What's in Your Fermenter? 2020

[Shamus O'Sean]

1 hour ago, Bearded Burbler said:

On the fish guts and the ground up poly-pipe then too Shamus on the quest for the perfectly clear brew? 

Yep.  Following Otto's regime.  I have only used it a couple of amber coloured brews so far so not getting the clarity Otto does in his lagers.  It will be interesting to see how it goes in the Coopers XPA.

PS Fish guts added to the aforesaid Coopers XPA tonight.

[Marty_G]

2 minutes ago, Shamus O'Sean said:

Hi Marty

Is might be sacrilegious, but could you just add some distilled/sterile water before carbonating to bring your ABV down?  Might effect other numbers a little, but would be better on the guts.

Thanks for the concern, Yes I could do that but I will just drink less of it when I have a taste.  I have 3 beers on tap right 2 are rice beer mids, an ale and a pseudo lager and one a PIls which has been 4 months in the keg. The mids I will session and the heavys I will enjoy.  

 

[Pezzza]

30 minutes ago, Yuley said:

However, also decided to go sober for the rest of the month (health reasons), so going to be an eager wait to drink it. 

Good on you Yuley!  Need to be doing the same mate. 

And a bit of time off makes the brew taste even better mate!!

Plus a bit of time in the bottle/keg/lagering makes all the difference.

Good luck with the health stuff Cob.

BB

[MitchBastard]

Took a grav reading of my kveik pale ale. Down to 1.013 from 1.052. Pitched Sunday. 
probably going to give it until Saturday to  sit longer. 
 

tastes pretty good.....kinda bit hard to tell when it’s 30degrees and flat but I can see where it’s heading. 
 

 

[Beer Baron]

1 hour ago, MitchBastard said:

Took a grav reading of my kveik pale ale. Down to 1.013 from 1.052. Pitched Sunday. 
probably going to give it until Saturday to  sit longer. 
 

tastes pretty good.....kinda bit hard to tell when it’s 30degrees and flat but I can see where it’s heading. 
 

 

Looks like Fanta

[ozlizard]

Last dry hop for the NEIPA today. It was bubbling like crazy for the first 2 days but now has quietened down. Hops get removed on Friday then will test the SG and see where it's going. Smells good.

[Pezzza]

3 hours ago, Beer Baron said:

Looks like Fanta

And I was just about to say... nice colour Mitchie?!

Would much rather MB's brew than bllllaaaaaaaaaaardy fffffantastic Fanta      ; )

[MitchBastard]

30 minutes ago, Bearded Burbler said:

And I was just about to say... nice colour Mitchie?!

Would much rather MB's brew than bllllaaaaaaaaaaardy fffffantastic Fanta      ; )

Looks alot more orange in this photo for some reason.  

[Beerlust]

Just removed the Azacca/Nelson Sauvin/Riwaka drop from my current brew & put into cold crash mode. The aroma from the 3 hops is really nice.

The beer may well be infected though.   I suspected as much when I threw the dry hop in. The yeast was a second gen WLP001. This gen was only ever drawn from a starter wort. It never saw a full ferment.

Despite some of the best brains & knowledge around giving me all the best advice & practices, it's a failing of mine that after a gen or 2, why most of my stored yeast falls away. It continues to leave me scratching my head & searching for answers.

Will continue the cold crash & sample this from the FV on Sunday to gauge the level of infection & my like or dislike to the level of it. On a rare occasion, this may well be salvageable in a Belgian sort of way & still be quite drinkable. 

I'll know more on Sunday.

Cheers & good brewing,

Lusty.

[Pezzza]

5 minutes ago, Beerlust said:

I'll know more on Sunday.

Cheers & good brewing,

Lusty.

Good luck with that one Lusty!

Hopefully after all the hard work it might yet come out a tasty brew!

Cheers. BB

[Greenyinthewestofsydney]

Took a reading of my belgian dark strong. 1032 after 2 and a half days so the WY3787 is certainly going through it. Pumped it up to 21c. Sample tasted a little mild compared to the normal Chimay yeast i use. Will see what happens in the next few days.

[ChristinaS1]

Put down my second stab at a partial mash take on The Captain's Faded Jeans recipe today:

El Capitano APA ver. 2

1.7kg Coopers APA

1.5kg LME

700gm base malt 15.7%

300gm Munich 6.7%

175gm Cara Pils 3.9%

75gm C15L 1.7%

10gm Cascade x 20 minutes

10gm Centennial x 20 minutes

10gm Cascade x 10 minutes

10gm x Centennial 10 minutes

20gm Mosaic x 20 minute hop stand @ 72C

10gm Centennial x 20 minute hop stand @ 72C

15gm Cascade DH x 48 hours

10gm Mosaic DH x 48 hours

10mL Clarity Ferm

23L RO water

ale/lager slurry from previous batch.

 

OG 1.052; FG 1.012; ABV 5.3% kegged and 5.7% bottle; IBUs 38; EBC 10; BU:GU 0.72

 

The hop schedule is little different than my first version, and I am subbing Carapils for malted wheat...Believe it or not this is my first time (ever) using Carapils. 

 

The reason for the switch to Carapils is because I read wheat is lower in LTP1 protein than regular base malt, whereas Carapils is higher in this than base malt. The LTP1 protein is supposed to be good for head retention and flavour stability. In my experience the head you get from malted wheat doesn't stick around or produce lacing. I am interested in seeing if Carapils will result in more lacing and delay hop fade....I might have to use a larger amount than I used this time to get a significant benefit, but I am just trying it out.

 

Cheers,

 

Christina.

[Otto Von Blotto]

My leftovers lager is chugging along nicely, pitched Monday and got going some time Tuesday I think. I'll take a progress SG sample on Saturday to see whether to allow it to rise then, or wait until Sunday. Bit of a rotten egg smell inside that fridge at the moment

[Shamus O'Sean]

Threw magic plastic powder (Polyclar) in my cold crashing Coopers XPA last night.  It already was clearing nicely. 

Bottling planned for the weekend. 

[Red devil 44]

I have a Coopers IPA that I’ve CC, well attempted to, my old fridge is perfect for fermenting 18-22 degrees but struggles to CC,  it has sat at 9 degrees for 24hrs, won’t go any lower, should I call it and just keg the thing ?

Cheers 

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[Otto Von Blotto]

It's good stuff. After trying biofine I'm thinking about going back to my old regime. It worked well in the ESB but the red ale hasn't fared so well. I'll be kegging the pale ale tomorrow which also had it, but if it's gonna be hit and miss rather than consistent then it's probably not worth using. I'll give it a go in this lager though, to see what effect a longer period of cold storage has on it. If that works out better, maybe I'll just save it for lagers until it's used up. 

One other thing I'm not a fan of with it is the half inch layer of thick yeast that sits on the trub. Takes longer to clear the tap area. At least with isinglass it all compacts nicely under the tap outlet. 

[Otto Von Blotto]

3 minutes ago, Red devil 44 said:

I have a Coopers IPA that I’ve CC, well attempted to, my old fridge is perfect for fermenting 18-22 degrees but struggles to CC,  it has sat at 9 degrees for 24hrs, won’t go any lower, should I call it and just keg the thing ?

Cheers 

 

Is the fridge set to its coldest setting? Temp controller may need calibration as well. 

Edited January 16, 2020 by Otto Von Blotto

[Red devil 44]

11 minutes ago, Otto Von Blotto said:

Is the fridge set to its coldest setting? Temp controller may need calibration as well. 

Good call mate, just checked, was only on medium setting, have adjusted it to max, cheers 

[Norris!]

1 hour ago, Otto Von Blotto said:

One other thing I'm not a fan of with it is the half inch layer of thick yeast that sits on the trub. Takes longer to clear the tap area. At least with isinglass it all compacts nicely under the tap outlet. 

If I am dry hopping commando or notice a layer of sediment around the tap, I add a something under the fermenter to get it to tip back a little bit for when I keg/bottle. It helps clear it out by moving the cake back some. I do this a day or so before I am kegging.

Edited January 16, 2020 by Norris!

[Otto Von Blotto]

I've thought about that but having to move the fermenter to keg the beer may rend it ineffective to a degree. 

I've not had this layer before, only since I started using biofine. It must drop a fair bit more yeast than isinglass if this layer is anything to go by. 

[ozlizard]

Well I am at a loss. Just removed the last of the hops and took a SG (1.114) and before I tipped out the sample had a good sniff. Blow me down it has the same  off smell as the last two brews. So I removed the lid and smelled the wort and it isn't good. This time around I was meticulous in my sanitising and did everything possible to not contaminate the wort. I will give it a few more days but this might be another failure. Not sure WTF is going on. I have a ROTM to do after this and that might be my last attempt. I can't afford to keep throwing brews out! I find it difficult to describe the smell without  a reference point, it could just be still fermenting, from a distance it just smells like beer but if you smell inside the fermenter, it's not pleasant. The wife said it smelled like fermenting oranges. So I will see how it goes over the next few days.

[Journeyman]

23 hours ago, Otto Von Blotto said:

Bit of a rotten egg smell inside that fridge at the moment

Some of the yeasts mention they will produce sulphides during the ferment and that's usually a rotten egg smell. Which yeast was it?

Edited January 17, 2020 by Journeyman

[Otto Von Blotto]

16 minutes ago, Journeyman said:

Some of the yeasts mention they will produce sulphides during the ferment and that's usually a rotten egg smell. Which yeast was it?

Yeah lager yeasts usually produce hydrogen sulphide. I have made plenty of them so it's not unexpected, but is an indication of the yeast working away. I used Wyeast 2278 Czech pilsner yeast. It's my regular lager yeast at the moment. 

[PaddyBrew2]

1 hour ago, ozlizard said:

Well I am at a loss. Just removed the last of the hops and took a SG (1.114) and before I tipped out the sample had a good sniff. Blow me down it has the same  off smell as the last two brews. So I removed the lid and smelled the wort and it isn't good. This time around I was meticulous in my sanitising and did everything possible to not contaminate the wort. I will give it a few more days but this might be another failure. Not sure WTF is going on. I have a ROTM to do after this and that might be my last attempt. I can't afford to keep throwing brews out! I find it difficult to describe the smell without  a reference point, it could just be still fermenting, from a distance it just smells like beer but if you smell inside the fermenter, it's not pleasant. The wife said it smelled like fermenting oranges. So I will see how it goes over the next few days.

thats $hit mate but a sniff is one thing, taste is another.  are you brave enough to have a taste and report back. this will enable others on here to narrow  down your problem based on the flavour rather than an unidentifiable smell. I recall based off your previous posts , it possibly sounded like a fruit fly infection and you said you have fruit flys in your area.

[ozlizard]

2 minutes ago, PaddyBrew2 said:

thats $hit mate but a sniff is one thing, taste is another.  are you brave enough to have a taste and report back. this will enable others on here to narrow  down your problem based on the flavour rather than an unidentifiable smell. I recall based off your previous posts , it possibly sounded like a fruit fly infection and you said you have fruit flys in your area.

Yeah will gather up the courage to have  taste when I check the SG tomorrow. Could be fruit fly but I have kept it closed as much as possible and always had the airlock in.