When I first started watching your channel, I had been brewing for almost 20 years, I can honestly say I've learned more from you guys in 3 years, than my 20 years brewing alone. You're the reason I have a hydrometer and take readings, and it (and you) have helped soo much, big thanks to you both. 🍻
I can completely relate I learned to brew at a shockingly young age for all the wrong reasons that I don't feel the need to explain we were all young. I have commented several times that before this channel I brewed "wrong," I felt it was time to explain more times than once I would start a brew wait a week rack it wait till it stops rack it again this time I would bottle never once using a hydrometer I couldn't figure out why when I opened a bottle that the contents would spew out violently I never had one actually explode I feel I got lucky the brews I made tasted ok-ish but got the job done after I felt like my stomach was churning let's say things got really rude after my first 3 videos from this channel I fixed 10-15 years of bad and or dangerous practice. They probably wish I would stop saying thank you, but I consider this channel a true gift They have enhanced both my brewing hobby and my life. I love the Unpasteurized episodes because they take a single topic and explain it to death! Which is how I learn and if I have questions I've learned to keep watching because during the "rants" and the "ramble" my questions get answered.
I'm always surprised when someone doesn't have a hydrometer honestly. It's one of the first things I learned when I was 11 years old or something. I guess it speaks to how wine wants to be made with or without humans 😅
I actually started making vinegar! I made some strawberry cider, added a little bit of raw apple cider (with mother) from the store. Instead of bottling a 12oz bottle of cider, I just took that and stuck it in a sanitized mason jar and let it do it's thing. I now have a strong healthy vinegar mother, which I transfer to each new brew batch I do. It keeps it separate from the actual brew and I get vinegar. It's pretty easy imo and nice to have high quality vinegar on hand
I make my vinegars with either citrus or herbs. Citrus is for cleaning, lavender is for fabric softener, fruit (strawberry, blueberry, apple) is for salad dressing. When a wine is a '5' or less, I'll vinegarise it and use it for cooking or plant fertilizer. Vinegar has many uses, even for making tinctures. 😊
I learned some tasting when I started working as a barista & on a local wine tasting tour. I learned I like blue cheese & ice wine together, alone...not so much ☺ amongst other things
Love your videos. Change nothing about the way you guys do it. I’ve tried to watch other wine and mead making channels, and although informative, they lack the fun and personality of what you guys do. Thanks and keep up the great work.
Other brew channels also all seem to be like "Here is my recipe using DAP, all the preservatives I could get my hands on, camden tablets (it's a mead with no fruit in it, but why not), bentonite clay, and the brewing equivalent of Miracle Grow. If you don't use all these things, your brew will fail!" No, thank you.
Great advice. Had a strange issue recently with some blackberry wine. Went a little below 1.000 but still carbonated really strongly in some strange tertiary fermentation. I also use swing tops and have had to let them de gas by releasing the worst of it whilst trying to keep out any nasties. Even though I have years of experience I’m still learning. Keep safe everyone.
I recently made a cider and to test the slow I put some in the fridge early for a few days deliberately to see fermentation will start up again. I poured some into a mug and let it get back to room temperature. Within 2 hours the mug had that characteristic fermentation smell showing fermentation had sped right back up again
Being patient on all my meads and using swing tops. Started some ginger beers and thinking to use 1 liter plastic soda bottles for them. Need a brew I can drink sooner then 6 months.
Yall are so funny! Great video again! Thank yall so much. By the way I was the one with 6 stalls in a row. They were all done. My digital hydrometer was just BROKEN lol.
I would like to see a video on your recommended care, cleaning and storage of various pieces of brewing equipment. Fermenters, auto-siphons, etc. Thanks again for all the great information you share!
I just wanted to speak my mind. Lol, I felt compelled. I just started getting into this whole fermentation hobby. I really enjoy your videos, they are so informative. Both of you are funny, entertaining. I find myself just watching your videos nowadays anymore. And the library is so extensive. Thank you 🙏.
We need more of this type of content. Unpasteurized is a great podcast. The only thing I'd add is maybe bring in your friends or maybe even let your members come on for an episode and let them decide the main topic. Could be informative.
Been using nut milk bag for the Blueberries and notice the wicking action keeps the small part that gets above the liquid line nice n wet. Sure it gets a swirl each day but no issues yet. Also helps putting #1 weight at bag bottom but #2 on top of berries. Then tighten & wrap the tie string under bag and tie off at top. Takes a lil finesse but is workin' here...biggest problem is keeping brews around long enough to age past 3 weeks 😁🤪👍
If you are concerned about the vinegar brewing, maybe get a half gallon setup for it? A separate setup specifically for vinegar. Then you can make more vinegar without as much concern to the rest of your setup.
Thank you guys for all the info you give the community. I started brewing because of you guys and i really enjoy everything you have to teach. You always have fun ideas and cool projects that inspire me.
I bought some mead making supplies. They'll be here tomorrow. Ive been watching you guys for a couple of years now. Let's see what I've learned. Thanks
I've followed more than several of your recipes / videos, I've watched your content on pasteurization, racking, bottling, stalls and sanitization. knock on wood I have had zero issues or surprises (other than delicious flavors i.e. the sangria) I've even managed to develop a couple of my own recipes. I can't thank you enough for your continued content, information and encouragement.
Entertainingly informative, ( especially when I am doing a little sampling my self). I know about fermentation bombs first hand. Still finding shards of glass.
In terms of bottling before the brewing is done: The cider I try to make from bottled apple juice wasn't great. Like it tasted awful once I had brewed it dry. So I added another bottle of apple juice to it (I was experimenting with really small batches for reasons). Which of course adds sugar to it. In which case, pasteurizing has been brilliant. So to get around it: 1. When you're bottling, get a sample plastic PET bottle or 2 and fill those just like you would any other bottle. This helps give you an indication of how much pressure is in a bottle. So when it feels rock hard, you can be pretty sure that you've probably only got a day at most to sort things out. At this point, open a plastic bottle and pour into a glass just to make sure that your beverage has carbonated. 2. When you've got it just where you want it, pasteurize it. I didn't have much luck with the pot technique but the sous vide machine has made it AMAZINGLY simple. Your weak point is going to be capping. I was using one of those plastic double lever cappers BUT over time, the plates on them bend giving you a less tight capping (you can tell if the edges of your caps aren't going fully vertical and are instead at an angle). With the expansion you get from applying heat, the caps can loosen. I ended up buying a metal double lever capper from AliExpress. I've only used it on 4 or 5 batches (of around 70 bottles) so far and it's holding up really well and giving me some really good solid feedback as to when enough force has been applied (due to the lack of flexibility in the materials vs. plastic). The other thing that this has lead to is some near 0% drinks. Instead of brewing at all, I use the same technique with things like apple and lemon juice (I call it Cider 0), ginger beer, ginger ale (like ginger beer but with a bunch of spices added in), lemon and lime drinks etc. To do this, empty your juice into a large sanitized pot, add a tiny amount of yeast and then bottle (doing the thing with the sample plastic bottle). When your indicator bottle is rock hard and you've confirmed that it's carbonated to your liking, pasteurize it. Now you've got some (near) non-alcohol drinks for those who don't want to drink and it has much the same feel as drinking with everyone else.
Your talk today is so relevant to my wine making task today. I opened a bottle of a wine I made last Oct and bottled in January. A Caramel Popcorn Mead, SG 1.054; by Nov it was at 1.010. I was concerned if it was unfermentable as I used Karo (corn Syrup) to adda bit more of the corn flavor. Dec 4 SG 1.006 XMAS eve 1.006. 2 readings. I stabilized here with Potassium Sulphate and Campden tablet (1 per gallon). Jan 14 back sweetened to 1.014 and bottled. The bottle I opened was carbonated. It had started to re-ferment. Unscrew the tops of the remaining bottles, Take out another pinch of both the stabilizers and add to the bottles. Keep unscrewing the caps for the next few weeks. Not worried about Oxygenating now. I was making bottle bombs because of back sweetening and not enough stabilizers.
Thanks for explaining I was under the impression if you refrigerate you would be safe from bottle bombs. A lot of root beer makers say make it then put in fridge and it will be safe. I haven’t done this myself and now I won’t even try. So thanks for doing these videos I am always learning things. And bottle bombs really make me nervous so I always take readings and make sure fermentation is done before I even rack let alone bottle.
White vinegar is used in Belgian Eggs for breakfast. :) just found yalls channel and I love the content. I gave in and order some stuff to try my own meads ext out.
I've mentioned before that I'm relatively new to this craft, about 4 months in. I chose the pasteurize method rather than chemical stabilization. I like that approach. I'm at the 5:30 mark in the video and I stopped the video to write this. The fermentation after bottling warnings got and kept my attention. I'm using some swing top bottles and some wine bottles purchased on Amazon with the corks with the plastic lids. They are not really cork material and probably aren't as tight in the bottle as a true wine bottle cork. But they are nice, reusable and easy to remove and put back on. So as a rookie, for safety, cost and ease of bottling I chose these two types of bottles. I bottled about 3 gallons of wine and mead, so I don't know, 13-16 bottles, something like that. Three distinct gallon jars, each one a completely different recipe, each one pasteurized before bottling, each one sat for 4 days after pasteurizing before bottling. After bottling I put them into a covered plastic bin for about 5 days just to make sure I had no issues. Ha, that's not even enough. Just under three weeks later, of ALL the bottles, ONE, yes ONE popped the top. Not all the bottles from a given gallon, just ONE bottle, one of 5 bottles from the same gallon brew. Now that's odd to me. I used an immersion circulator set to 145 degrees and kept each in there, I think about 20 minutes. However, I assumed and trusted that at 145, the liquid temperature would probably get to 140 and that 20 minutes should be enough. Lesson learned, MEASURE the temperature and keep it in there for 25-30 minutes at 140!!!
@@CitySteadingBrews Yes, that's what I'm thinking. Not high enough temperature and/or not in the water long enough. And something else I just thought of in addition to the time & temp, perhaps this was the last bottle siphoned and maybe it picked up some of the stuff at the bottom that just would not give up without a fight!! In any event, no need to apologize, my lesson learned. Your method is absolutely fine and I'll just be more careful. I am not going to abandon pasteurizing!! And I am definitely NOT going to abandon CSB!!!
And by the way, it was one popped cork. I keep these bottles in the basement in my wine making area and the cork hit the ceiling and fell harmlessly to the floor. No harm done at all. More of a puzzle but that's the nature of this craft. I'm learning that and you've said it many times: there are always things that need to be solved and figured out. It's part of what makes this craft so interesting and fun.
And so for my "new and improved" racking method, I have a couple small, fine (75 micron )mesh bags and I will wrap one around the end of the source siphon tube so that it will minimize the amount of junk that gets into the destination and siphon tube. I mean, as much as I love cleaning out the siphon tube, the novelty runs out after a while!! For bottling, I will probably use two bags. I used two bags to rack a pineapple banana wine and it really didn't slow down the transfer too much at all.
Another great informative video from my favourite brew warriors! I have heard that (sun) dried cherry stems make an awesome florally tea, a Turkish custom. Trying this out as a Mead. Making a strong brew of the stems and adding them in after the first racking if the flavour needs a boost. The tea itself is lovely, and I think will hold up! Maybe an idea for a City Steading exploration?
I was nearly done with a mead, just degassing and preparing to backsweeten, pasturize, and bottle when it started growing these short, thick, white strands. They grew overnight- the only thing that came into contact with the mead was the drill attachment for degassing, which I pretty thoroughly sanitized. I noticed a film a while back on the surface and bottom which I thought was the harmless bacteria you mentioned which gives a sour flavor. I do not know if the two are related, but I thought it would be worth mentioning. I also began fermenting in a plastic bucket (which I don't think I'll ever do again after this) and separated into four separate gallon carboys to flavor them differently. All of them have the strands, so I know it didn't come from the oak or any one of the spices I used. None of the strands are over an inch in length, most are on the bottom, but a few are floating and some are in the neck of the carboy up by the airlock. I am not sure if they are growing in the neck and falling into the mead, or if they're only growing up in the neck from the foam that reached up into it after degassing. I am assuming I just need to dump this, but I couldn't find anything about it online and wanted to see if you knew what it might be. Thanks
Hi🙋🏽♂️ I'm new to this 🍷🍸🍺🍾🥃 This is stupid questions bothering me since more than 6 month. why don't we use table Sugar instead of agave/ barley/corn/ wheat/ potatoes/(grains) to produce alcohol. Because eventually most of our drinks are going to be cocktail, liquored, flavored. So what's the point of putting all the efforts to producing alcohol from other dificult sources instead of just sugar.
Flavor. Sugar adds alcohol but no flavor. Anything else will give flavors. We don’t tend to make cocktail mixers most times. We are aiming for good tasting wines and meads all on their own.
I recently experienced the "cringe" when I realized a mistake I made, just like you mentioned. Yes, the repetition helps 'the right way' to sink in! Thank you for all you do.
It's pretty special, watching you guys and enjoying a glass I brewed myself that I learned from you. And oh my gosh, my first attempt at fig wine, such a crazy funk on it, but I'm glad I saved it. I had soaked some BUT NOT ALL the figs in boiling water, so I almost certainly got a wild yeast in there, and a thin white film because I hadn't submerged everything, so I'm guessing maybe Brettanomyces? But not fuzzy! We'll see how it tastes in 4 to 6 months! But the new batch is smelling a lot better, I've dunked those figs back down two or three times a day and got it off the fruit pulp after 4 days. It's already clearing up pretty nicely in secondary
Thanks to you guys, we have made almost 24 brews far based on the science and recipes you provide, very happy no issues but we try to follow all the safety techniques you recommend.
Not anything my brews are doing wrong, but any tips on keeping fruit flies out of the brew closet? I have vinegar traps around the area which are very effective, but _summertime._ They just appear, and they're very annoying. Should I just learn to live with them? Put a frog tank into the brew closet?
I've been watching your channel for the last couple months and learning tons from you guys. As someone who is new to brewing, I'm a total newbie, (I just started my second batch of mead and the first one a week before that) the information I'm learning for you is very helpful. Please keep up the good work! 👍🍻
Kriek is my favourite beer. I saw a programme on BBC2 in the late 80's it was called The Beer Hunter... the presenter was Michael Jackson...yeah not that one. You may even have heard of him. He visited a brewery in Belgium and showed square open vats(?) where the beer had it's first fermentation, or maybe a completed Lambic then he explained that bascially after that a lorry load of cherries were added to the vat...and the natural yeasts in the air again would create the secondary fermentation. This really was a brick outhouse(large I admit) with cobwebs all around the vats lol.
Going back on the mold topic (so... another question, yay! active viewerbase!) If you do get mold and dump, how do you clean everything to be able to use again later? The fermenter etc?
You CAN work on a car with just an adjustable wrench…. But, with more tools it’s probably easier. I notice a lot, people jumping in with no background studies on process or understanding of the science, then blame the recipe. I’m guilty myself, but Persevering through and evolving into a brewer am able to pinpoint MY mistakes.
i think thats almost how every brewer starts i know i started that way about 20 years ago. Ferment for X days without thinking of temps or yeasts or even using a hydrometer. etc then bottle and wonder why it blew up.
I used a bottle like that mead bottle to rack and I put it in the fridge it was fine for like a week I took it out of the fridge so I could put some leftovers in left it on the table and in the middle of the night the cork shot out and put a dent in the ceiling I ordered a hydrometer the next day 🙃
I have been trying to replicate some apple jack my uncle Luther and aunt Bessy made. I think you suggested what made their flavor profile so unique in your “Concentrated Apple” video. After pressing the apples they cooked down the the juice and apple mush, to, “Make sure the bugs were dead.” At 5 years old it seemed to make sense… They might have been talking about wild yeast, hopefully! When you said the apple juice had caramelized and changed the flavor, it clicked for me. BTW, they didn’t cook the stems or seeds and they would wring out the mush before fermentation.
not a content suggestion, but a question. My airlock got a couple gnats floating in it (its an S-shaped airlock), but i filled the airlock with water from my cleansing tub (starsan). Will they cause any problems being in there during the first stage of fermenting since the CO2 is escaping at a fast pace?
Question: Ever had larvae in ur brew? i started a cherry mead! picked the cherries myself i did my best in picking the best ones. I removed the seeds by hand(yes took awhile) . i sanitized everything, even the berries before i removed the seeds. After 4 weeks of fermenting its almost complete! from 1.100 to 1.012. i removed the cherries and i noticed small white larvaes on the top with the cherries . I scooped all floatise out and let it sit another week to take a new reading later. The lavaes worries me tho! i read online these could have been fruit flies larvaes in the cherries. throw out? or rack this for clearing phase when primary is done?.
read some articles online about it and it seems to be not so rare as i thought it was. and some still say its fine! they die in fermentation, just scoop that out . But yeah . i wouldnt wanna put that in my mouth what so ever. :) Dumping it! Thank you for the reply :)!@@CitySteadingBrews
i only found your channel yesterday and im so glad im early to this video. i started a mixed berry mead yesterday with voss and well is it working hard OG 1.100 to 0.58 in 24 hours at 34c and 10 psi. time will tell if speed helps or hinders.
Lambic brewers also use blending techniques to balance out batches to get consistent flavors of funk, sour, and ABV. On top of the extra funky brewhouses.
I've seen some brewing pyrotechnics in my time from exploding beer bottles in the neighbors fridge as a boy to my own first brew with a fermentation so violent it turned the 5 gal carboy into Mt. Vesuvius. The stopper and lock shot up to the joists with foam and wort spraying everywhere. Mistakes were made, not the least was not inspecting the air lock for molding flash . I quit brewing when my cardiologist took away cigars and alcohol, not impressed with my arguments on quality of life nor quantity of either. Seeing your videos makes me want to brew again. I can handle a gallon jug ( too damn old to be messing with 5 gal ) My nephew keeps bees, so I want to try your spiced mead with Ozark wildflower honey. I just have to see how much it's going to cost me ...
Is there a set time for taking your first reading with a hydrometer once you have pitched the yeast? Or, in other words, can you take a reading too soon?
I just checked my first mead which I started on 8/18/23 and the reading was a 1.048. I unfortunately didn't listen to you and never got an original reading. The question is can a mead finish at a 1.048 and just be really sweet? I'm going to wait a week and check it agian I was just curious on your thoughts.
I'm going to look to see if you already have a video covering it. I'm sure you've at least talked about it. But my big concern right now is preventing secondary fermentation when back sweetening. I'm running to 6 gallon batches and plan on having 1/3 dry 1/3 semi sweet and 1/3 sweet when I bottle. *depending on how dry they actually finish, of course.
We talk about it in most all of our recipes. You will need to pasteurize to prevent further fermentation. Some prefer chemical stabilizers but we've never used them so I am not much help there.
@CitySteadingBrews now that you say it I remember lol. I've watched a lot of your videos but I just woke up. I even have a sous vide machine in my Amazon wish list lol.
My favorite source of wild yeast is from dates. I buy my dried fruit from Azure in bulk and the meads I've made with date culture are my favorite flavor. I pack a pint jar half full of dates and cover with non chlorinated (berkey filtered) water. A cheese cloth rubber banded lid alternative and 4 days on my counter gives it time to get supper frothy with fermenting bubbles then I just dump those contents into a 1 gallon jug of honey-water as my initial yeast innoculant.
I followed your first time brewing video with the loosened cap on the bottle trick, and bottled the results after, oh, a month or so. However, since I didn't have a hydrometer yet, I'm extremely paranoid about bottle bombs, so I remove the corks every few days. Not saying it's an ideal solution, it's just what I do.
I just finished my first Port style brew Everything I read told me that adding my brandy to my partially fermented grape wine would halt fermentation. I believed it. After combining my grape wine and my brandy I was stupid enough to cap it. About 12 hours later I checked on. And it WAS fermenting. The pressure was so great I had to use channel lock pliers to remove the cap. Even with pliers it was difficult. When I got it off I had an eruption. I'm convinced that I was hours away from a one gallon bomb. So don't believe that your high alcohol will stop fermentation. Use an airlock, at least initially.
As far as bottle bombs, I always pasteurize after getting the same reading two weeks in a row. Another thing I do to ensure fermentation is finished is I rack into another fermenter and let it sit for another couple of weeks under an airlock before bottling. Also for my brews, regardless of if there is fruit in it or not I like to give them a swirl each day for the first few days. And as for mold I’ve never had an issue because I use a three stage sterilization process rather than sanitization. Sorry for the lengthy comment
I am not sure if you have talked about it before as im new here, but if you have not id love to hear about the effects of the temperature of the samples you test with a hydrometer and its effects along with the types of hydrometer's and how to use them (im thinking the eye glass version you hold up to the light that isnt effected by temperature).
There are calculators online to show the temp difference in samples. Being that we normally work within a few degrees of the same temp, even with our hydrometer calibrated for a different temp, our readings are consistent. Also, unless you’re talking huge temp swings, the difference is often negligible.
Question....one of my wine books stated that dissolving the sugar on the stove and letting it heat on a SLOW boil for five minutes then cooling (for pitching) converts it from sucrose to fructose/glucose(?) allowing the yeast to begin consuming it immediately reducing lag time thereby lessening the time for "nasties" to get in. With your knowledge can you guys confirm and/or explain why this is or isn't a viable practice that has a use in wine making? I've made this statement on other channels and have received comments it's a myth enough times that now I'm curious if there's a scientific explanation.
No… it doesn’t convert it. They are going off of invert sugar which is a different method. Yeast has evolved to break down sugar. Even invert sugar doesn’t make any real difference for fermentation.
... And you knew I'd pipe up to say that white vinegar has a great couple uses other than cleaning. Try it on french-fries with salt (perhaps black pepper), but skip anything else with it, like ketchup. Next, try it on cooked spinach w a pinch of salt & black pepper. Lastly try it at least once in an oil & vinegar salad dressing. It is just so much cleaner (if you'll pardon the pun) on the palette than cider or balsamic vinegars. Oh, BTW, go to Canada and look at the little condiment packages at a burger joint... Oh! Look at that! White Vinegar! 😏😁
@@CitySteadingBrews So that means you'll try those couple things mentioned, right? 😏 I understand the "flavor" imparted by those un-distilled vinegars, but the Brits & Canadians have something in just adding a touch of dilute acetic acid without "flavor" (or as they call it, 'flavour') to some foods that benefit from being acidic without adding. Just sayin... Restaurant waiters look at me like I've 3 eyes when I ask for white vinegar for my fries (not always, just when ketchup or gravy or fry-sauce gets to be old hat). See if you don't agree. Start with just a few drops, though. 😁
Hi there, love your video's, they're always nice additions to my own "things I'd like to try"-list. In all honesty, I feel like your content made me make better brews, eg. Taking readings with a hydrometer, sanitizing using an actual acid sanitizer fluid (I used to chug everything in near boiling water to sanitize, it works but my plastic auto siphon did not like those temperatures) and finally, waiting until my yeast was done fermenting. Well, being pretty novice in brewing (2y-something), a lot of mistakes were made, the worst offender being not properly pasteurized back sweetened (carbonated) bottled cider. Where I had a cider, which was done fermenting, performed backsweetening with fermentable sugar, with the intent to pasteurize when the desired carbonation was achieved (I made a sealed cider bag from vacuum-foil with idea pressure can be checked by feel, next to have bottled the rest of the brew), 2 weeks passed and practically no carbonation seemed to be added to my brew, which lead me to prematurely pasteurize all bottles, so 20 bottles 65°C for an hour and called it a day. All bottles were stored nice and chilly in the fridge and I got some pretty flat, but refreshing cider waiting to be consumed. The main shocker was that 2 weeks in, the brew was suddenly over-carbonated (so back to pasteurization, this time 72°C for 2 hours, just to be sure), I'm just happy those bottles didn't became sprinklers in the fridge. So, there and then I've learned to backsweeten with non-fermentable sugars and only using the calculated amount of priming sugar, which worked fine so far.
"How do you sanitize the towel?" I also use a towel, and I sanitize the towel by putting star san in a spray bottle and lightly misting the table before laying the towel down, then do the surface of the towel the same way. Not enough to make it wet, but enough that I have covered the entire surface with a misting/layer.
I love your videos, they have been so helpful at learning this process. I do have an odd question, I made a mistake in my first batch of mead. I added the yeast and cadem tablets within the same day. Now it's produced some alcohol in 2 months but I'm wondering if I should add more yeast. I also know I didn't do the initial reading right. The last reading was 1.031 (was a week or so ago and I did the initial rack), and I used Larvin d47.
The recipe I followed was: 3.5 # honey 3tsp malic acid 1.5 tsp. tartaric acid 0.25 tsp tannin 0.75 tsp Energizer 2 campden tablets 0.5 packet of yeast Water (7 pints, I think I added closer to 9 pints) I will admit, I didn't wait more than 5hrs to add the yeast. I now understand why that was foolish. My hope is to do a more natural method similar to yours going forward.
I was fermenting some oats in a sugar wash one time and it was going well through the 3 days of primary fermentation(during which i open the container and stir to add oxygen) . Had a good smell. Lots of bubbles. Secondary fermentation took about 6 days to complete. When i opened the fermenter for the first time after about 10 days, it smelled horrible. Kind of like bad milk. I cooked the oats in water so they were sterile but i guess at some point i introduced some bacteria. I am SO THANKFUL that we humans have such good sence of smell when it comes to this sort of things.
I suppose being in Florida you don't have much experience with brewing in colder climate... but fermenting in a cold weather environment seems to be a challenge because everything takes so long... I'm 3 weeks into a couple brews and they are still making slow progress (2-6 points a week now with about 25-30 points to go) so I'm hopefully they will finish eventually (even if it takes months) but I think for next time I might have to look for yeast that specifically works well at cold temperatures (at least 60-64 degrees F but ideally all the way down to 50 F). I used B71 for these. A heating pad is a possibility too but there's so much thermal mass in a couple gallons of liquid and glass fermenters I'm not sure it would ever get very warm... definitely not into the 70s. The one I got now shuts off after 3 hours which doesn't help either - I'll have to keep an eye out for one that stays running.
Question on spgr. The spgr of ethanol is .787, if I take 0.9 gallons of water at 1.0 and add 0.1 gallon of pure ethanol (not by brewing, just from a bottle of ethanol) then my spgr after mixing the two should be about .89 give or take and my abv would be 10%. However if I start with a 1G must at 1.069 spgr and it finishes at 0.995 then I have a 10% Abv, but that doesn’t align with what it should be (0.89) based on knowing the volume and spgr of both water and alcohol. So that suggests that I’m misunderstanding something or that there remains something dissolved in solution that is keeping the spgr a bit above expected. What am I missing here? Totally get that .006 isn’t a big deal and ultimately these are estimates but theoretically I could have started at 1.080 and ended at 1.006 and now we have a delta of 17 points between final spgr and expected spgr.
Yeah I absolutely get there is more than alcohol and water!! Also goodness, was off on my numbers twice there. I re did my numbers and agree yours is correct at .9787. That being said that’s a.021 difference from a finish at 1.0 spgr from a 1.074 must. Which is equivalent to nearly 3% abv. When using juices you are assuming that anything above a 1.000 spgr is fermentable sugar so anything between .979 and your actual finished spgr could be error if you know alcohol is present in the brew. Which could be a few % it looks like. Also, seems to me like the two of you compliment each other very well in your videos. For being unscripted you each play off each other well which I think is a large part of what makes your videos work.
Presumably far more non fermentable in the ideal case when you are trying to run dry. What you don’t really know is how much. Or at least I don’t know, so I’m kind of thinking since you have two variables (alcohol and sugar) mixed into one measurement you can have a significant error in your abv. I honestly don’t care about a percent or two but I do like to understand where my unknowns are. I’m only working on my first brew or three and have never bottled anything so I’m just trying to learn.
@DavidJones-uh9rg there are no absolutes in homebrew. You would need lab analysis for that. Yeast will not consume all the sugars, nor will they consume non-fermentables. There’s a wide range of factors we simply cannot measure as homebrewers. Abv is an approximation. It’s not something to worry about really. Even commercial winemakers only need to be accurate to +/- 1.5-2%.
In 2021 I made my first two batches of wine, one a gallon of dandelion, one a gallon of pear. I waited patiently for them to be ready after bottling in January 2022. I left them in the refrigerator for nearly a year before trying the dandelion wine, which I called DanBLion wine, and it was kick-ass! The pear wine did something weird I think.. One bottle of the pear wine was very dark and the other 3 very light. This summer I tried the dark pear wine without sediment, and it seemed weakish. My neighbor thought it was dry. I didn't hold much hope for the other 3 bottles, and was on the verge of dumping them when I noticed the yeasty sediment that I hadn't seen before. It floated up then down in chunks as I would expect yeasty sediment to behave. I took a sip off of one of the remaining bottles, smelled alcohol, and got a small buzz, it was before breakfast. Am I willing this wine to be drinkable, or does this seem normal? I've currently started a batch of blackberry mead, and pear mead about a week ago. The seperation of petals and sepals for the dandelion wine is too much for my arthritic hands. Everything looks good so far on the two new batches with lots of co2 bubbles escaping the airlock, so fingers crossed.
Since you have a request queue, one of the best ones I made was sweet potato, carrots, apple juice, and raisins. I'd love to see your take on that idea. I found your channel just under a year ago, and you've been a great help as I continue learning what (not) to do.
@@julietardos5044 Raw. I started them frozen and thawed beforehand, hoping to break down some cell walls, and added amylase to break down the starches. I liked the sweet potato flavors, wasn't a big fan of the carrot aftertaste though.
If you sanitize your bottles, do you need to sterilize them, (In the oven for a designated time at specific temperature)? With that said, I have learned so much from you! The repeated info has helped sink the info into my human brain!
If you are thinking about making vinegar, I would suggest the book The Artisanal Vinegar Maker's Handbook: Crafting Quality Vinegars - Fermenting, Distilling, Infusing Hardcover by Bettina Malle (Author), Helge Schmickl (Author). They really get into the process and even how to make your own vinegar production equipment if you want.
Hi guys! I'm a long time watcher and lover of your videos (Thank you ever so much.. Big Fan!) and my son decided to make his own blackberry mead the other day. It wasn't using one of your recipes (making me uneasy) and he didn't have a hydrometer to test for the OG (making me hyper nervous!) He put it all together with some help from myself (based on your video knowledge) but he wasn't sure on the viability of the yeast. I had him do a bit of a hydration of the yeast he was using (basic bread yeast) and it didn't activate. My question is even though he's technically started the brew; if it doesn't start up, can he get and use a hydrometer at that point before adding live yeast to start up the fermentation to get an OG?
I feel like I'm giving a running commentary of "hey, this happened to me" at various points in your "show!" At the 20 minute mark you are talking about the possibility of wood in primary causing some issues in one of your brews. I made the apple from concentrate and I added the wood in primary. I actually added it to the apple juice about halfway through the boil down. I wrote to you about what I thought might have been sulfur odor and copper tubing remedies, etc. I splash racked it when I noticed it two days after starting primary. I took the wood out at that point wondering about it - is the wood causing an odd odor?. It's still in primary slowing down. I've opened it a couple times to check it and the odor is still there but not as bad as it was. To be fair, it may simply be what this particular brew is going to smell like during fermentation! Not ever having made it before, it just seemed odd to me. I don't see anything odd in the liquid, it doesn't look suspiciously hazy or anything like that. So I'm just going to treat it as normal. Because I boiled the wood chip, I'm not too worried about something actually in it, other than a strange aroma from it .... if that is indeed the cause. I guess I expected to smell an apple scent but not at all. But the alcohol scent is very strong so it's fermenting like crazy!!!
I have a question? can you us a caper to recap screw top bear bottles, great video love your videos, great info and very well explained and understandable
thanks for the info, I've found your Aldi lemon aide on line and I'm gonna order some of them and I found a dozen swing top beer bottles at Goodwill the other day@@CitySteadingBrews
I would love a episode on black currants berries. I want to make your black pepper and currant one but use berries not juice. How to change the original recipe? My first brew ever is your spiced metheglin and it is still fermenting right now. Hopefully it will turn out awesome.
So, speaking of your ACV cocktail Brian... have you ever had or even heard of Switchel ? I had the video of the history of it come up in the algorithm that is RUclips... Basically, its ground ginger, ACV, molasses, or maple syrup, and water. Supposed to have been a thirst quincher for farmers back in the day.
I have a sad story about Lambics (also my favorite beer). Due to a warmer winter climate in Belgium, the Lambic brewing season is shorter, so they cannot reliably make 3 batches every year any more. Sometimes only 2 batches. Perhaps the yeast will evolve to prefer the warmer winters, eventually, and make the beer for the longer season again. When I was a kid, I sometimes drank vinegar to get a little buzz kick.
I love that you you compared yeast to the borg. That is a very accurate statement that many won't understand lol
When I first started watching your channel, I had been brewing for almost 20 years, I can honestly say I've learned more from you guys in 3 years, than my 20 years brewing alone. You're the reason I have a hydrometer and take readings, and it (and you) have helped soo much, big thanks to you both. 🍻
This…. Is awesome and makes me want to make more content. Honored you stuck with us and happy to help.
I can completely relate I learned to brew at a shockingly young age for all the wrong reasons that I don't feel the need to explain we were all young. I have commented several times that before this channel I brewed "wrong," I felt it was time to explain more times than once I would start a brew wait a week rack it wait till it stops rack it again this time I would bottle never once using a hydrometer I couldn't figure out why when I opened a bottle that the contents would spew out violently I never had one actually explode I feel I got lucky the brews I made tasted ok-ish but got the job done after I felt like my stomach was churning let's say things got really rude after my first 3 videos from this channel I fixed 10-15 years of bad and or dangerous practice. They probably wish I would stop saying thank you, but I consider this channel a true gift They have enhanced both my brewing hobby and my life. I love the Unpasteurized episodes because they take a single topic and explain it to death! Which is how I learn and if I have questions I've learned to keep watching because during the "rants" and the "ramble" my questions get answered.
I'm always surprised when someone doesn't have a hydrometer honestly. It's one of the first things I learned when I was 11 years old or something. I guess it speaks to how wine wants to be made with or without humans 😅
You guys can just talk about life and your Journey and we will still be here listening
Lol
I actually started making vinegar! I made some strawberry cider, added a little bit of raw apple cider (with mother) from the store. Instead of bottling a 12oz bottle of cider, I just took that and stuck it in a sanitized mason jar and let it do it's thing. I now have a strong healthy vinegar mother, which I transfer to each new brew batch I do. It keeps it separate from the actual brew and I get vinegar. It's pretty easy imo and nice to have high quality vinegar on hand
I make my vinegars with either citrus or herbs. Citrus is for cleaning, lavender is for fabric softener, fruit (strawberry, blueberry, apple) is for salad dressing.
When a wine is a '5' or less, I'll vinegarise it and use it for cooking or plant fertilizer. Vinegar has many uses, even for making tinctures. 😊
Cultivated mushrooms for years. Brewing is super easy so far as cleanliness.
This guy is pouring sugar under a laminar flow hood 😂. (Couldn't hurt a bit).
I like the podcast form.
Helps pass the time while I drive all night for work. Brewing history podcast maybe? Haha
I learned some tasting when I started working as a barista & on a local wine tasting tour. I learned I like blue cheese & ice wine together, alone...not so much ☺ amongst other things
Lol
Love your videos. Change nothing about the way you guys do it. I’ve tried to watch other wine and mead making channels, and although informative, they lack the fun and personality of what you guys do. Thanks and keep up the great work.
Thanks, we appreciate it. :)
Other brew channels also all seem to be like "Here is my recipe using DAP, all the preservatives I could get my hands on, camden tablets (it's a mead with no fruit in it, but why not), bentonite clay, and the brewing equivalent of Miracle Grow. If you don't use all these things, your brew will fail!" No, thank you.
Thank y’all again for the shoutout!! I learned a lot from y’all today!!
I made pretty good mead in 3 weeks.
But I will never put in a bottle.
I just put the bubbler directly in the refrigerator.
And drink it.
Great advice. Had a strange issue recently with some blackberry wine. Went a little below 1.000 but still carbonated really strongly in some strange tertiary fermentation. I also use swing tops and have had to let them de gas by releasing the worst of it whilst trying to keep out any nasties. Even though I have years of experience I’m still learning. Keep safe everyone.
I recently made a cider and to test the slow I put some in the fridge early for a few days deliberately to see fermentation will start up again.
I poured some into a mug and let it get back to room temperature. Within 2 hours the mug had that characteristic fermentation smell showing fermentation had sped right back up again
Yup! Yeast are resilient!
Being patient on all my meads and using swing tops. Started some ginger beers and thinking to use 1 liter plastic soda bottles for them. Need a brew I can drink sooner then 6 months.
Yall are so funny! Great video again! Thank yall so much.
By the way I was the one with 6 stalls in a row. They were all done. My digital hydrometer was just BROKEN lol.
Oh wow!
I would like to see a video on your recommended care, cleaning and storage of various pieces of brewing equipment. Fermenters, auto-siphons, etc.
Thanks again for all the great information you share!
You guys are the best. We have learned so much from you. Thank you! ❤
I just wanted to speak my mind. Lol, I felt compelled. I just started getting into this whole fermentation hobby. I really enjoy your videos, they are so informative. Both of you are funny, entertaining. I find myself just watching your videos nowadays anymore. And the library is so extensive. Thank you 🙏.
You're welcome!
I make all my vinegars in a mason jar with a cloth cover. Takes 30-50 days. I've started pasturizing my vinegars.
I love watching you guys. I’ve learned so much over the years of watching. Thank you for sharing and teaching. Safety first…always!!
Great discussion people. Safety is a such an important thing. Love the way you make the repeatable things important in each video.
You guys are great, just found the channel a week ago but I am staying. Thank you.
Welcome!
We need more of this type of content. Unpasteurized is a great podcast. The only thing I'd add is maybe bring in your friends or maybe even let your members come on for an episode and let them decide the main topic. Could be informative.
I thinknthat would fun. A brew talk show. Ide watch that
Great teamwork. Big thank you. I have started my brewing path during corona lockdown. There was ups and downs :) Keep going. Greetings from Lithuania.
Love the videos. Thanks for drinking on camera and talking to us guys and gals. 😀
Any time!
Been using nut milk bag for the Blueberries and notice the wicking action keeps the small part that gets above the liquid line nice n wet. Sure it gets a swirl each day but no issues yet. Also helps putting #1 weight at bag bottom but #2 on top of berries. Then tighten & wrap the tie string under bag and tie off at top. Takes a lil finesse but is workin' here...biggest problem is keeping brews around long enough to age past 3 weeks 😁🤪👍
I started my first brew a little over a week ago. You guys have become my go to for brewing info. Thanks for what you do
Welcome!
You guys strike me as teachers, do you have a teaching background?
@xAnkhh she was an actual teacher… I traveled around teaching Professional Photographers for a while with the PPA.
@@CitySteadingBrews It definitely shows
If you are concerned about the vinegar brewing, maybe get a half gallon setup for it? A separate setup specifically for vinegar. Then you can make more vinegar without as much concern to the rest of your setup.
Or even make some right in the Bragg's bottle once it's empty.
Thank you guys for all the info you give the community. I started brewing because of you guys and i really enjoy everything you have to teach. You always have fun ideas and cool projects that inspire me.
Happy to help!
cool@ do you guys have a video on the aging process ? what is really happening for the taste to change etc ?
Lots of variables and more science than we care to learn tbh!
ruclips.net/video/V9rLofArIfg/видео.htmlsi=X1bXcfmHTQ0hj5KL
alot of great content packed into this 1.... thank you
Glad you enjoyed it!
I bought some mead making supplies. They'll be here tomorrow. Ive been watching you guys for a couple of years now. Let's see what I've learned. Thanks
You're welcome!
I've followed more than several of your recipes / videos, I've watched your content on pasteurization, racking, bottling, stalls and sanitization. knock on wood I have had zero issues or surprises (other than delicious flavors i.e. the sangria) I've even managed to develop a couple of my own recipes.
I can't thank you enough for your continued content, information and encouragement.
That’s awesome! Glad we could help!
Entertainingly informative, ( especially when I am doing a little sampling my self).
I know about fermentation bombs first hand. Still finding shards of glass.
Ouch!
Shout out two warriors! Love their stuff
In terms of bottling before the brewing is done:
The cider I try to make from bottled apple juice wasn't great. Like it tasted awful once I had brewed it dry. So I added another bottle of apple juice to it (I was experimenting with really small batches for reasons). Which of course adds sugar to it. In which case, pasteurizing has been brilliant.
So to get around it:
1. When you're bottling, get a sample plastic PET bottle or 2 and fill those just like you would any other bottle. This helps give you an indication of how much pressure is in a bottle. So when it feels rock hard, you can be pretty sure that you've probably only got a day at most to sort things out. At this point, open a plastic bottle and pour into a glass just to make sure that your beverage has carbonated.
2. When you've got it just where you want it, pasteurize it. I didn't have much luck with the pot technique but the sous vide machine has made it AMAZINGLY simple.
Your weak point is going to be capping. I was using one of those plastic double lever cappers BUT over time, the plates on them bend giving you a less tight capping (you can tell if the edges of your caps aren't going fully vertical and are instead at an angle). With the expansion you get from applying heat, the caps can loosen. I ended up buying a metal double lever capper from AliExpress. I've only used it on 4 or 5 batches (of around 70 bottles) so far and it's holding up really well and giving me some really good solid feedback as to when enough force has been applied (due to the lack of flexibility in the materials vs. plastic).
The other thing that this has lead to is some near 0% drinks. Instead of brewing at all, I use the same technique with things like apple and lemon juice (I call it Cider 0), ginger beer, ginger ale (like ginger beer but with a bunch of spices added in), lemon and lime drinks etc. To do this, empty your juice into a large sanitized pot, add a tiny amount of yeast and then bottle (doing the thing with the sample plastic bottle). When your indicator bottle is rock hard and you've confirmed that it's carbonated to your liking, pasteurize it. Now you've got some (near) non-alcohol drinks for those who don't want to drink and it has much the same feel as drinking with everyone else.
Your talk today is so relevant to my wine making task today. I opened a bottle of a wine I made last Oct and bottled in January. A Caramel Popcorn Mead, SG 1.054; by Nov it was at 1.010. I was concerned if it was unfermentable as I used Karo (corn Syrup) to adda bit more of the corn flavor. Dec 4 SG 1.006 XMAS eve 1.006. 2 readings. I stabilized here with Potassium Sulphate and Campden tablet (1 per gallon). Jan 14 back sweetened to 1.014 and bottled.
The bottle I opened was carbonated. It had started to re-ferment. Unscrew the tops of the remaining bottles, Take out another pinch of both the stabilizers and add to the bottles. Keep unscrewing the caps for the next few weeks. Not worried about Oxygenating now. I was making bottle bombs because of back sweetening and not enough stabilizers.
Thanks for explaining I was under the impression if you refrigerate you would be safe from bottle bombs. A lot of root beer makers say make it then put in fridge and it will be safe. I haven’t done this myself and now I won’t even try. So thanks for doing these videos I am always learning things. And bottle bombs really make me nervous so I always take readings and make sure fermentation is done before I even rack let alone bottle.
White vinegar is used in Belgian Eggs for breakfast. :) just found yalls channel and I love the content. I gave in and order some stuff to try my own meads ext out.
Seriously love all your vids but I could easily listen to you guys talk for hours every week
Thanks :)
I've mentioned before that I'm relatively new to this craft, about 4 months in. I chose the pasteurize method rather than chemical stabilization. I like that approach. I'm at the 5:30 mark in the video and I stopped the video to write this. The fermentation after bottling warnings got and kept my attention. I'm using some swing top bottles and some wine bottles purchased on Amazon with the corks with the plastic lids. They are not really cork material and probably aren't as tight in the bottle as a true wine bottle cork. But they are nice, reusable and easy to remove and put back on. So as a rookie, for safety, cost and ease of bottling I chose these two types of bottles. I bottled about 3 gallons of wine and mead, so I don't know, 13-16 bottles, something like that. Three distinct gallon jars, each one a completely different recipe, each one pasteurized before bottling, each one sat for 4 days after pasteurizing before bottling. After bottling I put them into a covered plastic bin for about 5 days just to make sure I had no issues. Ha, that's not even enough. Just under three weeks later, of ALL the bottles, ONE, yes ONE popped the top. Not all the bottles from a given gallon, just ONE bottle, one of 5 bottles from the same gallon brew. Now that's odd to me. I used an immersion circulator set to 145 degrees and kept each in there, I think about 20 minutes. However, I assumed and trusted that at 145, the liquid temperature would probably get to 140 and that 20 minutes should be enough. Lesson learned, MEASURE the temperature and keep it in there for 25-30 minutes at 140!!!
Sorry you had this happen. Something was amiss as we have never had a problem with this method.
Perhaps the internal temp did not hit the 140f?
@@CitySteadingBrews Yes, that's what I'm thinking. Not high enough temperature and/or not in the water long enough. And something else I just thought of in addition to the time & temp, perhaps this was the last bottle siphoned and maybe it picked up some of the stuff at the bottom that just would not give up without a fight!! In any event, no need to apologize, my lesson learned. Your method is absolutely fine and I'll just be more careful. I am not going to abandon pasteurizing!! And I am definitely NOT going to abandon CSB!!!
And by the way, it was one popped cork. I keep these bottles in the basement in my wine making area and the cork hit the ceiling and fell harmlessly to the floor. No harm done at all. More of a puzzle but that's the nature of this craft. I'm learning that and you've said it many times: there are always things that need to be solved and figured out. It's part of what makes this craft so interesting and fun.
And so for my "new and improved" racking method, I have a couple small, fine (75 micron )mesh bags and I will wrap one around the end of the source siphon tube so that it will minimize the amount of junk that gets into the destination and siphon tube. I mean, as much as I love cleaning out the siphon tube, the novelty runs out after a while!! For bottling, I will probably use two bags. I used two bags to rack a pineapple banana wine and it really didn't slow down the transfer too much at all.
Another great informative video from my favourite brew warriors! I have heard that (sun) dried cherry stems make an awesome florally tea, a Turkish custom. Trying this out as a Mead. Making a strong brew of the stems and adding them in after the first racking if the flavour needs a boost. The tea itself is lovely, and I think will hold up! Maybe an idea for a City Steading exploration?
Interesting!
How did it turn out? Sounds interesting
@@amessnger It turned out pretty delish! A light hint of cherry and herbs. Slightly oaky after adding extra stems when first fermenting was done.
@@heartemisart700 ok, you got me! Lol I'm hooked. I gotta try that, too. Thank you for sharing!
I was nearly done with a mead, just degassing and preparing to backsweeten, pasturize, and bottle when it started growing these short, thick, white strands. They grew overnight- the only thing that came into contact with the mead was the drill attachment for degassing, which I pretty thoroughly sanitized. I noticed a film a while back on the surface and bottom which I thought was the harmless bacteria you mentioned which gives a sour flavor. I do not know if the two are related, but I thought it would be worth mentioning. I also began fermenting in a plastic bucket (which I don't think I'll ever do again after this) and separated into four separate gallon carboys to flavor them differently. All of them have the strands, so I know it didn't come from the oak or any one of the spices I used. None of the strands are over an inch in length, most are on the bottom, but a few are floating and some are in the neck of the carboy up by the airlock. I am not sure if they are growing in the neck and falling into the mead, or if they're only growing up in the neck from the foam that reached up into it after degassing. I am assuming I just need to dump this, but I couldn't find anything about it online and wanted to see if you knew what it might be. Thanks
Actually, it's likely just protein strands and should rack out. No harm from that :)
@@CitySteadingBrews awesome, thank you!
Hi🙋🏽♂️
I'm new to this 🍷🍸🍺🍾🥃
This is stupid questions bothering me since more than 6 month.
why don't we use table Sugar instead of agave/ barley/corn/ wheat/ potatoes/(grains) to produce alcohol.
Because eventually most of our drinks are going to be cocktail, liquored, flavored.
So what's the point of putting all the efforts to producing alcohol from other dificult sources instead of just sugar.
Flavor. Sugar adds alcohol but no flavor. Anything else will give flavors. We don’t tend to make cocktail mixers most times. We are aiming for good tasting wines and meads all on their own.
Love it. This is good stuff
Thank you great information
I recently experienced the "cringe" when I realized a mistake I made, just like you mentioned. Yes, the repetition helps 'the right way' to sink in! Thank you for all you do.
It's pretty special, watching you guys and enjoying a glass I brewed myself that I learned from you. And oh my gosh, my first attempt at fig wine, such a crazy funk on it, but I'm glad I saved it. I had soaked some BUT NOT ALL the figs in boiling water, so I almost certainly got a wild yeast in there, and a thin white film because I hadn't submerged everything, so I'm guessing maybe Brettanomyces? But not fuzzy! We'll see how it tastes in 4 to 6 months! But the new batch is smelling a lot better, I've dunked those figs back down two or three times a day and got it off the fruit pulp after 4 days. It's already clearing up pretty nicely in secondary
Thanks to you guys, we have made almost 24 brews far based on the science and recipes you provide, very happy no issues but we try to follow all the safety techniques you recommend.
Not anything my brews are doing wrong, but any tips on keeping fruit flies out of the brew closet? I have vinegar traps around the area which are very effective, but _summertime._ They just appear, and they're very annoying. Should I just learn to live with them? Put a frog tank into the brew closet?
We have the same issue.
I've been watching your channel for the last couple months and learning tons from you guys. As someone who is new to brewing, I'm a total newbie, (I just started my second batch of mead and the first one a week before that) the information I'm learning for you is very helpful. Please keep up the good work! 👍🍻
Welcome!
Kriek is my favourite beer. I saw a programme on BBC2 in the late 80's it was called The Beer Hunter... the presenter was Michael Jackson...yeah not that one. You may even have heard of him. He visited a brewery in Belgium and showed square open vats(?) where the beer had it's first fermentation, or maybe a completed Lambic then he explained that bascially after that a lorry load of cherries were added to the vat...and the natural yeasts in the air again would create the secondary fermentation. This really was a brick outhouse(large I admit) with cobwebs all around the vats lol.
Going back on the mold topic (so... another question, yay! active viewerbase!) If you do get mold and dump, how do you clean everything to be able to use again later? The fermenter etc?
Regular scrubbing and cleaning is fine for glass. Plastic... I'd scrub REAL good.
Well I love you guys bunches. Always inspiring me to do the new.
Great vid!
Have y’all made kombucha on this channel? Would you consider that in the vinegar family?
ruclips.net/video/_oinX2KBzRs/видео.htmlsi=xCHHbKGpQPN5LapJ
@@CitySteadingBrewsThanks!
You CAN work on a car with just an adjustable wrench…. But, with more tools it’s probably easier. I notice a lot, people jumping in with no background studies on process or understanding of the science, then blame the recipe. I’m guilty myself, but Persevering through and evolving into a brewer am able to pinpoint MY mistakes.
i think thats almost how every brewer starts i know i started that way about 20 years ago.
Ferment for X days without thinking of temps or yeasts or even using a hydrometer. etc then bottle and wonder why it blew up.
These sessions are good, I learning stuff, and I drink things.
I really love your new thumbnails!
Thanks!
I used a bottle like that mead bottle to rack and I put it in the fridge it was fine for like a week I took it out of the fridge so I could put some leftovers in left it on the table and in the middle of the night the cork shot out and put a dent in the ceiling I ordered a hydrometer the next day 🙃
I have been trying to replicate some apple jack my uncle Luther and aunt Bessy made.
I think you suggested what made their flavor profile so unique in your “Concentrated Apple” video.
After pressing the apples they cooked down the the juice and apple mush, to, “Make sure the bugs were dead.”
At 5 years old it seemed to make sense…
They might have been talking about wild yeast, hopefully!
When you said the apple juice had caramelized and changed the flavor, it clicked for me.
BTW, they didn’t cook the stems or seeds and they would wring out the mush before fermentation.
not a content suggestion, but a question.
My airlock got a couple gnats floating in it (its an S-shaped airlock), but i filled the airlock with water from my cleansing tub (starsan). Will they cause any problems being in there during the first stage of fermenting since the CO2 is escaping at a fast pace?
Nope. But we clean them out and refill.
@@CitySteadingBrewsbetween ferments, or at any point during a ferment?
If we see bugs we clean it.
Question: Ever had larvae in ur brew? i started a cherry mead! picked the cherries myself i did my best in picking the best ones. I removed the seeds by hand(yes took awhile) . i sanitized everything, even the berries before i removed the seeds. After 4 weeks of fermenting its almost complete! from 1.100 to 1.012. i removed the cherries and i noticed small white larvaes on the top with the cherries . I scooped all floatise out and let it sit another week to take a new reading later. The lavaes worries me tho! i read online these could have been fruit flies larvaes in the cherries. throw out? or rack this for clearing phase when primary is done?.
We had something similar years ago. Dump it.
read some articles online about it and it seems to be not so rare as i thought it was. and some still say its fine! they die in fermentation, just scoop that out .
But yeah . i wouldnt wanna put that in my mouth what so ever. :) Dumping it! Thank you for the reply :)!@@CitySteadingBrews
i only found your channel yesterday and im so glad im early to this video.
i started a mixed berry mead yesterday with voss and well is it working hard OG 1.100 to 0.58 in 24 hours at 34c and 10 psi.
time will tell if speed helps or hinders.
Great idea with the one topic
Lambic brewers also use blending techniques to balance out batches to get consistent flavors of funk, sour, and ABV. On top of the extra funky brewhouses.
All commercial makers do :)
I use white vinegar for fabric softener works well and is cheaper than actual fabric softener
I've seen some brewing pyrotechnics in my time from exploding beer bottles in the neighbors fridge as a boy to my own first brew with a fermentation so violent it turned the 5 gal carboy into Mt. Vesuvius. The stopper and lock shot up to the joists with foam and wort spraying everywhere. Mistakes were made, not the least was not inspecting the air lock for molding flash . I quit brewing when my cardiologist took away cigars and alcohol, not impressed with my arguments on quality of life nor quantity of either. Seeing your videos makes me want to brew again. I can handle a gallon jug ( too damn old to be messing with 5 gal ) My nephew keeps bees, so I want to try your spiced mead with Ozark wildflower honey. I just have to see how much it's going to cost me ...
Great video! Thanks for all you guys do to make home brewing easy and fun!
Happy to help!
Is there a set time for taking your first reading with a hydrometer once you have pitched the yeast? Or, in other words, can you take a reading too soon?
We just wait until activity slows down.
This video explains it better: ruclips.net/video/-HFqEL5rCK0/видео.htmlsi=TI8ETr_TfDoUhZLG
Ok thank you.
I just checked my first mead which I started on 8/18/23 and the reading was a 1.048. I unfortunately didn't listen to you and never got an original reading. The question is can a mead finish at a 1.048 and just be really sweet? I'm going to wait a week and check it agian I was just curious on your thoughts.
@wendull811 it can, depending on where it started.
I'm going to look to see if you already have a video covering it. I'm sure you've at least talked about it. But my big concern right now is preventing secondary fermentation when back sweetening. I'm running to 6 gallon batches and plan on having 1/3 dry 1/3 semi sweet and 1/3 sweet when I bottle. *depending on how dry they actually finish, of course.
We talk about it in most all of our recipes. You will need to pasteurize to prevent further fermentation. Some prefer chemical stabilizers but we've never used them so I am not much help there.
@CitySteadingBrews now that you say it I remember lol. I've watched a lot of your videos but I just woke up. I even have a sous vide machine in my Amazon wish list lol.
LOL, you're 90% of the way there :)
My favorite source of wild yeast is from dates. I buy my dried fruit from Azure in bulk and the meads I've made with date culture are my favorite flavor. I pack a pint jar half full of dates and cover with non chlorinated (berkey filtered) water. A cheese cloth rubber banded lid alternative and 4 days on my counter gives it time to get supper frothy with fermenting bubbles then I just dump those contents into a 1 gallon jug of honey-water as my initial yeast innoculant.
Sounds good!
I would like to see a video on how to properly clean a carboy fermenter that has had a tight flocculation that does not want to come out.
Literally just wash it. Use a bottle brush for the inside :)
I followed your first time brewing video with the loosened cap on the bottle trick, and bottled the results after, oh, a month or so. However, since I didn't have a hydrometer yet, I'm extremely paranoid about bottle bombs, so I remove the corks every few days. Not saying it's an ideal solution, it's just what I do.
It’s one way for sure. But if you don’t get a little puff from carbonation upon opening… most likely fine :)
I just finished my first Port style brew Everything I read told me that adding my brandy to my partially fermented grape wine would halt fermentation. I believed it. After combining my grape wine and my brandy I was stupid enough to cap it. About 12 hours later I checked on. And it WAS fermenting. The pressure was so great I had to use channel lock pliers to remove the cap. Even with pliers it was difficult. When I got it off I had an eruption. I'm convinced that I was hours away from a one gallon bomb. So don't believe that your high alcohol will stop fermentation. Use an airlock, at least initially.
It will stop fermentation but you have to be absolutely certain your mix surpasses the yeast tolerance and even a bit more.
As far as bottle bombs, I always pasteurize after getting the same reading two weeks in a row. Another thing I do to ensure fermentation is finished is I rack into another fermenter and let it sit for another couple of weeks under an airlock before bottling. Also for my brews, regardless of if there is fruit in it or not I like to give them a swirl each day for the first few days. And as for mold I’ve never had an issue because I use a three stage sterilization process rather than sanitization. Sorry for the lengthy comment
I am not sure if you have talked about it before as im new here, but if you have not id love to hear about the effects of the temperature of the samples you test with a hydrometer and its effects along with the types of hydrometer's and how to use them (im thinking the eye glass version you hold up to the light that isnt effected by temperature).
There are calculators online to show the temp difference in samples. Being that we normally work within a few degrees of the same temp, even with our hydrometer calibrated for a different temp, our readings are consistent. Also, unless you’re talking huge temp swings, the difference is often negligible.
ruclips.net/video/kEAlls48rso/видео.htmlsi=UhwmHZOaqClZZNz6
Question....one of my wine books stated that dissolving the sugar on the stove and letting it heat on a SLOW boil for five minutes then cooling (for pitching) converts it from sucrose to fructose/glucose(?) allowing the yeast to begin consuming it immediately reducing lag time thereby lessening the time for "nasties" to get in.
With your knowledge can you guys confirm and/or explain why this is or isn't a viable practice that has a use in wine making?
I've made this statement on other channels and have received comments it's a myth enough times that now I'm curious if there's a scientific explanation.
No… it doesn’t convert it. They are going off of invert sugar which is a different method. Yeast has evolved to break down sugar. Even invert sugar doesn’t make any real difference for fermentation.
@@CitySteadingBrewsthanks
... And you knew I'd pipe up to say that white vinegar has a great couple uses other than cleaning. Try it on french-fries with salt (perhaps black pepper), but skip anything else with it, like ketchup. Next, try it on cooked spinach w a pinch of salt & black pepper. Lastly try it at least once in an oil & vinegar salad dressing. It is just so much cleaner (if you'll pardon the pun) on the palette than cider or balsamic vinegars. Oh, BTW, go to Canada and look at the little condiment packages at a burger joint... Oh! Look at that! White Vinegar! 😏😁
I would still use white wine vin over distilled.
@@CitySteadingBrews So that means you'll try those couple things mentioned, right? 😏 I understand the "flavor" imparted by those un-distilled vinegars, but the Brits & Canadians have something in just adding a touch of dilute acetic acid without "flavor" (or as they call it, 'flavour') to some foods that benefit from being acidic without adding. Just sayin... Restaurant waiters look at me like I've 3 eyes when I ask for white vinegar for my fries (not always, just when ketchup or gravy or fry-sauce gets to be old hat). See if you don't agree. Start with just a few drops, though. 😁
Also homemade pickles!!!
Hi there, love your video's, they're always nice additions to my own "things I'd like to try"-list.
In all honesty, I feel like your content made me make better brews, eg. Taking readings with a hydrometer, sanitizing using an actual acid sanitizer fluid (I used to chug everything in near boiling water to sanitize, it works but my plastic auto siphon did not like those temperatures) and finally, waiting until my yeast was done fermenting.
Well, being pretty novice in brewing (2y-something), a lot of mistakes were made, the worst offender being not properly pasteurized back sweetened (carbonated) bottled cider. Where I had a cider, which was done fermenting, performed backsweetening with fermentable sugar, with the intent to pasteurize when the desired carbonation was achieved (I made a sealed cider bag from vacuum-foil with idea pressure can be checked by feel, next to have bottled the rest of the brew), 2 weeks passed and practically no carbonation seemed to be added to my brew, which lead me to prematurely pasteurize all bottles, so 20 bottles 65°C for an hour and called it a day. All bottles were stored nice and chilly in the fridge and I got some pretty flat, but refreshing cider waiting to be consumed. The main shocker was that 2 weeks in, the brew was suddenly over-carbonated (so back to pasteurization, this time 72°C for 2 hours, just to be sure), I'm just happy those bottles didn't became sprinklers in the fridge.
So, there and then I've learned to backsweeten with non-fermentable sugars and only using the calculated amount of priming sugar, which worked fine so far.
Have you guys ever used iodine based sanitizer? I was reading about it and it seems to be just as effective as starsan. Thoughts?
I haven’t but there was something negative about it… oh much longer contact time and may stain plastics.
Thank you. Yea it does tend to stain a bit but it seems to fade after a bit. Thanks again for the quick reply 😊
"How do you sanitize the towel?" I also use a towel, and I sanitize the towel by putting star san in a spray bottle and lightly misting the table before laying the towel down, then do the surface of the towel the same way. Not enough to make it wet, but enough that I have covered the entire surface with a misting/layer.
I love your videos, they have been so helpful at learning this process. I do have an odd question, I made a mistake in my first batch of mead. I added the yeast and cadem tablets within the same day. Now it's produced some alcohol in 2 months but I'm wondering if I should add more yeast. I also know I didn't do the initial reading right. The last reading was 1.031 (was a week or so ago and I did the initial rack), and I used Larvin d47.
It may have stalled? Hard to say without knowing your initial gravity or recipe.
Nothing bad will happen from adding more yeast. It's worth a shot, IMHO.
To a point, yes!
The recipe I followed was:
3.5 # honey
3tsp malic acid
1.5 tsp. tartaric acid
0.25 tsp tannin
0.75 tsp Energizer
2 campden tablets
0.5 packet of yeast
Water (7 pints, I think I added closer to 9 pints)
I will admit, I didn't wait more than 5hrs to add the yeast. I now understand why that was foolish.
My hope is to do a more natural method similar to yours going forward.
Campden tabs kill yeast. Wait 24-36 hours or in this case, they weren’t needed.
Love the Spock action figure. The one you have looks like the one that was sold in during the 70's.
I was fermenting some oats in a sugar wash one time and it was going well through the 3 days of primary fermentation(during which i open the container and stir to add oxygen) . Had a good smell. Lots of bubbles. Secondary fermentation took about 6 days to complete. When i opened the fermenter for the first time after about 10 days, it smelled horrible. Kind of like bad milk. I cooked the oats in water so they were sterile but i guess at some point i introduced some bacteria. I am SO THANKFUL that we humans have such good sence of smell when it comes to this sort of things.
Oats would need amylase to break down the starches to sugar. I think you did get some kind of infection in there though.
@CitySteadingBrews I did use amalyse to maximize my sugars, but the oats were really just for flavor. The main source of sugar was white sugar.
I suppose being in Florida you don't have much experience with brewing in colder climate... but fermenting in a cold weather environment seems to be a challenge because everything takes so long... I'm 3 weeks into a couple brews and they are still making slow progress (2-6 points a week now with about 25-30 points to go) so I'm hopefully they will finish eventually (even if it takes months) but I think for next time I might have to look for yeast that specifically works well at cold temperatures (at least 60-64 degrees F but ideally all the way down to 50 F). I used B71 for these. A heating pad is a possibility too but there's so much thermal mass in a couple gallons of liquid and glass fermenters I'm not sure it would ever get very warm... definitely not into the 70s. The one I got now shuts off after 3 hours which doesn't help either - I'll have to keep an eye out for one that stays running.
D47 is the cooler weather counterpart to 71b.
Really enjoyed your videos lately! =)
Thanks!
Question on spgr. The spgr of ethanol is .787, if I take 0.9 gallons of water at 1.0 and add 0.1 gallon of pure ethanol (not by brewing, just from a bottle of ethanol) then my spgr after mixing the two should be about .89 give or take and my abv would be 10%.
However if I start with a 1G must at 1.069 spgr and it finishes at 0.995 then I have a 10% Abv, but that doesn’t align with what it should be (0.89) based on knowing the volume and spgr of both water and alcohol. So that suggests that I’m misunderstanding something or that there remains something dissolved in solution that is keeping the spgr a bit above expected. What am I missing here? Totally get that .006 isn’t a big deal and ultimately these are estimates but theoretically I could have started at 1.080 and ended at 1.006 and now we have a delta of 17 points between final spgr and expected spgr.
For the first example, I get 0.978. And yes, there is far more than just ethanol and water!
Yeah I absolutely get there is more than alcohol and water!! Also goodness, was off on my numbers twice there. I re did my numbers and agree yours is correct at .9787.
That being said that’s a.021 difference from a finish at 1.0 spgr from a 1.074 must. Which is equivalent to nearly 3% abv. When using juices you are assuming that anything above a 1.000 spgr is fermentable sugar so anything between .979 and your actual finished spgr could be error if you know alcohol is present in the brew. Which could be a few % it looks like.
Also, seems to me like the two of you compliment each other very well in your videos. For being unscripted you each play off each other well which I think is a large part of what makes your videos work.
Even “dry” still has sugars in it. Whether non-fermentable or just not fermented. Thanks :).
Presumably far more non fermentable in the ideal case when you are trying to run dry. What you don’t really know is how much. Or at least I don’t know, so I’m kind of thinking since you have two variables (alcohol and sugar) mixed into one measurement you can have a significant error in your abv. I honestly don’t care about a percent or two but I do like to understand where my unknowns are. I’m only working on my first brew or three and have never bottled anything so I’m just trying to learn.
@DavidJones-uh9rg there are no absolutes in homebrew. You would need lab analysis for that. Yeast will not consume all the sugars, nor will they consume non-fermentables. There’s a wide range of factors we simply cannot measure as homebrewers. Abv is an approximation. It’s not something to worry about really. Even commercial winemakers only need to be accurate to +/- 1.5-2%.
In 2021 I made my first two batches of wine, one a gallon of dandelion, one a gallon of pear. I waited patiently for them to be ready after bottling in January 2022. I left them in the refrigerator for nearly a year before trying the dandelion wine, which I called DanBLion wine, and it was kick-ass! The pear wine did something weird I think.. One bottle of the pear wine was very dark and the other 3 very light. This summer I tried the dark pear wine without sediment, and it seemed weakish. My neighbor thought it was dry. I didn't hold much hope for the other 3 bottles, and was on the verge of dumping them when I noticed the yeasty sediment that I hadn't seen before. It floated up then down in chunks as I would expect yeasty sediment to behave. I took a sip off of one of the remaining bottles, smelled alcohol, and got a small buzz, it was before breakfast. Am I willing this wine to be drinkable, or does this seem normal?
I've currently started a batch of blackberry mead, and pear mead about a week ago. The seperation of petals and sepals for the dandelion wine is too much for my arthritic hands. Everything looks good so far on the two new batches with lots of co2 bubbles escaping the airlock, so fingers crossed.
Seems fine to me.
Since you have a request queue, one of the best ones I made was sweet potato, carrots, apple juice, and raisins. I'd love to see your take on that idea. I found your channel just under a year ago, and you've been a great help as I continue learning what (not) to do.
I'm curious if you cooked the sweet potato and carrots first, or if you left them raw?
@@julietardos5044 Raw. I started them frozen and thawed beforehand, hoping to break down some cell walls, and added amylase to break down the starches. I liked the sweet potato flavors, wasn't a big fan of the carrot aftertaste though.
Your guys videos are so helpful
Glad you like them!
It’s the end of summer y’all are in Florida where’s the muscadine wine video? Love the show it’s very Alton Brown !
We don't have a supply of muscadines.... It's not like they grow everywhere. :)
If you sanitize your bottles, do you need to sterilize them, (In the oven for a designated time at specific temperature)? With that said, I have learned so much from you! The repeated info has helped sink the info into my human brain!
Sterilization of any gear isn't necessary. Just sanitize.
If you are thinking about making vinegar, I would suggest the book The Artisanal Vinegar Maker's Handbook: Crafting Quality Vinegars - Fermenting, Distilling, Infusing Hardcover
by Bettina Malle (Author), Helge Schmickl (Author). They really get into the process and even how to make your own vinegar production equipment if you want.
I think I have it or read it…
Hi guys! I'm a long time watcher and lover of your videos (Thank you ever so much.. Big Fan!) and my son decided to make his own blackberry mead the other day. It wasn't using one of your recipes (making me uneasy) and he didn't have a hydrometer to test for the OG (making me hyper nervous!) He put it all together with some help from myself (based on your video knowledge) but he wasn't sure on the viability of the yeast. I had him do a bit of a hydration of the yeast he was using (basic bread yeast) and it didn't activate. My question is even though he's technically started the brew; if it doesn't start up, can he get and use a hydrometer at that point before adding live yeast to start up the fermentation to get an OG?
If there’s been absolutely no fermentation it might be accurate still.
Thank you, that’s what I was wondering - whether it would be accurate. I’ve sent him links to your videos so hopefully he’ll take heed for next time!
Good morning yall! Just ordered my merlot kit haha
im about to bottle my first ever brew, great timing for this video
I feel like I'm giving a running commentary of "hey, this happened to me" at various points in your "show!" At the 20 minute mark you are talking about the possibility of wood in primary causing some issues in one of your brews. I made the apple from concentrate and I added the wood in primary. I actually added it to the apple juice about halfway through the boil down. I wrote to you about what I thought might have been sulfur odor and copper tubing remedies, etc. I splash racked it when I noticed it two days after starting primary. I took the wood out at that point wondering about it - is the wood causing an odd odor?. It's still in primary slowing down. I've opened it a couple times to check it and the odor is still there but not as bad as it was. To be fair, it may simply be what this particular brew is going to smell like during fermentation! Not ever having made it before, it just seemed odd to me. I don't see anything odd in the liquid, it doesn't look suspiciously hazy or anything like that. So I'm just going to treat it as normal. Because I boiled the wood chip, I'm not too worried about something actually in it, other than a strange aroma from it .... if that is indeed the cause. I guess I expected to smell an apple scent but not at all. But the alcohol scent is very strong so it's fermenting like crazy!!!
I have a question? can you us a caper to recap screw top bear bottles, great video love your videos, great info and very well explained and understandable
I've been told it's not recommended. They apparently have a weaker neck than capped bottles.
thanks for the info, I've found your Aldi lemon aide on line and I'm gonna order some of them and I found a dozen swing top beer bottles at Goodwill the other day@@CitySteadingBrews
I would love a episode on black currants berries. I want to make your black pepper and currant one but use berries not juice. How to change the original recipe? My first brew ever is your spiced metheglin and it is still fermenting right now. Hopefully it will turn out awesome.
If we could get a batch of black currants we would.
So, speaking of your ACV cocktail Brian... have you ever had or even heard of Switchel ? I had the video of the history of it come up in the algorithm that is RUclips... Basically, its ground ginger, ACV, molasses, or maple syrup, and water. Supposed to have been a thirst quincher for farmers back in the day.
Ehh, never tried. Molasses isn't so great for me.
@@CitySteadingBrews You can substitute maple syrup, which I know isn't great for a diabetic either, but you have made an Acerglyn before...
I have a sad story about Lambics (also my favorite beer). Due to a warmer winter climate in Belgium, the Lambic brewing season is shorter, so they cannot reliably make 3 batches every year any more. Sometimes only 2 batches. Perhaps the yeast will evolve to prefer the warmer winters, eventually, and make the beer for the longer season again.
When I was a kid, I sometimes drank vinegar to get a little buzz kick.