^^^ I guess it's just too early to get real pumpkins? Did you get any specific kind of canned pumpkin, such as one without preservatives? Also, did you taste your beer at all? Since you are waiting to put the spices into the secondary, I can see keeping it in there for a while longer being smart.

^^Hope your friend gets better. We will be thinking about him.

^Awesome find. I have been looking on craigslist for a while for a propane burner. I have heard a lot of mixed things about aluminum vs. stainless steel. My friends and I used aluminum the first time we brewed and, honestly, we did have some metallic taste in our beer (as brewing noobs, this could have been due to a lot of different faults on our part). Since then, I have switched it up to S. Steel and never looked back. Let us know how the aluminum works out for you though. And, I use beer brite. Never had any contaminations.

[Edited on August 31, 2009 at 7:11 PM. Reason : Beer Brite]

8/31/2009 7:10:38 PM

^I did taste the Wort before I put it in the fermentor and it tasted very pumkpkiny.... In a good way.

I got the 2 cheapest 30 oz cans of pumpkin I could find at Harris Teeter and they happened to be organic. I do not however know if they have perservatives in them.

But yeah, since the recipe called for more malt than I usually use I figured I'd age it a little longer. I've found with my beers that the bigger the beer, the more aging it usually needs to mellow. This is sometimes a function of ammount of hops used too but I decided to err on the side of caution for this one... Plus... I'm sure I'll take a sip with the old Wine Thief around october and see how its coming. If its good That bitch will be bottled in time for Halloween .


^^ As far as Iodophore and Sani-Star go... I use both. Iodophore for a quick cleaning/no rinse for bottles and buckets. Sani-Star if I'm cleaning new bottles/letting stuff sit for a day or so. A big plus with the sani-star is that it will remove the labels off of bottles for you. They just peel right off after an hour of soaking. Then you just have to wipe off residual glue and you're good to go.

8/31/2009 9:34:58 PM

I didnt realize you could use Sani-Star for peeling off labels. I usually just use a bleach/water solution and it certainly takes longer than an hour. The one bottles I can never get to peel off are Magic Hats. Something about the glue they use.

8/31/2009 10:20:27 PM

Funny you should mention it. Magic hats take a little longer than an hour with sani-star. But most all other labels come off pretty quick. (I just sanitized and delabled a 12 pack of the magic hat summer collection)

One further tip: Get a steel wool pad or just use a dry sponge and wipe off the glue with that when you pull the bottles out of the sanitizer. Paper towles will do the job but you run through so many.

9/1/2009 12:45:25 AM

I am interested in trying the product of Raleigh home-brewers. I am also willing to pay some reasonable fee for the opportunity.

9/1/2009 2:58:42 AM

I'm not in Raleigh, but I'm sure you have a brewing club somewhere around you. Go to one of their events.

Also-- it's illegal to sell home brews.

9/1/2009 10:41:28 AM

^ It's only illegal without the proper licensing.

9/1/2009 11:41:18 AM

We could all get together and drink homebrew if MovieGuru23 and a few others wanted to pitch in. Then the people not bringing Homebrew could bring some premium(non budweiser) beer to support the cause.

I have a Pale Ale that was fermented with Wheat Beer yeast (kinda interesting) and a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale clone that are ready.

The only problem is that I don't live in Raleigh anymore so we'd have to do it at someone else's place.

MovieGuru23, You interested?

9/1/2009 2:54:00 PM

I picked up a kit a few weeks ago and am going to the American Brewmaster beginners class @ Tir Na Nog tonight. I hope to start on my first batch, a Hefeweizen, in the next week or so.

Do ya'll get your ingredients locally or do you order them online?

Anyone been to the Fifth Season store, formally Garden Works Hydroponics, off Hillsborough/Western/Jones Franklin? I know they recently got bought out and added beer & wine making materials.

9/1/2009 4:28:04 PM

I get most all of my ingredients locally. I'm from charlotte so I do pick up some dry malt extract every now and then when I go back home as the store there has really good prices on DME. (I mostly use LME though)

From what I've seen of prices online, you're probably better off buying from AB.... especially after paying shipping.

If you start brewing a lot you can allways just buy in bulk, i.e. 30 lb cubes of LME, to save money.

9/2/2009 10:34:27 PM

how do you know if fermentation has stalled?

got a porter going now, brewed sunday, been bubbling heavily and constantly untill yesterday, and seems to have entirely stopped.

OG of 1.070

bucket for primary, so cant really tell if the krausen has subsided, but seems really quick to have done so, with a very high level of fermentables.

9/4/2009 11:15:53 AM

And furthermore, how does one restart a stalled fermentation?

9/4/2009 1:24:10 PM

Take the top off and take a gravity reading. If its stalled I'd add a dash of yeast nutrient and shake it a few time like you're aereating the wort again but just for like 30 seconds.

Also you could transfer to secondary if it has stalled. This would probably restart fermentation as long as there is still sugar left.

I've never had a beer stall but then again I've only done 2 or so beers with that high of an OG...

4 days does seem quick for a beer of that gravity to be mostly done in, although I've had 1.053 beers finish in 3 days.


^^ What temp. do you keep your house/where you ferment?

[Edited on September 4, 2009 at 2:53 PM. Reason : s]

9/4/2009 2:51:57 PM

Prior to taking the top off and exposing it to the air as Amkeener suggests, read through this - this should give you a little more to consider.

pilgrimshoes - fermentation stalls for a few reasons, so I'll just indicate the typical reasons, and you'll have to figure out which is your situation.

#1 - high OG (> 1.050 to 1.055)
#2 - old liquid yeast packet (yeast viability decreases over time, even though it's vacuum-packed), always check the date on the package prior to purchasing to ensure you have the most viable yeast culture when ready to pitch
#3 - high OG + old liquid yeast packet - fermentation is guaranteed to stick if you're starting with a high OG and the liquid yeast packet isn't going to work completely because it's old
#4 - high temperature at pitching yeast (if you created a yeast starter with water over 100 degrees, it likely killed most of the yeast)
#5 - high temperature during fermentation - check the optimum temperature for the yeast if you used liquid yeast pack, it's likely if the room temperature went over 78 degrees, it could have killed the yeast (b/c heat is generated inside the carboy during CO2 generation, and the inside temperature could rise as high as 83 degrees)

pilgrimshoes & Boone:
Recommendation - shake the bucket vigorously to bring yeast back into attenuation, which might buy you some more fermentation for another day or so (don't worry, you run no risk of oxidization at this point since CO2 has replaced any oxygen that originally existed in the deadspace of the bucket.

After another day or two if bubbling has stopped COMPLETELY or you're down to 1 bubble a minute (some say up to 4 bubbles, but I've let it sit an extra 4 to 5 days and it wasn't stalled, it was just very slow), you'll need buy another yeast packet to restart fermentation. You won't need to create a starter unless FG is still very high (over 1.040). If you use a liquid yeast pack, just smack and pitch after transferring to secondary (if you have a secondary fermenter).

Let me know if you have other questions and I'll do my best to help.

9/4/2009 2:58:00 PM

someone give me something to read that gives me an overview of the whole process to brewing.

i'm interested in it..but have no idea what is even really involved.

9/4/2009 4:29:11 PM

^ Allways a good start is John Palmer's How to Brew... and here is a link to the first edition:


http://www.howtobrew.com/intro.html

Other than that there are numerous websites with forums where probably every question you can think of had been answered or atleast discussed.

Also a ton of good books out there. The easiest thing to do is just to go get a kit and a startup set. If you have a 4-5 gallon pot your first 5 gallon batch can cost you as little as $50-60 bucks including equipement.

9/4/2009 5:25:21 PM

cool. yea i had been reading over that. watched a few videos on youtube too.. looks pretty do-able

9/4/2009 6:26:29 PM

guys, that's so much for the great information...

i think i may have been a bit early to jump to the stalling conclusion, or maybe it's restarted on it's own or something

i just sat down beside it with a watch, started the count after a bubble, and two nice bubbles came in the next 60 seconds..

I was going to rack to secondary today, but may wait until Monday now.

Quote :

" ^^ What temp. do you keep your house/where you ferment?"

72 at the thermostat, but i know my room is a degree or two warmer due to window placement.

I live in a condo, and the storage basement is not climate controlled, so have to use a closet

Quote :

"#1 - high OG (> 1.050 to 1.055) check #2 - old liquid yeast packet (yeast viability decreases over time, even though it's vacuum-packed), always check the date on the package prior to purchasing to ensure you have the most viable yeast culture when ready to pitch used a WLP005 (http://www.whitelabs.com/beer/strains_wlp005.html) vile, with a "best by" date in late october. my local shop keeps a great variety of very fresh white labs viles, as they move a lot of them and keep the inventory moving. optimum fermenting temp for this strain is lower than i have the condo, but there's a certian someone who's rather cold blooded roaming around often. perhaps it was not the best choice for a higher gravity porter.. so i'm assuming this would not be the case however. #3 - high OG + old liquid yeast packet - fermentation is guaranteed to stick if you're starting with a high OG and the liquid yeast packet isn't going to work completely because it's old ^ #4 - high temperature at pitching yeast (if you created a yeast starter with water over 100 degrees, it likely killed most of the yeast) I did not use a starter. Maybe I should have. I have not used a starter before with the liquid white labs yeasts. the wort temp at pitching was 70-73 depending on moving the thermometer around in the bucket... hoping that's as much of a temp delta across the wort that there was. according to the vile, this should have been within the optimum pitching temp. pitching timing and strategy is something i've been wondering about and feel as if it's one of the weak points in my technique. with a strain like this, with the og that high, would a starter have been recommended? #5 - high temperature during fermentation - check the optimum temperature for the yeast if you used liquid yeast pack, it's likely if the room temperature went over 78 degrees, it could have killed the yeast (b/c heat is generated inside the carboy during CO2 generation, and the inside temperature could rise as high as 83 degrees) I'm assuming this is quite possible and I need to have better monitoring where i'm actually fermenting."

Unfortunately, I dont have a target FG for this one, but will likely take a sample monday and decide to push to secondary or let sit for anothe few days...

if anything all the reading i've been doing the last day or two and the above posts by Amkeener and bjkepler00 have been quite informative and helpful.. thanks!


[/quote]

9/5/2009 8:07:25 AM

pilgrimshoes - Since you didn't create a starter with a gravity that high, I'd bet that's where your problem came in. I'm betting your fermentation has nearly stalled at around 1.024, but wait until Monday to rack it to find out.

I've done about 10 batches of beer in the last year that had an OG over 1.060, and I've had 4 stall already this year for a variety of reasons (from temperature increase, to no starter, to old yeast). For my latest batch (OG of 1.065) I created a 2L starter 3 days in advance of pitching just to be safe.

In general, you should aim for a FG under 1.016 for most styles (@ or under 1.012 is ideal). And if you're above 1.020 you're going to very likely have a sweet beer. This may be the goal in some cases (see: Trappists), but in most the goal is for the bitterness/flavor/aroma of the hops and complexities of the malt to come through, and you lose a lot of that when the beer ends up too sweet (in my opinion).

Let us know how it ends up.

9/5/2009 9:58:39 AM

Amkeener, yeah I would definitely be down for a TWW home brewing meeting. Right now, the only thing I have left is some of my Belgian whites from the summer. I would almost rather wait for some fall beers to be ready though. Besides pumpkins, has anyone else got any plans for autumn brews?

9/5/2009 10:42:19 AM

I'm joining the club! just brewed a batch of st. helens stout. I messed up though and forgot to check the gravity. Can I still do that (I brewed it late last night), or should I just go without?

9/7/2009 10:58:18 AM

Are there any homenbrewing shops around Raleigh that might be open today?

9/7/2009 12:08:23 PM

^^ i would not expose the beer at this point to take a sample.

your fermentation should have started pretty well by now, and you dont want to allow more oxygen into the fermentation chamber at this point. also, contamination risk while the brew is a room temp is higher... even if just dipping for a sample.

9/7/2009 1:47:39 PM

^ Thanks, is there any other way to check the alcohol content when its done?

9/7/2009 2:00:22 PM

not that i know of

the only formula i know uses the differential between og and fg

did you use a kit? the og for the kits can be predictable and you can estimate

[Edited on September 7, 2009 at 2:38 PM. Reason : someone else may know though]

9/7/2009 2:38:04 PM

1985 - you could take a reading off your bucket if you have a spigot, just sanitize the spigot well. You won't get a great reading since the fermentation process has already started, and probably vigorously, but it's better than nothing. If you have to take the top off and rack a sample, then I agree with pilgrimshoes, it's not worth aeration.

The only reading style I'm aware of is the difference between OG and FG, but as pilgrimshoes suggested, if you made this from a can of extract, they probably leave you with a goal for OG. And if you didn't use a can of extract, but you are using software like Promash or Beersmith to put together the recipes, you can probably gather a relatively close OG.

1985 - if you know the SG, you can pretty well calculate was your OG was based on how long it was boiled, assuming your boil and evaporation rates were consistent (I usually achieve an increase of 0.05 to 0.08 per hour depending on boil/evaporation) - I realize this is a wide margin of error, but again, it's better than nothing.

9/7/2009 3:07:43 PM

^ Thanks for the advice, I just left it and will have to go without knowing this time.

I have another question - It's been 4 days since i started fermenting, and the bubbles are going really slowly already (every 30 seconds), I thought they would be quite fast during this time. They never really got above 1 per second. Am I ok?

9/10/2009 10:51:07 AM

what type of beer are you brewing?

if there's a low level of fermentables in the beer, it may not take too long.

plus, 1 bubble per second is straight rolllllin'

9/10/2009 11:00:03 AM

^ It's a stout. Good to hear 1 per second is good, I was imagining it would be something more along the lines of boiling water


Oooh, and it makes my house smell sooo good.

[Edit] I just read the rest of the thread, and my questions were answered above this, Ill check those things out first. [/edit]

[Edited on September 10, 2009 at 11:21 AM. Reason : .]

9/10/2009 11:14:17 AM

you're referring to bubbles passing through the fermentation lock right?

what type of fermentation lock are you using?

9/10/2009 11:30:10 AM

http://www.hummingbirdvineyards.com/Images/FermentationLock.jpg

9/10/2009 11:41:50 AM

cool.

i use a three piece:



i guess im skewed in considering a "bubble" enough collection to lift the cap up and bubble out

9/10/2009 11:46:35 AM

I like the S shaped ones as you can see the bubbles better. Also, one of my brew buddies had a 3 piece airlock shoot off of his primary fermentor one time. He may have overfilled it though.

9/10/2009 2:26:35 PM

Quote :

"In general, you should aim for a FG under 1.016 for most styles (@ or under 1.012 is ideal). And if you're above 1.020 you're going to very likely have a sweet beer. This may be the goal in some cases (see: Trappists), but in most the goal is for the bitterness/flavor/aroma of the hops and complexities of the malt to come through, and you lose a lot of that when the beer ends up too sweet (in my opinion). Let us know how it ends up."

just racked to secondary. 13 days in primary.

gave the primary a good shaking monday or tuesday.

FG was 1.020, and boy, it's an interesting brew.

pulled a sample while racking, and it's quite nice already.

smooth, but you can def. tell it's ~ 7% abv.

a play off the goat scrotum ale/porter, but maltier and more hops..

steeped:
1 lb crystal malt
1/4 lb roasted barley
1/4 lb black patent
for 30min, 160 deg

in the boil, 6.6 lbs plain dark malt extract
2 oz 12.5% AA Chinook hops
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup blackstrap molases
1 lb corn sugar
2 tsp gypsum
10 fresh serrano chiles
6 oz dark baking chocolate

60 min total, finished with 1/2 oz cascade hops, 4.5% aa, 2 min.

probably going to leave in secondary for a week, bottle next weekend.

most.. off the wall brew i've made yet.

9/11/2009 7:07:06 PM

So did you pitch more yeast to drop the gravity more in the secondary? and the question now is how did it taste during transfer?

I had a friend make a chipotle ale last year which was unusual, but I'm not sure if it's something I'd sell or make in any quantity over 2 gallons - it was one of those beers you make or drink and share like half the bottle just because of what it is.

I'll be interested to hear how yours turns out - it's very adventurous - by your grain bill it looks like you made 5 gallons, right?

I have a trappist/alt that I did in January that's still bottle-aging (room temp) - it had a bunch of similar sugar-based ingredients (honey, baking chocolate, brown sugar, golden raisins), but nothing crazy like chilis. While planning the recipe though none of these things were accounted for, so I adjusted the numbers after the fact and as far as I can tell I ended up with about 15.5% ABV, a FG of about 1.018. Three months ago when I tasted it, and it definitely had the character of a trappist (I did use trappist ale), but I left it in the secondary for about 2 weeks, and have (I recommend you leave yours in the secondary for 2, but bottle-age at room temp for about a month to get the best flavor balance).

Remember, if a beer doesn't taste good after a week, it might turn out better after the flavors have had time to combine and mellow (plus the strength of the alcohol mellows as well) - this becomes even more relevant when you're throwing in ingredients outside the malt and hop realm. Some beers require 2-6 months to properly age for this to happen.

9/11/2009 11:02:20 PM

yes it was a 5 gallon batch. i drew a sample to taste during the transfer. I did not find it overly sweet, so i did not pitch more yeast.

Actually, it was super smooth. A touch sweet, great aroma. I was drinking a malty malty marzen initially, so kept the sample for a few hours to try again. On retry after not having a bias, it was still nice. Had a touch of a coffee flavor (which i'm assuming was from the roasted barley + chocolate), and only a very slight hint of the peppers. A thick, rich, but yet smooth porter. I strained the peppers out of the wort prior to pushing to primary, so i'm assuming this muted the pepper influence dramatically. I shared the sample last night with two friends who are very experienced homebrewers and they were both quite excited about the final product.

so, we'll just have to wait and see how it'll end up.

I've got travel plans the weekend after next.. So if i do an extended period in the secondary, it'll either have to be 2 weeks, or 4 weeks....

that trappist sounds quite awesome

[Edited on September 12, 2009 at 7:14 AM. Reason : e]

9/12/2009 7:11:06 AM

Anybody had any luck growing hops/other perenials from cuttings?

My buddy gave me a cutting from his centenial the other week and its doing pretty good:



I also got a cutting from the cascade plant growing over at American Brewmaster:


The top leaf is curling and probably won't make it. Any ideas on whether sticking the stem down into water is a good idea. This is generally how I root all of my cuttings.

I'm thinking about trying and growing these indoor this winter with about 400 watts CF for about 16 hours a day. If they really take off I may shorten the light period and see if they will flower indoors(i can't let them get too tall though... Maybe 5 -8 feet tops).

Any suggestions would be great. I'm also reading up on the indoor cultivation of the Hops cousin for tips that may apply to this situation.

My ultimate goal is to plant them in the spring along with some other rhyzomes.

9/16/2009 8:51:08 AM

I brewed my Pumpkin Ale Wednesday (but was without internet for a week). I researched a lot of recipes, but didnt like any, so I created a hybrid (which was probably an awful idea) of ingredients and techniques. Here is my recipe:

6.6 lb Amber LME
1.65 lb Light LME
1 lb 2 Row Pale Malt (meant to pick up Pilsner)
1 lb Vienna Malt
.5 lb Caramunich Malt
2 oz Styrian Goldings Hops (1.5 oz as bittering, .5 oz aroma)
3 small baking pumpkins
5 cinnamon sticks
1 tsp ground nutmeg
8 whole cloves
Nottingham Ale Yeast

(Apparently I can't do math. As I was looking for about 7 lbs LME, I went over 8. Needless to say, my wort was extremely sweet)

First, I prepared my pumpkins by cleaning them, cutting into 2 or 3 inch pieces, and baking for about an hour until they were soft. Then, I removed the meat from the skin. (I got about 3.75 lbs of pumpkin meat at the end of this process) I steeped my grains and 2.5 lbs of pumpkin at 155 degrees for 45 minutes. I know you arent supposed to squeeze grain bags, but I couldnt help but squeeze the muslin sack that held my pumpkin!) I added the LME and brought my wort to a boil, adding my bittering hops. With 15 minutes left in the boil, I added my hops and with 10 minutes I added my spices. With 5 minutes left, I added a nylon hop bag with the remaining pumpkin (mostly just to sanitize it). After cooling the wort, I added this bag of pumpkin to the fermenter (a la dry hopping) and pitched my yeast. OG was 1.060. As my batch was already very sweet and pumpkiny, I only left the extra pumpkin in the bucket for 48 hours. Fermentation was very aggressive. I will probably rack to secondary sometime this week and condition for a week and a half to two weeks. Still, should be ready before Halloween!

9/20/2009 5:30:30 PM

OK, so I tried my first home brew batch starting yesterday morning. It was an 'underfunded' affair.

3 lb grain
some water
some hops
7 grams yeast
some molasses
It's like 2-2.5 gallons.



Last night, it's bubbling like a moped. This morning, nothing.

http://home.roadrunner.com/~modlin/101_3046.mov


Could it be done already? I thought fermenting took like a week.

9/27/2009 8:43:46 PM

Did you mash that grain? What was the fermentation temp? How much molasses? What kind of yeast?

9/27/2009 9:34:10 PM

Yes.
About 153, after a brief trip up to 170 (too much hot water), and then back down to like 120 (too much ice).
2 tablespoons, roughly.
Cooper's Ale yeast, 7g package.

9/28/2009 9:02:51 AM

Strike that second answer.

Mashed at 153. I chilled the wort to 79, transferred to the bucket, then added the yeast. The room it's sitting in is about 72, and it's not in the sunlight or anything.



I did not add the yeast at 153.

[Edited on September 28, 2009 at 3:48 PM. Reason : I'm a DA]

9/28/2009 3:47:42 PM

I've never seen a brew bubble that much. Is that a result of the molasses?

I wouldn't worry even about it.

9/28/2009 6:46:16 PM

^I'm not sure. It's my first time making this form of alcohol.


Would you toss some more yeast in there, or just go ahead and bottle it up? Maybe move it somewhere colder or warmer?

9/28/2009 8:20:28 PM

bjkepler00 gave a couple methods of restarting fermentation near the top of this page, but I wouldn't really worry about it.

The rapid bubbling only takes place for a day or so. Given the incredible speed of your bubbling, it would make sense that it finished more quickly than usual.

I'll defer to people who know more about this sort of thing, though.

9/29/2009 10:36:42 AM

Whatever you do, dont bottle yet. I'm sure there is still fermentation happening (even if it isn't as rapid as before) and the last thing you want is all of your bottles exploding. I can't say i have ever worked with that batch size before, so I don't know, but I would let it sit longer if I were you. Do you have a hydrometer? If so, you should check the gravity every few days when you think your beer is finished. If it continues to stay the same, you should be good to bottle. But really, dont rush it. It wont hurt your beer to sit a while, even after fermentation. In fact, most people like to condition for a bit in the bucket (or carboy).

9/29/2009 12:35:03 PM

I agree with MovieGuru23, don't bottle yet. Your best bet to be safe and not lose a drop of sweet, delicious beer is let it condition for at least a few more days. The fermentation is suspect given how violently it fermented, but it's not a bad thing.

The quantity of molasses seems right for the total volume you ended up with so it wouldn't be the sole source of the vigorous fermentation.

Count how many bubbles are still coming out, if it's more than one every minute let it go a few more days. Even given the size of the batch, you're still likely to need a full 5 to 8 day initial fermentation period to allow the yeast to work out the diacetyl (which causes a rather unpleasant buttery flavor) that tends to build during fermentation. After it appears the fermentation has completed, letting an ale rest for 2-3 days extra allows the yeast to clear out this diacetyl (I've learned this the hard way on a couple batches). See: http://beerme.com/diacetyl.php for more info on this process.

9/29/2009 2:35:14 PM

I've never used cooper's yeast before, but after a quick search it seems that people who have used it have noted very vigorous fermentation, so it doesn't sound like your situation is out of the ordinary. Also the "recommended" temp range for that yeast is 62-72, so if you pitched at 79, you pitched too warm. You also have to remember that fermentation is exothermic, so just because the ambient temp is 72 (which would be the upper range for this yeast) it doesn't mean you're actually fermenting at 72.

9/29/2009 3:55:18 PM

Coolio. Thanks everyone.



More time, no bottles it is.

9/29/2009 8:10:43 PM

In keeping with my economical theme, I now have three 2-liter bottles of home brewed beer sitting in the fridge (I just realized they ought to be at room temp, so I'll be getting them out and restoring to room temp tonight), and late-addition two 12-ounce bottles which I'm pretty sure won't work out since I re-used the twist off caps that the bottles came with.

Thanks to everyone for all the help.

10/7/2009 10:27:03 AM