• Welcome to OGBoards 10.0, keep in mind that we will be making LOTS of changes to smooth out the experience here and make it as close as possible functionally to the old software, but feel free to drop suggestions or requests in the Tech Support subforum!

Homebrewing Beer

WilmingtonDeac said:
Well, the Cream Ale is in the fermenter. How long before I can drink this stuff? Recipe says fermenter for 2 to 3 weeks, but how long after it's bottled is a general wait time?
Click to expand...

Unless you are going for serious alcohol content most of the fermentation will be done within a week, just check with hydrometer then transfer it to a secondary for clearing or other additions or bottle. In the bottle my experience has been that its good after 2 weeks but I also echo dot com in that it gets better over time. Def good to go by 3-4 weeks.
 
Just bottled our second brew, and we made a ton of improvements between beers. This IPA is promising.
 
DeacFromThe919 said:
Haha yea sometime I try to filter but most of the time I end up saying f*ck it about half way through for the same reason. It will settle out in the end anyway so its all good!
Click to expand...

There has to be a more efficient way of doing it. One of the things that amazed me in this first kit batch was how quickly the wort cooled down. The recipe called for adding cold water and the add the yeast once it was below 90 degrees. After adding the water, it went down immediately to 95, and within 10 minutes was down below 90. The glass carbouy helped a lot too IMO. We found the best way to cool it for future brews is to submerse it into a keg tub filled with ice.
 
tsywake said:
There has to be a more efficient way of doing it. One of the things that amazed me in this first kit batch was how quickly the wort cooled down. The recipe called for adding cold water and the add the yeast once it was below 90 degrees. After adding the water, it went down immediately to 95, and within 10 minutes was down below 90. The glass carbouy helped a lot too IMO. We found the best way to cool it for future brews is to submerse it into a keg tub filled with ice.
Click to expand...

Yea I usually just get a bag of ice from the gas station and take my boiling pot straight from the stove and set it in an ice bath. I replenish the water and ice about 3 times total while stirring the wort and it comes down quickly. I also keep my extra water in the frige and then add it to the carboy right before adding the wort which brings it down some more and then its time to pitch the yeasties and shake!

And talk about clogging a funnel or strainer...throw a whirlflock tab in your boil for the last 15 mins and you are soooooo screwed. You might as well not even get out your filtering device!
 
After cooling, (I use an immersion chiller, best homebrew purchase I've made so far), I whirlpool the wort by rapidly stirring for about a minute, covering, then waiting for about 30 minutes. All the hop solids and break material will form a cone in the middle of the pot, and then you can just siphon from the side into your fermentor.
 
Any suggestions on clone recipes online? I'm looking at making a Great Lakes Christmas Ale Clone to be ready when the inlaws come down at Thanksgiving. Hopville seems to be a pretty good resource. Those of you who brew often, where do you come across your recipes?
 
It's been a year and a half in the making, but I bottled my first homebrew today. Ended up with 49 12oz bottles and a growler. In the cabinet it goes to condition for a couple weeks. It took me a while to get the hang of the bottling, at first I wasn't filling them enough. I wasnt taking the volume of the filling tube in consideration when I stopped filling them initially.

For those that use glass carbouys, do you take hydrometer readings in the carbouy or once you stage it in the bottling bucket? I wanted to take a reading, but wasn't sure how exactly to retrieve the hydrometer out of the carbouy other than tying fishing line to it.
 
tsywake said:
It's been a year and a half in the making, but I bottled my first homebrew today. Ended up with 49 12oz bottles and a growler. In the cabinet it goes to condition for a couple weeks. It took me a while to get the hang of the bottling, at first I wasn't filling them enough. I wasnt taking the volume of the filling tube in consideration when I stopped filling them initially.

For those that use glass carbouys, do you take hydrometer readings in the carbouy or once you stage it in the bottling bucket? I wanted to take a reading, but wasn't sure how exactly to retrieve the hydrometer out of the carbouy other than tying fishing line to it.
Click to expand...

I don't think brewers would tell you to do a reeding in your carboy or bottling bucket...its just a chance to introduce contamination that may be on the hydrometer. Every book I have read says use a graduated cylinder of a container like that. For me I use the tube that my floating thermometer came in, then I drink the "flat" beer after my measurement at each stage just to see what its tasting like but that's just my preference. I like knowing how my beer is changing along the way. The books also say don't then pour whats left after your reading back into the whole batch (for the obvious same contamination reason as stated above)...drink it or send it down the drain. Hope that helps ya!
 
Just sterilize the hydrometer like you do everything else.
I've both left it in while brewing (yeast bubbles made it mostly unreadable tho) and just taped a string to the top to retrieve it.
 
I watched a couple bottling videos on youtube yesterday and pulled the trigger on a bottle rinser and a bottle tree. As I cleaned the carbouy last night I realized it was a 6 gallon carbouy instead of a 5, so this batch may be a little weak. We'll see.

bottle_rinser.jpg


bottle-tree-rack-45.gif
 
We have that same bottle tree, but I hadn't seen the bottle rinser before. Might have to look into that.
 
The video sold me on it. The demo starts around 45 seconds in. I went ahead and oven sterilized my bottles yesterday, but I like the idea of doing it that way.
 
Cracked open the first few bottles of my initial batch yesterday afternoon. They're still a little green IMO, so I'm going to wait another week or to. They're decent, but have a slight finishing bitterness.
 
Just cracked the first of our IPAs. A little disappointing. I'm wondering how to bring the hops out a bit more other than just adding more and more hops. Ours still tastes wheaty or yeasty after a much better filtration than our Irish red. Thanks in advance for tips, cause ours doesn't taste much like an IPA yet. Maybe another couple weeks of bottle conditioning will help (it's been ~ a month).
 
My first try at homebrewing, the "Cream Ale", is getting better every week it seems like. I'm pleasantly surprised by how good it turned out.

Brewed an "Amber Ale" on 6/24 and will be bottling it this weekend..hopefully it turns out as well as the initial brew.
 
Not homebrewing but I did just start aging a bottle of V.S.O.P I brought back from France in my mini barrel. Was a 7-year bottle, and ages 8x-10x quicker in the small barrel. Think I'll give it at least a month or two and then maybe try some.
 
First attempt at homebrewing started last weekend. We are doing an Amber Ale from a kit we bought from Midwest Supplies. Already on the list before beginning our next brewing session...

Old Refrigerator
Thermostat Control
Thermopen
Wort Immersion Chiller

Those will make it so much easier.
 
Doubled down today on a keezer conversion kit. Mocktoberfest going into the fermenter in about one hour, then we begin the chest freezer de-construction. Ameriboner achieved.
 
Going for beer number 2 in a few weeks. Using a kit. Do ya'll recommend Oktoberfest or an Indian Pale Ale?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top