I brew FOAM!

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From Brewing

Blood Plum Wine Experiment

I decided awhile ago to try another fruit wine after the Cheery and Lychee wine. I tried a very small portion of fruit to see just what kind of goodness I was dealing with.

This wine, Blood Plum, looked very red and very blood like when this whole thing started. Over time the blood plum (with honey) took on a new color and character.
After a few weeks I ended up with this. A pink colored liquid and a lot of crap on the bottom the demijohn which I am guess contains yeast cells, sediment, and dead yeast cells.YUM! :D

From here I siphoned off a bottle of wine which is currently in the refrigerator you see in the background. I did the same thing with the cheery and lychee wine when I thought it a complete failure only to try it weeks later and see it turned out not half bad!

So this photo here is the 2nd rack off which in the first I tried my damnedest to kill off all the yeast cells and let it settle for another week and half.

So while YES I should be racking off this wine to age properly over a few months, I don't feel this was the best size to test on. The surface area to liquid ratio is huge - so my area for failure is large. Might as well just drink the damn stuff :)
So I got a bottle. Yes that is where my story was going, and I dubiously pored out a glass of the stuff towards the bottom.
 I also had a small bit saved from the first racking off.

So to recap my thrilling tale. I now have 1 glass of wine from the end of the fermentation and before the racking off (transferring to another vessel and leaving behind sediment and yeast)  I also had 1 glass of newly aquired wine and 1 bottle of the stuff I put in the fridge.

The tasting beings!

Wow - Even though it is not clear and its a bit thick its nice! It smells good and tastes like a wine but with a nice sourness and plummy flavor at the end! HUZZUH!

But how did it compare to the glass I saved before the racking off? The wine before the racking off was very bitter and harsh. It had about the same constancy but it was words apart!

Stay tuned for the tasting of the plum wine from the bottle in a few weeks time

First mead wine

Well I thought since I am sharing everything else I will put the recipe I used for my two first explorations into Mead.

Please keep in mind that this is my FIRST attempt, these recipes might make floor polish! Only time, temperature and fermentation will tell.

Basic Mead - 5 Liter demijohn

•  1.75 kg of Honey (Yellow Box)
• 1/2 Lime Juice
  
• 1/2 Lemon Juice
• 1/2 teaspoon Wine Yeast
• 1/2 teaspoon Yeast nutrient
• 1 Jar enough to fill about 1-2 cups of water
• Thermostat
  

I do mine a bit backwards to most recipes. We will see the results in a few weeks when I do the first rack off (rack off is to transfer the mead from the top which should have less yeast and sediment to another demijohn).

SO first things first! Filter water enough to fill the demijohn (How-To) that will take about 8-10 hours. In the mean time, get the yeast dancing and reproducing! I use an old salsa jar since these are historically the meeting ground for young yeasts, fill it with filtered water which allows the yeasts to find each other attractive, add the yeast nutrient, a classic yeast aphrodisiac,  and the yeast to the party jar, give it a stir and pop the top on. Leave it somewhere warm for the 8-10 hours, they like it hot baby!, and come back now and then to open the jar, give it a shake - being in a salsa jar they like a bit of the shake. This will get your yeast invigorated and growing!

8-10 hours have passed, your TOTALLY PSYCHED DOOD, what next? Well I took a pot added some of the filtered water from the demijohn and added the 1.75kg of honey. I bought the whole sticky mess to 60C (62C in the picture, close enough :P ) and kept it there for 22 minutes (See this web site for good information, do not boil, you will loose a lot of what the Honey can bring - Mead made complicated)

While I waited for the 22 minutes I added the citrus which made all the white gunk on the top of the honey/water collect. Very convenient for me since I need to remove this white stuff.

After it has set at 60C for 22minutes I careful transferred the whole sweet mess into the demijohn. Oddly enough the pot wasn't very sticky at all to clean up.

From there the demijohn went into the sink with water and a few ice packs to bring the temperature to blood temperature. Once we were there its time for the business end of things. Pour the yeast into the demijohn and fit a rubber top and airlock. I set it on the counter for a hour or two and watched the little air bubble in the airlock which is a sure sign we have action... I waited... and waited... and waited.. THEN a single bubble! Not quite the action I was expecting.... So I lodged it away for the night in the brew fridge and checked it next day where I was surprised to see signs of VIGOROUS  fermentation! Bubbles aplenty :D

Stay tuned for the results.....

Blood Plum Wine is about to be finished off. Excitement is in the air.

More water filtering

Well today I had a need to filter water directly into a vessel. So I pitched the ladder and setup a bit of tubing down.

It is now filtering water nicely into the jug below. :D

To make this bucket filter see this post

Water Filtering in bulk

Right, so everyone knows that tap city water is shit. It comes packed with all kinds of nasties and most harmful to brewing is chlorine. We own a water purifier for drinking water but they are expensive to buy and they take a long time to filter water because they are gravity driven.

A typical brew of beer takes 23 liters of water and my personal water purifier in the kitchen can do 1 liter an hour and store 6 liters total. This means I am filling the damn thing up over and over and waiting ages for the filtration to occur.

Armed with only the desire to be lazy and an extra brewing vessel compliments of the father-in-law I had another brain wave. Off to the hardware store!!

1. 10 Liter Bucket 1$
2. Carbon Water Filter 20$
 3. Existing brewing vessel that can hold 23 liters of water FREE

Now what? Well its quite simple actually. Make a hole in the bucket with a screw driver, put the filter in with the supplied rubber seals just like on my kitchen vessel, put the bucket on top of the brewing vessel. BAM!

Since this bad boy bucket holds 10L the force on the filter is higher (due to the weight of the water) and the filtration happens much quicker even if it less effective - I am okay with this. I purchased a 2nd bucket for filling the first easily (Again lazy coming through).

Cracking that first batch

Well the beer has been aged and is ready for consumption!

And here is the opening of one of the first batch

From Brewing

TASTY!

First Beer and Wine Brews

Greetings all,

Well I have decided to share my experiences with brewing with you the eager audience of internet trolls, family and friends.

First on the list is my first brew. This was a dive off the deep end like many new adventures are. I went down and purchased a wheat ale beer kit (which contains the pre-made "beer flavor") and the yeast, I also got a bag of dextrose which is a kind of sugar. I also picked up a brewing vessel which is a 24L do-dad and some other misc items. I was so excited I got strait into it! And man was it a mess :D

The yeast in the kit said 28C to 22C which I thought was crazy because everything I had read said 18C was the bomb. Well... I followed instructions, I kept it inside on the floor and kept it around 24-26C for a few days.

Later after badgering my local brew shop who was more then happy to give hints said the yeast in the bear kits is shit and I should be striving for those lower temperatures (18C).

Well dammit. I wasn't going to let a little thing like this get in my way! I am a SCIENTIST (Right ken? :P ) So I broke into the old fridge in the garage and stripped it bare, but now the problem... Even at the hottest temperature in the frdige I could only get it to 5C. I needed another 13C to hit my goal!! So while the beer sat on the floor at an unacceptable 24C I started work on the fridge and decided to brew a wine as well. I mean why not right? :)

so I went back to the brew shop and picked up a nice glass bottle, we went to the markets and bought a bunch of cherries since they are in season and lychee. Slapped them into the blender and off we went.

Since of course I pulled the pits out, don't be so lazy!

So I got a nice mess poured it all in and added the wine yeast.

As you can see looks good eh?








And then I had a break through, a revelation with the fridge. I could buy an expensive thermostat or I could lie to the thermostat... I could trick it. Tell it lies. Mahahah. But how?

Insulate the little bastard! I found that if I added foam, in this case from boxes that had PC parts inside, around the thermostat area it would keep the cold air colder then what was on the other side of the insulation because that area is so much larger :) If you want a more detailed explanation come round we'll have a few beers and I'll confuse you more.

So I insulated it and BLAM! I had my gift.