Homebrewing - Beer, Mead, Wine, Cider

We feel like doing a brewday on Sunday, but as we don't have time to visit our local homebrew-shop, we want to use what we have in stock. The plan is to make 20 liters of stout.

What we've planned for fermentables:

4 kg pilsner malt @ 3.7 EBC (=48.3%)
2 kg Munich malt @ 13 EBC (=24.1%)
800 g Carared @ 48 EBC (=9,7%)
500 g Chocolate B @ 900 EBC (=6%)
500 g Amber @ 70 EBC (=6%)

With a mash profile of

45 minutes @ 62C / 143F
30 minutes @ 72C / 161F
5 minutes @ 80C / 176F

During the boil of 60 - 90 minutes

115 g Saaz for the entire time
500 g sugar for the last 30 minutes

with a Lallemand Windsor yeast, fermenting at 20C / 68F.

According to Brewfather, this should end in a beer with around 8% ABV, around 70EBC and 49 IBU.

My 2 questions:

Do you guys think this results in a beer you'd drink?
Any tips for modifications to the recipe?

So week ago I and my friends brew beer, had BBQ and ecologicaly liquidated my beer/cider stockpile.

Let's just say that all of us has some murky memory of it.

I just know that everything got according to plan and the beer is good.

So do you drink when you are brewing?

Hey everyone, I tried googling but got some conflicting results. I'm looking to make a Rauchbier via an extract recipe. Is this possible? Suggestions/comments/recipes? TIA!

As the title says, I brewed a Brown Wheat Ale with Applewood-Smoked Leaf Hops. This was my first time using smoked hops and I'm happy with the result. They imparted more of a subtle smoke flavor than smoked malt. Recipe is available here if anyone is interested.

1st time brewer:

It's been 6 hours since I added the yeast and I'm seeing lots of foaming and seperation of my pear bits from the rest of the ~~mead~~ melomel. Should I be concerned?

So I played with natural yeasts and cultivation. Had few strains isolated and kept in fridge. But recently one extremely resistant strain contaminated all of it.

Had some good brews, some bad, some meh. So what is yours experience, did you tryed it or want to?

I'm following a simple video on YouTube which covers yeast starting, sanitization and setting up the mead.

My question is, if I back sweeten my Meade after a few months... Won't that just wake up the yeast and get them producing more alchohol? I saw somebody say something about a chemical to stabilize it but what if I don't want a chemical in my Brew?

Is there an alternative?

Hey guys, hope you all been good.

Any thoughts on my Belgian Strong Ale recipe?

I'd like to use another Belgian malt, but there's only Chateau Abbey or Special B available at the brewstore. I tried Special B on this grist but the EBC got too high, I'd need to use such small amount that it would not make any difference at all.

What you think?

Does anyone know if hopbursting makes the beer less clear?

I recently made a APA with only late hopadditions and it came out looking more like a NEIPA.

I currently have some modified SSBT brew buckets, but I'm toying with the idea of upgrading to a jacketed Unitank. Seems that these two new products are pretty similar, but there aren't a bunch of reviews available. Does anyone here have either of these two options?

I've got 4 varieties in my backyard. The one on the left is Amalia, and is on year three. Middle trellis has a year two Vista, and a new Willamette that was planted from a friend's crown. Far right is Multihead.

Looking like I should have a good sized crop this year.

Hi everyone, I've come seeking your wisdom.

I love brewing beers. Im also, apparently, irresponsible when it comes to alcohol consumption. So I decided thotmi wont have alcohol in my house anymore. But I also want to still brew, and enjoy my brew.

So, is there a good way of de-alcoholizing the brew after it fetments, such that the flavor wont be impacted, or will be minimally impacted?.

Thank you, oh wise Lemmy hive mind

I’ve started fermenting in a corny keg recently with a spunding valve, seemingly to good results (I love the fact that it’s a cheap multi-purpose stainless steel vessel), but I’ve heard it can be discouraged as if the spunding valve outlet gets clogged, it can lead to some “dangerous situations”. The recent post about a brewery staff member dying from an exploding keg means that the danger is a real one, even with commercial experience and controls.

Are there any extra preventative measures I can take, beyond using a spunding valve and PRV valve as backup in the keg lid, to ensure that I do this safely?

I bought yeast, and the gravity measuring tool, and some sanitizer, and the little airlock cork, and some honey, and a glass gallon jar.

If somebody has a document or PDF with childlike instructions for me to follow on how to do this I would be so greatful!

Maybe some recipe that goes through the whole process from start to drinking, fruit adding would add another layer of fun!

Helpful beginners advice would also be great!!

First time posting here, but looking for pointers to good extract beer recipes. My friend and I have been all-grain brewing for a couple of years, but I recently became a father for the first time, which cuts down my spare time significantly! I'm finding that I just don't have the time for all-grain brewing any more, so I was wondering if folks had good recommendations for extract based recipes, which might work better in my new time-poor lifestyle? :)

My friend and I have been pretty varied in our previous brews, from spiced stouts to wheat beers to mild ales, so if it's good, we'll probably like it!

Thanks in advance!

I plan on lightly toasting the coconut between layers of parchment paper to absorb the oils so as to not destroy the head retention of the beer. I haven't quite settled on temperature or time for the toasting. I was just wondering if anyone had experience working with coconut in beer themselves.

Update: so I toasted the coconut for about 15 minutes across 2 trays (to avoid overcrowding them) in a 325°F oven shaking the trays and moving the coconut around every few minutes to try and get as even of a toast level as I could. I removed the coconut from the oven when it was lightly golden (and smelled delicious) assuming that it would continue to toast slightly as it was cooling down. I deposited the toasted coconut onto another tray lined with paper towels and patted as much of the fat/oil as I could.

I repeated this same process with the cacao nibs (relying instead on their smell as an indicator of when they were toasted enough because I obviously couldn't go by color).

I'm going to add both the coconut and cacao nibs to the beer today and let them sit for a week or so before kegging and carbonating the beer. Hopefully if there are any oils or fats they float to the top of the fermenter and I can leave them behind when I transfer the beer to the keg.

I plan to do a full write-up about this mead and brew once I go through the backsweetening/balancing process, but I thought this was interesting enough to share as is.

The plan was to make a low ABV, quick turnaround strawberry lemonade mead to have on tap for the summer. For a ~6.5 gallon batch I used a full pallet of strawberries juiced into 7.14lbs of juice, and 9.68lbs of honey (really just the rest of the honey in the bucket). Low starting OG of 1.057 which fermented down to 0.994 in 11 days.

I wanted to see if the combo of low ABV and aggressive filtering would let me skip out on any of the aging process.

Before it'd even fully finished blubbing, I ran it through a series plate/disk filters. The image shows, from left to right, Original -> Clarifying (5-7um) -> Polishing (1-2um) -> Semi-Sterilizing (~0.5um).

Taste at each stage: Undrinkable -> Bad -> Pretty Good -> Shockingly Clean

Most of the strawberry flavor was sadly left behind, but I think that was true even before the filtering. Left with a nice strawberry aroma and a hint of the taste in a very smooth, if lacking in depth and complexity, mead.

My conclusions from this is that filtering bypasses the "suck less" part of aging, where off flavors are removed, but (obvious in retrospect) does nothing to build character and complexity.

I now plan to backsweeten using a batch of lemon oleo saccharum I made, sour it with citric acid, and potentially add some strawberry concentrate to bump up the strawberry flavor. I'll bottle some to see how actual aging treats it, and put the rest on tap to enjoy this summer.

Made this about a year ago and it has been aging pretty well. About 12% ABV. I think it still has a slight off-flavour, but that's probably due to not using the best honey.

My moto is that alcohol is made for thousands of years - first make it easiest way possible then try something harder. This guide is ment to be that. Also sorry for my mistakes I am not native speaker.

So what is wine

Wine is non carbonated drink made usually from grapes, but you can make it from lots of different fruits - currants or apples for example.

Starting juice have around 17-20°Bx (17-20% of sugar) but can get as high as 25°Bx in some cases.

It is fermented completely in carboy, or other fermenting vessel, then aged in barrels or put directly in bottles.

And what is cider or hard cider

Cider is usually made from apples or pears, is carbonated and for me it is more similar from fermentation point to beer.

Starting juice has around 13°Bx, it is similar to beer OG.

Fermentation is nearly the same as beer - you put it in fermenter for primary, then at the end of it you transfer it to bottles for secondary fermentation - rest of the sugar is for carbonation.

How to make wine

1. juice

For grapes and currants you need to first get rid of stems - they make bitter taste when pressed. Individual grapes are mashed and then pressed or you can use kitchen juicer.

Or you can buy it.

2. fermentation

Red wine - you first partially ferment mashed grapes (this step is called maceration) then you press it and ferment completely.

White wine - you ferment only the juice.

Other fruits - they usually doesn't have enough sugar so you have to add some.

Apple juice has about 13°Bx so you have to add min. 50g per liter.

Currants are really sour and don't have any sugar so juice is diluted 1:1 with water and all sugar is added. Or it can be done like red wine - mash, mix with water and sugar.

Pitch yeasts and let it sit in carboy until all yeast activity stops (it stops bubbling).

3. clarifying/ageing/bottling

Transfer your wine to clean carboy, let it sit at least a week or until it is clear.

Bottle it and wait.

How to make cider

1. juice

Best choice is to make it from your own apples. It is really hard and time consuming if you don't have the right equipment. But if you contact local cidery or you live somewhere where it is possible to get them pressed this is the best option. On store bought juice look for preservatives that may stop or slow fermentation - for EU friends e200 - e219 are harmful, e220 - e228 should be fine (sulfites).

2. fermentation/ bottling

Pitch yeasts and wait.

Fermentation is complete at about 1 - 1.5°Bx and you can bottle it.

Or you can wait until the fermentation stops and add sugar to bottles.

Few tips:

1. Don't worry too much about infection. Fruit juices are yeasts play ground, so if you add strong strain it will outcompete all yeasts that are in your starting juice.

2. When selecting yeasts there is no good or bad choice. I have great experience with ALE and wine yeasts for cider and for wine take some wine yeasts which are available to you.

3. Look what is available to you - I have access to few apple trees that nobody wants so I make cider from them, have currants and vines on garden...

4. Don't complicate it. You can make clear, nice wine/cider if you use sulphates, clarify it with enzymes... But it is not necessary.

5. It is very drinkable through the fermentation (you can buy here partially fermented wine "burčák"). I made about 150l of cider last year and less than 60l got in the bottles. So if you don't want to mess with ageing/ clarification drink it quickly.

• This is my thought diarrhea on night shift - needs corrections.
• I will add pictures of the process in the final version. Or in fall when I will be making it.

My first Lemmy post!

I’m very keen to see this community grow. I’m traditionally a reader not a poster but that is not what we need now!

I’m brewing a west coast ipa this weekend. Dank, resiny goodness, and about 6.5%.

I make good ipa, but it’s always hazy - due to the high rate of dry hopping (not other reasons - I can brew crystal beers of other styles).

For this one I’m going to try an extended cold crash at 2 deg C, followed by biofine at the upper end of the recommended dosage. 2 dry hop additions of 7g/l each, on day 1 and day 6. Hop pellets are added through a hop dropper, loose. Whirfloc in the boil too, but don’t think it’ll help with hop haze.

Any other ideas? We’ve tried a few different fining agents with limited success.

Been waiting for over a month for this chai mead to get to a good flavor. Tried some yesterday and it's finally there!

Hello, I have made several batches of mead and I really enjoyed it. How much of a difference is there with mead vs cider?

cross-posted from: https://feddit.de/post/993218

15kg if berries I had in the freezer from last year. Set up 1.5 weeks ago. Now sitting 8% alcohol! I'll press it this weekend. Am so excited!

Tinctures were used to make per bottle variants. Bottles marked with the type of tincture and the amount of drops. I wasn't too scientific about it, just made variants randomly on about half the batch. Personally I liked the mangoe tincture and the bottles spiked with mezcal.

I also tried a cherry tincture which was interesting but not dosed right. The biggest problem with vodka tinctures overall is that you get the alcohol taste from the vodka come through as well, so at higher amounts they taste boozey by association, not a good balance to the flavour. In future I plan to try purpose made flavourings for food industry.

I'm on the lookout for other ways to add variation to a small batch of beer.

Recipe: "XPA - The Usual Hop-Specs - BZ35L" on brewfather (I used all galaxy, no sabro)