ah, very nice jmo I make a lot more wine than beer, because I find i dont drink enough to keep good beer on the shelves, and because I do all-grain brewing, I tend to make 10 gallon batches at a time if I have a recipe i like.

wine however, I make a lot of wine. generally 1 gallon batches, but have made 4-6 gallons also, but that tends to be table variety stuff.

It has made my other hobby, woodworking become more useful as I keep building new wineracks...lol

Yeah 1 gallon batches are the way I generally go. Then if you experiment and it turns out badly it's not too much wasted, but if it's good you still have around 5 bottles to enjoy.

Ha, being able to build your own racks would be pretty useful!

Ya. 5 bottles isn't a bad test batch

yes. my brother and i make about 15 gallons a month of wine/beer. keg it and keep it in a dedicated fridge in the basement. wine gets bottled.

actually pressing apples today from my orchard for hard cider. we have a home made press, and we throw in maple syrup and other fruit for added sugar...usually finishes around 9.5% abv.

Ya. 5 bottles is a good test batch. Problem with wine is you gotta wait so long to see if ya kikeit.lo

9.5 is a good cider. Never tried it and I live in an area with the sweetest apples in america.....should try

Ishirk, what is the fermentation process on cider? Is there a cook phase, like with beer, or similar to wine?

I find wine far more difficult, cuz you have to micro manage it more, beer just has one long day of cooking, and then maybe racking to a 2nd bucket/carboy later (not always)

Wine, I have to take readings often, especially in the beginning, and stir it a lot in the beginning. Lot of steps in the process with wine, unlike with beer Beer is just that one day of 6 hours, and you got 10 gallons of beer about 4-5 weeks later...lol

Even brewing almost 30 years. Recently got into competitions and have 5 medals to my name. One is a gold from last summer and my recipe will be a pro-am collar with a local brewery. Just dropped my Imperial Brown ale into the secondary to dry-hop with Willamette and Fuggles. That’s my entry in to our local home brew group’s Advent exchange. 5 kegs are in constant rotation in the keezer.

Stupid autocorrect. Supposed to be collab not collar.

Ah very nice. Been to a few competitions to spectator but never entered. Love brown ales a lt. Not a big ipa fan st all thoigh

How big are the kegs? 5 gallons?

Hamilton, you AG it I assume? I do both, all grain and kits depends what Im doing, and how much time I have. I usually keep about 3 kits on hand from Midwest or NB, and have a good stockpile of 2 row and pick up what i need form the local HBS when I have the hankering to do AG

I have 3 friends who also homebrew, so we tend to buy bulk grains, and split them up between us.

@stressedlines, The kegs are 5 gallons each. I haven’t used a kit for about 15 or so years. Everything has been all grain since then. As my salary increased, the equipment gradually became better and better. Our group does bulk grain buys, so I can get a 55 pound bag of two row for about $24 Canadian. Minus the cost of the hops and the yeast, the propane, and my time that is about 12 cases of beer for about two dollars each. Some kegs will be gone in as little as a month, where as my gold medal winning stout was in the keg from November until the beginning of June. Coming in at 7.5% alcohol, it wasn’t one that I got to sample as frequently as my other beers.

oh, nice price on the two row...damn, I am jealous now

7.5 is a bit more than I like to put to mine, I like low 6s give or take .5

I use the kits on occasion, If i want a 10 gallon batch, I go AG, if I want a 1 gallon batch tester, I go AG, but for the 5 gallon batches, especially the smooth brown ale from Midwestern, I will use the kits.

I do the wine more anyways, and my friend does mead also I never developed the taste for mead, bit sweet for my taste, and since my taste in wines tends more to the dry side it makes sense to me

@stressed --
cider is surprisingly easy. we just heat it slowly to about 160 F to kill off as much bacteria and wild yeast that we can, then cool it down to fermenting temp. add yeast and ferment for a week, and another week for conditioning. can carbonate in the bottle, but if it gets kegged we just use CO2 so its quicker.
you can mess around with the flavor and ABV by adding sugar or spices.... seriously though it is the easiest thing in the world. you can do it with purchase cider just make sure it doesn't have preservatives or it will kill your yeast.

Hmmm. The Apple farms here sell bulk #2 apples for canning and such. Maybe I can use a press to make my own?

You can....we get 2 gallons of juice per bushel of apples. A bit of work, but satisfying. Our press is 4 x4s a bucket and a car jack.

easiest way to try it though is to just buy preservative free cider and experiment. pressing is fun but a whole day of work usually. 10 bushels for our standard double batch. not bad work though, since we are usually drinking during.

I'm kinda tired and don't want to risk alienating anyone by being a little too eager to talk about my niche hobby (on a Diplomacy board game website forum, *clearly*), but I'll just say that I didn't know a single thing about homebrewing or mead 10 months ago and currently am on my 95th gallon. You can find my logbook here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1cAcORYDGBK3aH_GfibiLvZgGNAnfY-yaIa1oXUkBSaI/edit?usp=sharing and lordy I'm happy to answer any questions :) Just sent some bottles out for my first ever competition, the Knickerbocker Battle of the Brews and the Northeastern Regional Home Brew Competition (both of them had local pickup at my Local Home Brew Store so I didn't have to pay shipping). If anyone is interested in mead making speak up and I'll send you the learning resources and answer any questions you have. (I don't make beer or wine, they're icky)

Anyone here near Guelph, ON, Canada? Escarpment Laboratories Inc has some strains I'd be interested in getting...

What would you need exactly? (I'm in Waterloo ON, so ~20 minute drive away)

Ideally one of each of their Brettanomyces / Bacteria / Sour Blends shipped to MA, USA.

http://www.escarpmentlabs.com/strains

Valis, I'm just about outside of Guelph. Our local brewing group has been talking up Escarpment for quite a while. I think, or I'm inferring, that one of our members works there.

Cold brew coffee Mead won 2nd in Mead category at 21st Knickerbocker Battle of the Brews! Using Stumptown's Hair Bender beans.

At the 12th annual New England Regional Homebrew Competition Cold Brew Mead got 1st place in Spiced Mead and 4th place Best In Show for Mead!

I've brewed a little bit here and there - beer and mead. I'm hardly good at it, but I'm still learning. All-grain is the way to go. I'm a fan of rich and complex dark beers, which makes this an expensive hobby and I generally can't yet brew what I like to drink.

@Hamilton - where do you buy malt from?


@Valis - that spreadsheet reflects a hobby to be proud of, and I'd love to hear more about it. What is Avacado honey? Why was Pumpkin mead ever a good idea? :P How did the dragon fruit turn out? What are the "Black Swan" sections - infused with wood flavo(u)rs? Congrats on the Cofffeevee. I've only brewed mead twice, and it was before I really got into brewing beer. Do you have a recipe that'd be good for a beer brewer?

Avocodo honey is honey made from avocado blossoms, which just like other more popular fruits have flowers that the bees can utilize pollen from. It's known for being *extremely* dark, very sweet, with some buttery/vegetal undertones.

The pumpkin mead was a bad idea because it wasn't sweet. Pumpkin without sweetness is literally just gourd pulp.

Black Swan products are woods that one might make a barrel out of, but in 1-5 inch honey-combed pieces. http://www.blackswanbarrels.com/honey-comb-barrel-alternative/

Mead is logistically / equipment wise 10 times easier than beer making. The only thing you might not have is the yeast nutrient, which is extremely important, but your local homebrewing store should have a Fermaid K / Fermaid O / genericYeastNutrient packs.

in a 2 gallon bucket:
3-4 pounds honey (dry to sweet)
1 gallon spring water
Whisk the fuck out of it to dissolve honey and add oxygen. Take SG reading.
Optional: Add fruit
1 gram of Fermaid O
Rehydrate 71B according to packet instructions and add.
24, 48, 72 hours in add 1 gram of Fermaid O and gently stir to degas.
From now until forever oxygen exposure should be limited as much as possible.
Let sit for 1 more week.
Autosiphon to a 1 gallon carboy with 1 camden tablet.
Take SG reading. Optional: Add fruit/spices.
Let sit for 2-12 months.

I made a crazy beer 2 years ago. Do not recommend doing the following if you are inexperienced or reckless.

2 gallon brew bucket (sterilised)
Wooden spoon (sterilised)
900 Grams of raw honey
1 Jar of malt
1 Sachet of pilsner yeast
120 grams Dried henbane flowers
1 gallon of water

Dissolve honey in 1 litre of water pour in bucket
Light boil henbane in 1 litre of water. At to bucket.
Pour in malt.
Stir.
Add rest of water.
pour in yeast.

Leave for 2-3 weeks. Bottle. Add one spoonful of sugar to each bottle before the alcohol. Leave 2-4 weeks. Drink (exceptionally) responsibly.

Do no exceed more than 2 beers Henbane has some very strange properties and can be v.dangerous/toxic/fatal in high amounts. At low dose expect a giggly, weed/mushroom like high mixed with beer & a tranquilizer. At higher doses expect blackout drunk/psychosis.

Please note that is supposed to say 5 Gallon bucket and 4 Gallons of water. For the love of god do not brew that much henbane into 8 pints ;)

For God's sake use METRIC. every other country in the world does.

I also brew beer. My main problem is not drinking the fuckers before they are ready to share *hic*

@valis - Thanks for the thoughts! I'll have to try the recipe out. :)

Do you do anything to the fruit before adding it? does it need a special washing or something, or just cut it open and throw it in?

If it's citrus remove the pith, berries just need a good wash and light crushing/blending, stone fruits such as peaches should have skins and pit removed. I recommend mango or berries for easiest time.

Thanks!

We have some raspberries out back, so I may start there.hmmmm

I also brew beer at home - have been for 20 years or so. My brother and I are the fourth generation of family who have made some sort of alcohol at home. I'm not a sciencey kind of homebrewer. Nothing wrong with it if you are, I just don't have the patience to be precise all the time. I'm much more slapdash punk rock throw everything together and let's see what we get. It's worked so far.

I also make krupnik and homemade infused liquors (blackberry brandy right now). Since the cold Wisconsin winter is coming the krupnik will come in handy. Cordials are stupid easy to do and unless you have a still you get to cheat a little bit by buying store bought spirits.

I'm jealous, I'm sure you get legit fruit in Wisconsin, I used to do Raspberry and Strawberry picking there every year

Henbane sounds fucking metal

Thompson Strawberry Farm is near my hometown. I didn't get there this year but I have a great strawberry liquor I like to make.

I got some fantastic apples at an orchard this weekend. Some year I'll make homemade cider. I need to invest in a good press first. Another expensive toy to get...

My local homebrew shop does cider runs where you drop off your 5 gallon bucket and 30 bucks and then the next day it comes back from the farm outside the city full of 5 gallons of fresh pressed raw cider.

Going to visit Moonlight Meadery (have already gone once) in New Hampshire this weekend to spend my $25 gift card :D

Also going to work out with my co-conspirator exactly what we want to brew for next month. Gotta plan your mead a bit in advance.

Anyone else got homebrewing plans this weekend?

Love homebrews

I wanted to make some homebrew for Christmas so I'm probably getting the ingredients this coming weekend.

just cracked open this season's hard cider (apples grown and pressed right here on the farm). 7.9% -- brewed with straight cider and molassas and brown sugar to bump the % a bit. delicious. try to drink it slow enough to make it last through New Year's.
Saison yeasts make the best cider, I've discovered. Wine yeasts make it too clean.

Im looking to start doing this. Making my own brews.

@ishirk What was the starting gravity and final gravity? Do you carbonate?

@Valis starting grav 1.054 -- finished out at .998 i think. We do carbonate and keg it up, although we put some in 22 oz bottles for aging.

@ishirk - Sounds delicious.

@brain - It's not terribly complicated. My recommendation is to start simple. Most homebrew shops are really helpful. Mine offers classes and even has preassembled kits with everything one would need. It's as easy as following a recipe and it's a great way to learn the process. I got a friend into homebrewing that way. There is an initial cost for the equipment but after that it's just buying ingredients. Keep your equipment clean, pay attention to the wort temperature when adding the yeast, and don't ferment in a place that's too cold. Everything else will sort itself out.

@brain,
as grumbledook alluded to, as long as your keep your equipment sanitized, it is really difficult to mess up. Even if the recipe doesn't turn out like you imagined, you will still have drinkable beer.

https://imgur.com/gallery/yTryy

I just started 11 batches of ciders each with a different microbe(s); here's some pictures 11 days in

Just taking some pretty pictures to show off the differences in color and krausen.

Logbook here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1jVkYBmx-jf3q6UMkkcpGeMMGem7DTFGurWb_PyGZlxo/edit?usp=sharing