General Advice Guidelines Format Plan Approach to brewing from Skimpy Recipes

[Blue-Frog]

Humm, wondering if anyone has thoughts or guidelines on brewing from sparse vague recipes....
I have a tendency to want to follow the instructions given with old recipes even when those instructions are very
incomplete by todays standards....I know I should know better, but if it says ferment 5 days, bottle and drink 2 weeks later; I tend to ferment 5 days, (irrespective of current gravity, bottle and drink 2 weeks later... that may be fine for beer, but same goes for SODAs... Bottle bombs are the concern here, as with my tendency to like things on the sweet side, the residual sweetness is often much higher than w/ beer. What refractometer reading should be safe for bottling (naturally carbonated) sweet sodas (always less than 5% abv) at?

refractometer not hydrometer, so

Think I am rambling now

 

[DBhomebrew]

Beverages are safe for bottling when two readings taken 2-3 days apart are the same. When fermentation has ceased and can be observed as such by careful measurement.

Note: it's not a matter of hitting a particular refractometer reading. The terminal gravity of a particular batch will depend on many things. The key is hitting the gravity at which the batch has ceased fermenting.

At this time, one can add a calculated amount of fermentable sugar to arrive at their preferred carbonation level.

Bottling based on 'the recipe says 5 days' is inviting inconsistent carbonation at best and bottle bombs at worst.

 

[IslandLizard]

As @DBhomebrew said, go by final gravity readings being constant over a few days after given the beer or soda ample time to ferment.

Clearing of the beer can also help as an indicator of the beer being done. With those, I would add the gravity being in a low enough range, based on your general experience with brewing and previous batches of a similar composition. Keep notes.

When in doubt, or for security, use one or 2 similar sized plastic bottles with gas-tight screw caps to package. Keep an eye on them as to how hard they feel when squeezed, as time passes. Those are your carbonation monitors too.

A light bulb just went on...
Are the instruction implying not to add priming sugar, but instead, bottle at the end of active fermentation (e.g., after 5 days), without waiting for it to finish completely first?

 

[Blue-Frog]

yes, I think that is the case. The thing is, I like beers in the soda~beer range; think ginger ale/ginger beer, root beer & other low abv high sweetness beers; but there are no (known to me) established guidelines for targeting delicious FGs. Perhaps it would be better to finish the ferm. then back sweeten, but for now I seem to be trying to hit the right gravity from the other direction... and still haven't decided on a plan for stopping further fermentation... benzoate, heat, etc. perhaps those working with cider or ginger ales might have solid SOPs?

 

[DBhomebrew]

Naturally carbonated and sweet is tough. Safest would be to ferment dry, add a measured amount of fermentable sugar for carbonation and another measured amount of non-fermentable sugar for backsweetening.

There are some brewers here who pasteurize in a water bath. Probably in the cider subforum.

 

[Blue-Frog]

Naturally carbonated and sweet is tough. Safest would be to ferment dry, add a measured amount of fermentable sugar for carbonation and another measured amount of non-fermentable sugar for backsweetening.

There are some brewers here who pasteurize in a water bath. Probably in the cider subforum.

Non-fermentable sugar for backsweetening? Which sugar / yeast combinations are you referring to?
I don't get any real sense of sweetness with sugars like lactose; I forget but I don't think I think Glucose is sweet either. For me, lactose was just gritty and would never think of using it anywhere I am really looking for sweetness. What is the appeal?

 

[DBhomebrew]

Glucose is 100% fermentable. Think xylitol, etc.

I've had some success with a few 5-6% meads in which I used a relatively low attenuation beer yeast and a whole-pitched DME starter. The beer yeast left the maltotriose and dextrins alone. Those ended up off-dry, not soda sweet.

 

[Blue-Frog]

Yes. xylitol sounds good. Off-dry is not what I am after... but to be honest, I am still trying to figure what I am after.

 

[DBhomebrew]

Note, xylitol* was in the news during the last year with reports of possible health ramifications.

Like I said, naturally carbonated and soda sweet is tough.

Edit: Erythritol, not xylitol.

 

[Blue-Frog]

Yes.
What do you think about stabilization w/ eg, K-meta & K-sorbate ?
What are their limitations or weak points/downside(s)?

Do you believe Stabilization can be used successively w/ very high sugar levels, say SG 1.035?