Daily diary of a virgin (first ever) home brew!

[pilotsh]

Two quick questions:

Do I need to invert my conditioning bottled beer gently once a day for the first two weeks or just leave them standing?

Do all the Coopers Malt tins (regular red top) have the same Coopers yeast sachets in them or do they give different types different strains?

Will probably put Brew two on tomorrow. (Coopers big DIY kit, Lager, with 1 kg BE2 and 210g BE1, dry pitched)

Edited April 27, 2020 by pilotsh

[Otto Von Blotto]

No, just leave them sit. They actually don't need to be inverted ever, even straight after filling them like some may do. 

There is a thread somewhere with all the kit yeasts. The original series kits all have the same ale yeast, but the international and Thomas Cooper series or whatever it is now contain various strains depending on the style. 

[Journeyman]

4 minutes ago, Otto Von Blotto said:

There is a thread somewhere with all the kit yeasts

It's the pinned post in Coopers Community - 

 

[pilotsh]

Excellent thanks!

In the first hour I had to tighten the lids a few times, they were loose for a bit! By today they are already 'firm'/normal

(I squeezed the sides a little flat as I tightened the lids so I could see the carbonation firm them up)

 

[UncleStavvy]

Are all these issues with new PET bottles and caps?

 

[pilotsh]

19 minutes ago, UncleStavvy said:

Are all these issues with new PET bottles and caps?

2 hours ago, pilotsh said:

In the first hour I had to tighten the lids a few times, they were loose for a bit! By today they are already 'firm'/normal

(I squeezed the sides a little flat as I tightened the lids so I could see the carbonation firm them up)

 

I realised my post didn't make sense, as I had mixed bottles and lids/caps into one. So here is what I meant to say:

In the first hour I had to tighten the lids a few times, they were loose for a bit! After a few hours, the lids stayed "tight".

As for the bottles, this is just what I did, so I could see carbonation occuring to ensure I don't get flat beer: I squeezed the sides of the bottle a little flat as I tightened the lids so I could see the carbonation firm them up! By today the bottles are nice and firm/normal! And the lids are nice and tight.

 

Yes, new PET and lids, I guess the plastic "settles" at first use.

Edited April 27, 2020 by pilotsh

[Journeyman]

19 minutes ago, pilotsh said:

Yes, new PET and lids, I guess the plastic "settles" at first use.

Some people cut the collar off their PET bottles so they seal properly. The bit left behind when you twist the cap off)

I've recently had a few 'flatties' and am thinking of sitting down and doing it for my 150+ PETs.

[Pezzza]

 I think @Otto Von Blotto is correct as things do vary - in my past KnK life where I had lower SG wort a basic sprinkle of dried Yeast was fine - but now on higher SG wort and with a greater proportion of non-fermentable sugars I think that a starter is a good idea.

[Pezzza]

Talking of Starter vs Sprinkle - this from Lallemand Kveik Yeast is interesting...  especially the last sentence (my highlighting)

LalBrew® Voss Kveik Ale Yeast

Kveik is a Norwegian word meaning yeast.  In Lallemand’s Standard Conditions Wort, LalBrew® Voss yeast exhibits:
Fermentation that is completed in:

2 days at 40°C (104°F)
3-4 days at 30°C (86°F)
5-7 days at 25°C (77°F)
Medium to high attenuation and very high flocculation.
Neutral flavor profile across the temperature range with notes of orange and citrus.
The optimal temperature range for LalBrew® Voss yeast when producing traditional
styles is 35-40°C (95-104°F)
Lag phase, total fermentation time, attenuation and flavor are dependent on pitch rate, yeast handling, fermentation temperature and nutritional quality of the wort.

Our research suggests that pitching LalBrew® Voss directly into wort without prior rehydration will often result in better performance including shorter lag-phase and greater attenuation.

[Otto Von Blotto]

1 hour ago, Bearded Burbler said:

 I think @Otto Von Blotto is correct as things do vary - in my past KnK life where I had lower SG wort a basic sprinkle of dried Yeast was fine - but now on higher SG wort and with a greater proportion of non-fermentable sugars I think that a starter is a good idea.

Pitching rates are pretty much based on SG and volume, as well as flavour. Not so much on whether or not the sugars are fermentable. 

Obviously they're designed for best performance, but depending on the beer this will vary. Lagers are best pitched with a bucket load as aside from the low temperature it obviously results in a clean flavour. Ales and other styles are where it varies more, as you can influence the flavour the yeast produce with pitching rates along with ferment temp. 

Whether a starter is needed really depends on how much yeast you have to begin with, the wort composition and the beer style/intended flavour. I don't make beers where the yeast heavily influences flavour like it does in a wheat beer, so my pitching rates stay pretty constant across the board. It's obviously not precise using online calculators and estimated cell counts but it does yield consistently good results. 

[pilotsh]

Brew TWO!

Getting excited! Just rinsed my large brew kit and now resting/stiring about 20 litres if water in the sun for a few hours just to let of some chorine. Last time I left the lid off, but now I don't know if I should leave it on to prevent "wild yeast" ingress! Does this home brewing ever get any easier!!!? 

The plan is:

Malt: Canned- Coopers DIY Brand New Regular Kit (Coopers Lager). BB date on can: 16/1/21

Extra Ingredients: 1 kg Coopers Brew Enhancer 2, and 210g of Cooper Brew Enhancer 1 (can says to use BE2, but kit contained BE1)

Water: Unfiltered, rested tap water (for the chlorine to evaporate)

Preparation: Will add the Malt Can ingredients and Brew Enhancers to some cooled boiled water, stir, dump into FV.

Yeast: Sachet included with Can.

Pitching Method: Sprinkle Dry Yeast onto the top of wort (will follow the kit instructions again to see if slow ferment repeats itself).
 

Edited April 28, 2020 by pilotsh
added photo, grammar

[Journeyman]

13 minutes ago, pilotsh said:

Water: Unfiltered, rested tap water (for the chlorine to evaporate)

Check your local water supply. The are a number of ways to remove most chlorine - but many localities now use chloramine to do the same thing chlorine was added for - it apparently lasts longer in the water. Check, because UV (the sunlight treatment) breaks chloramines into chlorine and ammonia. I'm not sure the ammonia degasses, even in UV.

Stirring the water in sunlight might help speed things up but it is unlikely the UV is actually passing through the plastic - you need glass or something else that will allow UV through. You could get a UV lamp and expose the water to that for few hours. Chlorine takes about a day to degas from ~20 litres and UV speeds that up considerably.

Simplest is likely just buy and inline active carbon filter and fit it to your hose for brewing use - pretty sure that deals with chlorine and chloramines.

[pilotsh]

15 minutes ago, Journeyman said:

fit it to your hose for brewing use

If only apartments had a garden tap fitting that would be a perfect solution! Our water is fine to drink, not usually chloriny, I guess I just rest it to over complicate things and try to not kill the yeast with chlorine!

(both days I have started a brew I drink a few glasses of water throughout the day to make sure it is nice, and not a rare day when they pump it full of chlorine), I've checked and my supplier uses chlorine, and not chloramines, yet)

Edited April 28, 2020 by pilotsh

[Otto Von Blotto]

Rather than making shit more complicated with UV lamps and whatever else, just throw some vitamin C in it, that'll remove the chlorine/chloramine. 

Edited April 28, 2020 by Otto Von Blotto

[Goldcoast Crow]

2 hours ago, Journeyman said:

Check your local water supply. The are a number of ways to remove most chlorine - but many localities now use chloramine to do the same thing chlorine was added for - it apparently lasts longer in the water. Check, because UV (the sunlight treatment) breaks chloramines into chlorine and ammonia. I'm not sure the ammonia degasses, even in UV.

Stirring the water in sunlight might help speed things up but it is unlikely the UV is actually passing through the plastic - you need glass or something else that will allow UV through. You could get a UV lamp and expose the water to that for few hours. Chlorine takes about a day to degas from ~20 litres and UV speeds that up considerably.

Simplest is likely just buy and inline active carbon filter and fit it to your hose for brewing use - pretty sure that deals with chlorine and chloramines.

Is this n activated charcoal filter, it has a small slip hose fitting on one end and about 30/40 small shower holes at the other...

[Journeyman]

3 minutes ago, Goldcoast Crow said:

Is this n activated charcoal filter, it has a small slip hose fitting on one end and about 30/40 small shower holes at the other...

No idea. The black stuff, probably. The white stuff might be to reduce scale or maybe soften water? Did you get any info with it? Or maybe ask the supplier?

[Goldcoast Crow]

7 minutes ago, Journeyman said:

No idea. The black stuff, probably. The white stuff might be to reduce scale or maybe soften water? Did you get any info with it? Or maybe ask the supplier?

No info, came with my second hand fv

[pilotsh]

Silly question, does it fit into the red thing? It looks like a carbon filter to stop the "odour" from the ferment after it passes the lock. My guess is the white wool is used to create a small back pressure so that the carbon has more of a chance to get rid of the smells.

All of this is just a guess!

[Goldcoast Crow]

7 minutes ago, Journeyman said:

No idea. The black stuff, probably. The white stuff might be to reduce scale or maybe soften water? Did you get any info with it? Or maybe ask the supplier?

No info, came with my second hand fv

[pilotsh]

1 hour ago, pilotsh said:

Silly question, does it fit into the red thing?

I think we made a post about the same time.

In the photo, the red thing (the bubble lock). Does that black thing fit into any end(s) of the red thing?

[pilotsh]

Tuesday 28th April: Brew two pitched!
 

Malt: Canned- Coopers DIY Brand New Regular Kit (Coopers Lager). BB date on can: 16/1/21

Extra Ingredients: 1.026 kg Coopers Brew Enhancer 2, and 210g of Cooper Brew Enhancer 1 (can says to use BE2, but kit contained BE1)

Water: Unfiltered, rested tap water.

Preparation: Malt Can added to off-the-boil water, dissolved and added to FV. Brew Enhancers added to FV and stirred to dissolved.

Yeast: Sachet included with Can.

Pitching Method: Sprinkled Dry Yeast onto the top of wort (followed the kit instructions again to see if slow ferment repeats itself).
 
Initial Wort Temperature: 23.3C.

 Temperature Control: No cooling. 35W heat belt. Inkbird Temp controller, target 19.9C, Heat belt at 19.2C.

 Initial Sample SG (OG): 1040. Can instructions indicated 1038, but I have added extra BE1.

Photo(s):

 

[ChristinaS1]

On 4/25/2020 at 7:08 PM, Titan said:

In discussion with Eric Abbott, Lallemand’s Technical Advisor, he further informed me that “the yeast cell membrane is more non-selectively permeable during the first few minutes of rehydration, so rehydrating in water instead of directly in the beer reduces the risk of absorbing toxins into the cell.”

That said, there have been improvements in dry yeast production at Lallemand so dried yeast is now more robust and resistant to stress than it previously was. Taking it a step further, the impacts of yeast rehydration can be strain dependent, however Lallemand is confident in recommending dry pitching for any of their stains.

“We do see some strain-specific differences in lag phase, attenuation, and flavor, but these differences are generally quite small and should not deter any brewer from trying dry pitching. In some cases dry pitching gives better performance and we now recommend dry pitching our New England and BRY-97 strains as recent lab trials have shown shorter lag phases as well as greater attenuation. These tests are ongoing as we test dry pitching in different types of wort (high gravity, sour, etc.).”

That is very interesting. Thanks Titan. I stopped rehydrating dry yeast some time ago and have noticed only a slight increase in lag time.

I recently used MJ M44 West Coast yeast for the first time. It has the same source as BRY-97, which is notoriously laggy. I dry pitched at 23C and set the Inkbird to 18C. It was not bubbling yet the next morning so, over the course of the day, I kept bumping the temp up, until I got to 20C. It finally stated bubbling after supper, 28 hours after pitching....Hate to see how long the lag would have been had I rehydrated it. 

Cheers,

Christina.

[Otto Von Blotto]

I remember using Bry 97. I only used it once, but I didn't understand all the slow lag stuff everyone else seemed to have. I rehydrated it, pitched it and it was up and going less than 24 hours later. Must have been a good packet

[pilotsh]

Wednesday 29th April: 22 hours since pitch.

Brew Temp: 23.4C, after a low of 23.0C.

SG: Not Tested.

Comments: Boring! I was expecting loads of bubbles but so far no need for the Krausen Collar. About 1cm of airy bubbles, popping, moving, rolling slowly. Included a bonus video of them.

Photo(s): 

 

[Pezzza]

On 4/28/2020 at 2:43 PM, pilotsh said:

Does this home brewing ever get any easier!!!? 

Mate who was on the water (the big Briny) a bit reckoned some deprobates he came across used to do "SCREECH".... buy pineapple - cut in half - and let lounge around for a while in container and subsequently drink/eat the fermented pineapple...  Your Question:  Does this home brewing ever get any easier!!!? 

Maybe that is easier?