Ask a Pro Brewer anything

I have like 3 hours with nothing to do right now, figured if there were any home brewers out there that wanted some advice I could help. Ask away, I am currently drinking a Bells Two Hearted..I don't work for Bells.

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whats the best way to brew some ice tea

Not sun tea, bacteria laden disaster waiting to happen! I don't drink much iced tea to be honest.

What motivated you to start brewing? What sites/forums do you recommend for beginners?

How big of an adjustment is it going from homebrewing to commercial brewing?

Have you ever tried to brew using weed?

Same way you brew any tea:
1. Start with hot water
2. Add your choice of tea flavoring (in this case, ice cubes)
3. Steep until room temperature
4. Remove any residual ice
5. Add some sugar/honey and lemon juice to taste
6. Serve.

I was motivated because my older brother was into it. He started brewing and I just found it so interesting, the entire fermentation aspect...seeing the carboys sitting around bubbling away. It all seemed like the coolest science experiment. As far as websites for beginners..I would say Homebrewtalk has a lot of good info. If you are a beginner who knows what you like as far as styles, start with proven extract recipies and tweak them. Really work out your OG and FG, trying to get as much efficiency out of your setup as you can.and try to nail one style. I always suggest a Pale Ale,..for Americans.

Bumping for visibility to the alcoholics.

Yes. A long time ago, and you have to be careful. As you know hops and weed are in the same family, and when you infuse marijuana in a boil (while not killing the cannabanoids) it can make for some potent stuff. Just not my thing really but, it can be done.

It is a massive adjustment. Especially if you are brewing somewhere with conservation in mind..water, refuse or otherwise.Cleaning and sterilization goes up 10x. Especially if you are dealing with wild yeasts like brett. I personally love sour, funky beers but my ultimate goal is to be as far away from barrels and brett/brux as I can ever be.

Thanks for the response. I am into making bread as you're into making alcoholic beverages, plus we both rely and care for the right bacteria. It just seems that brewing is somewhat more complicated and from what little I've read, there's considerably less room for error. I'll check out that site.

Is making wine a lot more different from making beer? Would making wine be easier than beer?

Wine is more relied on the terroir, the earth of the grape and the fruit itself. It's not everything...but for the greatest winemakers it is. I know a few really good vitners and I would never do their job. With beer, it's pretty much the same malts and hops. Yeast is the expression. With wine..it goes on and on, and then you have to hope the customer stores the bottle correctly.

I make bread too. If you are into making bread and can care for a good starter, you will probably be a good brewer.

does oxygen fuck up the flavor of a batch if left in primary too long?
will light and temperature fuck up the flavor of a batch in secondary?
Am I better off using corn sugar for carbonation or forced co2?

What's a conservative initial investment for someone who wants to brew enough beer to maintain a daily habit of drinking two or three 6%ABV regular bottles?

My recipie
>5 gal water
>5 things of concentrated grape juice 100% juice
>1/4th tea spoon of nitrates
>10 cups/ or a pound of sugar
>1-3 packages of red wine yeast
>let sit 1 month
>siphon
>let sit for 3 weeks
>bottle

This was when i first started im well aware there are other things i can do better. I want to get back into it. whats your suggestions?

If your airlock is good, oxygen should not be an issue. Light and temp will for sure fuck up a batch in secondary fermentation. Back in my shithead days I skunked out a few beers by being a dummy and letting them get too much light. For your third question...it's all about what you want to invest in it. If you want to do bottles, a little sugar and champagne yeast in a bottle can really help some styles that are better off carbed that way or ones that you want to age. I can force carb a keg of IPA if I get it down to temp in 2 days and have a pretty good mouthfeel. Working in a brewery I am kegging but there is just something about a well bottle conditioned beer that I will always have a fondness for.

If you are brewing extract, $150. If you want to go all grain, $400.

I would say that is hooch, homie. That would probably end up being about 15 abv and get you fucked up. Do you want to make wine, or beer, or cider? Good lord man just buy some shitty wine and mix it with whatever.

I'm not OP, but I am a Southernfag from NC. By "ice tea" I assume you don't mean sweet tea, but I can provide directions for both. Regardless, you start with some black tea. I like to use Luzianne's ice tea bags, which are decently smooth and tastes best iced.

Bring 4 cups of water to a boil in a medium-sized pot, then put 3 tea bags and a tiny pinch of baking soda in it. If you want to make Southern style sweet tea, mix in a cup of white sugar at this stage too. Reduce heat to low and cover the pot, leaving the strings of the tea bags hanging out. Steep for 20 minutes. Remove from heat, uncover, and pour the concentrated tea into a heat-proof pitcher. Refill the pot with cold water, pouring it over the bags as you do. This ensures that you get every ounce of tea goodness out of those bags. Then dump the cold water into the pitcher with the tea, repeating until the pitcher is full. Give it a couple stirs and chill it in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours, then serve over ice.

Sorry I misread. You said 5 gal of water. So you might be around 7% with that much sugar. My suggestion is try to find some good non pasturised apple juice, put 2-3 lbs of honey, and some yeast nutrient in it. Whatever local fruit you have, blend it and boil it. Add it and then dump it into secondary.

Ok id like to make wine. Great wine! Stiff that i can craft into something to call my own, share with friends and family, put into contests and stuff while still trying to perfect it and fuck around with other formulas.

Oh ok the yeast packages say 1 packet to 5 gallons but i throw in 3

Where do you live? What grapes are native to your region? And I am assuming you aren't planning to barrel ferment anything, that could take years.

You technically can't overpitch yeast. I guess you can but it will just create a ton of trub and yeast that didn't eat the fermentables.

Arizona.
Vitis arizonica
About 60 species

No barrel brewing just stuff at home i live in an apartment so just leaving it to carboys for now. When i make bigger batches do i just multiply accordingly in size or is it different for calculations my 'hooch' recipie came from a simple
>1gal water
>1 grape concentrate container
>2 cups sugar
>1 package yeast
I just added 2x5 for augar to gallons of water

quality digits..I know there are some wine kits that have some pretty good juice. As I stated before, wine is just such a different beast. There are so many, many variables. I know you said you want to make some award winning stuff you can be proud of, if you want that try for cider. Wineries take years, sometimes decades to put out a bottle of wine that they even deem decent. It is a rich mans game. Don't let me discourage you though.

What's the baking soda for here?

How is a specific abv achieved? It seems obvious that to bring it down you add more water (taking flavor make into account), but to bring it up? Do you boil water/alcohol mix and somehow preserve the alcohol? Sorry for the noob question. This has always perplexed me since alcohol has a lower boiling point.

Ok i understand.
Tucson is a micro brew town but yeah the cider bit might help broaden my horizons and experience. My stages of learning before i stopped went from
>Using bread yeast and filtering with coffee filters
>using wine yeast and siphoning
>using nitrates and nutrients
>was gonna start with fruit purees but stopped on account of financial reasons

Do you remember the Homebrewmen?

Let's just assume you were (and I am assuming you are not) some underagefag. Get a 5 gallon carboy, and an airlock. Dump 4 gallons of decent grape juice into a carboy. Put
5 lbs of sugar in there. SHAKE IT TILL ITS DEAD. Put the airlock and bung in there. I would suggest campden tablets or yeast nutrient but let's get real here. After a few days take the airlock off and dump like half a gallon of semi warm water in, and shake it up. Let it sit again....until you see no bubbles left. At this point, after a month or so you have a ton of hooch. Give it to your friends and they will think you are awesome. If you want to take the extra step and put it into another carboy and filter it, it will be better, but who cares! Start a bonfire and watch the ladies get hammered.

No sir...but I do know a guy who was in the Maltose Falcons...

How do you make apple cider?

What kind? Sweet or dry?

Ancient white people secret. The baking soda cuts the bitterness of the tea, allowing a higher strength to be brewed without it becoming too bitter. The amount needed is tiny, literally the amount of baking soda that will fit between your thumb and pointer finger. Too much and it will make the tea taste off, so be careful.

I'm assuming your second question is for OP.

I forgot to mention to add some D47 yeast, 2 packs. Unless you have grape must and want to go wild...

Sweet.

homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=33986

Add about a 2 lb of honey to that

Interesting, I always wondered how to deal with the bitterness but I never bothered to look it up because it's not such a big deal, but if this really works, I might actually end up drinking iced tea much more often. Thanks, white sir.

Alright guys gotta go mash in, if you have any other questions ask away, I will be back in a few hours and will answer as much as I can

Do you know of any good sources for reading up on mineral content? Just had the water tested and would like to learn a bit more.

yeah, do you remember Tepache, the god of homebrewmen?

I do.

Used to be but that was 6 years ago whats a decent recipie youd be willing to let others start with in your experience?