Re: any homebrewers?
 

I try to be surgical clean with my brewing procedures, especially since I'm often making fruit wines and not going through a long boil as with beer.
Don't worry about trying to syphon through the vent hole, take the lid off. I tend to set the lid on the bucket, just pushed over enough for the racking cane to get in.
Going into secondary, you should probably worry more about oxygen than contaminates, since the beer does have alcohol in it now.

Oh, and I currently have a batch of strawberry wine in secondary (Needs to be racked again I think) What to my fellow brewers have going?

Re: any homebrewers?
 

I just finished a California style ale. I have in inventory several stouts, an apricot ale and a red ale. My next batch will be a stout.

Re: any homebrewers?
 

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I currently have a batch of strawberry wine in secondary (Needs to be racked again I think) What to my fellow brewers have going?

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Strawberry wine sounds intriguing. Is the recipe strawberry juice, water, yeast, and sugar? Or is it more complicated? What type of yeast do you use? How often does it need racking? How soon is it drinkable?

There is a bock in secondary yearning to be bottled. I am lazy and the garage is cold enough for lagering, so it may wait another day or two. And I just bottled a blackberry porter that is sublime. Fresh (frozen) blackberries are the key to happiness [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

Next up: mead, IPA, and American brown, not necessarily in that order...

Re: any homebrewers?
 

[ QUOTE ]
Strawberry wine sounds intriguing. Is the recipe strawberry juice, water, yeast, and sugar? Or is it more complicated? What type of yeast do you use? How often does it need racking? How soon is it drinkable?

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The recipe is fairly simple, aside from dealing with a large amount of fruit. I got the recipe here: http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/reques5.asp (I used the second recipe, but made 5 gallons)
The recipe calls for it to be racked 5 times. I used a sweet wine yeast. It should be drinkable within a year. (It better be, since I'm making it for a friends wedding in September)

Blackberry porter sounds crazy good.

Re: any homebrewers?
 

blackberry porter does sound good. Recipe?

I've got my first lager fermenting right now.. a maibock.. and an imperial ipa that I brewed with a little bit of orange peel.

Re: any homebrewers?
 

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blackberry porter does sound good. Recipe?

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My goal was to have the porter and fruit flavors complement each other w/ neither being dominant. I used a lower hopping rate and fewer adjunct grains than I normally do for a porter so the fruit wouldn't be overwhelmed. For the same reason I avoided finishing hops and dry-hopping. It seems to have worked since the beer smells and tastes of fresh fruit with a roasty, malty backbone.


For 5 gallons:

10 oz. 20L crystal malt
2 oz. black patent malt
10 oz. chocolate malt
4 oz. cara-pils

4 lb. light dry extract
2 lb. amber dry extract

5 lb. blackberries (picked in the back yard, then frozen)

1 oz. Willamette (5.5% AAU, whole) 60 min
1/2 oz. Kent Goldings (5.7%, pellet) 30 minutes
1/2 oz. Kent Goldings (5.7%, pellet) 15 minutes

White Labs English Yeast (#002)

OG = 1.052
FG = 1.014


Freezing the fruit helps break down the cell walls and release the juice. I added the fruit to the secondary fermenter and let it go for a couple weeks.

The FG was little higher than I was hoping for, but it turns out the residual sweetness matches well with the blackberry flavor. This ain't soda pop but it sure is easy to drink.

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I've got my first lager fermenting right now.. a maibock.. and an imperial ipa that I brewed with a little bit of orange peel.

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I have always enjoyed the citrus flavors contributed by some hop strains. Have you brewed with orange peel before? I imagine orange peel takes it to a new level.

Re: any homebrewers?
 

Orange peel is good. Use a scraper to just get the orange outside and not the white layer that is below it that is bitter. I have used orange peel and coriander together in belgium triples.

Re: any homebrewers?
 

I am thinking about getting either a Cooper's Home Microbrewery kit, or a Mr. Beer kit...

Any one try either of these?

I've done extensive searching and found that purists look down on the Mr. Beer kit but those who use it seem to have no problems making good beer. In fact, there are online communities/forums for people who use the Mr. Beer kit filled with different recipes and tips.

But, on the other hand, the Coopers kit is supposedly very good and seems to get top notch ratings on Amazon.com.

The issue is that I live in a small apartment and need something that will take up the very minimum in space. I think a regular home kit is going to be too big and bulky for me to store.

So yeah, anyone try the coopers kit or the mr. beer kit?

Re: any homebrewers?
 

I'm sure you can make a decent brew in a Mr Beer kit, but I'm not going to try it to find out.
I would suggest finding a local home brew shop. Every one I've ever been to has basic kits in the $50-100 range. You don't need much fancy stuff, and it'll all fit inside the 5 gallon fermenting bucket.

The basic kit here: http://northernbrewer.com/starterkits.html is more than adequate for $68. Better deals can probably be found online and locally.

Re: any homebrewers?
 

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I have always enjoyed the citrus flavors contributed by some hop strains. Have you brewed with orange peel before? I imagine orange peel takes it to a new level.

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I got my orange peel from the brew store. With high-end ipa's, I've noticed a bit of a citrus flavor, I thought I'd heighten those flavors by mixing some in. If I was more prepared, I'd probably try using grapefruit... but not so much to overpower the beer.. just something for undertones.. maybe dry-hopping with grapefruit zest would do the same thing.

I'll see how it comes out. Half the fun of homebrewing is experimenting.