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What's in Your Fermenter? 2018


Otto Von Blotto

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Just took a SG reading of me APA this morning 1010, had a little taste and not too pale can taste the hops coming through on the back end, should be a refreshing pale, its a point off what I expected, but see what it does tomorrow. 

In the meantime after racking me Pilsner yesterday I noticed this morning I ain't gonna fit this fermenter in the fridge, so I'll add me fining for now let that go for a few days and transfer to the keg and cold crash that way, its on the CO2 since I racked it, looks a ton cleaner then it did in the tub.

The APA I'll chuck in in me fining and cold crash tomorrow least I can get that in the fridge as long as its not moved off 1010.

This leaves a fermenter free at the moment, I guess I'll start me Hard Sasp tomorrow, I need to pickup another 19lt keg and a few things so stop on over to the local brew shop :O

Tristan

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2 hours ago, James Lao said:

Hi all,

Put this down yesterday:

Hop Head IPA 

4.75kg 2 Row Barley, 225g Munich malt, 30g Caramalt, 15g Caramunich

HOPS

15g each Amarillo, Citra and Chinook 45mins

15g each Amarillo, Citra and Chinook  10mins

15g Amarillo , Galaxy, Chinook, 35g Citra 2 mins

Dry hop

15g Amarillo, 50g Citra, 45g Galaxy

69IBUs, OG : 1.059

Cant wait to taste this one!

Cheers

James

 

 

wow, big hoppy brew, nice one

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5 hours ago, Otto Von Blotto said:

I'd say it's pretty normal. I often don't see activity for a couple of days. The yeast won't have died so I'd just give it more time. If it does start taking too much longer you could try warming it up for a short while to get it going then drop it down again. Was the yeast pitched cold or allowed to warm up first?

I started to panic a little ill admit, so i did bump up the temp to 17°C. When i see some activity ill drop it back down. The yeast was pitched cold

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Checked my brew this morning and there are signs of fermentation now (condensation, no krausen yet) so i set the temp controller back down to 10.5°C. Thats my longest lag time ever! 84 hours! I hope its not infected with something else ?

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On 7/15/2018 at 5:24 AM, bennysbrew said:

I am back after a year backpacking around the world. 

I've decided to start off with a few days I had in Germany where I witnessed the cologne / Dusseldorf rivalry.

So first up, a kolsch of course.

Very simple quick recipe

1 Canadian blonde kit

1 1.5kg light Pilsen liquid malt

20g hallertau steeped

K97 yeast

16 degree ferment

 

See how we go. First attempt after 381 days off, so this one will be called '381 day kolsch' 

So I'm going to fail in my bid to make a kolsch, as they aren't the colour of gutter water. Paying the price for not being able to cold crash , and didn't add finings...

So since I'm reusing this yeast to make an altbier, what is the method for finings? 

It's also got that farty smell I had when I did a couple of pilsners a few years ago, is that normal for this yeast? 

IMG_20180729_143035381.jpg

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13 minutes ago, Otto Von Blotto said:

The farty smell should go away. 

Finings are normally added during the cold crash. If you can't cold crash they may not be much use.

Thanks Otto

To be fair to it, the sample tastes pretty good, just visually not there. 

I really need a brew fridge!  What's the difference between cold crashing in the fermenter, and the bottle? Couldn't I put the bottles in the fridge for a few weeks and have the same effect? 

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Just put my APA in to cold crash this afternoon after my reading was 1010 again, and another small little taste ?.  Pilsner is fining up nicely fair bit has dropped out during the cold nights in the kitchen, may leave it outside tonight (its using the pressure kit) to take advantage of the cold temps, meant to dip down to 10 degrees in perth so probably be 6-7 degrees.

Tristan

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4 hours ago, bennysbrew said:

Couldn't I put the bottles in the fridge for a few weeks and have the same effect? 

Yep, once the carbonation is where you want it, put the bottles in the fridge for a week or two and keep an eye on how the clear up. Kolsch yeast is fairly powdery in my experience and takes a while to drop out. The yeast also adds a little bit of bite to the flavour until it drops out, so the flavour will improve a little as well. 

As for the colour, not much you can do about that when you're using kits and LME. A kit plus LDM will be slightly lighter, and from memory the Mexican Cerveza kit is the lightest in colour. 

Cheers, 

John

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14 hours ago, Rowbrew said:

Checked my brew this morning and there are signs of fermentation now (condensation, no krausen yet) so i set the temp controller back down to 10.5°C. Thats my longest lag time ever! 84 hours! I hope its not infected with something else ?

So i don't think this has actually started yet. I think the condensation was because of the temp difference. I took a hydro sample and my concerns are true, still sitting at 1.044. Im just gonna leave it now and see what its like tomorrow, or the next day, or the next day. I think i might just stick to Ales from now on, i don't worry as much with them

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3 minutes ago, Rowbrew said:

So i don't think this has actually started yet. I think the condensation was because of the temp difference. I took a hydro sample and my concerns are true, still sitting at 1.044. Im just gonna leave it now and see what its like tomorrow, or the next day, or the next day. I think i might just stick to Ales from now on, i don't worry as much with them

Sorry to here that mate, hope she fires up soon enough.

I never worry because I’m never there for the fermentation. I always pitch the day before I leave to work then come back 8 days later. Magic happens and it’s done. Cold crash that baby.

mind you I wish I had a bit more control over it all. ie raising the temp after a few days.

Captain

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14 hours ago, bennysbrew said:

Thanks Otto

To be fair to it, the sample tastes pretty good, just visually not there. 

I really need a brew fridge!  What's the difference between cold crashing in the fermenter, and the bottle? Couldn't I put the bottles in the fridge for a few weeks and have the same effect? 

You can but you can't really add finings. That said, yeast will drop out much quicker in bottles so they're not really needed for yeast anyway. I had haze caused by other things. If you have the room to store an entire batch of bottles in a fridge for a few weeks then go for it. I find cold crashing in the fermenter better, because it drops the yeast before it reaches the bottles, meaning less sediment in them. However, you'll have to wait until you get a brew fridge to be able to do it that way.

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1 hour ago, Rowbrew said:

This is about 105 hours in.

I don't think you're going to get anything happening unfortunately. 

This happened to me recently with a pack of Wyeast that was shipped down from Brisbane. After no shift in SG at 72 hours I pitched a couple of packs of Coopers kit Ale / lager yeast blend (from Coopers APA or Mexican Cerveza) and it took off very quickly at lager temps.

Have you got any of those lying around?

Cheers, 

John

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Ok my Baltic Porter has been in the fermenter for 8 days now, 1.030 from 1.076. Activity has died down substantially. Will check where its at in a few days before a D rest. Expecting 1.018 as my fg.

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Hey John, i don't unfortunately. I do have 1 pack of Coopers yeaat that came in a European Lager, but that has been in the fridge well over a year. I also have about 20ml pure WLP802 yeast that i planned to store and reuse. Maybe i could make a little 500ml starter and pitch when active? I did bump up the temp to 13C before i left for work so ill check it tonight, but im not very hopeful

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