Home Brewing

[morton]

I've followed this thread with interest as brewing beer is what I do for a living. I am the HeadBrewer for a medium sized group of family owned brewery/restaurants in the region where I live. I have also taught all grain homebrewing through the extension program at our local university and I must agree with some of the points that baronsamedi and others have made. Get a good book and go for it. What you make will probably be better than the industrial beer or mead you buy AND its all yours. Remember that cleanliness and sterility are paramount and you should have no problem. Good luck and good brewing!

 

[brewshooter]

This thread resurrection has me thinking I should do another mead batch, I've been pretty focused on beer and the very occasional cider recently. At the national conference in June, I got to talk with Michael Fairbrother from Moonlight Meadery a little bit and he sort of got me interested in mead again. Plus my wife loves the stuff!!

 

[sparroa]

Mead has been on my radar for awhile, but I've never gotten around to it... It is really hard to get honey in these parts. I've found a few sources online but it is extremely costly to get honey shipped here, and there weren't many varietals to choose from... I've only had commercial mead twice and I prefer it to almost any form of white wine.

 

[baronsamedi]

The stuff you make yourself, even the simplest recipe (I think I posted one on this very thread) will be many times better than store bought! Like morton said, cleanliness and sterilizing! I beat you to death with it in my book but it really does matter.
Start with 10 lb of honey. Local harvest is best but Sams Club/Costco has it at about $10 for a 5 lb bottle and it will do for now. 4-1/2 gallons of water, 1 cup of double strength tea with lemon rinds steeped in. and two packets of EC-1118 Champagne yeast. Heat the water to about 180°F and add it all (except yeast) to a 5 gal. food grade bucket or glass carboy. slosh it about until the honey is dissolved. when it gets below 90°F add the yeast. Just pour it right in. Put a bubble lock (or even a rubber glove with a hole in it) over the opening and let the yeast do the work. About a month later siphon the liquid off the goo at the bottom, into a new bottle or bucket then ignore it for about six months and you will have amazing mead.

 

[morton]

Sounds like an excellent recipe, Baron. One thing that you might want to add, depending what kind of honey you're using, is some yeast nutrient, usually available at homebrew stores. Honey is for the most part, a very pure sugar without a lot of trace minerals in it. The good Baron's recipe adds some flavor and nutrients via the tea and lemon but to completely avoid a stuck fermentation, I add a yeast nutrient to give those trace minerals that yeast needs if the honey is very pure or filtered. Think of it as yeast vitamins and your yeast will thank you. I have made thousands of litres of mead both straight and a melomel, with blackberries for sale in my breweries over the years and never had a stuck fermentation except the one time I didn't use yeast nutrient. A five gallon batch is one thing to have a stuck fermentation in, try it with 400 gallons and your headache becomes a nightmare!

 

[roudoudou]

baronsamedi,
I'm curious about the liqueurs. I guess it is in the 18-22% abv (correct me if I'm wrong).
About the way to make it:

1. Ferment the 'fruit juice' with a super yeast (I thought the strongest one would stop around 14%), or

2. Start with alcohol and marinate the fruits in it
I'm clueless! 8O

 

[baronsamedi]

edit double post

 

[baronsamedi]

morton, I do that, too. Yeast energizer/nutrient, whatever. I've also used the first lees from previous batches, especially when I did a malted mead before. That's kind of a natural yeast nutrient. That was my ultra simple recipe.
When I do liqueurs, they are strong! I use vodka, or Scotch in the case of Lorbuie and whatever fruit/herbs and sugar for the most part. Most peopel do them sweeter than I do but mine are usually the strength of a schnapps. you can buy flavors for different ones and even make your own jaegermeister, but I like to use whatever isin my garden at the time for flavor.

 

[gnatjulio]

I have 7 or 8 batches under my belt. Was half way thru building my cooler mash tun for my first all grain brew when I somehow got introduced to the world of pipes. I expect to get back on track soon, as I have many friends requesting more brew. I'm looking forward to making a mead since hearing an interview with a mead maker on a beer smith podcast.

 

[baronsamedi]

I've got 5 gallons of chocolate mead in my closet that's going on 2 years. You can never age mead too much.

 

[sparroa]

Thanks for the tips guys, and thanks for the recipe Baron.
I've read the Compleat Meadmaker by Ken Schramm and I'm familiar with the basics but as I said access to good honey has been an obstacle.
I've got all of the gear already (except I'll get new plastic parts for mead exclusively) since I have been brewing beer for quite a while. I still only do partial mash, however, because I don't have much space to work with...
I'm hoping to go all-grain sooner than later. I've also got a temperature controller on hand but I haven't been able to find a suitable chest freezer on the used market. (New ones at the local stores are all too small) I also have to get on the ball and put an oxygenation kit together...
I've been homebrewing the quick and dirty way for the most part... lol Don't get me wrong, I'm big on sanitation and quality ingredients (well as high quality as you can get with extract) but my system lacks precision to say the least.
What are your favourite beer styles, guys? I'm partial to hopbursted IPAs in general though that is a pain for me - porters are probably the easiest and most satisfying when factoring in my limitations.

 

[roudoudou]

Thanks baron. 2-yr in the fermenter! That's gonna be smooth!! I'm not that patient.
Favorite beer styles (in no particular order):

IPA/Bitters

Porter

Brown (which I like more since I've lowered the carbonation)

Stout
Favorite instrument: Thermapen (the greatest thermometer in the world!!). Starsan has saved me a lot of time too.
Since it's brewday, I'm back to my IPA (Marris Otter, Biscuit & Carastan). Mash time!!

 

[shawn622]

We have talked about this but I'll share with the community. I used to brew my own porter, Barley wine, and even had a beer that the local bar served to the regulars who asked for it that was a strong stout with 3 lbs of red malted barley added to the wort. I used to make a lot of dry red wine too. Made mead once, but I am not patient enough for the 1-2 year aging process... Great stuff though. I used to distill my own spirits in my early 20's. It was in my blood. my grandpa taught me. My family is from the heart of Appalachia. Bravo on the book man. I want a copy. I still make wine and such for gifts for family and friends. Its a fun hobby with major benefits!!! Great post!!!

 

[shawn622]

OH, if you get distillers yeast it can survive to 18% ABV Roudoudou.

 

[roudoudou]

Sparroa,
What do you mean when you say

IPAs in general though that is a pain for me

? Beside from my water treatment (lots of gypsum in IPA to match Burton water) and obviously grain/hop and yeast, it's quite similar.
shawn622: Thanks for the info @ distillers yeast
Now for some interesting facts, taken from Ray Daniel great book Designing Great Beer :

In the late 1700/early 1800, the largest storage vats would hold around 20 000 bbl (860 000 gal). They would inaugurate them with a reception of up to 200 people (yes, inside it)!! In 1814, a vat ruptured, ravaging the surrounding neighboorhood and killing 8 people!

As for perspective, today's biggest vat holds around 1600 bbl (49 000 gal).
Back to my beer: sparge time!!

 

[taerin]

I'm a homebrewer, I mostly specialize in dark German beers. Right now I have Scottish Export 80, Blood Orange Hefeweizen, and Deep Dark Wheat Beer (Dunkelweizen).

 

[sparroa]

roudoudou,

Burtonizing the water is the easy part. Making an authentic IPA if you aren't boiling full volumes - not so much... Hop utilization is way down with a concentrated wort, and having to top up the carboy with water after the fact halves the IBUs as far as I understand. Brewing a beer with a pleasant yet forward bitterness is really hard if not impossible by those "old school" methods. Brewing a half batch or splitting your boil between two pots is one way to go about it but obviously it is double the work.
In a small city apartment I don't have the space for a turkey fryer setup, and my small electric range certainly can't handle a big pot... As you can understand, maltier styles are easier for me to handle and make well...

 

[baronsamedi]

Shawn, I just noticed your custom title! I'm glad my pipe wasn't in my mouth when I read it! :rofl:

 

[baronsamedi]

I cracked the glass top on our stove brewing because I set a 2 gallon pot down on it too hard. Had it not been under warranty, there would be a "What happened to Baron" thread on here.

 

[roudoudou]

sparroa,
Thanks for the explanation about your set-up.

Thinking about it (to get around the concentrated wort), why not boil the hops in the water you use as the top up (or splitting the hops between the wort and top up water). My assumption here is that you boil that water prior to top up. Being in plain water, the IBU utilization will be super high (much higher than my full boil!).
As for boiling on the stove (which is my method too, I don't see myself outdoor during winter time when it's -20C/-10F here in Montreal), I double insulated my pot with insulation foil (the one with the bubbles). It takes 40-45 minutes (5 gal) to get to boiling but it's much faster than no insulation at all. And it sure beats freezing to death!!
Just my 2 cents. :wink: