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Super Rad posted:First things first - if you want a good absorption rate for your hops you should try and get your hop bag to sink somehow - you might have to swirl your fermenter a bit or dunk the bag like a tea bag.
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Feb 27, 2012 21:44
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Hypnolobster posted:
Unless you are making Kristal Weiss, then very much do this.
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Feb 27, 2012 22:47
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Angry Grimace posted:From what I've been told, the only way to get them to sink is to physically weigh the bag down. The only thing I could really do I think is pull the bag and add more fresh hops, but feel free to give me any creative solutions. Ah, maybe the bag creates some sort of effect where by being grouped together the hops are more buoyant. Or maybe you're not using pellets? I always dry hop without a bag and the 90% of the matter from the pellets will eventually sink with an occasional swirl. It's not a big deal for me since I keg and just expect that any yeast/hops I sucked up will be gone after a couple days. If you're using whole hops then there might be nothing you can do - the couple of times I used whole hops to dry hop hardly any sank.
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Feb 27, 2012 23:53
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Angry Grimace posted:Why was this? Just because there weren't as good of yeast strains? I think that's part of it, maybe even most of it. In general, though, we have better ingredients and processes than they had in the '70s. Now, we can go to the brew shop and get yeast that we know is fresh and well-handled, but in days gone by, you might be fermenting with some contaminated, half-dead packet of dry yeast that had been stored on a warm shelf somewhere for god knows how long. Our malt extracts are made especially for the homebrewing industry (or even just the brewing industry) rather than the baking industry, and we don't tend to use white table sugar for half or more of the fermentables. Rather than just dumping things into a bucket, we are doing boils. We're not sanitizing with bleach. We know how many cells it takes to get a good ferment, and we pay attention to temperature. I don't think there's a single area of homebrewing where we don't have it better today than it was years ago. And while this is great for us, it's also a lot better for the yeast. Less stress means less chance of autolysis, and better tasting beer in general.
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Feb 28, 2012 00:13
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Super Rad posted:Ah, maybe the bag creates some sort of effect where by being grouped together the hops are more buoyant. My guess is that the hop pellets (yeah they're pellets) are already pretty buoyant and don't fall because they weigh very little and the bag itself is buoyant enough to hold them up at the top. I'm thinking in the future I will just pour the pellets right on top of the beer without a bag. Angry Grimace fucked around with this message at 00:28 on Feb 28, 2012 |
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Feb 28, 2012 00:25
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Angry Grimace posted:From what I've been told, the only way to get them to sink is to physically weigh the bag down. The only thing I could really do I think is pull the bag and add more fresh hops, but feel free to give me any creative solutions. I read something about throwing a few boiled/sanitized marbles into the bag to weigh it down? Speaking of fermentation, I didn't get as good a boil reduction on my first brew as I was hoping for, and have 5.8gal in my fermenter right now. I'll be moving it over to a glass secondary (mainly because I don't have bottles or a keg (or cask!) yet), but with the secondary being only 5 gallons I'm looking for something fun/experimental to do with the other ~.8 gallons which won't make the trip to the glass carboy. I have some growlers which are going unused that I can throw the excess into, and can toss airlocks on them and keep them doing...something. I'm hoping what's in the primary will end up as a lemony, peppery, slightly tart saison as it is right now, but for the .8gal remainder, I a) don't care if it turns out lovely and b) don't have any idea what to do with it. I will gladly let this excess become beer via which your wacky experiment can live vicariously through. Ideas?
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Feb 28, 2012 00:30
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wattershed posted:I read something about throwing a few boiled/sanitized marbles into the bag to weigh it down? Interesting that you you got well over 5 - I got like 4.3g and my gravity is like 8 points higher than expected. I need to really just mark the gallon lines on my dowel rod to make sure I'm getting a better picture of how much wort I'm collecting and how much I'm boiling off. From what guys in here are saying, it seems like you shouldn't even bother with a secondary if you don't have enough room for it. There's really no reason to dump perfectly good beer.
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Feb 28, 2012 00:47
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Angry Grimace posted:My guess is that the hop pellets (yeah they're pellets) are already pretty buoyant and don't fall because they weigh very little and the bag itself is buoyant enough to hold them up at the top. I'm thinking in the future I will just pour the pellets right on top of the beer without a bag. Yeah, FYI though for no real reason dry hopping is the one and only use my 5 gallon glass secondary fermenter ever sees nowadays. I'm not necessarily encouraging use of a secondary for dry hopping, it's not necessary and probably not beneficial, but I'm bringing this up because when I do dry hop I add the hops in first and then rack on top of them and because my racking tube is curved at the end the beer swirls the whole time, giving the hops a thorough mixing in without any effort. tl;dr - If you're just going to drop them into primary (totally fine, probably less work overall) you may have to do more than just a little swirling to get the hop pellets to break apart. Really this ends up depending on the exact hop pellets in question, I've found that most import hops are much looser right out of the pouch and will powderize almost instantly. wattershed posted:
Most beers don't require a secondary, but if you do decide to set aside a couple growlers for experimentation you may want to look into making some sort of spiced tincture to add some extra flavors. Another popular option is adding some sort of fruit. To some extent the viable options will depend on the style of beer the was brewed. If you post what it was we can come up with some suggestions. Also - what is the size of the fermenter you are using? If you have 5.8 gallons of beer in a 6 gal fermenter, I would definitely make sure it's hooked up to a blowoff tube rather than a small plastic airlock.
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Feb 28, 2012 01:43
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Super Rad posted:Most beers don't require a secondary, but if you do decide to set aside a couple growlers for experimentation you may want to look into making some sort of spiced tincture to add some extra flavors. Another popular option is adding some sort of fruit. To some extent the viable options will depend on the style of beer the was brewed. If you post what it was we can come up with some suggestions. It's a light, lemony saison with hopefully a bit of Brett sourness. Used WL670, for what it's worth. I though about adding some fruit originally, but with what I expect will be a reasonably bold light citrus profile I'm not sure which direction I could take it with other fruit that would leave not tasting like a muddled fruity mess. With the fermenter, it's a 6.5g Ale Pail...but after painting my bathroom with wort on my first trial beer, it's a properly fitted blowoff tube all the way...no reason for me to use the airlock if the tube/water-filled mason jar works.
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Feb 28, 2012 04:30
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Super Rad posted:First things first - if you want a good absorption rate for your hops you should try and get your hop bag to sink somehow - you might have to swirl your fermenter a bit or dunk the bag like a tea bag. Marbles sanitize easily and sink hop bags.
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Feb 28, 2012 05:11
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drewhead posted:Marbles sanitize easily and sink hop bags. I bet I can just dunk my hands in some Star San and move the bag out enough to untie it and plop a few of those in. I'll give it a go tomorrow after I pick up some marbles from Wal-Mart.
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Feb 28, 2012 05:29
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Angry Grimace posted:I bet I can just dunk my hands in some Star San and move the bag out enough to untie it and plop a few of those in. I'll give it a go tomorrow after I pick up some marbles from Wal-Mart. Just sanitize a spoon, and shove the bag down until it saturates enough to sink on it's own.
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Feb 28, 2012 06:07
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Imasalmon posted:Just sanitize a spoon, and shove the bag down until it saturates enough to sink on it's own. It worked for a little bit, but I think it just pushed the gas in the bag out, because it just popped back up. I couldn't get the bag out without resorting to a coat-hanger, which I figured was probably not a good thing to stick in there. I'm not really worried about it at this point; I'll just rack it with the other hop bag over the siphon and deal with any particulates that get into the bottles in this batch. I think in the future I'll just buy some marbles (where do you even get marbles these days) and throw 'em in there.
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Feb 28, 2012 09:36
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Angry Grimace posted:I think in the future I'll just buy some marbles (where do you even get marbles these days) and throw 'em in there. This is a good question and one I'm thinking about when I'm heading to dry hopping (hopefully in the near future, my aim is to create a bad-rear end APA here in the UK). I thought of using a couple of coins but despite sterilization they might impart flavo(u)r, I thought.
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Feb 28, 2012 12:37
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Stainless steel nuts or bolts work ok for sinking hop bags also.
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Feb 28, 2012 13:27
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Not to bring back and beat a dead horse but if you use an aspirator valve (http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/brewing/kegging/beer-engines/cask-supplies/aspirator-valve.html) your cask will last nearly as long as a keg. It allows you to fill the cask with only C02, but at approximately atmospheric pressure. Downside is its expensive, and CAMRA refuses to accept cask ale served this way as real ale. Basically, I think they are afraid of C02.
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Feb 28, 2012 15:52
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wattershed posted:It's a light, lemony saison with hopefully a bit of Brett sourness. Used WL670, for what it's worth. I though about adding some fruit originally, but with what I expect will be a reasonably bold light citrus profile I'm not sure which direction I could take it with other fruit that would leave not tasting like a muddled fruity mess. Perhaps you could try some sort of a spice like grains of paradise (peppery flavors), star anise (licorice flavors), cayenne or jalapeno/habanero, or even some vanilla beans. I think at least some of those should make a good or interesting pairing with a light citrus flavor - especially the grains of paradise. Fenugreek imparts a strong maple syrup flavor which could also be interesting especially with the Brett profiles (plus citrus + maple is the classic urban hippie detox combo).
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Feb 28, 2012 17:02
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I feel like I should also post my first impressions on the triple infusion double decoction hefe I brewed a couple weeks ago. Originally named the "Better be Bomb Hefe" I feel that it has earned its new name "Hefing Amazing." Amazing mouthfeel, solid wheat tang without being overbearing, good balance between clove and banana flavors. I'm very satisfied with the taste but here are some things that I noticed: - WLP380 loves the lower end of 60s. I tried to keep it around 64, but to my horror the second night of fermentation we had an unforeseen cold evening that dropped to the mid 50s which dropped the hefe to ~60. I was worried this would make it too much "clove" not enough "banana" but it's actually perfectly balanced! From now on I'd probably keep this yeast at 62 or even lower. I much prefer it to WLP300 which was all banana for me - I just wish their bavarian strain wasn't seasonal as I would have loved to try that one out too. - The decoction schedule did not impart as much color as I had hoped, though it's certainly a bit darker than what beersmith predicted, it's still a tad light for the style - if I were sending this off to some schmancy competition I'd probably be deducted some points for color. If you want to make a "by the numbers" weissen you may want to add 1-2 oz of carafa to push up the SRM. Either that or intentionally try to allow a little bit of scorching during the decoctions. Also I used a 50-50 wheat-malt combo rather than 60-40 so I imagine it would have been even lighter in color if I had used the more widely accepted grainbill. - Using 50% german pilsener and 50% less modified pilsener seems to have been a really good idea. It made more use of the protein rest and the mouthfeel and head on this beer are amazing. To date this beer has the thickest and longest-lasting head of any beer I've brewed. Was it worth the effort? Definitely - and I'm not even much of a fan of weissens! I just wish it were a more authentically handled style here in the states - I don't think I've had the chance to compare this to an authentic german example.
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Feb 28, 2012 17:25
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Super Rad posted:Perhaps you could try some sort of a spice like grains of paradise (peppery flavors), star anise (licorice flavors), cayenne or jalapeno/habanero, or even some vanilla beans. I think at least some of those should make a good or interesting pairing with a light citrus flavor - especially the grains of paradise. Fenugreek imparts a strong maple syrup flavor which could also be interesting especially with the Brett profiles (plus citrus + maple is the classic urban hippie detox combo). I actually have star anise in there already, forgot to mention that (plus coriander). I like those ideas though...I think I'll split the excess into two growlers (would have to do that anyway), and one's going to get bombed (proportionately) with ancho and habanero peppers while the other will have a sweet n sour thing going on with some agave nectar. I think I'll only have to buy the habanernos, have the rest on hand in the pantry. Thanks!
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Feb 28, 2012 17:27
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Today is, "Oh, gently caress, family reunion BBQ in three weeks!" brewing day. Best bitter coming up.
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Feb 28, 2012 17:32
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Super Rad posted:I feel like I should also post my first impressions on the triple infusion double decoction hefe I brewed a couple weeks ago.
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Feb 28, 2012 17:33
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Angry Grimace posted:I think in the future I'll just buy some marbles (where do you even get marbles these days) and throw 'em in there.
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Feb 28, 2012 18:34
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Jo3sh posted:Today is, "Oh, gently caress, family reunion BBQ in three weeks!" brewing day. Best bitter coming up. Is that American Bitter Experiment IV on Hopville?
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Feb 28, 2012 19:09
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Yup, that's the one.
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Feb 28, 2012 19:29
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Super Rad posted:Was it worth the effort? Definitely - and I'm not even much of a fan of weissens! I just wish it were a more authentically handled style here in the states - I don't think I've had the chance to compare this to an authentic german example. Hefeweizen supremacy! No doubt they don't handle it correctly here. Way too hoppy and too much emphasis on citrus flavors. There shouldn't be any hop flavor or aroma. Go get a Weihenstephaner Hefe Weissbier. Doesn't get any more authentic than that.
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Feb 28, 2012 20:11
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Just bottled my first batch! I am not sure it will turn out very well but I plan on taking a bottle to my local homebrew club meeting next month. I am going to brew up another batch this weekend.
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Feb 29, 2012 02:55
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Ok it's getting close to bottling time for my very first lager, so I have a few important questions. 1) What temperature should I base the priming sugar on? This stuff has seen a wide range. 60 at pitching, 50 for primary (3 weeks), 60 again for a diacetyl rest (2 days), 40 for secondary (3 weeks), and low 30s for lagering (3 weeks). I've read "temperature at bottling time". I would think temperature during primary makes the most sense myself. After all, that's when the vast majority of the CO2 is being produced... 2) After sitting that long, will it need extra yeast and/or time to carb? If extra yeast is needed, how much and how should I add it? I was thinking dry yeast pitched into the priming sugar water so it can mix in.
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Feb 29, 2012 03:08
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Are there any good resources for learning how to brew a "big" beer (i.e. OG > 1.090) ? I taught my friend how to brew his first beer and we made an easy brown ale that turned out pretty well, but now he is putting together a recipe for a barley wine, and I don't really know how to do that. I assume it will need special yeast and a huge starter.
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Feb 29, 2012 03:28
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Scottw330 posted:Are there any good resources for learning how to brew a "big" beer (i.e. OG > 1.090) ? It was only a half batch though, and obviously I used extract to get the OG up. It turned out really good. I would suggest looking for yeast strains that have high alcohol tolerance (WLP001 is listed as being high, which is the one I used) and definitely look at what your requirements will be for a starter.
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Feb 29, 2012 03:53
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Zakath posted:Here's the recipe I did for the one I did: http://hopville.com/recipe/1059751/american-barleywine-recipes/6-weeks-barley-wine That looks pretty close to the recipe that we were working on! Did you have to use any special techniques for aerating the wort, or rocking the fermenter while it was fermenting? If you bottled, did you have to do anything special, like add champagne yeast?
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Feb 29, 2012 04:09
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Scottw330 posted:That looks pretty close to the recipe that we were working on! Did you have to use any special techniques for aerating the wort, or rocking the fermenter while it was fermenting? If you bottled, did you have to do anything special, like add champagne yeast? I'd probably give it at least one more in the fermentor than I did if, especially if you are planning to do a full 5 gallons. I measured the gravity only 3 days before I bottled, and it dropped about from 1.026 to 1.022 in that time. I under-primed it just in case of bottle bombs, but the two bottles I've opened so far have had light but decent carbonation, like you might expect from this style. I doubt champagne yeast is necessary, just give it additional time.
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Feb 29, 2012 04:16
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For high-gravity beers, you will want to take extra care to make sure your wort is good and fermentable. Yeast can't attenuate higher gravities as well, so it's easy to end up with a beer that is too sweet. Also, your hop utilization will be lower, so you will need to add a lot more than you might think to get a balanced level of bitterness.
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Feb 29, 2012 07:02
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Also if you're doing all grain and shooting for an OG of above 1.090 expect your efficiency to tank. I'd calculate your recipe to roughly 10% less efficiency than you normally get and take a pre-boil OG reading and adjust your hops as necessary. There are online calculators and tools in brewing programs that'll help you calculate what your post boil OG will be from your pre-boil as long as you know your evaporation rate.
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Feb 29, 2012 07:06
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Josh Wow posted:Also if you're doing all grain and shooting for an OG of above 1.090 expect your efficiency to tank. I'd calculate your recipe to roughly 10% less efficiency than you normally get and take a pre-boil OG reading and adjust your hops as necessary. There are online calculators and tools in brewing programs that'll help you calculate what your post boil OG will be from your pre-boil as long as you know your evaporation rate. Is the evaporation rate of boiling wort the same as your boiloff rate of pure water, or does the dissolved solids and sugars lower it? Can I just boil up some water to figure out my boil-off rate accurately? I did an all-grain batch, but I was stupid and got very excited about setting up my AG stuff and brewed at 11 PM; the result that I was somewhat scatterbrained and not really looking at a lot of factors I should have been writing down and putting into Beersmith - I ended up with less in the fermenter than 5 gallons. Angry Grimace fucked around with this message at 08:48 on Feb 29, 2012 |
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Feb 29, 2012 07:35
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Angry Grimace posted:Is the evaporation rate of boiling wort the same as your boiloff rate of pure water, or does the dissolved solids and sugars lower it? Can I just boil up some water to figure out my boil-off rate accurately? I'm not actually sure if the boiloff rate would be the same or not, I've never tested that and don't remember anyone ever talking about it. For what you want to do I'm sure it's close enough though. Just remember that hot water has more volume than cold water, so when you're putting the water into your kettle to measure it do it at mash temps to get a more accurate reading.
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Feb 29, 2012 13:36
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I think the size of your kettle and heatsource has a larger affect on boil-off rate, to the point of any wort vs. water differences being negligible. I've taken temp readings of my boiling wort and it's always been the same as that of boiling water. Also, I know beersmith uses 4% as its estimated water expansion measurement. :edit: clarify, I'm not talking about latent heat, I'm talking about the relative difference in temperature of the boiling point of regular water and wort. For every beer I've done, they are the same. Daedalus Esquire fucked around with this message at 20:15 on Feb 29, 2012 |
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Feb 29, 2012 15:05
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Daedalus Esquire posted:I've taken temp readings of my boiling wort and it's always been the same as that of boiling water. Because every ounce of energy is going into breaking hydrogen bonds.
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Feb 29, 2012 16:03
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Right, I've taken a bit of chemestry, I was just pointing out that the relative difference between wort and water boil temps are the same, after-all, Wort is mostly water. Angry Grimace Was asking if there was a difference for his boil off measurements. Basically, to answer his question, yes, if he just boils water to measure his boil-off rates it should be close enough.
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Feb 29, 2012 16:22
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For any bargain hunters, Morebeer.com is doing a sale today similar to Black Friday, posting a whole bunch of items on sale one at a time til each sells out. Look in the Deal of the Day box on the front page to see the current item. http://morebeer.com/content/leapyearsale
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Feb 29, 2012 19:44
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Daedalus Esquire posted:I've taken temp readings of my boiling wort and it's always been the same as that of boiling water. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latent_heat 
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