I brewed a 5 gal batch of Mild Brown Ale on Friday evening and a batch of Dunkelweizen on Sat.  I have empty kegs to fill :)

I have a large stout, 1.080 bubbling now.
Going to age in an oak barrel. Thread coming soon.

Remote fermentation cam!

I'm traveling for a month, so I left my brews in the hands of my friend/partner. Turns out my Belgian quad was infected -- first time that's every happened. I was short on fermenters and so I used some that had previously had fresh-pressed, wild fermented cider in them. Bad idea. I'm throwing out all my plastic buckets. Will probably buy more; wish there was such a thing as a glass bucket.

I forget if I posted this here already, but when I tried my month-old wild fermented cider it was highly phenolic and slightly sour. I'm very disappointed as I've heard great reports of wild fermented cider -- hopefully it will dissipate with age. Interestingly, I did 10 gal wild ferment and 5 gal I sterilized with Campden and then pitched D-47 after 24h. I was pretty sure the Campden did its job as the wild ferments took off like a rocket ship and the D-47 batch lagged a while.

Oh, and I had an odd dream last night. I brewed some beer and immediately upon pitching the starter, it started to ferment. I know, CSB.

In your dream you used a yeast starter

Actually, this is what happens.  You just can't see any results unless you have a microscope, or a hydrometer.  

I started another batch of pilsner yesterday.  It went into the fermenter at 1.055sg.  This should be good.  I left it on the floor of the garage overnight to get fermentation going good, and it was happily bubbling away at 5 this morning.  It went into the cooler at 42F.  

I pulled the fermenter of pilsner from the cooler on Saturday and let it warm up.  I then added a quart of sterile wort I had in the fridge to it to help clean up the diacetyl.  It took about 24 hours for that to happen.    I then racked it into a secondary and back into the cooler.  Sg going into the secondary was 1.015.

I added 9.5 lbs of strawberries, 3 lbs of rhubarb, 2 cups of light brown sugar, and 1/2 pt of honey to my second batch of Strawberry/Rhubarb ale. First run was a huge success so it has been demanded that it be a staple at the Marmike600 residence.

Checked on it yesterday and it is bubbling thru the strawberry & sugar giving off little puffs of strawberry/rhubarb pie smell.

Vanilla stout and a winter ale with orange peel.

I'm going to do a vanilla Stout once I get my Nitro and Stout Tap for my keezer.  I'm hoping sometime before the New Year.

I brewed an Irish Red Ale with a bit of honey on Monday,  I think it will turn out well.  I'm also getting the parts to complete (for the most part) my keezer today via the brown truck.  I plan on 3 standard taps now and the aforementioned Stout tap/Nitro to add on in a little bit.  I'll post a pic or two when I have it done, it's been a fun project.

Belgian Tripel
Its on its 3rd week . Might move it to a secondary this weekend.

My first homebrew batch ever got bottled last Friday! Made a batch of Caribou Slobber from NorthernBrewer.com

Can't wait to see how it  turns out

Finished my homemade Keezer yesterday.  I have 3 taps set up for now, going to add a stout tap and Nitrogen system within the next few weeks.  

I started a pilsner 2 weeks ago.  At flameout, I pulled a quart of wort off and put it in a sanitized mason jar.  It's been in the fridge for the past 2 weeks.  This morning,  I added it to the primary.  The purpose  of this is to kick off a secondary fermentation and get rid of all the diacetyl.  So yesterday, I started bringing the temp of the primary up to 68.  I added the wort, and closed up the primary.  I'll leave it like this and check it Sunday evening.  If the SG has dropped, I'll move it to the secondary and  start the lagering process.  

Here's the wort



Here's a look in the primary.  A nice raft of yeast.

Just spent 4 hours working on beer, and I didn't brew a thing.

First off, I had a rather boring stout I made on 10/21 from a free extract kit. Away it goes on a pound of cherries! It was impressively hard to get the sterilized bag full of cherries into the carboy. I ended up smashing a lot of the cherries to get them in there, which I think will work out well.


Racking onto the cherries:


Next up, dry hop an IPA.


Wait.... that's not an IPA! I hate IPAs!


That's a....


That's a hard cider! Apfelwein! But if we add hops, it's not really a standard cider anymore! It's sort of a...



Yup, it's a bullshit hoppy cider. I wanted to add an ounce of cascade. When I was at the homebrew shop, they had 2 oz of locally sourced cascade so I bought it. But I realized once I got home I had leant my scale to someone else. I could have eyeballed half of it... but fuck it! I'll add two ounces of cascade and let it go for a few weeks. I bet the name is going to be accurate



Ugh... is this still happening? OK, it's time to rack Kid Monk Baroni, a Belgian of my own design whose name no one has understood the reference of. Oh well  Well, the OG was 1066. A bit low for a Belgian, so I racked it on top of a pound of 90°L Belgian Candi Sugar. A bit messy. I got quite a bit of yeast in there - it's a 6 gal carboy, and I want to make sure there's not enough air to cause oxidation. I want it to ferment the shit out of that sugar!


The keen-eyed reader might notice that this is the same fermenter that blew its top 5 feet away less than 12 hours after I put the lid on... this is Little Schema. Brewed 11/9/13 with an OG of 1080. The morning after pitching 1200 mL of yeast starter, I woke up to a foam cap. It looked like this:


Well, the result makes it look like this:





Washing the fermenter wasn't much fun either. I hate wasting all that yeast, but yeast washing is even more of a pain in the ass.


Kid Monk Baroni on the left and Little Schema on the right


Since everything is now in a clear carboy, I need to protect it from the sun. Hockey jerseys do the job.


cherry stout (Capitals Black Ice), syrah (North Stars practice jersey), grape pyment (Cincinnati Cyclones inaugural season)
bulllshit hoppy cider (current Capitals jersey), cider b redux (Cincinnati bearcats), kid monk baroni (current Cyclones jersey)
little schema (San Jose Sharks - GO SHARKS! )

I failed to get pics of my first lager. Picture 5 gallons of black lager (which I named Dystopia Dark Lager, 1044 -> 1016) being racked from a carboy into a corny keg which will get a 36 hr diacetyl rest in front of the furnace return register before it goes into the keezer for 8-10 weeks at 35 degrees).


After all that bullshit, I could use a drink. Time for some mead.



Apropos of nothing, according to my Fit, in the 4 hours I worked on that stuff (almost exactly timed to a Sunday Session of TBN), I burned 1200 calories. Clearly I need to spend less time in the gym and more time working on beer.

Have you seen these:

A mead made with fruit as well as honey is called a melomel (or was the last time I made one, a decade or more ago).

I recommend plum.

The color of the wall in your brewing room is the exact same color as the wall in my brewing room. How does that happen??

Exploding fermenters throwing yeast foam everywhere

Hehehe, the color is good at masking that. The wife painted the room expecting it to be the 'office' as if we needed one. I quickly swooped in and took posession and changed the locks on the door.

I transferred a pilsner to the secondary today.  I had about a liter extra that wouldn't fit in the carboy, so I put it in a flask and took it up to the house.  This is some of it in the sample jar.  It's cloudy because it got swirled around with the yeast cake.  

The O.G was 1.060.  It's got 3 weeks left at 31F before it gets kegged.

Brewed a Chocolate Peanut Butter Imperial Stout yesterday.  Since the OG was 1.080 I made a yeast starter a few days ago, using Safale S-05.  This morning the airlock is happily bubbling away

A friend of mine came into everything needed to make beer a while back.  We finally took the time to brew some.  Its a red ale that came with the kit.  Hope we did everything right!

Just got a Mr. Beer kit for Christmas (got it early.)  I know serious home brewers tend to look down on it, but hey, I figured it would allow me to test the waters to see if this is something I want to do before sinking a bunch of money into equipment.





Kit came with a "Mexican Cerveza"  extract, so, we'll see how it goes.



Any threads about equipment I should lust over as I contemplate upgrading?
 

I just bottled "Saison De Noel" from Northern Brewing. Second year I made it. Good stuff. Have some "petite la orange" in the secondary. (I'm on a belgian kick) and bottled some wine a couple of weeks ago.

"give a man a beer and he'll waste an hour - teach a man to brew and he'll waste a lifetime" not sure who said it but very true.

BTW - I've had brews take off and start fermenting in as little as 2-3 hours, some taking a full 36-48 hours. As in everything brewing, depends on the yeast, if you have lab conditions and know exactly what your cell count is when you pitch the yeast it takes the guesswork out of it. If not, you're like the rest of us.

"Don't worry, relax, have a home brew"

You all know who said that. If you don't, get the book.

official drool thread

Welp, I bottled it, and from the samples I had I think it kind of sucks.



Right during the peak fermentation it got like 80degrees outside, and of course I didn't have my AC on (because you know, its friggin winter!), so I think it got too warm.  Has sort of a banana flavor.



Since my apartment has a "warmer, cooler" thermostat for the heaters instead of temperatures, and uses AC for cooling, my biggest issue is temperature control.  Better equipment won't help me in that regard.



This may be a hobby I put on the shelf for a while until I get a more climatically stable living space.



 

Don't get discouraged! What tastes bad in this batch? Fermenting too warm will result in more fusel alcohols which will give it more of a solvent flavor. Watch craigslist for a minifridge (dorm room sized) and you can put your fermenter in that. It will probably be too cold even on the warmest setting so you can get a temperature controller to keep it in range.

Sanitation is critical. The instructions in the Mr Beer kit are "good enough" unless it gets contaminated.

Now... nobody wanted to crap on your Christmas gift, but Mr Beer kits are pretty crappy in general The best you can typically hope for from a Mr Beer is passable - I've never had anything from them that I'd consider good. Fortunately, all you really need to get started is a goodly sized kettle and a 5 gallon fermenter. Both of which are pretty darn cheap. Of course you can go full retard like some of us do and drop a lot of money on near-pro grade brewing equipment, but it doesn't have to be that way!

If you want more info, let me know and I'll point you to some resources.

I don't know, I'm not an expert, but it just seemed off tasting to me.  I was reading about how high temperatures really mess with the taste, and that peak fermentation is the critical time. From what I understand the beer can be warmer than the ambient temperature, especially during peak fermentation (don't remember the german word for it, but I read it on a website) and if the ambient temperature is out of range, your beer can be even more out of range than that.   So...pretty much exactly what happened to my beer.
And keep in mind, i usually don't like lighter style beers, so...that could be part of why I think it sucks...flat, warm, light beer.
And I know all about the reputation of Mr. Beer. But for $40, what do you have to lose?  I fully understand the need to sanitation,  and I definitely don't think it was contaminated.
And I have a mini fridge in my office that I use to keep my lunch in.  It could be used as a temperature chamber I guess, but I think it may be too small to put a 5 gallon fermenter in.  I could always get another.





I have done SOME homework on this, not just pop in the Mr. Beer DVD and
think I'm going to be making micro-brew quality beers from the get go.  Was sort of hoping "this will be good enough" was going mean I could make a few batches with without buying a bunch of equipment and then decide if I want upgrade or just forget about it.  That may not work out so well.



ETA::I think I may buy that thermostat. It could actually come in handy for other uses in the future (not just brewing).  At least that is what I'm telling myself to justify the purchase.
 



 

See if you can identify what's off.

From How to Brew (which I highly recommend. I just pulled these headings from the "What's wrong with my beer section" - if you can identify the smell or flavor we can help you fix it next time): Does it smell like rotten eggs? Does it smell sour? Does it taste like green apples or pumpkin? Sharp alcohol burn? Astringent (like sucking on a tea bag)? Buttery or butterscotchy? Does it taste like creamed corn or tomato? Is it fruity or grassy? Does it taste medicinal (like a bandaid or spicy like cloves)? Soapy, solvent-like, skunky, or yeasty?

So, I imagine the "Mexican Cerveza" is probably supposed to be a clone of Corona? In that case, your ferment went extra fucky because Corona is a lager. Lagers like cold temps - like 55° or so. It's winter here, I just had a pipe freeze and burst in my basement, and my basement temp is still only 58°. I'm lagering a beer down there, but it's on the upper end of where I'd like to see it. If the ambient temps are higher than freezin-ass-cold, you'll definitely need to chill your fermenter.

The #2 most important thing when brewing is sanitation. Use PBW for cleaning and StarSan for sanitizing. (There are other products that have pros and cons for various applications, but those are the go-to products. Everyone loves them).

The #3 most important thing is fermentation control. Ideally you have a PID-controlled fridge with a heater so you can be within a few degrees of where you want, but realistically that's expensive and there are other options. You can get a keg tub and put your fermenter in that, fill it with water and add ice in the summer or use an aquarium heater in the winter. You can soak a t-shirt and put that on the keg so the evaporation cools it and re-wet it as necessary.

The #1 most important thing when brewing is keeping a log of everything you do. My most valuable piece of brewing equipment (and lord knows I've spent thousands of dollars) my brewing notebook. It's full of recipes, equipment design ideas, and logs of brews. If I re-make a brew day, I log everything that happened. Pump head blew the hose off? Write that down! Smooth brew day with nothing weird? In the log! Accidentally added the 30 minute hop addition at 60 minutes? INTO THE LOG! While the Mr Beer kit is designed around quick turnaround, the reality is that some things take a really long time to finish. Most lagers will take ~ 2 months to be done. I brew like it was my job (I think the total was 175 gallons last year, and I was out of the country for several months) but even if you only brew one beer at a time, will you remember what you did a month ago? It's important to have a log of what you did so if something tastes weird or tastes awesome you can figure out why.

I'd really recommend grabbing this as your next purchase. It's a great place to start.

I would say sanitation and ferm control are shared #1's.

If you do things the right way, but don't keep a log you can still make damn good beer every time you brew.

And to the Mr Beer kit fermented at 80 or above?  Yeah, sorry, that is going to taste like 100% ass.   At least you know why its bad

Well, the temperature on the yeast said 68-76.  It never said anything about trying to lager it.  So, yeah, that can be part of the issue.
From what I remember it was more of a bananay taste.





The aquarium heater is an excellent idea, though, I had already planned to go with a gun safe heater and a digital temperature controller I bought last night (can do heating and cooling if you switch the wires around)...that is, barring any more global warming episodes this winter (because, I keep my apartment COLD...like, 50's most of the time...well, except for the room I'm brewing in now)
 

I'm down to 6 gallons:



3 ga blueberry/black berry melomel

1 ga tradional mead

1 ga cyser (KV1 yeast)

1 ga cyser (D47 yeast)



I think I gotta throw together a 5 ga apfelwein shortly.  And probably start a winter mead.

Started a Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon tonight.

Brewed a Honey Porter on Sunday morning and going to be brewing a Black IPA tomorrow on my day off.

Just brewed a snow shoe vanilla porter today. It was 15F with a windchill of 0F. Couldn't wait to go back inside after the brew was done

I have 5 gallons of my Local Homebrewing Stor'ss Oktoberfest Marzen.. Extract kit, 6 pounds LME, 1 pound DME, 2 hop boils, and S-23 yeast... Transferred to secondary today.

I have done Mr. beer kits, Partial mash recipes, and all grain recipes...All in 1 gallon to 2.5 gallon forms. Got myself a 5 gallon setup for my birthday

Fatal, you are not wrong with your temps. it's just not a good tasting kit Mr. Beer yeasts are similar to S-33, An ale yeast....Also ignore their instructions, keep it in the little brown keg for ~3 weeks.

I've got an Ordinary Bitter which turned out pretty good.  A Founders Breakfast Stout which needs to mellow a bit to loose some of the coffee.  Also going to be racking an IPA that was pitched on the cake of 005 that did the Bitter.  Sampled it this morning and it's pretty tasty.  Going to be tweaking them and entering them in a local comp.

Did a Belgian pale ale on Monday. VIOLENT ferment. I had stepped up the smack pack yeast over a week and that seems to have helped.

I have 2.5gal of IPA brewing and another 5gal of Summer Ale brewing and just bottled 5gal of American Light Ale a week ago. This was my first and its going great so far.

Well until the basement is done I only have room for fermenting one beer at a time
Right now its Caribou Slobber

Brewed it on Saturday and its bubbling away nicely

Once the basement is done ill have the area under my stairs converted into a temp controlled fermenting room.

just bottled 5 gal of oatmeal stout

You will like the Caribou Slobber. Did it around August last year. It ages pretty nice.

Brewed a Kate the Great clone and parti gyled a black IPA that I am calling Bastard Ivan BIPA.

Both are rocking and rolling in my brew room.

I kegged 5 gallons of SA Noble Pils clone on Saturday morning.  It came out pretty good.  

I plan on brewing an American light lager on Saturday.  Since this beer only has one hop addition, I plan on FWH it.  This will be the first lager I've brewed which has corn and rice in it.  So this should be interesting.

Glad to hear that its worth brewing

It was cold and snowing today so I had to brew.

Just put 6 gals of a Bav Hefe in ferm and bottled 5 gals of my Smoke thingy last week. Used the LME from Bamberg
that Sniper_Wolfe got for me on that one.

Had a smack-pack for yeast but it was old and didn't wake-up. Went with my dry yeast back-up from Safale. Learn
from my mistake and use your liquid yeast when you buy it, not 6 months later.

I bottled my Local Homebrewing Store's Oktoberfest Marzen yesterday...Was in the fermenter roughly 3.5 weeks...OG wouldn't get below 1.017, should be 1.012...Should be okay, maybe a bit sweet. Used S-23

Brewed Northern Brewers Partial Mash Cream Ale. Got that in the fermenter now!

Juniper rye ale 5 gal and a lavender semi sweet mead 1 gallon are bubbling away