tentacles Posted March 8, 2008 Posted March 8, 2008 I decanted the two beers I had going into kegs last night, the Dunkel finished at 1.013 and the Wit finished at 1.020 (3 points high). The dunkel came out (1.052-1.013) 5.1% and the Wit came out (1.072-1.020) 6.8%. Mumbles: glad you liked the extract Wit, I love that beer.
Mumbles Posted March 8, 2008 Posted March 8, 2008 Hopefully your dunkel comes out better than mine. I think the most important question here is how does the wit taste?
tentacles Posted March 8, 2008 Posted March 8, 2008 They're both not bad for green, barely carbonated beers. I've got em in the keezer at 40psi, I'm praying I can carb them by tonight, got some people coming over to drink some beer maybe. They seem to have a bit of a whang to them, but it could just be the uncarbonated green beer taste. I know the extract Wits tasted best after they'd been carbed about a week or two.
tentacles Posted March 11, 2008 Posted March 11, 2008 So I had a bright idea earlier involving my now defunct mini fridge - the one I used to have my pop machine stuff in. It was just a little 2cf one, useless for brewing. So I peeled the steel off, and removed the compressor and coils (intact). Took about 45 minutes or so. I plan on making a lagering box with the stuff, something I can stick a carboy in, with enough space to stick 3 or 4 kegs if I ever get that many more. I plan on using an air conditioner thermostat for temperature control, I'll try to find one that will go down to 45F, but most go to 50F, which is good enough for any lagering fermentation temp I could need.
Mumbles Posted March 12, 2008 Posted March 12, 2008 I'm dumb. I was going to try one of the wits tonight, and of course I grabbed the wrong box and cooled off some of the dunkel weizens. On the plus side, the diacetyl has all but conditioned out, and it's tasting pretty good. I thought it was pouring a bit dark. I like the sound of that lagering box. For the time being all my lagering will be done with clean yeast and ale temperatures. Have any lagers in mind? I think for my next beer, I am looking at some Dog fish head 60 minute IPA clone. The recipe on homebrew talk has gotten pretty rave reviews. I just had some 60 and 90 minute IPA from them, and dang is that stuff tasty. My roomate had kinda turned me off of them saying they tasted weird. All I have to say is that he has bad taste in beer. In other news I had an imperial hefeweizen a few weeks ago, also quite tasty. It was dry hopped with cascades, and really had a nice flavor. Might give a few hefes a try over the summer, and try to recreate this next fall.
TheSidewinder Posted March 12, 2008 Posted March 12, 2008 Ya know, I'm between a rock and hard place deciding if I want to read this post anymore. I WANT to read it to hear about all the wonderful brews you guys are making. But then DON'T WANT to read it because I get envious and drool on my keyboard when I realize I won't be sampling any of them!! Seriously, this thread has been great. One of the first posts I read when I get here, if I see new replies in it. Keep it up! M
Mumbles Posted March 12, 2008 Posted March 12, 2008 Who says you're not going to be sampling any of them. Remind me before may, and I'll bring some up for you. Not so much on the shitty tasting dunkelweizen. Not quite poisonous, but getting there. (I think that needs to be a tagline for something by the way ). I'll bring some of the wit if there is any left. I am drinking some right now (found a frosty mug), and it is going down pretty good. The corriander is a bit strong right now, but I think it will balance out in the coming weeks. Carbonation is getting there, and should be pretty much complete by this weekend. I am taking some down to my family to try to redeem my beer making name. I also must finish my St. Patrick's Day mini-tour at Old Chicago. I want that t-shirt.
justanotherpyro Posted March 12, 2008 Posted March 12, 2008 My dad made a lager a few years back. Several of us sampled it and it was amazing but it was tainted something fierce. It damn near turned us all inside out from how sick we got. It was a good thing too because we were going to send a few bottles my uncles way and with as bad as this stuff was it wouldn't even be a funny prank. More like a sentence to be caned 50 times. Haven't touched brewing since.
TheSidewinder Posted March 12, 2008 Posted March 12, 2008 Who says you're not going to be sampling any of them. Remind me before may, and I'll bring some up for you. Not so much on the shitty tasting dunkelweizen. Not quite poisonous, but getting there. (I think that needs to be a tagline for something by the way ). I'll bring some of the wit if there is any left. I am drinking some right now (found a frosty mug), and it is going down pretty good. The corriander is a bit strong right now, but I think it will balance out in the coming weeks. Carbonation is getting there, and should be pretty much complete by this weekend. I am taking some down to my family to try to redeem my beer making name. I also must finish my St. Patrick's Day mini-tour at Old Chicago. I want that t-shirt. Hey , thanks, I appreciate it. I only sample, not consume, but I'll sure take a 4-8 ounce "sample" with some BBQ chicken, Drinking some now...... *sigh* Ya see why this is torture? I'd say you have nothing to prove to ANYONE at this point. But it always helps to score a bonus with family members. M
FrankRizzo Posted March 12, 2008 Posted March 12, 2008 My dad made a lager a few years back. Several of us sampled it and it was amazing but it was tainted something fierce. It damn near turned us all inside out from how sick we got. It was a good thing too because we were going to send a few bottles my uncles way and with as bad as this stuff was it wouldn't even be a funny prank. More like a sentence to be caned 50 times. Haven't touched brewing since.Wow. Are you sure it wasn't something else that you all ate? Beer really isn't known to culture harmful bacteria. If it *was* tainted, you'd of known with the first smell or sip.
justanotherpyro Posted March 12, 2008 Posted March 12, 2008 That was what was the most bizarre thing about it. We have had a batch or two spoil before, in particular my peach wine. Yeah we are fairly certain that that it was the lager because we drank it and then it hit us just about the exact same time soon after. The only other thing I could think of was something in the keg that we used because they were old ones from Coca Cola and we had some problems with them from the start. Maybe it wasn't cleaned out well enough. I don't really know. The only thing I do now is wine yeast, straight sugar water and then distillation. My condenser is crappy though so it is a pain to use and I have all but given up on it.
tentacles Posted March 12, 2008 Posted March 12, 2008 It's possible that the beer was still too green to drink (needed some aging). Especially if the beer is still fermenting and has a lot of yeast in suspension, it can give you the shits. It's also possible the keg was not sanitized enough. Homebrewed lager in particular needs a lengthy fermentation time. Often 2-4 weeks in primary, and 4-16 weeks in secondary. Then comes conditioning. If you're going for straight alcohol distillation, you should use dextrose (corn sugar), rather than sucrose-glucose (cane/beet sugar). Dextrose will produce a cleaner ethanol, with fewer higher alcohols.
justanotherpyro Posted March 12, 2008 Posted March 12, 2008 Sorry I didn't clarify. What I have used is fructose sugar. Is the dextrose still better?
crazyboy25 Posted March 13, 2008 Posted March 13, 2008 Ok this is not for drinking but I want to make absolute ethanol and I heard of "salting out alcohol" so I got a glass jar and filled it a third full with salt then filled it almost to the top with rubbing alcohol. I shook it and let it settle. A cloudy layer sank and a much larger clear layer was observed above the top layer was separated and was found to be of a much higher concentration. Heres my problem when I substituted everclear for rubbing alcohol the mix turned cloudy and stayed that way no layers formed. Maybe I didn't wait long enough? Is there another way to do this or a way to perfect this method?
TheSidewinder Posted March 13, 2008 Posted March 13, 2008 First reaction was with *M*ethanol, the second was with *E*thanol, right?
FrankRizzo Posted March 13, 2008 Posted March 13, 2008 That was what was the most bizarre thing about it. We have had a batch or two spoil before, in particular my peach wine. Yeah we are fairly certain that that it was the lager because we drank it and then it hit us just about the exact same time soon after. The only other thing I could think of was something in the keg that we used because they were old ones from Coca Cola and we had some problems with them from the start. Maybe it wasn't cleaned out well enough. I don't really know. The only thing I do now is wine yeast, straight sugar water and then distillation. My condenser is crappy though so it is a pain to use and I have all but given up on it. Crazy. I guess if the beer was made partial boil, especially if the additional water added was from a well or something, you could've had giardia in there. Salmonella would probably be a possibility as well.
tentacles Posted March 13, 2008 Posted March 13, 2008 Not entirely sure on the fructose, I can't seem to find any significant info on the subject via google. Since I can't find anything on a brewing forum either, relating to fructose yielding more fusels, I would assume that it is the sucrose in table sugars that promote this. (Table sugar is a glucose-sucrose complex). I would use whatever is cheaper for you, fructose or glucose. Glucose is pretty cheap at a brewing shop.
crazyboy25 Posted March 13, 2008 Posted March 13, 2008 First reaction was with *M*ethanol, the second was with *E*thanol, right?The first was with isopropyl and the second was with ethanol. The reason I am interesting in this salting method is because I don’t have distillation apparatus and even if I did distill it I can only get it up to its azetrope (96%) which actually might work for my purposes(cant say other than it involves mercury and it's HE related )....but I don’t have a distillation apparatus that will change though.
Mumbles Posted March 13, 2008 Posted March 13, 2008 Salting out plain doesn't work with ethanol. It's too miscible. With isopropyl it does work, but doesn't produce pure Isopropyl alcohol as far as I know. IPA has a water azeotrope at 70%, and it really just makes sense than salting it out makes 91%. There is no commercial reason why you'd break the azeotrope just to get 91%. If you want anhydrous use some dessicants.
crazyboy25 Posted March 13, 2008 Posted March 13, 2008 If you want anhydrous use some dessicants. So if I just dessicate everclear it will yield an anhydrous product? Won't the ethanol evaporate as well?
justanotherpyro Posted March 13, 2008 Posted March 13, 2008 That is the industrial preparation method. Distillation to 96% and then dessicated to absolute ethanol. Don't know the exact process, but dessication isn't rocket science so I imagine there isn't a whole lot to it.
Mumbles Posted March 13, 2008 Posted March 13, 2008 Dessication is ALWAYS done in a closed environment, such as the everclear bottle perhaps. Otherwise it will absorb moisture from the air, and become useless again. Might as well just keep dessicant in there. I'd suggest molecular sieves by the way. Anything Calcium will complex with the ethanol, and render it potentially useles. Well unless you want to prevent osteoporosis and have a good time doing it.
tentacles Posted March 13, 2008 Posted March 13, 2008 You would put the dessicant *in* the alcohol. I would suggest molecular sieves. Doesn't contaminate the solvent, and they're even reusable! Pretty cheap, too. I've heard you can use them to concentrate alcohol w/o distillation, by absorbing some of the water, reactivate them in the oven, repeat, etc.
FrankRizzo Posted March 13, 2008 Posted March 13, 2008 Note that Mumbles said *dessicate*, not "distill". Common epsom salts (MgSO4 *7H20) can be heated in the oven (400F for 3-4hrs or microwaved for 10-15mins) to remove the water molecules, then used to dessicate Everclear to ~99% ethanol. Each gram of dessicated MgSO4 can ideally remove a bit over 1ml of water, but you should use a rule-of-thumb of twice that amount (eg. 2g removes 1ml) to be sure.
TheSidewinder Posted March 13, 2008 Posted March 13, 2008 Sorry, should have worded better. Isopropyl is a methanol base rather than an ethanol base, right? If so, I meant to say that I'm confused that YOUR'RE confused the two reactions weren't the same, that's all. And you two (or 3 or 4) are so far over my head now, I'm just going to shut and read about about it. M
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