What did you brew today?

[Dutto]

I know the process so I didn't watch the whole video. However, I have to ask "What is the man's yield?"

He starts off with what looks like 6 x 2 litres of cider and finishes up with a tiny bottle of Apple Jack.

With an 10% ABV cider and looking for 40%ABV Apple Jack then:

• 12 litres of cider at an ABV of 10% should yield 1.2 litres of liquor with an ABV of 100%. (12 x 0.10 = 1.20)
• Watered down to 40% ABV this equals 3.0 litres of Apple Jack. (1.2 ÷ 0.4 = 3.0)
• Liquid not used = 9.0 Litres.

I refer you to my previous comment ...

..............

At this stage it looks to be a piece of cake to remove the water crystals, however the crystals of water are tiny, ethanol is trapped between them and everything used to filter out the crystals from the ethanol needs to be maintained at -10*C.

............

With a yield as low as that illustrated in the video, you are not "freeze distilling" you are making something similar to what is referred to as "Ice Beer" as per this link ...

"Ice beer is a marketing term for pale lager beer brands which have undergone some degree of fractional freezing somewhat similar to the German Eisbock production method. These brands generally have higher alcohol content than typical beer and generally have a low price relative to their alcohol content."​

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_beer

BTW, I've tried "Ice Beer" and it's a particularly vile brew that needs to be cold enough to kill the taste-buds of even an old man like myself.

 

[StevieG83]

I know the process so I didn't watch the whole video. However, I have to ask "What is the man's yield?"

He starts off with what looks like 6 x 2 litres of cider and finishes up with a tiny bottle of Apple Jack.

With an 10% ABV cider and looking for 40%ABV Apple Jack then:

• 12 litres of cider at an ABV of 10% should yield 1.2 litres of liquor with an ABV of 100%. (12 x 0.10 = 1.20)
• Watered down to 40% ABV this equals 3.0 litres of Apple Jack. (1.2 ÷ 0.4 = 3.0)
• Liquid not used = 9.0 Litres.

I refer you to my previous comment ...


With a yield as low as that illustrated in the video, you are not "freeze distilling" you are making something similar to what is referred to as "Ice Beer" as per this link ...

"Ice beer is a marketing term for pale lager beer brands which have undergone some degree of fractional freezing somewhat similar to the German Eisbock production method. These brands generally have higher alcohol content than typical beer and generally have a low price relative to their alcohol content."​

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_beer

BTW, I've tried "Ice Beer" and it's a particularly vile brew that needs to be cold enough to kill the taste-buds of even an old man like myself.

He started of with 10 litres of asda apple juice. He ended up with 3 litres of apple jack. The bottle you mention was a old mead bottle. He used super wine yeast compound, yeast nutrient and 3 kg of sugar. He doesn't fill the 2 litre bottles before freezing it.

At the end of the video he visits a brewery called "Brew Dog" which freeze distils beer.

Link here
https://www.brewdog.com/lowdown/blog/the-worlds-strongest-beer-tactical-nuclear-penguin

 

[Bigcol49]

Hi!
Had an absolute sh*te of a brew day!
Up very early, toasted some oats, prepared water treatment, weighed and conditioned the malts and began to mill it. Used a drill for the first time and found I had to get it going quite fast to keep the mill turning. Lots of vibration, nearly finished when everything stopped. The bolts holding the hopper together had shaken loose and dropped into the mill! Recovered them and finished by hand.
Underlet the mash and forgot to switch on the element to heat the mash during recirculation - spotted after 5 minutes and switched on. First running collected in boiler, start the boiler while sparging. Again, forgot to switch on the element to heat the sparge during recirculation - moron! Second runnings into boiler and vigorous boil begins.
While cleaning up the boiler cuts out - can't find the cause.
Load the wort back into the boiler used for mashing and get the boil going again.
Only 13 litres of wort at 1059 - it's a mild - aiming for 1034!
Liquored back, pitched yeast and cleared away.
I am seriously thinking of giving up and sticking to wine.

 

[cushyno]

Hi!
Had an absolute sh*te of a brew day!
Up very early, toasted some oats, prepared water treatment, weighed and conditioned the malts and began to mill it. Used a drill for the first time and found I had to get it going quite fast to keep the mill turning. Lots of vibration, nearly finished when everything stopped. The bolts holding the hopper together had shaken loose and dropped into the mill! Recovered them and finished by hand.
Underlet the mash and forgot to switch on the element to heat the mash during recirculation - spotted after 5 minutes and switched on. First running collected in boiler, start the boiler while sparging. Again, forgot to switch on the element to heat the sparge during recirculation - moron! Second runnings into boiler and vigorous boil begins.
While cleaning up the boiler cuts out - can't find the cause.
Load the wort back into the boiler used for mashing and get the boil going again.
Only 13 litres of wort at 1059 - it's a mild - aiming for 1034!
Liquored back, pitched yeast and cleared away.
I am seriously thinking of giving up and sticking to wine.

This will give me comfort on my next brew day. When something goes wrong (which it inevitably will) I shall take comfort in the knowledge that it could be worse!

Commiserations. They won't all be that bad.

 

[Clint]

We've all had em...it's usually the ones you've mentally planned with military precision!

 

[Oneflewover]

We've all had em...it's usually the ones you've mentally planned with military precision!

Yeah, funny that ain't it? Spur of the moment tends to be more relaxed and go smoothly.

Nevermind @Bigcol49 , it'll probably turn out to be s fantastic beer!

 

[Bigcol49]

I was doing the work of two men - Laurel and Hardy

 

[Bigcol49]

Hi!
Further to my previous post about my fupped-up brew day, I checked the brew this morning and the heater hasn't been on.
I remember that when my (now defunct) Corny cooler froze my beer I adapted the Inkbird so that only the cooling circuit was working, to prevent it from freezing again.
A quick rewire, and everything's fine now.
If I get a decent beer out of this I'm going to call it Houdini!

 

[Mungri]

Simcoe & Citra
First time using uncrushed grain and a mill. Had lots of trouble getting the crush fine enough (it's only a cheapo single roller mill). Put it through the mill 3 times in the end.
78% efficiency, so not bad.

 

[dad_of_jon]

barley wine?
3 kg dme - light
1 kg dme - extra dark
500g dark candi sugar
500g dwe
100g EKG hops 20 mins boil.
mj's m41 belgian ale yeast
20.5 liters.

needed to fill a gap in my inventory :-)

 

[MmmBeer]

My brother asked if I could make a batch of Guinness in time for Christmas, so I had a go today using Graham Wheeler recipe.
Got my mash liquor treated and on by 8 this morning.
3.14 kg MO pale malt
0.9 kg flaked barley (H&B)
0.45 kg roasted barley
Mashed at 66°C as stated, but reduced mash and boil times from 90 to 70 mins.
Very slow sparge, probably the FB.
Recipe called for 35g of Target at start of boil, but I only had a 28g bag, so made up with 10g of Challenger.
Chilled to 20°C, pitched with S-04, in brewfridge by 1 pm.
Nice smooth brew day, but underestimated losses, so ended up with 21.5 litres at 1.060, rather than 23 at 1.046 as I had calculated. Efficiency calculated to be 95% , will liquor back with 2 litres of bottled water.

 

[foxbat]

barley wine?
3 kg dme - light
1 kg dme - extra dark
500g dark candi sugar
500g dwe
100g EKG hops 20 mins boil.
mj's m41 belgian ale yeast
20.5 liters.

needed to fill a gap in my inventory :-)

With your typical brews you need to plan ahead 18 months where your gaps are going to be!

 

[BeerCat]

@Bigcol49 Well i kegged the wrong beer the other night. I realised after half an hour of the FV standing in the garden i had better pour it back in and finish the fermentation. God only knows what that will taste like. I wonder if anyone else will admit to doing this.

 

[Slid]

My brother asked if I could make a batch of Guinness in time for Christmas, so I had a go today using Graham Wheeler recipe.
Got my mash liquor treated and on by 8 this morning.
3.14 kg MO pale malt
0.9 kg flaked barley (H&B)
0.45 kg roasted barley
Mashed at 66°C as stated, but reduced mash and boil times from 90 to 70 mins.
Very slow sparge, probably the FB.
Recipe called for 35g of Target at start of boil, but I only had a 28g bag, so made up with 10g of Challenger.
Chilled to 20°C, pitched with S-04, in brewfridge by 1 pm.
Nice smooth brew day, but underestimated losses, so ended up with 21.5 litres at 1.060, rather than 23 at 1.046 as I had calculated. Efficiency calculated to be 95% , will liquor back with 2 litres of bottled water.

8 wks will be around the mark for a stout. Very forgiving is a stout. Have used this basic recipe a couple of times and it will be fine for the 25/12.

Better still a month later, perhaps, but the same can be said for almost all (of my) beers.

 

[Bigcol49]

Hi!
Well the mild ale wort produced on my brew day from hell is bubbling away nicely in my DIY "Yorkshire square". I'm interested to see how this turns out, but there were so many cock-ups on brew day, I think I'm going to have to try this again to determine whether the fermentation vessel shape makes a difference - an exBeeriment, perhaps

 

[Dutto]

....... I think I'm going to have to try this again to determine whether the fermentation vessel shape makes a difference - an exBeeriment, perhaps

If it's any encouragement, the beer in question has been finished for ages now, but I'm still peeling off the odd bit of skin here and there from when I tried to boil my own foot a couple of years back!

I like your use of bungee cords though. It brings back happy memories of people less fortunate than us in The Darwin Awards, where one man made up his own bungee-jumping cord and launched himself off a 70 foot high bridge over a road.

Unfortunately, his home-made cord stretched to 80 feet with ease!

 

[RichK]

Just my second attempt at a kit free brew today. I present "Ptolemy Tyler's Innkeeper" (BIAB)

1.5kg Maris Otter
0.5kg Flaked Barley
25g Black Barley
66 C mash ~6L water (about 3 hours as out shopping)
Basic sparge to ~ 12L
25g Goldings (60 mins)
25g Styrian Goldings (60 mins)
20g Styrian Goldings (10 mins)
Protofloc (10 min)
~ 10L after boil
Into the sink to cool
1.5kg amber LME
300g Golden Syrup
Aldi spring water up to ~19l
12.8 brix OG (so maybe 5+%?)
CML real ale yeast (rehydrated)

No current plans to dry hop but just might change my mind in a week? Maybe a light touch of Goldings/Styrian Goldings.

Hoping to have something drinkable over Christmas.

 

[The Baron]

just brewed a honey winter warmer for crimbo. It has 400g of honey malt plus 450g of honey with the usual dark malts/crystals and propino. We will see what it turns out like

 

[Saisonator]

I made my first beer for 6 months due to the birth of my son.
An American Rye Pale Ale.
Efficiency was a bit down, used CML Pale Ale yeast, just sprinkled instead of re-hydrating for a change.
https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/print/579678

 

[Clive125]

Made my first all grain brew today, Old Speckled Hen from Roger Wheelers book, using my new Robobrew setup. All went well and it is now in the barrel maturing for Christmas or a little before.