The Official Home Brew Thread

[mmmbeans]

had my first red ale last night... only a week and a half into bottling... still a little young but pretty damn good. Gonna give it a week till i drink my next...probably.

[Kettle]

what did you use for carbonation? Cooper's drops are the fastest.

[mmmbeans]

i use a 5 gallon pot and i do it on my stove... no idea how much gas i'm using but i know a lot of brew stores sell high efficiency burners.

[mmmbeans]

what did you use for carbonation? Cooper's drops are the fastest.

just sugar, it's carbonating fine but the flavors are taking a while to combine completely.

got a dead guy clone in my secondary now and a hard cider in my primary...

[Kettle]

i used sugar the last time, and it took 3 weeks for full carbonation. coopers drops only take 4 to 7 days.

[mmmbeans]

mine was carbonated fine when i tried it last night but i don't think the c02 had completely reabsorbed into the beer (spat a little when i opened it.) it was a hell of a lot smoother than it was when i bottled it though.

[thefuzz]

I am planning on getting into a couple of mine this upcoming Monday or Tuesday. That would have been about 11 days or so.

Hopefully that will be enough.

IPA is up next for me.

[Kettle]

I'll be moving my dunkelweizen into secondary fermentation in the next day or so. I've seen doing so highly recommended in a few places now including the kit instructions. It's supposed to make for a lot cleaner beer.

[thefuzz]

I'll be moving my dunkelweizen into secondary fermentation in the next day or so. I've seen doing so highly recommended in a few places now including the kit instructions. It's supposed to make for a lot cleaner beer.

Please explain?

[mmmbeans]

yea, i'd say it decreases the amount of yeast in your bottles by about 3/4. Just make sure you don't kick up the yeast in your primary when you go to rack.

When I transferred my last I just dumped 5 gallons of apple cider into the primary on top of the yeast cake and let er rip. Voila... cider.

[Kettle]

Please explain?

rack(siphon) the beer off the yeast cake into another container before it is completely finished fermenting. around the 5th day. your bottling bucket will probably work if you can seal it. if you can't seal it then go from the fermenter to the bottler and then back again after cleaning the fermenter. let it sit for a while before bottling. the instructions with my kit say 2 weeks.

yea, i'd say it decreases the amount of yeast in your bottles by about 3/4. Just make sure you don't kick up the yeast in your primary when you go to rack.

When I transferred my last I just dumped 5 gallons of apple cider into the primary on top of the yeast cake and let er rip. Voila... cider.

give more details please. my wife would love this. how long did you let it sit? did you still bottle with priming sugar? etc.

[mmmbeans]

i have two fermentors so I when i transferred the last batch into my secondary, I left the yeast cake on my primary. I had gone down to the farmer's market earlier and got 5 gallons of fresh (no preservative) apple cider. Dumped cider on top of yeast cake. Let sit. KICKING fermentation.

I've never made cider but I've been reading up on it. You can increase alcohol content dramatically by adding sugar. Either way the primary issue is that your cider is gonna be dry and it's gonna be difficult to back sweeten it without creating bottle bombs. I dont mind dry cider so it's not a problem for me.

I haven't bottled yet. i've read that it's recommended to leave in primary for 4 weeks or so. Cider seems to take a little longer for whatever reason.

i'm still working my way through it. plan on leaving in primary for a while then rack for a couple of weeks then in bottles for like 4 or 5 months. I'll keep you updated.

http://forum.northernbrewer.com/viewforum.php?f=9&sid=bd793c8de31bfb2c11d7e0de111934be

lots of good info here.

[thefuzz]

Maybe I can get a glass vessel from my grandfather.

He used to make a lot of wine, and should have some sitting around.

[PantherBrew]

Just tasted my DFH aprihop clone, and it is fantastic.

I am going to bring some brews to the GreenBay tailgate.

I am hoping to score a ticket in exchange. ;)