New Brew Brother with lots of questions.. more to follow

[OneMoretime1]

Hello I’m in northern Canada startIng to make brews. My first foray into brewing I purchased 3 glass carboys, a 5 gallon bucket with lid, a few vapor locks , and a ABCturbo yeast package. I started with a 6 kg of sugar and hot water and then pitched yeast once cooled and left for 7 days. It has made some very strong wine. Now I’m hooked on brewing what’s a good beginner project for a novice, to try next?

David

 

[Broken Crow]

On the one hand I wanna say "Welcome" but on the other hand.. what you described is not wine. It's pure alcohol minus distillation and you've set off my concern for the well-being of fellow Canadians. That stuff really will blind you, just like the old wives tale.
Please read everything in the posts just to familiarize yourself with the process and the products and explore the awesome tastes that be acheived in the process you've embarked on.

 

[OneMoretime1]

Ok how will this make me go blind? And what’s a good starter wine to do as my first real wine?

 

[OneMoretime1]

Ok how will this make me go blind? And what’s a good starter wine to do as my first real wine?

Isn’t going blind from brew an old wives tale

 

[Broken Crow]

Methyl alcohol does it. But if it's wine you're after, I'm not sure about availability where you are, but around here we get seasonal 5-gallon buckets of grape juice available through some of the cement farmers.. great deal and makes great wine. Personally, I'd go with barleywine and there's quite a few recipes on here...I think Online, Canadian, Homebrewing Supplies, Beer Equipment, Ingredients-Stainless Steel Pots and Hardware, Beer Kegs and Dispensing. Stocking SS Brewtech Conicals, Unitanks and Brites for Craft Breweries, Serious Brewers and Homebrewers like you. BrewZilla, Keg Master Series 4 and Micro Matic in Canada - Now shipping to the United States. has some kits, and there's also Prairie Brew Supply – Brew the beer you want to drink! .
As I said, explore.. spend the day reading this site and see what teaks your own interest.

 

[OneMoretime1]

Thanks BrokenCrow I just threw out my jail wine and am looking to procure some berries from my farmers market to try a real Wine.

 

[OneMoretime1]

Any advise on what type of yeast or yeast nutrient I should use

 

[OneMoretime1]

I don’t want to buy kits I want to learn how to do it properly.

 

[Rish]

Thanks BrokenCrow I just threw out my jail wine and am looking to procure some berries from my farmers market to try a real Wine.

That's too bad. What you made was just a sugar wash. It won't blind you.

 

[Broken Crow]

Depends on what you're making and what you're going for. Check out the individual threads for beer, wine, mead, cider, distilling. Each brew has it's own well evolved yeast. I'm primarily in the beer camp myself, but the only time I've seen turbo yeast mentioned is by the distillers.
If I came on a bit strong: When I was younger there was a local flop-house where a few of my friends decided to do the fermented raw sugar thing.... things went badly and two are since dead from thier livers disagreeing with their choices, but hey... they were abusing excessively. (I specify excessively, because what some call 'abuse', some of us call 'need', but there is a messy border in between)

 

[Broken Crow]

That's too bad. What you made was just a sugar wash. It won't blind you.

Thank you! I never actually bothered to find out where the methyl comes from in distillation,,, I just know that as an additive for fuel in my mini-bikes 40-plus years ago, it made them run too hot.

 

[Broken Crow]

I don’t want to buy kits I want to learn how to do it properly.

That's why I included the links. If you have a Local HomeBrew Supply store, they'll have or can get what you need, otherwise those 2 sites sell raw ingerdients.

 

[bracconiere]

keep in mind ethanol is the treatment for methanol poisoning.... and althought some is produced during fermentation, as far as i know even MORE with fermented fruit juice then a sugar wash....

 

[OneMoretime1]

Depends on what you're making and what you're going for. Check out the individual threads for beer, wine, mead, cider, distilling. Each brew has it's own well evolved yeast. I'm primarily in the beer camp myself, but the only time I've seen turbo yeast mentioned is by the distillers.
If I came on a bit strong: When I was younger there was a local flop-house where a few of my friends decided to do the fermented raw sugar thing.... things went badly and two are since dead from thier livers disagreeing with their choices, but hey... they were abusing excessively. (I specify excessively, because what some call 'abuse', some of us call 'need', but there is a messy border in between)

Yeah a bit strong but I’m a novice trying to become a guru I’ll take anything to learn more.

 

[bracconiere]

Yeah a bit strong but I’m a novice trying to become a guru I’ll take anything to learn more.

what's your budget? most people drinking sugar washes, like me right now, are usually cheap....but honestly if you just want easy peasy, you can buy Malt sugar, instead of cane sugar? but not as pure....


if you're trying to be cheap then, it's going to take a lot of more effort! E=MC2....

 

[OneMoretime1]

I’m not going for cheap I’m trying to understand what happens when you brew. (sugar water and yeast was the best shot of getting the reaction to happen . Now I understand what’s going on. I can try to make it better.

 

[OneMoretime1]

Or use differs sugars or yeasts to affect taste , Abv

 

[OneMoretime1]

But why is malt sugar better?

 

[bracconiere]

But why is malt sugar better?

well it's like paying someone else to do the mashing for you.....then they condense it down to either a liquid or dry extract, and basically alll you need to do is add the water back, and add yeast to it....


you want to understand the steps, this is the way i brew when i'm not on 'vacation'...

(feel free to dismiss or read the following...it was writen, at an attempt at humorously explaining brewing! )

i sprout 23lbs of barley, to convince it it's going to need to learn how to eat solid food, like a baby learning to eat solid food, starting to teeth...in the case the food is starches in the kernel...

then i gently dry it out, so as to preserve the baby teeth...

then i put it in the oven at ~160-170f...because dry low heat makes a totally different taste then wet heat even at a higher temp...

then comes time for the fun part deculming! (well only if you have a modified dryer other wise look forward to heavy lfiting a bucket back and forth in front of a box fan! that will let the heavier kernels drop, while blowing away the rootlets)

then you have malt, which will need to be crushed, not TOO fine but 'crushed'....

when you have that you heat your, what the pros call 'strike' water to a set range that a calc can guesstimate what it will come down with the temp loss from the malt being added to something in the brewers window....

now alpha amylase is a body builder, punches hard and can break big starches down into smaller ones...and he can go all 10 rounds, sorta...but you still need beta to clean up the bloody starch corpes and butcher them so the yeast can actually eat them....but the butcher ain't as tough as the alpha, can't handle the heat...


once the sugar is at the shop, you need to get rid of the waste so you strain it through something, i personally like my bazooka tube in a cooler...and i need a ball valve on the exit, because the slower i 'sparge' (rinse the grain) i can make more sausage!


then i boil all this liquid with hops, put it in a fermenter/bucket, add yeast...and the goverment now considers it beer!

 

[OneMoretime1]

Love it !

 

[bracconiere]

Love it !

well at least someone does! i'll save the next poster the trouble....If you want something similar but with more words, i've never read it myself but aparently, well i'll bite my tongue and not post a 'robert' palmer song...but there is this...

http://www.howtobrew.com/

(but honestly i don't think it'd be nearly as much fun as HBT, and getting to interact and crack jokes with other people! )

 

[T Murph]

Lol, damn Brac you may have went a little too deep there. But good explanation for experienced brewers. No wait, that's way over the head of the average extract brewer. Hang in there @OneMoretime1 Brac has past the point of no return down the rabbit hole of Alcoholic beverage making. You don't necessarily need to know the science of fermentation to make excellent beers wines etc. However it reads like you're already hooked. With that said, welcome to the madness we call a hobby. There is a ton of good info in this forum. Keep reading and you'll learn everything you need to know to make your favorite beverages. You might want to consider making a Mead to learn more about the process and end up with a delicious honey wine to enjoy.

Cheers

 

[lumpher]

Going blind from alcohol is caused by methanol in the distillation process. The first few percent of the run needs to be poured off. When running a 5 gallon batch, for example, you would pour off the first 4-6 ounces, just as a safety measure, as 2-3 ounces should be enough. Methanol can be detected by it's sharp, bitter smell. The reason it used to be common was the moonshiners didn't pour off the "heads", because volume was money, and they didn't want to waste it (and sometimes just didn't know) that methanol, which evaporates quicker than alcohol, was generated first. "Prison Wine" will not cause blindness, and as was mentioned, is called a Sugar Wash.