Author Topic: Home Brew Thread  (Read 7607 times)

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Offline xenu

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Re: Home Brew Thread
« Reply #360 on: Mar 18, 2012, 04:20:05 PM »
waking up to the sound of another bottle breaking is a terrible thing.

I doubt it'll save the batch, but I put everything back in the Carboy to let it ferment a tad more. as I opened each bottle, the "beer" foamed mightily. so, at the very least, I'll stop getting beer on my floor.

*sigh*

Maybe you over primed it? I think it is a goner though. Don't be afraid to try it. It will help you problem solve in the future.
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Offline xenu

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Re: Home Brew Thread
« Reply #361 on: Mar 18, 2012, 04:22:18 PM »
Don't feel bad all of us have had a bad batch from time to time. I have had to throw out a bad batch myself once. It happens.  :(  :'(
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Re: Home Brew Thread
« Reply #362 on: Mar 18, 2012, 05:35:44 PM »
waking up to the sound of another bottle breaking is a terrible thing.

I doubt it'll save the batch, but I put everything back in the Carboy to let it ferment a tad more. as I opened each bottle, the "beer" foamed mightily. so, at the very least, I'll stop getting beer on my floor.

*sigh*

Maybe you over primed it? I think it is a goner though. Don't be afraid to try it. It will help you problem solve in the future.
That might be part of the problem, but it also smelled like beer gone bad, so, Contamination City, Population: My Beer. I'm going this Wednesday to get more supplies, though. :P

I'm not so much upset that my batch went bad as I am that it woke me up before 7 this morning.

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Re: Home Brew Thread
« Reply #363 on: Mar 19, 2012, 03:09:03 PM »
waking up to the sound of another bottle breaking is a terrible thing.

I doubt it'll save the batch, but I put everything back in the Carboy to let it ferment a tad more. as I opened each bottle, the "beer" foamed mightily. so, at the very least, I'll stop getting beer on my floor.

*sigh*

Maybe you over primed it? I think it is a goner though. Don't be afraid to try it. It will help you problem solve in the future.
That might be part of the problem, but it also smelled like beer gone bad, so, Contamination City, Population: My Beer. I'm going this Wednesday to get more supplies, though. :P

I'm not so much upset that my batch went bad as I am that it woke me up before 7 this morning.

There are ways to make use of a bad batch of beer:

1. Dump it in a composter.

2. Add a "Mother of vinegar" to turn it not malt vinegar.

3. Distill it to practice the art.

4. Depending on the nature of the "bad beer" odor and taste you could add a lambic culture or just declare it a lambic. Lambics often take a year or more to age to drinkability.

5. Reduce some of it to a syrup on your stove and blend it into a chocolate ice cream recipe. This works nicely for beers that are sour, but not rotten. An undrinkable sour beer becomes a great chocolate stout ice cream this way.

6. Add oak chips. You'd be amazed what flaws can be rectified by a few weeks to a few months on some oak chips.
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Re: Home Brew Thread
« Reply #364 on: Mar 19, 2012, 06:43:12 PM »
waking up to the sound of another bottle breaking is a terrible thing.

I doubt it'll save the batch, but I put everything back in the Carboy to let it ferment a tad more. as I opened each bottle, the "beer" foamed mightily. so, at the very least, I'll stop getting beer on my floor.

*sigh*

Maybe you over primed it? I think it is a goner though. Don't be afraid to try it. It will help you problem solve in the future.
That might be part of the problem, but it also smelled like beer gone bad, so, Contamination City, Population: My Beer. I'm going this Wednesday to get more supplies, though. :P

I'm not so much upset that my batch went bad as I am that it woke me up before 7 this morning.

There are ways to make use of a bad batch of beer:

1. Dump it in a composter.

2. Add a "Mother of vinegar" to turn it not malt vinegar.

3. Distill it to practice the art.

4. Depending on the nature of the "bad beer" odor and taste you could add a lambic culture or just declare it a lambic. Lambics often take a year or more to age to drinkability.

5. Reduce some of it to a syrup on your stove and blend it into a chocolate ice cream recipe. This works nicely for beers that are sour, but not rotten. An undrinkable sour beer becomes a great chocolate stout ice cream this way.

6. Add oak chips. You'd be amazed what flaws can be rectified by a few weeks to a few months on some oak chips.
Hm. I still have it in the carboy (well, the 5 bottles that didn't explode). The problem is, though, it smells like beer that's been left out for about a week--super sour and smelly. Almost like farts. If I could take a picture of the smell, it'd help. The head, when I poured the bottles back into the re-sanitized/cleaned carboy, was beautiful, though. And bountiful.

The lambic and oak chips ideas intrigue me the most. I might try one of them just to see what happens. I'll be getting a new primary fermenting unit (aka, Big Fermenting Donkey) Wednesday, so I won't need this carboy.

Distilling also sound interesting; would I need any fancy equipment?

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Offline DarthCaitSith

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Re: Home Brew Thread
« Reply #365 on: Mar 19, 2012, 11:50:45 PM »
Unfortunately pouring beer back into a fermenter after it is brewed is very likely to badly oxidize it.  Distilling alcohol requires a lot of specialized equipment as is illegal everywhere except New Zeland.

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Re: Home Brew Thread
« Reply #366 on: Mar 20, 2012, 11:29:42 AM »
Unfortunately pouring beer back into a fermenter after it is brewed is very likely to badly oxidize it.  Distilling alcohol requires a lot of specialized equipment as is illegal everywhere except New Zeland.


Yes, it is illegal without a license.

Quite illegal.

That said, the ATF generally only goes after people who sell it. Occasionally you get a teetotaler sheriff who gets a bee in his bonnet about it though. The real reason it's illegal is not the safety of the process but tax revenue. There's also "Jacking" which is using a freezer to remove water from your fermented beverage.   The "Better Brewing" podcast even got a statement from the ATF that they don't CARE if people jack beverages at home.

As for special equipment, that depends on how picky you are about the results. You can get something similar to a raw grappa or moonshine with a canning or stock pot, some ice and a few other assorted bits and pieces. It's sometimes called "the disappearing still" or the "cone still." It's slow as hell, but has no pressure to speak of and there's very little vaporized alcohol at any given moment.

Distilling Alcohol at Home Using a Pot Still


At least that's what I've heard.
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Re: Home Brew Thread
« Reply #367 on: Mar 20, 2012, 06:38:44 PM »
Yeah, I'm probably too lazy to anything with the bad batch. I might just give it to my pepper plant to see what happens. If it doesn't kill the pepper plant, I'll give some to my cherry tree (which, despite my not-green thumb, is still alive and flowering).

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Offline khendar

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Re: Home Brew Thread
« Reply #368 on: Mar 20, 2012, 06:41:47 PM »
Unfortunately pouring beer back into a fermenter after it is brewed is very likely to badly oxidize it.  Distilling alcohol requires a lot of specialized equipment as is illegal everywhere except New Zeland.

You can purchase distilling equipment in Australia perfectly legally in homebrew stores. They also sell flavouring essences for turning the pure spirit you make into various whiskeys, liqueurs etc. I suspect it's one of those things where buying and selling the equipment is legal, but the actual making of the spirit is illegal, much like the sale of pipes/bongs etc. I'm still trying to find the actual law regarding distilling alcohol in Australia, but it's been one of those things which has never really been enforced. One of the main reasons for making it illegal was the danger of homemade stills exploding, which isn't a problem with the commercial ones.

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Re: Home Brew Thread
« Reply #369 on: Mar 21, 2012, 11:41:45 AM »
Yeah, I'm probably too lazy to anything with the bad batch. I might just give it to my pepper plant to see what happens. If it doesn't kill the pepper plant, I'll give some to my cherry tree (which, despite my not-green thumb, is still alive and flowering).

Dilute it before using it as fertilizer. Think of it as liquid concentrate. Using the beer at beer strength may damage the roots of your plant or even kill it.
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