July 28, 2017 – Fermented Foods (Sourdough & Sauerkraut)
This week I decided to experiment with fermented foods, utilizing primarily acetobacter, lactococcus, and lactobacillus strains to work their magic instead of saccharomyces. The four new projects I had in mind are sauerkraut, vinegar, sourdough, and a fermented hot sauce. While I was in the kitchen, I made some sweet tea to feed my kombucha […]
July 2, 2017 – Force Carbonation & Leak Detection of Keg
Low n’ slow method: Clean and sanitize your keg. Purge Oxygen from keg by connecting the CO2 line (red) to the “In” plug of keg. If you’re not sure which one this is, look inside of keg, the short dip tube will be your gas in line. Turn the CO2 on and make sure the […]
June 23, 2017 – Cheesemaking Experiment
The cheese recipe I decided on was a stirred curd cheddar recipe found in Ricki Carroll’s Home Cheese Making book. This is the first I’ve used a curd knife, which I bought here BYOB – this is a step up from the relatively short knives found in my kitchen. I also decided to use a […]
June 10, 2017 – Employee’s First Experience with Cider
I work in the Tucson location of Brew Your Own Brew and about a week ago I put together my first Cider House Select ingredient kit. I decided to buy it because it was discounted at 30% due to it being past the expiration date (a kit like this being past expiration has no real […]
June 3, 2017 – Making a Yeast Starter
There’s a popular saying in the homebrewing world: “Brewers don’t make beer. Brewers make wort and yeast makes beer.” With yeast playing such a large role in the brewing world it’s imperative we do everything we can to keep them happy and stress free. One way to help with this is by making a starter […]
May 11, 2017 – Reading Hydrometer
Crucial to the beer and wine making process is to know the sugar content of the beverage before fermentation, and the relative amount remaining after fermentation. This information allows us to approximate the amount of alcohol that can be created given the amount of sugars available for the yeast to consume, calculate the alcohol content […]