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Are you using an extract or partial mash? Did you steep grains? You don't have enough sugars dissolved in the wort so at some point things didn't go to plan, or you added too much water. You can either boil it more or just pitch it and end up with a low abv beer.
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Sep 9, 2012 20:52
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Angry Grimace posted:If you used extract, it probably means it wasn't mixed up enough with the top off water. Bingo. I hadn't sloshed the carboy around yet. I just figured it out.
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Sep 9, 2012 20:55
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Docjowles posted:See no issues with the grain bill. Let us know how this turns out! I've never even heard of most of those hops, and I've not used any of them personally. If you've used any of them before I'd be interested to hear what you got from them. I've used the smaragd previous to my two brew days recently, and they smell pretty dang close to strisselspalt - if that helps any. I plan on doing SMaSH beers with them for my next brew day(s). Will report back. e: BlueGrot posted:horse blanket Jacobey000 fucked around with this message at 01:08 on Sep 10, 2012 |
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Sep 9, 2012 22:45
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So Northern Brewer sent me 10 lbs of grains that weren't crushed, so no brewday for me today. But I made a starter and was wondering the best way to save it till next weekend. I was planning on cooling it down in the fridge with foam cap still on it, sealing it, then warming it back up next weekend and using it, that should work, right?
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Sep 9, 2012 23:21
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Here's a another one. I've got my primary fermenting like a crazy madman and it's going through every airlock that I put on it. Nb sent me a blowoff assembly with a bung that is juuuuuust a little too big for the tube it came with. Should I stick with the 3 piece airlock that I have on there or should I go with the blowoff that isn't the right size? Btw, I think I'm never shopping with nb again. They f'ed up way too much for me to be a repeat customer. 
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Sep 10, 2012 09:11
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...and now I wake up this morning with the airlock blown off the top and brew all over the bathtub. Epic. So leaving for work soon. How should I leave the carboy goons?
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Sep 10, 2012 11:20
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LaserWash posted:...and now I wake up this morning with the airlock blown off the top and brew all over the bathtub. Epic. Take the top cap off the airlock, take the thimble-looking piece off, and stick the tube on the post of the airlock.
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Sep 10, 2012 11:36
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wattershed posted:Take the top cap off the airlock, take the thimble-looking piece off, and stick the tube on the post of the airlock. Outstanding idea. I'll be trying that before I leave this morning. Edit: Yup, it worked. LaserWash fucked around with this message at 11:55 on Sep 10, 2012 |
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Sep 10, 2012 11:45
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Jacobey000 posted:weeeelp Horse blanket is a great feature. Lovely. So I might do a rye smash IPA. BIAB. Yes/no?
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Sep 10, 2012 13:15
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BlueGrot posted:So I might do a rye smash IPA. BIAB. Yes/no? Rye smash means to me 100% rye malt? I'm not sure that would work well unless you add some rice hulls to the grist, as it doesn't have a husk. Also, unless you really really like the flavor rye brings to beer, you might find it overpowering - according to this article, most brewers start at about 10-20% rye and might get as high as 50%.
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Sep 10, 2012 15:27
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Hello everybody, So I've had an IPA in the carboy for about a week and It's the cloudiest beer I've brewed since I stopped making wheat beers. I don't have my recipe in front of me but the grain bill was roughly 72% Golden Promise 16% Munich 8% Golden Naked Oats (first time using this ingredient) 4% Coffee Malt Warrior pellets for bittering Willamette leafs for finishing Sach rest at around 153° Mash out at around 168° Used my homemade Wort Chiller for the first time and cooled it down to pitching temp in about 20m ( I have to retool it a bit). Pitched WLP 250 (first time using this, I may have been spoiled by the flocculaion power of WLP 007.) As usual I forgot to throw some irish moss in the boil. Do you think Cold Crashing it will clear it out or will the yeast eventually clear it out on it's own. I'm just used to my bear being a lot less cloudy at this stage.
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Sep 10, 2012 16:44
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BlueGrot posted:Horse blanket is a great feature. Lovely. I recently went to a belgian beer fest with my parents (who are both 100% belgian no less) and my mom said "Ew I just tried this beer and it's terrible, it's off and sour and gross" - it happened to be my favorite beer there - Duchess de Bourgogne I guess horse blanket is not for everyone.
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Sep 10, 2012 16:44
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Jo3sh posted:Rye smash means to me 100% rye malt? I'm not sure that would work well unless you add some rice hulls to the grist, as it doesn't have a husk. Also, unless you really really like the flavor rye brings to beer, you might find it overpowering - according to this article, most brewers start at about 10-20% rye and might get as high as 50%. I think the concept would be preserved if he just did 20~ish percent Rye + 2-row. Typical U.S. 2-row has a pretty neutral flavor.
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Sep 10, 2012 17:17
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How long should I expect the explosive fermentation I was having overnight on my Caribou Slobber recipe from nb? Holy crap. It's a good thing I put it in a plastic 6 gallon carboy, because that wouldnt have lasted in the provided 6.5 gallon plastic bucket. Holy crap, I expected a little blowoff, but daaaaaaaaaaaaammmmmmnnnnn... I'll be cleaning a beer explosion in the bath tub this evening. Good thing the curtain was drawn. Ha ha. My understanding is that explosive fermentation is a good thing for having really good beer, right?
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Sep 10, 2012 17:28
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LaserWash posted:It's a good thing I put it in a plastic 6 gallon carboy, because that wouldnt have lasted in the provided 6.5 gallon plastic bucket. I'm not understanding you here. Are you assuming the lid would have been blown off or something? Prying off those lids kills my fingers every time so I don't think you're gonna have fermentation blowing it off. In this case you probably would have been better putting it in the bucket, more headpsace=more room for krausen etc. In my homebrew news I ended up not going to the Bell's homebrew contest, and instead did my first all-grain BIAB batch using the hops from my mom's garden. It all went really well though I did have one gently caress-up in that I brewed away from home, got everything done and pitched the yeast, and then drove myself home and hauled the bucket back to my apartment. I should have waited to pitch until after I got home due to possible oxidation issues but since the time between pitching and moving the bucket was less than an hour I figure the yeast hadn't really started doing its thing yet and I'm probably fine.
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Sep 10, 2012 17:39
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LaserWash posted:My understanding is that explosive fermentation is a good thing for having really good beer, right? Some yeasts throw a shitton of krausen (like Wyeasts German Ale even at 62*), and that can be a sign of a healthy fermentation. What you're experiencing is most likely because your fermentation temp is too high, which is never a good thing. The good news is if you let it sit in primary for 2-3 weeks the yeast will clean up a lot of the off flavor they may create from the high ferment temp. Ideally you pitch your yeast 2-4* below your target fermentation temp after properly aerating your wort, let it rise to th ferment temp and hold it there until the bulk of the fermentation is done. After that you can let it rise 2-4* to help the yeast clean thing up.
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Sep 10, 2012 17:52
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Sirotan posted:I'm not understanding you here. Are you assuming the lid would have been blown off or something? Prying off those lids kills my fingers every time so I don't think you're gonna have fermentation blowing it off. In this case you probably would have been better putting it in the bucket, more headpsace=more room for krausen etc. It doesn't usually blow the lid off if there's hole for it to come out of, but if you just put a regular lid on it, fermentation can blow them off. I saw a time elapse video of it occurring on YouTube.
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Sep 10, 2012 17:54
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Angry Grimace posted:It doesn't usually blow the lid off if there's hole for it to come out of, but if you just put a regular lid on it, fermentation can blow them off. I saw a time elapse video of it occurring on YouTube. Yeah I was assuming if he used a lid with hole + airlock. I'd be interested in that Youtube link though.
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Sep 10, 2012 17:57
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Sirotan posted:Yeah I was assuming if he used a lid with hole + airlock. I'd be interested in that Youtube link though. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ulUaWyJIO8 The guy's airlock got clogged up so there was nowhere for the gas to escape (obviously he let it go on purpose for the video).
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Sep 10, 2012 18:08
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Angry Grimace posted:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ulUaWyJIO8 it's allllivvveeeeeeeeee 
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Sep 10, 2012 18:13
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Blowoff video chat: here's my favorite. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgfubawsrcM
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Sep 10, 2012 18:15
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Sirotan posted:Yeah I was assuming if he used a lid with hole + airlock. I'd be interested in that Youtube link though. I've blown (holed, airlocked) lids off before. 1.090 RIS, 2 packets of S-04 per fermenter. Woke up to find a foam monster crawling out of the buckets.
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Sep 10, 2012 18:18
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Jo3sh posted:I've blown (holed, airlocked) lids off before. 1.090 RIS, 2 packets of S-04 per fermenter. Woke up to find a foam monster crawling out of the buckets. After watching the video above your post I retract my previous statement. Also, holy gently caress.
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Sep 10, 2012 18:19
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Is it safer to just use a blow off tube into a bucket of water to avoid this? Or would that do nothing to help?
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Sep 10, 2012 18:43
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Yeah, I was serious when I say I'm pretty sure it would have blown off. The krausen on that sucker was amazingly thick. I couldn't get a new airlock on last night without a new one overflowing 1 minute later. Also, added information that might tell you about how I did it. I added a BrewVint Yeast Fuel tablet with about 10 minutes left in the boil. That probably had a little to do with it. I figured it would be worth "trying" to see if it was worth it. Also, the yeast I have says it works healthy up to 70 degrees. I took a look this morning and it was somewhere between 70 and 72 (using one of those thermal ones that you attach to a carboy). So I don't think it has to do with the temps.
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Sep 10, 2012 18:43
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Midorka posted:Is it safer to just use a blow off tube into a bucket of water to avoid this? Or would that do nothing to help? I use blow offs for everything even though I've never had a blow off. I don't like the idea of cleaning sugar water from my walls.
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Sep 10, 2012 18:49
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I just finished a La Fin du Monde clone and am about to attempt to condition at 3.5 volumes in corked Belgian bottles. It just finished secondary and I'm crashing the temp to ~35F to get a little better clarification before going to bottle. It finished at 9.2% ABV (OG of 1.088, FG of 1.018) and the fermentation seemed healthy and thorough. For those that have done this before, would it be wise to attempt to restart a population of the original yeast (which was Wyeast Belgian Abbey 1214) from the cake on some fresh DME so that I can add it back to the beer just prior to bottling and conditioning? Or should I just get a fresh packet at my LHBS and make a fresh starter to referment and condition?
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Sep 10, 2012 18:50
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Midorka posted:Is it safer to just use a blow off tube into a bucket of water to avoid this? Or would that do nothing to help? No matter what I'm making, I always use a blow off for the first 4 days of fermentation at least. The extra 5 minutes of set up are well worth the hours of cleaning.
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Sep 10, 2012 18:59
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Sirotan posted:I should have waited to pitch until after I got home due to possible oxidation issues but since the time between pitching and moving the bucket was less than an hour I figure the yeast hadn't really started doing its thing yet and I'm probably fine. I'd say you are probably fine. When yeast produce CO2, the bubbles will strip the excess oxygen out of suspension. I forget which book I read it in, but the author was basically saying there is no way to over oxygenate a beer prior to the yeast addition, unless you were planning on letting it sit around for weeks. On a different note, I finally finished my 5 tap homebrew kegerator. I'll only post the two good pics my ex-girlfriend took with her fancy camera, but if you want to see crappy iPhone/Instagram pics from the construction process, you can read about it in my poorly written and hardly updated beer blog: http://mash-lauter.blogspot.com/2012/09/you-gotta-keep-em-kegerated.html As for the pics:   (Is it ok to pull the links from my blog? or should I upload them to tinypic or something?) It's a 5 tap converted chest freezer, and we have room for all 5 kegs, a 25 lb CO2 tank, and a fermentor. If we don't need to have the fermenter in there, we can fit 3 extra kegs for a total of 5. Unfortunately the collar isn't tall enough that we can fit the tank or a fermenter on top of the hump, but it's currently got a bunch of bottles and growlers on it, so it's not really wasted space.
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Sep 10, 2012 19:20
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This is Norwegian. http://translate.google.com/transla...vated-barley%2F Some health shop is selling DME at 100 USD per lbs. Google translate messes up the currency.
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Sep 10, 2012 20:34
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Midorka posted:Is it safer to just use a blow off tube into a bucket of water to avoid this? Or would that do nothing to help? Assuming the blowoff tube is wide enough, yes - but if you're attaching tubing to the end of a 3-piece airlock - hop debris can definitely still clog that up. I'm just glad I was awake and 10 ft from the fermenter when the bung popped, otherwise I would have had a real mess (I just cleaned out the airlock and re-sanitized and it didn't clog a second time thankfully).
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Sep 10, 2012 21:30
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Sirotan posted:After watching the video above your post I retract my previous statement. Also, holy gently caress. Yeah if your OG is above 1.080 I'd highly suggest a blowoff tube. This is a video of an imperial porter I made that was around 1.079 OG. https://www.facebook.com/v/10150906382995486 Huge_Midget fucked around with this message at 01:00 on Sep 11, 2012 |
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Sep 11, 2012 00:56
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Phew... 46.5 bottles bottled. I tasted what I drew out for gravity testing and it tasted like beer. Flat beer, but beer.
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Sep 11, 2012 03:39
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Daedalus Esquire posted:On a different note, I finally finished my 5 tap homebrew kegerator. I'll only post the two good pics my ex-girlfriend took with her fancy camera, but if you want to see crappy iPhone/Instagram pics from the construction process, you can read about it in my poorly written and hardly updated beer blog: http://mash-lauter.blogspot.com/2012/09/you-gotta-keep-em-kegerated.html Nice job, dude! Looks really good and professional.
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Sep 11, 2012 03:49
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BlueGrot posted:Horse blanket is a great feature. Lovely. The joke I was making is that "horse blanket" isn't a taste descriptor whatsoever in any way save for BeerAdvocate, which goons notoriously hate. In brewing news: I missed my OG on the IPA by 10 points. At least... according to my refractometer - not sure if it's off or what, but maybe it's time to get my poo poo together for goodness sake. I mean, a 55% efficiency from 74% just my last brew and nearly no changes, save for trying to 're-zero' that drat over-priced-spy glass. I don't even know. That would mean too that the table beer was 10 points higher too, god drat.
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Sep 12, 2012 02:47
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I use my refractometer for quick measurements throughout the process and then switch to the hydrometer when I want an accurate measurement for recording. However my refractometer has thus far matched up pretty well with my hydrometer. At least before fermentation starts (obviously).
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Sep 12, 2012 03:05
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Bah. I bottled my dunkelweizen and after the brief taste of the uncarbonated beer, I think I needed far more munich malt. The smell and look are dead on but its...kinda just like a normal wheat beer. Hopefully I am missing something. Also, at least it isn't bad after that mega explosion hehe 
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Sep 12, 2012 03:18
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ChiTownEddie posted:Bah. I bottled my dunkelweizen and after the brief taste of the uncarbonated beer, I think I needed far more munich malt. The smell and look are dead on but its...kinda just like a normal wheat beer. Give it a few weeks. Carbonation and some extra time conditioning can improve a beer by a really shocking amount. Jacobey000 posted:In brewing news: I missed my OG on the IPA by 10 points. At least... according to my refractometer - not sure if it's off or what, but maybe it's time to get my poo poo together for goodness sake. I mean, a 55% efficiency from 74% just my last brew and nearly no changes, save for trying to 're-zero' that drat over-priced-spy glass. I don't even know. That would mean too that the table beer was 10 points higher too, god drat. How are you crushing your malt? Besides being really accurate with your water volumes (at every stage from strike water to knockout), that's probably far and away the biggest determinant of your efficiency. Then your sparging technique and finally mash pH/water chemistry if it's really out of whack. As a quick fix, I always keep a pound of DME on hand and take a pre-boil gravity reading. If the gravity is low, I spike it with some extract to hit my target pre-boil number. If it's high, I do a weak boil and deal with having an extra half gallon of wort or whatever. If it's really really high I can add water. But the point is, take measurements early and often so you can correct mistakes before it's too late.
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Sep 12, 2012 05:15
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Docjowles posted:How are you crushing your malt? Besides being really accurate with your water volumes (at every stage from strike water to knockout), that's probably far and away the biggest determinant of your efficiency. Then your sparging technique and finally mash pH/water chemistry if it's really out of whack. Malt is crushed with a Barley Crusher(TM) that a dude in the homebrew club uses to do 55 gallon batches - so I don't think that is the issue. The water volumes could be - I don't have a real accurate way of measuring the amount of water besides a 'kool-aid jug' (2L) and the 5gal tun; I've just been eye balling it. Sparging, I'm adding in water at the temps BeerSmith says to, stirring it up, letting it sit for a moment and draining it off slowly. I do two sparges as per BeerSmith. The pH/water shouldn't really be an issue either; I live in Portland, Maine and it's supposed to have "the best water" and local breweries praise their water supply. So it seems I need to dial in my refractometer, and water amounts. Am I sparging correctly? mucking about the grain bed - I have wondered that.
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Sep 12, 2012 12:32
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Daedalus Esquire posted:I'd say you are probably fine. When yeast produce CO2, the bubbles will strip the excess oxygen out of suspension. I forget which book I read it in, but the author was basically saying there is no way to over oxygenate a beer prior to the yeast addition, unless you were planning on letting it sit around for weeks. Palmer does say it's possible to over oxygenate, but only by using an oxygen bottle. Just pumping air through the wort can't possibly get it too high. Jacobey000 posted:I live in Portland, Maine and it's supposed to have "the best water" and local breweries praise their water supply. "Best" doesn't necessarily have anything to do with pH, and your local breweries may be pleased with something other than the pH; there's a lot of facets to water quality. Luckily, it's really easy to check with extremely cheap test strips! Spend the $0.10 per batch to make sure your mash is the correct acidity.
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Sep 12, 2012 13:33
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