Winter and very early Spring are my favorite brewing times.
Well folks, my kin bought me "beer machine" variety pack . The nice thing about these is that for a novice, there is nothing else needed but something sealed with a fermentation lock to ferment the brew within. You can stretch these by adding more than the recommended amount of water..., and add extra malt...and you can push up the alcohol by adding some extra sugar. I normally put together my own ingredients, but heck it was a Christmas present. :wink:
Now the directions say just add water, but in the past when using other "kits", I found the just add (room temp) water = spoiled beer. So..., the plan was that I would boil the water, and mix it hot with the ingredients. This would then be poured hot into my sanitary fermentation container. This then would to cool, to around 60° or below, before I added the brewer's yeast.
The PROBLEM is that for the past two weeks we've had temps between the upper 50's to 70's. So I can't place the hot liquid in the fermentation container on my outside deck, to allow it to slowly cool, and I don't own a "beer cooler" tool. :shake:
GAH!
So what I'm planning on doing is to boil two gallons of water, seal that in my fermentation container and let it cool. Then when chilled, I will boil a third gallon, dissolve the kit in that, pour that into my fermentation container, which will result in a mildly warm, completed brew that needs no cooling or just a little. That, hopefully, will give me a resulting temp below the 60° mark.
I'm also going to culture the dry yeast packet in the kit, by using a cooled, sanitized, water/sugar solution in a bottle to which I have a fermentation lock and a stopper fitted. I will add the yeast to the sugar/water in the bottle and put it on the counter for a 24 hours while I prep and cool the two gallons of plain water in the fermenter. That should give me a lot more yeast to "pitch" when the brewing part is done.
I'm curious to see if this produces anything worth drinking. I will try one of the "beer" packets first..., the kit comes with a Pilsner, a Lager, and an Ale. The ale would be the only one at all "close" to an 18th century beverage. IF it works, I may simply buy a couple of packets of Ale yeast and substitute that for the the yeast in the remaining kits.
LD
Well folks, my kin bought me "beer machine" variety pack . The nice thing about these is that for a novice, there is nothing else needed but something sealed with a fermentation lock to ferment the brew within. You can stretch these by adding more than the recommended amount of water..., and add extra malt...and you can push up the alcohol by adding some extra sugar. I normally put together my own ingredients, but heck it was a Christmas present. :wink:
Now the directions say just add water, but in the past when using other "kits", I found the just add (room temp) water = spoiled beer. So..., the plan was that I would boil the water, and mix it hot with the ingredients. This would then be poured hot into my sanitary fermentation container. This then would to cool, to around 60° or below, before I added the brewer's yeast.
The PROBLEM is that for the past two weeks we've had temps between the upper 50's to 70's. So I can't place the hot liquid in the fermentation container on my outside deck, to allow it to slowly cool, and I don't own a "beer cooler" tool. :shake:
GAH!
So what I'm planning on doing is to boil two gallons of water, seal that in my fermentation container and let it cool. Then when chilled, I will boil a third gallon, dissolve the kit in that, pour that into my fermentation container, which will result in a mildly warm, completed brew that needs no cooling or just a little. That, hopefully, will give me a resulting temp below the 60° mark.
I'm also going to culture the dry yeast packet in the kit, by using a cooled, sanitized, water/sugar solution in a bottle to which I have a fermentation lock and a stopper fitted. I will add the yeast to the sugar/water in the bottle and put it on the counter for a 24 hours while I prep and cool the two gallons of plain water in the fermenter. That should give me a lot more yeast to "pitch" when the brewing part is done.
I'm curious to see if this produces anything worth drinking. I will try one of the "beer" packets first..., the kit comes with a Pilsner, a Lager, and an Ale. The ale would be the only one at all "close" to an 18th century beverage. IF it works, I may simply buy a couple of packets of Ale yeast and substitute that for the the yeast in the remaining kits.
LD