The Homebrew Beer Thread

[Marc]

Looked at my notes last night- OG was 1060, so that gets me closer to 6.8-7%.
Mmmm, high alcohol beers...

All of mine so far have been about 5% bv. I'd like to notch that up in my next batch. Let me know how this one turns out.

 

[ctenidae]

All of mine so far have been about 5% bv. I'd like to notch that up in my next batch. Let me know how this one turns out.

Will do. My big fear is if it got light enough- I'm not sure how much of the OG was really sugar, or how much of the FG is protien gunk. The truth is in the glass, I suppose. I'm planning on bottling tonight, so expect an update within about 2 weeks.

 

[ctenidae]

Cracked open a bottle of the dortmunder last night, just to check its progress (I bottled 3 smallr 12 oz bottles just for this purpose). I bottled on the 7th, so it's only been in for 5 days.

Impressions from the pour: This shit is still flat. Smells young. This won't be good. Color is great, a deep copper, but still cloudy.

Taste: Not good. Very strong hop bite up front. Really aggressive. Malt barely has a chance to show up in the back before being covered by yeasty green bananas. Probably could have stood to be colder, too.

Overall: With some age, the hops should mellow out, especially as the carbonation kicks in and helps lift out some of the bitterness. There's certainly some malt in there that ought to start to show up soon. Hopefully the cloudiness will settle out some more, too. I'll open another one this weekend and see how it's going.

 

[ctenidae]

Gotta find a new recipe. Thinking Porter this run.

Ingredients

5 lbs Light Dry Malt Extract (Your Favorite Brand)
2.0 lbs Pale Ale Malt
2.0 lbs Crystal Malt
0.25 lb Black Patent Malt
0.5 lb Chocolate Malt
1.25 cups Brown Sugar

1.25 oz Northern Brewer - boiled 60 minutes
0.5 oz Northern Brewer - boiled 40 minutes
0.5 oz Perle - boiled 10 minutes
0.5 oz Cascade - boiled 1 minute
0.75 oz Kent Goldings - dry hopped in secondary fermenter

Wyeast British Ale Yeast, in 12 ounces of starter wort.

Maybe?

 

[roark]

Gotta find a new recipe. Thinking Porter this run.

Ingredients

2.0 lbs Pale Ale Malt
1.25 cups Brown Sugar

Wouldn't the pale malt need to be mashed?

I've never been a big fan of sugar, even the brown will lighten the body.

That yeast is great for maltier british ales.

 

[ctenidae]

The brown sugar might be good for some flavor. Maybe sub in 1/4-1/2 cup of molasses instead?

 

[roark]

I've done molasses in a kitchen sink type (molasses, brown sugar, licorice... probably more I'm forgetting) imperial stout. Took nearly 10 years to hit it's peak.

I'd give it a shot in a porter, why not?

 

[Brettski]

I gotta start up again

all grain brews are great, but very time consuming, but well worth it

 

[BeanoNYC]

Bump...

How's the brewing going Marc? You had given me a great website for equipment but I can't find the thread. My neighbor and I were discussing plans to do this together over a few pops last night. Looks like this is finally coming to fruition.

 

[Marc]

I haven't brewed in a while. Too busy working on the house and such.

Not sure which website I gave you, but my supplier is the Homebrew Emporium. They take internet orders and their prices are pretty reasonable-

http://www.beerbrew.com/

 

[BeanoNYC]

Got some basic supplies. Waiting on some books from Half.com. Going to read up and give it a try.

 

[ctenidae]

Now that construction is done, I carved out part of a closet for bottles and such. I'm now collecting glass bottles. I've decided that the plastic ones aren't much good- very inconsistent on the seals- sometimes they carbonate, sometimes they don't. I don't like that kind of variability.

 

[Marc]

Plus "collecting" bottles can be pretty fun in it's own right, if you start with them full.

 

[Marc]

Does anyone get a chuckle out of the people who homebrew only to make labels? I swear there are a couple people at work who do this, and are appalled when I tell them I don't label my beer.

And coincidentally, the beer they make is usually bland or swill, because all their effort is spent on making "cool" looking labels.

 

[BeanoNYC]

Plus "collecting" bottles can be pretty fun in it's own right, if you start with them full.

That's my current project. Brooklyn Brewery seems to have the perfect bottle.

I have a question on my first batch. I bought a basic kit which has a plastic fermenter. Should I:

A) keep it simple for the first batch and just keep it in there.
B) Get a glass carboy for a second fermentation (what else do I need with the glass carboy)
C) Get a glass carboy for the first fermentation
D) Get two glass carboys for first and second fermentation.

I know that I'll probably graduate to better equipment eventually but would like first timer advice from some seasoned pros.

 

[Marc]

I'm not a seasoned pro, but a plastic fermenter is just fine for several batches if you keep it clean. I'd go with a simple recipe for the first few times you brew that don't require secondary fermentation. It's just another racking and another step in which to screw up. Besides, carboys are a biatch to clean.

 

[ctenidae]

There's nothing at all wrong with plastic buckets. Glass carboys are, as Marc says, a biatch to clean. And move. And fill. And empty. They do look cool, though.

Secondary fermentation (a misnomer, anyway) is only a requirement for a few styles of beer, and only useful for a few more. Until you get into that, there's no need to even worry about it. Concentrate on making a consistent, simple beer first. Once you can get two batches to taste the same (or at least somewhat similar), then you can start branching out.

 

[BeanoNYC]

I'm not a seasoned pro, but a plastic fermenter is just fine for several batches if you keep it clean. I'd go with a simple recipe for the first few times you brew that don't require secondary fermentation. It's just another racking and another step in which to screw up. Besides, carboys are a biatch to clean.

There's nothing at all wrong with plastic buckets. Glass carboys are, as Marc says, a biatch to clean. And move. And fill. And empty. They do look cool, though.

Secondary fermentation (a misnomer, anyway) is only a requirement for a few styles of beer, and only useful for a few more. Until you get into that, there's no need to even worry about it. Concentrate on making a consistent, simple beer first. Once you can get two batches to taste the same (or at least somewhat similar), then you can start branching out.

Thanks. I got the simplest pilsner on the shelf at the store (as per the guy there)

http://www.monsterbrew.com/Prod_Pilsner.cfm

 

[Marc]

Thanks. I got the simplest pilsner on the shelf at the store (as per the guy there)

http://www.monsterbrew.com/Prod_Pilsner.cfm

That's cool, looks like a good simple one... although bear in mind, it isn't a true pilsner, since pilsner is technically a lager and this is an ale.

 

[roark]

There's nothing at all wrong with plastic buckets. Glass carboys are, as Marc says, a biatch to clean. And move. And fill. And empty. They do look cool, though.

Secondary fermentation (a misnomer, anyway) is only a requirement for a few styles of beer, and only useful for a few more. Until you get into that, there's no need to even worry about it. Concentrate on making a consistent, simple beer first. Once you can get two batches to taste the same (or at least somewhat similar), then you can start branching out.

The problem with plastic is that it will get scratched, which provides a nice place for nasty bacteria to hang out.

The most useful part of the secondary IMHO is you tend to get less sediment in the final product. Or maybe I just suck at racking. And if something comes up and you don't get around to bottling for a couple extra weeks, no big deal.

But for the first few batches anyway, plastic single stage fermenting is cool.