alzymologist
@alzymologist@sopuli.xyz
- Comment on Oktoberfest! 2 hours ago:
Oh, I looked up what we did last year and…
It’s triple decoction lager actually!
2.5 kg Pale Ale (Simpsons) 2.0 kg Munich Malt (Ireks) 0.5 kg Crystal Oak (Ireks)
Then the sequence:
30 L kettle, no external heating for whole volume. Mash-in 35C water. After 20 min, take 1/3 portion, heat in 10 L kettle to 65 C on induction hotplate, wait for a negative iodine-test. Boil 45 min, mostly without mixing.
Return to mixture, wait 20 min. Take 1/3 portions, heat in 10 L kettle to 65 C on induction hotplate, wait for a negative iodine-test. Boil 45 min, mostly without mixing.
Return to mixture, wait 20 min. Take liquid, boil 45 min, return.
Then sparging.
Boil for 1h, Perle hops (6 AA%), 29 g at start, Tettnanger hops (2.4 AA%), 24 g at -15 min
LAG101 yeast (German lager strain, captured in expedition to Bayern), fermented at 10±2 C (non-heated building part with a tiny 200W heater) for about 3 weeks, then diacetyl rest at RT for about a week (feeling lazy), then bottled with light sugar priming, and into a fridge.
OG 1069 FG 1012
Profile is what we could expect from an Oktoberfest, malty body, mildly bitter with pronounced hops aroma.
I must say, it was totally worth it (and done with simplest kitchen tools and a bottle of some veterinarian drug containing iodine). With lager profile as blank canvas, this process is pretty much a show-off of what people should be really doing to make them lagers interesting.
- Comment on Oktoberfest! 3 hours ago:
It gets better! That’s why they call it lager.
Ales get better with years passing too though.
- Comment on Oktoberfest! 3 hours ago:
That’s why I was calling it Märzenfest half year ago. Apparently, or at least the books say so, they were brewing this all winter, for same reasons I do this. But sure, the later brews were probably the ones that mostly survived the thrist period.
- Submitted 11 hours ago to homebrewing@sopuli.xyz | 6 comments
- Comment on I am interested in mushroom/fungi local names 3 days ago:
Good point!
Anyway, Armillaria mellea that is all over the place right now is Keltamesisieni in Finnish (“yellow nectar mushroom”) and опёнок осенний in Russian (“autumn stump-thing”).
- Comment on Honey mushrooms 4 days ago:
Clean the mushrooms (take particular care to make sure there are no traces of dirt left and no slugs on gills - eww), cut into comfortable pieces and wash once again. Honey mushrooms are particularly slimy ones, wash them well. Bring the mushrooms to boil in plenty of water, slightly salted (1 tbsp salt per liter), keep boiling for ~30 min. Drain the mushrooms on a colander, wash with cold water. Drained mushrooms could wait in a fridge overnight if needed. Select good clean glass jars (you will also need the lids for them eventually), optimal jar volume being 500 mL to 1 L. Put the mushrooms in the jars, take care to not pack them too dense, I try to leave ~3-4 cm headspace. With mushrooms, into each jar go the spices (reminder: spices better be fresh). For 500 mL jar (scale approximately for jar size): 10-15 black peppercorns, 3-4 allspice berries, 3-5 cloves, a bit of cinnamon (small bark piece or a bit of powder, ~1/5 tsp). Prepare the marinade. For each 500 mL of water: 1 tsp sugar, 1 tsp salt, 1/3 tsp citric acid. Heat to dissolve, boil briefly, then remove from heat and add 6 tbsp vinegar 5% (I prefer apple cider vinegar, but any will do the job). Vinegar is the key to keep this preserve safe for a long time, make sure you check the concentration on the package and adjust as needed. Pour the still hot marinade into jars with mushrooms and spices, make sure the marinade covers the mushrooms. Wait for it to fill the empty spaces (this may take a few minutes or you can gently mix mushrooms and the marinade in the jar with a spoon), and then add some more marinade if needed. Cover the jars with lids (do not close yet), “sterilize” in boiling water: 30 min boiling time for 500 mL jars, 40 min boiling time for 1 L jars. Close the lids tightly after the boiling. Ready.
Boiling setup could be any one you like. I use a large can with a lid, put a thick cloth at the bottom to arrange the jars on (so that the jars do not touch the bottom of the can), pour the hot water to approximately 3/4 height of the jars, bring to gentle boil on induction stove top.
tsp = teaspoon, tbsp = tablespoon
- Comment on smörgåsbord 6 days ago:
I’m pretty sure it’s the poisonous one.
Armillarias are having absolutely mad flash right now, they cover all the ground near the dirt track, like hundreds of meters, and they grow so fast that most are too old to be tasty even though they sprouted just yesterday after I took this picture. If I had shortages of food, I’d just autoclave them into slimy protein blocks for food reserve and that would’ve probably be enough to survive winter, but my neighbors are literally dumping fresh grain to me for free. I’ll need it for spawns.
- Comment on Honey mushrooms 1 week ago:
These are just made by nature for marinade. No better way of cooking for these, ever. Also could be served on winter holidays.
- Submitted 1 week ago to mycology@mander.xyz | 2 comments
- Comment on Chicha 🇸🇻 1 week ago:
The pure culture process (pretty much all the stuff invented by Pasteur) is based on isolating a single living cell of yeast and then growing a culture of its genetic clones by natural budding (our brewer yeast lost ability to reproduce by other means some centuries ago). This ensures that chances of mutation are small and there are no other organisms in the culture. It also rejuvenates yeast, as growth conditions in this process are much more favorable and pleasant, so that cells generation can build large energy reserves inside. This is surprisingly low tech, could be done at home (lol that’s what I do), but it takes certain discipline, even more cleaning than brewing.
As of killing feature, I’m not sure exactly what it is, but for some lines they report an ability to efficiently inhibit the activity of competing organisms by means others than just outcompeting them in multiplication and consumption of nutrients. These lines should be better for introducing uncooked stuff to fermentation (fruits, berries, spices, maybe raw honey), although I’d say that really vigorous yeast can outcompete almost anything under common conditions, maybe save for really high pitch rate of acetobacter. I don’t pay much attention to this feature really, but it’s a curiosity IMO.
- Comment on 1 week ago:
Lambics are very special style, with 6+ biological agents working simultaneously, none of those pure clones like brewers yeast. It’s not even cherry centered really. And, judging by commercial beers quality, I’m afraid it’s about to become lost art.
- Comment on 1 week ago:
Christmas beer is magic, just go crazy and see where it gets you!
You are right, it is the time. I’ll share what idea I’ll try this year if I get to design something.
- Comment on Chicha 🇸🇻 1 week ago:
Haha, great to see success! Looks inviting to drink.
Be careful with propagation, without the 1-cell steps occasionally, it’s certain to get contaminated eventually. This particular strain does not even seem to have a killing feature to suppress other microbiota other than by starvation.
Yeah, the company is over and this was the last shipment. Actually the Posti lost the shipment and this was some informal sample I just made at home as a replacement long after operations stopped (so no fancy labels anymore!). Such an adventure.
But if someone needs the yeast, I still keep the library as a personal project, so DM.
- Comment on Scientific unprogress... 2 weeks ago:
For the last time?! These “modern scientists” are sure not history researchers then!
- Comment on All the fruits so far. 2 weeks ago:
Almost all this stuff gives red. Grapes skins remaining in fluid is the way they make red wine, the color of grapes does not even matter much.
This must be quite tasty. Filling jars with berries myself now, although I sort them. Mostly weizen berry beer this year for me.
- Comment on First time seeing a tree mushroom grow upward 3 weeks ago:
Might be just trunk rotated after the fruit body grew. These must be perennials I think.
- Comment on I have this corner in my basement 3 weeks ago:
another suitably sized thing I wanted to build for some time is hot drinking water thermostat with zones for diffirent temperatures, like self-refilling gradient samovar column. To have fast and easy access to decent amounts of water of various temperatures in kitchen. Then you can instantly make perfect tea!
I wish I had more time for this project.
- Comment on I have this corner in my basement 3 weeks ago:
not a good idea in kitchen, gases and aerosols will harm things both ways.
- Comment on I have this corner in my basement 3 weeks ago:
does it have integrated vacuum/steam generator? Where would the exhaust go?
- Comment on Finish the story, chat. 3 weeks ago:
Nah, that’s more like russian “if grandmother had balls, she’d be grandfather”
- Comment on I have this corner in my basement 3 weeks ago:
Looks like a place for fermentation vessel.
- Comment on Who is the enemy? 3 weeks ago:
dentists hate sugar drinks (I’m with them on this one) ophthalmologists hate screens urologists hate themselves
- Comment on Barley wine 3 weeks ago:
8kg pale 0.7kg crystal medium 0.3kg crystal oak 0.5kg chocolate 0.5kg torrified wheat
final volume 15L
Utilization could be better, but that’s zen approach we are trying - literally only large kitchen kettles and colander, I’ll make a post about this idea later. It works, but not so good on heavy stuff. But then fancy equipment doesn’t work with this well either (actually often worse). Heavy mashes are not so simple.
- Comment on Barley wine 3 weeks ago:
It’s naturally carbonated with teaspoon of sugar (not really yet), OG 1100 FG 1036 (at bottling). Thus about 9%. This beer survived heat wave (we should have bottled it sooner but it was so hard to do anything). It tastes super malty, balanced with powerful bitterness. Most of hop smell comes from lightish dry hopping. Like creamy bread.
- Submitted 3 weeks ago to homebrewing@sopuli.xyz | 8 comments
- Comment on Doctors hate these simple tricks. 4 weeks ago:
- What did you do with my foreskin?
- Excuse me, but I do not really think it’s an appropriate thing to ask, after a flu shot… maam.
- Comment on Let's hear it, little lemmings. 4 weeks ago:
sounds like 10/10 workplace harassment
- Comment on Let's hear it, little lemmings. 4 weeks ago:
nah he is just a lucky slop
- Comment on Let's hear it, little lemmings. 4 weeks ago:
Newton to talk about philosophy Leonardo to talk about art Feynman to tell each other funny jokes about lock picking and messing with people; hate each other at approximately 2:15, not enough time for fist fight, ah well
- Comment on Tried out a filter the other day... 1 month ago:
Try Red Star - Montrachet, it was pretty solid.
