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January, 2025

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Home Brewing

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AT-AT
Posts: 3281 - Karma: 3,258
I just started brewing my own wine a few months ago and am currently on my 8th and 9th batches. Anyone else here home brew?
Mar 20 2012 10:19PM
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General_Ripper
Posts: 3327 - Karma: 189
Yea beer.

Thats pretty cool you do wine.

Great experience but its a time consuming hobby.
Mar 20 2012 10:22PM
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theDARKERparker
Posts: 100 - Karma: 9
haha thats sweet dude, I would have gone with beer instead of wine, but thats just me. I've always wanted to try to make moonshine lol
Mar 20 2012 10:23PM
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Dhane
Posts: 3866 - Karma: 1,722
ah, ive been wanting to for forever but some last minute expense or something always comes up and i never have gotten around to it. have fun with it though, it seems like quite an experience to make your own stuff, progressing, learning, modifying. im a little jealous
Mar 20 2012 10:23PM
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Kingdom
Posts: 408 - Karma: 7
Make some hooch. :)
Mar 20 2012 10:23PM
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skithesprings
Posts: 9086 - Karma: 1,349
My family makes about 600 bottles of wine in the fall from grapes imported from cali and 600 bottles in the spring from grapes imported from chile.

you could say I've dabbled...
Mar 20 2012 10:28PM
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AT-AT
Posts: 3281 - Karma: 3,258
I would love to try beer, but its a lot more of process than wine. Right now i just have two 6 gallon fermenters going in my apartment at college. My first few batches tasted awful, but i think I'm starting to get a hang of it.  Each batch costs me around 25 $ to make, and takes about 4-6 weeks to ferment through.
Mar 20 2012 10:29PM
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squashmosh
Posts: 632 - Karma: 565
Me and my friends just started with beer. Fucked up the first batch a little but the second is being dry hopped in the secondary and it smellllll goooooood
Mar 20 2012 10:32PM
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AT-AT
Posts: 3281 - Karma: 3,258
Wow that's impressive man. Do you have any tips or anything to help me along?
Mar 20 2012 10:32PM
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General_Ripper
Posts: 3327 - Karma: 189
All grain? my first couple batches sucked too, we got a system now and make one heck of a strong beer..haha
Mar 20 2012 10:34PM
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AT-AT
Posts: 3281 - Karma: 3,258
No Grain haha. Just Welch's grape juice.
Mar 20 2012 10:38PM
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Big.L
Posts: 703 - Karma: 15
This guy I used to work for makes shine, shits fucking awful
Mar 20 2012 10:39PM
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corona
Posts: 12818 - Karma: 32,995
do it up!

it's easy to get very reliable information on it from New Zealand web sites and books since it's legal to distill your own alcohol there.

I know some people who have distilled their own. They'd make pretty large batches of alcohol pretty much with just water, sugar, and yeast and a few other things for flavour. (about 40 gallons at a time). It would ferment to about 10-12%. then from there it's simply setting up a still. and refining. making sure you know what to chuck out. the stuff they made was around 70-80% and not too bad.
Mar 20 2012 10:45PM
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Barefootin_Fiend
Posts: 7618 - Karma: 4,727
i brew beer. never tried wine, but id like to.
Mar 20 2012 10:46PM
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smooticus
Posts: 1798 - Karma: 27
I tried doing beer for a while, but its just too much work so I do hard cider and wines. I make the best blackberry ale during the summer as well.
Mar 20 2012 10:49PM
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bustinthejus
Posts: 2419 - Karma: 74
In the words of my chem teacher... "yeah, the process of making moonshine is actually pretty simple. But if you do it wrong... YOU GO BLIND."
Mar 20 2012 10:52PM
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skithesprings
Posts: 9086 - Karma: 1,349
I see you're using welches grape juice...

better grapes = better wine, but in your case, better juice is going to make better wine. When we crush and let the grapes ferment we don't have to add any yeast or chemicals because everything the wine needs is naturally present to begin fermentation, so I can't really help with your fermentation, but I can tell you without going into great detail, that you should certainly be using cold stabilization to inactivate the yeast and that the more you rack your wine the more shit and sediment you'll be able to remove and the better it will taste.

if you have any specific questions hit me up
Mar 20 2012 10:54PM
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AT-AT
Posts: 3281 - Karma: 3,258
Thank you bro.
I have just been racking it into a secondary ferment after about 2 weeks and then racking it right into the bottles after its sat in the secondary for a few more weeks.
Mar 20 2012 10:59PM
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Lolocaust.
Posts: 1716 - Karma: 512
I think thats fucking awesome. Keep on doing it
Mar 20 2012 11:00PM
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SpaghettiWizard
Posts: 2825 - Karma: 166
You should probably just make meth instead
Mar 20 2012 11:02PM
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General_Ripper
Posts: 3327 - Karma: 189
Gramps has the best Grapa recipe in all the land, that type of cheap booze youre talking about sucks. I come from a long line of grapa makers from the "old country." The drunk felling of wine with out the hangover. Been thinking about using the family knowledge and making a name.

/claim
Mar 20 2012 11:05PM
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SR20steve
Posts: 23 - Karma: 14
Im on my second batch now, first batch was terrible I bought a coopers IPA kit and kinda just freelanced with half Weizen dry malt and half beet sugar, it ended up tasting like a low point (ended up reading 2.5% alc) steel reserve, lol.

This go round I have a full on morebeer.com German style Hefeweizen kit with pellet hops and liquid yeast. Im just gonna follow the steps to a tee and make some awesome hefe.
Mar 21 2012 12:18AM
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theDARKERparker
Posts: 100 - Karma: 9
thanks man, me and a few of my buddies have been wanting to for a while, ill look at some NZ sited for tips K+4u
Mar 22 2012 11:20PM
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AT-AT
Posts: 3281 - Karma: 3,258

Click for larger image

Just an update. I'm currently up to my 21st batch. Above is all my fermentors currently set up in my room.

12 gallons of concord wine
3 gallons of hard cider
2 gallons of mead
1 gallon of white wine, and
1 gallon of peach wine

Dec 13 2012 10:51PM
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powderhound100
Posts: 2510 - Karma: 144
How did the CIder turn out? Interested in trying to brew some, any information on what to use/recipes etc?
Dec 13 2012 11:14PM
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theabortionator
Posts: 52146 - Karma: 168,471
I brew my own jenk. I got 3 batches curing right now. Fresh as fuck.
Dec 13 2012 11:20PM
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AT-AT
Posts: 3281 - Karma: 3,258

The cider came out good, justa little light on the flavor.

For a hard cider (a 3 gallon batch).

3 gallons of apple cider,

1 can of apple juice concentrate, 

75-100 cut up raisins,

.75lbs brown sugar

Lalvin D-47 yeast (can get at any homebrew store)

Dec 13 2012 11:28PM
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Afeld
Posts: 3516 - Karma: 86
can you go into a little more detail?
Like mix all ingredients and then what?
How long do you wait?
Does it need to be stored anywhere special? Cold? Warm?
Does quality of the cider matter?
Dec 14 2012 1:31AM
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HenniferLopez
Posts: 1319 - Karma: 136
My dad makes the BEST wine. I knew his anal personality was good for something.
Dec 14 2012 1:37AM
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Theenterprise
Posts: 60 - Karma: 10
there is an abundance of shitty threads in nsg go type your bullshit in one of those and stop mucking up a thread that could actually be useful to someone.
Dec 14 2012 2:20AM
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HERCULES.
Posts: 664 - Karma: 211
this thread made me smile. cool to see other fellow skiiers are on the hooch haha. ive made moonshine in the past and now make alot of applejack/brandyish kinda stuff. i dont know what to call it. all i know is after its double freeze distilled its the strongest (and one of the best tasting) things ive ever drank. Im on a learning curve on the aging and filtering though. its a bitch getting all the crap/yeast out of it and theres such a huge taste difference after running it through a coffe filter twice. im gonna let this last batch sit a week and then filter and re-rack it and see how good it is. Anyone got any tips to get rid of the yeast/ filter stuff?
Dec 14 2012 2:23AM
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Jeebus.
Posts: 4904 - Karma: 5,823
You had me at anal.
Dec 14 2012 2:23AM
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Tinga
Posts: 11349 - Karma: 2,333
Yeah I've been brewing for a couple years now. I recently finished a new system and have put my first batch through it a week ago.
Click for larger image

Dec 14 2012 2:37AM
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PacificRimJob
Posts: 24730 - Karma: 30,002
I love home brewing... makes me feel like I'm on Breaking Bad.
Dec 14 2012 2:39AM
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Jeebus.
Posts: 4904 - Karma: 5,823
yeah thats what making meth makes me feel like.
Dec 14 2012 2:41AM
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Tinga
Posts: 11349 - Karma: 2,333
when I breed outside I was always worried someone was going to call the cops on me. There are a few stories of people who have had their neighbors call the cops because they thought they were making meth and such.
Dec 14 2012 2:41AM
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PacificRimJob
Posts: 24730 - Karma: 30,002
Haha what the hell, really?

Here in Oregon, there have actually been meth labs raided, where the cookers were also brewing beer as a front to make it seem like that's all they were doing.
Dec 14 2012 2:55AM
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AT-AT
Posts: 3281 - Karma: 3,258
I mix everything together in a fermentor,
(You can purchase anything from a 6 to 1 gallon sized one at any brew store, However if you're just starting off a plastic milk gallon will work just fine) 
The yeast is added in last. You should notice activity within the first day or two.

Leave it open to the air for the first 7-10 days
After this time place an airlock on the fermentor. (if you dont have one, take a balloon stick a needle through the top and place it over the fermentor.) This will allow the CO2 being created by the yeast to leave without having anything else get back into the cider.

Let it sit for another 3 weeks, the fermentation will slow down towards the end, and you'll start to notice settlement at the bottom. At this point I siphon it over to a secondary fermentor to let the ferment finish and the rest of the yeast to drop out. However at this point it's more than drinkable and will have all the alcohol it needs.  Siphon it out of the fermentor (leaving all the settlement at the bottom) as opposed to pouring it out of the fermentor, it will taste much better without all that yeast floating around in it.

The quality matters, but if its your first batch any cider will work. Cold is better for the ferment. The colder it is the slower the ferment and generally the better the flavor. However it will also take longer. Around 60 degrees is a good temp. Try to keep it below 70 - 75 and you'll be fine.
Dec 14 2012 8:53AM
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stizzle
Posts: 371 - Karma: 623

Anyone on here got any experience with Simcoe hops? I'm debating including some on my next IPA.

Dec 14 2012 9:05AM
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Charlie_Kelly
Posts: 11955 - Karma: 12,302
Imma try making moonshine over break
Dec 14 2012 9:29AM
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Tinga
Posts: 11349 - Karma: 2,333
extreme grapefruit. it's awesome if you like that flavor and aroma. use at the end of the boil. something like 15 minutes till the end and again at flameout. Don't waste it at any time before 15.
Dec 14 2012 1:43PM
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stizzle
Posts: 371 - Karma: 623
Thanks! That was my plan except I am going to dry hop with some too.
Dec 14 2012 2:23PM
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Tinga
Posts: 11349 - Karma: 2,333
sounds solid.
Dec 14 2012 3:01PM
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Afeld
Posts: 3516 - Karma: 86
Last question: does it smell at all?
Dec 14 2012 4:14PM
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Aenigma
Posts: 11256 - Karma: 428
I just got all the stuff to do all-grain brewing a few months ago, after making some beer last spring and really enjoying it. Right now I have some bourbon vanilla porter aging in bottles, an irish red in my primary, and everything ready to brew a chocolate coffee stout this weekend! This is definitely one of the better hobbies I have ever picked up.
Dec 14 2012 5:20PM
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AT-AT
Posts: 3281 - Karma: 3,258
It'll smell like yeasty apple cider. You'll notice it, but it wont be overpowering
Dec 15 2012 11:21AM
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El_Barto.
Posts: 11661 - Karma: 24,356
cool. My brother started with a mr. Beer kit a few years ago and now he owns a large distillery. He makes whiskey among other booze and his mashton holds 1800 gallons of beer. Its a neat hobby. If anyone in oregon wants info about his booze pm me
Dec 15 2012 11:25AM
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