Counter Top All-Grain Brewing Part 1

Brewing up an all grain IPA on the Counter Top. Check it out.

Counter Top All-Grain Brewing Part 2

Brewing up an IPA on the Counter Top! It's easy to do, just watch the video.

What do I do if I have a stuck fermentation?

This question seems to come up a lot with both wine makers and beer makers. There are a few simple things that you can do to get the fermentation going again in your beer or wine.

First off, you want to take a hydrometer reading. You know what a hydrometer is, right? That little glass thingy that you probably broke far too many times and have had to replace. Anyway, this is THE only way you can tell what's going on with fermentation. DO NOT rely on airlock activity. I've had plenty of people say that their wine or beer is still working after months of just sitting in a carboy because they see bubbles coming out of the airlock. Please don't rely on airlocks. What happens during primary fermentation is that there is an ass-ton of carbon dioxide being produced. Since it all can't go up and out of the airlock or blow off tube it has no other place but to get dissolved into the solution of the beer or wine. So if you see activity in your airlock months after primary fermentation I can 99.9% guarantee that it's just residual co2. So always use your hydrometer.

Now, if your hydrometer is reading above 1.000 (for wines) or higher than you expect your final gravity to be for beer, then the first thing you want to check is your temperature. If your beer (ales only) or wine is in a cooler place . . . 65 degrees or lower, then the yeast tend to slow down and possibly go dormant. So I suggest to warm up the beer or wine and gently rouse the yeast up with a sanitized spoon to get it back into suspension. Let it know that it still has a job to do!

If this doesn't work then you can add more fresh yeast to see if it will take off.

If that doesn't work either then it could be your ph, especially with wines. If your ph is too low then your yeast will automatically die. You can use ph strips to see what your ph level is. Anything lower than 3 and it's too acidic for the yeast and the yeast won't take off. You can use some acidex to help drop out some of the acid to raise your ph level or you can dilute your wine down with some water. Water usually has a ph of 8. You can also cold crash your wine. Simply place it in an area that's close to freezing for a few weeks and the tartaric acid will naturally start to crystallize and drop out of solution. You'll see it at the bottom of the fermenter; this may take a few racks to get the desired ph level. Once your ph level is above 4 then you can add some more fresh yeast.

One other thing is alcohol tolerance. Yeast have specific alcohol tolerances. That means they can only grow and produce up until a certain saturation of alcohol and then the alcohol will kill them. You're going to have to check the alcohol tolerance of your yeast and base that off of the alcohol in your wine or beer to see if you've reached the max tolerance for that yeast. If you did reach the tolerance then you can possibly add more yeast that can handle a higher alcohol tolerance. If you do this then rehydrate the yeast in water first before adding. If you add the yeast directly to the alcoholic beer or wine then the alcohol could kill off as much as half of the yeast because it can't fully hydrate itself and prep its cells walls to do their job.

If you still can't get your fermentation going after all of that, then you may just have a permanently stuck fermentation. If the beer or wine is too sweet then you can blend it with another beer or wine that's similar to cut back on the sweetness.

Good luck and I hope you don't get any stuck fermenations!

Vinator Bottle Rinser: Review

If you're like me, then you probably can't stand bottling wine or beer when it comes to that time. I used to mix up 5 gallons of sanitizing solution and soak my bottles, drain and repeat the process until I had enough bottles for bottling. What a pain in the ass that was, and on top of it, it was a waste of sanitizer and really messy. Well, that's when I started using the Vinator Bottle Rinser. Boy, this device saved me a lot of time and hassle when it came to bottling.

The Vinator Bottle Rinser has a very basic design. It simply has a strong spring on the inside that, when pushed down, squirts sanitizer up into your bottles. The great thing about the vinator bottle rinser is that you don't need a ton of sanitizer to sanitize a slew of bottles. It keeps reusing the same sanitizer. Two pumps and the bottles are sanitized and ready to go. It's really that simple.

I use mine all the time, especially when bottling wine. It's easy to use, compact and not difficult to put together.

So if you're not enjoying sanitizing your bottles then the vinator bottle rinser is the way to go. It will cut down on time, money and sanitizer. Give it a shot. I'm sure you'll wish you would have purchased one of these sooner!

Fermencap - S: Review

Tired of always watching the pot while you brew your beer so you don't have any boil overs? Tired of attaching a blow off tube to your fermenter just in case if it blows its top? Well, Ben's Homebrew now has a new product called Fermcap-S. Fermcap-S is an anti foaming liquid that you add directly to your brew kettle or to your fermenter in order to prevent boil overs.

I'll be honest, I was a bit skeptical when I used this stuff. I wasn't sure if it was going to work. So I brewed up a batch of beer and just to try out Fermcap-S, I decided to make sure I had a decent foam going for a boil over. I added 2 drops per gallon of wort and immediately all of the foam subsided. I was amazed at this stuff.

One other great thing about fermcap-s is that you can now collect 7 gallons of wort in a 7.5 gallon brewing kettle. Why, because you don't have to worry about it foaming up and boiling over. You can squeeze more wort into your kettle for the boil. It's awesome. And, you don't have to worry about watching it at all.

Fermcap-S also works the same way in the fermenter. Add 1-2 drops per gallon of wort, pitch your yeast and fermcap-s will hold the krausen (foam) to a 1/2 inch. That's pretty freakin' sweet if you ask me.

And if you're at all worried about fermcap-s causing issues with head retention in the final product of your beer, then don't sweat it. After primary fermentation finishes, fermcap-s drops out of solution to the bottom of the fermenter, so you can just rack right off of it.

If you don't have fermcap-s then I recommend you get some and try it out. One vial lasts a long time and you're never going to have to worry about boil overs or blow offs with your beer. I'm definitely going to be using it with every beer that I brew. No more worries for me. And that's what I'm talking about.

P.S. I'll be demonstrating how it works in an upcoming video. Then you'll get to SEE what I'm talking about!

Happy 2010!

Well, after a 3 month long hiatus from blogging, I just wanted to let everyone know that Homebrew Junkie is back! So all you homebrew junkies, don't fret. I have plans for new videos and new blogs. This year I'll be focusing more on using liquid yeast and reviewing liquid yeast. On top of that I'll be writing and doing a video on How to Make a Starter for your liquid yeast. We'll be doing some other crazy stuff like smoking malt and chipotle's for a chipotle smoked porter. I'll also be building and video taping how to build a hop trellis. I moved and need to build a new set up for the hops.

So I just wanted to give a shout out to everyone that there will be new things this year and if you have any other suggestions as to what you'd like video taped or blogged about, please feel free to leave those suggestions in the comment area.

Thanks. I can't wait. It's going to be an exciting year. I hope you all will join me!

Citra Whole Leaf Hops - Review

Citra Whole leaf hops are a brand new hop that's just recently reached the homebrewing world. Citra hops are grown by Sierra Nevada brewing company and have been used in their Torpedo Extra IPA. The only thing known about Citra Hops is that they contribute a pineapple, mango and citrus flavor. Very unique and very interesting.

Just the other day I brewed up an IPA using nothing but Citra hops and when it's kegged and ready I'll be sure to report back and post my results on the hops. If you're interested in purchasing some Citra Hops you can do so right here at the low price of $2 an ounce: Ben's Homebrew
Get them while they last. And before I go here's my recipe for citra hops.

Citra Hop IPA

3 lbs golden light DME (60 min boil)
3 lbs golden light DME (15 min boil)
1 lb Local Honey (flame out)
1 lb 40L crystal malt
1 oz Citra First Wort Hop
2 oz Citra 20 min
2 oz Citra 10 min
1 oz Citra Dry Hop
2 pkgs US-05 Fermentis Ale Yeast

Pretty simple. We'll see how she shines!

Revision: 10-29-09

Kegged it up and force carbed it. It was super fresh. These are my notes: Big pineapple, piney aroma with a touch of onion. Lots of front-forward pineapple flavor, rounds out to piney flavor and leaves a touch of onion in the back end of the finish. Interesting. It's almost like a mix of amarillo, simcoe and summit all in one.

A week has gone by and the onion flavor is gone. I have to say that this is one of the most interesting hops I've ever brewed with. This simple recipe could probably win a medal because the flavor in this beer completely blows away any other kind of IPA I've ever had. It's so unique. I gave a pint to my sister and she said, with no hesistation: "Wow, this is good." And it is good. The flavor blows away any 60 min IPA.

If you haven't tried Citra hops, give them a shot as a single addition to really understand how they work. It's freakin' awesome.