Brewing

[BoogieMonster]

Cough.

[Rigil Kent]

Oooo .... nice. Posh yeast once again available to us mortals.

My brother in law in the western cape makes use of this supplier. He's been swept up in the hobby for a few years now. Makes a pretty decent stout.

[BoogieMonster]

I have seen videos on YT about harvesting yeast post-ferment and storing it. People of the prepper mindset may choose to perpetuate instead of sourcing going forward.

[brianvds]

I have seen videos on YT about harvesting yeast post-ferment and storing it. People of the prepper mindset may choose to perpetuate instead of sourcing going forward.

Yes, the products from that Cape Town company are rather on the expensive side.

In the meantime, someone online told me he is mystified by my report of my fermentation just stopping after five days. But he thinks that conceivably the magic ingredient might be raisins. Well, I'll give it a try if and when I can get hold of raisins...

[BoogieMonster]

Probably a stupid question but is it receiving sunlight?

[brianvds]

Probably a stupid question but is it receiving sunlight?

Nope. Should it? Surely not?

[BoogieMonster]

No, I wrap mine so it gets none.

[BoogieMonster]

[...] I pitched a spot of the grape juice into the mead. Now it's bubbling away happily. There was maybe 1 spot of gunkyness on the surface when I found it but I scooped it out and hopefully the ferment will keep stuff from getting worse. "We shall see".

In the meantime I've started a 10l batch of pineapple brew too [...]

It is now 10d later. The baker's yeast is still fermenting the Mead quite well. Just bubbling away in it's slow, gradual style it has been thusfar. Any nastyness that could've been there has completely disappeared. There was some "Krausen", but at this point it's all gone and all that remains is the ring it made on the grass and thin, light, white foam being formed by the rest of the fermentation. There's lees forming on the bottom and very, very gradually it seems like the liquid is lightening, but it's still fairly opaque. Then again clarification is only likely to happen a month+ in, if at all.

The pineapple brew seems to be slowing significantly in fermentation now but the bits of fruit bobbing at the top seem to be still fermenting furiously so: I surmise there's not enough alcohol yet to kill the yeast, but the main "body" of the fluid is probably out of sugar. I may add more to help maximise alcohol content until fermentation does stop completely. (I did make up the recipe on the fly so... it's entirely possible). A quick taste test didn't yield an at-all bad drink. Perhaps lacking a bit in flavour, and in need of chilling. I'm considering bottling it (eventually) with a bit of sugar for natural carbonation. That combined with a chill should yield something quite nice.

(Warm beer tastes crappy for a reason, the cold changes our ability to taste certain unwanted flavors)

[brianvds]

Me, I have kind of given up on high alcohol brew - I'm not that desperate for it anyway. I have now tried more or less anything and everything I could think of. Lots of sugar, little sugar, start with a little and add more, teaspoon of Marmite, regularly stir, don't regularly stir, whatever. The result is invariably the same: after five days the fermentation mostly stops, resulting in a pleasant but very mildly alcoholic drink.

[Rigil Kent]

Got a 5kg bag of grain from the bird feed section at the local co-op. Since I don't have any hops, I thought it may be a good idea to try and make some whiskey. I'm busy malting the grain at the moment, which is kind of fun. Even more fun was replicating successfully the harvesting of wild yeast from grapes, as in the video linked to by brianvds earlier. I intend using this wild yeast in my grain ferment. So hopefully it will come together nicely. Unfortunately whiskey has to sit around with a block of wood in it for a few months, and then mellow for another year. So it should just about be drinkable when this lock down ends.

I can barley wait.

[brianvds]

Got a 5kg bag of grain from the bird feed section at the local co-op. Since I don't have any hops, I thought it may be a good idea to try and make some whiskey. I'm busy malting the grain at the moment, which is kind of fun. Even more fun was replicating successfully the harvesting of wild yeast from grapes, as in the video linked to by brianvds earlier. I intend using this wild yeast in my grain ferment. So hopefully it will come together nicely. Unfortunately whiskey has to sit around with a block of wood in it for a few months, and then mellow for another year. So it should just about be drinkable when this lock down ends.

I can barley wait.

Just way too much work, for way too little product. Well, if you're lazy like me.

I'm kind of happy with the brew I now make. Not very strong, but enough to make me mellow. My landlady has tried some. She thinks there is more alcohol in it than I think. Who knows? I have no way to measure it.

[Rigil Kent]

She thinks there is more alcohol in it than I think. Who knows? I have no way to measure it.

Perhaps you can use your landlady as gauge.

I've also learned that at the start of the ferment the yeast, a facultative anaerobe, needs oxygen to get its population going. So some frequent agitation is useful in the beginning, until it goes into the fermentative stage.

[brianvds]

She thinks there is more alcohol in it than I think. Who knows? I have no way to measure it.

Perhaps you can use your landlady as gauge.

I've also learned that at the start of the ferment the yeast, a facultative anaerobe, needs oxygen to get its population going. So some frequent agitation is useful in the beginning, until it goes into the fermentative stage.

I do my brew in 2 L plastic bottles, with the caps not quite tightly screwed on, so there are probably limits to how much fresh air gets in there...

[BoogieMonster]

FWIW: I did end up with not-bad pineapple beer. But wanted to see how good I could get it, thus "racking" it into a bunch of 2l coke bottles, added sugar for carbonation and cold-crashed. After about a week racked again and put back in the fridge. This left me with a nice, cold, slightly carbonated (need more sugar) beautifully clear, pineappeley (shock), greenish-yellow drink. It's really not bad, has that familiar bitter aftertaste many beers have (lacking in hops... so... no idea why...), and gets a good buzz going for both me and the missus. In a world without legal alcohol, it'd totally liven up a party. BUT it's not actual beer...

I can barley wait.

I did spring for some grains and yeast (edit: and HOPS!) from the brew supply place, while we were still in the dark ages of Lvl 4. They had slim pickings where stock was concerned and I "got what I could" to make what will be "definitely beer": of not any style or recipe in particular other than "what Boogie could figure out are the rough rules for making a beer". Got to me in short order and I went ahead trying to make my first ever actual beer. The process is both fascinating in it's requirements for exactitude and planning, and really fun! AND THE SMELL!!! After brew day missus requested we do it again due to us shooting low on volume for the first batch... and so it was. Fermentation is just about done on the first batch, what I've tasted thusfar is really great, but I haven't had enough to make a call on alcohol level. The color is perfect, it really is "definitely beer", and I'm VERY chuffed about that. I'm expecting 4-5% ABV at the efficiency I achieved. The subsequent batch a tad more. Hoping to work on that..

I was able to, as stock has come in-and-out, been able to acquire more beer making (and bottling) essentials so batch 1 will soon be racked into bottles to carbonate. I can hardly contain my excitement.

Also, I threw some hard cider (apple juice + sugar) into a fermenter a while ago + beer yeast and do expect that to work out brilliantly also.

I'm hooked.

[brianvds]

I found that if I leave my simple sugar-plus-yeast brew for ten days instead of five, it does after all ferment a bit more, and ends up a bit more alcoholic too, though I doubt if it gets to more than 4% or thereabouts.

Now you can buy again, and my landlady got some bottles of wine. The other day I had a glass or two - and woke up the next morning with a splitting headache. I am clearly out of practice. But I concluded that the liquor industry produces stuff that is way too strong, probably deliberately to make it more addictive. Henceforth I'll only ever drink what I brew myself. I have a feeling lots of people are going to do the same, and the liquor industry has been dealt a permanent blow by the temporary ban. We'll have to see how the tobacco industry will come out of it.