Home Made Yogurt

I got the idea to make my own yogurt about three years ago when my youngest child was still a baby, and I was picky about what she ate. I learned how to do it by reading a book called "Super Baby Food", and also from a really awesome episode of Good Eats by Alton Brown. Go watch the episode here!
Good Eats S6E4P1: Good Milk Gone Bad
There, back yet? Not bad eh?
Alright there are many different ways to do it, but here's what I do.


What you need:
Milk, powdered milk, a thermometer, one container of UNFLAVORED plain yogurt (you'll only be using a spoonful, and can eat the rest), cleaning supplies, an appropriate sized glass container with lid to incubate and store yogurt, and of course a pot and whisk.
I use 1/4 cup powdered milk for every quart of milk. Make as much or as little as you want. I don't add any extra honey or sugars personally, and it turns out fine. The powdered milk makes the yogurt thick so don't skip it or you'll get runny yogurt. Unless you're into that kind of thing. Runny yogurt is fine for smoothies I guess.

Sterilization: Make sure that everything that touches your milk is sterilized either with heat or chemicals. I like to wash and bleach the whole cooking area just to make sure. Cleanliness is important here.

Heat to 180F: Begin by mixing your powdered milk into your milk in a saucepan and heat to 180-185F degrees. Not boiling. This pasteurizes your milk, which basically means you kill off any bacteria/yeast/germs that might be currently in the milk. We want to grow yogurt cultures, not some random bacteria culture that's lying about the kitchen.

Cool to 110F: Next, cool your milk back down to about 110-120F degrees. I am impatient so I fill my sink up with cold ice water, which drops the temp back down in only a few minutes, but you don't have to do that.

Add Starter Culture: Add a spoonful of yogurt to the cooled milk. If the milk is above 120F the yogurt cultures will die. They like to grow between the 90-115F degree range.

Incubate 8 hours: And finally, find a warm spot in your kitchen to let the yogurt sit for 8 hours. I like to turn my oven on for a minute then off again just to get it slightly warm in there, then I leave my yogurt in there (closed door, the pic above was just to show the yogurt and oven thermometer in there). Actually, I have an oven thermometer and I get the oven up to 120F, turn the oven off, and forget about it for 8 hours.
It will turn into a nice, thick, fresh yogurt!

All done! Enjoy. Fresh made yogurt tastes way better than the store bought stuff. It doesn't have that acidic tang. Old yogurt gets tangy, and the store bought stuff is just old old yogurt. And it's cheaper too.

When I've finished eating the yogurt, I make sure I save at least a spoonful or two so I can use it as a starter for the next batch.

Citrus Spice Honeymead

Yesterday I started a 3 gallon batch of Citrus Honeymead. My version was based off this version of "Malkores Not-So-Ancient Orange Mead", which was based off a very ancient version of "Joe's Ancient Orange Mead (JAOM)".
For my 3 gallons of mead, I used the following:
10 pounds of clover honey (Costco)
1 Grapefruit
1 Orange
1 cinnamon stick
2 cloves
75 raisins
1 package Wyeast ACT4184 Sweet Mead Activator (yeast)
2.7 grams yeast nutrient
2.7 grams Diammonium Phosphate
3 grams Potassium Carbonate
1/4 tsp gypsum for my water (mineral content)

I started work on this 24 hours in advance by creating a starter culture for my yeast. I took a 12 oz jar and filled it with some honey water and added a little yeast nutrient. I pitched my sweet mead yeast into that jar and let it sit for 24 hours. This allowed my yeast to get a pre-start so they were ready to go when I need them the next day. I also stuck a gallon of filtered water into the refridgerator 24 hours in advance so it would be nice and cold.

Then on mead making day, I put all my honey into my cooking pot with a gallon of water. I heated that water to 160F degrees and held it there (it accidentally went up to 170 but I caught it and returned it back down). The water took a long time to reach that temp, and I used that time to cut my grapefruit and orange slices into 8ths. I removed the peel from the fruit. I removed all the pith from the peels and cut the peels into smaller pieces. Then I pitched the fruit and peels into the honey must so it could pasteurize. I held it for about 20 minutes.
I let the honey must cool for a while and added my refridgerator chilled gallon of water. I put my honey must into a fermentation bucket, filled it a little water to get it up to the 3 gallon mark, and let it cool to below 90F.
I took my hydrometer reading and it came out to 1.130. A bit higher than I thought it would. I'm guessing with my yeast type and the high hydrometer reading that this is going to end up some very sweet stuff. (My yeast will only go to 11% alcohol before it stops).

When it was below 90F, I moved my honey wort to a 3 gallon glass carboy and pitched my yeast. I still had a little room in my carboy for some water so I added more water (my OG was so high anyways). I think I probably added about a pint or less.
I attached a cap and blow-off hose to the top of my carboy. The other end of the blow-off hose is in a bucket of water. This allows carbon dioxide gas to escape from the carboy, but doesn't allow contaminating air back in.

So there it is. Because I did my starter culture, my yeast started work on this very quickly and I could see it start bubbling a bit in 2 hours.


I am following a staggered nutrient addition so my next addition will be tomorrow maybe.

Start date: 5/24/10
OG: 1.130 @ 90F degrees(before I added an extra pint of water)

Brewer's Best: Oatmeal Stout Kit

On May 12th, I started a 5 gallon batch of Oatmeal Stout. I didn't quite intend to start beer but I saw a kit at the local homebrew store and thought I'd give it a shot. (Note: all photos enlarge when clicked.)
Brewer's Best Oatmeal Stout Kit

The ingredients in the box:
12 oz crushed 2-row pale malt
6 oz crushed dark chocolate malt
4 oz crushed victory malt
2 oz crystal 120L malt
1 lb maltodextrin
1 lb flaked oats
1 oz Cascade flavoring hops (alpha acid 7.5%)
1 oz Brewers Gold bittering hops (alpha acid 9.7%)
3.3 lb can liquid malt extract, dark
3 lb Extra dark dried malt extract powder
Windsor brewing yeast
grain bags!

I pretty much followed the kit directions. It had me sanitize (duh) everything I'd use and I bleached the heck out of my kitchen. I heated about 1.5 gallons water and added my grains (in the grain bag).

I had the grains steep like a tea at 165F degrees for a while (I forget how long).

I removed the grain bag from the wort, added my can of liquid malt extract, my dried malt extract, and my maltodextrin and started a boil.
I put my 3/4 of my bittering hops in and let them boil about 30 minutes (I didn't want too much bitter).

Then I added my flavoring hops and boiled another 15 minutes. I turned off the heat and let it cool down. It looked like I had a lot of extra sediment in my wort so I ran it through a filter when I transferred the wort to my fermentation bucket. Filtering and transferring took a long time because there was so much sediment that it clogged the filter in my funnel.

I added water to my wort to bring it up to 5 gallons and took my initial hydrometer readings.

My hydrometer read 1.070 @ 77F degrees. Adjusting for temperature, this gives me an OG (starting gravity) of 1.095. My kit says my starting gravity should be between 1.048 to 1.056 so I seem to be off by quite a bit. I blame all the extra sediment. I think I still have a lot of unfermentable sediments from the grains in my beer wort.
I pitched my yeast and transferred to a 5 gallon glass carboy.
I put my carboy in a box in case it bubbles over so it doesn't make a mess. I put a cap on the top of the carboy and attached a blow-off hose. I put the end of the blow-off hose into a bucket of water to allow carbon dioxide to get out but it won't allow air in. This keeps it sanitary.

That was it! Within 8 hours, it was bubbling like crazy and had a nice foam on it, called "krausen".


UPDATE: Racked to secondary on May 19th and measured 1.0407 gravity. I will follow the 1-2-3 guidelines I read about on some homebrew forums: 1 week primary, 2 weeks secondary, 3 weeks in bottles.

Update #2: Ginger Honey Mead

My home-brewed Ginger Honey mead is coming along nicely. It has been bubbling like crazy since the day after I started it.
So today I checked my Ginger Honey mead progress.
I have been stirring it up vigorously every other day to help oxidize it. At this phase of fermentation, the oxygen should help the yeast. Stirring also seems to release a lot of the carbon dioxide, which I also think would help those yeasties out. Apparently my mead has a very high starting specific gravity (og). So my yeast will need all the help they can get.
After I stirred things up to add oxygen today, I took a gravity reading and it's at 1.1090.
I added 1 tsp of yeast nutrient and 5 grams of potassium carbonate that I purchased at a brewing supply store today. I wish I had known about a staggered nutrient schedule before I started this but now I know. I can do it with my future batches. Each batch will hopefully be better than the last but I still have high hopes for this one.
We moved our fermentation bucket to our laundry room. Unfortunately it is cooler in there so fermentation might slow down a bit. We shall see. We didn't want our kitchen to smell yeasty.

I mentioned briefly that I went to a home brewing store today. There I purchased some empty wine bottles and some corks for when it comes time to bottle. I also snagged another 5 gallon fermentation bucket and a kit for brewing some oatmeal stout beer. It's a little present for my husband. So I have that coming up in the future for me.
I'll work on the oatmeal stout either tomorrow or during my next weekend.

Update #1: Ginger Honey Mead

Day 2
The fermentation lock on my Ginger Honey Mead is bubbling and jiggling, so my brew is good! Whew what a relief.
I could watch this thing go forever.

Homebrew: Ginger Honey Mead

I have been meaning to get back into home brewing some honey wine (mead) for quite a while. I am proud to say that I am offically a home-brewer again. I started about 5 gallons of a honey ginger mead yesterday.

I had to go through and inventory and sterilize my equipment. I've lost some of my gear over the years so I ordered some missing supplies and yeast from Midwest Supplies, a home brew store that sells online.
So with supplies in hand, I was ready to go yesterday!

I started by carefully sterilizing all my equipment and my entire kitchen. Sanitation is VERY important. I only want my chosen yeast to grow in my mead, not something bad instead. Much scrubbing with hot soapy water, bleaching, rinsing, and hand washing was involved. I am very particular about keeping everything completely sterile.
I filtered about 5 gallons of water through my Brita pitcher. I boiled about 1.5 gallons of water on my stovetop and added 15 POUNDS of honey. Yes, a lot of honey. The honey I used was produced by a local apiary (beekeeper) so I am very proud to say that this is a local production.
I also pureed a whole head of ginger and added that as well.

I wanted to boil my honey, water and ginger mix (called a "wort") for 15 minutes to sterilize, pasteurize, and clarify it. As it boils, a foamy scum floats to the top.

This scum is impurities in the honey and must be skimmed off. After pasteurizing and skimming, the honey water looks clear.

I added 1 tbsp of gypsum (minerals that assist fermentation), 4 tsp of yeast nutrient, and .5 oz of Irish Moss (assists in clarifying the wort), all available at brewing supply stores. I let the clarified, pasteurized honey water (now called a wort) mix cool off.

I throw the wort into my fermentation container, along with enough filtered water to measure 5 gallons.

Now it's time to take some measurements. I need to know the specific gravity of my solution. Sugar water has a higher specific gravity than water, and alcohol has a lower specific gravity than water, so I can watch my fermentation progress by taking these measurements when I want to know how things are progressing.
I have a nifty little hydrometer that also has a thermometer built in. So I can check my temperature and my specific gravity at the same time.

My original specific gravity is 1.1160 @ 90 degrees Fahrenheit. This tells me that I could end up with about 16% alcohol, if all goes well, by the time my fermentation is complete. I doubt this mead will get that far, as the alcohol tends to kill the yeast. The yeast I am using usually goes to about 15% and it will leave a bit of residual sugar. I am happy with that.
So once I cool my wort off to about 80F degrees, I throw my yeast into my wort. Here I have my yeast packet (says "ACTIVATOR" on it) prepared and ready to pitch in.

I close up my container with a lid that will completely seal the container. As yeast consumes the sugar, it produces alcohol and belches out carbon dioxide. I need a way to let the carbon dioxide out without letting any external air (and potential contaminants) in. My fermentation lock allows the carbon dioxide gas to escape, and it looks cool while it's working. It bubbles and jiggles around and is fun to watch.

I have filled my fermentation lock with vodka, but water would work fine. I just want to be certain that there is no external contamination. Like I said, I'm very particular about sterilization.

And it's done, for now! I let the yeast do it's thing. In 24 hours, I should start to hear bubbling sounds from within the container, and the fermentation lock should be jiggling like crazy. That will reassure me that all is going well.
After the initial fermentation is complete, when I no longer hear noises and see any jiggling/bubbling out of the fermentation lock, it will be time to transfer my mead to another container where it will sit for a few months.