Home Brew Questions

[og ogilby]

I bought a FV just like yours as my first one because it looked like the fanciest one in the shop. But now I find it very difficult to work with compared to the others I have because it's harder to clean, take a gravity reading from and stir the contents when I'm mixing my brews. What advantages do they have, because I'm fucked if I've found any yet, apart from easier to carry.

 

[existentialist]

The lidded ones offer better protection from infection, especially for slower brews. The taller ones with the small lids are a pain to clean out, but I like the extra height for headspace when the brew is krausening.

You have fitted a tap?

 

[friedaweed]

I bought a FV just like yours as my first one because it looked like the fanciest one in the shop. But now I find it very difficult to work with compared to the others I have because it's harder to clean, take a gravity reading from and stir the contents when I'm mixing my brews. What advantages do they have, because I'm fucked if I've found any yet, apart from easier to carry.

It's a bit of a sore point actually but one which is sorted now.
I got this one for the daughter cos she's the one making the wine. I though "hmmmmm that looks a nice bucket" bought it for her and then drilled the hole and put the tap on. It was only after i'd drilled the hole I realised how far it was up the tank

It's a right of a pain in the arse for sure compared to the straight forward buckets. I've remedied the tap problem though by fitting a tube and filter on the inside which makes it fine for bottling now. The only advantage I've found is it fits under the cupboard in my brew shack

Anyway I had a whinge at the girl in Wilkinsons about the position of the tap hole when I was in there last week and she very kindly said "just help yourself to one of the straight ones and keep it" so daughters now got herself two buckets for her wine brewing. 3 for 2 on their wine kits atm too.

 

[og ogilby]

You have fitted a tap?

No I don't, and I'm glad now after reading friedaweed's post.

Another question about apparently pointless kit. I bought a bucket with a black tap already fitted, but later I found out you can't connect a bottling stick to the black tap, you need a white one.

So what is the black tap for?

 

[friedaweed]

No I don't, and I'm glad now after reading friedaweed's post.

You could still fit a tap just do it lower down than where the imprint is on the tank.

Another question about apparently pointless kit. I bought a bucket with a black tap already fitted, but later I found out you can't connect a bottling stick to the black tap, you need a white one.

So what is the black tap for?

I got round that by using a piece of syphoning hose to create a connector which you stick over the bottling wand connector and then onto the tap.

There's always a way round these things. To me that's half the fun with this hobby.

I'm making a micro brewery next from three Guinness kegs and my brothers unlimited supply of plumbing gear

 

[Dovydaitis]

All this talk of a brewery puts my FV and DJ sitting next to the sofa/in the kitchen to shame Have just sorted all my stuff into one blue Ikea bag though so it's getting tidier.

Put the xmas brew into second FV last night and had a little sup, very nice I must say! Just about to swill the FV as it's been soaking with VWP overnight before putting the next brew on

This is waaaay too addictive....

 

[Voley]

Did you carry on brewing? Or did you get bored and end up back down the offy?

Still brewing, albeit in a less obsessive fashion. The amount of kit I had started to take over my whole flat (having already taken over much of my life) so I scaled it back to just the one FV and and just one shelf of bottles. Currently slowly getting through some very nicely conditioned strong dark ale that is about a year old. I've got back into wine lately though so that's taking up much of my living room/kitchen. It's just a matter of space, really. I've only got a studio flat.

 

[Dovydaitis]

I have a studio flat too, but luckily I have secret storage space at work and the bloke that looks after it is a home brewer too so all good

 

[Dovydaitis]

latest brew makes it 57 1/2 litres in a month...

 

[og ogilby]

I've bought and made a few 23l wine kits in the last few months and the grape juice comes in gallon containers like this one.

Tomorrow, I was going to make a gallon brew of Wuzel's Orange Wine but I would need to buy a demijohn from my LHBS. Then it occurred to me that I could just use the empty gallon containers from my previous wine kits if I drilled a hole in the top and just bought an air lock. Would this be ok, or will the extra air where the handle is spoil my brew?

 

[Dovydaitis]

as long as sterilised properly I would say OK, but will bow to those better in the know

 

[Addy]

I use 5l water bottles from the supermarket @ 90p a bottle as demijohns.
I also use the water to make up the wine.
If you need any grommets for an air lock in the drilled hole let me know and i'll post you some.

Tomorrow is gonna be a brewday for me.
1. Youngs apricot wine
2. Woodfords Sun Dew
3. SG Peach wine
4. Xmas pudding wine

In the cupboard waiting
2 Coopers APA
Coopers Stout
Several bottles of Ribena & Vimto cordial

 

[og ogilby]

Thanks, Addy, I think I might just do that myself.

It's also good of you to offer to send me some grommets, but the plan is for tomorrow to be the brew day, so I'll need to get some tomorrow, and I don't suppose they will cost me that much. Appreciated though.

 

[Addy]

if you cant get any a bit of plumbers PTFE tape will suffice

 

[og ogilby]

Here are my first attempts at home made wine, not made from a kit.

One is made with red grape juice and cranberry juice. The other is with white grape juice and orange juice.

 

[Addy]

Looking good there og.

Be prepared for a huge amount of lees given off by the wurzle wine as it ferments, and make sure you de gass it well before bottling or it has a terrific eggy / homebrew smell to it.

 

[badseed]

I just added 40g of Saaz to my Pilsner for it's second week.

I distilled my tomato paste wash into 4l of nice clean spirit.
I have 1 litre soaking on wood chips from a wild turkey barrel and half a vanilla pod. Another litre is sitting in a jar with 250 ml of strong espresso and the other half of the vanilla pod.

Another 26 litres of tp wash in primary already.

Next up is a Heffe Weizen which I am going to add 1kg of frozen mixed berries to the secondary.
A berry witbier for a xmas morning.

 

[og ogilby]

Be prepared for a huge amount of lees given off by the wurzle wine as it ferments.

That's what the yellow bath to the left is for. When the wine isn't showing off on the internet, it sits in the bath.

 

[Dovydaitis]

hmm, my toffee apple cider seems to have stopped fermenting after a week, the recipe says it takes 2-3 weeks, should I bung it in secondary ferment?

 

[og ogilby]

Have you taken a gravity reading? It might have fermented out.

 

[friedaweed]

Yeah take a gravity reading and see where it's at. My turbo brewed in 6 days but it still needed a week to clear. After 4 months bottled and stored in the cold it's ab fab now

 

[Dovydaitis]

am going to do that tonight, am currently sterilising the second DJ just in case.

 

[Dovydaitis]

well took a reading and it was down to 1.000 so have bunged it in second DJ. Smells good

 

[existentialist]

I should brew less of these high gravity adjunct-laden brews - I don't think I've EVER seen a 1.000 gravity post-brew!

 

[Addy]

I should brew less of these high gravity adjunct-laden brews - I don't think I've EVER seen a 1.000 gravity post-brew!

I've got some wines down to 0.996 in the past, but they do end up uber dry.


My xmas pudding wine had a SG of 1.140 if that gets down to 1.000 it will be 18% abv Fingers crossed the yeast will come through. ( a high alcohol / pudding wine yeast)

 

[friedaweed]

My turbo went 995 in six days. The yeast went through it like a balti from Wolverhampton
I don't really like cider, I made it so the ladies had something to drink, though I had a sip of it at the weekend and it really does taste nice. The birds love it

Here's my recipe for Frieda's Lady Juice.

4 litres of Morrison's premium red grape juice
4 liters of ASDA chav apple juice
4 Litres of Tesco 'Oh so budget' Red grape juice
4 liters of ALDI Apple and elderflower juice bin end stock.
Quarter a bottle of Tesco Elderflower cordial.
What was left on the sideboard of a bottle of strawberry cordial
4 litres of pellegrino vasser
a kilo of dextrose
a mash of tea, raisins, juniper berries and dates that boiled and brewed for 10 minutes
a pinch of yeast nutrient (A couple of spoonfuls i think)
Some pectose
Half a jar of Sainsbury's cheap honey
A voodoo spell
OG 1054
made up to 22 ltrs
Pitched with youngs cider yeast

Cleared using alcotech finings
Bottle primed spoonfull of sugar

 

[friedaweed]

I see wilco are throwing in a bag of brewing sugar with all their own brand beer kits
Time to try one of their lagers me thinks

 

[Dovydaitis]

oi! I've had a decent balti in Wolverhampton

I have one of their mexican lagers in at the mo and nit's going quite nicely

 

[friedaweed]

oi! I've had a decent balti in Wolverhampton

I have one of their mexican lagers in at the mo and nit's going quite nicely

I'm tempted to try one. I don't really drink lager and I'm sure as most of them use ale yeasts they're not really producing a real lager but a light ale for my mates who act like fucking sissys when you give them a stout and they ask for a knife and fork would be good to have in the brewery

 

[friedaweed]

oi! I've had a decent balti in Wolverhampton

I have one of their mexican lagers in at the mo and nit's going quite nicely

Oh and I had my first black country Balti this weekend and I must say I'm very impressed. It came with the biggest nan i've ever seen