***OFFICIAL*** Footballguys homebrew thread (1 Viewer)

[Bluestaples]

First off... relax, everything will be ok, nothing too out of the ordainary here.

Second.. don't just blindly pitch yeast at this point. Leave the lid on for now, and give it a good shaking in an atempt to "wake up" the yeast first. If you get some activity in the arilock, just ride it out, if not wait a day or two, and then take a gravity sample....

Thrid... relax, and don't worry.... this is fun, not work. You'll be fine.

 

[regularguy]

First off... relax, everything will be ok, nothing too out of the ordainary here.Second.. don't just blindly pitch yeast at this point. Leave the lid on for now, and give it a good shaking in an atempt to "wake up" the yeast first. If you get some activity in the arilock, just ride it out, if not wait a day or two, and then take a gravity sample.... Thrid... relax, and don't worry.... this is fun, not work. You'll be fine.

 

[culdeus]

I think I need some shock therapy to prevent me from trying my one-week conditoined brew.

 

[Bluestaples]

I think I need some shock therapy to prevent me from trying my one-week conditoined brew.

haha - I know the feeling.I always bottle a few 12 ounce's just in case I decide to do the same... that way I am not wasting as much beer!!

 

[culdeus]

I think I need some shock therapy to prevent me from trying my one-week conditoined brew.

haha - I know the feeling.I always bottle a few 12 ounce's just in case I decide to do the same... that way I am not wasting as much beer!!

dammit, you just talked me into chilling a 12oz. Thanks.

 

[regularguy]

Alright, I took a sample and measured the SG. OG was 1.04 and SG is now 1.01. So, I think that means there has been some fermentation. About 4% ABV at the moment which seems reasonable for the brown ale. I tasted the sample, and while I haven't tasted beer in this form before, it seems to taste like what one might expect. Not sure why there was no foam layer at the 72 hour mark unless it'd already come and gone. Next time, I can use the carboy and hopefully will be at home to monitor it. I feel better now and will let it sit for another week before bottling.

 

[culdeus]

Alright, I took a sample and measured the SG. OG was 1.04 and SG is now 1.01. So, I think that means there has been some fermentation. About 4% ABV at the moment which seems reasonable for the brown ale. I tasted the sample, and while I haven't tasted beer in this form before, it seems to taste like what one might expect. Not sure why there was no foam layer at the 72 hour mark unless it'd already come and gone. Next time, I can use the carboy and hopefully will be at home to monitor it. I feel better now and will let it sit for another week before bottling.

was there any residue up the side of the bucket?

 

[regularguy]

Alright, I took a sample and measured the SG. OG was 1.04 and SG is now 1.01. So, I think that means there has been some fermentation. About 4% ABV at the moment which seems reasonable for the brown ale. I tasted the sample, and while I haven't tasted beer in this form before, it seems to taste like what one might expect. Not sure why there was no foam layer at the 72 hour mark unless it'd already come and gone. Next time, I can use the carboy and hopefully will be at home to monitor it. I feel better now and will let it sit for another week before bottling.

was there any residue up the side of the bucket?

There was a ring of brown gunk around the side about 1/2" above the current fill line. Maybe that's good?

 

[munga30]

Alright, I took a sample and measured the SG. OG was 1.04 and SG is now 1.01. So, I think that means there has been some fermentation. About 4% ABV at the moment which seems reasonable for the brown ale. I tasted the sample, and while I haven't tasted beer in this form before, it seems to taste like what one might expect. Not sure why there was no foam layer at the 72 hour mark unless it'd already come and gone. Next time, I can use the carboy and hopefully will be at home to monitor it. I feel better now and will let it sit for another week before bottling.

was there any residue up the side of the bucket?

There was a ring of brown gunk around the side about 1/2" above the current fill line. Maybe that's good?

Your yeasties were plentiful and in very good shape, so they did their job faster than expected. If you ever get into making a yeast starter, where you grow a ton of yeast in a little mini-brew a few days before brewing, the first wave of action can happen within a few hours.

 

[culdeus]

Ok, put 12L in a Tap-a-draft system two weeks ago. The 6L bottles seem to be flat though. I've put two cartridges into the thing and let it sit most of the day. The glass ones I've broken into are in good shape head wise. How long does it take to get good carbonation on TAD or did I screw it up and need to add more sugar?

BTW my pale ale is better than I could have ever imagined.

 

[FightingWombat]

Alright, I took a sample and measured the SG. OG was 1.04 and SG is now 1.01. So, I think that means there has been some fermentation. About 4% ABV at the moment which seems reasonable for the brown ale. I tasted the sample, and while I haven't tasted beer in this form before, it seems to taste like what one might expect. Not sure why there was no foam layer at the 72 hour mark unless it'd already come and gone. Next time, I can use the carboy and hopefully will be at home to monitor it. I feel better now and will let it sit for another week before bottling.

New to this thread but been brewing for 12+ years...once fermentation is done, the foam will subside. Your gravity dropped and so has the foam. Both are good. It tasted like beer but the carbonation was off. That's also good. you are right on course. Let it sit and it wil clear. Better yet, sanitize the carboy and racking cane (transfer hoses) and syphon the beer off the crap at the bottom (yeast+protein). Allow to sit in cool dark place and your beer will drop clear. You are well on your way! l

 

[FightingWombat]

Good to see this thread. i've been less active on FBG in the past year but back then there weren't a lot of HBers. Good to see some HB brethren!

 

[regularguy]

Alright, I took a sample and measured the SG. OG was 1.04 and SG is now 1.01. So, I think that means there has been some fermentation. About 4% ABV at the moment which seems reasonable for the brown ale. I tasted the sample, and while I haven't tasted beer in this form before, it seems to taste like what one might expect. Not sure why there was no foam layer at the 72 hour mark unless it'd already come and gone. Next time, I can use the carboy and hopefully will be at home to monitor it. I feel better now and will let it sit for another week before bottling.

New to this thread but been brewing for 12+ years...once fermentation is done, the foam will subside. Your gravity dropped and so has the foam. Both are good. It tasted like beer but the carbonation was off. That's also good. you are right on course. Let it sit and it wil clear. Better yet, sanitize the carboy and racking cane (transfer hoses) and syphon the beer off the crap at the bottom (yeast+protein). Allow to sit in cool dark place and your beer will drop clear. You are well on your way! l

Thanks for the confirmation. Planning on bottling tomorrow. I think what threw me off was my temp. was on the high end of the range (72 degrees F) so fermentation apparently happened very quickly. I've now got a washtub that I'll use with water and maybe ice (getting cooler though) to better control fermentation temp. next time. I did consider a secondary fermentation, but this is a pretty basic beer to begin with and I'm anxious anyway.

 

[culdeus]

Nailed the FG on the nose at bottling time. Tasted solid flat and warm. Bottled two 6L TAD bottles and some other glass ones. Bottling 12L in TAD leaves enough for a 12 pack and enough to get a good FG.

When are you gonna get your #### together.Babyarm Brewery = 3Teh Gat0r = 0

Fixed

 

[Sclaffer]

Alright, I took a sample and measured the SG. OG was 1.04 and SG is now 1.01. So, I think that means there has been some fermentation. About 4% ABV at the moment which seems reasonable for the brown ale. I tasted the sample, and while I haven't tasted beer in this form before, it seems to taste like what one might expect. Not sure why there was no foam layer at the 72 hour mark unless it'd already come and gone. Next time, I can use the carboy and hopefully will be at home to monitor it. I feel better now and will let it sit for another week before bottling.

New to this thread but been brewing for 12+ years...once fermentation is done, the foam will subside. Your gravity dropped and so has the foam. Both are good. It tasted like beer but the carbonation was off. That's also good. you are right on course. Let it sit and it wil clear. Better yet, sanitize the carboy and racking cane (transfer hoses) and syphon the beer off the crap at the bottom (yeast+protein). Allow to sit in cool dark place and your beer will drop clear. You are well on your way! l

Thanks for the confirmation. Planning on bottling tomorrow. I think what threw me off was my temp. was on the high end of the range (72 degrees F) so fermentation apparently happened very quickly. I've now got a washtub that I'll use with water and maybe ice (getting cooler though) to better control fermentation temp. next time. I did consider a secondary fermentation, but this is a pretty basic beer to begin with and I'm anxious anyway.

My thoughts on secondary fermentation:Unless you are doing lagers and lighter colored beers, secondary is not 100% necessary. I've done several beers when I first started, without doing a secondary and they turned out great. Of course, most of them were darker beers (porters and stouts), but did do a few ales without secondary and they turned out fine.Secondary is to allow the beers to clear (things to drop out) and for lagering. Darker beers don't need to clear, as you can't see through them, at least as much as the lighter colored beers.I'll do a secondary when I know I'm not going to get to bottling, when the primary is done, and I don't want it to sit in primary any longer than it already has.

 

[regularguy]

We bottled today for the first time. Not as big a PITA as I expected. Now to wait another two weeks. Looks promising though.

 

[culdeus]

Only problem I had today on my first mini-mash was I missed the SG by quite a bit. .070 vs .060 and that's after diluting it probably a bit too much.

So I might have smoky kerosene on my hands. Not totally sure what went wrong but using the math formulas I don't see any way the recipie I used was right on where the SG was supposed to be.

Oh well, I thought I screwed up my pale ale pretty bad and it turned out to be solid.

If I could only figure out the Tap-a-draft thing I'd be set.

 

[FightingWombat]

Only problem I had today on my first mini-mash was I missed the SG by quite a bit. .070 vs .060 and that's after diluting it probably a bit too much. So I might have smoky kerosene on my hands. Not totally sure what went wrong but using the math formulas I don't see any way the recipie I used was right on where the SG was supposed to be. Oh well, I thought I screwed up my pale ale pretty bad and it turned out to be solid. If I could only figure out the Tap-a-draft thing I'd be set.

Looks like you had good efficiency to get an extra 0.01. Recipes often vary by the efficency of the extraction of sugars. If I am shooting for 1.060 and I know that my efficiency is 75%, I can calculate the amount of grain I need to gt 1.060. You may use the same recipe and get a different efficency. It might be 60%. It might be 80% efficiency. It depends largely on equipment and technique. Once you do few mashes, you should be able to get a handle on what efficency you can expect.Don't worry about a little extra fermentable sugar. You beer will be fine.

 

[Sclaffer]

Great American Beer Festival started yesterday. Anyone go? Anyone submitted beers for judging?

Have always wanted to, but never have sent anything. One day I will. Would like to see the judges opinions on my beer.

 

[culdeus]

Great American Beer Festival started yesterday. Anyone go? Anyone submitted beers for judging?

Have always wanted to, but never have sent anything. One day I will. Would like to see the judges opinions on my beer.

There is a contest in Feb locally for Scottish Ales (all categories) that I'm gonna enter. I've never made one and it will be my 4th or 5th batch ever, but what the hell. Scottish Ales are some of my favorite varieties.

 

[culdeus]

Just floating an idea out there:

There are alot of local homebrew clubs that then send their stuff in for competitions.

Why not form an innernet homebrew club and represent the board? All you gotta sacrifice is 36oz here and there and you get some good feedback.

Anyone?

 

[Organized Chaos]

Great American Beer Festival started yesterday. Anyone go? Anyone submitted beers for judging?

Have always wanted to, but never have sent anything. One day I will. Would like to see the judges opinions on my beer.

There is a contest in Feb locally for Scottish Ales (all categories) that I'm gonna enter. I've never made one and it will be my 4th or 5th batch ever, but what the hell. Scottish Ales are some of my favorite varieties.

Go for it man...for my 3rd beer ever, I entered it into a local contest and placed top 10.

 

[culdeus]

Picked up stuff for my third batch at AHS today.

Gonna do a 1/2 batch of canadian ale and do a 1/2 batch of apple ale.

Easy drinking holiday stuff to give out to the fam that will mature fast enough for XMAS gifts and stuff like that.

 

[coldchill]

Picked up stuff for my third batch at AHS today. Gonna do a 1/2 batch of canadian ale and do a 1/2 batch of apple ale. Easy drinking holiday stuff to give out to the fam that will mature fast enough for XMAS gifts and stuff like that.

My apple ale is in the keg carbonating. I hope to tap it this weekend. Are using concentrated apple flavoring? I've never used the apple, but I've had good luck with blueberry, blackberry, and peach over the years. For my apple ale, I added 1 gallon of cider to the fermentor.

 

[culdeus]

Picked up stuff for my third batch at AHS today. Gonna do a 1/2 batch of canadian ale and do a 1/2 batch of apple ale. Easy drinking holiday stuff to give out to the fam that will mature fast enough for XMAS gifts and stuff like that.

My apple ale is in the keg carbonating. I hope to tap it this weekend. Are using concentrated apple flavoring? I've never used the apple, but I've had good luck with blueberry, blackberry, and peach over the years. For my apple ale, I added 1 gallon of cider to the fermentor.

just gonna add the concentrate at bottling

 

[Phil Elliott]

Got my first "kit" from NorthernBrewer. Here is another great homebrew store:

St. Pats of Texas (in north Austin) http://www.stpats.com/

A couple of misc comments...

-don't use hot water with chlorine when sterilizing your tools - it kills the effectiveness of the chlorine

-don't use plastic bottles. they can scratch and bacteria will get into the scratches

- use a "yeast starter" when you pitch the yeast to start the fermentation quicker

- the secondary fermentation will also "mellow" your beer. I would do a minimum of 10 days in the secondary. 2-3 weeks for the average brew. Keep in bottles at least a couple of weeks...longer for stronger brews - several months for scotch ales.

- if you don't do an all-grain recipe, you can still do a lot with grains to modify color and taste to your recipes, especially if you do a partial mash. Many contest winners are extract brews.

- minimize the splashing when racking to the secondary or bottling bucket or you will oxidize your beer. you don't want to do a "double rack" (I think someone asked if this would help make it clearer) for the same reason (oxidation).

- don't be affended if your friends don't like your home brew.

- I have done the Brew on Premises a couple of times (Vine Park in St. Paul, MN). I would recomend this for someone that has never brewed before, but the taste of the beer is very light, regardless of the recipes.

- keep a "water spray bottle" around when boiling - it helps minimize the boil-overs.

- if you don't have a basement, put the carboy in a bucket with water in it. drape towels over the carboy into the water so the water wicks up the towel and evaporates. This will drop the temp a couple of degrees during primary/seondary fermentation. if the temp is on the high end of the range for the specified yeast, you will get some fusol alcohols that will affect the taste.

- enjoy!

(edited to wordsmith a little bit)

 

[culdeus]

Due to my involvment in both BOTM and BIF and what appears to be a 24 month beer or nothing restriction by my wife (squid related) I've developed an expensive and expanding taste in beers.

I'm ready to take this to the next level.

Coldchill who seems to be the FBG expert on homebrew sent me a DVD detailing the process.

I'm looking at the kits and this seems to be the right one. What other equipment would anyone reccomend?

Kit WebpageBrewing Intermediate Equipment Kit List: Instructional Homebrewing Video or DVD •

71 page instructional book

• 6 Gallon Glass Carboy

• 5 Gallon Glass Carboy

• 6.5 Gallon Plastic Fermenter

• 6.5 Gallon Bottling Bucket with Spigot

• 8 Oz. of Easy Clean No-Rinse Cleanser

• two #10 Rubber Stoppers

• 2 Airlocks (Keeps air out of the fermenter)

• 8 Inch Funnel

• Hydrometer (Determines alcohol content)

• Bottle Brush

• Carboy Brush

• Twin Lever Red Baron Bottle Capper

• Bottle Caps

• 2 Liquid Crystal Thermometers

• Bottle Filler

• Fermtech AutoSiphon

• Siphon Tubing

• shutoff clamp

What other stuff is basically mandatory here? Good to have?

What lessons learned do any of you have?

>GatorFrom this set the only thing I'd say is almost mandatory is a LCD temperature probe. The liquid crystal thermometers are teh suck. Optional, but good is the "thief" to take gravity readings.

Then for kettle go with the turkey fryer and a 36qt pot from a sporting goods store

Need an 8qt pot for speciality grains inside the house and a way to maintain the temp in that kettle

Fermenting

-Need a place with a stable temp and a stool or something to put the primary fermenter on. This will help you rack to the secondary without having to disturb the primary

Bottling

Hope you have been saving lots of bottles. You need two cases worth. That's a week for you so I'm not that worried.

Sanitation

I picked up a 4" section of PVC and an end cap to ferment things like the hose, siphon, airlocks, and little crap like that.

Recipies - Just pick a pale ale from their stock recipies and do it. You'll honk something up big time so don't freak out. My first batch was

 

[culdeus]

I'd also like to see if there is any interst in a homebrew of the month again.

 

[culdeus]

Just floating an idea out there:There are alot of local homebrew clubs that then send their stuff in for competitions. Why not form an innernet homebrew club and represent the board? All you gotta sacrifice is 36oz here and there and you get some good feedback.Anyone?

 

[The Gator]

Just floating an idea out there:There are alot of local homebrew clubs that then send their stuff in for competitions. Why not form an innernet homebrew club and represent the board? All you gotta sacrifice is 36oz here and there and you get some good feedback.Anyone?

brewing wingNUT BROWN ALE this weekend.

 

[culdeus]

Just floating an idea out there:There are alot of local homebrew clubs that then send their stuff in for competitions. Why not form an innernet homebrew club and represent the board? All you gotta sacrifice is 36oz here and there and you get some good feedback.Anyone?

brewing wingNUT BROWN ALE this weekend.

huh? this weekend? so you did it? or what?

 

[The Gator]

Just floating an idea out there:There are alot of local homebrew clubs that then send their stuff in for competitions. Why not form an innernet homebrew club and represent the board? All you gotta sacrifice is 36oz here and there and you get some good feedback.Anyone?

brewing wingNUT BROWN ALE this weekend.

huh? this weekend? so you did it? or what?

Next weekend, sorry. Either Sat. or on Christmas Eve.

 

[culdeus]

Just floating an idea out there:There are alot of local homebrew clubs that then send their stuff in for competitions. Why not form an innernet homebrew club and represent the board? All you gotta sacrifice is 36oz here and there and you get some good feedback.Anyone?

brewing wingNUT BROWN ALE this weekend.

huh? this weekend? so you did it? or what?

Next weekend, sorry. Either Sat. or on Christmas Eve.

:nods:

 

[The Gator]

Got a bunch of those just in case I do beer trades w/ people starting up (Gator>Hi) practically free.

 

[Bonfire]

 

[The Z Machine]

If any of you guys live in the SF Valley or LA area, check out my Dad's homebrew club, The Maltose Falcons.

They are mostly a bunch of beer drinking geeks in their 40s and above, but they do make some damn good beer and have a good time when the party too.

 

[orcinus]

Intermediate kit has been shipped.

acing:

 

[The Gator]

Intermediate kit has been shipped.acing:

 

[culdeus]

Intermediate kit has been shipped.acing:

 

[Schmegma]

Good luck boys. I'll tip a few homebrews of my own this weekend in your honor.

 

[culdeus]

Bottling tomorrow

Makes it 4-0 culdeus over gator.

 

[orcinus]

Brewed my first and second batches yesterday and learned a great deal in the process. You can read all the books, talk to your local home brew guy and post ad nauseam on message boards; however, nothing teaches quite like actual experience.

My first batch was going off without a hitch, and the one of the two boiling issues I thought I would have (maintaining constant temperature while steeping grains) wasn't nearly as tricky as I'd anticipated. Boiling on a turkey fryer, it took a little experimentation, but I was able to keep constant temps with the regulator in no time at all.

Then the fun began.

I took the pot off the flame, added the malt and began stirring the mixture. After placing the pot back over the flame and bringing up the heat to full, I noticed my floating thermometer was still floating, only now it was on its side. Thinking it was suspended by some of the yet-to-be-mixed malt, I grabbed it with the tongs and pulled out half a glass vial.

Nice.

Thinking I'd contaminated my wort with broken glass and mercury, I let off a flurry of expletives, sighed and then fed it to the flower garden. Looking down at my watch, I saw I still had 45 minutes before the home brew store closed for the day, so I made a mad dash across town for another kit.

My home brew guy wasn't real impressed, and actually scolded me for not calling him first. Food-grade thermometers contain no mercury and, in fact, are completely harmless. Turns out, all I needed to do was be extra careful when siphoning my wort into the carboy, as the glass and steal bearings would all sink to the bottom during the cooling process.

Nice.

So, after wasting an hour running all over creation and learning I'd made a second rookie mistake right on top of my first, I loaded up my second batch.

Steeped grains ... check.

Malt added ... check.

Bring up to boil ... ugh, sort of.

At some point between yesterday and college chemistry courses, I'd managed to forget the boiling point of water. For some reason, I thought it was 220 instead of 212. As such, I wasn't too concerned while talking on the phone with Gator at 200. I think I remember asking him the boiling point and then saying, "oops ... never mind, gotta go."



I'm guessing I brought it up to boil too fast, because there wasn't much of anything I could do to contain the boil over. I stirred and sprayed like crazy, but some of it escaped over the sides.

Other than that, the rest of the process was pretty uneventful. Wort-chillers rule, btw. Clean-up ... not so much.

The carboy is in the closet now, fermenting like crazy. I'm a bit amazed at the amount of activity in there and am still wondering how something so disgusting-looking will ever turn into beer.

Photos from the day ...

Steeping

Post-Boilover

The Precious

 

[Organized Chaos]

Cant wait, we brewed an all grain 10 gallon batch of a double IPA back in September, bottled some that wasn't dryhopped right out of the primary for a family sample on Thanksgiving, and it tasted AWESOME, suprisingly much like dogfish head 90 minute.

Today, I am bringing a 6 pack over for some after dinner drinks, this brew has been babied for 3 months now..

10% ABV

110 IBU

and my 5 gallons were dryhopped with 3 ounces of Centennial and Amarillo over 3 weeks.

The sample that I bottled tasted great...

 

[The Gator]

Malt added ... check.

 

[Schmegma]

Great story, Orcinus. What I find hilarious is that BOTH you and Gator threw out the first batch of homebrew you ever made - before it ever got to the fermenter!

I have 5 bottles of my award winning stout left, so it's time to place an order for some ingredients.

Has there been any discussion of a homebrew exchange in this thread?

 

[The Gator]

Great story, Orcinus. What I find hilarious is that BOTH you and Gator threw out the first batch of homebrew you ever made - before it ever got to the fermenter!

Hilarious, is not the word i used.

I have 5 bottles of my award winning stout left, so it's time to place an order for some ingredients. Has there been any discussion of a homebrew exchange in this thread?

Not yet. I'll let you start by sending me this award winning brew.

 

[culdeus]

Great story, Orcinus. What I find hilarious is that BOTH you and Gator threw out the first batch of homebrew you ever made - before it ever got to the fermenter!

Hilarious, is not the word i used.

I have 5 bottles of my award winning stout left, so it's time to place an order for some ingredients. Has there been any discussion of a homebrew exchange in this thread?

Not yet. I'll let you start by sending me this award winning brew.

 

[valhallan]

If you're looking for a good brew store, check out Annapolis Homebrew. The guys there are extremely knowledgeable and have great recipes.

 

[The Gator]

If you're looking for a good brew store, check out Annapolis Homebrew. The guys there are extremely knowledgeable and have great recipes.

 

[Alias]

I am slightly interested in getting into this, but I have 1 question.

Would I be a fool to get into this without a dishwasher?