Homebrewing - Beer, Mead, Wine, Cider

Last fermenter is about to be empty. This one is my blue razz jolly rancher. Smells amazing. Tastes terrible (without back sweetening) Came out at 11.8% abv. Back sweetening with simple syrup down to 8.5% seems to be the winning combo, if I were drinking it as a wine: smells much stronger than it tastes of the delicious artificial blue razz flavor. Over all a fun YOLO project. Guess we’ll see how it tastes as a spirit in the next few hours + 24 hours for the angels to have their share. Now to determine what to make next… I’m thinking of trying pressure fermenting in the keg for my beer, a wine for my girlfriend, and the third fermenter for whatever meme spirit I feel like whipping up next, which I haven’t the slightest clue of what I’m in the mood for yet.

This sucks! :D

Came out like a slightly savory barely fruity pickled cucumber or olive like flavor. It's only useful for sauce complexity. It has a sustained savory aspect to the aftertaste that is more positive than the initial slightly vinegar like bite.

...but maybe round two will be better.

A plum is in the tiny jar.

Hi, made this Marzen beer to throw an October party inspired by Oktoberfest. It's a pseudomerzen, since I'm using lutra kveik for speed and less fuss. It's almost done fermenting in less than a week.

This one is going to be ACTIVE. Hope I can keep up.

I have definitely been posting in this community a lot over the last few weeks/days so apologies if it’s a bit much lol, things should slow down since I’m running out of jars and fermenters though. But here’s my fermenter with plenty of sugar, blue razz jolly ranchers, and lots of nutrient. Along side my meme I’m going to turn into moonshine I’ve also got a fall beer my girlfriend requested. I’ve made the pumpkin ale loads of times but this is the first time I’m doing it without pumpkin (the one I bought was rotting when I cut into it and I didn’t feel like going back out and buying another)

I don’t quite know why I didn’t realize I’d have to individually unwrap these and it’d be a pain in the ass, but there’s no going back now. Blue razz jolly rancher distillate soon. I’ve also got my sweet potato beer fermenting (it’s supposed to be pumpkin and sweet potato but the pumpkin I bought was rotting on the inside, so I just rolled with what I have). I also ended up making 80 dog treats from some of the spent grains from the beer, if pupper is happy I’m happy. Over all I think I’m coming back from my one year brewing break with a vengeance.

@homebrewing Displacing disinfectant with CO2 from fermentation

Hey, I’m trying to do what the folks here did: https://brulosophy.com/diy-projects/using-co2-from-fermentation-to-purge-serving-kegs-do-it-yourself/ (with the additional mini keg as an overflow vessel)
My yeast has already chewed through a third of the available sugar and I see no movement of the liquid. Do I have to be concerned?

From left to right. Blueberry brandy with home made blueberry syrup for color and flavor, 48% ABV. Blueberry brandy, no additives, 54% abv. Flamin hot Cheeto liquor with 15 dehydrated Carolina reapers added to it for a few hours (it’s so spicy it makes my stomach hurt) 48% abv. Cheeto liquor 48% abv. All my fermenters are empty now. Let’s see what else we can do. Think I’m gonna do a beer and another meme spirit, but sadly I can’t find bulk sour warheads in a single flavor online so I’ve gotta spin my wheel of random shit to brew

This was by far the weirdest distillation I’ve done from a process perspective. I’m a fairly green distiller but usually I can tell when something is hearts or heads or tails but this? Strong Cheeto flavor the whole way through. I’ve never seen color come off a still but it came out with a yellow tint the entire time. Split it into two batches, one just straight on its own and one sitting on a handful of dehydrated Carolina reaper peppers and some other hot peppers. Clocking in at 48% abv. What’s it taste like you might wonder? Wash all the powder off of a Cheeto and suck on it for 5 minutes. After that take a shot of vodka. I think the flavor will be almost dead on to what this tastes like. Admittedly, I poured 750 mL down the drain, I can’t justify using another jar to store a meme. Over all, 10/10 would science again.

Shoutout to poleslav for telling me to ignore the thermometer and giving general encouragement. My distillation efficiency was absolutely terrible and I got the balance of juniper and hibiscus way off, so it's sweeter than I intended, but it's definitely pleasantly drinkable.

For those that can't read my handwriting, it was a super basic barley mash to make the base alcohol, then juniper, hibiscus, rose, and elderflower as botanicals.

cross-posted from: https://sopuli.xyz/post/17858876

I found both dark and light rye bread at the store but it was the factory-made kind. I definitely made mistakes with both batches including adding way too much bread to the light kvass.the bottles need a day to carbonate then we shall see how well they turned out. Not that I have any reference for the flavor.

Some old stale vegan oatmeal raisin cookies for brew.

There was a video posted on this community from the brushow on YouTube, and while most of the things were cool, I found this to be brilliant. Seeing as one of my other hobbies includes 3d printing, I decided to give it a go. Not sure if it’s entirely homebrewing related but, once I get the single screw to mount it to my tap, I feel this will be an awesome addition whenever I stop making horrid creations and go back to doing beer

Making some apple soda with store bought juice and a ginger bug. Previous juices have needed 2 days to carb and that was supposed to be today. Yesterday, one self vented, so I burped all 3. Today, one exploded. Never expected it.

Is store bought apple juice different than other store bought juices? Is my ginger bug different than last time? Idk.

Well, can’t call it anything besides sparkling beverage since it wasn’t produced in the Cheataeu region of France but… it’s done fermenting. Came in at a whopping 12% ABV. For something that fermented completely dry it’s got an unbelievably sweet flavor to it. It has the tiniest hint of the hot Cheeto flavor without any of the spice. Maybe like if you licked your fingers 10 minutes after washing your hands post Cheeto binge. I’m assuming there’s some sort of artificial sweetener in the Cheetos that the yeast couldn’t quite chew up, it smells similar to the corn ale I made but taste wise is much different. Next step is to let the liquor fairies have their way with this the next moment they have some free time.

I've been brewing mostly ciders and cysers with 10 packets of cote de blanc I bought last year with wonderful results (in my opinion). I just used the last one on an apple-honey-habenero concoction. Anyone have a good recommendation for yeasts that bring out fruity flavors?

Peach wine. 5 lbs of peaches made about half a gallon. Tons of sediment. Lessons learned - doesn't need extra acid. Could use some more tannin and some back sweetening.

Does anyone here mess around with using exclusively wild yeast to ferment?

Specifically I ask because I've got some tepache that is almost assuredly alcoholic at this point, and was wondering if it's OK to drink.

Generally though I also like the idea of using wild yeast for fermentation.

Monthly discussion thread about brewing.

Share whatever - success brews, failures, questions...

Fruit season is in full swing, so give the people who don't know what to do with too much fruits some ideas ;-)

From the picture, this tops my list, flaming hot Cheetos… after mentioning it yesterday, my enzyme came in later than expected but I decided to send it anyways. It’s so greasy it’s probably turned me off Cheetos forever. However, science must ensue. Here we have 15 pounds of flamin hot Cheetos mashed with enzymes for an hour and 8 pounds of sugar. Honestly, after tasting the mash, the heat doesn’t come through, and frankly it mainly tastes/smells like a corn mash. Personally I’ll be surprised if I can tell the difference between this and a white whiskey made from straight corn. So, what’s the dumbest thing you’ve done?

Decided to start a blueberry “wine” today. I only have wine in quotes as it’ll only go for a week or until it’s fully fermented before the liquor fairies have their way with it. About a year ago I made a comment here that I like doing and trying wild things. Well, prepare for an affront to whatever diety you may or may not believe in. Assuming my enzymes come in at a reasonable time, tomorrow’s post may very well be a flamin hot Cheeto fermentation. I apologize in advance to everyone here, and no, I don’t know what’s wrong with me but it sounds hilarious so I’m gonna send it.