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I've been cold crashing my ales lately prior to bottling and have noticed it's taking a lot longer to carb up. Is 2 weeks a good time frame to expect in the future as opposed to 1 week?
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Apr 4, 2018 20:51
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Marshmallow Blue posted:I've been cold crashing my ales lately prior to bottling and have noticed it's taking a lot longer to carb up. Is 2 weeks a good time frame to expect in the future as opposed to 1 week? Yes. You're putting the yeast to sleep and then asking them to wake up and be productive. Yeasts can be slackers and don't always like waking up, and you're leaving fewer in suspension to carbonate your beer. Give them extra time and they'll get there.
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Apr 4, 2018 21:26
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Jhet posted:Yes. You're putting the yeast to sleep and then asking them to wake up and be productive. Yeasts can be slackers and don't always like waking up, and you're leaving fewer in suspension to carbonate your beer. Give them extra time and they'll get there. Lazy. Insubordinate, and churlish.
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Apr 4, 2018 21:57
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Jhet posted:I just tested the brown sour I packaged about a week and a half ago because 'science' of course. I wanted to see just how bad the THP was going to be, and while it is carbing fine thanks to all the microbes, but holy crackers does it taste like cereal. I guess I'll check again in a month or two. A small part of me thought that it couldn't possibly be as bad as all these people suggest and it's just a low threshold for flavor. Totally masked the flavor of the underlying beer. Yep! It's no joke. Put it in a warm place and it will clear up in a few weeks. It clears faster if it's warmer and you get it worse if you condition cool. If you hit terminally gravity quickly you can package while the sacc is still active and usually avoid it. I've done this a few times on lower gravity beers. You can drink them immediately this way.
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Apr 4, 2018 23:46
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Der Penguingott posted:Yep! It's no joke. Put it in a warm place and it will clear up in a few weeks. It clears faster if it's warmer and you get it worse if you condition cool. Good pointer. I'll haul it out of the basement and leave it upstairs where it'll be warmer. Guess I really just need to invest in a couple extra kegs for conditioning in the keg.
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Apr 4, 2018 23:57
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Am I just now finding out that pin-lock corny kegs can have different threads for the posts between different manufacturers? What the high gently caress... I have a jammed liquid post, went to swap it with another keg, and NONE of my other kegs have a post that will swap with this piece of poo poo.
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Apr 5, 2018 16:29
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Beergoons, I live in an apartment and my wife and I are expecting a baby in a month so most of my gear is in storage to make room. I'd like to keep up with the hobby so I'm thinking of brewing small, 1 gallon batches. All of my recipes are scaled for 5 gallons, so if I reduce everything by 80%, would that work? Or am I missing something?
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Apr 6, 2018 15:02
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AnxiousApatosaurus posted:Beergoons, I live in an apartment and my wife and I are expecting a baby in a month so most of my gear is in storage to make room. I'd like to keep up with the hobby so I'm thinking of brewing small, 1 gallon batches. All of my recipes are scaled for 5 gallons, so if I reduce everything by 80%, would that work? Or am I missing something? Nope, that's about right. You may find some differences if you're doing all grain just because the volumes are different enough that heat doesn't retain as well. But for extract you'd be just fine. You'll have to figure out your stovetop efficiency and adjust your recipe based on that, but that's the only appreciable difference than just reducing by 80%.
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Apr 6, 2018 15:26
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Should work, may take a small amount of tweaking but there shouldn't be a huge concern.
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Apr 6, 2018 15:26
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no i don't think meth is a good idea, especially with a child on the way also a question, has anyone got any suggestions for BIAB bag suppliers in the UK? pot size is 30.5cm, 19l, if that helps, but i'm not positive on what makes a good bag other than "dense weave and strong design"
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Apr 6, 2018 21:12
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Following on from my earlier question, I'm definitely leaning towards getting a mill, but in the meantime given for BIAB the finest possible crush is recommended is there any downside to chucking the pre-crushed malt I already have for my next brew in the blender? I'm thinking not of completely pulverising it but giving it a good few pulses to achieve a more flourlike consistency.Inexplicable Humblebrag posted:no i don't think meth is a good idea, especially with a child on the way I bought this nylon one which is more than enough for my 33L kettle but I've seen bags on BrewUK that I'm sure would be fine. The bag should be bigger than the pot though - you should be able to put the pot in the bag comfortably. Make sure the bag can't melt on the bottom of the pot.
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Apr 6, 2018 23:40
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I have an 8oz package of Amarillo from renewing my homebrew association membership. I don't really want to use all 8 in 1 beer but don't have any way to vacuum seal a bag. Should I just not worry and use the remaining hops soon or will they get eff'ed from the oxygen exposure?
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Apr 7, 2018 17:08
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ChiTownEddie posted:I have an 8oz package of Amarillo from renewing my homebrew association membership. I don't really want to use all 8 in 1 beer but don't have any way to vacuum seal a bag. Should I just not worry and use the remaining hops soon or will they get eff'ed from the oxygen exposure? Ghetto O2 purge is to buy some dry ice and then pop small pieces into a ziploc bag that is mostly closed up, but not sealed. The CO2 will purge out if there's enough dry ice in there, then you can squeeze out air space and then seal and shove in the freezer. Works for me, and it's not bad for storing for a month or so, but no longer.
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Apr 7, 2018 19:44
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I helped my wife (the actual brewer of the house) build our first keezer this weekend. $150 costco freezer, $35 inkbird, $675 prebuilt kit+kegs from kegconnection.com, and like $25 in wood and some random screws.  No more bottle washing ever again, life is gonna be so great.
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Apr 9, 2018 02:16
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overdesigned posted:I helped my wife (the actual brewer of the house) build our first keezer this weekend. $150 costco freezer, $35 inkbird, $675 prebuilt kit+kegs from kegconnection.com, and like $25 in wood and some random screws. All you need now is a recirculating draft cleaning system and a pressurized keg cleaning system.  Also, it looks great.
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Apr 9, 2018 03:26
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Looks good. Wish I had the room to do that. Right now my chest freezer serves as both a fermentation chamber and then a keezer once fermentation is over.
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Apr 9, 2018 18:29
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I got those same 4" long shanks running through 2in wood and I hate how far they stick inside the keezer. Makes it really hard to lift kegs and buckets out of there without snagging on them.
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Apr 9, 2018 19:29
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robotsinmyhead posted:I got those same 4" long shanks running through 2in wood and I hate how far they stick inside the keezer. I mean, there are 2 and 3" shanks available. https://www.kegworks.com/shank-for-draft-beer-system
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Apr 9, 2018 20:51
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We went with 4" because we thought we were gonna have an inch of foam insulation and/or a 2x8 as the exterior board but then went with a 1x8 and got lazy on installing the foam, so here we are.
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Apr 9, 2018 22:30
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overdesigned posted:We went with 4" because we thought we were gonna have an inch of foam insulation and/or a 2x8 as the exterior board but then went with a 1x8 and got lazy on installing the foam, so here we are. Username / post combo  Anyone bought kettles through Spike Brewing? Finally settling into a house and have been feeling the itch to resume brewing, which will necessitate some new gear. I'd like to go electric with this build and probably build a whole new control panel (but I might take the easy way out and get a kit this time).
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Apr 9, 2018 23:40
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Jo3sh posted:I mean, there are 2 and 3" shanks available. I didn't realize the issue when I bought them, and shanks are pretty expensive. Maybe down the road at some point.
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Apr 10, 2018 01:23
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nullfunction posted:Username / post combo I have one of the older style 15 gallon kettles and have used it without issue for almost 4 years. It is my current mash tun. They are very nice and I have no major complaints. The new ones have a snazzy removable dip tube and other features that mine doesn't. They are a good turnkey solution but the fittings they sell are kind of expensive. If you don't care about the fancy TIG welding you can buy the exact same base kettles they use through Concord kettle and DYI weldless fittings from bargain fittings to save some money. I did this for my BK and HLT and saved quite a bit. It's worth noting that the kettles run slightly small. The 15 gallon one holds closer to 14 and the 20 gallon one holds about 18 gallons.
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Apr 10, 2018 13:13
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I've got some Southern Cross hops and have never used them before. I'm planning on brewing up a pale ale with Cascade and Columbus, would some of the southern Cross go well at flameout?
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Apr 14, 2018 16:48
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Crack posted:Following on from my earlier question, I'm definitely leaning towards getting a mill, but in the meantime given for BIAB the finest possible crush is recommended is there any downside to chucking the pre-crushed malt I already have for my next brew in the blender? I'm thinking not of completely pulverising it but giving it a good few pulses to achieve a more flourlike consistency.
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Apr 14, 2018 20:55
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What gap are you using on your mill? I'm still chasing that good gap size.
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Apr 14, 2018 22:55
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Spotted at Costco yesterday: a 2-pack of Eva-Dry dehumidifiers for $19. People use these for reducing moisture in freezer-base kegerators. I dunno if this is available in every Costco, though.
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Apr 15, 2018 02:01
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calandryll posted:What gap are you using on your mill? I'm still chasing that good gap size. mine's a bare-bones jsp mill and it's not adjustable, but the gap is right around .040". I don't know if gap info alone helps much, as running a mill faster will make the crush finer too. I just look for pretty uniform breakage of the grain into decently small grits and mostly intact husks. For me correct mash chemistry (which with biab or no-sparge water volumes can get really borked if you don't consider it), a decent amount of mash stirring, and verified good thermometer accuracy has done more for my efficiency by ensuring complete conversion than varying crush did.
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Apr 15, 2018 05:19
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I think you're right. I started going back through my notes and I noticed when I started having efficiency issues was with using Beersmith to calculate my water amount. I made a spreadsheet last year that I think calculates my water amount better that I used for a bit and got great efficiencies. I'm going to go back to that.
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Apr 15, 2018 14:57
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I hadn't really considered water chemistry as being all that important in the scheme of things, but it does seem with a full volume mash it could get a lot more out of whack so I should probably figure it out before my next batch.
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Apr 15, 2018 14:59
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My Cascade hop sprouted! I'm probably getting ahead of myself but I picked a well-reviewed recipe that seemed nearly identical on multiple sites. First of all, I can freeze hops for some time after they're picked, correct? If I wanted a fresh hop beer they don't need to be straight off the plant, but they should be preserved like piece of frozen fruit or something, right? Also, due to the water weight, I read I'll need 4-8x the original weight by mass if I don't cure it? The original recipe is fairly low IBU, low color, low ABV. I was hoping it would be a good clean canvas to demonstrate a fresh hop beer. Blonde Ale, 5 gallons 2-row, 6 lbs Carapils, 12 oz Crystal 10L, 8 oz Vienna, 8 oz Cascade, 0.5 oz @ 60 Cascade, 0.5 oz @ 35 Cascade, 0.5 oz @ 20 Cascade, 0.5 oz @ 5 (optional) dry hop 1 oz for 7 days To convert this, the 0.5 oz additions become 2 oz and the dry hop becomes 4 oz? That seems like a lot of hops, though I understand I won't necessarily get more bittering out of the cones. Actually what I've read seems to indicate that I'll get more of an unwanted "green" flavor at high fresh hop capacity, so I guess I have another question. How much fresh hop is too much? Would it be better used as an aroma hop/dry addition, or should I use it to get more flavor out of my bittering addition? DISCO KING fucked around with this message at 05:11 on Apr 16, 2018 |
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Apr 16, 2018 05:08
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Dryhopping with wet hops is a pain in the rear end. Just the volume of material you're putting in there is a lot and you can infect a beer doing it. Personally, if I'm using wet hops, I like to do it as a FWH to keep all that stuff out of the boil. Probably not what you wanna do, but it's a tricky bit of work to make wet hops work well.
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Apr 16, 2018 12:38
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Definitely not a bad idea to use in the boil or as FWH. You won't get much flavor out of the FWH and you'll have no clue of utilization unless you get your crop tested for percentages, but I've seen a lot of people just increase their volumes to account for loss to the hops. If it's your first year with that plant and you got just a rhizome, I wouldn't plan to large or too far in advance. You probably won't get a ton of harvest the first year. You can also dry them and store them like any loose leaf hops you'd buy in a store. I have to admit, I too planned in advance of actually getting a harvest last year and was disappointed with what I got. They're coming up already this year and look a lot different and stronger than the plant did last year. Recipe looks pretty good, although that feels like it might be a lot of carapils for the rest of the grain bill. That would make beer, but I would probably merge the 35 and 20 minute additions just because I don't feel like I'd gain anything by splitting them.
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Apr 16, 2018 14:48
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Did 15 barrels on a commercial set up this weekend. It's basically the same as what I do at home, except with way more cleaning.
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Apr 16, 2018 15:56
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So if my yield is low, which additions should I use fresh hops for? I feel perfectly fine mixing fresh and dry hops. Would I get more flavor from the fresh hop as a later addition, or earlier?
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Apr 16, 2018 17:05
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Napoleon Bonaparty posted:So if my yield is low, which additions should I use fresh hops for? I feel perfectly fine mixing fresh and dry hops. Would I get more flavor from the fresh hop as a later addition, or earlier? Easiest to use them as a last boil aroma or whirlpool addition if you're wanting that part of the flavors from them. They do tend to take up quite a bit of room, and it does mean you may loose some of your volume to the leaves. Dry leaf hops I've found hard to actually submerge in a fermenter for dry hopping, and I imagine that's just a problem with full leaves as they float.
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Apr 16, 2018 17:46
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I've also had issues with dry hops not submerging in my bucket and I've resorted to grain bags with the hops and filler marbles for winemaking. Thanks for the advice everyone.
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Apr 16, 2018 18:32
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So the issue with my amber ale carbing is definitely related to priming sugar not being evenly distributed. That's a first in 7 years. Looking at probably 50% of the bottles being flat or 2 day old cask carbed.
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Apr 17, 2018 15:47
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I have a kit beer going now that uses recultured Cooper's commerical yeast. When it's done, I'd like to repitch the yeast cake - plan is to do a double brew day and split it two ways. I am trying a SMaSH with two different hops and also thought it'd be interesting to switch up the yeast from reliable ol' US-05. It may be 24-48 hours before I can do this, as I've got to bottle the beer that's in the chamber now to give me access to my second fermenter. My thinking was to take the yeast slurry when I'm done bottling and pour it into two sanitised jars, leave in the fridge covered with cling wrap until needed, and bring it out to warm up a few hours before it's time to re-pitch. Any more to it than that?
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Apr 18, 2018 01:15
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Ethics_Gradient posted:Any more to it than that? There are things you could do, like washing the yeast or separating it from the sediment in suspension, but none that you absolutely need to do. Just be good with sanitation and you should be fine. This is common practice for a lot of people.
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Apr 18, 2018 03:03
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I'm looking at brewing a Belgian Wit, ala blue moon et al., this weekend. This is the recipe I'm working off of: 5 lbs Pilsner 4 oz 10L Munich 4 lbs Flaked Wheat 1 lb Flaked Oats We had a homebrew meeting tonight and it looks like the local shop does not have 4 lbs of flaked wheat. Can I substitute torrified wheat? As part of the meeting tonight, we do a quarterly competition that I managed to take 3rd place with a very simple Kolsch. It's pretty much has become my staple beer in the keezer.
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Apr 19, 2018 02:34
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