funny you mention apples, i'm trying an apple beer recipe next and was going to add some unpasteurized apple cider to it. Curious to see how that one will turn out!! Tried my farmhouse saison and it was awesome although one of the bottles we tried was under carbonated and the other was really carbonated (which I liked). Gave the rest of the bottles a good swirl and will see if that helps. Have a nut brown ale in the carboy about ready to bottle right now. I think I'm hooked!!
Homebrewers - Whats Fermenting?
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twenty5
BoM 11/09, 4/10 BoY '10
I recently did a graff (hopped cider, pretty much half beer/half hard cider) that turned out great. I am not a cider person but decided to try making a graff and I'm glad I did. It has been a big hit with everyone that has tried it here.
Potentially lots of bottling today. I know for sure I'll be bottling up my brettanomyces imperial stout brewed back in October it is at 13.6%abv starting at 1.117 and ending at 1.026. Then I'll be bottling up my old brewing experiment belgian wit that took a bacterial turn for the worse two weeks into its initial fermenation. It was meant to be a quick way to sour a wit and turned into a 5-6 month fermentation needing brettanomyces to break down the exopolysaccharide complex formed by some unintended bacteria from a mash. I had done a no boil technique with no hops and added a lactobacillus culture then after three days I added a belgian yeast. I then blended it with some hopped and boiled beer. At that point it got viscous and ropy (consistency of maple syrup) and I had to add a wild yeast blend to break down the viscosity. About three months ago I added a small amount of sour cherries from a near by farm and I think it's ready for bottles.
There's a potential for two more sour beer to end up in bottles as well. One of them can certainly be bottled but the other might be a couple months down the road.
There's a potential for two more sour beer to end up in bottles as well. One of them can certainly be bottled but the other might be a couple months down the road.
The bottling went well. The sour wit is a first for me, it finished at .998 specific gravity. This is my first 100%+ apparent attenuation beer. I've had quite a few get to 90%+ but never past 100% apparent attenuation. Obviously there is sugar left behind, but due to the alcohol having a lower density than water and the residual sugars the beer appears to have gone more than 100%. The only way to really tell a true abv is through distillation, but we get close enough with hydrometers. Either way it's a nice funky sour with a slight cherry flavor.
Tried two more of the saison and had the same issue after swirling each bottle and letting sit for another week. One was carbonated very well and the other slightly carbonated (almost flat but still drinkable) Any suggestions on fixing this issue or how to not let it happen again? Thanks!
What kind of bottles are you using, and if they're capped, what kind of capper? I've had flat beer issues in the past but it was ENTIRE cases not just a random bottle or two. When its the whole batch it's either an issue of no priming sugar, not enough viable yeast, or both.
all random bottles that I've saved from beers I drank. Red Baron bottle capper (the two handle one). Now that I think of it my dad capped about half of the bottles...wonder if he wasn't capping them tight enough, since I've always capped them in the past and never had this issue.
I slipped out of the office early after retrieving the pup from the Vet & brewed an Oktoberfest. If I'm lucky it'll be ready the end of October so not exactly on pace to enjoy while they are throwing them back in Munich.
I sampled a bottle of orange creamsicle that I bottled last week. Not nearly enough time to be ready but it did have a great flavor even without time to carbonate.
Cheers!
I sampled a bottle of orange creamsicle that I bottled last week. Not nearly enough time to be ready but it did have a great flavor even without time to carbonate.
Cheers!
Today is brew day!! I have not been able to brew in 3 mo. moved then concussion. I am trying out a new recipe I made 2 weeks ago... Sort of a new style....Double Baltic Porter I have Nicknamed "Riot Porter". Due to I was making recipes when I was stuck at home healing and resting while my Wife and friends went to Riot Fest here in Chicago... Should be perfect for mid Nov. though Dec.
Did you end up brewing the pumpkin ale? Interested to know wherein the process the pumpkin was used...
twenty5
BoM 11/09, 4/10 BoY '10
I brewed my pumpkin a couple of weeks ago and got it into bottles this week. Its a bit higher in abv than I was shooting for at over 12% and you could taste it, I hope this dies down when it sits, carbs and is cold.
What I did for the pumpkin was took 2lbs of pumpkin pie filling, put it into a baking pan and added brown sugar to the top of it. I then baked it at 350 for about 45min to try and get it tasting like an actual pumpkin pie. Then I added it all to the boil. Everything worked out perfectly including the amount of pumpkin taste in the beer. The problem was the amount of trub after fermentation. My carboy was filled to 5.5 Gal and I got 4 gal into secondary. That pumpkin sludge just wouldnt compact and I didnt want to wait any longer (I want this ready for mid-late October). I bottled 3 gal and put 1 gal on bourbon soaked oak chips. I will bottle that in a few weeks.
What I did for the pumpkin was took 2lbs of pumpkin pie filling, put it into a baking pan and added brown sugar to the top of it. I then baked it at 350 for about 45min to try and get it tasting like an actual pumpkin pie. Then I added it all to the boil. Everything worked out perfectly including the amount of pumpkin taste in the beer. The problem was the amount of trub after fermentation. My carboy was filled to 5.5 Gal and I got 4 gal into secondary. That pumpkin sludge just wouldnt compact and I didnt want to wait any longer (I want this ready for mid-late October). I bottled 3 gal and put 1 gal on bourbon soaked oak chips. I will bottle that in a few weeks.
Did you give it a gentle stir before you started bottling? I had a amber once that I put the priming solution in the bottling bucket and then siphoned the beer in and I assumed it would mix evenly. I suspect that wasn't the case though since I noticed the last handful of bottles to get filled were under carbonated compare to the rest of the batch. I was thinking it might have been because the majority of the priming solution remained in the bottom of the bucket and it did not mix evenly throughout the beer.
When I make pumpkin ales I put my pumpkin in the mash and that way none of it makes it into the fermentor. I am thinking about making one still but my last few months worth of weekends have been slammed with fucking weddings and other bullshit. God I fucking hate weddings. I've been bottling a bunch of beer lately that I had in fermentors for a while in preparation of having room for my 16 gallon double brew batch of my imperial stout with brett. I'm going big this year!
I can highly recommend using Special B in Imperial Stouts
I hate the flavor contributed by special B. It's just a personal distaste, I'm not a fan of the weird raisin flavor it lends to beers. My imperial stouts have become caramel/crystal malt free. This years recipe is:
70% Maris Otter
16% Brown Malt
7.5% Black Malt
6.5% Midnight Wheat
Then it's being fermented with the Wyeast Old Ale blend 9097 which contains brett. Gravity will be around 1.107 +/- and should end up about 13.5%abv. It's an amped up inspiration from a courage stout recipe from the "shutup barclay perkins" blog which lists historic brewing records.
70% Maris Otter
16% Brown Malt
7.5% Black Malt
6.5% Midnight Wheat
Then it's being fermented with the Wyeast Old Ale blend 9097 which contains brett. Gravity will be around 1.107 +/- and should end up about 13.5%abv. It's an amped up inspiration from a courage stout recipe from the "shutup barclay perkins" blog which lists historic brewing records.
danthebugman
BoM Nov '10
Brewing up my first 5 gallon batch as I type...Irish Stout :grin:.
Dan
Dan
I finally bottled up my Dubbel I made back in August. It has a nice light lactic acid twang from my 1lb addition of sour malt, very well attenuated, a noticeable hop presence and it's at 8.5%. I got an apparent attenuation of 87% which is awesome.
For those of you that like brewing saisons much like I do, here's a hop for you! I love this hop and I have gone through more than a pound of it myself at home. It's very rustic tasting with a nice floral perfume aroma. I use it as a huge dose at the end of my boil in a saison. For instance in my 10ish gallon batches I will use 2oz at 20 min and 2oz at 5 min with Ultra hops as first wort hops at 90min.
SEREBRIANKA - *NEW 2012 CROP* -- Hop Leaf Alpha Acid: 2.3%
Aroma hop with a light perfume, mellow, elegant, subtle, gentle, almost tobacco like smell.
SEREBRIANKA - *NEW 2012 CROP* -- Hop Leaf Alpha Acid: 2.3%
Aroma hop with a light perfume, mellow, elegant, subtle, gentle, almost tobacco like smell.