Some info that might be useful in this case. DME and LME (extracts) have a fermentabity of 75% unless you use a special enzyme (buy online) that will break down those longer sugar chains to shorter chains. EC-1118 is a wine yeast. Yes it has a high alcohol tolerance but the part that is missing is the length of sugar chain that it can consume. Bear yeast is able to consume higher chain length sugars than wine yeast can. Beer brewers in the forums have tested with EC-1118 and have seen about 50% or less of "attenuation" when brewing malts. KV-1116 is said to be a bit better. Try a beer yeast like Kveik Voss (12%) or Kveik Lutra (15%) for high abv tolerance and general ease of use. (I have not brewed beer yet, only read up on it)
I do a lot of beer brewing, and Kveik is incredible. It loves fermentation temperatures that are warmer, and ferments quicker. I ferment in my garage in south Florida, and 80-85 degrees ferments in less than two days.
Came to touch on this topic. The yeast strains like the type of sugars they are associated with. That’s why they’re associated with them because they been found to work best. While you can use wine yeast for beer, or beer yeast for cider, or bread yeast for mead, etc., results will vary.
I'm sooo glad this keg thing worked out for you. Natural carbonation can be a stubborn mistress and to a certain extent it's left up to the brew gods whether it works or not. So the fact you now have a way to get carbonation more successfully makes me super happy. Also thank you for winging it in the video and showing the mistakes or what not to do etc etc, doing it for the first time on camera. I cant speak for other viewers but its one of the reasons you're the best brewing channel. You're along for the ride with us and give such important and helpful information, and ease our worries or hesitations. As you know im a big stout drinker so i was extremely excited for this video. As always awesome video B&D
I know by now that you guys have figured this out, but turn your gas off first and then release the pressure from your keg. Once you have attained zero pressure in the keg, then turn your gas back on up to about 4 pounds and dispense. Adjust your pressure as needed to get the flow rate you want. Also, pull your tap all the way open and you will get less foaming and spitting. I've been carbonating ciders using these kegs for quite a while and when used properly they are awesome. I told " Bearded " about them and he did a review on one like mine quite a while ago. Best -- Dennis in NH
Oh man I love a good stout. My favourite brews:- 1. Hard cider and perrys, 2. meads of all kinds, 3. A good stout. (Milk Stout is my best) I can't help but smirk like a teenager when you talk about Growlers. Here in the UK it means something VERY different than a large glass. Much more hairy LOL
Another super video, im on my first round of mead and i also order a 5L mini keg(double walled thermo)to make some wine coolers and take to my cabin. This video was just what i needed ☺️🤘
I found that if you shake your mini keg for about 20 to 30 minutes, you can get your brews to carbonate faster when you connect your cartridge or CO2 cylinder to your mini keg. I found that trick on two other brew channels.
@@CitySteadingBrewsright, seems like a bit of a workout. I think even rocking it back and forth works, you just need to slosh it around, in the corny legs they lay it down and roll it when it's hooked up to co2 (the regulator might get in the way for the mini-keg)
I also bought a very similar mini keg years ago, a 1 gal. it looks the same. I bought it to get filled at my favorite breweries as a growler. Then I found out they would only dispense into their own growlers, I don't know if it was a state rule or what. So my mini keg has sat for several years. I started making cider and mead because of your videos. Before watching this - I bought a new top for the keg that has ball lock connectors (like corny kegs). I went that direction because I live in an apartment and could not accommodate the tapper height in my refrigerator. I'll use a picnic type tap. Also I can disconnect the ball locks and lay the keg on its side between uses. I found this video very informative and can't wait to force carbonate my cider that is waiting in conditioning. Thank you for an interesting video!
This is cool, because I think the little brew shop I just found has these malt extracts. If Jenny approves, we'll invest in this cool little pressure keg.
Thank you for showing your experiences with a mini keg. I've been considering buying one but had a lot of questions, you've answered some of them, thank you.
As a beer brewer, I have never really gone after a high alcohol beer. But that being said, I have heard of others that used beer yeast for the start and when it loses steam add campaign yeast as a booster to finish off the rest of the sugar. I'm not a chemist but some of the thought of this is that the beer yeast is better at breaking up the long chain sugars and get to their tolerance of alcohol before all the sugar is gone. The champaign yeast then can then deal with shorter chain sugars to get more alcohol.
Hey, glad you guys had a good experience with the beer. You all started my fermentation journey and i have followed for some years on how to make wine mead and cider. For a year now i have worked in a brewing supply company and have made well over 100 batches of beer. I started my beer journey with thr same keg you hsve and eventually moved to a 5 gal keg. A little tip for future kegging. CO2 dissolves into your liquid at a faster rate when the liquid is already chilled. When starting with a chilled beverage place that beverage under pressure and shake for 2 to 5 minutes. After that set it in the fridge for at least an hour preferably overnight to allow the CO2 to comfortably dissolve into the liquid. This will work with wine, beer, mead, cider, water or anything you put in there. The biggest issue is ensuring you can get your brew as cold as possible before you try to force carbonate woth co2. Good luck and thank you for yet another great video. Ps... If you think you want to continue to use a keg for carbonation I recommend a different style of keg that will allow you to connect an actual CO2 tank to it. Those CO2 cartridges can get expensive over time, and it is a much better purchase to buy CO2 by the pound.
You have definitely taught me how to catch a fish! I am still standing in the shallows hitting the fish with a stone rather than using a rod and line, but the joy I get from this hobby when I actually make a good drink is wondrous. I made a Brew in Bag beer from actual grain in my stovetop saucepan 5 weeks ago and added hops and it is just heavenly, possibly the nicest beer I have drunk and I genuinely look forward to opening each bottle. So thanks a lot you two, much appreciated and may your C02 carbonate many beers to come.
Glad you had success with the mini keg! I have been using one for over a year. I have done multiple batches of cider and hydromels. The keg is awesome! A heads up for you on filling a bottle from the keg. Put the bottle in the freezer first. It helps to keep the foam down. I filled a cider into a (free Aldi lemonade) bottle for a competition. I put the bottle in the freezer first. I didn’t even use the hose method. I just put the bottle right up to the tap and let it pour in. I hardly got any foam. I still had carbonation a week later in the bottle. Keep up the awesome videos!
Really enjoyed this vid and very likely will be using method to carbonate ciders & meads. Thanks CSB! Have you tried filling bottles at lower psi and did it mitigate the head overflow?
Not sure if anyone has commented about the best way to pour from the mini-keg once you have your product carbonated. It took me several tries to figure it out, but here's what seems to get the best results (for me, anyway): 1. Carbonate to desired pressure (as you did) 2. When ready to pour, turn pressure completely off and bleed off all pressure (I know, sounds weird, but bear with me) 3. While pulling the tap, slowly increase the pressure until the beverage starts pouring This is the best way to prevent "over-foaming" your pours (and probably the best way to get the right pressure to pour into a bottle if you're trying to bottle after force-carbonating).
Don’t be afraid to show your mess ups! That’s one way that we as RUclipsrs learn! Great videos. I’m following your cider video now. You guys are great! Cheers
Well, my Great-granddaddy made old fashion moon shine, or "Boot leg," whiskey depending on the brew or where he was. He and Grandpa , (his son,) had an outside distillery. I never met either one of them, but I remember my Great grandmother telling stories of it. My Great Grandmother liked making wine. So for me, it is kind of a family tradition, but a couple of generations removed. I like yeast water and making wine. I have almost turned my kitchen into a little science lab.
A fridge to keep your kegs cool will help with carbonating and with just keeping your brews on the kegs for drinking since they'll be cold and ready to drink. I'd love to see the two of you messing around with kegs more. I started my brewing journey with mead made with your recipes and now I have a few kegs, some meads, ciders and my distillation projects. I can almost never be bothered with bottle carbonation anymore since it's a lot more work than just using kegs once you've got it set up once.
@@CitySteadingBrews Yes, having a few hundred kegs in dozens of fridges does sound ridiculous. But a small extra fridge that can hold 2-4 kegs somewhere in the house isn't out of reach for most people. My apartment is under 300sqft so I only have space for four cooled kegs in a used fridge I got for 10$.
@@CitySteadingBrews Ofcourse, just syaing that it's not an all or nothing question. Just saying I'd love to see you exploring kegs more, not that you should never do anything else :) I loved the video and want more like it...
I love darker beer and I'm gathering knowledge and materials to make my first beer. I get that most of the time you show us stuff that has been tried and true but the fact that you are being honest about your noob-ness to this process, willing to make mistakes and tread the new path is really appreciated.
Hey folks! I live on the Willamette river in Portland, we pronounce it here “wil-AH (as in cat)-mit.” I’ve been getting into brewing and binging your videos of course, so thank you both for the educational entertainment. Brewing in PDX ❤
I’m soo impressed and thankful for your willingness to be honest and vulnerable enough to learn as you are teaching us in parallel! It makes me realize if one of my attempts doesn’t work out perfectly, it’s just part of the journey! 🍻
My next brew is going to be soon. I have a 3.75 Lb can of Coopers Irish Stout and to that I will be adding 2 Lbs Extra Light DME and I will be using Nottingham High Performance Ale Yeast for a 5 Gallon Brew. Watching this has me thinking I may try this coffee thing. I am currently at the tail end of fermenting a Raisin Wine . That came about from watching your Videos. Although I did take a different approach than ya'll did.
Hey, you may have foamed up your bottle while you were pouring it, by not pulling the tap handle all the way while you were pouring. If you just pull it open a little bit, it's like putting your thumb on a hose; it agitates the beer. Hope that's helpful. Love your vids!
I can say from my own personal experience, ec 1118 struggles with malt for some reason. Most of my beers stopped at 1.030-1.028. I started using kveik ale yeast, and I got my readings to 1.012 on average. Now I use kveik exclusively. Try again with a different (kveik) yeast.
And different Kviek give you different flavor profiles as well. Voss will give you some nice citrus spicey notes which go well with the coffee stout. Or if you want to go neutral on the yeast, there's always Lutra.
My dad got a home brew kit for his birthday years ago and he loved it. He made beer and wine. I really do enjoy your videos. Keep up the great work brew on from Kingwood Wv!!
I have put off making beer because I don’t want to make bottle bombs. After watching this I will definitely be making beer. I have a kegerator I can put the mini keg in. Thank you for showing this video. I laughed with you all the way to the end.
You can look up at beer carbonation chart to get an idea what PSI you should set your regulator based on temps. You need about 30psi at room temp for ~7 days to have decent carbonation. Definitely did good cooling the beer down before the pour, otherwise you'd surely only get foam with a direct faucet like this. To carb up a 5 gallon batch you need about 70g of co2, that small (12 or 16g) canister might have been just enough to carb a 1 gallon batch :) As many other have mention, it get cheaper buying co2 un bulk. Sodastream is one way to save on those (overpriced) canister, but 5 to 20lbs bottle are where it's at if you plan to use co2 long term.
I'm glad the mini keg worked out for you two. Natural carbonation, apparently, can be a fickle friend. Looks damn good, though. As a fan of DND myself, I'm "nerding out" wondering more about your characters and which medium you use (tabletop, pc/videogame). Not the platform/channel to place those inquiries so, I'll stop there. Cheers, and I hope there will be more videos staring the mini keg 😄
Sodastream canisters with the right adapter will eliminate the need for small cartridges. I use those for the growler kegs. They can be a little bulky, but so much better.
I don't know if anyone point out why the spigot is leaking up top? It's due to overpressure feedback on the hose attachment for "poor man's bottling" bottling as we call it in the bartender professions. At the end of the night when we drained kegs with a similar trick; and had personal bottles of on tap. The pressure needs to be at less than 6-12 PSI to avoid pushing thru the spigot ball gasket. We used to empty the kegs with mini kegs of a cleaner and water under carbonated pressure to make sure the lines were clean and pull arms. I've not done it since 1997, so my memory is a bit rusty on certain points of how we did it and also mildly intoxicated from being a bar back during cleaning up then walking down the street to Denny's at 4 am and watching the sun coming up and sleeping in our car until we sobered up to drive safely home.
I'm a loyal follower and I can't tell you how happy I am that you created a mini keg video. I have tried to get mine to work too no avail and FINALLY I have something to guide me through the steps. I hope to be putting the video into practice within the month. I'll holler if I get it to work.
great video... i have three of these kegs 2*3.6l and 1*5l. Combined with two 5l ice master keg dispensers, refill the kegs for fresh chilled beer or cider on tap.
The growler is made to transport draft beer under pressure, when it is not available in bottles or cans. I.e. you go to your local craft beer joint, they fill the growler from the regular beer tap, then you can add CO2 to keep the beer fresh and carbonated during your 'drinking time'.
I got our mini keg not to long ago and was thrilled to see you got one too as I have learned a lot from watching your vids. I got into home brewing to make hard seltzer (truly wish you did too LOL) and use a 7 gallon fermonster (more you make the more you offset cost). I got the mini keg because doing the sugar in the bottle was hit or miss and I wanted to see if I could carbonate in the keg then bottle it and maintain carbonation. That was a success and I have not looked back since. My mini keg is 8L (2.1 gallons) so it takes 2 of the 16g cartridges to carbonate (1 per gallon) as others said you want 30psi (25~30 ok) at 39 degrees for 3 days. I then transfer to flip top bottles and let sit for 3 days before drinking. An experiment I want to try down the road is to try using sugar to carb in the keg leaving an empty co2 cartridge in place with valve open to watch pressure, should be fun. Also note for your viewers that you should use the relief pressure valve/pin to evacuate O2 when first loading the keg. Pretty sure that might be why your 1st attempt failed.
My order from Midwest supplies will be here in three days. My plan is to make a dark honey lager and with the white labs WLP720 should yield a 16%abv honey mead lager. Updates as they develop
I come from a family of teachers... both parents and both step-parents. I have good friends, aunts, and uncles who are teachers. I love the calculator joke. I think you're ok. 😂
Great show thanks for doing it. As I"ve watched you struggle with so many stuck ferments I would like to recommend using even a small portion of you sugar bill in malt extract. A 10% light malt extract would make the yeast much happier and add very little flavor and eliminate the fermento addition. On your FG I think that 1/4 cup coffee solids you added might play a role. As to what you made you didn't use unmalted barley (the difference between porter and stout) you used an english method (you didn"t lager) an english hops and a french yeast and I think that you got a reasonable recipe for a coffee porter. I enjoy you vids as you do it dfferently.
Extract brewing is my favorite why a couple hours and your in the fermenter. I do all grain also but that takes most of a day. Great video you guys thanks.
Cool thing about the birkies, you can just use the filters and get two food grade 5 gallon buckets and make your own water filtration system. Add a quarter turn spout at the bottom bucket and you have a water filtration system for less than 50 bucks
great freakin video. We are so opposite I love it. As a home beer brewer and a VIP member, this had me laughing in such good way. I loved every second of it. I nerd'd out with you guys. Of course I probably have spent a car's worth on my beer brewing equipment, kegerator's and I have a couple of those mini-kegs (I love to bringing to parties), while I am a complete newbie to meads and learning, super jealous of videography and your equipment (money runs dry with the beer). That's probably why I am such a fan boy. Opposites attract
Awesome to see another beer video from you guys after all this time! I had a lot of issues hitting my F.G. as I started to make hybrid braggots and beers using Wine yeast. For some reason I could never get it down below 1.030 - 1.040, even with a relatively conservative O.G. like 1.105 which you'd assume 71B or EC1118 could handle. I also had issues carbonating these braggots. My first few beers also finished very high like 1.020 to 1.030 because I was determined to have 7-8% beers. Now I've shifted to focusing more on low ABV beers like Milds and Brown Ales and finding them a lot more reliable for F.G. and carbonation. My first braggot that finished at 1.035 was still probably the tastiest beer I ever made, using dark liquid malt extract!
I've used Ec-1118 for beer a bunch of times, it works great but the flocculation isn't great like the Safale so4 or so5. I think the dark malt provided a higher than normal amount of nonfermentable sugar. Most brewers use it in smaller amounts alongside regular DME to lower the final gravity but also get the roasted malt flavor. I've done both extract and allgrain brewing...extract is easy, allgrain makes a better tasting beer (my humble opinion.) I actually love the recipe-building process with determining the grain bill. Thank you so much for doing a keg video! It's probably my next investment, it seems to make carbonation a snap. Cheers, big hugs, love you both!
Thank you so much for making this video! I’ve been looking for easier ways for carbonating my brews. I have to confess that I saw something similarly a while back but I was a little apprehensive on spending the money. You guys are awesome as always!
All of them are great but this is my favorite video of you guys so far. Love the informal feel and charisma, and the recipe lol, I will be trying it after obtaining the keg. Y’all got me into brewing and every time I have a question you answer it through your videos. The devines smile on you friends.
you need to open the tap to the full, so the beer dont meet resistance. If you just take it half-way, you get alot more foam then if its fully open. And then you just fill up, let it foam over, and cap-on-foam. That way you get _most_ of the carbonation.
i teach elementary school in MN. all our students have iPads. i think many schools have moved to a tech option during/since the pandemic if they didn't before.
Transferring to a tiny keg like that, you use a jumper line with some keg fittings. I have one of those and a cap with Cornelius key posts, and fun a line from my bigger keg to fill it. The. You just hook up gas and a tap to it. I started with a paintball cylinder with an adapter to that style of regulator, with a hose and a keg post adapter.
I brew an imperial coffee stout. Ive done it in both all grain and extract brews. What works for me isncold brewing a portion of the total water volume over night before. I then strain the grounds out of the brew before adding it to my wort. I also keep the brew refrigerated until its added to the wort. It helps in the cooling process before pitching. As other have said using a wine yeast may have been part of the problem.
Great video. I checked the Briess website and found that most of their DME and LME have a 75% fermentability. I'm thinking that's in their perfect laboratory environment, so we home brewers may not see as much fermentability on average. I know 15% is still a big gap. Starting this one Thursday!
Where was Derica saying "Thwack your packet" when you poured in the extract at the 1:18 ? hahah to be fair, it should have scaled up to the size of the packet too...
So I was reading an article and it highlights that there are different types of sugar in a wort, and yeast consume the sugar in a pattern. The last sugar to ferment is maltotriose. The ability to ferment maltotriose gives each strain its characteristic attenuation range.
I commented on one of your tmcraft videos prior. However, I'm setting mine up now and I knew this is the one I have to watch! Thanks for all the lessons learned. I'm going to carb one of my new ciders. Then wine.
Ok. So it was wonderful! 4 days 30 psi, turned off, sat in fridge the whole time. Went down to 15. Shaken every day. Nice carb, not as strong as secondary fermentation. I did buy your affiliate link spout tube, however I used my auto siphone for now. Loved it
I love the video, also loved your peanut butter porter, and will definitely try this as well. I have been looking at the mini keg idea. Thanks for the video!
K think you have me sold on trying some extracts. Whether my brew store blitzes the grains for me, if I do it, if I mail order it cracked, I always end up with an original gravity in the finishing range. I always mash, sparge and boil to general standard; only thing different is it doesn't happen while living overseas, just in the U.S.
When you open a tap, you should open it all the way. You can use your bottling wand on the end of your hose to fill your bottles, with the spring loaded end removed. Lower your pressure to just enough to push it out. Cap on foam to keep the oxygen out.
Fantastic result and the keg for you is a real game changer. One thing to look into is using sodastream canisters instead of the small 12g ones. a sodastream canister will do over 100L and maybe more cost effective over time. You can get regulators that are designed to work with them or just an adapter depending on your reg design.
I got the Berkey before the pandemic and it was a good choice and wish I had got it earlier. We have super hard water that is heavily chlorinated. Just yuck and other filtration processes weren't working. I got the fluoride filters too and the water just tastes like water. I do need to change them every year and a half because of the build up.
Also, I found the original Juan Valdez instant coffee and literally it's just freeze dried coffee. That's the only ingredients. Found it at the local Walmart market. You may like it.
Just a quick question as I am watching and this may be answered later in the video, but do you think when adding the coffee in could that have increased the acidity into the brew? I am glad that you released this because ive been thinking about getting a mini keg as well! Keep up the good work guys!
So glad you guys tried kegging a brew! I mentioned it on one of your livestreams a while back in the comments and Brian didn’t seem super psyched about it. The one negative is lack of long term storage if you want to age your beer. I’m looking forward to what you guys try with it. You can even naturally carbonate in the keg and avoid the canisters if you use the right amount of sugar. Good luck on future endeavors with the keg!
@@CitySteadingBrews not sure, it was just mentioned as a process and how to do it in a home brewing book I read in the early summer. Maybe in case you wanted the convenience of always having draft beer and don’t have good access to co2?
@@CitySteadingBrewsI've done natural carbonation in my 1 gal Keg. Works great. I usually do 5 gallon batches of beer and that makes bottling day a big pain. Using a keg for one of the gallons saves me 10-11 bottles that I'd otherwise need to clean and cap. Plus I can control the carbonation better by adjusting priming sugar per volume. The one downside of forced carbonation for us amateur home brewers is it being more difficult to dial in carbonation per style of beer. And IMHO, natural carbonation just tastes better. I don't personally think it's a waste because it's always a big crowd pleaser at get togethers to bring a keg along instead of a 6 pack. :)
I’m still not a beer drinker and doubt I will ever make this. But I really liked this video. Very daring and informative, loved the first time using the keg. I don’t even carbonate my meads, but still loved seeing this video. Thanks.
Thanks for the new addiction guys lol watched a couple of random videos a couple of months ago and thought id give the basic/eaasy method a go. Fast forward to now i have a 25Ltr bucket of base mead on the go and just took delivery of 6 x 5ltr carboys.......i dont even drink. My family are going to have a fantastic/hungover xmas. Love you guys :)
My 4yo son names all my brews. I just got finished with Tony but Mike and Patrick are bubbling away nicely.
“I just work here, lady.” 😂
Broke me… 😂
Same here! 😂😂😂
Some info that might be useful in this case. DME and LME (extracts) have a fermentabity of 75% unless you use a special enzyme (buy online) that will break down those longer sugar chains to shorter chains. EC-1118 is a wine yeast. Yes it has a high alcohol tolerance but the part that is missing is the length of sugar chain that it can consume. Bear yeast is able to consume higher chain length sugars than wine yeast can. Beer brewers in the forums have tested with EC-1118 and have seen about 50% or less of "attenuation" when brewing malts. KV-1116 is said to be a bit better. Try a beer yeast like Kveik Voss (12%) or Kveik Lutra (15%) for high abv tolerance and general ease of use. (I have not brewed beer yet, only read up on it)
Wow thanks for sharing, very interesting!
I do a lot of beer brewing, and Kveik is incredible. It loves fermentation temperatures that are warmer, and ferments quicker. I ferment in my garage in south Florida, and 80-85 degrees ferments in less than two days.
Came to touch on this topic. The yeast strains like the type of sugars they are associated with. That’s why they’re associated with them because they been found to work best. While you can use wine yeast for beer, or beer yeast for cider, or bread yeast for mead, etc., results will vary.
I'm sooo glad this keg thing worked out for you. Natural carbonation can be a stubborn mistress and to a certain extent it's left up to the brew gods whether it works or not. So the fact you now have a way to get carbonation more successfully makes me super happy. Also thank you for winging it in the video and showing the mistakes or what not to do etc etc, doing it for the first time on camera. I cant speak for other viewers but its one of the reasons you're the best brewing channel. You're along for the ride with us and give such important and helpful information, and ease our worries or hesitations. As you know im a big stout drinker so i was extremely excited for this video. As always awesome video B&D
Thanks Dude!
I know by now that you guys have figured this out, but turn your gas off first and then release the pressure from your keg. Once you have attained zero pressure in the keg, then turn your gas back on up to about 4 pounds and dispense. Adjust your pressure as needed to get the flow rate you want. Also, pull your tap all the way open and you will get less foaming and spitting. I've been carbonating ciders using these kegs for quite a while and when used properly they are awesome. I told " Bearded " about them and he did a review on one like mine quite a while ago. Best -- Dennis in NH
Thanks for the tips.
Since I'm in Germany I would try that carbonation part with nitrous oxide capsules to get the nice soft Guiness Draught foam.
And you could enjoy some whippets!
4:05 Hi there! Resident of the Portland, Oregon metro area!
Will-*AM*-ette 😁 just one of the lovely area rivers here.
Oh man I love a good stout. My favourite brews:- 1. Hard cider and perrys, 2. meads of all kinds, 3. A good stout. (Milk Stout is my best)
I can't help but smirk like a teenager when you talk about Growlers. Here in the UK it means something VERY different than a large glass. Much more hairy LOL
Your vids have become as important to me as my morning coffee!
Thanks!
Another super video, im on my first round of mead and i also order a 5L mini keg(double walled thermo)to make some wine coolers and take to my cabin. This video was just what i needed ☺️🤘
I found that if you shake your mini keg for about 20 to 30 minutes, you can get your brews to carbonate faster when you connect your cartridge or CO2 cylinder to your mini keg. I found that trick on two other brew channels.
I don't think I could shake it that long, but I did shake it up pretty often.
@@CitySteadingBrewsright, seems like a bit of a workout. I think even rocking it back and forth works, you just need to slosh it around, in the corny legs they lay it down and roll it when it's hooked up to co2 (the regulator might get in the way for the mini-keg)
I live in Oregon in the Willamette Valley just up the road from where those hops are from! It's pronounced Will-am-it 😊
Others say will am et
Others say will im it
Others say will yam et
Others say will yam it
No matter how you say it, someone says it differently :)
I also bought a very similar mini keg years ago, a 1 gal. it looks the same. I bought it to get filled at my favorite breweries as a growler. Then I found out they would only dispense into their own growlers, I don't know if it was a state rule or what. So my mini keg has sat for several years. I started making cider and mead because of your videos. Before watching this - I bought a new top for the keg that has ball lock connectors (like corny kegs). I went that direction because I live in an apartment and could not accommodate the tapper height in my refrigerator. I'll use a picnic type tap. Also I can disconnect the ball locks and lay the keg on its side between uses. I found this video very informative and can't wait to force carbonate my cider that is waiting in conditioning. Thank you for an interesting video!
56:57 The appropriate turn of phrase here may be "We're not giving you a buzz, we're teaching you how to give yourself a buzz".
This is cool, because I think the little brew shop I just found has these malt extracts. If Jenny approves, we'll invest in this cool little pressure keg.
Thank you for showing your experiences with a mini keg.
I've been considering buying one but had a lot of questions, you've answered some of them, thank you.
Glad it was helpful!
I love the honesty about trying the keg for the first time. Great video. The best part is no chance of bottle bombs.
As a beer brewer, I have never really gone after a high alcohol beer. But that being said, I have heard of others that used beer yeast for the start and when it loses steam add campaign yeast as a booster to finish off the rest of the sugar. I'm not a chemist but some of the thought of this is that the beer yeast is better at breaking up the long chain sugars and get to their tolerance of alcohol before all the sugar is gone. The champaign yeast then can then deal with shorter chain sugars to get more alcohol.
That's possible. This actually came out great though.
Hey, glad you guys had a good experience with the beer. You all started my fermentation journey and i have followed for some years on how to make wine mead and cider. For a year now i have worked in a brewing supply company and have made well over 100 batches of beer. I started my beer journey with thr same keg you hsve and eventually moved to a 5 gal keg. A little tip for future kegging. CO2 dissolves into your liquid at a faster rate when the liquid is already chilled. When starting with a chilled beverage place that beverage under pressure and shake for 2 to 5 minutes. After that set it in the fridge for at least an hour preferably overnight to allow the CO2 to comfortably dissolve into the liquid. This will work with wine, beer, mead, cider, water or anything you put in there. The biggest issue is ensuring you can get your brew as cold as possible before you try to force carbonate woth co2. Good luck and thank you for yet another great video. Ps... If you think you want to continue to use a keg for carbonation I recommend a different style of keg that will allow you to connect an actual CO2 tank to it. Those CO2 cartridges can get expensive over time, and it is a much better purchase to buy CO2 by the pound.
Sweet... good Sunday morning!
You have definitely taught me how to catch a fish! I am still standing in the shallows hitting the fish with a stone rather than using a rod and line, but the joy I get from this hobby when I actually make a good drink is wondrous. I made a Brew in Bag beer from actual grain in my stovetop saucepan 5 weeks ago and added hops and it is just heavenly, possibly the nicest beer I have drunk and I genuinely look forward to opening each bottle. So thanks a lot you two, much appreciated and may your C02 carbonate many beers to come.
Glad you had success with the mini keg! I have been using one for over a year. I have done multiple batches of cider and hydromels. The keg is awesome!
A heads up for you on filling a bottle from the keg. Put the bottle in the freezer first. It helps to keep the foam down. I filled a cider into a (free Aldi lemonade) bottle for a competition. I put the bottle in the freezer first. I didn’t even use the hose method. I just put the bottle right up to the tap and let it pour in. I hardly got any foam. I still had carbonation a week later in the bottle.
Keep up the awesome videos!
Wow... thanks for the tip!
Would absolutely love to see you guys carbonate a cider this way in a future video. Keep up the great work, absolutely love your content!
Same method. Just use a cider instead :)
Really enjoyed this vid and very likely will be using method to carbonate ciders & meads. Thanks CSB! Have you tried filling bottles at lower psi and did it mitigate the head overflow?
It’s been a while Since u guys made a beer nice to see it again
love the little keg. So cool. Great to see the high level of enjoyment on this one. I don't drink beer and want to have a crack, lol.
Not sure if anyone has commented about the best way to pour from the mini-keg once you have your product carbonated. It took me several tries to figure it out, but here's what seems to get the best results (for me, anyway):
1. Carbonate to desired pressure (as you did)
2. When ready to pour, turn pressure completely off and bleed off all pressure (I know, sounds weird, but bear with me)
3. While pulling the tap, slowly increase the pressure until the beverage starts pouring
This is the best way to prevent "over-foaming" your pours (and probably the best way to get the right pressure to pour into a bottle if you're trying to bottle after force-carbonating).
Thanks for the tips!
Don’t be afraid to show your mess ups! That’s one way that we as RUclipsrs learn! Great videos. I’m following your cider video now. You guys are great! Cheers
Oh we normally do show them, lol.
Also liquids dissolve gases better cold. Cool that can first, then CO2, then keep cool, add another can, repeat for desired carbonation
Wow you two are prolific, just churning out videos. Thank you for your work.
Glad you like them!
Well, my Great-granddaddy made old fashion moon shine, or "Boot leg," whiskey depending on the brew or where he was. He and Grandpa , (his son,) had an outside distillery. I never met either one of them, but I remember my Great grandmother telling stories of it. My Great Grandmother liked making wine. So for me, it is kind of a family tradition, but a couple of generations removed. I like yeast water and making wine. I have almost turned my kitchen into a little science lab.
A fridge to keep your kegs cool will help with carbonating and with just keeping your brews on the kegs for drinking since they'll be cold and ready to drink. I'd love to see the two of you messing around with kegs more. I started my brewing journey with mead made with your recipes and now I have a few kegs, some meads, ciders and my distillation projects.
I can almost never be bothered with bottle carbonation anymore since it's a lot more work than just using kegs once you've got it set up once.
And regarding the space requirements, I live in a tiny 300sqft apartment doing all of that so no excuses :D
We have limited fridge space and no intention of purchasing more. Having a dozen or more kegs in a fridge seems a bit ridiculous to me, lol.
@@CitySteadingBrews Yes, having a few hundred kegs in dozens of fridges does sound ridiculous. But a small extra fridge that can hold 2-4 kegs somewhere in the house isn't out of reach for most people. My apartment is under 300sqft so I only have space for four cooled kegs in a used fridge I got for 10$.
We already do that. But we make 40-50 brews a year and a good percentage are carbed...
@@CitySteadingBrews Ofcourse, just syaing that it's not an all or nothing question. Just saying I'd love to see you exploring kegs more, not that you should never do anything else :) I loved the video and want more like it...
I love darker beer and I'm gathering knowledge and materials to make my first beer. I get that most of the time you show us stuff that has been tried and true but the fact that you are being honest about your noob-ness to this process, willing to make mistakes and tread the new path is really appreciated.
Oh I have made plenty of dark beer!
Hey folks! I live on the Willamette river in Portland, we pronounce it here “wil-AH (as in cat)-mit.” I’ve been getting into brewing and binging your videos of course, so thank you both for the educational entertainment. Brewing in PDX ❤
I’m soo impressed and thankful for your willingness to be honest and vulnerable enough to learn as you are teaching us in parallel! It makes me realize if one of my attempts doesn’t work out perfectly, it’s just part of the journey! 🍻
There is no "destination" in this hobby, it's all journey!
My next brew is going to be soon. I have a 3.75 Lb can of Coopers Irish Stout and to that I will be adding 2 Lbs Extra Light DME and I will be using Nottingham High Performance Ale Yeast for a 5 Gallon Brew. Watching this has me thinking I may try this coffee thing. I am currently at the tail end of fermenting a Raisin Wine . That came about from watching your Videos. Although I did take a different approach than ya'll did.
Hey, you may have foamed up your bottle while you were pouring it, by not pulling the tap handle all the way while you were pouring. If you just pull it open a little bit, it's like putting your thumb on a hose; it agitates the beer. Hope that's helpful. Love your vids!
Thanks!
By far one of my favourite episodes! You're both so happy 😀 Great Success 👍
And after all these years, no rubber band to hold down the bung!!!
Awesome! Thank you!
I can say from my own personal experience, ec 1118 struggles with malt for some reason. Most of my beers stopped at 1.030-1.028. I started using kveik ale yeast, and I got my readings to 1.012 on average. Now I use kveik exclusively. Try again with a different (kveik) yeast.
Came out pretty great so I call it a win :)
And different Kviek give you different flavor profiles as well. Voss will give you some nice citrus spicey notes which go well with the coffee stout. Or if you want to go neutral on the yeast, there's always Lutra.
My dad got a home brew kit for his birthday years ago and he loved it. He made beer and wine. I really do enjoy your videos. Keep up the great work brew on from Kingwood Wv!!
I have put off making beer because I don’t want to make bottle bombs. After watching this I will definitely be making beer. I have a kegerator I can put the mini keg in. Thank you for showing this video. I laughed with you all the way to the end.
My very favorite beer was a Belgian Triple made by a friend from extracts.
As always, I appreciate the intentional mistakes for demonstrative purposes
You can look up at beer carbonation chart to get an idea what PSI you should set your regulator based on temps.
You need about 30psi at room temp for ~7 days to have decent carbonation.
Definitely did good cooling the beer down before the pour, otherwise you'd surely only get foam with a direct faucet like this.
To carb up a 5 gallon batch you need about 70g of co2, that small (12 or 16g) canister might have been just enough to carb a 1 gallon batch :)
As many other have mention, it get cheaper buying co2 un bulk. Sodastream is one way to save on those (overpriced) canister, but 5 to 20lbs bottle are where it's at if you plan to use co2 long term.
I'm glad the mini keg worked out for you two. Natural carbonation, apparently, can be a fickle friend. Looks damn good, though. As a fan of DND myself, I'm "nerding out" wondering more about your characters and which medium you use (tabletop, pc/videogame). Not the platform/channel to place those inquiries so, I'll stop there. Cheers, and I hope there will be more videos staring the mini keg 😄
Been eyeing those mini kegs, be so much easier than bottle carbing. Looks like my Christmas present this year.
Love it y’all can’t wait to see carbonated meats and it’s this will stick to your ribs and the characters name is Brianne of Tarth
Oh, I forgot to mention, berkey is the best! Had mine for more than ten years. Amazing device.
Sodastream canisters with the right adapter will eliminate the need for small cartridges. I use those for the growler kegs. They can be a little bulky, but so much better.
I don't know if anyone point out why the spigot is leaking up top? It's due to overpressure feedback on the hose attachment for "poor man's bottling" bottling as we call it in the bartender professions. At the end of the night when we drained kegs with a similar trick; and had personal bottles of on tap. The pressure needs to be at less than 6-12 PSI to avoid pushing thru the spigot ball gasket. We used to empty the kegs with mini kegs of a cleaner and water under carbonated pressure to make sure the lines were clean and pull arms. I've not done it since 1997, so my memory is a bit rusty on certain points of how we did it and also mildly intoxicated from being a bar back during cleaning up then walking down the street to Denny's at 4 am and watching the sun coming up and sleeping in our car until we sobered up to drive safely home.
I'm a loyal follower and I can't tell you how happy I am that you created a mini keg video. I have tried to get mine to work too no avail and FINALLY I have something to guide me through the steps. I hope to be putting the video into practice within the month. I'll holler if I get it to work.
great video... i have three of these kegs 2*3.6l and 1*5l. Combined with two 5l ice master keg dispensers, refill the kegs for fresh chilled beer or cider on tap.
Thank you for the airlock bung tip.
This will also push your cider production to next level!
The growler is made to transport draft beer under pressure, when it is not available in bottles or cans.
I.e. you go to your local craft beer joint, they fill the growler from the regular beer tap, then you can add CO2 to keep the beer fresh and carbonated during your 'drinking time'.
Mhm, that's what we said.
I got our mini keg not to long ago and was thrilled to see you got one too as I have learned a lot from watching your vids. I got into home brewing to make hard seltzer (truly wish you did too LOL) and use a 7 gallon fermonster (more you make the more you offset cost). I got the mini keg because doing the sugar in the bottle was hit or miss and I wanted to see if I could carbonate in the keg then bottle it and maintain carbonation. That was a success and I have not looked back since.
My mini keg is 8L (2.1 gallons) so it takes 2 of the 16g cartridges to carbonate (1 per gallon) as others said you want 30psi (25~30 ok) at 39 degrees for 3 days. I then transfer to flip top bottles and let sit for 3 days before drinking.
An experiment I want to try down the road is to try using sugar to carb in the keg leaving an empty co2 cartridge in place with valve open to watch pressure, should be fun.
Also note for your viewers that you should use the relief pressure valve/pin to evacuate O2 when first loading the keg. Pretty sure that might be why your 1st attempt failed.
I love hearing you guys talk D&D, since I am a big nerd with that genre and am a DM. hehe
I force carb all my beer in that same mini keg. I love it, hoping to upgrade to a bigger keg once I get a kegerator
I'm glad that this worked. Now I'll be interested to see if you can carbonate ciders, wines, meads etc.
Same concept, don't see why not.
Would try to make a sour beer it’s one of favs
Neither of us really likes sours, sorry :(
My order from Midwest supplies will be here in three days. My plan is to make a dark honey lager and with the white labs WLP720 should yield a 16%abv honey mead lager. Updates as they develop
Perhaps after carbonation, you could dispence it into a pitcher and then use your normal siphon and bottling wand from there?
It would lose all the carbonation by that point.
I come from a family of teachers... both parents and both step-parents. I have good friends, aunts, and uncles who are teachers. I love the calculator joke. I think you're ok. 😂
:)
Great show thanks for doing it. As I"ve watched you struggle with so many stuck ferments I would like to recommend using even a small portion of you sugar bill in malt extract. A 10% light malt extract would make the yeast much happier and add very little flavor and eliminate the fermento addition. On your FG I think that 1/4 cup coffee solids you added might play a role. As to what you made you didn't use unmalted barley (the difference between porter and stout) you used an english method (you didn"t lager) an english hops and a french yeast and I think that you got a reasonable recipe for a coffee porter. I enjoy you vids as you do it dfferently.
Dead yeast was the problem.
Extract brewing is my favorite why a couple hours and your in the fermenter. I do all grain also but that takes most of a day. Great video you guys thanks.
Cool thing about the birkies, you can just use the filters and get two food grade 5 gallon buckets and make your own water filtration system. Add a quarter turn spout at the bottom bucket and you have a water filtration system for less than 50 bucks
The filters are the expensive bit really. Around $100 each.
great freakin video. We are so opposite I love it. As a home beer brewer and a VIP member, this had me laughing in such good way. I loved every second of it. I nerd'd out with you guys. Of course I probably have spent a car's worth on my beer brewing equipment, kegerator's and I have a couple of those mini-kegs (I love to bringing to parties), while I am a complete newbie to meads and learning, super jealous of videography and your equipment (money runs dry with the beer). That's probably why I am such a fan boy. Opposites attract
Awesome to see another beer video from you guys after all this time! I had a lot of issues hitting my F.G. as I started to make hybrid braggots and beers using Wine yeast. For some reason I could never get it down below 1.030 - 1.040, even with a relatively conservative O.G. like 1.105 which you'd assume 71B or EC1118 could handle. I also had issues carbonating these braggots. My first few beers also finished very high like 1.020 to 1.030 because I was determined to have 7-8% beers. Now I've shifted to focusing more on low ABV beers like Milds and Brown Ales and finding them a lot more reliable for F.G. and carbonation. My first braggot that finished at 1.035 was still probably the tastiest beer I ever made, using dark liquid malt extract!
I've used Ec-1118 for beer a bunch of times, it works great but the flocculation isn't great like the Safale so4 or so5. I think the dark malt provided a higher than normal amount of nonfermentable sugar. Most brewers use it in smaller amounts alongside regular DME to lower the final gravity but also get the roasted malt flavor.
I've done both extract and allgrain brewing...extract is easy, allgrain makes a better tasting beer (my humble opinion.) I actually love the recipe-building process with determining the grain bill.
Thank you so much for doing a keg video! It's probably my next investment, it seems to make carbonation a snap. Cheers, big hugs, love you both!
Thank you so much for making this video! I’ve been looking for easier ways for carbonating my brews. I have to confess that I saw something similarly a while back but I was a little apprehensive on spending the money. You guys are awesome as always!
Of course you both also play AD&D. That's awesome.
All of them are great but this is my favorite video of you guys so far. Love the informal feel and charisma, and the recipe lol, I will be trying it after obtaining the keg. Y’all got me into brewing and every time I have a question you answer it through your videos. The devines smile on you friends.
you need to open the tap to the full, so the beer dont meet resistance. If you just take it half-way, you get alot more foam then if its fully open.
And then you just fill up, let it foam over, and cap-on-foam.
That way you get _most_ of the carbonation.
Yeah, cheap tap... it's either open or closed, lol.
Great timing with this video after the FB post about a keg. Just received mine this morning.
Nice job I will make this
i teach elementary school in MN. all our students have iPads. i think many schools have moved to a tech option during/since the pandemic if they didn't before.
Seems that way, yeah.
Transferring to a tiny keg like that, you use a jumper line with some keg fittings. I have one of those and a cap with Cornelius key posts, and fun a line from my bigger keg to fill it. The. You just hook up gas and a tap to it. I started with a paintball cylinder with an adapter to that style of regulator, with a hose and a keg post adapter.
I brew an imperial coffee stout. Ive done it in both all grain and extract brews. What works for me isncold brewing a portion of the total water volume over night before. I then strain the grounds out of the brew before adding it to my wort.
I also keep the brew refrigerated until its added to the wort. It helps in the cooling process before pitching.
As other have said using a wine yeast may have been part of the problem.
Great video. I checked the Briess website and found that most of their DME and LME have a 75% fermentability. I'm thinking that's in their perfect laboratory environment, so we home brewers may not see as much fermentability on average. I know 15% is still a big gap. Starting this one Thursday!
Could be :)
Where was Derica saying "Thwack your packet" when you poured in the extract at the 1:18 ? hahah to be fair, it should have scaled up to the size of the packet too...
I wonder if chilling the bottle would help with foam
So I was reading an article and it highlights that there are different types of sugar in a wort, and yeast consume the sugar in a pattern. The last sugar to ferment is maltotriose. The ability to ferment maltotriose gives each strain its characteristic attenuation range.
Means more in beer than wine or mead, but yup.
I have started using LalBrew Nottingham for everything. Explosive fermentation for my stouts and still works good for mead and cider.
Nottingham is a good yeast for sure. Was hard to find for a while.
Have a chocolate raspberry habanero porter going based on combining several of your videos. Thanks for the inspiration.
That sounds so good.
I commented on one of your tmcraft videos prior. However, I'm setting mine up now and I knew this is the one I have to watch! Thanks for all the lessons learned. I'm going to carb one of my new ciders. Then wine.
Ok. So it was wonderful! 4 days 30 psi, turned off, sat in fridge the whole time. Went down to 15. Shaken every day. Nice carb, not as strong as secondary fermentation. I did buy your affiliate link spout tube, however I used my auto siphone for now. Loved it
I'm now trying again, new cider, no spout or tube. 30 psi, turned off, leaving out of fridge
I love the video, also loved your peanut butter porter, and will definitely try this as well. I have been looking at the mini keg idea. Thanks for the video!
That looks amazeballs, would love to make it. will have to see If I can source a small keg locally, Amazon shipping is a killer.
K think you have me sold on trying some extracts. Whether my brew store blitzes the grains for me, if I do it, if I mail order it cracked, I always end up with an original gravity in the finishing range. I always mash, sparge and boil to general standard; only thing different is it doesn't happen while living overseas, just in the U.S.
Love that you all play DnD ❤
When you open a tap, you should open it all the way. You can use your bottling wand on the end of your hose to fill your bottles, with the spring loaded end removed. Lower your pressure to just enough to push it out. Cap on foam to keep the oxygen out.
Fantastic result and the keg for you is a real game changer.
One thing to look into is using sodastream canisters instead of the small 12g ones. a sodastream canister will do over 100L and maybe more cost effective over time.
You can get regulators that are designed to work with them or just an adapter depending on your reg design.
Absolutely agree.
I got the Berkey before the pandemic and it was a good choice and wish I had got it earlier. We have super hard water that is heavily chlorinated. Just yuck and other filtration processes weren't working. I got the fluoride filters too and the water just tastes like water. I do need to change them every year and a half because of the build up.
Also, I found the original Juan Valdez instant coffee and literally it's just freeze dried coffee. That's the only ingredients. Found it at the local Walmart market. You may like it.
Just a quick question as I am watching and this may be answered later in the video, but do you think when adding the coffee in could that have increased the acidity into the brew? I am glad that you released this because ive been thinking about getting a mini keg as well! Keep up the good work guys!
It could, but I doubt it had much effect.
I have that exact same pitcher. Thanks for that!!
Thank you so much for the pseudo-review of the mini keg. I have been on the fence about buying one. Now, no longer wondering how easy it is to use.
Yeah, not sure why we waited so long. They are really great.
So glad you guys tried kegging a brew! I mentioned it on one of your livestreams a while back in the comments and Brian didn’t seem super psyched about it. The one negative is lack of long term storage if you want to age your beer. I’m looking forward to what you guys try with it. You can even naturally carbonate in the keg and avoid the canisters if you use the right amount of sugar. Good luck on future endeavors with the keg!
Natural carbing in the keg seems like a bit of a waste.. why not do it in bottles and free up the keg?
@@CitySteadingBrews not sure, it was just mentioned as a process and how to do it in a home brewing book I read in the early summer. Maybe in case you wanted the convenience of always having draft beer and don’t have good access to co2?
@@CitySteadingBrewsI've done natural carbonation in my 1 gal Keg. Works great. I usually do 5 gallon batches of beer and that makes bottling day a big pain. Using a keg for one of the gallons saves me 10-11 bottles that I'd otherwise need to clean and cap. Plus I can control the carbonation better by adjusting priming sugar per volume. The one downside of forced carbonation for us amateur home brewers is it being more difficult to dial in carbonation per style of beer. And IMHO, natural carbonation just tastes better. I don't personally think it's a waste because it's always a big crowd pleaser at get togethers to bring a keg along instead of a 6 pack. :)
I would rather free the keg and have bottles of brew
I’m new to this channel but have been inspired to give home brewing a shot. Also love your happiness it’s infectious.
Awesome!
25:31 the potion with the poison is in the vessel with the pestle.
or the note has been annotated
I’m still not a beer drinker and doubt I will ever make this. But I really liked this video. Very daring and informative, loved the first time using the keg. I don’t even carbonate my meads, but still loved seeing this video. Thanks.
I recently brewed a double-choc stout, it was heaven in a glass, lol
Awesome!
Thanks for the new addiction guys lol watched a couple of random videos a couple of months ago and thought id give the basic/eaasy method a go. Fast forward to now i have a 25Ltr bucket of base mead on the go and just took delivery of 6 x 5ltr carboys.......i dont even drink. My family are going to have a fantastic/hungover xmas. Love you guys :)
Lol
I would have used 1lb light or pale dme and 1lb of the dark. The lighter ferments lower.Thanks for the video! Cheers 👍 😀 🍻