Homebrewists of STW, brewing ‘owt at the moment?

@joshvegas

Does making ginger beer count?

Yes, yes it does!

In that case… I just bottled a naturally yeasted gingerbeer, possibly shrapnel grenades. We’ll see how things go in a week i guess.

Just kegged a Kolsch, first attempt at one and all gone ok so far, it was lovely and clear and tasted good so bodes well for the final beer. Just moved up to Hobbybrew gas from Sodastream so at least I won’t run out of gas this time!

Next up on the brew plan is something more wintery – a Doppelbock.

Holy thread revival!

I’ve recently come back to brewing. We moved house a couple of years ago and the new place has a borehole and a water softener, and brewing with that water gave pretty odd tasting beer, so I kind of fell out of the habit.

Anyway, I finally got round to sending a sample off for testing and the results said that an addition of AMS would help, so I tried a kit brew doing that and it’s come out pretty good, so I guess I’m back in business

I have a cider (from the apples in the garden) than is taking gas now and getting ready for a party in a couple of weeks. I may also brew a beer (maybe some sort of stout given the other thread, maybe a sessionable pale ale) this weekend, but that depends on a) energy and b) time.

Ugh. Had such big plans for this year and haven’t done a single brew yet! Even the fresh hops from the garden we picked a couple of weeks ago are still languishing in the freezer! If they’re still ok this weekend, will try to get a brew on with them though.

I finally got round to sending a sample off for testing and the results said that an addition of AMS would help, so I tried a kit brew doing that and it’s come out pretty good

nice! yeah I found water treatment the thing that gives the best bang-for-buck improvement, it’s so easy to do as well, but very few people actually bother.

I have a cider (from the apples in the garden)

I was going to do a cider as well, as we have pears & my parents have apples. Never got around to it though! Maybe I’ll buy the kit I need in now so I’m ready for next year though.

Figured 5 months isn’t too bad in the world of thread ressurection – didn’t even get a ‘holy thread ressurection batman’ gif so does that even mean it happened?

You can make an easy cider using juice from the supermarket and a strong cup of tea (tannins), just make sure it’s the 100% pure not from concentrate stuff. Haven’t done it but might give it a punt in the new year so it’s got a few months in the bottle before cider season starts (heard somewhere to leave a cider 3-6 months).

I too had great plans this year… I need to clean my kit and sort out the keezer and I might have something palatable for Xmas.

You can make an easy cider using juice from the supermarket and a strong cup of tea (tannins), just make sure it’s the 100% pure not from concentrate stuff. Haven’t done it but might give it a punt in the new year so it’s got a few months in the bottle before cider season starts (heard somewhere to leave a cider 3-6 months).

I’ve done that. Comes out okay but it’s reeeeeeeeeeally sharp. It’s less Devon Scrumpy, more Diamond White.

yeah, that would sidestep the biggest expense/ballache i.e. crushing & juicing the apples. Doesn’t interest me personally though, I either want to do it “properly” or not at all (hence also having no interest in beer kits, etc!)

We share the kits we have around the people in my village as most of us have trees of some sort. There is also a community musteri (place that makes juice for you from your apples) in town if you want to go that way.

The biggest enemy is time and the pain that is trying to feed whole apples into the crush. If you have two people and a Grainfather & fermenters, you can get a decent process going where you half the apples, crush them, press them, fill the Grainfather for pasteurisation, then chill and thrown in a clean fermenter. Then it’s just a case of throwing yeast and nutrient at it and waiting.

Tbh, getting a simple keg system set up was the biggest win I have had recently. It cuts down on cleaning a lot and, as a solo brewer at home now, makes getting a beer or cider ready for serving much less of a hassle.

fill the Grainfather for pasteurisation

interesting. most (all?) of the guides I’ve read have not included this step, although it makes sense to me as a “belt & braces” thing to avoid a duff batch!

getting a simple keg system set up was the biggest win I have had recently.

yeah, when I moved a few years back & had more space, kegging was what got me back into brewing! so much less hassle. At some stage though I was going to “justify” i.e. just buy, a Blichmann beer gun for filling the odd bottle as gifts – just googled though and there’s now a much cheaper alternative (Duotight) that seems to be available!

also at some stage this winter need to combine 2 interests and connect my kegerator to my home automation system! already have a load of cheap weight sensors, just need to wire it all up & code it!

I’ve done that. Comes out okay but it’s reeeeeeeeeeally sharp. It’s less Devon Scrumpy, more Diamond White.

Is is possible to back-sweeten with lactose? or keep an eye on it with the iSpindel and chuck some potassium sorbate in to kill the yeast off before the gravity gets too low? or both?

Or maybe just forget the faff and pop down the supermarket?

beer gun for filling the odd bottle as gifts

I’ve got one, think it could be KegLand, it’s done me a good service but recently moved to counter-pressure filling (iTap) and that’s a game changer on bottling day. For context, I carb in the keg and then bottle as I brew with a mate and we split it.

If you’ve got a kegerator you might be able to get a bottle filler that fits your tap which would make gift filling more simple – check out the Nukatap.

I’ve got one, think it could be KegLand, it’s done me a good service but recently moved to counter-pressure filling (iTap) and that’s a game changer on bottling day.

that’s interesting, will check it out! having used neither, what is it about the iTap that’s so much better/easier?

check out the Nukatap.

that looks pretty good too! Loads more options than last time I looked into this 🙂

I have two of the smaller PET 8l kegs. It seems to be the sweet sport for me when I brew as it is one fermenter’s-worth of beer into a keg and some bottle (for people). Then I can slap gas into the keg and enjoy with my own little tap setup. The only downside is having to tape the seals in the keg and disconnecting the gas so that it does not leak after a day or two.

I do need to get a bigger CO2 setup than the current Sodastream setup though. Bigger will be cheaper I think.

I went with 19L Corny kegs as at one point years ago the 2nd hand ex-industry ones were dirt cheap, and that’s what everyone was using for home brewing! They do work well though. You can get smaller ones, but only brand new, and they’re virtually the same price as the full size ones.

Bought an off-the-shelf Mangrove Jacks kegerator – always meant to DIY one but never got around to it. The MJ one is great though, holds 3 Cornys and I don’t think the price is terrible really considering it comes with everything you need.

I just get food-grade CO2 in big canisters from a local gas merchants place. Think I paid £19 for 3.15kg last time. If you have a bigger cylinder it’s even cheaper, that size lasts me a fair while though! I have 2x bottles so I don’t get caught short, the deposit for the bottles is more than I’ve paid so far for gas (including refills!).

what is it about the iTap that’s so much better/easier?

In short, counter-pressure.

Longer version is that to use the beer gun you’ll probably have to drop to 5ish psi to avoid huge amounts of foaming, then you fill as you would pour a beer (tilted bottle etc). When full, you end up pushing a load of foam out which gets messy and then you need somewhere sanitary to put the beer gun while you cap the bottle.

In contrast a counter-pressure system pressurises the bottle at whatever your keg pressure is first, then you turn on the tap (nothing happens because of equal pressure) before gradually letting the pressure out of the bottle, meaning you get a faster fill, with little to no foam. Last bottling day we did 20 litres without wasting a drop. I went with the iTap because it was a nice looking, self-contained unit that locks the bottle on and seemed to have the least amount of faff associated with using it, some say you should fill from the bottom of the bottle a-la Nukatap but I’m not sure it’s the big deal that some make out. Go have a look at some YT vids, they’ll probably explain it better than me.

that makes sense, thanks!

@willard I use HobbyBrew CO2, was using one SodaStream bottle per brew (£15!! – almost doubling the cost of a brew) whereas the bottle’s about 15 times bigger at a cost of £47 for the fill. Even counting for the £85 deposit on the bottle it’s cheaper than the sodastream equivalent quantity, but £3 of gas per brew is way cheaper.

@madhouse I think I need to find an equivalent here in Sweden. The food grade thing is important as, even though I know a lot of welders, I don’t think I can just get one of their cylinders. Hmmmmm. Paintballers use Co2…

I’ve spent the last 2.5 years fermenting fresh wort kits from a local brewery seeing as i didn’t have easy access to my normal BIAB setup. Need to get back to it though as I miss some of my old recipes.

I use a couple of corny kegs (normally only one beer at a time though) and tend to run out just before I get around to ordering ingredients to make my own beer!