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What's in Your Fermenter? 2020


Otto Von Blotto

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Just checked on my English Bitter and the blow off tube has already stopped bubbling, just 8-1/2 hours after I pitched! What the? Can't believe it! Anyone else have experience with this yeast? Part of me wonder whether it is contaminated, but I haven't even seen a contaminated batch ferment this fast.In the description of their version of the Conan strain (known as Vermont Ale) they say, "Expect this strain to take off fast and ferment wort quickly, though elevating the temperature following the bulk of fermentation may be required to raise the attenuation." No kidding. Increasing the temp by 1C now. 

Cheers,

Christina.

Edited by ChristinaS1
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14 hours ago, karlos_1984 said:

Will be keen to hear how this one turns out.

With that grain bill of only 3.2 kg, what volume was your mash, sparge (if applicable) and boil volume? Also how much wort did you end up with and splitting?

Bottled these yesterday.  Each beer presented very different.

The plain Pilsner had a malty aroma and taste.  The NZ Pilsner version with Riwaka hops has a very floral aroma.  I cannot wait for these to carb up ready to drink.

In terms of volumes,

  • Target batch size was 18L
  • Mash was 12.14L (Pre-sparge SG 1.069)
  • Sparge volume was 15.42L
  • Approx pre-boil volume was 25.8L (Post-sparge SG 1.033)
  • Post-boil volume approx 20L
  • Got 18.5L into a cube

Cheers Shamus

Edited by Shamus O'Sean
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Continue from my Brew day i have a wheat beer on the go. Loving the tech that lets you monitor beers from afar.

I pitched about 25% under recommend rates as i want this yeast to produce it banana and clove esters. Been watching the ferment and it looks great.

 

 

Screenshot_20200310-185425_Sheets.jpg

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15 hours ago, Titan said:

Continue from my Brew day i have a wheat beer on the go. Loving the tech that lets you monitor beers from afar.

How do you get constant SG data? Is it built into your FV or an addon?

That's a very interesting squiggle for it - I'm wondering if that's the yeast dealing with various changes or just an artefact of what is close to the sensor due to circulation in the brew.

Edited by Journeyman
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Just bottled the Hop and Grain Ginger beer, it was ready in about 5 days, S-04 @18 degrees.  The Chai Latte Stout, S-04 @18 degrees stalled after 8 days - took some advice from LHBS and dissolved 1/3 cup sugar in minimal amount of warm water, cooled down to 20ish, poured in gently, stirred the wort to wake the beasties up, increased to 22 degrees - KRAUSEN!!  Still foamy this morning, so hoping it comes down more than halfway in the next coupla days.

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On 3/10/2020 at 7:00 PM, Titan said:

Continue from my Brew day i have a wheat beer on the go. Loving the tech that lets you monitor beers from afar.

I pitched about 25% under recommend rates as i want this yeast to produce it banana and clove esters. Been watching the ferment and it looks great.

 

 

Screenshot_20200310-185425_Sheets.jpg

Update, well at day 3 was not seeing any change in gravity, so was thinking my underpitch had backfired and brew had stalled. Got the wife to have a look and found the opposite.

IMG-20200312-WA0002.jpg

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12 minutes ago, Norris! said:

That looks pretty healthy. Will the tilt be right? They probably designed it encase that happened. @Titan

Yep tilt will be fine they are a sealed unit. Problem is all the krausen on top messes up the readings.

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My Sierra Nevada IPA clone-ish recipe fermented out to 1.018 & has been stable for a number of days, so I added the dry hops yesterday after work. 70gms of Crystal hops, 40gms each of Citra & Bravo.

Will begin crash chilling it late Friday in readiness for kegging on Sunday.

Looking forward to this one.

Cheers & good brewing,

Lusty.

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On 3/9/2020 at 3:02 PM, ChristinaS1 said:

Just checked on my English Bitter and the blow off tube has already stopped bubbling, just 8-1/2 hours after I pitched! What the? Can't believe it! Anyone else have experience with this yeast? Part of me wonder whether it is contaminated, but I haven't even seen a contaminated batch ferment this fast.In the description of their version of the Conan strain (known as Vermont Ale) they say, "Expect this strain to take off fast and ferment wort quickly, though elevating the temperature following the bulk of fermentation may be required to raise the attenuation." No kidding. Increasing the temp by 1C now. 

Cheers,

Christina.

Have you taken an SG reading?  

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15 hours ago, BlackSands said:

Have you taken an SG reading?  

Took one this morning. It is 1.012/13. Expected FG was 1.010. 

In tasting the sample I was gratified to find it is not contaminated, but I did feel it tasted a little bland. Decided to rack to secondary and dry hop it commando with 30gm of Willamette. The racking and dry hopping may nudge the yeast to ferment a little more.

I left some beer in the primary, to swirl up the yeast cake. Saved the entire yeast cake in four jars for future use.  I will be curious to see how thick the layers of yeast are when they settle out. 

Cheers,

Christina.

Edited by ChristinaS1
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I CC Spunded Lager #3 yesterday, which dropped the needle on the pressure gauge down from 10PSI to 2.5PSI. Today I opened the spunding valve up to bled off the remaining CO2 and let it rest for 10 minutes. Then I opened the keg to add my dry hops (enclosed in a mesh metal tube) and some gelatin. There was no activity when I opened the lid. Adding the dry hop tube did cause some mild bubbling, but it didn't last long. Applied 40PSI to burst carbonate. 

Cheers,

Christina. 

Edited by ChristinaS1
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Copper Head Ale

I alluded to this brew on another thread.  Although I am now enjoying all grain brewing, still gotta love the practicality of a kit 'n' kilo and a short hop boil and steep.

  • 1.7kg of what the LHBS calls NZ Draught (a soft pack hopped extract)
  • 1.0kg #20 Brew Blend ( a mix of LDM, dex and corn syrup)
  • 25g Willamette hops (1 minute boil and 20 minute steep)
  • MJ M42 New World Strong Ale Yeast

OG 1.043

Smelled good in the fermenter.

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On 3/12/2020 at 7:13 PM, ChristinaS1 said:
On 3/12/2020 at 3:52 AM, BlackSands said:

Have you taken an SG reading?  

Took one this morning. It is 1.012/13. Expected FG was 1.010. 

In tasting the sample I was gratified to find it is not contaminated, but I did feel it tasted a little bland. Decided to rack to secondary and dry hop it commando with 30gm of Willamette. The racking and dry hopping may nudge the yeast to ferment a little more.

I was going to start the CC on my Sour Cherry English Bitter this morning, 48 hours since dry hopping, but noticed the airlock is bubbling slowly. Will give it another day. 

Cheers,

Christina. 

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Finally put the Coopers XPA in the fermenter yesterday. Exactly to recipe, using light crystal grain per advice from the forum. OG of 1046. Not sure if that is in line with what others achieved. I expected slightly higher.

Am also trying my first cider for my missus. Nothing fancy, just 5x 2L Woolworths apple juice, 1L tap water, 25g lactose, and Mangrove Jacks M02 cider yeast dry pitched and in my craft fermenter. OG 1042. If it finishes around 1.000 it's going to be a heavy one. The apple juice was 1.048 on its own which would have meant ~7%ABV. Didn't think to check beforehand (I actually expected to add some dex) which is why I could only fit 1L of water. Might try 4x 2L juice and 1 or 2L of water next time. Will see how this goes first.

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4 hours ago, Instigator said:

Finally put the Coopers XPA in the fermenter yesterday. Exactly to recipe, using light crystal grain per advice from the forum. OG of 1046. Not sure if that is in line with what others achieved. I expected slightly higher.

I started at 1056.  But I had an extra 200g of Liquid Malt Extract because I used a brand that comes in 1.7kg cans.  I also only filled the fermenter to 23L instead of 24L.  FG was 1017.  ABV was 5.1% in the fermenter and called it 5.5% after bottle priming.

I love this brew by the way.  One of my best.

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A Hoppy English Bitter

Coopers English Bitter kit

1kg Light dry malt

250g medium crystal cold steeped overnight

30 min boil (couldn’t be bothered to wait for 60)  25g Wakata hops at 30,20,10. 
S-04 yeast pitched at 18

OG 1.040

Will dry hop last 25g of the hops day 5 or so 

 

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17 hours ago, ChristinaS1 said:

I was going to start the CC on my Sour Cherry English Bitter this morning, 48 hours since dry hopping, but noticed the airlock is bubbling slowly. Will give it another day. 

Cheers,

Christina. 

Tried to take another gravity reading today but I couldn't get the same reading twice. It kept fluctuating between 1.012 and 1.020. The gravity can't have gone up, so I am guessing it is actually 1.012, which is the same as it was. The gravity sample tastes a lot better since the dry hop and is very promising.

I was going to CC this brew, to settle out the (commando) hops, which were still floating on top of the beer, but when I returned to the carboy after taking the sample the hops had settled by themselves. Disturbing them with the wine thief appears to have triggered it. So rather than CC I have decided to give fining with Chitosan at room temperature, something I have been meaning to try. I will keg tomorrow, and bottle what doesn't fit. 

Cheers,

Christina. 

Edited by ChristinaS1
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9 hours ago, ChristinaS1 said:

So rather than CC I have decided to give fining with Chitosan at room temperature, something I have been meaning to try. I will keg tomorrow, and bottle what doesn't fit. 

I'll be interested to know how this works out.  Chitosan and Kieselsol are commonly used together in winemaking and I've often wondered how'd they work with beer.  I've not read of anyone using these clarifiers with beer so I am wondering what the reasons for that may be?

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 am not sure why brewers don't use them, but they have not been paired together that long in the wine making world, so maybe brewers are just slow to change or bound by tradition.?😎

From the bit of reading I have done, kieselsol is not needed in beer, just chitosan, but now I can't find that back and I don't know if it is correct. I had a twin pack with one of each but did not use the kieselsol.

Chitsosan is similar to gelatin and Isinglass in that it is positively charged and binds to negatively charged particles. Yeast have a negative charge. Since gelatin is widely used in beer, I figured it was safe to use chitosan. Unlike gelatin, it can be used at room temperature. Winemakers consider gelatin more aggressive than chitosan, which is more aggressive than Isinglass.

Kieselsol is negatively charged and binds to positively charged particles such as tannins, phenolics, peptides, and proteins, so I am guessing you would not want to use kieselsol in a cloudy NEIPA. I also read kieselsol needs quite an acidic pH to work. 

Cheers,

Christina.

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14 hours ago, Woodsy1525230278 said:

A Hoppy English Bitter

Coopers English Bitter kit

1kg Light dry malt

250g medium crystal cold steeped overnight

30 min boil (couldn’t be bothered to wait for 60)  25g Wakata hops at 30,20,10. 
S-04 yeast pitched at 18

OG 1.040

Will dry hop last 25g of the hops day 5 or so 

 

Looks nice Woodsy.

Where do you get your ingredients from? I don’t remember there being a LHBS when I lived there. 

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