Alcohol

[FrankRizzo]

Nice find. Unfortunately my stove has an oven above the burners and I don't have an outside propane burner. I have head of people having boil overs in a matter of seconds but I boiled my wort in a five gallon pot with an inch or two of head space on full head and I didn't even get foam!

 

If you didn't get foam you weren't boiling, only simmering.

 

Superman - Read This http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/faq-alumin...-kettles-49449/

 

Unfortunately, you local brew store dude is giving you false information, and probably trying to get you to buy a more expensive brew pot. Question: Does the same store even sell aluminum pots? If yes, do you think the guy would sell aluminum pots if he *really* thought they caused health problems?

[superman1451]

Frank, thanks for that excellent read.

 

He wasn't selling any aluminum pots, but my mom asked if using aluminum would be alright and he gave that answer. So we ended up buying the pot there because we couldn't find a suitably price pot.

[Mumbles]

It's been kinda dead here lately. Might as well liven it up. I went to the brew store to pick up a few packets of wine yeast, the wyeast VSS canadian belgian yeast, and dextrose (making apfelwein, and pomegranate apfelwein) today. A half hour and $40 later I emerge with all of the above, 11 pounds of grain, a quarter pound of hops, and pale ale on the mind. I wrote down a few hops to check on, and a recipe, just for stock verification purposes of course .

 

So, on sunday, weather permitting, and assuming I get my 4 month aged hefeweizen out of my fermenter, I'm making a nice pale ale:

 

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f66/bee-cave-b...pale-ale-31793/

 

Seems to be almost the same grain bill as 2 hearted ale. I also grabbed an ounce of columbus and warrior hops. I have some Alpha King in mind. I've been on a hop kick as of late if you can't tell. I have a whole excel database of recipes I want to try. I'm not ready for summer at all Planning on brewing up a few RIS and belgian tripels too for aging until next december.

[FrankRizzo]

Mmmm...sounds great, Mumbles! I *really* want to brew this weekend too, but the water quality is shit right now due to snow melt and like a bajillion times the normal chlorine level in my tap water....it literally stings my eyes like pool water, in the shower. Tentacles and his wife can't stand the water down here when they visit me on a good day, and even I can't drink it right now. I do have a double charcoal filter setup, so maybe it would be OK, I dunno.

 

A hint with the Apfelwein: Let it age at least 4 months before drinking it. It has a very *unique* flavor while it's green, but it gets very good if you let it mellow and age. Also, carbonating it makes it sooo much better. The little Apfelwein fairy does a titillating dance on your tongue.

 

Another thing, would anyone like to do a homebrew exchange?

Edited March 27, 2009 by FrankRizzo

[Mumbles]

I'm still up in the air about the apfelwein. It's kind of a preliminary run. I am thinking about bottling in 750mL bottles. I am planning to drink one or two (5 per gallon) in the summer, and save the rest for next december. I'm sure I mentioned it earlier, but I graduate next december and it's going to be a celebration. Knowing my family, I'm going to need all the beer, wine, champagne, booze, hootch, moonshine, commercial, and bathtub gin I can get.

 

If (and when), the apfelwein goes well this summer I'm planning on making a few 5 gallon batches of it for next December. I've been stockpiling blackberries. When I find a good recipe, I'm making blackberry mead. Blackberries are one of my favorites. My grandparents/aunt (its a long story) said they'd give me all their extra fruit this year for graduation purposes. I should be getting a goodly amount of blackberries and rasberries, perhaps some strawberries.

 

Frank, I'd be up for a brew exchange. Whether you like it or not, you and Tentacles are getting at least a few bombers of beer at PGI. I have a feeling the RIS's and tripel's will be really good next year, and I can't leave you out. Theres no sense in not tasting in August and December too. Quality control and what not.

 

We could also meet somewhere in the middle, and perhaps become well acquainted with another member and his feline friends. They are very nice, I assure you. I'm certainly no oneeyedcharlie yet.

 

I found out that it's supposed to snow this weekend so my brewing may be delayed. We'll see when it happens. I can't wait. My plans for the next month are to brew 2 RIS and 2 belgian trippels, and age them for at least 6-9 months before graduation. I may brew barleywine in the summer when the farmers market starts again(I have a recipe that has a lot of honey). There will be a few IIPA's next fall too. I figure if I brew them mid-october, they should peak around mid-December. Pliny the Elder clone here I come.

[crazyboy25]

Hopefully this weekend I will be brewing a Russian imperial stout. It should be black as night and quite alcoholic.

[Mumbles]

Any special recipe? I'm looking to make an old rasputin clone. I just found out my brewshop has all the grains needed. I was having trouble finding Cara-stan. They at least have light carastan. I'm thinking of formulating my own, using a bunch of oatmeal in it. I love a good oatmeal stout. I should love it even more at 9% alcohol, right? I have my eye on this one too:

 

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f68/dark-night...al-stout-21088/

[crazyboy25]

I was originally going to do that one but I decided on this one: http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f68/double-w-i...al-stout-74932/. Because it doesn't require a starter and it got good reviews.

[FrankRizzo]

A beer that big *has* to use a starter. In fact, for a starting gravity around 1.124 like that one, ideally you'd use a gallon of wort as a starter (~400billion cells). Making starters is really not a big deal, don't skip it.

 

EDIT: Ahh...I see. The author of that recipe used (2) 11.5g packets of US-05. That would do it without needing a starter.

Edited March 28, 2009 by FrankRizzo

[tentacles]

Frank, I'd be up for a brew exchange. Whether you like it or not, you and Tentacles are getting at least a few bombers of beer at PGI. I have a feeling the RIS's and tripel's will be really good next year, and I can't leave you out. Theres no sense in not tasting in August and December too. Quality control and what not.

 

We could also meet somewhere in the middle, and perhaps become well acquainted with another member and his feline friends. They are very nice, I assure you. I'm certainly no oneeyedcharlie yet.

 

Frank and I were planning on brewing a keg or two worth of beer to take to PGI, our biggest conundrum so far is some sort of semi-portable cooler to keep the keg in. Ice is no problem staying at a hotel... ;P

 

My IPA turned out quite tasty, the bitterness is just right. I should try that other one from december-ish, it's probably even tastier now.

[FrankRizzo]

Tentacles,

 

I've got a tall, slim trash can that I picked-up last time I brought a keg down to an event in Iowa. It works well.

[Mumbles]

I was considering bringing a case or so with me to the PGI. Probably something smaller, low alcohol, and refreshing to drink during the day. Pale ale, something german, or a belgian pale perhaps. Save the big bigs for the evening for sipping around the fire so I wont care I'm sleeping in a tent.

 

You could always make/get a jockey box.

 

While we're on this. How long does it take to cool a keg from say room temp to serving temperatures in an ice bath? Would a couple hours do the trick?

[TheSidewinder]

16-gallon keg?

 

Outdoors, on a hot day (as PGI will likely be), that'd be 3-5 hours depending on how good your insulation around the "ice container" is, and given the keg is at least 75% submerged.

 

 

(I just *KNEW* that some of the knowledge gained from my beer-drinking days would come in handy sometime. )

[Mumbles]

I was thinking 5 gallon soda keg personally (picture below). They're about 26" feet tall, and 9" in diameter. Hmmmm, I know where I'm getting a former for 10" can shells You know, I do have a full half barrel sitting around though. That might be a little proactive for PGI though. What my college friends and I can drink in a few hours might be a lot for the PGI crowd.

 

http://www.brewcat.com/Merchant2/graphics/00000001/Corney.jpg

[tentacles]

That might be a little proactive for PGI though. What my college friends and I can drink in a few hours might be a lot for the PGI crowd.

 

Depends entirely on what's in the keg!!

[FrankRizzo]

This should maybe be in the occasional depression thread, but today my 15lb CO2 tank was emptied. I was force-carbing some appfelwein, and noticed on the second bottle that the regulator pressure wouldn't go above 35PSI no matter how far I turned the adjustment. That fill lasted just over 4 years, and many more gallons of beer than my liver probably cares to remember. Off to the gas supplier on Monday....

[Swede]

Amazing that a measly 15 pounds of CO2 lasted that long! What pressure do those liquid CO2 tanks operate at? Does the pressure remain constant until all the liquid is gone? I need to pick one up. Having cylinders of various other gasses has come in very handy for me over the years for a large variety of purposes, not all of them Pyro related. Nitrogen, Argon, He, etc. The argon especially I have used extensively to purge stainless containers for use in my furnace, to limit oxidation of heat-treatable steels like A2.

 

I'm trying to think up a way to delver argon to the top of a magnalium melt... I think it would work very well, but it might be a bit costly in terms of the volume of gas consumed.

Edited March 29, 2009 by Swede

[FrankRizzo]

Since the CO2 is liquid inside the tank, the internal pressure is whatever the vapor pressure of CO2 is at that temperature. My tank sits inside the keezer at 38F, so the pressure is fairly constant at ~600PSI. I run my beer lines at 13-15PSI.

[Mumbles]

So I am gearing up to brew some of these big beers I've been talking about forever pretty soon here. I had a question about the RIS though. I think some of you guys have brewed stouts before. Will the runoff from the lauter tun be clear enough to see through so I can tell when it clears up? If not, I guess I'll just run through a gallon or so, thats usually more than enough to clear up during vorlauf.

[crazyboy25]

I just ran about 2 liters through again and it was clear. I made the mistake of trying to fly sparge an RIS it went way too fast and i significantly undershot my target FG. Do a batch sparge or a long hybrid type sparge. I even contemplated draining all the wort before sparging then sparging the spent grains.

[Mumbles]

Yeah, mine really only takes about 2L, but I generally run through 4-6L just to get it as clear as possible. I do generally batch sparge. I haven't gotten great results with the hybrid method. I attached the modified worksheet I made. It is based off of Ken Schwarts' formulas, but modified to remove the scale up term(which changes the required water), and removed the mashout volume. I mash and sparge in two different vessels. The lauter tun has about an extra gallon or so of space compared to the mashtun, so I add the mashout water there. In the bottom right there is a box that shows mashtun volume needed with 2 separate grain factors. The true value seems to be closer to .08. In the top right, you can enter your mash thickness in the far more common qt/lb, and it plugs it into the calculations in the required gal/lb.

 

I am also doing a partial mash on the RIS. I am brewing a full beer, and then supplementing it with LME. I don't have to worry about high gravities.

[Mumbles]

I forgot to attach this last night.

 

http://www.apcforum.net/Mumbles/BatchSparge%20(modified).xls

[crazyboy25]

Yeah, mine really only takes about 2L, but I generally run through 4-6L just to get it as clear as possible. I do generally batch sparge. I haven't gotten great results with the hybrid method. I attached the modified worksheet I made. It is based off of Ken Schwarts' formulas, but modified to remove the scale up term(which changes the required water), and removed the mashout volume. I mash and sparge in two different vessels. The lauter tun has about an extra gallon or so of space compared to the mashtun, so I add the mashout water there. In the bottom right there is a box that shows mashtun volume needed with 2 separate grain factors. The true value seems to be closer to .08. In the top right, you can enter your mash thickness in the far more common qt/lb, and it plugs it into the calculations in the required gal/lb.

 

I am also doing a partial mash on the RIS. I am brewing a full beer, and then supplementing it with LME. I don't have to worry about high gravities.

 

I also mash and sparge in different vessels. My mash tun is a 20 gallon igloo cooler and my lauter tun is a converted 5 gallon home depot bucket. I have never used DME or LME and I don't plan to except for making starters. Nothing wrong with partial mashes but you should try an all grain RIS it is quite a challenge! Nothing like 24 pounds of grain for a 5 gallon batch.

[Mumbles]

I'm not looking at a 15% RIS. Below is the recipe I posted a few months ago. Converted to AG, it'd be 15lb pale. I have other coolers, but I'd have to sparge it in two halves. I've been looking into making a CPVC manifold, or a giant sure-screen, but thats not in the cards right now. It's not about the challenge of anything, but making a good beer. 4lbs of extract is not going to change the flavor any noticeable degree. I might do something else later, but I just want to get this made and laid down to age until december(maybe a few testers, heh).

 

9lbs Pale malt

1lb Carastan

1lb Crystal 120L

.5lb Brown Malt

.5lb chocolate malt

.25lb Roasted Barley

4lbs Pale liquid extract

 

2.75oz Cluster for 60

1oz Northern Brewer for 2min

1oz Centenial for 2 min

[Mumbles]

To anyone who has made any of that apfelwein stuff, did you prime it, or not? I only made a few one gallon batches, and would like to go with what would be better. I could do 5 of each, but that really isn't enough to test with IMO. I have one batch of normal apfelwein that is clearing nicely, and one with a quart of pomegranate juice that is already pretty clear. I started up another tonight with a pound of honey in it instead of corn sugar. It should end up as a decent mid-alcohol cyser I hope.