Astoria Homebrewers

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This group is dedicated to anyone that is interested in making their own beer at home. Maybe if enough people are into it we can get together and swap our homemade brew!

Members: 93
Latest Activity: Feb 4

Discussion Forum

Home Cider Brew 3 Replies

This past fall I took to brewing some serious cider. Anyone else out there travel into the apple world? I'd love to chat about process, apple varietals, yeast, etc, and maybe do a little swap of some…Continue

Started by Seán Linehan. Last reply by Seán Linehan Mar 16, 2012.

Homebrewing Help Line 103 Replies

Have a question that needs a fast answer? Post it here.Have all the answers to everyone's problems? Follow this conversation using the link below.Continue

Started by Ran Craycraft. Last reply by Brad Boggess Feb 22, 2012.

H 4 Replies

Hi brew community,I'm new to the forum and relatively new to Astoria but I've brought my 3 batches done curiosity and would love to pick a brain or two on how to get more actively brewing.So anyone…Continue

Started by Clifford Yun. Last reply by Clifford Yun Feb 21, 2012.

Home Brewer on Ditmars Needs Friends 7 Replies

Hello brew friends,I've lived on Ditmars for 1.5 years and would love to reach out to my community. Had to ditch my all-grain equipment but doesn't mean I can't share my extract brew with you all!I…Continue

Started by Brett Engard. Last reply by Brad Boggess Jan 20, 2012.

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Comment by Scott on January 18, 2011 at 1:50pm: Thanks Jon and will let you know.

-Not a probem AdMin. Will do on my next question.

Comment by Ran Craycraft on January 18, 2011 at 1:35pm: Hey guys, I added two discussions in the forum above for people to post their general tips/tricks and another for those who need fast help with homebrewing.

As this group grows, we should probably try to encourage people to use the forum rather than posting everything to the Wall--which generates emails to everyone and tends to eventually cause disinterest if the Wall posts aren't directly relevant.

Just a suggestion, by no means a requirement. Loving this group so far!

Comment by Jon Lorenzini on January 18, 2011 at 1:19pm: *and don't forget your priming sugar! ;)

Comment by Jon Lorenzini on January 18, 2011 at 1:18pm: Scott - Capping is very easy. You can buy a bench capper (more expensive):

http://www.rebelbrewer.com/shoppingcart/product_images/c/benchcappe...

or a standard one:

http://www.rebelbrewer.com/shoppingcart/product_images/p/capper__50...

Since you are only doing smaller batches I would recommend the second one. Also, the quality of the capper is pretty standard (It is just a metal hat that forces the caps to curl around the edges nothing too fancy.

When bottling I like to keep the bottles on the floor, straddle it to use my feet as support and use my weight to push down and cap.

I put way too much info because trust me, capping is very easy.

Comment by Brian Woestehoff on January 18, 2011 at 1:16pm: WLA Admin:

Don't worry about it, a few hours shouldn't give you bad contamination unless you're unlucky. For centuries, some breweries have employed open-topped fermenters with large surface areas (some actually hoping to get some contamination from specific wild yeast strains, brettanomyces, lactobacillus, pediococcus, etc.). You can get some undesirable off flavors if the batch is left in the open and the right bugs get in, but don't worry about it. As far as the junk in the airlock, it's not going to breed bad things but may clog again if the fermentation is still active.

Comment by Scott on January 18, 2011 at 12:02pm: Okay. I will try a capper. Any suggestions on a model? My only concern is that since it's only ten bottles, I do not want to lose any of the product on a poor attempt at capping. A friend of mine got a Mr. Coopers kit that came with screwtop bottles. Anyone ever try conditioning in a screwtop? Thanks Amy.

Comment by Amy Litt on January 18, 2011 at 11:01am: We (Acacia and I) had a fun time capping the bottles, but if you don't want to buy a capper yet you can get swing top bottles at Ikea for $2-3 a piece.

Comment by Acacia Graddy-Gamel on January 18, 2011 at 10:56am: I really like my capper. I saved up all the empties (that weren't twist offs) from some holiday parties with friends in anticipation of the bottling adventure. It's a lot cheaper to reuse old bottles and just buy caps. If you need swingtops though, check out Whole Foods Bowery.

Comment by Scott on January 18, 2011 at 10:49am: Thanks Acacia. I just checked out the Northern deluxe. Wow! So I can bottle in two weeks after the primary. There is no secondary. I go straight to bottling and wait 2 weeks. I am on a mission to find .33L swingtops. I'm looking for the smaller bottles because of the amount I'm brewing (fills 10 of those). Am I crazy? Should I just get a capper?

Comment by Acacia Graddy-Gamel on January 18, 2011 at 10:08am: Hi Scott. I've got a bigger kit, the five gallon from Northern Brewer. I've been giving 1-2 weeks in the primary and then another 2-4 weeks in secondary before 1-2 weeks bottle conditioning, so that takes a while. But everything I've seen says for low or medium ABV brews, you can get away with skipping secondary and leaving everything in your primary for an additional week. Plus, the taste of your bottled brew changes drastically the longer you age it. I noticed a world of difference cracking one open after one week of bottle conditioning and then at two weeks.