What's brewing at your place?

[jocosa]

With the changing color of the leaves, and outdoor temps dropping, many brewers start thinking more about brewing beer or getting a holiday batch wrapped up - what's brewing at your place?

I just bottled 5 gallons of stout and 5 gallons of porter, will be brewing an Irish Red soon and making a Black Raspberry Merlot. Also need to start a batch of hard cider - 'tis the season you know.

We'll be bottling 5 gallons of traditional mead and 3 gallons of pyment...

Hoping to get some sausage making equipment soon.... hoping that homemade sausages and a mixed-six pack will make great 'made with love' gifts. :)

 

[scotty]

HEY!!!!!! I make wine. Im aging a white grape peach and an apricot.
Next wee i will start an austrailian shiraz.

Im lining up to make a concord grape red wine and an oange chocolate wine also.


Here are lots of photos
http://s35.photobucket.com/albums/d1...wine%20making/

 

[jocosa]

Wow scotty - Nice looking bottles and labels! I made a concord pyment once, we still have one bottle of that test batch - got any tips on making anything using concord? Of course I used the juice from the store, that may have been my mistake, or I may have not used enough.

Very nice color on those too... the fruit cocktail looks particularly enticing. And don't you *love* a floor corker?

I never tried one of the smaller hand corkers , don't have to be a psychic to know that would end up broken glass and blood... and some manner of wasted beverage.

 

[payson]

Just brewed 5 gallons of American barley wine with Warrior, Simcoe and Cascade (1.108!!) and did a second running ESB 5 gallon batch. Still happily fermenting away. We've got a Flanders Red awaiting the keg as well as a pretty standard clover-honey mead.

 

[ted]

payson, Flanders Red? Nice!! How about a recipe for that ?
I have an Amarillo Delight that just got kegged, it's an APA with all Amarillo, I have a Homegrown Hop Ale that is just finishing primary and a Bitter that was split in 2 wit each half fermented with a different Brit ale yeast for research purposes! This weekend I will be brewing a 10 gal batch of Porter with another brewer and splitting it with him! Coming up I have a batch of Multi-berry Melomel that will be made and then a couple lagers that need to get done, along with another attempt at a hard cider!!

 

[jocosa]

Ted... what yeast do you usually use for hard cider? I've tried Nottingham, and WL English Ale... and both did ok, and while friends lapped it up as fast as I could open it - it just wasn't emotionally satisfying to me... it keeps seeming more like a dry apple wine than a cider to me.

I'm gonna try the Wyeast Cider Ale yeast with this batch, just trying to decide what mixture of juices I want to use.

Payson... I've only done one second running brew thus far - what kind of OG did you have?

 

[deejaydebi]

Nothing brewing right now. I've been way to busy getting my Christmas sausages ans bacon going. I don't have to get my German Altbier, IPA and Balentine Clone going for News Years thought.

 

[scotty]

Concord from frozen welches concentrare is something i have made my specialty.
I make 4 types from frozen concord.
1 11 oz can per 3 gallon batch((dont laugh))it puts most rose wines to shame

Then i do 1 or 2 or 3 cans per gallon styles. I always make a 3 gallon batch or more.

Then always use A hydrometer to test sg and keep the alcohol down to a max of 10-12 percent. High alcohol hides the flavor. After it is fermented to fully dry i backsweeten to varying percentages of sugar to suit my tast or what i expect others will like. One of my favorire parts of the hobby is making pretentious names for the wine

Here is a forum of extremely helpfull folks. just like the smoking forum bunch
http://corneliushome.com/Wiz/forum/default.asp

I have a small program called wine calc which computes mant things including hpw much sugar to add to how many gallons based on the specific gravity of the must/juice but i cant seem to find the link now

I also use welches white grape peach--dynamite white wine

 

[scotty]

Ballantine wow i havent heard that name since i was a teenager.
The brewery went out of business because the union contract would not allow the truck to deliver more than 40 cases per man per day((2 men on a huge truck))

The bud drivers used to deliver 1000 cases to one of my stores and still have some for other stops.
Balantine cases were 8-six packs unlike the 4 six pack cases of today.

 

[homebrew & bbq]

I'm just getting started at homebrewing. I can count the brews I've made on one hand, all with kits. Right now I have a German Altbier that should be ready to bottle in the next week or so. I am hoping to get an American Amber started before too long.

 

[deejaydebi]

Scotty -

This is a clone of the 1950's Balentine XX not the new crap they sell today by that name that could just as easily be Bud (no offence if you actually drink Bud but ...) Good stuff!

Terry - What kit did you use for the German Altbier? Was it an extract kit? I made a Brewers Best kit a few year back that was very good and got me hooked on the stuff! Very active brew.

 

[scotty]

I dont drink period Deb. I sip wine on ocasion and will enjoy a cold beer on ocasion but if there were no such thing as any kind of *****, alcohol or cigarettes my life would hardly change except perhaps in the area of smelling the stink of tobacco.

 

[tailgatingpirate]

i think im getting brewing starter kit soon as well

 

[homebrew & bbq]

Debi,

I am using the Brewers Best kit. It was recommended to me by the owner of the beer & wine shop where I get my supplies.

 

[deejaydebi]

Scotty -

It's okay to drink on occasion as long as you do it responsibly.

TailGatingPirate -

I have a small (okay 84 page) ebook on my site you can download to get an idea what the various processes are and different alternatives.

http://www.deejayssmokepit.net/BeerMenu.htm

 

[tailgatingpirate]

sweet thanks i dont know when im getting the kit but i know where to find it

 

[jocosa]

And there are plenty of us here who can answer any quick questions that you may have... :)

 

[richtee]

Dammit... this just MIGHT get me over the edge. Been 8 years since I brewed...SOOO much fun. Sigh... Wife hates it tho... grin..the "smell and mess" heh... then again, she dn't drink beer. Silly woman, anyway.. ;{)

 

[payson]

Ted, I'll see if I can dig up the recipe and post it for you.

jocosa, the second runnings had a gravity of 1.052. Bear in mind that the initial batch was a pretty big barley wine. Generally speaking I'll always parti-gyle when my first beer is a big one. Twice the beer for not much more effort. Also, for what it's worth, I generally use "no-sparge" or once in a blue moon I'll batch sparge. I think this helps when it comes to the second running. Lots of sugars left in there! I'm obviously not remotely concerned with efficiency! Hell, in the scheme of things grain is still pretty cheap (in bulk!) and my beers are never even remotely astringent!

 

[ted]

Payson, that would be great!
Debi, if your Ballentine recipe is all grain, I'd like to see it. I have a buddy that brews a Ballentine IPA and has recieved rave reviews from a guy that used to brew it at the Naragansat location before the brewery started it's move to the midwest.