Ultra Fast Homebrew:
Note:
This guide is written in Degrees Celsius, and Litres (metric system) where possible I've added conversions (hopefully accurate ones)
There will be pictures and maybe some video's to go along with this guide eventually.
Disclaimer:
This guide is best attempted if you have already succesfully brewed and have a solid understanding of the process, attempts at recreating this recipe without experience may lead to exploding bottles which can cause serious harm, it is recommended that if you try to replicate this method you own and understand how to use a wine/beer alcohol tester to effectively check that fermentation has ceased, The writer holds no responsibility for anything that may happen to you while trying this including but not witheld to getting drunk, or embedded with chunks of glass bottle.
!USE THIS GUIDE AT OWN RISK!
!USE THIS GUIDE AT OWN RISK!
!USE THIS GUIDE AT OWN RISK!
!USE THIS GUIDE AT OWN RISK!
Ingredients:
- Coopers 1.5kg Can - Tested succesfuly so far: Draught, Bitter, Ale.
- 1 Kilo Dextrose, (haven't gone nuts with alcohol percentages yet, just aiming at 4.6-5.0% brews)
- 23 Litres Water / 6.075 Gallons.
Stage 1: Cleaning.
Wort:
Personally I use homebrand bleach (sometimes) and Coopers Sanitiser to clean the wort, if I use the Sanitiser I leave a little in the bottom of the wort (maybe 20-50 ml's or a cap or two full) as the yeast feeds off it, and if you have to store the barrel for a few days / weeks for any reason it'll keep it from growing bacteria (though I would clean again to be safe)
If I use bleach I will rinse the hell out of the wort until I can't smell bleach anymore, this is important as you may kill the yeast if you don't, if you live in Australia not only does this suck because you'd lose 23 litres of beer, but you'll also waste alot of water in cleaning, cleaning bottles, and obviously the beer itself, something we don't have the luxury of getting away with, (Victoria, Water shortage)
Bottles:
For the bottles I use a similar process, I have tried bleach and Sanitiser, the Sanitiser is better but the bleach will do in a pinch, if you're using Sanitiser simply fill the bottles with a little Sanitiser in each and leave for at least half an hour, if they were dirty leave them for 24 hours then drain and rinse, make sure there's nothing inside the bottle, once clean rinse them if you feel it necessary but again, the yeast will feed off the sanitiser so you can leave a little in the bottom.
With bleach be really careful, it has to be completely gone, use cold water to rinse and make sure the bottles don't smell of bleach, I've even gone so far as putting them in the oven afterwards (about 150 for 10 minutes) to evaporate excess water that may be in there, (they didnt explode and all beers made like this have been succesful) though I'd recommend rinsing with hot water before putting them in the oven to prep the glass (rinse with hot water only after bleach smell is gone, it'll create gas otherwise; if it gets up your nose you'll know about it)
Remember to sanitise the lids (both on the wort, and the caps for the bottles), and ANY equipment you may use in the process, don't use dishwashing liquid for any of it, it WILL KILL YEAST. Use Bleach or Sanitiser, or bleach first, then a really good rinse, and sanitise everything IN the wort overnight, the water seperator isn't so important, but I use Sanitiser anyway to be safe, I also use a brigalow water seperator, which is a little different from the usual "S" pipe shape and allows you to pick up the wort if needed, and move it without water from the seperator being sucked into the wort or blown out into your face, it's also mighty easy to clean.
Stage 2: Brewing.
The brewing process isn't too hard, it's just highly important that you keep clean, and keep everything else clean too.
Drain off the sanitised water inside the Wort if you haven't already.
Boil 2 litres of water, while doing this, put the Coopers can in a sink of hot water to make the contents pour more easily.
Add the hot water, Coopers can and the Sugar to the wort, stir well, then fill the wort to the 23 litre (6 Gallon) mark, use both warm and cold water to keep it as close to 27 Degrees Celsius (82 Fahrenheit) as possible, for those of you lucky buggers with a water temp thermostat this'll be a piece of cake.
Now, depending on whether you have an alcohol tester depends on what you do next.
Add the yeast to the brew, stir and pour off a small sample to test, you'll get instructions with alcohol testers so follow them carefully.
Generally if you use a kilo of dextrose you'll get about 5% alc, +/- 1% (depends what type of sugar used and quantity, again your alcohol tester usually comes with a way to tell how much sugar you need per litre to get the desired alcohol percentage)
Now the "tricky" part.
Keeping the Wort or barrel at 27.5C (82F) or as close to as possible without going above will result in extremely accelerated brewing conditions.
You should find that if you can consistently keep it at this temperature during initial brewing, after 4-5 days the water seperator will be completely inactive (trust me you'll know, it'll go absolutely nuts for the first 4 days), the brewing process is complete, Ready for bottling stage in 4-5 days!
Tips:
*Check on it's 4th day (before bottling) if the water seperator is doing absolutely nothing all day while the temp is close to 27.5, it's pretty safe to say fermentation is over, it is however, best to be safe than sorry, and if there is activity, leave the wort for a day or two more. exploding bottles can be dangerous and at least cause amber liquid damage to your cupboards / storage areas, plus god will be angry with you for spilling your beer!
Careful not to go above the aforementioned temperature too much, I've had mine hit 30 to 32 degrees celsius some nights and the yeast survived, but it ejected water from the water seperator all the time due to so much pressue being generated, this meant keeping a close eye on it 24/7 to keep filling the seperator, however if I was unlucky it would've killed the yeast.
Stage 3: Bottling.
Prime the bottles (I use carbonation drops to save time) and keep them close to above mentioned temperature (27ish) and out of direct sunlight for 4-7 days (remember to prime them, DO NOT DO THIS STAGE IF THE WORT IS STILL ACTIVE YOU WILL GET EXPLODING BOTTLES), after 5 days open one and try it, If you can't keep them warm enough I don't recommend opening it for the normal 2 weeks, though if you use plastic bottles you can check one at the 5-7 day mark and screw the lid back on if they aren't ready, depending on your setup it may be just as easy to recap a glass bottle, (I have a brigalow capper and it makes short work of capping with no risk of breaking a bottle)
Tips:
I have found the Bitters are great from Coopers, and work perfectly with this method.
I have found the Farmland Draught cans to be really good, surprisingly they are very competitive with Coopers and I know a few people who swear that they are less "powdery" than the Coopers kits.
I have noticed if you use the P.E.T bottles they collect the sediment and hold it pretty well (it seems to stick for a while) in the grooves at the bottom of the bottle, comparing to glass where it tends to mix quite easily from pouring, though the plastice bottles don't stay as / feel as cold for as long as a glass bottle, there is little difference between the glass and plastic "taste".
I have found using this method, the beer is as good as one conditioned for at least 2 months.
Finishing Notes:
The author has succesfully brewed at least 6 times with this method, and only strays when the temperature becomes too hard to control.
Building a "lightbox", or buying a heatbelt or heatpad are options to remedy this solution.
This guide is honestly relatively simple to follow, it's the fermentation that you have to watch out for, if it's not complete you'll be in trouble, if you haven't been clean enough no fermentation will occur or you'll get bacteria and make yourself very sick, If you have the temperature too high or too low (between about 15 - 30 Celsius is acceptable) you will also kill the yeast so monitor the temperature carefully.
Created By Lee Shaw - Oct 10th - 2009.
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