DonPolo Posted October 17, 2018 Share Posted October 17, 2018 Look I'm just trying to stitch some things together. The basic plan for Cooper's cans according to the video is: a. add the dry ingredients to the FV b. add some 'hot' water (how much, what temperature?) stir to dissolve c. add the warmed content of the can to the now dissolved 'warm' dry ingredients FV and stir d. fill up with water to the right level/temperature. OK but what if you do a grain steep and boil? Normally the instructions for that is to cool the wort down before adding it to the FV. Now it seems like common sense that you could use the boil (cooled a little) at the same point as step b. above. In any case I understand you should add some LDM or other sugars to the steeped, strained grain 'wort' to make any hop boils more successful. I am I overcomplicating things? I should be able to use the semi-cooled grain steep solution to dissolve the sugars and the extract from the can right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otto Von Blotto Posted October 17, 2018 Share Posted October 17, 2018 Yes the hop boil/boiled grain steep wort takes the place of the hot water if you go down that road. Simplez! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DonPolo Posted October 17, 2018 Author Share Posted October 17, 2018 10 minutes ago, Otto Von Blotto said: Yes the hop boil/boiled grain steep wort takes the place of the hot water if you go down that road. Simplez! So ball park, how cool should it be before I pour it into the FV 70C, 50C, lower? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otto Von Blotto Posted October 17, 2018 Share Posted October 17, 2018 Doesn't really matter. But the hotter it is the more chilled water you'd need to get the temp down of course. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DonPolo Posted October 17, 2018 Author Share Posted October 17, 2018 Thanks for the advice. As it happens I was in the middle of the process so just winged it. Probably could have put it in hotter and fully dissolved the LDM. I was probably about 40C by the time I tool it out of the cold water bath in the sink. I ready where cooling the wort down slowly runs the risk of the wort developing some not so good tasting compounds. As it happened I ended up with a few chunks of LDM floating on top. It is why I rarely test the OG. The chunks go away so really all that matters is that the FG is stable before I bottle. The IanH spreadsheet gives a pretty good approximation of what the OG is anyway. Thanks to one of your earlier tips, I had a few litres of what in the fridge waiting. I got the temp down to about 20 and now in the cold water bath in the laundry sink. It wasn't hard to get the temp down since it is only an 11L batch. Now it's about 18C where I intend to keep this Coopers Australian Pale Ale plus additions while it ferments. So what with the boil of the steeped/strained Carapils for 30mins with 10g of Centennial and 10g Cascade at 15mins and 10g Galaxy at flameout, hopefully I'm off to a decent start. There seems to be some debate as to whether to leave the hop bag in the wort while it is fermenting. I've left them in so far this time but if there is a reason not to I'll fish them out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DonPolo Posted October 17, 2018 Author Share Posted October 17, 2018 Was just going over some old posts. I might have had a bit of a boo boo when pitching the rehydrated yeast. I had the 7g pack of Coopers supplied yeast in a cup with water at about 35C. Covered with plastic and left to sit on the bench for 15 minutes. I reckon I had the wort down to about 22/24 degrees when I pitched the yeast. I used the thermometer to stir the yeast and I would reckon it was more like 28-30C. Not sure but I thought it would have dropped more than that in 15 minutes. Anyway I was advise that the yeast and the wort should be about the same temperature and if anything the yeast a bit cooler. Anyway, it's in the FV now and the thermometer on the outside of the FV is showing 18C . I realise that the internal temperature could be higher than that. We'll just have to wait and see I guess. If it is a problem, what are the likely effects on the beer? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otto Von Blotto Posted October 17, 2018 Share Posted October 17, 2018 A good reason to leave the hop bags out is that there's no good reason to put them in. They won't contribute anything more to the beer if they've already been boiled or steeped, so no point in them being in the fermenter. As for the yeast, as long as it's within about 5-7 degrees of the wort temp it should be fine. It doesn't have to be exactly the same temperature. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DonPolo Posted October 18, 2018 Author Share Posted October 18, 2018 OK, I might take the hops out I guess. The only reason I left them in was that on the Brigalow finishing hops instructions on the packet it says: "Remove the bag from the outer foil sachet and add it to a cup of boiling water. Allow to stand for at least 15 minutes. Pour the liquid and the hop bag into your brew prior to adding the yeast. Leave the hop bad in the brew throughout the whole fermentation process." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otto Von Blotto Posted October 18, 2018 Share Posted October 18, 2018 It probably won't do any harm, but as I said it's pointless putting them in the fermenter. I wouldn't take much notice of brigalow, they're not exactly known for excellence Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DonPolo Posted October 18, 2018 Author Share Posted October 18, 2018 Fair enough, point taken. The other thing was that last time when I used a big tea strainer for the boil at least half the hop particles escaped into the wort anyway. So they stayed in the wort while it was fermenting. They didn't seem to do any harm at least by the tasting of the FG sample anyway. For this brew, the hops in the teabag and the ones in the 'bag' were effectively pasteurized by the boil and steep at flameout. Still, I might fish them out just in case. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Lao Posted October 18, 2018 Share Posted October 18, 2018 I have done brews when the recipe (non Coopers), said to put the hops and tea in the FV. Cant remember anything off about the beer but would definitely be better to not have them in during the whole ferment time. I am paranoid of infections so don’t like opening up the FV to fish things out. Once I dry hop it stays in there till bottling / kegging day. Cheers James Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beerlust Posted October 18, 2018 Share Posted October 18, 2018 With hops it is the oils within them that carry the flavour & aromatic properties. Once these have been extracted via a hop tea, hop steep, or dry hop, the physical matter can be discarded as it will only encourage a generally unwanted vegetal character the longer they are left exposed to the wort/beer. Cheers, Lusty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Worthog Posted October 18, 2018 Share Posted October 18, 2018 13 minutes ago, James Lao said: ....I am paranoid of infections so don’t like opening up the FV to fish things out. Once I dry hop it stays in there till bottling / kegging day. Cheers James When dry hopping, the alcohol in the beer is a bit forgiving re potential infection. If you use a chux cloth (I haven't used a hop bag) it will be floating, so a quick spray of your clean hands (or food gloves) with StellaSan or similar will allow you to not only fish it out prior to cold crash, but you can give it a little "Lusty" squeeze to get the nectar out, with almost no chance of infection. Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DonPolo Posted October 19, 2018 Author Share Posted October 19, 2018 Thanks I think I’ll fish them out now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DonPolo Posted October 19, 2018 Author Share Posted October 19, 2018 By the way after 48 hours the wort is literally churning. Never saw that before. Particles are swirling around like a dust storm. I’ve got a video on my phone. Maybe you can see it in this post. 270C4CBD-6B5B-4A74-A6A2-F9939464FDB9.MOV Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shamus O'Sean Posted October 19, 2018 Share Posted October 19, 2018 7 hours ago, DonPolo said: By the way after 48 hours the wort is literally churning. Never saw that before. Particles are swirling around like a dust storm. I’ve got a video on my phone. Maybe you can see it in this post. 270C4CBD-6B5B-4A74-A6A2-F9939464FDB9.MOV Great little video. This activity is why the craft brews say "no need to stir" in the instructions. All this fermenting activity 24-7 does a better job than a few minutes of stirring. Cheers Shamus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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