Just found a good website, that shows a keg converted into a fermentor
Here is the URL: http://users.adelphia.net/~aken75/Fermenter%20Lid/Fermenter%20Lid.html
Here are some pics...
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Just found a good website, that shows a keg converted into a fermentor
Here is the URL: http://users.adelphia.net/~aken75/Fermenter%20Lid/Fermenter%20Lid.html
Here are some pics...
Greetings all,
Just a quick update on the club.
One): A new member has been warmly welcomed to the club, Julie "The Brew Mistress"
Two): We have recently acquired 4 New Beer kegs to convert into brewing equipment. Much thanks to Julie for finding them for the club!!!! She truly is the a welcome addition to the club!
Next, what to do with the new kegs???? We have 5 kegs, now, One already in service as a brew kettle, I think we should convert another keg to a brew kettle, and the other two can serve as mash tuns. Which leaves us with one left....
What to do with the last keg? Convert it into a Fermentor?
The latest batches of American Amber Ale are done, and Julie's Batch of Belgium Wit is also finished. We have 12 Gals of Crimson Oktoberfest to bottle and another batch of lager to make....
Peace
All
PS here is a photo from the last brew day at my place. This is the Crimson Oktoberfest going into the primary. Photo courtesy thanks to Julie for remembering a camera, and to take pictures
Monday, September 03, 2007
Labor Day weekend brewing:
Hey all, just a quick update, on all the brews we have been working on.
First the fridge, with the new Johnson’s Temperature controller has been keeping the fridge at a perfect 55 degrees!
Today, the Cinco De Mayo, German Oktoberfest beer is being bottled, and put up to age, the Fosters clone lager will be racked and then lagered for a month or so.
Last night we racked the Cinnamon Mead, and the Chocolate Mead, and started the White Riesling wine for the wife.
A taste test of the cinnamon mead, and specific gravity check, showed an SG of 1.020 (pretty sweet still) and very tasty. A test of the Chocolate mead, showed a lower gravity of 1.010 and while still a little sweet, and chocolatety, it has improved considerably. We are planning an addition of Chocolate extract when the mead clears some more, and that should make it taste wonderful! The alcohol content is also very nice, not to hot and not too mild.
And finally a batch of plain sweet mead is going into the primary, 15 lbs of honey, some yeast nutrients, and spring water, and champagne yeast.
That’s it for the weekend, and this is truly a Labor of Love!
Hey all, just a quick update, on all the brews we have been working on.
First the fridge, with the new Johnson’s Temperature controller has been keeping the fridge at a perfect 55 degrees!
Today, the Cinco De Mayo, German Oktoberfest beer is being bottled, and put up to age, the Fosters clone lager will be racked and then lagered for a month or so.
Last night we racked the Cinnamon Mead, and the Chocolate Mead, and started the White Riesling wine for the wife.
A taste test of the cinnamon mead, and specific gravity check, showed an SG of 1.020 (pretty sweet still) and very tasty. A test of the Chocolate mead, showed a lower gravity of 1.010 and while still a little sweet, and chocolatety, it has improved considerably. We are planning an addition of Chocolate extract when the mead clears some more, and that should make it taste wonderful! The alcohol content is also very nice, not to hot and not too mild.
And finally a batch of plain sweet mead is going into the primary, 15 lbs of honey, some yeast nutrients, and spring water, and champagne yeast.
That’s it for the weekend, and this is truly a Labor of Love!
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Johnsons Refrigerator Tempurature controls has been recieved and installed on the Lagering Fridge! Woot Woot!
And at present the fridge is at a balmy 55 degrees F. and holding steady. Perfect Lagering temps. and It has made it so much easier for me now that I do not have to run back and forth to keep turning the fridge on and off.
Next step is to bottle the lagers, and get them conditioned.
Peace Sisters
G
And at present the fridge is at a balmy 55 degrees F. and holding steady. Perfect Lagering temps. and It has made it so much easier for me now that I do not have to run back and forth to keep turning the fridge on and off.
Next step is to bottle the lagers, and get them conditioned.
Peace Sisters
G
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Hello all,
Another update on the two experimental meads I have fermenting. I tasted the Chocolate mead, and WOW was it dry! I guess 10lbs of honey is not near enough honey for my sweet tooth. Also the chocolate flavor while there was very week, and not even close to being palitable. So i racked out of the carbouy, into a clean primary fermentor, added 5 more lbs of honey, added a packet of Red-Star Schamagne yeast, and put a lid on it.
So i did the same for the cinnamon mead. You this was also very dry, and had a very strong cinnamon flavor, So I added 5 lbs of honey, tried another sample and it was much sweeter, and very tasty. Added the red-star yeast, and put the lid on it, and put it back.
I will let these re-start fermenting, and let them settle down for a month and give them another try. I will adjust the flavor accordingly. I do plan on adding some chocolate extract to bring out the flavor of the Chocolate mead. But I will wait to see how much more this mead ferments. I may have to add more honey to this one to get it right.
Peace
Another update on the two experimental meads I have fermenting. I tasted the Chocolate mead, and WOW was it dry! I guess 10lbs of honey is not near enough honey for my sweet tooth. Also the chocolate flavor while there was very week, and not even close to being palitable. So i racked out of the carbouy, into a clean primary fermentor, added 5 more lbs of honey, added a packet of Red-Star Schamagne yeast, and put a lid on it.
So i did the same for the cinnamon mead. You this was also very dry, and had a very strong cinnamon flavor, So I added 5 lbs of honey, tried another sample and it was much sweeter, and very tasty. Added the red-star yeast, and put the lid on it, and put it back.
I will let these re-start fermenting, and let them settle down for a month and give them another try. I will adjust the flavor accordingly. I do plan on adding some chocolate extract to bring out the flavor of the Chocolate mead. But I will wait to see how much more this mead ferments. I may have to add more honey to this one to get it right.
Peace
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Greetings Fellow brewers....
Just an update on the two Experimental meads.
After cleaning as sterilizing two carboys, I began with the Chocolate mead.
I removed the lid, and was instantly hit with a not so wonderful smell. Kinda putrid smelling but after a few more minutes, you could tell there was a chocolate smell with yeast tones. I did a SG, check and the mead was at .993, a quick taste and ieven though it was not a pleasant taste, you could taste the chocolate, and only a tiny hint of the honey. I am hoping that as I have read in other recipies, this will age, and begin to taste better as time goes on. Based on the OG and the FG, the alcohol content is over 10%.
I put the airlock on the Chocolate Mead Carboy and began racking the Cinnamon/Apple Mead. Removing the lids was a lot better smelling than the Chocolate but still green smelling of yeast, and cinnamon. A SG reading of .990 was reached, and a taste test was much better than the Chocolate too. Very High Cinnamon flavour, almost a hot cinnamon aftertaste, and some honey flavors, almost no Apple flavours were detected.
Well I put the Airlocks on the recently racked meads, and began figuring out if I should add some extracts to fix the flavors, but figured its way to early to do anything drastic yet.
I will report back over the next year to hopefully provide you with better taste tests, and results of these two meads. I am also going to put up a batch of Plain Honey Mead, and a back up mead, just in case.
Peace all
G
Just an update on the two Experimental meads.
After cleaning as sterilizing two carboys, I began with the Chocolate mead.
I removed the lid, and was instantly hit with a not so wonderful smell. Kinda putrid smelling but after a few more minutes, you could tell there was a chocolate smell with yeast tones. I did a SG, check and the mead was at .993, a quick taste and ieven though it was not a pleasant taste, you could taste the chocolate, and only a tiny hint of the honey. I am hoping that as I have read in other recipies, this will age, and begin to taste better as time goes on. Based on the OG and the FG, the alcohol content is over 10%.
I put the airlock on the Chocolate Mead Carboy and began racking the Cinnamon/Apple Mead. Removing the lids was a lot better smelling than the Chocolate but still green smelling of yeast, and cinnamon. A SG reading of .990 was reached, and a taste test was much better than the Chocolate too. Very High Cinnamon flavour, almost a hot cinnamon aftertaste, and some honey flavors, almost no Apple flavours were detected.
Well I put the Airlocks on the recently racked meads, and began figuring out if I should add some extracts to fix the flavors, but figured its way to early to do anything drastic yet.
I will report back over the next year to hopefully provide you with better taste tests, and results of these two meads. I am also going to put up a batch of Plain Honey Mead, and a back up mead, just in case.
Peace all
G
Monday, July 02, 2007
Just wanted to share a couple of meads I started yesterday afternoon. After I finished bottling up a German Marzen Oktoberfest beer, I began cooking up the ingredients for two meads, one a Cinnamon / Apple mead, and the other a Chocolate Mead.
The ingredients for the two meads are as follows:
Cinnamon / Apple Mead
20 sticks of Cinnamon
50oz of Unfiltered, Pasturized 100% Apple Juice
2 Cups of Strong regular Luizanne Tea
5tsp of Super ferment (yeast nutrients)
1tsp Bentonite
10lbs of Clover honey
5gal of spring water
1 packet of dry Champagne yeast
Chocolate Mead
16oz. of Hersheys Unsweatened Cocoa powder
5tsp of Super ferment (yeast nutrients)
1cup of dextrose
1tsp Bentonite
10lbs of Clover Honey
5Gal of Spring water
1 packet of dry Champagne yeast.
Instructions for Cinnamon / Apple Mead:
In one gallon of water boil / steap all 20 cinnimon stick for 15 minutes (this makes the house smell wonderful BTW), remove and strain the sticks from the Cinnamon water (tea).
in 2 cups of warmed water (use a microwave) i disolved 1 tsp of bentonite. ( i am doing this to help in the clearing stages, something i do when I make regular wines, im experimienting so I will let you know how it helps if any).
I poured the disolved bentonite into 1 gal of spring water in the primary fermentor, and then added the hot cinnamon water(tea) to the primary fermentor. (about two gallons in there now). I quickly brewed up 2 cups of regular tea in the microwave, and added that to the primary fermentor. I then added 5tsp of Super ferment to the solution. And then slowly stired in the honey. I added water to the honey containers, shook them up good, to disolve the remaing honey, and poured that into the primary. Added enough of the remaining water to bring the mead to the 6 gal mark. Primary Starting Gravity was 1.080. sprinkled the champagne yeast over the top of the mead after aerating for several minutes, put on the lid and filled the airlock with vodka.
Instructions for Chocolate Mead:
In one gallon of water, I disolved, and brought to a boil the entire 16oz container of Cocoa Powder. You must be very careful when bringing this much chocolate, to a boil. Use a very large pot if you can find, to avoid boil-over!!! I had a couple of close calls. once the Chocoalte is at a low-med boil, after 15 minutes start to skim the gook off the top of the chocolate, and discard. what you want to see is a nice smooth, clear top of boiling chocolate. (not sure why, its is just what I had read in the past, so I did the same). I then put 1 gal of cool spring water into the primary fermentor. I disolved 1tsp of bentonite into 2 cups of warm water, and added that to the fermentor. I then added 5tsp. of the super ferment to the fermentor. Then carefully I poured the boiling chocolate into the fermentor. I added another gallon of water to the fermentor, and slowly stirred in the 10lbs of honey. Again I rinsed the honey containers with water to disolved the final bits and poured that into the fermentor. I topped up to the 6gal mark, and took a SG reading. It was a bit low, only 1.070, so I quickly disolved 1 cup of dextrose into 1 cup of boiling water and added that to the primary. That brought the SG up to about 1.078. I aerated the mead Must and sprinkled on the champagne yeast. put the lid on and affixed a vodka filled airlock and set both batches of mead in a corner of the livinging room.
Last night I noticed some fermentation going on with the Apple/cinnamon, and a little with the Chocolate. By this morning, the Apple/Cinnamon was not fermenting very fast, but the Chocolate was going like gangbusters. I will keep you up to date as they both progress.
Peace all.
The ingredients for the two meads are as follows:
Cinnamon / Apple Mead
20 sticks of Cinnamon
50oz of Unfiltered, Pasturized 100% Apple Juice
2 Cups of Strong regular Luizanne Tea
5tsp of Super ferment (yeast nutrients)
1tsp Bentonite
10lbs of Clover honey
5gal of spring water
1 packet of dry Champagne yeast
Chocolate Mead
16oz. of Hersheys Unsweatened Cocoa powder
5tsp of Super ferment (yeast nutrients)
1cup of dextrose
1tsp Bentonite
10lbs of Clover Honey
5Gal of Spring water
1 packet of dry Champagne yeast.
Instructions for Cinnamon / Apple Mead:
In one gallon of water boil / steap all 20 cinnimon stick for 15 minutes (this makes the house smell wonderful BTW), remove and strain the sticks from the Cinnamon water (tea).
in 2 cups of warmed water (use a microwave) i disolved 1 tsp of bentonite. ( i am doing this to help in the clearing stages, something i do when I make regular wines, im experimienting so I will let you know how it helps if any).
I poured the disolved bentonite into 1 gal of spring water in the primary fermentor, and then added the hot cinnamon water(tea) to the primary fermentor. (about two gallons in there now). I quickly brewed up 2 cups of regular tea in the microwave, and added that to the primary fermentor. I then added 5tsp of Super ferment to the solution. And then slowly stired in the honey. I added water to the honey containers, shook them up good, to disolve the remaing honey, and poured that into the primary. Added enough of the remaining water to bring the mead to the 6 gal mark. Primary Starting Gravity was 1.080. sprinkled the champagne yeast over the top of the mead after aerating for several minutes, put on the lid and filled the airlock with vodka.
Instructions for Chocolate Mead:
In one gallon of water, I disolved, and brought to a boil the entire 16oz container of Cocoa Powder. You must be very careful when bringing this much chocolate, to a boil. Use a very large pot if you can find, to avoid boil-over!!! I had a couple of close calls. once the Chocoalte is at a low-med boil, after 15 minutes start to skim the gook off the top of the chocolate, and discard. what you want to see is a nice smooth, clear top of boiling chocolate. (not sure why, its is just what I had read in the past, so I did the same). I then put 1 gal of cool spring water into the primary fermentor. I disolved 1tsp of bentonite into 2 cups of warm water, and added that to the fermentor. I then added 5tsp. of the super ferment to the fermentor. Then carefully I poured the boiling chocolate into the fermentor. I added another gallon of water to the fermentor, and slowly stirred in the 10lbs of honey. Again I rinsed the honey containers with water to disolved the final bits and poured that into the fermentor. I topped up to the 6gal mark, and took a SG reading. It was a bit low, only 1.070, so I quickly disolved 1 cup of dextrose into 1 cup of boiling water and added that to the primary. That brought the SG up to about 1.078. I aerated the mead Must and sprinkled on the champagne yeast. put the lid on and affixed a vodka filled airlock and set both batches of mead in a corner of the livinging room.
Last night I noticed some fermentation going on with the Apple/cinnamon, and a little with the Chocolate. By this morning, the Apple/Cinnamon was not fermenting very fast, but the Chocolate was going like gangbusters. I will keep you up to date as they both progress.
Peace all.
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
Report on the Marzen Octoberfest beer:
WOW, I racked the lager into carboys, to begin the lagering phase of the brew. Of course I had to give a taste, and let me tell you. WOW it is awsome! better than most store bought lagers!!! hands down my best brew so far.
I let the carboys set out for a day to do a diacetyl rest, and I put it in the fridge the next day. I will be slowly dropping the tempurature down to 33 degrees over the next few weeks, and then I will either crank up another batch of lager or do a simple prime with corn sugar. I hope to do the former and use the kruesen to bottle condition this batch.
Take care
WOW, I racked the lager into carboys, to begin the lagering phase of the brew. Of course I had to give a taste, and let me tell you. WOW it is awsome! better than most store bought lagers!!! hands down my best brew so far.
I let the carboys set out for a day to do a diacetyl rest, and I put it in the fridge the next day. I will be slowly dropping the tempurature down to 33 degrees over the next few weeks, and then I will either crank up another batch of lager or do a simple prime with corn sugar. I hope to do the former and use the kruesen to bottle condition this batch.
Take care
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