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11/30/2007 9:51:21 AM

bottled my beer last night, it was a really nice taste, and i feel that everything blended together nicely we shall see after secondary fermentation. Would anyone be interested in having a little party where you bring the beers you brewed and have like a taste testing or something at some point?

12/1/2007 6:31:34 PM

Tried my beer and it i delicious. Just the right about of spice with a slightly higher gravity for the winter, anyone want to have a home brew beer tasting at somepoint maybe?

12/23/2007 6:04:55 PM

Just got a kit. I'm read to join the homebrewing club.

1/6/2008 4:42:06 PM

dropped a couple pounds of figs into my wheat beer last night

1/6/2008 8:17:05 PM

i have a brewing question. when you add flavored ingredients, like the figs, do you put them into the wort right before fermentation or do you wait until it has been fermenting for a while? me and my roommates want to experiment with a lot of different flavors.

1/7/2008 3:17:07 AM

My fiancee's mom got me a gift card to the brewing store off capital for christmas... any suggestions on starting supplies?

1/7/2008 10:01:30 AM

^

American Brewmaster?


Just go in and tell them your a n00b and what you would *like* to brew. They'll help you out. They are good guys and wont look down on you for being a n00b. They'll actually take the time to explain what you need and why.

1/7/2008 10:10:28 AM

so I shouldn't go in there and act all smug and pretend I know what I'm talking about?

1/7/2008 10:19:17 AM

nope... Save the snobbery for when you start to make great beer.

1/7/2008 10:40:27 AM

haha ok I didn't know when I needed to start that...


now as far as equipment... glass or plastic fermentor?

1/7/2008 10:43:56 AM

Quote :

"like the figs, do you put them into the wort right before fermentation or do you wait until it has been fermenting for a while? me and my roommates want to experiment with a lot of different flavors"

i use them in secondary fermentation, a vigorous primary tends to "scrub" much of the fruit aroma from the beer (or so i've been told, makes sense though)

^^ here's a link, helped get me started: http://www.howtobrew.com/intro.html

Plastic is fine for primary but if you are going to be doing secondaries you may want some glass. I personally do all my fermentation in glass...but more than a few people have been severely fucked up by a broken glass fermenter. It is cool to be able to see what's going on in there. I use a 6.5 gallon for primary and a 5 gallon for secondary, helps cut back on beer lost to blowoff.

[Edited on January 7, 2008 at 11:17 AM. Reason : ']

1/7/2008 11:08:31 AM

I use a plastic for primary/fermenting and glass for secondary.


I don't brew beer though. I've only done wine and ciders.

1/7/2008 1:11:38 PM

I've sorta stopped doing any sort of secondary fermentations, even for lagers. Primary ferment for a week or two, another week maybe to get sediment to clear out, then in the keg it goes.

Type of fermenter doesn't matter to me much...just whatever I can fit inside my chest freezer. Plastic really only becomes an issue if you're leaving your beer in there for extended periods of time (over a month at least), or if you suck at cleaning/sanitizing.

Quote :

"anyone want to have a home brew beer tasting at somepoint maybe?"

I'd be down for that.

[Edited on January 9, 2008 at 2:34 AM. Reason : .]

1/9/2008 2:32:44 AM

thinking about getting the ingredients for a winter warmer a la harpoon style this afternoon from the brewmaster...

1/9/2008 10:22:44 AM

^ i really liked that beer let me know what all you put in it i was thinking about making a clone of it myself

1/10/2008 5:56:52 PM

Ok, so I am really new at this, so please forgive me, but I have all my necessary items I bought from American brewmaster and kinda need some oversight at the boiling process. Basically I have multiple copies of instructions, but I have two things I'm quite not sure to do with. I have a 3.3 lbs bag of malt extract and a 4 lbscan of edme red ale. My question is where does the edme enter the process? Thanks for the help.

2/3/2008 1:26:30 PM

why did you buy the 3.3 bag of extract?

2/3/2008 1:42:01 PM

nevermind, i see that's to modify it for a 5 gallon batch

does the kit come with yeast? dry yeast?

any hops included or is the kit completely pre-hopped? I'm guessing the latter.

In that case, heat the water to boiling, remove from the burner, completely stir in the kit extract and your 3.3# bag, and then boil for however long the kit says (10 minutes or so probably) and continue on with the instructions.

[Edited on February 3, 2008 at 1:51 PM. Reason : ']

2/3/2008 1:46:03 PM

thanks for the advice, here is what I have in terms of ingredients:

3.3 lbs of amber malt extract
4 lbs can of edme devilishly strong ale
irish moss
water crystals

thanks again.

2/3/2008 2:12:07 PM

no yeast?

2/3/2008 6:27:19 PM

The yeast should be under the lid of the can.

Basically bring water to a boil, remove from heat, stir in the canned extract and bag extract, then boil for 10 min or so...doesn't really matter how long. Then cool down, add to fermenter and top off with water to reach 5 gallons. Stir well, take hydrometer reading, and pitch yeast.

Good luck!

2/3/2008 8:34:46 PM

http://hbd.org/carboy/shamrock.htm

Anyone else entering this year? I won first place in my flight for my imperial stout last year.

I'm entering these beers:

imperial stout (same beer, aged another year)
100% Brettanomyces beer
Smoked Porter
Berliner Weisse
Milk Stout
ESB
and probably this IPA that I just brewed tonight

Brewed an IPA tonight (6 gallons):

12.75 lb American Pale 2-row
0.75 lb Dark Munich Malt (8-10 L)
1 lb Carahell (10 L)
0.25 Crystal Malt (40 L)

Mash @ 149 F

1 oz Horizon Hops @ 60 min
1 oz Centennial Hops @ 10 min
1 oz Simcoe Hops @ 5 min
1 oz Amarillo Hops @ 0 min

Yeast: Fermentis US-05

Currently fermenting at 65 F



[Edited on February 6, 2008 at 12:23 AM. Reason : .]

2/6/2008 12:20:33 AM

funny this should come to the top

I just cracked open the first bottle of my american wheat fermented on figs, and was looking for a comp. to enter

2/6/2008 12:26:47 AM

Okay so here's the deal.

I'm brewing a chocolate stout (partial mash) and I put it in a glass carboy rather than Ale Pale (bucket) for the primary fermentation. It has been nearly 3 weeks and it has stopped bubbling completely for the past 3 days or so.

Should I:

Bottle it?
Try to siphon it into another carboy and do a secondary fermentation?
- if so then how to I do it so that it does not get oxygenated?

Thanks!

2/27/2008 5:54:37 PM

Quote :

"Bottle it? "

you can bottle after you have the same gravity reading a couple days apart

Quote :

"Try to siphon it into another carboy and do a secondary fermentation?"

All you'll really gain from a secondary in this case is perhaps a clearer beer (not very important for a stout) and some bulk aging. Given the increased risk of oxidation, I wouldn't bother.

Quote :

"if so then how to I do it so that it does not get oxygenated? "

that's what the siphon is for, to transfer gently with minimum oxygenation...whether racking to secondary, bottling, or whatever.

2/27/2008 5:55:24 PM

let it sit for a few days to be on the safe side, then bottle, let us know how it turns out.

2/28/2008 8:58:26 AM

I'd advise against bottling without checking the gravity a couple times...it's really the only way to be sure

2/28/2008 1:50:38 PM

cheezcurd knows what he's talking about.

3/1/2008 1:58:19 AM

Do you think the pot you boil the wort in needs to be conditioned? We just made a coffee porter that tastes like you've put a penny in your mouth.

The second batch that came out of the same pot is a phenomenal IPA that has no remnant of the metallic taste.

How can the pot be "seasoned", and/or how can you get rid of the metallic taste? We've got to reprime, so this would be a perfect time to resolve the issue.

3/2/2008 12:37:48 AM

dont use an aluminum pot. use stainless steel and dont clean it with any kind of metal scrubbie thing.

3/2/2008 10:12:26 AM

It's stainless...after fifty bucks it better not be aluminum!

3/2/2008 11:47:26 AM

^^^

http://www.howtobrew.com/section4/chapter21-2.html

Quote :

"Metallic flavors are usually caused by unprotected metals dissolving into the wort but can also be caused by the hydrolysis of lipids in poorly stored malts. Iron and aluminum can cause metallic flavors leaching into the wort during the boil. The small amount could be considered to be nutritional if it weren't for the bad taste. Nicks and cracks ceramic coated steel pots are a common cause as are high iron levels in well water. Stainless steel pots will not contribute any metallic flavors. Aluminum pots usually won't cause metallic flavors unless the brewing water is alkaline with a pH level greater than 9. Shiny new aluminum pots will sometimes turn black when boiling water due to chlorine and carbonates in the water. The protective (grayish) oxides of aluminum can be enhanced by heating the clean pot in a dry oven at 250°F for about 6 hours."

I would personally look more into your recipe/process rather than the pot itself.

[Edited on March 2, 2008 at 6:55 PM. Reason : .]

3/2/2008 6:53:54 PM

Does anyone here have some recommendation on where to get a wine filter for a good price? Or have one I could borrow.

3/4/2008 4:51:13 PM

^American Brewmaster in Raleigh has them.

Why do you need to filter your wine? I've always just added finings (Isinglass works well) to my wines. Works well IMO.

3/4/2008 5:28:57 PM

They're closed today and I was looking at my other options.

THere is way to much sediment that gets into the bottling process, so I would like to filter before hand.

3/4/2008 5:53:11 PM

Anyone have something for sale or I could borrow.

3/5/2008 12:57:39 PM

My friend and I just made our first batch... It should be something like Sam Adam's Lager... I think.

My friend got everything at American Brewmaster in Raleigh and said the guys were great there getting him informed and setup with everything he needed.

3/10/2008 9:28:49 AM

Quick question: We are doing our first bottling tonight. The setup that we bought has a fermentation bucket with the nozzle at the base to attach to the bottle filling tube thing. our question is should we filter the beer somehow? i am sure there is sludge at the base of the bucket and it will not be good to try to fil with it in there... i little yeast or something is not a prob, but everything ive read says to syphon the beer from the fermentation bucket to a bottlng bucket to avoid sludge... wtf do you do when you are using one bucket for both?

3/17/2008 5:56:58 PM

so did you go ahead and try to bottle it?

3/17/2008 8:08:53 PM

yeah, at first it got plugged up a bit it seemed.. but then we just tilted the bucket back to let he sediment collect opposite of the spout. it flowed great after that... just sitting down know and relaxing after the process.. omg it looked and smelled amazng, and we even tasted a sip. It is great - I was so scared we would absolutely F it up. But so far it seems like everything came out better than expected. Definitely think we could beat most commercial amber beers We will see in about 3 more weeks though... We think we are sitting around 7% with the alcohol percentage.

3/17/2008 9:34:30 PM

^Next time you might want to open the spigot a bit and drain some sediment before bottling...you'll lose some beer, but you won't have to deal with a clogged bottle filler.

Still waiting on the results of the homebrew competition...last year they had them posted on the monday after, and still nothing today...

3/18/2008 11:37:45 AM

^that is definitely what we will do

3/18/2008 12:18:04 PM

My friend and I are making wine, we took it from the fermenter to the carboy and the instructions said to leave some air room (about 1/4 gallon), not to top it off and put the air lock on. SO there's air in there, won't that oxidize the wine? It's a baralo btw.

3/23/2008 2:00:17 PM

^As long as there is still CO2 in the wine, you should be fine because the escaping CO2 that is heavier than air will push out the oxygen in the carboy. I would however be careful about leaving it in there long term because the CO2 is dissolve out of solution eventually, exposing your wine to oxygen.

3/24/2008 9:00:34 PM

3/27/2008 2:47:26 PM

^ congrats


We are on our third batch of beer, our last batch was supposed to be a pale ale but turned out to be horribly bitter. The first sip got me stoked bc it actually tasted like Dogfish Head 90 min, but then the nice hop taste went away and it was just a nasty bitter aftertaste that does not go away.

[Edited on June 23, 2008 at 1:13 PM. Reason : a]

6/23/2008 1:03:46 PM

Got a gold medal in the National Homebrew Competition final round...the largest beer competition in the world.

Got it for my Belgian Specialty Ale (category 16).

http://www.beertown.org/events/nhc/2008_winners.html

The Technician is going to interview me for a future issue. I'll let you guys know when it comes out.

[Edited on July 13, 2008 at 12:47 AM. Reason : .]

7/13/2008 12:44:51 AM

^^The Technician article comes out Thursday. You can probably check it out online as well.

I got a call from the News & Observer today. They're coming here to interview me on Monday for a future issue.

We should have a homebrew tasting soon. Who else is up for it?

[Edited on July 15, 2008 at 6:34 PM. Reason : .]

7/15/2008 6:33:13 PM

here it is: http://www.technicianonline.com/news/2008/07/17/ScienceTech/Brewed.At.Home-3391709.shtml

Been sampling my Dortmunder as it continues to lager. It just keeps getting better and better. Doppelbock is lagering nicely as well. I brewed 10 gallons, so I think I'm going to make an Eisbock out of half of it.

7/16/2008 11:20:46 PM