Erisian Brewer's Cadre. Or: How I saw the Goddess in the first place

[Suu]

Am I crazy for not wanting carbonated beer?

[Richter]

My cider will have been going for about a week this Wednesday, and a LOAD of crap from the original juice has settled out.  I'm about to decant / rack it to get the garbage out of the bottom of the carboi.  I should give the cyser the same treatment.

Since I lent out my other carboi, I'm just going to do this into cleaned, sterilized plastic jugs.  Not IDEAL, but I don't see why a temporary decant would fuck things up, as long as it's quick and everything stays covered.  Can anyone clue me in if this may be atrociously bad?

[Whatever]

This entire thread is fascinating.  Only alcohol I've ever made is wine and while it turned out drinkable it sure wasn't up for any kind of competition.  Which recipe of these would you suggest would be the best one for page one "Alcohol Brewing for Dummies"?  You all have me intrigued and I want to make some now!

[Jasper]

Am I crazy for not wanting carbonated beer?

No. 

I have to be in the right mood for highly carbonated beers.  Usually I prefer it to be milder.

[Richter]

This entire thread is fascinating.  Only alcohol I've ever made is wine and while it turned out drinkable it sure wasn't up for any kind of competition.  Which recipe of these would you suggest would be the best one for page one "Alcohol Brewing for Dummies"?  You all have me intrigued and I want to make some now!

MY first couple batches were just apple juice concentrate, sugar and water, boiled and set in a jar with some plastic tube for an airlock.  I abhor compelxity, and love things I can brew, pour into a jug, and forget about aside from drinking it. Simple, little set-up $$, and you don't get bogged down trying to make uber-brew your first time out.  No frustration when the product tastes like shit either.  That's how I got started, and everything since has been adding on, scrounging, and learning where I see a need to.  Enthusiastic friends help a LOT.  No pressure, just what seems fun.

Easiest thing to do is search around online.  I think I found the first few recipies under "prison wine". 
Then I drank a gallon jug of cheap burgundy to get a large glass vessel for the brew, and went form there.

[Whatever]

This entire thread is fascinating.  Only alcohol I've ever made is wine and while it turned out drinkable it sure wasn't up for any kind of competition.  Which recipe of these would you suggest would be the best one for page one "Alcohol Brewing for Dummies"?  You all have me intrigued and I want to make some now!

MY first couple batches were just apple juice concentrate, sugar and water, boiled and set in a jar with some plastic tube for an airlock.  I abhor compelxity, and love things I can brew, pour into a jug, and forget about aside from drinking it. Simple, little set-up $$, and you don't get bogged down trying to make uber-brew your first time out.  No frustration when the product tastes like shit either.  That's how I got started, and everything since has been adding on, scrounging, and learning where I see a need to.  Enthusiastic friends help a LOT.  No pressure, just what seems fun.

Easiest thing to do is search around online.  I think I found the first few recipies under "prison wine". 
Then I drank a gallon jug of cheap burgundy to get a large glass vessel for the brew, and went form there.

Cool beans thank you. I'm going to try something this weekend. I need to hit the farm for good apple juice.  I see where it's said not to use the cloudy kind but I have to ask if the store stuff isn't "too processsed" to work as well? Any suggested brands of juice?

[Precious Moments Zalgo]

damn metrics! all makin sense and shit!

so a cup is about 100 grams if google is correct, which means we should have slightly less... but then you also.. did.. with..

oh my.


head explode.

It should work.

Hmm... Google tells me that 3/4 cup is 142 grams.  I don't know -- I always weigh my corn sugar.  Either way, it's less than I used, but you should be fine.  A RIS doesn't need much carbonation.

[Richter]

Niamh:

Check labels.  If you can, get unpasteurized cider from a farm or orchard.  It's not available everywhere, due to food laws, but it's the easiest.  No brands, jsut what the farm stands have.

Unpasteurized is biological russian roulette.  You don't need to buy yeast, you just leave it at room temp and it will start to ferment as the naturally present yeasts take off.  (Warning:  the natural yeast can be good, and make alcohol.  Or not, and make shit. See easlier pages of the thread.)  Oh yeah, cloudy is OK too.  It will settle out with time anyways.  

Pasteuized stuff will also work, but you'll have to find a local homebrew store for a yeast.  Some sell yeasts jsut for ciders, but any ale / champagne / mead yeast should work out.  Ask the folks there what they'd recomend!  the kind of yeast will affect the finished flavor.  You can also use bread yeast.  It WILL leave an aftertaste.  With experimentation, you can minimize this (and get something suspiciously like Strongbow.), but it's really not designed for the purpose.

Grocery store juice, you get preservatives most of the time.  Still, this may NOT be enough to stop the efficient infectious terror of the yeast!  It will slow it down, and you won't see it bubbling out co2 as fast as an un - preservatived local organic-y juice.  Once in awhile, I've had preservative laden juice kill off a yeast.  Easy fix:  add more.  Your organic terror cannot be stopped by the man's chemical oppression!  

[Whatever]

Niamh:

Check labels.  If you can, get unpasteurized cider from a farm or orchard.  It's not available everywhere, due to food laws, but it's the easiest.  No brands, jsut what the farm stands have.

Unpasteurized is biological russian roulette.  You don't need to buy yeast, you just leave it at room temp and it will start to ferment as the naturally present yeasts take off.  (Warning:  the natural yeast can be good, and make alcohol.  Or not, and make shit. See easlier pages of the thread.)  Oh yeah, cloudy is OK too.  It will settle out with time anyways.  

Pasteuized stuff will also work, but you'll have to find a local homebrew store for a yeast.  Some sell yeasts jsut for ciders, but any ale / champagne / mead yeast should work out.  Ask the folks there what they'd recomend!  the kind of yeast will affect the finished flavor.  You can also use bread yeast.  It WILL leave an aftertaste.  With experimentation, you can minimize this (and get something suspiciously like Strongbow.), but it's really not designed for the purpose.

Grocery store juice, you get preservatives most of the time.  Still, this may NOT be enough to stop the efficient infectious terror of the yeast!  It will slow it down, and you won't see it bubbling out co2 as fast as an un - preservatived local organic-y juice.  Once in awhile, I've had preservative laden juice kill off a yeast.  Easy fix:  add more.  Your organic terror cannot be stopped by the man's chemical oppression!  

I can get unpasteurized juice. Or I can use my juicer too!  I have champagne yeast as I was going to try to make wine with it. couldn't find the brewers the recipe called for. This is so cool. Thanks!

[Sir Squid Diddimus]

Am I crazy for not wanting carbonated beer?

You usually drink it flat??

My cider will have been going for about a week this Wednesday, and a LOAD of crap from the original juice has settled out.  I'm about to decant / rack it to get the garbage out of the bottom of the carboi.  I should give the cyser the same treatment.

Since I lent out my other carboi, I'm just going to do this into cleaned, sterilized plastic jugs.  Not IDEAL, but I don't see why a temporary decant would fuck things up, as long as it's quick and everything stays covered.  Can anyone clue me in if this may be atrociously bad?

As long as it's a food grade plastic it should be ok. The only real argument I've seen is from chemical or color dye leeching into the brew.

[Jenne]

Thanks for all the answers, Everyone.  I'll be trying my  hand at this soon.  Just gotta gather all the supplies.  What sucks is that I had a whole gallon of the unpasteurized cider stuff not that long ago, but we drank it.  Because I really like it.    But I can get more! 

[Choptop]

Thought I'd tip my hat in this thread.  I'm new here, and was taken aback to see a thread full of fellow brewers.  

I'm picking up the goods to make either an American IPA or a Black IPA this weekend.  Haven't put the carboy to use in a few months, so it should be interesting.  Just started extract brewing this year, and thus far I've produced 2 typical Irish stouts and a nut brown ale, to varying levels of success.

If you're ever looking for a good place to find beer/wine/mead brewing help/advice/recipes, I highly recommend homebrewtalk.com

[Sir Squid Diddimus]

We're gonna start straying away from the extracts and start doing all grain.
There's a clone for Bell's two hearted we wanna do and also a black rye IPA. we'll see what happens.

[Choptop]

Very cool.  I live in a 3rd floor apartment, so I don't have a good environment to go AG yet.  I'm planning a move to the west coast (probably Portland) next year, so hopefully my new place will provide a better setup.

[Richter]

Am I crazy for not wanting carbonated beer?

You usually drink it flat??

My cider will have been going for about a week this Wednesday, and a LOAD of crap from the original juice has settled out.  I'm about to decant / rack it to get the garbage out of the bottom of the carboi.  I should give the cyser the same treatment.

Since I lent out my other carboi, I'm just going to do this into cleaned, sterilized plastic jugs.  Not IDEAL, but I don't see why a temporary decant would fuck things up, as long as it's quick and everything stays covered.  Can anyone clue me in if this may be atrociously bad?

As long as it's a food grade plastic it should be ok. The only real argument I've seen is from chemical or color dye leeching into the brew.

Cool.  It would only be a temporary swap-out while I rinse the sediment out of the carboy.  If it does anything horrible, I will tell you all.

Choptop reminded me, I'm hankering to try a simple beer after this round.  Fermenting in a secondary once I get my extra carboy back won't be an issue.  I'm usually put off by the need to bottle it, since this requires the storage space for extra bottles.