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What's in Your Fermenter? 2021


Shamus O'Sean

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3 hours ago, ChristinaS1 said:

This brew is very tasty, one of my best. Nice head and lacing too. Love it.

5.4% Christina - party time!!

I know you use clarity fern each time, does it have an influence on the taste of the beer?

Glad it turned out great. Just don’t do what I do…. I come upon a great recipe, then decide to change it. Don’t know why I do that!

Cheers ✌️🍻

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22 minutes ago, Tone boy said:

5.4% Christina - party time!!

I know you use clarity fern each time, does it have an influence on the taste of the beer?

Glad it turned out great. Just don’t do what I do…. I come upon a great recipe, then decide to change it. Don’t know why I do that!

Cheers ✌️🍻

Hi @Tone boy Clarity Ferm has no influence on the taste whatsoever. You cannot tell it is in there when you drink it, but you may notice less farting later. 😆

I do the same thing too: change a recipe I like. But I think I want to make this beer my house brew, so I will try to resist, or at least keep the changes to minor tweaks. 😜

Might need to come up with a better name for this brew....

Cheers,

Christina.

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So I finally got around to pitching a double cube batch (46 L) of my Leigh’s Lager recipe today.  It is the maiden brew for the big 58 L Kegmenter.  Using Dubbya from a two-step starter and had planned on pitching this over a week ago but things were a bit messy here lately.  Therefore had to fridge the second stage of the starter at 5 C since it fermented out and now unsure if there will be enough viable cells.  Hopefully they will come to the party and get going as I have no other sachets of Dubbya in stock to top them up.

I have decided on fermenting this brew at 1.5 x times the recommend temperature range for this yeast (which is normally 12 – 15 C) so this means it will be started off at 18 C and completed under slowly increased temperature and pressure settings until it lands on FG at around 22.5 C and at 15 psi.

Pitched the yeast at 18 C and at 10 psi around 13:45 03/09/2021.

I will go as high as 22.5 C at 15 psi for the D-rest stage.  I will take readings of gravity, temp and pressure all the way through so I can picture if these are the best settings to go for next time.  Will post up a brew graphic chart of the results for referral to see if the processes need tweaking in future lager brews.

58 L Kegmenter Maiden Brew - resized.jpg

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Update on my post above.

BD+1 13:45 pressure adjusted back down to 12.5 psi as it was a bit off the scale and too high, Temp held at 18 C and SG taken as 1.042 so down from 1.055 in 24 hours which works out to 29% done.  It will be held at the same temp and pressure for 3 days before ramping things up a bit.

Yesterday I had adjusted the spunding valve to hold 10 psi before connecting it to the Kegmenter but stupidly later in the day I fiddled with it as the pressure looked like it was dropping.  When I checked on it first thing this morning the pressure had gone up to about 20 + psi ? as the needle was wound right round and hard up against the end stop pin.  Just goes to show I should not second guess myself.

Am going to try and take my measurements at approx the same time each day during this first lager pressure ferment test.  i.e. every 24 hours at 13:45.

Edited by iBooz2
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Another update on my 58 L Kegmenter batch posts above.

BD+2 13:45 pressure adjusted to 15.0 psi, as that's where it seems to want to be so left the spunding valve as is. Temp held at 18 C and SG taken as 1.028 so down from 1.055 in 48 hours which works out to 60% done.  Hope I am on the right track here with temps and pressures with this lager yeast as its a double batch and I don't want to have to drink it all if there are any off flavours.

Edited by iBooz2
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@iBooz2 it will be fine. I have a lager cold crashing at present that was fermented @ 22° with W34/70 and from doing the same previously I know that it will be fine. I do all my pressure ferments @ 15psi.

The lager had a cascade hop and I will do a saaz infusion straight into the keg before I close transfer the contents of the kegmenter. The infusion will be done via a coffee plunger prior to kegging.

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12 hours ago, kmar92 said:

@iBooz2 it will be fine. I have a lager cold crashing at present that was fermented @ 22° with W34/70 and from doing the same previously I know that it will be fine. I do all my pressure ferments @ 15psi.

The lager had a cascade hop and I will do a saaz infusion straight into the keg before I close transfer the contents of the kegmenter. The infusion will be done via a coffee plunger prior to kegging.

Agree with @kmar92 KMar @iBooz2 Boozer... mate I reckon you'd be fine with those temps even not under pressure...

Dubbya is just such a forgiving neutral yeast mate... pure Gold... looking forward to seeing how you go and when I grow up I want a big 58L Kegmenter too 😆

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@Graubart yep thanks for the confidence boost, this pressure fermenting lagers sure is a time saver.  Now with big batches and short time-frames I will need to by a ship load more kegs.  Next thing you know I will have the liquor licensing commission knocking on the brewery door looking for their excise. 🤣

BD+3 13:45 pressure held at 15.0 psi,  SG taken as 1.012 so down from 1.055 in 72 hours which works out to 96% done (predicted FG 1.010) so the temperature has now been bumped up to 20 C and then will be upped to 22 C tomorrow to finish it off and start the D-rest stage. 👍

Edited by iBooz2
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49 minutes ago, iBooz2 said:

upped to 22 C tomorrow to finish it off and start the D-rest stage.

I think some say that the D Rest is not required for the festive PFV - but am no expert and reckon raising a few degrees at end is always a good thing to tidy up and finish off @iBooz2 Boozer - think that the BrewMaster @kmar92 KMar might know a bit more about this PFV game though... ?

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5 hours ago, Graubart said:

I think some say that the D Rest is not required for the festive PFV - but am no expert and reckon raising a few degrees at end is always a good thing to tidy up and finish off @iBooz2 Boozer - think that the BrewMaster @kmar92 KMar might know a bit more about this PFV game though... ?

Thanks for that. Yep I don't think @MartyG1525230263 does the D-rest thing either when fermenting lagers under pressure.

Kmar92 has already coached me a bit on this but I was just trying to replicate my usual non-pressure routine albeit 1.5 x times higher the temp so will stick with that process for now and maybe tweak it next time.  It's a possibility that I could go 2.0 x times higher temp and no D-rest but we will see.

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9 hours ago, iBooz2 said:

Thanks for that. Yep I don't think @MartyG1525230263 does the D-rest thing either when fermenting lagers under pressure.

Correct I don't do a scheduled D rest regime as such.  However, with all my beers once the gravity gets below the 1015ish range I bump the temp up anyway.  I do it as I found it promotes a faster clean up of the beer as well as helping to get the last few points of fermentation.  So if I am fermenting a lager in the 15c range I pump it up to about 20c and an ale in the 22c range I bump it up to about 25c.  Some may say that is a D rest but I don't consider it one as a D rest to me is a more systemic increase of temp used when fermenting a low temps . The way that I think, I am just making the clean up easier.  Also once FG is reached I still leave it for 48-72 hours before crashing.   

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9 hours ago, Mickep said:

If you don't mind me asking what PFV are you using?

The SS one I believe @kmar92

I have not been happy with the plastic Fermzilla with separate chamber - would not recommend meself.

If I woulda had the current knowledge - woulda got SS one @kmar92 smaller sibling of the bigger version @iBooz2 Boozer runs...

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Another update on lager pressure ferment.

BD+4 13:55 pressure held at 15.0 psi,  SG taken as 1.009 so down from 1.055 in 96 hours which works out to 102% done (predicted FG 1.010) and the temperature has been bumped up again to 22 C.  Burps in the bottle of sanitiser from the blow off tube have slowed somewhat but it might even drop a point or two more yet - we will see.  I will not take another sample now until the pressure starts to drop as that will tell me the ferment is well and truly finished.  That may be tomorrow by the way its going.

Edited by iBooz2
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9 minutes ago, Graubart said:

I have not been happy with the plastic Fermzilla with separate chamber - would not recommend meself.

Been very happy with my 27 L Fermzilla once I worked out what was causing pressure leaks.  Its my number 2 fermenter now.

@Graubart did you sort and replace all those seals out I mentioned ages ago?

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1 hour ago, iBooz2 said:

Another update on lager pressure ferment.

BD+4 13:55 pressure held at 15.0 psi,  SG taken as 1.009 so down from 1.055 in 96 hours which works out to 102% done (predicted FG 1.010) and the temperature has been bumped up again to 22 C.  Burps in the bottle of sanitiser from the blow off tube have slowed somewhat but it might even drop a point or two more yet - we will see.  I will not take another sample now until the pressure starts to drop as that will tell me the ferment is well and truly finished.  That may be tomorrow by the way its going.

Hey @iBooz2 if you keep the temperature up at the present level the kegmenter should not lose any pressure, if it does you have a leak. With mine, once I am happy that I have reached FG, I cold crash and then you should see a pressure drop as the brew will start to absorb some CO2 as it cools. @22° the kegmenter should maintain pressure, even if the ferment has finished as it will absorb little CO2 at that temperature.

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29 minutes ago, kmar92 said:

@22° the kegmenter should maintain pressure, even if the ferment has finished as it will absorb little CO2 at that temperature.

Good tip K, I will keep an eye on it.  I am sure there are no leaks as I pumped it up with compressed air early on in the testing and left it for days just to check.  Of course there could be a seal malfunction since lid removed and replaced but hey, been very careful with that.

What I was getting at was the spunding valve is set to leak at its pre-set pressure of 15 psi so if the bubbles stop in the blow of tube/bottle and pressure starts to head south then I know its landed at FG.  I will confirm that of course with a hydro reading.

The previous spunding valve I had used to suck back regardless of how tight it was wound up.  Even the check valve allowed suction of sanitiser back up towards the gauge so they are not really one way valves, was a duotight CV.

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Yes I understand your thinking. I do not bother with sanitised solution on the blow off tube, mine is just open. I liken it to having a air lock on a fermenter and I feel that it is not needed.

My theory is that the PFV will always have positive pressure during the ferment, and if it does not leak it will retain that pressure when the ferment is completed, if the temperature remains constant. If you had a spunding valve suck back into the PFV then the PFV was losing pressure and that must have been from a leak, and it must have been a substantial leak to cause that suck back. The only time that I see a drop in pressure with my PFV is during the cold crash, that off course is due to CO2 being absorbed and all the Charles Law and Boyles Law stuff as it cools.

Sorry if I got a little carried away with my explanation!

Edited by kmar92
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