Brewing and Fermentation

[Speaker to Animals]

Both the Scottish ale and the viking's blood mead are fermenting. The ale is fermenting pretty strongly. Sounds like a fish tank bubbling constantly with gases existing the bucket through the water valve.

I am still skeptical of Carlus's prep of building what you need to produce beer for trade from scratch. From my studies (admittedly just figuring this stuff out), it seems like the malting process in particular is really difficult.

There is also the problem of temperature controls. If you go back to the medieval period, people only brewed at certain times in the year.

Growing hops shouldn't be a problem and using whole hops instead of the processed pellets just a matter of skimming them off the top of the batch when you are done, I guess. The grains to make the initial tea aren't so difficult either.

Keeping a yeast culture going.. not so easy without electricity or substantial operations.

Malts.. producing decent malt is about as complicated as brewing itself (possibly more so). Take all the complexity of brewing beer and double it if you plan on doing it all from scratch.

In terms of the challenge.. it's probably worth trying. Producing even one batch of beer made completely on your property would be amazing.

Makes sense. You’re going to be busy with the fields and such during warm months. In the winter, do your brewing, and store it in the larder.

Honestly, to build a system that produces regular batches of beer completely from your own property would be incredible, even if the beer wasn't as good as what you can make with commercial malts, yeasts, and grains.

[SuburbanFarmer]

Both the Scottish ale and the viking's blood mead are fermenting. The ale is fermenting pretty strongly. Sounds like a fish tank bubbling constantly with gases existing the bucket through the water valve.

I am still skeptical of Carlus's prep of building what you need to produce beer for trade from scratch. From my studies (admittedly just figuring this stuff out), it seems like the malting process in particular is really difficult.

There is also the problem of temperature controls. If you go back to the medieval period, people only brewed at certain times in the year.

Growing hops shouldn't be a problem and using whole hops instead of the processed pellets just a matter of skimming them off the top of the batch when you are done, I guess. The grains to make the initial tea aren't so difficult either.

Keeping a yeast culture going.. not so easy without electricity or substantial operations.

Malts.. producing decent malt is about as complicated as brewing itself (possibly more so). Take all the complexity of brewing beer and double it if you plan on doing it all from scratch.

In terms of the challenge.. it's probably worth trying. Producing even one batch of beer made completely on your property would be amazing.

Makes sense. You’re going to be busy with the fields and such during warm months. In the winter, do your brewing, and store it in the larder.

Honestly, to build a system that produces regular batches of beer completely from your own property would be incredible, even if the beer wasn't as good as what you can make with commercial malts, yeasts, and grains.

Yes it would. I’ve been watching this closely.

[clubgop]

I am just realizing how much beer is six gallons. Fuck I will need a lot of bottles.

Yeah, invest in a couple growlers.

Probably just going to get a few cases of 22 oz bottles and a bottle capper. I worry that the growlers will let oxygen inside and fuck everything up.

I do that too. The growlers are good with a rubber stop. They are pretty air tight in there. Once you open it though that does start the clock. Honestly you can always reuse bottles. Run them through the dishwasher, labels will be off, you can dip them in star San if you want to be extra careful. Amstell light bottles are pretty good.

[Speaker to Animals]

This is interesting:

https://beerandbrewing.com/craft-malt/

I wonder if craft malting could become a serious thing.

[clubgop]

Maybe consider a SMaSH recipe. Single malt, single hop. Take a simple natural malt and a hop to compliment it. If the growing and malting can be successful and you like the brewing you can expand from there.

[Speaker to Animals]

Maybe consider a SMaSH recipe. Single malt, single hop. Take a simple natural malt and a hop to compliment it. If the growing and malting can be successful and you like the brewing you can expand from there.

You probably would have to. How many ways are you going to malt barley from the same farm?

You can probably grow a few different varieties of hops, though.

I would go a bit medieval with it, though. Provably use one variety of hops, but possibly some other herbs as bittering agents. Add honey during the ferment.

It would be a lot healthier.

[Speaker to Animals]

Maybe consider a SMaSH recipe. Single malt, single hop. Take a simple natural malt and a hop to compliment it. If the growing and malting can be successful and you like the brewing you can expand from there.

Question. Is it okay to leave the ale in the primary fermenting bucket for four weeks and do the bottle conditioning for 1.5 weeks?

[clubgop]

Maybe consider a SMaSH recipe. Single malt, single hop. Take a simple natural malt and a hop to compliment it. If the growing and malting can be successful and you like the brewing you can expand from there.

Question. Is it okay to leave the ale in the primary fermenting bucket for four weeks and do the bottle conditioning for 1.5 weeks?

That sounds about right.

[Speaker to Animals]

Tested the Viking's blood mead. It's already dry, but tastes good for only a week into fermentation. That it's already dry was concerning. Added more honey and some pure cherry juice. Will likely need two carboys if this keeps up.

My plan is to just keep feeding it honey and cherry until I reach the alcohol tolerance of the yeast.

[Speaker to Animals]

Latest projects and updates.

Viking's Mead tastes passable. Not sure I am a mead guy of any sort, though. This one will probably just age for the next five years and I will try it then.

Scottish Ale gets bottled tomorrow. I opened up the fermenter this evening to check out what happened. Looks like ale. Disinfected a shot glass and took a sip worth off the top. Tastes pretty good and it's not yet bottle conditioned. This one turned out really well.

Started pear cider yesterday and pineapple cider today. Pineapple cider is 3 gallons. Probably going to give most of that away. I might not give any of the precious ale away.