What's in Your Fermenter? 2020

[Titans19]

5 minutes ago, Shamus O'Sean said:

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.

G day Shamus, 

Sorry if these are dumb questions. Still learning... firstly where did you get your FWK? I live in NT and couldn't find somewhere on their website to order online.

Secondly,  do you simply just pour your hop tea into the FV with everything else just at the beginning?... A mate of mine told me to buy light crystal malt and soak 250g of it overnight in the fridge and add to the FV with K&K as it apparently is easy and makes a huge difference, and I've been wondering if I could do something similar with hops. Which this hop tea in a plunger seems to be..??

Cheers

[ChristinaS1]

42 minutes ago, Shamus O'Sean said:

25g of El Dorado in a hop tea. 

I will be curious to hear how you like them on their own Shamus. I have a bag of El Dorado but have only used them together with other hops, not on their own. Using them in the brew currently in my fermenter. Anyway,  from my first use of them I liked them, but they do seem to have a lot of character. I have been hesitant to use them on their own.

Cheers,

Christina

Edited November 15, 2020 by ChristinaS1

[Shamus O'Sean]

11 minutes ago, ChristinaS1 said:

I will be curious to hear how you like them on their own Shamus. I have a bag of El Dorado but have only used them together with other hops, not on their own. Using them in the brew currently in my fermenter. Anyway,  from my first use of them I liked them, but they do seem to have a lot of character. I have been hesitant to use them on their own.

Cheers,

Christina

The El Dorado is not on its own really.  The Fresh Wort Kit is done with Sabro hops.  Although the box says nothing about the hop schedule of the kit.  The wort definitely had a different aroma to it.  Therefore, it must include later hop additions.  Expected IBU's under 20, so not much there.

I have used El Dorado a few time now too.  It has always been with something else.  The current one is with Mosaic.  An all grain pale ale with a 15 minute, 5 minute and dry hop of each.  I get a pronounced mandarin peel aroma, you know, that smell when you are peeling a mandarin.  It's a really nice beer.

[Shamus O'Sean]

3 hours ago, Titans19 said:

G day Shamus, 

Sorry if these are dumb questions. Still learning... firstly where did you get your FWK? I live in NT and couldn't find somewhere on their website to order online.

Secondly,  do you simply just pour your hop tea into the FV with everything else just at the beginning?... A mate of mine told me to buy light crystal malt and soak 250g of it overnight in the fridge and add to the FV with K&K as it apparently is easy and makes a huge difference, and I've been wondering if I could do something similar with hops. Which this hop tea in a plunger seems to be..??

Cheers

Hi Titans19, I got my FWK from a Local Home Brew Shop in Hallam, near where I live in Victoria.  Many LHBS will have them.  Oz Brew in Darwin seems to be a stockist.

In this case, all that went into the Craft FV was about 7.5 litres of the FWK, about 600ml of hop tea, then topped up to 10L (the SG at that point was 1.047.  I wanted 1.045, so I added about 450ml more water for a final volume of 10.5L once I also added the liquid yeast.

You can definitely do this yourself, using a coffee plunger.  I had read of folks using coffee plungers for these hop steeps.  The coffee plunger just makes a convenient way to filter the hops.

An overnight steep of Light Crystal Malt can add to a brew.  I recommend it for a future brew.

[Red devil 44]

21 hours ago, Tone boy said:

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...

Was just trying to use up some old stock I had, not out of date but getting close.
Tin of Black Rock Export Pilsner 

1 x 1kg Coopers BE2 (sorry Burbler, just old stock )

US-05 Yeast

Fermenting in temp controlled fridge @ 18 degrees 

Think I will go the Tettnang, got plenty of that to use up, cheers. 

[Mirek Kania]

Since Yeasterday there is new Wheat Beer in my fermenter:

50% Pale Ale malt
50% Wheat malt

Wyeast 3068.

 

And my Best Bitter is ready to be bottled.

[Malter White]

3 minutes ago, Mirek Kania said:

Yeasterday 

Nice work  

[Pezzza]

6 hours ago, Mirek Kania said:

50% Pale Ale malt
50% Wheat malt

Wyeast 3068.

That is my idea of a good time Mirek!  Good stuff.

What will you use for your hop input this time?

And what temp are you fermenting at mate?

[Mirek Kania]

I used 10 grams of Brewer's Gold I grow in my garden, for 60 minutes.

That is the very first hops I have got. I planted it just last year.

And 30g of Hallertau Hersbrucker for 15 minutes.

Predicted IBU is about 10, as I do not know real AA of my BG. But it tasts beautiful and is bitter similar to Cascade, so I guess it is about 5%

I belive, wheat beer needs more aroma then bitterness, so IBU about 10-15 shoud be good enough.

I chilled wort to 16C and could not get lower temp., as my tap water is about 14C now. Then I left fermenter in garage, where there is 13C now. After 20 hours I moved it to my workshop with 19C. Then after 2days I will rise temp. to 20 and then to 21, and will try not to exceed 22.

That is the plan.

Edited November 16, 2020 by Mirek Kania

[Cosmo2450]

Brewed up a ginger beer, as per the recipe thread on this website. I literally poured straight on top of the slurry from my previous ginger beer that I just kegged, and an hour later there is fermentation going on.  I can’t believe how easy it was to brew this. I’m only doing 5 litre batches and fermenting in a spare 5 L keg at 20-25psi and ambient temps. 
 

SG on first batch was 1070 and finished around .996 in just five days!

SG on this batch was a bit lower at 1055. Not sure why 

[Pezzza]

Latest IPA-ish AG Brew.... just chillin'

Clearing nicely - will give it another cuppla days and then keg on up... 

Laaaarvely aroma of Late Hope has reduced.... hopefully it's just due to being at 2 degrees... but will top up in the keg as well.

 

[Cee]

2nd Beer homebrew. First was the Lagerale that the DIY Kit came with - currently in week 2 of Conditioning. Also got Gingerbeers conditioning (non-alcoholic)

This one here is the Coopers Dark Ale https://www.diybeer.com/au/dark-ale.html

I swapped out the BE3 for LME and added a "Booster" (please correct my terminology) of BE1 (250gm)

'Twas recommended to try Galaxy Hops so I will dry hop them, and added s-05 to the yeast that came with the kit.

Needing ice in the Melbourne weather to keep temp down - very active fermenting. Avg temp is 18 but hard to keep consistent (no temp control yet. I realised this may be the wrong time of year for this beer but oh well, let's see  It's all learning at this stage

[Pezzza]

9 hours ago, Cee said:

time of year for this beer

Should be fine Cee.  Don't stress too much about the temp. 

Welcome aboard and good luck with Brew 2!

BB

[Cee]

18 minutes ago, Bearded Burbler said:

Should be fine Cee.  Don't stress too much about the temp. 

Welcome aboard and good luck with Brew 2!

BB

Cheers, and thank you for the advice about temp.  I am keeping it at an avg 18 C and it's like dinner time at The Simpsons in there - I don't think the yeasts are terribly stressed right now  

Yep I've upgraded from Lurker and decided I need to be active if I wanna learn, good to be aboard. 

[Staggerinn]

Usually brew AG but just trying out a kit Hefe

1 x Preachers Hefe Wheat

1x Wheat malt extract

1 x Lallemand Belgian Wheat

Holding it at 17C

Og 1038

 

[John E Miller]

27 minutes ago, Staggerinn said:

Holding it at 17C

May I ask why so cool?

[Staggerinn]

Hi John,

The temp range on the yeast is 17-22c, and I always seem to get consistent results at the bottom end of the yeast range. I always do that with all yeasts i use and it seems to work. 

I use a temp controlled fridge to ferment in and I know that the heat from fermentation will increase the temp of the brew while its fermenting. As I dont have a thermowell on my fermenter, Im taking the temperature of the air in the fridge.

So, I assume that during fermentation the brew may get a couple of degrees warmer than the air in fridge before the temp controller kicks in.  In my special logic, if I keep the fridge set at the lower end of the range, if the brew does warm up a few degrees, I'm still within the ideal range. 

I should really just measure the temp of the brew not the air, but Im worried about letting too much air in during fermentation.

I really do need to get, this temp measuring sorted out!! 

[John E Miller]

@StaggerinnFair enough. I have only made one wheat beer, the Preacher's Hefe. That was one of my early brews and I let it get into the high 20s.

I had never tried a wheat beer, and this tasted so funky but I loved it, so next time I do one I am tempted to ferment it warm to bring on the funk. 

[Staggerinn]

35 minutes ago, John E Miller said:

@StaggerinnFair enough. I have only made one wheat beer, the Preacher's Hefe. That was one of my early brews and I let it get into the high 20s.

I had never tried a wheat beer, and this tasted so funky but I loved it, so next time I do one I am tempted to ferment it warm to bring on the funk. 

I'll let you know how it goes. I did something similar a few years back, and it didn't last that long!

[John E Miller]

9 minutes ago, Staggerinn said:

I'll let you know how it goes. I did something similar a few years back, and it didn't last that long!

Do you mean it didn't last long because you liked it?

[Pezzza]

2 hours ago, Staggerinn said:

Im taking the temperature of the air in the fridge.

You cannot just tape the probe end to the FV?   There is a bit of an ongoing joke on this thread about the massive amount of taping that Brewers get to using taping e.g. an inkbird probe to the outside of a Coopers FV  ; )

You would get a pretty good indication of the FV temp if you tape your probe to the FV outside... 

[Staggerinn]

11 minutes ago, John E Miller said:

Do you mean it didn't last long because you liked it?

Sure did!

[Staggerinn]

6 minutes ago, Bearded Burbler said:

You cannot just tape the probe end to the FV?   There is a bit of an ongoing joke on this thread about the massive amount of taping that Brewers get to using taping e.g. an inkbird probe to the outside of a Coopers FV  ; )

You would get a pretty good indication of the FV temp if you tape your probe to the FV outside... 

Yeah could do,  trying not to tape stuff and wanted to come up with a nice solution like a thermowell. Its another one on the list of things I come up with when Im sitting "Sampling"!

 

[Pickles Jones]

40 minutes ago, Staggerinn said:

Yeah could do,  trying not to tape stuff and wanted to come up with a nice solution like a thermowell. Its another one on the list of things I come up with when Im sitting "Sampling"!

 

Taping the sensor under a small piece of polystyrene foam to the outside of the FV is a simple and accurate way to measure Wort temperature. Secure it with a good quality Cloth Tape.

I have this combination on my FV (after seeing it on this forum) and it goes through cleaning etc without coming off.

A  Thermowell is a bit of a overkill in this instance, when the above method is cheap and does the job.

[Staggerinn]

Thanks