hello from mobile al

[teeorbee]

Hello ya'll, recieved a beginners brew kit with supplies for christmas with a couple lme kits. I've been lurking here a few days and realized how little i know and how lucky i've been making and bottling mead and muscadine wine for with no bad batches. For example i thought b-brite was a sanitizer, didn't know about #7 plastic bottles either. Thanks for the great website.

 

[chucke]

Hi from up around Anniston.

You have a good home-brew club there in Mobile.
L.A. Lagers

 

[Richabt]

Welcome from Tallahassee!

 

[DragonTail]

Welcome

 

[hybridspecies725]

Hey man I just read your post and thought it was funny that we both live in Mobile and both brew mead! Also, I'm growing some muscadines so eventually we'll have that in common too. -JP

 

[teeorbee]

bottled 6 cases of muscadine(port variety)in october,will give it a try in a couple months. fermenting: hefeweizen,dunkelweizen,shock top clone.bottled; shock top clone,cervesa,pale ale

 

[hybridspecies725]

I did a really great batch of metheglin using clover honey, about 1/2 of an orange, some oak chips, coriander, cloves, black pepper, and nutmeg. It tasted great right out of the secondary, but I'm letting it sit for a few months so I can bring it to NJ when I visit my family.
I can't wait to brew some beer, and hefeweizen is near the top of my list! I want to make a kicked up version with extra malt though, like maybe about 8% ABV (doppelweizen, I could call it).

 

[twohands]

Howdy from BHM - also a mead-maker!

 

[brewagentjay]

Welcome -> Newbie from Moody, AL

 

[chucke]

I can't wait to brew some beer, and hefeweizen is near the top of my list! I want to make a kicked up version with extra malt though, like maybe about 8% ABV (doppelweizen, I could call it).

I brewed a big-assed dunkel weizenbock over the weekend.
OG-1.084

Learn to reuse the yeast and hefes can be down-right cheap.

 

[hybridspecies725]

I'm trying to replicate this really good dessert wine I had in Tenn. called Mountain Berry. It was concord wine with raspberries added. The concord juice is finished fermenting and I added some dark toasted oak chips. Letting those sit for 1-2 months, then I'll rack it onto raspberries/blueberries and maybe some pepper. Tasted it last night and it's REALLY tannic (like have you ever bittten into underripe fruit?)...gonna have to let this one sit for a loooong time! It's got a good cabernet sauvignon taste though; kinda surprised me actually.

 

[hybridspecies725]

So, when you brew a big high-gravity beer (or any beer in general), do you let it ferment dry or do you leave some residual sugar? Is it just a matter of preference, like with wine? Or will residual sugar just cause your bottles to blow up when carbonating?

 

[teeorbee]

Chucke,be sure to tell us how the dunkel comes out. Did you do a patial mash or all grain?

 

[chucke]

So, when you brew a big high-gravity beer (or any beer in general), do you let it ferment dry or do you leave some residual sugar? Is it just a matter of preference, like with wine? Or will residual sugar just cause your bottles to blow up when carbonating?

Here is a big, BIG, difference between brewing beer and making wine. With beer, ya need to let the yeast consume all the fermentable sugars. Otherwise, any sugars left will be added to your bottling sugar, the yeast will produce too much CO2 and you'll end up with bottle bombs. This doesn't necessarily mean the beer is going to be dry. Mash temp is the biggest way to set beer thickness/sweetness. Mash at around 149-150, you produce lots of unfermentable sugars, thus making your beer thicker and sweeter. Mash at around 154 and you produce more fermentable sugars, thus making your beer thinner and dryer.

 

[chucke]

Chucke,be sure to tell us how the dunkel comes out. Did you do a patial mash or all grain?

It's AG.

Hefes tend to have vigorous fermentation. This one went total ape-s**t. Fa-boosh!!

 

[teeorbee]

the dunkel i brewed came from DeathBrewers recipe. It's been bottled 7-8 days, i just had to open one up and try it.Very tasty. Thumbs up to DB