Home Brewing

[alreadyexists]

25 minutes ago, bickster said:

A mate of mine started making beer at home from a birthday present from his missus, 6 months later, he quit his job and started a brewery. Still going a good number of years later

Sometimes you just have to go for it

It’s stories like this that make me want to just go for it… 

[alreadyexists]

1 minute ago, fightoffyour said:

Looks good! It's all about the haze.

What's your setup? I've been brewing for almost 2 years now.

Made about 12 beers (20 L each) so far, all been drank (apart from what's currently in kegs), none been sinked!

1 imperial stout 12% (coffee, vanilla, cacao) and the rest increasingly strong NEIPAs.

Getting better and better as well which is good, better than a lot of Polish craft IPAs dare I say it.

Ah amazing, sounds like you’re doing very well. I’ve got an all grain set up (grainfather) and 3 fermentation bins, usually only using them one at a time but I have racked to a secondary for particularly clear beers (a lager for example).

I usually bottle, as I’ve had mixed results kegging. So I batch carbonate and then bottle, then keep warm for 2-3 weeks then fridge and drink (depending on the beer type obviously).

What yeast did you use for the imperial stout? It must have been incredibly tolerant to the alcohol. I’ve heard of people using champagne yeast for higher abv ales.

[alreadyexists]

42 minutes ago, LondonLax said:

What do you do to prevent oxidation? 

I batch prime the full lot and then bottle, so the remaining yeast metabolises the oxygen and additional priming sugar to create the CO2 which then remains in solution in the beer (carbonated beer) and prevents oxidation.

[fightoffyour]

3 minutes ago, alreadyexists said:

Ah amazing, sounds like you’re doing very well. I’ve got an all grain set up (grainfather) and 3 fermentation bins, usually only using them one at a time but I have racked to a secondary for particularly clear beers (a lager for example).

I usually bottle, as I’ve had mixed results kegging. So I batch carbonate and then bottle, then keep warm for 2-3 weeks then fridge and drink (depending on the beer type obviously).

What yeast did you use for the imperial stout? It must have been incredibly tolerant to the alcohol. I’ve heard of people using champagne yeast for higher abv ales.

I've got a Grainfather (G30) too, great piece of kit, Grainfather conical fermenter too, 3 x 19L corny kegs and a kegerator.

I'm pressure transferring to the keg and force carbonating, which answers

45 minutes ago, LondonLax said:

What do you do to prevent oxidation? 

Also using magnets to dry hop in the primary without opening it up.

Lallemand Verdant yeast is the gold standard for NEIPAs, and I'd suggest it for your Hazy Pale too (not that you asked).

Imperial stout was SafAle US-05, took 4 packets for the batch though (20L boiled down to about 12L).

 

I've got a little brewery page for fun https://www.facebook.com/11m2brewery

And Untappd https://untappd.com/11m2

 

[alreadyexists]

Just now, fightoffyour said:

I've got a Grainfather (G30) too, great piece of kit, Grainfather conical fermenter too, 3 x 19L corny kegs and a kegerator.

I'm pressure transferring to the keg and force carbonating, which answers

Also using magnets to dry hop in the primary without opening it up.

Lallemand Verdant yeast is the gold standard for NEIPAs, and I'd suggest it for your Hazy Pale too (not that you asked).

Imperial stout was SafAle US-05, took 4 packets for the batch though (20L boiled down to about 12L).

 

I've got a little brewery page for fun https://www.facebook.com/11m2brewery

And Untappd https://untappd.com/11m2

 

 

[VILLAMARV]

Been collecting apples and making cider for a few years now since we moved back to the hills. And not even because cider is my go to tipple, but because lots of apples around rotting on the floor at various places. Friend of ours has a press and showed us how he did it after he'd shared some and we realised his crystal clear, sparkling dry cider was nothing like barnyard scrumpy at all. it's labour intensive I suppose but very rewarding.

We cracked open the first bottles of 2022 batch at easter which has become a little tradition. We make a few demi-johns of still to drink over xmas. Goes nice with xmas ham. Ridiculously simple process really and if anyone has a bit of space to store the stuff I'd definitely recommend giving it a go. I mean, if I can do it....

[alreadyexists]

Just now, VILLAMARV said:

Been collecting apples and making cider for a few years now since we moved back to the hills. And not even because cider is my go to tipple, but because lots of apples around rotting on the floor at various places. Friend of ours has a press and showed us how he did it after he'd shared some and we realised his crystal clear, sparkling dry cider was nothing like barnyard scrumpy at all. it's labour intensive I suppose but very rewarding.

We cracked open the first bottles of 2022 batch at easter which has become a little tradition. We make a few demi-johns of still to drink over xmas. Goes nice with xmas ham. Ridiculously simple process really and if anyone has a bit of space to store the stuff I'd definitely recommend giving it a go. I mean, if I can do it....

Do you add yeast or is it the wild yeast off the apples?

[VILLAMARV]

we do add yeast, and we add more sugar after it's stopped working to make it a bit stronger, and then add the sugar at the bottling stage to add the sparkle.

Purely as our mentor did it that way (the yeast) and he said it just guarantees getting it going.

I do have another friend who makes traditional cider - no yeast or sugar added and it's lovely and refreshing but not hugely alcoholic.

 

[il_serpente]

I first started brewing in 1985.   I gradually moved from using malt extract and hop pellets to eventually doing all grain and leaf hops, but had to quit a number of years ago when I moved into an apartment that didn't have enough space and never picked it back up.l

Cleanliness and sanitation are key.  I always had challenges trying avoid slight fruity off-flavors, which I attributed to bacterial contamination.   For that reason, I tended to brew American style brown ales, as the fuller flavor and generous hopping wouldn't allow any off flavors to come through.   Lagers were always the most challenging because of the need to keep the fermentation within a cooler temperature range and the lighter flavor is more easily corrupted.

I had pretty good luck avoiding problems with oxidation.   As long as I made sure the fermentation was really complete before bottling, I had no problem with the beer keeping for 1-2 months.   Bottling is a pain, and another opportunity for contamination.  By the end, I was only brewing for a big homebrew party that some friends host annually, so it didn't make sense to put it into bottles.  I never had a kegging system, but had decent success with the Party Pig:

You fill it and drop in a bladder that I assume has vinegar and a tube filled with baking soda or something similar that you activate with pressure.  As you open the valve to draw off the beer the bladder expands to push it out and fills the void so no air gets in, while keeping it pressurized enough to maintain cabonation.   I'd get about a month out of it before the beer would either go flat or go off.

I'm retiring later this year and this thread is making me think that maybe I should start brewing again.

[sidcow]

2 hours ago, alreadyexists said:

I’ve been home brewing for about 9 years now, and this is my latest hazy pale ale… and it’s the best I’ve done. 

Maybe someday I’ll be able to quit my job and start my microbrewery… it’s been my dream for years now!

That's EXACTLY what my Dad's home brew used to look like. 

He was making Best Bitter though, not Hazy Pale Ale. 

[fightoffyour]

Trying to brew a TIPA, hit 7% ABV already after 72 hours. Lallemand Verdant yeast just rips through it.

[fightoffyour]

On 04/05/2023 at 21:35, fightoffyour said:

Trying to brew a TIPA, hit 7% ABV already after 72 hours. Lallemand Verdant yeast just rips through it.

And then it stopped. Hit maybe 8%. Great body, not happy with the hops but then I didn't have a great deal of choice. Taken to ordering a load of Sabro and Talus from Czechia for the next one since I couldn't get them here.

[LondonLax]

1 hour ago, fightoffyour said:

And then it stopped. Hit maybe 8%. Great body, not happy with the hops but then I didn't have a great deal of choice. Taken to ordering a load of Sabro and Talus from Czechia for the next one since I couldn't get them here.

I think simple sugar or Belgian candy syrup will help boost AVB without stressing the yeast too much. Also if you’re looking to go real big you could try pitching a second yeast, a Belgian one or even a wine yeast perhaps? You might also have trouble bottling conditioning such a big beer as well. Most yeast don’t do well with so much alcohol.

[VILLAMARV]

First batch of cider pressed last weekend and is now bubbling away nicely.

we changed up the logistics a bit this year - in the past we've scrumped as many apples a s we could find and stored them until it was time.

In order to try and cut down on rotting apples in the pile and making the whole process of cleaning/checking them a bit easier and less time consuming we thought we'd try collecting them the day before we wanted to press them and we've cut the production time almost in half. In short it seems they're much juicier and as such where it would take us about 4 hours to press a whole container load (somewhere between 5.5gallons and 6.5 gallons), we'd filled it in about 2.5 last weekend. With the bits left over we've filled some demi johns and that will be the xmas still cider.

My friend who sadly passed away earlier this year who had 6 trees out the back of his place always tried to get me to try grafting different varieties onto trees. I took a load of cuttings off his Fuji tree the other day. I'm going to try grafting them onto various trees of different varieties and sizes. The fuji apples off that tree were/are particularly lovely.

[VILLAMARV]

The bottom shelf in the cider cupboard (a load of bottles of one of last years batches of sparkling cider) has the nicest cider We've ever made on it. I think it was heavy on the aforementioned Fuji Apples. A natural aweetness survived the yeast and we've made a Medium Dry thing of wonder.

[fightoffyour]

Canadian maple syrup imperial stout 10.7% ABV