Well thank you for the information so far. Tomorrow I'm going to try it. I bought the extract kit tonight. It's suppose to resemble a local brewery. We will see.
How do you guys chill your wort? I'll be using the water and ice today. But do you use the coiled copper wort chiller? I'm thinking I'll enjoy it like I do my canning. But I want to get myself situated for the down the road.
Great thread! Been wanting to do this, too. My step-son is really into it and has made some great brews. I grew hops last summer (Cascade & Mt. Hood) and harvested enough for a few batches. I was planning on growing on a larger scale but my soil isn't quite right yet. I'll watch this thread, maybe will get motivated to start brewing.
I recently bought an immersion chiller and it's awesome!! Pumping my well water through it will take a 5 gallon batch from boiling to 70F in about a half hour. I got the stainless model because it was cheaper.
Just picked up some Chocolate Porter this week. Going to start it tomorrow. Boy oh boy.... This stuff is fun...can't wait til I get to try it....already looking for additions down the road...
Here's a couple of brews I just brought up from the cool basement to rest overnight before bottling tomorrow. On the left is a 5 gallon batch of a Spotted Cow clone and the little guy is a one gallon honey pilsner. I have two cases of an Anchor Steam type beer bottle conditioning now and a 5 gallon batch of Kolsch in the fermenter. Yep it's time for summertime beers!!
Here's the result of yet another wild hair idea. I made this wine out of Welch's Raspberry Grape concentrate. It took about 3 months and it came out super dry and wicked strong. I back sweetened it and finally bottled last weekend. It turned out pretty good! We've only had a small sample as you can see from the partial bottle. It's "maturing" in the cool basement now. I have no idea if it'll get better or worse or even change at all. My goal was for something in between Mad a Dog 20/20 and Boones Farm.
4/13/14 @ 2:30 -Just finished up getting my Chocolate Porter put in the Carboy.... Wow, the aroma in the house, if it's anything like the smell. It should be a delightful heavy drink. Update: I guess it originally didn't get posted. But this pic is about 12 hrs later. I did the 6.5 gallon Carboy, so I could watch its progress. Got under a heavy blanket to help with the temperature control.
Mmm.....looking good!!! What was starting gravity of that brew and what do you expect it to finish at?
I had a reading of about 1.048 ( it was suppose to be 1.042-1.045). Not sure what it was suppose to end with, I'll look tonight.
Well lastnight I went ahead and opened up the first bucket to take a look and pull the specific gravity. When I opened it...it actually smelled like beer!!!... So I went ahead and pulled the liquid from it..... It looked like beer........ It looks like 1.017-18 just a little higher than what it's suppose to finish with. So things are looking good. I decided to taste test that sample... It tasted like beer!! Any words of wisdom or tips?
Yes....be patient!!! It's tough but it's worth it. The more you open it, the more you risk contamination. Personally, I wouldn't even touch it for at least two weeks. I leave mine for three or four. Ultimately, terminal gravity is the only ay to know when fermentation is complete. I would leave it alone for a couple of weeks then check gravity. Wait two days and if you get the same reading, it's terminal....done...finished. It doesn't hurt to let it mature longer, though as long as it's sealed up and you're not risking contamination. I had a cream ale a while back that was terminal in a week but tasted like chit. I left in primary for two more weeks and bottled. It still wasn't anything to be proud of but I figured I had just screwed something up. After 3 weeks in the bottle it improved but was still just so so. After another two weeks it was WOW good....my best brew yet. No I don't totally understand it, but it's just how it works sometimes. So be patient....you're making beer for sure but start planning you're next one and forget about this one for a while. You'll be glad you did.
Well just got done bottle my first batch, KC Wheat. I ended up with 43 bottles. They are resting for a couple 2 or 3 weeks. Just starting my next batch. It's a Honey Wheat. It's been raining most of the day on/off. So might as well do something in the house....
Bottled 2.5 cases of a Kolsch and 2.5 cases of a brown ale called "Naughty Brewnette" today. We brewed two more batches and poured them on the yeast cakes from the bottled batches. One is a hoppy wheat IPA the other an English Bitter but extra hoppy. These were my first "big" beers with OG over 1.070 and the first time pitching onto a yeast cake. It should make for an interesting experiment at least.
I brewed a batch of rocky top IPA that I got from the new brewing supply that opened near us. I still have about 3.5 weeks to go
I hope you have a big blow hose on that. You can get a Mt St Helens like eruption with that much healthy yeast. And it happens fast.
