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I'm glad I'm not the only one getting low gravity readings like 1.004. Both of my Dubbels finished that low, then again they each had 2 pounds of sugar.
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Nov 19, 2012 20:04
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Midorka posted:I'm glad I'm not the only one getting low gravity readings like 1.004. Both of my Dubbels finished that low, then again they each had 2 pounds of sugar. I seem to recall you saying you fermented those fairly hot as well; not to parrot BCS again, but he does suggest pitching at 64 and only getting up to 70 at max.
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Nov 19, 2012 20:19
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Angry Grimace posted:I seem to recall you saying you fermented those fairly hot as well; not to parrot BCS again, but he does suggest pitching at 64 and only getting up to 70 at max. Yeah we messed that up a bit, we set the heater for 71 without recognizing (we knew it though) that the fermentation would be hotter than the ambient. Both have Belgians nice banana notes but don't really taste it, thankfully. We've since set the ambient temperature at 63 in the room so our IPA we just brewed should be at a comfortable 68 while fermenting.
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Nov 19, 2012 20:22
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Midorka posted:Yeah we messed that up a bit, we set the heater for 71 without recognizing (we knew it though) that the fermentation would be hotter than the ambient. Both have Belgians nice banana notes but don't really taste it, thankfully. We've since set the ambient temperature at 63 in the room so our IPA we just brewed should be at a comfortable 68 while fermenting. 71 (meaning 74 or so in the beer?) is not crazy hot. I've done it many times (just putting beer in the closet in the summer) and I never get that low. My guess just based on what you've said is that your low gravity is a combination of several things that lead to low FGs, i.e. mashing low, higher temps and a lot of simple sugar. (Unless there's brettanomyces or something involved)
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Nov 19, 2012 20:36
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Angry Grimace posted:I hate to give you a non-answer, but I definitely recall seeing a thread on some forum that explained how much to use per how much gravity, but I can't seem to find it. I'll look for it a bit later and let you know if I find it. The only thing I found in a cursory google search was malto-dextrin on Palmer's yield table. Cool. Thanks. I looked around for a bit on Google but couldn't find anything terribly helpful other than "add it when you bottle." Midorka posted:I'm glad I'm not the only one getting low gravity readings like 1.004. Both of my Dubbels finished that low, then again they each had 2 pounds of sugar. I also used WLP 090 which has a pretty high attenuation. It's my understanding that what happened with my fermentation is probably fairly standard, although I probably didn't maintain the best temperature control. I couldn't get my carboy into a tub of water until several hours after fermentation started. I think my mash temp was probably a bit low too. Whodat Smith-Jones fucked around with this message at 20:42 on Nov 19, 2012 |
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Nov 19, 2012 20:38
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Angry Grimace posted:71 (meaning 74 or so in the beer?) is not crazy hot. I've done it many times (just putting beer in the closet in the summer) and I never get that low. My guess just based on what you've said is that your low gravity is a combination of several things that lead to low FGs, i.e. mashing low, higher temps and a lot of simple sugar. (Unless there's brettanomyces or something involved) Nah there's no infections, everything is spot on in the beer. I'm just guessing that it's mmostly due to the amount of simple sugars. Both beers taste pretty excellent, I just remember earlier in the thread though many people saying low FG like 1.004 was a bad sign and it's reassuring to see others have it too.
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Nov 19, 2012 20:41
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Midorka posted:Nah there's no infections, everything is spot on in the beer. I'm just guessing that it's mmostly due to the amount of simple sugars. Both beers taste pretty excellent, I just remember earlier in the thread though many people saying low FG like 1.004 was a bad sign and it's reassuring to see others have it too. 1.004 isn't necessarily a bad sign, its just a number you don't typically get to without doing things to get that low. I mean, some beers like certain saisons are supposed to finish that low (although they often don't)
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Nov 19, 2012 20:48
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Angry Grimace posted:Actually, over the last year, I found that sourcing significant amounts of Centennial was a real pain in the rear end and I'm starting to think I should pick up a pound or two now.  )
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Nov 19, 2012 20:59
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Beer4TheBeerGod posted:As other have said waiting until the pot is cooler before adding ice will help because heat flow is a function of the difference in temperature. At the beginning the wort is already boiling hot so relatively cool hose water will be perfectly suitable. Adding ice at this stage would technically reduce the temperature but you would quickly lose your ice. Near the end the hose water is closer to the temperature of the wort so you need a boost, hence the ice. A friend of mine used an immersion chiller and used a pump to recirculate a cooler filled with water. He'd always wait until the end to add ice to his cooler justifying it by saying that because the chiller water was now warmest, it could now benefit more from the ice, because the temperature difference was greatest. Of course, in his setup, it made no difference due to it being a fixed amount of heat absorbing material being added to the closed system. But in a system where the exit of the chiller is just dumped, yeah, definitely wait until the exhaust water is closer to room temperature before putting the kettle in ice.
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Nov 19, 2012 21:16
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nmfree posted:One place to keep an eye on is this seller on eBay; over the last week or two he's had pound bags of whole hop Centennial go out of stock and then back in stock a couple of times. (My pound should be coming today! I generally prefer pellets, which right now are pretty easy to get for varieties that are not Simcoe, Amarillo or Citra. It just becomes a pain later on and who knows when the harvest is really from (although in reality pellets keep for a very long time)
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Nov 19, 2012 21:22
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nmfree posted:One place to keep an eye on is this seller on eBay; over the last week or two he's had pound bags of whole hop Centennial go out of stock and then back in stock a couple of times. (My pound should be coming today! Just make sure there's no dead birds in your bag before you start brewing.  https://twitter.com/ericlanouilh/status/269807826485002240
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Nov 19, 2012 21:37
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Sirotan posted:Just make sure there's no dead birds in your bag before you start brewing. Well I guess that makes me feel worse about using pellet hops
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Nov 19, 2012 21:39
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Mmmmmm citrusy-bird notes in my beer.
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Nov 19, 2012 22:08
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I think "Belma" is the worst hop varietal name ever. Was "Old Auntie Agatha's old-tyme hoppes" taken already?
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Nov 19, 2012 22:27
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Sirotan posted:Just make sure there's no dead birds in your bag before you start brewing. I am sure this is how SARS starts.
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Nov 19, 2012 22:54
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zedprime posted:I am sure this is how SARS starts. Bittering additions would be no problem because of the boil. I'd be worried if I were dry-birding, though.
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Nov 19, 2012 23:02
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Jo3sh posted:Bittering additions would be no problem because of the boil. I'd be worried if I were dry-birding, though. You and me both. http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/legondary-cock-ale-278874/
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Nov 19, 2012 23:35
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Angry Grimace posted:1.004 isn't necessarily a bad sign, its just a number you don't typically get to without doing things to get that low. I mean, some beers like certain saisons are supposed to finish that low (although they often don't) It also depends on how long of a fermentation you do. If you do a full 3-4 weeks it's not uncommon to get into the single digits. When I did my Ginger ale the gravity dropped all the way to 1.002 (I used 3# of honey and 1# of sugar, which is what pushed it so low) using US-05 When I bottled my Rhubarb beer the gravity was at 1.006 after 8 weeks using US-05. Yea 8 weeks is a long rear end time but September-November was ridiculously busy and my basement is pretty cold so autolysis was probably 6 months away anyway. During the winter my ambient basement temp is about 50-55*F and so far I haven't seen any adverse effects besides fermentation taking a little longer.
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Nov 19, 2012 23:52
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When he couldn't get rotisserie and just bought KFC, I lost it. That's great hustle.
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Nov 20, 2012 00:12
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Thinking about brewing a weizenbock because I just remembered how good Aventinus is--and I have to have something to drink in the winter besides stouts, right? Here's a first shot at a recipe: 2.5 gal, 60" boil, probably mash at like 154 for 60". 45% 3lb Weyermann Pale Wheat 45% 3lb Weyermann Dark Munich 8% 8oz Weyermann CaraMunich III 2% 2oz Weyermann Carafa III 1 oz Hallertau @ 60" for 18.5 IBU 1.073 OG to 1.018 FG with WY3068, giving 7.3%. A little weaker than Aventinus but I'm OK with that. Does that seem decent/does anyone else have a good recipe? I couldn't figure out how to get it suitably dark using German ingredients without adding the Carafa (Hopville claims this is 22 SRM, but only 13 SRM without it), but it seems like there should be a way. I'm all ears on ways to do that or other yeasts I should use instead of the standard hefe yeast. Edit: Thinking about switching out the Carafa for 2 oz each of melanoidin and chocolate, and using WY3333 instead of 3068... Scythe fucked around with this message at 06:35 on Nov 20, 2012 |
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Nov 20, 2012 00:33
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wattershed posted:When he couldn't get rotisserie and just bought KFC, I lost it. That's great hustle. I'm glad that guy did that for my amusement.
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Nov 20, 2012 01:30
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Got some imperial brown ready for bottling next week. Only been fermenting for 9 days, but the gravity is right. Giving it through Thanksgiving to settle a bit, then going to check to make sure gravity has finished dropping. Considering cold crashing and using gelatin, but I've never done that before and I'd be limited to sticking it outside for like 8-10 hours. I could just give it another week in the fermenter too. Any thoughts? I used S-04, which has been a really amazing yeast. Pitched around 78-80, cooling to 72 the first day, temps went up to 78 on the outside by accident the second day, but since then I've managed to keep it around 65. That was some fast and furious fermenting for a while though! No crazy off flavors in the gravity sample, just a beautiful smooth brown with a nice bit of smokiness from some chocolate malt. That doesn't mean I don't need to work on my temp control, just got lucky with the style most likely.
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Nov 20, 2012 04:02
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I am leaning towards a plate chillers setup. As far as plate chillers go is there really that huge of a difference between the Therminator and one of the cheaper options? Also should I just go with the March pump? Finally is there a cheaper version of the Thermapen?
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Nov 20, 2012 07:09
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It's a bit slower than a thermapen but this will work and is much cheaper and waterproof.
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Nov 20, 2012 07:24
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Galler posted:It's a bit slower than a thermapen but this will work and is much cheaper and waterproof. It's still a nice thermometer for brewing, though; the cheap Chinese knockoff I got fogged inside the display when I clipped it onto my brew pot.
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Nov 20, 2012 08:03
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Scythe posted:Edit: Thinking about switching out the Carafa for 2 oz each of melanoidin and chocolate, and using WY3333 instead of 3068... Either way you do that recipe looks good to me. I just did an oak aged weizenbock and used about 3% chocolate rye to get it dark. You could use chocolate wheat as well, I find either of those are a little less roasty than regular chocolate malt. I used the Wyeast 3333 in mine because I wanted little to no banana. I fermented at 64-66* and while I got no banana it's a little too restrained overall, so I'd ferment in the 66-70* range if you use it.
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Nov 20, 2012 13:05
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Fresh cocoa nibs came in, I was planning on using 2 pounds of chocolate malt for a chocolate oatmeal milk stout which makes it 16% I'm thinking I should tone down the chocolate malt to 1 pound and age it on cocoa nibs. Any thoughts? I'm guessing I would sterilize the nibs by soaking in vodka overnight? Also would a 8% of fermentables of milk sugar be too much? I see 10% is the max suggested on homebrewtalk, but I figured I'd see what people thought here. Basically I'm going for a sweet milk chocolate flavor with a light roasted malt backing. I might as well link the recipe.
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Nov 20, 2012 19:39
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Midorka posted:Fresh cocoa nibs came in, I was planning on using 2 pounds of chocolate malt for a chocolate oatmeal milk stout which makes it 16% I'm thinking I should tone down the chocolate malt to 1 pound and age it on cocoa nibs. Any thoughts? I'm guessing I would sterilize the nibs by soaking in vodka overnight? I have never made a Milk Stout, but as far as I can tell, you can just backsweeten the beer with lactose, meaning it seems like it would be prudent to start on the lower side and add more lactose until you reach the sweetness/mouthfeel level you want, as opposed to just dumping a ton of lactose in to begin with. Oh, and as for the cocoa question, I've done cocoa before. Vodka for a while will sterilize, but you need to drop the vodka in as well since the alcohol will draw out a lot of the cocoa flavor from the nibs. I'm a little confused by the chocolate malt thing - chocolate malt doesn't really taste anything like chocolate - it just tastes like heavily roasted malt and gives maybe a little bit of dark unsweetened chocolate flavor in small amounts. Nibs and chocolate malt have totally different flavors - nibs are not really roasty at all, they add a lot of chocolate aroma and some chocolate flavors (the impression of which I think would be enhanced in a sweet stout) I agree that 2 pounds of chocolate malt seems like overkill; that is a lot of roasted malt considering that its a stout and probably also has some roasted barley and/or patent malt in there to get the right color contribution. Angry Grimace fucked around with this message at 20:23 on Nov 20, 2012 |
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Nov 20, 2012 19:46
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Midorka posted:Fresh cocoa nibs came in, I was planning on using 2 pounds of chocolate malt for a chocolate oatmeal milk stout which makes it 16% I'm thinking I should tone down the chocolate malt to 1 pound and age it on cocoa nibs. Any thoughts? I'm guessing I would sterilize the nibs by soaking in vodka overnight? 2# chocolate malt sounds like a lot, 1# + cacao should be more balanced. I never bothered to sanitize cacao nibs but looking back on that I suppose it was a risk - should be a-ok to sanitize in vodka and pitch the whole thing in.
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Nov 20, 2012 20:20
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nmfree posted:It's water resistant, which is different. When I left mine accidentally in a pool of water it didn't want to work again until I took the battery out and let it thoroughly dry out for a few days. I know from experience that it's hard to avoid getting a Thermapen wet.
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Nov 20, 2012 20:41
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I really like my RT600. I got one when I realized my other themometer was not really that accurate and I'm really impressed with the speed and accuracy I've gotten so far with the RT600.
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Nov 20, 2012 23:02
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Those IR thermometers with the laser sights don't work on liquids (or hot ones that steam up), right? Or that's what someone told me, was he full of crap?
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Nov 20, 2012 23:56
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kitten smoothie posted:Those IR thermometers with the laser sights don't work on liquids (or hot ones that steam up), right? Or that's what someone told me, was he full of crap?
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Nov 21, 2012 00:13
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I used to have an IR thermometer (not sure how cheap) that I used on a fish tank that was a lot more accurate than that. Maybe +-1° F.
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Nov 21, 2012 00:26
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nmfree posted:It's still a nice thermometer for brewing, though; the cheap Chinese knockoff I got fogged inside the display when I clipped it onto my brew pot. Leave it in a container of uncooked rice for a few days. Should remedy that. I've plowed through my supply of beer on tap and have got about 30 bottles of miscellaneous beers to go through and 15 gallons waiting to be kegged/flavored/bottled. Which brings me to my question. I plan on bourbon-oaking about a gallon of cider. I've already got the Hungarian oak cubes, and plan on picking up some 'Makers' but how much do I add for a gallon? Also, it's cider so I think a little will go a long way no? Should I just soak the cubes in bourbon, pull a sample and add to taste then scale?
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Nov 21, 2012 02:02
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Jacobey000 posted:Which brings me to my question. I plan on bourbon-oaking about a gallon of cider. I've already got the Hungarian oak cubes, and plan on picking up some 'Makers' but how much do I add for a gallon? Also, it's cider so I think a little will go a long way no? Should I just soak the cubes in bourbon, pull a sample and add to taste then scale? I'd go 3 oz personally, pour the cubes + bourbon and cross your fingers. Sounds amazingly delicious.
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Nov 21, 2012 02:04
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I brewed this the other day and it's for a winter warmer contest. I think it's coming along nicely, but I'm considering soaking some oak in Applejack Brandy and adding it to the secondary to give it a bit more of a winter vibe. I guess I'm just seeing if anyone has done this before and thoughts. I thought it was just my hydrometer that liked to spin the opposite every loving time. vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv Midorka fucked around with this message at 04:48 on Nov 21, 2012 |
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Nov 21, 2012 04:25
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Welp I broke my hydrometer by having it on the brew stand and hitting it with a stainless quick disconnect tonight. That's ok, I hated that thing anyway. Is there somewhere that sells a hydrometer that only has the one scale, specific gravity on it? I swear whenever I go to look at it, the SG reading is around the back and then I knock it and it bobs around for a while and I get mad. I want a hydrometer with specific gravity lines all the way around, reads from 0.090 to say 1.100, and maybe takes less than 250mL to read?
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Nov 21, 2012 04:35
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Looks like Northern Brewer has one accurate from 1.000 to 1.070 , best I can find in a quick search. Edit: There's also this set which look super sweet but I don't really want to pay $70 for hydrometers.
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Nov 21, 2012 04:57
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Docjowles posted:Looks like Northern Brewer has one accurate from 1.000 to 1.070 , best I can find in a quick search.
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Nov 21, 2012 05:00
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