Korean Job Discussion Forums

[jdog2050]

So,

I already brought a brewing book, but it won't arrive for 10 days, and I'm giddy

What, in order, can I buy and do to make an easy, no fail, 1 or 2 month brew-time lager/pilsner?

edit: not a Mr. Beer. I liked Mr. Beer, and would recommend it, but I want way more control.

[JungMin]

What's your plan??? You looking to brew extract or all-grain??

First things first....To brew a lager/pilsner you are going to need a cold place to ferment it. Depending on the yeast and what you are trying to brew, you could be fermenting at 7~10 degrees celsius. Do you have a fridge to put your fermenter in??

[cheeseface]

There is a huge thread on home brewing in Korea some where around here.

There were some great ideas on there.....

http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/viewtopic.php?t=70375&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

12 pages of goodness.

I was going to brew this year but I recently found out I have quite high blood pressure so I have to steer clear of alcohol for a while

[cobright]

By lager/pilsner I'm going to take that you are looking for a lighter easier drinking beer moreso than a particular brewing method. This is an assumption on my part, forgive it if it's wrong. But something like an american/canadian style beer (in homebrewing they are much more alike than in the grocery store), perhaps a cervesa, something like a Fosters (australian for dysentary but a good drink nonethe).

Assuming all this, the hallmarks of the style are this:
high-ish alcohol (near 6%)
light mouthfeel (it's not thick and bready)
lighter hops flavor
lighter flavor all arround (compared to very brittish-y/germany-y style beers.

This is an No-Fail as it gets. if you muck this up I'll buy you a case of comercial swill...

Get the big can of hopped malt extract. Something American-light style or maybe cervesa style, even pilsner style or IPA. If you like IPAs then make sure the can says something like double-hopped or extra hopped or just says something about being hoppy.

Get 2-3 pounds of corn sugar. Die-hard brewers will tell you to just use two cans of malt, maybe get a "booster" can of malt that's smaller and doesn't have hops. I use this method but it's too beer-y for non-beer lovers. Get the corn sugar; it raises the alc. but doesn't add to the specific gravity (the thickness and weight in your mouth of the finished beer) or the "maltyness" of the beer.

Throw the sugar-packet of yeast that comes with the can of malt. It's crap. Ask for a yeast that comes in a plastic pouch with a little pouch of water built in. You break the water pouch that's inside the packet and in a few hours the yeast is alive and well and your packet has blown up like a baloon. Next to your choice of Malt extract, yeast is prolly the biggest influencer of flavor. I just pick one at random and let the final results surprise me. Get something like Pilsner-Style for a no fail. Get 5 gallons of distilled bottled water. I usually just use tap-water but you want no-fail and who knows what lives in that tap-water.

There's your software. Now onto the hardware. All plastic FTW.

Go get a white plastic 5 gal. bucket from the local donut shop. If there's a brew supply near then get off the wallet for an ale-pail. It's 6 gallons and has a grommeted hole in the lid for your airlock. Can do it without though, just get the white plastic bucket and a hose-barb and some silicon hose. drill appropriate sized hole into the bucket lid for the threaded part of the hose-barb. attach a 2 foot or so length of the silicon hose. Get a small bottle of hydrogen peroxide.

Sterilize everything. with all-plastic I like to just use bleach. don't go this route if you are using anything that's steel. Fill your bucket with hot water then add bleach (look it up but I think it's a few tablespoons per gallon of water). put everything the fermenting beer will sin in in the bucket. Big plastic spoon for stirring, hose for airlock (or the airlock if you bought an ail-pail and airlock) and the bucket lid. Just let that sit while we start cooking

Get a 20+ quart stock-pot and fill it 3/4 up with water. Dump the extract into it and light the fire. when it boils dump in the cornsugar and stir to disolve. When it comes back to boil turn down the heat to a very soft boil and stir every once in a while while we rinse the hardware. Some folks don't boil. I do and if you want no-fail then you will to.

Bleech is a great sanitizer but it needs to be rinsed. Dump the bleech water (can be used again if you wanna keep it arround). By now your whole pad will be smelling like a delicious oatmealy malty "I'm-makin'-beer"-y kinda place. You'll know it when you smell it. take a gallon of the bottled water and rinse all the utensils and put it into the now empty bucket. Just slosh it arround to rinse off the bleach water. dump and repeat once or twice (until that gallon or so of water is used up ... or use more water it's cheap right?). Put on a sanitized surface and let dry, or dry out with a new roll of paper towel.

Take 4 gallons of distilled water (having it in the fridge up until this point will help) into your fermentor (bucket). Turn off the fire on your stockpot then dump it into the bucket. Make sure there is room for it all before you dump it in. Having cold distilled water in the fermentor already will cool the "wort" down and cut the time until we can pitch the yeast. The yeast, by the way, should have been activated and is now waiting blown up like Violet from willy wonka and the chocolate factory. Lay the lid on the bucket but don't snap it on. we're just keeping the bugs out till we put the yeast in. When your bucket of pre-beer is about 75-80F then pitch your yeast. It will feel warm but not at all hot. can guesstimate or buy a thermometer. give it a bit of a stir then snap on the lid.

Almost done. duct-tape the peroxide bottle to the bucket and run the hose from the top of the bucket down into the peroxide bottle. use more tape to secure the hose. There's your airlock. more satisfying is to use a new clear water bottle; pour the water into a glass and drink it, pour the H2O2 into the bottle and don't drink it. Now you can watch the bubbles. You can use steril water in this step, but it's exposed to the elements and you want no-fail. H2O2 is cheap.

Now get a sharpie and write the date on the bucket. It will seem like forever and in a day or two you will swear it has been brewing for weeks and should be done. In reality it may take 5-7 days or things could stick and it may take 2 weeks. for no-fail, I say once the bubbles stop bubbling (love the bubbling bubbles in the airlock) wait another 4 or 5 days. More is better but we're human after all. ensuring that all the fermentable sugar is fermented you'll have less chance of bottles exploding.

That brings us to bottles. For homebrew I have to recomend plastit pop bottles (PET bottles). It seems like sacrilidge not to use glass but really, glass is a pain. Sometime while the wort is bubbling, steralize 5 gallons worth of bottles and recap them. When the magic day arrives steralize a racking cane and silicon hose for siphoning (or just the hose if there is no brew store near by). You can put some sugar (I like corn sugar for this) in the oven at the lowest temp for a bit to pasteurize it a bit (no-fail remember). Look up how much sugar to use for the size bottles you have and put that much of your sugar into each bottle, then put the cap back on them, or if it is time line them all up in a sturdy box, so they won't tip.

Racking cane is worth the investment here but the beer (it's beer now. just very flat beer) can be bottled with a regular silicone hose. Fold the last 1.5" of host 180 degrees and zip-tie it before you steralize the hose. make sure it's not kinked. wash your hands, wipe your mouth, it's time to siphon. keep on thumb over the exit end of the hose and use other hand to keep the intake end of hose from sucking up the sludge that has settled on bottom of barrel. Fill the bottles, cap them, shake them, and set them in a dark warm corner to become fizzy. Taste the beer during this process. does it taste good? if it doesn't throw it out or suffer poor beer. I've done both. But really this method really can not fail.

Now take some of that sludge and make bread with it. OMG worth the bother just for the bread.

Let the bottles carbonate for a month or two. LOL Just kidding. it's fizzy in a week. But seriously, the longer you can restrain yourself you will notice a better beer the longer you wait.

There you go. Print that out and go. A beer process that always works, produces a nice easy drinking beer, and can be done without a home brewing store. Figure about 5.5% alc. Once you have a few of these under your belt play with using all malt instead of corn-sugar. It really fills out the flavor. But this method comes out tasting like an american commercial beer (only it tastes good).

Cheers.

[Bibbitybop]

Can't you just mix Hite with Cass? Don't stir too quickly or it will bubble over. Add a splash of bleach for a truly Korean experience.

[jdog2050]

[Jeff's Cigarettes]

[blackjack]

[IlIlNine]

Thanks cobright! I'm gonna try something like this soon.

Question: Sugar: White vs. corn vs. glucose. I have glucose handy -- is this okay to use when making beer, generally?

[cobright]

corn sugar doesn't have the same sweetness and flavor as white. white sugar will give you a kind of vodka-y taste that I don't care for. I don't know about glucose.

Keep in mind that the added sugar is just about alc content. Malt extract/sugar/honey/molasses/anything with a ton of sugar in it can be used. The sugar gets turned into alc and CO2 and whatever is left remains as flavor.

[mack the knife]

[poet13]

Does it matter what kind of bleach I use with the Cass and Hite?

[crossmr]

did someone just use bleach on plastic that is going to hold consumables?