Homebrewing

[Jeebas]

So I just got an e-mail from Construction Junction and they advertised the Millvale Brew fest.  So, my fear is that all the hipsters that get the CJ email will think, "hey, that's cheap, I should go to that one, too" and they'll sell out.  So, I'd like to procure my ticket sooner rather that sold out.  Does anyone else want to go.  And what is the session preference?

We're heading up to T-Vegas for The Oil Festival this weekend which includes this - http://beeradvocate.com/events/info/33110. There's not a whole lot of info available online. Very curious to see what regional breweries are in attendance.

[Jeebas]

In homebrewing related news - I'm just about to order ingredients for my next few batches - I just brewed some Graff (http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f81/graff-malty-slightly-hopped-cider-117117/) Friday night, and I have a Sweet Orange Stout, Porter (kind of an Edmund Fitzgerald clone) and a Tripel planned out. Those should keep me busy til at least mid November.

I'm planning on making the jump to all grain next year. Sean - the next time you brew up a batch, let me know - it'd be good to see the AG process firsthand before taking a stab at it myself.

[Shoval Manuts]

To be honest, I did a partial mash setup for the two beers for the wedding, and it was so much easier to manage as well as clean up.  I doubt I'll do an AG anytime soon.  I actually need to make a batch of wine soon - mine has seemed to disappear pretty quickly.  Hmmmmmm....

[Jeebas]

By partial mash do you mean just steeping specialty grains (and then using DME or LME), or actually mashing / lautering / sparging some amount of base malt (and then using a smaller amount of extract)?

[Shoval Manuts]

I mash and sparge the speciality grains but in lesser amounts.  I make up for lack of grain by using more extracts (LME, DME, honey, brown sugar, rice solids, etc).  That worked pretty well and the cost is slightly more, but worth it for ease of the boil.

[Jeebas]

To be honest, I did a partial mash setup for the two beers for the wedding, and it was so much easier to manage as well as clean up.  I doubt I'll do an AG anytime soon.  I actually need to make a batch of wine soon - mine has seemed to disappear pretty quickly.  Hmmmmmm....

On a kinda related wine note - have you ever tried this - http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f81/edworts-apfelwein-33986/ It seems pretty damn easy to make. I might do this after I get my carboy cleared from the batches I'm doing this fall

[Jeebas]

I mash and sparge the speciality grains but in lesser amounts.  I make up for lack of grain by using more extracts (LME, DME, honey, brown sugar, rice solids, etc).  That worked pretty well and the cost is slightly more, but worth it for ease of the boil.

Yeah I'm still only at the point of steeping a small amount (1-2 lbs) of specialty grains and using 6-8 lbs of DME. DME is pretty cheap from RebelBrewer.com - only $3.10 per lb.

After some further review I'm not convinced of a great price advantage by doing All Grain. Going by the formula I've read in a few places - 1 lb grain = .75 lb LME = .6 lb DME - If you're doing a recipe that calls for 14 lbs of base malt - that's 14 * $1.49 (avg price per lb for most base malts that I found on RebelBrewer.com) that's $20.86. Converting that to DME - 14 * .6 = 8.4 lbs of DME @ 3.10 per lb = $26.04. Sure it's $6 but I just thought the price differential would be greater. I'm not arguing that there's not ultimately much more control over the end result of the beer going All Grain, I just thought it significantly reduced the cost. Unless there's some place to get grain for cheaper than $1.49 that I don't know about.

Oh well, my batches have been running me anywhere between $28 and $47 (some are a little cheaper because I have grain / hops that is shared between two recipes - i.e. you can't but specialty grain in smaller than 1 lb increments or hops in smaller than 1 oz increments, and some recipes only call for 8oz of a grain or 0.5 oz of a hop) and that's still at worst ($47 per batch and only getting 48 bottles from the batch) only about $1 per beer, and much cheaper than buying two cases of microbrew ($60+)

I like this hobby

[Jeebas]

Sean - is there any reference online to that brewery that Dennis is starting? I lost the pamphlet I got at Jon and D's wedding and I'd love to know how things are progressing with that brewing. Is he planning on distributing / selling beer anytime soon?

[Shoval Manuts]

News is coming soon - they are still perfecting the recipes.  The website is purchased, but no info up as of right now. 

www.draailaag.com

[newefezziwig]

World's oldest chilled beer.  Wonder if that cork stayed on tight for 200 years
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/09/03/baltic.sea.beer/index.html?hpt=T2

[pnickers]

It says the yeast culture is still living in the beer, so it should be potable. 

[Shoval Manuts]

It says the yeast culture is still living in the beer, so it should be potable. 

Now, that could be interesting...  a 200 year old yeast strain.  Dogfish Head makes Midas Touch, which supposedly follows some 2000 year old recipe for beer.  So, maybe they'll try and get a bottle to make a 200 year old sea bottom clone?

[pnickers]

20,000 leagues under the table? 

[homesystem]

Where you'll end up in Davey Jones' Gutter.

[Shoval Manuts]

And then you grab your wench and "batten the hatches"

[roxy]

This is an interesting read:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100924/od_nm/us_belgium_beer_odd


"We made several tests and noticed that the fermentation was more vigorous, more active," explained Roger Caulier, the owner of Brewery Caulier, which began in the 1930s when his grandfather started selling homemade beer from a handcart.

"Many farmers are convinced that the moon influences the quality of some of their products," he said.

"You can feel agitated on full moons, you have births, you get many myths around the full moon and I think there is some truth behind them."

[Bull]

He left out the part about how it affects the shedding/cleansing of the uterus.

[Jeebas]

This is an interesting read:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100924/od_nm/us_belgium_beer_odd


"We made several tests and noticed that the fermentation was more vigorous, more active," explained Roger Caulier, the owner of Brewery Caulier, which began in the 1930s when his grandfather started selling homemade beer from a handcart.

"Many farmers are convinced that the moon influences the quality of some of their products," he said.

"You can feel agitated on full moons, you have births, you get many myths around the full moon and I think there is some truth behind them."

Huh curious... From what I have read, it is true that light can have an (albeit negative) effect on fermentation. But I thought that any effect the light had on a beer was taken in during fermentation, not during brewing. I'd be curious to know how they brewed it, as most brewing facilities use opaque vessels for brewing (rather than something transparent like glass) so any light intake would be negligible anyways.

There is an argument to be made that since the moon affects the tides, and beer has water and yeast cells which contain water that it would be affected as well...  but really (while neat) this sounds like a bunch of marketing hoopla to me.

[roxy]

Nick, I don't undestand why you're talking about light.

[Jeebas]

Nick, I don't undestand why you're talking about light.

Yeah I think I got carried away on the light angle because I saw "by the light of the moon" or something in that article... The gravitational pull aspect of it is more relevant.... I just went off on a tangent as I normally do...

[Jeebas]

http://pittsburgh.craigslist.org/for/1980760316.html

Looks like a decent deal for all that stuff for $1500 - I would never drop $1500 in one fell swoop on this stuff though.

[Nye]

Nick, I don't undestand why you're talking about light.

Yeah I think I got carried away on the light angle because I saw "by the light of the moon" or something in that article... The gravitational pull aspect of it is more relevant.... I just went off on a tangent as I normally do...

I'm not disagreeing that weird shit happens during a full moon, which it clearly does, everything from crime rates increasing to all the things mentioned above, but the fact remains that the gravitational pull of the moon does not change depending on the phase.  So it can't be that.

[Jeebas]

I'm not disagreeing that weird shit happens during a full moon, which it clearly does, everything from crime rates increasing to all the things mentioned above, but the fact remains that the gravitational pull of the moon does not change depending on the phase.  So it can't be that.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tides

Huh you're right... It's not affected by the phase but the proximity of the moon based on the Earth's rotation

[Nye]

I'm not disagreeing that weird shit happens during a full moon, which it clearly does, everything from crime rates increasing to all the things mentioned above, but the fact remains that the gravitational pull of the moon does not change depending on the phase.  So it can't be that.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tides

Huh you're right... It's not affected by the phase but the proximity of the moon based on the Earth's rotation

Yeah, the moon does not fluctuate in it's proximity.  It actually only gets closer by minute amounts every year as gravity draws it inward.  A full moon causing people and animals to get crunk is a scientific mystery.  Perhaps it's the fact that it's brighter outside, just raises the amount of general activity and being night time certain inhibitions are lowered.  Either that or astrology is real?!  Or something else we don't know about.

[Gregor]

All I know is that, in the beginning: I decided that I'd tell you when you were older.

[Bull]

Speaking of hombrew I was going to try to make this stuff sean sent me but I'm not sure if the puportions are correct. 2 gallons for 1 litre of booze? Then again it is strong stuff.

1 gallon apple juice
1 gallon cups apple cider
4 cups sugar
1 container cinnamon sticks - actual sticks.

Boil the juice and sticks (covered), once it's a rolling boil mix in the sugar.  Remove from heat, let cool - with the lid on!!!  So as not to lose any of the fluid I presume.

Add 1 liter Everclear, or anything 90% or higher.

[$1.50]

You gotta go the WV to get everclear.

[Bull]

Nope I already have two big mason jars of moonshine.

[Jeebas]

Speaking of hombrew I was going to try to make this stuff sean sent me but I'm not sure if the puportions are correct. 2 gallons for 1 litre of booze? Then again it is strong stuff.

1 gallon apple juice
1 gallon cups apple cider
4 cups sugar
1 container cinnamon sticks - actual sticks.

Boil the juice and sticks (covered), once it's a rolling boil mix in the sugar.  Remove from heat, let cool - with the lid on!!!  So as not to lose any of the fluid I presume.

Add 1 liter Everclear, or anything 90% or higher.

so does it ferment at all? or do you just boil the stuff, cool it and then add it to the everclear?

Lid on or off during cooling isn't gonna affect any liquid loss, maybe just flavor/aroma retention...?

In other Homebrewing news - we've decided what we're gonna do with the addition (above the carport) finally - we're gonna turn it into a (albeit very small) brewhouse. Looking at materials now for redoing the subflooring and adding tile... And all of the all-grain brewing equipment, I think we might put in a pub style table on the one wall as well. I dunno though, we still have to do measurements and see what can reasonably fit in there

[Nye]

My eyes went slightly out of focus on the page with the list of threads and I thought this one was called "Hebrewing".