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Mason jars are designed to retain a vacuum seal, not keep outward pressure in. Chances are it may hold the pressure up to a certain point before the actual seal on the lid fails, but the glass itself is not tempered glass, and therefor is not designed to withstand the pressures of bottle conditioning. Bottle conditioning inside of mason jars may easily ...
9
Milled grain does have a shorter shelf-life, but you don't need to worry about it unless you are trying to mill more than a month in advance. I used to get my grain milled and shipped to me and I would use it when I got around to doing a brew. I never noticed major taste differences within about a month of being milled, and I was just using cardboard boxes ...
8
CO2 is less readily absorbed by warm liquids. Therefore, CO2 in solution comes out of solution when you warm the beer.
Whenever it works for you. The warmer the beer is stored though, the sooner you should try to cool it back down. Warmer storage promotes faster aging. For me, the point where I want to start cooling it down again starts at about 80F.
No, ...
7
If stored properly (no humidity and at room temperature or lower) the DME should preserve itself at least for a year. It has been discussed before: How long will an extract kit stay good?
In your case, if the seal was good, after a month it should still be fresh and you can use it without concerns...
Manufacturers will mention that "Storing opened bags ...
6
Many people trade beer all the time.
It is legal, except via US Postal Service.
I think the laws around shipping via USPS are in flux, but without confirmation I'll suggest you stick to FedEx and UPS.
More info at:
http://www.reddit.com/r/beertrade/comments/atztu/trading_and_packaging_tips/
http://www.reddit.com/r/beer/comments/bf7lr/...
6
The yeast settling out of the beer over time is a big help in clarifying the beer. If you leave them sitting on their side the yeast will settle there such that when you upright them in your fridge the some of the yeast will re-suspend and the beer will be cloudy. This adds a yeasty taste and also acts like a laxative.
If you must store horizontally it ...
6
It will be safe to drink - beer doesn't go bad in a way that can cause illness. If it will taste good or not is another thing altogether!
6
Warmer temperatures will allow the yeast to continue its work, cleaning up the beer. Colder temperatures will promote yeast flocculation which helps to clear the beer. It'd suggest leaving the beer in the fermentation temperature range for a week or two after the final gravity has been reached, and then moving it to the cooler basement to help it clear.
5
Don't Do It
The Mason Jars can withstand the pressure inside a pressure cooker, because the jars are usually sanitised with lids open (so steam goes everywhere) in the pressure cooker. The pressure is surrounding the glass, on the inside and the outside of the jar, acting ON the glass, the system (within the cooker) is balanced. With bottling, the pressure ...
answered Jan 17 '14 at 17:48
Another Compiler Error
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5
Don't pin it. This is a cask practice, but not necessary in your corny keg and will reduce the carbonation.
In fact, you can prime it (fully sealed), wait 14 days, put it in the fridge and tap it in a few hours; the pressure built up during priming will let it flow, at least for a gallon or two. After which, if you can't put CO2 on it, prime it again and ...
5
It's fairly safe to say that bottle conditioning at -5°c will not yield good results.
Even high ABV beers stored below freezing will form ice crystals and force a separation of the water and ethanol. (Eisbock)
While many yeasts can survive freezing temperatures the become dormant or have their metabolism slowed down so much they no longer perform useful ...
4
This is a super old thread but I had to deal with this recently and I was very happy with my results. Living in a walk-up second story apartment in Chicago, space being limited I purchased one of these Ikea BRIMNES wardrobes.
As a 5 gallon + 1 gallon extract brewer, this fit all of my equipment perfectly, gave my carboys a nice quiet place to sit during ...
4
I was very excited to see what the community had to offer for this problem as I am in need of a cardboard box replacement as well. Unfortunately, it appears that www.cwcrate.com is out of business. Therefore, I continued to search for a solution. I found the following sets of plans to make wooden crates:
set 1 -- enclosed box: these look really nice, but ...
4
Grain, and foodstuffs in general should be stored in a cool, dry area, since the warm temperature can increase the rate of staling. It depends upon how long the grain will be around for. If you can use it up within 6 months then I doubt you would notice much change, especially if it's stored in a sealed container.
4
I've brewed with 3 year old grain before and the results were mixed. Light beers weren't great, just tasted like stale grain, and they had a haze that didn't settle out completely, even after 6 months. The old grain worked best in darker beers, where you can get most of the flavor from some fresh speciality malt.
I had 200lb of grain to get through, but ...
4
The starter will tell the story. If it froze, you might have ruptured yeast cell walls and reduced the viability. A starter will show you how healthy it is and build new cells. If the starter looks good, you'll be fine.
4
There are several factors at play here.
You're right that the CO2 will expand with increasing temperature, but since it's in the keg, a closed vessel, it can't expand, so pressure increases instead. Increased pressure increases solubility of CO2, but with increased temperature solubility of CO2 decreases, and unfortunately that change is more than the ...
4
It sounds like you do a good job cleaning by dismantling the tap, and that's really the key - storing the fermentor clean so that it can be effectively sanitized when next needed.
Make sure it is drained and completely air dry before adding any seal or you'll get stale water in there. That can mean another round of cleaning to get rid of the odor.
4
I bulk prime with DME, so it takes me 3 to 6 months to use a 1kg bag. I reseal the bag quickly, and place it in an airtight plastic container after pouring out the amount I require. No observable deterioration takes place.
4
My ginger beer SCOBY has grown in a jar for over 9 years. If kept hydrated and fed (with ginger and sugar and occasional fresh lemon juice) it seems to keep well enough. If I do not produce/bottle ginger beer for a time then I rinse the SCOBY monthly (or so) and replace the old water which removes any build up of by-products. I still use the orginal "plant" ...
4
Yeah sure, I don't see why not. The hops are probably not sinking as easy as the steak, but it will still work if you be careful enough.
But also I'm thinking that you won't notice a difference between a bag that contains 2% O2 and another one (without the water displacement method) that contains 20%.
Are you going to freeze the hops afterwards?
4
Actually using plastic bags period is bad, because they are permeable (small molecules can pass through)
So even submerging the bag to vacate air really won't do much good.
You're better off investing in a Mylar bagger, or using mason jars purged with nitro or c02.
Update: I simply just use a straw to suck out as much air as possible and reseal the Mylar ...
4
No it does not. When it comes to screw caps, the things important to keep away from aging wine in a screwcap bottle are light, heat and motion. If oxygen can't penetrate the cap, how could humidity? Just keep it out of light and keep it cool.
3
On the few occasions I have had beer freezer it led to a permanent haze forming in the beers. Otherwise the beer was fine.
Without a power source even a well wrapped/insulated container of beer will lose its temp and get to the ambient -20 you describe.
You only option is to find a place inside or get power out there to the beer.
3
At -10°C I think you will need some sort of heating element. If you don't have electricity, you could try doing it swamp cooler style.
Put the bottles in an insulated container - an old refrigerator unplugged,
a plastic cooler, or a DIY insulated box would all work (like a fermentation chamber). Put a thermometer in there to check on the temps.
Put a heat ...
3
I started off brewing in a dorm room. If you bottle in 12 oz bottles it is more work, but they'll fit under a bed (or at least the one we had). You can easily fit batches of beer under there. Another good option is the bottom of the closet and stack things on top. For both, I like to keep them in the 24 bottle boxes you purchase new ones from.
3
I mounted an empty, plastic speaker wire spool to the wall in my brewing closet (room under the stairs where I kept all my brewing equipment) to hang all the tubing on. I made sure to mount it high enough on the wall that I didn't have to coil the tubing around the spool. This allowed the tubing to dry well and kept off the ground and out of my way. The ...
3
In 20 Tips for Better Brewing (Brew Your Own, December 1995), the author says you should fill the buckets to the brim with a dilute bleach-water solution (one teaspoon per gallon of water) and seal them up; then rinse with hot water on your next brew day:
Personally, I found that recommendation surpising. Maybe make sure your fermenters air-dry really ...
3
I normally clean and sanitize my fermentors and carboys after use (along with all other brew accessories) and then I let everything air dry (or dry with paper towels). Then I store them in large plastic storage totes that have lids that snap on. This has worked great for me. Also, they make long shallow totes that work great for racking canes and mash ...
3
DME loves to suck up humidity and turn to a brick of sugar if it can.
What I do is cut the corner off the DME bag. Using a large mouth plastic bottle (gatorade) cut the top off 1 inch from the cap. Remove the lid and stuff the cut corner of the DME bag up through and fold back. Replace the cap for a nice airtight seal.
Then I store the DME with my ...
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