What's in Your Fermenter 2023?

[Kegory]

Grain and Grape still do their FWKs in HDPE containers.

[Red devil 44]

Transferring the AG German Kolsch from cube to SS Fermenter, was unable to find any Kolsch LalBrew (Koln) Yeast at the LHBS, so have gone with K-97. 
I’ll ferment at 18 degrees, then bump up to 20, then CC. 

[Classic Brewing Co]

13 minutes ago, Red devil 44 said:

Transferring the AG German Kolsch from cube to SS Fermenter, was unable to find any Kolsch LalBrew (Koln) Yeast at the LHBS, so have gone with K-97. 
I’ll ferment at 18 degrees, then bump up to 20, then CC. 

Looks good RD, I found a photo of the one I did back in August, it was a nice drop.

Edited November 23, 2023 by Classic Brewing Co

[Back Brewing]

1 hour ago, Red devil 44 said:

Transferring the AG German Kolsch from cube to SS Fermenter, was unable to find any Kolsch LalBrew (Koln) Yeast at the LHBS, so have gone with K-97. 
I’ll ferment at 18 degrees, then bump up to 20, then CC. 

Is that the kegland cube?

[Red devil 44]

1 hour ago, Classic Brewing Co said:

Looks good RD, I found a photo of the one I did back in August, it was a nice drop.

Ahh nice mate

[Red devil 44]

9 minutes ago, Back Brewing said:

Is that the kegland cube?

Hi @Back Brewing, no my LHBS sells fresh wort kits in these cubes, so bought one then cleaned it out, when not in use it is full of diluted Stellarsan so no nasties grow in it. 

[Malter White]

On 11/1/2023 at 8:11 PM, Malter White said:

After a few beers on Sunday I started to harvest some lager yeast from the bottles. Put the bottle in the fermenting chamber and forgot about it until this morning. My intention was to use an extract tin of lager with it but I didn't have time to get to the shops to buy one.
The only extract I had on hand was a Coopers APA. The yeast starter was active and smelt fresh, so this evening I've added the lager yeast to an ale tin brew.
I searched the recipe spreadsheet and couldn't see any recipes that use lager yeast with APA.
Has anyone used lager yeast with APA?
Were you happy with the outcome or am I in for an unpleasant result?

I'm not good at describing flavours but it's turned out very palatable. It was a good mistake to make.  

[Triple B Brewing]

9 hours ago, Malter White said:

I'm not good at describing flavours but it's turned out very palatable. It was a good mistake to make.  

WOOHOO Gotta love it when you take a punt and it turns out a winner

So much better than drinking a couple of disappointing cold ones each night - mind you, it makes your next brew taste amazing

[Classic Brewing Co]

I just put the Barrelmakers Pale Ale in the FV, it smelt great, I pictched Verdant & set for 20c.

SG 1.046.

Another AG brew this week, American Pale Ale.

 

[Uhtred Of Beddanburg]

Japanese Lager fwk just cooling the hop tea for flavour. Steeped 30 gram each of citra and cascade in 1.2 litres of water with lid on for 45 minutes. Was cooled to about 80 degrees as a guess with lid on pot.  Strained about a litre of extra hop tea to go in fermenter on day 5.

Bloody ATO the maggots got stuck on phone to them only wanted a 20 minute steep.

Probably heaps more bitter now. Still rather it go in to test effect than tip it out and waste 60 grams of good hops.

Edited November 27, 2023 by Uhtred Of Beddanburg

[Pale Man]

3 hours ago, Uhtred Of Beddanburg said:

Japanese Lager fwk just cooling the hop tea for flavour. Steeped 30 gram each of citra and cascade in 1.2 litres of water with lid on for 45 minutes. Was cooled to about 80 degrees as a guess with lid on pot.  Strained about a litre of extra hop tea to go in fermenter on day 5.

Bloody ATO the maggots got stuck on phone to them only wanted a 20 minute steep.

Probably heaps more bitter now. Still rather it go in to test effect than tip it out and waste 60 grams of good hops.

Interesting hop choice for a lager.

[Uhtred Of Beddanburg]

18 minutes ago, Pale Man said:

Interesting hop choice for a lager.

yeah I like the flavour of it have done the same sort of thing or dry hopping many times. 

Not much difference to people making Lagers with the hop additions of an IPA.

[Shamus O'Sean]

14 hours ago, Uhtred Of Beddanburg said:

Bloody ATO the maggots got stuck on phone to them only wanted a 20 minute steep.

Probably heaps more bitter now. Still rather it go in to test effect than tip it out and waste 60 grams of good hops.

You should be alright because, unless the container was very well insulated, it would have dropped to a temperature where very little bitterness would have been being extracted.

[Classic Brewing Co]

The new brew in the ferment fridge is banging away, airlock is getting a workout. The Verdant yeast certainly gets things moving quickly. It is hard to see through these opaque Ampi FV's but there is a nice krausen forming, giving off a nice smell too.

I feel this one will ferment fairly quickly so I will do a cold crash before I keg it.

[Pale Man]

2 hours ago, Classic Brewing Co said:

The new brew in the ferment fridge is banging away, airlock is getting a workout. The Verdant yeast certainly gets things moving quickly. It is hard to see through these opaque Ampi FV's but there is a nice krausen forming, giving off a nice smell too.

I feel this one will ferment fairly quickly so I will do a cold crash before I keg it.

Just from experience ( If you didnt already know ) I would remove the airlock before Cold Crashing.

When the beer temp drops it tends to suck in, taking all the contents of your airlock with it.

I cover the lid with cling wrap or sanitise some foil and whack it tightly around the grommet.

Thats just whats happened to me in the past anyway.

[Classic Brewing Co]

3 minutes ago, Pale Man said:

Just from experience ( If you didnt already know ) I would remove the airlock before Cold Crashing.

When the beer temp drops it tends to suck in, taking all the contents of your airlock with it.

I cover the lid with cling wrap or sanitise some foil and whack it tightly around the grommet.

Thats just whats happened to me in the past anyway.

Cheers Paley, I was aware of that, but I appreciate your input all the same.

I haven't CC for a while but there was a large amount of crud at the bottom of the tank & hop spider & even when I took a reading some was in the hydrometer tube, but it will settle.

[Pale Man]

12 minutes ago, Classic Brewing Co said:

Cheers Paley, I was aware of that, but I appreciate your input all the same.

I haven't CC for a while but there was a large amount of crud at the bottom of the tank & hop spider & even when I took a reading some was in the hydrometer tube, but it will settle.

I sort of knew you'd know that, but drop it out there too for anyone else wanting to Cold Crash for the first time.

[Uhtred Of Beddanburg]

12 hours ago, Shamus O'Sean said:

You should be alright because, unless the container was very well insulated, it would have dropped to a temperature where very little bitterness would have been being extracted.

yes I hope so Shamus I did flick the stovetop on a few times for less than a minute to try and maintain temp but never boiled it. 

Smelt ok and am sure will still be nice but a bit annoying when things don't go to how you plan it.

[Uhtred Of Beddanburg]

22 minutes ago, Pale Man said:

I sort of knew you'd know that, but drop it out there too for anyone else wanting to Cold Crash for the first time.

Great advise for other people and wish I knew this back when I used airlocks. 

The only few infected brews I had were from not cleaning the tap and suspect from the airlock sucking back in. I used to move fermenter around the room in and out of cool water tubs and think it sucked back in then.

[Kegory]

Very true. It is worth mentioning problems you may have encountered in your brewing journey for the benefit of others with less experience. If everyone had to invent the wheel for themselves we'd get nowhere.

[Back Brewing]

Before I  did my first CC I did a lot of reading and found a solution which I posted on here

Before I done the CC I cracked the fermenter lid off a quarter of a turn and started cold crashing and keeping a really watchful eye on the s lock 

All the while getting down to 2c the s lock levels never changed once

[Triple B Brewing]

3 hours ago, Back Brewing said:

Before I  did my first CC I did a lot of reading and found a solution which I posted on here

Before I done the CC I cracked the fermenter lid off a quarter of a turn and started cold crashing and keeping a really watchful eye on the s lock 

All the while getting down to 2c the s lock levels never changed once

I always cold crash all of my brews, before I package them into kegs. I find it provides really beautifully clean, clear beers - Mmmmm

Yep you’re right, the significant temperature change when cold crashing (I only go down to 3 degrees personally for 2 days) will definitely cause a vacuum to be pulled, causing a small amount of the fluid in the airlock to be inadvertently sucked into the fermenter.
Because of this, I have always filled my airlock with StellarSan Sanitiser. I have never had any erupting ferments that have caused contamination of the airlock fluid during fermentation and the airlock fluid levels are only very minimally affected during cold crashing, so I have never had any contamination issues (touch wood) with this method. 

Cheers to a summer of clear, clean, ice cold beers

[Triple B Brewing]

9 hours ago, Classic Brewing Co said:

The new brew in the ferment fridge is banging away, airlock is getting a workout. The Verdant yeast certainly gets things moving quickly. It is hard to see through these opaque Ampi FV's but there is a nice krausen forming, giving off a nice smell too.

I feel this one will ferment fairly quickly so I will do a cold crash before I keg it.

Nice one Phil @Classic Brewing Co you’ll love the freedom a dedicated ferment fridge will give you mate - Any type of beer, any time of the year - WOOHOO !!

Happy brewing cobber

[Triple B Brewing]

On 11/27/2023 at 9:54 AM, Classic Brewing Co said:

I just put the Barrelmakers Pale Ale in the FV, it smelt great, I pictched Verdant & set for 20c.

SG 1.046.

Another AG brew this week, American Pale Ale.

 

And that’s a wrap

[Classic Brewing Co]

7 hours ago, Triple B Brewing said:

Nice one Phil @Classic Brewing Co you’ll love the freedom a dedicated ferment fridge will give you mate - Any type of beer, any time of the year - WOOHOO !!

Happy brewing cobber

I have had many fermenting fridges over the years, in fact the current keg/tap fridge used to be one.