What's in Your Fermenter? 2020

[UncleStavvy]

Big thumbs up on the cold crash. Bottling my last dark ale was a real struggle as the brew started fizzing when it hit the carbo drops. Had to part fill the PET bottles then wait a bit to top them off. Wasted enough brew that I came up a bottle short of 30.

[Otto Von Blotto]

My ale has a 15-20mm krausen on it already, about 21 hours after pitching yeast. Must have got up and going a few hours ago despite the temp dropping down under 17 degrees somehow. It's warmed up to 18 now. 

[UncleStavvy]

19 minutes ago, Otto Von Blotto said:

My ale has a 15-20mm krausen on it already, about 21 hours after pitching yeast. Must have got up and going a few hours ago despite the temp dropping down under 17 degrees somehow. It's warmed up to 18 now. 

Still seeing heat activity in the EB at day 7, get a little temp increase to 21.3 then the Inkbird kicks the fridge on. Best $50 bucks I've spent in ages!!

[Otto Von Blotto]

I usually see that too, at least during the day because the outside temperature slowly warms it up. At night they tend to take forever to warm up once fermentation is finished. I expect this batch will be at the target 19 degrees later today. 

[UncleStavvy]

30 minutes ago, Otto Von Blotto said:

I usually see that too, at least during the day because the outside temperature slowly warms it up. At night they tend to take forever to warm up once fermentation is finished. I expect this batch will be at the target 19 degrees later today. 

Wont you get a bit of a runaway temp as the yeast gets cranking?

[Naughty Corner Brewing]

1 hour ago, UncleStavvy said:

Big thumbs up on the cold crash. Bottling my last dark ale was a real struggle as the brew started fizzing when it hit the carbo drops. Had to part fill the PET bottles then wait a bit to top them off. Wasted enough brew that I came up a bottle short of 30.

Bottle the beer first, then add the carb drops and the lid. No time for it to go fizz.

[Otto Von Blotto]

1 hour ago, UncleStavvy said:

Wont you get a bit of a runaway temp as the yeast gets cranking?

It's set to turn the fridge on when it reaches 19.3 degrees, so not really. The probe is taped to the fermenter under foam. That fridge is a beast too, 60+ years old and still chills better than most modern ones. 

[UncleStavvy]

1 minute ago, NewBrews said:

Bottle the beer first, then add the carb drops and the lid. No time for it to go fizz.

 

Not with warmish( 22°) wort, it fizzes out pretty hard before you can get the screw cap on. Rookie mistake on 4th brew.

[Titan]

40 minutes ago, UncleStavvy said:

 

Not with warmish( 22°) wort, it fizzes out pretty hard before you can get the screw cap on. Rookie mistake on 4th brew.

If your getting fizz at bottling there is something wrong IMO. Though i keg now i still bottle the remaining 4l and have never had a fizzing issue.

 

[UncleStavvy]

1 minute ago, Titan said:

If your getting fizz at bottling there is something wrong IMO. Though i keg now i still bottle the remaining 4l and have never had a fizzing issue.

 

Haven't cracked one yet so not sure how their travelling. First time I had the issue so I put it down to temp and the Coopers Comm yeast. Maybe it should have stayed in the FV for another day but hydrometer doesnt lie, was 1.002 two days in a row

[Journeyman]

9 minutes ago, UncleStavvy said:

Haven't cracked one yet so not sure how their travelling. First time I had the issue so I put it down to temp and the Coopers Comm yeast. Maybe it should have stayed in the FV for another day but hydrometer doesnt lie, was 1.002 two days in a row

It will still be temps. There is CO2 in solution likely at maximum saturation and I think if you put anything in there it will fizz. Cold crash stops it or even just get it below the activity level of the yeast - the colder the beer the more CO2 it will hold in solution.

[Titan]

26 minutes ago, Journeyman said:

It will still be temps. There is CO2 in solution likely at maximum saturation and I think if you put anything in there it will fizz. Cold crash stops it or even just get it below the activity level of the yeast - the colder the beer the more CO2 it will hold in solution.

But they are bottling the beer and getting fizz. There should be little or no co2 in solution.

[UncleStavvy]

[Journeyman]

16 minutes ago, Titan said:

1 hour ago, UncleStavvy said:

Not with warmish( 22°) wort, it fizzes out pretty hard before you can get the screw cap on

But they are bottling the beer and getting fizz. There should be little or no co2 in solution.

If he's putting the cap on he has dropped the carb drops in. Plus, pick any of your brews, pour some into a bottle using the bottle filler. Now shake it. That stuff all over your hands is caused by CO2 in the liquid. It wasn't there before you shook the bottle but disturbing the beer brings it out of solution.

Edited April 25, 2020 by Journeyman

[Otto Von Blotto]

21 minutes ago, Titan said:

But they are bottling the beer and getting fizz. There should be little or no co2 in solution.

There's about 1 volume of CO2 in solution at normal ferment temps. It's not enough to make the beer fizzy but it is enough to cause foaming if there are nucleation points or turbulence. It doesn't completely come out of solution, I daresay the only way to achieve that would be to boil it. 

I'd imagine it takes a bit of time for whatever is going to come out to do so, so if it's bottled as soon as the hydrometer is stable there might be more left behind than if it's left for an extra few days first.

Edited April 25, 2020 by Otto Von Blotto

[Otto Von Blotto]

52 minutes ago, Journeyman said:

It will still be temps. There is CO2 in solution likely at maximum saturation and I think if you put anything in there it will fizz. Cold crash stops it or even just get it below the activity level of the yeast - the colder the beer the more CO2 it will hold in solution.

This isn't completely correct. The yeast has no effect that quickly, and cold crashing doesn't really increase the amount of CO2 in solution because there's nothing forcing it back in/not enough in the headspace to make a noticeable difference. It's correct that it goes into solution easier at colder temps but even if the entire headspace got dragged back in from the pressure drop, which is unlikely anyway, it would only increase it by about 0.3 volumes at the most which is bugger all. The cold temperature would certainly inhibit foaming though. 

Edited April 25, 2020 by Otto Von Blotto

[UncleStavvy]

From what I've seen there's always foam and bubbles in the hydrometer tube with a fresh sample. Wait five and drop the hydrometer in and take your reading.

Now I'm going to confess that the sample from the dark ale was taken at day 5 and put in a sanitised and rinsed hydro tube(Coopers type) then Ive put in a sanitised hydrometer and put on the cap, leaving it in the fridge with the FV. That may not be 100% kosher as I read this morning that you should retest the sample by putting in the hydrometer as per usual testing.

So, would it be possible that the volume of wort in the tube could ferment faster to 1.002 than whats in the FV thus giving me a false impression? I do recall testing and drinking a final sample before washing up and bottling but potentially could have misread the meter?

 

[Naughty Corner Brewing]

So all my fermenters were empty. I was cleaning up my brew area pending the arrival of some new toys for my brewery and thought I’d clean up some old ingredients I found sitting in the brew area and some opened packets of hops in the freezer and threw this in the craft fermenter.

Boiled up the LDM in a litre of water with the hops. Smell was amazing!!!

Might dry hop with some more galaxy and Enigma.

Yeast was a random packet of Coopers yeast I had in the fridge. It’s an ale one anyway.

[Pezzza]

8 hours ago, UncleStavvy said:

Big thumbs up on the cold crash. Bottling my last dark ale was a real struggle as the brew started fizzing when it hit the carbo drops. Had to part fill the PET bottles then wait a bit to top them off. Wasted enough brew that I came up a bottle short of 30.

?? I may have missed something here Stav Cobber... but if not good in that situation - add the carb drops immediately before you cap?

Edited April 25, 2020 by Bearded Burbler

[Pezzza]

6 hours ago, NewBrews said:

Bottle the beer first, then add the carb drops and the lid. No time for it to go fizz.

Whhhoooops NB.... yer beat me to it

[Otto Von Blotto]

3 hours ago, UncleStavvy said:

From what I've seen there's always foam and bubbles in the hydrometer tube with a fresh sample. Wait five and drop the hydrometer in and take your reading.

Now I'm going to confess that the sample from the dark ale was taken at day 5 and put in a sanitised and rinsed hydro tube(Coopers type) then Ive put in a sanitised hydrometer and put on the cap, leaving it in the fridge with the FV. That may not be 100% kosher as I read this morning that you should retest the sample by putting in the hydrometer as per usual testing.

So, would it be possible that the volume of wort in the tube could ferment faster to 1.002 than whats in the FV thus giving me a false impression? I do recall testing and drinking a final sample before washing up and bottling but potentially could have misread the meter?

 

Surprised it even got that low. What was in it? 

[Pezzza]

1 hour ago, NewBrews said:

Might dry hop with some more galaxy and Enigma.

Luvyerwork

[Pezzza]

This is what's doing the Ferment at the Mo.... another incredibly important job that Yeast does for us...

Is a Rye - Wholegrain flour blend... the yeast has done an incredibly good job.... the joy of temp control hey !!?!!

 

[UncleStavvy]

2 hours ago, Otto Von Blotto said:

Surprised it even got that low. What was in it? 

Coopers pale ale tin, 1.5kg DME(should have been 750g), 200g white sugar, coopers comm yeast.OG was 1.042

[Titan]

9 hours ago, Journeyman said:

Cold crash stops it or even just get it below the activity level of the yeast

Cold crash would surely promote the release of co2 unless the bottles being filled were at the same temperature as the beer?

9 hours ago, Journeyman said:

the colder the beer the more CO2 it will hold in solution

You dont gain anymore co2 when ferment is already complete. So when ferment finished and you then cold crash it does not add any more co2 into solution.

8 hours ago, Otto Von Blotto said:

There's about 1 volume of CO2 in solution at normal ferment temps. 

An ale fermented at normal ambient pressure at 20c will give 0.85 volumes of risidual co2 the higher that temperature goes the less co2 is left in solution. This number is based on a sealed fv with an airlock. Any leaks in the fv other than the airlock then residual co2 volumes will be a lot less if any at all. 

In my time i have bottled well over a thousand long necks always with the carb drops added first and never had an issue. What is being described in the posts above is like an Alka-Seltzer effect. Thats my reason for the prompt to check the bottling process i.e. are they using bottling wands, is the valve on the fv fully open and if bottling warm beer is it actually finished. Dormant yeast does not suddenly spring back into life when it comes in contact with fresh sugar. That why we leave it in the bottle for a week.