Things Your Brew Should NOT Do! -CSB Unpasteurized
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- Опубліковано 9 вер 2023
- Let's talk about things your BREW should NOT do. Little things like wink at you, grow appendages, etc. Seriously though, there are several things a homemade mead, cider or wine should not do, and there are some ways to prevent it too!
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#brewtube #homebrewing #homebrewquestions - Навчання та стиль
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You guys can just talk about life and your Journey and we will still be here listening
Lol
I love that you you compared yeast to the borg. That is a very accurate statement that many won't understand lol
When I first started watching your channel, I had been brewing for almost 20 years, I can honestly say I've learned more from you guys in 3 years, than my 20 years brewing alone. You're the reason I have a hydrometer and take readings, and it (and you) have helped soo much, big thanks to you both. 🍻
This…. Is awesome and makes me want to make more content. Honored you stuck with us and happy to help.
I can completely relate I learned to brew at a shockingly young age for all the wrong reasons that I don't feel the need to explain we were all young. I have commented several times that before this channel I brewed "wrong," I felt it was time to explain more times than once I would start a brew wait a week rack it wait till it stops rack it again this time I would bottle never once using a hydrometer I couldn't figure out why when I opened a bottle that the contents would spew out violently I never had one actually explode I feel I got lucky the brews I made tasted ok-ish but got the job done after I felt like my stomach was churning let's say things got really rude after my first 3 videos from this channel I fixed 10-15 years of bad and or dangerous practice. They probably wish I would stop saying thank you, but I consider this channel a true gift They have enhanced both my brewing hobby and my life. I love the Unpasteurized episodes because they take a single topic and explain it to death! Which is how I learn and if I have questions I've learned to keep watching because during the "rants" and the "ramble" my questions get answered.
I'm always surprised when someone doesn't have a hydrometer honestly. It's one of the first things I learned when I was 11 years old or something. I guess it speaks to how wine wants to be made with or without humans 😅
You guys are the best. We have learned so much from you. Thank you! ❤
I love watching you guys. I’ve learned so much over the years of watching. Thank you for sharing and teaching. Safety first…always!!
Great discussion people. Safety is a such an important thing. Love the way you make the repeatable things important in each video.
Cultivated mushrooms for years. Brewing is super easy so far as cleanliness.
This guy is pouring sugar under a laminar flow hood 😂. (Couldn't hurt a bit).
Great teamwork. Big thank you. I have started my brewing path during corona lockdown. There was ups and downs :) Keep going. Greetings from Lithuania.
Well I love you guys bunches. Always inspiring me to do the new.
I would like to see a video on your recommended care, cleaning and storage of various pieces of brewing equipment. Fermenters, auto-siphons, etc.
Thanks again for all the great information you share!
Thank you guys for all the info you give the community. I started brewing because of you guys and i really enjoy everything you have to teach. You always have fun ideas and cool projects that inspire me.
Happy to help!
Great advice. Had a strange issue recently with some blackberry wine. Went a little below 1.000 but still carbonated really strongly in some strange tertiary fermentation. I also use swing tops and have had to let them de gas by releasing the worst of it whilst trying to keep out any nasties. Even though I have years of experience I’m still learning. Keep safe everyone.
Love it. This is good stuff
It's pretty special, watching you guys and enjoying a glass I brewed myself that I learned from you. And oh my gosh, my first attempt at fig wine, such a crazy funk on it, but I'm glad I saved it. I had soaked some BUT NOT ALL the figs in boiling water, so I almost certainly got a wild yeast in there, and a thin white film because I hadn't submerged everything, so I'm guessing maybe Brettanomyces? But not fuzzy! We'll see how it tastes in 4 to 6 months! But the new batch is smelling a lot better, I've dunked those figs back down two or three times a day and got it off the fruit pulp after 4 days. It's already clearing up pretty nicely in secondary
Great video! Thanks for all you guys do to make home brewing easy and fun!
Happy to help!
Thank you great information
i only found your channel yesterday and im so glad im early to this video.
i started a mixed berry mead yesterday with voss and well is it working hard OG 1.100 to 0.58 in 24 hours at 34c and 10 psi.
time will tell if speed helps or hinders.
alot of great content packed into this 1.... thank you
Glad you enjoyed it!
I learned some tasting when I started working as a barista & on a local wine tasting tour. I learned I like blue cheese & ice wine together, alone...not so much ☺ amongst other things
Lol
Thanks to you guys, we have made almost 24 brews far based on the science and recipes you provide, very happy no issues but we try to follow all the safety techniques you recommend.
I actually started making vinegar! I made some strawberry cider, added a little bit of raw apple cider (with mother) from the store. Instead of bottling a 12oz bottle of cider, I just took that and stuck it in a sanitized mason jar and let it do it's thing. I now have a strong healthy vinegar mother, which I transfer to each new brew batch I do. It keeps it separate from the actual brew and I get vinegar. It's pretty easy imo and nice to have high quality vinegar on hand
I've been watching your channel for the last couple months and learning tons from you guys. As someone who is new to brewing, I'm a total newbie, (I just started my second batch of mead and the first one a week before that) the information I'm learning for you is very helpful. Please keep up the good work! 👍🍻
Welcome!
These sessions are good, I learning stuff, and I drink things.
I just wanted to speak my mind. Lol, I felt compelled. I just started getting into this whole fermentation hobby. I really enjoy your videos, they are so informative. Both of you are funny, entertaining. I find myself just watching your videos nowadays anymore. And the library is so extensive. Thank you 🙏.
You're welcome!
Thank y’all again for the shoutout!! I learned a lot from y’all today!!
Hi there, love your video's, they're always nice additions to my own "things I'd like to try"-list.
In all honesty, I feel like your content made me make better brews, eg. Taking readings with a hydrometer, sanitizing using an actual acid sanitizer fluid (I used to chug everything in near boiling water to sanitize, it works but my plastic auto siphon did not like those temperatures) and finally, waiting until my yeast was done fermenting.
Well, being pretty novice in brewing (2y-something), a lot of mistakes were made, the worst offender being not properly pasteurized back sweetened (carbonated) bottled cider. Where I had a cider, which was done fermenting, performed backsweetening with fermentable sugar, with the intent to pasteurize when the desired carbonation was achieved (I made a sealed cider bag from vacuum-foil with idea pressure can be checked by feel, next to have bottled the rest of the brew), 2 weeks passed and practically no carbonation seemed to be added to my brew, which lead me to prematurely pasteurize all bottles, so 20 bottles 65°C for an hour and called it a day. All bottles were stored nice and chilly in the fridge and I got some pretty flat, but refreshing cider waiting to be consumed. The main shocker was that 2 weeks in, the brew was suddenly over-carbonated (so back to pasteurization, this time 72°C for 2 hours, just to be sure), I'm just happy those bottles didn't became sprinklers in the fridge.
So, there and then I've learned to backsweeten with non-fermentable sugars and only using the calculated amount of priming sugar, which worked fine so far.
Your talk today is so relevant to my wine making task today. I opened a bottle of a wine I made last Oct and bottled in January. A Caramel Popcorn Mead, SG 1.054; by Nov it was at 1.010. I was concerned if it was unfermentable as I used Karo (corn Syrup) to adda bit more of the corn flavor. Dec 4 SG 1.006 XMAS eve 1.006. 2 readings. I stabilized here with Potassium Sulphate and Campden tablet (1 per gallon). Jan 14 back sweetened to 1.014 and bottled.
The bottle I opened was carbonated. It had started to re-ferment. Unscrew the tops of the remaining bottles, Take out another pinch of both the stabilizers and add to the bottles. Keep unscrewing the caps for the next few weeks. Not worried about Oxygenating now. I was making bottle bombs because of back sweetening and not enough stabilizers.
Love the videos. Thanks for drinking on camera and talking to us guys and gals. 😀
Any time!
Love your videos. Change nothing about the way you guys do it. I’ve tried to watch other wine and mead making channels, and although informative, they lack the fun and personality of what you guys do. Thanks and keep up the great work.
Thanks, we appreciate it. :)
Other brew channels also all seem to be like "Here is my recipe using DAP, all the preservatives I could get my hands on, camden tablets (it's a mead with no fruit in it, but why not), bentonite clay, and the brewing equivalent of Miracle Grow. If you don't use all these things, your brew will fail!" No, thank you.
You guys are great, just found the channel a week ago but I am staying. Thank you.
Welcome!
I've followed more than several of your recipes / videos, I've watched your content on pasteurization, racking, bottling, stalls and sanitization. knock on wood I have had zero issues or surprises (other than delicious flavors i.e. the sangria) I've even managed to develop a couple of my own recipes.
I can't thank you enough for your continued content, information and encouragement.
That’s awesome! Glad we could help!
Great idea with the one topic
White vinegar is used in Belgian Eggs for breakfast. :) just found yalls channel and I love the content. I gave in and order some stuff to try my own meads ext out.
I like the podcast form.
Helps pass the time while I drive all night for work. Brewing history podcast maybe? Haha
Thanks for explaining I was under the impression if you refrigerate you would be safe from bottle bombs. A lot of root beer makers say make it then put in fridge and it will be safe. I haven’t done this myself and now I won’t even try. So thanks for doing these videos I am always learning things. And bottle bombs really make me nervous so I always take readings and make sure fermentation is done before I even rack let alone bottle.
Another great informative video from my favourite brew warriors! I have heard that (sun) dried cherry stems make an awesome florally tea, a Turkish custom. Trying this out as a Mead. Making a strong brew of the stems and adding them in after the first racking if the flavour needs a boost. The tea itself is lovely, and I think will hold up! Maybe an idea for a City Steading exploration?
Interesting!
Yall are so funny! Great video again! Thank yall so much.
By the way I was the one with 6 stalls in a row. They were all done. My digital hydrometer was just BROKEN lol.
Oh wow!
im about to bottle my first ever brew, great timing for this video
Been using nut milk bag for the Blueberries and notice the wicking action keeps the small part that gets above the liquid line nice n wet. Sure it gets a swirl each day but no issues yet. Also helps putting #1 weight at bag bottom but #2 on top of berries. Then tighten & wrap the tie string under bag and tie off at top. Takes a lil finesse but is workin' here...biggest problem is keeping brews around long enough to age past 3 weeks 😁🤪👍
I recently made a cider and to test the slow I put some in the fridge early for a few days deliberately to see fermentation will start up again.
I poured some into a mug and let it get back to room temperature. Within 2 hours the mug had that characteristic fermentation smell showing fermentation had sped right back up again
Yup! Yeast are resilient!
You CAN work on a car with just an adjustable wrench…. But, with more tools it’s probably easier. I notice a lot, people jumping in with no background studies on process or understanding of the science, then blame the recipe. I’m guilty myself, but Persevering through and evolving into a brewer am able to pinpoint MY mistakes.
i think thats almost how every brewer starts i know i started that way about 20 years ago.
Ferment for X days without thinking of temps or yeasts or even using a hydrometer. etc then bottle and wonder why it blew up.
Kriek is my favourite beer. I saw a programme on BBC2 in the late 80's it was called The Beer Hunter... the presenter was Michael Jackson...yeah not that one. You may even have heard of him. He visited a brewery in Belgium and showed square open vats(?) where the beer had it's first fermentation, or maybe a completed Lambic then he explained that bascially after that a lorry load of cherries were added to the vat...and the natural yeasts in the air again would create the secondary fermentation. This really was a brick outhouse(large I admit) with cobwebs all around the vats lol.
Your guys videos are so helpful
Glad you like them!
I started my first brew a little over a week ago. You guys have become my go to for brewing info. Thanks for what you do
Welcome!
You guys strike me as teachers, do you have a teaching background?
@xAnkhh she was an actual teacher… I traveled around teaching Professional Photographers for a while with the PPA.
@@CitySteadingBrews It definitely shows
I made pretty good mead in 3 weeks.
But I will never put in a bottle.
I just put the bubbler directly in the refrigerator.
And drink it.
I have been trying to replicate some apple jack my uncle Luther and aunt Bessy made.
I think you suggested what made their flavor profile so unique in your “Concentrated Apple” video.
After pressing the apples they cooked down the the juice and apple mush, to, “Make sure the bugs were dead.”
At 5 years old it seemed to make sense…
They might have been talking about wild yeast, hopefully!
When you said the apple juice had caramelized and changed the flavor, it clicked for me.
BTW, they didn’t cook the stems or seeds and they would wring out the mush before fermentation.
Just before watching this video i finally did my first hydrometer reading on a juice i was drinking. And it was actually very simple... Wondering why i was putting off the learning of it for so long.
I have done one bucket of beerbrew and one bucket of cider. I just let them do their stuff 2-3 weeks before i bottle. Thankfully no bottle explosions. Now when i finally started to research for how this hydrometer works its simple. Thankfully my hydrometer is not colored and has only special gravity system. Sadly it does not have glass tube tho. It has plaatic tube with no leg. I dont brew each week, so its ok.
Thanks for the fun conversation and now i know why you guys have suggested not to use vinegar for cleaning brewing equipment.
I bought some mead making supplies. They'll be here tomorrow. Ive been watching you guys for a couple of years now. Let's see what I've learned. Thanks
You're welcome!
I recently experienced the "cringe" when I realized a mistake I made, just like you mentioned. Yes, the repetition helps 'the right way' to sink in! Thank you for all you do.
I've seen some brewing pyrotechnics in my time from exploding beer bottles in the neighbors fridge as a boy to my own first brew with a fermentation so violent it turned the 5 gal carboy into Mt. Vesuvius. The stopper and lock shot up to the joists with foam and wort spraying everywhere. Mistakes were made, not the least was not inspecting the air lock for molding flash . I quit brewing when my cardiologist took away cigars and alcohol, not impressed with my arguments on quality of life nor quantity of either. Seeing your videos makes me want to brew again. I can handle a gallon jug ( too damn old to be messing with 5 gal ) My nephew keeps bees, so I want to try your spiced mead with Ozark wildflower honey. I just have to see how much it's going to cost me ...
Really enjoyed your videos lately! =)
Thanks!
I really love your new thumbnails!
Thanks!
Seriously love all your vids but I could easily listen to you guys talk for hours every week
Thanks :)
Being patient on all my meads and using swing tops. Started some ginger beers and thinking to use 1 liter plastic soda bottles for them. Need a brew I can drink sooner then 6 months.
If you are concerned about the vinegar brewing, maybe get a half gallon setup for it? A separate setup specifically for vinegar. Then you can make more vinegar without as much concern to the rest of your setup.
Or even make some right in the Bragg's bottle once it's empty.
"How do you sanitize the towel?" I also use a towel, and I sanitize the towel by putting star san in a spray bottle and lightly misting the table before laying the towel down, then do the surface of the towel the same way. Not enough to make it wet, but enough that I have covered the entire surface with a misting/layer.
Love the Spock action figure. The one you have looks like the one that was sold in during the 70's.
Oden's Love is AWESOME.
I used a bottle like that mead bottle to rack and I put it in the fridge it was fine for like a week I took it out of the fridge so I could put some leftovers in left it on the table and in the middle of the night the cork shot out and put a dent in the ceiling I ordered a hydrometer the next day 🙃
I just finished my first Port style brew Everything I read told me that adding my brandy to my partially fermented grape wine would halt fermentation. I believed it. After combining my grape wine and my brandy I was stupid enough to cap it. About 12 hours later I checked on. And it WAS fermenting. The pressure was so great I had to use channel lock pliers to remove the cap. Even with pliers it was difficult. When I got it off I had an eruption. I'm convinced that I was hours away from a one gallon bomb. So don't believe that your high alcohol will stop fermentation. Use an airlock, at least initially.
It will stop fermentation but you have to be absolutely certain your mix surpasses the yeast tolerance and even a bit more.
I was nearly done with a mead, just degassing and preparing to backsweeten, pasturize, and bottle when it started growing these short, thick, white strands. They grew overnight- the only thing that came into contact with the mead was the drill attachment for degassing, which I pretty thoroughly sanitized. I noticed a film a while back on the surface and bottom which I thought was the harmless bacteria you mentioned which gives a sour flavor. I do not know if the two are related, but I thought it would be worth mentioning. I also began fermenting in a plastic bucket (which I don't think I'll ever do again after this) and separated into four separate gallon carboys to flavor them differently. All of them have the strands, so I know it didn't come from the oak or any one of the spices I used. None of the strands are over an inch in length, most are on the bottom, but a few are floating and some are in the neck of the carboy up by the airlock. I am not sure if they are growing in the neck and falling into the mead, or if they're only growing up in the neck from the foam that reached up into it after degassing. I am assuming I just need to dump this, but I couldn't find anything about it online and wanted to see if you knew what it might be. Thanks
Actually, it's likely just protein strands and should rack out. No harm from that :)
@@CitySteadingBrews awesome, thank you!
I just finished pasturizing a no water sparkling Santa Rosa plum melomel . A little nerve wracking but it’s both sweet and sparkling and with no non fermentable sugars like you did in your older video. Thanks for the encouragement!
Also have you ever had a brew you were trying to make sparkling just not want to kick off for a while in bottles ? I assume my PH was slightly low for the yeast because it took about a week to get up to pressure. Finished up at 7% abv with M05 yeast. 1.000 SPGR before back sweetening and adding priming sugar.
Sadly we have had carbonation never really kick off.
I have a question? can you us a caper to recap screw top bear bottles, great video love your videos, great info and very well explained and understandable
I've been told it's not recommended. They apparently have a weaker neck than capped bottles.
thanks for the info, I've found your Aldi lemon aide on line and I'm gonna order some of them and I found a dozen swing top beer bottles at Goodwill the other day@@CitySteadingBrews
As far as bottle bombs, I always pasteurize after getting the same reading two weeks in a row. Another thing I do to ensure fermentation is finished is I rack into another fermenter and let it sit for another couple of weeks under an airlock before bottling. Also for my brews, regardless of if there is fruit in it or not I like to give them a swirl each day for the first few days. And as for mold I’ve never had an issue because I use a three stage sterilization process rather than sanitization. Sorry for the lengthy comment
I'm sold I want me some "Mayhem Madness"
Oh it's Mayhaw....
is that double mayhem madness
:)
Good morning yall! Just ordered my merlot kit haha
Since you have a request queue, one of the best ones I made was sweet potato, carrots, apple juice, and raisins. I'd love to see your take on that idea. I found your channel just under a year ago, and you've been a great help as I continue learning what (not) to do.
I'm curious if you cooked the sweet potato and carrots first, or if you left them raw?
@@julietardos5044 Raw. I started them frozen and thawed beforehand, hoping to break down some cell walls, and added amylase to break down the starches. I liked the sweet potato flavors, wasn't a big fan of the carrot aftertaste though.
In terms of bottling before the brewing is done:
The cider I try to make from bottled apple juice wasn't great. Like it tasted awful once I had brewed it dry. So I added another bottle of apple juice to it (I was experimenting with really small batches for reasons). Which of course adds sugar to it. In which case, pasteurizing has been brilliant.
So to get around it:
1. When you're bottling, get a sample plastic PET bottle or 2 and fill those just like you would any other bottle. This helps give you an indication of how much pressure is in a bottle. So when it feels rock hard, you can be pretty sure that you've probably only got a day at most to sort things out. At this point, open a plastic bottle and pour into a glass just to make sure that your beverage has carbonated.
2. When you've got it just where you want it, pasteurize it. I didn't have much luck with the pot technique but the sous vide machine has made it AMAZINGLY simple.
Your weak point is going to be capping. I was using one of those plastic double lever cappers BUT over time, the plates on them bend giving you a less tight capping (you can tell if the edges of your caps aren't going fully vertical and are instead at an angle). With the expansion you get from applying heat, the caps can loosen. I ended up buying a metal double lever capper from AliExpress. I've only used it on 4 or 5 batches (of around 70 bottles) so far and it's holding up really well and giving me some really good solid feedback as to when enough force has been applied (due to the lack of flexibility in the materials vs. plastic).
The other thing that this has lead to is some near 0% drinks. Instead of brewing at all, I use the same technique with things like apple and lemon juice (I call it Cider 0), ginger beer, ginger ale (like ginger beer but with a bunch of spices added in), lemon and lime drinks etc. To do this, empty your juice into a large sanitized pot, add a tiny amount of yeast and then bottle (doing the thing with the sample plastic bottle). When your indicator bottle is rock hard and you've confirmed that it's carbonated to your liking, pasteurize it. Now you've got some (near) non-alcohol drinks for those who don't want to drink and it has much the same feel as drinking with everyone else.
Hi guys! I'm a long time watcher and lover of your videos (Thank you ever so much.. Big Fan!) and my son decided to make his own blackberry mead the other day. It wasn't using one of your recipes (making me uneasy) and he didn't have a hydrometer to test for the OG (making me hyper nervous!) He put it all together with some help from myself (based on your video knowledge) but he wasn't sure on the viability of the yeast. I had him do a bit of a hydration of the yeast he was using (basic bread yeast) and it didn't activate. My question is even though he's technically started the brew; if it doesn't start up, can he get and use a hydrometer at that point before adding live yeast to start up the fermentation to get an OG?
If there’s been absolutely no fermentation it might be accurate still.
Thank you, that’s what I was wondering - whether it would be accurate. I’ve sent him links to your videos so hopefully he’ll take heed for next time!
Awesome Vid! I would not recommend using Brettanomyeces in your home-brew. Once you have Brett present in your space, it is really hard to get rid of. It can infect your next brew, it's really hard to control, and the flavour can easily ruin your drink.
I love your channel
Thanks :)
I have a sad story about Lambics (also my favorite beer). Due to a warmer winter climate in Belgium, the Lambic brewing season is shorter, so they cannot reliably make 3 batches every year any more. Sometimes only 2 batches. Perhaps the yeast will evolve to prefer the warmer winters, eventually, and make the beer for the longer season again.
When I was a kid, I sometimes drank vinegar to get a little buzz kick.
Going back on the mold topic (so... another question, yay! active viewerbase!) If you do get mold and dump, how do you clean everything to be able to use again later? The fermenter etc?
Regular scrubbing and cleaning is fine for glass. Plastic... I'd scrub REAL good.
Hello, i recently started going through your videos and i find them really helpful. I have a question though: where do you get your jars from? Do they come with the a hole in the lid for the airlock or do you cut a hole for the airlock yourselves? Is it okay if i buy plastic recepients or are there benefits to glass recepients? Thanks!
Usually Amazon. We out link in the descriptions of all our videos.
I followed your first time brewing video with the loosened cap on the bottle trick, and bottled the results after, oh, a month or so. However, since I didn't have a hydrometer yet, I'm extremely paranoid about bottle bombs, so I remove the corks every few days. Not saying it's an ideal solution, it's just what I do.
It’s one way for sure. But if you don’t get a little puff from carbonation upon opening… most likely fine :)
But, why is there so much repetition in your videos? 🤣
I love that you guys teach us to fish rather than give us a fish!
On the subject of Brettanomyces and sours, an alternative to those that want to create sour brews without infecting their equipment with Brett is the new(ish) Lallemand Philly Sour yeast. It's a normal S. cerevisiae but produces lacric acid as a by-product. Usual finishing pH is about 3.1-3.3.
I just made a lime Gose with it, it's awesome.
*lactic acid
My favorite source of wild yeast is from dates. I buy my dried fruit from Azure in bulk and the meads I've made with date culture are my favorite flavor. I pack a pint jar half full of dates and cover with non chlorinated (berkey filtered) water. A cheese cloth rubber banded lid alternative and 4 days on my counter gives it time to get supper frothy with fermenting bubbles then I just dump those contents into a 1 gallon jug of honey-water as my initial yeast innoculant.
Sounds good!
Lambic brewers also use blending techniques to balance out batches to get consistent flavors of funk, sour, and ABV. On top of the extra funky brewhouses.
All commercial makers do :)
I do a shot of ACV regularly and it really helps my asthma.
I enjoyed CSB dragons blood mead while I enjoyed watching this episode 😅
As a 30+ adult I started to enjoy reds and any white NOT a desert wine, I have to confess my pineapple wine and an early simple cider were dumped because of the vinegar taste from them, I've drunk and tasted some beverages that were great but were vinegar to me
I think you guys are awesome been watching yawl for A couple of months now. but got a question. I made a gallon of Vikings blood. there are no more active bubbles. I did not have a hydrometer at the time, so no reading was able to be done. (I have one now) but there is a layer of foam. That is just sitting there. no more movement. I did a tasting and I like the way it tastes and so do my friends. so, this is after racking but not bottled yet because I do plan to pasteurize. please tell me that this mead is ready to go to finish. I know it is young and I can taste a slightly off taste but nothing that I feel interferes with the taste.
Sitting for two months? Do you have a hydrometer now? It’s probably safe to pasteurize though.
Yes have a hydrometer now Today is 2 months. And I followed your recipe for grocery store mead on the 5th But I am renaming it God Save The Mead...lol
I love making vinegar in small 1 qt mason jars from my wines that don’t quite fill up a full bottle. This eliminates the cross contamination risk. It’s fun making vinegars from wines such as pineapple, mango, muscadine
Neat idea!
cool@ do you guys have a video on the aging process ? what is really happening for the taste to change etc ?
Lots of variables and more science than we care to learn tbh!
ua-cam.com/video/V9rLofArIfg/v-deo.htmlsi=X1bXcfmHTQ0hj5KL
I am not sure if you have talked about it before as im new here, but if you have not id love to hear about the effects of the temperature of the samples you test with a hydrometer and its effects along with the types of hydrometer's and how to use them (im thinking the eye glass version you hold up to the light that isnt effected by temperature).
There are calculators online to show the temp difference in samples. Being that we normally work within a few degrees of the same temp, even with our hydrometer calibrated for a different temp, our readings are consistent. Also, unless you’re talking huge temp swings, the difference is often negligible.
ua-cam.com/video/kEAlls48rso/v-deo.htmlsi=UhwmHZOaqClZZNz6
Great vid!
Have y’all made kombucha on this channel? Would you consider that in the vinegar family?
ua-cam.com/video/_oinX2KBzRs/v-deo.htmlsi=xCHHbKGpQPN5LapJ
@@CitySteadingBrewsThanks!
I use white vinegar for fabric softener works well and is cheaper than actual fabric softener
I was fermenting some oats in a sugar wash one time and it was going well through the 3 days of primary fermentation(during which i open the container and stir to add oxygen) . Had a good smell. Lots of bubbles. Secondary fermentation took about 6 days to complete. When i opened the fermenter for the first time after about 10 days, it smelled horrible. Kind of like bad milk. I cooked the oats in water so they were sterile but i guess at some point i introduced some bacteria. I am SO THANKFUL that we humans have such good sence of smell when it comes to this sort of things.
Oats would need amylase to break down the starches to sugar. I think you did get some kind of infection in there though.
@CitySteadingBrews I did use amalyse to maximize my sugars, but the oats were really just for flavor. The main source of sugar was white sugar.
I'm going to look to see if you already have a video covering it. I'm sure you've at least talked about it. But my big concern right now is preventing secondary fermentation when back sweetening. I'm running to 6 gallon batches and plan on having 1/3 dry 1/3 semi sweet and 1/3 sweet when I bottle. *depending on how dry they actually finish, of course.
We talk about it in most all of our recipes. You will need to pasteurize to prevent further fermentation. Some prefer chemical stabilizers but we've never used them so I am not much help there.
@CitySteadingBrews now that you say it I remember lol. I've watched a lot of your videos but I just woke up. I even have a sous vide machine in my Amazon wish list lol.
LOL, you're 90% of the way there :)
I recently started a mead using honey from my hive. It is raw/unfiltered honey. My brother experienced an allergic reaction when we tasted a sample of the mead, as well the raw honey itself. However, when tried the raw honey it was a very subdued reaction and he didn't think much of it.
We were able to exclude all the tools, supplies, cleaners that were used since we use those in other winemaking without any issues. So, we know it is the honey.
These are my questions: Have others experienced something similar using raw honey? For the purpose of avoiding allergy issues, is it better to use pasteurized honey? Is there a difference?
Thank you.
I am not a doctor. Honey allergies can happen. It could be the pollen, the type of flowers, all sorts of variables.
Loving your videos. After making my first successful brew, I have made a couple more gallons of brew. Now I was thinking these brews are more "foggy" then the first. I know you used gelatin to clear your brew before. I used a teaspoon in my gallon and after pasteurization gonna leave it sit for a week or so. My question is, is one teaspoon of gelatin enough to clear my brew??
For a gallon it should be.
@@CitySteadingBrews Thanks again for all your great help and getting me interested in the art.
I would like to see a video on how to properly clean a carboy fermenter that has had a tight flocculation that does not want to come out.
Literally just wash it. Use a bottle brush for the inside :)
If you are thinking about making vinegar, I would suggest the book The Artisanal Vinegar Maker's Handbook: Crafting Quality Vinegars - Fermenting, Distilling, Infusing Hardcover
by Bettina Malle (Author), Helge Schmickl (Author). They really get into the process and even how to make your own vinegar production equipment if you want.
I think I have it or read it…
Question: Ever had larvae in ur brew? i started a cherry mead! picked the cherries myself i did my best in picking the best ones. I removed the seeds by hand(yes took awhile) . i sanitized everything, even the berries before i removed the seeds. After 4 weeks of fermenting its almost complete! from 1.100 to 1.012. i removed the cherries and i noticed small white larvaes on the top with the cherries . I scooped all floatise out and let it sit another week to take a new reading later. The lavaes worries me tho! i read online these could have been fruit flies larvaes in the cherries. throw out? or rack this for clearing phase when primary is done?.
We had something similar years ago. Dump it.
read some articles online about it and it seems to be not so rare as i thought it was. and some still say its fine! they die in fermentation, just scoop that out .
But yeah . i wouldnt wanna put that in my mouth what so ever. :) Dumping it! Thank you for the reply :)!@@CitySteadingBrews
... And you knew I'd pipe up to say that white vinegar has a great couple uses other than cleaning. Try it on french-fries with salt (perhaps black pepper), but skip anything else with it, like ketchup. Next, try it on cooked spinach w a pinch of salt & black pepper. Lastly try it at least once in an oil & vinegar salad dressing. It is just so much cleaner (if you'll pardon the pun) on the palette than cider or balsamic vinegars. Oh, BTW, go to Canada and look at the little condiment packages at a burger joint... Oh! Look at that! White Vinegar! 😏😁
I would still use white wine vin over distilled.
@@CitySteadingBrews So that means you'll try those couple things mentioned, right? 😏 I understand the "flavor" imparted by those un-distilled vinegars, but the Brits & Canadians have something in just adding a touch of dilute acetic acid without "flavor" (or as they call it, 'flavour') to some foods that benefit from being acidic without adding. Just sayin... Restaurant waiters look at me like I've 3 eyes when I ask for white vinegar for my fries (not always, just when ketchup or gravy or fry-sauce gets to be old hat). See if you don't agree. Start with just a few drops, though. 😁
Also homemade pickles!!!
When we learned about food poisonings in uni, mycotoxins (which is mold products toxic to mammals) was basically like "toxic to your whole body". There is no organ there that they don't harm, and they are carcinogens. Yeast is a mold (fungi) and there is tons of beneficial or safe molds out there used in food but you must really consider fuzzy stuff in your brew deadly. Im glad you've emphasised that.
Yup, better safe than sorry.
So I have not tried carbonating a mead or cider yet, however, I've brewed beer (from a kit ) that I have naturally carbonated. That said, in the kit they usually have a packet of priming sugar and it seems to be very fine granulated and they have you put a certain amount in a sauce pan and boil it with water and then add it to your brew. Does boiling it do anything besides sanitizing the sugar water you're about to put into your brew?
It’s just to mix it :)
I need a little advice. It's about the "fermented citrus funk". Does it typically age out?
I made a cranberry-orange mead with whole cranberries and orange zest in secondary. Started with a one gallon basic mead (honey, tea, fermaid-o, raisins, water, Premier Classique yeast) that went fine. Went went from 1.098 to 0.996 in 3-1/2 weeks. Racked it to another fermenter and added 2# whole cranberries, 1tsp P.E., and the zest of one orange. Then forgot about it for 5 weeks (oops). Racked it off everything and it had some serious "orange funk". I back sweetened (with honey) to try and make it more palatable but stopped at 1.032 as it wasn't improving the flavor profile much after that and I didn't want something super sweet. So I pasteurized and have it sitting in an air-locked fermenter. Is this a brew I should just put aside and maybe check in 6 or 8 months? Or is it likely a lost cause?
This is really my first serious failure as a home brewer. It's the first time I ever seriously considered sending something down the sink. I've had 25 successful brews in the last year. Any advice you could give would be GREATLY appreciated.
Probably just age it. May be the orange wasn't ripe fully, or some pith. Leaving it for 5 weeks was not a problem btw. It can sit dar longer than that.
By chance do you have a how to use a hydrometer made simple video? Any guidance will be greatly appreciated
A few.
ua-cam.com/video/Y0KP0WYreic/v-deo.htmlsi=LwS5prR21MarUD0S
Hey Brian, long time viewer first time commenter. I have a concern about your crio bru mead going bad. I started one about nine days ago.
Did you brew the cacao and add the water or did you leave the grounds inside it? I brewed it and refrigerated it overnight to try and separate some of the oils in it. It's been bubbling along so far. Trying to see if I am currently recreating what happened to you or if it is different circumstances.
Thank you for all y'all do.
We didn't heat it at all. TBH, we kind of abused it... totally our fault.