Home Brewers, What's Fermentin'

[sgtmom52]

We mixed up a batch of Orange spiced Mead (actually a melomel/metheglin) a couple of weeks ago ~ should be ready to bottle towards the end of Feb.

DH also just picked up a kit to make a German Altbier which is a medium amber beer. I think he is going to wait until after Christmas to start it as there is just too much else to do before then.

He would also like to try to find something close to a Newcastle Brown Ale to brew ~ anyone have any suggestions?

 

[celticfarmer]

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I hope you didn't blow any bottles, I really hate that.

Depending on the type of brew I will either use dextrose or DME to prime.

 

[HarlansHollowFarms]

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I haven't blown any bottles up YET...but I was trying on the last batch!

 

[celticfarmer]

I've seen issues like that with people mixing up imperial gallons and US gallons. Guys will prime with enough for 5 imperial gallons which is roughly 6 us gallons, that makes for some fun times.

 

[Raiquee]

My hubby home brews...he just does the "kits" as he is still a newbie brewer. Altho he had two batches in a row go flat on him so I think hes on a strike. He has no idea why they went flat other than he didn't get them bottled fast enough. Who knows.

 

[vfem]

All I've ever done so far is fermented fruit in vodka for fruit liquors. We have lots of fruit trees, and a couple grape vines... so next year we want to get a started kit for wine making.

 

[celticfarmer]

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One of the most important tools in home brewing that I've found (the hard way) is the journal. Ask you hubby if he documented the whole process, and from there it's usually pretty easy to identify what went wrong. Believe me, it's usually something that makes you feel real dumb.

 

[celticfarmer]

Quick question


Does anyone do any lagering? If you do or know anyone that does, what is being used to lager the beer in that sub-60 deg. range?

 

[jsmonasmith]

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Indeed, I over primed my batch a few months ago and had a bottle explode toward the end of its bottle fermentation. A quick google search suggested refrigerating them to stop/slow carbonation. So luckily for me I had a frig full of highly carbonated home brew

. That was the first time my wife begged me to drink up all the beer

That one turned out really good, everyone who tried it was thoroughly impressed with it, which is more than I can say for the previous 2 batches. It was my first partial mash, I used the HME's from that MR Beer refill kit, for the 3 gallons, and did a very crude mash with 4 lbs of light malted grains for another gallon(4 gallons total). It came out as a sort of dry, mild, brown ale type. It was simple so I think I'm going to do it again soon. I didn't use the sugar packs that came with the package since previous batches taught me that it pretty well ruins the taste of a perfectly good beer. I keep them for priming, which requires slightly more than when using granulated sugar.

This is just funny to me, because I had the same thought, "If anyone here is like me there's got to be someone who brews beer also". Anyone reload your own ammunition as well?