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Alarbus posted:Yep. I use Go Ferm and Fermaid K with D47 yeast, and it's been great. Healthy yeast tastes better. I also don't boil my honey. So it sounds like the consensus is to follow the MoreBeer/MoreWine mead sheet. Which is cool, because that is pretty much my plan also. I also plan to order The Compleat Meadmaker today. Kaiho posted:Sorry to keep posting, but I have a question about my yeast starter. I made it on Friday night but the drat brew order containing the Simcoe I'm going to be bittering with hasn't arrived yet. I might get it tomorrow (Friday). Currently the starter is just sitting on the counter, half white slurry and half beer. Should I refrigerate it until tomorrow evening? Refrigerating it will be just fine. When the courier does decide to show up with your hops, you can decant off most of the beer, then swirl up the slurry and pitch that.
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Jul 8, 2012 15:44
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Well after roughly 72 hours, fermentation appears to have dropped off on my latest batch - I'm getting bubbles in the airlock roughly every 22 seconds. Should I pitch some yeast nutrients? I'm planning on leaving this beer in the primary for at least 2 weeks (and maybe 3), and then racking to a secondary.
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Jul 8, 2012 19:02
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I've take the square root of your MTTB (mean time to bubble) and cross referenced it Tau-Calagione index (TCI) of your fermentation schedule and I'm afraid you are going to need to cross-transfuse a homo-salinic quasi yeast nutrient. Wait, that doesn't sound quite right. That's normal for the bubbling phase of primary. Yeast nutrient is something you do with the initial pitch if you are doing a monster beer or something and even there it's debatable because beer is pretty nutrient complete compared to other booze. What's the secondary for? If you can't name a reason, you don't need it.
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Jul 8, 2012 20:05
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zedprime posted:I've take the square root of your MTTB (mean time to bubble) and cross referenced it Tau-Calagione index (TCI) of your fermentation schedule and I'm afraid you are going to need to cross-transfuse a homo-salinic quasi yeast nutrient. My OG on this batch was 1.060, and while I was expecting higher, that still seems fairly high gravity - hence why I thought yeast nutrients might be a good idea to help out attenuation. I pitched a 1 L starter of Belgian wit ale yeast that appeared very healthy - I just want to avoid too many sugars left in the beer as I did use 5.5 lbs of pale LME for the boil (of around 17L down to 14L) with another 5 lbs added post boil, and a primary volume of 24L before pitching. I'm racking to the secondary to clear up the beer, and I've heard that too much time on the yeast cake is bad for flavours.
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Jul 8, 2012 20:27
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JawKnee posted:My OG on this batch was 1.060, and while I was expecting higher, that still seems fairly high gravity - hence why I thought yeast nutrients might be a good idea to help out attenuation. I pitched a 1 L starter of Belgian wit ale yeast that appeared very healthy - I just want to avoid too many sugars left in the beer as I did use 5.5 lbs of pale LME for the boil (of around 17L down to 14L) with another 5 lbs added post boil, and a primary volume of 24L before pitching. If you pitched a liter of starter, you don't need any nutrients to help your attenuation. A secondary is not needed for clarity, really - time is all that is needed. I would leave it in primary for ten to 14 days total and then package it.
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Jul 8, 2012 20:39
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JawKnee posted:My OG on this batch was 1.060, and while I was expecting higher, that still seems fairly high gravity - hence why I thought yeast nutrients might be a good idea to help out attenuation. I pitched a 1 L starter of Belgian wit ale yeast that appeared very healthy - I just want to avoid too many sugars left in the beer as I did use 5.5 lbs of pale LME for the boil (of around 17L down to 14L) with another 5 lbs added post boil, and a primary volume of 24L before pitching.
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Jul 8, 2012 20:51
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JawKnee posted:Well after roughly 72 hours, fermentation appears to have dropped off on my latest batch - I'm getting bubbles in the airlock roughly every 22 seconds. Another thing to consider is what yeast you're using, and how quickly it works. I've grown fond of the WLP090 SD Super Yeast and for each beer I've made with it, it always starts after about 12 hours, goes very hard for 24 hours or so, then gives me about one bubble every 4 seconds for the next few days. Then it's done. Like, one bubble every 10 minutes or so, done. Other yeasts I've used never got as aggressive as WLP090, but had a slower decline in activity, and took a bit longer to reach FG. You said in a previous post that you had activity within 5 hours; that's a good indicator of a healthy fermentation, and perhaps you're using a yeast that kicks off early & strong and wraps up quickly like WLP090.
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Jul 8, 2012 23:37
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wattershed posted:Another thing to consider is what yeast you're using, and how quickly it works. I've grown fond of the WLP090 SD Super Yeast and for each beer I've made with it, it always starts after about 12 hours, goes very hard for 24 hours or so, then gives me about one bubble every 4 seconds for the next few days. Then it's done. Like, one bubble every 10 minutes or so, done. Other yeasts I've used never got as aggressive as WLP090, but had a slower decline in activity, and took a bit longer to reach FG. I made my Citra Pale with WLP090. It started off really fruity (which may have just been a hop character) and then backed off to taste a lot like WLP001. I'm not sure I liked it any more than just throwing a US05 packet in, which is much cheaper. I suppose if I wanted to turn the beer around really fast, but I rarely am going to rack before 9 days.
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Jul 8, 2012 23:49
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Angry Grimace posted:1.060 isn't "high gravity" at all, at least not in craft or home brewing terms. Really high gravity beers are nearing 1.100 - I did a Imperial Stout that was 1.085 and I didn't consider it a "high gravity" beer at all, nor did I do anything at all to it beyond increasing the amount of yeast I pitched. It finished at 1.022, which I think is actually rather low. Where did you make up this arbitrary criteria that 'high gravity' has to be 1.1+? I'm going to go ahead and say in your own head.
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Jul 9, 2012 02:07
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global tetrahedron posted:Where did you make up this arbitrary criteria that 'high gravity' has to be 1.1+? I'm going to go ahead and say in your own head. I have no clue why this caused you to get upset and accusatory as opposed to just posting a rational response.
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Jul 9, 2012 02:58
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global tetrahedron posted:Where did you make up this arbitrary criteria that 'high gravity' has to be 1.1+? I'm going to go ahead and say in your own head. Getting technical there isn't really high grav in brewing as a specific cut off point to start sperging about what your beer needs. There's just certain gravities to start thinking about some of the actions you can take to make it finish how and where you want it. Made a beer and it tasted a bit stressed even with a gigantic starter? Maybe then its time to try some nutrient next time. I probably misspoke on the high grav for nutrient thing, it probably has more to do with composition than gravity since its a nutrient-complete sort of thing.
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Jul 9, 2012 03:01
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I pay special attention to beers over 1.080 or so. That's where my efficiency really starts to suffer, that's where I put extra effort into aeration, and that's where I worry more about full attenuation. For a 1.040 beer or a 1.075 beer, I don't do anything different other than pitch more yeast. So on my setup, I think of 1.080+ as "high gravity," but it's certainly not hard and fast.
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Jul 9, 2012 03:50
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wattershed posted:Another thing to consider is what yeast you're using, and how quickly it works. I've grown fond of the WLP090 SD Super Yeast and for each beer I've made with it, it always starts after about 12 hours, goes very hard for 24 hours or so, then gives me about one bubble every 4 seconds for the next few days. Then it's done. Like, one bubble every 10 minutes or so, done. Other yeasts I've used never got as aggressive as WLP090, but had a slower decline in activity, and took a bit longer to reach FG. I was using a WLP400. Regarding the high-gravity comment, I'm just going by what it said on the yeast packaging (I've thrown it out now, but I believe the wording was something along the lines of 'You should consider making a starter if you're brewing a high-gravity beer over 1.060', which the White Labs FAQ backs up). Jo3sh posted:If you pitched a liter of starter, you don't need any nutrients to help your attenuation. A secondary is not needed for clarity, really - time is all that is needed. I would leave it in primary for ten to 14 days total and then package it. I forgot something important actually - I'm planning on dry-hopping.
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Jul 9, 2012 06:05
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JawKnee posted:I forgot something important actually - I'm planning on dry-hopping. You can dry hop in the primary just fine. Every time you move stuff around or open it up you introduce a chance of contamination so why risk it? Just muslin bag the hops, with them down and wang 'em in.
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Jul 9, 2012 06:32
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JawKnee posted:I forgot something important actually - I'm planning on dry-hopping. Still no reason to move to secondary; I dry-hop in primary all the time. Really, in my opinion, the main reason to move to a secondary is if you are adding another round of fermentables. If you were going to add fruit or something, you could put your fruit in your secondary and rack the beer in on top of it. In the past, yeast was not near as good as it is today. Since you pitched a good starter in a moderate-strength beer, you're all set up for a good healthy ferment, and your yeast are not going to be stressed. If you had pitched a small number of cells or something, your yeast might be more highly stressed and therefore might be more susceptible to autolysis, which is what people worry about when they advise racking to secondary. With today's yeasts, and the good job you've already done in setting your ferment up well, you really have nothing to worry about unless you are going to leave your beer on the lees for months. A few weeks is no issue. Racking to secondary is just additional worry and bother, which exposes your beer to risk of oxidation and even infection, which is why this thread seems to recommend against it.
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Jul 9, 2012 06:34
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JawKnee posted:I was using a WLP400. Usually, the suggestion of a starter on every beer is given on the grounds that even if the wort doesn't need more viable cells, the yeast are in better condition and "proofed" if a starter is made. The only difference I've noticed in using a starter on 1.050~ and lower beer is that fermentation tends to take off a lot faster when using a starter, but that doesn't really say much about the end result since I've never had a fermentation get "stuck." Angry Grimace fucked around with this message at 07:14 on Jul 9, 2012 |
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Jul 9, 2012 07:11
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I know the usual answer to someone panicking over no activity is "RDWHaHB and wait a couple days", so I waited a couple days; however, while my cream ale is going nuts at the airlock, the bier de table has yet to pop a single bubble, and I pitched it from a smacked and swelling Smack Pack into ~75F wort on the 4th of July. Advice? The only thing I can think of is maybe the seal's bad on the fermenter bucket, but I don't have any way to test that. Wish I had a borescope.
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Jul 9, 2012 15:12
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Splizwarf posted:I know the usual answer to someone panicking over no activity is "RDWHaHB and wait a couple days", so I waited a couple days; however, while my cream ale is going nuts at the airlock, the bier de table has yet to pop a single bubble, and I pitched it from a smacked and swelling Smack Pack into ~75F wort on the 4th of July. Advice? You can check the gravity and check for telltale signs of fermentation like crud on the walls or a risen krausen. Gravity is the most foolproof, there's stories of complete fermentation without seeing the krausen or wall junk. Taking the lid off isn't as big of a thing as it seems it can be. If you want to be fancy next time you are using that vessel and air lock combo you can do a leak check at high krausen by spraying the bung with starsan.
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Jul 9, 2012 15:42
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Busy season at work is over. Vacation is over. Two kegs are empty. What to do... Keg 1 = empty Keg 2 = empty Keg 3 = German Pilsner Keg 4 = Belgian White Carb 1 = Bohemian Pilsner (ready first week August) Carb 2 = American Pale Ale (ready for carbonating when I refill CO2 tanks) Carb 3 = Triple (made yesterday, aiming for a New Year's party) Projects: Get a burner so I can do this in the driveway or garage instead of making a mess in the kitchen every other week. Buy some wood to make a collar for my keggerator to allow the CO2 tank to stay outside, fit the 4th keg in there, and add taps so that I can dispense without opening. Also still deciding whether I want to cover the fridge itself in magnets or give it some wood covering. Thinking of constructing the collar out of birch to stain with cherry, and possibly bolsa wood panels stained walnut covering the body? Have a few different notes and plans written down during vacation, unsure which to follow. Build a proper mash tun. I have mesh and valves, just need to go to the hardware store and pick up a cooler that isn't absurdly overpriced. Buy a few more kegs and a few plastic 6 gallon fermenting buckets. Can do primaries in plastic, transfer to glass carboys for long secondaries or straight to kegs. Best way to not get impatient with aging things is to have more than enough to drink in the meantime, need to get more storage. Possibly another fridge to go with the keggerator and secondary. Questions: What should I brew as a quick beer to fill a tap? Pilsner, APA, and Belgian already there. I'm thinking perhaps a cream ale? What is a good burner, or is anything banjo and highly rated on amazon fine? With the 4 pack kegs posted a few pages back without a manual pressure release, how do you go about venting pressure when going from carbonating to serving pressures? Or do you just have to be ready for that first pour to come out fast? Nephzinho fucked around with this message at 17:34 on Jul 9, 2012 |
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Jul 9, 2012 17:28
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zedprime posted:You can check the gravity and check for telltale signs of fermentation like crud on the walls or a risen krausen. Gravity is the most foolproof, there's stories of complete fermentation without seeing the krausen or wall junk. Taking the lid off isn't as big of a thing as it seems it can be. Yeah I am loathe to crack the lid for sanitation reasons, but I guess the way to look at it is if the yeast is dead that won't hurt and if it's alive and I have a sealing problem then most of the primary fermentation's already done at 6 days in. Thanks for the advice.
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Jul 9, 2012 17:47
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Speaking of mead, I've been sticking with Wyeast Sweet Mead lately, but it let me down. I made a blackberry honey mead which finished at 1.03 or so, perfect. I racked it onto a big can of blackberry puree and I got a really vigorous secondary fermentation to the point it's 1.000 now and about 14% ABV, yeesh. Still I got a lot more dry meads by being cheap with honey and using D-47, so I'm still a fan of Sweet Mead. wafflesnsegways posted:I just got an awesome gift of a million spices and odds and ends. Heather, chamomile, juniper berries, cardamom, bitter orange peel, and more that I'm forgetting. Anyone have any beers that they really like with these ingredients?
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Jul 9, 2012 17:51
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Splizwarf posted:Yeah I am loathe to crack the lid for sanitation reasons, but I guess the way to look at it is if the yeast is dead that won't hurt and if it's alive and I have a sealing problem then most of the primary fermentation's already done at 6 days in. Thanks for the advice. Generally speaking, stuff floating around in the air isn't going to just cause an lightning quick unavoidable infection. As long as you aren't opening it every day, it's not going to be a huge deal; if I had to guess, the bigger problem is that people who open the fermenter every day have bad sanitation practices. The other question is where did you get the bucket? Some buckets are deliberately designed to not be airtight (i.e. the ones they sell at MoreBeer).
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Jul 9, 2012 19:54
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LHBS. The lid is half as tall/thick as the other bucket we have; it's overall flimsy and that's why it plays backup to the band. Problem is all containers are currently occupied. I'll post a photo and the brand/model when I get home.
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Jul 9, 2012 21:05
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zerox147o posted:Busy season at work is over. Vacation is over. Two kegs are empty. What to do...
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Jul 9, 2012 23:10
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Angry Grimace posted:You just push the gas poppet to vent. I have two different tanks for carbonating and dispensing, so I would have disconnected it anyway. Will just keep a screwdriver on hand. Perfect, thank you.
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Jul 9, 2012 23:38
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zerox147o posted:What should I brew as a quick beer to fill a tap? I'm a big fan of Best Bitter for this kind of thing. It's an awesome session beer that you can get in your glass fast. Alternatively, an American-style wheat beer would be another excellent choice for summer drinking.
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Jul 9, 2012 23:48
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zerox147o posted:I have two different tanks for carbonating and dispensing, so I would have disconnected it anyway. Will just keep a screwdriver on hand. Perfect, thank you. I'm not certain I understand what you mean here: you're saying you carbonate in one keg and then rack it under pressure to another keg? What's the benefit of doing this?
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Jul 10, 2012 00:06
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Angry Grimace posted:I'm not certain I understand what you mean here: you're saying you carbonate in one keg and then rack it under pressure to another keg? What's the benefit of doing this? Possibly he has two CO2 tanks each with one regulator. The first is kept at carbing pressure, the second at serving pressure? Some day I'm going to get a lagering/conditioning fridge separate from my serving fridge and I expect to get a second tank for that. (I'm getting a 20# tank for sure, and save the 5# for serving, I hate having to get tanks refilled).
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Jul 10, 2012 00:47
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Super Rad posted:Possibly he has two CO2 tanks each with one regulator. The first is kept at carbing pressure, the second at serving pressure? I don't have any experience with set and forget carbonation at high pressure, but it seems like it wouldn't be worth the hassle of having special kegs and multiple CO2 regulators. I just shake the thing to the point at which it's still pretty undercarbed and then leave it at serving pressure and its ready to go in about 3 days. I have no clue if this procedure even makes sense but in my mind it's getting a lot of CO2 in solution, and then more goes until it reaches the maximum solubility at serving pressure, if that makes sense. My beers do seem to have consistently good carbonation levels, though. I want to get a second fridge too, but I really want one for just controlling fermentation temps. I'm using the big blue tub with water method now and its pretty annoying. I was using my regular keg fridge set to fermentation temps but I quickly realized I'm never going to have all four kegs empty.
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Jul 10, 2012 00:52
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JawKnee posted:I pitched a 1 L starter of Belgian wit ale yeast ... This does not compute. It's a wit!
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Jul 10, 2012 01:17
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indigi posted:This does not compute. It's a wit!
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Jul 10, 2012 01:23
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Yeah, but it has some help from the grain and stuff to stay cloudy. I think it's pretty hard to make a clear beer when you use a good portion of unmalted wheat. I have heard of people putting straight-up flour into the boil to get a good haze that does not drop out of suspension.
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Jul 10, 2012 01:44
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indigi posted:This does not compute. It's a wit! Right, and I understand it's a low floculating yeast, but does this mean attempting to clear it up won't work at all? I've just been tasting a couple of my last batch, which should be done priming by now - pretty malty and sweet which is fine as it was more of a review on fermenting for me than anything; priming appears to have worked less than I had hoped though, very little head on the beer when chilled - I primed at a rate of about 8 grams of dextrose per litre, so about 184 grams for 23L in the bottling bucket mixed in with the beer and then bottled. Is this too little for an American ale?
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Jul 10, 2012 02:12
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I don't really understand why you want to clear it. It's not supposed to be clear, and the yeast adds something to the flavor. Eventually it'll clear, especially if stored cold, but my great struggle with wits has been to keep them cloudy despite a monthish of cold storage.
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Jul 10, 2012 03:03
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As far as split additions of LME/DME go, I find that doing it kills my boil most of the time... a lot of the recipes and kits that call for a split addition say to add the remainder of the extract at 15 min. Do you all wait for the wort to resume a rolling boil after adding the second batch, or just go with whatever time you'd had on your countdown timer? Does this make a huge difference either way? My perception is that splitting extract additions is primarily for hop utilization and color purposes. To what extent does losing a boil for ~5 min affect any of this? I sense I'm probably being overly paranoid but yeah.
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Jul 10, 2012 03:09
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The advice given most often is to cut the flame altogether while you do the late addition to avoid boilover, then resume the countdown for the last 15 minutes. The wort should still be hot + voluminous enough to bring the extract up to pasteurization temps even if you added LME at flameout, so you don't really have to boil it for a full 15 minutes. You won't get a complete hot break on the late-addition extract if you don't, though, which could make the final product a bit cloudier or prone to slightly quicker spoilage due to higher protein content, but overall I doubt it'd make a noticeable impact on your first half dozen or so batches and wouldn't affect the shelf-life at all unless you're planning on cellaring for 18+ months.
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Jul 10, 2012 03:14
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indigi posted:I don't really understand why you want to clear it. It's not supposed to be clear, and the yeast adds something to the flavor. Eventually it'll clear, especially if stored cold, but my great struggle with wits has been to keep them cloudy despite a monthish of cold storage. Oh I see - yeah I'm not trying to make a wit, I'm just using a wit ale yeast (I know that sounds strange, but there you go). I thought it would be interesting to try making an IPA-like beer with a Belgian yeast.
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Jul 10, 2012 03:44
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That might turn out great, depending on what hops you used. Wit yeast has a really particular profile that I don't think would blend well with earthy or more floral types. I bet if you did that with Cascade it'd be pretty drat good. edit: And Belgian IPAs have been something of a fad the past year or two in the craft scene, so take heart that you're thinking like a pro already!
indigi fucked around with this message at 06:46 on Jul 10, 2012 |
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Jul 10, 2012 06:41
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Super Rad posted:Possibly he has two CO2 tanks each with one regulator. The first is kept at carbing pressure, the second at serving pressure? This. Makes it easy to have a CO2 at serving hooked into a 4 way splitter so I can just hook those up easily. Meanwhile I have another regulator that just feeds directly to kegs 1 by 1 for carbonating and subsequent storage in a fridge or moving directly into the keggerator and onto tap. Less disturbing my keggerator when finishing batches, and I essentially have a backup CO2 tank if my keggerator runs dry.
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Jul 10, 2012 07:18
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indigi posted:You won't get a complete hot break on the late-addition extract if you don't, though, which could make the final product a bit cloudier or prone to slightly quicker spoilage due to higher protein content, but overall I doubt it'd make a noticeable impact on your first half dozen or so batches and wouldn't affect the shelf-life at all unless you're planning on cellaring for 18+ months. I thought you don't get a hot break at all with extract. (Or maybe just not much of a hot break?)
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Jul 10, 2012 10:59
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