Whats in Your Fermenter - 2024?

[iBooz2]

10 minutes ago, Shamus O'Sean said:

I, like others, do not crack the tap bung.  Firstly, the tap does not need it, as explained by @Aussiekraut.  Secondly, I would be worried about the bung resealing if it was moved.  If it ain't broke.

Agreed +1.  If you crack the tap bung you are asking for trouble, creating an Achillies heal for your cubes.  The risk of cross threading or over tightening the bung plug or not doing it up tight enough and hence a leak or risk of infection so leave it be.

As noted by AK, the tap in a cap is dual ported.  One port for liquid to exit and the second for air to enter the cube.  If buying, I suggest you get two of them because the little plastic tongue that sits between the out port and the air in port does break off or come out in some situations, so then air porting part back into the cube does not work and it results in a glug, glug scenario as the air tries to get back into the cube vacuum.

[Back Brewing]

37 minutes ago, iBooz2 said:

Agreed +1.  If you crack the tap bung you are asking for trouble, creating an Achillies heal for your cubes.  The risk of cross threading or over tightening the bung plug or not doing it up tight enough and hence a leak or risk of infection so leave it be.

As noted by AK, the tap in a cap is dual ported.  One port for liquid to exit and the second for air to enter the cube.  If buying, I suggest you get two of them because the little plastic tongue that sits between the out port and the air in port does break off or come out in some situations, so then air porting part back into the cube does not work and it results in a glug, glug scenario as the air tries to get back into the cube vacuum.

My cube has not got the Bung drilled out so no chance of damaging the thread as there is none all my cubes will be bought and left like that 

Edited March 13 by Back Brewing

[jennyss]

Day 2 in my fermenter for my Coopers Sparkling Ale extract with 1.5kg LDM and 25g Centennial hops. It is looking like a lava lamp at the moment with little specks and blobs zooming in every direction - fun to watch!

[iBooz2]

6 minutes ago, jennyss said:

Day 2 in my fermenter for my Coopers Sparkling Ale extract with 1.5kg LDM and 25g Centennial hops. It is looking like a lava lamp at the moment with little specks and blobs zooming in every direction - fun to watch!

@jennyss now you just need some Austin Powers music going in the background.   

[RDT2]

Guiness clone I pitched on Sunday and appears to have had very little or slow fermentation by its appearance. But checked it today and it is about 1014ish my hydrometer reads low by 4 points! I am putting it down to the flaked barley as i have had the same with flaked oats very little krausen! Tastes good too The picture through the lid is all the activity it showed all week and the wort didn’t change colour the whole ferment or show any movement! Maybe the yeasties only came out at night  

[iBooz2]

50 minutes ago, RDT2 said:

Guiness clone I pitched on Sunday and appears to have had very little or slow fermentation by its appearance. But checked it today and it is about 1014ish my hydrometer reads low by 4 points! I am putting it down to the flaked barley as i have had the same with flaked oats very little krausen! Tastes good too The picture through the lid is all the activity it showed all week and the wort didn’t change colour the whole ferment or show any movement! Maybe the yeasties only came out at night  

G'day @RDT2 , Don't know if it could be the flaked barley as I also used the flaked barley (2kg worth for 44 L batch) in my Guinness clone and the gravity finished 1 point lower than the predicted 1.012.  Numbers were - SG = 1.048 FG = 1.011. 

I used WLP-004 Irish ale yeast so I don't know if that is what got mine down low or was it my mash schedule - 57 C for 30", 67 C for 90", 78 C for 15" MO.

I also bumped my ferment temp up for the last 4 days to 24 C (remember mine was done under 12.5 psi of pressure).  Did you bump yours up towards the end?

Maybe some else who regularly uses flaked barley can comment on this as this was my first time using it, a FB Virgin.

Edited March 14 by iBooz2

[RDT2]

1 hour ago, iBooz2 said:

G'day @RDT2 , Don't know if it could be the flaked barley as I also used the flaked barley (2kg worth for 44 L batch) in my Guinness clone and the gravity finished 1 point lower than the predicted 1.012.  Numbers were - SG = 1.048 FG = 1.011. 

I used WLP-004 Irish ale yeast so I don't know if that is what got mine down low or was it my mash schedule - 57 C for 30", 67 C for 90", 78 C for 15" MO.

I also bumped my ferment temp up for the last 4 days to 24 C (remember mine was done under 12.5 psi of pressure).  Did you bump yours up towards the end?

Maybe some else who regularly uses flaked barley can comment on this as this was my first time using it, a FB Virgin.

I used S04 i had a kilo of flaked barley in my batch but half total volume of yours! I have used it before but I can’t remember what in but i don’t think it was as higher percentage. I tried to make this recipe before but the bloody ants got into the flaked barley so i changed to a bitsa oatmeal stout which worked out well on the fly!

[iBooz2]

48 minutes ago, RDT2 said:

I used S04 i had a kilo of flaked barley in my batch but half total volume of yours! I have used it before but I can’t remember what in but i don’t think it was as higher percentage. I tried to make this recipe before but the bloody ants got into the flaked barley so i changed to a bitsa oatmeal stout which worked out well on the fly!

Well done @RDT2, its good when things work out after going pear shaped.  I have only used S04 once, I think, and been told it likes to be a couple of C warmer than the specs say on the web (which is 15 - 20 C).  I have it on my brewery shed notes to use it at 20 - 22 C for the main ferment.  Some brewers on here find it stalls but I cannot remember any issues.

Did you bump the temp up for that last couple of days?

[RDT2]

1 hour ago, iBooz2 said:

Well done @RDT2, its good when things work out after going pear shaped.  I have only used S04 once, I think, and been told it likes to be a couple of C warmer than the specs say on the web (which is 15 - 20 C).  I have it on my brewery shed notes to use it at 20 - 22 C for the main ferment.  Some brewers on here find it stalls but I cannot remember any issues.

Did you bump the temp up for that last couple of days?

I haven’t, Ive just had it on 21c. I never had a drama with it but always fermented at 21 and the yeast is a beast when dirty batched !

[iBooz2]

The 58 L SS Kegmenter has just gobbled up two cubes of my Rye Rish Red Ale straight onto the trub of the Guinness clone. 

My Rye Rish Red Ale has 60 g of chocolate malt in the grist so the layover flavours from the Guinness clone in the trub should not affect the reds flavour profile, if at all.  First-time brewing a Red Ale and also first-time using Rye malt so it will be an interesting beer for me when it's done.

[Hilltop hops]

Picked this up today, high gravity at 1.070. Has anyone brewed this fwk? I've tried it canned and was real good. 

[kmar92]

I have brewed that FWK, well I think it is the same and used to be called Mutiny Red IPA.

I have tried a few of the All Inn FWK's, this one was fine but a little underwhelming I found. I am no expert on red ales, but in comparison to an extract kit that I brewed Coopers Regency Park Red Ale I enjoyed the Coopers product more. That said it is still a very acceptable beer.

[jennyss]

Dry hopping my Pale Ale!?

I have a brew of Coopers Aust. Pale extract with 1.5kg LDM and 25g of Centennial hop pellets (which were boiled in a chux bag for 10 minutes, cooled, then bag and steep water put in the fermenter straight after extract and LDM).  Now on day 5, I'm thinking of adding another 25g of Centennial (or Galaxy or Pride of Ringwood) straight into the fermenter, with no bag or no boiling. I'm after maximum aroma, and I think the hops will settle to the bottom with the rest of the sediment.

What do you think??

[Classic Brewing Co]

1 hour ago, jennyss said:

Dry hopping my Pale Ale!?

I have a brew of Coopers Aust. Pale extract with 1.5kg LDM and 25g of Centennial hop pellets (which were boiled in a chux bag for 10 minutes, cooled, then bag and steep water put in the fermenter straight after extract and LDM).  Now on day 5, I'm thinking of adding another 25g of Centennial (or Galaxy or Pride of Ringwood) straight into the fermenter, with no bag or no boiling. I'm after maximum aroma, and I think the hops will settle to the bottom with the rest of the sediment.

What do you think??

Yes, Jenny they will, just be aware that you may encounter stray hop matter clogging your bottling wand when bottling.

A cold crash would help greatly but I believe you are not able to do that.

I don't dry hop anymore for that reason but don't let me talk you out of it.

[iBooz2]

1 hour ago, jennyss said:

Dry hopping my Pale Ale!?

I have a brew of Coopers Aust. Pale extract with 1.5kg LDM and 25g of Centennial hop pellets (which were boiled in a chux bag for 10 minutes, cooled, then bag and steep water put in the fermenter straight after extract and LDM).  Now on day 5, I'm thinking of adding another 25g of Centennial (or Galaxy or Pride of Ringwood) straight into the fermenter, with no bag or no boiling. I'm after maximum aroma, and I think the hops will settle to the bottom with the rest of the sediment.

What do you think??

@jennyss, dry hopping "commando" style, i.e. no bag or hop sock comes with some risks.  One is you cannot take the spent hop matter back out and as most of it will sink there will still be fine particles that stay in suspension and risk clogging your bottling wand and also making it into your bottles of beer.  Also if the hop matter stays in the beer for too long, say over 3 days then it can tend to produce grassy notes to your beer.  This may well over-ride the effect of the dry hop.

If you are cold crashing your FV for the 3 days of your commando dry hop and then bottling, you would avoid the grassy notes and 25 g of hops is not a lot for a dry hop anyway.  But I don't think you have the gear to do a cold crash, if I am correct.

Choice of hops? 

Centennial has a low Beta acid content in the range of 3.5 - 4.5 so 35 g and will not have much effect IMO.  Galaxy has a Beta acid of 5.0 - 6.9 so is a better choice if you want maximum aroma but I think from memory you have used Galaxy before so why not give PoR a go as it has a Beta acid of 4.0 - 8.0 so another good choice for a dry hop. 

I would recommend using a pre-boiled new chux cloth and a boiled SS spoon to weigh it down and just try it off with some sanitised kitchen twine so you can remove the spent hop matter after 2 - 3 days.  The way I used to remove the dry hop bag or sock in my Coopers FV's was to just pull on the string until the hops were up out of the beer and tie it off to hold it there to drain.  That way no lifting of the lid a second time to fish out the hops.

 

Edited March 16 by iBooz2

[Aussiekraut]

43 minutes ago, iBooz2 said:

@jennyss, dry hopping "commando" style, i.e. no bag or hop sock comes with some risks.  One is you cannot take the spent hop matter back out and as most of it will sink there will still be fine particles that stay in suspension and risk clogging your bottling wand and also making it into your bottles of beer.  Also if the hop matter stays in the beer for too long, say over 3 days then it can tend to produce grassy notes to your beer.  This may well over-ride the effect of the dry hop.

If you are cold crashing your FV for the 3 days of your commando dry hop and then bottling, you would avoid the grassy notes and 25 g of hops is not a lot for a dry hop anyway.  But I don't think you have the gear to do a cold crash, if I am correct.

Choice of hops? 

Centennial has a low Beta acid content in the range of 3.5 - 4.5 so 35 g and will not have much effect IMO.  Galaxy has a Beta acid of 5.0 - 6.9 so is a better choice if you want maximum aroma but I think from memory you have used Galaxy before so why not give PoR a go as it has a Beta acid of 4.0 - 8.0 so another good choice for a dry hop. 

I would recommend using a pre-boiled new chux cloth and a boiled SS spoon to weigh it down and just try it off with some sanitised kitchen twine so you can remove the spent hop matter after 2 - 3 days.  The way I used to remove the dry hop bag or sock in my Coopers FV's was to just pull on the string until the hops were up out of the beer and tie it off to hold it there to drain.  That way no lifting of the lid a second time to fish out the hops.

 

Yeah, I am not a friend of commando hopping, not even when cold crashing and kegging. I had one batch of froth bombs to last me a lifetime  And of course, there is the grassy notes issue. Chuck them in a hop sock/bag/whatever and be done with it. It's just a little more effort but is the safer option. 

[Aussiekraut]

2 hours ago, jennyss said:

Dry hopping my Pale Ale!?

I have a brew of Coopers Aust. Pale extract with 1.5kg LDM and 25g of Centennial hop pellets (which were boiled in a chux bag for 10 minutes, cooled, then bag and steep water put in the fermenter straight after extract and LDM).  Now on day 5, I'm thinking of adding another 25g of Centennial (or Galaxy or Pride of Ringwood) straight into the fermenter, with no bag or no boiling. I'm after maximum aroma, and I think the hops will settle to the bottom with the rest of the sediment.

What do you think??

+1 to what @iBooz2 said.

[Tricky Micky]

2 hours ago, iBooz2 said:

I would recommend using a pre-boiled new chux cloth and a boiled SS spoon to weigh it down and just try it off with some sanitised kitchen twine so you can remove the spent hop matter after 2 - 3 days.  The way I used to remove the dry hop bag or sock in my Coopers FV's was to just pull on the string until the hops were up out of the beer and tie it off to hold it there to drain.  That way no lifting of the lid a second time to fish out the hops.

@iBooz2 Al, I've never used anything to weigh my hop sock down with when dry hopping, it always seems to float just beneath the surface line - is there any inherent risk using my method - i.e. having the hop bag/sock break the surface etc - Increase chances of infection? Cheers mate. Love the string idea too.

Edited March 17 by Tricky Micky

[Classic Brewing Co]

5 minutes ago, Tricky Micky said:

@iBooz2 Al, I've never used anything to weigh my hop sock down with when dry hopping, it always sees to float just beneath the surface line - is there any inherent risk using my method - ie having the hop bag/sock break the surface etc - Increase chances of infection? Cheers mate.

I have never weighed mine down & there is always a great hop flavour & aroma.

[iBooz2]

44 minutes ago, Tricky Micky said:

@iBooz2 Al, I've never used anything to weigh my hop sock down with when dry hopping, it always sees to float just beneath the surface line - is there any inherent risk using my method - ie having the hop bag/sock break the surface etc - Increase chances of infection? Cheers mate.

Mick, I have always weighed my hop socks down, makes sense as it maximizes beer contact with the hops and helps force out all the little the air bubbles that cling to the surface of the hops.  Any bubble present is preventing direct beer contact.  With them floating, the top hops in the sock will be adding aroma to the FV and not to the beer.  I think there is limited chance of infection as hops have a natural sanitation effect plus most of the sugars should have been converted by then anyway.

I weigh them simply to get maximum bang for my $.

Edited March 17 by iBooz2

[jennyss]

Thanks very much @Classic Brewing Co, @Aussiekraut, @iBooz2 and @Tricky Micky for your helpful replies and comments! You are right that I don't have cold crashing type temperature control ATM.  After considering all the points you have raised I think I will use 25g of Pride of Ringwood hops, add them next Wed (day 8), bagging the hops in a very loose/roomy chux bag with a spoon to weigh it down.  Brew to be bottled next Sat. That will be enough excitement for one brew! PS I won't boil/steep the hops - they will go in dry; and when adding hops in a chux bag previously, I have left the bag in till the end of bottling and out it goes with the trub - doesn't seem to cause any difficulty.

Edited March 17 by jennyss

[Shamus O'Sean]

2 hours ago, jennyss said:

Thanks very much @Classic Brewing Co, @Aussiekraut, @iBooz2 and @Tricky Micky for your helpful replies and comments! You are right that I don't have cold crashing type temperature control ATM.  After considering all the points you have raised I think I will use 25g of Pride of Ringwood hops, add them next Wed (day 8), bagging the hops in a very loose/roomy chux bag with a spoon to weigh it down.  Brew to be bottled next Sat. That will be enough excitement for one brew! PS I won't boil/steep the hops - they will go in dry; and when adding hops in a chux bag previously, I have left the bag in till the end of bottling and out it goes with the trub - doesn't seem to cause any difficulty.

Sounds like a good plan to me Jenny.  Dry hopping on Wednesday and bottling on Saturday, gives you the recommended 3 days contact for the dry hops.  No need to remove the bag, if bottling around day 3 either.

Looking at your earlier post, the one thing I would not do is "then bag and steep water put in the fermenter".  Adding hops to the fermenter at the start of fermentation can cause the grassy or vegetal flavours mentioned by others because those hops are in contact with the wort for the whole period of fermentation.  However, at the end of the day, if you like your beer, however it turns out, it does not matter.

[ChairmanDrew]

On 3/17/2024 at 1:10 PM, iBooz2 said:

Mick, I have always weighed my hop socks down, makes sense as it maximizes beer contact with the hops and helps force out all the little the air bubbles that cling to the surface of the hops.  Any bubble present is preventing direct beer contact.  With them floating, the top hops in the sock will be adding aroma to the FV and not to the beer.  I think there is limited chance of infection as hops have a natural sanitation effect plus most of the sugars should have been converted by then anyway.

I weigh them simply to get maximum bang for my $.

I should have paid attention to this. Just put the dry hop into my fresh hop brew. I normally dont bother weighting it down with anything as it always just sinks to the bottom as soon as I drop it in. But this time I'm using fresh hops which must be more buoyant as it is just floating on the surface and refused to go down, even after I tried to submerge it.

Do you reckon its worth fishing it out and sterilizing it and having another go with some thing to weigh it down, or just leave it?

[Triple B Brewing]

41 minutes ago, ChairmanDrew said:

I should have paid attention to this. Just put the dry hop into my fresh hop brew. I normally dont bother weighting it down with anything as it always just sinks to the bottom as soon as I drop it in. But this time I'm using fresh hops which must be more buoyant as it is just floating on the surface and refused to go down, even after I tried to submerge it.

Do you reckon its worth fishing it out and sterilizing it and having another go with some thing to weigh it down, or just leave it?

@ChairmanDrew I have never been fortunate enough to have access to fresh hops to dry hop with, so I don't really know, but my gut tells me to leave it and go with the result you get. - I feel confident that you will get some amazing aroma and taste from the standard dry hop application process you have used all the same    

[kmar92]

I would just leave it alone @ChairmanDrew, too risky to start frigging around with it. Once the fresh hops have more contact time with the wort they may submerge more. Whatever happens it will probably still be a good beer.