@Kornbread said:
Yeast cake; ever saved and reused it?
Saving perishable stuff for reuse? That sounds like work. Nah not tried it yet. I'd probably try dumping new wort on a used cake if I was doing multiple batches in succession to distil... Sour mash style.
Looks like I tossed my primary bottles to save space. Fortunately my backup bin of bottles was harder to get to and I must have gotten lazy (big surprise). Some still had labels. Sunday I made time to go about de-labeling. Ended up having to do a bunch of scrubbing. Wore me out enough I didn't want to continue with bottling.
I'd suggest find beer with labels that are lightly glued. Soak them with the cleaning solution in hot water. If you get lucky they will fall off themselves. If not, peel off what you can and scrub off the rest. Standard paper labels use a water soluble food safe glue. If you get bottles with plastic labels they use glue that would damn near require mineral spirits to get off... Or just leave em on.
At least the bottles can be reused indefinitely until they get damaged, so generally delabeling is a one and done thing. Until you decide you want to bottle more batches while you are still whittling down the previous batch/s
I didn't find any more caps in my stash so yesterday I made a run. They had some pretty sweet ones at Jungle Jim's.
Bottled this evening.
Boil a couple cups of water to dissolve the priming sugar into and let it sit to cool a bit. Get the sanitising solution going to soak your valves and tubing. Soak your bottles in the sanitising solution and rinse. Pour some in the bottling bucket to sanitise and rinse.
Then assemble your valve on the bottling bucket. Pour the priming sugar solution in then hook up the sanitised hose to the fermenter and drain into the bucket. I also added a cup and a half of bourbon since I'm shooting for a bourbon ale.
Bottling is a bit of a race to the finish trying to get done with minimal air exposure to prevent oxidation. So I didn't get pics of the process. I still use a basic double lever hand capper to crimp em on. Just fill to about 1-1.5" from the top so there is sufficient head space for the co2 to gather and prevent bottle bombs. During carbonization keep em in a plastic bin just in case one does decide to blow. A 5gal batch will yield roughly 50x 12oz bottles. I like to fill some 22oz ones too though.
In 2 weeks at room temperature they should be carbonated enough to chill and be drinkable as standard beer. I did try the beer straight out of the fermenter. Rather nutty. I probably should have just done all amber extract for what I was going for (instead of half red). But I'm not too worried. it will still be tasty, unique and BOLD. The amount of extract I used along with dumping in a half bottle of bourbon will probably put this stuff up towards 8% abv or more and probably not much more than $1 per 12oz bottle.
[edit] Now that I think about it I thought I should add: I don't believe I've ever had a bottle explode. I've had some beer be a bit over-carbonated and would foam up and try to overflow the moment it hit the glass but that is the worst of it. As long as you don't overfill the bottles (1-1.5" head space), and be sure the priming sugar was well mixed, it should be pretty safe. The yeast get slowed down the higher the pressure gets. I'd bet incidents of bottles blowing were probably bottles that were already damaged or sufficiently flawed that they couldn't handle the typical pressures required to force carbonate the beer with this method.
Yesterday was such a gorgeous Midwestern spring day (finally) that the Mrs. and I decided to go for a drive. A nice long drive. We wound up with a fridge full of New Glarus bounty at the end of the day, along with a few other items. That tri-state Dubuque-Galena area really, uh...delivered. Cheers!
Spotted Cow has a very broad appeal and is really coveted here in Iowa. Moon Man No Coast Pale Ale is my fave. Some of their seasonals are really good as well. Being unavailable out-of-state adds to the allure.
Sunday I went over to Harrison OH. There is a liquor store right on the other side of the state line to Indiana.. as in I think the line runs down the street in front of the place. That is where I was able to get the Town Branch Bourbon. Got that specifically because it is the same distillery that makes Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale and I guess we can't get their bourbon here in OH, just the beer.
While we were there we decided to get some grub. Stopped at Market Street Grille. Saw they have Hofbrau Dunkel on tap. Will be going back for that. I don't think I've seen that on tap anywhere else but Hofbrauhaus.
Well. It's beer! I think I shot a bit past the mark and made it too bold. The malty punch of the red extract and floral notes of the flavoring hops seem to shout louder than the bourbon notes. It has that characteristic flabby young homebrew flavor that you may have experienced if you go to microbreweries (possibly due to alot of proteins still in suspension). It gets alot of chill haze too from that. A few months in the fridge should get those proteins to fall out; tightening up and defining the flavor better.. make it taste more like a commercial brew. Though for now, those proteins seem to give the head extra robustness. It stays there the whole time instead of disappearing 1/3 the way in.
Of course, in hindsight, I could have just added the whole bottle of bourbon to combat the other flavors. Which would really make the stuff "an event in a glass", but wouldn't be quite what I was going for. If/when I try this again. I think I'll omit the red extract and just do all amber. And tone down the end flavoring hops. Possibly reduce the bittering hops too as I think the bourbon added some bitterness itself. But maybe add a little more bourbon to really bring those flavors forward.
Talked a bit with the wife and next ferment may be a cider. A Cran-apple cider seemed to perk her interest. That should be even easier.. Just find juice without ascorbic acid (preservative that would kill the yeast), pour it in the fermenter, add yeast and the air lock. You are off to the races! From what I hear wine yeast can best preserve the fruit flavors throughout the ferment.
Oof, isn't that stuff traditionally freeze distilled? That method doesn't remove any methanol so it ends up concentrating more.. I hear the hangover from a night drinking it is legendary.. known as "apple-palsy".
Normally I'm more of a Pinot noir guy but last time Aldi had this stuff it was pretty outstanding for a $10 bottle. I don't get any bourbon notes. I think it is the oak that gives it a hint more robustness that sets it apart from your typical cheapo chardonnay.
@DrewsBrews said:
Oof, isn't that stuff traditionally freeze distilled? That method doesn't remove any methanol so it ends up concentrating more.. I hear the hangover from a night drinking it is legendary.. known as "apple-palsy".
"oof" is right , six pack will set you free but makes a guy mean . Wasnt a fan the next morning either...
Yeah regular fizzy cider is good. That's what I want to make (roughly typical beer abv). But they used to leave those barrels out in the barn in winter. Eventually some water in it would slowly gather and freeze. You pull the ice out and what are you left with? More concentrated alcohol. Probably concentrates the flavor too.
With standard heat distillation, methanol boiling point is 148.93 °F. Ethanol is 172.6 °F. So when heating up to a boil, the methanol comes out first. They learned you toss the first drippings since that's the crap that makes you go blind.
You don't have that opportunity with the freeze method. I'm not even sure on the legality of buying/selling freeze distilled spirits in the states. I've heard of BrewDog in Scotland freeze distilling some beer to crazy high abv levels.
I tried Pyrat Rum once. Stuff tasted like a combo of nail polish remover and envelope glue (which would be acetone and ester notes from what I read). Coke tones it down
I wouldn't be surprised if there are all sorts of trace volitiles that are made in fermentation. To what extent probably depends on the yeast strain used and conditions during the fermentation. Since we don't realy do anything to remove it from beer and wine we end up consuming it. Though it is usually so low concentration our bodies can usually handle it fine. It is when we start to concentrate it that it can become a problem.
So from what I hear, if you do get your hands on freeze distilled stuff. It is best to enjoy sparingly.. Have an ounce or so as a treat, then move on to something else... Or suffer the consequences.
Small update on the homebrew. I threw some in the fridge to sit for a while last week. I opened one up just now and has already sharpened up the flavor alot. It is probably one of those occasions when a good portion of the change happens relatively quick then more change takes longer and longer to happen.
I had some Carlo Rossi 4liter Sangria bottles saved. So today I decided to try a couple small batch experiments. So simple to do. I could get used to this.
Lalvin d-47. From quick research it seemed folks use it for both ciders and mead. So I just split the rehydrated packet between both. Though it may not have been the best option now that I look around some more..
@Kornbread said:
Don't get me wrong as the yeast do play an important part in the final taste, but IMHO, people stress way to much over those little buggers.
True I usually don't stress a bunch over the details since I can tolerate alot of different flavors and I more enjoy the experience. I pretty much never do the exact same recipe twice anyway so repeatability is off the bottom of my list.
Comments
I'll have to see if I can find that one.
Yep to what DrewsBrews said.
Had an occasional off ferment that tasted great. Also had fast ferments that hovered around 90* and had to keep the temps from going any higher.
Plastic may not be as sexy, bit it's fine for fermenting and doesn't break all of a sudden, and it really, really sux when that happens.
Yeast cake; ever saved and reused it?
Try a baby bottle brush on the end of a drill to thoroughly clean dirty beer bottles.
Saving perishable stuff for reuse? That sounds like work. Nah not tried it yet. I'd probably try dumping new wort on a used cake if I was doing multiple batches in succession to distil... Sour mash style.
Looks like I tossed my primary bottles to save space. Fortunately my backup bin of bottles was harder to get to and I must have gotten lazy (big surprise). Some still had labels. Sunday I made time to go about de-labeling. Ended up having to do a bunch of scrubbing. Wore me out enough I didn't want to continue with bottling.
I'd suggest find beer with labels that are lightly glued. Soak them with the cleaning solution in hot water. If you get lucky they will fall off themselves. If not, peel off what you can and scrub off the rest. Standard paper labels use a water soluble food safe glue. If you get bottles with plastic labels they use glue that would damn near require mineral spirits to get off... Or just leave em on.
At least the bottles can be reused indefinitely until they get damaged, so generally delabeling is a one and done thing. Until you decide you want to bottle more batches while you are still whittling down the previous batch/s
I didn't find any more caps in my stash so yesterday I made a run. They had some pretty sweet ones at Jungle Jim's.
Bottled this evening.
Boil a couple cups of water to dissolve the priming sugar into and let it sit to cool a bit. Get the sanitising solution going to soak your valves and tubing. Soak your bottles in the sanitising solution and rinse. Pour some in the bottling bucket to sanitise and rinse.
Then assemble your valve on the bottling bucket. Pour the priming sugar solution in then hook up the sanitised hose to the fermenter and drain into the bucket. I also added a cup and a half of bourbon since I'm shooting for a bourbon ale.
Bottling is a bit of a race to the finish trying to get done with minimal air exposure to prevent oxidation. So I didn't get pics of the process. I still use a basic double lever hand capper to crimp em on. Just fill to about 1-1.5" from the top so there is sufficient head space for the co2 to gather and prevent bottle bombs. During carbonization keep em in a plastic bin just in case one does decide to blow. A 5gal batch will yield roughly 50x 12oz bottles. I like to fill some 22oz ones too though.
In 2 weeks at room temperature they should be carbonated enough to chill and be drinkable as standard beer. I did try the beer straight out of the fermenter. Rather nutty. I probably should have just done all amber extract for what I was going for (instead of half red). But I'm not too worried. it will still be tasty, unique and BOLD. The amount of extract I used along with dumping in a half bottle of bourbon will probably put this stuff up towards 8% abv or more
and probably not much more than $1 per 12oz bottle.
[edit] Now that I think about it I thought I should add: I don't believe I've ever had a bottle explode. I've had some beer be a bit over-carbonated and would foam up and try to overflow the moment it hit the glass but that is the worst of it. As long as you don't overfill the bottles (1-1.5" head space), and be sure the priming sugar was well mixed, it should be pretty safe. The yeast get slowed down the higher the pressure gets. I'd bet incidents of bottles blowing were probably bottles that were already damaged or sufficiently flawed that they couldn't handle the typical pressures required to force carbonate the beer with this method.
I think the probability is pretty high that I'm the only one here who knows what Jungle Jim's is
Yeah I was fishing a bit... Got a bite though
Yesterday was such a gorgeous Midwestern spring day (finally) that the Mrs. and I decided to go for a drive. A nice long drive. We wound up with a fridge full of New Glarus bounty at the end of the day, along with a few other items. That tri-state Dubuque-Galena area really, uh...delivered. Cheers!
Love their Spotted Cow.
Spotted Cow has a very broad appeal and is really coveted here in Iowa. Moon Man No Coast Pale Ale is my fave. Some of their seasonals are really good as well. Being unavailable out-of-state adds to the allure.
Sunday I went over to Harrison OH. There is a liquor store right on the other side of the state line to Indiana.. as in I think the line runs down the street in front of the place. That is where I was able to get the Town Branch Bourbon. Got that specifically because it is the same distillery that makes Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale and I guess we can't get their bourbon here in OH, just the beer.
While we were there we decided to get some grub. Stopped at Market Street Grille. Saw they have Hofbrau Dunkel on tap. Will be going back for that. I don't think I've seen that on tap anywhere else but Hofbrauhaus.
Well. It's beer! I think I shot a bit past the mark and made it too bold. The malty punch of the red extract and floral notes of the flavoring hops seem to shout louder than the bourbon notes. It has that characteristic flabby young homebrew flavor that you may have experienced if you go to microbreweries (possibly due to alot of proteins still in suspension). It gets alot of chill haze too from that. A few months in the fridge should get those proteins to fall out; tightening up and defining the flavor better.. make it taste more like a commercial brew. Though for now, those proteins seem to give the head extra robustness. It stays there the whole time instead of disappearing 1/3 the way in.
Of course, in hindsight, I could have just added the whole bottle of bourbon to combat the other flavors. Which would really make the stuff "an event in a glass", but wouldn't be quite what I was going for. If/when I try this again. I think I'll omit the red extract and just do all amber. And tone down the end flavoring hops. Possibly reduce the bittering hops too as I think the bourbon added some bitterness itself. But maybe add a little more bourbon to really bring those flavors forward.
Talked a bit with the wife and next ferment may be a cider. A Cran-apple cider seemed to perk her interest. That should be even easier.. Just find juice without ascorbic acid (preservative that would kill the yeast), pour it in the fermenter, add yeast and the air lock. You are off to the races! From what I hear wine yeast can best preserve the fruit flavors throughout the ferment.
Have about 3 gallons of apple cider in the shop fridge. Someone called it Amish moonshine. It only takes a drink or two ..
Oof, isn't that stuff traditionally freeze distilled? That method doesn't remove any methanol so it ends up concentrating more.. I hear the hangover from a night drinking it is legendary.. known as "apple-palsy".
It may wind up as apple brandy.
Normally I'm more of a Pinot noir guy but last time Aldi had this stuff it was pretty outstanding for a $10 bottle. I don't get any bourbon notes. I think it is the oak that gives it a hint more robustness that sets it apart from your typical cheapo chardonnay.
"oof" is right , six pack will set you free but makes a guy mean . Wasnt a fan the next morning either...
Yeah regular fizzy cider is good. That's what I want to make (roughly typical beer abv). But they used to leave those barrels out in the barn in winter. Eventually some water in it would slowly gather and freeze. You pull the ice out and what are you left with? More concentrated alcohol. Probably concentrates the flavor too.
With standard heat distillation, methanol boiling point is 148.93 °F. Ethanol is 172.6 °F. So when heating up to a boil, the methanol comes out first. They learned you toss the first drippings since that's the crap that makes you go blind.
You don't have that opportunity with the freeze method. I'm not even sure on the legality of buying/selling freeze distilled spirits in the states. I've heard of BrewDog in Scotland freeze distilling some beer to crazy high abv levels.
IIRC, acetone comes off first. Either way, you can smell and taste it.
I tried Pyrat Rum once. Stuff tasted like a combo of nail polish remover and envelope glue (which would be acetone and ester notes from what I read). Coke tones it down
I wouldn't be surprised if there are all sorts of trace volitiles that are made in fermentation. To what extent probably depends on the yeast strain used and conditions during the fermentation. Since we don't realy do anything to remove it from beer and wine we end up consuming it. Though it is usually so low concentration our bodies can usually handle it fine. It is when we start to concentrate it that it can become a problem.
So from what I hear, if you do get your hands on freeze distilled stuff. It is best to enjoy sparingly.. Have an ounce or so as a treat, then move on to something else... Or suffer the consequences.
Better get a fruit punch with everclear...
Crappy video aside, this is very traditional in the state I grew up.
Small update on the homebrew. I threw some in the fridge to sit for a while last week. I opened one up just now and has already sharpened up the flavor alot. It is probably one of those occasions when a good portion of the change happens relatively quick then more change takes longer and longer to happen.
Same with concentrated spirits; relatively large changes at first, particularly the first week, then things slow down.
I had some Carlo Rossi 4liter Sangria bottles saved. So today I decided to try a couple small batch experiments. So simple to do. I could get used to this.
Which yeast?
Lalvin d-47. From quick research it seemed folks use it for both ciders and mead. So I just split the rehydrated packet between both. Though it may not have been the best option now that I look around some more..
Some local porter.
Don't get me wrong as the yeast do play an important part in the final taste, but IMHO, people stress way to much over those little buggers.
True I usually don't stress a bunch over the details since I can tolerate alot of different flavors and I more enjoy the experience. I pretty much never do the exact same recipe twice anyway so repeatability is off the bottom of my list.
Another town, another local brew.
Let us get prehispanic, pulque, a fermented agave juice. One au natural, one day with mango.