Finally done, I opened one last night and my leaving room still smells like a Thanksgiving dinner. Its damn drinkable now but I think another month in the cabinet will balance a few flavors.

9/23/2010 12:00:10 PM

pumpkin ales are very difficult to brew well. it took my pumpkin about 1 month after bottling to settle and was barely drinkable. i think i ended up pouring half a batch down the drain as the window to drink it was like a week. maybe a bad recipe, maybe i did something wrong, but pretty sure it was just difficult. did all the right things too, used organic pumpkin (no preservatives), etc.

9/23/2010 4:45:08 PM

Did have any problems. Baked the "pumpkin" (butternut squash) and use a grain bag during the boil. No mess, and not a ton of trub.

9/23/2010 6:04:24 PM

I brewed up my first pumpkin the other night and after 48 hours it hasnt started fermenting yet. I am going to repitch yeast tomorrow afternoon if it is still stuck. Never had fermentation not start before, so i am a little miffed.

10/5/2010 2:34:51 PM

i was doin some research for something else and ran across this if anyone is interested

*BEER CLASS - Saturday 6 November 1pm-3pm. Email beer@aviatorbrew.com to signup!

Aviator Brewing Company Tap House
600 E. Broad St.
Fuquay Varina, NC 27526
(919) 552-8826
Hours Mon-Thur 3pm-12am Fri-Sun 12-12

10/5/2010 2:46:03 PM

and Alt. Beverage in Belmont is having their monthly brew day this saturday. I need to get down there soon, perhaps i'll stop by for that

10/5/2010 3:30:10 PM

^^after looking into what you posted a little more, I think that would be something fun to attend

I know the date listed is September 25th, but I'm sure the beer classes are pretty much the same every month. If I can find someone to go with me, i might make the trip

Quote :

"Aviator Beer Appreciation Class at the Brewery (NOTE:we have moved from the airport) Saturday Sept 25 1:00pm-3:00pm 209 Technology Park Ln Fuquay Varina, NC 27526 (919) 567-BEER (2337) To sign up just send an email to beer@aviatorbrew.com and show up for the class! If this is a gift for a beer lover print out this page and give it to them. We have a class at least once a month. $35.00 includes all beers, materials, full growler of your choice, and Aviator pint glass. The class meets at the brewery. The class covers basic beer styles and offers examples of some of the styles. Beer tasting is introduced and how judges score beer based on style category and beer profile. We present an example of each style and point out the flavor profile that is represented. We discuss the basic ingredients for beer brewing (hops, water, malt, and yeast). Also, how different spices work in beer. We walk your through the brewery and cover the brewing process in detail."

10/5/2010 5:33:30 PM

do any of you guys use Grolsch or other swing-top style bottles? I've been thinking about ordering a case off of ebay and am wondering how the seals are on these things. I'm thinking it would be nice to keep these at the house for my personal bottles and use the regular bottles and caps to give out to friends. Thoughts?

10/7/2010 2:19:47 PM

^ i was given about 40 grolsch bottles (some actually grolsch brand, others just the style) that are 35-40 years old and i used them for my last pale ale, which we served at our rehearsal dinner

i love them...they seal fine and they're easier than capping...they're also cooler

i ordered 100 gaskets from northern brewer for something like $8...they're reusable (you can get them back to their original shape by boiling them, though i don't suppose it's necessary)

10/7/2010 3:50:31 PM

For any of you SN Celebration Ale lovers out there, I was listening to TBN's Sunday Session from a few weeks back with the head brewmaster of Sierra Nevada. At the end he gave out the basic recipe for Celebration Ale that they use at the brewery for people to use and make their own. His recipe basically came down to this for a 5 gal batch..


Celebration Ale Clone 68-IBUs 6.5%ABV
13 lbs: Pale Malt 2-row
1 lb: C-60 Caramel Chrystal Malt
.75 oz: Chinook Hops (60 Min for Bittering)
1.5 oz: Centennial Hops (15 Min)
.75 oz: Cascade Hops (15 Min)
1.5 oz: Centennial Hops (flame out)
.75 oz: Cascade Hops (flame out)

1 oz: Cascade Hops (Dry Hop)
.5 oz: Centennial Hops (Dry Hops)

White Labs WLP001 California Ale Yeast

10/8/2010 11:03:18 AM

I want to start brewing once I'm done with grad school. Any suggestions one books/info/starter kits/etc?

is that american brewmaster store any good?

10/8/2010 12:19:01 PM

I'd get 2 carboy starter kit (better bottle or glass) like this:
http://store.brewhut.com/thebrewhutultrabrewingkit.aspx

Although you can save some money if you can find it local, a lot of local beer shops should have similar "starter kits" for brewing.

I have this book and like it:
http://www.amazon.com/How-Brew-Everything-Right-First/dp/0937381888

Although for your very first batch you may just opt to buy a kit for the recipe as well:
http://store.brewhut.com/intermediateboxedrecipekits.aspx

[Edited on October 8, 2010 at 2:49 PM. Reason : .]

10/8/2010 2:44:05 PM

^when you brewed the Cheer Beer last year did you use a vanilla bean in the secondary? If so, did you soak it in vodka or just split the bean and drop it in the secondary? Also wondering if i should use half a bean or the whole thing. Thoughts?

10/8/2010 5:54:43 PM

Everything that I have read says that you have to a) sanitize the bean b) soak in vodka because vanilla isn't water soluble.

10/8/2010 6:03:10 PM

^^yes, split the bean open and soaked in vodka for 24 hours or more, dropped all into secondary, the vodka will sanitize the bean, you can cut into 1" pieces if that helps cover better so you can use a bit less vodka, but all the pieces still need to be immersed.

i'd use the whole bean. it really wasn't strong at all, just the right hint of vanilla for 5 gallons.

OH, most important part... make sure it's a FRESH vanilla bean, best gotten from a spice store. Or a brew store that does good business sometimes has vanilla bean in airlocked packages... There is a HUGE difference in a fresh vanilla bean and one that's been out for months. You'll know just by smelling it.

[Edited on October 8, 2010 at 7:22 PM. Reason : .]

10/8/2010 7:18:13 PM

Thanks!

Christmas Cheer Beer is being brewed up right after the state game. i'll post the recipe later.

10/9/2010 11:32:46 AM

Anyone know if there are any places to buy yeast in Cary/Morrisville? I want to start a hard cider this week and only need a pack of yeast so I don't really want to have to drive out to American Brewmaster for a $1 thing of yeast.

10/11/2010 10:04:36 AM

Yes, I'd like to see the Christmas Cheer Beer recipe...

I just got my kegerator set up finally.. and two corny kegs so I don't ever have to mess with cleaning all those bottles anymore!

10/11/2010 12:05:43 PM

Cheer Beer (Extract)

5 lbs. - Dry Light Malt Extract
~1 lbs. - Crystal 20L/Crystal 120L (roughly 3 cups each)
2 lbs. - Honey
3/4 oz - Cascade Hops (35 min)
4 - cinnamon sticks (5 min)
1 oz - bitter orange peel (5 min)
1 tspn. - nutmeg (5 min)
1 oz. - Cascade Hops (flame out)
1 - Vanilla Bean (secondary)

1 - California Ale liquid yeast or Safale US-05 dry yeast




I'm curious if my yeast is being sluggish...I had evidence of fermentation within 12-16 hours, however it's been over 48 hours and I really only have about a 1.5" of krausen/foam at the top of the wort. The last several batches i've made have had foam pushing up into the blowoff tube by now. Thoughts?

10/12/2010 8:41:42 AM

thanks prospero. any recommendations on a premade mix (I'm a Stout/Porter/IPA/Brown Ale fan... I'm guessing IPA is the safest choice)? I figured that I should try a few premades so I can get the process down then venture out into my own mixes.

10/12/2010 9:53:10 AM

^^scratch my last thought about my yeast.

10/12/2010 10:20:42 AM

this has probably been answered multiple times in this thread already, but are there any good home brewing stores in Raleigh? I wanna go out and buy a full-on homebrew kit with carboys, fermenters, etc. and retire my MrBeer kit, I would rather buy this stuff in person instead of over a website. Not that I dont trust a website, I would just like to buy it and start playing with it right away

10/12/2010 1:40:38 PM

^american brewmaster on capitol? I know nothing about it though, just that it's there

10/12/2010 1:44:10 PM

yep, or you could try bull city brewing in durham if it's closer to you

10/12/2010 2:51:03 PM

finally found a worthy brown ale recipe:

Janet's Brown Ale
------------------
Extract
8.4 lbs Light LME
1 lbs Wheat LME

Steeping Grains
CaraPils Dextrin Malt 1.25 lbs
Crystal 40L 1.25 lbs
Chocolate Malt .5 lbs

Hops
Northern Brewer 2.0 oz 60min
Northern Brewer 1.0 oz 15min
Cascade 1.5 oz 10min
Cascade 1.5 oz 0Min
Centennial 2.0oz Dry Hop

Yeast
WLP001 California Ale, or Wyeast American Ale 1056

If you do AG, look up the AG recipe online, it's got rave reviews and won some homebrew awards.

[Edited on October 13, 2010 at 3:13 PM. Reason : .]

10/13/2010 3:13:17 PM

sounds like a great recipe to do a 5 gallon full boil batch.

10/13/2010 4:37:28 PM

i swear the more you read about homebrewing and how to's and fixes and rights and wrongs the more, as a new brewer you become paranoid to try and get it all at once. sometimes i forget to just relax and let the yeast do it's magic and most importantly RDWHAHB

10/13/2010 5:32:57 PM

RDWHAHB or three.
hell yeah. brewing Monday night. i'm thinking i may step the hops down a notch.

10/14/2010 5:02:41 PM

Quote :

"Northern Brewer 2.0 oz 60min"

After doing a bit more math, I think I'm lowering this to 1.5oz instead of 2.0oz to lower the final IBU's to 50 instead of the anticipated 63. 50 would still be higher than the 20-40 suggested for a typical brown and would still be considered an India Brown Ale.-

10/14/2010 6:37:30 PM

are you doing a full boil or partial? with a full boil you might need to cut it even more due to the utilization. I think i've read that cutting your hops by ~20% is about right.

10/14/2010 8:01:17 PM

Partial.... it should be lower utilization anyhow due to using extract instead of AG

10/14/2010 8:47:17 PM

Brewed the Brown Ale last night:

Yeast already doing it's job:

10/19/2010 12:06:26 PM

i like that fridge. do you drink your beer at 64, or do you just adjust it when you are getting ready to put a primary in there?

10/19/2010 2:32:29 PM

No, that's just my wine/beer 'storage' fridge. I have 2 shelves dedicated to beer upstairs in the main fridge that's kept cooler. I prefer serving my beer in the 45'-55' range depending on how light/dark it is to get the best flavor.

I set the fridge above to 65'F (it's just showing current temp of 64') for fermenting. I find that 65'F is best since extra heat being produced by the yeast actually makes the wort a temp of 68'-70'F in the carboy, so it works out about right.

When primary/secondary isn't in the wine cooler, it's usually kept at 55'F for red wine and general beer storage (generally 3-4 weeks after bottling)

You can see my Pliny The Elders in the bottom left of the fridge w/ red/green label

[Edited on October 19, 2010 at 2:56 PM. Reason : .]

10/19/2010 2:42:35 PM

i'm ready to move to all-grain

10/20/2010 9:58:45 AM

yea, i've been talking to my brewing buddy about making the move to AG, the recipes will be cheaper at least

i've seen some pretty sweet gravity AG setups, check this out:
http://www.brewmorebeer.com/building-a-brew-tower/

another really cool one is the one at the 12min. mark:
http://www.brewingtv.com/episodes/2010/9/23/brewing-tv-episode-19-gabf-2010.html

[Edited on October 20, 2010 at 11:28 AM. Reason : .]

10/20/2010 11:20:58 AM

yeah i wouldn't waste my money building one of those. a good cooler MLT and a ladder or tall work bench is all i'd need. spend the rest of the money on tasty recipes and more carboys

10/20/2010 1:29:58 PM

I just got this facebook message from American Brewmaster:

Quote :

"We are very proud to announce a partnership with two great local businesses: Fullsteam Brewery in Durham, NC and Wine 101 in Wake Forest, NC! We have arranged for a merchandise pick-up at these locations on Thursday, October 28th @ Fullsteam Brewery and Monday, October 25th @ Wine 101. Simply place your order online, select "Customer Pick-Up", and then leave a comment that specifies which location you'd like to pick your items up at. It's just that easy! See you at the shop soon! "

That's really convenient for me since I live in Durham.

10/20/2010 1:38:00 PM

I have a brown ale that I've completely ignored. It's been in secondary fermentation for a solid 8 months.

Should I even bother bottling this?

10/20/2010 7:17:33 PM

sanitize your racking cane and use it to grab a sample - only way to know for sure

if you don't like what it's become and don't care to use that carboy for another 8 months, you could throw some wild yeast at it and see what happens - of course that opens up a few concerns with sanitizing/reusing your equipment

[Edited on October 20, 2010 at 7:47 PM. Reason : a]

10/20/2010 7:40:27 PM

^^if it's been perfectly sealed, theoretically yes you can bottle it.

if you open it and smell it, if it smells like soap, the fatty acids in the trub have been broken down and it'll be bad, but chances are slim at this happening if you did a good job transferring into secondary. typically though you need a pretty high alcohol content to ferment that long.

[Edited on October 20, 2010 at 8:19 PM. Reason : .]

10/20/2010 8:19:18 PM

^^Only one way to find out, check it out. I would still bottle.

10/21/2010 4:37:15 AM

took my first hydrometer reading on my christmas ale last night and it was right on point at 1.009. I'm going to give it a few more days, but that's the FG number so i'm not expecting it to drop any more.

but i drank the sample and was really disappointed, A) the beer is a lot lighter than i wanted and B) the sample just didn't taste all that good. I'm kind of hoping the flavor melds together in the secondary and with carbonation in the bottles before christmas or i'm gonna be bummed.

10/21/2010 8:31:10 AM

unless it's a dark ale, it typically doesn't taste good until final bottling, carbonation, and chilling occur, imho. my saison tasted like crap all the way through the process. once bottled and chilled a bit, it's by far the best beer i've brewed.

also i hope you used extremely fresh spices as that's a huge key to the christmas ale being good or bad. i'm sure you did, but i honestly didn't know the difference until my brewing buddy brought over some FRESH cinnamon, all-spice, orange peel, and vanilla and it was night & day from the stuff i had on my shelf for cooking.

[Edited on October 21, 2010 at 11:37 AM. Reason : .]

10/21/2010 11:36:35 AM

hmm, that's a good point. the darker beers have always tasted more "right" during sampling than my lighter ales.


and another good point about the fresh spices. My LHBS packages all of their stuff in house in anti-static packaging to perserve flavor/freshness so i'd imagine they are ok. I think it's just the beer still being green, because i remember during my boil and right before racking to primary the aroma of the wort was incredibly strong and spicy. I think it'll be fine and the addition of the vanilla extract i made with the bean and vodka will be an added touch.

10/21/2010 11:41:17 AM

in other news, my brown ale blew the airlock & stopper out on Tues. i re-sanitized the neck of the carboy and the airlock and put a different type of airlock that would allow some krausen to pass... unfortunately my normal syphon/bottling tube didn't fit in my stopper to use for a blowoff tube... gonna have to get a tube just-in-case it happens again in the future. i knew it was only a matter of time

[Edited on October 21, 2010 at 11:59 AM. Reason : .]

10/21/2010 11:48:49 AM

I've got a brewing bucket, bucket top and airlock that I'll sell for $15. I used it once to make some peach wine. Pic is in my gallery.

10/23/2010 6:40:45 PM

put the brown in secondary tonight and WOW the dry hopping is a nice touch to the brown. sampled it and i think it's going to be awesome! 2 more weeks and then bottling.

now i'm looking for a good Christmas Ale recipe

10/25/2010 11:02:31 PM

Anyone done a cider without doing a secondary to clarify it? I am debating just skipping that step because I don't mind if it's a little hazy. I know it'll get better the longer it sits, but at the rate I drink things I'll have bottles of it around for a good while.

10/26/2010 2:02:04 PM

Depends on the kind of cider you want, I don't think cider needs to be clear.

Here's what I did last year and turned out great (and potent):

1-gallon glass jug of apple cider (pasteurized, all-organic /no preservatives, important to not have potassium sorbate in it, it will kill the yeast)
1-oz fermax yeast nutrient
1 gram champagne yeast

Open, drop yeast & nutrient in, wait 2 weeks or so and it's ready, and if you want you can post-sweeten it with frozen apple juice concentrate that comes in a can, add per personal taste.

I just used a stopper, or you could try to find an airlock that would work.

Also, mine never cleared and it sat for 1-2 months. Cider is typically unfiltered, if you want a filtered clear cider, use all-organic no preservatives apple JUICE.

[Edited on October 26, 2010 at 2:56 PM. Reason : .]

10/26/2010 2:50:23 PM