Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with homebrew

hops hops hops hops hops

sanka — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 20:29:04 -0800

I'm looking for some great homebrew beer recipes. I looking for some new homebrew beer recipes! I realize there are a million little brew shops out there selling a million different kits, and I'd love to hear your local brewshop favorites. Here's one of my recent favorites (opt for the Wyeast). I'm not set up for full mash, but anything else is game.

I'm particularly looking for very hoppy IPAs. IBU's around 100 or so. I'm really looking for recipes or clones for beers like Hop Stoopid, Dogfish Head 90, Green Flash, Ruination etc. I understand many of these brews use hop extracts to reach these IBU levels, but I have no idea how to use extracts like that.

Recipes and guidance would be much appreciated.

How to make the NDSlite display PDFs

lizbunny — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 23:33:53 -0800

Google-fu failed, has anyone found a PDF reader for the NDSlite for use with an R4 card? My uncle's been adoring the DSlite and the R4 card I hooked him up with a while ago. He's gotten decently tech-savvy with the R4 card (even got his movies to play on it), but he can't find a PDF reader for it and wants one badly. I no longer have a DS or an R4 card, and so can't do this search and testing by trial-and-error myself for the results that HAVE turned up. None specify if they're for the R4 system either... I sincerely hope there are mefites out there who have sought and found an answer! Many, many thanks in advance!

Bottles for home-made ginger beer

goingonit — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 08:59:54 -0800

Are there any good alternatives to 2L soda bottles for fermenting and storing home-brewed ginger beer? I've tried making my own ginger beer (with baker's yeast, if it matters) which I bottle-ferment in 2L soda bottles. It works fine---but I never buy any 2L soda bottles, and I worry about them getting flimsier as I reuse them. They also let most of the carbonation out the first time you open them.

Are there any good reusable bottles that I could buy that will handle the pressure of my ginger beer without exploding? Should I be considering glass bottles of any kind, or is it too dangerous to build up pressure in glass?

My ideal would be some kind of siphon bottle, so I wouldn't have to let the CO2 out by opening the bottle. But most of the seltzer bottles I can find online seem to have a CO2 canister in the nozzle, so they don't actually store any carbonated beverages inside. Any suggestions?

Thanks!

Wort Chilling Ideas

Amby72 — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 13:54:54 -0800

Any good ideas for quickly cooling a 5 gallon stock pot full of homebrew Wort without scalding myself or others? I want to be able to do this without scalding, and I won't have a chance to get a copper chilling device before brewing party. I just don't want to scald people or contaminate. time isn't a huge issue for us. Thanks for your ideas or experiences. in the basement I have a huge laundry tub, which would be ideal for ice chilling. just don't that that carrying 40 pounds of boiling death down the stairs is a good idea.

Kegging and transporting kegged beer.

Packy_1962 — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 17:14:06 -0800

I am going to keg my homebrew for the first time and take it to a friend's wedding. I have the CO2 system set up and I have checked it for leaks and practiced with H20. Everything is set to go. I need some help about what do next however, because I have to transport the beer twice and I don't have a fridge to keep the beer in (my plan is a cooler and ice). Here's the scenario: Beer is ready to be kegged, the wedding at which it will be served is in 14 days. The beer is in a carboy two hours away from my home and I will need to transport it to my home this week before the wedding. Then, two days before the wedding I will need to transport it from my home 5 hours away to the wedding. What would you do? From my understanding it takes about a week for the carbonation to form in the beer with the pressure set at 12-15. Once I put C02 in the beer do I need to keep it cold continuously until the wedding? What would you do? Transport the beer the first time in the carboy, keg it a few days before the wedding and then transport it to the wedding in the keg in a cooler? Wait to keg it until I get to the Wedding? If I do transport it in the keg, should I turn off the gas and detach the hose. . will it keep its carbonation? A lot of this hinges on whether I need to keep it cold once the co2 has been added or if it can sit at about 65* in my basement.

How much does the rice break down when fermenting sake?

exogenous — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 07:32:06 -0800

A question for sake brewers. Background: I've made sake three times, and have also brewed about a hundred all-grain batches of beer. The first two times I made sake were several years ago. From memory, they turned out pretty well: I had a hard time separating the leftover solids from the finished sake, but the rice broke down pretty extensively. In one case I used special milled rice intended for sake, but it didn't seem to impact the process.

Each time I've used basically this recipe.

In my recent batch of sake, I used distilled water, plain medium-grain rice, Wyeast liquid yeast, and my ususal koji-kin from Vision. I cooked the two portions of the rice separately, with each steamed for about an hour. The koji grew up normally. But during the yeast fermentation stage (two weeks at about 75 degrees F), the rice stayed mostly intact. I might have under-cooked it (I foolishly did not test the doneness by biting down on a cooked grain).

In the fermentation, how much does the rice really break down? I'm worried that if I over-cook it, bad things will happen. But it seems that at the fermentation stage, we want the rice to break down, so maybe it'd be OK to over-cook the larger second portion of rice, once the koji has grown up. Sound reasonable?

Fermented but not bottled after 2+ years

pkphy39 — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 14:07:45 -0800

[HomebrewBeerFilter]: In the vein of the "should I eat it" questions. I'll cut to the chase - I have had beer fermenting in a 5-gal glass carboy for over TWO YEARS. Unnecessary history: we bought our first house in May of 2007, and have been doing DIY repairs/upgrades and such since closing day (literally). 6 months later, we had our first child. I haven't exactly had tons of free time. But now with a 19-month old (and because it's Father's Day and I can do whatever I want for one day this weekend), I'm working up the resolve to start homebrewing again.

Is it safe to bottle and carbonate this beer (a scottish ale)? Am I going to have a monster alcohol content? Will it even taste good? It's been in a dark room at the same relative temperature since moving day, no growth on top - I think the integrity of the seal has been maintained. But I don't know if I should bother priming and bottling, or just give up and use it as fertilizer.

And if I *DO* opt to use it as fertilizer (seriously), will my yard stink? Grow yeast? Any side-effects? (I recall reading that beer is excellent plant food).

Thanks, MeFites!

I'll buy no kits before it's time.

mudpuppie — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 15:00:34 -0800

Wine- (and beer-) making without buying a kit: What kind of equipment to buy, and where? Beer- and wine-making hardware seems to consist mainly of buckets and tubing. Can't I get that stuff at a restaurant supply + hardware store, without purchasing one of those kits for dummies? The lid with the airlock seems to be the biggest catch. Couldn't I just buy food-grade buckets through a restaurant supplier, and then purchase the lid + gasket thingy from a homebrew supplier?

What other accessories might I need to pick up, piecemeal? Am mostly thinking of doing ciders and berry wines right now. Beer in the winter, maybe. It just seems like this stuff is pretty basic to make, and I'm not really trusting the places that want me to buy a kit for $120 or more, when the kit basically looks like buckets and tubing that I can acquire elsewhere.

Assume that I already have bottles, because I do.

And a bonus cider recipe for those reading the question.

Old PSP Sending Up the Lego Bat Signal

tomboko — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 16:35:56 -0800

I'm having a firmware problem with a 1000-series PSP. I have a "fat" 1000-series PSP. When I got it (used), it had firmware 1.50 and was 'ready for homebrew', but since at that time I only wanted the PSP to play 'Me and My Katamari', I upgraded the firmware in order to play it. All good.

Later, I hoped to send the video out to my TV and, finding that my PSP didn't have the 'Connected Display Settings' menu, I bought a Pandora battery and magic memory stick in an effort to change the firmware... changed it... THEN I realized that sending video out was simply impossible with the fat PSP. D'oh! But OK. The Katamari game still works. Now, the firmware is at 2.60.

Here is my problem: Today I bought 'Lego Batman', which wants to update the firmware to 4.05, but when trying to update, my PSP gives the error: "The system configuration of this PSP system does not appear to be correct. The update cannot be completed. Contact technical support for assistance. (DRNFFFFFFCD)"

I know that this is happening because of my efforts with the Pandora battery and magic memory stick. I have searched here and on Google about this, and have found a bewildering variety of answers and suggestions that don't all agree, as well as a lot of instructions that I am not certain apply to my old style PSP.

Please, can someone help with my specific problem? I have a long trip on Wednesday and I really want to play Lego Batman on the plane. Can it be fixed? Can you point me to helpful apps or good clear instructions that apply to my case? Many, many thanks.

Best hardware for this homebrew universal remote?

unSane — Wed, 27 May 2009 06:07:06 -0800

What hardware should I use to build this networked universal remote? I want to build a universal remote which will work as follows. An IR transmitter is connected to a headless CPU, which is running a webserver. By connecting to the webserver (via an iPhone, for example) one can issue IR signals to control a plethora of AV components.

The simplest way to achieve this would be an Asus eeePC or a Mac Mini running apache, with something like this as an IR transmitter/receiver. However this seems like overkill. What's the neatest off-the-shelf hardware solution you can think of?

Next, I want someone to figure out how to build me a diamond ring out of some coal, a letterpress, and a gold earring I found on the ground.

history is a weapon — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 08:22:34 -0800

[video camera hardware hacking filter] Is there a way to hack/homebuild a p2 card for the Panasonic p2 system? How would I enlist help in this endeavor? Panasonic has a proprietary P2 system, a solid state cartridge that you record video on as opposed to tape. The size is apparently identical to the pcmcia slot found on some laptops (wikipedia defines it as thus "a RAID of SD memory cards with an LSI controller tightly packaged in a die-cast PC card (formerly PCMCIA) enclosure"). It is also priced way out of line with the market.
Sony's recent EX1 camera had a similar solid state card and its user community started hacking together a line of home brewed cards (e.g., kxs; a sample history can be found here: http://www.glasseye.com.au/articles/sdassxs/). They may not be able to do everything the sony cards do, like record at the fastest speeds, but they can do enough to make the savings worth it.
Okay, there are a bunch of products that are in a pcmcia enclosure, SD cards are much cheaper than the p2 cards, but I would have no idea about how to pursue this. Is there a community of people who could help out? Are there people who could hack out the controller and figure out the feasability? The panasonic community seems to have given up, but the few conversations on internet boards seem to have been years before the sony community hacked the SxS cards.
Where should I look? I'm near NYC if this matters.

What emulators run best on a PSP?

mr_silver — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 12:35:23 -0800

Can you recommend the best emulators to run on a (homebrew enabled) PSP? I've got a homebrew enabled PSP and would like to have a go with some of the emulators out there.

I've done some searches and come to the realisation that (a) there are a lot of emulators for various machines, (b) they appear to be of varying quality, (c) quite a few appear to be dead or dying and (d) the sites/forum posts which claim to recommend the best can be as much as 4 years old.

A quick search myself comes up with at least 2 for MAME, 5 for NeoGeo, 2 for Amiga, 4 for N64, 4 for Gameboy Advance, 2 for SNES and 4 for SEGA Master System/Game Gear. A total of 23 in all.

This is quite clearly a lot to assess so any advice you can provide on emulators to check out (or avoid) would be appreciated.

(I'm fully aware of the legal requirements regarding copyright when running emulators)

Fixing fan noise and lowering overall computer noise...

Blazecock Pileon — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 20:12:23 -0800

Homebrew PC is making a lot of noise — advice on how I should fix this? My homebrew is making a lot more noise than it usually does.

1. I suspect that it is one or more of the three fans: One fan for the case, one for the power supply, and one for the CPU.

2. In the course of repairing this, I would also like to dampen as much noise as possible — it was making a fair amount of noise before this issue started, and I use this machine as a video jukebox.

I don't have a lot of spare parts, unfortunately, and the nearest parts shop is about a two-hour trip.

Question A. Is there a safe, easy and inexpensive way to figure out where the noise is coming from, without buying one of each part?

(I can't seem to unplug the case and CPU fans without the computer throwing up error messages on boot-up, and I don't know how to disable the power supply fan.)

Question B. Once I replace the bad part, how can I dampen noise coming from the case?

This is a micro-ATX case. If you have a recommendation for a replacement case that is built to reduce noise as much as possible, I'd appreciate your advice there, too.

Feel like a kid again.

Christ, what an asshole — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 11:55:10 -0800

I own a Nintendo DS. What are some great, unheralded games I should probably know about?

What's the best DS homebrew hardware?

Grither — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 09:23:52 -0800

What is the easiest and best homebrew hardware for the Nintendo DS? I am looking to start playing some games (Monkey Island on the DS?! Awesome!) and use some other homebrew apps (colors sounds cool, and maybe ebooks if that's possible?) and was wondering what is the best way to go about it. Cost is not an issue, so do I go with: R4DS, G6, DS-Xtreme or something else that I'm missing? I've seen this, this, and this previously, but I'm looking for updated suggestions and recommendations for my homebrewing experience. Oh, I've also checked out this forum, but didn't find too much there. Thanks in advance for your help!

I want to turn my DS into an FX processor. How?

lekvar — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 18:33:58 -0800

My Nintendo DS has a mic-in and headphone jack. I want to be able to send a signal from my amp/mixer/etc. to the DS for processing in the DS audio homebrew I've downloaded and send the processed signal out to the mixer/amp/etc. Short version:
I want to turn my DS into an FX processor. How?

Long Version:
Part 1:
I've got a DS and I've got the headset. I plan on re-wiring the mic from the headset to a 1/8" or 1/4" jack so I can run a signal from my other noise toys into ProteinDS, Nitrotracker and other homebrew audio fun. I'm fairly certain that the signal from an amp, mixer or synth is going to be too hot, and I'm unwilling to burn something out by overloading the circuit. How do I calm the signal down from line-in to mic-in? Would wiring a potentiometer do the trick? If so, what kind?

Part 2:
I've wired the headphone wires from the headset to a 1/4" jack. I thought that it would be a foolproof way to send an audio signal from the DS to my mixer or amplifier but the signal is coming out very, very quiet.
Like "barely-audible" quiet. Have I done something wrong? Is my theory unsound? Any ideas how to fix it?

Any hints, tips, critiques, advice, etc. gladly accepted.

How can I control my beer temperature?

geodave — Sun, 18 May 2008 21:31:39 -0800

I'm looking for a serial-port temperature controller thingie for a bizarre cooling system I'm building, for a beer fermenter. The Problem: Beer needs to be kept around 65-70 degF in order to ferment properly; too cold and everything slows down, too hot and the yeasts die.

The Tools: I have a mini-fridge, a very small computer with only a serial port and 3 network ports, and not a lot of money.

The Solution so far: I'm going to have the beer fermenting in a glass carboy, and the mini-fridge running right beside it. Inside the fridge will be a tank of water, and inside the tank will be an aquarium pump.

The aquarium pump is connected to some plastic hose which attaches to a copper coil (refrigeration grade) that circles around the carboy, then dumps the water back inside the fridge container. Basically, when the aquarium pump turns on, it cycles a new length of cold water into the copper tubing and cools the carboy. The whole carboy will be inside of a styrofoam box or something to insulate it.

To control the pump, I'm going to have a thermistor or some other temperature sensor floating in the beer, or even better a couple of them at different positions inside the carboy. This is where my question comes in:

I can either try and build a circuit to switch on the aquarium pump when the temperature hits a certain trigger, using a prototype board and solder. Or, since I have this tiny computer sitting un-used, I can just find a temperature sensor that will plug into the serial port, then write a program to read the temperature and...I guess somehow use it to turn on the aquarium pump.

Basically I want to know if anyone can think of a better setup than this (keeping in mind that i'm poor,) or suggest another way to do it?

So I got my R4, but now what?

MaHaGoN — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 11:30:52 -0800

I just got an R4DS, but I am at a loss for what homebrew to look into. What should I be running on my R4? I have seen many recommendations here on Mefi to get an R4DS. I have wanted one for a while, and thankfully I finally got one for Christmas. I just don't really know what homebrew projects are worth looking into.

I am well aware of clean rom dumps, I don't need information on any of those. What I am not aware of is great homebrew games, applications, and emulators which I can run on an R4. I can DLDI patch if necessary, thats not an issue.

I wasn't going to ask this question because I figured google-fu would be more than enough, but I have only really found 2 seemingly good games through that, dicewars and Geowars. What else do I need to have on my DS? What do you have on your R4? Are there any games I just can't pass up a chance at having? I have a 2gb card, so space is not an issue so any recommendations are great.

Tips on cooking or brewing with hot peppers.

nebulawindphone — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 10:26:45 -0800

Tell me about cooking (or better yet, brewing) with hot peppers. I'm looking to make a batch of ancho chili mead. I'd like it to have as much of the fruity ancho flavor as possible, and as little heat or bitterness — I know that some heat is inevitable, but I want this stuff to be drinkable for ordinary humans and not just rabid chili-heads, so I'm aiming for a nice warm tingle and not a vicious burn.

Cooks: How do you maximize the flavor, and minimize the heat, when cooking with hot peppers? Methods involving fat (steeping in oil, frying) aren't really an option here. Anything involving water, sugar, honey or alcohol is ideal.

Homebrewers: Have you ever brewed with hot peppers? Did you add them to the boil, in primary, in secondary, to the bottle, or what? How'd it turn out? What did you learn?

Sell my own beer?

bajema — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 09:11:43 -0800

What would I need to do to legally sell my homebrewed beer? I live in Washington State.

What's au courant in DS homebrew in June 2007?

blueshammer — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 13:45:49 -0800

I'm interested in homebrew for the Nintendo DS. I've seen the threads here and here but am interested in the June 2007 hotness. What should I get? I have an original (phat) DS, although I bought it only a year ago, so I'm sure it has fairly recent firmware. I'm also a Mac user, so if there's a system that requires specific compiling software or whatever that's PC only, I'd like to steer clear of it. I'm told the Max Media Dock is on clearance at Wal-Marts across the country; I'm told the R4DS is the bee's knees ... I just want to be able to download homebrew apps (not necessarily ROMs, although I'd love to get the LucasArts stuff) and run them optimally. I'll pay more for low power usage; I don't mind clunkiness so much. I'm not going to be using it much for music and movies, I don't think.

A perfect combination!

backseatpilot — Fri, 11 May 2007 15:35:48 -0800

How do I add caffeine to beer? This idea sprung up after an afternoon of drinking. As a homebrewer, at what stage in the brewing process would one add caffeine to the beer? If you add it to the wort, will the yeast act differently because of it? Would it be better to add it in secondary or directly to the bottle?

Somewhat related, where can I find pure caffeine? I also seem to hazily remember a news story recently about a brewing company doing exactly this... does this ring a bell?

Can my psp play ps1 games?

GooseOnTheLoose — Sun, 11 Feb 2007 19:14:18 -0800

Can I play my ps1 games on my psp without a ps3? I used to run devhook on my psp which would allow me to emulate firmware versions necessary to play my UMDs as well as run ver 1.5 homebrew. Now, like a jackass, I was poking around looking for how to run ps1 games and for some reason thought that I needed to emulate version 3.1, so I follow a tutorial and set up the psp to dual boot either 1.5 or 3.1 through a recovery menu. This has not brought me any closer to figuring out how to run an old ps1 .iso with a ps1 emulator. Possible? I've seen the emulators out there, but getting it to work seems to be far more complex than just downloading and running.

Is homebrew a stinky business?

cschneid — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 22:17:48 -0800

Is home brewing beer stinky business? I have always wanted to home brew myself up some beer, but am worried about the stink factor.

I live in a 2 bedroom apartment, so I don't have a garage or basement to stick it in. I do have a whole bedroom I can devote to it, and some ventilation (as it gets warmer out).

Will it be overwhelming or acceptable?

how to find young red belgian? beer, that is.

garfy3 — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 17:29:23 -0800

i need to find a "fresh" bottle of chimay red, so i can harvest the yeast for a wicked-awesome batch of homebrew. problem is, i'm in d.c... all the shops i've called tell me that from their inventory systems they're at least 6 months old. i've already ~~chugged through~~ tried to harvest yeast sediment from three bottles, to no avail. they were all well over 6 months old (which can be affirmed via the date-stamp on the cork...which is conveniently located under the metal cage-cap).

the word on the homebrewing street holds that i need something younger than 3 months. is that even possible, from belgium to d.c.? without an understanding of the shipping/distribution network that supplies this ~~crappy~~ city, i need a tip for finding the young stuff. (my strategy thus far has been to ask shop-owners how fast they turn over their inventory. it seems that even the quick-turnover shops are getting product somewhat old). help me, hive mind!

where in the d.c. metro area, or online, can i go for chimay that's 'young in the bottle'?