What's in Your Fermenter? 2020

[Pezzza]

The Coopers Plazzi Fermenter with the big black AG beer is kräusening it up, well -- gently kräusening -- at 18 deg C, back in its rightful place the Brew Fridge after it evicted those nasty laggardly kegs that had infested it for a number of weeks (albeit providing their owner with amber nectar) which is a beautiful thing ; )

Given that the ratio of full kegs to empty kegs is found to be in a difficult and unfortunate position currently, I would like to suggest the Brew Fridge is going to retain its status for some time longer

And I think I will have to look a bit harder for a keg condition and serve solution... mmm... maybe that should be on the 'it's kegging time thread?'

[Otto Von Blotto]

Get another fridge for kegs, that's probably the easiest way. 

[Pezzza]

10 hours ago, ChristinaS1 said:

Making a lager this time, and with a couple of firsts for me: first time fermenting in the keg (with my new spunding valve set to at 15 PSI and floating dip tube), and first time using liquid yeast. Made a "Shaken not Stirred" starter with the yeast. Fermenting at ambient, which is a stead 20C.

 

Hey Christina, sounds good.  As per Marty above I too would be very interested to see how this transpires.  Will you ferment and then serve out of the very same keg?

Your ambient at 20 deg C sounds very nice!  Getting hot again here sadly after a few nicer cooler days for a change.

So you did the shake yeast thing...  here's my latest... will not be up to your standards of excellence but still seems to have worked ok again with my big black AG chortling along ok.

 

[Pezzza]

9 minutes ago, Otto Von Blotto said:

Get another fridge for kegs, that's probably the easiest way. 

Thinking of getting a freezer but yes - I think I need a refrigeration unit that can keep the kegs cool and then also allow the pour.  Cheers Kelsey. BB

[ChristinaS1]

Update on my Spunded Lager. When I got up this morning the pressure gauge still read zero. I made the mistake of relying on the readings on the pressure relief valve, which it turns out are wildly inaccurate, at least on my unit. In addition, you have to tune the pressure before use by setting the pressure relief screw to its maximum so that no gas can get out, over fill the keg with CO2 from a tank (I used 25PSI) , apply the spunding valve to the keg and then open the pressure relief screw slowly, until the desired PSI is reached. In other words, you start high and dial down. 

I think I might also have had a gas leak. I disassembled and rebuilt the spunding valve, making sure to really tighten all connections. In any case, after much frigging, it appears to be working properly now.

Kind of concerned because the beer fermented for about 18 hours at ambient under zero pressure.  Not sure how long it would have taken to come up to 15 PSI from endogenous gas.

Hey @Greeny1525229549 do you let the pressure come up naturally, from fermentation gases, or jump start it with gas from a tank?

 

[ChristinaS1]

8 hours ago, Bearded Burbler said:

....Will you ferment and then serve out of the very same keg?

Your ambient at 20 deg C sounds very nice!  Getting hot again here sadly after a few nicer cooler days for a change.

So you did the shake yeast thing...  here's my latest... will not be up to your standards of excellence but still seems to have worked ok again with my big black AG chortling along ok.

Yes, I will be serving from the same keg, which is one reason I invested in a floating dip tube, for lager making. I suppose that if one were making an ale, a regular dip tube might be better, as a floating one might get plugged with krausen. 

The ambient at 20C is due to the furnace. It is -18C outside in Fredericton today. 

Regarding your starter, looks like you have the lid snapped down. Are those jars intended to withstand pressure? Might it explode? A piece of aluminum foil might be safer....Personally I go back and forth between using a glass 4L carboy and a ribbed 4L plastic bottle for my starters, with a bung and airlock. Both have their pros and cons.

I am sure your standards are excellent BB.  The only thing I may do different from most people is that I add 1-2 teaspoon of bread yeast (you could use a spare pack of kit yeast) to the starter wort, when it is boiling, and simmer them for a few minutes. Dead yeast is a nutrient. 

Cheers,

Christina.

Edited January 22, 2020 by ChristinaS1

[Greenyinthewestofsydney]

1 hour ago, ChristinaS1 said:

Update on my Spunded Lager. When I got up this morning the pressure gauge still read zero. I made the mistake of relying on the readings on the pressure relief valve, which it turns out are wildly inaccurate, at least on my unit. In addition, you have to tune the pressure before use by setting the pressure relief screw to its maximum so that no gas can get out, over fill the keg with CO2 from a tank (I used 25PSI) , apply the spunding valve to the keg and then open the pressure relief screw slowly, until the desired PSI is reached. In other words, you start high and dial down. 

I think I might also have had a gas leak. I disassembled and rebuilt the spunding valve, making sure to really tighten all connections. In any case, after much frigging, it appears to be working properly now.

Kind of concerned because the beer fermented for about 18 hours at ambient under zero pressure.  Not sure how long it would have taken to come up to 15 PSI from endogenous gas.

Hey @Greeny1525229549 do you let the pressure come up naturally, from fermentation gases, or jump start it with gas from a tank?

 

Hey Christina. 

First time i did it like you and relied on the ferment to bring up the pressure. Took a while to build up pressure then i left it for like 10 hours and it was at the max range of my spunding valve which is 15psi. No idea what the real psi was in there so i then dialled it back down to 12psi and i left it from there. Second time i gave it a shot of gas to bring it up to about 20psi and then let the gas out through the spunding valve down to the 12psi and i find thats a much better way of dialing it in.

[Marty_G]

@Greeny1525229549 so what is you take on pressure fermentation., now that you have done a couple can you see yourself ditching the ferment fridge? 

[Hairy]

I'm currently fermenting under pressure. My wife said:

"When is that beer going to be finished? I need to use that fridge for the BBQ on Australia Day."

Pressure is on.

[Greenyinthewestofsydney]

Jury is still out for me mate. I have yet to do a lager. My two were both ales. The saison I did turned out with extreme funk which was weird seeing as it is supposed to ferment cleaner. The other ale was no different to my normal in a bucket ferment. At this stage I can’t see an advantage but will do a lager like Christina shortly to see what happens. Will be very interested in Christina’s take on it when it comes to the glass. The spunding valve only cost 30 bucks so no big deal if it doesn’t get much use. 

[Marty_G]

33 minutes ago, Greeny1525229549 said:

The spunding valve only cost 30 bucks so no big deal if it doesn’t get much use. 

I suppose you are doing it in a keg not a specialised fermenter? Did you use a floating dip tube?  

[Greenyinthewestofsydney]

Yeah in the keg. No I didn’t use a floating dip tube. The first pour was absolute rubbish but cleared up after that fine. Just don’t move the keg. I wouldn’t do the method if it’s staying in the keg for a long time though. 

[James Lao]

Put down a chocolate yesterday, first time doing  a stout in ages , looking forward to it:

Double Chocolate Stout

Brewed 22/1/2020 

 

Coopers Irish Stout

Coopers Amber LME

Choc malt 0.25kg cold steeped overnight in 2L of water

LDME 0.49kg

Wheat DME 0.24kg

White sugar 0.35kg

1.5L Nottingham starter 

24L in FV

IBUs 29.1

OG: 1.060

FG: 1.012

Should be about 6.3% in the keg

 

Will add 250g cacao nibs steeped in 250ml of Gentleman Jack on about day 5-6

[ChristinaS1]

@Greeny1525229549 I have been doing reading about when to start applying pressure. The best info I could find was in this video:

He says that for lagers, apply pressure right away, but for ales wait until fermentation is mostly done, as you still want some ester formation. He also said that if trying pressure fermentation with a new yeast, start with 5PSI. Apparently 10-12PSI is the sweet spot for many yeast. He recommends never going above 15PSI. 

I decided to decreased the pressure on my spunding valve to 10PSI. 

Cheers,

Christina.

 

[Norris!]

Just tossed in the cube of Amarillo SMASH with US05. Looking forward to this brew, it is weird, it is only a SMASH, but it is the 1st brew done with the mill and the 25kg grain sack of Barrett Burston. I cannot wait to try it.

[Norris!]

I actually tossed it in last night at 9pm. I love the bubbling.

[Beer Baron]

9 hours ago, Hairy said:

I'm currently fermenting under pressure. My wife said:

"When is that beer going to be finished? I need to use that fridge for the BBQ on Australia Day."

Pressure is on.

Get another fridge!!

[Greenyinthewestofsydney]

4 hours ago, ChristinaS1 said:

@Greeny1525229549 I have been doing reading about when to start applying pressure. The best info I could find was in this video:

He says that for lagers, apply pressure right away, but for ales wait until fermentation is mostly done, as you still want some ester formation. He also said that if trying pressure fermentation with a new yeast, start with 5PSI. Apparently 10-12PSI is the sweet spot for many yeast. He recommends never going above 15PSI. 

I decided to decreased the pressure on my spunding valve to 10PSI. 

Cheers,

Christina.

 

Nice video Christina. Interesting what they say about ales only putting pressure on at the end. I certainly didn’t do that. Will be very interested to hear your views on the lager. I have two Lagers going now while I am overseas so will have some nice slurry when they are done to try one myself at ambient. I think I will do the same recipe as one of them actually so I can get a side by side tasting. 

[Instigator]

Finally back from a 9 week stint in Canberra and it's time to fire up the fermenters. I have Coopers 23L and 8.5L fermenters and can run both simultaneously.

All-In Brewing Red IPA FWK, made to 20L, US-05, OG: 1042.

Coopers APA can, made to 10L, rehydrated kit yeast, OG: 1050.

Both brewing at 18C. My quickest brew day yet.

After I get these done I will be doing Coopers XPA then Sparkling Ale. I appreciate it's time to start the winter beers, but I still have quite a few dark ales, and will be testing last year's batch of RIS.

[Pezzza]

On 1/23/2020 at 1:18 PM, James Lao said:

 

 

 

Nice work JL - but I am afraid your taping is not up to standard for this forum - you need at least five to seven times the amount - and preferably industrial strength super tape with at least double the width - seems to be the norm - I too am very poor when it comes to taping and probably only use one strand... nowhere near enough... disgraceful really isn't it ?   

All good mate reckon it will be a very interesting brewski!   Should try the nibs one day meself.  Cheers mate. BB

[Pezzza]

On 1/23/2020 at 10:08 AM, Greeny1525229549 said:

Yeah in the keg. No I didn’t use a floating dip tube. The first pour was absolute rubbish but cleared up after that fine. Just don’t move the keg. I wouldn’t do the method if it’s staying in the keg for a long time though. 

Could do the ferment under pressure for the cleaner outcomes for a Lager say... and then still decant and gas up... or do you think that defeats the purpose of it?

I do have a SS Vat that I think could be set up to run under pressure... and then I could just keg that anyway... or would it be a foamfest?

[Pezzza]

On 1/23/2020 at 2:00 AM, ChristinaS1 said:

Regarding your starter, looks like you have the lid snapped down. Are those jars intended to withstand pressure?

=========

 The only thing I may do different from most people is that I add 1-2 teaspoon of bread yeast (you could use a spare pack of kit yeast) to the starter wort, when it is boiling, and simmer them for a few minutes. Dead yeast is a nutrient.

Thanks for that Christina - nice and cool up your way by the looks ; )  

Yeah that jar is pretty tough and I believe meant to be able to cope with a bit of pressure... I keep releasing it from time to time when the yeast are growing...  Those jars are pretty thick glass.  Think it would leak before exploding...  if you wash with boiling water and shake it - it spits some hot water out via the rubber seal...

Good luck with the spunding experiment - pretty cool what you and @Greeny1525229549 Greeny are up to.

Cheers

BB

[ChristinaS1]

10 hours ago, Bearded Burbler said:

Could do the ferment under pressure for the cleaner outcomes for a Lager say... and then still decant and gas up... or do you think that defeats the purpose of it?

I do have a SS Vat that I think could be set up to run under pressure... and then I could just keg that anyway... or would it be a foamfest?

If you do a closed transfer to another (purged) keg, it does not defeat the purpose. I think I might end up doing this, to get the beer off the yeast. 

To avoid foam, move the spunding valve to receiving keg and set it 2PSI below the pressure you are using to push / move the beer. 

Here is a video about it. Start watching at 17:30 minute mark, until the 24 minute mark. 

Cheers,

Christina.

Edited January 24, 2020 by ChristinaS1

[Marty_G]

I have a 25 litre keg which I think would be perfect as a pressurised fermenter.   Think I will give this a shot.  Time to buy a spunding valve.  If it works I can then turn my ferment fridge into a lagering fridge.  I have a pluto gun so I can take samples easy enough as well.  

[Otto Von Blotto]

Checked my leftovers lager SG finally, 13 days after pitching it, although I did take a progress sample after 5 days which fermented out in a day. It's sitting at 1.011 and cleared up a fair bit so that's done enough for me to start the lagering, today heading down to 12 degrees, then slowly down to 3 over the following few days. Sample tasting good for the stage it's at. 

I have to check the SG of the ESB tomorrow which is 7 days since pitching. I didn't end up doing a progress sample on that one but it's most likely finished and probably was yesterday or even two days ago. It should be ready to drop the temp down on Monday and be kegged next Sunday or the Monday. I might go back to the isinglass and polyclar on that one, it doesn't need as long as biofine which would enable a Sunday kegging which I'd prefer over a work day. 

In fact I'll probably go back to isinglass and polyclar permanently once this biofine runs out. Not a fan of the layer of yeast it creates above the trub, and it seems to slightly mute the hops and accentuate the malt as well, something I never got with the other products.