Tennessee Gun

Tag: brewing

  • The New Complete Joy of Homebrewing

    The New Complete Joy of Homebrewing

    Book Review: The New Complete Joy of Home Brewing
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    I discovered The New Complete Joy of Homebrewing at a local discount book store, and now that I own it, I would happily pay full price for a new copy if I should ever lose or destroy this copy.

    This is not a recipe book, although it does contain some recipes. This is a troubleshooting guide, as well as a reference packed full of charts and tables.

    If you want to know the chemistry behind your brewing, become consistent in the flavor of your finished product, or just start brewing, then I recommend The New Complete Joy of Homebrewing.

    I personally spend more time making wine and mead, than I do brewing beer, and this guide is geared toward brewing beer, this book has enough depth that it is useful for all three pursuits.

    When I started this site I was fond of saying I liked to make alcohol, but I didn’t really like drinking it, but here lately, I am starting to turn the other way.

    I think as life progresses we change, and we begin to adopt different attitudes based upon what we choose to let into our life.  For me its more drinking and screwing around with little projects, with others I have no idea.

    Not saying this is a bad thing, but it does make you wonder what you are allowing in your life, because just as it is true that when one door closes another opens, it is also true that as you walk through a door you lock another behind you.

    As I said, I like this book, and I bet if you like home-brewing, you will like it also.

  • How to Make Coffee Without a Coffee Maker

     

    Kitchen DIY: Coffee Brewing Hack
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    I don’t drink a lot of coffee, so maybe I don’t fully appreciate this coffee brewing hack, but since I love DIY solutions to problems, I wanted to show an awesome hack James from survivalpunk.com thought of in order to brew coffee using nothing but a glass carafe, a filter, and a cut off top of a soda bottle.

    If you cut the bottom off of a 20 ounce soda bottle you can insert it into the top of a glass carafe (or bottle with a large neck).  Put a coffee filter into the top of the soda bottle and fill with he appropriate amount of coffee and you can pour water into the filter and have coffee drip into your glass.

    I am more of a tea drinker so I am more likely to do this with loose tea, but the idea is the same.

    Hope this is useful to you.

    After this post went live, I had a lot of requests to review french presses for coffee making.  I don’t know why because I said I don’t drink coffee, but I did get one.  I used it to make tea.  It did a good job and I liked it, but it took too long for something I drink by the gallon.

  • Kitchen Tip: Tea Brewing Tip

    Kitchen Tip: Tea Brewing Tip

    52 Unique Techniques for Stocking Food for Prepper
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    This is a quick Tea Brewing Tip for sweet tea – it works particularly well with hard water, but we are on city water, and it made a huge difference in the quality of my favorite drink.

    I really like sweet tea, but due to the bitterness of the tannins it contains, I hate unsweet tea. I have to have a lot of sugar to counteract the bitterness. However, sugar is not very healthy, and I am trying to get a little healthier.

    I found that a pinch (about 1/8 tablespoon) per gallon of tea counteracts the bitterness so that I can enjoy my tea with 1/3 less sugar.

    As I mentioned in the video, the ability of baking soda to absorb and counteract contaminates lead to many moonshiners adding it to their mash as they ran their stills.

    I read recently that some people have a gene that makes them taste bitter flavors more than others.  I think I have that gene as I cannot stand bitter.  I don’t drink coffee or unsweetened tea.  This tip reduces the bitter tannins enough that I can use much less sugar to counteract the bitterness in tea so I think it is a great thing to share.

  • Bung Sizes for Brewing

    Bung Sizes for Brewing

    52 Unique Techniques for Stocking Food for Prepper
    Buy at Amazon

    Today’s article on Bung sizes is more for me, than it is for you.

    I need a handy reference of what the numbers on the sides of the rubber stoppers mean in relation to size.

    The other day I needed a stopper for a non-standard (meaning scrounged) glass carboy.  The jug was bigger than my number 9 stopper so I went to the store to get an 8.

    When I got home I was quite surprised my 8 was much bigger than my #9 – turns out it was a 6. A 5.5 stopper fit perfect.

    If you are going to experiment with fermented goodies, your going to have to plug up some holes at one point or another.

    Hopefully this chart, and the few tips I put below will help you get the stopper you need.

     

     

    Tips:

    • #00 Stopper fits and plugs the airlock hole in a drilled stopper so it can be used as a solid stopper
    • #2 Stopper fits standard wine bottle opening
    • #6 Stopper fits wine making and beer brewing industry ½ and 1 gallon jugs
    • #6.5 Stopper fits standard 6 gallon glass carboys
    • #7 Stopper fits standard 3, 5, and 6.5 gallon glass carboys
    • #10 Stopper fits standard 3, 5, and 6 gallon plastic carboys
    • #11 Stopper fits Demi Johns (14.25 Gallon Glass Carboys)
    • #11.5 Stopper fits most oak barrels

    Rubber Stopper Sizing Reference Chart

     

    Stopper Size

    Bottom Diameter (Inches)

    Top Diameter (Inches)

    Avg. Diameter (Inches)

    #2

    5/8

    3/4

    11/16

    #3

    11/16

    7/8

    13/16

    #5.5

    15/16

    1-1/16

    1

    #6

    7/8

    1-1/4

    1-1/8

    #6.5

    1

    1-1/2

    1-1/4

    #7

    1-3/16

    1-7/16

    1-5/16

    #7.5

    1-1/4

    1-1/2

    1-3/8

    #8

    1-5/16

    1-9/16

    1-7/16

    #8.5

    1-7/16

    1-11/16

    1-9/16

    #9.5

    1-1/2

    1-3/4

    1-5/8

    #10

    1-11/16

    1-15/16

    1-13/16

    #10.5

    1-13/16

    2-1/16

    1-15/16

    #11

    1-15/16

    2-3/16

    2-1/16

    #11.5

    2

    2-1/2

    2-1/4

    101 Recipes for Making Wild Wines at Home: A Step-by-Step Guide to Using Herbs, Fruits, and Flowers (Back to Basics Cooking)