What's in Your Fermenter? 2020

[ChristinaS1]

Making this as I write this:

 

Kitchen Sink APA

 

1.7kg Coopers APA

1.5kg LME

700gm 2-row 15.6%

350gm Munich 7.8%

175gm Malted Wheat 3.9%

75gm Honey Malt 1.7%

10gm Centennial x 20 minutes

30gm Denali x 20 minute hop stand 

10gm Centennial DH x 3 days

10gm Mosaic DH x 3 days

10gm El Dorado DH x 3 days 

10mL Clarity Ferm

23L RO water

14gm Coopers ale/lager yeast blend 

 

Going to try naturally carbonating this in the keg, which I have done only once before, with my very first batch of kegged beer.  I have noticed some hints of oxidation in the kegged part of a couple of batches, whereas the bottled excess was fine. Not sure if it happened during transfer or force carbonation. 

 

Cheers,

 

Christina.

[Pale Man]

36 minutes ago, ChristinaS1 said:

Going to try naturally carbonating this in the keg, which I have done only once before, with my very first batch of kegged beer.  

 

 

Let us know how you go with that. Something i'm thinking of for a stout down the track.

[Tone boy]

15 hours ago, ChristinaS1 said:

Making this as I write this:

 

Kitchen Sink APA

 

1.7kg Coopers APA

1.5kg LME

700gm 2-row 15.6%

350gm Munich 7.8%

175gm Malted Wheat 3.9%

75gm Honey Malt 1.7%

10gm Centennial x 20 minutes

30gm Denali x 20 minute hop stand 

10gm Centennial DH x 3 days

10gm Mosaic DH x 3 days

10gm El Dorado DH x 3 days 

10mL Clarity Ferm

23L RO water

14gm Coopers ale/lager yeast blend 

 

Love the name Kitchen Sink !
 

Christina, do you just steep those grains in warm water? - newbie question sorry...

[Tone boy]

21 hours ago, MitchBastard said:

Final grav has been reached on my house west coast pale ale. Extremely happy with this beer. Really dialing in this recipe and she’s almost where I want it. Dry hopped it 3 days ago with cascade, centennial, Columbus and Simcoe and it’s currently on its way down to 1.5 for a few days. 
 

 

Love the colour Mitch! How do you get it down to 1.5 C? Do you stick your FV in the fridge? I’m guessing you get it cold to clarify the beer?

[Pezzza]

100g Hop Sock out with a squeeze @Beerlust Lusty and will let it go for another day or so.... then cold crash and keg it next week ( @Tone boy yeah TB - chillin' helps flocc out suspended particulate matter)... smells great.  Seems sad to be composting the hops ; )

 

Will add a few more hoppers in the keg in a big ol' teaball as well 

 

Edited November 14, 2020 by Bearded Burbler

[Pezzza]

16 hours ago, ChristinaS1 said:

I have noticed some hints of oxidation

Is it a bit of sourness Christina - that oxidation effect manifesting itself?

[Pezzza]

16 hours ago, Pale Man said:

Let us know how you go with that. Something i'm thinking of for a stout down the track.

Did it with some Ales a while ago PM - worked just fine - one big and one small keg... only prob I had was with small keg I had clogging of liquid post with yeast unfortunately...  PITA it was... some Brewers say just cut your liquid post off a bit higher to avoid that happening... 

[ChristinaS1]

3 hours ago, Bearded Burbler said:

Is it a bit of sourness Christina - that oxidation effect manifesting itself?

No, it is kind of stale / cardboard. 

Sourness is most likely a lacto infection, but then the whole batch would be affected. With these two batches the bottled leftovers tasted great, like night and day

 I fill eight 450mL bottles each batch.

Cheers,

Christina.

[MitchBastard]

@Tone boy cheers for that, yep, very happy with the colour.

 

Yeah I use a stand alone freezer for temp control. Makes it easy to cold crash as it gets really cold.

[ChristinaS1]

4 hours ago, Tone boy said:

Love the name Kitchen Sink !
 

Christina, do you just steep those grains in warm water? - newbie question sorry...

Hi Tone boy. Welcome to the forum.

I do a mini mash (aka a partial) with those grains, which is a step up from a steep. With a regular steep you can only use the so called "specialty malts" that do not require enzymes to release their sugars. Examples are crystal malt, chocolate malt, black malt, and roasted barley. Other malts have starches in them that require conversion to sugar by the enzymes found in certain malts, a process called mashing. Mashing is just a long steep (classically 60-90 minutes) in water that is in the temperature range the enzymes are most active in. There are two enzymes: alpha and beta amylase. Malts that are rich in enzymes are light in colour and are called base malts. Examples of base malts are Pilsener, Maris Otter, Vienna, Pale Ale, and malted wheat. They have enough enzymes that they can not only convert their own starches into to sugar, but they can share some with malts that are low in enzymes, like flaked wheat/oatmeal/barley, CaraPils, Munich, Aromatic, Melanoidin, Amber, Brown, Biscuit, Victory, and many other tasty malts. Long story short, you have many more options mini mashing vs steeping. A mini mash using about 1-2kg of grain (I use 1.25kg) made up of 50-80% base malt allows a kit and kilo brewer to make many more styles of beer than simple steeping does. It can be done their kitchen, on a stove top, using simple equipment, any time of year. A lot of partial mashers use a grain bag and a large stock pot. You also need a thermometer. Some keep the pot on top of the stove, occasionally turning the element on to warm it back up, while others put it in their oven on low, but personally I use an insulated picnic cooler, which does not require monitoring or adjusting. When used for brewing insulated coolers are called mash tuns. Anyway, once the 60 minute mash is done you lift up the grain bag, let it drain, then boil the resulting wort in the stock pot. If you were making a full batch of beer the wort would need to be boiled for 60 minutes, but for a mini mash 20-30 minutes is acceptable.  Hops can be added during this boiling time, or after the heat is shut off, while it is cooling. 

Beta amylase works best at slightly lower temperatures than alpha amylase, so a temperature is chosen where their ranges overlap, so somewhere between 64.5-70C (I usually aim for 67C). 

Cheers,

Christina.

[Tone boy]

Great thanks so much Christina. That sounds like something I could do. I’ve been told to use about 250g grain per liter of water for steeping. Is it a similar grain/water ratio with the mini mash?

cheers and thanks again. The knowledge on this forum is unreal...

[ChristinaS1]

34 minutes ago, Tone boy said:

Great thanks so much Christina. That sounds like something I could do. I’ve been told to use about 250g grain per liter of water for steeping. Is it a similar grain/water ratio with the mini mash?

cheers and thanks again. The knowledge on this forum is unreal...

If you mash in your stock pot most would use ~7L of water per 1kg of grain and not rinse the grains. This requires a 90 mash time. This method is called Brew in a Bag, or BIAB for short, and no rinsing of the grain is required. As I mentioned I mash in a picnic cooler, which is not that big, so I use a more traditional 3L of water per 1kg of grain. Because the grain is less diluted, it only requires a 60 minute mash time. After 60 minutes I lift the grain bag, drain the wort into the stock pot (aka kettle), then return the grain bag to the picnic cooler with some fresh warm water (temperature does not have to be measured this time, as long as it is warm), about 2-2.5L per kg this time, and let it stand for another 10 minutes, then drain that into the stock pot too. I design my recipes so that the gravity of the mini mash wort is around 1.040-1.050, which is the sweet spot for hops utilization. Rinsing the grain is called sparging. When done all at once like I do it is called batch sparging.  Another way of sparging is to set the grain bag in a sieve over your kettle and pour the rinse water through slowly. That is called fly sparging I believe. 

Give it a try.  Tell us the size of your pot / kettle and we can tell you the max amount of grain you can mash in it. We will also be able to point you to a calculator to tell you hot to make your mash water (called your strike temperature) so that when you add your grain you end up at your target mash temp. 

Cheers,

Christina.

Edited November 14, 2020 by ChristinaS1

[ChristinaS1]

Re: Kitchen Sink APA. I had an accident while cooling the wort in an ice water bath, in the sink, after the hop stand. Took the lid off the kettle to measure the temperature and ended up knocking a spray bottle (filled with Starsan) into the wort! Ugh! Doh-doh-doh! At this point the wort was no longer warm enough to pasteurize any germs that were on the outside of the bottle so I had to put the kettle back on the stove to heat it up again. Took the temp back up to 71C and then began chilling again. Hopefully that was hot enough to prevent infection but not so hot as to cause more bitterness. Fingers crossed.

I will taste the wort when I am about to add the dry hops, to see if it tastes infected. 

Cheers,

Christina.

[Pale Man]

2 hours ago, ChristinaS1 said:

Re: Kitchen Sink APA. I had an accident while cooling the wort in an ice water bath, in the sink, after the hop stand. Took the lid off the kettle to measure the temperature and ended up knocking a spray bottle (filled with Starsan) into the wort! Ugh! Doh-doh-doh! At this point the wort was no longer warm enough to pasteurize any germs that were on the outside of the bottle so I had to put the kettle back on the stove to heat it up again. Took the temp back up to 71C and then began chilling again. Hopefully that was hot enough to prevent infection but not so hot as to cause more bitterness. Fingers crossed.

I will taste the wort when I am about to add the dry hops, to see if it tastes infected. 

Cheers,

Christina.

Lucky it was starsan and not fly spray or something like that  I reckon you'll be right. 

[Malter White]

It's possible my inherent laziness is going to cost me on my current brew but I figure experimentation is part of the fun of brewing.
I've mixed up a tin of Coopers APA with BE2 and pitched in some CCA yeast to 23 litres. Fermenting at 19C.
Here's where the lazy part comes in: I added a Coriander tea that was steeped for 15 minutes in hot water. I didn't take a temperature of the tea. I didn't just add Coriander seeds. It wasn't dried. I just plucked some buds from my plant - seeds, flowers, leaves included. Washed them, chopped them up and into the coffee press. There's probably a couple of you shaking your heads right now because I've probably introduced vegetable oil to the beer. A taste test of the tea suggests I'm adding the flavour of what lawn clippings smell like.
I really hope it does some magic during fermentation. I was hoping for some orangey flavour. I can hear Darryl Kerrigan's voice in the back of my mind, "Tell him he's dreamin'."
Anyway it's all done now. Wish me luck.  

 

Edited November 14, 2020 by MUZZY

[Tone boy]

11 hours ago, ChristinaS1 said:

Re: Kitchen Sink APA. I had an accident while cooling the wort in an ice water bath, in the sink, after the hop stand. Took the lid off the kettle to measure the temperature and ended up knocking a spray bottle (filled with Starsan) into the wort! Ugh! Doh-doh-doh! At this point the wort was no longer warm enough to pasteurize any germs that were on the outside of the bottle so I had to put the kettle back on the stove to heat it up again. Took the temp back up to 71C and then began chilling again. Hopefully that was hot enough to prevent infection but not so hot as to cause more bitterness. Fingers crossed.

I will taste the wort when I am about to add the dry hops, to see if it tastes infected. 

 

Don’t worry, as a newbie I’m making lots of those mistakes. Recently I started filling up my plastic fermenter with all my beautiful malty hoppy goo when my foot started feeling a bit warm. I had left the drain tap open and it was pouring into my slipper!
Beer turned out alright though after some adjustment. I triple check the tap these days!

[Pezzza]

13 hours ago, ChristinaS1 said:

Hi Tone boy. Welcome to the forum.

I do a mini mash (aka a partial) with those grains, which is a step up from a steep. With a regular steep you can only use the so called "specialty malts" that do not require enzymes to release their sugars. Examples are crystal malt, chocolate malt, black malt, and roasted barley. Other malts have starches in them that require conversion to sugar by the enzymes found in certain malts, a process called mashing. Mashing is just a long steep (classically 60-90 minutes) in water that is in the temperature range the enzymes are most active in. There are two enzymes: alpha and beta amylase. Malts that are rich in enzymes are light in colour and are called base malts. Examples of base malts are Pilsener, Maris Otter, Vienna, Pale Ale, and malted wheat. They have enough enzymes that they can not only convert their own starches into to sugar, but they can share some with malts that are low in enzymes, like flaked wheat/oatmeal/barley, CaraPils, Munich, Aromatic, Melanoidin, Amber, Brown, Biscuit, Victory, and many other tasty malts. Long story short, you have many more options mini mashing vs steeping. A mini mash using about 1-2kg of grain (I use 1.25kg) made up of 50-80% base malt allows a kit and kilo brewer to make many more styles of beer than simple steeping does. It can be done their kitchen, on a stove top, using simple equipment, any time of year. A lot of partial mashers use a grain bag and a large stock pot. You also need a thermometer. Some keep the pot on top of the stove, occasionally turning the element on to warm it back up, while others put it in their oven on low, but personally I use an insulated picnic cooler, which does not require monitoring or adjusting. When used for brewing insulated coolers are called mash tuns. Anyway, once the 60 minute mash is done you lift up the grain bag, let it drain, then boil the resulting wort in the stock pot. If you were making a full batch of beer the wort would need to be boiled for 60 minutes, but for a mini mash 20-30 minutes is acceptable.  Hops can be added during this boiling time, or after the heat is shut off, while it is cooling. 

Beta amylase works best at slightly lower temperatures than alpha amylase, so a temperature is chosen where their ranges overlap, so somewhere between 64.5-70C (I usually aim for 67C). 

Cheers,

Christina.

@pilotsh- Pilot - great description of Partial and Steeping here for you...

 

Great stuff @ChristinaS1 Christina!

 

[Red devil 44]

Just put a K n K Pilsener on yesterday, will dry hop in a few days, I have some Mosaic that’s been hanging around in my freezer for a while, was thinking of using that ? I’ve also got some Tettnanger & some Halertau, so not sure what to use up, suggestions welcome.

[Stickers]

20 hours ago, ChristinaS1 said:

I do a mini mash (aka a partial) with those grains, which is a step up from a steep. With a regular steep you can only use the so called "specialty malts" that do not require enzymes to release their sugars. Examples are crystal malt, chocolate malt, black malt, and roasted barley. Other malts have starches in them that require conversion to sugar by the enzymes found in certain malts, a process called mashing. Mashing is just a long steep (classically 60-90 minutes) in water that is in the temperature range the enzymes are most active in. There are two enzymes: alpha and beta amylase. Malts that are rich in enzymes are light in colour and are called base malts.....

thanks for the best explanation of the difference btw steeping and mashing i've read anywhere since starting this homebrew thing. especially happy with the timing as i'm currently doing my first proper mini-mash as i type this

[Tone boy]

19 hours ago, ChristinaS1 said:

If you mash in your stock pot most would use ~7L of water per 1kg of grain and not rinse the grains. This requires a 90 mash time. This method is called Brew in a Bag, or BIAB for short, and no rinsing of the grain is required. As I mentioned I mash in a picnic cooler, which is not that big, so I use a more traditional 3L of water per 1kg of grain. Because the grain is less diluted, it only requires a 60 minute mash time. After 60 minutes I lift the grain bag, drain the wort into the stock pot (aka kettle), then return the grain bag to the picnic cooler with some fresh warm water (temperature does not have to be measured this time, as long as it is warm), about 2-2.5L per kg this time, and let it stand for another 10 minutes, then drain that into the stock pot too. I design my recipes so that the gravity of the mini mash wort is around 1.040-1.050, which is the sweet spot for hops utilization. Rinsing the grain is called sparging. When done all at once like I do it is called batch sparging.  Another way of sparging is to set the grain bag in a sieve over your kettle and pour the rinse water through slowly. That is called fly sparging I believe. 

Give it a try.  Tell us the size of your pot / kettle and we can tell you the max amount of grain you can mash in it. We will also be able to point you to a calculator to tell you hot to make your mash water (called your strike temperature) so that when you add your grain you end up at your target mash temp. 

Cheers,

Christina.

Thank you so much Christina. Awesome info and I’m sure I’ll use it (as well as others too). 
 

so I did a brew today - furphy clone kit that came with 2 grains. Munich and crystal - 150 g of each. The recipe said to steep but I thought I’d try the mini mash method just for practice. However by your post I think the Munich needed a base malt for the enzymes possibly. 
 

anyway just for kicks I gave it a go. I realized my thermometer was not really accurate as I only had 1.3 litres of water so it wasn’t immersed very much into the liquid. It was reading 62 degrees when I noticed bubbles (so basically boiling). It was only for a short time as I realized pretty soon so hopefully won’t get too many tannins. Good learning today  
 

Very excited to be armed with this new knowledge. I’m definitely going to try a partial mash soon with some base malt and specialty malt. 
 

thanks again Christina

[Pezzza]

3 hours ago, Red devil 44 said:

Just put a K n K Pilsener on yesterday, will dry hop in a few days, I have some Mosaic that’s been hanging around in my freezer for a while, was thinking of using that ? I’ve also got some Tettnanger & some Halertau, so not sure what to use up, suggestions welcome.

Mate I think if you want a traditional - I would stick with the noble hops - Tett and Hallertau are good for that.

If you want to do it a bit funky - then use Mosaic... but it won't taste like a traditional Pilsener...

The world's yer oyster mate... the beauty of being your own Braumeister!!!

[Pezzza]

21 hours ago, ChristinaS1 said:

No, it is kind of stale / cardboard. 

Mmm well Christina I think (maybe lucky for me) so far I have appeared to have missed out on experiencing that ; )

[Stickers]

i think i can call this a mini-smash larger (pun intended)

coopers lager can, BE2, 1 kg maris otter mashed for 60 mins + 30 min boil, cascade hops 20g @ 30 min, 10 min and flame out. verdant ale yeast.

[Tone boy]

4 hours ago, Red devil 44 said:

Just put a K n K Pilsener on yesterday, will dry hop in a few days, I have some Mosaic that’s been hanging around in my freezer for a while, was thinking of using that ? I’ve also got some Tettnanger & some Halertau, so not sure what to use up, suggestions welcome.

On a Pilsner I would go a big whack of the hallertau or Tettnang, as bearded burbler suggests. But you’re the boss RD! 
ive heard motueka goes well in a new age Pilsner- apparently related to Saaz but higher AA...

What was your recipe for the pils? I’m interested because I’m trying to do a K and K pils too but haven’t dialed in the hops just right yet...as in not enough hops. That’s why I suggested a big whack - those noble hops are fairly subtle I think...

[Shamus O'Sean]

World's Fastest Brew Day (Wort mixing day really).  Fresh Wort Kit - Sabro Pale Ale.

They're two Craft fermenters.  I can fit them side-by-side in my temp controlled brewing chest freezer.

Split this brew in two.  One plain, as intended.  The second had the liquid from this added:

25g of El Dorado in a hop tea.  First time I have done a hop tea in over 90 brews.  Cleaned and boiled the coffee plunger bits.  Poured 600ml of the boiling water into the jug.  Added the hops.  Stirred up twice.  Left to sit and cool for a few hours.