/diy/ - Do It Yourself

>>2613191
>>2615427
> topping up with cold water
I'm just starting out, is that something one can do? For my first batch last week I put the pot into my sink with cold water and stirred until it was around 28C, then I pitched the yeast (I know it was too warm). Because if I can add cold water I'd wait with adding more before boiling and do it after boiling to cool down the wort more quickly.

>>2615839
Not too sure what your question is. Can it be done? Sure. Technically it’s not “sterile water” but it’s definitely clean enough for brewing, if you want to be sure you can boil the water the day before and let it cool down in a sterile vessel.

For sugar wines and the likes, sugar can be dissolved in 1:1 ratio at boiling temperature. So if you need 200g/L, you can dissolve 1000g/L in boiling water and top up with about 5 times that amount of cold water, cooling it down pretty much instantly. This also automatically corrects for the volume of sugar

>>2615839
I usually boil with half my water and put the rest in the fridge to cool the wort faster.

>>2615872
>>2615875
Thanks! Yes, my question was about the water not being sterile.

>>2615895
I don’t know if it’s from a well or something, but here it comes from the water company and they test it for live organic matter and it’s clean. I let the tap run for a minute to make sure I get cold and ‘new’ water. And put some hot water or star San in a cup and hold it over the faucet head to make sure that’s clean.

I have wine brewing yeast and strawberries are in season. My only experience with brewing is in mead and I kinda fucked it by letting it run until it stopped bubbling. Should've shocked the yeast out at one week when it still had a nice apple-y sweetness with a wine cooler tier of alcohol. Now I've got 10% flavorless beer. So I'm wondering how I can make strawberry wine in my carboy and how I'd need to prep the strawberries.

>>2615839
Do you mean tap water?? You shouldn't use unfiltered tap water as it's usually chlorinated

>>2615901
>>2615978
yes, I'm talking about tap water. The chlorine content is 16 mg/L

>>2615992
I heard that the chlorine evaporates if one lets it sit e.g. overnight but desu I totally forgot about it before brewing. The yeast seems to be happy though. I also used tap water for my cherry wine last year.

>>2615929
>kinda fucked it by letting it run until it stopped bubbling
why is that bad?

>>2616003
That sentence and the two following it are all explaining one thing.

>>2615929
>My only experience with brewing is in mead and I kinda fucked it by letting it run until it stopped bubbling
That's not a mistake, that's how Mead is done, it's how every fermented, alcoholic beverage is done.

>Should've shocked the yeast out at one week when it still had a nice apple-y sweetness with a wine cooler tier of alcohol
Then you'd kill your chance to properly clear out the mead afterwards.

>Now I've got 10% flavorless beer
Add sugar and citric acid and all the flavor will come back. Also, don't make the classic mistake and think that a fermented beverage will taste like the ingredients, it won't. If you want alcoholic apple-juice, mix alcohol and apple-juice. Cider never tastes like apple-juice and mead never tastes like honey, that's in the nature of fermentation.

>So I'm wondering how I can make strawberry wine in my carboy and how I'd need to prep the strawberries.
Strawberries are really finicky, it happens really easily and totally randomly that the strawberries start to mold in the fermenter. That's the reason why there aren't that many strawberry wines out there and why real strawberry brandy is so expensive.
You can try it but as soon as you see any fluffy, white stuff on top of the strawberries, throw everything out.
If you really have nice, sweet fresh strawberries, I wouldn't go the fermentation route and would rather use them to make a nice strawberry liqueur. Just buy neutral, clear spirit with at least 80% ABV.

>Add 250ml of your clear spirit to a mason jar
>Add as many finely cut strawberries so that all of them are below the water-line
>Add 150g of sugar on top
>Either add half a vanilla pod for a warm flavor or a mint twig for a fresh flavor
>Let it sit for 3-4 weeks at a dry and warm (room temperature) place
>Swirl the jar every 3 days
>After 4-5 weeks, press the entire contents through a cheese cloth into a second mason-jar
>Add 750ml of distilled water or less (to get around 20-25% ABV) and sugar to taste
>Bottle it up

>>2615584
wild yeast isn't inherently bad but pretty unpredictable. I've done lots of trials capturing wild yeast for fermentation and find that most of them don't attenuate as much as youd like, produce off flavors, or otherwise disappoint.

you can prop up wild yeasts from different fruits or even just ambient airflow but it takes time and work and is risky. traditional lambic makers let their wort cool in an open vessel overnight where ambient yeast and bacteria fall into it then they transfer to wooden barrels. I'd be willing to bet they all add a healthy pitch of lab-grown yeast in addition to this spontaneous fermentation. you could try something like that if you wanted (just look up a "coolship").

you could also replicate the wild experience with a funky/souring blend, blend your own yeasts, or just pitch something you like and go for it.

>>2615584
you can grow barley and malt it but both of these things take a lot of experience and are super impractical at a small scale. hop growing is probably the only reasonable thing for a one-man operation to do and will be a lot of work for little yield

>>2615584
>>2616032
I’ll add to this anon: I’ve never been able to find a wild yeast without contaminants. All fruits I’ve tried (apples, pears, prunes) that grow here either have Bretts, acetobacter, or mold on them. Sometimes especially at higher gravity I can get the wild yeast to out-compete all the other stuff but to me the results with wild yeast were not worth pursuing it further. But English cider makers and the ‘craft nature wine’ hype people swear by them so I guess it can be done

>>2616074
>>2616035
How difficult is it? I mostly just want to do it because I think it would be cool to grow my own beer myself. Is it just challenging or is it basically impossible?

>>2616622
How much space and what kind of equipment do you have? Grain is a pain in the ass, hops is rather easy I'd say. If you're gardening hops are no harder than other crops, but they tend to take a few years to establish. You should still get one or more batches out of your first year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIO1EE6sjJA
In this video they grow some hops for a beer. If you want more recipe focused videos (and stuff about homebrewing) I can highly recommend the TheApartmentBrewer youtube channel.

Anyway, hops plants are not too expensive, I'd say just go with it.

>>2615584
Bibere is the best choice for novice and expert brewers alike

>>2616690
god please dont spoil my view of hillbillies with this living basedjak

Would it be worth fatwashing mead?

I'm thinking of a brown butter mead for like a caramel corn flavor

>>2616074
Can't you just take samples and grow on agar?
Then just select the colonies that are mostly yeast and use those?

>>2616789
You would want to fat-wash with a neutral spirit like vodka, then add it to the mead. I don't think fat-washing directly with something like mead would work very well. That is an interesting idea however. I wonder if you could get a caramel apple flavor with it in a cyser.

>>2616690
>In this video they grow some hops for a beer. If you want more recipe focused videos (and stuff about homebrewing) I can highly recommend the TheApartmentBrewer youtube channel.

Have a friend who grows his own hops for brewing, they don't require much space at all as they're a climbing plant like peas or certain flowers. He grew them along wires or cords from stakes in the garden up to the roof of his porch. You could presumably do the same with a small vegetable garden bed and a net or trellis on an apartment balcony with decent sun.

Question: what's the best way to pasteurize/sterilize botanicals for brewing? I've picked some lemons, oranges and fresh rosemary from my FIL's garden and want to use the latter two in a mead batch. Can I just throw them in the oven for a couple minutes at a certain temperature to kill off anything that might be hitching a ride? I plan on using just the orange zest and maybe the juice, avoiding the white pith which I've been warned against.

>>2616796
Yes you could, probably, if you have some microbiology skills, Petri dishes, agar, pipettes, etc.
I’d love to do it as an experiment some time but don’t have the lab equipment, and brewing wise it’s not worth it to me. I would also have no idea how one would to identify s cerevisae from any other yeast. I guess I’d brew tiny batches to find one that doesn’t spoil, has the right attenuation and doesn’t taste terrible

>>2616787
hahaha there are way better videos about hops growing but I recently watched the clawhammer one so I linked it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hINhmjQgoM
This one goes much more in depth.

I'd like to have 10L wort, but my pot is only 10L. Can I add the amount of malt for a 10L batch to e.g. 6L, and afterwards top it off with the remaining water or won't the gravity rise high enough (for whatever reason)?

>>2617074
ok I just found out about high gravity brewing. I think I'll buy a temperature controlled pot first and that will have a higher volume anyway. Keeping the temperature on the stove manually was a pain in the ass the last time.

>>2617074
Your plan isn't that easy, there is a reason why people suggest that you use a pot double the size of your batch size.

Let's start the process from the back to the front:
>Boiling
While boiling your wort, you'll lose about 4 liters per 60 minutes, so if you start your boil with the maximum of 10 liters in your pot, you'll end up with 6 liters batch size.
If you want to boil with a lid as to reduce the boil-off rate, it means that you need to mash-in with a larger amount of grains which brings us to the next problem

>Mashing
Mashing with less water than necessary increases your so called mash-thickness. The thicker your mash, the worse you can stir it and the worse the starch to sugar conversion rate. If you now plan to boil with a lid, you need to further increase the amounts of grain, thus further increasing the mash-thickness. And that's an exponential problem, because the more grains you need to use, the less water you can use.

You can always correct volumes and gravities with a sparge, but sparging further requires an additional volume in your kettle.

In all seriousness, with a 10 liter pot, I'd calculate with a 5-6 liter batch-size, everything else is just a hassle not worth it. If you want 10 liter batches, start with a 16-20 liter pot.

An alternative would be to use your fermentation bucket as a buffer for your wort after mashing so that you can implement a sparging step.
>Mash-in at maximum volume
>Fill wort into fermentation bucket and add more hot water to your mash-kettle to sparge the grains
>Remove the grains and add wort from the fermentation bucket back to the kettle

That way you can retain some of the volume, but it's a hassle.

>>2617132
4 liters for an hour boiling? sounds way too high evaporation ,maybe i don't boil it heavily enough. Think i average around 1L of evaporation an hour.

>>2617132
Thanks! I realized that it's not worth it (at that size). I will buy an "Einkochautomat" (this model: Klarstein Lady Marmalade Einkochautomat) (elecrtic canning machine?). It holds 27 litres and one can dial in the temperature. It solves two of my 'problems'.

>>2617132
>>2617160
This is my current 4L batch, it's supposed to be a Pils/Lager but I won't be able to clear it so it will stay 'naturtrüb'/hazy.
I kept it fermenting outside in a garden shed for a few days but the night temperatures are sinking to around 4C for the next few days so I moved it to a cool place in the house (and took some pics).

>>2617160
An Einkochautomat is a good solution, either from Weck (Which are really cheap in Germany on the ebay Kleinanzeigen app) or the one from Klarstein. But be advised that 1800W for 27 liters is not enough to get a roiling boil due to the integrated temperate protection. In the old, analog version of the Weck Automat, you were able to bypass the bi-metal protection circuit to reach a full boil but in case your house burned down, insurance won't pay. As for the Klarstein Automat you need to additionally use an immersion heater in the boil phase to reach a roiling boil. But I think that just putting an immersion heater into the Klarstein for 60 minutes is far, far less hassle than what you tried with the 10 liter pot.

>>2617136
Yep, 4 liters per hour is the standard estimation for a roiling boil, totally independend of volume. For gas, depending on how many kW your burner puts through, it might even be higher. Most automatic brewing systems, like the ones from Klarstein, Speidel, Brew Monk, etc. don't have enough power to reach a roiling boil, which needs to be considered when calculating water usage in your recipes.
My brew setup, from mash-out, over boil temperature increase, 60 minute boil and cooling phase to 72°C evaporates a little less than 6 liters.

>>2617166
Looks really nice and clarification occurs after fermentation is done and can be further enhanced by cold-crashing it afterwards. But I like German Landbier or Kellerbier, when it's still hazy.

Did you use a bottom-fermenting lager yeast for the beer and what is your ambient temperature outside?

>>2617179
Yes, I've used W-34/70 yeast. The ambient temperatures were between 7C-18C but the shed is a little cooler during the day and doesn't cool down completely during the night.

>>2617169
It would be certainly easier to use an additional immersion heater than to keep an close eye on the temperature during mashing.

I just bottled the five gallon batch of apple cyser on the right today. Started February 18th at 1.122 OG. 4 gallons of honeycrisp apple cider, and 10 pounds of wildflower honey. Racked to secondary on April 12th at a specific gravity of 1.004, and added 35 grams of medium toast French oak cubes, 5 allspice berries, 4 cloves, and 3 sticks of cinnamon. Final gravity was still 1.004. The aroma is a little heavy on the cinnamon, but the flavor is pretty balanced with the other spices. I think next time I will use 2 cinnamon sticks instead. I used pectic enzyme before starting fermentation, but it never cleared up at all. I think that could be because I used the cheapest honeycrisp apple cider I could find. In total for all the ingredients, and consumable supplies used in the entire process the total cost of this batch was about $70 USD.

6 ½ kg sugar wash in pot still

Can anybody redpill me on kveik yeasts? I didn't start brewing until weather cooled down post summer here, and I'm really enjoying it. But when summer hits, it'll be 30c or higher inside my house every day. What styles does it excel with?

>>2618460
I used them a few times but since I always ferment at room temperature (22°c) it's not hot enough to really benefit from the ultrafast fermentation and esters produced, still faster though, and they drop like stones.
I think he only downside is there is not a lot of choice.

>>2616796
not all yeasts are hop tolerant, attenuate well, taste good/neutral.

so yeah you could do that and get yeast, but not necessarily good yeast for brewing beer

>>2616809
from a ton of experience sterilizing botanicals is unnecessary. I put all sorts of herbs and spices in my beer all the time and they are stable enough with the IBUs even at a moderate level. if you really want you can make a tincture and soak them in alcohol. heat can change the flavor.

My spiced wheat beer has nearly finished primary but unfortunately after sampling it, it's almost tasteless. I flavoured with coriander, cinnamon and nutmeg but couldn't really taste any. I hopped lightly (7g Hallertau for a 10L brew). Is the flavour going to develop later on, can I add something at this point to improve it? This was the first time I opened the container and thr blowoff tube has been underwater so it's not oxidised.

>>2617166
The airlock rarely bubbles anymore but the beer looks still hazy and the yeast doesn't seem to flocculate. Is it normal that the bubbles slow down that much or should it continue being more active? I'm afraid that I killed the yeast while the beer was outside.
I think it should be fine but I don't want to take a sample hydrometer reading while it's bubbling.

>>2618347
probably shouldnt make cuts that large unless thats the strip run

will this cause pressure issues, and is my solder good enough? i had to bend my pipe into position (the stainless tube on the right is at an angle but i needed that elbow on the left to go straight down) but because i didnt use a proper tube bender it came out with a lot of dents. also, how can i clean up all the discoloration to give it an even polished copper look? would just sanding it down a bit work?

>>2618743
you care too much anon

>>2618746
so its fine, isnt it? thats pretty much the only thing i wanted to be sure of. other than that, i want to know how to make it a little nicer looking since i've poured so much money into this

>>2618734
Was stripping run then refluxed

>>2618743
heres a picture that shows the dent better, i polished it a bit with just steel wool so i think the looks will be fine

Just received the package with the malts for a best bitter. Never had one before, I'm looking forward to how it turns out and if I like it. Afterwards I plan on tasting a 'professionally' brewed one. Any recommendations?

>>2617169
So I decided to go a completely different route. I read about the Einkochautomaten and the biggest drawback I could find was that the temperature keeping is not that good, the range when it starts/stops heating is rather high and that kind of defeats the purpose for me (although I'm sure the beer that is made with them is great).
I've read up on sous vide sticks and just ordered one (barely used). The model keeps the temperature within one degree C and can be used with up to 20L, which is more than my current biggest fermenter (15L).
For the boil I will simply use my stove. I don't have to move anything as I can simply stick the stick into my pot and remove it once it gets to the boil. I already mash the malt in a bag, so no problems with clogging up the stick either.
With 70 Euro it is also way cheaper than an Einkochautomat or beer brewing system. The saved money could go towards getting a 10L Kegging system or something like that.
I will definitely report back after my next brew.!

>>2615584
NEVER EVER EVER EVER BUY A USED KEG FROM ANYWHERE!!!!! EVEN A RESPECTED BREW STORE!!!
EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I kegged a beer in a used keg and the first few times it worked fine but then I lost an entire keg because I didn't realize it was leaking.
Then it worked a couple more times... then I checked and noticed it was leaking after I lost 2 gallons.
Then it happened AGAIN and now I lost half my keg AGAIN!!!! This time it's not even the same used keg it was another one I got from somewhere else.
Both kegs worked the first time I used them. Both were bought from homebrew supply stores (so not just some random guy on Craigslist). But both leaked.

NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER BUY A USED KEG!!!
>but new kegs cost twice as muc--
NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER BUY A USED KEG!!!

learn from my mistakes /diy/

>>2619342
lmao just fix the keg

>>2619342
Change the fucking o-rings you sperg

got some hibiscus mead started today

>>2619342
Skill issue, lmao

>>2618460
depends on the kveik but they're all quite expressive ime, though voss in particular is an orange juice bomb. expect anything you brew to taste like it was brewed with a bizzaro universe Belgian yeast. I like them for IPAs and pale ales mostly. Or anything that needs to be drinking within a week.

>>2619617
Was it voss from Lallemand, Omega or another lab? I found out they can be very different, also lutra is allegedly very neutral with high alcohol tolerance.

>>2619342
eh i think its fine, you were probably unlucky
i got a 5 gallon sanke keg for 75 bucks and overall it was in pretty good condition, just weathering on the surface
but, i would say a good way of making sure it has no leaks is by cleaning it out with boiling water, and then leave some in there and seal it. A day or two later, unseal the keg slowly and you should hear some pressure being released due to putting boiling water in it.
also, never buy aluminum if you can, thats probably why yours had a leak, they're just not that durable

>>2619116
>For the boil I will simply use my stove
Just remember that 1 liter of water turns into 1600 liters of steam, which with 4 liters of boil-off are 6400 liters of steam.
If your stove is now indoors, there is no way that you'll get rid of that moisture effectively before it seeps into the walls.
So if by "stove" you mean the stove in your kitchen, definitely boil with a lid and design your recipe accordingly.

>>2619342
Sounds like tough luck to me.
The online shop where I get my kegs only sells refurbished ones with all seals replaced and pressure tested.
Also, German regulations states that these vessels can't be transported without pressure inside, no matter if empty or filled, so they will add pressure before shipping them. When I receive them, I pull the PRV and there always has been pressure inside.
If you have the option to buy refurbished kegs at a slightly higher price, do that.

>>2618460
Totally missed this post.
Kveik yeast is something very interesting and unique but being "the next big thing" never happened. I remember around 4-5 years ago how everyone jumped on the Kveik Hype-Train, pretending that all other yeasts completely lost their purpose but looking at the market right now, it seems like everything has gone back to normal.
Kveik really has it's merits though, in my opinion it excels with bitter, fruity IPAs, especially when you use hops like Southern Tropics, with its nice candy-cane / bubblegum characteristics.
Some Kveik yeasts also bring aroma like Yogurt Gums or Frufoo which oddly fits well with those sweet, exotic fruit hops.

If you'd like to experience this, try to get a last can of
>Spaceman Dust: Lost in Haze
By Sudden Death Brewing Co.
https://untappd.com/b/sudden-death-brewing-co-spaceman-dust-lost-in-haze/4959501

>>2619770
> If your stove is now indoors, there is no way that you'll get rid of that moisture effectively before it seeps into the walls.
Nta but this is bullshit. I make candles and used to boil off 2-5L daily for multiple days, in a small apartment. My cheap name-brand dehumidifier fills up its 4L reservoir in about 8 hours. Just open a window, do it on a sunny day and it’ll be fine. Also a generic kitchen extractor hood will condensate the water in its exhaust and let it drip back down

> 1 liter of water turns into 1600 liters of steam
And immediately turns back into water vapour before it even leaves the pan.

>>2619822
>And immediately turns back into water vapour before it even leaves the pan.
This, if you can see it, it's airborne condensation

>>2619770
>>2619770
>definitely boil with a lid and design your recipe accordingly
Ignoring the rest for a second, what do you mean by that? I'm just starting out. I heard one shouldn't boil with a lid so that certain compounds vaporize.

>>2619822
I don't know where you live and what kind of climate there is but I can guarantee you, in the average German apartment in the average German climate, you'll do that twice before starting to get mold problems and an eviction by your landlord.
If it's your apartment/house, do whatever you think is necessary...

>I heard one shouldn't boil with a lid so that certain compounds vaporize.
That's nothing more than a myth, told by home brewers who want themselves to be perceived as something better than other home brewers.
Here's the colleagues from Brülosophy doing the lid-on lid-off blind test on two different beers:

Festbier:
>https://brulosophy.com/2016/10/31/the-boil-lid-on-vs-lid-off-exbeeriment-results/

Munich Helles:
>https://brulosophy.com/2021/05/10/the-boil-effect-lid-on-vs-lid-off-in-a-munich-helles-exbeeriment-results/

>what do you mean by that?
Example:
You want to make a beer for a fermenter volume of 15 liters, you'll chose the grain to give you the desired gravity for 15 liters. You calculate for boil-off during mashing, grain-absorption and boil-off during 60 minutes boil.
That means that right before the boil you should have 19 liters in your boil kettle to account for the 4 liters of boil-off during 60 minutes without a lid.
If you'd use that exact recipe with exactly that amount of water and you have the 19 liters before the boil but you boil with a lid on, you'll have a boil-off of less than 0.5 liters (Due to the hop-spider preventing you from perfectly closing the lid) or maybe almost 0. That means you'll end up with 19 liters fermenter volume and a lower gravity than you aimed for.
So just plan ahead and try to calculate the needed water for mashing and sparging, so you'll hit 15.0 - 15.5 liters of pre-boil volume.

>>2620438
thanks for the detailed answer! I'll read up on your links and might boil with a lid this weekend.

wish me luck

>>2620789
Looks Based bro.

>>2620789
Setup looks great, what are you cooking up?

>>2620998
gonna do rum, i finished the cleaning run earlier
however, when i was draining the vinegar from cleaning, after i had gotten through everything i fucked up and tried to drain the pot by unscrewing this plug and instead of it draining into a bucket like i expected, it sprayed boiling vinegar on my hands and pants, and since it was so hot i couldnt do anything as it dumped 2 gallons of boiling vinegar all over the floor. luckily, the floor is concrete and there were just old boxes, so nothing too important got damaged, but i burned my hand pretty badly and wound up having to stay home from work
luckily for me that just means more time to distill

>>2621032

its insane to me how this alone costs more than my homebuilt still, its fucking 400

>>2621096
Lovely bit of work though. Chinesium made by slaves conditions people to expect everything to be cheap. It would cost vastly more if custom built by a local machine shop.

>>2621099
while i agree with your sentiment on paying for something nicely made from a machine shop, from what i can tell all those parts are not sold to these places for nearly as much as they sell it to the public
of course, i understand that these businesses have to sell this high just to make a decent profit, and i cant really blame them for that, because regardless of how inexpensive these goods are, if not many people are buying them they wont be able to pay their bills or their employees and make a profit.
although, for as much as i understand their issues, i'm just a college student doing this as a hobby, I struggle just as much as those businesses may with financial balance, and i'm not a charity, so like hell i'm going to pay four fucking hundred

>>2615584
new batch of cider is done.

>>2619342
You have to replace seals and add sealing grease retard.

>>2620789
guys why is my still heating up in like half the time from before

>>2621357
no wait, i think i understand, its because alcohol wash probably heats up way faster than vinegar water, but this is only a 5% wash and i didnt think it would have an impact

>>2621096
>lots of different parts
>multiple clamps
>glass window
>all in food grade stainless steel
Price seems fairly standard, this is why I use a plastic fermenter.

>>2621142
ok

>>2621096
I'm head clerk in a model shop for jigs and fixture fabrication and rapid prototyping and we already had a small, custom made part, made of spring steel which we sold for 350.00 EUR, because it took our fabricator 3 hours to create that part, so I can understand prices like that.
On the other hand, we're not talking custom-made one-of-a-kind parts here, they're mass produced. But even the tri-clamps (which have to be mass produced) cost over 20.00 EUR ea. in Germany, so I think that logistics and storage-cost might play some major part in it.
But it's a really strange phenomena, I've seen people with a 3 pot HERMS Brewing system, completely built out of tri-clamp parts and it's just strange to see how they spent thrice or quadruple the price only for the tri-clamp parts of what I paid for my entire brew setup.

>>2621142
Tell us something about it.
Tasting notes, alcohol content, raw materials, etc.

>>2621674
6% abv. I used safcider ab-1 yeast, 3 quarts store brand apple juice with one can of apple juice concentrate and fermaid o. Iv'e done this before without yeast nutrient but I didn't get full attenuation. sorry for not giving more info in my first post. I was quite drunk

>>2621735
Do you drink it flat, or do you carbonate when bottling?
Also what was the amount of apple concentrate? Do you use it to boost the apple flavor?

>>2622058
>Do you drink it flat
yeah, flat and room temp
>what was the amount of apple concentrate?
12oz
>Do you use it to boost the apple flavor?
mostly to boost abv but it does give it more flavor. although with cheap apple juice the yeast contributes almost as much flavor

I want to get into brewing mead (as I hear that's the easiest alcohol to learn on). The links in op are all petty technical. Can someone recommend a quality beginner guide? Anything I need besides a carboy, valve plug, sanitizer, yeast, honey, and stuff to decant?

I have kind of an emergency right now.

I planned on my first (ever) batch having finished fermentation today (after fermenting 15 days).
The gravity sits at 1.025, the expected gravity was 1.010 (from 1.051 OG).
I think the fermentation got stuck at some point, it probably was too cold outside.
What do I do now? Add more yeast to it?

Pat of my problem is that I just started another batch and wanted to reuse the yeast from the first batch, so I have no yeast (except bread yeast) on hand.

There is no local place that I know of that has beer yeast. The first batch will be fine as it sits in the fermenter. But I guess I need to abort the new batch because there is nothing that I can do with the wort afterwards.

>>2622471
ok, I just found another packet of yeast, it's a different type though (s-04 instead of 34/70) so at least I will not have to through away the wort.

The first problem persists though. I have shaken the fermenter and will place it at a warmer place hoping that it starts fermenting again.

>>2622471
For next time, bread yeast is fine if the alternative is to throw away your wort

>>2622476
If it has stalled, shaking may not help, or it may but take like 2 days or so. Bit of nutrient may help, or just a tiny bit of new yeast

>>2622278
The faqs in the OP answer a lot of questions and from there it’s just figure out what you want to make really

>>2621096
>>2621673
Don’t forget that any part that has the food safety certification (forgot what it’s called) for cold products is like 3x the price of what it would cost normally. In factories, such parts are cleaned in place with lye but that requires all inside welds to be absolutely free of even the tiniest holes

>>2622471
>>2622476
sometimes you're just out of luck, and yeast dont want to consume more sugar
is there a possibility of non fermentable sugars that could make it seem like there were more sugars than there actually is? like if you're brewing mead or rum wash which is full of unfermentables, or if you're making beer did the grains properly convert to sugars? thats my guess
put a blanket around it, sit it next to any heater you might have, use aluminum foil or foam, just about anything could help heat
regardless, i dont think its the end of the world, 3.4% should still make a decent low beer that you can drink fairly often without worrying about getting drunk from, or it could serve as an appetizer for other alcohol, and since its fermented cold with a lot of sugar left it should be tasty too

>>2622491
>Don’t forget that any part that has the food safety certification (forgot what it’s called) for cold products is like 3x the price of what it would cost normally. In factories, such parts are cleaned in place with lye but that requires all inside welds to be absolutely free of even the tiniest holes
ah thank you for this explanation
so basically, its the government's fault
now i have another reason to hate the government for alcohol related reasons

>>2622491
If the fermentation won't kick off I'll get some new yeast. Otherwise I can't bottle them anyways.

>>2622493
I thought it tasted pretty good when I tried a small sample while checking the gravity. I'm not sure if that is possible, it was my first batch ever so I guess I could have done something wrong? I think the yeast died when I had the fermenter in the garden shed. It got pretty cold during the nights. I've placed it in the attic where it's warmer so I hope fermentation kicks off again.

>>2622471
>I planned on my first (ever) batch having finished fermentation today (after fermenting 15 days).
Brews, especially if you never brewed them before, can't really be "planned to be finished".
Did you take gravity readings on 3 consecutive days to make sure fermentation is really over?
Also, depending on how you mashed and on which yeast you used, your fermentation is likely to just be over.
The longer you mash and the hotter your mash-out, the more unfermentable sugars you create.
And the higher your starting gravity, the higher your final gravity. There are Pastry Stouts out there with final gravities higher than 1.040.
The last Dark Doppelbock I brewed had a final gravity of 1.020 and was expected to be there to have a nice sweet balance. The yeast attenuated to 71% which was completely in the normal range of that yeast.
I'd suggest you give your beer a try and see if it tastes good.
If it's good, everything is good.

>>2622501
>I thought it tasted pretty good when I tried a small sample while checking the gravity.
So that's good. As long as it tastes good everything is fine.
>>2622501
>think the yeast died when I had the fermenter in the garden shed
No dice, yeast won't die from the cold that easily. You can even harvest your yeast after cold crashing at 1°C.
If your beer tastes good and the gravity is stable, then your beer is simply finished.

>>2622572
Different Anon but I have to ask about the risk of fermentation restarting after considering it finished in such a scenario. I assume kegs have relief valves but bottling seems questionable, which would imply that it should be stabilized regardless?

>>2622586
>I assume kegs have relief valves but bottling seems questionable
Even though the kegs have a PRV, fermentation-restart will cause the beer in the keg to over-carbonate and it takes quite some time to get the carbonation out of the beer in a controlled fashion. With bottles you're sool.
That's why the consecutive gravity measurements at the end of the fermentation is so important. Also, when you want to bottle the beer, just take a sample, put it into a small vessel to which you can attach a blow off siphon and add sugar to the beer.
If you get activity, your fermentation is not stuck and it's safe to bottle. If you don't get activity, your fermentation is stuck.

>>2622595
>over-carbonate
Ah, I hadn't thought of the relief threshold.

My question comes from a science background but I suppose I don't know enough of the biology (I at least flipped through a metabolic pathways chapter) to know what exactly it means for fermentation to be stuck. You said to call it finished if the gravity is stable, so I felt a need to follow up on the context being a question of whether it was stuck. You are saying that a stuck fermentation arbitrarily restarting is indeed a meaningful risk, advise to run such a test to determine whether it is truly stuck and, if so (and deciding to just let that be "finished"), stabilize before packaging?

>>2622491
>op has all the answers
Obviously not or I wouldn't have posted. You clearly have not read any of those links.

>>2622647
>op has all the answers
pretty sure anon said "a lot of answers", retard
for your first brew i suggest apple flavoured bleach so we have one less twat on this board

>>2622586
why not just make it easier on yourself and just get a tap for the keg? might be fucked if you absolutely need bottled beer though

I bought a bucket and bubble lid thing today and I’m ready to brew. Just gotta pick up some painters cloth as a makeshift BAIB bag

>>2615584
You can’t grow your ingredients unless you only want to grow once a year. Are you seriously going to grow grains and malt them? And your question about grapes is retarded too; yeast is everywhere just go find it or grow it yourself from a sample. You can grow hops but I don’t see the point

>>2622737
>And your question about grapes is retarded too; yeast is everywhere just go find it or grow it yourself from a sample
I'm afraid you are the retard here.

>>2622561
>>2622572
thanks! That is reassuring. I will check again on Monday if the gravity reading moved, if not I will simply bottle it.
My biggest concern is that it won't carbonate in the bottle but if the yeast is simply finished and not dead I don't mind it at all.

The other batch from yesterday is very active and smells very good (as does the first batch).
I'm looking forward to getting a bigger pot so that I can to 10-12L batches. Then I'd have a full 'Kasten' every time I brew.

>>2622561
>The longer you mash and the hotter your mash-out, the more unfermentable sugars you create.
btw. this was my meshing schedule
45 min @ 63C/145F
30 min @ 70C/158F
15 min @ 76C/169F
I had to keep the temperature manually by tweaking the stove and checked with a thermometer so the temperatures were always +-2C off.
During my second brew I used the sous vide stick and the temperatures were much more stable.

What are the chances that something I make will spoil after about a year or so? I've got fucktons of dandelions and I heard dandelion wine is great, but I'm not exactly confident in my ability to completely sterilize my equipment , and I'm worried if I make some it will most likely spoil in the 1+ year aging process

>>2622804
> I'm looking forward to getting a bigger pot so that I can to 10-12L batches.
I have the 12L speidel fermenter and would very much recommend it. Cheap, HDPE, spigot, and easy to clean and move.

>>2622823
It will often suffer from oxidation unless you can bottle it under controlled atmosphere (or leave it in the vessel). If it’s 10%+, oxygen free and has no yeast/plant remains it should be okay

>>2622950
isn't there usually still some CO2 disolved even after degassing that would make oxidation relatively difficult if sealed properly?

>>2622990
Yes but it’s often a challenge as a home winemaker to get it in the bottle without aerating it. If you siphon or pour it into a bottle you often introduce so much air that it will still oxidate over time

Bottling day! Ginger wine. 8L bottled, 1L in freezer

The 34Bx starting gravity was no problem for ec1118, in fact it chewed through 20Bx in 3 days, before slowing down and finishing (at tolerance level) on day 10.
It’s like ginger beer but 18%, with anise, cinnamon, and some added citric acid. Going to age it for 5 weeks and then make it sweeter/more acidic to taste.

I was hoping for 10L but the dried ginger soaked up moisture like a sponge and I didn’t realise until bottling time. thx4readinmyblogpost

>>2619734
I've tried a few Voss isolates, Lutra and HHornindal. Lutra quite neutral but it still retains a very specific kind of fruitiness that kveiks tend to express, especially when underpitched and fermented hot -- which is really the main attraction with kveik.

Try a few and you'll probably see what I mean. I quite like it but I wouldn't brew a chocolate stout or something with it -- fortunately that One True Yeast hype has mostly passed.

>>2623400
drollander?

>>2623576
Sry I don’t speak Belgium

>>2623581
i'll take that as a yes

>>2623400
Recipe? I'm interested in brewing some ginger beer in an unused demijohn. How is ginger wine different?

>>2623588
> Recipe?
1000g dried ginger, 40g anise, 40g cinnamon, 30g vanilla extract, 3750 raw brown cane sugar and a teaspoon of yeast nutrient. Topped up with hot water to 12L. 1000g ginger is way too much, it’s really really sharp. Dried ginger is about twice as sharp as fresh ginger so I’d say 800g fresh or 400g dried ginger should be plenty

> How is ginger wine different?
I only know ginger beer as a drink that is around 1% abv and produced by a different yeast / scoby. Don’t know if there’s a better name, I just use ginger wine for a sugar wine spiced with ginger

>>2623597
Thanks anon, that's more or less in line with a recipe I've seen. Sugar wine with a heavy ginger flavouring. Did you use whole spices or ground? If the latter, did you just mix them straight into the wort?

>>2623599
I used whole anise stars and cinnamon sticks, and the dried ginger comes in small pellets. And I put all the dry ingredients in the fermenter first and then add the hot water to make sure it’s all clean. Technically could have sterilised the spices in the oven and used cold water instead but this was more convenient

>>2623557
Question about reusing yeast, tangentially related to kveik beers: I've seen online that it's generally advised against to reuse the same washed yeast from an original brew more than a couple of times or else you run the risk of it mutating/evolving to impart off tastes. Is this risk overblown if historically, most brewing yeast was acquired in a similar way to kveik? Does anyone here regularly wash their yeast and reuse it, and how does the finish product differ from a brew pitched with fresh (bought) yeast?

>>2623632
>washing yeast
lol. lmao even
i just dump the wort on the yeast cake and shake it up a bit. saves you also the effort of cleaning the carboy
compare this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnHjff6GrJw
with
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiREMM5MI9Y

as for the yeast growing a second head after only a few generations, not in my experience

Update on the pressure fermenter: all is going well after using some plumbing tape on the threads. Clarifying nicely, but I'm at 2.4 bar pressure and that means a hell of a head. Do I spund down to about half that and then just recharge with co2 as it flattens?

>>2623701
Wait isn't that 35psi? Not an expert on pressure fermentation but isn't that kinda high for fermentation?

>>2623727
Indeed it is high. But I do notice pressure loss with each pour, so if I spund down to like 18psi, after a few pours it might be 15 (or whatever). So I want to know if I'm committing to having to top off the pressure to the sweet spot after every pour.

>>2623686
Thanks for the vids anon, I figured the washing yeast shit was a bit overly complicated. I suppose most beers historically were brewed in the same fashion as the second video.

What should I do if my electric hob struggles to put enough heat out to vigorously boil my wort? I brew from extract and I don't get any hot break, I guess because the wort isn't hot enough.

>>2623917
Better insulated or smaller pan or a better lid. Or you could isolate the outside of the pan with rockwool but that’s kinda tricky.
Or add an $20 immersion heater.

>>2623928
I keep the lid off during boil to vent DMS. I put my steeping grains in from 30-75 C so having the lid on before the boil starts would be pointless. I'll look into the immersion heater though, thanks.

One week ago, I bottled a small batch of Belgian trippel in some thoroughly cleaned and then pasteurized bottles. I left it fermenting in primary for exactly 2 weeks before bottling. Looking in them now, I see tiny spots of thin film on the top surface of each bottle, but it doesn't look as dire as a lactobacillus infection. I can't take a pic because my phone's flashlight is the only thing I have at hand to see into the bottles. The beer is not fully bottle conditioned because there's still some flocculation going on so I'm assuming it's not fully done fermenting. Is this just yeast that is continuing to ferment on top of the beer or a bacterial infection? To be clear, the "film" is incredibly thin and not visibly white or particularly moldy. I gently shook a bottle up and the film completely disappeared into the beer and didn't stick to the glass like I'd expect of a mold or bacterial infection.

>>2624010
Is it definitely on top of the beer and not partly floating/submerged in it? I have had nearly transparent gelatinous masses that float at or just below the surface which as far as I can tell were some kind of protein clumping together. I'd open a bottle and smell/taste it.

>>2616032
Real Lambic is only made in Brussels and Pajottenland. This location is actually central to the taste due to the specific wild yeasts in that area of Belgium.

I want to do pine needle "sprite" which is also relying on wild yeasts. I like the taste of pine needles.

>>2624014
>Is it definitely on top of the beer and not partly floating/submerged in it?
Definitely floating on top.
> I have had nearly transparent gelatinous masses that float at or just below the surface
Yes this what it looks like. Similar to some drops of oil resting on top of a glass of water, but more solid than liquid.

>>2623632
kveik is dead easy to store. I've dehydrated it before but I don't see why you couldn't throw the trub in the fridge for a while.

https://www.garshol.priv.no/blog/393.html source from the kveik guy

>>2623857
i actually wanted to include this video as well regarding the yeast growing a second head, but i couldn't immediately find it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scFs9lspIqo
i did find it and was making a second reply but then my potato laptop decided to shut itself down and cba anymore, but here you go
tl;dw, yes it's overblown. i find it more credible to watch someone do the experiment in a video and making his own conclusions than some baseless broscience on an online forum.
this thread also does it so always be critical of what you read online

>>2616032
>I'd be willing to bet they all add a healthy pitch of lab-grown yeast in addition to this spontaneous fermentation.
no that's completely wrong. a significant part of the fermentation isn't even done by yeast but other bacteria instead, and it takes literally a year.
if you dumped some commercial yeast in there they presumably would dominate everything and the result would be completely different. and as other anon has said the environmental bacteria and yeasts are very local so it's impossible to make an exact replica in other areas
and it depends on the time of the year as well.
"i'm going to homebrew a lambic and it will be like the original" is not going to happen

>>2624110
>this thread also does it so always be critical of what you read online
correcting myself here
always be critical

>>2624110
>tl;dw, yes it's overblown. i find it more credible to watch someone do the experiment in a video and making his own conclusions than some baseless broscience on an online forum.
Agreed, I enjoyed that guy's videos. A good rule of thumb for beginners is that a lot of stuff you'll find online is bullshit/old wive's tales with the exception of the basic chemistry of brewing, and the need to thoroughly sanitize all your equipment. Can't tell you how many contradictory facts I found googling through various HB forums with no basis in fact before I just decided to experiment on my own.
If you believe various HB forum threads, using bread yeast when you're in a pinch is disastrous because it won't ferment higher than 4 or even 2%, your brew will taste like bread etc. Tried it myself and none of that was true, I got a mead of around 10-11%abv and given an appropriate amount of time, the flocculation dropped completely and I had a crystal clear drink with no "bready" flavouring.
A lot of this "broscience" is also peddled by blogs or sponsored sites that conveniently want to keep selling you whatever it is they're telling you won't work.

>>2624382
The exception, of course, is advanced level techniques or brewing with high cost ingredients or equipment, unless your time and money are endless.

>>2624382
> Tried it myself and none of that was true
Agree to your point but here you’re doing the same n=1 broscience here that everyone is doing. Bread yeast can be fine for brewing but some won’t do anything (not even make bread dough rise) under 30 degrees celsius. Why? Because they’re made that way to make automatic handling easier.

t. bakery guy

>>2622471
>>2622804
So I just took another reading and the gravity didn't move. I just read online that one has to adjust the reading when using a refractometer because it's made for sugar water and not alcohol, so the FG needs to be adjusted. The first batch sits at 1.025 (1.051OG) and the second batch at 1.023 (1.050OG).

>>2623400
This looks great. Do you already have tasting notes, or will you first try it in 5 weeks?

>>2623701
2.4 bar at which temperature? At 20°C that's 3 volumes of CO2 which is far too much. At 8°C it's about 4 volumes which would be even higher.
Use this calculator, set temperature to your fermenter temperature and volume to 1.8-2.1 and set your spunding valve to the resulting pressure in bar.
https://www.brewersfriend.com/keg-carbonation-calculator/

>>2623950
>I keep the lid off during boil to vent DMS
See my posting here >>2620438
"Venting DMS" is completely pointless.

>>2624010
If you can spare a bottle, just open one up and check the aroma. If you primed the beer before bottling, then of course it can easily just be yeast that is now eating the remaining sugars.

>>2624431
>So I just took another reading and the gravity didn't move
Then you can conclude that the yeast stopped working. If it's stalled or all the fermentable sugar is just gone (in case your FG is unexpectedly high) can be tested by taking a small sample, adding a bit of sugar and observing if fermentation kicks in again. If nothing happens, it's stalled, if it starts fermenting, then your beer is simply finished.
>I just read online that one has to adjust the reading when using a refractometer because it's made for sugar water and not alcohol
That's not quite correct. A refractometer is the preferred method in wine making because wine is very pure in the water, ethanol, fermentable sugar composition. Beer wort on the other hand contains unfermentable sugars, proteins and other trub which affects the resulting reading. For the simple "alcohol error", there are calculators online which do that for you.
I'd suggest to follow this guide
https://www.brewersfriend.com/how-to-determine-your-refractometers-wort-correction-factor/

>>2624382
>using bread yeast when you're in a pinch is disastrous because it won't ferment higher than 4 or even 2%, your brew will taste like bread etc
yeah i always roll my eyes everytime i encounter that one, it's a pure myth
bonus points for "bread yeast is selected to make CO2, not alcohol"

>>2624584
> This looks great. Do you already have tasting notes, or will you first try it in 5 weeks?
Initial taste is pretty good, the cinnamon comes out well, but the mouthfeel after 10 seconds is like rocket fuel spicy due the shogaols. Almost no heavy alcohols which is nice (was expecting more due to the very fast fermentation). But needs to be a bit more sour. Goes very well with orange juice.

Not sure what to do with it though, maybe for a party.

>>2624648
dr*llander

Having an issue and hoping someone can help. I made a gallon carboy of cider with Mott’s juice and 3/4 packet of Lalvin Wine Yeast EC-1118. Bottled in liter glass bottles after 25 days. First bottle after 30 days tasted like apple wine, not cider. Second bottle tasted more like cider but not much carbonation. What did I do wrong?

>>2624401
>Agree to your point but here you’re doing the same n=1 broscience here that everyone is doing
one single counter example debunks the claim(s)

>>2624720
>What did I do wrong?
My first guess would be wrong expectations.
>First bottle after 30 days tasted like apple wine, not cider
What is the difference in your opinion? Because Cider is Apple Wine.
Maybe it's best if you explain what your expected outcome was, then we can tell you what you can do differently next time to make better Cider.

>>2624720
Not sure but my guess is it’s because you used apple juice not cider apples. Traditional cider is made from really sour apples, juice meant for drinking straight is made from less sour apples.

>>2624657
Post highways

>>2624804
Cider and wine do not taste the same.

>>2624939
Either you're conflating wine made from apples with wine made from grapes or you're being an obnoxious shit about "muh arbitrary definition" of cider and apple wine being separate categories based on dryness.

>>2624950
I’m not sure either what he means but afaik the purist ‘real’ cider definition just means no added sugar, no freezing, no pasteurisation, no carbonation. Arguably ‘no imported apples’ and ‘no lab grown yeasts’ but that’s just autism imo

>>2624950
I mean it tasted like a bottle of wine and not like hard apple cider. I dont know how to be clearer than this.

>>2625067
Soooo the first option then?

>>2625108
Look I’m sorry I don’t know what you mean. I’m saying it didn’t taste like hard cider. It tasted like a bottle of wine. No carbonation, no sweetness.

>>2625116
Nta but we’re trying to find out
What does apple wine taste like to you
What does cider taste like to you
What is the difference between those

Because “didn’t taste like” doesn’t mean anything to anyone unless you describe how.

>>2625120
If I pick up a Bulmers or Angry Orchard or some other bottled cider, it tastes slightly carbonated and slightly sweet.
If I pop open a bottle of wine like a Chardonnay then it’s not gonna taste like cider. Right? It tastes like wine.

>>2625116
>>2625127
We're jabbing at you because you started with "tasted like APPLE WINE, not cider," had the misnomer immediately explained to you, and followed it by being dense.

Now that we're finally clear that you're likening it to grape wine: it most likely fermented too dry (yeast ate all the sugar) and it wasn't or was improperly primed for bottle carbonation. Possibly also you have off flavors that taste like wine flavors to you.

Ciders like you named are deliberately sweeter and that requires a deliberate design like stabilizing and force carbonating or heating just-carbonated bottles to kill the yeast before they explode.

>>2615584
Is it a good idea to make a German light lager

>>2625127
>If I pick up a Bulmers or Angry Orchard or some other bottled cider, it tastes slightly carbonated and slightly sweet.
Because most UK commercial ciders are full of artificial sweeteners and sugars and are made mostly from apple concentrate, which has a much stronger "sweet" apple flavour. Ciders on the continent in Normandy and the North of Spain are very tart and wine adjacent, as they're made purely from cider apple juice. Spanish cider isn't even carbonated so they pour it from the bottle or keg into a glass from a high distance in order to aerate the drink and make it less noticeably tart.

t. met an Irish craft cider brewer who was trying to introduce "real" cider to the Irish market and who explained how mass market commercial stuff like Bulmers or Orchard Thieves is made.

How long does it take "green beer" flavour to go and if I already added priming sugar will it take longer?

>>2625292
Why shouldn't it? Did you ever have one?

There is no harm leaving the beer in the fermenter and waiting with bottling for another week, or is there?

>>2625314
Depends what style of beer and its alcohol content are. A Belgian Trippel can take like 4 months while a crisp lager might only take a couple weeks.

>>2625340
It's a wheat beer, about 4% ABV

>>2625116
>It tasted like a bottle of wine. No carbonation, no sweetness.
First off, everything that happens to a brew of yours, is your doing. No matter if it's awesome, or if it turned bad, tastes like shit, gets moldy or whatever, it's your doing.
Now to your observation:
>No carbonation
Carbonation occurs naturally while fermentation is ongoing, but as soon as fermentation is over, the carbonation is quickly gone. To gain back the carbonation, you need to prime your wine before bottling. 8g sugar per liter for 4g CO2 per liter, which should be a medium carbonation for cider.
>No sweetness
While fermentation is ongoing, the yeasts are converting the sugar to ethanol and CO2. Conversion takes place as long as sugar is there and while the ethanol level is below the yeast's tolerance. That means, as long as the sugar contents in your brew will create less ethanol than tolerance level and fermentation will take place in orderly fashion, you will always end up with a brew with ZERO remaining sugars. That's what is called "dry".
Now you can of course backsweeten your brew, but remember the condition above, as long as the yeast is below tolerance level, they will convert all sugars. The only way to get a sweet brew is by either oversugaring and breaking tolerance level while still having sugars left, but that will create a cider with about 16-19% ABV, depending on yeast type. The other option is to pasteurize your brew after backsweetening.
>Carbonated and sweet
Dangerous territory, you need to add sugar for backsweetening + carbonation, let the bottles ferment until you think the carbonization part is converted, then you need to heat the pressurized bottles to up to 73°C for 10 minutes which will create dangerously high pressures which might make your bottles explode, depending on bottle type.
>Bland wine taste
Acidity level too low. Add a small amount of lactic acid around 80% or citric acid. Higher acidity (6-7g/l) will enhance the flavor.

I wish there was a homegrow general

>>2625568
There is but it’s on /out/

>>2625344
Should be drinkable in 2 weeks, but properly bottle conditioned after 3-4 weeks.

>>2625706
They're all retards repeating old wives tales to each other like most gardening YouTubers

>>2625449
Have you ever used artificial/non-sugar sweeteners like Stevia as some cider recipes suggest? Do you just prefer all-natural ingredients or is the taste just better with backsweetened honey?

>>2625706
Apparently going into the backyard in consider /out/ by 4chan standards

>>2625870
>going into the backyard and taking pictures of random weeds other anons will fail to identify and never actually growing anything is consider /out/ by 4chan standards
Fixed.

>>2625789
>Have you ever used artificial/non-sugar sweeteners like Stevia
Never used Stevia, since some people get stomach problems from Stevia.
Artificial sweeteners aren't suited for alcoholic beverages, since they mostly degrade when in contact with alcohol.
To see this effect just try a Bacardi or Whiskey Cola and use Coke Light or Zero for it.
But I already used white sugar, cane sugar, honey and golden syrup for sweetening.

>>2625878
That's pretty sad, I'm also a home grower, but I'd never thought of going to /out/ for that. Also I don't really think that I have so much to talk about tomatoes, bell peppers and cucumbers as I have about brewing.

>>2625789
I’ve tried some, but the non fermentable sugars that survive the alcohol make it taste artificial to my taste. Xylitol in any alcoholic drink tastes nothing like sugar imo. Stevia gives an unnatural bitterness In fruit wines. But Im probably biased because they give me gut problems.

New mead going, it'll end up about 8% ABV so sort of weak, but my blackberry and cloudberry mead is going strong. Had to filter out a few spoon-fulls of beery-slop after taking this photo due to the Co2 pushing it into the yeast-lock. This one is going to be real good I already know it

>>2626081
While at it; how can I preserve the already-filtered-out berries so that I can put them back when in secondary fermentation in a month or so?

>>2626081
Based.

>>2626081
>>2626085
Looks great. Next time, especially when using fruit you should only fill the demijohn below the neck.
Also regarding the fruit, I always split the fresh fruit for primary and secondary. In your case I'd try to fill the fruit into a ziplock bag and put it into the freezer.

>>2625944
>>2626061
Thanks for the answers. Just asking because I'm tooling around with cider for my better half, and she likes the sweet fruity stuff. I made a 4L batch with about 20g of Stevia added and it's noticeably sweeter than a tart, unsweetened cider, but it's definitely not *sugary* sweet like you said. Glad I didn't put any more. Also it's getting hot here (30+ celsius outside, mid 20s in my apartment) and that batch fermented from 1.05 to 1.00 in like 2-3 days.

bottled up my first coopers toucan stout last night. wish me luck.

next goal: figure out how to make an australian pale ale kit taste better. I'm going to use filtered water this time and US-05 yeast instead of the kit yeast, but maybe this is when I should dip into the mystical world of 'hops'

>>2626217
Thanks! Do you just split the fruit 50/50 for primary and secondary? Put the excess berries in the freezer

>>2626244
If you are sceptic of Stevia due to stomach problems, you can try Xylitol in a small dose.
>Also it's getting hot here (30+ celsius outside, mid 20s in my apartment) and that batch fermented from 1.05 to 1.00 in like 2-3 days.
Just be careful, especially in fruit brews, above 26°C the rate of methanol by-production is increased.

>>2626270
Yes, I always collect the amount of fruit/berries that I need for primary and secondary combined but at home I split the portions, put them in two zip-lock bags and freeze them. Then when I prepare the brew, I thaw one bag and mush them. Freezing them causes the forming ice crystals to destroy the cell walls of the fruit, which releases a lot more juice when thawing.

>>2626463
>Just be careful, especially in fruit brews, above 26°C the rate of methanol by-production is increased.
Good to know, but the room I've been fermenting in is only about 23-24 degrees on average. Once it gets really hot I'll hold off until fall.

>>2626463
>>2626538
Be aware that xylitol is extremely toxic to dogs, so make sure to clean up spills and wash hands if you have them

>>2615584
If I've had a bucket of wine laying around for years and it just smells like ripe fruit when i open it it should still be okay right? No air contact except that the airlock tried out years ago.

>>2626946
If by ripe fruit you mean banana then it might be amyl acetate. It’s formed when there’s both acetobacter (which can grow in wine given access to oxygen) and a heavy alcohol present. It’s technically not safe for consumption but normally not present in dangerous quantities

>>2626946
>it just smells like ripe fruit when i open it
Acetaldehyde
>Nutty aroma but often described as ripe green apples. Also described as "Sherry Aroma"
Amylacetat
>Like other anon said, often described as fake banana or candy
Oxidation (My guess)
>Described as mixed fruit or cooked fruit, also described as "Sherry Aroma", because oxidized ethanol breaks down to Acetaldehyde. Can be seen visually due to darkening or browning of the wine
But since we don't know what type of wine it is, it might just be the aroma of that particular wine.

>>2626946
>No air contact except that the airlock tried out years ago
Better than an open container, obviously, but you realize it's silly to describe an airlock, open for years, as "no air contact," right?

>>2627053
I think you have them mixed up. Acetaldehyde is like nuts ripe green apples, amylacetate is fake bananas, sherry is oxidation

>>2627071
Depends what he used, Speidel style airlocks do close off the opening when there’s no more water

>>2627166
>I think you have them mixed up. Acetaldehyde is like nuts ripe green apples, amylacetate is fake bananas, sherry is oxidation
But that's exactly what I wrote.

If i were to make a wash out of this stuff, golden syrup, which is 69% fermentable sugar, how much do i add per liter of water?
Im looking to get about 10% to 12%abv as a starting point.

>>2627690
Fuck, forgot pic related

>>2627690
You’re looking to get 20% fermentable sugars for 11% abv. So around 2 volumes water per volume of syrup.

>>2627690
in this case you explicitely know the amount of sugar (it's on a label) so calculating the sugar concentration for the volume of your need is kind of trivial, 200g/l should be around what you're aiming for
did also something similar months ago with pear and apple syrup wine and the result was dirnkable but very bland. then again the syrup was also very cheap

>I brewed a beer with a specific strain of yeast that I can no longer get from any of my local brewing stores
>It won first place in the regional competition
>I wanted to brew it again fresh before sending bottles to the national competition
>Couldn't source the yeast
>Had to send bottles that were filled 4 months prior
Send me luck bros. I hope nothing went wrong with those bottles in the months since I filled them. It's a dry hopped pale ale. Filled the bottles with counter-pressure CO2 and stored at room temperature for a couple months, then moved to refrigeration once I realized I needed to send them to the national competition. Put them in the mail earlier today.

>>2627838
Good luck anon, but you could always try to get some leftover yeast from the bottom of the bottles if you really want it back. This is how people got genuine Trappist yeast from Chimay bottles. There's some rumors about them using a conditioning yeast fot bottling but reliable sources says it's bullshit.

Looking to brew something that's a crushable summer drink, but has next to no alcohol (need a break from alcohol, love having a beer after work) I settled on making kvass and I am going to use life of boris' recipe, which I have made successfully in a small jar years ago. As I scale this up for 5 gallon carboys, should I just scale every single ingredient by the same amount, including the yeast and the toast? or is there anything in here that could cause problems in a larger batch that would otherwise fly in a smaller one?

Recipe he gives is,
Ingredients:
1.5L / 50oz water
1/3 cup of raisins
1 teaspoon dry yeast
100g / 3.5oz sugar
two slices of black rye or pumpernickel bread
1 lemon
hermetic jars for storage
(unground coffee beans optional)

(Video here if you're curious)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1UTJKBMvgc

>>2627727
So 8 liters of water and 4 kg of this syrup to get 12 kg of wash?

>>2627746
This suggestion seems to have different outcome, as 66% of the syrup is sugar 300lm of syrup per liter, so 3kg on 10liter of water. Makes 13kg of wash but that's fine, i dare go up to 15l but I think if rather keep some safety headroom in the boiler.

I know a German distilled drink from close to the Dutch border, which is basically this kind of heavy golden syrup wash distilled twice. Its quite like white rum.

I plan on making a 10 liter of fruit juice wash as well. Orange flavor has my preference for now.

First do a stripping run on the golden wash. add that spirit to the fruit wash/wine and distill as a final run. A vague brandy/German rum crossover. Hope it tastes well.

>>2627872
Id love to try that, maybe even distill half of it to make a 'fortified kvass' of some sorts.

>>2627690
Grafschafter Goldsaft (Or Peckeleck how we call it) or Rübensaft has got 66g of sugar per 100g of Goldsaft.
So for 200g/l as this anon suggested >>2627746 you should use 300g of Rübensaft per liter, which will give around 8% ABV. I'd suggest 300g/l of sugar, so 450g of Rübensaft per liter for slightly more than 12% ABV. Rübensaft can use the additional ABV, it makes the wine a bit heavier and fuller in the mouth.
But as a strong advice, also use Goldsaft for backsweetening instead of normal sugar, else it will taste really bland.

>>2627872
I make Kvass regularly in summer, also tried Life of Boris' recipe, which was really nice.
But you should know that Kvass is not really comparable to beer. Not in the sense of ABV but in the sense that you're drinking a still fermenting drink with 100% active yeast inside.
Kvass is not really crushable, you might get severe stomach aches and diarrhea on overconsumption, depending on how you're used to drinking still fermenting drinks.

>>2628088
When distilling Kvass (which I honestly never heard of) you should wait until the Kvass is completely fermented. Heating up active yeast for distillation gives your spirit a kind of warm/old milk aroma.

>>2628106
What if you stop the fermentation by boiling, clear it with turbo clear and then distil?

>>2628106
>So for 200g/l as this anon suggested >>2627746 you should use 300g of Rübensaft per liter, which will give around 8% ABV
you sure? isn't the rule of thumb 18g/l per 1% abv? 200/18=~11

>>2628157
The rule of thumb is
>Ethanol [g/l] = Sugar [g/l] / 2
But that is the theoretical yield under perfect conditions and ignoring the fact that yeasts metabolize some sugars to energy for reproduction and culture growth. The reality is that Saccharomyces mostly convert to about 45% compared to sugar input, so 200g/l sugar will yield about 90g/l ethanol.
But that means that the 8% ABV that I claimed are closer to 9% ABV.

>>2628085
> I know a German distilled drink from close to the Dutch border, which is basically this kind of heavy golden syrup wash distilled twice.
Can you tell me it’s name? I’m Dutch and don’t think I’ve ever heard of a domestic drink like that

> as 66% of the syrup is sugar 300lm of syrup per liter, so 3kg on 10liter of water.

I guess the most common confusion in this thread comes from the difference between “add x gram to y liters” and use “x grams per litre”. If you add pure sugar to water you gain about half the sugar’s volume. For syrup it would be different because it already has water.

It’s much easier and more clear to specify everything towards the final volume. So If 1kg of your stuff has 680g of sugar and you want 200g/L, just add water until the total resulting volume is 680/200=3.4L. Inversely on 10L total you want 2kg sugar so 2000/680=2.94. But then again that means to put 3kg in vessel and top up to 10L, not add 3kg to 10L

>>2626969
>>2627053
Smells like if you cut open an apple and let it sit out for a while. It's made out of plums and either apples or rhubarb.
When i opened it the smell took over my whole room for a while after.
Would distilling it solve the issue if there is one?

>>2628163
>The reality is that Saccharomyces mostly convert to about 45% compared to sugar input, so 200g/l sugar will yield about 90g/l ethanol.
yeah, and ethanol has a density of 790g/l so you're getting a volumetric ethanol ratio of 0,114 or 11,4%

>>2628106
>Grafschafter Goldsaft
As a child I hated it but now I like it from time to time. Never thought about using it for sweetening/wash.

>>2628171
Im dutch as well, Arnhem
I only have second hand information on it from German punkers. Its made by a hippie in Emmerich, its double distilled and watered down, having only a little bit of taste. The punkers called it "gold saft schnapps" or "ruben schnapps". Thats all i remember.
They were really emphasizing it being double distilled, in contrast with most other home made schnapps from that area.

Ow, that's a good point about concentration, totally forgot about it after middle school chemistry, but ill manage to calculate the volume. Its not a precise number im aiming for.

>>2628409
I have it on toast on Sundays, and on that German thick rye bread for breakfast.

>>2628501
Thanks, never heard of it. Isn’t almost all pot still stuff double distilled btw? Or does the stripping run not count

>>2615584
>Is beer with wild yeast really that bad?
You can harvest wild yeast and then isolate it. You'll need some equipment for that, but it's doable. I suggest just getting some whole unmalted barley or unbleached barley flour and make a sourdough starter with it. Keep it going for months and there will hopefully emerge a dominant yeast strain that will kill other strains as well as non-yeast bugs. This will be second best to making agar plates and looking into microscopes.

>>2628171
>It’s much easier and more clear to specify everything towards the final volume.
i completely agree with this, it's what i was trying to say but maybe it came out wrong
>So If 1kg of your stuff has 680g of sugar and you want 200g/L, just add water until the total resulting volume is 680/200=3.4L.
did you mean "So If 1L..." instead of kg?

>>2628085
>This suggestion seems to have different outcome, as 66% of the syrup is sugar 300lm of syrup per liter, so 3kg on 10liter of water. Makes 13kg of wash but that's fine, i dare go up to 15l but I think if rather keep some safety headroom in the boiler.
if the total volume isn't that easy to determine or not that relevant then maybe it's easier to work with Brix, which is just the mass percentage of sugar, so kg/kg.
11,5% of potential abv is about 20°Bx=200g sugar/kg (looked it up in a table)
so 3kg of syrup gets you ~=2kg of sugar, you want 10kg total so add 7kg of water (=7L)
Brix and grams/l are actually pretty close, they only differ by definition by the initial density so if you don't care that much you can use them interchangebly but i'm too autistic for that

>>2628717
also generally speaking it's easier to be precise with weights than with volumes, but i know for a fact my carboys have that specific volume and just assumed anon was also using a carboy

>>2628171
>It’s much easier and more clear to specify everything towards the final volume.
i completely agree with this, it's what i was trying to say but maybe it came out wrong
>So If 1kg of your stuff has 680g of sugar and you want 200g/L, just add water until the total resulting volume is 680/200=3.4L.
did you mean "So If 1L..." instead of kg?

>>2628085
>This suggestion seems to have different outcome, as 66% of the syrup is sugar 300lm of syrup per liter, so 3kg on 10liter of water. Makes 13kg of wash but that's fine, i dare go up to 15l but I think if rather keep some safety headroom in the boiler.
if the total volume isn't that easy to determine or not that relevant then maybe it's easier to work with Brix, which is just the mass percentage of sugar, so kg/kg*100.
11,5% of potential abv is about 20°Bx=200g sugar/kg (looked it up in a table)
so 3kg of syrup gets you ~=2kg of sugar, you want 10kg total so add 7kg of water (=7L)
Brix and grams/l are actually pretty close, they only differ by definition by the initial density so if you don't care that much you can use them interchangebly but i'm too autistic for that

>>2628725
also generally speaking it's easier to be precise with weights than with volumes, but i know for a fact my carboys have that specific volume and just assumed anon was also using a carboy
deleted my first post, it contained a small error

>>2628725
>Brix and grams/l are actually pretty close
except the factor 10 obviously, not going to delete it again. first error was brix=kg/kg (or just mass/mass)

>>2628106
I think you missed the part of my post where I said I have made and drunk this before, so thanks for your unsolicited advice on how to consume something I have already consumed. You are consistently the most pedantic and condescending person in these threads.

>>2628790
What a gross overreaction. Are you holding a grudge, Anon?

>>2628790
>>2627872
>"in a small jar"
>"scale this up"
>tripfag warns you about larger amounts
lmao what a faggot

>>2628796
I'm not going to drink the whole carboy at once you moron. Making a big batch of something isn't the same thing as drinking it all at once, and why would I binge drink something that isn't even alcoholic?
>>2628795
Hey man, I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt that he's not an idiot who can't read, and assuming he's just an asshole. I've had kvass many times in my life, I know what it tastes like and I know how to drink it.

>>2628725
> did you mean "So If 1L..." instead of kg?
It works either way. If your Saft has 680g/kg then you add 1kg and top up to 3.4L. If your Saft has 680g/L then add 1L and top up to 3.4L.

I’ve never seen the stuff but I imagine because it’s a syrup the label would give you sugar in g/L not g/g

>>2628851
> syrup the label would give you sugar
I’d expect the label would give you*

>>2628618
Most home made booze is double distilled, excluding Whisky and Schnapps which is often only distilled once, using pott stills. I guess it has to do with flavor.

Germany always had a bunch of home distilling along the Dutch borders. Has to do with high Dutch taxes on alcohol, driving the Dutch to buy over the border, which in turn drives up the prices due to demand which then drove the border Germans to do more home distilling for cheap.

>>2628851
The labels here have a chart on them with stuff like carbohydrates, fat, salts etc... per 100 gram (and optionally per portion)
So using brix would be easier indeed.

>>2615584
>I want to brew beer with only ingredients that I grew myself.
This guy is trying to do the same: https://brewingbeerthehardway.wordpress.com/

brix anon again here, compared the calculator from brewersfriend with tables i found online, and i can only conclude that they all assume an FG of 1 at 0°Bx, which is inaccurate because an FG, especially of a sugar wash, is usually below 1 so these tables are somewhat underestimating the potential alcohol.

>>2628851
i misread your post, my apologies. yes you are absolutely right, not sure what i was thinking
brainfart on my part

>>>/vg/432702091
Artificial Academy 2 General /aa2g/ #1282
Sad Jack Edition

Welcome, this general is for the discussion of ILLUSION's Artificial Academy 2.

COPY ERROR MESSAGES WITH CTRL+C, PASTE THEM WITH CTRL+V INTO GOOGLE TRANSLATE. JUST CLICK THE WINDOW AND PRESS CTRL + C, IT WORKS.

>Downloads:
/aa2g/ Pre-Installed Game, AA2Mini: https://tsukiyo.me/AAA/AA2MiniPPX.xml
AAUnlimited updates: https://github.com/aa2g/AA2Unlimited/releases
Anon's Modded Pre-Install: https://pastebin.com/42JS3q6E

>Information:
AA2Mini Install Guide:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vS8Ap6CrmSNXRsKG9jsIMqHYuHM3Cfs5qE5nX6iIgfzLlcWnmiwzmOrp27ytEMX03lFNRR7U5UXJalA/pub
General FAQ:
https://web.archive.org/web/20200216045726/https://pastebin.com/bhrA6iGx
AAU Guide and Resources (Modules, Tans, Props, Poses, and More):
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/17qb1X0oOdMKU4OIDp8AfFdLtl5y_4jeOOQfPQ2F-PKQ/edit#gid=0

>Character Cards [Database], now with a list of every NonOC in the megas:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1niC6g-Xd2a2yaY98NBFdAXnURi4ly2-lKty69rkQbJ0/edit#gid=2085826690
https://db.bepis.moe/aa2/

>Mods & More:
Mods for AAU/AA2Mini (ppx format, the mediafire has everything):
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/vwrmdohus4vhh/Mods
/aa2g/ Modding Reference Guide (Slot lists for Hair/Clothes/Faces, List Guides, and More):
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1gwmoVpKuSuF0PtEPLEB17eK_dexPaKU106ShZEpBLhg/edit#gid=1751233129
Booru: https://aau.booru.org

>HELP! I have a Nvidia card and my game crashes on startup!
Try the dgVoodoo option in the new win10fix settings.
Alternative: Update your AAU and see if it happens again. If so, disable win10fix, enable wined3d and software vertex processing.
>HELP! Required Windows 11 update broke things!
winkey+R -> ms-settings:developers -> Terminal=Windows Console Host

Previous Thread:
>>>/vg/432320786 come on permban all of them kek

>>2629232
Try fermcalc, it lets you input FG and accounts for temperature difference.
But even better they explain the math and sources of the calculations here:
https://fermcalc.com/fermcalc_alcohol.html

I started a batch of mead 2 weeks ago with an OG that I estimate to be about 1.08 (1.2-3kg honey for a 5L wort). Last week my SG reading was 1.02 and tonight it's gone down to 0.99. Has this batch finished fermenting and can I bottle some of it or should I let it sit longer?

>>2629545
Does the airlock still bubble?
A good method to be sure that fermentation has really stopped is to take 3 SG readings each at least 24h apart and if they’re all the same or rising then you can be sure that it’s stopped (or got stuck).

If it’s pure mead I’d recommend to let it sit on primary until it’s been there for about 3 weeks in total to give the yeast some time to drop and do the initial clearing

>>2629297
seems a lot more elaborate indeed. don't like to take tables at face value without knowing the ideas behind them

my mead is about a year old by now, possibly even more
but its just so bad
i mean, its decent enough that i got drunk off of just a glass, but it leaves a sickening feeling in my throat, and if i were to have one or two more glasses i'd probably feel sick from it
of course, the only reason its a year old is because i completely forgot about it because i avoided drinking it in the first place after i realized how bad it was
the recipe was just plain old mead, but probably yeast that fermented too dry and too little sugar, it was like 3 lbs per gallon, and idk maybe around 80 degrees when i fermented it
i have about a handle left of it, anyway i could fix it? the closest comparison is probably cheap sake, and with it's age it has a slight apple taste which makes it easier to drink
and i dont really feel like aging it for even longer will really yield great returns, after all its just a handle
btw i'm tipsy so if this post sounds retarded thats why

>>2628618
i think all distillations except the last are kind of like stripping runs, i could be wrong though, but each time you distill you dilute the product back to about 30-38% to prevent the possibility of a fire (i think this is stupid though if you're not using a gas stove, because my thumper keg very likely gets filled with flammable alcohol anyways) so running it fast doesnt really impact it poorly, whereas if it were undiluted, the heads and tails might merge more into the hearts, or something idk

>>2629612
>Does the airlock still bubble?
Airlock activity isn't a reliable measure as the fermentation vessel is a plastic tub and it may have warped over time through cleaning. That's why I included SG & my estimated OG.

>water calculator said i would need 9 gallons of water total to make 6 gallons of wort
>end up with 8
>gravity reads 1.032

been doing the brew-in-a-bag thing for a little while now. Anyone have any tips on filtering it? I feel like it might be best to filter before the boil since my mesh bag lets through some very small particles which I can only assume will get over-extracted during boil. I haven't noticed any particulate in the beer or anything. When do people usually filter doing this method? Pre/post boil or just before bottling? Am I right to be worried about over-extracting / off-flavours from boiling without filtering?

>>2630605
just racking is probably fine, or you could add irish moss in the boil (but doesnt really work once you've finished making the wort)

>>2630534
>What is boiling

>>2630892
i did that, but ran out of time at the end, i had like an hour and a half boil while it only called for an hour, but it didnt do much

>>2630924
Then it wasn't a full boil or you had a lid on. Signed, someone who has boiled for concentration.

Also that scarcely even tracks for what gets trapped in the grain.

How much would it cost for a beginners set-up to make some actually nice drinkable rum. I drink a bit of rum and want a hobby and to maybe save money if possible.

Cherries, esp. black cherries are in season in my area and I can get them for pretty cheap at my local fruit & veg store. Is there a good way to incorporate cherries into mead or cider?

>>2631102
Country wine?

>>2631102
Do Romanians not make liquour from cherry wine? Tuica or Truica?

Can you make different types of alcohols with the same set-up? Like wine, cider, hard liquor, etc? Obviously you need some unique equipment, but wondering if the core is the same if you buy a generic kit and just get a few mods going

>>2631102
There's a guy at work who is Romanian. I believe they make a base alcohol from cherries or plums then distill into a spirit or double strength wine.

>>2631090
my complete setup is basically this stuff with a beer keg as a thumper, it's 250ish if you do a simplified version of my setup
https://homebrewing.org/products/deluxe-10-gallon-1-weld-volume-marked-pot
use this pot with a portable induction cooker, drill a hole in the lid, attach a weldless bulkhead to it, a pipe section that connects through tri clamp, then an adapter that connects to copper tubing, and use a liebig condenser with a cheap aquarium pump
also, use these to clamp down the lid, it took me ages to find these, you'll need to also seal it with flour paste, but these clamps are better than using a hundred binder clips like i did for my first run

>>2631226
fuck the spam filter, i cant send the link to the clamps
just reverse search this image or some shit, or suffer with the binder clips

Is it feasible to re-cap/re-use commercial twist-off bottles? I've heard a lot of conflicting information online, was wondering if anyone had any experience.

>>2631102
>>2631109
>>2631111
I made some cherry wine last year and I'll do another batch very soon when our cherries are ripe. I back-sweetened the wine way too much last year, it tasted more like a Likör.

>>2631365
ofc I forgot the pic

>>2631365
Recipe? How many grams of cherry per litre did you use?

>>2631363
Recommend against it. You won't get a good seal and could ruin your batch, get some pop top pint bottles, for some reason 500/660ml bottles cap much easier for me than 330s. You also need less of them which makes cleaning/sanitizing a bit quicker. They're also way studier, won't explode during carbonation and will last you for years. My dad got 2 cases of pint bottles from his older fellow homebrewing neighbour for bottling in like the 90s and they're still in good condition.

>>2631363
i've never had an issue with them, just dont use them for anything carbonated

>>2631111
Tuica is made from plums as far as I know. There’s visjnevaca/vishnovka but I think thats made by adding cherries to tuica, and there’s treshnovice (but I think that’s more balkan than Romanian)

>>2631090
>>2631226
There’s also an aliexpress still (vevor) that gets somewhat good reviews, it goes on the stove and costs $120 for 10gal or $90 for 3gal

Sorry for such a newbie question but how much beer can be brewed if someone just lives in a one bedroom apartment with a small kitchen? Is that enough room for a beginner whose never brewed beer before?

>>2631503
dont use the vevor still
i'm the guy who reccomended him my setup, and before i built my still i bought a vevor still
you'd have to replace so many parts that you may aswell be paying $100 for a 10 gallon pot and some cheap piping
if the price is so much of an issue, theres probably an even cheaper way of building the still i made, probably just one that doesnt use any tri clamps and just connects to the lid using pic rel and a nut
the main issues with the vevor still are these:
>the pot is NOT magnetic, or very thick, so its incompatible with an induction stove (might not sound like a problem, but i highly reccomend getting a portable induction cooker because of how much quicker it is to heat up the still) and it'd be pretty fragile
>all of the seals use silicon, which isnt safe with boiling liquor, but you can atleast cover them in teflon tape to make it safe
>most of the fittings use brass, and brass has lead in it regardless of whether its labeled as "lead free" because "lead free" is 8% and under, which is still dangerous with alcohol vapor, just dont use any brass at all ever with distilling
>the copper piping on the condenser is too small, it will easily clog, and when it does you will deeply regret it (t. been covered in boiling vinegar due to a mishap with my still before, you dont want it, and you definitely dont want to be covered in boiling alcohol or vapor)
>the thumper keg isnt a thumper keg, it wont work as one
at the very least though, when i tried to return my still, the ebay seller didnt want to pay for return shipping, and offered to refund some of the amount if i kept it, and i managed to mark up the refund to getting a hundred back out of the $122 i spent, so i now have a $22 13 gallon pot, piping, and aquarium pump

>>2631519
if you brew without any grain, and have a 5 gallon pot, you can probably do it in any normal kitchen
i'm a masochist though, so i do all grain and have to have a 10 gallon pot for my 5 gallon batches, and that pot doesnt fit on my stove so i use a portable cooker, and i do it in the garage or basement because theres always a spill of some sort with all grain
i cant reccomend all grain for someone in an apartment, unless you plan on doing like a 1 gallon batch, but at that point you're not making very much beer at all

>>2631526
Based. Thanks for answering a newbrewerfag’s question.

>>2631114
Wine, cider, beer, mead, kvass, etc... are all basically fermentation products. So a fermentation vessel, airlock, cleaning supplies, botteling equipment, a sugar containing fluid and yeast are the bare minimum you need for those.

If you want to make brandy, rum, vodka, whiskey, gin or other hard liquor you need to distill it, which opens a whole different world, as there's different types of stills for different results. In that case a bunch of other techniques become available, like maceration, vapor infusion and adding to the thump keg, which all have different nuances in taste.

You can make wine in a moonshine setup, by not using a bunch of stuff, but you cant make gin in a beer setup.

>>2631226
Normally I say thanks and don't really take people's suggestions because they're shit but I'm going to follow this. Was there any guide you followed or any process you are minimicing that I can find a guide for on the internet once I've copied your set-up?

>>2631845
i did it through trial and error, which as a result i wound up buying some useless stuff
but atleast the benefit of that is that i almost have all the materials to build a second still, and i could probably sell it and make quite a large profit, without even jewing over the person buying it
i'll just make an image guide since this is the second time i've had to spend an hour getting the prices of everything
on the other hand, i could probably build that second still that will do what you want it to, minus the induction and put it up on etsy if you wanted to buy it, shipping cost would probably be hell though

>>2631852
I don't live in burgerland so yeah the shipping would be astrjewnomical. But if you did I might check it out anyway. If it was saving me a ton of convenience I would probably buy it, then again it would be satisfying to try and make something even if it's just paint by numbers. Either way, if you do let me know I am genuinely curious.

>>2631852
heres a picture of my current setup by the way
>>2631857
ah i see, yea i'm in kansas, far from any coast
i can easily see it costing like a hundred or more for overseas shipping, after all vevor let me keep their still for nearly free because of how expensive shipping would be for them (it was free return shipping)
i'm not sure how hard it will be to get some of the items in the guide where you live, so prices will be off and you might have to substitute some things

>>2631860
>size of the lad
Yeah, that's a paddlin'. Dunno what else I was expecting

Ah well I will just try and jew it myself. Thanks anyway, anon

>>2631861
that image includes a thumper(beer) keg though, what you'll make wont be nearly as complex
if you look at the two pipes sticking out from the beer keg, theres a place that screws together, allowing me to take it apart and connect the condenser directly to the main vapor path

alright here it is
to make it cheaper you could probably ditch the tri clamp stuff and connect the copper tubing directly to the pot, but the bigger tri clamp pipe helps in the case of puking or having stuff getting stuck in the pipe
also, you'll need a blow torch, silver solder, and flux to connect the copper fittings, there isnt really a way around it

>>2631886
i forgot to put the elbow connectors on the list, oh well, they're just 1/2 inch aswell, you should be able to figure it out

>>2631886
tri clad isnt the same as tri clamp by the way, tri clad refers to induction compatible pots and tri clamp refers to a pipe connecting system (for example, NPT is a threaded pipe system, sweat is a weld based connection system, barb is for flexible tubing, etc.)

>>2631863
What's the thumper do in this scenario? Does the evaporation from your distiller go into there to change the flavour?

Trying to understand this as a newb... water is pumped in the bottom to go into the system to cool the evaporation... but if the pressure is too much isn't it just going to go all the way back to the still?

>>2631889
its easiest to explain with images
basically, a thumper distills the liquid a second time. when you boil off the liquid from the main pot, the vapor goes through the pipes into the bottom of the thumper keg, where it gets absorbed back into liquid with whatever liquid is in the keg (usually anything with alcohol in it or just water), then the heat of that vapor transfers into the liquid, causing that liquid to boil again, so the vapor from that liquid will usually be just a little less in alcohol content than if you were to distill twice separately

>>2631893
and heres a glass liebig condenser, so you can actually see whats going on in it
this takes a fuck ton less space and copper than a coil condenser, but the downside is that the aquarium pump needs to be at the bottom of a 5 gallon or larger bucket, but thats cheap atleast. you'll also need to switch the water out from the bucket every hour or so, since that water will eventually get hot to the touch

>>2618562

Some of those more volatile compounds that make up flavors in beer can be harder to detect when it is flat. If you have a means of force carbonation, you could try carbonating a small amount, maybe 100 ml worth, to see. If not, I would then make a infusion using your spices in hot water, and then add it to the beer before bottling.

>>2632146
>>2618562
IME beers with more complex flavour profiles only become noticeable once fully bottle conditioned. I've had a few batches of stuff like amber ales or stout that tasted a bit "soapy" or "pine-y" once they were technically finished, but once I bottled them and forgot about them in a closet for a couple months, the nasty flavours dulled out almost entirely and the more complex caramel or chocolatey flavours were much more prominent. If you haven't bottled yet, your beer isn't even at the stage where you could consider it "green"; bottle aging is an incredibly important step in developing the full flavour profile. Your beer will only be "green" once it's been primed and bottled for like 2-3 weeks.

>>2632146
>>2632568
Thanks anons. Should I bottle right at the end of primary or is there some benefit to aging in a secondary container first?

>>2632573
Personally I wouldn't put a wheat beer into secondary fermentation. That's more for a batch with a lot of yeast sediment or with a very robust base malt flavour that needs time to develop. You should bottle & prime your batch ASAP IMO, sanitize everything perfectly and make sure it's all dry and then once you're finished, leave your bottles in a case somewhere dark and cool for about a month. They should be technically finished, ie. carbonated, after about 2 weeks but the flavour will not be fully developed.

>>2631895
Would municipal water be an option to cool with? I have very cheap access to fairly cold tap water all summer. What kind of flow rate would be te be expected? My tap delivers 200ml per second at full blast.

>>2632585

I think a wheat beer is supposed to be drunk, relatively young. You could also do an experiment. Bottle half of it, let the other half age. Sample both when they're ready and see if you could tell a difference between the ages.

>>2632585
>>2633066
I have drunk all the wheat beer already. A few bottles were definitely green but I got some nice ones. Currently have a trappist style beer in primary. This one I will age for a while.

What should I make with 1 kg leftover medium LME and Hallertau hops? Only yeast I have is for hefeweizen but I could reuse the trub for my current batch (which was Belgian ale). The only steeping grains I have left are for lager but they are a few years old. Not sure if that matters.

>>2631886
Thanks, not the guy who asked but I really appreciate this. Do you just control/check temperature using the induction plate or should I factor in a thermometer

Any tips on head retention?

Got some dandelion mead going. Noticed that my rabbit's been eating the dandelions every day so I harvested about a pound yesterday morning. Might try to figure out where the local bees have their hives - I know which ones are pollinating the dandelions and I want to box some up to make dandie mead with honey from the same dandies the petals are from.
It should be noted that dandelion dye is just concentrated dandelion tea. So the idea would be to tie dye some shirts while also making the metheglin, then wear them whenever I drink it.

>>2615584
I'm going to start a ginger wine tomorrow, so far I have
>just under 1lb ginger
>1 gal spring water
>white sugar
>raisins
>limes
>cloves I may or may not use
>Red Star Premier Cuvee
Thoughts on this? It's going to be a still ginger wine, my gf says I'm not allowed to have potentially explosive brews in the closet.

>>2633439
>just under 1lb ginger
thats quite a bit for a gallon of water

Just made about 2.5 gallons of mulberry wine and used the leftover pulp/yeast to add to a base to something I found on the interwebs called skeeter pee
Ive never had either but seeing all those berries on the ground made me sad last year and i refuse to let it go to waste, in fruit or lee form
so what am I in for?

>>2630605
Irish moss 10 minutes before flame-out and cold cashing removes about 95% of all haze of the beer.

>>2631102
You can make a straight cherry wine out of them but you can't store cherry wine for long. While a lot of wines profit from storing, cherry wine loses a lot of aroma and flavor over the months.
You can also add them to the fermentation stage of a mead for a nice, complex flavor, or to secondary for a more classic Viking Blood flavor.

>>2631363
I'm using TO-bottles for liqueur and self-made sauces. Never failed on me.

Moving into my new house is finally finished and last Sunday I had my first brew day on my terrace.

Brewed a Kentucky Common:

>Brewhouse efficiency: 70%
>OG: 1.059
>IBU: 22
>SRM: 20
>Projected FG: 1.015
>Projected ABV: 5.8%

Recipe can be found here:
>https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/1346942/murky-woods-kentucky-common

>>2632830
yea it doesnt matter, just dont use the water for drinking afterwards
>>2633259
a thermometer is pointless for a still, because no matter what its not going to tell you anything very helpful, but the temperature of the cooker does matter more, although its not exactly something you should closely relegate
for example, if you heat your stove to 500 degrees, it wont be much different than just heating it to 200, the only difference is the speed which you heat it up and get through the run, and you want to get through it as quick as possible for stripping runs, and slower for the product run in order to separate the cuts out a bit better
i said that the induction cooker heats it up quicker, but it'd be better to say that it gets it to the temperature you want quicker
the only way to know which temps are best are just to play around with it

>>2633907
also follow up to this, in my greed I only provided about 3-4 inches of headpace for the 6.5 gallon bucket filled with the wine/sugar-lemon-water mix. Is that too little? Im worried it might bubble up and block the airlock and then overpressure
im using EC-1118 too which probably doesnt help since its a faster yeast
Should I crack it open to check tommorow and make sure it isnt overly full or do you think its fine(wish i had a translucent top right now)

>>2634217
Could you replace the airlock with a blowoff tube? Then you wouldn't need to worry.

I have an abbey ale (10L batch, 1 kg pale DME, 0.5 kg medium LME, 250g abbey steeping grain) near the end of primary. When I take a sample for gravity measurement I usually drink it afterwards. I took a sample on Wednesday at 1.009 SG which tasted a bit syrupy still but not unexpected. I took another sample yesterday at 1.005 and it tasted very strongly of pear. I haven't added any flavourings. Does this indicate a problem or is it something that the beer will age out of? It's not terrible but not what I was going for. Doesn't taste how green beer usually tastes (sour) for me.

>>2634277
probably not unfortunately, the hole in the top of the bucket lid is small enough just to fit the airlock that came with it
Anything gumming it up will fill that small hole quickly I think, enough that even if there was a blowout that fit it wouldnt help

stealth bump

>>2634301
update, it seems to have been fine
it expanded in volume up to about an inch but stopped there, so ill rack it tomorrow
also random thing I noticed, when i first dropped in the leftover wine it stained just the same, but now after fermenting theres no staining capability left despite it being the same shade of purple
hows that work?

>boiled leftover LME and some hops without any steeping grains and racked onto trub from my last batch
Hope this will make a decent beer but not the end of the world if it doesn't.

So, my first two batches of a Pils turned into something more resembling a Kellerbier / Festbier (?) but they tasted really good. Completely different than what I expected but worth the effort. I'm sad that I have only 1 bottle left lol.

For one batch I had a zero minute addition of hops (Hallertauer Mittelfrüh) and here the tester's opinions really differed. While a friend of mine and I really liked the hoppy flavor it added, my father, mother, and gf prefer the batch without the addition.

My gf gave me a 28L pot so now I can finally brew some bigger beer and make use of my 15L and 30L fermenter (with a ton of headspace but I'm not too worried about that).

The next beer I have planned is a Best Bitter, followed by a Black Smoky IPA (for a Bachelor's party) and then a Dunkelweizen to brew with my dad.

>>2634067
Aaight, municipal water is 47ct/1m3 so it's extremely cheap!

Boiling temp for a given %age of alcohol differs quite a lot over pressure and other shit dissolved in the wash

>>2636326
>So, my first two batches of a Pils turned into something more resembling a Kellerbier / Festbier (?)
Kellerbier and Festbier are two very different styles so maybe it'll be more helpful if you describe your Pils in terms of aroma and flavor and in what you would think should be different.
Could be many reasons as to why it turned out that way, from flavor mistakes, wrong malt combinations or even wrong resting temperatures.

Would you mind posting your brew setup?

>>2633986
No real update for the Kentucky Common, day 10 and it's still happily bubbling away, quite long for an ale yeast at 23°C but still all in the norm.

>>2636566
Sure, I'll write down what I did.
4 L batch, 1051 OG
Malt: 765g Pilsner Malt, 85g Munich Malt
Mash schedule: 45 min @ 63C, 30 min @ 70C, 15 min @ 76C
Hop additions:
6g Hallertauer Mittelfrüh 60 min
6g Hallertauer Mittelfrüh 15 min
6g Hallertauer Mittelfrüh 0 min
Final gravity read 1025 but I didn't divide by the refractometer factor, I think it actually fermented all the way through to around 1010.
Bottled into 500ml bottles with 2g of regular table sugar.
I did a second batch without the zero minute addition, rest was kept the same. First batch I manually adjusted the stove, second one I had a sous vide stick that helped me keep temperatures more steady and within range.

The beer looked pretty beer considering I did not filter it at all, it was a bit hazy still.

Aroma/taste:
Definitely more hoppy aroma for the first one. Hard to describe the difference to a pils for me. I'd say the Pils that I am used to is cristal clear, no yeast flavor, and rather bitter. My beer had a more malty and slightly yeasty flavor. Also it was not that bitter but still with a good hop character that I really liked (especially from the first batch).

PS: In the pic the glass is also frosty/ has condensed water on it which makes it look a little bit more hazy than it is, but it is definitely not clear lol

>>2636592
Completely forgot about the fermentation step, kek.

First batch I used W34-70 and second one SafAle S-04.

First one 2 weeks, first week outside with temperatures between 7C-18C. It was in a shed though and my thermometer always read around 14C/15C in there. After one week I took it in where it stayed with the other batch at around 20C.

>>2616020
>Add sugar and citric acid and all the flavor will come back. Also, don't make the classic mistake and think that a fermented beverage will taste like the ingredients, it won't. If you want alcoholic apple-juice, mix alcohol and apple-juice. Cider never tastes like apple-juice and mead never tastes like honey, that's in the nature of fermentation.

If that is the case is there any flavour benefit to fermenting on fruit, tea, honey and herbs as opposed to doing a sugar wash?

is it not better just to make a sugar wash have it ferment out and then add whatever flavourings you want to make it drinkable?
Think I'm gonna experiment a little on the two

>>2636873
> If that is the case is there any flavour benefit to fermenting on fruit, tea, honey and herbs as opposed to doing a sugar wash?
Not him but it’s not like it loses all flavour, the flavours when fermenting just become different. Fermented grape juice tastes different (better, to most people) than plain grape juice, strawberry tastes worse to most people than strawberry juice.

If you want ‘alcoholic beverage that tastes like X’ then add X to alcohol. It’s how most liqueurs are made. If you want the taste of ‘fermented X’ then ferment X. Grapes, Apples, Honey are popular for the taste they have when fermented, Strawberries and oranges are more popular for making liquor because when fermented they taste weird.

>>2633439
Dried or fresh ginger? 1lb dried in 4 gallons or 1lb fresh in 2 gallons is plenty unless you want super spicy

Cloves are a bit tricky, even a single clove can spoil the entire gallon if left in for too long.

Finally you may want to add something other than raisins/limes for nutrient

>>2636592
>Mash schedule: 45 min @ 63C, 30 min @ 70C, 15 min @ 76C
Were the mash timings in a recipe, or did you decide over them? What was the reasoning behind a 1.5h mash?

>Final gravity read 1025 but I didn't divide by the refractometer factor, I think it actually fermented all the way through to around 1010
in combination with
>Bottled into 500ml bottles with 2g of regular table sugar
in combination with
>My beer had a more malty and slightly yeasty flavor
makes me believe that your beer didn't finish fermentation when your refractometer read 1.025. Was carbonation plenty? 4g/l of sugar is pretty low, so when carbonation was plenty, that means your beer finished fermentation in the bottle, which explains the yeasty and non-pils flavor.

>First batch I used W34-70 and second one SafAle S-04
W34-70 is a bottom fermenting lager yeast which takes longer to ferment than ale yeast, which is another argument for the beer not having finished fermentation. You should ferment W34-70 on the cold side around 13°C and you should definitely do a diacetyl-rest when lagering the beer. It will taste weirdly like those butter-baking aromas or like Scottish butter cookies without. When fermenting W34-70 on the cold, there won't be much diacetyl but since your temperatures changed a lot and in the end was kept at 20°C, there might be diacetyl and other off-flavors.

All of this is not bad, as the beer seems drinkable and as long as you like it, everything is fine.
All of the above should only be guidance for your next brews, in case you want to improve on your brewing skills and knowledge.

Definitely keep us posted about your next brews, I'm especially interested in the Black Smokey IPA.

>>2636873
This anon >>2636884 perfectly summed up the matter.

Also fermentation is not always the conversion of sugars to ethanol. In cider you can create a malolactic fermentation after main fermentation is over in which even acids will be transformed. There is no way to create that effect only by adding X to alcohol.

Ginger beer is created by fermentation by yeasts and bacteria which live in a symbiotic relationship, that is called a SCOBY (Symbiotic Culture Of Bacteria and Yeast)

>>2637079
>Were the mash timings in a recipe, or did you decide over them?
Yes, it was from a Pilsner recipe from TheApartmentBrewer. I'm not sure what the reasoning was desu.

Thanks for yor feedback! It wasn't overly carbonated, e.g. it did not foam out of the top when opening the bottle, but the was a good *BLOPP* when opening it.

>>2637079
>You should ferment W34-70 on the cold side around 13°C
I probably shouldn't have taken it inside but I was afraid that the yeast died, the night time temperatures also approached frost levels and I wasn't too sure how much heat the shed would keep overnight.

I'll definitely keep posting, the next one will be a Best Bitter which at least has a single mash step. There is no mashout in the recipe, should I do one anyway?

I started my first limoncello today. Should I keep the lime juice to add it back later with the syrup or is that a bad for taste? It seems logical but the recipes never tell me to

>>2633986
>>2636570
Kentucky Common is finished and it attenuated higher than expected.

>Expected FG: 1.015
>Real FG: 1.013
>ABV: 6.15%

Aroma and flavor are astonishing, the Cluster hops really bring a complex, earthy and herbaceous fruitiness into the sweet maltiness that I personally never experienced.

I'm so stoked how it will be when the beer has been carbonated in the bottles.

>>2639839
ok

Y'all smell that? It's BREW DAY!
My mate is coming over in an hour and then we'll prepare the Black IPA for a Bachelor's party in August.

I brewed a 15 gallon batch of American Pale Ale today, and saved the sparge water which is about 4 gallons of 1.014 specific gravity "wort." My plan is to boil it down to 3 gallons, add some hops, and 3 pounds of wildflower honey to make a sort of braggot hydromel. Any tips?

Do lower alcohol liquids fully freeze if left to it or separate out to ice over alcohol? I'm wondering if I can freeze coffee liqueur (15% neighborhood) into cubes to make a thicker blended drink.

>>2615584
I'm bored of brewing beer. modern malt, modern yeast, modern hops. a recipe from 1830 is barely distinguishable from one written this year. what other things are fun to make with brewing equipment?
hard mode: no distillation

>>2642271
>what other things are fun to make with brewing equipment?
Depends on what you define to be brewing. Explicitly with beer brewing equipment, aka brew kettle, wort cooler, etc. you can't really do much besides all varieties of beer.
But with your fermenting equipment, you can basically do everything.
I like to research historically and culturally relevant alcoholic beverages from all around the world. For example, I'd like to make an Eritrean/Ethiopian Tej, which is a kind of low-ABV mead with African tree bark.
Just search online for something interesting and take a break from beer. Maybe that'll rekindle the beer-brewing-side in a few weeks.

>>2642271
You can make sake by chewing rice and spit it out to let it ferment like in kimi no na wa

Aged the ginger wine for a month, it didn’t clear and had almost no residue in any of the bottles. Pasteurised to make it less spicy, and after cooling it down and waiting a few hours I have this layer of white slimy stuff at the bottom of all bottles. Not sure what it is, maybe some protein?

>>2641976
Nothing freezes ‘out’ from a clear solution, if it’s a creamy liqueur then the fats may separate. If you let the ice cubes thaw slowly the alcohols thaw faster so initially the alcohol concentration in the liquid fraction is a bit higher (you can get to around 35% when freeze distilling with a household freezer) while most of the water is still frozen

>>2642288
> I'd like to make an Eritrean/Ethiopian Tej
There was another anon few threads ago that made t’ej. I was interested but I couldn’t really find a place that sold gesho in Europe. But please post results when you do

>>2642501
>Nothing freezes ‘out’ from a clear solution
Well, my question was in the context of a household freezer in which ethanol does not turn solid (the old "vodka in the freezer" special) and with knowledge that freeze distilling is a possible process. Are you saying it is the case where, as a high alcohol liquid stays fully liquid (if syrupy) in a freezer, a low alcohol liquid will fully freeze?

>>2642607
>Are you saying it is the case where, as a high alcohol liquid stays fully liquid (if syrupy) in a freezer, a low alcohol liquid will fully freeze?
NTA, but I've had beers freeze.

>>2642607
It will freeze, most household freezers go to around -18C/0F so will readily freeze drinks up to 35% abv. If it’s very high sugar maybe closer to 30% abv, but 15% coffee liqueur will definitely freeze at -18

>>2642501
>There was another anon few threads ago that made t’ej.
That would be me. Its been barrel aging for a while. I used gesho kitel (leaves) which were available via Amazon, versus inchet (stem), and fermented with about 400g coffee in primary.

>>2642682
I learned this the hard way why sugar packed limoncello doesn't freeze while my homemade infused rum did.

>>2642682
So how does freeze distilling work? Surely there must be some degree of it coming out of solution for a mainly-water ice layer to form on top and leave a disproportionate amount of ethanol as liquid. Granted, it's not going to come fully out of solution so it doesn't matter if an uneven but fully solid cube gets thrown in a blender as prompted the question.

>>2642935
Water really likes to freeze and while doing so tries to expel solutes that don’t like being frozen as much (because of hydrogen bonds iirc) so it pushes ethanol molecules away from the ice-water interface(s). As you said it doesn’t work perfectly because of heat exchange and changes in solubility and if you freeze it in a bottle in a freezer (so from the outside in) most of the high concentration solution gets trapped in cracks/cavities in the ice block eventually but it can run out of those when it thaws.

In the traditional way the beverage is left outside overnight in winter, freezes from the top down, thaws and leaves a mostly clear block/sheet of frozen water on top in the early morning which can be scooped out. It supposedly works better and can be easily repeated for days until there’s no more ice

>>2637732
Not really brewing but finished this, came out really good actually, better than most store bought limoncellos imo. Even the color came out well. The spirit was clear green, the syrup was clear but when I combined them it got this light green hazy color it should have. Cheap store bought limoncello is a lot more sour because of added citric acid, this is milder and more lemon like

Anyway the recipe: 1L of some polish 95% wodka, zest of 8 small lemons, left 10 days shake once daily. On day 10 dissolve 600g sugar in 1L boiling water, add half the lime juice, cool to ~60C, add to wodka, let cool and settle for a few hours, siphon through coffee filter, then bottle. (1 small lemon zest to 4 floz vodka to 4 floz to water 2.5 oz sugar).

>>2623597
I was considering making some ginger wine and i was leaning towards making an unspiced one thats half ginger wine and half lemonade added later . however im curious about the recipe you posted, do you have a good comparison or description for how yours tastes?

>>2643247
Compared to ginger beer it is about 5x as sharp and it’s sharpness hides the alcohol and most of the sweetness. Made one bottle very sour and it became a bit more like a store bought ginger ale/fruit wine but still keeps the very strong ginger taste.

The previous one had about 60g/L fresh grated ginger, more sugar and more acid and was better, between ginger ale and sweet fruit wine

>>2631886
Thank you for the simplified design pic. I would like to try this.
Do you mind sharing which induction cooker you use? 10 gallons seems like a good size, is 120v sufficient for that or did you get one of the big cookers?

>>2642984
>It supposedly works better and can be easily repeated for days until there’s no more ice
Just remember that freeze distilling doesn't only concentrate the ethanol present in the brew but also the methanol and fusel alcohols.

>>2643393
Yea and if you drink a glass of water after a glass of applejack there’s literally no difference in terms of health risk.

Not meant at you specifically but there’s way too much uninformed FD fearmongering online imo

>>2643437
i don't think you even need the glas of water, at least in terms of health risk
if 1L of wine gets you drunk but you concentrate everything to 30cl and get drunk on that instead, then what is actually the difference besides the 70cl of water? you're going to be less hydrated with a more severe hangover but in terms of going blind or whatever, i don't see it.

>>2643437
>>2643451
It wasn't meant in terms of health-risk, it was meant in regards to flavor.
If you drink a whole bottle of cider or that exact bottle of cider concentrated to apple jack, doesn't change the amount of methanol and fusel alcohols you took in, but it impacts flavor significantly.

It only starts impacting health if you concentrate several bottles, fill all concentrates into one bottle and drink that one bottle in one go, but the increase in alcohol will most likely prevent you from finishing the bottle in the first place.

Update from my pressure fermentation experiment. The only coolant tool for the fermenter is a glycol chiller, which I don't have right now. A suitable workaround is using whisky stones.
Head retention is pretty decent despite the fact it's a gluten free sorghum Briess malt.

Just bottled a batch of cider I pitched over a week ago. I've tried cider a couple times before but it always lacked some body and complexity so I threw in about a cup of steeped black tea along with my usual cinnamon stick & clove (this is a 6L batch) and the flavour has improved immensely. However the SG of the apple juice I used was a bit low so I threw in a cup of sugar which seems to be a bit overkill; my FG reading shows that this batch is about 8.6% ABV.
Drinking homemade cider, eating pork & beans (Asturian bean stew, but close enough) and living my best 1930s hobo life right now. Cider pairs incredibly well with most pork dishes btw.

I started the mead on the left 3 weeks ago and it is half full because I've been sampling it since the second week. I've made some ghetto apple cider in the past, but I'm taking brewing seriously now. I used 2 pounds of Nature Nate’s brand honey with some wine yeast with nutrient and a gallon of filtered water. My goal is to make enough mead to give me two 12 oz bottles for me to drink.

>>2643990
I'll make some this summer, I'll add some red wine tannins and lemon juice, it definitely adds some much needed body.

>>2642288
thank you!

>>2644288
Cider definitely needs some added tannins if you're not making it from genuine pressed cider apples. I've drank loads of cider in the Basque country and even went to an all you can drink cider house and it was incredibly tart but relatively low ABV. Haven't tried adding any kind of acid but generally how much would you add? Asking because I have access to a citrus tree and can juice my own lemons.

>>2644570
Last year I used this recipe and it was breddy gud, I think I'll add the juice of one more lemon to get a little extra pop of sour freshness.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Hz-D0-zFk4

>>2644600
Thanks anon