The Official Brewing Thread (part deux)

[OpusX]

Bottled mixed berry cider today. It has been in the fermentor since Sept 2021. Dry and tart fruitiness. Two more weeks until it is carbonated.

[zinger565]

Last weekend I brewed a basic smash blonde. It will eventually get a big dose of blood orange.

[Bonjwa]

Stout in the corner of my office that was probably done two weeks ago. Also probably in dangerous proximity to my computer lol.

Lots of oat, lots of rye, mostly chocolate malt, balanced water profile. Should be great!

Are many people on here brewing all grain? If not it's the way to go. If you'd like any help/advice getting started I'd be happy to help, I brewed professionally for a couple years

[BLachance75]

Not brewing but it is fermenting. I’m trying to make fermented garlic honey.



I ended up topping off the large jar with more honey. I should know how fermentation is going in a few days.

[OpusX]

Bottled my Cyser today. Been in the fermentor since Sept '20. Doing fine at 13.9% abv.

[Carp]

Lol..Those bottle caps make me think of the grinch. You need to draw the rest of the face on there.😁
Edit...I think...I need some sleep!

[BLachance75]

The cider carbonated nicely. I do prefer my previous method of carbonating and back sweetening though and will go back to that.

For this batch I back sweetened with erythritol then added sugar for bottle carbonating. I like the carbonation level but I’d like a little more apple flavor and for it to be a touch less dry. I guess I could add more erythritol but that wouldn’t boost the apple flavor.

In the past I would add 1 can of frozen apple juice concentrate per gallon of cider then bottle immediately. I’d fill a plastic soda bottle as well and would let the bottles sit until the soda bottle was really firm. Then I’d pasteurize all the bottles. The apple juice concentrate added the right amount of sweetness after bottle carbonating and boosted the apple flavor.

[Blackmagic71]

I just ordered a Peanut Butter Porter brewers best kit.

It’s fun to give out six packs of homemade beer for Christmas.

[BLachance75]

Bottled my cider tonight. Ended up with 23 22 oz bottles. Should be carbonated in 2 weeks, just in time for Stocktoberfest.

[EvilCreature]

Don't be afraid of buying stuff used. Everything is much cheaper, often lightly used. Worst case is you need an oring or two and some keg grease to get things going. Regulators are something to invest in - multiregs are nice for two different types of carbonated beverages, or for serving one keg while fast carbing another.

[BLachance75]

The kegs I was looking at are small corny kegs. They are almost the same price as a 5 gallon kegs but will fit my situation a lot easier.

[RAZRBAKK]

The best thing you could get is a Cornelius keg. Very easy to clean and transfer into, also surprisingly easy to carbonate in as long as you have the right equipment.

[BLachance75]

Does anyone have any experience with kegging. I’ve been thinking about trying it out. I saw that you can get smaller kegs, 1.5 and 3 gallon. I have a fridge in my garage that is basically a beer fridge. I could pull out a shelf and put a small keg or 2 in there with party taps on them.

I’d like to use a smaller tank, like a 20oz if I could. It would make storing it in the fridge a lot easier than a 5 or 20 lbs tank.

[BLachance75]

I’ve used Lalvin D47 and Brewers Beat Cider House select. I’ll probably use D47 again as I already have a few packets of it.

I did see that there are several different versions of Fermentis Safcider at Home brew Ohio. Next time I order from them I’m going to pick up a packet of each and make some 1 gallon batches at the same time to see how the different yeasts change the cider. Then I’ll know what yeast I prefer.

[Alexndl]

Which yeast do you use for cider?
Last time I tried cider I used Lalvin K1-V116 but would like to try another one for my next batch.