Newbe with some general ???

I've learned and read a lot on these forums the last week and a half or so. But I still have some questions.

1. My first BREW: I told the guy at the local brew shop I wanted to make something similar to a shiner bock. So he gave me the mountons bock beer, some dark looking sugar syrup(??), and told me to add 1 lbs of sugar. Well I only added about 1/3 lb of sugar because that is all I had. My OG was about 1.041 and after 1 week in the primary I moved it to the secondary and the OG was 1.020. This was before I learned to get a constant reading before moving to secondary. I also think my OG may have been off because we added cold water to the top of the mash and took the reading. The mountons kit says SG should be around 1.040, so I am hoping it was a little higher with the sugar and syrup I added. Anyhow, I guess I will be drinking 2% alcohol beer. Does that sound right? Also I was wondering about a bottling bucket. Can I not just siphon it out of the car boy into individual bottles? Or is it just easier with a bottling bucket.

oh yeah, once it is in the secondary will the SG continue to decrease??

2. Apfelwein - I have read a lot of people talking about this stuff. I was thinking of brewing some in a 1 gallon batch. What do you guys use for 1 gallon fermentors??? Can I just cut the recipe (the one on this website) in fiths. Is it necessary to cut the yeast??? I would think not.

3. Maybe the wrong forum but....WINE. I really want to do some wine. Do those wine kits (selection original) really taste like wine. I enjoy cheap $10 and bellow bottles of red wine....merlot, cabs, shiraz. I am definitely not a wine snob. But I don't want to end up with 20 plus bottles of fruity ass wine cooler wine.

4. What the hell is skeeter pee?????


Thanks


Mike

Hi Captain and welcome:

1) your wort should continue to ferment (even though you moved to 2ndary). .020 is likely not done. you should check the gravity again after a few days. it should go down more, like 1.010 or so would be more normal. You might want to leave it in primary longer next time. A lot of folks leave it 3 weeks in primary, and bottle straight from there. re-post here if it does not drop more, we'll help you get it to drop.
2) Apfelwein, you will want to brew that in something close to the size of your batch. If you're doing 1 gallon, perhaps you can find a 2 gallon vessel? Or just do 5 gallons and give a bunch away. It's not a great idea to do one gallon with 4+ gallons of headspace. perhaps too much O2 in there.
3) the wine kits are pretty good but you need to remember that a red wine from grapes takes a couple of years to mellow out. I did one almost 2 years ago, it's been bottled and sitting in my wine fridge since, and still tastes like crap. I poured that chemical in there (drawing a blank on the name) in order to be able to age the wine. I can really taste the chemical still.
4) no idea.

Looks like a hard lemonade.

2) for 1 gallon fermenters I would suggest you go out and buy a 1 gallon jug of Carlo Rossi wine. Drink that stuff....I find the sangria to be decent, once your jug is empty you now add a stopper and an airlock and your good to go.

LHBS tend to have 1 gallon jugs for a few $.

Skeeter pee is a Lemon "Wine".

The wine kits can be "ok" to "excellent". In the case of wine kits, you get what you pay for. I liken the $60 kits (30 bottles) to a $5-$7 bottle of wine. Very drinkable, and tasty, but one dimensional and not really "good". I think the $100 kits are more like $10 bottles of wine- pretty good and good enough to serve to some company. The $150+ kits are generally excellent- they come with more juice (not concentrate) and usually grape skins, and can age for years. They are like a $15-$20 bottle of wine, or better. I don't think you'll get anything magnificent, but we've got a tannot/merlot blend from 2007 that is really wonderful and I'd serve that to anybody. It was a "crushendo limited edition" or something like that from austinhomebrew.com. I think those kits are really great, and would recommend the higher-end kits to anybody except the biggest wine snob.

For beer, I also like to buy quality ingredients and would recommend against buying the canned liquid kits that have you add sugar or corn sugar. They'll make drinkable beer, but you'd get a far better beer from a "real" beer kit. They are still very easy, but are fresher and taste better. If you can get Brewer's Best kits where you are, that's a decent start. If you have no place around you to get quality kits, try an online homebrew store. I love austinhomebrew.com for their quality (and easy) kits. You want to do an "extract" kit, but they come with some grains to steep, hops, and great instructions. I've liked northernbrewer.com's kits, too, but I think AHS has a bigger and better selection.

Thanks for the help guys. As far as my current brew goes.....How do I get it out of the carboy for a SG reading. Could I use a sanatized turkey baster to get enough out for a reading. Could I add it back to the carboy after, or should I just dump it. Any other easy ways I am not thinking of?

Also I am definitely going to try a little more advanced kits. Problem is I can't differentiate to what a quality kit is. My LHBS is http://www.brew-it-yourself.com/index.php Nice enough guy. So I'll see what kind of kit he has for me. I am sure he just got me started with the basic kit because of my confusion when I went in there. I'll probably give Austin homebrew Supply a try in the future too. After all I am a longhorn at heart.

Good call on the Rossi wine. Time to try some apelfwein soon.

thanks again

captainL said:

How do I get it out of the carboy for a SG reading. Could I use a sanatized turkey baster to get enough out for a reading.

Click to expand...

That would work great if you have one. Just make sure it's super clean so you don't get turkey juice in the beer Most brew shops have a thing called a Wine Thief that is basically the same thing.

Don't put it back in the fermenter, just dump it. But take a few sips to a) educate yourself on what beer tastes like at different stages and more importantly b) convince yourself it's all going to be OK!

Apfelwein takes at least 3 months before it is any good, if you make a 1 gallon batch and really like it you are waiting at least another 3 months till you have another ready.

It costs like $15 to make a 5 gallon batch you are better off with 5 gallons.

I haven't even tasted any yet but I have been making 5 gallons every two weeks or so and I am up to 15 gallons just to fill up the pipeline and keep a steady stream going if we like it. If not someone who comes over will like it