Home Brew

[j-ROC2]

I have done deer in the past and it was great and my father does wine me and the wife are thinking to doing wine for something fun and she loves wine

[BeeGuy]

Yea, wine is delicious!

[jungleboy]

I just finished bottling my second batch of crab apple cider. This is a new hobby for me and so far ... not bad , not great but getting better . next year I will make a big effort in getting more apples juiced for the process. My first batch came out more like a white wine than cider , so this time I used a different yeast and it came up closer to what I want but still need so work at it. I think I am leaving it too long in the carboy and it is getting some flavors off the lees . It tends to have a bit of a bitter after taste . I am hoping by leaving it sit for a week or two more that it mellows a bit. It is a fun hobby though and I think I shall try one of the Coopers kits next

[BeeGuy]

Originally Posted by jungleboy

I just finished bottling my second batch of crab apple cider. This is a new hobby for me and so far ... not bad , not great but getting better . next year I will make a big effort in getting more apples juiced for the process. My first batch came out more like a white wine than cider , so this time I used a different yeast and it came up closer to what I want but still need so work at it. I think I am leaving it too long in the carboy and it is getting some flavors off the lees . It tends to have a bit of a bitter after taste . I am hoping by leaving it sit for a week or two more that it mellows a bit. It is a fun hobby though and I think I shall try one of the Coopers kits next

Awesome. What was your exact recipe?

How did you process the apples?

[Rdamours]

Used to make a lot of wine. The best one yet was the one that I left to bulk age in the carboy as I was too busy to bottle.

[BeeGuy]

Originally Posted by Rdamours

Used to make a lot of wine. The best one yet was the one that I left to bulk age in the carboy as I was too busy to bottle.

How long did it age for?

Red or white?

[mayuan]

Originally Posted by BeeGuy

Bump!

Anyone have any meads going?

I have a mead that is done! Took 3 years to complete! I also have an IPA batch and a stout batch carbonating, a Red ale in the carboy and looking to start a pilsner for summer soon.

[BeeGuy]

Originally Posted by mayuan

I have a mead that is done! Took 3 years to complete! I also have an IPA batch and a stout batch carbonating, a Red ale in the carboy and looking to start a pilsner for summer soon.

3 years should do it eh

what kind of recipe?

[Rdamours]

It was a merlot I believe. I must have left it another month and a half in the basement before bottling. The results are night and day. I can see it as only the neck of the carboy is exposed to gases vs the neck of every bottle.

I'll try a white here again and see if I get the same outcome.

[BeeGuy]

Originally Posted by Rdamours

It was a merlot I believe. I must have left it another month and a half in the basement before bottling. The results are night and day. I can see it as only the neck of the carboy is exposed to gases vs the neck of every bottle.

I'll try a white here again and see if I get the same outcome.

I was reading that if you let the 6 week kits go another 2 weeks or so that the quality improved

[Rdamours]

Mine happened by accident as I kind of forgot about it and was worried I f'd it up. I'd compare it to $11-15 store bought wine. It was one of the 23 bottle WineKitz kits.

[jungleboy]

Originally Posted by BeeGuy

Awesome. What was your exact recipe?

How did you process the apples?

We did the apples in an electric juicer . Recipe -- pretty simple , 3 gallons of cider ( we only had 2 gallons of Crab apple so we bought a gallon of Apple cider at wally world) add a 1/4 cup sugar .handful of raisins (to help feed the yeast). One packet of Ale yeast although next time I will try bakers yeast.Put the air lock on and cover the carboy or put it in a dark room for 2 weeks. After 2 weeks transfer to a secondary for another 2 weeks then bottle. I am thinking next time I wont leave it in the secondary as long though. When I bottled it I added 1/4 tsp of sugar to each bottle to carbonate.

There is a guy on you tube that goes by the name "Craig tube" and he has a ton of home brew videos. I find his videos very informative and interesting.

[Rdamours]

Every second year we get a ton of Goodland apples so Ill try this as we can't eat or freeze them all.

[mayuan]

Originally Posted by BeeGuy

3 years should do it eh

what kind of recipe?

water, raw dandelion honey( 28lbs local apiarists supplied) and yeast. It was 6 months in the bucket , racked to carboy for another 6 months, re-racked to another carboy for another 6 months(fermented out at this point). Racked and Bulk aged in another carboy for another 6 months. Last was to bottle and age for another year.

Next time everyone heads to the lake let me know and I'll bring you a bottle. I'm not a mead drinkin' kind of guy, but people that like mead say mine is some of the best they had.

[mayuan]

Originally Posted by jungleboy

We did the apples in an electric juicer . Recipe -- pretty simple , 3 gallons of cider ( we only had 2 gallons of Crab apple so we bought a gallon of Apple cider at wally world) add a 1/4 cup sugar .handful of raisins (to help feed the yeast). One packet of Ale yeast although next time I will try bakers yeast.Put the air lock on and cover the carboy or put it in a dark room for 2 weeks. After 2 weeks transfer to a secondary for another 2 weeks then bottle. I am thinking next time I wont leave it in the secondary as long though. When I bottled it I added 1/4 tsp of sugar to each bottle to carbonate.

There is a guy on you tube that goes by the name "Craig tube" and he has a ton of home brew videos. I find his videos very informative and interesting.

Next time use champagne yeast for fermenting or a nice Irish yeast. Most beverage based yeasts have been selectively chosen for the purpose of brewing. Bread yeast will make the cider have a bread-ish taste.

Also, don't use plain sugar it will not ferment out properly. You will end up with a nasty/off taste in what ever you are making. Use dextrose for your sugar source, cheap and you can buy it at super store. If you want to carbonate the cider add more dextrose when bottling to the whole batch not each bottle.

[BeeGuy]

Originally Posted by mayuan

water, raw dandelion honey( 28lbs local apiarists supplied) and yeast. It was 6 months in the bucket , racked to carboy for another 6 months, re-racked to another carboy for another 6 months(fermented out at this point). Racked and Bulk aged in another carboy for another 6 months. Last was to bottle and age for another year.

Next time everyone heads to the lake let me know and I'll bring you a bottle. I'm not a mead drinkin' kind of guy, but people that like mead say mine is some of the best they had.

Heck yes.

I like a dry mead myself. I have a real sweet tooth, but not when it comes to drinks.

I went to a regional mead tasting a couple years ago in Calgary and found most of the meaderies were making very sweet meads. This may be due to time constraints and market. Reminded me of ice wines.

[jungleboy]

Originally Posted by mayuan

Next time use champagne yeast for fermenting or a nice Irish yeast. Most beverage based yeasts have been selectively chosen for the purpose of brewing. Bread yeast will make the cider have a bread-ish taste.

Also, don't use plain sugar it will not ferment out properly. You will end up with a nasty/off taste in what ever you are making. Use dextrose for your sugar source, cheap and you can buy it at super store. If you want to carbonate the cider add more dextrose when bottling to the whole batch not each bottle.

I used champagne yeast the first time around and it worked well but was more like white wine than cider. I wondered about the sugar though I will use dextrose next time. Thanks for that

[Jag_Gator]

i encourage any and everyone that loves beer and wine to get into this hobby if you can. I started out doing brewhouse box kits and went all the way to all-grain brewing. Once you start, the thirst for perfection drives you forward lol. Heck, I got my wife a cheese making kit from one of my suppliers and she got hooked

[mayuan]

Originally Posted by BeeGuy

Heck yes.

I like a dry mead myself. I have a real sweet tooth, but not when it comes to drinks.

I went to a regional mead tasting a couple years ago in Calgary and found most of the meaderies were making very sweet meads. This may be due to time constraints and market. Reminded me of ice wines.

This mead is very, very dry and sitting at about %16 by weight. Just grabbed a glass of mead and it is good....

[Juggernaut]

I also homebrew.

Haven't done one in a few months, but my last was an American/Northwest style IPA with a HEAVY double dry hopping.

I love it, technically ended up using 9 different hops by the time it was done, mostly because I used Falconer's Flight (the 7 Cs) for the dry hopping.

My next plan is a Coffee Stout... BUT I want to make it with Kopi Luwak coffee... Now to find some real Kopi Luwak without taking out a loan (sells for around $1000 a pound)

I even set my homebrew stuff up on the UNTAPPD phone app. If anyone is using it, look up Angry Wookiee brewing.

[BlackHeart]

Originally Posted by Juggernaut

I also homebrew.....My next plan is a Coffee Stout... BUT I want to make it with Kopi Luwak coffee... Now to find some real Kopi Luwak without taking out a loan (sells for around $1000 a pound)
.....

In the coffee industry kopi luwak is widely regarded as a gimmick or novelty item. The Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) states that there is a "general consensus within the industry ... it just tastes bad". A coffee professional cited in the SCAA article was able to compare the same beans with and without the kopi luwak process using a rigorous coffee cupping evaluation. He concluded: "it was apparent that Luwak coffee sold for the story, not superior quality...Using the SCAA cupping scale, the Luwak scored two points below the lowest of the other three coffees. It would appear that the Luwak processing diminishes good acidity and flavor and adds smoothness to the body, which is what many people seem to note as a positive to the coffee.”

Tim Carman, food writer for the Washington Post reviewed kopi luwak available to US consumers and concluded "It tasted just like...Folgers. Stale. Lifeless. Petrified dinosaur droppings steeped in bathtub water. I couldn't finish it".

Some critics claim more generally that kopi luwak is simply bad coffee, purchased for novelty rather than taste. Massimo Marcone, who performed extensive chemical tests on the beans, was unable to conclude if anything about their properties made them superior for purposes of making coffee. He employed several professional coffee tasters (called "cuppers") in a blind taste test. While the cuppers were able to distinguish the kopi luwak as distinct from the other samples, they had nothing remarkable to appraise about it other than it was less acidic and had less body, tasting "thin". Marcone remarked "It's not that people are after that distinct flavor. They are after the rarity of the coffee".

Using this "coffee" in a sealed enviroment without air, like a corked beer bottle could make things very interesting. Any micro trace of civet feces matter/bacteria and you may just brew up quite a storm.

[kimmi07]

We have just gotten in to making wine. Our friends have done it for a few years so I thought I would try it out. Another couple I know also makes wine but I did not like the white one they made. Bottles were not cleaned right snd couldn't taste the flavour very much. If done right, the wine tastes great!

[Juggernaut]

Originally Posted by BlackHeart

In the coffee industry kopi luwak is widely regarded as a gimmick or novelty item. The Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) states that there is a "general consensus within the industry ... it just tastes bad". A coffee professional cited in the SCAA article was able to compare the same beans with and without the kopi luwak process using a rigorous coffee cupping evaluation. He concluded: "it was apparent that Luwak coffee sold for the story, not superior quality...Using the SCAA cupping scale, the Luwak scored two points below the lowest of the other three coffees. It would appear that the Luwak processing diminishes good acidity and flavor and adds smoothness to the body, which is what many people seem to note as a positive to the coffee.”

Tim Carman, food writer for the Washington Post reviewed kopi luwak available to US consumers and concluded "It tasted just like...Folgers. Stale. Lifeless. Petrified dinosaur droppings steeped in bathtub water. I couldn't finish it".

Some critics claim more generally that kopi luwak is simply bad coffee, purchased for novelty rather than taste. Massimo Marcone, who performed extensive chemical tests on the beans, was unable to conclude if anything about their properties made them superior for purposes of making coffee. He employed several professional coffee tasters (called "cuppers") in a blind taste test. While the cuppers were able to distinguish the kopi luwak as distinct from the other samples, they had nothing remarkable to appraise about it other than it was less acidic and had less body, tasting "thin". Marcone remarked "It's not that people are after that distinct flavor. They are after the rarity of the coffee".

Using this "coffee" in a sealed enviroment without air, like a corked beer bottle could make things very interesting. Any micro trace of civet feces matter/bacteria and you may just brew up quite a storm.

Yup..., I've had Kopi Luwak, it is much less acidic than what we would consider a normal coffee and is the reason I want to make a stout with it. I didn't find it at all "thin" though, but I had mine as an espresso.

As for the bacteria... a couple things... Like any ingredient or item used in the production of beer, proper sterilization would be essential... also... the roasting process would initially destroy any bacteria. Not to mention coffee would be going into the boiling stage not the bottling stage... sooo....

An bacteria arguement could be said for any coffee beer... There are a multiple hands and dirty machines touching coffee at various stages.

[hillbilly willy]

I have 5 gallons of pear wine and 4 gallons of raspberry wine racked in secondary carboys. Just started a 6 gallon batch of Dragon Blood with black berries. Hopefully it turns out like Mike's Hard Lemonade.

[hillbillyreefer]

Originally Posted by hillbilly willy

I have 5 gallons of pear wine and 4 gallons of raspberry wine racked in secondary carboys. Just started a 6 gallon batch of Dragon Blood with black berries. Hopefully it turns out like Mike's Hard Lemonade.

Keep us posted on that, please.

I've got 5gallons of tangerine/lime, and 5gallons of blackberry wine I want to turn into coolers. My theory is to dilute it a bit with water, sweeten it with sorbitol and force carb it. One of these days I may even get around to doing that. The wine is currently stored in corny kegs that were purged with CO2. I've got a corny sitting right beside me with Muntons Gold IPA hacked with extra medium malt and 4ozs of cascade hops. Turned out alright, not as good as the brew house IPA that was brewed on the lees though.

Can't wait to get my kettle built and move onto extract and then whole grain. The quality of today's kits is slowing down that progression though.

[BlackHeart]

Originally Posted by Juggernaut

Yup..., I've had Kopi Luwak, it is much less acidic than what we would consider a normal coffee and is the reason I want to make a stout with it. I didn't find it at all "thin" though, but I had mine as an espresso.

As for the bacteria... a couple things... Like any ingredient or item used in the production of beer, proper sterilization would be essential... also... the roasting process would initially destroy any bacteria. Not to mention coffee would be going into the boiling stage not the bottling stage... sooo....

An bacteria arguement could be said for any coffee beer... There are a multiple hands and dirty machines touching coffee at various stages.

Thanks for the reply.

We've been buying Erdinger Dunkel beer....comes in a 500ml bottle (nice size for a frosted mug)....saving the bottles (non-screw tops) ....just finished boiling the labels and glue off all 80

Tomorrow I'm picking up a bunch of brewing equipment, from a member here.
Wife bought me a book on hops....wow what a lot Info.
And the learning will start.

[mayuan]

Originally Posted by BlackHeart

Thanks for the reply.

We've been buying Erdinger Dunkel beer....comes in a 500ml bottle (nice size for a frosted mug)....saving the bottles (non-screw tops) ....just finished boiling the labels and glue off all 80

Tomorrow I'm picking up a bunch of brewing equipment, from a member here.
Wife bought me a book on hops....wow what a lot Info.
And the learning will start.

I started the same way. Lots of effort removing labels, getting the non-screw top bottles and worried about the bottle size for drinking.

Now I use the flip-top Grolsch bottles and don't give the slightest F--- about the labels. Grolsch is the quickest and easiest way to bottle. I just rinse real quick after I pour the beer, into the crate for storage and then the dishwasher on sanitize before I bottle. If a label falls off in the process, so be it.

[mayuan]

This is a standard Stout and IPA carbonating. Once it is carbed, they spend a month in the basement to condition. I also have a Oatmeal and Red on deck and a Kolsch in the hole. Yum!

[Pointerman]

I have brewed a lot of beer over the years but I always hated the bottling process that all changed when my wife bought me a keg-orator for father's day. I bought a couple of corny kegs and bottling became a thing of the past. I always have fresh cold brew on tap now. I have tried all the kits and all grain but when you add it all up time and money it is hard to beat the Brew House all grain wort kits. They are excellent on there own but you can easily hack them with specialty yeast, steeped grains and dry hopping.
Home brewing is a great hobby and the end result is usually very rewarding. St. Albert Brew Crew has all the stuff you need to get kegging your own brew.

[BlackHeart]

Originally Posted by mayuan

I started the same way. Lots of effort removing labels, getting the non-screw top bottles and worried about the bottle size for drinking.

Now I use the flip-top Grolsch bottles and don't give the slightest F--- about the labels. Grolsch is the quickest and easiest way to bottle. I just rinse real quick after I pour the beer, into the crate for storage and then the dishwasher on sanitize before I bottle. If a label falls off in the process, so be it.

Like bottle, but not a big fan of that beer.....so unlikely for me to accumulate those bottles.

And that stash of beer......boy that looks great....what I'm hoping for.

Any idea of what it's costing you per 341ml bottle of beer?