What's in Your Fermenter? 2020

[Otto Von Blotto]

7 hours ago, jamiek86 said:

I might have to research this a bit more and wait until not at work and try it with an ale yeast I think i read a few post about it and people let the starter ferment out too much making it unusable? @Otto Von Blotto

I've never heard that but I suppose it might be possible if the thing was left for ages. The way I do it it goes in the fridge pretty much once it ferments out, and then a day or two later it's pitched into the batch. 

The main reason I don't use a vitality starter is because I don't want that much unhopped and warm fermented wort/beer going into the batch, especially with lagers. I don't control the temperature of my starters; because I tip most of the "beer" out before pitching into a proper batch it doesn't really matter what it tastes like, the sole purpose of them is growing yeast, and it probably works better at warmer temperatures anyway. 

[UncleStavvy]

I've been on a run of 7 lager brews using W34/70 yeast recycled between batches. Basic lager brew of Coopers draught tin, light dry malt and cascade hops. I've even started calling it "Aldi Lager".....its good......different! All I've been doing is harvesting the yeast into a sanitised soda water bottle but left to settle out in the fridge and tip off any remaining wort before pitching about half the yeast into the new brew. The FV is cleaned and sanitised for each batch.

[Tone boy]

On 11/14/2020 at 11:06 PM, ChristinaS1 said:

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.

Hey Christina I finally got around to measuring my pot! It’s 11 litres to the very top. I’m guessing by the time I put 3 litres per kilo of grain, and left some space at the top, I’d only get maybe 2 kilos of grain to steep?

Still that should be a good addition to add to the FV.  And maybe boil up some hops too! 
Sorry for the late reply and digging up an old post!

Cheers TB

[ChristinaS1]

2 hours ago, Tone boy said:

Hey Christina I finally got around to measuring my pot! It’s 11 litres to the very top. I’m guessing by the time I put 3 litres per kilo of grain, and left some space at the top, I’d only get maybe 2 kilos of grain to steep?

Hi Tone boy. 2 kilos might be pushing it. Don't forget that if you use 3 kilos per kg of grain, you still have to sparge and boil. There is always a lot of foaming that occurs at the beginning of the boil and you don't want boil overs. My pot is roughly the same size as yours and I use 1.25kg of grain, due to the size of my mash tun. I usually end up with around 6-7L of wort. I am not all that careful with the measurement of my sparge water; I just eyeball it. I could probably bump the mash up to 1.4kg of grain if my mash tun were a bit bigger. 

Here is a handy calculator you can use to play around with the numbers. It is the third one down:

https://www.rackers.org/calcs.shtml

You can use the first calculator to figure out the strike temp of your water. 

With BIAB, figure on about 0.5L of absorption per 1kg of grain.

Wear thick rubber gloves to squeeze the wort out of the bag after the mash, and after the sparge, to protect your hands from the heat. If your recipe contains any chocolate malt, black malt, or roasted barley, only squeeze lightly, or you will be squeezing out tannins.

Good luck Tone boy.

Cheers,

Christina.

 

Edited November 23, 2020 by ChristinaS1

[Shamus O'Sean]

10 hours ago, ChristinaS1 said:

If your recipe contains any chocolate malt, black malt, or roasted barley, only squeeze lightly, or you will be squeezing out tannins.

@Tone boy, you could also steep these separately, with a gentle squeeze.  That way you can go nuts with your base grains mini-mash.  The dark grains do not have to be mashed.

Edited November 23, 2020 by Shamus O'Sean

[Tone boy]

Thanks Christina and Shamus. The knowledge on the forum is wonderful and I really appreciate you guys and your willingness to share the information. Big ups to you guys!. 

[Malter White]

On 11/15/2020 at 9:37 AM, MUZZY said:

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.  

 

 

On 11/19/2020 at 12:36 PM, MUZZY said:

Took a gravity reading this morning and a little taste. Quite encouraging. The sample was very foamy suggesting that oils might not have affected the beer as imagined it might and I could detect a little fruitiness in the flavour. Looking forward to when it's done now.

Bottled this morning. The fruitiness seems to have lessened.
One thing I noticed is there didn't seem to be as much sediment clinging to the sides of the FV as with previous brews. I didn't cold crash. Everything seems to have dropped out nicely without it. Not sure if the coriander has anything to do with that or it's just coincidence.

[Malter White]

1 hour ago, Tone boy said:

Thanks Christina and Shamus. The knowledge on the forum is wonderful and I really appreciate you guys and your willingness to share the information. Big ups to you guys!. 

Too right, Tone. There's some pretty generous folks on here. Knowledgeable and always willing to help those of us with less experience without making us feel like we're a burden.

[UncleStavvy]

27 minutes ago, MUZZY said:

I added a Coriander tea that was steeped for 15 minutes in hot water

For the love of Nikasa.....why?

[Malter White]

34 minutes ago, UncleStavvy said:

For the love of Nikasa.....why?

I heard coriander adds citrus flavours. I did it in the name of science.

[Greenyinthewestofsydney]

5 minutes ago, MUZZY said:

I heard coriander adds citrus flavours. I did it in the name of science.

The dries seeds grinded up certainly do. The green heads and flowers and leaves. Not so sure on that one.

[Malter White]

4 minutes ago, Greeny1525229549 said:

The dries seeds grinded up certainly do. The green heads and flowers and leaves. Not so sure on that one.

Me either, Greeny. As I mentioned in my initial statement:- I'm lazy. From a taste sample taken last week I could detect some fruity flavour. Tasted it today prior to bottling and the fruity flavour had subsided some. The beer didn't taste bad though so it might just be a case that adding the foliage does nothing really. I guess I'll find out in a few weeks time.

[MitchBastard]

My latest Hazy creation received its dry hop yesterday and will be chilling down to 2 degrees tomorrow. At 30 degrees, The Norwegian yeast gods finished this off in a day. No joke. 
 

looks like mango nectar, smells like over ripe fruit, tastes like all of the above but beery. Should be drinking by Sunday. 
 

 

 

Edited November 24, 2020 by MitchBastard

[Pezzza]

1 hour ago, MitchBastard said:

My latest Hazy creation received its dry hop yesterday and will be chilling down to 2 degrees tomorrow. At 30 degrees, The Norwegian yeast gods finished this off in a day. No joke. 
 

looks like mango nectar, smells like over ripe fruit, tastes like all of the above but beery. Should be drinking by Sunday. 
 

Yeah right Mitchie - we reckon yer got a great glass of this:

 

[Pezzza]

On 11/22/2020 at 6:33 PM, Tone boy said:

Thanks BB. I’m definitely interested in the pressure fermentation but at the moment don’t have the gear to do it. I’ll do some research to find out about what I need to purchase and what processes to follow...

Cheers

There is a lot of good beer that can be made without pressure ferment vessels too hey ; )

[Cee]

 

 

 

Brew 1 - the Lagerale that came with the kit, reached 2 weeks conditioning in bottles and i just could not resist... This was Sunday.

Very happy with it - I'd swapped out some BE1 for dry light malt and I like the mouthfeel (kinda like a bubble of beer in my mouth, if that makes sense) and despite no "Fssssssst" upon opening it was carbed enough. The second pour from the bottle produced a bit more head. It has a taste and feel that begs to be enjoyed on a Summer day. I am leaving them conditioning for another week - I've read here 3 weeks is often markedly better than 2 weeks so I am looking forward to this weekend.

My first brew!

 

[ChristinaS1]

17 hours ago, Shamus O'Sean said:

@Tone boy, you could also steep these separately, with a gentle squeeze.  That way you can go nuts with your base grains mini-mash.  The dark grains do not have to be mashed.

Shamus makes a good point about how steeping the dark specialty malts separately leaves more room for base malt, which is especially important it you are using Maris Otter. Unless I am using a lot Maris Otter in my partial I find it does not provided much in the way of bready, nutty, or biscuity notes. I have better luck with Vienna.

Gordon Strong, author of several brewing books, cold steeps his dark grains separately (overnight in the fridge). If I recall correctly he does it because he prefers the more mellow flavour cold steeping produces.

Cheers,

Christina.

[Shamus O'Sean]

4 hours ago, ChristinaS1 said:

Shamus makes a good point about how steeping the dark specialty malts separately leaves more room for base malt, which is especially important it you are using Maris Otter. Unless I am using a lot Maris Otter in my partial I find it does not provided much in the way of bready, nutty, or biscuity notes. I have better luck with Vienna.

Gordon Strong, author of several brewing books, cold steeps his dark grains separately (overnight in the fridge). If I recall correctly he does it because he prefers the more mellow flavour cold steeping produces.

Cheers,

Christina.

I probably learned this from listening to a Beersmith podcast with Gordon Strong.  He was basically saying that extract brewers, who do not mash, cold or hot steep speciality grains for their brews.  However, when the same brewers graduate to all grain brewing they start to put the speciality grains in the mash.  He thinks this is unnecessary and can lead to undesirable flavours to the finished beer.  The mellower flavour from cold steeping was also mentioned.  

[Cee]

Day 11 in FV - Dark Ale tin

Day 10 I dry hopped 25g of Galaxy in a short stocking instead of hopsock. 

Temp is avg 18-19 degrees

I have no idea how normal this looks or not lol

[Tricky Micky]

Recently used S23 yeast in my last two lager. Prior to this I'd been using W34/70. What I've noticed so far is that fermentation takes a while longer and that Carbonation is slow when conditioning. My latest brew has been in the bottles conditioning for 14 days at 18 degrees or above. Opened one and the carbonation is poor. Opened a second and the same result. I bulk prime and have not had issues when I've used the W34/70 yeast. Virtually the same recipes and same procedure. This low carbing happened on the last brew using S23.

CO2 volumes @ around 3.2 so this should be quite carbed I would think. Could the yeast be at fault here? The yeast is well within it's best by date and was stored in the refrigerator at about 3 degrees. Any help or advice much appreciated.

[John E Miller]

Concerning Saflager S23:

Only weird thing I noticed is the yeast sits at the bottom of the bottles in a swampy manner and moves around when picked up, like it has not flocculated after months in the bottle. 

Not a big problem though 

[Tricky Micky]

30 minutes ago, John E Miller said:

Concerning Saflager S23:

Only weird thing I noticed is the yeast sits at the bottom of the bottles in a swampy manner and moves around when picked up, like it has not flocculated after months in the bottle. 

Not a big problem though 

Noticed the same thing.

Whereas W34/70 sits rock solid in the bottom of the bottle and doesn't even come out when pouring the beer out to the last drop.

I have read anecdotally elsewhere that certain strains of yeast could be the culprit for poor carbonation while conditioning in the bottle. I don't know how true that is. It's weird though this has only happened with the two brews using the S23 yeast. 

[Tone boy]

13 hours ago, Bearded Burbler said:

There is a lot of good beer that can be made without pressure ferment vessels too hey ; )

That’s right BB. About to taste my summer ale tonight for the first time. Hopefully it’s turned out well. I do like lagers though too, but just restricted to ales over the warmer weather. Cheers!

[Otto Von Blotto]

10 hours ago, Shamus O'Sean said:

I probably learned this from listening to a Beersmith podcast with Gordon Strong.  He was basically saying that extract brewers, who do not mash, cold or hot steep speciality grains for their brews.  However, when the same brewers graduate to all grain brewing they start to put the speciality grains in the mash.  He thinks this is unnecessary and can lead to undesirable flavours to the finished beer.  The mellower flavour from cold steeping was also mentioned.  

Can't say I've ever had any undesirable flavours from throwing roasted grains into the mash. The beers always taste as I expect them to. That said, I've never tried cold steeping them overnight. 

[Shamus O'Sean]

2 hours ago, Otto Von Blotto said:

Can't say I've ever had any undesirable flavours from throwing roasted grains into the mash. The beers always taste as I expect them to. That said, I've never tried cold steeping them overnight. 

Me either.  Maybe "undesirable" is the wrong word.  It is more likely he mentioned things like tannins causing astringency.  These would probably only start to become an issue if a brewer had something else amiss with their process, such as over-sparging.