Decided to start brewing for the end of the world.

[Shawnstve]

Haha! Ok well that was probably more dramatic of a subject than needed to be. But yeah, many liquor stores are shut down now, and even the big box stores are out of many decent beers. I’m pretty much stuck with Budweiser. So, I decided to start brewing. Small batches though as I don’t drink a lot of beer. Occasionally do type of thing. So I got a 1 gallon carboy and a couple 1 gallon jars (like canning jars). I also have tried some hard cider since we have lots of pears and apples.

Ok so I do have some questions. 1st is temperature. We live in an apartment without a lot of space, hence the 1 gallon sizes. But this apartment is always set at 75 degrees because that’s how my wife is comfortable. Personally I’d prefer it closer to 72 or 71, but my marital arguments are not what I need help with. Haha! My question is, I’m currently making cider with a cider yeast (my local home brew store had a cider specific yeast and I don’t know the exact strain). Anyway, I have no where that I can put this where it will be cooler. It’s currently in the closet because it’s dark there but it’s still a relative 75 maybe 74 degrees in there. I read something about dangerous types of alcohol and chemicals that can come off if it is over 68 degrees, is this true? Like am I gonna go blind? Haha! Or will I just end up with off putting flavors vs dangerous compounds? I don’t feel like getting sick of this stuff. Just want an easy way to have some alcohol. I’m new to this so I don’t want to go spend a lot of money. And right now most places are closed so I cannot like go out and buy any equipment either. If the flavor is off putting than I can look at a later time about changing the temp, but as long as I’m not poisoning myself, I would like to just learn from this batch and drink it to find out what o need to do. Like should I toss this batch or wait to see if it’s gonna come out ok? Granted this is cider so I know beer is different but I plan on brewing beer soon also. I just got some 2 row pale ale grain and some hops and yeast. That will be for another post. Anyway, let me know guys. Thanks! .

 

[bracconiere]

too many haha's people take this stuff seriously round' here....lol


but i ferment at 90f sometimes, with turbo yeast...and i can still read well enough to type this.... (to many forum members displeasure....)


Welcome!

 

[Shawnstve]

Thanks for the reply. And info.

 

[Shawnstve]

Do you need special yeasts to brew that higher temp? I read ciders really need colder temps but some beer yeasts can handle higher temps? Again I’m new, closest I’ve come to this is kombucha. Just going off of what I read.

 

[NTBeer]

Most ale yeasts give the best results (least off flavors) with temperatures in the low to mid 60's. There's really only a few specialized cider yeasts available - not real familiar with them, but I think that they work best at similar temperatures. There are some strains that work at higher temperatures, in particular Kviek strains. With a one gallon batch size, the easiest thing would probably be to put the carboy into a bucket with cool water and periodic additions of ice. A frozen 2 liter should last quite a while in a 3 to 5 gallon bucket. If it doesn't affect marital tranquility too much, add a fan and a towel and you will have a swamp cooler. Search the forum for more info on that.

 

[Shawnstve]

Thank you, so is it just off flavors I have to worry about? Or will it be dangerous to drink?

like should I toss this batch if it was in the 70’s?

 

[NTBeer]

Nothing dangerous.

 

[Shawnstve]

So what temps make methanol? And I read somewhere that higher temps also make the other alcohols that can be bad for you also? But then again some say it’s just worse hangovers and others say it’s very dangerous. Sorry for all the questions.

 

[FloppyKnockers]

Cider is going to get good at about the 6 month mark. During that six months it is going to want to live under 70°. Higher than that won't kill you, but you will wish you were dead with the headache it could give you. I learned this the hard way by aging cider upstairs in my house where it lives in ambient temps close to your home. I aged in the crawlspace from there on out and had no issues. I used Mangrove Jack's cider yeast, BTW.

Nobody has addressed your use of Mason jars yet so I thought I'd bring it up. Those are great for holding pressure. Unfortunately, They are not good for outward pressure, only inward (vacuum). If you need to use them, the best suggestion I can lend is to drill a hole in the top and use an airlock.

 

[InspectorJon]

Since you are planning on 1 gallon batches here is enough reading to keep you busy for a while. It will answer a lot of questions.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/1-gallon-brewers-unite.311884/

 

[dochawk]

Do you need special yeasts to brew that higher temp?

A steady temperature is even more important.

In the early 90s, our house was a steady 78F around the clock in the summer--and wyeast Irish did *very* well (even a best of show at a major regional!). [In Las Vegas, the AC comes on repeatedly at night to keep it down to 78F . . .]


and welcome to shwawnstve

 

[Shawnstve]

Floppy, thanks so headaches huh? I mean I don’t plan on getting drunk. I barely drink one beer in a night. Or one cider.

And aged 6 months? Mean after I bottle? Or 6 months before I bottle? Man! Either way, I was hoping for a shorter time frame.

As for the mason jars, they have airlocks on them already yes. And I do plan on bottling into flip tops. But I wasn’t expecting to have to wait 6 months. Hope that’s 6 months to bottle and not 6 months after bottling. I just don’t have enough flip tops for that! I planned on doing apple cider this weekend and have the pear cider going. And than I plan on doing a small batch beer shortly after. Ok I have to re evaluate what my plan is here.

So the yeast I’ve got for my beer is Ale 514 from mauribrew... apparently it’s an American ale yeast? I’m very new so I am not even sure if this is the way to tell what strain. Anyway, I hope that that will do ok at higher temps. Seems like dochawk from what I read up on it, that strain you are talking about does ok at higher temps but becomes fruity?

Anyway, man there is so much to learn here. So this is what I’ve got for my beer that I planned on brewing soon. I’ve got a breiss 2 row pale ale grain, with Cryo Hops LupuLN2 Cascade Hop Pellets, and that American ale yeast I stated above. I honestly was gonna wing it. Do a one gallon all grain (I think I read that’s what it’s called when not using extract) and just see how it turned out. Any recommendations for that? Anyone have a good recepe they recommend? I will try to cool it down if you guys think I need to.

 

[Shawnstve]

This is the recipe for the beer I was going off of. I wasn’t aware that the “American yeast” I got was not the same. Now that I’m reading up I realized that this is the complete wrong yeast for this. Wyeast seems to be better for a lighter beer like this... the mauribrew one seems to be better for heavier beers... so what do you guys think about using this mauribrew yeast I’ve got with this specific recipe? And how important is it to get the caramel crystal?

https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/263557/easy-blonde-ale

 

[Shawnstve]

I should also mention I’m doing a brew in a bag thing. And yes I know I am way over simplifying it above. I figure I will make my mistakes here on the first one and know what I should or shouldn’t do on my next batches. Any help or suggestion with this is welcomed.

 

[Cherokee Brew Supply Co.]

Welcome to the world of HOMEBREWING!

 

[Shawnstve]

Welcome to the world of HOMEBREWING!

Thanks!

 

[Box]

Wow I wish I started with this much forethought! I just started, I don't know if brewing is the right word, myself. Much much simpler set up on my end though, don't even know if I'm doing it right! Hope yours turns out good, there's plenty of good Brewers and info on this site. Good luck!