/diy/ - Do It Yourself

No one else makes their own booze at home? Or is even remotely interested in discussing it?

>>273865

I make beer at home. Made wine earlier, but switched to all beer, easier to get ingredients.

Never had home-made mead, only store bought. Quite sweet. Anything else brewing?

FYI, we have 2 other threads going already,

>>273476
and
>>271837

>>273866
I can't find any local meaderies that actually have their products on market around here, so when I sampled my batches and took my second SG reading, that was the first time I'd ever tasted it :)

This is all I've got brewing for now, but I want to get a larger batch (maybe 2 gal instead of 1) of strawberry-blueberry mead. While that's working away I also want to try two new drinks which should be quicker batches, namely alcoholic ginger beer and alcoholic sarsaparilla. Any experience with these? And what sorts of beers and wines have you made?

>>273868
Those threads are awfully specific to the OP's project, I just want to get a general discussion thread going here, with the various beverages and experiences of DIY's finest.

If you have pictures of your stuff, awesome. Recipes, even better!

>>273872
I've been brewing beer for a few years now. I've done Belgian dubbels, saison, Kolsch, roggenbier, russian imperial stout, and i think a couple others that i forget right now.

I finally got tired of bottling and have been SUPER fucking happy with my new kegs. I bought 2 5-gallon corny's and I also managed to find a 13 gallon keg on the street in perfect working condition.

I really want to make some moonshine though. I need to construct some kind of pot still though. I think i'll give it a shot this fall.

>>273872
Don't know of any locally brewed mead around these parts either. Don't think there are so many manufacturers of mead, compared to other alcoholic beverages.

Tastes sweet?

Good idea to make small batches when experimenting and learning the ropes. I usually make 5-6 gal batches now.

Peach wine, Riesling(complete bitch to get the grapes), Kiwi and raspberry wine

Porter, stout, brown ale, IPA, APA. Waiting for supplies to do a Kölch. Got my hands on a freezer, so now I can start making lagers with ease.

>>273875
I'm definitely looking to start making beers at some point as well. I'm a sucker for a good, crisp lager. I'd thought of making grape wines (as opposed to other fruit "wines" which is right up my alley) but it's just such a massively variable beverage and extreme care is required. Mead is much easier as far as I can tell!

If I can take this anywhere, I'd like to distill at some point in the future as well (whether it is labelled as 'shine or 'jack or whatever). Have you thought about cold-distilling? To my understanding it's a bit cheaper and easier than the more popular hot distillation, but I think it may also result in a higher occurrence of methanol and fusels... don't quote me on that.

The method though is basically just setting whatever base you're using (whether it's a wine or something, or just a fermented liquid made from a sour mash) in a below-freezing environment. Overtime the water in the solution will clump together and form pure ice chunks, and you simply remove the ice from the surface of the liquid until it's as pure as you're looking for.

>>273877
That's very cool. The whole thing really just piqued my interest as a way to a) save money on booze, ingredients and gear are much cheaper than buying bottles, and b) to share with my friends for good times and possibly impress the chicks. I almost wish I'd picked it up a few years ago though. I'm just so impatient, waiting for this shit to be ready...

>>273878
Cold distilling? hmmm, I think I'm more interested in the normal method since I already have most of the equipment, and there's a lot of steps similar to brewing that i'm already familiar with. Thanks for pointing out other methods though. I think I might try to do an eisbock beer sometime which has a similar idea...

I'd suggest for your first beer to do a Kolsch ale. It's a very easy and cheap recipe, and it's simpler to make than a lager and tastes pretty similar.

>>273879

Yeah, its a big money saver( but you need to brew quite a few gallons before you start saving)
As far as impressing the ladies, don't get your hopes up. Guys are much more easily impressed with home-made alcohol, esp beer.

I've always been interested in beer, so for me it was pretty obvious that I needed to start brewing it. And same as you, wish I startet a bit earlier with it.

>>273865
I'm guessing more than one person saw the op image, assumed it was a piss/cum jar collection, and kept moving. Took my second go-round to notice it wasn't.

>>273883
You fucker, don't go telling everyone my secret ingredient! :D

Buy your (used) kegs as soon as you can-prices go up every year.

>>273881

Do you have any experience with fermenting kölsch at room temperature? I'm guessing kölsch-yeast is out of the question.

>>273891
Yeah it was fine. I fermented Wyeast at 65 degrees F and it was totes cool, yo.

>>273894
err i meant the Kolsch yeast from Wyeast

>>273894

No fruity flavours? Krisp and clear?

>>273898
>Krisp and clear?
Pretty much. I mean, it's still an ale, but my dad who only drinks lager approved of it. It's like a more flavorful lager.

To get it clear you need to do put some irish moss in, and also make sure to bring the wort down to pitching temperature as fast as you can (with a wort chiller or something. ice bath isn't gonna cut it if you want the cloudiness out).

>>273899

I use super moss and immersion chiller, so shouldn't be a problem. Also, the speed you chill with won't affect the clarity, as far as I know. I've had beer that used no-chill and they are clear.

>>273901
Hmm, I was told that a good cold break takes a lot of the precipitate out of the beer. But I'm not an expert, I don't know for sure.

>>273907

There's a lot of myths out there when it comes to brewing, maybe that is one of them. I've got plenty of free cold water, so I'll just stick with immersion chilling.

I want to get into homebrewing. I have a glass carboy and I've been looking into air locks and things.

What is the easiest thing to make? I like mead and I've heard it's a good beginner brew.
What about cider, or wine?
Racking and bottling and aging sound scary and have kept me from just jumping in...

>>273911
Brewing is pretty fucking easy honestly, and there's a lot of room for error (which you'll make ALL the time, but you probably won't mess up to the point where your stuff is undrinkable).

The thing about mead is it takes a long ass time before you can drink it.

>>273911

I'd recommend using google to be honest. Find a proper forum and soak up as much info as possible. I started out with wine from concentrate, not the best stuff but got me going.

The most important part is cleaning the gear properly and not letting wild yeast get into whatever you are making.

>>273913
Yeah the time needed has been a deterrent.

What's something faster? beer?

>>273933
Fastest and easiest (I think) is brewing beer then kegging. Fermenting takes around two weeks, then you carbonate it in your keg for a few days, then it's ready to drink.

>>273933
>>273936
Kilju and tepache are fastest with tepache being the fastest, though it is about beer-level alcohol content.

"1. This is not a place to discuss drugs or drug paraphernalia. Global rule #1 is in effect."

>>273998
Stop spamming threads, please. That rule is for illegal drugs. I'm sure there's plenty of alcohol threads in /ck/ you can spam up.

I brew 15 gallons at a time and can be fermenting 30 gallons at a time. I do 2 week primaries so with this setup I can brew every week. In 4 weeks I can brew enough beer for about half a year. Its nice, I only have to brew two months out of the year and my cellar is full of beer. Pictured is altbier and blonde ale (pseudopilsner).

Making a cream ale now and just popped open some of my first peanut butter chocolate stouts (over 10% alcohol). I made a batch of mead nearly a year ago and have a few bottles left. I've been thinking of making another batch, maybe something with fruit this time.

>>274112
I'm currently fermenting 8 seperate batches of wine which I have started over the last 3 months. None of my batches have produced that much foam... Am I doing something wrong?

>>274268
nah wine's not as foamy as beer can be, and often depends on your yeast culture (beer uses different yeasts).


>>274117
That's a beautiful setup, I usually brew about 6 to 8 times a year, and I've thought about just doing two huge batches twice a year, but after I did three brews in two weeks once I decided to never do it again. I'm probably way more obsessive about sanitizing my equipment than I should be seeing as I've never had a batch go bad, but I guess I'm afraid of losing the effort I've invested.

I've been brewing for 6? maybe 7 years and I love it. I would as echo the opinion that ladies will not be impressed, but if you brew something that ladies will like (sweet wheat beers, fruity ass crap, light malty ales) getting girls who "don't like to drink" to drink your beer is really satisfying. I have gotten laid because of my brewing skills exactly once (and to be honest that's me pretending that my girlfriend at the time was sleeping with me because she was impressed with my beer).

Anyone had any luck brewing Lambics, or advice on it? Pretty much the only style of beer I've yet to try brewing.

>>274268
Based solely on my experience with mead (which happens to behave a lot like wine) the foamy head is most prominent for the first few days to a week in primary, then it goes down (which was my cue to top the batches off with some honeywater, complemented with boiled bread yeast hulls).

>>274431
>>274268
It depends entirely on the type of yeast you are using and nothing else. Some yeasts are made elusively for creating as much CO2 as possible (bread yeast for instance) while others are selected for their other characteristics (brewing yeasts) and do not create nearly as much foam. Between the yeasts used mainly for brewing you can have a range of amounts of foam (like those used for wine making or beer making and between top and bottom fermenting brewing yeasts).

>>274268
From what I learned in my foray into mazing, and thereby homebrewing in general, is that the thick foamy head is only really prevalent for the first few days-week or two of primary... when the foam when down due to the CO^2 slowly draining, I just took that as a sign to add more honeywater to each batch (plus some yeast hulls made by horribly murdering a whole 3/4 packet of bread yeast via boiling water). The airlocks bubbled for a bit more soon after but now they've gone nearly silent, so as soon as I've got money to buy a few good glass johnboys, I've gotta rack 'em off, and potentially add more ingredients for secondary... See how it goes.

All I know is that when I sampled them for second SG and for taste, it smelled and tasted distinctly like wine, but obviously less grape-y(?). I did use raisins in each batch though so that may have added to the "wine" scent too. But the fruit flies aren't buzzing around them anymore, I'm guessing the alcohol is too strong >:D those fuckers were all up in my airlock water and buzzing round my jugs since I started them fresh...

>>274435
I actually used three different yeasts for my three different batches of mead, and they foamed and de-foamed pretty much the same. My orange mead is made to the letter according to a recipe that's recommended for beginners, and it insists on Schleimann's bread yeast, so I used that.

On my cider-cyser-mead-whatever, I used Morgan's lager yeast (albeit at room temp, interested to see how this affects the flavor or anything) and my metheglin is made with good ol' Lalvin KI-V111X.

>>274442
It foams so much because you are using bread yeast.

>>274445
The other two batches, the ones made with a lager yeast and a wine yeast, foamed up to the same height - not that much, I only left three or so inches from the top of 4-litre milk jugs and it was fine. I actually was worried it wouldn't be enough space for the foam when I first mixed, aerated and pitched... but it was plenty of space and the foam on all the different batches died down around the same time.

>>274445
Besides I think bread yeasts are basically a strain of ale yeasts aren't they? :/

If you used champagne yeast you are going to get some kick ass brew though meads need a goodly amount of time to smooth out and develop their flavor profiles.

Come back in about 8 months minimum.

>>274450
Top fermenting yeasts. They are not the same strain.

>>273879
You are going to impress more dudes than chicks

>>273911
Beer is definatly cheapest, once I started it took only a month till i bought a kegerator and two 5 gallon kegs. Cheapest thing I found is the carboys, I get old antique 5 gallon water jugs from antique shops. Look around for them, I was at one place and found 3 of the same carboys from 110$, 60$ and 20$. Guess which one I bought, and the glass is much thicker than the homebrew one's you can get, so more durable. (can't beat 1950's glass). Also I am using a 2.5 gallon antique jug from the 1910's for the mead I just made, (this was expensive 75$, but my wife and I love how it looks in the kitchen), if you buy one of these make sure you smell the inside so it doesn't smell like kerosene, DO NOT USE THOSE FOR ANYTHING BUT VISUAL. i'll have pics to show you in further posts.

>>274112
I'm jelly, I have 2x carboy and 2x 5 gallon kegerator with 2x taps. and one 2.5 gallon jug. I have to brew pretty much year round if i want people over. But it is a lot cheaper than buying beer.

>>273868
saw this thread first, than read that thread, made me want to brew some mead. tnx man.
I didn't follow the recipe exactly to this http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-Mead-Honey-Wine/?ALLSTEPS
but what was funny, I had everything for it, just a 2min walk to the store and honey and lemonade concentrate was like 15$ for a 2.5 gallon batch. I changed the recipe a little. I have white labs yeast nutrient, and some liquid pectic enzyme. so i put about 1/2 tsp of nutrient and a little squirt of enzyme on the first step, I have clarifying tabs but did't use them. I also cut the recipe in half "duh". So simple man, gunna love it. I have tried making mead before but I didn't know you had to wait so long before it was done. Waited a month and a half.

>>273853
Anyways, to answer your question I have been brewing for about 5 years (beer) finished brewing a STONE IPA clone today, and just added the yeast 6 hrs ago, used wpl002 yeast and was worried that it was chunky and I thought it was bad. NOPE normal. should be good. Kegged my first IPA, after 4 weeks of carboy and used the isi infuser to taste it before I carbonate, awesome. Have a American heveweizen on tap, pretty good. And i just found a recipe for Sculpin IPA, < my next project.

>>275624
My question is, after I primary, then secondary "vessel" (I'm planning 1month for first 3months for second) I don't want to spend money on bottles. So, just using old coke plastic bottles 12oz and let them sit for about 2months. Will that fuck it up. I'm thinking not. And can I put carbonator tabs in so it will be more like champagne?

>>275626
My STONE IPA during boil

>>275629
BTW the mead i just made was 1.08 OG @ 90.8 degress F. Making it for a possible 11% abv, without a second ferment.

You guys, have you heard of any dangers to drinking your own stuff? I'm making some but hesitating on drinking it because I've heard of people getting fucked up. Also, I'm not sure I sanitized completely during the process.
But will this only affect the taste?

>>275721
>because I've heard of people getting fucked up.

Someone has been outright lying to you or the term "fucked up" merely means they got extremely DRUNK. You can't be harmed from wine/beer/mead making unless you drink too much alcohol and that is the same danger with store bought alcohol.

Only distilled spirits can be a danger and only when some complete moron adds denatured alcohol to their own home distilled alcohol. Denatured alcohol is ethanol that has methanol added to it to make it deadly to consume (in order to skip out on the alcohol taxes) and is used for industrial purposes only. Which is why you need to be damn sure how the distilled spirits were made if you drink someone else's home distilled stuff.

When a brew goes bad it means you can't even keep it in your mouth because it'll be some of the worst tasting shit you've ever had the displeasure to put in your mouth, unless it has turned to vinegar of course which won't harm you either. The worst that can happen is if you are drinking live yeasts from a cloudy unstabilized brew and you get bad gas and/or diarrhea for the rest of the day.

>>275724

anon speaks the truth

>>273853
First of all, its not mead its melomel. Mead contains ONLY water, honey and yeast.
second, i suggest you use bubbler airlocks when you brew in such a small scale, way easier to see how the batch is going etc while fermenting

>>275724
nope.
By distilling your brew your just separating the alcohol from the rest, no chemical reaction or shit like that. No extra ingredient, no extra atoms etc. So if you managed to get hurt from distilling your a dumb fuck and probably deserved it.

Made a mead a few weeks ago and now it's aging in my bedroom. Going to start making a cider this afternoon!

>>275781
I assume you read my post too fast and skipped a little of it. I was not saying anything changes chemically. I was saying that fools ADD in a different and toxic chemical in order to increase the %ABV of their own spirits. This chemical, methanol is in denatured alcohol.

The only real dangers of distilling are explosions and improper metals used in the construction of the still. There is also the chance some fool uses the radiator off an old car and ends up contaminating the spirits with trace amounts of anti-freeze.

>So if you managed to get hurt from distilling your a dumb fuck and probably deserved it.

It isn't about the fool getting hurt from his own still or the tings he makes with it. It is about that fool giving his poisonous spirits to someone else who has no clue and they get hurt, blinded, and/or dead.

>>275797
Nice.

I'm a poor college student with an apartment and want to get drunk cheap. I don't know anything about homebrewing. What do?

>>276166
Water. Sugar. Yeast.
Google kilju recipe.
I've never made it but it is cheap.

>>276167
Thanks, bro!

>>276168
Bear in mind, I assume it will taste like ass.
I'm currently making a cider (First brew) and I only spent like 24 bucks on ingredients for hopefully about a 4.8 gallon payoff.

>>276175
>>276168
Kilju was the first thing I made and it wasn't bad, the key is to mix it with lemon juice or something strong enough to mask the taste

I'm considering making some apple cider but lack the necessary hardware for proper brewing, I'd like to try the method of just putting yeast and sugar into apple juice but does this require to be distilled

TLDR; Do you need to distill Apple cider

pic related - my first ever Cider
Good one but I used too much sugar...
I must buy new fermentation unit ( I already have one-5 L)
Brewing in home is such a great idea - it is cheaper, better and home-brews are good to pay for small favors

Need good recipe for mead, someone know one ?

>276315
Nooo. Only three steps ;)

*fermentatnion
*fermentatnion II - for some carbon dioxide
* a bit of maturation (month or so)

>>273853
I brew at home, in fact I also do a cyser/bragget combo pretty regularly. Pic related; it's the label I made for it.

>>276376
not bad.

I'm drinking a glass of my own apple brew right now, to test it out.
Really fucking simple recipe, my first brew. I only made 1.5 litres. Tastes good!
I forgot to test for alcohol concentration, which you need to test before it starts fermenting.
Is there a way to guess the approximate alcohol content of my stuff?

>>276252
>>276252
This is what I (>>277503) did. Not hard at all and I mixed it with apple juice so there's a bit of an apple taste.

Guys, easy ways to clean the product? I mean, filtering yeast and the like.

I'm probably making some apple cider (I did tepache for school project, everyone liked it (got some 9th grader semi-drunk lel))

>>277844
Time is the best filter. Once fermentation ceases the yeast falls to the bottom. Once that happens completely the brew should be crystal clear enough to read through. If there is a haze left then you may need to clarify it using either a freezing technique to make the particles drop down or use one of many clarifying agents based on the type of haze it is.

For a tepache, I recommend storing the brew in the fridge which should be set to be pretty cold. You can try the freezer, but with such low alcohol content it may inadvertently freeze, which you don't want to happen. Instead you just need to chill it as much as possible. the longer it is chilled the more yeast will settle to the bottom. Then you'll be able to rack the brew into a new container.

>>277503
Apple juice has a specific gravity of about 1.042 - just take a gravity reading now and calculate it from there.

New poster in this thread, looks like there's a lot of experience here though.

I've looked up online for cheap start ups, and ways to brew without buying the recommended equipment (using plastic jugs instead of glass carboys) but a friend of mine insists that the plastic will, very slowly, dissolve into my brew and leave a bad/unhealthy property in it.

So what's the cheapest set up for making wine or beer, without sacrificing quality, and where can I buy it?

>>278243
you can get one gallon glass jugs of organic apple juice fairly cheaply ($7-8) at any WholeFoods or Sprouts, which you can either drink and use to brew beer with or you can just toss some yeast and nutrient into the juice to make cider.

Brooklyn Brewing recently started selling little complete one gallon kits that use the same bottles.

For an airlock, you can either get one for under $5 with a rubber stopper from a home brew store or amazon. Alternatively, use a rubber stopper or cork (called a bung in some stores), drill it and run a hose from the stopper to a bottle of water. This keeps the oxygen from getting in while letting the CO2 and krausen (the foamy yeast bubbles that form on top of whatever you're fermenting during the first few days) safely out.

I made an IPA a few weeks ago that I'm not too proud of, but it was my first every homebrew. Anyone have tips for making a nice sweet cider? I've heard you need to put a non-fermenting sugar into the mix, such as lactose.

>>278243
Never heard that before anyone else know if there is anything to this? I am a little worried I have been making wine in plasic 5 gallon jugs and storing it in pop bottles. Then again those are both made for beverages so perhaps I am safe?

However I plan on making mash in a old 15 gallon jug that was used for dilute hydrochloric acid and that might leech into my mash? (I am of coarse going to clean it VERY thoroughly)

>>278339
yes, I made one with just apple juice and dextrose, and it basically became apple vinegar, not too nice at all.

>>278243

You can brew in plastic jugs,as long as they are food grade.
Some will argue about oxygen permeability vs glass,but in all honesty it's not going to matter. For the airlock,just BUY ONE.

>inb4 hurr durr buyfag

The airlocks are 99 cents at my local store,and the bungs are 1.50.

Decide what you want to make,then go look at kits places sell either locally or online. I started off wanting to make a gallon of JAOM. I no longer have a closet because of all the gear I have stored in there. Good thing buckets can be nested in each other. Another helpful hint,if you plan on putting wine in bottles,don't buy a hand corker. Get a floor corker. They are expensive,but well worth it.

>>278747
I wouldn't suggest using that. Clean,FOOD GRADE containers is the key. You don't know what could still be in there from the chemicals mixed in it,or what might be in the plastic if it isn't food grade.

I want to brew some nice drinks

I want it all natural and nice tasting; the problem is I don't have any idea on what yeast to use; I've got bread and pizza yeast and I'm gonna assume bread is better than pizza for homebrewing.

Also, I think I'll be brewing some strawberry alcohol... could someone reccomend some other spices to add?


I once created a batch of apple cider with nothing natty and bread yeast. Came out drinkable but pretty bad.

>>279424
p-please respond

>>279424

Check out sites,they have explanation for the different kinds of yeast. homebrewtalk.com is a great place.

Homebrew stores will give you info on the yeast and what it should be used for.

You can use bread yeast,but it's alcohol tolerance is low and it produces a lot of co2 and other things you don't really want. Decide what you want to make,then go shopping for yeast. Something like KV-1116 makes a very different end product than if you use something like EC-1118.

>>279590
I have no homebrewing stores near me (I'm mexican for fuck's sake)

Anyone has any experience with taking the yeast out of already bottled beers?

>>273853
damn son that looks pretty good

>>279597

Search online. Customs won't make a giant deal about any of it. There are probably places in Mexico,too. It's a pretty big hobby.

And you can't take yeast out of already bottled beers,unless it's homebrew and pretty young. Commercial stuff is run through filters which removes all of the yeast(and some flavor).

>>279639
Fresh, bottle conditioned craft beers will have live yeast in them.

>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlHaFkD8VnE

It is important to maintain lab quality sterility when harvesting yeast.

Guise i just started my apfelwein brew on friday! couple days in and it smells pretty badly of rotten eggs. gonna start on my second 5 gallon jug in a few weeks, and have a constant cycle of alcohols.

>>280664

That's hydrogen sulfide. You do NOT want that.

Did you sulfite it correctly? Was everything sanitized? Do your yeast have the proper nutrients?

If you answered no to any of that,I suggest you fix it. h2s will form mercaptans,which will really stink it up. You won't want to drink it.

Also,whenever you rack it,splash it around a little bit,that should release any H2S(pretty volatile). Or try degassing with a wine whip or a metal/plastic spoon.

>>280761
im going to go ahead and ignore all of your advice. because 1.) ive been doing this shit since i was ten and 2.) wine doesn't need to be sulfite-ed, or yeast nutrients added, that stuffs just boosts yeast production and helps to preserve the wine, not stop h2o from forming.

>>280994
Hydrogen Sulfide is produced if the brew remains on the lees too long and the yeast cells start to break down. If can also happen from a bacteriological infection.

>>280994

Which is why almost any modern recipe calls for that stuff? Because professional wine makers are stupid?

Because the yeast doesn't need fixed nitrogen available to live....noooo.

>>281137
I'm not that anon, but.

>Which is why almost any modern recipe calls for that stuff?
>Because professional wine makers are stupid?

For consistency.

A strong pitch of yeast is more than enough to prevent contaminations. Racking carefully with sanitized/sterilized equipment and having sparged the carboy will also prevent contamination. Racking to keep the brew off the lees also prevents hydrogen sulfide creation.

Recipes that call for added yeast nutrients also do so for consistency or because the other ingredients in the brew have no nutrients to offer. However, recipes can be created to omit pure yeast nutrients for more "organic" methods of giving them nutrients such as adding in a pureed banana. Yeast loves bananas.

>>281232

Sulfites do have more than one use. It also helps keep oxygen from entering your brew.

And,his apple wine recipe does need the nutrients if it's starting to smell like that. Whether he gets it from commercial yeast nutrients or adding some grapes or banana,it'll help. I suggested the commercial stuff because it won't effect the flavor.

He's the one being bullheaded. Heaven forbid someone try and help. I've had 5 gallons of blueberry wine go down the fucking drain because of that.

>>279597
it's relatively easy to harvest viable yeast from craft beers or import Belgian beers. Anything that says "bottle conditioned will have yeast dregs sitting in the bottom of the bottle.

In my experience Trappist beers and french farmhouse style saisons have hardy yeasts that will survive and thrive after being harvested.

A good starter can be made by boiling about a gallon of water, adding some dried malt extract, dumping that into a container with an air lock, letting it cool to room temp. Once its cool, pour the bottom 1/3 of the bottle of beer with yeast sediment into the container and shake it around every few hours for a couple of days (even better if you have a plate stirrer).

You can take future starter material from you new yeast bank. Occasionally replenish with new malt extract and water as your supply gets low.

>>281239
No, sparging is what you do to prevent oxygen from getting in the brew. Sulfites don't really help that much in that respect.

I'm looking into making some apple cider at the moment but according to a lot of people you either need a lot of fancy equpment or have a professional do it but is there any spefic reason why i can't just use more primitive tools? Should i just buy juice instead?

Anyone have a recommendation for a Newcastle like beer?

I don't have any experience brewing, but I have all of the gear.

>>282357
This might be what you want: http://www.austinhomebrew.com/product_info.php?cPath=178_452_43_377&products_id=1118
They have their own recipes and their version of some commercial beers:
http://www.austinhomebrew.com/index.php?cPath=178_452

Although you could look at the recipes here: http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f82/

Do you have to use a special kind of yeast for your mead? Or is bread making yeast good enough?

>>284767
It depends entirely on the recipe and brand name of bread yeast you are using. You can't simply swap out one yeast for another in an established recipe. Yes, it will make alcohol, but it will not be the same result. It is like swapping out one fruit for another in a cobbler recipe. Sure it is a fruit cobbler, but they are different.

If that is all you have to use, use it. Keep the temperatures around 72F for it.

>>281324
no fancy equipment needed, i use a clean bucket and lid. if you buy juice instead of 'cider' it'll be closer to applewine than hard cider

Good news, everyone! They released it.