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[Little]

So, on the 15th, I began my descent into the hobby known as brewing. I figured mead would be a good starting project, and promptly found a recipe (http://www.stormthecastle.com/mead/fast-cheap-mead-making.htm). I washed out a 4L milk jug, assembled the ingredients, got some brewers yeast I had acquired back in August, and so forth. Unfortunately, the balloon isn't inflating, although there seems to be bubbling and a white froth of bubbles at the top of the mixture, so I'm not sure if this indicates failure or if I merely fucked up on properly applying the balloon. I'll provide some pictures once my camera charges.

Any advice/tips for a dabbling brewer?

[Hubris Incalculable]

It seems like you may have a larger leak than just the pinprick in the balloon. submerge the bottle in clean, room temperature water, and check for bubbles.

However, It wasn't a good idea to use a milk jug (would have been better to use a jug from distilled water, which is free of bacteria on the inside). any remaining milk (not to cast doubt on your cleaning methods) inside the jug would cause the variable of bacteria contaminating the brew.

By the way, I would recommend that instead of a plastic jug and a balloon, you use a glass apple cider jug* and a fermentation lock. I'm sure there's a brewer's supply store somewhere in your area...

*you can use the cider to make a champion cyser.

[Loud Whispers]

PTW for hilarity

[Bauglir]

If you cleaned it well, you should probably be fine. Once the brew reaches a certain alcohol concentration, it should maintain sterility on its own. However, for future brewing projects, I'd highly recommend switching to glass, if only because depending on the type of plastic used you can get leeching of some fillers into the booze, or loss of flavor through the plastic, and an airtight seal is generally harder to accomplish. I'd also recommend looking into some Campden Tablets, or sodium metabisulfite (same thing, the former is just premeasured to an amount appropriate to a 1 gallon container), in order to help ensure contamination doesn't have a chance to grow, and to help protect the flavors from oxidation (especially if you age it). Depending on your environs, you might not be able to find the stuff nearby, and so may have to order it online. If you're getting bubbles (it should be about the same level of carbonation you'd expect from a non-canned beer), your yeast are growing and your problem was just with getting a seal.

For more details than you'll ever want or need, this website is packed to bursting with information, all wrapped up in vintage 90s style web design. I believe there's information for meads on there.

[Hubris Incalculable]

Bauglir: can you really call bad and old HTML "vintage"?

you scare me.

[Bauglir]

I could call it "quality", if you'd prefer. It's just that I'm leaving out crucial descriptors like "poor". The actual content is worth it, though.

[zchris13]

the animated GIF menu items really sell the whole webpage, in my opinion. how can you say no this gif?

[Little]

Thanks for the help! The laundry room where I was keeping the concoction was a bit chilly, and I thought this might be a factor, so I moved the jug into the bathroom. I've also replaced the balloon, so we'll see how that goes.  As for getting proper fermenting vessels and such, I'm trying to do this as cheaply as possible with materials from around the house. Glass sounds like a good idea, I'll get some for when I start with beer.

Blurry pictures!

Spoiler: Blurry, large, pictures! (click to show/hide)

[Bauglir]

Oh, yeah, temperature is a thing to watch out for. Keep it above 70 F if you can. Below that, it gets a lot slower and you get more methanol.

[Little]

you get more methanol.

Is my mead now poison? 
Edit: Google says I am an idiot.

[jester]

As someone who has done a bit of brewing, id back up what has been said earlier in that you should ditch the milk jug.  If you can find something glass at that size, that would be best, failing that you can buy sterilizing products from brewers shops, there are a few homebrew ways to make sterilizers cheaply, though if you use any sort of chems to sterilize, you need to clean your flask out over and over and over and over (seriously like 6 times) with clean water (fresh each clean) to remove any traces, as sterilizers will kill your yeast.


  If you can get glass, a great way to sterilize is capping the top with foil (use a bit about as big as your palm for something about beer bottle size, bigger for a bigger hole)  just place it on top then smooth the sides down with your hands.  Then place your bottle into an oven.  THEN turn the oven on to about 150 C.  Turning the oven on after it goes in will let the bottle heat up slow and then there is no chance of cracking.   Cook it for about 45 mins-1 hour,  If there is any glue/labels on it it may get a bit of a burning paper smell, dont stress.  Then turn the oven off and just let it cool.  This is basically how alot of labs sterilize glassware, once its done, if you leave the foil on it should stay sterile for a fair while, (eg, months)  and will kill bugs better than sterilizing powders, is nearly free and doesnt require large amounts of flushing with clean water.  Metal lids can be boiled to sterilize as well.

  Other thing that can kill yeast fairly quick is water with chlorine in it, even many bottled waters will contain chlorine.  An easy and cheap way to be sure to clean in out in your own kitchen is to fill a big pot with water and bring it to the boil, then uncover and leave to boil, the chlorine is one of the first things to come off when it boils.  Boil it for about 10 mins uncovered, then remove the heat and let it cool enough its not going to kill the yeast.  THEN add your yeast

  I make beer from homebrew kits on a regular basis and I boil all my water like this and while it is still fairly hot I put it into the sterile keg with all the sugar, etc.  Once I have enough water I seal the thing up and leave it till the next day, then crack it one more time to put the yeast in.

  Simple way to make an airlock (ive tried the balloon without great success) is attach a rubber hose to the lid of you jug, then drop the end of the hose into a bowl of water, bubbles of gas come out, nothing comes in

[Bauglir]

you get more methanol.

Is my mead now poison? 
Edit: Google says I am an idiot.

Probably not. I wouldn't make a habit of drinking wine that fermented at low temperatures, but the amount produced over even a few days wouldn't be significant. It takes a week or two to ferment to 10% alcohol even under ideal conditions, and cold will slow fermentation and methanol will still not be the largest product. I think the only reason to worry would be if you ran the whole batch at low temperatures and drank a few glasses, or if it was a routine over several years. There are even yeasts selected for cold fermentation where this isn't even an issue.

That said, it's occurred to me that if you're not getting bubbles rising through the liquid, from the bottom of the container (it should resemble a beer or soda, with finer bubbles than you get in a canned beer or soft drink), the foam is probably a contaminant and I'd recommend pitching the whole batch. A foam does often form naturally if you don't stir it down, but if there's not genuine bubbling going, your yeast probably haven't taken to the environment, and I wouldn't want to take the risk myself (I'd recommend sniffing it before making any decision, though - it should smell distinctly yeasty). This is especially so if you didn't follow the sterilization instructions in the article you linked, but if you did, then it's probably just bad luck.

[Little]

The balloon is now inflated! Yay! 

As on methanol nastiness, I've wrapped the jug in an old pair of sweatpants and moved it into a corner in my room(my room is warmer than the bathtub). Are there any easy ways anyone could suggest to raise the temperature besides turning up the heat in my room?

[klingon13524]

Make your home a 24/7 partyhouse, and make sure your room is packed with people. The body heat will add up.

[Little]

Make your home a 24/7 partyhouse, and make sure your room is packed with people. The body heat will add up.

As great as that sounds, I doubt it'd be allowed :p