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I'm about to do a Biere de Garde here in a few weeks or so (as my first all-grain batch, woohoo!). I was wondering about bottling after the doing 4 weeks or so of cold-conditioning, though. Will my yeast still be alive and awake enough to carbonate the stuff, or will I need to add some more at bottling?
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Jun 6, 2012 05:47
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nominal posted:I'm about to do a Biere de Garde here in a few weeks or so (as my first all-grain batch, woohoo!). I was wondering about bottling after the doing 4 weeks or so of cold-conditioning, though. Will my yeast still be alive and awake enough to carbonate the stuff, or will I need to add some more at bottling? The yeast should be fine after 4 weeks. Warm them up to room temperature, add your priming sugar, and give them 2 weeks at room temp to do their thing.
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Jun 6, 2012 05:51
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RiggenBlaque posted:I know this gets asked all the time, but I've finally moved to an apartment where I no longer have to remain restricted to using a stovetop for boiling, so I'm looking for burner recommendations. I know one of the bayou models is the de facto recommendation, but I don't know which. I have a KAB4 and am happy with it. It heats up 10 gallons plenty quick, but I don't have experience with anything bigger.
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Jun 6, 2012 06:33
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Huge_Midget posted:The yeast should be fine after 4 weeks. Warm them up to room temperature, add your priming sugar, and give them 2 weeks at room temp to do their thing. So if I throw my finished fermenter in the fridge for a day or two to help it settle out(I know I know, don't give so much of a poo poo about clarity, but I can't help it) will it still carbonate fine at room temperature after bottling?
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Jun 6, 2012 07:45
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Yeah. Even though it looks pretty clear, there's still millions of yeast cells in suspension. Remember, the general pitching rate for ales is 750,000 yeast cells per milliliter per degree plato (1P is about .004 in specific gravity). By my napkin math that's 184 billion cells packed into the fermenter for 5 gallons of 1.050 wort. Even if 99% of that drops out when you cold crash, that's still a shitload of yeast cells leftover to ferment the relatively small amount of priming sugar.
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Jun 6, 2012 15:22
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My very first primary is bubbling! Now to just impatiently wait 14 more days to bottle.
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Jun 6, 2012 17:42
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Docjowles posted:Yeah. Even though it looks pretty clear, there's still millions of yeast cells in suspension. Remember, the general pitching rate for ales is 750,000 yeast cells per milliliter per degree plato (1P is about .004 in specific gravity). By my napkin math that's 184 billion cells packed into the fermenter for 5 gallons of 1.050 wort. Even if 99% of that drops out when you cold crash, that's still a shitload of yeast cells leftover to ferment the relatively small amount of priming sugar.
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Jun 6, 2012 23:48
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PokeJoe posted:You can bend it a little bit, but if you try to do it too much it will crimp the tube. Your best bet would be a pipe bender like this thing. Is there such as thing as a straightener? My chiller looks like this: code:code:
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Jun 7, 2012 00:26
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Well, thanks to this thread and a cheap groupon, I dove off the deep end about a month and a half ago. about $250 later, and two more brews into the fermenters (a witbier and a red ale), I am finally enjoying the fruits of my labors, a loving delicious milk stout. Learned a lot through this process, and I'm already planning my cooler mash tun... Like I needed another hobby.  5 gallons makes a shitload of beer. One question, for those of you that BIAB. I used a mesh back from my LHBS to partial mash my witbier. I used my 9 gallon pot for the mash at 153 degrees for 60 mins, and a second 3 gallon pot at 165 to swirl the bag in to ghetto sparge it, for about 10 mins. Based on the recipe and hopville, the OG should have been 1.051, but I wound up at 1.060. Would that mean I just got excellent brewhouse efficiency, or did my mash generate too many unfermentables? I've got it sitting in primary here, and after 2 weeks, it's still ridiculously cloudy, although ridiculously tasty ( 1 oz. of fresh orange rind goes a LONG way).
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Jun 7, 2012 04:28
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Efficiency doesn't take into account fermentability. High mash temperatures generally limit attenuation. You could have had good efficiency or maybe you ended with a lower volume than you expected.
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Jun 7, 2012 04:46
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MalleusDei posted:Is there such as thing as a straightener? You can pull tube straight. Here's a guy doing it with a mallet, but if you don't need it to be perfectly straight you might just be able to gently work it straight enough without ruining it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvGEKaaPf5E&t=227s If you didn't want to do that, you could just make some more 90o bends so it looks like this: code:
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Jun 7, 2012 11:23
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Seems the UK summer lasted about a week, and it's turned cold again. As a result, my basement is perfect for brewing pale ales, but my weissbier is currently sitting at 18 degrees C. The room is at 17. The weissbier has been in fermentation for 5 days, meaning it's nowhere near done. I know too hot a fermentation for wheat beers can overaccentuate the banana, but what about too cold? The Wyeast 3068 I used should apparently tolerate slightly cooler (18C) but I'm hesitant to put on a brew belt because it could potentially shoot the temp up way further since I can't monitor it throughout the day. Should I worry? Or will it be fine (if done slightly slower)? I'm happy to leave the thing alone, would be easiest for all concerned. :P
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Jun 7, 2012 12:47
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So the consensus of the thread seems to be that racking to secondary is completely unnecessary for most beer styles. However, most references to dry hopping I see online or in books involve throwing the hops in after racking. Can I just throw them in the primary and expect everything to be fine? Or do I need a secondary fermentation if I want to dry hop?
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Jun 7, 2012 15:55
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I generally just chuck 'em right in the primary after the bulk of the ferment is over. I have had good luck with unbagged pellets this way, but at least one other poster in this thread says he has managed to end up with a lot of hop sediment in his kegs this way - enough that clogging tubes and stuff was a problem, as I recall. The very safest thing to do, if you're going to use pellets for dry hopping, is to put them in a sanitized, weighted fine-mesh bag. Leave them in for up to two weeks at ferment temperature, then package the beer. vvv A bag is not a terrible idea for whole hops, either. The mesh can be somewhat less fine since the hops are not pulverized. Jo3sh fucked around with this message at 16:02 on Jun 7, 2012 |
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Jun 7, 2012 15:58
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Cool, thanks. I'm using whole leaf hops, so should I use a bag or can I throw them straight in there? I'm bottling, not kegging, FWIW.
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Jun 7, 2012 16:00
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Mr. Glass posted:I'm bottling, not kegging, FWIW. Then it matters even less if you use a bag or not, but the bottles may end up with a lot of hop sediment if you don't keep them in a bag. That kind of stuff matters to some people, if you're just starting out I wouldn't stress over it, little floating bits of hops just proves it's authentic homebrew.
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Jun 7, 2012 16:29
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Mr. Glass posted:Cool, thanks. I'm using whole leaf hops, so should I use a bag or can I throw them straight in there? Use a bag, trust me on this. There is nothing in the world more frustrating than clogging your siphon when you're racking to the bottling bucket.
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Jun 7, 2012 17:50
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internet celebrity posted:Use a bag, trust me on this. There is nothing in the world more frustrating than clogging your siphon when you're racking to the bottling bucket. You can also use a sanitized paint strainer bag as a screen on your siphon. But a hop bag works too.
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Jun 7, 2012 18:18
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wattershed posted:KAB4 or KAB6. I have & like the KAB6, but I have no clue if I needed to go 'bigger'. Regardless, I'd recommend building some sort of collar around the top of it below the supports to shield the wind. Increases fuel efficiency and focuses the heat upward. The only difference in the KAB4 & 6 is the 6 has a heavier duty stand. The KAB4 is plenty solid enough for a converted keg. IMO there's no reason to spend the extra money on the 6 unless you plan on doing 30gal batches.
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Jun 7, 2012 19:30
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PokeJoe posted:You can pull tube straight. Awesome, thanks! I'll look in to this before my next brew day.
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Jun 7, 2012 19:38
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drewhead posted:The only difference in the KAB4 & 6 is the 6 has a heavier duty stand. The KAB4 is plenty solid enough for a converted keg. IMO there's no reason to spend the extra money on the 6 unless you plan on doing 30gal batches. I got the 6 because I didn't know the 4 existed 
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Jun 7, 2012 22:48
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I'm brewing a saison this weekend, but unfortunately the store was out of wyeast 3711 and so I picked up white labs 565 instead. After reading a little about the yeast, I'm apprehensive; apparently it likes to stall out. I have a dual stage temp controller so I'm not worried about getting the temps right, but I'm not sure what I should do to make this yeast attenuate as well as it can. Anyone have some tips?
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Jun 8, 2012 00:41
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So I haven't really been watching my lager fermentation too closely and my marzen may have been partially frozen. Is it going to affect anything if I just kick it back up to around 35 and let it thaw out? edit: It's in secondary so there's no real "fermentation" going on anymore, just conditioning. Will I have to repitch? internet celebrity fucked around with this message at 01:16 on Jun 8, 2012 |
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Jun 8, 2012 00:47
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I don't know if I know how to read this thing. If I am looking at it right, it is between the hashes for 1.040 and 1.050, yes? So if NB lists the FG for this beer as 1.043, it's probably finished, right? edit: tasted a sip or three of the sample and holy poo poo it's GOOD! If it's this good warm and flat, I can't wait to get some bubbles and and cold glass around it! AlternateAccount fucked around with this message at 02:22 on Jun 8, 2012 |
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Jun 8, 2012 02:17
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AlternateAccount posted:I don't know if I know how to read this thing. If I am looking at it right, it is between the hashes for 1.040 and 1.050, yes? So if NB lists the FG for this beer as 1.043, it's probably finished, right? That is reading a FG of 1.006 - 1.008, there is no way NB lists the FG as 1.043. OG, maybe.
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Jun 8, 2012 02:37
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Wow, just discovered this thread. I've been tinkering with a Mr Beer kit for a while, and plan to step up to a better set up this summer. Eyeing the goon craftabrew setup. This thread is daunting, but I'm going to start reading from the beginning. Anyone have thoughts on well water with lots of minerals, vs softened well water, vs buying bottled water? I can pull water from my well pre-softener, and it's good, very tasty, drinkable water, but there is definitely lots of calcium and other minerals. In theory I would think that better than softened water, but don't really know, and how those compare to buying bottled water. Is there a good way to filter out sediment with bottling, or does the siphon method avoid most of it? With the Mr Beer kit I end up with a small amount in the bottles. My drinking is usually activity related, camping, hiking, and disc golf for example, so that little bit of sediment gets stirred up during transport. I know filtering prior to carbonation can eliminate yeast and ruin the carb process. Is there another way? Some kind of screw-on, bottle-top filter would be sweet if such a thing exists.
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Jun 8, 2012 02:40
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RiggenBlaque posted:That is reading a FG of 1.006 - 1.008, there is no way NB lists the FG as 1.043. OG, maybe. Ahh, yeah, I read that wrong, it was the OG. So each hash is .002? So the first "big" hash is 1.010? OK, makes more sense now. I will double check it again Saturday I guess, but I can't imagine it's not finished at that gravity. Probably be bottling on Sunday, I basically resemble RiggenBlaque's avatar right now. AlternateAccount fucked around with this message at 02:46 on Jun 8, 2012 |
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Jun 8, 2012 02:44
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stormrider posted:Anyone have thoughts on well water with lots of minerals, vs softened well water, vs buying bottled water? It depends a lot on what you are going to be brewing, and then really only if you are going to be brewing all-grain. For now, if it tastes and smells goo, brew with it and love the beer you get. stormrider posted:Is there a good way to filter out sediment with bottling, or does the siphon method avoid most of it? Siphoning to a priming tank as opposed to bottling right from the Mr. Beer fermenter really will help a lot. You'll still have some sediment, but it will be less and you won't notice it as much. For really clear beer anywhere, kegging and then bottling or growler fills off the keg are a great way to go, but that's for later. Jo3sh fucked around with this message at 02:53 on Jun 8, 2012 |
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Jun 8, 2012 02:50
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Zakath posted:I'm brewing a saison this weekend, but unfortunately the store was out of wyeast 3711 and so I picked up white labs 565 instead. After reading a little about the yeast, I'm apprehensive; apparently it likes to stall out. I have a dual stage temp controller so I'm not worried about getting the temps right, but I'm not sure what I should do to make this yeast attenuate as well as it can. Anyone have some tips? Good oxygenation before pitching and stirring up the trub/lees every day?
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Jun 8, 2012 03:03
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AlternateAccount posted:Ahh, yeah, I read that wrong, it was the OG. So each hash is .002? So the first "big" hash is 1.010? OK, makes more sense now. I will double check it again Saturday I guess, but I can't imagine it's not finished at that gravity. Probably be bottling on Sunday, I basically resemble RiggenBlaque's avatar right now. Where the blue and green meets is 1.000. That looks like the finishing gravity there at about 1.008, but give it a couple days to be sure.
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Jun 8, 2012 03:23
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AlternateAccount posted:I don't know if I know how to read this thing. If I am looking at it right, it is between the hashes for 1.040 and 1.050, yes? So if NB lists the FG for this beer as 1.043, it's probably finished, right? Your friends will not want to drink it and/or make stupid comments about making it in the bathtub until they realize it is actually good and then they will drink all of your beer.
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Jun 8, 2012 04:27
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stormrider posted:Is there another way? Some kind of screw-on, bottle-top filter would be sweet if such a thing exists. There's this product https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2PPBmJZFd0 that I've seen but it involves quite a bit of pre-preparation...
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Jun 8, 2012 09:16
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Cpt.Wacky posted:Good oxygenation before pitching and stirring up the trub/lees every day? No personal experience but the experiences I've read are either crank it up to 90 and agitate or add a bit of syrup for a kick started secondary fermentation.
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Jun 8, 2012 09:42
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stormrider posted:Wow, just discovered this thread. I've been tinkering with a Mr Beer kit for a while, and plan to step up to a better set up this summer. Eyeing the goon craftabrew setup. This thread is daunting, but I'm going to start reading from the beginning. I turn off the softener, and prefer it. For some lagers I'll mix in some softened water, and it smoothes the flavor a bit. Remember that softening adds salt, which yeast doesn't really like. Personally, I feel I get better fermentation with harder water.
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Jun 8, 2012 11:50
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Kaiho posted:There's this product {sperglordvideo} that I've seen but it involves quite a bit of pre-preparation... Why is haziness one of those things that make people do crazy/dumb poo poo?
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Jun 8, 2012 13:06
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I'm worried about my little brew. I started it on Monday and watched it bubble a little bit (one bubble every 30 sec) on Wednesday, but now it's slowed down considerably. I'm wondering if maybe my basement gets too cold at night; I know the rest of the house bounces between 68-75 degrees.
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Jun 8, 2012 13:20
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YASD posted:I'm worried about my little brew. I started it on Monday and watched it bubble a little bit (one bubble every 30 sec) on Wednesday, but now it's slowed down considerably. I'm wondering if maybe my basement gets too cold at night; I know the rest of the house bounces between 68-75 degrees. The bulk of the fermentation usually lasts 2-3 days. It's normal to see bubbling slow to a crawl at this point. Just leave it for the full 10-14 days and take a gravity sample if you're truly worried. You might want to get a stick-on thermometer or something for your fermenter if you're thinking that the basement may be below the 60s. If it's anywhere in the 60s though it is actually ideal for almost all ale yeast.
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Jun 8, 2012 16:36
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I'm not above buying a $60 wine kit and throwing it on tap for a cheap keg, or at least I thought so until I bought some watermelon white wine monstrosity. The strong watermelon taste was pretty off-putting and we couldn't give it away, so I just took it off tap. The worst part is the cream ale I put in afterwards is tasting like watermelon right now, hopefully that will fade and it didn't get into the lines.internet celebrity posted:So I haven't really been watching my lager fermentation too closely and my marzen may have been partially frozen. Is it going to affect anything if I just kick it back up to around 35 and let it thaw out?
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Jun 8, 2012 17:19
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Jacobey000 posted:Why is haziness one of those things that make people do crazy/dumb poo poo? Don't ask me, I'm just the messenger :P I mean, I do like a clear beer, and having just bought a pressure barrel on a whim since I took a friend down to the homebrew shop to get her started I might have to move it around - so can't avoid some haziness. I guess the question if you get yeasty shits easily...
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Jun 8, 2012 17:22
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BerkerkLurk posted:I'm not above buying a $60 wine kit and throwing it on tap for a cheap keg, or at least I thought so until I bought some watermelon white wine monstrosity. The strong watermelon taste was pretty off-putting and we couldn't give it away, so I just took it off tap. The worst part is the cream ale I put in afterwards is tasting like watermelon right now, hopefully that will fade and it didn't get into the lines. You probably need a good soak in PBW to get that taste out. Maybe some new O-Rings if you want to be sure.
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Jun 8, 2012 17:49
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