Making first homebrew this weekend...

[twenty02]

One thing I had to give up when I entered the ministry was beer. Part of me would like to try your home brew. My grandpa used to make his own beer and wine for years in Washington. He did it during prohibition for his own use. I used to mow his yard and had to grow around the grape arbors. He was about 75 before he quit making his own elixir.

Too bad you didn't give up internet

 

[Stuffshot]

A honey porter kit ordered from northernbrewery. A few guys have some experience with home-brews, so I'll
have help.
There are so many good octoberfest and dopplebocks out right now! Ive never had a home-brew thats been better than what I could have bought at the store, so expectations are low.

I've thinking about resuming my expert beermaking and winemaking from the old days.

1. Are there any recommend-worthy supply stores in Central Indiana? I remember Wine-Art on Keystone and there used to be a similar (but much cheaper than Wine-Art) place near 86th and Moller.

2. Are there any outlets to buy actual, for-real wine grapes in Indiana? I've made it both ways (raw grapes from Indiana vineyards and grape concentrate from California vineyards). I'll probably run a batch of concentrate wine first just to reenforce my perfect technique from years ago, but my higher goal would be to make good wine from local grapes.

I gave away all my equipment, cappers, siphons, corkers etc. several years ago, so I'll be starting over.

Thanks in advance.

 

[cryano]

I've thinking about resuming my expert beermaking and winemaking from the old days.

1. Are there any recommend-worthy supply stores in Central Indiana? I remember Wine-Art on Keystone and there used to be a similar (but much cheaper than Wine-Art) place near 86th and Moller.

2. Are there any outlets to buy actual, for-real wine grapes in Indiana? I've made it both ways (raw grapes from Indiana vineyards and grape concentrate from California vineyards). I'll probably run a batch of concentrate wine first just to reenforce my perfect technique from years ago, but my higher goal would be to make good wine from local grapes.

I gave away all my equipment, cappers, siphons, corkers etc. several years ago, so I'll be starting over.

Thanks in advance.

Im no help to you...Ive ordered everything off Northern Brewer or found on craigslist.

My beer has been on 23 PSI since Sunday night...tomorrow night I plan to lower to about 8...and drink on Friday. Cant wait!

 

[R2]

I've thinking about resuming my expert beermaking and winemaking from the old days.

1. Are there any recommend-worthy supply stores in Central Indiana? I remember Wine-Art on Keystone and there used to be a similar (but much cheaper than Wine-Art) place near 86th and Moller.

2. Are there any outlets to buy actual, for-real wine grapes in Indiana? I've made it both ways (raw grapes from Indiana vineyards and grape concentrate from California vineyards). I'll probably run a batch of concentrate wine first just to reenforce my perfect technique from years ago, but my higher goal would be to make good wine from local grapes.

I gave away all my equipment, cappers, siphons, corkers etc. several years ago, so I'll be starting over.

Thanks in advance.

Great Fermentations - 65th Street between Allisonville and Binford has all of your wine/beer making products.

As a bonus, you can stop by the Bier Brewery which is in the same industrial center for a refreshing beverage......

 

[cryano]

Too bad you didn't give up internet

So my honey porter feels a little thin for a porter...thinking maybe I overcarbed or something.
But the caribou slobber brown is excellent.

Im running a splitter off CO2 tank - so cant set at different levels...any advice?

 

[twenty02]

So my honey porter feels a little thin for a porter...thinking maybe I overcarbed or something.
But the caribou slobber brown is excellent.

Im running a splitter off CO2 tank - so cant set at different levels...any advice?

It's really tough to get 'thicker' tasting beer when brewing extract. You really need to add a lot of oats in a traditional mash to get what you are looking for.

As far as CO2 levels....kind of a personal preference. Your style should be on the lower end of carb...so set at 10psi and forget it.

You said you were worried about over carbed? Probably not....unless it was coming out like old faithful and was all head.

Over carbed is setting it at 40 and forgetting to change it the next day. Or shaking your keg to force carb in 20 mins like a true alcoholic.

 

[IU40IU]

It's really tough to get 'thicker' tasting beer when brewing extract. You really need to add a lot of oats in a traditional mash to get what you are looking for.

As far as CO2 levels....kind of a personal preference. Your style should be on the lower end of carb...so set at 10psi and forget it.

You said you were worried about over carbed? Probably not....unless it was coming out like old faithful and was all head.

Over carbed is setting it at 40 and forgetting to change it the next day. Or shaking your keg to force carb in 20 mins like a true alcoholic.

bought some vine street junction ipa from iron line brewing the other day and it was the most over carbed beer i've ever bought. i ended up throwing out 3 of my 6 beers because it was so bad. as soon as you opened it, it spewed out...all bubbles. so if you see it, don't buy it. they really need to get that figured out. bastages.

 

[Hank Reardon]

It's really tough to get 'thicker' tasting beer when brewing extract. You really need to add a lot of oats in a traditional mash to get what you are looking for.

As far as CO2 levels....kind of a personal preference. Your style should be on the lower end of carb...so set at 10psi and forget it.

You said you were worried about over carbed? Probably not....unless it was coming out like old faithful and was all head.

Over carbed is setting it at 40 and forgetting to change it the next day. Or shaking your keg to force carb in 20 mins like a true alcoholic.

Twenty02 is correct. When you're mashing your own you have control over the mash temp, which can drastically change the character. A beer mashed at 147 will be bone dry, and one mashed at 155 will have a lot of un-fermentable sugars giving the beer a sweeter (or yes, "thicker") character. With extract not only do you have no control over that, you don't even know what the mash temp was. And yeah, adjuncts like oats, crystal malts, carapils, etc can be used in the mash to alter the body, sweetness, and so forth. With extract, it is what it is.

Go all grain. Do it today.

 

[twenty02]

Twenty02 is correct. When you're mashing your own you have control over the mash temp, which can drastically change the character. A beer mashed at 147 will be bone dry, and one mashed at 155 will have a lot of un-fermentable sugars giving the beer a sweeter (or yes, "thicker") character. With extract not only do you have no control over that, you don't even know what the mash temp was. And yeah, adjuncts like oats, crystal malts, carapils, etc can be used in the mash to alter the body, sweetness, and so forth. With extract, it is what it is.

Go all grain. Do it today.

That and extract beer typically (not always) tastes like "homebrew".

All grain tastes like deliciousness (assuming you have a clue).


@cryano do some research on 'brew in a bag'.

I've made great beers with that method....and you don't need a lot of new equipment to try it. Plus grain is a good bit cheaper than malt extract.

First few I did, I used 5g paint strainer bags from Lowes and a kettle from a $30 turkey fryer.

 

[cryano]

That and extract beer typically (not always) tastes like "homebrew".

All grain tastes like deliciousness (assuming you have a clue).


@cryano do some research on 'brew in a bag'.

I've made great beers with that method....and you don't need a lot of new equipment to try it. Plus grain is a good bit cheaper than malt extract.

First few I did, I used 5g paint strainer bags from Lowes and a kettle from a $30 turkey fryer.

Well how about this for a downer...come home from work today to pour a beer...line is pushing beer really slow.
After a few other things, I release the pressure - open the keg - and there are ice crystals floating on top of the beer in the damn keg. The other keg was completely fine. All the bottled commercial beers were completely fine.
11 years of having a beer fridge and never had a beer freeze out there.

Advice?

 

[cryano]

That and extract beer typically (not always) tastes like "homebrew".

All grain tastes like deliciousness (assuming you have a clue).


@cryano do some research on 'brew in a bag'.

I've made great beers with that method....and you don't need a lot of new equipment to try it. Plus grain is a good bit cheaper than malt extract.

First few I did, I used 5g paint strainer bags from Lowes and a kettle from a $30 turkey fryer.

And I did get a kit for a dopplebock at the local homebrew store for a ‘partial’ using DME but none of the syrup-type extract. Going to all-grain Id have had to buy a kettle bigger, or make a 3 gallon batch. I opted to do the partial and make 5 full gallons.
My kettle is 29 qts.

 

[Hank Reardon]

Well how about this for a downer...come home from work today to pour a beer...line is pushing beer really slow.
After a few other things, I release the pressure - open the keg - and there are ice crystals floating on top of the beer in the damn keg. The other keg was completely fine. All the bottled commercial beers were completely fine.
11 years of having a beer fridge and never had a beer freeze out there.

Advice?

What temp are you holding these at? Was the beer that froze lower in alcohol than the others?

I froze a keg solid once. I mean solid.

 

[twenty02]

Well how about this for a downer...come home from work today to pour a beer...line is pushing beer really slow.
After a few other things, I release the pressure - open the keg - and there are ice crystals floating on top of the beer in the damn keg. The other keg was completely fine. All the bottled commercial beers were completely fine.
11 years of having a beer fridge and never had a beer freeze out there.

Advice?

Uh....take it out and let it warm up? Doubt it will hurt anything. Never done that, so not sure.

You must keep your fridge damn cold. This shit isn't bud light, where you need it at freezing temp so it doesn't taste like piss.,

 

[cryano]

It is just a regular refrigerator. But none of the Oktoberfest bottles or cans froze up. Never had any others freeze up either in 11 years. I thought maybe something with the CO2 caused it
But I’m in the Louisville Kentucky area and it’s not even cold yet outside.

 

[hookyIU1990]

You've probably got the keg right up against the wall of the fridge touching it and a cooling coil is right on the other side. That could do it while everything else is fine. Our garage fridge does the same thing.

 

[cryano]

You've probably got the keg right up against the wall of the fridge touching it and a cooling coil is right on the other side. That could do it while everything else is fine. Our garage fridge does the same thing.

Yeah I think you’ve identified the issue - and the same wall in the sidebysude fridge has a vent that air comes in also...
Which sucks because the 2 kegs and CO2 tank dont have room for any other way just about.

 

[outside shooter]

One thing I had to give up when I entered the ministry was beer.

Why? that's stupid. Everyone in the Bible drank alcoholic beverages, including Jesus.

 

[hookyIU1990]

Why? that's stupid. Everyone in the Bible drank alcoholic beverages, including Jesus.

Some of the best beer in Western Europe is brewed by those associated with an order of Christianity - Paulaner, Westvleteren,Chimay, Rochefort, Achel, Kreuzberg, Andechs, franziskaner and on and on.

 

[hookyIU1990]

Yeah I think you’ve identified the issue - and the same wall in the sidebysude fridge has a vent that air comes in also...
Which sucks because the 2 kegs and CO2 tank dont have room for any other way just about.

The air vent will do it too. I didn't think about that.

Can you pull out a crisper drawer and put the CO2 bottle in that space?

 

[cryano]

The air vent will do it too. I didn't think about that.

Can you pull out a crisper drawer and put the CO2 bottle in that space?

Then where will the vodka go????
Yeah that would free up some space - Im going out to mess w it now.

 

[VanPastorMan]

Some of the best beer in Western Europe is brewed by those associated with an order of Christianity - Paulaner, Westvleteren,Chimay, Rochefort, Achel, Kreuzberg, Andechs, franziskaner and on and on.

You make a great point. It truly is cultural that guides a lot of people. I suppose every culture has their ways that would cause us to scratch our heads because we don't understand where they are coming from.

 

[cryano]

@cryano Where do you live? I've got more corny kegs than I'll ever use. I'd be happy to work out a deal on a couple with some new o-rings.

My first kegging system consisted of an old chest freezer, a johnson temp controller and picnic taps. Buy a small CO2 bottle, it's cheaper in the long run.

This is what mine looked like starting out.

where you live hooky - i may buy some cornys or other items of not much north of Indy

cpryan01@yahoo.com

 

[twenty02]

where you live hooky - i may buy some cornys or other items of not much north of Indy

cpryan01@yahoo.com

So....how's your beer?

 

[cryano]

So....how's your beer?

The first two were great - Honey Porter was excellent and the brown is better.
I have a Scottish ale coming out of primary next week, and a Dopplebock that sits til the end of January.

But, 5 gal goes to fast. The honey porter already blew...and the brown is very light to lift...

 

[twenty02]

The first two were great - Honey Porter was excellent and the brown is better.
I have a Scottish ale coming out of primary next week, and a Dopplebock that sits til the end of January.

But, 5 gal goes to fast. The honey porter already blew...and the brown is very light to lift...

Yeah, after I get through the holidays I plan on going on a brewing binge this winter to try to get some stock. I'll do a few 10g batches. They are kind of a pain in the ass on my setup...but the time commitment is basically the same as 5g (maybe an extra hour at most) for double the output.

 

[hookyIU1990]

where you live hooky - i may buy some cornys or other items of not much north of Indy

cpryan01@yahoo.com

Just sent you an email.

 

[cryano]

Absolutely. I age my beer in keg as basically a secondary fermenter.

The key is to purge all the oxygen. Seal it up....turn on the CO2 to your keg....pull the pressure relief valve a few times until you've gotten all the O2 replaced with CO2. You can then leave it as long as you like. As long as your beer isn't exposed to oxygen....you can let it age endlessly. Some types of beer really need time to get to their best... Even months. Just totally depends upon the style. I've heard of people going even a year of conditioning for certain extreme beers.

It doesn't need to be kept cold either....in fact depending upon the beer, it may be better to condition it at room temp rather than cold. The temp really only matters during primary fermentation....not this stage. This is no different than beers at the store on the shelf, at this point. It's just not carbed up.

Just keep away the O2. You can't really mess up beer once it's fermented. Unless it gets oxidized.

So today i transferred a dopplebock ale from 7.5 gal primary bucket to a 5 gal bucket for secondary...then realized the lid for the 5 had no grommett for airlock, but the 7.5 I read would leave to much airspace for oxygen in the secondary...
So i then transferred out if 5 gal into a keg - put psi on 23...pulled valve a few times...and will let it sit for a week or so now.
Hoping the extra transfer and moving the beer around so much today didnt ruin it. Figured it was better to get it in keg w CO2 on it than have it sit in 7.5 gal bucket for 2-3 more weeks.

 

[twenty02]

So today i transferred a dopplebock ale from 7.5 gal primary bucket to a 5 gal bucket for secondary...then realized the lid for the 5 had no grommett for airlock, but the 7.5 I read would leave to much airspace for oxygen in the secondary...
So i then transferred out if 5 gal into a keg - put psi on 23...pulled valve a few times...and will let it sit for a week or so now.
Hoping the extra transfer and moving the beer around so much today didnt ruin it. Figured it was better to get it in keg w CO2 on it than have it sit in 7.5 gal bucket for 2-3 more weeks.

It'll be fine. I'm don't ever use a secondary. Waste of time and doesn't really improve anything, IMO.

A keg is as good as a secondary as you'll get anyway.

 

[hookyIU1990]

The only time I secondary is with lagers and I do that in the keg.

Next time, you can put CO2 in the bucket first and top it off again after the transfer. That will keep it from oxidizing. If you're really worried about it, you can transfer under pressure too.

Like twenty02 said, you'll be fine.

 

[cryano]

@twenty02 and @hookyIU1990
So tonight a keg blew...have a good dopplebock on tap already, and a scottish ale ready to keg.
So the Dopplebock is already kegged, pressurized, amd pouring around 8 psi.
The Scottish needs forced carbed at 23-25 for a few days.

I disconnected the Dopple, turned it up to 23 to pressurize and carb the scottish, disconnect it, take it back down to 8-10 to serve the dopplebock.

Wondered - I’m good w completely leaving the Scottish off the tank for a few days to force carb - or does it need constant pressure coming in to carb it?

Edit - to be clear - I run a splitter off a single regulator...so cant run different pressure constant to each. I could keep it on 8-10 to each though...

 

[hookyIU1990]

Needs to be constant pressure to force carb it. All the pressure is in that little bit of headspace in the keg. So when you take it off pressure, the scotch will absorb enough of it to reach equilibrium and that won't be enough to carb it. It doesn't need to be high pressure, just constant.

Put them both on at 8. Serve the dopplebock and let the scotch ale carb at the same pressure. It will just take a little longer for it to carbonate.

 

[cryano]

@twenty02 @hookyIU1990
Brewing Saturday...doing a dopplebock partial that I made previously, but also bought a 15 gal kettle and a brew bag - going for my first All-grain BIAB my local brew store gave the recipe for a honey brown.

Any known tips or pitfalls to avoid w the BIAB method?

 

[twenty02]

@twenty02 @hookyIU1990
Brewing Saturday...doing a dopplebock partial that I made previously, but also bought a 15 gal kettle and a brew bag - going for my first All-grain BIAB my local brew store gave the recipe for a honey brown.

Any known tips or pitfalls to avoid w the BIAB method?

Temp is important when doing the mash.


You need to get your water volumes right as well as strike temps.

Use this:

http://www.biabcalculator.com


Wrap your kettle with blankets, towels, etc....to attempt to keep your mash temp fairly steady.


It's more work....But worth it. It'll take a few times to get it worked out for your specific setup.

 

[hookyIU1990]

Sparging will be key. Are you going to batch sparge? That would be the easiest, I would think. Never done the BIAB method before. Good luck.

 

[twenty02]

Sparging will be key. Are you going to batch sparge? That would be the easiest, I would think. Never done the BIAB method before. Good luck.

Honestly you don't need to sparge with BIAB. I've done it with and without....and results very similar. Whole point of BIAB is keeping it simple.

 

[cryano]

Honestly you don't need to sparge with BIAB. I've done it with and without....and results very similar. Whole point of BIAB is keeping it simple.

Good to hear… Because I really didn’t know what he was talking about

 

[cryano]

Only thing Brew told me abt ‘sparging’ was to pour a hot gallon over the bag of grains after taking them out of the kettle...

 

[hookyIU1990]

Sparging is just rinsing to get all the sugar into the wort. I always thought the BIAB method was just to keep everything in a single pot and you still needed to sparge to get your gravity and volume right. I guess I learned something.

 

[cryano]

I came out at the end throwing yeast at w 4.5 gallons of my honey brown all grain...squeezed the bag a lot for a while earlier but never sparged...

Started w 7 gal water - 0.5 gal short doesn’t sound like much, but thats a 6 pack almost, $10....

 

[twenty02]

I came out at the end throwing yeast at w 4.5 gallons of my honey brown all grain...squeezed the bag a lot for a while earlier but never sparged...

Started w 7 gal water - 0.5 gal short doesn’t sound like much, but thats a 6 pack almost, $10....

You'll get stronger beer!

Next time just adjust. I think I typically do 7.5-8G. Haven't done one for a while.....but recall coming up short on volume the first few times.

Good news is all grain is significantly cheaper than extract.