What's fermenting now?

We moved into a house (from an apartment) in August and I thought it was going to be good for brewing. I used to use the stove with two boil kettles. The new place has a glass top stove that won't support the weight.

I could buy a turkey fry'er but don't have much room to set it up and the biggest pain is I don't have access to water outside of the house. I have a hose but water from it tastes like a hose.

I have a basement, but the entry way is in the backyard, one story down. No access from inside the house and no water down there.

When the weather gets nicer, I can set something up outside but I will still have the water issue.

TN said:

I bought a corny keg this weekend. Going to NB on wednesday to pick the rest of my bits & pieces. Hopefully will be drinking home brew outta the tapper by my birfday.

L sez to me on the ride home from getting the keg "we are gonna need to brew more." <3

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My corny keg made last winter (with DC's snowmaggedon) quite enjoyable. No need for a kegerator when there's four feet of snow in the backyard. However, I need to figure out how to fit a kegerator somewhere in our tiny house for the warmer months though.

binary visions said:

I've read a few bad things about adding water at bottling time to lighten it a little.

Anyone ever tried that?

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Unless you have a source of deoxygenated water handy, I wouldn't do it. Water carries a lot of un-bonded O2. O2 in beer after fermentation will give you at best raisin/plum/caramel flavors/aromas, at worst cardboard or wet construction paper.

BikeGeek said:

Unless you have a source of deoxygenated water handy, I wouldn't do it. Water carries a lot of un-bonded O2. O2 in beer after fermentation will give you at best raisin/plum/caramel flavors/aromas, at worst cardboard or wet construction paper.

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Thanks for the feedback. I was going to boil the water first to drive off the O2, but there seems to be mixed opinions on whether it provides off flavors when adding after fermenting.

binary visions said:

Thanks for the feedback. I was going to boil the water first to drive off the O2, but there seems to be mixed opinions on whether it provides off flavors when adding after fermenting.

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A lot of big breweries (budmillercoors) add water to every beer. They brew a strong wort, ferment it, then dilute it to reach their target abv and flavor/aroma characteristics. I learned from a Master Brewer from Munich that there are even some German breweries doing pilsners this way with very good results. Boiling it would be the way to go if you're going to do it.

Brewed two separate batches awhile ago, a Pale Ale dry-hopped with Amarillo, and a milk stout. While the brewing went fine, the bottling was a complete and utter clusterf*ck. Bottled both the same night, with the PA having gone through 2 fermenters, and the milk-stout only having gone through one 3.5 week one (only have 2 carboys). First up was the PA, and the loose hops started clogging up the bottle filler almost immediately. Ugh. had to clear out the bottle filler probably 3-4 times throughout the process.

Then started the milk-stout. Holy crap, if I thought the PA was bad, the sediment in this far far FAR exceeded any issues I had with the PA. Finally gave up with the bottle-filler, and just used the "pinch the tube" method. Fawk. Capped all of them, and then let them sit for ~3 weeks while I was on the road.

First beer I popped was a milk-stout that was still kind of warm, and encountered a mild carbonation gusher. WTF? The sediment was overwhelming, and I honestly thought that I was going to have my first "beer bread only" batch.

So waited until everything was cold, and everything suddenly got a LOT better:

1) Milk Stout: Definitely over-carbonated, but when chilled you can pour it without disturbing the sediment at the bottom. Actually quite yummy. Success! (after you let it sit to de-carbonate a little bit)

2) Pale Ale: Awesome. Just a simple Pale Ale, but the dry-hopping definitely allowed for more hop taste as opposed to the enamel-sheering bitterness. Success!!

And the near-catastrophe with bottling has led the wife to be open to a keg setup. SCORE!!

TN said:

did 4 gals. of milk stout on saturday.
damn AG takes a long time...good thing I am a homebody.

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pics of your set up?

brewed an oatmeal stout today and damn, i think this one's gonna be good.

OG = 1.074 (expected to hit 67)

i tried to make an oatmeal stout-ish beer a couple of weeks ago and it didn't turn out too great so this is my re-do. it may be a little young, but this is gonna be my Thanksgiving meal.

Moved a black IPA to secondary yesterday. I'll let that sit for four weeks and dry hop five days before bottling. Final abv will come in around 7.5%.

TN said:

...but I am happy with the results I got.

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There's the important part

Thinking about buying a 55# of 2-row to cut down on my brew costs. It still costs me about the same as buying an extract kit right now...

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If you have any, check with your local breweries/brewpubs. A lot of them are happy to sell bags of malt at, or very near cost (usually around $20-25) to regular customers. Also, most will give you house yeast if you ask and they're not too busy. Just be prepared with a cooler and ice pack and something like a mason jar.

Brewed an Oatmeal Stout yesterday, and aside from WAY overshooting my steeping grain temperature, everything went pretty well. Mental note for next time: Don't set the temperature alarm at 160, and then just tell the wife to turn off the stove... tell her to also move the pot OFF the hot burner. Came back inside and the temp was almost 200. Yikes!

Cooled it down with some cold water, and now can only hope for the best. Fingers are crossed...

We moved into a house in September and I thought it would be good for my brewing. It turns out it's worse. I can't use the stove because it's a glass top and my research says the glass can't support the weight of a brew kettle.

I don't have a garage or porch so I'll have to brew in the rain and I'll have to buy new equipment such as a turkey fryer and some other stuff which I don't really have funds for right now..

pnj said:

We moved into a house in September and I thought it would be good for my brewing. It turns out it's worse. I can't use the stove because it's a glass top and my research says the glass can't support the weight of a brew kettle.

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I'm a little confused by this. I've boiled an entire turkey carcass in gallons of water on ceramic topped stoves before. Certainly 3+ gallons. Wort is no heavier than water.

I guess I've probably never tried 5-6 gallons, but there's no reason you shouldn't be able to do partial boils. I can't imagine trying to do a full boil on an electric stove anyway - must take for-freakin'-ever.

Turkey fryers can be pretty cheap. This one even comes with a 30 quart pot:

http://www.basspro.com/Bass-Pro-Shops-30Quart-Propane-Turkey-Fryer/product/10211271/-1530748&hvarAID=vantage&hvarEID=520763

the stove top is glass. I do full boils, all grain style. 8 gallons of water is almost 70 pounds.

Turkey fryers are not too expensive but then I need a new IC because my current one is designed for smaller amounts of liquid. I also need to install a valve on the kettle that comes with the turkey fryer because I can't/don't want to lift 50 plus pounds of hot wort. I could use a sanitized scoop and scoop the wort out until I can lift the boil kettle and pour the rest into my fermentor.

I also need another propane tank because having one run out during a boil would suck.

etc...

pnj said:

I can't/don't want to lift 50 plus pounds of hot wort.

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Cool in the boil kettle and transfer via tubing, dude, let gravity work for you

binary visions said:

Cool in the boil kettle and transfer via tubing, dude, let gravity work for you

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Then how do you aerate? I cool in the boil kettle (via wort chiller), but then transfer by hand (through a funnel) back and forth several times to ensure that it's well aerated. Then again, it's only ~5.5 gallons at this point, so about 45lbs.

I've heard turkey fryers are heavily discounted after Thanksgiving.

I pick up the carboy and shake the f**k out of it...

binary visions said:

Cool in the boil kettle and transfer via tubing, dude, let gravity work for you

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yes.

Do you use a valve on the bottom of your kettle or do you siphon it out?
If I'm spending money on my set up, I'd like to spend the money once and do it exactly how I'd like it. I started brewing in '95 doing extracts and while I didn't brew steadily over the last 15 years, I have spent some time thinking about what I'd like my brew rig to look like and how I'd like it to function.

Then how do you aerate?

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Put the end of the hose just inside the top of your fermenter so the wort falls/splashes into the fermenter. This is how most guys do this...

I siphon it out since my brew kettle is just a cheap stock pot.

I'm tossing around some ideas on how to keep all of the crap out of my primary. With my brown ale, I used a filter bag on the end of the transfer hose, but then had trouble getting the bag out of the neck of the carboy. I'll probably head to the hardware store before my next batch as I have a few ideas.

My biggest limitation is space right now. Our apartment doesn't have a whole lot of closet space so I try to keep it as compact as possible.

well, the girlfriend got tired of me talking about/looking at turkey fryers, etc and went out and bought one to shut me up.

I fired it up yesterday to season the pot, took an hour to get 7 gallons of sub 50 degree water to boil. I need to get more propane and make a wort chiller and I should be good to go.

I'll be making an amber ale sometime next week.

9# 2 row
3# Munich
.5# Crystal 40L
.5# Crystal 80L
.25# Cara-pills
2 tablespoons of chocolate malt.

probably Willamette hops.

I do have some home grown hops from my brother that I may use as well for bittering...

tn said:

mumble mumble mumble

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I am teh awesomeness.

First brew with my new set up. Started the flame at 1:09 and pitched yeast at 4:37. It didn't rain, so the tarp wasn't needed. I'll be making some easy to move/set up poles for the tarp.



Picked up 10 pounds of Munich today for my next brew.

TN - buy a turkey fryer. They are probably on hella sale at a store near you.

Another beer catastrophe averted... Bottled my oatmeal stout 2 weeks ago, brought the bottles down into the baesment and waited a week. Chilled a couple bottles, popped one open and no carbonation. None. Fawk. Took the infrared thermometer down and did some temperature readings, and found that the basement had actually cooled off to the low 50s. Brought the bottles upstairs, but since we don't usually keep our house very warm I still wasn't getting much carbonation. Put the bottles directly under a heat vent and agitated the bottles a couple times during the day. Sure enough, popped one last night and it was carbonated, but dissipated pretty quickly. Looks like I'll have to give it another 2-3 days to force-carbonate but by then it should be ready to drink.

Might have to figure out some way to keep these in a warmer part of the house, or possibly do the old "lightbulb in the closet" trick.

A week sometimes isn't long enough for good carbonation, and certainly leaving them under a heat vent for a day or two isn't.

Put them in a reasonably climate controlled part of the house and leave 'em alone for 10 days, IMO.

brewed yesterday.

10# Munich 30L (2 row)
two hour mash (still didn't get full conversion)

1 ounce Willamette at 60
1 ounce Willamette at 30

Nottingham yeast.
OG was 1.048 or so. It should have been much higher...

Basement is sitting at 56 degrees so I put a heating pad under the carboy and set it to 'low'. Also wrapped a towel around it.

I just bottled this beer and it was pretty tasty, if a little thin because of the low alcohol. But good taste and good smell make for a good beer so I'm satisfied.

I'll take another crack at it after the new year - I'd really like to nail that one.

brewed my dry irish stout yesterday. OG was 1.057, currently bubbling along nicely in primary fermentation.

edit: according to the recipe, OG is supposed to be 1.042... should I be concerned?

I picked up some SafLager S-23 yeast this weekend.

5# Munich 30L
5# Vienna 3.5L
Cluster hops

I also ordered a dual keg setup. whooHoooo!

TN said:

how long you gonna let it go (typically)?

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Dunno, I've never used lager yeast before.