Q&A: Homebrewing

[FoodMan]

I am happy to report that my beer was bottled with minimal spill this past Saturday.

I am keeping my fingers crossed that there was no contamination anywhere. Although as of today I can tell that the beer is getting carbonated (tiny bubbles appear on the surface...or am I imagining things). Also it cleared up significantly in the bottles and now looks like a nice amber beer with no haziness.

On another note, I remembered this weekend that my in-laws have a plastic margarita bucket that they got from a restaurant. It's the white thick plastic one with a spigot on the bottom and all. So, I am thinking this could be my bottling container going forward and I don't have to worry about getting a siphon going with the bottle filler. Any reason why I should not use it after careful sanitation?

[cdh]

Congrats on the successful bottling! Looking good. The beer should lighten and clear some as the yeast munch their way through your priming sugar and then drop out of suspension. Did you do a concentrated boil? That could have darkened your beer a bit, but it shouldn't end up quite that amber.

Feel free to use the margarita bucket. It would make for a fine bottling device after a good soak in a sanitizing solution. That's the kind of inventive spirit brewers are known for. Good thinking!

[FoodMan]

Yeah, I did do a concentrated boil, so maye that's why it is amber. I actually "had" to taste some of it while siphoning from the fermentor and it tasted excellent, but flat of course. So I am sooo looking forward to this stuff.

Chris, for the red ale we are doing next? Is this a 2 gallon batch as well? If so, I would like to double it and make a four or five gallon batch. So I just multiply everything by two?

[cdh]

Yes, indeed. That recipe is for 2 gallons. Scale everything proportionally and you'll be fine. 1 lb extract and 2.5 oz each grain per gallon, etc. I'll show you how to use online tools to calculate your hop needs once you figure out how big your boil will be.

Even if you're going to do a concentrated boil, you're going to need a much bigger pot than you've got if you want to make more than 2 gallons at a time. Even with a 20 quart pot, you'll not really be able to do a full boil of a 5 gallon batch because it needs the headspace for the foam to expand into...

The Walmart Tramontina pots are a good deal, so check into them if you've not gone shopping yet. You'll need a bigger fermentor too, so your homebrew shop should sell you a food grade 5 gallon bucket for something in the neighborhood of $10.

Edited May 10, 2006 by cdh (log)

[FoodMan]

Yeap, I do have a bigger fermentor and am planning on buying a bigger pot. I do not like to shop at Walmart but I think I found what I need at a local store. It's a stock pot sold and used mainly for steaming tamales and it is 16 quarts and sells for less than $20, I think I've seen it used for brewing on a brewing website. It actually looks pretty nice too and is non-reactive.

I will most certainly do a concentrated boil again Chris, boiling 5 gallons is no fun to boil or to cool. My plan is to boil about three galons and place one (or one and half to account for evaporation) in the fermentor and just add the wort to it. It will help it cool much faster and I will not have to boil 4 gallons.

If I use bottles gallons of drinking water, do I need to boil it first? Or can I add it straight to the fermentation bucket?

[FoodMan]

I think this is the exact pot I am talking about. It costs about $17 at a local store

click here

[cdh]

That kind of enameled pot should be just fine. The thing I like about the Brazillian pots is the thick layered base, which does provide a little extra protection against hot spots that can caramelize your wort while it is boiling... but that is not really a huge concern, particularly if you're aiming for more amber-colored brews.

[Matty]

I bottled my batch last night. I did a 1 gallon batch, so it was truly micro-brewery!

I had a load of emty bottles so I went the crown cap route. I think mine is quite amber-looking as well.

It tasted really good and I'm really fired up Hope the next two weeks goes quickly.

OT …

I thought i'd see if I could make an ale barm with the sludge left over. Never done it before but I made a 1:2 barm with sludge:flour+water and fermented overnight.

I've just baked the loaf this afternoon. Smelling pretty good but still cooling so I haven't tasted yet.

Looking forward to making the red ale.

Best Wishes,

Matt

[Rombot]

Hi all

Well I have bottled and had a little taste and it seems to be really good.

I like the idea of the bread Matty, I washed away all my yeast before seeing your post so I may try that next time but let us know how it is.

I might post a picture later on but all my brew is in dark bottles and so you cant really see much but it was about the same amber color as everyone else.

Taking a few days of work and uni and going fishing and camping this weekend but on my return I will be off to the brew shop to get the ingredients for the next brew.

I am very much looking forward to the Red Ale

Regards

Rom

[cdh]

Glad to hear more reports of success! The bread trick is not something I've ever played with, though may have to now... Let us know how it turned out.

As to the amberness of your beers, they will lighten some when the yeast that are in there carbonating them drop to the bottom of the bottles. The color does appear to have uniformly darkened amongst all of you, however, which makes me wonder why. Must be caramelization during the boil, but since it was a full boil it shouldn't have darkened much... hmmm....

I guess now would be the time to reveal a trick for extract brewers to keep their beers as light as possible. That trick is called late extract addition. Add 3/4 of your extract in the last 10 minutes of your boil. That way very little of it will have the chance to caramelize and darken during the boil.

Doing this will require recalculating your hops usage, however, which is another trick I should explain. I generally use an online calculator to do this calculation, like the one at http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/recipator/recipator

I'll probably need to take some screenshots to properly explain the technique, so if you'd like to play with the recipe calculator, go ahead. I'll explain the details of what you need to deal with the late extract addition in a while.

Congratulations to everybody on the successes so far!

[tim]

  The color does appear to have uniformly darkened amongst all of you, however, which makes me wonder why.  Must be caramelization during the boil, but since it was a full boil it shouldn't have darkened much... hmmm....

Congratulations to everybody on the successes so far!

←

Chris,

I have never had any carmelization even with high heat 60 minutes boils on my kitchen stove. The difference is a stainless stockpot with a 1/2" thick aluminum disk on the bottom. The thick disc diffuses the heat to eliminate hot spots and burning. The cost is about $50 for a 20 quart and about $85 for a $24 quart pot.

Tim

Edited May 12, 2006 by tim (log)

[Matty]

The bread tasted good, although was not quite perfectly proofed. I have made an ale barm before from a bottle conditioned ale (from a recipe in Dan Lepard's The Handmade Loaf) and this was more or less the same except the taste is coarser - the hoppy bitterness is more noticeable.

I don't know if that's because my beer is coarse, because it was from 1st stage fermentation beer, or that the proportion of yeast sludge was too high. I just used my standard sourdough recipe, so lots of potential for tweaking.

Can supply recipe & method if anyone needs it.

Best Wishes,

Matt

Edited May 13, 2006 by Matty (log)

[MelissaH]

Matt,

I would be interested in your recipe, particularly the ale barm part. My husband's a homebrewer, and I'm always looking for ways to make a direct connection between his beermaking and my breadmaking. (And the current eGCI course is also on homebrewing.)

Could you please paraphrase and share? Thanks!

MelissaH

[Matty]

Hi Melissa,

I'm away for a week but will pm you the info w/c 22.5.

Best Wishes,

Matt

[FoodMan]

The bread tasted good, although was not quite perfectly proofed. I have made an ale barm before from a bottle conditioned ale (from a recipe in Dan Lepard's The Handmade Loaf) and this was more or less the same except the taste is coarser - the hoppy bitterness is more noticeable.

I don't know if that's because my beer is coarse, because it was from 1st stage fermentation beer, or that the proportion of yeast sludge was too high. I just used my standard sourdough recipe, so lots of potential for tweaking.

Can supply recipe & method if anyone needs it.

Best Wishes,

Matt

←

Looks pretty good! Why didn't I think of that?? I will make sure to make some when I brew thew next batch.

BTW, Chris how long is the wait till the next class? No rush, I'm just curious.

[cdh]

BTW, Chris how long is the wait till the next class? No rush, I'm just curious.

←

Should be on the way Real Soon Now.

And, as a tip of my hat to the changed seasons, I'm thinking of replacing the last recipe with something that is more summery than a big dark abbey ale. I'm thinking something in the wheat family, which are much better summer beers. Maybe a Saison, maybe a Wit. I'm leaning towards the Saison, since its yeasts like to ferment in temperatures as high as the 90s.

[FoodMan]

I finally cracked open a bottle (or two...) of my homebrew this weekend and gave it a taste. I have to admit, I was very impressed with this first try. It tasted great and was perfectly carbonated and not too bubbbly. I thought the hop flavor was just perfect, definitly distinct but not overpowering. I did detect a slight "salty" finish to the beer though. Sounds odd, but it is a tiny bit salty at the end. Certainly nothing to compalin about but I thought I should note it. Any idea why this might happen??

BTW, I did take a picture of the brew in the glass and will post it when I get a chance, it was more of a brown ale. Sort of like Newcastle.

Glad to hear the second brew class is almost ready. I guess I better do my shopping already. Well, I did get a 16 quart enameled stock pot, but nothing else.

[Matty]

I tried mine last night (a naughty 24hrs earlier than the two week wait) and it tasted good. Same sort of results as you Ellie and I'll check for the salty thing again later (3pm here … a little early for beer).

The second bottle I tried seemed less carbonated and more cloudy. My first retained a little layer of bubbles all the way drinking it, but this was quite flat. I've read that dishwasher chemicals left on glassware can affect the head - is that right Chris?

Of course now I utterly regret only brewing a tiny batch although I'm repeating the first batch again tonight to get some more in the pipeline.

Would be good to see your picture Ellie.

Matt

[cdh]

Elie- Hmm... salty? That has got to be your water supply. But you're in Dallas so your water table shouldn't be brackish, should it? No dried up salt lakes up there, are there? I've tasted vaguely salty tap water at some seaside locations.... but this is mysterious. Boil your tap water for a while to concentrate it a bit and see if the hint of saltiness comes through there too.

Matty- As to the strange behavior of that one bottle... did you thoroughly mix your priming sugar through the beer? It takes a bit of stirring to get the dispersion even. Maybe the flatter bottle just had less sugar for the yeast to eat.

Everybody else- Let us know how it turned out! I want to hear about any disappointments as well as the success stories. If something is weird, I'd like to help you figure out why it's so.

Edited May 23, 2006 by cdh (log)

[FoodMan]

Elie-  Hmm... salty?  That has got to be your water supply.  But you're in Dallas so your water table shouldn't be brackish, should it?  No dried up salt lakes up there, are there? I've tasted vaguely salty tap water at some seaside locations....  but this is mysterious.  Boil your tap water for a while to concentrate it a bit and see if the hint of saltiness comes through there too.

Matty-  As to the strange behavior of that one bottle... did you thoroughly mix your priming sugar through the beer?  It takes a bit of stirring to get the dispersion even.  Maybe the flatter bottle just had less sugar for the yeast to eat. 

Everybody else-  Let us know how it turned out!  I want to hear about any disappointments as well as the success stories.  If something is weird, I'd like to help you figure out why it's so.

←

Well, the finish was salty to me, but a friend of mine who was lucky enough to get a bottle from my batch (he is a microbrew lover BTW) said that he tasted a bit of orange in the finish! go figure. He did enjoy the beer very much though.

To get the priming sugar evenly dispersed, I dissolved it in a small quantity (< 1/2 cup I think) of sterilized water and mixed that in the beer. I think I read this on one of those brewing sites I've been frequenting lately.

[cdh]

Well, the finish was salty to me, but a friend of mine who was lucky enough to get a bottle from my batch (he is a microbrew lover BTW) said that he tasted a bit of orange in the finish! go figure. He did enjoy the beer very much though.

←

That tell-tale citrusy-ness is a hallmark of the "c" hops... Cascade, Centennial, and Columbus primarily. Glad it showed through.

[FoodMan]

Here is my beer

It is a little lighter and less hazy than the picture shows. I really thought he carbonation was perfect and the bubbles remained until the end of the glass.

Chris, is it advisable to reuse the plastic bottles again for the second brew or should they be thrown away?

[cdh]

Chris, is it advisable to reuse the plastic bottles again for the second brew or should they be thrown away?

←

You can reuse them. They can take it unless they're visibly weakened, e.g. bulging or have deep scratches in them.

[cdh]

I've read that dishwasher chemicals left on glassware can affect the head - is that right Chris?

←

All sorts of things affect the head. The dishwasher rinse agents can do that, as can oils.

[Rombot]

Hi All

Glad to hear that everyone has had good luck. I am away for a few days but I will post results as soon as i get home and try a bottle. I was almost tempted to try a bottle before I left but thought better of it, as it would of been two days short of two weeks.

I thought I would mention that for the next three weeks I will be lying a little low and may have to postpone my next batch. I am doing my Masters and I have a number of things due, but a few hours brewing could be a nice way to relax . So If I am not about Chris, I haven’t run away, I’m just preoccupied.

Well will post results soon.

seeya

Rom