Something alcoholic to ferment by Christmas?

Mr Benevolent

I'm wondering if anyone has any ideas for a batch or something that would be done and reasonably mature by Christmas? I have 4L of red wine maturing since July and have just ran out of turbo cider which took until now to mature. I'm doing rough and ready brewing (minimum sterilising and fermenting in 5L water bottles) so beer is out. I do use proper yeast though.

Any ideas?

BeerNut

Confab wrote: »

so beer is out

Eh? Why?

Mr Benevolent

BeerNut wrote: »

Eh? Why?

Haven't got a clue how to do it without the proper equipment and I assume it takes longer than 8 weeks to get a good result.

BeerNut

Nah, as long as you have a 8L-or-so stockpot it's dead easy.

Heat about 6L of water. Dissolve a kilo of spraymalt in it and bring it to the boil. Add 10g of some nice dual-purpose hops (Cascade, Citra, Pacific Gem: that sort of thing). After 50 minutes of boiling add another 10g, and after 60 take it off the heat and add another 10g. Top up to 5L if necessary with more boiling water.

Chill the stockpot down to 27C in a sink of cold water. Strain the contents through a sieve into your fermenter. Add a neutral ale yeast (US-05, say) and leave it somewhere to ferment. Somewhere where foam-over isn't going to be a problem.

In a fortnight, bottle it with half a teaspoon of table sugar per 500ml bottle, and you should have a beer of 6% ABV or thereabouts ready to drink two or three weeks later.

Mr Benevolent

BeerNut wrote: »

Nah, as long as you have a 8L-or-so stockpot it's dead easy.

Heat about 6L of water. Dissolve a kilo of spraymalt in it and bring it to the boil. Add 10g of some nice dual-purpose hops (Cascade, Citra, Pacific Gem: that sort of thing). After 50 minutes of boiling add another 10g, and after 60 take it off the heat and add another 10g. Top up to 5L if necessary with more boiling water.

Chill the stockpot down to 27C in a sink of cold water. Strain the contents through a sieve into your fermenter. Add a neutral ale yeast (US-05, say) and leave it somewhere to ferment. Somewhere where foam-over isn't going to be a problem.

In a fortnight, bottle it with half a teaspoon of table sugar per 500ml bottle, and you should have a beer of 6% ABV or thereabouts ready to drink two or three weeks later.

Thanks, sounds easy enough!

n97 mini

BTW, one sachet of US-05 will do about 20 litres, so adjust the amount you use accordingly.

BeerNut

n97 mini wrote: »

BTW, one sachet of US-05 will do about 20 litres, so adjust the amount you use accordingly.

I always use the whole packet on 5L batches. The danger of overpitching is minimal and it's not a good idea to use yeast from a packet that's already been open.

n97 mini

BeerNut wrote: »

I always use the whole packet on 5L batches. The danger of overpitching is minimal and it's not a good idea to use yeast from a packet that's already been open.

11g is never going to be too much , but it is wasteful when one sachet would do 4 x 5L batches. Why not do 4 batches in one day?

I do fold back the top of dried yeast and stick it in the fridge every once in a while when I don't need to add the whole lot. I've never had any trouble, but I do understand the reluctance.

BeerNut

n97 mini wrote: »

Why not do 4 batches in one day?

My 5L batches are generally experiments and, dammit, I'm just not that creative.

Mr Benevolent

So I ordered the stuff on Friday:

2 x Hydrometer (just in case)
1 x Spray-Dried Malt Extract Amber 3kg
1 x Mauribrew Weiss Yeast 12.5g
1 x Safbrew S-33 Yeast
1 x Cascade Pellets Vacuum Packed 100g Alpha Acid 5.7%
1 x Coopers oxygen barrier plastic bottles 500ml + Caps (24 pack)

Came to about €50 and I'll have enough for 3 batches. Brewing begins whenever the stuff arrives! I'll make each batch with 3 different types of yeast, including a packet of Lalvin EC-1118 I have lying around.

fobster

You can never have too many hydrometers... or spirit thermometers for that matter! Bit of an aside question but I am curious about the Mauribrew Weiss yeast, after being told the Safbrew WB-06 isn't great. I've gone for WLP300 instead... bit more expensive!

You'll have drinkable wheat beer within 1 month guaranteed! I plan on whipping up a tweaked wheat beer kit in a week and half. Also have a darker extract brew just bottled which I want to let condition a few weeks longer.

Mr Benevolent

Well, I have two batches now, one made to recipe, the other with 4g coriander and 15g orange zest, both due to be bottled in 2 weeks. The coriander and orange one has a VERY bitter foam so I'm a bit concerned, but I'll make a final one based on the original recipe and see if it's consistent. The batches will total about 12-14L when done.

BeerNut

Confab wrote: »

The coriander and orange one has a VERY bitter foam so I'm a bit concerned

I wouldn't be. Hop oils concentrate in the foam so it'll taste more bitter than the liquid. That's why you drink your pint through the head.

Mr Benevolent

BeerNut wrote: »

I wouldn't be. Hop oils concentrate in the foam so it'll taste more bitter than the liquid. That's why you drink your pint through the head.

... and that's one more thing I didn't know. Much obliged! Anyone ideas what I should do with my final (for now) batch? I've one more kilo of medium spraymalt and loads of hops.

BeerNut

Something a bit more wintery, maybe? Boil in some muscovado sugar, some maple syrup, throwing in a cinnamon stick and a pinch of cloves for the last ten minutes of the boil?

Mr Benevolent

BeerNut wrote: »

Something a bit more wintery, maybe? Boil in some muscovado sugar, some maple syrup, throwing in a cinnamon stick and a pinch of cloves for the last ten minutes of the boil?

Perfect. I owe you a few!

BeerNut

I'm just pulling this stuff out of the air. Taste the finished beers before you start throwing the praise around

Mr Benevolent

BeerNut wrote: »

I'm just pulling this stuff out of the air. Taste the finished beers before you start throwing the praise around

Have to say they smell good. First taste will be at bottling in about a week (for the first batch). I plugged the numbers into BeerCalc and it comes out at 6.1% and 42 IBU, right in the midrange. I pulled half the hops out of the latest brew to compensate for the orange peel so IBU will be 36.

We'll see!

Mr Benevolent

Well, the first batch has been bottled. ABV is 3.8%, which I think is from pitching the yeast before straining the beer. Same happened with the second batch, holding at 4.5%. Lesson learned! Should I add a bit of yeast to the bottles to bring the ABV up?

Third batch was done this Wednesday, dropped the hops by 1/3 and dumped in 50ml or so of maple syrup - OG of 90!

BeerNut

Confab wrote: »

Should I add a bit of yeast to the bottles to bring the ABV up?

I doubt that'll do anything useful. What was the final gravity?

Confab wrote: »

Third batch was done this Wednesday, dropped the hops by 1/3 and dumped in 50ml or so of maple syrup - OG of 90!

1.090? What yeast are you using? Some ale strains aren't keen on that sort of strength.

Mr Benevolent

BeerNut wrote: »

I doubt that'll do anything useful. What was the final gravity?

FG of the first one was 40.

BeerNut wrote: »

1.090? What yeast are you using? Some ale strains aren't keen on that sort of strength.

Ironically I'm using a champagne yeast, so it should be OK. Think the maple syrup kicked it up much higher than expected. Very little foam this time, although that could be because we didn't use spring water this time.

BeerNut

Confab wrote: »

FG of the first one was 40.

It finished at 1.040? What was the OG? There's something wrong there.

Mr Benevolent

BeerNut wrote: »

It finished at 1.040? What was the OG? There's something wrong there.

Sorry, it started at 1.075 and finished at 1.040. The yeast was pitched before the beer was strained though quite a lot of muslin. That was a bad idea on my part.