Everything Homebrew!

Hi guys. Sorry I've been away from this thread for so long. Catching up on the posts now.

I'm glad to see discussion of seasonal/spiced brews. I'm interested in doing one in a couple of weeks but I'm not exactly sure what kind

Question - do ya'll add the flavoring (spices/fruits) when steeping your grains or when you rack or when exactly?

Originally posted by The Sword
reply to post by palg1

 

I'm trying to find a time that will work for my friends. Right now, June seems unlikely but there are possibilities.

A friend and I were talking years about about a "Brewstock" type of thing where people get together to brew all day and listen to great music..with beer sharing and camping.

I still think that could happen one day for real. It's a concept that might seem problematic at first (drinking, rowdy music fans) but with the right amount of planning and coordination, can succeed.

That's exactly what we do... No problems so far, as typically the serious home brewer has a little more self control.

The weekend was well attended and the local grainery even supplied the gathering with the base malts, for free.

Here is my latest brew that I made. It is a simple amber/golden ale a little on the lighter side and a smooth easy drinker.

8lbs 2 row brewers malt
1lb Cara Pils malt
.5lb Caramel 10l malt
.5lb Vienna malt
.25lb Honey malt

1/2 oz each Citra and Centennial hops

Mash at 150F for 60 minutes, and Boil time is 60 minutes.

Hop boil times:

.25oz Citra 60 min
.25oz Centennial 45 min
.25oz Citra 30 min
.25oz Centennial 15 min

You can use whatever your favorite hops are in place of either or both. I have also brewed this before adding an extra 1/4oz to each boil time for a little extra hop kick. This is an easy drinker that is good to have around for when company comes over. Great replacement craft brew for the guys who love Bud, Coors, or Miller.

reply to post by Druid42


I have only been brewing for a couple of years now, but it seems like a lot longer. I was immediately sucked into home brewing when I first tried a kit, and it was all down hill from there. I started out with a basic equipment kit and ingredients kit. I immediately adapted to all grain brewing, and now I have more carboys and fermenters than I can keep track of half the time.

reply to post by SpaDe_


Thanks for the recipe. I might try that as I'm not into the heavily hop'd/ABV'd/IPA-styles that are so common nowadays. Give me a good old-fashioned German lager anyday

Originally posted by Druid42
reply to post by palg1

 

K, thanks, and much appreciated!

Prolly do a batch this weekend.....

I appolgize for the late reply. I finally got a hold of my buddies. Unfortunetely they could only say that the recipe they use the got on line and didn't save the link or the name of the location.

Good luck with your brewin', and hope that last batch worked out for you.

Aussie homebrewer nice thread guys. Im working my way to partials then full grains, want to make sure im liking everything Im brewing b4 im moving to the next level. I will b trying a partial on my next brew when I keg my corona style beer, let ya know what I come up with.

reply to post by ITSALLGOOD


It's good to see fellow homebrewer's joining in.

I'm finishing a 10 pound mead, but my gravity reading keeps dropping and dropping. I've made a Cyser and Pyment this year, so this batch is just plain mead. My Cyser was made with 13 pounds of honey, and was deliciously devastating, about 9% ABV. I'm hoping this one will be a bit milder, in the 6-7% range. Waiting on my FG reading...

Just finished bottling my pumpkin ale. The OG was 1.082. The FG is 1.012. This gives it an ABV of 9.2%. I had a little taste and it is absolutely delicious.

Great work keep it up..

Sanjeev Kapoor Recipes

Pre-hurricane Chocolate Cherry Oatmeal Stout
We brewed about a week and a half ago. The chocolate we used was 16oz of Hershey's special dark. When added, we kept stirring to dissolve the chocolate in the wort. The sparge bag caught most of the undissolved chocolate. I suspect the chocolate had an emulsifier of sorts because racking primary to secondary we encountered sludge in the last gallon. The cherry we used was a half gallon of puree. The cherry flavor hasn't surfaced yet, we may have to add some cherry concentrate before kegging. The overall flavor at this point is roasted barley up front and chocolate finish. The oatmeal may be too subtle at this time to pick up.
I don't have the gravity numbers here. The notes are at my neighbors with the beer.

I'm making a 1 gallon batch of hard cider right now. Simple recipe: cider and yeast. Not sure if I want to carbonate it or not though, but will back sweeten it.

I'm going to be doing some home made root beer. All from scratch. Turns out I'm surrounded by Sassafras here on my 10 acres. I thought they were just oak saplings, hehehe.

I pulled a bunch this weekend, cleaned the roots, chopped them up and simmered them in water with the leaves for about 20 minutes , added some sugar and served it over ice. Everyone in the family loved it and said it was "Root Beer" flavored ice tea.

I too have a sassafras tree. I've often used the leaves in cooking and wanted to use the root forever, but never attempted it. The fear out there is liver damage in using real sassafras root. This is why the soda companies use substitute flavoring. This is what I've read at least. I suspect the use would have to be enormous to affect such damage. If you get a rootbeer recipe that is yeast free, I'd be open to use it. The yeast recipe I used (as mentioned before) did not go over so well.

Originally posted by shadow watcher
I too have a sassafras tree. I've often used the leaves in cooking and wanted to use the root forever, but never attempted it. The fear out there is liver damage in using real sassafras root. This is why the soda companies use substitute flavoring. This is what I've read at least. I suspect the use would have to be enormous to affect such damage. If you get a rootbeer recipe that is yeast free, I'd be open to use it. The yeast recipe I used (as mentioned before) did not go over so well.

Your suspicions are correct. You would have to consume a massive amount of root beer to be in any danger. It works out that you'd have to drink something like 32 12 ounce bottles of it every day for like a year or 2. The FDA banned it's use in mass produced beverages like Root Beer:

The roots of sassafras can be steeped to make tea, and were used in the flavoring of traditional root beer until being banned for mass production by the FDA. Laboratory animals that were given oral doses of sassafras tea or sassafras oil that contained large doses of safrole developed permanent liver damage or various types of cancer. In humans, liver damage can take years to develop and it may not have obvious signs. Along with commercially available sarsaparilla, sassafras remains an ingredient in use among hobby or microbrew enthusiasts. In 1960, the FDA banned the use of sassafras oil and safrole in commercially mass-produced foods and drugs based on the animal studies and human case reports.[11] Several years later, sassafras tea was banned,[11] a ban that lasted until the passage of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act in 1994.[12] Sassafras root extracts which do not contain safrole or in which the safrole has been removed are permissible, and are still widely used commercially in teas and root beers. Sassafras tea can also be used as an anticoagulant.[citation needed]

Sassafras

The oil that can cause the damage Safrole, can be also found in things like: cinnamon, nutmeg, black pepper and herbs such as basil.

Later studies done in the late 70's found results a bit different in the urine from rodents fed the oil as compared to humans.

To me it's just the same thing: all things in moderation. I'm not about to consume 32 12 ounce bottles of home made root beer a day! hehehehe.

Oh! You can purchase Sassafras oil extract that has had the Safrole oil removed from it (and the FDA has approved that for use in commercially made products), and you can use that to make home made root beer, but kind of takes the fun out of making it from scratch.

Just keep in mind that most recipes for root beer require other spices like cinnamon, and they also have Safrole in it too.

Success!

I made a Root Beer extract with sassafras!

I cheated to make a single glass for tasting by using a 2:1 ratio of Soda Water: Homemade Root Beer extract. The rest I'll naturally carbonate with yeast (takes 2 to 3 days).

But my wife just went bananas over it, saying it tasted better than any store bought root beer she's ever had.

Day 4 for the hard cider, gurgling away. since it's just a 1 gallon batch, I have it sitting here on my computer desk with me, watching it bubble away.

Well I just started my first mead today. Basically used this receipe: Joe's Ancient Orange Mead except I'm making a 2 gallon batch.

I'm using:
5lbs Sue Bee clover honey
2 gallons water
1 orange
1 cup of raisins
Pinch of ground cinnamon
Red Star active dry baking yeast (I know it's not brewing yeast but it was cheap when I was shopping)

I've only brewed once before, a Mr. Beer homebrew Pale Ale kit. The beer wasn't that great but coming from a guy who loves Bud Light, my opinion probably doesn't mean much

I decided to try it for a few reasons. First is mead is the oldest known alcoholic beverage known to man. Second because of all the mead in my Viking heritage. And finally, because mead seems to be the easiest/most forgiving brewing compared to wine/beer.

Anybody else ever made mead? I tried a friends once and it wasn't bad at all, but from what I've read online, the longer it ages the better it tastes. I've read anywhere from 3 months - a year before it's ready to drink.

I made mead once about twenty years ago. It aged for 12 months, but I fear that it somehow became contaminated and had an off flavor. I was pretty bummed about the anti-climatic tasting. I was in the zone brewing beer. I was making more than the legal limit and was pretty shaken to see the mead go bust. Just goes to show, you can take all of the precautions, and still have something screw your batch up.

I wish you all the luck in your batch.

reply to post by thov420


Mead maker reporting in. I am an apiarist, and this year's fall harvest left us with 220 pounds of honey. In other words, I raise bees, and extract honey, and make mead as a hobby.

Let's set a few terms into place:

You are making what is called a metheglin, a spiced mead. The other varieties are melomel, with fruit such as raspberry or strawberry, pyment, which is mead with grape juice, and cyser, which is apple flavored.

I usually make 5 gallon batches of mead, and "weight" them accordingly. A 5 gallon batch with 10 pounds of honey yields a 6-7% ABV. A 5 gallon batch with 13 pounds of honey yields 9-13% ABV.

A thirteen pound mead is toe splitting. It erases your memory. My last brew was a metheglin, spiced with pumpkin for Halloween, and was delicious, but 5 glasses later my current wife hated me for some reason.



A 7 pound mead will yield 3-5% ABV. This is safe for married folks.

To make mead:

Add 2 gallons water to brew pot, and honey, bring to 160 degrees Fahrenheit. Hold at 160 for 30 minutes to pasteurize. The amount of honey you add depends on the "weight" of your mead, and what adjuncts you add determines the final product. Add your adjuncts to determine your style of mead. Berries can be a frozen tube, same as grapes or apple juice concentrate. It'll help to cool your mead if it's in the frozen state. Stir.

Cool to 115 F, pitch dry yeast. I usually culture first, but honestly, you can pitch it directly. There is so much natural sugar in there that you needn't worry. I use normal Baker's Yeast, the stuff you get for $1.59 for a three pack in the local grocery store.

Add a fermentation lock.

Wait 1 month. Do not transfer to secondary after 2 weeks. Your gravity reading drops, and drops, and drops in the primary, and there is no benefit to rack to a secondary, other than disturbing the yeast culture. There is next to no sediment, other than the adjuncts, but you want them to settle, so don't rack.

Take a gravity reading so you know fermentation is done. I've wound up with readings at 1.000. (15% ABV from OG readings.)

Prime bottles, fill, chill, and enjoy.

IMO, a Cyser is better than a Pyment, and a Metheglin will make your wife divorce you.

There is a reason why they call mead the nectar of the gods. Ambrosia. Why?

It's because your balls swell up really big, and you figure you are a real man. Only gods can drink that stuff.

Normal people suffer marital strife.



All joking aside, I'll answer your mead questions. Hope I was able to point you in the right direction.

reply to post by Druid42


Well I always appreciate knowledge from someone more experienced than me. Like I said, this is only my second attempt at brewing ever. I'd like to make a run at distilling my own vodka too sometime.

I read up on mead making for a while before I started this batch. Some said you need to boil the must(water and honey) and skim off the crap that floats to the top when using farmer's market honey, while others said with store bought honey it should already be filtered and pasteurized so you only need to boil the water and add the honey afterwards which is what I did. I also cultured my yeast before adding it just to help give them an edge over any contaminants that may have gotten through. It seems like there's almost as many opinions/best methods as there are people willing to share what they know.

Technically, wouldn't what I'm making be considered melomel since I'm using an orange and raisins(dried grapes) as flavorings?

ETA: Actually I think the raisins are to add tannin? moreso than for flavor. IDK lol