There hasn't been an /hbg/ thread since the site got taken down. Tell us about your latest batches, recipes and experiments. What is your definitive summertime beer?

>>2921463 (OP)
I'm thinking of getting into kegging now that I can afford to and my local B&M homebrewing shop sells picrel; it's a 19L soda keg that comes with ball lock connectors, tubing and a pressure regulator designed to be used with sodastream Co2 cartridges for about 250 bucks.
Is this kit worth it or is it better to build my own rig from scratch? I've heard soda stream cartridges aren't really ideal for dispensing before and am wondering if anyone has experience here.
I used to manage a bar and know how to set up keg and gas lines so the reason I'm considering the kit isn't that it's fully assembled, but whether it's cheaper than buying all the components separately.

>>2921465
They also sell a smaller 9L keg for just 10euro less which I'm also considering because it would be easier to refrigerate before I intend to use it. Currently I just have a cellar that's slightly colder than room temp which would be fine for English bitters or stouts. I'm thinking a 9L keg refrigerated overnight, with the rest of the batch bottled, would be a lot nicer than putting all my brew in a single keg at just below room temperature. I don't really have the space or budget to jury rig a separate fridge just for a beer keg.

>>2921463 (OP)
I have beem told I'm not allowed to drink to the same level as I used to (mental illness kek) so I'm going to brew super small batches of wine, like 2 litre or so and keep one bottles worth then move into making vinegar with the leftovers

Also I'll keep making spirits but start to actually age them instead of drinking them white.

Plan for this year is to make a 3 keg keezer (plus a few mini kegs for soda) and brew lower ABV beer, possibly small batches of barleywine/impy stouts again to stop myself hurting my brain lol

aboot 2 weeks ago, I made a low-to-no ABV tropical seltzer. couldn't really put an exact type on it, but it most closely resembles as Jun/hydromel cross.

Ina one gallon jug with appropriate headspace:
1 cup chucked tropical fruit (piña, peach, mango, strawb)
1 Tbs honey
1 green tea bag
1 black tea bag
a few mint leaves
Private well water to fill
EC-1118 yeast
1/8 tsp pectic enzyme

all put into jug, ferment 48 hrs, tea bags cold brew during feremnt. bottle in 16 oz, 1 tsp priming honey. let carbonate 14 days.

officially the leasr amount of effort I have ever put into a batch. it turned out amazing. very floral, dry, crisp & refreshing w/ no percievable alcohol. just fizz, refreshment & hydration. no photos, bit it was crystal clear w/ solid champagne-tier carbonation, but not overcarbed or bottle-rockets.

will be scaling up to 5 gallons & upping the tea bag ratio for a bit more caffeine lift... but not too much.

I made a session mead/cyser thing last week that I've just racked off the fruit to finish fermenting, plan is to sweeten with xylitol and bottle condition for when it gets properly hot again.


Recipe for 8 liters (roughly)

800 grams honey (a mix of 'good' honey and some dregs of cheap shite)
600 grams granny smith apples
600 grams pink lady
600 grams honeycrisp ( I think)
4 grams fermaid
pectic enzyme
malic and citric acid
S04 yeast

Chopped apples and dumped in warm water with pectic, acid and honey.
Pitched yeast and left for 1 week
Racked off fruit into demijohn

I'll let it go for another 2 weeks and then through it in the fridge to clear a little before bottling time.

should I make a beer with spices or chilies?

>>2921740
I made one of those Mexican hot chocolate stouts about a year ago and it was damn good, probably a little spicier than I was wanting but very drinkable.

Also made a random beer with all my leftovers and dumped a random amount of spices at the end for giggles.

2Kg Pilsner
1.5Kg Wheat Malt
1Kg malted Oats
0.5Kg Caramalt
0.2Kg Honey

35g Hallertau @ 30Min
10g Hallertau @ 10Min
10g Coriander Seed @ 0Min
5 Cardamom Pod "
2 Cloves "

I let the spices steep for about 10 minutes before chilling the wort, it needs bottling soon and I can definitely pick out the spices from the smell, I'll try some tomorrow and see if I need to add any more.

>>2921740
why not both/two different beerios

>>2921465
I wouldn't go with sodastream canisters, personally. Politics aside, a larger normal tank is just more useful

Just bought my first beer brewing kit, an American Pale Ale. I have a good friend coming to visit for 4th of July and thought it'd be cool to have a beer I made for the celebration. Anything I need to know before getting started? Kit below is what I bought.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IYN6Z6S?smid=A1VKXLPC5WTJCU&ref_=chk_typ_imgToDp

>>2921841
It will come out darker than you expect.

>>2921903
Damn, just like my kids...

I'm unemployed and on food stamps. I've never brewed my own booze but I need to because I'm broke and need to stay drunk. I've watched a few youtube vids on it and my conclusion so far is that the Welches grape juice wine is the easiest to start off with. I'd rather make beer or gin, but those seem more expensive to make given the equipment needed.

How can I make something strong in alcohol, that tasted ok from grocery store items?

>>2921961
When I was too young to buy beer at uni I made applejack on a regular basis.

Buy apple juice (1 gallon if that's available), dump a cup of juice out and replace it with sugar(brown is better imo) chuck a little yeast in and put the lid back on the juice but not fully tight so the gasses can escape.
Leave for like 2 weeks in a warm place (out of sunlight) and then move into the fridge for a week to clear.
Pour the 'cider/wine' off the yeast and crap in the bottom and into a clean bottle, freeze the yoke and then let in melt over another vessel, wait until there is only clearish ice left and discard it, refreeze the melted stuff and repeat a few times.
Your original cider/wine thing will be anywhere from 7 to 10% ABV, once you've freeze distilled it it may be 20 to 30ish%.
You can drink it like this but imo it's a little rough, I usually chuck a cinnamon stick and some cloves and age it for a month before removing and sweetening with maple syrup.
Should be noted that because you aren't removing bad flavours and 'dangerous' alcohols and oils like in true distillation you are likely to have worse hangovers after a night of drinking it, it's only potentially dangerous if you drink more than the equivalent of too much cider for a normal drinker but even then you're not going to go blind or die.
Also there are other ways to flavour and sweeten the applejack or the initial cider so go wild and experiment, have fun if you follow this!

>>2921841
4th of july sounds doable, assuming you start today your beer will definitely be done by say the 15th and then it takes 2 weeks to bottle condition (assuming you are doing that) though it will be better if you can leave it for another 2 weeks imo.

Chances are you'll have a perfectly drinkable beer, though as the other anon says it'll probably be darker and you might find it has a slightly odd or lacking taste, but even so it is satisfying to drink something you've made yourself especially with friends, keep everything sanitised and you should be grand. Good luck anon!

>>2921915
rip

>>2921993
he should probably also know that you probably should avoid anything with preservatives, they can fuckup the yeast, speaking of bread yeast is okay to use as its the same species as for beer just not made specifically for it

>>2921961
welches wine is easy and cheap but tastes something awful and that isn't coming from a wine snob lol

>>2921995
You can use bread yeast, but you'll get better flavor out of a brewers yeast. There's a wide variety of yeasts to choose from.

>>2922003
I agree but since he's a poorfag bakers will do, especially if he plans to make relatively low quality hooch

Do any of you guys have fruit trees? How do you manage them?

>>2922020
I make wine and such from fruit bushes and trees from my parents garden, so my dad manages then :)

Mostly brambles, apples and rhubarb

>>2921961
Get fruit from dumpsters and foodbanks, just get sugar and yeast from the store

>>2922020

I just Planted our 33rd fruit tree yesterday. oldest one 5/2022. nothing producing yet. when they start making... holy shit. it's all kinds: peach, apricot, persimmon, apple, pear, keffir, plum. berry bushes too: Elder, Black, Rasp, Gogi, Currant and probaly some others. we also keep bees.

wife is a vintner by trade.

currently, the orchard is all about survival we ran irrigation but the sun, heat & wind are unrelenting. opposite that, it's -10° and 120kmh. this weekend I've got to treat for fungus(?) (small black/brown spots on leaves.) I think neem oil or maybe Sulphur? most of the new trees seem to get it in the first years. i think it's caused by general stress, lowering resistance. got hit with a fucking biblical plague of locusts last year. we free range our guineas/chickens/ducks now, for pest control.

planting, tending & treating them takes a LOT of attention & time. I can only imagine what it's going to be like when(if) they are producing 1000 - 2000 kg of fruit that we have to protect and harvest.

>>2921961
Make sugar wine with yeast nutrient and sugar. Flavor it with kool aid when it's done brewing.

>>2922199
or buy a cheap water distiller and convert it to make rough as toast vodka

I have one of those plastic pressure barrels like a king keg.
I only serve bitter and my bock beers from it so low carbonation is fine.
The only problem is I don't have a way to keep the thing cool, hence the pour sometimes perfect sometimes pure foam depending on temperature and internal pressure.
Does anyone have any solutions or should I stick to bottling and focus on a keezer build sometime this year?

>>2922199
when you say "flavor it with cool aid", do you mean just the powder, or powder and with more sugar? Also, I would need the regular bread maker's yeast as well right? Not just the yeast nutrient right?

>>2922228
I'm trying to do this with the normal kitchen ware I have like pots and pans. Not sure how realistic this plan is though. I've seen maybe 30 YT vids on this by now and I've seen a dude making spirits with big pickle jars. But he also had copper tubing and the like.

>>2922294
Yeaasst nutrient can be boiled bread yeast, bread yeast separately for actual fermenting, I'd say koolaid powder and sugar, though I'd add that when you go to drink.( I've never had sweetened koolaid so I'm not the best judge for this )
If you add more sugar fermentation can start again so consider pasteurising your sugar wash if you want to add sugar before drinking time.

>>2922294
>I'm trying to do this with the normal kitchen ware I have like pots and pans. Not sure how realistic this plan is though. I've seen maybe 30 YT vids on this by now and I've seen a dude making spirits with big pickle jars. But he also had copper tubing and the like.
I'd save this thought for the future when you can spend some extra monies, most people agree that pickle/mason jars are grenades on a random timer

The 'easiest' still is a pot full of your wash, with a bowl on top full of ice, and a collection jug inside
>pic related
It is a shit way to do it as you can't make cuts to separate the tasty from the rank/'poisonous'

>>2922303
excuse the professional cropping, I've been drinking applejack ala >>2921993

>>2922294
welches wine will likely taste better than kilju(sugar wash) flavoured with anything, though that is a low bar to pass

>>2921993
i appreciate this recipe, but all the apple jack guys on YT already put me off this stuff. I need something without those "bad" alcohols/chemicals? whatever they're called.
So now I'm wondering how Lagers are not toxic-ish sense they are made in cold conditions like apple jack.

Sorry, I'm just trying to wrap my head around so many different methods and opinions.
It's funny. I was commenting to my brother in law about how this learning curve would be easier back in the 70's without the internet. Just ask a local dude at the parties who makes hooch how he does it! ͡¯\_(°_o)_/¯

>>2922311
The bad alcohols are in everything you brew, more so in some than others like fruit wines.
When freeze distilling you aren't making anything new just concentrating everything.
In normal distillation you can remove these across the run, with applejack they stay in the liquid.
Also they are not particularly dangerous, the ethanol in the AJ will counteract any methanol you consume and unless you drink loads nothing worse will happen to you than drinking the original cider you made, i.e if you can drink a gallon of cider without dying you can drink the resulting 1 liter or so of AJ without dying.
Lagering at cold temperatures isn't really the same thing I believe that is for the particular yeasts that are used in lagers to achieve flavours, you're not freezing the beer and concentrating it.

>>2922143
>. I can only imagine what it's going to be like when(if) they are producing 1000 - 2000 kg of fruit that we have to protect and harvest.
commercial ventures incur commercial costs.

What size trees are you planting out and aiming for size/shape in management? I've recently gotten curious about commercial fruit orchards and their intensive cordon systems.

This vid really got me thinking.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I91K0RWzGjg

Hoping to find a commercial orchard/vinyard locally I can get some practical experience at, constructive pruning seems like a dark art with how much it can affect plant development and fruiting. but there are so many complicating variables trees/ha, row width, cordon height, variety characteristics, rootstock vigour, timing of pruning, timing of thinning, management of local pollinators. the list seems endless

>>2921463 (OP)
I’m still using brewsy bags to make wine because I’m lazy. I made pomegranate wine and cranberry wine this year. Now I’m doing strawberry and it’s super sweet. Leaving it for awhile to even out.

>>2922506
Are you adding sugar or does the fruit have enough of its own? I hate adding sugar because I feel I can taste the difference (probably from tasting sugar washes) and I hate it.

>brewed my first all grain
>turned out quite good
>forgot to save recipe

>>2922841
Classic
I did the same last month making a beer from all the leftover amounts of grains in my shed and the hops from an extract kit, didn't really care when brewing it just lashed it all together and let it rip.
Pulled the first pint and was shocked how good it was, wish I could remember what actually went into it.

>>2922851
sometimes I feel like the only time I make something good is when I don't write down what what I did

>>2922818
>I feel I can taste the difference
Can you describe this flavor? There's similar sentiment in early homebrew literature but it seems to have fallen into "fudd lore" and disregarded these days

Been brewing all grain for 20 years. Just had my first batch get infected and I had to toss. Wtf. Was low abv brown so not worth the propane to still. I can only guess it was second gen yeast starter, but honestly no idea and now I'm gun shy and bleaching the shit out of everything.

>>2922922
Alright guys, I'm the first timer from before
>>2921841

I did the first steps of the kit today, added the yeast and is now setting for a few days. I'm wondering about the bottling process, I know that amazon has re-usable bottles, but why should I not just re-use like a plastic sprite jug, or old water bottles? Is it possible to reuse a twist top beer bottle? Or even a Coors metal twist top can?

>>2922922
>I can only guess it was second gen yeast starter
Happened to me the first time I tried reusing yeast, turned into hopped kvass
Still drank it

>>2922937
I'd personally avoid twist caps, I've never used them honestly but I imagine the sealing is different to generic crown caps. As far as using plastic, I'd say go for it as long as it is a pressurised bottle, i.e. sprite is good, wwater bottle isn't, prime the bottles to the level your kit describes, probably a teaspoon of sugar per 500ml bottle.
Please ask if you have any follow up/clarifications :)

>>2922922
>>2922938
+1 to reusing yeast, I don't know your method but the first time I dumped onto a yeast cake (imperial stout onto a brown ale yeast cake) I had an infection. My guess is I waited too long to dump my imperial onto the yeast cake after bottling my ale and there was enough time for something to get picked up. If you didn't dump on a cake then I imagine you picked something up when harvesting yeast. :(

>>2922909
I really can't. it's maybe a certain kind of acidic flavour but even then i'm not sure how to tell it.
If you really want to taste it to be sure make a small sugar wash to 10% (5kg in 25 liters = roughly = 10%) and taste it, it's a rough flavour to be sure, tasting a wine or cider kit using pure juice vs juice/sugar mix and you can tell the difference to be sure

>>2922851
>>2922876
I think I remembered the recipe (based on other recipes and what should be leftover)

2Kg Pilsner
1.4Kg Torrefied Wheat
1Kg Malted Oats
0.4Kg Caramalt
220g golden unrefined sugar

30g hallertau @30 mins
10g @15 mins
10g @0 mins (whirlpool)
10g coriander seed @0 mins (whirlpool)
3 cardamom pod @0 mins (whirlpool)
2 whole cloves @0 mins (whirlpool)

M21 yeast (if memory obeys)

I think I was going fopr some sort of wheat ale/gruit thing, who knows

>>2923070
In The Joy of Homebrewing it's described as "cidery", but for the life of me I couldn't discern what was supposed to be the issue there.

>>2923068
>>2922938
I always make starters, this one was pitched from previous starter and fridged till needed. I think I found the culprit though, rubber gasket in my conical smells like ass, and the valves werent exactly spotless either. I also realized this is one of few times where fermenter hadnt had tine to dry between uses. Drying is important.

Also my next batch is a sour of course. Souring now, fingers crossed.

I think I'm the outlier in preferring bottles over kegs. This way I can make different types of beer at whatever batch size I want. I have a dishwasher so cleaning bottles isn't that big a deal.

brewing a british mild today, based on a 1945 ron pattinson recipe. has some amber malt so the mash smells great.

>>2921830
Any reason why soda stream is bad from a technical pov? I'm pretty sure I've read similar opinions online before. Does it just not have adequate pressure or what?

>>2923265
got a better extraction than expected out of the mash so buffed up my batch size to 25 liters from 23. happy fucking days, and the wort tastes sublime. got some wyeast 1728 to ferment it with.

>>2923067
Thank you for the advice, I think I'll go pick up some club soda for the bottles to avoid any leftover tastes.

I do have another question, I currently have it fermenting with the blow off assembly, just started on Sunday. My kit isn't very clear about when to replace the tubing/glass of water with the airlock. It just says, "in a few days". Is there a recommended timeframe? Or is there any indication of when I should replace it?

>>2923135
>at whatever batch size I want.
The thing about a keg or cask is that the minimum headspace thing isn't actually relevant, just pearl-clutching.
Although admittedly it can throw off the carbonation calculations if you're sugar priming in one instead of running a CO2 tank, precise carbonation is OCD shit.

>>2923280
>Any reason why soda stream is bad from a technical pov?
Technical? no. Economic? Yes. You really want to pay more for less just to avoid the "scuba tank"?

>>2923309
When it stops spitting foam, you're good.

>>2921961
tomato paste+suger+bread yeast, ok-ish and ferments very fast

>>2923438
to elaborate, 70g/l of paste is plenty, and 200-250g/l of sugar should easily get you into the double abv's. roughly between 12-15%, and sometimes done within a week, depending on the temperature. i've gotten a SG below 1 in 5 days, but better let it sit for a bit to make it clear out on its own. doesn't get much cheaper and quicker than this

if you really want to make it even more quicker, stronger, and cheaper, i suggest looking into a sugar wash with turbo yeast
but the paste you can pretend you're drinking tomato wine

>>2923341
I like to make more than one beer and I don't really want to have to pay to refill Co2 I'm very cheap.

Wait the homebrewers are here rather than /ck/?
Well shit.
Now I feel retarded.

Maybe I'm retarded.
Maybe I'm about to awaken some vengeful gods.
But why not combine two things and make a sweet sherry by adding a grappa made from the same grapes back into it?
No waste, fast, strong.

>>2921961
What's not been mentioned yet: Raisin wine. Ferments out pretty fast, has a strong flavor and can be adjusted as needed.
>>2922112
Working at a food distributor is both sperg friendly and a Goldmine for the aspiring moonshiner.
8 cartoons of unsellable bananas are manna from heaven if you know what to do with it.
Baking wares+ malt/koji/nuruk are amazing too.

>>2921961
>Buy bulk rice crispies
>buy diastatic malt powder (Walmart has that)
>bring water to a simmer and let them dissolve
>allow to cool until https://beersmith.com/blog/2020/03/17/enzymes-in-the-mash-and-mash-temperatures-for-beer-brewing/ zee here
>Add 10% malt
>stir until it's thinned into a sweet gruel
>add yeast once lukewarm

>>2923475
>I'm very cheap.
What's your cost analysis on 20lbs of CO2 vs however much sanitizer you go through?
>>2923440
>get you into the double abv's. roughly between 12-15%
I've never had good luck with breaking out of the 6% range using bread yeast. It's very fast fermenter, but it's rather touchy stuff sometimes.

>>2923499
Good point. How many 5 gallon batches will a 10lb tank of Co2 serve? For now I'm ok bottling and maybe a keg is more convenient. One day I'll buy one

>>2923511
I've never done the math myself but google says ~40
For me, that's like a 3 year supply

>>2923549
Maybe I will invest in a keg one day. I'm afraid with having a keg I could make beers even faster and more efficient and it'll lead me to drinking more

>>2923554
Make your own malt, that'll put a pretty steep limit on things

>>2923558
Too autistic for me.

>>2923481
Thank you for that website looks like a good source of info!
I also copied and pasted your recipe into a notes folder and it seems easy even for a retard like me.

>>2923576
Cheers man.
I've fucked around a lot and I really like concepts that strip down everything to absolute essentials.
You can also just do it with the cornflakes but rice adds a nicer body to it and - more importantly - increases fermentable sugars.
...btw I just checked and apparently Walmart has ale yeast.
I'm not sure if it still counts as food if it's not bread yeast but frankly I doubt they make the distinction and it should ferment out a bit nicer. Or scrounge up a little bit of cash and get a higher ABV yeast from elsewhere. There's guides for keeping yeasts alive around IIRC so it wouldn't have to be a repeat expenditure.
Point being there's a lot of potential even for very basic and poverty core brewing.
PS: large juice or water containers with balloons into are great fermentation vessels but I think you already know that.
PS: Brewers yeast flakes is dead yeast. Dissolve in water prior to adding your fermentables to give your live yeast something to eat. It's not necessary but recommended for optimum results.

All the best

>>2923499
>I've never had good luck with breaking out of the 6% range using bread yeast. It's very fast fermenter, but it's rather touchy stuff sometimes.
what were you trying to make? tomato paste is such a good nutrient source i'd be very surprised if it ever failed regardless of the yeast brand. i use bruggeman's dry yeast, but not sure if that's readily available to you
my local store doesn't have it either so i have to go on a 15 minute walk, not the end of the world

>>2921463 (OP)
>recipes
Recipe my cousin was gonna do something with but then he knocked up his gf yadda yadda yadda nobody cares. Point being we brewed this a couple times during Covid when we had access to a still and way too much time. He was gonna commercialize that but the dream is dead so here you go.

Plague Wine

Malted yellow dent corn 60%
Malted Wheat 20%
Flaked Oats 10%
Malted Barley 10%

Malted corn grinds up way easier than regular but it's still a bitch. This turns into a bad pap very easily so you gotta step mash it.
Results are worth it though. This does exceptionally well as a Korn, a Vodka and a Whiskey and can take a wide range of yeasts. Even people I know that don't like spirits take well to this.
Oats are (literal) slop but together with malted wheat you get something almost like milk bread.

>>2923631
>what were you trying to make?
Elderberry wine, blackberry wine, some beer (I of course didn't have any issues there).
I was just using Fleischmanns regular stuff, never used instant yeast or Bruggeman's. I'll keep my eye peeled though

knocked out a pepper rye today, used some oak smoked wheat malt, but im not sure its going to add much as the malt hasnt got much smoke flavour. black pepper @ 3g per liter for 30mins. wort tasted great.

>>2922143
What size rootstocks? you aiming for, spindle, pyramid, etc, etc?

Anyone ever make alcohol out of clover flowers?

>>2923832
i'm from belgium btw. bruggeman's company initially started out as a distillery, then later switched to yeast production. perhaps it might explain the relatively high ABV tolerance of their bread yeast, but i'm just guessing here. had some similar results with dr. oetker's yeast. and ironically the one yeast that really struggled to get into the double digits was harvested from a high abv abbey beer, chimay (8-9%)
that was pretty early in my brewing career before i noticed nutrients matter, so take this all with a grain of salt

>>2921463 (OP)
Saw they sell low alcohol (alcohol free) yeasts.
Anyone ever use them? How do they even work.

Does anyone know of a good smaller container for making seltzer? All these kegs are huge. I need something that's about a gallon to fit in my fridge. I tried using an insulated gallon sized thermos but the lid blows off. I don't want to use a plastic container so no soda bottles

>>2924617
They don't utilize maltose

>>2924744
they make 1, 2, and 2.5 gallon corny kegs. love me seltzer

>>2924805
$100 for a 1.6 gallon keg. Kinda pricey. Also why are the 5 gallon ones the same price?

Should I just get a large keg and keep it outside? How do you guys keep your kegs cold? Do you just bottle it and put the bottles in the fridge?

Maybe I can buy a milk jug instead and drill a hole in it. They are much cheaper than kegs and look solid. Although drilling through stainless steel is a bitch.

>seltzer
this fucking zoomer garbage, i see red everytime it's brought up. have some standards, ffs.
>buy a bottle of vodka, water it down to 4%-ish, put some kool aid in it, now pretend you reinvented fire and the wheel while sipping on swill
what do i win? stupid americans. glad it completely failed to become a thing here even though they tried

>>2924744
the best container is around 9mm diameter in lead with some magic powder pointed at the back of your mouth

>>2924836
>$100 for a 1.6 gallon keg. Kinda pricey. Also why are the 5 gallon ones the same price?
supply and demand, the soda industry uses 5 gallon kegs so they're everywhere

>Should I just get a large keg and keep it outside? How do you guys keep your kegs cold? Do you just bottle it and put the bottles in the fridge?
i built a keezer, but a kegerator or jockey box also works

>Maybe I can buy a milk jug instead and drill a hole in it. They are much cheaper than kegs and look solid. Although drilling through stainless steel is a bitch.
they make alright fermenters but aren't pressure rated, especially after you drill a hole in it. amazon is loaded with cheap chink versions of these

>>2924873
what's wrong with seltzer? buy fruit on sale, boil, crush, strain, add ro water and carbonate. quit your third world coping, brown

>>2924876
you just be 18 to post here

>>2924873
I actually meant just soda water, not hard seltzer. I use the terms interchangeably. I know this is a thread for brewing but I figure you guys know stuff about pressurized kegs. Still don't understand why it makes you so mad.

>>2924921
you were using the terms right, that jeet is just trying to sound tough

>>2924900
>the soda industry uses 5 gallon kegs so they're everywhere
Not precisely, THey aren't common for soda anymore but they WERE super common during the early days of homebrewing, just the time period when soda syrup bags started to take over. So they were easily bought and repurposed for homebrewing. Now it's the homebrewing that keeps them common because 5gal is basically the default homebrew batch size

>>2924921
never understood why americans have to use the word hard, it's the same with cider. if you're just trying to make a sparkling soda then my apoligies, but hard (for the american) seltzer i consider to be the lowest of the low alcohol made as cheaply as possible and avertised explicitely to teenagers. sometimes i forget most of this board are americans and being critical of certain trends in freedomland can cause butthurt >>2924928
anyway, i'm going to shut up. i'm not contributing to the discussion and don't feel like starting a flame war

>>2925159
hard indicates alcohol added. if not adding a distilled spirit it's pretty hard to make from scratch, but you knew that, just as you knew the op was making regular old soda but (((you))) wanted to sperg out
>for the children
like a fag

>>2925061
thanks chatgpt!

Haven't had any alcohol for about 5 years and plan on going for another 5 years but after that I'm going to allow myself to drink only what I'm able to make.
So what's something i can make now that will age well for 5 years?

>>2925247
having to control yourself to not drink for 10 years sounds like you may have a problem, so coffee and cigarettes

>>2925356
Unsure if it would count as having a problem, would only drink on some weekends but when i did i tended to go a bit hard at it, never blackout but you're not drunk unless you're round under your feet. Real issue was in that I'm autistic and keep all of my plans in my head and whenever i drank those got scattered so I'd forget about stuff i had to do, also just wasn't really getting enough out of alcohol for it to be worth it, so decided to see if i could go a year without it, after a year i thought that i might as well go for another year, and after that year it seemed like a waste to drink since it would restart the counter so i decided to go for 10 years.
I've only really missed drinking about 5 times, but the idea of sitting on my porch as an old man drinking my own booze is very appealing to be.

>>2925247
Not a lot of booze is suited to aging. Wine (as in grapes, not just any fruit), really big beers, lambics, and distilled spirits (on wood) are the normal stuff to go over 2 years.
Of those, regular ol' wine is in the beginner realm and the others are more complicated

Thinking about making a lot of beer, but I've never made any carbonated drinks. Is it fine to leave it flat and carbonate it in the bottles every couple of weeks? Does it need to be stored pressurized? Is it cheaper to do it another way?

>>2925604
It is a forgiving craft. I fermented in multiple 5 gallon buckets with saran wrap stretched tight to create an airlock. Siphon into bottle whenever with priming sugar, you get fizz. Ladle in from bucket to cup, it didn't get infected before I had finished one bucket and was ready for the next. If you can get food grade hdpe drums in 10-20-30-50 gallons it's all the better. Worst part is waiting for it to clear. It's hard to screw up even if you're trying to infect a batch. So bigger batches are just way less work if you have it setup to be siphon friendly or put a ball valve in it.

>>2925247
>>2925493
can also do mead but that's kinda gay

will make a ~21 liter batch of cider tomorrow, first time after doing some all-grain batches. i'll use store bought apple juice (without preservatives) and mangrove jacks M02 yeast.
i read that i should add a pack of boiled bakers yeast as a nutrient. does it improve the flavor or anything or is it just boomers voodoo?

i am going for a light, dry and crisp drink, i dont want it to be overly boozy. i also read about adding 5 bags of steeped black tea improves taste, but in which regard and is it really that significant?

>>2925720
The tea is just for tannins. Fermaid can replace boiled bakers yeast. If you're using fancy homebrew yeast I assume you have access to the common additives. If they sell yeast and Fermaid they should have tannin powder too.
I find it tastes underwhelming using just store apple juice. The apples used for apple juice are selected to be low in taste, acid, and tannin, which are pretty important for a good cider. Frozen apple juice concentrate helps a little, but I'm usually trying to get drunk. Target 9% abv, bottle carbonate, then pour into a glass with a little syrup. Bone dry hides the haste but just a little sugar brings out the apple.

>>2925607
Thanks, anon.

>>2925604
When I was living in a real rural place I didn't have enough bottles to dispense a 30L batch I had made once, so I bottled about 20L of it and then filled the last 10L with recycled bottles a couple weeks later with zero problems. Just kept it in the fermenter with the airlock on tight after syphoning into the bottling bucket.

>>2923309
Hey guys, this post above is mine. I've had my mixture for over 2 weeks(started it on Sunday June 8th). Am I safe to bottle it tomorrow? Or did I fuck up?

>>2926507
Lotta nuance to affect that decision but in general you should be good. If you had any troubles with the fermentation then no, you should let it ride another week just to be sure

>>2925247
i should follow your example. i'm getting the morning shakes more than i want and it's becoming increasingly difficult to enter the PW for my computer. it goes away after 10-15 minutes but the PW is the first thing you enter
fuck me. apparently it runs in the family, i'm not the only one
today i woke up in bruises all over my left side but the shakes are absent. weird. still figuring out how it all works, it's a relatively recent phenomenon
presumably the judo reflexes did their thing and my left arm took most of it so i didn't crack anything. not my skull at least

>>2925202
why can't you just call it apple juice? and cider for fermented apple juice. sue me but the brits are in the right in this case
and yes english is my third language

>>2926602
cider isn't fermented, it's raw apple juice

whats the solution to silverfish going apeshit over your malts

>>2926641
Store them in a dry place

>>2926639
>Cider (/ˈsaJdər/ SY-dər) is an alcoholic beverage made from the fermented juice of apples.[1] Cider is widely available in the United Kingdom (particularly in the West Country) and Ireland. The United Kingdom has the world's highest per capita consumption, as well as the largest cider-producing companies. Ciders from the South West of England are generally higher in alcoholic content.[2][3][4] Cider is also popular in many Commonwealth countries, such as India, South Africa, Canada, Australia,[5][6] New Zealand,[7] and New England.[8] As well as the UK and its former colonies, cider is popular in Portugal (mainly in Minho and Madeira), France (particularly Normandy and Brittany), northern Italy (specifically Friuli), and northern Spain (specifically Asturias and Basque Country). Germany also has its own types of cider with Rhineland-Palatinate and Hesse producing a particularly tart version known as Apfelwein. In the U.S. and Canada, varieties of alcoholic cider are often called hard cider to distinguish it from non-alcoholic apple cider or "sweet cider", also made from apples. In Canada, cider cannot contain less than 2.5% or over 13% absolute alcohol by volume.[9]
just americans being weird i guess. english is not my first language as i said, it's a bit confusing so bear with me
>cider? no i meant that cider
ffs, just call it apple juice

>>2926639
Wine is fermented grape juice. Cider is fermented apple juice. Before it's fermented it's just grape or apple juice. Same idea with beer and wort. Pickles and cucumbers. Sauerkraut and cabbage. After undergoing fermentation the name changes to distinguish it from the unfermented form.
Or do you think should we start calling fried catfish hard sushi?

>>2926848
>>2926849
>Apple cider (also called sweet cider, soft cider, or simply cider) is the name used in the United States and Canada for an unfiltered, unsweetened, non-alcoholic beverage made from apples. Though typically referred to simply as "cider" in North America, it is not to be confused with the alcoholic beverage known as cider in other places, which is called "hard cider" in the US. Outside of the United States and Canada, it is commonly referred to as cloudy apple juice to distinguish it from clearer, filtered apple juice and hard cider.
lmao you thirdies call apple cider "cloudy apple juice" stfu

>>2926873
nobody ive met in canada calls non alcoholic apple juice cider
we shouldnt either, ive adopted cider exclusively for the alcoholic variety
t. american with canadian friends

>>2926873
ga uw braakreflex oefenen op joodse lul, klojo. enige vorm van kritiek of vragen stellen en het kot is te klein

>>2926874

>>2926873
I'm American, dipshit. As in the United States of America. Literally nobody but super old people who lived through the prohibition call cider hard cider. Go to any shartmart and you'll find ten different apple juices in the juice aisle clearly labeled apple juice. You're unlikely to find cider being sold. Marketers pushed cider extremely hard about ten year ago and spent a lot of money on advertising, but Americans just don't like cider so they dropped it as suddenly as they started pushing it. If you are lucky you can find a major retailer like Walmart with one cider, angry orchard. The rest you'd have to visit specialty wine and beer stores if you want a different cider.

>>2926878
How do you fresh press a cider

>>2926885
with a cider press retard

>>2926886
Does the press turn juice into cider

>>2926883
you most definitely are not american else you'd know in the fall apple cider is in all grocery stores for exorbitant prices

>>2926887
quit acting dumb, you put apples in, cider comes out

>>2926890
you mean apple juice?

>>2926891
cloudy apple juice, as you call it

>>2926892
you might confuse me with someone else. here we call appelsap appelsap, because it's appelsap. strange, i know

I have a wine kit I bought in 2018

Can I still use that shit fellas

Not the yeast I'd assume but the Juice?!?!!?!?!?

>>2926601
anon if you are that fucked up you need to read the AA big book
its a progressive disease that only gets worse

>>2926957
AA is a cult. i just want to drink less, not enter a religion where you don't drink at all. today is a good day, surprisingly

>>2927053
>t. never had a violent drunk in their family
some people shouldn't drink, and that's ok

>>2927075
that's the thing, i'm not violent at all, and surpisingly rational even when i have too much in my system. not driving either, i just try to keep it to myself
but this is off topic, again

>>2927087
>/hbg/
>i drink too much
very much on topic i think, it's something very few talk about in the homebrew world. at least you're noticing it. i've had pretty good success with carbonated hop water; tastes close enough to beer without being that NA crap everyone sells, let's me understand new hops, and hydrates (which is something drinkers need to remember)

>>2927053
AA isn't meetings. The "AA culture" from meetings IS a stupid gay cult. People think it's meetings, and having a sponsor, and shit.

The actual AA "program" is literally the book which you can just read by yourself, at your own leisure. The person who wrote the book, was given the program while he was dying in a hospital bed from his alcoholism, and he did the program in like 5 days.

All of the cringy AA "culture" is shit that has nothing do do with getting better and won't make you better.

Literally just read the fucking book and then do the stuff the book says, and then you get better. You don't need to step a single foot into a single meeting.

Simple as

>>2927462
used to live north of akron, good to see my area of ohio known for more than jeffrey dahmer

>>2925493
>as in grapes, not just any fruit
Unfortunate, seems like you could make a lot of fun flavors by using different fruits.
Could distill them and age the brandy ig, liqueur probably wouldn't age well at all.
>>2925645
I have probably 30kg honey so def going for that.
>>2926601
Gonna mess yourself up big time if you don't get off it anon, the drunkenness isn't worth the cost.

>>2926878
In Sweden we call it must, I'm not really sure what the difference between it and cider is supposed to be though

>>2927091
i guess you are right, but i don't want to derail /hbg/ into al/ck/

I've become a big fan of Fleischmann's yeast for brewing, even if it's a bit quirky. Very fast stuff, the metabolic heat can get out of control if you use the same amount as you would dry brewer's yeast.
-This statement has been brought to you by your local necromancer-

I've only ever made 4 brews and I kind of don't know what to make next. I made a stout, a lager and ale. I'm real sick of lagers or at least commercial lagers, they all taste like piss. I'm debating between another stout and a "blonde" ale. I'm still learning and going off recipes so I don't have the experience to actually pick and choose and make my own original donut steal recipe. I'm just rather undecided what I should make.

>>2929529
make a smash so you can start to get a palate for different grains, yeast, and hops

Looking at buying a fruit press for apple juice and cider this year instead of renting one and the apple trees are heavy this year.

I'm wondering if a rack press instead of a barrel press might be worth it since I have a frame for one already but.

I can't really find info on how Guinness was brewed before nitro became the norm. They had 2 casks one with "high beer" and the other with "regular"(?) I'm trying to perfect my stout I really do love it. I'm super interested in traditional brewing and how they did it before the invention of kegs. I know they bottle conditioned with priming sugar or yeast. I just can't find much more on how they made Guinness before nitro was injected.
>>2929611
Good idea I'm still no expert but something to think about eventually/

>>2929993
traditional brewing is fun until you actually do it. first you need to find cheap barrels, but your beer doesn't last long unless you have a breather and you need a beer engine, but then that brings you into to 1700s. next your mash is going to take 4+ hours depending on how efficient you can boil portions of it, only to realize breweries solved that with steam in the 1800s. and then you walk away from it all, poorer, realizing modern brewing gives you all around better beer and the only "tradition" worth keeping is bottle conditioning

>>2929993
I worked in pubs in Ireland with guys who were old enough to remember the old school tap system. There were 2 taps leading to 2 separate kegs of the same stout: one was highly pressurized which was the "head". it was poured into the bottom third or so as a foam until it settled into a creamy head. then a second barrel of low carbonated stout (think English bitter) was poured into the tilted glass at the side of the head until it was topped off. in those times it was normal to use a knife to clear off overflowing head. apparently it was simply too difficult a system to implement outside of ireland, because it was quite complicated and required experience, so they introduced nitrogenated stout to produce a similar product for the export market

>>2930088
>They told me that until the 1960s Irish stouts were served by the “high cask and low cask” system. Drinkers demanded a good creamy head on their beer and this was achieved by racking some finished stout into casks, leaving it for 24 hours, and then blending it with unfermented wort [sugary extract] and yeast. The casks were then stored for 10 days while the wort and yeast started a further fermentation.

>In pubs, the casks were placed on stillages with the highly-conditioned stouts on the top level and casks with less lively beer below.

>“The top casks were known as the gyle casks,” Sean O’Leary recalled. Gyle is a brewers’ term for a finished batch of beer. “The publicans would fill glasses three-quarters full from the high cask and then top them up with flat beer from the low cask.”

>The gyle casks had timbers one and a half inches thick to withstand the pressure of the fermenting stout

https://protzonbeer.co.uk/features/2020/05/13/the-highs-and-lows-of-draught-guinness

I've got about 750 bucks in backpay from a job I did coming in this month and thinking of spending some of it on my setup. What would (You) rather purchase:

>A keg and tap setup, possibly build a movable minibar with ambient insulated keg storage underneath
>A 500$ brewing robot, (You)r current setup is BIAB with a propane burner that you must use outdoors which makes brew days somewhat dependent on weather

>>2930784
obviously the tap setup since its always useable for regular beer

>>2930784
there's a lot more you have to take into consideration brewing inside. ventilation, waste, etc. get your taps right first and foremost, make a keezer

>>2930792
>its always useable for regular beer
I will probably have to get a soda keg however
>>2930793
I've never had any experience with brewing robots so I never considered that stuff. How do they compare to BIAB for example? The possibility of fine tuning my temp changes and getting my exact FG are tempting but I do really enjoy the process of chilling outside for 2 hours stirring my big pot over the burner

>>2930897
if you're referring to something like picrel they definitely make things like step mashes and hitting your temps way easier and more hands off, otherwise what "brewing robot" are you looking at? i'd steer clear of anything claiming to brew beer completely hands off or in an automated way, too many moving parts and complexities

>>2930897
Also conflicted over getting a 9L vs 19L soda keg: both are around the same price but the 9L keg can be refrigerated in my normal fridge without much hassle and the other half of the batch can be bottled for ageing. 19L is handy but I don't think I would drink it that often by myself to justify kegging 19L of beer

My setup would be a table sized box with a pinewood frame, plywood facings on dolly wheels. Inside the box I would glue or staple insulating foam panels on all sides and it would have a removable panel facing the tap side for changing/loading kegs. I would be large enough to fit 2 small kegs and 2 bar taps mounted on a tiny bar with an outline to an exterior Co2 tank. Kegs would be chilled in the fridge 24 hours before I intend to tap them and they will hopefully stay cool at least 12 hours in the insulated coolbox.

>>2930898
It is indeed similar to this, it's a locally produced Grainfather type electric brew kettle

>>2930904
the grain ather is pretty good, i don't have one but have heard good things about it. brewing inside you need to take into account electricity, ventilation, and waste, pretty much in that order. honestly though if you're not kegging yet i would go that route, or you can do both if you diy your kettle

>>2930901
dude people give away chest freezers all the time, all you do is swap out the temp controller with a fridge controller or get one of those plug in pid controllers and add a wood collar for your taps, then you can do full size kegs and whatever else needs to stay cold

>>2930907
>if you diy your kettle

>>2930915
if you're in the usa (aka first world), go to harbor freight, buy the cheapest step bit they have. next buy the pull through tool, silver solder, and 2-4 tri clamp bulkheads (depending on what features you want, e.g. whirlpool, thermowell) from brewhardware: https://www.brewhardware.com/product_p/ptbulkhead_tool15tc.htm

use dawn and the step bit to hog out 1 1/4" holes, then pull through tool to pull the bulkheads in and silver solder that up with a torch (use indirect heat).

for the logic, get an inkbird pid controller: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01KNXETWS
and a tri clamp heating element: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B08GLRZTWD/
you'll also need the accompanying wiring and a project box. wire that all up, you've got an electric kettle. if you want to mash you just need to find a mesh basket that fits your kettle.(china sells all shapes and sizes), add a pump for recirc and you've got pretty much what clawhammer offers. if you're good with coding you could use an rpi pico to automate step mashing to get it to grainfather status but it's not difficult with the controller to just change the target temp manually when needed

>>2930920
also it's so much cheaper to go with two 120v elements than one 240v because of gfci, but depends on your country. also allows you to brew in the kitchen where you generally have two separate 20A circuits and during mashing you'll only need to control/power one element.

i did it all with standard outlets in a project box, i've since upgraded to a different setup but it's really not that hard. picrel is my controller, i still use it for controlling the peltiers that heat/cool my fermenter but circled in red is all you need for mash-only. blue is a separate circuit for pumps. also i can't stress enough to make sure your shit is gfci protected; maymay or not it's at least something that will protect you against a fuck up

>>2930920
>>2930922
thx for the info anon but welding & wiring are a bit outside of my wheelhouse

>>2931243
melting a ring of solder around the bulkhead with a torch, nothing like welding. and the wiring consists of connecting screw terminals. pretty basic diy stuff

bump, wtf is everyone brewing goddammit?