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[Bralbaard]

Homebrew thread.. awesome!

I've picked this back up as a hobby about a year ago, starting off with a malt extract-kit someone wanted to get rid off.
Anyhow, it was a Brewferm IPA kit, and the result was a good beer, though it had little in common with IPA, and tasted more like a tripel.
It got me back into brewing so no complaints.

This was the beer label I made:

Starting from a malt extract felt like cheating, so we named it "valse start" Which is Dutch and translates into.. about the exact same thing in English. Since that first attempt I got all the equipment together for proper brewing, and we've brewn two batches since. The second of those was bottled last weekend. Just a few weeks patience and I'll know for sure, but it looks like this is going to be a good one.

[Iduno]

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.

There is one bit you missed. That's a fairly large temperature difference through the wall of the container. Materials (especially things like glass) don't like thermal shock; they get explodey. Metal is better at dissipating heat, and is less likely to explode when it expands/contracts. Plastic should be fine, if you trust your beer in plastic (less than a week in a well-cleaned plastic bucket isn't too bad, I've done it).

A heat exchanger should work, although it's one more thing to clean. A simple system like a aluminum or copper pipe (drinking water safe, no lead) with cold water running through it would work, if you've got a large enough opening in the top of the container.

[Bralbaard]

If I understand correctly the issue is to keep the wort that is already at fermentation temperature from overheating by using cold water? I wouldn't expect that temperature gradient to be an issue for glass, but you could introduce the cold water carefully if you want to be sure.

Exposing glass to the wort right after boiling, and cooling it down from those temperatures is a completely different thing though. I use a glass fermentation vessel for the first fermentation step, and I never feel completely comfortable even though I'm being extra carefull during the whole process. (I don't use a heat exchanger since the batches are small enough to cool down in a reasonable time frame)

[Ulfarr]

Yes the wort would already be at fermentation temperature. I would really like to try an all grain but I have neither the equipment nor the space for it, so a brewing kit would have to do.

The idea is to use an insulated container (to reduce the heat transfer from the environment) as a bathtub. Inside it I will place the fermentation bucket (plastic, HDPE) and then I would fill the space between them with water. That water should be in a lower temperature than the bucket (to allow any heat generated by the fermentation to go to the surrounding water). Periodically I would place bottles of cold water to cool down the surrounding water allowing the process to continue. Some way to automatically stir the surrounding water would also be handy in keeping a uniform temperature.

That way I should avoid any thermal shock to the wort/yeast. The bucket itself should be fine.

[Bralbaard]

There are a couple of guides and videos on the internet for converting a cheap/second hand freezer or fridge into a fermenter with acceptable temperature by installing a thermostat controller for about $50.  Setting it up may take some investment in time, but it is less labour intensive in the long run than trying to cool your fermenter with water bottles for whatever number of weeks your fermentation may take.

[Mephisto]

I didn't do a full rack and degas of my meads last night but I did enough to hopefully make a difference. CO2 feels like it would affect specific gravity so I wanted to remove as much as possible before checking mu progress.

Samples!



Nowhere near done but still remarkably pleasant. Strawberry bochet (left) has way too much strawberry flavor and is a bit yeasty. I think I sucked up some lees during the racking process. This one is sitting at the top end of 9% at the moment.

My wife likes the manuka/oleo saccharum/elderberry monstrosity the most. Which I suppose is good as it cost the most. Neither of us liked the plain elderberry juice but this was pleasant. It's sitting at 4% or so. I'm wondering if the supposedly great antibiotic properties of the manuka honey affected the yeast's ability to do its thing. Both contain the same amount of honey and half a sachet of identical yeast.

I seriously need to just buy a funnel. I lost a very small amount of product while using a fluted measuring cup to transfer degassed mead back into my carboys.

[Iduno]

Yes the wort would already be at fermentation temperature. I would really like to try an all grain but I have neither the equipment nor the space for it, so a brewing kit would have to do.

The idea is to use an insulated container (to reduce the heat transfer from the environment) as a bathtub. Inside it I will place the fermentation bucket (plastic, HDPE) and then I would fill the space between them with water. That water should be in a lower temperature than the bucket (to allow any heat generated by the fermentation to go to the surrounding water). Periodically I would place bottles of cold water to cool down the surrounding water allowing the process to continue. Some way to automatically stir the surrounding water would also be handy in keeping a uniform temperature.

That way I should avoid any thermal shock to the wort/yeast. The bucket itself should be fine.

Yeah, I also used a plastic primary fermenter. The wort doesn't care about temperature changes so much (no yeast yet), so just go for it. All grain vs extract is less of an increase in work and space than you'd expect. Just get a cheap giant (~8 gallon?) stock pot and you're good to go. Kitchen stores are usually not high price.

Nowhere near done but still remarkably pleasant. Strawberry bochet (left) has way too much strawberry flavor and is a bit yeasty. I think I sucked up some lees during the racking process. This one is sitting at the top end of 9% at the moment.

Replace the honey with a light malt and you've got a good Belgian-style (one of them, anyway) beer. Ale on lees and lambics are delicious.

[Mephisto]

The meads have been bottled. I love my bottling wand - this is the first time I've used it.



I'm thinking some combination of grapefruit oil and the antibacterial properties of manuka honey really messed with the dark one.

Light: eucalyptus sorta bochet with strawberry. It tastes super green. Hopefully it gets better with age. I've been led to believe that this is generally the case with "high ABV" meads and this is definitely one. Finished at 13%, a percent below the yeast's expected tolerance (though those are always guidelines, not for sure things).

Dark: manuka honey with grapefruit oleo saccharum and elderberry juice. Finished at 7.88%. Immenently drinkable due to the lower ABV.

Both were started the same day. Both had half a sachet of the same yeast. Whereas the former started bubbling about immediately, the latter took about a day extra.

Both were expected to end with residual sugar. The dark one has a bit less than half of its sugar left, though it tastes significantly less sweet than that implies.

[Imic]

I don’t brew, though I know a few who do. Cider, mostly. I’m thinking of getting into it one day, but not today, certainly.
I will say that I used to know a fellow who brewed his own almost-pure alcohol, called poitín. He died a few months back from multiple kidney problems. People won’t stop making Poitín and they’ve been doing it for a long, long time.
Anyway, random thought aside, I’ll keep an eye on this.

[Mephisto]

Huh. I thought I had heard about "Poitín" somewhere lately. Just shortly after you posted that, the Try channel on YouTube (original name was Facts before their MCN shut down, IIRC) uploaded a video of a bunch of Irish people trying several types.

Anyway, homebrewing news.

I did another thing.

I was hoping the buckwheat honey would be on the more mild side since I got it from the west coast but it ended up being about as barnyardy as I was told to expect. My kitchen smelled like said barnyard while the honey was cooking.

[Iduno]

The airlock popping out isn't something you want, but if you can get it put back in fairly quickly, your batch might be fine. It will only happen when the batch is putting off a lot of gas, which also prevents anything getting in.

Also, maybe check to see if the airlock is a bit plugged.

[Mephisto]

It was completely plugged. For some reason, I expected that to happen. It happened when there was a load of strawberry foam in my last batch and this one had a load of honey foam. I have since sucked out all of the crusty honey foam so it shouldn't be an issue going forward.

I'm not sure when it happened. I thought a noise woke me up last night but I can't be too sure. Everything outside of the carboy was dry this morning when I checked. In theory, it should still be safe - the constant offgassing of heavier-than-air gas should prevent oxygen and acetobacter from getting in for a short time.

[Iduno]

Anyone have advice for things I can get to ferment? I've got an unused fermentation setup (5 gallon) just sitting there, and too much free time.

Also, where do I get live yeast shipped from? Are those places still open?

[delphonso]

Posting to ask questions later. I know a lot of people who brew, and have thought about it often. Unfortunately, I barely ever drink these days.

[Mephisto]

The bochet that blew its top was one of the highlights of this past Christmas so it seemed to have come out alright.

Anyone have advice for things I can get to ferment?

Onions. I cook a lot and "onion wine" is apparently pretty good in cooking so I may have to do this myself.

Also, where do I get live yeast shipped from? Are those places still open?

I've purchased from Midwest Supplies and Amazon. Both are definitely still open.