home-made beer

[RobertN]

The CO2 depends on how much bottling sugar you add. About 1/3 cup would give it a little bit of carbonation, but not too much. 3/4 cup, like a beer recipe, would tend to make it pretty bubbly.

I would bottle the cider in 12oz brown beer bottles. That's a nice amount for cider. You could also try 22oz bottles. If I bottle beer, I like to use champgne bottles. Part of the sparkling wine process is to cap it in the bottle and age it a bit. Then they chill it, pop the cap, and stuff it with a cork.

For a shared beer, a champagne bottle pours two nice glasses.

I tried rootbeer once, using cake bread yeast. YUK! It is the only time I have lost bottls too, to high co2 pressures.

A good beer/wine shop should have everything you need. They should have some beer and/or wine brewing guide sheets which would also have pertinent info to cider.

It sounds good, I'd give it a try/w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif

 

[RobertN]

I put together my own system. About 5 friends all built similar systems. I use two kegs, and a 48qt cooler. The system frame is setup in three steps. The first upper step has a keg for mash/luater water. It has a cajun cooker. The keg has a valave added towards the bottom, with a hose that gose to the top of the cooler on the second "step". The hose feeds through the cooler to a upper sprinkler manifold. On the bottom is a similar manifold that feed out the side of the cooler. A hose goes from that feed, to a second keg, the boiler, that sits on the third "step". That step has a smaller burner, since the sweet wort from the mash is already hot. The system works really well.

When I moved to full gravity extract boils, I got my first keg. I got a lid from Kmart that fit inside the handles. We had a welding place cut out the top of the keg, and put a hole and nipple for the valve towards the bottom of the keg. This is really the way to go. Even with this setup, I could do 5 or 10gal boils. I mainly use the lid for a dust cover; I never boil with it on.

All grain is a lot of fun, and lets you enjoy more of the process. It does take a bit longer though, what with the mash in and the sparge.

 

[RobertN]

I treuse yeast too, especially when doing 10gal batches. Pitching that much yeast from tubes is like $8-10 just in yeast.
You'r looking at 9-1/2lbs of malt, at about 85cent/lb, and $1 of hops, so ya I guess you could get a 5gal batch in there for that.

I kegged till my beer refridge went out. It has been low on the priority list, so my last bach was bottled. Bottling 10 gal is a bit of a chore...

For my cider, I never tried killing the natural yeast. It would give a more consistent flavor profile... Interesting idea...

It all sounds like fun! I think I may try a batch in a week or two, but do a 5gal batch. I think I'll still get a deep enough grain bed in the cool I mash in.

It's funny... all this beer talk and drinking wine/w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif

 

[Chuck52]

I went to Grolsch-type bottles when I got tired of bottling and capping the 12ozers. I found a good price for two cases of real Grolsch bottles, the 16oz green and brown ones. Then I bought a few liter sized swing tops. I didn't want to go all the way to kegging at that time, and I had a couple of the five liter minikegs I could also use, which were great to take to parties. The Grolsch bottles make the bottling go much faster than the 12oz cappers, and 16oz is just about the right amount for me in the evening.

All this talk has me motivated....now I have to go do an archaeological dig in the basement to see how much of my equipment is still there. The Holy Grail is my brewing notebook with recipes and notes about quaility and such. I remember that my last several batches had kinda converged to the same recipe with minor variations. I was doing about a half-mash with either rye flakes or wheat flakes mashed with 2-row and the specialty grains. The rye and wheat flakes are really cheap at the health food store and convert nicely, giving good sugar yield and lots of mouth feel.

Chuck

 

[RobertN]

Kegging is the way to go. But... You gotta dedicate a fridge to it, wether a tiny one or a big beer fridge.

A couple years back I was brewing a lot. I came up with a "stock" recipe, that was much in the same vein as "beef stock" or "chicken stock". I made some nice strawberry and apricot beers from it. I also made just a nice light pale ale from it.

There's nothing wrong with recipes like that. It just shows you've refined your process to you tastes and preferences.

Sounds like when the time comes that we have a TBN get together, we'll have to make a special TBN ale/w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif Whe I got married a few years back we brewed 30 gal of wedding beer, of a couple varieties. Had it on tap in corny kegs and all. It was way cool!

 

[brewerbob]

You're paying way more than I am for malt. I buy a 25kg sack for $23.80. I've been trying to brew about once a week because it gets cold enough here that I can't run my cooker outside, and my wife threw my brewing out of the kitchen because I make a mess. Besides, dealing with garden hoses for the wort cooler in the winter is not fun, and football season is beginning, and football is not football without a few cold guys. Think I'll make a Special Bitter next week. I found an interesting recipe in "Zymurgy". I'm a couple of weeks out from the cider project. I bought my "beer fridge" about 3 years ago from an appliance dealer who had taken it in for trade. It's a 60's era Sears 14 cu/ft with freezer on top. I keep 2 kegs of finished beer in it, my hops in the freezer, and any adjuncts in the door. I think I gave $50 for it. Keep me posted on your brewing. It's always fun to compare notes.

Bob

 

[looch]

My father and I make about 250 gallons of wine every year. He also makes cheese, parma ham (prosciuto), salami, and we age our deer all in his cold room. It's basically what you are describing - a basement bump out. The balcony at his place runs the hole length of the house. It's all cement, with it's own footing. The interior is lined with 2" styrofoam insulation and sheathed with OSB (roofing kind - with wax on one side). The temperature is stable and stays pretty low, but he managed to find an old compressor from a butcher shop auction and we can crank it down to 34 degrees when needed.