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Beer4TheBeerGod posted:When I was in the brew store I asked them about glass versus plastic. Their argument was that glass is less susceptible to scratches that could harbor bacteria and other nastiness. I think this risk is massively overstated. If you're reasonably careful with plastic, it's not hard at all to keep things sanitary. There are no special measures required, especially since you don't have to use that metal-cored brush to clean a bucket or even a Better Bottle. What risk there is is far outweighed, IMO, by the cost, weight, slipperiness, and fragility of glass.
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Oct 10, 2012 16:23
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Jo3sh posted:I think this risk is massively overstated. If you're reasonably careful with plastic, it's not hard at all to keep things sanitary. There are no special measures required, especially since you don't have to use that metal-cored brush to clean a bucket or even a Better Bottle. What risk there is is far outweighed, IMO, by the cost, weight, slipperiness, and fragility of glass. Exactly. The danger of dropping a full five/six gallon glass carboy is just not worth the risk given the Better Bottle alternative. Besides wasting all the time and effort of your beer, I'd rather not have to pull shards of glass out my feet/arms. I've been able to clean my Better Bottles extremely well with hot water and Oxiclean Free, even with the worst left over krausen, without a brush.
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Oct 10, 2012 16:47
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WaterIsPoison posted:Exactly. The danger of dropping a full five/six gallon glass carboy is just not worth the risk given the Better Bottle alternative. Besides wasting all the time and effort of your beer, I'd rather not have to pull shards of glass out my feet/arms. I've been able to clean my Better Bottles extremely well with hot water and Oxiclean Free, even with the worst left over krausen, without a brush. I've had some pretty nasty leftover krausen that wouldn't get gone with an oxiclean soak or a brushing. I eventually got a prebuilt version of this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0OAJAddS4U and it makes cleaning out my carboy a hell of a lot easier.
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Oct 10, 2012 16:53
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icehewk posted:Hey Jo3sh, was your Oktoberfest recipe just 70% vienna 30% munich? I had it saved on Hopville but the update killed the favoriting of other brewers and recipes. If I remember correctly, a classic oktoberfest recipe is something easy to remember like 4# pilsner, 3# munich, 2# vienna
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Oct 10, 2012 17:14
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icehewk posted:Hey Jo3sh, was your Oktoberfest recipe just 70% vienna 30% munich? I had it saved on Hopville but the update killed the favoriting of other brewers and recipes. You might be thinking of my recipe, although I just posted it in the thread and it's not on hopville. 7lbs vienna 3lbs munich II 1 oz hallertauer at 60 min 1 oz tettnanger at 15 min 1 oz tettnanger 0 min Wyeast 2308 Munich Lager
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Oct 10, 2012 17:39
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Oh well. Lesson learned.
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Oct 10, 2012 17:56
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Docjowles posted:I feel like we might be misunderstanding each other? I'm not saying you should dry hop while the fermentation is active This is how I read your first post, too. I think he must have misunderstood your first post. I think this makes some sense to, particularly if you aren't doubling your dry hop rates or anything. As for plastic vs. glass, I use glass because as a know-nothing newbie, I bought a lot of glass carboys. Had I known what I know now, I would have bought buckets because they are cheaper and easier to move around.
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Oct 10, 2012 18:10
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The poster asked if it's really necessary to rack to secondary before dry hopping. I was theorizing that if you dry hop in a bucket with a big pile of yeast and trub on the bottom some hops compounds could end up getting bound up in that and you just might want to use slightly more than if you dry hopped in a dedicated secondary. Either way, of course you don't want to chuck hops in there while it's bubbling away.
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Missed the discussion yesterday! My kit is basically everything I need for a batch of medium dark ale, equipment, ingredients, and all, except for the kettle and something to stir with. I wound up getting a stainless 5 gallon kettle for like $50 after measuring how big a larger kettle would be, and it just seemed a bit overkill to get a bigger one and try to get it boiling on my stove. And I totally know what all-grain is, it's where you put... The grain in the pot, and... Stir it, and then, uh, beer happens.
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Oct 10, 2012 18:11
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Nostratic posted:Missed the discussion yesterday! My kit is basically everything I need for a batch of medium dark ale, equipment, ingredients, and all, except for the kettle and something to stir with.
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Oct 10, 2012 18:16
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Josh Wow posted:You might be thinking of my recipe, although I just posted it in the thread and it's not on hopville. Ahh yes, thank you! Sorry about the mixup. Have you done it with an ale yeast before? I was going to try Wyeast's London ESB in it since it has lower attenuation levels and lets the malts shine. It turned out really nice in the ESB I made so recycling it would help save a few bucks. I'll refrain from calling it festbier if it helps.
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Oct 10, 2012 18:55
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icehewk posted:Ahh yes, thank you! Sorry about the mixup. Have you done it with an ale yeast before? I was going to try Wyeast's London ESB in it since it has lower attenuation levels and lets the malts shine. It turned out really nice in the ESB I made so recycling it would help save a few bucks. I'll refrain from calling it festbier if it helps. I think it'd make a fine beer with the ESB yeast, but it'll be very little like an Oktoberfest. More like a really light amber ale. Back before I could do lagers if I wanted to do a lager style with an ale yeast I'd either use US-05, Wyeast German Ale, or Wyeast California Common. Ferment any of those in the low 60s and you're decently close to a lager profile. Definitely not the same but pretty much the best you can do with an ale yeast.
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Oct 10, 2012 21:26
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icehewk posted:Sorry about the mixup. No worries, there are three or four guys in the thread whose names are variants on 'Josh,' so confusion is understandable.
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Oct 10, 2012 21:59
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There's a spot in the woods behind our apartment building I go to dump my spent grain. I dumped out a batch today for the first time in a few months, and there were a bunch of little barley plants growing there 
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Oct 10, 2012 22:06
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I'm using flaked oats in an extract recipe... how do I go about using these? It seems a bit odd to me to steep them by themselves prior to the boil like I would with specialty grains. Should I steep them along side some extract additions?
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Oct 10, 2012 22:56
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global tetrahedron posted:I'm using flaked oats in an extract recipe... how do I go about using these? It seems a bit odd to me to steep them by themselves prior to the boil like I would with specialty grains. Should I steep them along side some extract additions? Don't flaked oats need to be mashed? I'd add some other grain (maybe an equal amount of some kind of base malt or a self-converting specialty malt) to the steep and steep for longer than you would normally.
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Oct 10, 2012 23:28
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Yup, unless you're doing a wit or something where the haze of unconverted starch is intentional, you'll want to mash those oats. An hour at around 150-155 with an equal weight of crushed domestic or imported 2-row is a pretty good way to do that.
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Oct 10, 2012 23:30
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Kegged my first beer today, throwing 20 PSI at it so that it will hopefully be carbed up by Saturday. While doing this, I had the idea that if I had a party at my place where girls that did not drink beer would be attending, I hypothetically could carb up some cheap, dry white wine as Champagne for them. Has anyone done something like this?
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Oct 11, 2012 00:04
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ScaerCroe posted:Kegged my first beer today, throwing 20 PSI at it so that it will hopefully be carbed up by Saturday. I've always heard high pressure over time doesn't really work that well. I usually just resort to shaking some in at 30 PSI for about 2-3 minutes and then leaving it alone for three days at serving pressure. I shook it for like 5 minutes once but it ended up kind of overcarbed.
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Oct 11, 2012 00:05
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Angry Grimace posted:I've always heard high pressure over time doesn't really work that well. I usually just resort to shaking some in at 30 PSI for about 2-3 minutes and then leaving it alone for three days at serving pressure. I shook it for like 5 minutes once but it ended up kind of overcarbed. I'll keep this in mind. NorthernBrewerTV (as well as some others) suggest 20 PSI for 1-2 days, then go to serving to see if it is carbed.
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Oct 11, 2012 00:25
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That will work if you have it at serving temperature, but it will be undercarbed if its at room temperature.
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Oct 11, 2012 01:11
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Any good way to depressurize a pin lock keg without spraying beer out? I just racked into a keg secondary for the first time. Now I have another 4 painful weeks to wait. I was pushing into the 2 pin post. BDawg fucked around with this message at 03:01 on Oct 11, 2012 |
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Oct 11, 2012 02:40
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Push into the gas in instead of the liquid out? Do pin pocks not have a pressure relief valve? I vaguely remember hearing that but I use ball locks.
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Oct 11, 2012 03:39
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Jo3sh posted:Yup, unless you're doing a wit or something where the haze of unconverted starch is intentional, you'll want to mash those oats. An hour at around 150-155 with an equal weight of crushed domestic or imported 2-row is a pretty good way to do that. I'm doing a Wit, I shoulda mentioned that. They'll do what they need to do if I just steep them, then? Some article on BYO said I could steep them up until 115 F.
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Oct 11, 2012 03:45
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Josh Wow posted:Push into the gas in instead of the liquid out? Do pin pocks not have a pressure relief valve? I vaguely remember hearing that but I use ball locks. 2 pin is supposed to be gas in.
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Oct 11, 2012 03:58
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BDawg posted:2 pin is supposed to be gas in. Could have put them on backwards...try the other?
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Oct 11, 2012 04:29
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global tetrahedron posted:I'm doing a Wit, I shoulda mentioned that. They'll do what they need to do if I just steep them, then? Some article on BYO said I could steep them up until 115 F. I have not done that, but if that is what the recipe says, it should be fine.
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Oct 11, 2012 05:48
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BDawg posted:Any good way to depressurize a pin lock keg without spraying beer out? I just racked into a keg secondary for the first time. Now I have another 4 painful weeks to wait. Take a small screwdriver and push down on the post for the gas in.
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Oct 11, 2012 07:00
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I'm sorry if I wasn't clear. I have a cap to depressurize. When I use it, liquid sprays out. Tonight, I'm going to make sure the posts aren't swapped.
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Oct 11, 2012 11:29
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If both posts spray beer when the poppets are depressed, your keg is filled to the point where the gas dip tube is in the beer also. At that point, there's no way to depressurize the keg without getting wet. vvv I guess that's true. Did not even think of that. Jo3sh fucked around with this message at 17:42 on Oct 11, 2012 |
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Oct 11, 2012 15:27
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Jo3sh posted:If both posts spray beer when the poppets are depressed, your keg is filled to the point where the gas dip tube is in the beer also. At that point, there's no way to depressurize the keg without getting wet. You might be able to tilt the keg enough to get the gas tube above the beer level.
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Oct 11, 2012 17:13
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You could always just take the beer off of the gas and wait for the gas to absorb into the beer.
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Oct 11, 2012 18:18
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Angry Grimace posted:You could always just take the beer off of the gas and wait for the gas to absorb into the beer. Or you could force more CO2 in to press the beer down further and 
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Oct 11, 2012 18:32
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Tap it and drink from the fire hose.
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Oct 11, 2012 18:32
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Actually, that's not a bad idea: just use a really long beer line, like 10' or hell, 20', that ought to slow the beer down enough.
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Oct 11, 2012 18:33
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Since we're on the subject of kegging and force carbonating, here are my questions: Just kegged my first two batches last night and have had both sitting around 25 PSI in my chest freezer for almost 24 hours. I have two more batches to keg this week and was wondering how I'm supposed to manage 2 kegs @ serving pressure, and 2 more kegs at force carbonation level? Do I disconnect the gas lines to the two at serving pressure and leave them be and force carb the two new ones with the CO2 tank? Doesn't that leave me with two unusable kegs? Also, I tried the shaking gently on my lap for 2-3 minutes @ 30 PSI approach last night and wound up getting a backwash of beer into my gas lines and 4-way splitter... that sucked pretty bad, but I guess I'm lucky I caught it before it hit my regulator. How do I avoid that?
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Oct 11, 2012 20:42
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hellfaucet posted:Since we're on the subject of kegging and force carbonating, here are my questions: Just carbonate at normal pressures. The names "serving pressure" and "carbonation level" are super misleading. You don't necessarily need 25 psi to carbonate, just connect all 4 kegs at 10 or 12 or whatever PSI you're using to achieve whatever carbonation level (which is your serving pressure) and let them carbonate over a week and a half to 2 weeks. Also, to do the faster force thing, pressure them up a whole bunch, disconnect the gas line and just gently roll the keg back and forth on the floor. Shaking doesn't do much, you just need to expose the maximum surface area and exchange the liquid that's at that surface.
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Oct 11, 2012 20:47
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hellfaucet posted:I have two more batches to keg this week and was wondering how I'm supposed to manage 2 kegs @ serving pressure, and 2 more kegs at force carbonation level? Do I disconnect the gas lines to the two at serving pressure and leave them be and force carb the two new ones with the CO2 tank? There are a couple of approaches here - mine is to just leave the regulator at serving pressure all the time. When I rack into kegs, I just hook up the gas and leave it alone. It can take a couple of weeks to come up to full carbonation, but it's dead simple and gives consistent carbonation every time without having to shake anything or rebalance. You could also spring for a second regulator body to chain off the one you have now (I think most/all regulators should be expandable), and hook up two manifolds - one at serving pressure and the other at your higher force-carb pressure, each with as many lines as you want at that pressure.
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Oct 11, 2012 20:50
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A few of the higher viewed YouTube videos I was watching yesterday had the host's doing the shake with the gas attached. It makes way more sense now that you'd disconnect the gas lines while doing this, and way cleaner.
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Oct 11, 2012 20:51
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I'm waiting on my brown ale to ferment, but the yeast isn't doing anything. It was old yeast, so I waited three days before calling it lost and buying a new packet. Added that last night, and I'm still not seeing any activity! Does anyone have ideas as to what's going on? Some more info: Fermentis US-05 yeast in both cases, rehydrated at ~80F (foamed up both times), sitting at around 65-68F ambient. Some of the liquid from my airlock got sucked into the pail due to a temperature drop, but there's no way that a less than half of a normal 3-piece airlock's worth of water with a little one-step in it would be able to kill my entire batch of yeast twice, is there?
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Oct 11, 2012 21:01
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What are you using to decide that nothing's happening? If you're just not seeing the airlock move, there could be a bad seal on the bucket somewhere and it's no big deal. When you opened the bucket did you see any sign of foam or crud on the sides or anything that might indicate fermentation happened? Take a gravity reading if you have a hydrometer, or just taste it and see if it's still super sweet like unfermented wort or if it tastes like a beer. When you say the temp dropped, what temperature are you fermenting at? [edit: hurr nevermind, you answered that] If it's really cold that could prevent the yeast from working. You definitely didn't ruin your batch by sucking a tiny amount of water into it.
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Oct 11, 2012 21:04
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