Back in ~ 1994-5, I was living in Cincinnati (just 'nort of Ky, the world's bourbon capital...) and reading up on speakers, designs, and measurements. I connected with Bob and drove up to Miami and had a chance to speak with him regarding some sound / speaker ideas I had been playing around with at the time, and speaker designs in general. I remember him as being generous with his time, clearly knowledgeable on speakers, and an overall interesting gentleman.
I had just recently been to a Stone’s concert at the Stadium in Cinci, not having the best of seats (actually any seat was great, but on the main floor and a bit off to a side) and I came up with an idea for better sound staging / imaging. And it got me hooked.
@jr@mac said:
A lot of rye whiskies are blends, generally high corn content.
Especially in Canada where we don’t have strict rules on this stuff, “rye” is just another word for Whisky here, it can be 100% corn and still labelled as Rye really. Recently I believe we are now allowing up to 10% of other non-whisky to be blended in and still allowed to call it whisky, it’s a bunch of bs if you don’t know if your buying a cocktail or not.
Lot 40 is copper pot still 100% rye anyway, great stuff.
@jr@mac said:
A lot of rye whiskies are blends, generally high corn content.
Especially in Canada where we don’t have strict rules on this stuff, “rye” is just another word for Whisky here, it can be 100% corn and still labelled as Rye really. Recently I believe we are now allowing up to 10% of other non-whisky to be blended in and still allowed to call it whisky, it’s a bunch of bs if you don’t know if your buying a cocktail or not.
Lot 40 is copper pot still 100% rye anyway, great stuff.
I wasn't going to say anything about Canadian rye, but what you speak is truth.
That being said, here is a very short list of my favorite budget Canadian whiskies.
Honorable mention to Black Velvet Reserve. That is a pretty solid pour, stupid low price notwithstanding.
These can all be had for under $50.
The Templeton rye is 100% rye and is now distilled in Iowa. Formerly it came from the same ginormous distillery in Indiana that a million other "craft" whiskies come from - including some fairly expensive expressions. I tasted a 10 year old bourbon they have started bottling when I took my tour last October. Not bad, something like 30% rye. Give it a bit of a "bite back" I find lacking when the mash bill leans too heavy towards corn.
Speaking of, I am not generally a bourbon fan, corn liquor is sometimes just too sweet for my palate. That being said, some of the higher rye content bourbons I don't mind. Woodford Reserve is a good bourbon that is still 72% corn, although the malted barley component of their mash bill might lend a bit of familiarity. Scotch is, after all, my favorite style of whiskey.
An ultra honorable mention to Stranahan's Colorado Whiskey. 100% malted barley, very reminiscent of a nice single malt Scotch - think along the lines of Macallan. Give it a try if you like Scotch.
Picked up my first Rye tonight. My local state store has a limited selection so I opted to play it safe and got the Woodford reserve. First sip finished.... subtly rum like? Gros Michel (pre-cavindish banana) and maybe the lightest whiff of coconut. Not what I expected. Certainly not hating it though. I did drink some unsweetened tea not long before, so that could be affecting my taste.
I tried Rittenhouse Bottled in Bond. Way too peppery for me. Ended up sending the bottle home with my father since he really liked it. Sofar, I've found the max amount of peppery I can still enjoy is Ezra Brooks 99... Think that one might be a new favorite, actually.
Planning to get back into homebrewing a bit. Just picked up 4lb ea. of amber and red LME, Fuggle and Golding hops and a couple smack packs of 1057 liquid yeast. Want to make a basic strong amber ale to add some bourbon too. LME and liquid yeast always yielded the most consistent results for me with least funky flavors. So probably forever an extract brewer.
Not a Rye, but Old Grand Dad 114 (not the 80 proof or bottled in bond) is very unique. I really like it, but I can imagine someone absolutely hating it too. I can't remember if it available in Ohio or not, but definitely south of the border.
@a4eaudio said:
Not a Rye, but Old Grand Dad 114 (not the 80 proof or bottled in bond) is very unique. I really like it, but I can imagine someone absolutely hating it too. I can't remember if it available in Ohio or not, but definitely south of the border.
Agreed. Old grand dad 114 price/performance is quite a winner, and easily tailored to taste, a cube or two.
I would love to, Though I usually give it 2 weeks to be sure the party is over. I probably wont have time to bottle before Indy comes around. Would need to give it another 2 weeks to carbonate the bottles. Then, to be at it's best IMO, another few months aging in the fridge (kinda lagers the last bit of priming sugar to nicely dry up the flavor).
Just snapped a pic a few min ago. Well on the way already. Heck, by bed time it had a half inch of foam. I'm used to nothing happening until the next day.
Wife and I have considered brewing our own several times but always chicken out lol. We enjoy a wide variety of different beers so it isn't a question of necessarily disliking what we would produce, it is more being intimidated by the entire process.
Much easier to head to our favorite bars and asking for samples
@DrewsBrews said:
Just snapped a pic a few min ago. Well on the way already. Heck, by bed time it had a half inch of foam. I'm used to nothing happening until the next day.
@jr@mac said:
Wife and I have considered brewing our own several times but always chicken out lol. We enjoy a wide variety of different beers so it isn't a question of necessarily disliking what we would produce, it is more being intimidated by the entire process.
Much easier to head to our favorite bars and asking for samples
There are so many ways to brew I really do understand being intimidated/overwhelmed about knowing where to start or what to do. But, a basic all-extract ale is orders of magnitude easier than designing and constructing an exceptional sounding speaker IMO.
Tips from my personal experience for anyone who might want to give it a try...
-If you skip the grain steeping/mashing step and go all-extract you eliminate those first hour/s dorking around with the grain, watching mash temps like a hawk.. and just go straight to the boil.
-Basically you boil a malt sugar solution for about an hour and add in hops at specific times to add bitterness and hops flavors.
-Cool the resulting "wort" down to below about 95F then add it to your fermenter with the yeast
-Wait 2 weeks for the magic to happen and fizzle out (starts fizzling by end of first week)
-Add a little "priming" sugar (dissolved in boiling water) to the mix and bottle the beer
-The priming sugar is consumed by the remaining yeast in suspension to carbonate the bottle (about another 2 weeks)
-Consume and/or age as you wish
To be honest the Northern brewer $150 kit is probably a better value since it comes with a stainless brew kettle and a bottling wand for easier bottling. But it comes with a cheaper ingredient kit that has steeping grains (adding another step and more time) and doesn't appear to come with yeast. Maybe get this kit, saving the ingredient kit for later and buy an all extract ingredient kit from Williams to do for the first batch. https://northernbrewer.com/products/brew-share-enjoy-homebrew-starter-kit
-I later went to a glass carboy for fermentation, but only because I have a thing for glass. They have their own difficulties in use. And recently I've heard they are being produced in China instead of Italy and are having many more incidents of randomly cracking open. The plastic bucket fermenter is perfectly fine, just don't scrub it so you don't introduce micro abrasions for wild yeasts and bacteria to hide out in. I'm also weary of potential for leaks with the valve hole. So I'd put the fermenter in a plastic tub when in use just in case... Maybe I should do that with my glass one anyway, lol
-For brew kettle it is suggested to go Stainless or enamel coated steel. I guess aluminium can react giving metallic flavors to the brew. I got a Ballington brand 24qt stainless stockpot. it lets me do a 5gallon boil if I want to, just barely. But looks like they are $100 now. I'm sure there are better options now. Hell looks like at williams brewing if you buy the fermenter kit they will knock their 40qt Brewers Edge pot down to $80 when you add it on. Looks like it has a nice stainless ball valve to drain through a tube instead of having to tip it to pour 5gal of boiling hot liquid. Dang that'd be nice, but says not recommended for glass top stoves. Pretty much any would be big enough to use for canning too.
-I never bought a wort chiller. Initially I had a big enough sink to do an ice water bath for the whole stockpot, but that took time to cool. Then I moved to an apartment where the sink was too small. So I started doing 3.5-4gal boils and would add 2 small bags of the typical bagged ice to the bucket before dumping the hot wort directly on it. My new place has a bigger sink again but I might stick with the ice method. Way quicker
-I might as well throw away my hydrometers. I used them once. You quickly get an idea for what a good ferment is just by watching the airlock bubble. It is very hard to have a stuck ferment unless you let temps go too low in an unheated room in the winter or are going for a higher gravity beer where the yeast is working harder but are low on a nutrient they need. Generally more sugar = more alcohol. If you try a higher gravity brew don't be surprised if the yeast goes nuts and foam blows into the airlock. You can make a super airlock by shoving a sanitized hose in the fermenter airlock hole and the other end of the hose in a glass of water. Once I did a ferment that was probably into the double digits abv and the yeast collectively ripped their shirts off and went apesh@t, blew foam all the way down the hose into the glass, twice!
-Bulk spring drinking water is a good default to use. I moved to a locale with known good tasting water and I tested low chlorine/chloramines so I'm now trying out tap water.
-I use the Brewers cleaner/sanitizer to clean everything both before and after the boil and bottling. So 2 chances to get everything cleaned out and sanitary.
-Ales are pretty much all you will be doing unless you have an appropriate stable low temp environment for lagering. Most folks who want to lager will modify a mini fridge for lagering temps (~55F) and make an insulated extension housing because the fermenter is often too large for the mini fridge to fit with closed door.
-I don't worry about fermentation temps too much as long as it is not too high and doesn't swing rapidly. Alot of ale yeasts will say between 60-70F on the package but I think all my ferments were mid 70s and may have crept up to 78-80 on vigorous ferments (yeast makes it's own heat).
-Keep the fermentation in the dark as much as you can. Skunkiness is actually from light exposure; they call it "lightstruck". Hence the, ehm.. flavor profile, of beer in clear or light color bottles (Corona, Heineken, etc.)
-Don't buy bottles.. You are a beer drinker. Just buy beer in dark non twist off cap bottles and save them. Soak in warm cleaning solution and the labels and glue comes of easily. I know 50 bottles can take a while to accumulate. But you can do it Everyone says they almost immediately went to kegging but I never did. I like being able to stash some away and slowly try it to see how it changes as it ages. Lastly: It is an unfiltered bottle conditioned beer. There will be a yeast cake at the bottom that is easily stirred up. Slowly pour into a glass, stopping when the yeast starts pouring in. Or, sigh, drink from the bottle if you must. I'm not your dang mom
-Oah and probably the biggest one.. The chances are extremely low that you would be able to make something that would actually hurt you. If the airlock is doing the dance then you are making alcohol and the yeast is taking over, muscling anything else out. The biggest reason for sanitizing is to prevent other wild yeasts or bacteria from making funky flavors before that happens.
@Kornbread said:
Yeast cake; ever saved and reused it?
Saving perishable stuff for reuse? That sounds like work. Nah not tried it yet. I'd probably try dumping new wort on a used cake if I was doing multiple batches in succession to distil... Sour mash style.
Looks like I tossed my primary bottles to save space. Fortunately my backup bin of bottles was harder to get to and I must have gotten lazy (big surprise). Some still had labels. Sunday I made time to go about de-labeling. Ended up having to do a bunch of scrubbing. Wore me out enough I didn't want to continue with bottling.
I'd suggest find beer with labels that are lightly glued. Soak them with the cleaning solution in hot water. If you get lucky they will fall off themselves. If not, peel off what you can and scrub off the rest. Standard paper labels use a water soluble food safe glue. If you get bottles with plastic labels they use glue that would damn near require mineral spirits to get off... Or just leave em on.
At least the bottles can be reused indefinitely until they get damaged, so generally delabeling is a one and done thing. Until you decide you want to bottle more batches while you are still whittling down the previous batch/s
I didn't find any more caps in my stash so yesterday I made a run. They had some pretty sweet ones at Jungle Jim's.
Bottled this evening.
Boil a couple cups of water to dissolve the priming sugar into and let it sit to cool a bit. Get the sanitising solution going to soak your valves and tubing. Soak your bottles in the sanitising solution and rinse. Pour some in the bottling bucket to sanitise and rinse.
Then assemble your valve on the bottling bucket. Pour the priming sugar solution in then hook up the sanitised hose to the fermenter and drain into the bucket. I also added a cup and a half of bourbon since I'm shooting for a bourbon ale.
Bottling is a bit of a race to the finish trying to get done with minimal air exposure to prevent oxidation. So I didn't get pics of the process. I still use a basic double lever hand capper to crimp em on. Just fill to about 1-1.5" from the top so there is sufficient head space for the co2 to gather and prevent bottle bombs. During carbonization keep em in a plastic bin just in case one does decide to blow. A 5gal batch will yield roughly 50x 12oz bottles. I like to fill some 22oz ones too though.
In 2 weeks at room temperature they should be carbonated enough to chill and be drinkable as standard beer. I did try the beer straight out of the fermenter. Rather nutty. I probably should have just done all amber extract for what I was going for (instead of half red). But I'm not too worried. it will still be tasty, unique and BOLD. The amount of extract I used along with dumping in a half bottle of bourbon will probably put this stuff up towards 8% abv or more and probably not much more than $1 per 12oz bottle.
[edit] Now that I think about it I thought I should add: I don't believe I've ever had a bottle explode. I've had some beer be a bit over-carbonated and would foam up and try to overflow the moment it hit the glass but that is the worst of it. As long as you don't overfill the bottles (1-1.5" head space), and be sure the priming sugar was well mixed, it should be pretty safe. The yeast get slowed down the higher the pressure gets. I'd bet incidents of bottles blowing were probably bottles that were already damaged or sufficiently flawed that they couldn't handle the typical pressures required to force carbonate the beer with this method.
Comments
I love rye whiskey. Templeton 6 is my go to. I'm going to try a similar aged Whistlepig this weekend.
A lot of rye whiskies are blends, generally high corn content.
To be labeled bourbon it must be at least 51% corn.
I know it well. I lived in Liberty Township when I was an Economics professor at Miami University 2003-9.
Did you have an opportunity to meet up with Robert Bullock (Bullock on Boxes), or had he passed?
No, I hadn't discovered this hobby back then. I only found out recently that he had been there based on something I read on one of the forums.
Back in ~ 1994-5, I was living in Cincinnati (just 'nort of Ky, the world's bourbon capital...) and reading up on speakers, designs, and measurements. I connected with Bob and drove up to Miami and had a chance to speak with him regarding some sound / speaker ideas I had been playing around with at the time, and speaker designs in general. I remember him as being generous with his time, clearly knowledgeable on speakers, and an overall interesting gentleman.
I had just recently been to a Stone’s concert at the Stadium in Cinci, not having the best of seats (actually any seat was great, but on the main floor and a bit off to a side) and I came up with an idea for better sound staging / imaging. And it got me hooked.
Especially in Canada where we don’t have strict rules on this stuff, “rye” is just another word for Whisky here, it can be 100% corn and still labelled as Rye really. Recently I believe we are now allowing up to 10% of other non-whisky to be blended in and still allowed to call it whisky, it’s a bunch of bs if you don’t know if your buying a cocktail or not.
Lot 40 is copper pot still 100% rye anyway, great stuff.
I wasn't going to say anything about Canadian rye, but what you speak is truth.
That being said, here is a very short list of my favorite budget Canadian whiskies.
Tangle Ridge - 100% rye, aged 10 years, Sherry cask finished.
Canadian Club 100% rye
Canadian Club 12 yr
Forty Creek Barrel Select
Pendleton 1910
Honorable mention to Black Velvet Reserve. That is a pretty solid pour, stupid low price notwithstanding.
These can all be had for under $50.
The Templeton rye is 100% rye and is now distilled in Iowa. Formerly it came from the same ginormous distillery in Indiana that a million other "craft" whiskies come from - including some fairly expensive expressions. I tasted a 10 year old bourbon they have started bottling when I took my tour last October. Not bad, something like 30% rye. Give it a bit of a "bite back" I find lacking when the mash bill leans too heavy towards corn.
Speaking of, I am not generally a bourbon fan, corn liquor is sometimes just too sweet for my palate. That being said, some of the higher rye content bourbons I don't mind. Woodford Reserve is a good bourbon that is still 72% corn, although the malted barley component of their mash bill might lend a bit of familiarity. Scotch is, after all, my favorite style of whiskey.
An ultra honorable mention to Stranahan's Colorado Whiskey. 100% malted barley, very reminiscent of a nice single malt Scotch - think along the lines of Macallan. Give it a try if you like Scotch.
I’m a fan of Stranahan’s - since years ago visiting The Home Ranch (and now living in Clark)
Check out history- and Supreme Court Case on one of their beers - quite interesting (legal issues- Raging
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Dog_Brewery
Picked up my first Rye tonight. My local state store has a limited selection so I opted to play it safe and got the Woodford reserve. First sip finished.... subtly rum like? Gros Michel (pre-cavindish banana) and maybe the lightest whiff of coconut. Not what I expected. Certainly not hating it though. I did drink some unsweetened tea not long before, so that could be affecting my taste.
I tried Rittenhouse Bottled in Bond. Way too peppery for me. Ended up sending the bottle home with my father since he really liked it. Sofar, I've found the max amount of peppery I can still enjoy is Ezra Brooks 99... Think that one might be a new favorite, actually.
Planning to get back into homebrewing a bit. Just picked up 4lb ea. of amber and red LME, Fuggle and Golding hops and a couple smack packs of 1057 liquid yeast. Want to make a basic strong amber ale to add some bourbon too. LME and liquid yeast always yielded the most consistent results for me with least funky flavors. So probably forever an extract brewer.
Not a Rye, but Old Grand Dad 114 (not the 80 proof or bottled in bond) is very unique. I really like it, but I can imagine someone absolutely hating it too. I can't remember if it available in Ohio or not, but definitely south of the border.
Agreed. Old grand dad 114 price/performance is quite a winner, and easily tailored to taste, a cube or two.
30min in, just threw in a whirlfloc tab.
Man it feels good to brew again.
Gonna bring any samples to Indy?
God speed you magnificent yeasty bastards!
I would love to, Though I usually give it 2 weeks to be sure the party is over. I probably wont have time to bottle before Indy comes around. Would need to give it another 2 weeks to carbonate the bottles. Then, to be at it's best IMO, another few months aging in the fridge (kinda lagers the last bit of priming sugar to nicely dry up the flavor).
So, Iowa?
Why is that water so dirty?😬
Ask your parents
Just snapped a pic a few min ago. Well on the way already. Heck, by bed time it had a half inch of foam. I'm used to nothing happening until the next day.
Wife and I have considered brewing our own several times but always chicken out lol. We enjoy a wide variety of different beers so it isn't a question of necessarily disliking what we would produce, it is more being intimidated by the entire process.
Much easier to head to our favorite bars and asking for samples
Maybe try the Oreo recipe next.
There are so many ways to brew I really do understand being intimidated/overwhelmed about knowing where to start or what to do. But, a basic all-extract ale is orders of magnitude easier than designing and constructing an exceptional sounding speaker IMO.
Tips from my personal experience for anyone who might want to give it a try...
-If you skip the grain steeping/mashing step and go all-extract you eliminate those first hour/s dorking around with the grain, watching mash temps like a hawk.. and just go straight to the boil.
-Basically you boil a malt sugar solution for about an hour and add in hops at specific times to add bitterness and hops flavors.
-Cool the resulting "wort" down to below about 95F then add it to your fermenter with the yeast
-Wait 2 weeks for the magic to happen and fizzle out (starts fizzling by end of first week)
-Add a little "priming" sugar (dissolved in boiling water) to the mix and bottle the beer
-The priming sugar is consumed by the remaining yeast in suspension to carbonate the bottle (about another 2 weeks)
-Consume and/or age as you wish
This is the kit I went with probably 15+ years ago to get started. Includes an ingredient kit of your choice that would usually cost $40-50:
https://williamsbrewing.com/Home-Brewing-Supplies/Williams-Home-Brewery/Williams-Home-Brewery
To be honest the Northern brewer $150 kit is probably a better value since it comes with a stainless brew kettle and a bottling wand for easier bottling. But it comes with a cheaper ingredient kit that has steeping grains (adding another step and more time) and doesn't appear to come with yeast. Maybe get this kit, saving the ingredient kit for later and buy an all extract ingredient kit from Williams to do for the first batch.
https://northernbrewer.com/products/brew-share-enjoy-homebrew-starter-kit
-I later went to a glass carboy for fermentation, but only because I have a thing for glass. They have their own difficulties in use. And recently I've heard they are being produced in China instead of Italy and are having many more incidents of randomly cracking open. The plastic bucket fermenter is perfectly fine, just don't scrub it so you don't introduce micro abrasions for wild yeasts and bacteria to hide out in. I'm also weary of potential for leaks with the valve hole. So I'd put the fermenter in a plastic tub when in use just in case... Maybe I should do that with my glass one anyway, lol
-For brew kettle it is suggested to go Stainless or enamel coated steel. I guess aluminium can react giving metallic flavors to the brew. I got a Ballington brand 24qt stainless stockpot. it lets me do a 5gallon boil if I want to, just barely. But looks like they are $100 now. I'm sure there are better options now. Hell looks like at williams brewing if you buy the fermenter kit they will knock their 40qt Brewers Edge pot down to $80 when you add it on. Looks like it has a nice stainless ball valve to drain through a tube instead of having to tip it to pour 5gal of boiling hot liquid. Dang that'd be nice, but says not recommended for glass top stoves. Pretty much any would be big enough to use for canning too.
-I never bought a wort chiller. Initially I had a big enough sink to do an ice water bath for the whole stockpot, but that took time to cool. Then I moved to an apartment where the sink was too small. So I started doing 3.5-4gal boils and would add 2 small bags of the typical bagged ice to the bucket before dumping the hot wort directly on it. My new place has a bigger sink again but I might stick with the ice method. Way quicker
-I might as well throw away my hydrometers. I used them once. You quickly get an idea for what a good ferment is just by watching the airlock bubble. It is very hard to have a stuck ferment unless you let temps go too low in an unheated room in the winter or are going for a higher gravity beer where the yeast is working harder but are low on a nutrient they need. Generally more sugar = more alcohol. If you try a higher gravity brew don't be surprised if the yeast goes nuts and foam blows into the airlock. You can make a super airlock by shoving a sanitized hose in the fermenter airlock hole and the other end of the hose in a glass of water. Once I did a ferment that was probably into the double digits abv and the yeast collectively ripped their shirts off and went apesh@t, blew foam all the way down the hose into the glass, twice!
-Bulk spring drinking water is a good default to use. I moved to a locale with known good tasting water and I tested low chlorine/chloramines so I'm now trying out tap water.
-I use the Brewers cleaner/sanitizer to clean everything both before and after the boil and bottling. So 2 chances to get everything cleaned out and sanitary.
-Ales are pretty much all you will be doing unless you have an appropriate stable low temp environment for lagering. Most folks who want to lager will modify a mini fridge for lagering temps (~55F) and make an insulated extension housing because the fermenter is often too large for the mini fridge to fit with closed door.
-I don't worry about fermentation temps too much as long as it is not too high and doesn't swing rapidly. Alot of ale yeasts will say between 60-70F on the package but I think all my ferments were mid 70s and may have crept up to 78-80 on vigorous ferments (yeast makes it's own heat).
-Keep the fermentation in the dark as much as you can. Skunkiness is actually from light exposure; they call it "lightstruck". Hence the, ehm.. flavor profile, of beer in clear or light color bottles (Corona, Heineken, etc.)
-Don't buy bottles.. You are a beer drinker. Just buy beer in dark non twist off cap bottles and save them. Soak in warm cleaning solution and the labels and glue comes of easily. I know 50 bottles can take a while to accumulate. But you can do it
Everyone says they almost immediately went to kegging but I never did. I like being able to stash some away and slowly try it to see how it changes as it ages. Lastly: It is an unfiltered bottle conditioned beer. There will be a yeast cake at the bottom that is easily stirred up. Slowly pour into a glass, stopping when the yeast starts pouring in. Or, sigh, drink from the bottle if you must. I'm not your dang mom 
-Oah and probably the biggest one.. The chances are extremely low that you would be able to make something that would actually hurt you. If the airlock is doing the dance then you are making alcohol and the yeast is taking over, muscling anything else out. The biggest reason for sanitizing is to prevent other wild yeasts or bacteria from making funky flavors before that happens.
Dude I'd be down! A creamy chocolatey stout. mmmmm
I'll have to see if I can find that one.
Yep to what DrewsBrews said.
Had an occasional off ferment that tasted great. Also had fast ferments that hovered around 90* and had to keep the temps from going any higher.
Plastic may not be as sexy, bit it's fine for fermenting and doesn't break all of a sudden, and it really, really sux when that happens.
Yeast cake; ever saved and reused it?
Try a baby bottle brush on the end of a drill to thoroughly clean dirty beer bottles.
Saving perishable stuff for reuse? That sounds like work. Nah not tried it yet. I'd probably try dumping new wort on a used cake if I was doing multiple batches in succession to distil... Sour mash style.
Looks like I tossed my primary bottles to save space. Fortunately my backup bin of bottles was harder to get to and I must have gotten lazy (big surprise). Some still had labels. Sunday I made time to go about de-labeling. Ended up having to do a bunch of scrubbing. Wore me out enough I didn't want to continue with bottling.
I'd suggest find beer with labels that are lightly glued. Soak them with the cleaning solution in hot water. If you get lucky they will fall off themselves. If not, peel off what you can and scrub off the rest. Standard paper labels use a water soluble food safe glue. If you get bottles with plastic labels they use glue that would damn near require mineral spirits to get off... Or just leave em on.
At least the bottles can be reused indefinitely until they get damaged, so generally delabeling is a one and done thing. Until you decide you want to bottle more batches while you are still whittling down the previous batch/s
I didn't find any more caps in my stash so yesterday I made a run. They had some pretty sweet ones at Jungle Jim's.
Bottled this evening.
Boil a couple cups of water to dissolve the priming sugar into and let it sit to cool a bit. Get the sanitising solution going to soak your valves and tubing. Soak your bottles in the sanitising solution and rinse. Pour some in the bottling bucket to sanitise and rinse.
Then assemble your valve on the bottling bucket. Pour the priming sugar solution in then hook up the sanitised hose to the fermenter and drain into the bucket. I also added a cup and a half of bourbon since I'm shooting for a bourbon ale.
Bottling is a bit of a race to the finish trying to get done with minimal air exposure to prevent oxidation. So I didn't get pics of the process. I still use a basic double lever hand capper to crimp em on. Just fill to about 1-1.5" from the top so there is sufficient head space for the co2 to gather and prevent bottle bombs. During carbonization keep em in a plastic bin just in case one does decide to blow. A 5gal batch will yield roughly 50x 12oz bottles. I like to fill some 22oz ones too though.
In 2 weeks at room temperature they should be carbonated enough to chill and be drinkable as standard beer. I did try the beer straight out of the fermenter. Rather nutty. I probably should have just done all amber extract for what I was going for (instead of half red). But I'm not too worried. it will still be tasty, unique and BOLD. The amount of extract I used along with dumping in a half bottle of bourbon will probably put this stuff up towards 8% abv or more
and probably not much more than $1 per 12oz bottle.
[edit] Now that I think about it I thought I should add: I don't believe I've ever had a bottle explode. I've had some beer be a bit over-carbonated and would foam up and try to overflow the moment it hit the glass but that is the worst of it. As long as you don't overfill the bottles (1-1.5" head space), and be sure the priming sugar was well mixed, it should be pretty safe. The yeast get slowed down the higher the pressure gets. I'd bet incidents of bottles blowing were probably bottles that were already damaged or sufficiently flawed that they couldn't handle the typical pressures required to force carbonate the beer with this method.
I think the probability is pretty high that I'm the only one here who knows what Jungle Jim's is