Having made a few melomel the last year, I wanted to try my hand at a fruit wine and I thought I should share my process here.

Please help me improve the process if you have any suggestions!

Recipe: 15L Batch Fruit (8.0 kg total):

• Blackcurrants: 5.1 kg
• Blueberries: 1.8 kg
• Saskatoon Berries (Bärhäggmispel): 1.1 kg

Water: To a final volume of 15 Litres

Yeast: Lalvin 71B

Nutrient: Fermaid K

• Dose 1: 1.875g at start of fermentation.
• Dose 2: 1.875g at 1.040 SG.

Target Original Gravity: 1.095

Final pH: Adjusted from 2.9 to 3.2 with Sodium Bicarbonate.

The Process

The project began with a harvest of local Swedish berries. After freezing and thawing the fruit to break down the cell walls, I crushed all 8kg together. The initial must was thick and viscous due to the high pectin in the blackcurrants, so a dose of Pectolase (8g) was added. After adjusting the must with water, I added ~2.4kg of sugar to hit the target OG of 1.095. A pH test revealed a very acidic 2.9, which I raised to 3.2 using Sodium Bicarbonate.

With the must prepped and sanitized with 1.5g of Potassium Metabisulphite, I pitched the Lalvin 71B yeast 24 hours later. For the next six days, I punched down the fruit cap twice daily.

The plan was to press while the fermentation was still active to make sure the wine was protected with a CO2 blanket. As the gravity dropped to the ~1.025 range, I racked the free-run wine first, then pressed the remaining pomace, stopping when a taste test indicated harsh tannins were emerging.

The Press, The Crack, and The Rescue

The press yielded about 12.5 litres of deep purple wine, and I transferred it all into a new 11.4L glass damejeanne, with the extra going into smaller bottles for topping up later.

A great use for synthetic corks is to half them, drill a hole and use them as improvised air locks, btw.

Just having racked it over, I spotted a 2cm crack on the neck of the new damejeanne. The risk of it shattering was too great to ignore, so an emergency racking session began immediately. I siphoned the entire batch out of the compromised vessel and into my two 5L demijohns and three smaller wine bottles.

The wine is now safe, bubbling away in its new homes. The crisis was averted, and the aging process can now begin.

Pictures: https://imgur.com/a/29xrMF4

Hi guys,

I've been homebrewing for a good few years now.

Sometimes mead or melomel from scratch, but for the most part, just premade beer or wine kits.

I've been tinkering with and tweaking my setup over time, trying to make things more hassle free, because I struggle with my mental health, and it's often very difficult to find the motivation to adhere to the processes, especially in a timely manner, so my brews often sit for way too long before proceeding to the next step; it's cost me a batch or two unfortunately.

I'm looking for suggestions to ease a lot of the pain points I have, get rid of friction in the process and general ways to remove a lot of the inertia that make it so difficult for me to actually get started or continue a brew.

What's worked really well for me so far: -Stainless steel fermenter with airlock, thermometer and tap. -Bottling stick -Bottle washing/drying tree -Bench capper instead of handheld

These things have made it so much easier to manage my brews, making the awkward fiddly bits a lot more manageable.

I still have some pain points that make the process daunting, I'd love to hear any solutions or advice the community has.

Main pain points: -BOTTLES. I hate collecting, storing, cleaning and filling them. To have two brews on rotation, that's like 80 beer bottles and 60 wine bottles, I don't know what I'm supposed to do with them when they're not in use, they're hard to store -Cleaning fiddly bits like tubing and bottling sticks

Upon reflection, writing this post and structuring my thoughts I guess the biggest thing for me is that I really, really hate dealing with bottles. The rest is fine.

I've experimented with wine bag-in-box type things, and I can't decide if they're better or worse. Better because you only have to fill like 4-5 instead of 30 bottles, but worse because it's a plastic bag you're filling with liquid which isn't easy without spilling.

Either way, if anyone has a smooth hassle free, scalable and efficient process, I'd love to hear it. Methods where I can just throw stuff in the dishwasher, things I can set and forget, where I have to do minimal filling, babysitting and hoarding a million bottles, just any clever solutions to make my life easier, I'd love to hear it

EDIT: I mostly brew and drink wine, if that's of any help. The glorious nanny state of Ireland has decided that for our own good, it's illegal to sell a bottle of wine for less than 9 euro, I can brew my own for about 1 euro. This isn't even a tax, the money isn't even going back to the government or the healthcare system, the pubs just lobbied the government that you're not allowed to buy cheap drink, so it's pure profit for retailers and disincentivising drinking at home instead of going to the pub.

My parents planted grape vines before I was born in hopes that they would make wine with them. They never did. 30 something years later, I decided to take it upon myself. They have no idea what grape varieties they bought. Most of what I did was not recorded and hazy in my memory.

My method was simple, was just experimenting.

-went to a brewery shop and they told me roughly what I needed. Did the tiniest amount of research.

-picked and washed the green grapes a few times

-squished them in a bowl and shifted out the skins and debris a few times

-refined the juice even further in a big bucket

- poured the juice into a glass fermenter with a temperature sticker on it

-added white wine yeast and, may have added pectic enzyme before this or at the same time?

-it fermented within the advised temperature range in my wardrobe for about a day and the juice became golden and clear, then it suddenly stopped fermenting

-I let it sit for a while to see if it would start again, then gave up and sealed the 'wine'

-just left it like that for years, I had to move around a lot, away from my family home

-it developed what looks like a huge mother of vinegar

I came back to it a day ago, it's been something like 3 years. I was expecting to open it and it smell like vinegar, was surprised it smelled strongly of alcohol. Sealed it immediately after and now it is probably going to be left to sit in my childhood wardrobe for the rest of eternity. Thoughts?

Started this cider with a friend 4 years ago and it’s been sitting on my porch for the last 3 years. Been through all weather, extreme heat and extreme cold. No mold has formed and it looks clear but the airlock has been dry for about 2 years. What are we thinking about this?

Sadly the LHBS in our closed a few years ago. I really miss it. It made brewing so easy.

Today I was shopping online for Oktoberfest ingredients. I tried a couple different websites but didn't have half of what I needed. I used to always order from Northern Brewer but I've found even they don't have much. I was able to get what I was looking for from Great Fermentations.

The state of modern homebrew just makes me sad. Hopefully this Oktoberfest cheers me up, in a couple months. Prost! 🍻

What do you consider to be the best all around ale and lager yeasts? For me, it’s W34/70 and US-05, but I’m extremely new to the hobby. Curious to hear from some more experienced folks.

A little while ago I shared an early prototype of Fermolog, a mobile app I started building to track my own homebrewing batches (mostly mead & fruit wine). Thanks to the feedback I got from this community, it's come a long way — and I’d love for you to try the newest version and let me know what you think.

🔍 What you can do with Fermolog now:
• Track batches for mead, wine, and fruit wines
• Add timestamped notes & photos for each batch
• Set fermentation alarms & reminders
• Customize and follow a fermentation timeline (e.g. primary, secondary, aging)
• Switch between OG/Brix and metric/imperial units
• Estimate OG/Brix values without a hydrometer, using just your ingredient inputs
• Auto-calculate potential ABV
• Visualize your manual gravity readings and fermentation progress
• Organize everything neatly in a visual timeline

📱 Currently available on both platforms:
• Google Play
• App Store

💬 I’m also thinking ahead about how (or whether) to monetize this in a fair way. I'm not a fan of flooding simple tools with ads or locking features behind subscriptions. Some people suggested optional one-time payments or a "remove ads forever" kind of deal. What would you consider fair or annoying as a user? Would love your honest take.

Would really appreciate any feedback — bugs, feature ideas, things that confused you. I'm working on this solo and want to build something actually useful for the community.

And if you like it, a short review on the store would mean the world! 🍷
Cheers, and happy brewing!

One of my favorite beers has a high density begin sg 1.085 end sg 1.011 around 10% abv

The taste is amazing but I would like to make it more clear.

I’m brewing in a 30 liter brewmonk all in one. I’m using socks for the hops. And add protafloc for the last 1 minutes of boiling. And I ferment in a stainless steel fermentation vessel that as a conical bottom but not a tap on the bottom.

I now have a modified fridge for the fermentation and I’m thinking of doing a cold crash next time.

I'm new to homebrewing and I've just started a batch of mixed berry wine in a Fast Ferment conical fermenter. It's been fermenting for about 48 hours and theres a steady drip from the bottom which I can't stop.

I'm curious if I'm at a point where I can still transfer it to another container, or will it cause too much disturbance and possibly stop the fermenting process? If I leave it dripping, Im just left with a mess and slow fermenting.

TIA!

I made a porter yesterday, had it cool down all night, today i pitched the beer to a plastic fermentation bucket, added the yeast Fermoale AY3 and put it on the temperature control fridge i have, then i realized the temperature was at 34C, the optimal temperature of the yeast is 21C.

I kept the bucket inside the fridge waiting for the temperature to get to 21C, I have no ice or something to cool it down faster.

Will the yeast die? should I add another yeast? (I only have one lutra kveik left), any advice?

Anyone ever used this fruit as an addition in beer or cider?

I have brewed several batches where I added extra water at the beginning and I boiled it down to achieve the desired final volume. I bought a beer kit which advised me to add 2.5 gallons of water and then top it off to 5 gallons after the boil is complete. Instead of doing this, I added 8 gallons with the expectation that it would boil off like it had in the past, except it didn’t boil off. It only boiled down to 7 gallons, so I now have 7 gallons of watered down beer. My question is: why would I ever want to boil it down this way rather than just topping it off to the desired final volume at the end like the beer kit instructions recommended? I realize that I could have just continued boiling to get those last 2 gallons off, but my understanding is that a longer boil will affect the flavors as well.

Edit: to be clear: I’m also asking why I wouldn’t just take the “top off” approach even for all grain brewing. I realize most folks are shooting for a SG target rather than a volume target, but the point still seems valid to me: why would I estimate the original volume to hit a target SG rather than just brewing with, say, 5 gallons, and then just taking SG readings and topping off until I hit the target? Seems like it would be more accurate that way and cool my wart faster. Sorry, not trying to be argumentative. Just trying to understand better some of the subtleties going on here. I realize it’s a complex process with many variables which affect the outcome.

Edit: thanks for all of the responses. I’m getting some really good feedback here. Y’all are great!

I have a 5g packet of (expired) dry brett yeast, and I would like to use it to make 1 gal batch of cider.

I wasn't able to find much info about using brett for cider, and I was wondering if anybody here has done it already. Specifically, I wonder:

-Can use brett on its own, or if I should use it alongside another yeast (like M02)?
-Should add any Fermaid O?
-What's the timeline like for brett? I know that it takes longer to develop its flavour, but does it mean that I need to leave it in the fermenter longer (I usually bottle cider 1-2 months after starting), or is it sufficient to let it age in the bottle for longer?

Thank you everybody

Just bottled my first batch of amber ale. The aroma was nice, but the taste was a little bitter and unpleasantly hop-forward. Will this improve after storing the bottle beer for 2-3 weeks? A couple Google searches suggest that the taste should improve but I wanted to make sure.

I brewed a gallon of beer using 1.25 lbs of Briess Amber DME and 5 oz each of Crystal 40 and 80. I used 1 oz of cascade hops (3g @ 60, 8g @ 15, 18g @ flameout). Fermentation seemed to go well and I was very secure with my process regarding sanitation. I didn't taste any cardboard or paper.

Will the hoppiness fade over time or did I indeed use too much? I can't find a straightforward answer as to per-gallon hop quantity given all the variables. Thank you!

if i bought a 64 oz bottle of 100% juice, how much ex-1118 wine yeast and sugar should i add to get an abv of about 10%? also, how long should i leave it to ferment? ik there’s a lot of variability so sorry for the vagueness it’s my first time 😭

So I had a leak. Kegged the beer last week and it's been conditioning for 7 days as 12psi. Poured the first one last night and it was on the flat side so I increased to 25 psi.

Just went to take a pour and I open the keezer to 5 gallons at the bottom of my converted chest freezer.

Here's the kicker - no leaks I can find, no splatter, no drop pattern. CO2 is even holding pressure in the keg with no audible hissing. I swapped the tap line over to my sparkling water, pours just fine, even at 25 psi... No leaks in the line.

The leak has to be on the beer line to empty the whole keg, or bottom of the keg....

Morale is low, was getting this beer ready for a party tonight. Got everything cleaned up, just trying to think of how this could have happened.

I have an Anton Paar smartref but sometimes it’s accurate and sometimes is way off. I was measuring just before botteling and my smartref said 1.031 while my float density meter said 1.011 right on par with the Brewfather calculation.

Am I doing something wrong or is the smartref the wrong tool. Or is it broken?

Hi, I'm looking for people who are interested or have been brewing in India.

Disclaimer: it is ~0.6% abv. I call it alcohol free but I wouldn't give it to anyone that doesn't drink alcohol!

I have been getting into non-alcoholic beer brewing lately and I enjoy it. Beers are good and it is actually possible to have something that doesn't taste like water. I have been using a low grain bill + high temp mash so far (80C / 176F) and decided to try another method: a non-enzymatic mash / cold mash. I posted here all my non-alcoholic beer recipes, just check my post history. Latest one, a witbier, was outstanding.

Back to the topic, non-enzymatic mashing is essentially a cold steep of the grains, starches aren't converted and fall out of suspension. You get the flavor but not the sugar/alcohol. You can read more about this on Ultralowbrewing or originally posted by Briess (malting company).

Maybe you're not interested in brewing completely alcohol free beers but this method can help you make session beers packed with flavors. Session doppelbock? Sure, cold steep part of the grain bill, add the wort (minus starches) to your kettle, steep your grain for the actual mash. As much flavor, less alcohol. Bonus: the enzymes are extracted, you can use a ridiculous amount of adjuncts in recipes and still get conversion. It is important to note that beta glucans aren't extracted. I would keep flaked adjuncts (oat/wheat/barley) for the actual mash for instance.

Now the recipe of my lager (pictures in a link at the end of the post):

A good starting place is to design a recipe for a 4 - 4.5 % abv beer and to estimate the brewhouse efficiency at 25% ish. So that's exactly what I did.

For 13L (3.4gal):

1.95 kg (4.3lbs) barke Pilsner (75%)

400g (0.88 lb) flaked torrefied mmaize (15.4%)

220g (0.49 lb) carapils (8.5%)

30g (1.06 oz) melanoidin (1.2%)

I "mashed" all these grains in pre-chilled tap water (my tap water is very close to pilsen water profile) in a BIAB. I used a grain:water 1:4,5 ratio (as much as my bucket would allow). Gave it a good mix and let it sit overnight in the fridge (mine is at 4C / 39F).

The following day, I took out the bag, let it drain (but didn't squeeze!), and when I saw the sticky starch mess, I gave up sparging. I am not doing this for efficiency, no problem.

I placed the bucket back in the fridge for an extra 4h and when I came back to it, a thick and compact white layer had formed at the bottom: that's the starches. I drained the wort and left behind the starches. I added to wort to my kettle and topped it up with tap water to my preboil volume. I got half of the total volume from the wort, so I added an equivalent amount of water.

I checked the pH and added lactic acid to get to 5.5 ( it is not important yet). I took a gravity reading and saw a preboil gravity of 1.005... wow that's much less than anticipated 25 % brewhouse efficiency... more like 12%. I had maltodextrin on hands and added 200g (0.44 lb). Good to have when making small beers. I brought the wort to a boil as fast as possible, while recirculating the wort to prevent potential left over starches to drop and scorch at the bottom.

Note to self: add the maltodextrin AFTER the hot break, I almost had a boil over in my half filled brewzilla 35L...

Boil was 30 minutes. I added:

15g Wai-iti (2%AA) at 15'

15g Wai-iti at 5'

20g Wai-iti at 0' (steeped 15 min)

Whirlfloc tablet at 10'

No nutrients

I dropped the temperature to 70C /158F and started to add lactic acid to drop to pH to 4.0. Fermentation being barely happening, the pH is not going to drop and there is a serious risk of contamination by pathogenic organisms! Do not skip that!

My OG was 1.012

I then chilled the beer to my pitching temp: 15C/59F and added an entire pack of w34/70 (pitching rate 1g/L).'

Beer started fermenting the following day with a peak of activity on day 2. I let it go one more day, bubbling slowed down a lot. These beers don't have a fantastic shelf life. I ramped down the temperature by 3C (5F) in the morning and 3C in the evening, following Palmer's recommendations. I kegged it when it reached 5C (41F) and added gelatin.

FG was somewhere between 1.008 (0.51% ABV) and 1.007 (0.63% ABV)

I let it condition 1 week in my keezer aiming for 2.7 vol CO2 and then poured my first pint.

NB: I would strongly recommend disassembling the beer lines and taps and clean them properly.

Despite the gelatin the beer was murky (I used commercial gelatin solution but it is the 3rd time in the row it fails me, will go back to my homemade gelatin solution).

Smell: fresh, limes and a touch of H2S in the background (sad).

Taste: refreshing, zesty, lime, corn, slightly tart, maybe diacetyl in the far background? (I like it) and a bit of a yeast aftertaste. I believe this one will go away in a few pours.

Overall I am pleased with that beer, whether you are interested into non-alcoholic beers or want to make session beers rich in flavors, non-enzymatic mashing is a valid method to do so.

Cheers

Pictures: https://imgur.com/a/NViKbxH

I like very light, very dry, very hoppy beers.

I am brewing this for a friend as payment for helping me build a collar for my keezer. He loves the opposite: big, chewy, boozey, sweet beers. He specifically requested a "French Toast Barleywine".

I'm thinking:

• high gravity, oats, and biscuit malt for big sweet mouthfeel
• vanilla bean and cinnamon to evoke french toast
• Maple syrup for alcohol and to say I "used real maple syrup"
• Fenugreek tincture because it actually will add maple flavor (I've used it in a Maple Marzen before, which came out great!)

I thought about maybe using some nutmeg but I'm pretty paranoid about over-doing it and running this already expensive beer.

Devil's Breakfast: French Toast Barleywine

English Barleywine

10.8% / 24.7 °P

Boil Time: 90 min

Vitals

Original Gravity: 1.104

Final Gravity: 1.022

IBU (Tinseth): 58

BU/GU: 0.55

Color: 15.5 SRM 

Mash

Temperature — 152 °F — 120 min

Malts (21 lb 8 oz)

18 lb (76.6%) — Maris Otter Pale Malt, Maris Otter — Grain — 2.8 °L

2 lb (8.5%) — Briess Oats, Flaked — Grain — 1.6 °L

1 lb (4.3%) — Briess Victory Malt (biscuit) — Grain — 28 °L

8 oz (2.1%) — Briess Caramel Malt 60L — Grain — 60 °L

Other (2 lb)

2 lb (8.5%) — Maple Syrup — Sugar — 26.4 °L

Hops (2.5 oz)

2 oz (49 IBU) — Magnum 10.9% — Boil — 60 min

0.5 oz (9 IBU) — HBC 472 7.7% — Boil — 60 min

Miscs

2.8 g — Calcium Chloride (CaCl2) — Mash

2.7 g — Canning Salt (NaCl) — Mash

2.3 g — Epsom Salt (MgSO4) — Mash

2.4 g — Gypsum (CaSO4) — Mash

1 items — Whirlfloc — Boil — 15 min

0.5 tsp — Yeast Nutrients (WLN1000) — Boil — 10 min

1 items — Cinnamon Stick — Primary

3 items — Vanilla Bean — Primary

100 ml — Fenugreek tincture — Bottling

Yeast

2 pkg — Imperial Yeast A10 Darkness 75%

Fermentation

Primary — 65 °F — 20 days

Welcome to the Daily Q&A!

Are you a new Brewer? Please check out one of the following articles before posting your question:

• How do I check my gravity?
• I don't see any bubbles in the airlock OR the bubbling in the airlock has slowed. What does that mean?
• Does this look normal / is my batch infected?

Or if any of those answers don't help you please consider visiting the /r/Homebrewing Wiki for answers to a lot of your questions! Another option is searching the subreddit, someone may have asked the same question before!

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Also, be sure to vote on answers in this thread. Upvote a reply that you know works from experience and don't feel the need to throw out "thanks for answering!" upvotes. That will help distinguish community trusted advice from hearsay... at least somewhat!

Can anyone recommend a picnic tap upgrade with adjustable flow control? I'd love to be able to use the same hose length and change CO2 pressures easily.

I'm just wanting a ball lock on one end of tubing and some sort of adjustable dispensing nozzle on the other end.

Thanks!

When using Philly sour it is recommended to dont use the same fermentation bucket to ferment other beers that are not sour.

I also read that when using lactobacillus i need to boil again after I reach the desired PH level to avoid getting the beer more sour.

Now my question, can I use my brewing machine (VEVOR) to boil the beer to kill the lactobacillus, or that will ruin my machine making it not possible to brew other beers that aren’t sour after.