no airlock what can i do?

[Golddiggie]

AIR LOCKS A NOT A SIGN OF FERMENTATION!!!......wait what?



use some sanatized foil and you'll be fine man. Cheers and happy brewing

Hoss, we passed that about three hours ago... lol Besides, it wasn't talking about it not moving, just what can be installed in place of a regular airlock...

We've since moved on to making haaaaaaaaard lemonade man... Give it to your SWMBO, get her to knock back a few and then it's your day... :rockin: Unless she can drink sailors under the table that is...

 

[Gordzilla]

man, i think i just took my addiction to a new level first beer, now hard lemonaid and meads and i still wanna make a hard cider in the near future

 

[Gordzilla]

"pot. Bicarb to offset low PH of must"

looking over the receipe im gonna assume the must is like a wort for beer? what is pot. bicarb?


-edit potassium bicarbonate got ya...cannot wait until tomorrow i kinda wish the local grocery store sold yeast cause i would make some tonight

 

[Golddiggie]

What's stopping you?? Other than no empty primaries...

I see brewing beer as the 'gateway drug' of fermenting... Once you get that down, and you start looking at what else you can do, or you hear about what someone else is doing, or just finished, it's all over. You're then going out for more primaries, supplies, ingredients, and fermenting all sorts of things. The only thing keeping a lot of people back, from distilling, is the whole legality of it. Personally, I'd rather just ferment things to get what I can out of them and keep it all on the up and up. NOT worth the pain to go to the other side... Especially since you can get yeast that goes up to 21% ABV... :rockin:

I almost have the formula worked out for Rumbullion... At least, to get to the ABV level I want it to be... :rockin:

 

[Golddiggie]

"pot. Bicarb to offset low PH of must"

looking over the receipe im gonna assume the must is like a wort for beer? what is pot. bicarb?


-edit potassium bicarbonate got ya...cannot wait until tomorrow i kinda wish the local grocery store sold yeast cause i would make some tonight

Damn, was about to post that up... lol.. They have it at the LHBS... The label will tell you how much to use per gallon... Might be called "potassium carbonate (or bicarbonate)" at the LHBS... Ask the person behind the counter, he/she should be able to point you right to it.

Mead and wine is must, beer is wort...

 

[Gordzilla]

already searching craigslists for carboy's in the 3-5gallon range so i can make my hard lemonaids and ciders...do you bottle/prime your lemonaids just like you would a beer with priming sugar?

 

[Golddiggie]

This is my first batch... I figured I'd just prime it like I would a high ABV beer...

Check your local grocery stores to see if they offer water in any carboy like jugs... There's a place up here that does. I plan to get to them soon, as well as look around to find others, and pick up some 4 gallon jugs... Will leave plenty of head space for 3 gallon batches. :rockin:

 

[Gordzilla]

thats brillant get 4gal water jugs with purified water use the water in your batch use the bottle to ferment it

 

[Golddiggie]

Exactly... OR, get two, brew up an all grain batch, save the bottles and put mead, cider, hard lemonade, etc. in them later... Pretty sure they have the same size opening as the Better Bottle carboy's do too. They do have a light tint to them, so you won't be able to tell what the exact color of the fermenting goodness is, but that's usually secondary.

 

[Gordzilla]

how long do you usually allow them to bottle condition, im not into all grain yet but i plan on getting there sooner than later but for now im sticking to whats comfortable

 

[wolverinebrewer]

By the way, this is turning into the unemployment thread.
I too am in the same boat

+1. I trade call options for beer money.

 

[Golddiggie]

I would let it go at least 3 weeks before checking... I bottled a 9.7%ABV barleywine on 2/6 and it was carbonated fairly well on 2/26... Probably be even better by now. I do go on the low end of the scale, so that might not be a good gauge...

I would say prime and bottle when they're at the FG (take readings 4-7 days apart, just to be sure) then prime to the CO2 volume you want, bottle and let sit. I'm probably going to use a few different shape, and size, bottles for mine. From 500ml Grolsch to 750ml Belgian and maybe some smaller bottles with Grolsch caps. I might even use some of the 187ml bottles that accept champagne corks and use the plastic ones (and cages)...

I would just make SURE the bottles can handle the carbonation pressure...

 

[Gordzilla]

more than likely i will just be using 12oz beer bottles for the haaard lemonaid for now, ill get some 750ml bottles eventually when i start making meads. Hopefully the beer bottles will work ok for lemonaids and ciders

 

[Golddiggie]

They should...

My other meads are not going to be carbonated, so I'll have more bottle options there. I'm letting them bulk age so that they have more time to get really good.

With my first, or second, paycheck (which hopefully will happen soon) I plan to get some kegs to put the mead into. That way, it will be easier to transport, and let bulk age for a few more months. I figure if I can let it bulk (or is it batch?) age until September/October then I can bottle it up, and it will be really good. I might need to bottle the 1 gallon batch before then. Still, I'd like to get them to age for at least a few more months (giving them at least 6 months in single batch form).

Thinking that the 12.34% ABV my batch should be will be strong enough for a first batch. I can always make something stronger later... It really depends on how it tastes when it's done fermenting, and what the FG is... I hope it's closer to 1.004 for the FG, so it's a bit more medium than dry, but not sweet... If it finishes there, it will be about/almost 12% ABV...

I'll need to come up with a good name for this batch... Even if I don't put any of the dried cherries in it... "Sooo HAAAD Lemonade"

 

[Gordzilla]

tomorrow is gonna be alot of fun, grocery store trip, job interview, lhbs, and some brewing

 

[Golddiggie]

Nice... I have the in person Friday morning (10am)... They're skipping right over the phone interview. Got the email about the job earlier today, applied online then called the HR person... She got in touch with the hiring manager/director and they want to skip the phone part. I think that's a decent sign. They like that I have my VCP4 cert... Hope to have at least a phone interview tomorrow, or Friday afternoon for another job...

Since my other job just ended a couple of weeks ago, and the unemployment junk is still going through, I really hope to be working again even before I start getting checks.

There's a job in MI that a recruiter contacted me about... I replied to that person, but they haven't replied back... Bastards...

 

[Gordzilla]

I applied for the job im interviewing for monday they called today around 11 wanted to do an interview at noon but its 30min away from home and i was 30min in the wrong direction wearing torn up jeans and a dirty sweatshirt didnt think that was good clothing to be wearing at an interview

 

[Golddiggie]

Yeah, generally not a good idea to interview like that... Unless it's for a construction, or landscaping job...

I'll be wearing my monkey suit for Friday... F'ing ties..

 

[Gordzilla]

yeah, ill be in a suit and tie tomorrow even though ill be over dressed its still fun to dress up once and a while

 

[Golddiggie]

You sir, are one twisted mother F*****...

I wear my suit for job interviews 99.95% of the time.. Otherwise, there better be some TnA coming my way (not talking about the tv network either) before the evening is done, or I'm not putting that thing on... :rockin:

 

[Gordzilla]

The difference between the jobs we are applying for yours is probably a professional job where you need to dress up everyday mine is just for a delivery postition for a local restaraunt supplier...but yes i am one twisted mother f-er

 

[Golddiggie]

True there... Been in the IT field for over 11 years now... Hope the next job I get is with a company that I can stay with for a long haul (again)... But, you never know these days...

 

[Gordzilla]

gonna make a batch of this haaaaard lemonade tonight...how long after you bottle does it usually last? or do you have a problem getting it to last..haha

 

[Golddiggie]

Kind of doubt you'll have an issue getting rid of it fast enough... You might need to stock a few bottles away to try with your next batch, or in a year or three, to see how they age.

Considering how potent mine is going to be, I suspect it will have a shelf life in years. More like mead than beer... BTW, this is my first batch you know... Just looking forward to it, and many more...

How did the interview go?

 

[Lee-Ryan]

Wow. I too am laid off (since Christmas) and I said hmmm what to do with my time...I know! I'll brew beer. Now all this hard lemonade I'm defiantly gonna try that. I've always been curious to a watermelon wine also.

 

[Gordzilla]

first interview was ahhh so so at best...but while i was in the interview my phone rang from another company that wanted an interview so i called them back said i could be there in 45min showed up talked with 2people for 30min and was told to come back tomorrow to talk to the actuall manager of the company for another interview

 

[Golddiggie]

Go for it... If you have a good source for fresh fruit, use it. Figure out how much you want to use, what ABV you want to hit, then add honey (or other sugars) to the must to get to your OG... I would advise having more fruit on hand for post fermentation, for more flavor additions though.

Maybe I'll prime my hard lemonade with another can of concentrate...

Gordzilla: Nice... Good luck landing the job... I have my interview in the morning and have been talking with more recruiters since getting that one lined up... Hopefully both of us will be working before the end of March...

 

[Gordzilla]

i would love to be working by end of next week...i thought you already made this hard lemonaid receipe. I was thinking that the honey is going to dry it out to much. I was thinking maybe cutting the honey down to 1.5# and adding some DME make it kind of a malt beverage like mikes hard lemonade is

 

[Golddiggie]

I wouldn't use DME at all, since then it wouldn't really be hard lemonade... Probably why Mike's product sucks, if they use base malt in it...

Look at it this way, 4# of honey, in a 3 gallon batch, with 6 12oz cans of lemonade concentrate, will get you to about 12% ABV... If you want something with less kick, then lower the honey amount. I wouldn't lower the concentrate amount, since that will reduce the flavor level.

I started my batch last week. It still has a couple of weeks to go before it's done fermenting. I'm not going to taste it until then.

I'm thinking I'll add some of the dried cherries in another week or two. It's lost most of the pink color already. I might rack to a larger carboy and also add another can of pink lemonade concentrate... If I can get the 4 gallon PET bottle by then, I'll just use that.

As for working, even if I get offered the job I'm interviewing tomorrow, I'm probably looking at 2 weeks before I'd be able to start. Just the processes they need to go through before I can start... Pretty normal to have a 1-2 week delay in my field.

 

[Gordzilla]

good point mikes does suck...off to walmart i go to get some lemonade and honey