Alcohol

[TheSidewinder]

My 2 bottles are being carefully hoarded in the back of my refrigerator. And after reading lostfido's opinion, their value has increased. I just checked them, and the Maibock has some fine sediment on the bottom. A gentle turn or two of the bottle put whatever it was back into suspension. Not sure what it is, but I'm betting it adds to the flavor.

 

The Maibock will be savored with a Pastrami sandwich on dark rye bread, sometime this year yet, while the Munich Helles will consumed with a meal yet to be determined. Probably a hearty pot roast on a shitty Winter day. God knows there'll be enough of them....

[tentacles]

TS: Pish! It barely even gets cold there in the twin cities. That sediment is called trub, it's the yeast that so tenderly spent their lives to carbonate that bottle of beer. Some people like the flavor, and they are good for you, but generally drinking a lot of trub will give you really bad gas. It's the reason why home brewers religiously decant their beer into a glass.

 

(It's also the reason why I pressure bottle my beer from the keg)

 

Those two types of beer are particularly suited to a little aging, there's much less hop flavor and aroma so you won't be losing those, and lagers tend to age very well.

 

Speaking of hop flavor, I have got to brew me an IPA. With buckets of hoppy goodness.

[FrankRizzo]

I am drinking a glass of an awesome barley wine made by Rogue. It's called Old Crustacean...and it's gooood.

 

It's got an IBU of 110, and and ABV of 11.5%

 

Here's a crappy photo of the bottle and my glass:

http://pyrobin.com/files/barleywine.jpg

Edited October 4, 2008 by FrankRizzo

[Mumbles]

I've seen it, but the cost is what has always turned me away. I picked up a Lagunitas barley wine (Gnarly wine I think it was called) a while ago for a feast I made myself. It was delicious, and was a mini-feast in a bottle.. All the recipies I see require extensive aging to get to their peak though. Perhaps for a PGI sometime.

[FrankRizzo]

I've seen it, but the cost is what has always turned me away. I picked up a Lagunitas barley wine (Gnarly wine I think it was called) a while ago for a feast I made myself. It was delicious, and was a mini-feast in a bottle.. All the recipies I see require extensive aging to get to their peak though. Perhaps for a PGI sometime.

 

I think it was ~$12/750ml here. It's a bit expensive when you compare it to a 6'er of another premium/import beer, but it's got more alcohol (per oz) and 4X the flavor. Compare it to wine...you can hardly find a nice bottle of Pinot gris for that price. ;-)

[Mumbles]

Well, now that you've put it that way...........

 

Yeah, sounds about right. I was thinking $14, but that might be for something else I was eyeing up. I'd like to try their double IPA as well. Plus the bottle is pretty cool. I'm on the lookout for some double deadguy ale too.

[Mumbles]

So I may have just found a new favorite liquor store.

 

I picked up a bottle of the Morimoto Imperial Pilsner by rogue, and my lord is that tasty. I got a few other cool ones. A norweigan barley wine, Nøgne Ø #100, that tasted more like a stout to me, lots of dark fruit flavors. The brewery says it's supposed to be an IIPA, which is further confusing. The latest limited edition beer from a local brewery, which is a very tasty czech pilsner.

[Mumbles]

Do you guys think that a scratch in my plastic fermentors could cause subsequent infections. I just opened the koslch in preparation for bottling, and it has some shit on the top and smells terrible. This one I absolutely sanitized to the best of my ability after the last few brews, and used the wort chiller I got from tentacles, no ice this time.

[tentacles]

Take a pic of the shit? It's not just yeast cake with bubbles locked in it? What do you sanitize with? When I have questionable items, I usually mix up some of the instant death (hypochlorous acid aka bleach+vinegar) and if appropriate, etch before sanitizing. Sure it isn't just a funky green beer aroma? I had one I brewed, tasted and smelled like ass for like 2 months. I was about ready to toss it and it started tasting good.

[Mumbles]

I'll try to take a pic tomorrow.

 

No bubbles at all. It's these splotches that covers the surface of the beer, kind of dull looking. The slotches are green.

 

I was sanitizing with one step, but I think I will pick up some iodophor the next time I am at the home brew shop. I hear one-step isn't much of a sanitizer.

[FrankRizzo]

Definitely contamination from your description.

 

 

Tentacles: Etch?

[tentacles]

Frank: yeah, if it's metal and I don't have a pedigree, like that chiller for mumbles, I etch it with appropriate acid. In this case I used a bit of diluted HCl to dissolve most of the oxides off the outside - and inside- of the coil. Then I sanitized it with bleach + vinegar in appropriate amounts. It should have been as clean as anything could make it short of a long run in a hot autoclave.

 

I haven't yet done this with anything stainless, mostly since none of my brewware seems to be problematic, and also because I don't want to waste my oxalic acid or citric/ascorbic acid to passivate after etching. Plus, the whole HF thing.

Edited October 20, 2008 by tentacles

[Mumbles]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v137/Mumbles/P1010176.jpg

[Richtee]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v137/Mumbles/P1010176.jpg

 

Sigh... bad vinegar at best. And yes scratches can hold contaminates even thru casual sanitizing. BUT...use a torch on the inside and make the scratches go away! QUICKLY of course ;{)

[andyboy]

I guess I'm American since it always has to be larger than life when I do something. 200 Liter drum producing about 60 liters of 80 proof alcohol per go.

 

 

 

Edit: Yay for me, post 2800 in this section.

Edited October 26, 2008 by andyboy

[crazyboy25]

Just distilled alcohol from my turbo yeast. I got about 125ml crystal clear alcohol about 95% so concentrated it makes your whole mouth numb. I'm gonna distill it again after adding some dehydrating agent to get absolute ethanol.

 

Next up nitric acid as soon as I get my vacuum recirculating station up and running.

[Richtee]

Just distilled alcohol from my turbo yeast. I got about 125ml crystal clear alcohol about 95% so concentrated it makes your whole mouth numb. I'm gonna distill it again after adding some dehydrating agent to get absolute ethanol.

 

Not for drinking, I assume... You IS crazy!

[crazyboy25]

Not for drinking, I assume... You IS crazy!

 

No... for washing or maybe some fulminates.

[tentacles]

Well, well! I've been up to sampling various imported beers lately. I picked up 6 somewhat random, tasty sounding beers at the liquor mart, they have an interesting selection at times.

 

Recently tried Boddington's Pub Ale(UK), quite tasty! Also Marsten Pedigree ale(UK). But last night I popped the cap on a Hobgoblin, from Wychwood brewery (UK). WOW. They had an IPA from the UK, but it was disrespectfully (and foolishly!) packaged in CLEAR glass! WTF?! And it wasn't called Super Skunky IPA..

 

It's sad up here to go to a restraunt or bar, Canadians are very proud of their beer, but all you ever find on tap is BMC. And Canadian BMC clones, most of which are owned by A-B or Coors. Last week I had to choke down a Keith's IPA - it's not a bad beer, but I'd call it a pilsner, not an IPA. It was the closest thing they had to a full flavor beer.

 

I can't wait to get back down to the Cay and guzzle some sweet barley nectar. Hell, I can't wait to get HOME and pop a cap/tab. I've still got a couple things in the fridge to try. There's a Dunkel in there with my name on it.

 

Edit: Another one I tried was an Innis and Guin Oak rum cask aged beer... It was awful, but then I'm not a huge fan of big oak flavor. It just tasted like someone poured a shot of really dark rum into my beer.

Edited November 6, 2008 by tentacles

[FrankRizzo]

Made my first "wine" tonight...might be better to call it prison hooch, dunno. I got the recipe from YooperBrew over on HBT. My SG ended-up a bit higher @1.103, but that just means my cellmate ends-up more pretty, right? I'm not sure what the reasoning behind letting it stand 12hrs before pitching the yeast is, so I pitched just like I would when making beer...ASAP. This outta be interesting.

 

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f79/welchs-gra...ice-wine-21093/

 

Recipe Type: Extract

Yeast: Wine yeast

Batch Size (Gallons): 1

Original Gravity: 1.095

Final Gravity: .996

Boiling Time (Minutes): 0.0

Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 30

Additional Fermentation: Rack until clear

Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 30

 

 

Welch's Frozen Grape Juice Wine

 

2 cans (11.5 oz) Welch's 100% frozen grape concentrate

1-1/4 lbs granulated sugar

2 tsp acid blend

1 tsp pectic enzyme

1 tsp yeast nutrient

water to make 1 gallon

wine yeast

 

Bring 1 quart water to boil and dissolve the sugar in the water. Remove from heat and add frozen concentrate. Add additional water to make one gallon and pour into secondary. Add remaining ingredients except yeast. Cover with napkin fastened with rubber band and set aside 12 hours. Add activated wine yeast and recover with napkin. When active fermentation slows down (about 5 days), fit airlock. When clear, rack, top up and refit airlock. After additional 30 days, stabilize, sweeten if desired and rack into bottles.

[tentacles]

You gonna bottle that, or keg it? Or, god forbid, drink it all at once? ;P

 

I bottled our wine a couple days ago with my wife's help, but very strangely the bottoms of the bottles keep falling off! It's happened twice so far.. They're used (but in good condition) Grolsch bottles. No sign of this happening when we were rinsing, washing or sanitizing. I suspect they must have been flawed bottles. The glass just comes apart right at the mold seam at the bottom.

[Richtee]

I bottled our wine a couple days ago with my wife's help, but very strangely the bottoms of the bottles keep falling off! It's happened twice so far.. They're used (but in good condition) Grolsch bottles. No sign of this happening when we were rinsing, washing or sanitizing. I suspect they must have been flawed bottles. The glass just comes apart right at the mold seam at the bottom.

 

Now THAT'S a new one! I have used Grolsh bottle quite often back in my brewing days...never seen that. Falling...NOT blowing, right? Weird!

[FrankRizzo]

You gonna bottle that, or keg it? Or, god forbid, drink it all at once? ;P

 

I bottled our wine a couple days ago with my wife's help, but very strangely the bottoms of the bottles keep falling off! It's happened twice so far.. They're used (but in good condition) Grolsch bottles. No sign of this happening when we were rinsing, washing or sanitizing. I suspect they must have been flawed bottles. The glass just comes apart right at the mold seam at the bottom.

 

I was originally thinking of kegging it, but I'll probably bottle it. I'm not sure if I'd ever get the grape aroma out of the serving lines if I put it in a keg.

[tentacles]

I could always give you a bit of this 3/16" ID PTFE line if you're that concerned ;P

 

You might not ever get the grape flavor out of your seals, though... and you'd have Fizzy Bubbly wine for sure without nitrogen.

[Mumbles]

I've had a few carbonated wines before. They bottle conditioned it. One mead, and one Edwort's Apfelwein. The Apfelwine tasted more on the order of champagne carbonated. The mead though, it was so sweet, I would have thought it was some sort of Gormet/imported/organic soda if I didn't know better.

 

I have a batch of Hefeweizen finishing up right now. I'm going to bottle on wednesday after classes. I think I have finally broken my streak of contaminated beers. The blowoff has a faint banana/clove odor to it. I initially thought I smelled some sulfur compounds coming off, but that turned out to be a roommate cooking eggs, and not cleaning up after himself.**

 

 

** - The sulfur odor sure beats the time he left a can of sardines open for a week in the living room. I thought he loved an unclean woman for several days until I saw the source.