Second brew: Brewing a severely "expired" kit (again)

[Toxxyc Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Toxxyc]

I can vouch for those pouches! I’ve had pouches turn out better than some of my all grains...

Well that's reassuring, for sure! Is there any specific pouches you would recommend? I'm VERY lus to try a chocolate stout for my next beer brew. I heard that stouts are harder to stuff up and with the winter coming a chocolate stout sounds awesome. I'm hooked after drinking one the other day!

[CraftyZA Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close CraftyZA]

Well that's reassuring, for sure! Is there any specific pouches you would recommend? I'm VERY lus to try a chocolate stout for my next beer brew. I heard that stouts are harder to stuff up and with the winter coming a chocolate stout sounds awesome. I'm hooked after drinking one the other day!

I’ve done a stout, pilsner, and a weis.
All from pouches. There was others, but cant remember them. I think one was a bitter as well.
When making the stout, drop in a small stick of licorice wood while boiling the enhancer.
Just a 5 minute boil is plenty.

[Toxxyc Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Toxxyc]

I’ve done a stout, pilsner, and a weis.
All from pouches. There was others, but cant remember them. I think one was a bitter as well.
When making the stout, drop in a small stick of licorice wood while boiling the enhancer.
Just a 5 minute boil is plenty.

Thanks for the tip, I'll keep it in mind! Where would one find licorice wood, incidentally? Anyway, I'm torn between these two: http://brewcraft.co.za/mangrove-jack...ch-176020.html or http://brewcraft.co.za/mangrove-jack...ut-176041.html

The workingman's seems a bit less bitter, which seems like a nicer choice to me but the Roasted Stout seems to have a lot more chocolate flavour flavour and a fuller body...?

Anyway, on a totally unrelated note, does anyone know of a home brew shop in Randfontein?

[CraftyZA Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close CraftyZA]

Thanks for the tip, I'll keep it in mind! Where would one find licorice wood, incidentally? Anyway, I'm torn between these two: http://brewcraft.co.za/mangrove-jack...ch-176020.html or http://brewcraft.co.za/mangrove-jack...ut-176041.html

The workingman's seems a bit less bitter, which seems like a nicer choice to me but the Roasted Stout seems to have a lot more chocolate flavour flavour and a fuller body...?

Anyway, on a totally unrelated note, does anyone know of a home brew shop in Randfontein?

Some health shops stock it.

[Toxxyc Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Toxxyc]

Opened one of these beers this weekend after a week of carbonating. Carbonation was good, with a nice head and typical bubbles from only one week of sitting (so, larger bubbles that faded relatively quickly). I took one taste and tossed the rest down the drain. It's frigging terrible. It's bitter (but not good bitter), tastes like metal and has an incredibly dry finish. Like dry white wine in the finish, but without anything good that goes along with this. Leaves your tongue dry and scratchy. I HIGHLY doubt this will ever be even remotely drinkable, so I'm seriously considering just tossing it all down the drain. Will free up my bottles and crate and give some space in the pantry. Thoughts?

[Toxxyc Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Toxxyc]

Tested. It's getting worse. There's a dry bite in this beer that's getting dryer and dryer. At this stage it's so bad that it feels like you stuck your tongue on the applicator of a bottle of antiperspirant roll-on, mixed with that strong, undying metallic taste. It's HORRIBLE. Now I need to find out if the beer will be good for the garden and if I should rather flush it...

[Setsumi Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Setsumi]

QUOTE=Setsumi;18459]The thing with expired kits is oxidation. If you look at your wort it is dark but the can say munich lager. The dark wort is oxidated and will have a metalic off taste.[/QUOTE]

Posted on page 1

[Toxxyc Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Toxxyc]

QUOTE=Setsumi;18459]The thing with expired kits is oxidation. If you look at your wort it is dark but the can say munich lager. The dark wort is oxidated and will have a metalic off taste.

Posted on page 1[/QUOTE]
Indeed, you called it! :P I know about this oxidation and metallic taste in old kits, but just because a kit is old does not guarantee this (my first brew is proof of this). I was merely hoping, and I wasn't lucky. As simple as that.

[Toxxyc Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Toxxyc]

Opened and poured out 50 beers yesterday. Followed some online advice and treated my lawn's brown spots - let's see if it works.

PS: I tried one before pouring it out - couldn't even swallow it. Spat it out - this was truly a disgusting brew Lawn smells of sweet and beer now.

Also one thing I noticed when opening them - carbonation levels in these beers varied WILDLY. In the last batch, there was some variation, but not much at all. All had more or less the same amount of carbonation. In this, I'm surprised some bottles didn't explode. I opened some flip top Grolsch bottles and while all of them made a "pop" noise (as always), two bottles popped to loud and so hard that the cap flew off and actually hit me hard enough to hurt my hand, and rip the metal clip from the bottle.

I won't be brewing an expired kit with any kind of hope any time soon.

[CraftyZA Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close CraftyZA]

Second brew: Brewing a severely "expired" kit (again)

Grolsch bottle can take serious amounts of pressure.
I’ve got 2 bottles about a 2.5 year old. Just an experiment. I have no intention of drinking them. Purely boiled dme, and either simcoe or cascade hops.
Opened one about a year ago and it created a fountain about 2m high. Insanely sweet caramel like smell.

I fermented it, then bottled after 4 weeks. Starting gravity was about 1.350. No idea what fg was?

It was actually meant to be an additive to a beer i was making, but there was an accident in the kitchen, so i decided to just ferment this dme syrup and see what happens. Fermented with lalvin.

Any ways. I will not be surprised if this is above 5 vols of co2
Its the champaign bottles of the beer world. They just will not explode




Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

[Toxxyc Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Toxxyc]

Grolsch bottle can take serious amounts of pressure.
I’ve got 2 bottles about a 2.5 year old. Just an experiment. I have no intention of drinking them. Purely boiled dme, and either simcoe or cascade hops.
Opened one about a year ago and it created a fountain about 2m high. Insanely sweet caramel like smell.

I fermented it, then bottled after 4 weeks. Starting gravity was about 1.350. No idea what fg was?

It was actually meant to be an additive to a beer i was making, but there was an accident in the kitchen, so i decided to just ferment this dme syrup and see what happens. Fermented with lalvin.

Any ways. I will not be surprised if this is above 5 vols of co2
Its the champaign bottles of the beer world. They just will not explode




Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

Well that's comforting, because I'm planning on bottling some experimental stuff in the future, and I need bottles that can re-seal. So they'll be the ones I use!

[JIGSAW Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close JIGSAW]

...but dont now think you can go crazy with the Vol of CO² in Grolsch bottles. When I was into Ginger Beer we had some serious bottle bombs with Grolsch bottles and they were only done with about 8g sugar per Lt of beer

[Toxxyc Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Toxxyc]

...but dont now think you can go crazy with the Vol of CO² in Grolsch bottles. When I was into Ginger Beer we had some serious bottle bombs with Grolsch bottles and they were only done with about 8g sugar per Lt of beer

Yeah I'm not planning on going crazy. I'm guessing there's a lot more to it than just putting sugar into a bottle, so I'm always leaving some headspace to allow for compression when bottling in them. I use carbonation drops, and they equate to 3.5g of sugar per 450ml, so that's also about 8g per liter, and so far, so good...