Recent content by javalin

Just got mine set up. Pretty basic for now, might add a different top later on.

Sure, you can grab a vinometer from most homebrew stores, or there's this one on amazon. They're like five bucks. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B006O2E658/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20 Does nobody know what a vinometer is? Seems like I've run into this question a lot.

ignore this, double posted :/

Fermentation time can be a bit tricky to nail down. Could have been a bit slower due to temperature, or other factors, but a slower ferment will give you a better product in the end. Once you're down to about 1 bubble per minute, you should be good to bottle. Cheers, and welcome to the...

I was not aware that a salt water refractometer used a different scale. All of the refractometers i've seen use either brix or SG as their scale. However if you could convert from ppm to SG it would still be usable light bends in solution based on the density of that solution. This is a...

You should be able to use the same one, assuming it has a scale somewhere between 0 and 30 brix. The amount that your fluid bends light depends on its density. You can use the same thing for DEF fluid or battery acid as well. It's all just measuring density. The only problem would be when you...

I've always used the same hops for both steps, you can mix and match depending on what effect you want. The first step is for bittering, and the second step is for aroma and flavor. The bittering effect can be enhanced by boiling the hops for longer if you desire. You can do a lot of research on...

but if it's pasteurized, and poured from the pasteurizing vessel into sterilized bottles there should be no spoilage.

Why?

You're aiming for about 1.04 for your starting gravity. For small batches I just leave it in the primary container until it clears, if you're doing a larger batch then you may want to put it into a secondary fermentation vessel. I would transfer to secondary when you're down to one bubble out of...

Bottling with crown caps straight out of pasteurization should work fine. The only concern I would have is spoilage from oxygen, but it seems that larger companies like Sun Rype don't purge their containers with anything before filling, so even that shouldn't pose a problem.

I'll use either regular apple juice, and boil one litre with my hops, or use a concentrate kit and boil the hops in water. Either way works well. I use hop pellets for my recipes, and I use about 10 pellets per gallon for bittering, and five pellets for aroma normally. If I want a batch with...

This is what I've been doing for the last little while https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=24678 Before I got a keg and the right taps and stuff I would use a carbonation cap to carbonate my cider in a 2L PET bottle to 40 PSI and pour into chilled bottles. You lose some carbonation...

My basic recipe for an angry orchard clone One gallon of apple juice (no preservatives, but doesn't have to be organic) Add sugar to get a S.G. of about 1.08 (10% ABV) I'll switch between brown sugar, dex, and table sugar ferment and allow to clear pasteurize by heating to 150F for about 10...

So after reading this post, I decided to try going for the green apple flavor. After pasteurizing I dissolved 40 green apple jolly ranchers in one gallon of cider and force carbonated the batch. I wound up with a cider that tasted very much like a Somersby cider. For anyone who was curious what...