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[Lord Inquisitor]

As the title says this is for those who ferment there own alcohol. Distilling probable best avoided for annoying legal reasons. Like 400 Imp gallon min requirment for licence I have no hope of being granted. And unsure if its legal where forums are, brewing is though,

So how make beer wines or turbo ciders? other ferments welcome as well, all information welcome.

Me, I make Kit beers and turbos due to space and brewday time constraints as belive me I would love to be let do a real all grain.
Currently brewing:
07-09-2012 Coopers IPA Malt and Hop Tea, 20lt 5% ABV
09-09-2012 Vitafit Apple B&S Turbocider 4 litres ABV =???

Waiting on:
17-05-2012: Fruice T&L golden syrup Turbocider: 15.8%ABV waiting to clear on 2nd rack
11-07-2012: Youngs Strawberry wine: 2nd Rack
16-08-2012: 10 Coopers Canadian Blonde 5 gallons, 3.9%
24-08-2012: 11 Vitafit Tropical Cocktail Turbocider 1 gallon, 9.2%, Finished, waiting to clear

Planned:
a Double Triple
Youngs Elderberry Wine

Bottled:
16-08-2012: 10 Coopers Canadian Blonde 5 gallons, 3.9%, 40 x 500ml PET Bottles
17-07-2012: Blue Kilju Bottled 28-08-2012, 9.2% ABV, 1 x 750ml bottle,
26-07-2012: 09 Fruice Turbocider 1 gallon Bottled 22-08-2012, 11.8% ABV, 3 x bottles
14-07-2012: Youngs Barley "wine"(its a beer): Bottled 11-08-2012, 5.8% ABV, 25 x 500ml
19-06-2012: Sqeez Cranberry Apple Turbo Cider: Bottled 15-8-2012 12.7% ABV 12 x 330ml

[Svampapa]

I've always wanted to make my own beer, but I am afraid to ask... Rhino farts? <= Don't watch that if you are prude/die if you laugh/are eating breakfast. Or any other fast come to think of it. But chances are you've all seen it anyways.

[Lord Inquisitor]

"Rhino Farts" Technical name for hydrogen sulfide produced during Brewing. Basically produced when yeast are not getting enough pantothenate (nutriensts) so it gets disagreable and kicks up a literal stink.

Currently that brew 201204 has only mild sulphur smell. First turbo I ever did was a tru room stinker but it turned out to me a fantastic quality cider. so it dosnot mean much other than some food for the yeast required.

[Svampapa]

This is part of what attracts me to the idea. It's just like baking sourdough bread.

[Lord Inquisitor]

If you want something easy try a turbo or Kilju.

My latest ferment I am at is a small try it to see it Kilju. A finnish sugar wine, that happens to be illegal in finland.
Basically liter bottle soda works fine as known pressure proof more than the bottle I am doing.
200g of sugar and 700ml or so of water
yeast: Super yeast compound as have a tub of it
nutrient & citric acid: These keep the Yeastie beasties happy

Dissolve sugar in water,
Wait to cool down to 20°C give or take a few degrees
Add yeast, nutrient, and citric acid and put in a warm place.
I have it in a temp controlled waterbath along with the rest of my wine/beers/turbos.
Try to keep it 22°C and below, above this you get fusels which alter taste and headach ability.

slightly better is to use energiser for the yeast or simple boil some sacrifical yeast (like crappy bread yeast)for few minutes, cool it and pour in your fermenting vessel. This gives the Yeast something else to eat which decreases farts. I left this out as no bread yeast to use.

08 Kilju Sugar Wine by Lord Inquisitor, on Flickr
Blue Dye is for later, when finished.
Good Shake helps to grow yeast as they like oxygen for the first part of the ferment, after that you want to avoid air as it creates off smells.

[Lord Inquisitor]

Gelatin Fluffy lumps.   &  Filtered Gelatin Powder
This is what happened when you do not use gelatin right and just dump the powder right into the Demijohn. It got filtered out when it proved not to be dissolving.

Correct usage varies from 1 teaspoon per 5 gallons to 1 pack ina cup and lobbed in. Basically heat with water that is not quite boiling. Boiling = jelly, Jelly + Beer = Weird elvis stuff, not good. Main thing is heat in near boiling water until it dissolves and waith for it to cool doen a bit the pour in the fermenter nad cool the whole thing prefable or use time.

Dont need finings to clear beer or wine, time works but its slow and extra racking help.

[Mullet Master]

For anyone seriously interested in home brewing, I recommend the following books :

The Complete Joy of Homebrewing Third Edition by Charles Papazian
and Designing Great Beers: The Ultimate Guide to Brewing Classic Beer Styles by Ray Daniels.

[Hubris Incalculable]

Not exactly brewing, but a fermentation thing: I'm makin' sauerkraut! woohoo

[Svampapa]

Great. So we've got a couple of brewers, a sauerkraut maker and a baker. Now all we need is someone dabbling in the fine art of lutefisk and we'll be complete.

[Fishbreath]

I'm only a homebrewer insofar as I very occasionally make proper ginger beer and root beer (which are much simpler than regular beer), but I'll sound off regardless.

[Lord Inquisitor]

The more the better I say.

net story of Lutefisk originating during the Viking pillages of Ireland, when St. Patrick sent men to feed spoiled fish to the Viking raiders. When the raiders were found to enjoy the spoiled fish, St. Patrick ordered his men to pour lye on the fish, with the hope of poisoning the Vikings. However, rather than dying from ingestion of spoiled fish, or of subsequent poisoning of the spoiled fish, the Vikings declared lutefisk a delicacy. So blame the Irish for your tradition of eating fish soaked in wood extract. its one of those things on the bucket list along with that skark dish and whale.

If you want to explain how you make sauerkraut, proper ginger beer and root beer, and anything else please do.

[Hubris Incalculable]

If you want to explain how you make sauerkraut, ... please do.

We-ell, I've not successfully made a Kraut yet (this is my second attempt, and is probably more of a Kimchi, 'cause I included some chilly flakes), but the recipe i'm following is as follows:

Take a bag of Cole-slaw mix, and crush it in a bowl with your hands, until the juices are released. shake some salt over the lot of it (not too much, use your own discretion) and mix it in. Add herbs and seasonings if you like. squish the lot if it into a widemouth jar, and push a smaller jar filled with water (and pebbles, if you like) into the larger jar. cover it with a cloth. Daily put pressure on the inner jar, for as long as you like.

[Lord Inquisitor]

06 Youngs Country Definitive Strawberry - Day 11 - Hydrometer S.G. 1.004

Been checking my Strawberry wine. and its dry buy my standard and still active. might add 60g sugar to raise the FG before I fine and stablise. It isin't red either as had expected.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/13453980@N06/7624790410 = is kilju moving in bottle

[Lord Inquisitor]

Some homebrew bottled

201204 Sqeez Cranberry Apple Turbocider - Day 58 - Homebrew Bottled 12 & half 330ml bottles


201207 Youngs Harvest Barley Wine - Day  28 - Homebrew Bottled 25 x 500ml Bottles

The clear bottles are to check clarity and trub level. Clear plastic would probably be better to check the carb level as well.

[Sergius]

After reading about it somewhere else in this forum, I started following this guide:

http://www.stormthecastle.com/mead/fast-cheap-mead-making.htm

To make my own mead. So I have a gallon of the stuff that's been fermenting for over a month.

I've tasted it, I can feel the alcohol in it but the flavor was a bit orange-ish (probably because the orange is still floating on the top and that's where I scooped the sample). I'm not sure if at this point in the process I'm supposed to remove all the raisins and stuff or just leave them alone (also the balloon just broke so I replaced it with the normal cap).

Another problem I had while making it, is that I couldn't find any conventient small one-use packets of the yeast, so I got like 100 grams of the thing. I used like one teaspoon or whatever the equivalent was, thing is, the closed pack has been sitting on my fridge for over a month and I think it's not supposed to be stored for so long... throwing it away feels like such a waste :-/