>>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'.

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>>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.

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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.

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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

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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

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>>2618734
Was stripping run then refluxed

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>>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.!

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>>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

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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.

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>>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.

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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

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>>2621032

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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

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>>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

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>>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

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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

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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.