I use a seedling mat for heat but I have it hooked up to an inkbird, inside a mini-fridge. Inside the fridge, it's enough heat for 5 gallon batches too.
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PCSharkynose
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Well I hope it doesn't cause me any issues. The sugar was infused with THC and I thought a 1/2 tsp of it wouldn't be enough to feel any effects so I bumped up the amount. I'm also learning the more sugar you add can boost the ABV slightly.
TwistedGray
El Jefe Brewing Company
Okay, to avoid confusion how much sugar went into each bottle? What were the size of the bottles? Are you talking about THC distillate? If not, how was THC infused into the sugar?
PCSharkynose
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I put a teaspoon per 12oz bottle. I'm not sure how the THC was infused with the sugar.
TwistedGray
El Jefe Brewing Company
You put twice the amount it needed. That's not good.
I do not think you will have any bottle bombs, but at minimum you will have extremely over carbonated beer. So every time you go to drink one of those open it over a sink open quickly and have a glass ready to pour into.
Gonna try your 1/2 tsp of table sugar in a day or two, TwistedGray. I'm finding most of my bottles have been slightly more carbonated than I'd like, so I'm hoping this has better results.
TwistedGray
El Jefe Brewing Company
Enjoy! Just use a funnel, makes it easier.
PS: if you want to tag people, you needed to put the @ symbol before their name like this @Immocles.
What type of beer? Reason I ask is that I tried this and it worked out great on a pale ale, but a bit too carbonated for my porter. I think a rounded or heaping 1/4 tsp would have been enough. Still, this is a great way to carbonate small batches. Thanks to @TwistedGray for the idea.
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The batch I’m going to try it out on is a lower abv pale ale. I’ve had luck with carb drops, but I’d rather utilize the sugar that’s already just lying around. All my over carbonated batches have been 5g kits. I took for granted that it was the correct amount, but it seems overkill, at least for my tastes.
TwistedGray
El Jefe Brewing Company
Scratches head, what? You mean a quarter tsp?
TwistedGray
El Jefe Brewing Company
Lol, I figured that's what you meant. As Bongo noted, 1/2tsp is a good enough middle group to cover most styles; however, you would want to adjust accordingly. For example, I may use a little more than a 1/2tsp on a hard cider and a little less than a 1/2tsp on a stout but then again a little more than a 1/2tsp on a milk stout (I personally like them frothy). My unscientific method is to either heap it or shake it down a little bit (more closer to 1/2tsp than 1/4tsp for example).
Big Monk
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Why aren’t people just calculating the amount of priming sugar required and dosing with that? Why would you wing it when it’s so easily calculated?
I just calculate the sugar required and make a 1:1 Syrup and add it to each bottle with a syringe.
I just calculate the sugar required and make a 1:1 Syrup and add it to each bottle with a syringe.
I was wanting to do this but I could not get my head around the amount to add to each bottle. Could you elaborate on the process?
I have been having mixed results with carb drops but the few bottles I did with 2g of corn sugar into 12 oz came out nice. Measuring for more than 6 bottles seems like a pain.
I agree with the sentiment. I use 1/4 cup of sugar for 19 bottles. That makes my CO2 volume 2.9, which is high, but how I prefer my beer. To get the same level as me you would have to use .63 tsp. Which is difficult to measure. Using a bottling bucket and dosing once is in my opinion easier than dosing per bottle.
TwistedGray
El Jefe Brewing Company
Adding to the bottling bucket is easier; my method is 99.99% consistent. You cannot claim the same when adding to the bucket. Surely it is close, but that only matters in horseshoes and hand grenades.
Big Monk
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Or just use grams. The natural output of the equation for priming sugar is grams.
Big Monk
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You could always add the dry sugar to each bottles in gram amounts.
So if I have 8 bottles that require X amount of grams of priming sugar to reach Y volumes, my dry sugar dose per bottle would be:
X/8 g/bottle
If you made a 1:1 syrup using X ml of water and doses in 8 bottles, each bottle would get:
X/8 ml/bottle of syrup
Given the small amount of sugar and water we are talking about here, however, you likely want a higher ratio of water to sugar, on the order of 3:1 to start. In this case, at least in my opinion, the equation doesn’t change for the higher colume, but you should ensure proper mixing before dosing.
I use a one of those 10 ml medicine syringes that come with medicine for my kids when they have it. Works like a charm.
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Gonna be making a jug of pale ale later this week and I wanna use the lemondrop hops I impulse bought last week. Anyone have a suggested second hop that plays well along side it? Amarillo? Or will that possibly overpower it?
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Motueka might be a possibility. I’ve made a lemon lime Hefe that uses sorachi ace (for a lemon flavor) paired with Motueka which has a lime like presence. May add a citrus flavor that compliments the lemon.
Sharkbrewingco
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Has anyone use rye malt to add flavor to their one gallon beer? I'm planning to make a American Brown ale and added rye malt to it. I'm thinking either using 2 or 4 ounces. I want to just add a spicy kick to the beer. I'm using N. Brewer and Williamette hops.
I would go at least 6oz. Some people can't even detect it at that level. Also be sure to get a good crush on those as they are smaller than barley and sometimes go straight through the mill without even being cracked.
Sharkbrewingco
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Thanks. I use a BIAB method so my mill has a tight setting. I will grind the rye first to make sure.
Recently, Brülosophy did a podcast on rye malt, it turns out that the malt doesn’t really add a spicy character but does increase body and mouthfeel. The idea that it has a spiciness comes from rye bread that commonly has caraway seeds in it. It is the caraway seeds that give rye bread it’s characteristic spiciness. I can say that I very much enjoy commercial beers that contain rue malt. My next batch of beer will be a Citra rye IPA.
I have never got the spiciness from rye but have only used it a few times. I believe the spiciness is suppose to be more of a black pepper earthy flavor and not the caraway flavor of rye bread. I did a high percentage of rye(40% I think) in a lightly hopped blonde to see if I could get the rye flavor, no spice but it was for sure very sticky in the mash and a full body beer. Last attempt was a ruthless rye pale, tried 8% rye still no spice, but hops may have over shadowed the flavor. I put the rye in a blade type coffee grinder, turned it almost into flour. I think malted rye is suppose to be more spicy than raw but I may be wrong.
Griffin495
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So back on February 12, I posted about making 3 batches of Irish Red. One from Brewing Classic Styles and then brewing a 2 gallon recipe from How To Brew and splitting it and dry hopping one with Cascade just for sh!ts and giggles. They've bottle conditioned and I've sampled them. I'd say Brewing Classic Styles was by far the better of the three. How to Brew was ok and the one I dry hopped was just wrong. Hard to drink. The citrusy, grape fruit flavors from the hops just do not go well with the malt flavor of a red. Another good reason to brew one gallon batches. I've only got 7 more to force my way through (if I don't dump them) rather than one case had I split a normal 5 gallon batch or 2 cases if I had brewed a 5 gallon batch of it. I'd probably do the Brewing Classic Styles one again, but I wouldn't bother doing the How To Brew one again.
Sharkbrewingco
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With one gallon batches, who has messed around with mash ph? What technique do you use to lower the ph?
Big Monk
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I use Sauermalz (Acid Malt) for all batches of any size, including 1 gallon (or less).
Sharkbrewingco
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Roughly how much of the acid malt do you use for one gallon?
Big Monk
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It all depends on the other characteristics in the mash. I have a calculator for modeling the acid/base characteristics of the mash.
In general, I would hazard a guess that most Pale grists would take between 2-4% and darker roast heavy grists between 1-2%.
I always model the whole mash and use the spreadsheet to calculate exact percentages though.
Sharkbrewingco
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I use Beersmith to create/store my recipes. I just finished bottle conditioning an Irish Red ale. I only put one ounce of acid malt because my gut didn't trust Beersmith's recommendation of about 3 oz. Well When I opened up a bottle my beer was sour. This was my first batch with adding acid malt. My fermentation was between 64 and 67 F. That's why I am looking to see if the acid malt was the culprit. I read somewhere that I should have put in only .02 lbs. of the malt.
- 2.25 lbs Maris Otter Pale Malt
- 3 oz Caramel Malt (10L)
- 2 oz Caramel Malt (120L)
- 1 oz Roasted Barley
@Sharkbrewingco I did not calculate the amount of acid malt for your grain bill but 1oz is about 3% which does not seem like it should cause a beer to taste sour. I use about 3% in my pale lagers without getting any sourness.
There are some yeast that can make a beer taste tart, I seen people mention S-04 being one of them.
There are some yeast that can make a beer taste tart, I seen people mention S-04 being one of them.
Sharkbrewingco
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I used Nottingham. If it caused by fermentation temperature, I brewed several batches before this beer with no problems.
Big Monk
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Everyone’s tastes are different but at 3% of the total Grist, it’s highly unlikely that Sauermalz was the culprit.
I’ve gone upwards of 8% with no sourness or tang in the finished product.
Druman07
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Salt additions and lactic acid. A little goes a long way. For raising PH I was using baking soda, but next time I do a dark recipe, I and going to try pickling lime which can control the PH without adding NA to the recipe.
Sharkbrewingco
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HHHmmmm, I will have to look at my fermentation process then. For now, I am going to try brewing with out the acid malt on my next brew day to see what happens. I may need to get a shorter thermowell to move the probe to a different location in the fermenter.
I don't think Nottingham is one I have seen as being tart, but there are other british yeast that can be. Not sure what the mechanism is to trigger it though.
I have also seen people using pretty high percentage of acid malt to fake a sour type beer and not getting much sourness.
Brewing a beer without the acid malt makes sense to isolate the issue. There are wild things that can cause sourness, I would not use the slurry from that batch.
Sharkbrewingco
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I haven't gotten to that point of were I reuse yeast so no worries there. I have an IPA in the fermenter now. I did use acid malt there. We shall see how this turns out.
Hopefully it is one off event. For the record how sour was your beer, anything else seem out of place, carbonation level ok?
Sharkbrewingco
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Sourness stood out pretty good to where I wasn't going to buy a bottle of an Irish red ale to compare it with. The sour was on the back end when you drink it. Carbonation was towards the weak side for the bottles I poured. However I bottled some beer with 1/2 tsp each and other with a little over 1/2. I wanted to see if there was a difference in volume. I was looking for 2.5. When you poured it into a glass it didn't create much of a head and it went away quickly. I even poured it vigorously.
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