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[Mephisto]

A few rules to start off:

• I don't condone underage drinking, whatever that may be wherever you happen to be. Here in the US, that would be under 21 without parental approval. Keep this in mind.
• Also here in the US, home distillation is illegal. Don't do it. You could go blind.
  

We don't want to bring trouble upon the Toad so just don't go there.


With that out of the way, let's get this started. Are you a beer brewer? Amateur vintner? Toilet wine/pruno aficionado? Here's your place. Pics approved, recipes optional, words are okay too.

My first content addition is in the works. Feel free to ninja me if you can.

[Mephisto]

I'm a bit of an amateur meadmaker. I began this little journey on May 18 of this year.

Spoiler: The first two gallons (click to show/hide)

2 lb wildflower, 1.5 lb clover


I fucked up while degassing them and lost a depressing amount. As a result, secondary turned into three half gallons.

Juniper/nutmeg/clove half-and-half, licorice tea/clover, mint/wildflower

June 3, the second two gallons have begun.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The honeys were sort of expensive. 1 kg of the named honey, 1 lb generic "honey"

Grapefruit oleo saccharum and elderberry with manuka honey, "strawberry juice" with caramelized eucalyptus honey

[smjjames]

Doesn't #2 run counter to exactly the thread since you just said 'here in the US'? As in, you're currently in the US. Not trying to get you in trouble, just pointing out the rather obvious contradiction here since you just said that home distillation is illegal, but yet you're talking about exactly that.

#2 may depend on the state, but yes, check the local laws regarding that.

[Mephisto]

This isn't distillation. Beer, wine, mead, and loads of homebrews are perfectly legal. Moonshine, whisky, rum, et al are not.

[smjjames]

Good point though.

[Trekkin]

Does minimally/nonalcoholic homebrewing count?

I mean things like tepache and ginger beer, where the alcohol content can be negligible.

[Iduno]

As in, you're currently in the US. Not trying to get you in trouble, just pointing out the rather obvious contradiction here since you just said that home distillation is illegal

Also, distillation is technically legal, as long as you have a license from the state (except in Missouri) and from the ATF. Also, inspections.

[Mephisto]

Does minimally/nonalcoholic homebrewing count?

I mean things like tepache and ginger beer, where the alcohol content can be negligible.

Sure, why not. I love ginger beer and kombucha.

[Ulfarr]

Homebrewing thread YAYYY

I am an amateur/hobbist brewer though it's been a couple of years since I brewed anything due to space limitations. Hopefully I 'll start a batch this autumn when the temperature will have dropped to more manageable levels.

So far my experience is limited to a few brewing kits, kvass and a couple experiments with non standard raw materials. In said experiments I have used peach jam as a source for sugar/flavors, which turned out to be quite fermentable (iirc I got about 6-7% alc) but the end product was kind of undrinkable (too sour). I think that stopping the fermentation from going all the way or adding some extra sugars afterwards could have fixed the issues.

I fucked up while degassing them and lost a depressing amount. As a result, secondary turned into three half gallons.

I don't know about mead, so excuse my ignorance, but why would they need degassing? I see that you have airlocks on your jugs so wouldn't any CO2 escape through them?

[Iduno]

Homebrewing thread YAYYY

I am an amateur/hobbist brewer though it's been a couple of years since I brewed anything due to space limitations. Hopefully I 'll start a batch this autumn when the temperature will have dropped to more manageable levels.

So far my experience is limited to a few brewing kits, kvass and a couple experiments with non standard raw materials. In said experiments I have used peach jam as a source for sugar/flavors, which turned out to be quite fermentable (iirc I got about 6-7% alc) but the end product was kind of undrinkable (too sour). I think that stopping the fermentation from going all the way or adding some extra sugars afterwards could have fixed the issues.

Ooh, Belgian Style-ish.

It's possible you got some kind of non-yeast bugs growing in it. Yeast is a facultative anaerobe, which means it's not super good at either aerobic or anaerobic digestion, which means other bugs can get established and give off flavors. Sometimes, you can get enough of the off flavor that it becomes the reason to drink it. Like Belgian beers that add lactic acid bacteria (originally not entirely intentionally) to get the sour flavor you mentioned, or IPAs that taste like grass clippings and grapefruit rinds. Cooking the fruit beforehand probably will kill anything if you don't want the sour flavor, although I would recommend mixing the sour and non-sour if you've not thrown it out yet.

[Ulfarr]

Cooking the fruit beforehand probably will kill anything if you don't want the sour flavor, although I would recommend mixing the sour and non-sour if you've not thrown it out yet.
Nah, that was about 1.5 years ago, that swill is long gone

I don't think there was any sort of contamination but I can't rule it out either. The jam had already been boiled, canned and had enough sugar in it to prevent anything from growing. If something other than my yeast grew in it, it got in after I dilutted the jam (with boiled water) and put the "wort" in the fermentation buckets. At the time I was suspecting it was either due to the specific type of yeast (which I can't remember what it was) or the jam itself.

I haven't been able to verify it's validity, but a somewhat common advise in homebrewing is to not use sucrose (table/white sugar) for a beer's secondary fermentation because it leaves a sour aftertaste. Since the main sugar in that jam was indeed sucrose (it was a homemade one) that could be a possible explanation.

[Mephisto]

I don't know about mead, so excuse my ignorance, but why would they need degassing? I see that you have airlocks on your jugs so wouldn't any CO2 escape through them?

The airlock just prevents pressure from building up. There's still some amount of CO2 dissolved in the product.

I guess it's a personal preference thing. Some people degas during primary because CO2 isn't good for yeast. Some don't because they haven't noticed any difference in taste. I did it just to say I did it once. Unless there's some kind of study in the future that comes to some kind of objective conclusion, I probably won't bother. Mopping the ceiling is supposedly a rite of passage in the community, but it's one I'd prefer to avoid if at all possible.

[Ulfarr]

Damn you people you had me looking for ways to brew in the summer

Jokes aside, I was thinking about using a cold bath to keep the wort in a steady temperature during the primary fermentation if I end up giving a try this summer. Where I live we often get about 38-45 C from mid-June to August so I doubt the wet t-shirt method will cut it and there is no option for a dedicated fridge/cooling chamber.

While I was looking for more info for an estimate on how much water/ice I would need I found this document. It might be too much for most homebrewing applications (focusing on the thermodynamics of the brewing process ) but you might still find something useful in it.

[Iduno]

Damn you people you had me looking for ways to brew in the summer

Jokes aside, I was thinking about using a cold bath to keep the wort in a steady temperature during the primary fermentation if I end up giving a try this summer. Where I live we often get about 38-45 C from mid-June to August so I doubt the wet t-shirt method will cut it and there is no option for a dedicated fridge/cooling chamber.

While I was looking for more info for an estimate on how much water/ice I would need I found this document. It might be too much for most homebrewing applications (focusing on the thermodynamics of the brewing process ) but you might still find something useful in it.

That's too hot to exist, let alone try to sucker yeast into working for you. Do you have a basement or something where it's less hellish? That's what I used to do when I had space.

[Ulfarr]

I have one but it still won't be cold enough to absorb the heat generated by the fermentation, it's at about 30 C down there.

Now I've been doing some calculations and assuming:

• a fermentation temperature of 20 C
• a batch of 23 L

it turns out that a 1,5L bottle of water at 5C can absorb about the same amount of heat needed by said amount of wort to raise it's temperature by 1 C before the coolant reach the fermentation temperature. Now that doesn't take into account any heat transfer from the environment but it does make it sound like a plausible solution.