| 
  • If you are citizen of an European Union member nation, you may not use this service unless you are at least 16 years old.

  • You already know Dokkio is an AI-powered assistant to organize & manage your digital files & messages. Very soon, Dokkio will support Outlook as well as One Drive. Check it out today!

View
 

Makerspace Workshop

Page history last edited by Lynette 9 years, 4 months ago Saved with comment


 

1. Things you'll need to get in advance

Equipment

The Equipment Necessities page lists all the things that are needed to complete every step in the process. However, if you brew in groups, you can share the more specialized equipment like the racking cane and hydrometer. We'll be bringing everything to the Makerspace event.

 

If you're making things at home after the workshop, the particular equipment you'll need for this first stage is:

  • A large pot that contains either 1.5 or more than 5 gallons of water
  • A gallon glass jug or five gallon food-grade bucket, labeled with the date and the name of the beverage you're making
  • An airlock and stopper that fit the jug or bucket
  • Sterilizer (described below)
  • (Optional but recommended:) Thermometer and hydrometer

Sterilization

If you're brewing in a place with easy access to a big sink, you can use 1 Tbsp unscented bleach per gallon of water for sterilization of equipment, but you'll need to be careful to rinse everything well.

 

Because the Makerspace doesn't have a large sink in the common area, we're going to have a bleach bucket and a rinse bucket for use.

 

Yeast

The yeast you select will depend on what you want to brew. Different brews do better with different yeasts. Some of the yeasts available from brew shops in Champaign-Urbana include:

 

Yeast variety
Beer?
Mead?
Cider?
Wine?
Links
(Note: Many of the items linked below are available for less locally)
Lalvin K1V-1116   Yes (to 18% ABV)     (local at Friar Tuck)
Lalvin EC-1118 (used in prep)
  Yes (to 18% ABV)
Yes
Yes - champagne
Midwest Supplies (also local at Friar Tuck, sometimes used to restart stuck fermentation)
Lalvin 71B-1122 (used in prep)
  Yes (to 14% ABV)
 
Yes - reds
Midwest Supplies (also local at Friar Tuck)
Lalvin ICV-D47 (used in prep)
  Yes (12 - 14% ABV)
  Yes - whites
Midwest Supplies (also local at Friar Tuck)
Red Star Cote des Blancs (used in prep)
  Yes (12 - 15% ABV)
Yes
Yes - riesling
Midwest Supplies (also local at Friar Tuck)
LDC 2346 Coopers 15G Ale Yeast Yes - ale Yes     Midwest Supplies (also local at Friar Tuck)
Danstar Nottingham Ale Yeast Yes - ale Yes - 6 wk mead (per Helewyse de Birkestad)
Yes   Danstar (also local at Friar Tuck)
Danstar Munich Beer Yeast Yes - wheat beer       Danstar (also local at Friar Tuck)
Danstar Windsor Ale Yeast Yes - Scottish beer (kit)       Part of the 5 gallon Scottish ale kit from Friar Tuck

Wyeast 4766 Cider

  Yes Yes Yes Wyeast , also available in liquid form for 5 gallon batches from Friar Tuck
Wyeast 4184 Sweet Mead   Yes Yes Yes - fruit wines Wyeast , also available in liquid form for 5 gallon batches from Friar Tuck

 

Sweeteners

Any brewed beverage will need some kind of sweetener for the yeast to ferment into alcohol. Generally speaking, the sweetener in question -- and how thoroughly the sugar is processed into alcohol - is one of the distinguishing factors in the type of beverage you're making.

 

  • Mead: Honey is the primary sweetener for mead.
    Honey and fruit together produce a mead variant called melomel.
    Honey and apple juice produce cyser.
    Honey and crushed grapes produce pyment.
  • Cider: Fruit juice is the primary sweetener for cider.
    Apple juice is the usual juice for "cider", though sometimes people make "peach cider" or "pear cider" (more formally known as perry).
  • Wine: Crushed grapes are the primary sweetener for most varieties of wine. However, some places use other crushed berries to make other varieties of wine such as blackberry or elderberry.
  • Beer and ale: Malted grains are the primary sweetener for beer and ale.
    A malt-sweetened beverage with added fruit is often called lambic.

Other flavorings

Some of the additional flavorings that can be added to any of the above include:

  • Herbs and spices
  • Additional fruits
  • Additional sweeteners
  • Hops (typically in beer or ales)
  • Oak (typically in wines, occasionally in meads)

Choosing between one gallon or five gallons

  • One gallon batches are easier to brew, weigh less to maneuver hot pots and heavy containers, and cost less if you're still experimenting and aren't sure of your recipe yet.
  • Five gallon batches produce larger quantities of the same flavor when you have a variation you particularly like.
  • Many off-the-shelf beer brewing kits are formulated for five gallon containers.
  • Honey is expensive, so single gallons are more economical. (However, buying honey by the gallon at the farmer's market is much more economical than by the pound. One pound of farmer's market honey was $6 in July 2014, but a gallon (11.75 lbs) was $45 rather than $70 at the by-the-pound rate. )
  • One gallon of honey makes three to four gallons of mead depending on your desired sweetness level

 

2. Brewing

Sterilize everything

  • If using bleach, add 1 Tbsp per gallon of water. Get the bleach water all over all the surfaces of everything you'll be using. Then rinse it thoroughly, and set it down on sterilized surfaces. (You can use Clorox wipes for sanitizing nonporous surfaces to set things on.)
  • If using iodophor, you won't need to rinse your sterilized equipment after soaking it in the solution; just empty it out into the sterilization vat and air dry it.

 

The must: Combining sweeteners and flavorings

  • Warm your ingredients together with less water than you need to make your batch, because the yeast starter will add some volume.
  • Boiling your ingredients can sterilize them. However:
  • Don't boil honey; you'll lose volatile aromatics that add flavor.
  • Don't boil fruit; many fruits produce pectin, and pectin is what makes jelly jell.
  • After you've warmed your ingredients together, cool the must to under 100 degrees - swirl the bottle to make sure it's cooled through. (Often the outside of a jug in a vat of cold water will cool significantly more than the inside will; swirling it will blend the hotter and cooler liquid together.)
  • Mead and yeast energizers or nutrients: Ken Schramm, author of The Compleat Meadmaker, says that honey is low in free available nitrogen and recommends using Lalvin's Fermaid K to help mead ferment more quickly without off odors or tastes from stressed yeast. However, other brewers including Roana say that yeast nutrient and energizers aren't important.  Some people have reported success using raisins to boost mead brewing rates, and others have used nutritive yeast (though they report that it can give things a cheesy flavor). Not being fans of cheesy mead, we've tried variations with and without raisins for the workshop. See Makerspace Workshop Prep Day 1: Mead for details of our experiments.
  • Aerating the must: Using a whisk, hand mixer, or air bubbler to aerate the must can help improve fermentation rates, particularly for mead, according to Schramm. 

Proofing the yeast

Proofing the yeast means making sure it's alive and ready to rumble. There are different techniques to use for wet yeast, dry yeast, and smack-pack yeast.

 

Dry yeast:

After your must has been prepared and is cooling down:

  1. Add some mildly warm water (around 80 degrees) to a sterilized and rinsed bowl or jar. If you're making one gallon, one cup is enough; if you're making five gallons, use about half a gallon of water.
  2. If using yeast aids, add some at this point.
  3. Make sure it's bubbling and frothing by the time you're ready to pitch it.

Wet yeast:

Follow the manufacturer's instructions.

Smack-pack yeast:

Follow th e manufacturer's instructions, which are likely to involve hitting the bag firmly and waiting until it inflates.

Pitching the yeast 

  • Make sure the must is under 100 degrees!
  • Add the yeast and its starter to the must in the fermentation vessel.
  • Stir or swirl vigorously to mix the starter through the must.
  • Measure the specific gravity with a hydrometer when the yeast has been pitched.

Attaching the airlock

Airlocks let the gas from the chosen yeast escape without letting other foreign yeast intrude. This helps prevent spoiling.

  • Fill the airlock to the appropriate line with either water or vodka (for additional sterilization power -- but don't use bleach!)
  • If using a three-piece airlock, drop the bubbler inside the airlock, then add the cap.
  • Plug the filled airlock into the rubber cork.
  • Put the cork into the jug or the 5-gallon bucket.

Wait 2 weeks to a month

The first fermentation is the most vigorous. The bubbling should be less vigorous after a month, and there's likely a mat of spent yeast at the bottom of the container. At this point, racking the beverage into a new, clean container without transferring the spent yeast will help the beverage be clearer and likely taste better.

 

3. Rack and Roll

Equipment

For this stage you need:

  • A racking wand
  • Rubber tubing
  • Your existing batch
  • An empty container of the same size as your existing batch (one gallon or five), labeled with the date and the name of the beverage you're making
  • Sterilizing material
  • You can reuse the cork and airlock that you'll pull out of your existing container, after sterilizing them.

Sterilize the new equipment

Don't put sterilization stuff directly into your existing batch! The yeast has more fermenting left to do.

With that said, sterilize everything else, including the racking wand, the inside and outside of the rubber tubing, and your new container. After removing the cork and airlock, resterilize that before reapplying it.

Siphoning

  • A racking wand is the easiest and most sanitary way to get your beverage out of the first container and into the second.
  • Push the wand straight down to the bottom of the first container and keep it very still, so as to not stir up the yeast.
  • Set the second container at a lower level.
  • Pump the racking wand and the beverage should start flowing from the first container to the second.
  • Stop before you get to the point where the yeast is flowing over. 
  • Taste test to see if you like the beverage at this point, or if you want to adjust spices, sweetness, or tartness.
  • Test the specific gravity and note it down. A lower specific gravity is indicative of a higher state of alcohol.

Attach the airlock

Once you've added anything you want to flavor the second fermentation, attach the sterilized airlock to your new container.

Wait a month (at least)

The second fermentation usually takes a month (sometimes longer for mead).

 

How to know it's ready to bottle (and not explode)

You know the beverage is done with the second fermentation and ready to bottle when:

  • (Technical answer:) The hydrometer readings indicate that the beer/mead has reached final gravity. If you use a kit, the kit will likely indicate the target range.
  • (Improvisational answer:) You've left it for three or four weeks and the airlock isn't bubbling anymore
  • (Discussion of the answers:) Check out forums like Homebrewtalk and GotMead for other brewers' experiences.
     

Stopping the fermentation if you like its taste but it's not done yet: Potassium sorbate, heat, or cold

If you like your beverage's balance of sweetness and alcohol, but it's still fermenting, it could be dangerous to bottle. Continued fermentation in the bottle could produce a sparkling beverage -- or it could produce exploding bottles.

 

If you want a sparkling mead, Schramm says the safest option is to stop the fermentation, then restart it with a specific amount of yeast and sugar -- he's got charts and math and things.

The beer kit we're using for the workshop comes with a package of priming sugar that you're meant to measure out either into the vat or into each bottle in order for sparkling to occur.


More in-depth research than this starter article is recommended in order to avoid bottle bombs in your pantry!

 

4. Bottling

Equipment

What you need for this phase is:

  • The beverage's latest container
  • The racking wand
  • Sterilization stuff
  • A large bowl to sterilize caps and/or corks in
  • Pressure-safe bottles - champagne bottles or non-screw-top beer/cider bottles -- cleaned and scrubbed before sterilization
  • Labels to identify which bottles contain which beverage(s) -- masking tape and a marker works fine for a first draft; you can make fancier labels for versions that turn out particularly well

Sterilize everything again

Yep, you know the drill by now.

Good bottles vs bad bottles

Good bottles are built to stand up to some additional pressure that may occur if your yeast isn't entirely done by the time it's bottled. (Yeast can produce pressures that will burst even sturdy bottles, though, so it's good to make sure it's done.)

Look for:

  • Champagne bottles
  • Sparkling cider bottles
  • Beer or cider bottles that don't have screw tops -- most home cappers won't produce a good seal on a screw top bottle

You don't want:

  • Anything with a screw top (beer or wine)
  • Wine bottles that were used for non-sparkling beverages

You can use screw top bottles with their associated tops for containing high-alcohol cordials that won't build up pressure and will keep their contents sterile, but not for brewed beverages.

Capping and corking

You'll need a capping tool to apply caps, and/or a corking tool to insert corks. (Choosing one bottle style or the other is the most economical way to start.)

 

Before you cap or cork your beverage, sterilize your caps and corks. Take them directly out of the sterilization system (with a rinse if needed), and don't touch them to anything but the bottle and the capper/corker.

 

If the bottle started with a cap, put a cap on it. (Trying to cork beer bottles is likely to break them and lose some of your beverage.)

 

If the bottle started with a cork, put a cork back in it.

 

5. Aging

Beer and cider: Don't age it

Generally speaking, beer and cider don't benefit well from aging.

 

Mead: Sometimes like beer, other times like wine - may depend on the yeast

Some meads age well; others don't. The Gotmead.com Forums are full of advice and discussion. (When in doubt, taste test!)

 

6. Bibliography

Medieval brewing resources

Brewers' Guild: This site's collection of information

Renfrow, Cindy. A Sip Through Time. Available from Amazon.com.

Sir Kenelm Digby's mead recipe from Storm the Castle

 

Modern brewing resources

Gotmead.com Forums

Homebrewtalk.com site and forums

Schramm, Ken. The Compleat Meadmaker. Available from Amazon.com.

Gulling, R. and Vargas, P. Cordials from Your Kitchen. Available from Amazon.com.

Comments (0)

You don't have permission to comment on this page.