jacob300zx

Been playing around with this for a couple of years now and have my sparkling hard cider down pretty good. Anybody else making homemade beer/wine/lightening?













Started up some hard cider and strawberry wine tonight.

mgeoffriau

iTrader: (7)

Wait, are you using Woodford Reserve to make homemade wine?

Braineack

iTrader: (62)

bro, I turn water into wine. But only when the party isn't swinging full-tilt. And only when you're not looking.

thirdgen

iTrader: (26)

I have a recipe somewhere for dandelion wine...$hits awesome.
My best friend brews his own beer. He's like a brewmaster with it. Makes some good stuff.

y8s

iTrader: (8)

frozen juice wine?

you know it is probably cheaper to buy the same flavor mad dog.

Braineack

iTrader: (62)

I like harbor mist.

thirdgen

iTrader: (26)

Boone's farm or md 20/20 is where it's at.

Braineack

iTrader: (62)

hellz yeah! 7-11 special!

mgeoffriau

iTrader: (7)

Ripple.

jacob300zx

I'm making about 20% volume on the apple using champagne yeast and the concentrate gives a better flavor. The benefit of homemade brews is you can make stuff that can't be bought in a store.

Braineack

iTrader: (62)

dude apple wine is yummy.

rleete

iTrader: (21)

I used to make beer, because my brother did, and I had to try it. Found it was more trouble than it was worth. I have the complete setup, including filter, kegs and a pressure bottle. Spent a fortune, but making a batch always seemed like a hell of a lot of work when I could just go buy beer. It sat for several years, and then on a whim I decided to try mead.

I use Papasian's "barkshack ginger mead" recipie, and only about 1/3 to 1/2 the ginger it calls for. Very refreshing summer drink, about the equavalent to a white zinfandel in strength. Nowhere near as sweet as you might imagine. I use dry champagne yeast, and have added fruit several times (blueberries, strawberries) as a flavoring.

I haven't made any in several years, but I have enough honey to make at least 4 or 5 batches. I also have a couple of liters of maple syrup that I have been meaning to try.

EO2K

iTrader: (37)

Um, yes. Beer and mead currently, not into the wine thing yet. The sulfates ------- kill me.

I've got all the junk sitting on my kitchen table to make 2.5 gallons of EdWorts Apfelwien from HomeBrewTalk forum. It's not exactly cider, much dryer and higher alcohol content. I'm using turbinado as opposed to the corn sugar, and I'm using Red Star Champagne yeast, cos it was free.

I picked up 14lbs of local Wildflower Honey at the farmers market today to make a big *** batch of mead. I've got an empty 6 gallon glass carboy that needs a task, so mead it is! I've done a couple of smaller batches in the past, but this one will probably be exclusively for a wedding (probably mine, whenever we get around to making that happen.)

I'm moving 5gals of Papasian's "Vagabond Ginger Ale" to secondary today to sit on top of 6oz of fresh grated ginger root for about a week, next week I'll be bottling. I'm hoping for a "punch-you-inna-face" ginger experience.

My 2.5g batch of Strawberry Wheat got its 2.5lbs of fresh local strawberries on Thursday night when it got transferred to secondary. This is a test batch for something I may submit to the county fair later this summer.

...so yeah, I be brewin' y0.

skidude

iTrader: (3)

Never tried wine, but I have a couple aunt/uncle pairs who do, and my girlfriends parents love making wine.

I brew beer. I have a double IPA and a raspberry wheat fermenting in the basement right now, and I'll be racking the wheat tonight and adding the raspberries. (I guess it's not actually a raspberry wheat yet, just a wheat, but the 5lbs of raspberries in the freezer give away my intentions.)

EO2K

iTrader: (37)

Ski: The above is my first experience with fruit & beer... what's your batch size for 5lbs of raspberries? What is your process to sanitize them before the secondary? How long do you plan on leaving it in contact with the berries?

It sure smells good with the strawberries, and the fruit addition started a secondary ferment.

skidude

iTrader: (3)

I'm following a recipe, as this is my first real attempt at it as well (I did it once before, but I got out of brewing for a couple years and forgot everything). It is a 5-gallon batch, and I will microwave the frozen berries to room temp, which should kill the bacterias and stuff. I plan to leave them in the secondary for a week, or more if the bubbling doesn't stop. I assumed the sugar in the berries would cause some extra fermenting.

hustler

iTrader: (6)

Fermentation temp control fail.

Controlling fermentation temp is the single best thing you can do to increase a wine's quality. My buddy who did a year in prison said the guys who made toilet punch dumped-in ice to control temp. He said it wasn't bad and they don't actually make it in the toilet.

EO2K

iTrader: (37)

Yeah, everyone just says "Freeze the berries, it'll be fine." The problem is I work in AG and I know what food looks like when it comes out of the field. I don't care how pre-washed something claims to be, I wash errything, errytime. I figured the berries would kick off the ferment again. 1 week sounds good. I'll let you know on Thursday +1, Its the same for beer.

I also recently just got back into brewing after walking away for a while. I had zero temp control previously and this led to prolonged, problematic fermentation and less than stellar outcome. The house I'm in now has a couple of closets that are in the corners of the building so they get pretty chilly, so all I have to do is manage the heat side of things to keep them at the correct temp. I built some carboy jackets out of Reflectix and lined them with a 25 watt Reptile Heat Cable, and I'm using a cheap *** eBay Aquarium Temp Controller to keep things in check. The heated jackets and the stir plate for making starters have been the 2 best investments I've made this time around.

skidude

iTrader: (3)

What temperature do you control for when fermenting an ale? I have my buckets in the basement right now, and they seem to be staying at a pretty steady 66 degrees.

What is this "stir plate" you speak of? Do you mean for making your own yeast starters? The yeast I have been buying lately is really expensive, so I am looking for options to cut the cost back from $9 per package.

I hadn't really thought of freezing the berries as a way to sterilize them, just that I bought them frozen. The microwave is what I figured would kill anything.

rleete

iTrader: (21)

When I make mead, I use the cheap dry yeast packets for champagne. Never had a bad batch yet. I do start them at the beginning of the brew, dumping the packet into a large glass of warm sugar water. Stir it in, and let it sit. By the time I get to pitching it, it's rehydrated and active.