Home brewing thread anyone?

[EbS-P]

Recently I have started brewing again after a maybe 11 year break. I got pretty good at partial mash extract brewing. At the peak we were buying malt extra in 5 gallon buckets, brewing a 10 gallon batch every two weeks or so. We were making beer cheaper than we could buy milk. I have never had a bad batch (wine kits, mead and hard cider from scratch). Bottling was to much work so I switched to soda kegs.

Now I’m back at my taste have changed. I find the current IPA craze completely over the top both Alcohol content and bitterness I think are just used to cover up the fact they are selling subpar beer. The current hard seltzer craze peaked my interest and I can say as an experienced brewer who could just make up a recipe in my head and execute it and all the substitutions after returning home from my local homebrew store that wasn’t very well stocked, has proven a challenge. Stuck fermentations seems to be the norm. It’s not as easy as add sugar boil cool add yeast. Wait keg.

So there the background. What’s you favorite homebrew? Have any hard seltzer tips you want to share? Any questions you answered?

Evan

 

[Jan Pijpelink]

I started to brew a few years ago. I mainly use LME and some additions, sometimes called kit and kilo brew. I don't brew that often, but mainly IPA's. My local homebrew supply store has a very limited inventory since the pandemic started.

 

[begreen]

I've been brewing on and off for the past decade. It started with apple ciders. We have so many good apples that I couldn't stand them going to waste. I then learned how to brew beer and usually do 2-3 five gallon batches a year. Last brew was a dry hopped, double IPA. It is pretty high on the IBUs, but very floral and tasty. Our summer brew will be an Irish red this year. I also do some wine from kits. Getting ready to brew a Montepulciano soon for the first time. But first I need to bottle last fall's apple ciders.

 

[EbS-P]

I had do some think as to what my favorite home brew was. It was an amber rye wheat lager. It was glorious. Malty, great body but very crisp and then had this rye note. I need to dig out the recipe for that one.

Next up this week is a dunkelweizen with a Hefeweizen yeast. Can of wheat LME, pound of dark DME and a pound of chocolate malt. 2 oz low AA Germanish hops. It will be darker than a traditional dunkel.

Evan

 

[Highbeam]

Stopped drinking this year for a while and we've gone through kegs of carbonated water. Same corny (soda) kegs that I used for beer but just straight water. Yummy. Add some gin, and you're off!

Might try that kombucha stuff.

 

[EbS-P]

We can go through a keg of soda water a week when it’s hot out. I just upgraded to a 20# CO2 bottle and nitrogen to pour coffee.

 

[EbS-P]

I’ve moved in to cold mashed non-alcoholic brewing.

I wrote all this down to share with a friend.

For anyone that cares I have a really easy and fast way to home brew a non alcoholic all grain beer.

I spent several day’s searching on line for a really good how too. I didn’t realize how technical (and techie) home brewing has become. I have always brewed with the KISS (keep it stupid simple ) philosophy


What you need for a 5 gallon batch.

A 2+ gallon induction pot.

3-3.5 pounds of malt (this isn’t a recipe but I can include one).

A larger mesh grain bag to hold the malt.

Induction cooktop

Thermometer

Way to keep the mash at temperature (I use a wonder bag (it’s a really well insulated slow cooking bag I turn upside down over my pot for the hour long mash)

Hops

Yeast

Brew bucket.

The process is called a non enzymatic cold mash. Basically add your grains (in the grain bag) to a pot of cold water and leave in the fridge for 24-30 hours.

Pull the grain bag out the less floury starch you can get in your pot the better but it’s not a big deal (the internet says otherwise) but using the induction cooktop solves the issue of burning the starch.

Bring the mash up to 155 F and hold for an hour. (It could go faster I haven’t tested it). Then bring to a boil and add you hops.

Boil for 45-60 minutes.

Chill (I have a wart chiller I made out of roll of 1/2” copper pipe two hose clamps and a cut washer hose. This isn’t necessary as list time I let it cool in the pot untill 150f degrees and dumped in the beer bucket with about 2.5 gallons of water and waited untill it cooled to 90 degrees

Pour or siphon into your beer bucket. Keep all the trub, cold break and hops you can out of the beer bucket.

Pitch yeast when temps are below 95F

Fermented for 3-5 days or until the krousen has fallen.

Keg or bottle.

Tips. Cleanliness really matters as you have very little alcohol to inhibit nasties from growing. Hence the very short fermentation time and no secondary fermentation.



I skim all the protein I can off the boil pot. This may or may not have any effect.



Hop light. If you don’t like hops. 0.2 oz if 4% with a dry hop with .1 oz in the fermenter makes a lightly hopped beer.

This was drinkable 1 day after kegging.

 

[djlew]

Thank you for sharing! I was interested in trying NA brewing for the week when I'm trying to stay away from alcohol. Does this process basically just give the yeast less sugar to feed on? I saw some debate online about even using yeast. Most of these NA big store brews have that classic ".5 percent ABV"

 

[EbS-P]

Thank you for sharing! I was interested in trying NA brewing for the week when I'm trying to stay away from alcohol. Does this process basically just give the yeast less sugar to feed on? I saw some debate online about even using yeast. Most of these NA big store brews have that classic ".5 percent ABV"

Yes the SG is really low. It’s less than 0.5 ABV. It really gives body to NA beers that I feel are lacking in the commercialy available options. Works well for stouts, wheat beers, and IPAs.

The other reason this works well is that it’s all grain. I didn’t do the math but I think you would need a small portion of a LME and it’s not impossible to store after you open but does have a shorter shelf life. DME would be ok to use but i didn’t do the math to see what you needed.

Here is one of my recipes

Brewfather

Powerful and easy to use tool for your brewing needs

share.brewfather.app

 

[djlew]

Yes the SG is really low. It’s less than 0.5 ABV. It really gives body to NA beers that I feel are lacking in the commercialy available options. Works well for stouts, wheat beers, and IPAs.

The other reason this works well is that it’s all grain. I didn’t do the math but I think you would need a small portion of a LME and it’s not impossible to store after you open but does have a shorter shelf life. DME would be ok to use but i didn’t do the math to see what you needed.

Here is one of my recipes

Brewfather

Powerful and easy to use tool for your brewing needs

share.brewfather.app

I am going to try this right after my planned cream ale brew day this week. I have little experience with all grain, but I am trying out brew in a bag for the cream ale. Hoping to hone in on a recipe so I can add some summer fruits to a few batches over the spring and summer.

 

[EbS-P]

I am going to try this right after my planned cream ale brew day this week. I have little experience with all grain, but I am trying out brew in a bag for the cream ale. Hoping to hone in on a recipe so I can add some summer fruits to a few batches over the spring and summer.

I end up with a good bit of flour in the bottom of the cold mash pot. I tried to let it settle out then decant. I don’t stress about it now. I just pull the bag and boil it. Will settle out before i dump into rhe fermenter or during the short fermentation. And I usually make a second batch the day I keg the first and reuse the yeast left in the fermenter.