Ok, so, Homebrew Junkie is in a little bit of a funk right now. I wanted to ask all the readers what it is that you have questions about when it comes to brewing beer? Please leave these questions in the comment area and I'll go through them and begin answering them in the "ass-ton" way that I do! Don't hold back and I won't either.
Can you brew with dirty socks? Hell Yeah!
What about pantyhose? You betcha. You can use them for steeping or for dry hopping in the keg!
What about using fresh rabbit? Uh, I don't know about that one.
Anyway, please feel free to respond.
Thanks.
Homebrew Junkie!
Oh, I'll be doing another video on Smoking malt soon, too.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Thursday, July 8, 2010
How to Make a Yeast Starter for Homebrewing.
In this video I walk you through how easy it is to make a yeast starter, how large your yeast starter needs to be and why it's important to make a yeast starter for home brewing.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Controlling Fermentation Temps in the Summer: Part 3
There is another way you can really keep a tight control on your fermentation temps during the summer. It involves some more money but it's a great way to do it. And that way is to take a chest freezer and convert it over to a kegerator or a fermentation chamber. It's really easy to do. First you want to purchase the right size freezer. Once that's done then you're going to have to get a Johnson Controller; you plug the freezer into this and put the thermometer in to the freezer and it overrides the internal thermostat on the freezer. You can then dial down the temp to what you want. It's a great way to ferment lagers, too. If you're looking to convert the freezer over to a kegerator then you're going to have to take the lid off, build a simple wooden collar (I built mine out of 2x4's) and then mount that on top of the lip of the freezer and then reattach the freezer lid. You can then drill in to the collar to mount faucets for your kegerator. I'll snap a couple quick photos of mine to show everyone what I'm talking about.
And there you have it. That's all you really need to know about maintaining fermentation temps in the summer. So you don't have any more excuses not to brew beer in the summer time! So have fun brewing and I hope the tips helped.
And there you have it. That's all you really need to know about maintaining fermentation temps in the summer. So you don't have any more excuses not to brew beer in the summer time! So have fun brewing and I hope the tips helped.
Friday, July 2, 2010
Controlling Fermentation Temps in the Summer: Part 2
If you don't want to bother with the rubbermaid bin and iced jugs method of cooling and are looking for something that has more longevity with cooling, then your second method is purchasing a large enough cooler to hold your carboy or bucket. You can then cut a hole in the top of the cooler so the airlock and rubber stopper can poke out of it. Fill the cooler half way again and then add some ice to keep it cool. Monitor the temperature every other day until primary fermenation is done. If you live in an extremely hot area, then this is one of the best options for you that isn't very expensive and can absolutely save your homebrews during the summer time and still allow you to brew during the summer! And that's what we all want to do, right?
*Please note, image taken from Ken Blair's Site.
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Controlling Fermentation Temps in the Summer: Part 1
During the summer, many homebrewers and wine makers are faced with high temperatures which sometimes dissuade them from brewing beer or making wine. There are a few simple, and easy methods to control fermentation temperatures for your beer or wine in the summer time and here is one of them.
The easiest way is to purchase (or if you already have one) a rubber maid storage container bin. They are easily large enough to contain either a carboy or a bucket. Fill the container up half way with regular water. Reuse some soda bottle containers or milk jugs and fill those up with water and freeze them in your freezer. Place your fermenting vessel in the bin with the water and put a frozen container in the water. This method can easily shave off 10 degrees, especially if you're fermenting in a cooler basement. Every day check the temperature of your fermenter by using a stick on thermometer (although not entirely accurate, it will give you a general idea as to what the temp is on the fermenter). Pull out the thawed jug and replace with another frozen jug. Do this as necessary until fermentation is complete.
It's really that simple and this method can be applied to doing lager beers in the winter time.
The easiest way is to purchase (or if you already have one) a rubber maid storage container bin. They are easily large enough to contain either a carboy or a bucket. Fill the container up half way with regular water. Reuse some soda bottle containers or milk jugs and fill those up with water and freeze them in your freezer. Place your fermenting vessel in the bin with the water and put a frozen container in the water. This method can easily shave off 10 degrees, especially if you're fermenting in a cooler basement. Every day check the temperature of your fermenter by using a stick on thermometer (although not entirely accurate, it will give you a general idea as to what the temp is on the fermenter). Pull out the thawed jug and replace with another frozen jug. Do this as necessary until fermentation is complete.
It's really that simple and this method can be applied to doing lager beers in the winter time.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Big Brew Session June 2010
Ales and Lagers Carbonated with Yeast a.k.a A.L.C.Y homebrew club had their first big brew session of the year in June 2010. We brewed up 45 gallons of stout and had a blast. Here are some pics, so enjoy!
Jim and Denny scooping out the rest of the mash water.
Sparging the grains, look at how dark that wort is! It's beautiful!
Fly sparging the wort. It smelled really good and looks like oil!
The final collection of wort in the big brew kettle
Look at that hot break! We tossed in some Northern Brewer whole leaf hops for bittering and boy did they smell delicious.
Sean (in the A.L.C.Y. shirt) and Dan enjoying good conversation and homebrew.
Some yum, yum, yummy food . . . brats and chicken on a stick with some homemade bbq sauce and honey mustard sauce.
Chilling down this bad boy with Denny's Monster chiller. It has four individual 1/4" coils running down on all sides. It took about 40 minutes to chill it all down using well water. Not bad for a warm summer day.
Finally collecting all our hard work. We'll see how everyone's turns out.
Some of the members hanging out, enjoying good company and good beer. We had a great time. Can't wait to do it again.
Jim and Denny scooping out the rest of the mash water.
Sparging the grains, look at how dark that wort is! It's beautiful!
Fly sparging the wort. It smelled really good and looks like oil!
The final collection of wort in the big brew kettle
Look at that hot break! We tossed in some Northern Brewer whole leaf hops for bittering and boy did they smell delicious.
Sean (in the A.L.C.Y. shirt) and Dan enjoying good conversation and homebrew.
Some yum, yum, yummy food . . . brats and chicken on a stick with some homemade bbq sauce and honey mustard sauce.
Chilling down this bad boy with Denny's Monster chiller. It has four individual 1/4" coils running down on all sides. It took about 40 minutes to chill it all down using well water. Not bad for a warm summer day.
Finally collecting all our hard work. We'll see how everyone's turns out.
Some of the members hanging out, enjoying good company and good beer. We had a great time. Can't wait to do it again.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Fermenting in Corny Kegs
I've recently started brewing more lager beers. With lager beers you need to ferment them at 50-55 degrees. That being said fermentation control is necessary in order to get good results from the yeast. The only way I have to control this is through my kegerator. I don't have a huge kegerator and using carboys is out of the question because they are a lot wider than corny kegs. So, I've started to ferment lagers in corny kegs.
Here are some points to consider when fermenting in corny kegs:
1. Since lager yeast is a bottom fermenting yeast, it doesn't normally create the huge krausen that top fermenting ale yeast does. That being said, you don't need a lot of head space when fermenting lagers in a corny keg.
2. With the above in mind I brewed up an extract lager using nothing but Zeus hops and I topped it up to 4.5 gallons . . .just to be safe so that there wasn't any kind of blow off coming out of the keg.
3. Once you pour your cooled wort into the keg and top it up to 4.5 gallons the easiest way to vent it is to either pull up on the release valve on the keg lid and keep it released or just take off the release valve pin by unscrewing it, if it unscrews and either insert an air lock or just cover up the hole with a sanitized mason jar. There's no need to put a blow off tube on the IN post of the keg. So, don't do it. Unless you have one of those release valves that can't be taken apart from the top. If that's the case, then attach a blow off tube to the IN disconnect and attach the blow off tube to it and put the blow off tube into a mason jar of water.
4. To be on the extra safe side, use some fermcap-s to keep control of any kind of krausen on the beer. You can use this if you are fermenting ales or lagers. It will keep the krausen down to about an inch. It works great.
5. You'll also want to strain out any kind of hop debris from the kettle if you are fermenting in the keg. More on this below.
6. Once fermentation is complete you'll want to pull out the keg for 1-3 days at room temp for a diacetyl rest. This will allow the yeast to clean up any kind of by-products it released during fermentation and if you leave it at room temp longer then it takes the "green" away from the lager and allows you to keg it, lager it and drink it a little faster.
7. After your rest then you'll want to "jump" the keg to another keg. Add 1/2 gallon of water to second keg to make 5 gallons before transferring fermented beer to the keg. Simply hook up an Out disconnect to another OUT disconnect with some tubing in between and set your co2 to about 3-5 psi so you can push the beer from one keg to another. Make sure you attach your co2 disconnect to the primary fermenting keg! Attach the lid to the new keg and vent the gas pressure when you see any kind of slowing down in siphoning the keg. This keeps the beer in a state of constant co2 so you don't have to worry about oxidation. You may pick up some yeast sediment from the first keg, but that's normal. This is also why you want to strain off the hops. You don't want hops going through your dip tube and clogging up your poppets when you "jump" the kegs. That's just a pain in the ass!
8. Once transferred to the second keg, "lager" it at 34 degrees for 2-6 weeks, tap it and enjoy.
Here's the recipe I used for the Zeus Pils I made.
Zeus Pilsner Summer Beer, with a bite!
7 lbs extra light liquid malt extract
1/2 lb 20L crystal malt
1 oz zeus 16% a.a 60 min
2 oz zeus 16% a.a 5 min
S-23 German Lager yeast 1 packet
Ferment for 2-3 weeks, jump to next keg and lager for 2-6 weeks, enjoy.
P.S. I've never used 100% Zeus hops in a beer so this should be interesting. Zeus, Tomahawk and Columbus are all the same hop and I've used Columbus before, so it should turn out to be a nice hoppy, crisp beer with some bitterness and great flavor.
Let me know how yours turns out if you try this out! Cheers!
Really simple.
Here are some points to consider when fermenting in corny kegs:
1. Since lager yeast is a bottom fermenting yeast, it doesn't normally create the huge krausen that top fermenting ale yeast does. That being said, you don't need a lot of head space when fermenting lagers in a corny keg.
2. With the above in mind I brewed up an extract lager using nothing but Zeus hops and I topped it up to 4.5 gallons . . .just to be safe so that there wasn't any kind of blow off coming out of the keg.
3. Once you pour your cooled wort into the keg and top it up to 4.5 gallons the easiest way to vent it is to either pull up on the release valve on the keg lid and keep it released or just take off the release valve pin by unscrewing it, if it unscrews and either insert an air lock or just cover up the hole with a sanitized mason jar. There's no need to put a blow off tube on the IN post of the keg. So, don't do it. Unless you have one of those release valves that can't be taken apart from the top. If that's the case, then attach a blow off tube to the IN disconnect and attach the blow off tube to it and put the blow off tube into a mason jar of water.
4. To be on the extra safe side, use some fermcap-s to keep control of any kind of krausen on the beer. You can use this if you are fermenting ales or lagers. It will keep the krausen down to about an inch. It works great.
5. You'll also want to strain out any kind of hop debris from the kettle if you are fermenting in the keg. More on this below.
6. Once fermentation is complete you'll want to pull out the keg for 1-3 days at room temp for a diacetyl rest. This will allow the yeast to clean up any kind of by-products it released during fermentation and if you leave it at room temp longer then it takes the "green" away from the lager and allows you to keg it, lager it and drink it a little faster.
7. After your rest then you'll want to "jump" the keg to another keg. Add 1/2 gallon of water to second keg to make 5 gallons before transferring fermented beer to the keg. Simply hook up an Out disconnect to another OUT disconnect with some tubing in between and set your co2 to about 3-5 psi so you can push the beer from one keg to another. Make sure you attach your co2 disconnect to the primary fermenting keg! Attach the lid to the new keg and vent the gas pressure when you see any kind of slowing down in siphoning the keg. This keeps the beer in a state of constant co2 so you don't have to worry about oxidation. You may pick up some yeast sediment from the first keg, but that's normal. This is also why you want to strain off the hops. You don't want hops going through your dip tube and clogging up your poppets when you "jump" the kegs. That's just a pain in the ass!
8. Once transferred to the second keg, "lager" it at 34 degrees for 2-6 weeks, tap it and enjoy.
Here's the recipe I used for the Zeus Pils I made.
Zeus Pilsner Summer Beer, with a bite!
7 lbs extra light liquid malt extract
1/2 lb 20L crystal malt
1 oz zeus 16% a.a 60 min
2 oz zeus 16% a.a 5 min
S-23 German Lager yeast 1 packet
Ferment for 2-3 weeks, jump to next keg and lager for 2-6 weeks, enjoy.
P.S. I've never used 100% Zeus hops in a beer so this should be interesting. Zeus, Tomahawk and Columbus are all the same hop and I've used Columbus before, so it should turn out to be a nice hoppy, crisp beer with some bitterness and great flavor.
Let me know how yours turns out if you try this out! Cheers!
Really simple.
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