Has anybody made their own wine with the kits from Northern Brewer/Midwest/Austin Homebrew? I'm not a wine drinker, but have thought about getting one to make wine as gifts or to give a kit to my mom or sister. My mom and sister just recently found a 14 Hands Cabernet they like, so I'm only looking for something that's comparable to $10 bottles (which is probably on the expensive side for their daily glass), not anything special.
Homebrew Board - Recipes
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Last: 5 mo ago by Chipotlemonger
Holy mother of chocolate, I didn't know I could make a beer this good! I'm extremely excited to see how this one ages!
What is that?
Double Chocolate Oatmeal Stout.
Here's the recipe:
Partial Mash
5 gallons
OG was 1.072 and ended up at 1.020
7.00 lb Amber Liquid Extract [Boil for 15 min]
1.50 lb Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM) Grain 12.43 %
1.50 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) (3.0 SRM) Grain 12.43 %
0.82 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 6.79 %
0.75 lb Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 6.21 %
0.50 lb Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM) Grain 4.14 %
2.00 oz Fuggles [4.50 %] (60 min) Hops 28.0 IBU
1 Pkgs SafAle English Ale (DCL Yeast #S-04) Yeast-Ale
6 oz Hershey's 100% Cocoa Powder [last 10 mins of boil]
1 Vanilla Bean [split and soaked in vodka for 24 hours]
Here's the link to the thread I stole it from.
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=126638
Here's the recipe:
Partial Mash
5 gallons
OG was 1.072 and ended up at 1.020
7.00 lb Amber Liquid Extract [Boil for 15 min]
1.50 lb Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM) Grain 12.43 %
1.50 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) (3.0 SRM) Grain 12.43 %
0.82 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 6.79 %
0.75 lb Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 6.21 %
0.50 lb Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM) Grain 4.14 %
2.00 oz Fuggles [4.50 %] (60 min) Hops 28.0 IBU
1 Pkgs SafAle English Ale (DCL Yeast #S-04) Yeast-Ale
6 oz Hershey's 100% Cocoa Powder [last 10 mins of boil]
1 Vanilla Bean [split and soaked in vodka for 24 hours]
Here's the link to the thread I stole it from.
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=126638
Did you actually mash the 2 row? The non fermentables seem high, which is why your FG is high.
Yes I mashed all the 2 row with the specialty grains. I would have liked it to be a tad more dry, how do I achieve the same color with less non fermentables?
What temp did you mash at? For a more fermentable wort you want to mash lowe, say 148F when you have such a high % of non fermentables.
The other issue is using extract, it's already been mashed and boiled which will result in caramelization and more non-fermentable sugars. Then you're boiling it again in a smaller pot, which is more caramelization. There are a few things you can do if you want to stick neither extract.
First trick, use DME vs LME. DME has less caramelized sugars. In both cases bring your water to a boil, aDD a table spoon of sugar and then your bittering hops. Do your entire boil adding hops like you normally would. Add specialty steeped grains to the star as you normally would. When you have 15 minutes left, remove pot from heat, add your DME/LME and stir to dissolve, return to heat and once it's at a boil continue your count down.
Trick #2, instead of reboiling your extract for 60 mins, you're now doing it for 15 and removing 3/4 of the time to caramelize. This should result in a more fermentable wort.
Trick #3: swap out a pound of extract for a pound of table sugar, this will make a big impact. Add sugar at 15 mins like extract to avoid caramelization.
Final trick, get a bigger pot. If you think your love of homebrewing will continue then you'll need better equipment. Get a turkey fryer and for 5 gal batches you will need a 10 gallon pot. I tried 8gal but still had boilovers. You will also need a wort chiller, and a ball valve on the pot. These are good Christmas ideas as well. The quality of your wort will increase. And still don't he late extract addition method, but it'll caramelize less. And eventually you'll go all grain if you want really dry finishes below 1.010. I don't think it's possible to get that low with extract.
Those are some ideas, I'd go with a mix of later extract addition and swapping out some extract for sugar, save and get a bigger pot/burner/chiller and keep on brewin'.
The other issue is using extract, it's already been mashed and boiled which will result in caramelization and more non-fermentable sugars. Then you're boiling it again in a smaller pot, which is more caramelization. There are a few things you can do if you want to stick neither extract.
First trick, use DME vs LME. DME has less caramelized sugars. In both cases bring your water to a boil, aDD a table spoon of sugar and then your bittering hops. Do your entire boil adding hops like you normally would. Add specialty steeped grains to the star as you normally would. When you have 15 minutes left, remove pot from heat, add your DME/LME and stir to dissolve, return to heat and once it's at a boil continue your count down.
Trick #2, instead of reboiling your extract for 60 mins, you're now doing it for 15 and removing 3/4 of the time to caramelize. This should result in a more fermentable wort.
Trick #3: swap out a pound of extract for a pound of table sugar, this will make a big impact. Add sugar at 15 mins like extract to avoid caramelization.
Final trick, get a bigger pot. If you think your love of homebrewing will continue then you'll need better equipment. Get a turkey fryer and for 5 gal batches you will need a 10 gallon pot. I tried 8gal but still had boilovers. You will also need a wort chiller, and a ball valve on the pot. These are good Christmas ideas as well. The quality of your wort will increase. And still don't he late extract addition method, but it'll caramelize less. And eventually you'll go all grain if you want really dry finishes below 1.010. I don't think it's possible to get that low with extract.
Those are some ideas, I'd go with a mix of later extract addition and swapping out some extract for sugar, save and get a bigger pot/burner/chiller and keep on brewin'.
What Kyle said about 2.5 gallon batches in 5 gallon carboys is spot on. I actually brewed 2.5 gallons of a British brown ale last week and the only carboy I had available for primary was a 5 gallon. CO2 should blanket and keep the wort from oxidizing. Once primary is done, I'm just going straight to the keg with it so that will ensure that it's not coming into contact with too much more O2.
danieljustin, how do you like the grainfather? Pretty neat setup, huh?
danieljustin, how do you like the grainfather? Pretty neat setup, huh?
So I'm having trouble pinpointing a certain off flavor I'm getting with the stout I just bottled. It's seemingly gotten more noticeable over the carbonation period. When I first tried the beer (the day I posted the pic), it tasted perfect. A little flat still, like I was expecting, but the flavor was awesome. But now, an off flavor has developed to overwhelm the flavors I was getting initially.
I'm not exactly sure how to describe it. I wouldn't say it tastes like green apples, but I don't know it could be that the beer is young. And it's definitely not sour.
Has anybody heard of a beer tasting great after a few days, then a few days later tasting off? Is this a product of the yeast kicking back into action to produce co2? It seems to subside as the beer warms. Then the awesome flavors reemerge. I'm expecting the flavor to subside as it ages, but I was hoping to impress family members over the holidays haha.
I'm not exactly sure how to describe it. I wouldn't say it tastes like green apples, but I don't know it could be that the beer is young. And it's definitely not sour.
Has anybody heard of a beer tasting great after a few days, then a few days later tasting off? Is this a product of the yeast kicking back into action to produce co2? It seems to subside as the beer warms. Then the awesome flavors reemerge. I'm expecting the flavor to subside as it ages, but I was hoping to impress family members over the holidays haha.
Describing beer can be very difficult but there are resources:
http://www.bjcp.org/examcenter.php
About 3/4 of the way down the page are Off Flavor Flashcards in a pdf. Check that out and see if something rings a bell.
http://www.bjcp.org/examcenter.php
About 3/4 of the way down the page are Off Flavor Flashcards in a pdf. Check that out and see if something rings a bell.
I just sampled a home brew I made with my uncle.
We made basically a dry stout, added lactose to make it a milk stout, then wood aged it with palo santo.
You can buy 2oz packages of palo santo wood strips from Amazon. Uncle shaved the strips into smaller pieces and soaked in everclear for a few weeks. Then 1.5 oz of the liquid went into 5 gal keg. Turned out really good. Never had a sweet stout combined with wood age. The palo Santo is very potent. You can open the 'aging' container and smell it from like 10' away.
He also added some of this aging liquid too an English barley wine and entered it into the Vail big brews fest. We'll see how it does.
We made basically a dry stout, added lactose to make it a milk stout, then wood aged it with palo santo.
You can buy 2oz packages of palo santo wood strips from Amazon. Uncle shaved the strips into smaller pieces and soaked in everclear for a few weeks. Then 1.5 oz of the liquid went into 5 gal keg. Turned out really good. Never had a sweet stout combined with wood age. The palo Santo is very potent. You can open the 'aging' container and smell it from like 10' away.
He also added some of this aging liquid too an English barley wine and entered it into the Vail big brews fest. We'll see how it does.
Completely misread your post. Check out the flash cards AlaskanAg posted, those are very useful.
Those are very useful, but doesn't seem to describe what I'm tasting. Has anybody heard of an off flavor developing like that? Tasting great, then a few days later not so great? I'm still new to this so maybe it is one of those and I just don't realize it.
I haven't heard of that. I'd give it a couple more weeks, and see if it improves any.
Will do, thanks. Who knows, could be a simple case of pouring yeast sediment with the beer by accident.
There's an off flavor and flavor wheel around online somewhere. It could be you have a Brett infection, or some sort of wild yeast or bacteria. Since you bottled it can be a single bottle issue or the entire batch. To trouble shoot you need to describe your bottling process.
We're the bottles new or recycled,
We're the bottles rinsed after their last contents were drank and stored upside down? How did you clean them, how did you sanitize them? How do you clean and sanitize your bottling bucket, tubing and bottling wand? Did you clean and disassemble the valve on the bottling bucket?
Thats just for infection but it'd have to be pretty robust to puck up off flavors so quickly as the yeast in the beer should consume priming sugar before wild critters would be able to populate enough to detect off flavors?
It could also be a brewing off flavor and esters/phenols and even hop interaction that is creating a new flavor. It's good to remember these compounds are detected by your brain and your brain tries to match it to something you're familiar with. If you can't describe it means your brain has no reference from your experiences. Which makes this harder.
For instance I had a real hard time describing astringency in stouts. The descriptors didn't match what I was perceiving so while I could detect it I just didn't have the words for it. To me it tastes like a greeny tangy (color and sensation, neither are flavors) so it took me awhile to put two and two together. But now when I taste it is astringency from the grain husk. Probably from a hot or fast sparge. I get this from a lot of commercial beer.
Anyway, building your vocabulary to describe beer takes awhile. But the source could be from the beer or some small piece of equipment. And off flavors and tastes can be fleeting. So it doesn't surprise me it would be there at the start and then vanish.
We're the bottles new or recycled,
We're the bottles rinsed after their last contents were drank and stored upside down? How did you clean them, how did you sanitize them? How do you clean and sanitize your bottling bucket, tubing and bottling wand? Did you clean and disassemble the valve on the bottling bucket?
Thats just for infection but it'd have to be pretty robust to puck up off flavors so quickly as the yeast in the beer should consume priming sugar before wild critters would be able to populate enough to detect off flavors?
It could also be a brewing off flavor and esters/phenols and even hop interaction that is creating a new flavor. It's good to remember these compounds are detected by your brain and your brain tries to match it to something you're familiar with. If you can't describe it means your brain has no reference from your experiences. Which makes this harder.
For instance I had a real hard time describing astringency in stouts. The descriptors didn't match what I was perceiving so while I could detect it I just didn't have the words for it. To me it tastes like a greeny tangy (color and sensation, neither are flavors) so it took me awhile to put two and two together. But now when I taste it is astringency from the grain husk. Probably from a hot or fast sparge. I get this from a lot of commercial beer.
Anyway, building your vocabulary to describe beer takes awhile. But the source could be from the beer or some small piece of equipment. And off flavors and tastes can be fleeting. So it doesn't surprise me it would be there at the start and then vanish.
Brewing up a pretty simple best bitter this weekend (5.5 Gallons):
7.5lbs Maris Otter
1lb Crystal 60L
1/2lb each Flaked Corn and Flaked Barley
Mashing at 153
1.5oz Fuggle @ 60
1oz EKG @ 15
.5oz Fuggle @ 5
WLP002 or WLP007, haven't decided yet, but it might depend on what Baron Brew Works up here in Denton has available.
7.5lbs Maris Otter
1lb Crystal 60L
1/2lb each Flaked Corn and Flaked Barley
Mashing at 153
1.5oz Fuggle @ 60
1oz EKG @ 15
.5oz Fuggle @ 5
WLP002 or WLP007, haven't decided yet, but it might depend on what Baron Brew Works up here in Denton has available.
Well I feel dumb... And relieved. I took great care not to pour the yeast sediment from the bottle and the taste was gone. I swirled the last half inch in the bottle, took a swig, and, well... Let's just say now I know what yeast tastes like if I ever taste it in my beer again.
Drinking too much yeast has another side effect: uncontrollable flatulence. My first batch of homebrew I drank a 6er from the bottle. Bad Idea.
Ah yes. The beer farts.
Anyone else ever have the homebrew store screw up your order?
This year, as a Christmas present to myself, I decided to step up my home brewery to include bulk storage of ingredients. I received my first ever bulk order of grains on my doorstep yesterday, which included a 55 lb sack of German pilsner malt. As I was pouring it into my storage container, I thought, "Man, that sure looks dark for pilsner." I checked the stamp on the sack and sure enough, it's munich. Score!
I'm hoping I can guilt the shop into sending me the pilsner that I ordered without having to return the munich. If they don't go for that, I'll just adjust my plans and brew with a lot more munich next year. Mmmm, munich.
This year, as a Christmas present to myself, I decided to step up my home brewery to include bulk storage of ingredients. I received my first ever bulk order of grains on my doorstep yesterday, which included a 55 lb sack of German pilsner malt. As I was pouring it into my storage container, I thought, "Man, that sure looks dark for pilsner." I checked the stamp on the sack and sure enough, it's munich. Score!
I'm hoping I can guilt the shop into sending me the pilsner that I ordered without having to return the munich. If they don't go for that, I'll just adjust my plans and brew with a lot more munich next year. Mmmm, munich.
Nice
The thing they screw up the most is crushing specialty when you don't want them pre crushed!
Shorter shelf life when pre crushed.
Shorter shelf life when pre crushed.
quote:I'd definitely go 002 w/ the Maris and EKG/Fuggles. Should turn into a nice ESB'ish beer if that's what you're going for.
WLP002 or WLP007
One other fun thing I've experienced w/ 002: w/ a little effort you can really manipulate attenuation over a wider range than most strains. I know White Labs claims 63-70%, but we've experienced 80%+ w/ the right wort composition and fermentation profile. With some strains like 3711, it's going to eat everything no matter what you do.
002 also flocs amazingly well w/ even a slight temp drop, so I prefer to pitch coldish and let it free rise up to 72-74F to finish up and reduce VDK's. Letting the temp drop too early is a great recipe for under-attenuated beer and lots of diacetyl. Ask me how I know.
quote:Been a while since I've been on this board. I haven't had a chance to use it yet. I've been too busy to use it. Hopefully I'll be able to soon.
What Kyle said about 2.5 gallon batches in 5 gallon carboys is spot on. I actually brewed 2.5 gallons of a British brown ale last week and the only carboy I had available for primary was a 5 gallon. CO2 should blanket and keep the wort from oxidizing. Once primary is done, I'm just going straight to the keg with it so that will ensure that it's not coming into contact with too much more O2.
danieljustin, how do you like the grainfather? Pretty neat setup, huh?
So, I screwed up my last brew day, apparently. I use the lid from my old aluminum pot as a heat shield when mashing in case I need to turn on the burner and heat the mash so I won't melt or burn my BIAB bag. I was maybe having a bit too much fun with my buddies, and totally forgot about it when I started the boil. I ended up scorching it pretty badly, and it even warped in a couple of spots, and now it's leaking from the bottom. The beer turned out fine, though.
Lesson learned, and I have a new, bigger pot on the way.
Anyone get any new goodies for their brewing for Christmas? Other than the new 20G brew kettle, I got a new fancy mash paddle, a 5L flask for bigger starters (it will also double as a small batch fermenter), a stir plate, and a Last Straw bottle filler. Still trying to figure out the bottle filler, I'm getting lots of foam, even at 8 psi.
Lesson learned, and I have a new, bigger pot on the way.
Anyone get any new goodies for their brewing for Christmas? Other than the new 20G brew kettle, I got a new fancy mash paddle, a 5L flask for bigger starters (it will also double as a small batch fermenter), a stir plate, and a Last Straw bottle filler. Still trying to figure out the bottle filler, I'm getting lots of foam, even at 8 psi.
What I'D and line length on the filler? I use 3/16th line at 8' and in slowly up the PSI to find the sweet spot. Also, make sure you purge the keg before filling. Could be the little things.
I found the right spray in foam to build my cold room and I bought the controller for the AC unit today. Hope to start the build in a few weeks.
I found the right spray in foam to build my cold room and I bought the controller for the AC unit today. Hope to start the build in a few weeks.
What does everyone use for brewing water? Local tap or building water from scratch? I'm brewing my first SMaSH beer next Saturday (2.5 gal Warrior IPA, with Maris Otter, also my first foray into all grain) and was wondering if there's a certain water profile I should shoot for? I'm planning on using distilled and building from there. Also has anyone used a 5.2 stabilizer? Any luck with it?
I haven't had my tap water tested yet at my house, we just moved in. I think a test by Ward is about $35.
If you know the analysis of your water you can cut it with RO or DI and build back from there. This is the cheaper option. I have been building water back up for brewing using ProMash calculator but I probably need to use a better spreadsheet.
A good place to start for a profile is the Burton-on-Trent profile, OG IPA water.
Since the tap water sucks here, I typically use RO water and add salts to mimic the profile I'm aiming for. At the bare minimum, you typically want about 50 ppm calcium in your water to help with mash efficiency and yeast health. For an IPA, increased sulfate is said to accentuate hoppy flavors. For simplicity, I'd start from distilled/RO and add enough gypsum (CaSO4) to get at least 50 ppm calcium. This alone would be a good water profile for an IPA imho.
I've never used a pH stabilizer or even taken a pH measurement in my mashes. I think you'll find that nailing your target mash temperature will be a much harder problem than water chemistry (it was for me anyway).
I've never used a pH stabilizer or even taken a pH measurement in my mashes. I think you'll find that nailing your target mash temperature will be a much harder problem than water chemistry (it was for me anyway).
Thanks for the advice, as usual!
I ended up going with some Burton salts my LHBS was selling.
Here's my SMaSH IPA recipe (decided to go with Simcoe instead of Warrior). Let me know about the hop additions to see if I'm on the right track for an IPA.
"Mini BIAB" or a 2.5 gallon batch. Used the included profile in Beersmith to try.
7 lbs Maris Otter
Mash at 156 for 60 min
Mashout at 168
.75 oz Simcoe (11.6%) 60 min
.25 oz Simcoe 15 min
1 oz Simcoe at flameout
1 oz Simcoe dryhop for 7 days.
One packet of 1056.
I ended up going with some Burton salts my LHBS was selling.
Here's my SMaSH IPA recipe (decided to go with Simcoe instead of Warrior). Let me know about the hop additions to see if I'm on the right track for an IPA.
"Mini BIAB" or a 2.5 gallon batch. Used the included profile in Beersmith to try.
7 lbs Maris Otter
Mash at 156 for 60 min
Mashout at 168
.75 oz Simcoe (11.6%) 60 min
.25 oz Simcoe 15 min
1 oz Simcoe at flameout
1 oz Simcoe dryhop for 7 days.
One packet of 1056.
I'd mash at 150 for an IPA. 156F is going to not allow the yeast to attenuate enough.
My water seems to make good beer as-is, so I don't bother with any adjustments, other than Campden tables to get rid of the chloramines in my city water.
quote:
I'd mash at 150 for an IPA. 156F is going to not allow the yeast to attenuate enough.
Okay. Does that allow not as many sugars to get extracted, therefore allowing the yeast to finish drier? Also would I have to adjust my mashout?
quote:Here's a good article that explains mash temperature and it's effect on fermentability.quote:
I'd mash at 150 for an IPA. 156F is going to not allow the yeast to attenuate enough.
Okay. Does that allow not as many sugars to get extracted, therefore allowing the yeast to finish drier? Also would I have to adjust my mashout?
http://beersmith.com/blog/2012/12/20/mash-temperature-and-beer-body-in-all-grain-brewing/
Basically, the lower the mash temp, the more fermentable sugars you extract, the higher the mash temp, the more less-fermantable sugars you extract.
Edit: Oh, and I don't even bother with a mash-out step, but I'm sure some BIAB brewers do.
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