What's in Your Fermenter 2022?

[Tricky Micky]

On 11/28/2022 at 6:14 PM, DavidM said:

Coopers Pale Ale

170g Golden Oats (all I had left)

230g Light Crystal Malt

200g Maltodextrin 

30g Galaxy hops

Steeped the Oats and Crystal for 30 minutes

Boiled for 10, then chucked in the Hops at Flameout.

US05 yeast.

In the brew fridge at 20 deg 

@DavidM, This reminded me of another recipe I do quite often. What volume you doing? Sounds like a nice beer mate.

https://www.diybeer.com/au/recipe/eclipse-australian-pale-ale.html

[DavidM]

4 hours ago, Mickep said:

@DavidM, This reminded me of another recipe I do quite often. What volume you doing? Sounds like a nice beer mate.

https://www.diybeer.com/au/recipe/eclipse-australian-pale-ale.html

23L

And yes I've done the Eclipse before, good brew.

Keep it Simple

[Tone boy]

12 hours ago, Mickep said:

Hey Toner, thanks heaps mate. Let me know how this goes. I'm keen to know because I stupidly bought a mountain of SP a while back when I couldn't get POR - so I have oodles of the stuff to get rid of. I like the sound of the addition going in at FG and cold. Those articles on what is imparted in the dry hop are really interesting - some suggest the first 12 hours is where all the lovely aromas and flavours are imparted. Thanks for your help mate, much appreciated.

No worries Mick. I’ll report back

[jennyss]

23 hours ago, Classic Brewing Co said:

There are many ways to combat heat, ice baths, wet towels, fans etc but you would soon get sick of that.

It is a good practice to keep a reliable temperature gauge in the same room as the FV

Thanks @Classic Brewing Co; I do move a room thermometer into the laundry before a brew is mixed.  I think the wet towels, ice bricks, and floor fan will be the go this summer again.  At the moment I still have a heater lurking in the laundry, as overnight temperatures this Spring have been quite cool. 

[Classic Brewing Co]

55 minutes ago, jennyss said:

Thanks @Classic Brewing Co; I do move a room thermometer into the laundry before a brew is mixed.  I think the wet towels, ice bricks, and floor fan will be the go this summer again.  At the moment I still have a heater lurking in the laundry, as overnight temperatures this Spring have been quite cool. 

Yes @jennyss we have all had to that from time to time, especially in the early years, another idea is to go to a Kmart similar & buy a large plastic storage tub see attached down towards the bottom of the link.

If you fill plastic drink bottles & freeze them, they act as large ice blocks & you put the FV inside the tub with cold water & add or remove the ice bottles as needed, if you had a spare thermometer you could keep it close by to check the temperature regularly.

The bottom of the Coopers FV is about 300mm so they will fit in the large tubs.

https://www.kmart.com.au/category/home-&-living/home-by-category/storage-&-organisation/storage-tubs-boxes-&-bags/storage-tubs/251210/

 

[Pickles Jones]

3 hours ago, jennyss said:

Thanks @Classic Brewing Co; I do move a room thermometer into the laundry before a brew is mixed.  I think the wet towels, ice bricks, and floor fan will be the go this summer again.  At the moment I still have a heater lurking in the laundry, as overnight temperatures this Spring have been quite cool. 

 You wont go wrong adding a Fermenting Eridge to your. brewing,

Having temperature control is a must if you want to brew consistently good beer.  With all things being equal you will really notice the difference.

I have mine set to the temperature required for the beer style, with a differential of one degree or less.

I find that an Allfridge is a good investment coupled to an Inkbird temperature controller. You can introduce a Heat Belt or Heat Mat when needed.

[Otto Von Blotto]

I agree a temperature controlled fridge is the easiest and most reliable way to achieve the desired fermentation temp, provided you have the room for one and budget etc. The power consumption is small because they're probably switched off more than they're on. The temperature controllers work by turning the whole fridge on and off (like turning it on and off at the wall), they don't have any interference with the innards of the fridge itself. 

I have two of them now that sit in the patio area. The original one I got from the olds, it was just sitting there doing nothing so I started using it for a brew fridge when I was living there, and took it with me when I moved out. The other one is my old kegerator. I wouldn't be without them now, being able to ferment anything at anytime is great. 

[kmar92]

On 11/29/2022 at 9:46 PM, kmar92 said:

Unfortunately I have had a hiatus in the brewery for various reasons. Today things were serious, so I put down a quick partial batch that I am hoping will come out really nice. I also have some Coop's tins that I need to use so started on that job.

1 x Coopers Aussie Pale Ale, 1 x Coopers Wheat Malt Extract, approx. 500g LDME, 400g Carapils steeped for 30 mins @ 65 - 70C, 25g Mosaic@14. I will dry hop with Mosaic and Simcoe. Yeast was Nottingham (yeah you US05 users will not like that).

In the ferment fridge @19C. Now I just need to fill that void in the fridge below it, that will be an AG brew I am thinking! The lighting affected the camera so it is far paler than it appears, estimated at 8EBC.

 

 

Filled the vacant space in the ferment fridge today. Unfortunately I didn't do an AG batch as I had planned but another partial.

Coop's European Lager, Coops LME, 500g LDME, Pilsner, Carapils and wheat grains, Hallertau MF for bittering and I will do a Hallertau MF+Saaz+Tetnang coffee plunger steep added to the keg. W34/70 under 10psi pressure for the ferment.

[Tricky Micky]

HELP! Please.

These pics are of my latest brews in the Ferment fridge. About day 12 and cold crashing. Used a US-05 yeast slurry from the previous batch (Which by the way is fine in the keg at the minute) and it's got the dreaded off flavour I've had before. The fridge is spotless , and sanitised and the Fv's were cleaned and sanitised within an inch of their lives including the taps......

I'm at a loss...is the photo of the krausen? or whats laying on top of the wort showing signs of an infection?

Should I even have this layer - it's been cold crashed for 2 days now.

Any help much appreciated.

Disregard the side orange light from the fridge if  you will - it's not pics of Mars I swear.

 

Edited December 7, 2022 by Mickep

[kmar92]

@Mickep that doesn't look good. It almost looks like an active fement but if it has been cold crashing for 2 days I wouldn't expect any action. Is the taste the exactly the same as the other batches that you had to chuck?

[Tricky Micky]

Just now, kmar92 said:

@Mickep that doesn't look good. It almost looks like an active fement but if it has been cold crashing for 2 days I wouldn't expect any action. Is the taste the exactly the same as the other batches that you had to chuck?

Yep, it's not as pronounced but the same taste. Top fermenter in the fridge is more pronounced than the FV that sits on the bottom shelf. It's def hit FG. 2 days into a cold crash I would normally see only remnants of the krausen. 

[DavidM]

30 minutes ago, Mickep said:

HELP! Please.

These pics are of my latest brews in the Ferment fridge. About day 12 and cold crashing. Used a US-05 yeast slurry from the previous batch (Which by the way is fine in the keg at the minute) and it's got the dreaded off flavour I've had before. The fridge is spotless , and sanitised and the Fv's were cleaned and sanitised within an inch of their lives including the taps......

I'm at a loss...is the photo of the krausen? or whats laying on top of the wort showing signs of an infection?

Should I even have this layer - it's been cold crashed for 2 days now.

Any help much appreciated.

Disregard the side orange light from the fridge if  you will - it's not pics of Mars I swear.

 

Mick, as you said, the area is spotless. 

I thought mine was too, but found Mould growing in between the Fridge a Freezer sections of the brew fridge.

Not sure if it applies to you but I had to unscrew the plates in between the two.

Hope you can sort it out..

Edit: just saw a photo of your fridge and it looks like a stand alone with no freezer.

So this would not apply in your situation. 

Edited December 7, 2022 by DavidM
Info

[Classic Brewing Co]

39 minutes ago, Mickep said:

HELP! Please.

These pics are of my latest brews in the Ferment fridge. About day 12 and cold crashing. Used a US-05 yeast slurry from the previous batch (Which by the way is fine in the keg at the minute) and it's got the dreaded off flavour I've had before. The fridge is spotless , and sanitised and the Fv's were cleaned and sanitised within an inch of their lives including the taps......

I'm at a loss...is the photo of the krausen? or whats laying on top of the wort showing signs of an infection?

Should I even have this layer - it's been cold crashed for 2 days now.

Any help much appreciated.

Disregard the side orange light from the fridge if  you will - it's not pics of Mars I swear.

 

That's a tough break Mick, especially after your previous episode.  I am no expert but I agree with @kmar92 it doesn't look good.

From now on I swear I will not mess about with left over yeast again - least of all ever do a 'dirty batch'

IMO it just ain't worth it, I will get a few objections from those that do it, but I don't care, I even stuffed up the last time I did it but I put in about 600ml which left me with a very dense, cloudy beer. It's in the keg, taste's great but that's not the point, I just won't ever do it again.

Anyway, I hope you find a way to save it.

Cheers.

[Pickles Jones]

1 hour ago, Mickep said:

HELP! Please.

These pics are of my latest brews in the Ferment fridge. About day 12 and cold crashing. Used a US-05 yeast slurry from the previous batch (Which by the way is fine in the keg at the minute) and it's got the dreaded off flavour I've had before. The fridge is spotless , and sanitised and the Fv's were cleaned and sanitised within an inch of their lives including the taps......

I'm at a loss...is the photo of the krausen? or whats laying on top of the wort showing signs of an infection?

Should I even have this layer - it's been cold crashed for 2 days now.

Any help much appreciated.

Disregard the side orange light from the fridge if  you will - it's not pics of Mars I swear.

 

I hope I have got this right, the first batch using fresh US-O5 yeast is now kegged and tastes OK. This one is the second effort for the yeast and doesn't pass the taste test.

I would suggest then, that the yeast has picked up something during the time you drained the FV into the kegs and when you put the lid on the FV for the second batch. 

It's easy to do and you can spend a lot of time on this problem. I had it once, tipped out the FV, sanitised and cleaned everything.

I was lucky it was all Ok after that. 

[Tricky Micky]

14 minutes ago, Pickles Jones said:

I hope I have got this right, the first batch using fresh US-O5 yeast is now kegged and tastes OK. This one is the second effort for the yeast and doesn't pass the taste test.

I would suggest then, that the yeast has picked up something during the time you drained the FV into the kegs and when you put the lid on the FV for the second batch. 

It's easy to do and you can spend a lot of time on this problem. I had it once, tipped out the FV, sanitised and cleaned everything.

I was lucky it was all Ok after that. 

Yep, yeast worked on the last double batch fine. The fact it's in the 2 separate  FV's is a concern....

But cheers mate, unfortunately I just tipped 3 kegs recently, same off flavours . This'll probably be another 2. I think for now I'll just go back to the packets of yeast....

I'll have to grab all the brewing equipment and run it through a bleach mix I think.

[kmar92]

I feel for you @Mickep, if in fact the 2 brews are unable to be saved, you are having a bad run.

Will you still keg them and see what happens with some keg conditioning?

[Tricky Micky]

7 minutes ago, kmar92 said:

I feel for you @Mickep, if in fact the 2 brews are unable to be saved, you are having a bad run.

Will you still keg them and see what happens with some keg conditioning?

Yeah, Cheers @kmar92. Bit shell shocked at the minute....If I tip these it'll be 5 out of the last seven kegs down the chute...

I might have a crack at kegging them and see if they recover - if they're anything like the last lot I don't hold out much hope.

If I'm going to bleach everything do you know what ratio bleach to water would need to go with to get rid of a  possible infection from the brew gear?

Edited December 7, 2022 by Mickep

[kmar92]

9 minutes ago, Mickep said:

Yeah, Cheers @kmar92. Bit shell shocked at the minute....If I tip these it'll be 5 out of the last seven kegs down the chute...

I might have a crack at kegging them and see if they recover - if they're anything like the last lot I don't hold out much hope.

If I'm going to bleach everything do you know what ratio bleach to water would need to go with to get rid of a  possible infection from the brew gear?

I haven't had any experience at trying to kill an infection in brewing gear with bleach. I did have a quick poke around the interwebs and it seems that the consensus is that you should 1st clean everything thoroughly with sodium percabonate or PBW. Then a 10% solution of bleach in water and give it all a soak, most important that you then rinse everything really well as I have found bleach to be really persistent. Really with a 10% solution that is enough to kill everything I would imagine - sort of the Chernobyl treatment!!

[kmar92]

@Mickep are your fermenters in good condition? If you have any scratching or scoring on the surfaces these can provide a safe haven for nasties to hang out and apparently they can then evade cleaning and sanitising.

[Tricky Micky]

2 minutes ago, kmar92 said:

@Mickep are your fermenters in good condition? If you have any scratching or scoring on the surfaces these can provide a safe haven for nasties to hang out and apparently they can then evade cleaning and sanitising.

They're in good nick really, can't discount that though. Nothing obvious.  

[Tricky Micky]

14 minutes ago, kmar92 said:

@Mickep are your fermenters in good condition? If you have any scratching or scoring on the surfaces these can provide a safe haven for nasties to hang out and apparently they can then evade cleaning and sanitising.

It's puzzling because it's happened in the two separate FV's....

[Shamus O'Sean]

4 hours ago, Mickep said:

HELP! Please.

These pics are of my latest brews in the Ferment fridge. About day 12 and cold crashing. Used a US-05 yeast slurry from the previous batch (Which by the way is fine in the keg at the minute) and it's got the dreaded off flavour I've had before. The fridge is spotless , and sanitised and the Fv's were cleaned and sanitised within an inch of their lives including the taps......

I'm at a loss...is the photo of the krausen? or whats laying on top of the wort showing signs of an infection?

Should I even have this layer - it's been cold crashed for 2 days now.

Any help much appreciated.

Disregard the side orange light from the fridge if  you will - it's not pics of Mars I swear.

 

I must say the Krausen looks normal for a US-05 brew even two days into cold crash.  US-05 can hang a round for ages.  I often have to give the FV a bit of a jiggle to get the surface of the Krausen to break up and sink.

The flavour you report is concerning though.

What's curious is that the previous batch with the fresh yeast in the same FV's is fine.  It does point to what @Pickles Jones PJ says, about something happening in the time between kegging the previous brew and adding this brew to your FV's.  I suspect that the FV's are okay, because the previous brew was okay.  Otherwise it has got me stumped.

Were these dry hopped?  I remember your previous dumped ones were.  What about the recent one that is good?  Just looking for possible patterns.

It is hard to tell from your photos, but the beer underneath the Krausen looks fine.  Unless the beer tastes really bad, I would still keg it and give it a chance.  The brews have probably already cost you in ingredients (plus your time).  It is not much more cost to keg them for a try.

As far as bleach treatment, I was using about 5ml in each 750ml bottle, so just a bit under 1%, in an overnight soak.  That was to kill diastaticus.  A bleach dilution rate of 10% sounds too much.  That means 3 litres in a 30 litre fermenter.  I did treat a couple of Coopers FV's with about 200ml of bleach in the 30 litre FV's and left overnight.  The next brews in them were fine.  However, I ditched those FV's anyway and bought 2 new ones because I had scratched the bottoms of the old ones to a degree that I thought was too much of risk going forward.

Whatever you do I hope these ones work out.

[kmar92]

Yes @Shamus O'Sean the taste to me says a lot, especially after @Mickep says that it is a similar taste to the other kegs that he had to dump.

Interesting thoughts on the dry hopping though. Normally wort is most susceptible to infection at the stage where yeast is pitched, usually later in the brew after most of the fermentables have been consumed and when you are dry hopping the wort should be far less liable to get infected.

If I was in @Mickep shoes I would keg them and see what happens.

[Uhtred Of Beddanburg]

@Mickep I have brewed alot of beers with US05 and had similar looking beers. There is also an old saying if it looks good it tastes good and Vice Versa. There is a possibility that it's all in your head because of the look and you're past experience?

Not trying to be a psychologist or being smart A mate. I have in past made some beers that looked and smelled bad. I never taste test samples because to me it's not ready so dont bother. They all ended up being ok in the end havent had to tip one from infection yet only ones I didn't like. I have an old FV scratched to the crap house. Every 5 brews gets a good bleach and rinse. 

I just squirt a few times don't measure anything if can smell it it's enough. So hope this helps and comes out ok mate as @Shamus O'Sean says standard looking US-05 brew for me. 

I even got Warned against wacking the FV side due to oxygenating the beer. Every cold crash it got some massive wacks to sink the krausen no problemo.  I really hope it's a happy ending mate.

Edited December 7, 2022 by Uhtred Of Beddanburg

[Otto Von Blotto]

In my experience it can hang about even after the cold crash has started, but I usually "solve" this problem by throwing in the dry hops in a tea strainer ball, it breaks it up and it disappears after a while. I've done it pre and post cold crash, the latter usually because of laziness

The off flavour is more of a concern and I agree with the others in that it could have something to do with reusing the cake/slurry considering the ones with the fresh packets are fine. I don't agree about never reusing yeast though because it can easily be done without any problem and it saves a lot of money. 

A while back I had to tip out a batch of pale ale because it developed a flavour that made it taste like a Saison (I don't like them), it had picked up something in the fermenter, but the saved yeast was fine since it was done prior to pitching it so I didn't have to get more. That batch never saw a keg, I tipped it as soon as I had my usual taste test before filling the keg. I gave the fermenter a good bleach soak and rinse, let it air dry to get rid of any chlorine traces, and it's been fine ever since. 

Edited December 7, 2022 by Otto Von Blotto