The Beer Thread

[MartyS (Gromit)]

I ordered a set of those exact same PET bottles after I started kegging instead of bottling about 2 years ago. I use them when I end up with more than fits in the keg. They work fine, but homebrew in them doesn't keep as long as in glass. In glass, homebrew (assuming it isn't kept someplace that is extremely hot) is usually good for a year or two (or even more if you make a really high alcohol beer- some really high alcohol recipes even call for you to let them bottle condition for a year).
 
I've read about "bottle bombs", but I bottled in glass for a lot longer than I've been kegging and I can't remember ever having a bottle explode.

I've never had high alcohol beer, I'm just going to mess around with flavors, so doubt I'll ever have any in the bottle more than a couple of months.  I did buy that 1 gallon glass jug and an extra airlock just in case I decide to make some wine at some point.

Now that I think about it I guess there is a bigger danger of bottle bombs with soda, since there is extra sugar you have chill to kill the yeast when carbonation is good, with beer if you use the right amount of priming sugar once it's used up the bottle shouldn't build up much more pressure.

[MartyS (Gromit)]

The big box of stuff from ritebrew came today but no star-san, so if I want to start this weekend I'll have to use something else to sanitize everything.  They also sent a second auto-siphon instead of the clip.  Just sent them an email about the issues.

Closest home brew shop to me is a 30 to 45 minutes drive each way, a bit far to go for a little bottle of sanitizer.

So, bleach?

[wihogfan]

Bleach...cheap unscented chlorine bleach.
Has to be rinsed where star-san doesn't, but it works.

[wihogfan]

And Ritebrew has never screwed up any of my orders, but I always go and pick them up instead of having them shipped. I'm sure he'll make things right, but if you have any trouble let me know and I'll go and talk to Neil personally since I recommended him (he's not a personal friend, but I've bought enough stuff from him that he knows me by name and face now).

[MartyS (Gromit)]

No response yet but it was after 5 eastern when I sent my email, guess I'll give him until Monday to get back to me before trying again.

I used bleach and rinsed with tap water, so I'm relying on my tap water being bug free.

specific gravity gives an alcohol potential of 4.2, so I guess I weighed everything out correctly, weighed everything in the kit and divided by 4.

Putting a few towels around the fermenter to keep light out, here it is just after adding the yeast:

[wihogfan]

I used bleach and rinsed with tap water, so I'm relying on my tap water being bug free.

I've been homebrewing now for long enough that i take some shortcuts that go against most of the expert advice, but haven't caused me any problems.
Specifically:
-When recipes call for boiling, I got tired of boil overs, so instead of actually boiling I heat water (judged by a thermometer) to just at the point before boiling and hold it there.
-I make 6 gallon batches, but only have a 3 gallon pot to brew in and make my wort.  All expert advice says to boil the other 3 gallons of water and let it cool before adding it to your fermenter, but I just use 3 gallons of tap water directly from the faucet and have never had any infection problems or off flavors as a result.

In other words, I'm guessing your tap water will be plenty bug free (and despite san-star not technically requiring rinsing, I typically rinse everything even with san-star with tap water, just don't rinse it as well as I rinse anything sanitized with bleach).

[wihogfan]

No response yet but it was after 5 eastern when I sent my email, guess I'll give him until Monday to get back to me before trying again.

Neil typically works at Ritebrew until noon CST (not exactly sure what his other business is, but I know he's got another business that he works at after noon). He also works at his Ritebrew business on Saturday mornings, so I'm guessing  he might get back to you tomorrow morning. Let me know if you don't hear back from him by Monday afternoon.

[MartyS (Gromit)]

I didn't get any foam while boiling, I thought that was strange, had the stove on high the whole time.  I did get foam when I added extra water and aerated. 

This morning the airlock is burping bubbles every few minutes, so it's alive.  Don't know if a 1.5 gallon batch will have enough energy to raise the temperature, so I'll be trying it where it is for a while, room will go from 64 at night to 68 in the day.  If it gets too warm I'll move it to the basement.

[MartyS (Gromit)]

For fun here's the recipe I used, starting simple:

8 oz. corn syrup solids and 1 lb. CBW pilsen light DME in 8 quarts hot water, bring to full boil and start timer.
At 30 minutes added 8 grams liberty hops pellets.
Start rehydrating 4g safeale US-05 yeast in 1/4 cup 95° F water.
At 60 minutes put boil pot in sink of cold water and stir until 70° F.
Siphon into fermentor (came to less than 5 quarts so I boiled off 2+ quarts in an hour).
Added tap water to just under the 6 quart line.
Agitated the fermentor to aerate (tap water was already aerated pretty well by the faucet).
Added yeast.
Installed airlock.

Man, that would never fly at work, mixing english and metric units. 

Put the left over hops in a zip lock bag in the freezer for next time, and the left over yeast in a plastic vial in the fridge.

In 2 weeks I'll try that wheat beer kit I got in the 2nd fermentor.

[MartyS (Gromit)]

 Instead of towels I taped together the box the carboys came in and will use that to keep it in the dark.

16 hours and it's looking good.

Caught the airlock mid bubble: