Home Brewing

[Urist]

erm...

Pure methanol and ethanol generally burn cleanly with a bluish flame color and very limited luminosity.

meth yellow and eth invisible, though what you described is pretty much what it looked like.
Don't worry, diluted it quite a bit with coke and still feel ok. This being mainly a sugar wash I think it should be mainly ethanol and no worse than your run of the mill mampoer. In fact i think it's probably better than drinking whatever was breeding and alive in the old brew.

 

[[)roi(]]

Thanks again looking into all of this detail now, think I might have a problem the biggest pot I have is 6.5l >_< what is the biggest batch I can safely do or aim for? Ill look at equipment later but want to try this first.

Think I can aim for 5l? I know its a lot of work for 5l but dont have much choice

Sure re 5l -- just adjust the recipe, the water calculations and the yeast.

 

[[)roi(]]

So I didn't follow droid's advice to throw out my brew.
Distilled it into some sort of witblits honey mampoer grog.
Lit a spoon full of it on fire and checked the flame... burning blue it's probably OK to drink I reckoned.
Mixed it with coke and i`m drunk now... i`ll rate the babbelas tomorrow if I still have my eyesight.

I'm probably just more chicken shit, and/or less hillbilly than you.
This area of booze is out of my depth; hope the babbelas is the last of the concerns.

More science-y way to test.
To test for the presence of methanol, you can apply sodium dichromate to a sample of the solution. To do so, mix 8 mL of a sodium dichromate solution with 4 mL of sulfuric acid. Swirl gently to mix, then add 10 drops of the mixed solution to a test tube or other small container containing the alcohol. Swirl this container gently a few times, then waft the air from the mouth of the container towards your nose by fanning the air toward you with a hand, with the container placed roughly 8-12 inches from your face. Take note of the scent: If it is pungent and irritating, methanol is present in the alcohol. If the scent is dominating and fruity, only ethanol is present.

 

[Snyper564]

Sure re 5l -- just adjust the recipe, the water calculations and the yeast.

Thanks will try that

 

[satanboy]

SO likes my pineapple and ginger beer(s) so much, she wants me to make them even after lock-down ends.

 

[biometrics]

Called Beerguevara about not selecting courier option. Manager didn’t sound too pleased and said he gets hundreds of orders a day but that I must email him and be patient. Sounds a bit stressed.

 

[biometrics]

SO likes my pineapple and ginger beer(s) so much, she wants me to make them even after lock-down ends.

Same here, loves the ginger beer.

 

[Urist]

I'm probably just more chicken shit, and/or less hillbilly than you.
This area of booze is out of my depth; hope the babbelas is the last of the concerns.

I`m alive with no babbelas and still have my eyesight , done with making booze though, that stuff tasted awful.
found a bootlegger.

 

[[)roi(]]

Update on ciders
The ciders are fermenting at a good pace; the room that I have the fermenters in is keeping a day time temperature of ~22°C, whilst at night the temperature dips to no lower than ~18°C. i.e. close to the optimal temperature without any artificial heat / cooling.

• The 60l of Bitter Orange (primary juice), Tangerine, Cranberry, Apple & Grape
  • Started with a gravity of 1.055 and has a current gravity of 1.030 i.e. a daily gravity change of 0.005
  • The current ABV is 3.3%
  • Likely to bottle this on Tuesday, next week, with a gravity of 1.010 and an ABV of 5.9%
  • The cost of this is roughly R8 per quart; estimated 76 quarts
• The 20l of Liquifruit clear apple cider
  • Started with a gravity of 1.080 and has a current gravity of 1.040 i.e. a daily gravity change of 0.008
  • The current ABV is 5.25%
  • Likely to bottle this on Thursday, next week, with a gravity of 1.010 and an ABV of 9.2%
  • The cost of this is roughly R15 per quart; estimated 24 quarts.

Update on Hefeweizen:

• The 40l of Hefeweizen (wheat malt, pilsner malt, SAB hops and WB-06 yeast)
  • Started with a gravity of 1.050 and has a current gravity of 1.035 i.e. a daily gravity change of 0.003
  • The current ABV is 2%
  • Likely to bottle this on Tuesday or Wednesday, next week, with a gravity of 1.010 and an ABV of 5.25%
  • The cost of this is roughly R8 per quart; estimated 50 quarts.

The Kvass I'll only measure tomorrow; I typically only start measuring gravity changes from day 2 onwards. Target ABV for Kvass is 5.25%

Next weekend will hopefully be a taster of some of this + probably some pasteurisation if the carbonation is ok.

 

[biometrics]

Holy fuck. Not boiling apples again. Other than the solid bits it ends up with puree in the liquid. Couldn't use the new filter or syphon as it clogs immediately. So had to use a jug and a dish cloth. Over 20L had to rinse it out like 20 times. Needless to say it took hours. So looking forward to getting the campden tablets so there is no need to do that. But did end up with 18L which tastes pretty good.

Oh and my Star San has shipped. First it goes to NY before coming to SA. But that was pretty quick considering.

 

[Tribs]

Tasted mine today. Mmmm not 100% sure I did the right thing. It is sweet and doesn't taste like alcohol (but then drink vodka neat). But it tastes good. Waiting to see if it kills me. Have not stopped the fermentation process. It is still creating bubbles

 

[biometrics]

Tasted mine today. Mmmm not 100% sure I did the right thing. It is sweet and doesn't taste like alcohol (but then drink vodka neat). But it tastes good. Waiting to see if it kills me. Have not stopped the fermentation process. It is still creating bubbles

If it's sweet and still bubbling then it's still converting sugar.

 

[Tribs]

If it's sweet and still bubbling then it's still converting sugar.

So I decided to let it do its thing.

 

[biometrics]

So I decided to let it do its thing.

You can always scoop out a glass in the mean time.

 

[Tribs]

You can always scoop out a glass in the mean time.

Oh we are. My son says it is rather yummy. I taste the fermenting going on - but still able to drink it lol
Not like we have a choice

 

[satanboy]

 

[Papa Smurf]

nice
but where do you get yeast nutrient, pectolase and bentonite from?

 

[biometrics]

nice
but where do you get yeast nutrient, pectolase and bentonite from?

Fresh lemon juice, boiled tea, raisins, brown bread slices, heated dead yeast.

Or buy from a beer shop.

 

[Tribs]

This is 5ltrs. You can clearly see the bubbles. When do I take the fruit out ? Won't it go rotten ?

 

[satanboy]

Started an Apple beer/cider.
1.5l Pure Apple Juice (no preservatives
Cup Sugar
Teaspoon yeast

Tasted....Success!

started 2 May