What's in Your Fermenter 2023?

[stquinto]

2 hours ago, jennyss said:

@stquinto, Very interesting piccies, but sixth picture is totally disgusting - what is happening here?

Why @jennyss, that is the base of all of our existence, the Adam and Eve of extract home brewing… it’s the tin of Coopers Bitter

Admittedly the piccies were out of sequence

[stquinto]

Pretty productive brew weekend: Battleship Bitter, COPA AG and an Ashes Ale.

I never thought I’d use my ski boot for anything other than skiing, but necessity is the Mother of Invention, or so I’m told.

 

[Shamus O'Sean]

3 hours ago, stquinto said:

I am hoping pressure can still escape from the lemonade bottle.  The hole in the cap does not look like it is sealed, so should be all good.

Also keep an eye on the bottle filling up with foam.  I have had the blow-off bottle overflow and make a mess in the fermenting chamber.  These days I put the bottle into a small plastic tub as insurance.

[stquinto]

5 hours ago, Shamus O'Sean said:

I am hoping pressure can still escape from the lemonade bottle.  The hole in the cap does not look like it is sealed, so should be all good.

Also keep an eye on the bottle filling up with foam.  I have had the blow-off bottle overflow and make a mess in the fermenting chamber.  These days I put the bottle into a small plastic tub as insurance.

Cheers Shamus. I cut two small holes in the top with a knife so it wouldn’t explode. As I’m away for the rest of the week it might be prudent to put the bottle in something other than my ski boot. SWMBO’s ski boot perhaps  

No, I know better…

Out of interest, what was the maximum volume you’ve brewed in your PVs in relation to the total volume? That’s 27/30l plus a bit of headspace

[Cult Of One]

On 4/2/2023 at 6:38 AM, jennyss said:

My Coopers Brew A IPA has been three days in the fermenter.  With the 1.5kg of light dry malt added, I suppose it is to be expected that it had a very vigorous krausen for two days. What I'm really wondering about is: Why do brews change colour so dramatically? This brew has gone from a very dark plummy brown to a mid to light tan in three days!

I always find that surprising myself with the colour change .

It is a great brew but fairly expensive to make with 3 boxes going in the mix. 

[Cult Of One]

On 4/9/2023 at 9:46 AM, kmar92 said:

I love the pink stool that you have the FV on!

Ikea milking stool, we have the bright green version

 

[stquinto]

43 minutes ago, Cult Of One said:

Ikea milking stool, we have the bright green version

 

Well spotted

[Classic Brewing Co]

38 minutes ago, stquinto said:

Well spotted

Who knows what goes on in the dungeon with that stool! 

[stquinto]

14 minutes ago, Classic Brewing Co said:

Who knows what goes on in the dungeon with that stool! 

In the Bunker no-one can hear you scream  

I’m actually quite glad to find a second use for all of the stuff we got the kids. Should see all of the bloody toys. Could have bought me twice as much home-brew kit, I’m telling you

[Shamus O'Sean]

7 hours ago, stquinto said:

Out of interest, what was the maximum volume you’ve brewed in your PVs in relation to the total volume? That’s 27/30l plus a bit of headspace

I have a 35L full to the brim Keg King Snub Nose.  These days I only fill it to 30L, maybe 31L.  Lagers done at 15psi have all stayed inside the FV.  Ales (US-05, Nottingham) at 2psi have all stayed in the FV.  The most recent Lallemand Munich Wheat, with no added pressure, came out of the FV via the gas blow off post for about 2 days.  The 2 litre blow off jug did not overflow though. 

[Classic Brewing Co]

I just put yesterday's AG - American Pale Ale into the FV/Brew Fridge, the wort smells very nice in fact just how a can of extract smells.

SG 1.044, I added my trusty old teaspoon of Yeast Nutrient & US-05 & set @ 20c for 14 days.

Looking forward to this one & I will do another AG brew this week.

 

[NBillett09]

Put together my crack at the Eclipse + Galaxy APA today. Due to some distractions along the way it wasn’t the smoothest of processes but we got there in the end. Instead of 250g golden naked oats I put in 300g cause that’s what I had. When doing the hop steep the temp dropped a bit further than the 80deg I wanted to be at, so I turned on the heat for a bit to bump it up and was distracted for a couple minutes, came back and it was coming to boil. *doh*! So it was mostly steeped and slightly boiled. It is what it is now. My OG reading was 1.042, which seems a tad low when the recipe predicts to finish between 1.015 and 1.010 and be 4.8%, why might that be?

Other than 50g extra GNO and extra hops, I had the same ingredients as the recipe.

Edited April 12, 2023 by NBillett09

[NBillett09]

One positive was that the Eclipse and Galaxy hops smelled superb together!

[Shamus O'Sean]

3 hours ago, NBillett09 said:

My OG reading was 1.042, which seems a tad low when the recipe predicts to finish between 1.015 and 1.010 and be 4.8%, why might that be?

I did a quick calculation and got OG of 1.043.  If you get down to 1.011 and add 2 carbonation drops to each bottle, you should get close to 4.8%.  Its the priming of the bottles that gets you around 0.4% bonus ABV points.

Mine is nearly done and is already at 1.011.  Unfortunately, my older Galaxy hops are not really singing.  Hopefully the Eclipse hops make up the difference.

[Oldbloke]

Yesterday put in my version of the Russian Imperial Stout.

1 can Stout

1 can Dark ale

400 grams Dark dried malt extract

500 grams Extra light dried malt extract

100 grams corn syrup.

 

Not the same but along the lines of the recipee.

And they are right, volcanic froth.  

Now the long 6 month wait.   

Edited April 13, 2023 by Oldbloke

[Oldbloke]

Well, it's abt 24hrs.  I only put about 15ltrs in the fv to allow for a "foam out" . (Top up in a few days) Well it wasn't enough.    Foaming out of the air locks with about 300mm of foam.

 

Yep, its :volcanic" as they say. 

[NBillett09]

@Shamus O'Sean ah of course, I forgot to account for the carb drops! Seems about right then. Thanks mate!

[Classic Brewing Co]

Day 3 of my latest AG - American Pale Ale using US-05, I haven't had any airlock action, but I am not concerned with that, I started it off at 20c & this morning cranked it up to 23c as there is very little krausen so I thought I should stir up the yeast a bit, I realise that is the nature of this yeast so I would expect  it to be a bit more vigorous soon.

With the Ambi style of FV being opaque I am guessing all is well inside.

[Red devil 44]

Threw another AG FWK down today.

Sabre Session Ale, topped up with water I had sitting overnight at 20 degrees. 
‘Around 3.5 ABV this is expected to come out at. 
Looks small as it’s a single batch in my 60L fermenter, but Fermenting under pressure so used this, my old single batch Fermzilla is in pieces currently. 
‘US-05 Yeast@19 degrees.

‘Will ferment around 15PSI. 

[Classic Brewing Co]

43 minutes ago, Red devil 44 said:

Threw another AG FWK down today.

Hey RD, photo is a bit blurry mate, looks like you have been on it  

[Red devil 44]

6 minutes ago, Classic Brewing Co said:

Hey RD, photo is a bit blurry mate, looks like you have been on it  

No haven’t been, problem with my Ipad for some reason, just looking now. 

[Uhtred Of Beddanburg]

@Red devil 44I was just wondering before you said about 60 litre fermenter.  I thought u might have had 8 litres in a 30

[Red devil 44]

1 hour ago, Uhtred Of Beddanburg said:

@Red devil 44I was just wondering before you said about 60 litre fermenter.  I thought u might have had 8 litres in a 30

No, never said anything about 8 litres in a 30 ?

It was a standard 20L All Grain batch in a large 60L fermenter, as that’s all I had available ?? 

[Uhtred Of Beddanburg]

2 minutes ago, Red devil 44 said:

No, never said anything about 8 litres in a 30 ?

It was a standard 20L All Grain batch in a large 60L fermenter, as that’s all I had available ?? 

said that's what it looked like

[iBooz2]

This WE's effort, my COPA on BD+2 at 17 C with second generation CCA yeast.  Just bumped it up, tonight to 18 C for its third days work.  Just a nice hint of banana coming from the FV fridge (ya remember that smell @Tricky Micky, have ya done your second AG batch yet?)