homebrewing.

set some more up last week, one flagon with jam and one with honey.

i thought of trying to ferment porridge oats. would that work at all?

  goffer said:

The ABV though should be at around 11-12%

:omg:

  ezkerraldean said:

i thought of trying to ferment porridge oats. would that work at all?

short answer no. oats don't have enough enzymes of their own to convert in a mash. you could, however, mash your oats with some barley malt or, if yer feelin frisky, you could make yourself an oat beer out of oat malt (which can be mashed by itself). i only know of one maltster who malts oats - thomas fawsett and sons in the uk, but their malts are available online in the US.

(Pictish Ale (w/ heather tips) in fermenter right now. bottle this weekend. should be ready in a month or so.)

  terrafi said:

Did my first all grain batch this last Sunday. It's a Gumball Head clone.

 

 

Heat it up and get the sugars out of it.

did you make your own mash tun or buy. i have yet to go all grain (i'm thinking i may go keg first, but either step is (financially) a ways off)

I ended up making my own. Probably cost around $60 to make. You only need a water supply line for a toilet, some 3/8 inch tubing, and a shut off valve that fits inline with the tubing.

This is basically what I did.

That Pliny clone sounds hoppy as hell, but delicious.

  terrafi said:

I ended up making my own. Probably cost around $60 to make. You only need a water supply line for a toilet, some 3/8 inch tubing, and a shut off valve that fits inline with the tubing.

 

This is basically what I did.

 

That Pliny clone sounds hoppy as hell, but delicious.

That's not too bad at all, and a helluva lot cheaper than i thought it was going to be. the diy mash tuns i've seen (and, to be honest i haven't researched it much) have been more complicated (lots of copper pipe etc) but that looks doable. i may be going all grain sooner than i thought.

Nice! Yeah, I saw that version too, where the cut slits into the top of the copper tube. Too much work, and too expensive. The water supply valve seems to work just fine.

  terrafi said:

Nice! Yeah, I saw that version too, where the cut slits into the top of the copper tube. Too much work, and too expensive. The water supply valve seems to work just fine.

do you use a pump to recirculate or what?

Oh yeah, a little note about valves. Don't bother buying one. You can do exactly the same job by putting a balloon over the neck of whatever bottle you're brewing in, with a few pinprick holes in it. The balloon will inflate with CO2 and since the pressure will always be higher on the inside, no air will get in.

Works absolutely fine, and costs about 10p.

  ezkerraldean said:

Works absolutely fine, and costs about 10p.

water+sugar+yeast, wait a week and drink, could add some juice concentrate to add color and some taste.

  fox said:

  terrafi said:

Nice! Yeah, I saw that version too, where the cut slits into the top of the copper tube. Too much work, and too expensive. The water supply valve seems to work just fine.

 

do you use a pump to recirculate or what?

Nah, I drain out about 2 quarts into a pitcher to let the grain settle, and then pour it back in slowly. I'm looking to get a couple of sanke kegs, and use one for a boil kettle and the other for the mash tun. Then I'm going to look into getting a pump. Or I might build a 3 tier gravity system.

Everything is scattered around. I want to get all of it together, so it isn't such a clusterfuck on brew day.