to make a sparkling mead? I read a bunch of stuff that says to add a bit of honey before bottling, but if I use sorbate and metabisulfate between primary and secondary, could I still cause a small tertiary to carbonate? Is it worth it just getting a keg?

>>1640914
I'd avoid adding raw honey to your mead and stick with dextrose. Adding raw honey to a finished mead is like adding ketchup to cooked meatloaf. It's also regarded as a flaw in competitions if you're into that sort of thing.

If you're after a sparkling mead you can skip secondary and just bottle condition it for a few months. Just make sure your gravity and priming calculations are right to avoid bottle bombs.

>>1640924
Not that anon, but what's bottle conditioning?

>>1641143
bottle conditioning is carbonating in a bottle. When you transfer your beverage to a bottle there is still a small amount of yeast in suspension. I don't know if the process is the same for mead but for beer you would:
>add a mixture of sugar (usually dextrose) and water to the fermented, but uncarbonated, beer
>transfer to bottles and cap
>store somewhere warm for 2 weeks or more
The yeast will eat the dextrose which produces co2 and carbonates the beer in the bottle.

Long term it also means waiting for tannins to fall out of suspension or less than desirable esters fading into the background. Alcohol oxidizing to be more pleasing to the palate.

So i want to brew 35L of mead pretty soon, how do i kill the yeast (without heating it up)?

Do i have to put in yeast-stop? Or rack it and then put yeast stop in it?

If you mean the wild yeast in the honey, just add 1 crushed up campden tablet to the mix per gallon. If you do that, wait 24 hrs before adding your yeast (make sure your fermentation vessel is sealed airtight as this is prime-time to get an infection)
As far as heating up honey you can go up to 90F without damaging aroma and taste and this will make the honey and water easier to mix. Myself I place the honey jars in a hot water bath and heat a smaller amount of water up to about 100F to aid in mixing. Then after mixing top up with water to whatever volume you want.

Racked and bottledthe strawberry wine. Came out nice and clear. Recipe
>4000g frozen strawberries
>4000g of sugar
>500g of raisins
>17 liters of water
>wine yeast
>3 teaspoons of liquid pectolyase

clearing
>chitosan and silicic acid based clearing agent

>put frozen strawberries and raisins into 3 liters of water (preferably from an electric kettle)
>bring it to a boil
>boil for 30 minutes and occasionally mash/stir with potato masher
>mix in the sugar
>pour into fermentation vessel, add the rest (15 liters) of water so that the resulting liquid is the right temperature for your yeast
>mix in pectolyase
>add yeast
>ferment
>once done ferenting, add clearing agents
>wait for clearing agents to finish (the chitosan+silicic acid takes 1-3 days usually)
>rack and bottle
>enjoy

>>1629466
New to this general and homebrewing in general. No idea where to start. Let’s say I want to get started this weekend, what is the “bare minimum” I will need? Or to put it another way, assuming I have nothing required what would I need to make something easy, like cider? What would be a “bare minimum” price point?

>>1642856
Absolute bare minimum? A bottle of natural juice and some yeast. If you want something more than a ghetto wine, speak to your local brew shop. A beginners set up should be less than $100, regardless of where you are.

>>1642856
I (and I'm sure plenty of others on here) got started into home brewing with a kit. In theory, if you can make oatmeal, you can start brewing. For your first run, I would go even simpler and just buy up some malt syrups, dilute them down, then add hops and yeast (once cool). Keep it in a sanitized brewing vessel, and let the magic happen. After a week, bottle it up in sanitized bottles for a week then hope to the gods of fermentation that all goes well.

If you want to start from a grain mash, then you'll want to strain it with a wire kitchen strainer into the fermentation vessel. Depending on how you plan on making your beer this can be pretty difficult.

>>1641895
But how does it taste?

>>1643575
It has a strong strawberry flavour. Maybe a bit tannic, but not much.

>>1643828
Nice.

holy shit I forgot about you guys my buddy's farm has a fuckton of blackberries ready to pick and not so many blueberries. I decided that I want to make wine out of them if I can and give it away to friends. I plan on making beer in the future for myself.

I browsed a few recipes and picked some supplied how did I do? I have a homemade keeger and an extra fridge with a thermostat so I can set the temperature to whatever. I own a lot of extra aquarium hosing. there is no homebrew supply store in my area that I know of. im in huntsville, al. I heard the local breweries will sell grains and such but I'll get to beer next. I was wondering about wine atm.

I know I can buy cheese cloth locally and 5 gal buckets. is there anything you think I should pick up? anything that you find handy to keep around?

>>1644460
whoops forgot pic

>>1644460
There's a homebrew shop called Alabrew down in Pelham, bout an hour and 45 from you.
212 Oak Mountain Cir, Pelham, AL 35124
alabrew.com
>>1644462
Looks pretty good. Maybe get some 3piece airlocks, i hear the s airlocks are a bitch to clean if they get clogged up. Get ya some flip top bottles too. I've never used btf iodophore, I'm a starsan guy.

>>1644683
that's all the way on the other side of birmingham. I'd rather drive to chattanooga if I've gotta make a trek it just sucks being over a half a day trip for one store. If there's anything in north al I'd love it but I'll probably order online rather than use all of that gas.

I got some 3 piece airlocks just above the s ones. the stoppers with holes were a little bit expensive on amazon but the airlocks came with some so I bought them too. I'll have to look into different sanitizers this was just one of the products I saw mentioned several places when I was doing research. I'll see how this one works out first it's a fairly small bottle.

Does anyone have experience with kvas? I just started malting the barley today for my next all grain, so i still have a free 20 liter fermentor for a few days. Is it good? Can it be stored long enough to warrant a batch this size?

Guys, I got impatient on my most recent brew. Had it in 5 separate growlers during final packaging (and allowing them to finish fermenting in them), and just cracked one open. A little flat, but it ain't bad. Definitely going to let the other 4 wait it out, though.

I left my copper wort chiller outside and it started to corrode, so there's a little green patch on a portion of it. I cleaned it off, but how do I stop future erosion, aside from not leaving outside / wet anymore? I would like to restore the ugly bits from underneath the green, too. Tips?

>>1646805
Also, today I started my first sour. Did everything as normal up until end of the mash (I do BAIB, btw, so please correct any wonky terminology as I'm not fluent in mash-lauter-tun-speak). After the mash, I reheated to 160 (not sure if it was necassary, but I didn't wanna add grains at ~142F) and added acidulated malts for 30min at 10% of the original grain bills weight to try and get the ph below 4.3 to kill off some lacto enemies and beer destroyers (it also adds some additional lacto). I just pitched 12oz of 'Goodbelly', a probiotic food-drink product that contains a lacto strain that does well around 80-90F, so I don't have to do any weird heating. Tomorrow I will continue the boil as normal. The plan is a Cucumber Lemon sour, I will add coreander at flameout and cucumber a day or two before I cold crash before kegging. If it turns out well, making a sour was suprisingly simple! I like being able to spread my brew day out over two or three days, with less work/time each day.

Is making your own whiskey worth it?

I can understand the beer guys homebrewing but I don't hear shit about liquor distillery in the DIY scene that isn't toothless people playing banjos.

I'm asking purely because I have this fucking disease where if I find out I can do something myself, the notion never leaves my brain that I *should* be doing it myself, and a local homebrew place is doing specials

>>1647086
you haven't looked hard enough if as you put it you can only find toothless people playing banjos. I take it your "looking" consisted of your own preconceived notions. Also those toothless people have been doing it for hundreds of years so you could learn a thing or two from them.

>>16470866
If you're in the US there are laws in place that say don't do it. So when you purchase or build a distillation setup strictly for essential oils and perfumes, you're going to want to be keeping any homemade spirits on the down low.

>>1647630
Shit
>>1647086

>>1647630
How hard is it to DIY a distillation setup?
I have access to flexible copper pipes for AC and couple compressors.

Guys I had an oopsie. Yestwrday was my brew day and I made an extract kit following directions.

About an hour ago I heard an explosion, turns out it was the lid blowing off and peppering my kitchen in sugary beer water. I just finished cleaning and reinstalled the lid and airlock, but I have to go to work soon.

What the fuck do I do and why did it detonate?

>>164776

>>1647771
I need some help folks! Rapidly

>>1647776
I tried a blow off tube, it didnt fucking work now what

>>1647634
I mean you could probably draw up a diagram similar to a retort or pot still pretty easily, but I doubt you'll be able to make one more effective than what's out commercially for much cheaper, unless you're using the "fuck my boss" supply technique.

>>1647634
https://mega.nz/#!suRHlaJT!hcUfl8U2i7Vlhzb971IGPhC6yloofSt2qpxTrFbpoks This is a link to the Foxfire book, volume one. In it is a 45-page section detailing how to build and operate a still.

>>1647769
>>1647771
>>1647776
>>1647778
Cool it down to slow fermentation. Looks like you've got too much yeast chowing down on lots of sugars. Blowoff tube will work if you do it right: put one end of a tube in the bunghole (kek) and put the other end in a container to catch the excess. Into this "catchtainer" put some vodka or other high proof alcohol to keep the system sanitized and make sure the end of your tube is below the surface of the vodka.

>>1647778
I've had a batch do this before. The problem ended up being that the blow off tube got clogged with a bunch of hops and other particulate matter.

Blow off tube will work, but next time try filtering the wort before adding the yeast. The fact that there was that much pressure in such a short time is good, just make sure that you have a good clean clear way to relieve the pressure without clogging up the water check or blow off tube.

>>1647871
Also, looks loke your blowoff tube is directly connected to the water check here.

The clog is probavly at the bottom of the stem on the water check. Pull it out and clean it thoroughly. You probably won't have any more problems with this batch, just filter your wort next time.

How much should I sell my keezer for?
It's got 2 SS taps, gas manifold, drip tray, insulation, air circulation, and a dehumidifier.

Brewed a gallon each hot chocolate stout and coffee stout

>>1648029

>>1630752
I made ciders and other shit with caster sugar a few times. It tastes like absolute shit every time even if you distill it it still tastes of shit. I'd highly recommend paying a bit more for dextrose and having something drinkable

>>1629466
you faggywaggies ever talk about distilling or is that a different thread

>>1647769

Your fermentation had tooo little headspace for how vigorous it was which leads to a blow out.

Next time attach a blow off tube to the centre piece of your 3-piece airlock so that way there is no way of stuffing it up. Then after fermentation slows down you can replace it with the cap.

>>1648239
>distilling
Illegal at a federal level unless you get a permit. That said, >>1647839 has the info you want.

Made ginger beer but it turns out my wild yeast/ginger bug is weak. Fermented away for like two weeks but still sweet even though I didn't put too much sugar in. Transfered some to a 2 liter and added bread yeast cause I had it handy, been fermenting away mostly just want to get carbonation, but I never took gravity readings so no idea how much sugar is still in there.
Got another gallon going, thinking once it stop I'm gonna transfer it to a clean carboy and pitch a bit of ec-1118 and let it go completely dry, then just adding a bit of priming sugar at bottling for carbonation. Of course if I'm using the 1118 I could go ahead and add a bunch more sugar too since I know it can chew through it... I dunno lol.

>>1648285
Maybe we are all connecting from Angola...

possible to brew a decent beer in only 2-3 weeks? have all of august to go at it but that includes prep/setup work (first week)

>>1648293
set up shouldn't take a week maybe like an hour.
You could finish a beer in that time just pitch enough yeast to ferment quickly. What are you brewing? Do you know what your starting gravity will be?

>>1648239
What do you want to know? I'd recommend picking up a proper still instead of making your own. That way you know it's not the still fucking up, it's you. Ferment, distill then filter. Not much else to it.

>>1648293
If you are brewing an extract kit, you can get some that will finish in a week or so before they are ready to hit the bottle for conditioning. The downside is most beers take a week at absolute minimum to bottle condition, many of them take more like 9-10 days to get there.
If you have a kegging setup you can get from brew day to consumption in under 2 weeks. I had a Kolsch extract kit that was only 4 days on primary, 4 days on secondary, and I had it carbonated nicely with some vigorous shaking in the keg and a single day in the fridge, so that's 9 days from pitch to pour.
On the other hand, I had a red ale that took 7 days primary, 8 days secondary, and didn't finish bottle conditioning for a full 2 weeks so that was damn near a month before it was ready to go.
>>1648286
>ginger beer triple fermented with a bug, bread yeast, then a dry white wine yeast
>adding table sugar to it on top of that
that's an uhhh... interesting idea anon. You'll have to let us know if it comes out tasting like fuel or magic, cuz I'm honestly not sure which one it'll be lol.

Specialty grains? Fuck that I’m using specialty twigs.

>>1649700
What you wanna do is collect about a gallon of chopped black birch twigs/sticks. I cut em into about 1-3” long sections and any particularly thick segments get split. Wash em a couple cups at a time in a strainer using cold water...


Assuming you are east coast, to find black birch look for trees with smoothish bark and a ton of horizontal lines. Scrape the bark and sniff, should smell like wintergreen. The leaves are ovals and serrated, they come off of small branches in groups of two. The groups alternate sides.

>>1649701
Here is my gallon of chopped and washed twigs. Now add them to about 3 gallons of 160-165F water and steep for about half an hour to an hour. If you have a cheese cloth bag large enough AND durable enough use it, otherwise you will need to filter.

>>1649706
Because I’m not cooking until Saturday, here I’ll leave yinz with pics of the trees.

This is what the bark looks like. There are no toxic look alikes in the region, but to be certain its black birch scrape and sniff. Its really a trip to smell such a strong and delicious odor.

>>1649710
The leaves look like this. Generally I spot the black birch by the trunk while hiking, but generally where I am the small branches are out of reach on the main trees. To get usable cuttings, I find sapling near these larger trees, but bark is harder to ID on them. They are often scattered in with chinese chestnut, maples, etc- so to ID saplings I go by leaves. See how they come off in groups of 2 alternating the twigs? The sniff test will confirm it.

>>1649713
Steep those twigs for half an hour at like 165f. The smell is wonderful.

>>1650251
Strain em out. If you have a grain bag large enough use it. I don’t so this will have to do. It smells like strong wintergreen.

>>1650252
Add a little anise oil and an equal amount of vanilla extract. Steep pods and stars if you want but I can’t buy either locally.

>>1650253
Bring to a boil and as its heating add 8 lb of brown sugar. The old recipe doesnt specify what kind so I just split the difference and add both light and dark.

>>1650256
It darkens the color. Boil for a few minutes before putting it in ice bath. Get to 70ish

>>1650256
For future reference, assuming your recipe is decently old (like, 100 years?), brown sugar isn't made today like it was then. A super taster might be able to tell which you use, but it'll be good regardless. Don't sweat it if all you have is one or the other.

>>1650267
Yeah this recipe was given to me by some very nice mennonites I met while working in Chambersburg PA a couple years ago. I’ve made it once before and had good luck.

Still waiting on my temp, down to 90F. In the meantime I just finished transferring my russian imperial stout to secondary.

>>1650272
Ok looks good. I used MI5 yeast for this.

>>1650303
My OG after dilution to 5 gal is 1.054 @ 75F so its got plenty of yeast food in it lol. See yinz in 10 days, wish me luck!

>>1650272
are you aging your stout with bourbon barrel chips? I've thought about doing this how do you sanitize the chips before adding them to the fermenter?

>>1650699
American red oak from a tree I cut down a couple years ago for turning.

They were torched lightly with MAPP gas and prior to tossing them in the outside was sprayed with iodine based sanitizer.

They really don't need sanitized that well as they are added after primary fermentation so the alcohol content is already high enough with an imperial stout to prevent most infections. It's still a bit of a gamble, but I'm willing to take the chance.

>>1650251
Lol enjoy your methanol poisoning

>>1651773
Yeah all those Amish people that have been blinding themselves for several hundred years in PA, OH, and MD must regret their lifelong consumption of birch beer.

Literally are you retarded?

On so I work for a brew on premises joint and I have been tasked with making a hard seltzer. Anyone try this? Will just dextrose work or do I need something else for the yeast to munch on?

All right lads, I brewed my first batch of beer a couple weeks ago. It was a northern Brewer recipe kit because I'm a total novice. Anyway, after cooling down the wort, when I was transferring it to the fermenting bucket, I poured the wheat sludge at the bottom of the kettle in too, without thinking about it. It's in bottles now, and I have another couple weeks to wait until I can try it. How bad did I fuck up?

>>1652245
When you store the bottles in the fridge, give them a good shake then put in fridge standing up. When you go to drink, try to not shake the bottles much and gently poor into a glass to drink.

This will leave most of the sludge at the bottom of bottles. Should still taste good.

>>1652382
Thanks Anon. I discarded most of it before bottling, what I'm worried about is whether or not leaving it in there during primary/secondary fermentation would alter the taste at all. Is that a thing? Should I make sure not to add it to the fermenter next time?

If anyone was curious, I found a birch beer recipe from 1678. It's a bit annoying to read through these old recipes but you get used to it after a few pages. Apparently Sycamore and Walnut trees can be used too to make a good beer.

In case you wanted to see what else is in the book, its available free on google books, simply search for:
>Vinetem Britannicum: Ora Treatise of Cider and Other Wines and Drinks

Anyone know anything about pindo palm fruit? I’ve got like 4kg of them and plenty more to come since these fuckers fruit prolifically. Want to make wine but I can’t find any recipe for it, just tons of mentions that it’s often used (or was) for jam and wine since they’re kinda fibrous.
So far planning to freeze them then thaw them out and smash them up and remove the seeds, then toss in a blender with some water and squeeze the juices out similar to how it’s done with ginger. But how much fruit per gallon? How much sugar? Should I go for a still wine or sparkling? I bet sparkling would be better...

>>1652523
I found this thread on hbt where the guy does what you suggest (freezing and smashing) has sugar amounts and stuff too, reckons its best after a year in the bottle
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/queen-palm-date-wine-q-a.451056/

>>1648023
I just bought a 4 tap one with perlick 690ss's, gas distro block, 4 kegs, 5lb bottle, dual pressure reg, fan, temp controller for 500.

I felt like i stole it.

>>1650304
So I just tasted it, its fantastic but still chooching heavily. I don't think I'll have to backsweeten but we will see. I am bottle conditioning so I have to kill the yeast after its carbonated. Should be fun I cranked the water heater for my dish washer to try and kill with heat.

>>1642856
All you need is a bottle that seals, a bubbler CO2 escape thing, starter yeast (you can make this from fruit, and water if you're lucky) and most importantly above all the means to sterilize your equipment.

>>1642856
I've made alcohol by mixing the very bottom of a beer with apple juice and sugar.

>>1653362
If he wants real low tech boil a couple gallons of honey with equal volume of water. Toss in bread yeast and stir. Bottle in empty and clean soda bottles and cap tightly. A couple times per day open them. If you time it right, you can let the last bit of CO2 remain while aging and leave yourself with a carbonated mead. Else let them rest for a month or two and they are good.

Even lower tech, toss a pack of bread yeast into a half gallon of welches grape juice. After a month or so its actually quite good, and at 6 months its shockingly nice wine.

Dry as fuck though.

If you arent able to crack the seals often enough, poke some holes in your bottles lid then lay down a piece of rubber glove or balloon over the open mouth of the bottle and poke it with a knife. Then tighten the lid with a hole over it.


The sanitization meme isnt a big deal, in middle and high school these methods made many gallons of mead and wine.

Hey guys, are conical fermenters a meme? I mean it seems nice to get all the beer you can out, but I don't know that it's really worth the price.

>>1653687
This is retard level advice. I'd rather ask a nigerian how to make millet beer than listen to this backward nonsense.

>>1653809
It is factually the cheapest doable way to brew. The only way to save more money is with free crab apples from your yard and yeast from your mother's cunt. It does work, and it yields a drinkable product.

The wine costs about $3.60 per half gallon, and really isn't that bad. It tastes similar to communion wine.

>>1653796
Just make one. get a PET carboy. Use a solid bung. on the bottom, drill a 1/2" hole and install a rubber grommet. For support either built a rest for it with 2x4s or just use a beer bottle box insert.

To fill, plug the grommeted hole with a stopper and remove the large bung from the top opening. Fill like normal, and replace the bung. Gently flip it over, and remove the stopper from the grommeted hole. Install an airlock on this hole.

To draw fermented beer from it, insert your bottling tube through the grommeted hole, and siphon

>>1648951
No triple fermentation on the ginger beer just added bread yeast to one gallon to carbonate it, tastes fine the bread yeast didn’t add any flavor since it was only a day or so to carbonate it.

The ec1118 I added to a second batch, it’s been a while and it’s still bubbling away though I did add additional sugar since the yeast can handle it. I know white sugar isn’t a favorite but that’s pretty much the only fermentable in most ginger beer recipes though some have brown sugar.

I’ll let everyone know how the stronger ginger champagne is once it’s done lol.

>>1652779
Nice thanks, still got the pindos in the freezer haven’t gotten started yet. Could have probably had enough for a 5 gallon batch but I ended up eating a ton of them lol. Next bunch on the tree is probably about a month out from ripeness.

Wish me some luck bois I’m about to bottle my birch beer at 6.5 days. The airlock is still going every 10 seconds. I’m going to crack one open tomorrow to check carbonation then if it still needs lots of time Ill wait another day or two before cracking another.

Once I get them carbed how I want I’m going to pasteurize and pray I kill all the yeast.

>>1654484
Ok bottling began at 6:40 6/26/19

>>1654526

>>1649700
>>1649701
>>1649706
>>1649710
>>1649713
>>1650251
>>1650252
>>1650253
>>1650256
>>1650258
>>1650272
>>1650303
>>1650304
>>1654484
>>1654526
>>1654529
this thread isn't supposed to be your personal blog

>>1654560
Go cry about it, there’s like one post a day.

>>1654560
Ew you pissed me off. Literally all I did was post some pics of an unusual brew on a fucking /diy/ thread about homebrewing. What is wrong with you that it bothered you enough to take the time to make a shitty comment?

What are you brewing right now? witch’s brew? Unpleasant cunt.

>>1654560
Get fucked. Here on /diy/hbg/ we like progress pics. I'll ask as >>1654594 did: what the fuck are you brewing? Or, or, are you the quintessential buttmad autist of 4chins who shits up random threads to feel better about [insert personal baggage]?

To stay on homebrew topic, latest batch of mead got me sideways.

>>1654603
Nice! Did you add something to get it to clear like that? I’ve only attempted mead once and it was too dry and cloudy even after aging for a year. I did just use cheap bear bottle clover honey but still.

>>1654605
>cheap bear bottle clover honey
I think that may have been your problem. Gotta use raw unfiltered. I also used too much (about 4 pounds of honey in a gallon batch) and i fucked up my pitch (cold yeast+nutes into room temperature must). Learning experience, first brew. Actually finished way too sweet even with abv ~18% (estimated by kick, taste, and effect -- still need to get a hydrometer). That pic was my "first fruits" taste test, about a month after bottling. The whole batch is already gone... I need to start another but it's summer and i don't want to have a temperature control problem.

>>1654594
>no one reacted on instagram and r/foodporn pls give me (You)'s :c:c:c:c
And you posted the same shit shit like 4 moths ago but i guess you need some extra attention now huh, how's your vagina btw?

>>1654818
Still waiting to see your brew autismoid

>>1654818
My vagina is fine. Not much of an insult asking a woman how her vag is. How's your shitty little dick doing.

>>1654840
why don't you ask your mom

>>1652401
i added that sludge to like my first 3-4 batches before i knew any better. Beer still tastes fine but end product should be clearer and taste a bit cleaner without it.

I wouldn't sweat it too much

>>1647778
Crack the lid overnight, it won't be slowing anytime soon

Preparing my first batch of THC infused homebrew tonight, still torn between whether I'll make a cerveza or an IPA. My recipe: dice up and decarb 10g in the oven at 250 degrees for 40 minutes, leave it in 0.5L of everclear for the duration of the homebrew's primary fermentation. Brew as normal, ferment for 7-10 days, then I'll add the mix into the batch just before bottling.

>>1655580
Do a high ibu IPA. Cerveza style beers are more sessionable which is bad if you are infusing with THC. With the IPA one or two drinks is perfect and that would get you smacked without getting way too high.

>>1655580
After you decarb, put your flower in the freezer with the everclear (in separate containers) for 24 hours before combining them. Add flower to everclear, shake the piss out of it and stick it back in the freezer. Leave it in there until you strain the plant matter out; doing your extraction in the freezer will reduce the amount of chlorophyll in the tincture. Chlorophyll gives grassy flavors, which are generally undesirable in beverages. To further reduce chlorophyll, just do a 15 minute extraction (shake for 30sec every three minutes, put back in freezer between agitation, strain after 15 minutes have elapsed). I find a metal mesh strainer followed by a coffee filter works for getting the plant matter out. Also 0.5L is too much liquid for 10g; you want just enough to cover the flower completely.

>>1655587
Oh, one more thing:
>dice up
Don't. Hand break small, try not to damage the cell structure too much. That will also reduce chlorophyll transfer.

>>1655660
Meant for
>>1655580
...my bad.

so im getting started to make my first portion of wine, im on a stage of buying the equippement. I've read this thread and various blogs on the net so i have some theoretical knowledge BUT
a friend of mine who already made some wine in his life, have his own vine (some french species) and he said that i dont have to add any kind of wine yeasts to the wine must if i used his vine. Im not quite sure about that recipy, because, according to my knowledge - im not sure what will come up at the end of the process.
What do you think anons?

>>1655737
Grapes will have wild yeasts on them, named strains are descended from these, but using wild yeasts like that is a crapshoot no way to tell what you’re going to get. Unless you want to experiment it’s probably best to purchase a specific strain of yeast to have better control and a more predictable outcome.

>>1653796
i have a 7 gallon SS Brew Tech Chronical BME. I have a pump and CIP ball to help me clean it but its still a pain to take off/replace all the fittings. If I could go back in time I think I would buy 2 brew buckets with the temp control kits instead

I saw this video on YouTube about how to do homemade booze. All he did was take grape juice, add sugar and yeast, then let it sit for 2 weeks with the lid slightly open (https://youtu.be/BvV16VYNDsc))
It's also known as sugar wine or kilju from what I've heard. Has anyone tried this? Is it dangerous at all?

>>1656489
Me and my roommate in college did it a bunch it works fine. although for us the fermentation could finish in as little as 7 days. Its a cheap way to make booze and works for most juices (orange juice and lemonade wouldnt work)

Any tips on getting large amounts of cheap fruit? In the summer I have access to an ocean of wild blackberries and will probably find a few apple trees, but it would be cool to brew on the cheap year-round. I've grown used to being able to cobble together 6 gallons of booze for ~$12

>>1656623
dumpster diving

>>1656642
So far so good. Needs less star anise next time. I am pasteurizing the remaining bottles, so far 2 detonations out of 40. One more batch to go.

>>1656642
I uh... don't think I'm gonna do that, but thank you

>>1656716
Why not? Less food wasted and it's free booze.
You'd be baffled to see the huge amounts that get wasted. If you feel it's too redneck to dive in the dumster behind the store just go somwhere where it's processed. e.g. apples that are too small/have a bump in them don't even make it to the store.
My dad does the same but with wooden pallets, most companies are even glad to get rid of them for free.

>>1656720
I'm more worried about the human-filth aspect of it. I'd rather have some slightly-decomposing late-summer apple tree that no one cares about than a crate of good-looking maybe-syphilitic shit, you know?

Guys, my plum wine is making the whole house smell like someone is boiling a chocolate cream pie with a graham cracker crust, should I be worried?

>>1656665
get a real beer glass senpai

>>1656737
basedboy

>>1657290
Oops I can’t seem to find any in my cupboard

>tfw can't motivate myself to brew actual beer vs. cider from high-quality bottled juice despite liking beer more
It's just so much more work and the way my living situation is set up right now isn't conducive to it at all.

what do you do with leftover must? I've been digging around and saw a few suggestions like using it in a dehydrator to make fruit leathers or something similar. I have blackberries and figured the seeds would be annoying. I read about shrubs and decided to give that a shot. Apple cider vinegar for a week and then I'll filter it out and dissolve some sugar in it.

I'm wanting to experiment with honey mead/wine; but not with ordinary honey. There's this stuff from New Zealand called Manuka that is supposedly some really good stuff that tastes nothing like Clover honey.

Just trying to find a source of it in the States is a right bitch. Anyone here ever tried this Manuka stuff and think it would be a good idea to brew with?

Been homebrewing awhile heres my tips for the cheap.

Build a mash tun from a cooler and parts from home depot.
By grain in bulk 40-50 lb bags and a grain crusher. The cost of your base malt goes below 1$ per lb. Buy large quantities of you crystal, chocholate, etc.
Buy glycerol and you can freeze your fancy yeasts in starter vials so you only have to purchase once.
Buy 5$ food grade buckets and drill a hole on top for the air lock. Glass breaks sometimes horribly and plastic carboys will eventully lead to infection after enough use. Cheap buckets you can toss or repurpose after so many uses.
Grow your own hops.
You only have to go to the homebrew store or order online a couple times a year and can brew whenever you want.


I generally make 5 gallon batches for less than 10$ and probably spend less than 50$ a year on replacement parts, sanitizer, etc.

Well I'm looking to freeze distill some sugar wine, but I've heard of freeze distilling giving nasty hangovers. Is that just because it becomes stronger and you'll in turn drink more, or is it something else? Steam distilling doesnt seem to get the same bad rep

>>1659058
Normal distiling practice is to discard the heads and tails. These have cogeners that help make hangovers worse.
Freeze distilling does not get rid of these. It will be the same hangover as if you drank the alcohol equivalent of raw mash.

>>1659140
See this I understand, but wouldn't drinking the whole undistilled thing give exactly the same hangover as drinking the freeze distilled version, since they both contain the same stuff? Because I've been asking around and have gotten the same answer from everyone: prison hooch/sugar wine won't give you a bad hangover but if you freeze distill it, it will. And from what they've said getting the same amount drunk from freeze distilled and non distilled will still leave the freeze distilled getting you more drunk, but they contain the same stuff?

>>1659228
Normally those cogeners are so diluted that you'd not have a huge issue, but if you're going from, say, 5% up to 15%, that's 3 times more bad stuff than normal. You only need to have 1/3 the normal amount to get bad hangovers.

>>1659274
This explains it, thanks. So watering down a freeze distilled brew to the original abv will give you the same hangover as drinking the non-distilled version. So if you steam distill your brew, discard the tails and heads and then water it down to the original abv that means you'll get less of a hangover than drinking non-distilled, correct? I'm a bit slow I know

>>1659281
Correct

>>1658647
That's an expensive brew but go for it.
https://steenshoney.com/pages/shipping-delivery They do international shipping. Godspeed, anon. Let us know how it turns out.

>>1658647
I did a micro batch of Manuka mead and it tastes awful. The flavor is far too dominant. You're better off with an avocado honey or tupelo honey.

>>1659058
It's mainly because people freeze distill apple jack or other fruits based wines high in pectin. Freeze distilling them concentrates the amount of methanol in a much smaller volume than the original wash. In distillation these are separated as the heads.

Thinking of filling up a liquor library now that I've sobered up enough to be productive.

I made my first ever batch on Friday evening using Cooper's IPA and Muntons light malt extract (used the cooper yeast that came with). OG is 1.042. I don't have a "cold space" so the fermenter is currently sitting in the sauna at a comfortable 23C (75F). Well ventilated and remembered to turn off floor heating at least.
Now the problem is it's been almost 28 hours and not a sound from the airlock. Is this normal? I hoped the fermenting would have started by now. Now I fear something is wrong.
Also I bought 100 grams of Citra pellets cause I recognized the name. What should I do with them?

>>1656623
I get a lot of apples from craigslist, nextdoor, fb marketplace, etc. Plums, pears, apples, grapes, quince, blackberries, cherries, etc, all free. Right now I've got 6 gallons of 50-50 crabapple/gravenstein mix going and 2 gallons of italian plum wine going along with 60 gallons or so of cider from last year still ageing. fallingfruit dot org is also a great resource.

>>1659580
Update to this if anyone's reading. It's been over 48 hours with no visible sign of fermentation so I took a reading and got 1.028 (also tastes surprisingly pleasant). There's definitely something going on which led to check the expiration date on cooper package again and sure enough it still says August 2020. Went through my trash bin to find the yeast package itself to find out it's literally a whole year past expiration! I'm so fucking mad they put old yeast in the can and call it good.
Not sure what to do, I turned up heating a bit see if it likes that.

>>1660132
Got more of the same yeast within date? If so get a starter going with it and re-pitch.
>>1659553
>Manuka mead awful
>avocado honey
Interdasting, I'll have to give that a go. I'm not the anon who asked, but the one who provided the link for the manuka and has only recently delved into homebrewing.
>>1659554
This, with the addition of "fractional" to the final sentence.

>>1660140
>Got more of the same yeast within date? If so get a starter going with it and re-pitch
Hehe no, and the closest shop that sells any of this stuff is 100 miles away. Might get lucky if I can get in touch with some local brewers, otherwise mail-order and wait 2-3 days. Either that or this old yeast magically starts working in the next 10 hours.

>>1659058
If you have a reasonably cold room, balcony or windowsill build an "amazing still" for like 20 bucks. Make a carbon filter put of an old soda bottle. The result is rather good despite how simple it is to make, especially if your sugar wine/mash is strong(above 15%ABV). Freezejacking is difficult and unless your mash is something tasty like hard cider it will taste like ass. But even freeze distilled ass juice gets tolerable with a carbon filter which also removes some of the hangover nasties.

>>1660317
I've heard the plastic will leak from the carbon filter and give me manboobs

>>1658655
how long will grains last assuming you store them properly? I go through phases and might brew 2-3 times in a month then go 6-9 months without brewing.

>>1659295
Appreciate the link

>>1659553
I'll probably do a micro to experiment with blends if need be then

I'm doing wild yeast boys, this one is 2 Oranges, 200g sugar and 200ml water
5 days. I'm gonna brew a simple beer

>>1661160
Enjoy your vomit tasting methanol

>>1661231
>>1661160
Enjoy getting blind too

>>1661160
You're gonna want more sugar and more water, toss in some calcium carbonate to offset the acidity, and don't mind the vomit smell while it ferments. Enjoy your pruno.

I tried making kvass a couple of days ago. It was pretty warm though (about a constant 78°F) and I let it go for the full two days. 42g of fresh bread yeast on 5 liters and 300g of sugar. I started bubbling like crazy pretty much right away. But almost stopped completely after 2 days (which I heard is not supposed to happen).

So the end result was way too sour (tried store bought kvass before) and too alcoholic for kvass. Also tasted pretty yeasty and not at all sweet. How to adjust this? My idea would be a little more sugar (350?), half the yeast and a lower temperature (~70°F) to ferment it slower.

This was my first time ever brewing something.

>>1661246


>>1661243


>>1661160


>>1661231
Check that https://youtu.be/Tqnqw77fgJU?t=14

>>1639971
That's some god tier hillbilly shiy right there.

>>1660485
Blend it with Buckwheat for a truly unholy brew.

I've got blackberry wine going now it's making constant bubbles and no foam

>>1661516
Sounds like there is a story here anon, do tell

Anyone ever make gruit? Going to pick up some herbs tomorrow.

It's plum season so that means it's jerkum time. I've got 3 gallons of italian plum going. I'll probably age it for 6-8 months and reassess (oak, blend with something else, etc) from there.

>>1629466
just finished my first biab. wort came out at 30% brewhouse effeciency. kill me now

Does hard cider and mead need to age before you drink it?

>>1664609
Anything you brew will be better with age, especially mead.

Rate my hooch trunk

New England brewer checking in. Fuck rainy weather.

>>1664318
Finished my 2nd all-grain brew on Sunday with 69% efficiency. I think I used too much sparge water and also didn't boil for a full 60 mins.

I was shooting for a starting gravity of 1.055 and got 1.051.

>>1664733
no-climate-control/10

>>1665150
Hmmm, how would that be done?

>hydrometer shows no sugar left (actually below water)
>still tastes sweet
What gives?

>>1665311
>What gives?
You suck

>>1664733
ghetto but functional/10

>>1665311
have you tested your hydrometer in plain water?

>>1665311
What's your expected abv?

Just started a low-tech mead with raisins, orange peel and black tea in a 1gal jug. CSBrews recipe. The cork that I got from the homebrew shop was too small for the jug, so temporarily just leaving the cap on loosely; I hope that works out.

First brew, so wish me luck.

Is it actually necessary to keep buying yeast, or can I just take the leftovers after racking and add it to the next batch?

>>1639370
>free fridge off CL and buying a programmable controller for it.
This is why I love /diy/.

Is the trub at the bottom of the beer a solid clump or loose particles? Trying to guess if I should transfer with tap+rubber tube or invest in siphon.

>>1665840
Of course, and it's 1.000.
>>1665900
12%, why? I should clarify that I'm using fruit juices, so there could be non-fermentable sugars - but that doesn't explain the low reading despite the sweetness.

plato masterrace reporting

>>1665951
it is not necessary to keep buying, but there are better methods than reusing a yeast cake slurry

>>1666006
>there are better methods
Can you share? I hate to pay for something I can do myself.

>>1666008
You can keep your own yeast library with some basic aseptic techniques. You just need:

spare mini fridge
compound microscope with slides
agar
petri dishes
agar slants
innoculation loops
DME

>>1636029
Get a better seal next time.

>>1664733
tastes like botulism

>>1665951
I reuse yeast cakes all the time, mostly because i can't be arsed to clean the carboys.
>rack the liquid botulism
>poor in the sugar and the jews
>shake
Saves a lot of time too. I also notice i can get a slightly higher abv but i'm entering broscience territory here.
I've read someone speculate only the cells with a higher resistance to alcohol survive so the next generation is more alcohol resistant, but this might be bullshit.

>>1665311
this happened to me and it ended up being the hydrometer's bottom was broken and all the weights fell out. it took a while for me to notice

>>1667780
anon said water is still at 1.000 though

>>1665963
Which fruit juices? All apple sugars are fermentable, but pears contain sorbitol which does not ferment out.

Bought an alcoholmeter off Amazon for my cider but apparently it is for 'distilled spirits only'.

Should i return it? I just need a ballpark abv

/ck/ here

I wonder if you know about making fruit rum maceration shelf stable

watermelon is great fresh but looses it's flavor almost immediately
dragonfruit quickly looses it's colour
,mango has too many particles I can't seem to get out by filtering, and freezing kills the colour
coconut has issues with oil, which in open bottles floats and goes rancid on the insides of the bottle like milk would

also wondering the best way of getting pure alcohol from dark rum for lighting tiki drinks on fire, commercial alternatives arent available

>>1668261
Yes, return it. You need a hydrometer (pic related) and you need to take gravity readings before and after fermentation. Spirit alcohol readers like that assume 0 sugar content, as sugar will alter the density of the liquid and therefore throw off the results of the meter you bought.
What you need is to use a hydrometer to measure starting gravity, then use it again to measure final gravity once you finish fermentation (but before you sweeten if backsweetening) and use a chart or calc to determine your approx ABV.

>>1664609
As >>1664626 said, it'll be better with age.
That being said, I make a vanilla-cinnamon mead, and I pretty much always will draw up a few glasses of it straight out of the bottling bucket after sweetening to drink while I'm bottling/kegging my product.

I bottled my first batch of ale on Sunday. Filled up exactly 40 half a liter bottles with almost nothing left behind, so I lost about three liters to measuring and racking. Not bad at all.
When should I pop one open to see if co2 is being made?

Can you reuse old carboys that you've fermented in or are they to hard to clean?

>>1657198
LOL

Making a 5 gallon batch of Basil Saison. My question is is it better to add the basil at flame out for a few minutes, "dry hop" the last few days, or make a tincture and add prior to kegging?

>>1668801
You can reuse them. StarSan is your friend. Remove all excess crud and give the carboy a good rinse before sanitizing. No need to rinse after StarSan, just let it dry.

>>1668801
I assume youre using glass carboys. Just get a carboy cleaner (resembles a pipe cleaner but with a bend) and some soap/hot water. Simple as that!

>>1668725
I generally give about a month. 2 if you really wanna be safe.

>>1668871
No, plastic unfortunately. But soap and water should do I guess

96 oz Welch's grape juice
pour off 1 1/2 cup
add 1 cup sugar
shake well
add tablespoon of activated bread yeast
latex ballon with pinhole over neck of bottle
store in warm, dark, place for 5 days

5 days later

ballon inflated
lots of active bubbles
put in fridge overnight to stop yeast

next day

tastes like dirt and vinegar
Why does my pruno taste like dirt and vinegar? How do I make my pruno taste less like dirt and vinegar?

>>1668801
>>1668918
You can also use hot water with some PBW or Oxiclean. Let it sit overnight and it should get rid of a lot of crud

>>1669031
You fermented it for 6 days and then drank it?

I set my very first batch of mead going last night. I didn't use any yeast nutrients or that extra stuff, I'm trying to opt for a more natural method.
I boiled some lavender, blueberry tea, and a heavy handful of crushed blueberries before straining it into the carboy. Does that seem like it would provide enough nutrition for the yeast? It's only a 1 gallon batch by the way. Tits for attention

>>1669099
she looks like she fucks black guys

>>1669072
yeah, it was super dry and tasted like soil and vinegar so I poured it down the drain.