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wattershed posted:Given that you're concerned about your amount of mash water, I'm assuming your pot's 5 gallons? Your grain bill isn't large enough to where, if you only used 4 gallons to mash, the water would be overly saturated, thereby affecting your efficiency. Heat your full mash water amount, and (assuming you have something to measure with) remove 0.5-1.0 gallons. Put that in the cooler and close it up. THEN mash in, quick stir, and cover up for however long you want. The grain absorption will be enough to let you add the cooler water back in for the boil without worrying about a boilover. It is a 5 gallon pot, and thanks, I figured I could do that, but everything I have read about BIAB says that you MUST use all your water, and nobody has really given any justification for it.
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Jul 1, 2012 14:55
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Noghri_ViR posted:Hopmadness is the last week in August at the Rouge Hop Farm. We bring hops straight from the field so you can pick and then brew right there. Along with overnight camping, and all of the clubs and independent guys showing up to share beer it's a pretty good event Two issues for me in that regard: first, my vacation is the second-to-last week in August; and second, I have no bloody idea how I would get my rig up there. But it sounds awesome, and I wish I could do it. Sometimes, as awesome as it is that this country is so expansive and filled with such an amazing variety of, well, everything, it's awfully inconvenient how far apart things are.
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Jul 1, 2012 15:49
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Today, my wife has ordered me to brew. I have two fermenters full of beer in the ferment fridge already, so I can't do my usual ten gallons. Since it's five or nothing, I may as well do something powerful, so Imperial Stout it is. Now I am standing outside the FLHBS waiting for them to open so I can buy specialty grain and perhaps a fermenter.
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Jul 1, 2012 18:11
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internet celebrity posted:Well, I boiled up 2 liters of starter wort, hopped it to match the IBUs of my beer, and pitched some dry lager yeast. I'll dump it in when I hit high krausen and we'll see what happens. Update: This seemed to work pretty well. I've let it sit out at room temperature (around 70) since Wednesday and ferment out whatever was left in the "starter" I added. Just tasted it now and there is no more butter flavor. I put it back in the fermentation chamber and I'm going to slowly lower the temperature and wait for it to drop clear again and bottle it.
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Jul 1, 2012 21:02
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bengy81 posted:It is a 5 gallon pot, and thanks, I figured I could do that, but everything I have read about BIAB says that you MUST use all your water, and nobody has really given any justification for it. The logic there is because there's no sparge in traditional BIAB, you have your one shot to saturate the water with the grains. That said, you're saturating 80% of your water and topping off with a little under a gallon. Your efficiency will take a small hit but in the end you won't notice too much of a difference. Alternatively, you could split your water amount when it's at mash temp, get a second bag, split the grain into two bags, and do a double BIAB using your cooler as the second mash vessel. I did this with a 25-lb grain bill where I would have had to fit all that grain plus 8.75 gallons into my 10 gallon pot. My efficiency took a hit with a grain bill of that size - and such are the limitations of BIAB - but I'm still on point for about 10% for an RIS.
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Jul 1, 2012 21:14
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bengy81 posted:It is a 5 gallon pot, and thanks, I figured I could do that, but everything I have read about BIAB says that you MUST use all your water, and nobody has really given any justification for it. I mash my 3 gallon BIAB batches in a 5 gallon pot. The way I do it is I mash in at 1.5 to 2 quarts of water per pound of grain. I heat up a second pot of water to 168ish during the mash. After the mash I rest my grain bag in a strainer over the mash pot and use a measuring cup to scoop water out of the other pot and pour it over the grain bag until I hit my pre-boil volume. Since I started doing this sparge technique I can regularly hit around 70% efficiency.
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Jul 1, 2012 21:20
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Thanks for all the advice folks. Just about ready to pitch my yeast. More or less did the Saison that James Bont recommended, did Saaz and Glacier hops instead. O.G. of 1.060 corrected for temp, with a 62% efficiency. BIAB is super easy, really not a ton more time involved than extract w/ specialty grains. Changed my setup a bit and did the whole thing in my cooler, it felt like it would be a little easier that way. Turned out to be the right decision, missed my mash temp so I was able to add a little water to bring it back up. Really glad I decided to try this out. I tossing around the idea of doing a full grain setup, but I am going to stick with this for a little while at least and that will free up some money to put together a temp regulator and a freezer!
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Jul 2, 2012 02:16
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I do a hella ghetto all grain, speaking of BIAB. I use my bottling bucket with a course bag as my mash-tun. It works okay, but my efficiency is somewhere in the high 50s to low 60s. I mash-in and stir, then cover a couple of old blankets we have. I do an alright job of hitting my mark now that I know what to expect. Just as a viable option for those looking to go all grain but for about six dollars worth of extra investment. I've got my personal favorite beer I've made thus far on tap right now. It's bring-a-tear-to-your-eye perfect on these hot as hell days too. It's a wheat beer with a dash of dark roast wheat, black peppercorns, and tasty floral hops. Recipe here: http://cobdavis.com/beer/2012/Whore-Garden.html
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Jul 2, 2012 03:33
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Jo3sh posted:Today, my wife has ordered me to brew. Yesterday the guy that lives closest to me in my club hosted a brew session. I couldn't go til mid afternoon. It was 104 when I left the house to go over there. Those people are insane. I'm a full three inches shorter today having melted outside yesterday afternoon over 90K BTUs.
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Jul 2, 2012 18:40
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drewhead posted:Yesterday the guy that lives closest to me in my club hosted a brew session. I couldn't go til mid afternoon. It was 104 when I left the house to go over there. It wasn't quite that bad here, but it was above 90 on the patio. Thank god I brew in the shade. I did have some difficulty with cooling as the water from the hose was about 75 degrees. The key, I found, was to drink twice as much water as beer. Funny how much smoother a brew day goes when your head is clear, too.
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Jul 2, 2012 19:37
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I had plans to brew this weekend but just couldn't bring myself to do it. Temps peaked around 103 with no shade to hide in. Standing around a big-rear end burner and boiling liquid just didn't sound even a little appealing 
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Jul 2, 2012 20:13
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Jo3sh posted:It wasn't quite that bad here, but it was above 90 on the patio. Thank god I brew in the shade. I did have some difficulty with cooling as the water from the hose was about 75 degrees. The key, I found, was to drink twice as much water as beer. Funny how much smoother a brew day goes when your head is clear, too. After several hosed up brew days, I've started drinking only once yeast is pitched. Drinking makes cleanup a lot more fun. On multi batch days (this is every day. No way I'm setting up my ridiculously annoying brewstand to make one batch), I'll have one beer per yeast pitch until cleanup. Things go much better now. Brewsheets are filled out in detail, hops go in the boil, temperatures are reached etc. e: Actually it's a little sad. I work on houses and large welding projects and fix cars while drinking far more than I ever have while brewing and those things all go just fine.
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Jul 2, 2012 20:24
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Kaiho posted:Hopville is the dog's bollocks for this sort of thing. The system lets you switch between imperial and metric on the fly, it calculates IBUs, lets you edit hop AA percentages depending on what your harvest actually was, and stores all your recipes in a form that lets you put in tasting notes etc. For a free tool I'm really impressed and it has genuinely helped me understand the effects on gravity and bitterness that adding different ingredients in varying amounts do. The drat thing even shows you an estimate of the final color. Thanks for this, their site is down but the beer calculus 2.0 thing can still be accessed and I've planned out a brew on it, now I'm off to pick up the last few supplies and I should be making up a yeast starter when I get back home. According to that beer calculus application a 6 gallon brew using 6 lbs of pale DME and my 3.75 lbs of hopped LME, along with a 60 minute boil of my warrior and columbus hops and a 20 minute flavoring boil with my cascade hops should give me an IBU around the mid-60's, an OG around 1.070, and with the WLP400 starter I could see an ABV of around 7% (give or take a tenth of a point), which is very cool; I can't wait! I acquired a 24L brew kettle from a family member; I'll probably try an 18-20L boil in it and add the rest in the primary, which I think means I should hold on to about 2 lbs of my LME for addition to the primary. Does that sound about right? E: Factual error JawKnee fucked around with this message at 21:58 on Jul 2, 2012 |
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Jul 2, 2012 21:45
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Hypnolobster posted:After several hosed up brew days, I've started drinking only once yeast is pitched. Drinking makes cleanup a lot more fun.
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Jul 2, 2012 21:55
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Is it normal that yeast from the smack packs take a while to get going? The last three batches (5 gal) were all using 1 smack pack each and they take 24-36 hours to start bubbling the airlock and they never go crazy like I've seen with dry yeast that's rehydrated. I'm using temperature control around 62-65 and oxygenating with pure O2 for 1-2 minutes through a diffusion stone. They were all in the fridge for 2-3 months but puffed right up when I broke the nutrient packet the night before brewing. Should I have used 2 packs per batch? Made starters? Are starters appropriate for high and low starting gravity? Are they appropriate for liquid and dry yeast? I'm not unhappy with anything I've brewed yet, just trying to understand more about it.
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Jul 2, 2012 23:47
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24 hours is averagely quick. I don't think you can practically overpitch unless you start going nuts stepping up starters for normal grav beers so feel free to give it a shot and see if you like it better or worse. The cell count in a packet of dry yeast generally means there is no grav it can't handle unless you aim for rocket fuel. The cell count in a vial or smack pack of liquid is sufficient to 1.060 but is really more in line with a commercial pitch to I don't know 1.045 or so? There's calculators out there to sperg about hitting commercial counts if you're really interested. Everything I make is under 1.060 so I just smack and go and cheer when it starts faster than 2.5 days.
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Jul 3, 2012 00:38
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I like the vigor of the dry yeast fermentations I've done so far and the lack of need to aerate (as discussed a few pages ago). On the other hand there aren't nearly as many strains of dry yeast available as compared to liquid.
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Jul 3, 2012 01:00
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Depending on how fresh the pack was when you bought it, that additional 3 months could mean a lot of the cells have died off. Or at best they're just dormant and need extra time to take off. Lag time isn't really a big deal unless you want that beer done ASAP or your sanitation is bad and you need the yeast to really get going quick to outcompete bacteria. If it's coming out fine in the end I wouldn't sweat it. Make a starter 3 days before you brew and/or just buy really fresh yeast right when you need it if you're worried about it. As random anecdotal evidence, I'd say when I do up a starter (then crash and decant, I don't pitch at high kreusen typically) I usually have noticeable airlock activity within 12 hours. But that's just a bonus, I do the starter to help ensure a full and clean fermentation. Docjowles fucked around with this message at 01:36 on Jul 3, 2012 |
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Jul 3, 2012 01:34
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JawKnee posted:I'll probably try an 18-20L boil in it and add the rest in the primary, which I think means I should hold on to about 2 lbs of my LME for addition to the primary. Does that sound about right? I would not wait for primary to add the last of the extract - I'd add it with about 15 minutes left in the boil. Now, it IS going to want to boil over (again) when you add the additional extract, so I suggest you warm the extract for a few minutes to make it less viscous (open the can, bottle or whatever and put it in a pan of simmering water), then: kill the heat stir in the extract well, being sure it is not just sitting on the bottom of the pot turn the heat on again bring the pot back to a boil
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Jul 3, 2012 02:13
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I'm about to drainpour a case of homebrew. It's my third batch, a hefeweizen, and its just a terrible flat banana bomb. I let it sit for about two months hoping it would get better. It did not. Hilariously, I've been trying to improve the clarity of my beer. Batch 4 was a Two Hearted clone, turned out great with the exception of the color/clarity. This hefeweizen? Crystal clear. 
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Jul 3, 2012 02:48
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Sirotan posted:I'm about to drainpour a case of homebrew. It's my third batch, a hefeweizen, and its just a terrible flat banana bomb. I let it sit for about two months hoping it would get better. It did not. Hint: Buy Brewing Classic Styles because it rules.
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Jul 3, 2012 03:13
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Angry Grimace posted:One of the tips in Brewing Classic Styles is that, you should ferment Hefeweizen at 62 regardless of what the internet says about various ester profiles. See the problem is that's what I tried to do. With a big bucket filled with water and some frozen bottles and stuff. Only I failed miserably. And then for batch four I made myself a ferm fridge.
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Jul 3, 2012 03:20
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Cpt.Wacky posted:Is it normal that yeast from the smack packs take a while to get going? The last three batches (5 gal) were all using 1 smack pack each and they take 24-36 hours to start bubbling the airlock and they never go crazy like I've seen with dry yeast that's rehydrated. I'm using temperature control around 62-65 and oxygenating with pure O2 for 1-2 minutes through a diffusion stone. They were all in the fridge for 2-3 months but puffed right up when I broke the nutrient packet the night before brewing. Sirotan posted:See the problem is that's what I tried to do. With a big bucket filled with water and some frozen bottles and stuff. Only I failed miserably.
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Jul 3, 2012 03:46
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So what's the best way to prime for bottling? With my wheat, I used just some boiled table sugar and tried really hard tog et it mixed well, but my bottling results have been very, very inconsistent. Everything from bottles with practically no head(but a reasonable carbonation) to this most recent one I just poured that had a huge thick foamy tight-bubbled head. It also appears to affect the flavor a bit, the better carbonated(if that's what's really going on) bottles are better tasting. Could be my brain.
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Jul 3, 2012 06:25
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I switched to Cooper's carb drops and it's consistent. I tried every single way to get the priming solution mixed in thoroughly and it would never get me consistent results - at best, maybe 36-40 bottles would be good, some would be flat, some would explode. Always. The switch to tabs fixed it. It's a bit more expensive, but when you compare it to a six-pack or two of improperly carbed beer, it works out imo.
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Jul 3, 2012 07:00
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indigi posted:I switched to Cooper's carb drops and it's consistent. I tried every single way to get the priming solution mixed in thoroughly and it would never get me consistent results - at best, maybe 36-40 bottles would be good, some would be flat, some would explode. Always. The switch to tabs fixed it. It's a bit more expensive, but when you compare it to a six-pack or two of improperly carbed beer, it works out imo. I dunno, these last few bottles have been PERFECT, but yeah, i need to find something else.
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Jul 3, 2012 07:26
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The way I bottle is as follows: I boil my boiling sugar with 150ml water so it gets completely dissolved. I dump that solution into the bottom of my bottling bucket, which is just a food-grade plastic bin. I wish I had a bottling tap on it but hey. Then I rack the beer from the fermenter into that bucket with the tube end just above the sugar solution level against the edge so that it forms a whirlpool without splashing. I may let it submerge on occasion because I have this fear that despite the swirling motion (which continues throughout the 5 gallons) may not be enough to get it all there. I never splash it around though. I would love it if someone with fluid dynamics experience could explain whether this is sufficient. Once that is done (and I have a tendency to end up with probably a pint's worth of beer that I could have siphoned but hey, sediment etc etc) I raise the now-full bottling bucket to where the fermenter was and proceed to bottle. My bottles have been consistent ever since then, or at least consistent enough to not have caused weird things to happen. j3rkstore posted:Any problems with oxidation? Precisely what I attempt to avoid with my whole "sounds like a lot of work" routine Kaiho fucked around with this message at 14:16 on Jul 3, 2012 |
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Jul 3, 2012 10:34
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That sounds like a lot of work, I just rack my beer into a bottling bucket and pour my boiled sugar water into it. Then I stir the dick off of it. Never had a problem with inconsistent carbonation.
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Jul 3, 2012 10:45
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Any problems with oxidation?
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Jul 3, 2012 14:12
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PokeJoe posted:That sounds like a lot of work, I just rack my beer into a bottling bucket and pour my boiled sugar water into it. Then I stir the dick off of it. Never had a problem with inconsistent carbonation. hmm might have been some dick on mine still. I will do more stirring this time.
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Jul 3, 2012 16:35
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Kaiho posted:The way I bottle is as follows: I do the same thing except I let the hose submerge. When it's all racked, I'll give things a gentle stir. No problems with oxidation, and I get reasonably consistent carbonation.
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Jul 3, 2012 17:55
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Jo3sh posted:The key, I found, was to drink twice as much water as beer. Amateur
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Jul 3, 2012 17:59
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I'm pretty sure the pros don't get to drink at all while brewing.
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Jul 3, 2012 19:11
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Jo3sh posted:I'm pretty sure the pros don't get to drink at all while brewing. Who said anything about getting drunk. You're talking about maintaining a water to beer ratio... ... I keed, I keed
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Jul 3, 2012 19:25
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Jo3sh posted:I'm pretty sure the pros don't get to drink at all while brewing. So much for my dreams of becoming a pro brewer.
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Jul 3, 2012 19:38
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Dirty bottling peasants Glorious kegging master race
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Jul 3, 2012 19:49
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Angry Grimace posted:Dirty bottling peasants Yesterday I took a sip straight from one of my taps. Just because I could. America.
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Jul 3, 2012 19:58
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j3rkstore posted:Any problems with oxidation? Nope, I don't stir it all foamy, just to make sure it's all evenly dissolved into the beer.
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Jul 3, 2012 20:28
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drewhead posted:Who said anything about getting drunk. You're talking about maintaining a water to beer ratio... Well, I was going to drink more than a few pints of SOMETHING while brewing in the heat. If I had drunk that much beer alone, I'd'a screwed up the batch something fierce and probably hurt myself in the bargain.
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Jul 3, 2012 20:30
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wattershed posted:Yesterday I took a sip straight from one of my taps. Pretty sure the pros don't get to to that either. God Bless amateur status.
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Jul 3, 2012 20:31
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