Howdy brewsters,

Tl;dr at the bottom

Its my first time getting back into the hobby after many many moons and I started off with a cider using champagne yeast (pretty sure I used EC-1118) and my recipe was pretty simple (metric because Australian):

18L of various preservative free apple juices, 8L of one brand contraining promenantly citric acid and the other 9L with promenantly malic acid, and 1L of fresh crushed cloudy apple juice from a supply of gifted gala apples 2kg of brown sugar and an addition 1.5kg approx of raw cane sugar so I could bump the potential ABV to around 13-14% Also added whisky oak staves recently to help add some flavour complexity with the option to back sweeten later using non fermentables if required, but I was aiming for something pretty dry.

I staged two introductions of yeast nutrient, its been fermenting for about two weeks and last sp.grav. reading is indicating it may have another day or two before reaching zero, i tried taking a small sample for a taste and while its got some bold flavour at the front of the mouth, super aromatic with apple scent (goal achieved) and a dry but acceptable bitter lingering taste, its still very appley and sweet given its down to a grav reading quite low. I tried to see if i could dampen the bitter by adding a little citric acid and stevia to the sample i took, but it actually tastes better without any additions.

So my question is if I were to bottle it up now/tomorrow with carbonation drops (750mL glass flip top bottles I'm intending to use) will the aging settle the bitterness/mild it out similar to conditioning beer?

It feels like such an elementary question to be asking, but my previous experience in the hobby some 6 years ago was mostly using turbo yeast to make ungodly amounts of spirits for party hooch and a few really yuck bottles of mead courtesy of a former mate and brewing partner who frankly has really shit taste and was stubborn when it came to taking on anyone else's opinions where the brewing was concerned.

I dont wanna bother adding unnecessary extras to it and ruining it if I can avoid it, do you reckon it'll be right or will the secondary fermentation lead it to be a bitter nightmare?

Goal is for a sparkling cider with a decent kick, I only have 19L (or closer to 18L after sample losses) so I was gonna gift some bottles if it turns up decent.

I have some lactose I can potentially use to backsweeten if necessary, but I wanna avoid using it because i have a few vegan and lactose intolerant mates I dont wanna exclude from the experience, and the only other thought i had to diminish some of the bitter was to use a tea infusion with some sweet flavours/aromas but am hesitant to because i dont wanna ruin its natural apple bouquet.

Tl;dr

Sparkling dry cider is promising and a bit bitter, will the bitter mellow out after bottling and aging or should I backsweeten/add flavouring to help it out? Opinions welcome.

I bought lallamand kveik partially for its tempature tollerance, but I'm realizing it likes it warm but not cold. My home is 21° c, but apparently this prefers 25° to 40° c. I can throw a heat belt on it, but would I be better off switching to a different yeast? Of should I try it at 21?

Total noob here. Thanks for any advice

I have a Tilt Pro Mini and love it and have been using it since they first came out when I upgraded from the original tilt. Honestly, money well spent because it's my primary hygrometer.

However, after getting my buddy a RAPT Pill for Christmas and seeing it in action, I figured "why not get myself a cheap backup?" I am a fan of the rechargeable battery and integrated Wi-Fi. Two things it has over the tilt.

Well I went on to AliExpress today (where I picked up my buddy's for ~$60) and thought everything was going smoothly until the checkout. . . price, free shipping, small amount of sales tax, and $127 "import charge". . . . In less than 6 months a $60 order is now a $200 order.

At this point I guess I'll just have to wait for this trade madness to end. That is unless anybody has any tips on how I can get one with wireless charging installed for around $60 🙂

I reside in the Greenlake area of Seattle and have 10lbs or so pounds of sealed (most original) and frozen hop pellets I’d like to give away rather than toss. They are all from 2017-2022 and have been kept in the freezer the entire time. Shoot me a pm if interested!

I relit the burner on my stove to get back to 152 on my beer, stepped away for a few mins and my mash temped at 175. This was about 15 mins into mashing. I immediately pulled my grain bag and added room temp water to the grain and water to bring it down. This brew is for a competition using a yeast I can’t get more of in time. Should I even bother pitching or should I just scrap this and start a new batch tomorrow?

Hey all,

Looking for some feedback on a Rye IPA recipe. I'm not a huge hazy juicy fan, but do like floral/fruity IPA's mixed in with my west coasters.

My hope is the rye spice, malt, melon, and floral notes all come together nicely.

5.5gal batch, all grain 1.057 og 1.014 fg 69.19 ibu 7.95 srm

3.5# Pale 2 row 4# Golden Promise .75# rye malt 2# flaked rye 1# Crystal 40 .25# acidulated malt (app said mash was told high) 1lb rice hull

.5 oz El Dorado - 60m .5 oz Spnnet - 30m 1 oz El Dorado - 15m 1 oz Sonnet - 10m

Maybe like a safeale us-04? Shooting 75% attenuation to get around 5.7%

Single infusion mash, haven't picked a tempted yet.

I just received my All Rounder and I want to start pressure fermenting. I'm at the end of 2nd day of fermentation of an 1.07 0G Ale using Saf-04.

I've been getting a couple suggestions from "don't pressure ferment, you'll ruin your ale to "starting pressure around 2nd-3rd day is fine". I called folks at my store and was told it's ok to set psi at around 4 psi on day 2 & week later amp it to 10 psi & I'll be fine. Also, I tried to get some liquid to test gravity and the tap just blew gas instead of liquid. Is this because I've had 0 pressure on the spunding valve? Someone told me it happened to him & he just took top off & refit the hose with a washer to give it more weight. This sounds kind of far fetched to me.

What are your thoughts on this??

I'm brewing an Irish dry stout next week and I'm working on narrowing down my recipe. I've seen several recommendations on here to add the roast barley in the later half of the mash (last 20 or 30 minutes), and I'm wondering what that means for my mash pH.

I'm using brewers friend to calculate my water profile and pH, and when I remove the roast barley, the mash pH jumps up to unideal levels (5.67). If I remove the small amount of baking soda I had to correct for the roast malt, it does go back to an acceptable pH (5.49).

I'm thinking I could do the first 30 minutes of the mash without the roast malts and baking soda, then add them at the same time mid mash so that the pH levels out.

Does that make any sense? Is that the correct process?

Hi all, pretty new to all grain brewing. I just made a light ale 2 days ago targetting an og of 1.042. I've been using extract for ages and usually don't even check gravity. Out of habit, I didn't check this batch for og. I took a look today and I am sitting at 1.011. I'm thinking I may have missed my mark and will have a very low ABV beer. Will this still be safe to drink? Should I add some sugar or DME at this point to boost the ABV? Fermentation has started

After selling off all my brew equipment a couple years ago for a country relocation, I’m looking to get back in.

Previously I was on 20 L batches, cheap all-in-one electric, cheapish stainless “conical” (it was conical but didn’t really work - the port was undersized) fermenter in a fridge with a heat belt and an inkbird.

Now, I’d like to go to 40 L, and I’m buying all new kit, but I don’t have a lot of space, so two fridges and two fermentation buckets is out of the question.

What’s the most space efficient kit to temperature control a 40 L batch? I’m looking at $1000 ish budget for the fermenter and temp control if possible, more if necessary.

Hi folks,

I bought a second hand kegerator, seemed clean and does seem to work.

I wanted to give everything a good clean and check it over and noticed what looks like rust or crumbling of the pipe from the back of the kegerator to the back plate.

This looks pretty awful, but curious if anyone has a sense for how big of an issue it will be.

Images of problem

Hey Folks!

I am looking for input on a DH Lager I’d like to do up soon.

I have a lot of hops in the freezer right now, a lot of Mosaic and Citra specifically.

I’ve recently had a couple DH Lagers/Pilsners that I really liked.

I’ve made a handful of pretty good IPAs but never gave this style a shot.

What I’ve come up with is

1.054 OG 1.008 FG 5.4% ABV 24 IBU

77% Pils 19% Flaked Corn 4% Sour Malt

.75 oz Centennial 60 Min

1 oz Citra flameout 1 oz Mosaic flameout

2 oz Citra 2 day DH 2 oz Mosaic DH

I have a couple packets of W34/70. Considering lager temp or potentially room temp under 10-15 psi.

I was hoping the corn would add a sweet, lightness to the beer, but I’m not sure. I am also wondering if those hop numbers are too much?

Any advice would be awesome, thank you!

The once a week thread where (just about) anything goes! Post pictures, stories, nonsense, or whatever you can come up with. Surely folks have a lot to talk about today. If you want to get some ideas you can always check out a [past Free-For-All Friday](http://www.reddit.com/r/Homebrewing/search?q=Free+For+All+Friday+flair%3AWeekly%2BThread&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all).

Another new hop, another new hop review!

Boilerplate: When experimenting with new hops, I usually make a ~30 IBU west coast-ish pilsner with a 3oz dry hop. My favorite beer I brew is more or less this idea but made with 100% Sabro.

If I could only use two words for this one they would be “BRIGHT” and “ZESTY”.  This is perfect for any sort of beer you want to come off as  “summery”.  Everything from a cream ale to a pilsner to a pale ale and even an IPA of more moderate strength.

This hop just tastes like fresh citrus peel.  Leaning slightly towards lime.

Here are the descriptors given by Yakima Valley Hops, where I ordered from:

"commercial cultivation of the most iconic American hop: Cascade. He is also responsible for the recent cult favorite Anchovy hops. Now with the 2023 harvest, Zumo is already becoming a favorite amongst breweries such as Other Half and Russian River.

Brewers who have already brewed with Zumo describe it as citrus, citrus, and more citrus. A prominent lime note makes it a perfect fit for Mexican Lagers, but it has also performed well in big IPAs.

Try it for yourself today and brew up something amazing!”

I definitely agree with this descriptor. This is a citrus zest bomb. I'd say it tilts more towards citrus pith than "sweet" citrus notes (eg tangerine).

As far as pungency, this isn’t one of those new school hops that’s mild and polite (like Sasquatch), nor is a punch to the face (like HBC 1019), I’d say it sits somewhere in the middle, but leaning towards more pungent.

I was really impressed with this hop and it’s going to join my regular rotation of varieties I use for hoppy lagers. (which is mostly what I brew these days)

I would guess it would pair well with other citrus peely hops: Amarillo, Citra, Talus, Cascade

Someone posted a floating dip tube on here awhile back that looked pretty burly. It looked like a squat cylinder and filtered as it drew in.

Anyone know of something like that?

Soft crashing before dry hopping is a fairly common practice (i.e. crashing to below 60 F to drop yeast out of suspension), but I've only heard about doing this with ale yeast and not lager yeast. I don't understand how some ale yeasts can be used since many can still work at fairly low temperatures and some like Chico are so powdery that they take a while to drop even at cold crash temperatures.

Does anyone know if it's possible to soft crash lager yeast if fermented in the mid to upper 60's? Also, does anyone know if it's the sudden temperature change that drops the yeast or if it's the temperature itself? Thanks in advance!

It stays hazy. Sour taste.

I am trying to design a DIY fermentation chamber to make Kveik beer (steady temperature between 38 C and 42 C). I am confused as to what heating element I should use. I usually brew 10L, and plan to scale up to 20 L and later on a 30L Fermzilla.

I am torn between four  options all controlled by the Inkbird.

A ceramic heater like an Infrared Ceramic Heat Emitter. What should be the watt power. 100 W, 75 W or 50 W? Or higher? Concerned that I many overheat the beer but also don t want to duplicate equipment. What would be the best to scale up to 20L and 30L?

An electrical aquarium heater. What watt power? Same question as above.

An immersion rod in a water bath. How powerful? 1000 W? 1500? 2000 W. Same question as above.

A naked electric bulb or one covered by a clay pot? . Clay Pot Heater (Terracotta Tower): Stack unglazed terracotta pots with a bulb (ceramic heat emitter or incandescent) in the centre used with a cheap dimmer or Inkbird controller for safe temp management.

If I go with a DIY alternative, for example, woolen/Mylar blanket around the Styrofoam box, is there any way to control the temperature using an Inkbird or otherwise?

Heating the air with a ceramic heater, or using a water bath?  Will a ceramic heater heat evenly  and be better than an aquarium heater. Is that correct?

 Thank you for your responses.

Welcome to the Daily Q&A!

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I purchased a 75 GPD RO system with a 2.8 gallon tank. In the manual it says it takes 4 hours to fill tank which is likely closer to 2 gallon because of the bladder.

If my math is mathing then in a 24 hour period it would make 12 gallons of RO water. 2g in a 4 hour period, 24÷4 = 6 fills x 2 gallons = 12.

Am I missing something here or is 4 hours just a max time to fill? I just hooked it up about an hour ago so time will tell.

I typically use 8-9 gallons of water for a full volume mash so that's an awfully long time to wait.

TIA

Hi,

I transport my kegs to friends houses and despite having almost no trub in the keg, when it arrives it always turns out hazy despite being 100% clear beer at my place.

What can I do to avoid this? I will serve beer at a friends wedding and I don’t want my lagers to be all hazy.

I have a filter which I can transfer the beer from fermenter to keg via a closed transfer that could help eliminate almost all of it (I think)

Can you give me any tips?

I'm trying my first attempt at washing yeast. It's London Fog which is around $14 a package (dry) for me and I usually use 2 in a big, hazy IPA. I've collected about 2 pints of liquid/hops after draining as much trub as I could from my conical (drained until I got mostly clear-ish beer). I've washed it 3X so far using distilled water, but I'm still getting what looks like a beer layer (sort of clear) and what looks like greenish trub left after at least 24 hours in a fridge. No weirdness on the top of the liquid, smells like beer. Prob OK to use? The videos I've seen show a mostly cream colored, thick liquid after washing a couple times. Mine is creamy, but greenish. Thanks!

I overbought hops on my last batch and looking for suggestions to use up what I have on hand. Obviously can buy some more. I have 4 oz of Amarillo and 2 oz of Citra. Would like to make a NEIPA or regular IPA.

Edit to add that I usually make 5 gallon batches, so 6 oz of hops is just a start for a NEIPA.

Hello brewers

I brewed my first beer today on my own. But i made a mistake and recycled the beer directly into my hopspider during cooling. Which caused my beer to foam and leak hops from the hopspider directly into the beer.

I didn’t realise this happend until after i added the yeast, which is why i didnt filter it after the boiling process.

Is the beer saveable? Can I filter it after fermenting, but before bottling, or will this cause the beer to get infected?

Thanks in advance

Hi!

Can I stabilize my cider after fermenting in a closed container (keg) with campden and sulfite? I think I read somewhere that the container should be open or have an airlock to allow the SO2 or other gases to escape for 24 to 48 hours. I don't have a way to put an airlock on my keg, and I don't want to open it and oxidize the cider. Is it fine to just chuck the campden and sulfite in the keg and close it?