A Typical Finishing Procedure - Help PLEASE !!!!!!!

[Chris The Masher]

Hi Everyone,

I have just returned to full mash mash and am very nervous due to pretty much a 100% failure track record.

Well, I have recently built myself a top of the range mash box out of a very flash cool insulated cooler box and managed to complete a full mash with just a 2 degree drop in temperature (68 - 66) over a 1.5 Hr mash. Cutting a long story short, I have followed a recipe to almost perfection and achieved an original gravity of 1050 at the start of primary fermentation.

Now, this is where I am getting confused regarding finshing......

I am so concerned as I have a strong suspicion this is where I have been going wrong in the past.

The problem is, whatever I read; be it on the internet or one of my many great books, there seems to be no pattern to the subject of finishing. Some say wait for racking gravity then secondary ferment, some say wait until final gravity then secondary, some say do not secondary at all, some say prime at barrel stage, some dont, some even say put the secondary in a freezer for a few days, some say warm condition or cold condition the barrel.... I can go on, but I won't, I think you may get my drift here though. I have even read the subject "A typical finishing procedure" in Graham Wheeler's book, but again contradicts other views.

As one may expect, I am now completely confused!!! I understand that different methods may be imposed for different recipes / styles etc. But if anyone has a reliable method for finishing, could you please share it with me. By finishing, I mean from putting into primary pefrmenter to drinking (and every step in between).

I suppose I need to know, step by step, how long for primary ? How long for Secondary and temperatures etc ? How long in Barrel ? Cold / warm conditiong.......etc etc etc etc ........


Many thanks in advance.....

P.s I am not three days in primary fermentation at a good steady 20 degrees.

 

[markp]

A lot depends on temperatures and how well the yeast performs. Let the yeast work itself out and then see where you are...afterall, we are not commercial breweries who are looking to hit consitient OG and FG. It doesn't matter to us if our beer is a little dryer and stronger or sweeter and weaker.....within limits of course

You wouldn't go far wrong with 10 days in the primary and 10 in the secondary....for standard ales/bitters.
After 10 days in the secondary I start to cool the beer down to about 4 degrees, add finings (polyclar) and some auxillary finings....but that is only because I like to serve my beer a bit on the cold side and I like to try and get clear beer.

Then I prime and bottle or put in to corny keg and force carb.

Hope that answers your questions.

 

[jonewer]

I dont bother with a secondary......

If you're having a 100% failure rate, then maybe best to cut out non essential steps?

 

[rabbie]

The beauty of home brewing is that great beer is EASY :thumb:
You can go into great detail on everything, water treatment, efficiency, step mashes....but you certainly don't need to worry about any of that.

I'm only 15 or so brews in, but the worst part was getting the first few out the way, I worried too much about small details.

If I was starting again I would have done: a pale ale, 1.030 ish starting gravity, low IBU, ferment at room temp and leave it in the FV for a week without looking at it! Check the gravity, have a look if there is any sign of activity in the FV, check the gravity after another couple of days and if it was constant siphon over to a primed bottling bucket and into bottles. Leave at room temp for a week then, if possible, somewhere cooler for another week. Then get drinking

Once you've got a few litres under your belt you can start thinking about temperature controlled fermentation cabinets, HERMS, conicals and all things shiny :geek:

 

[prolix]

I agree with Rab keep it simple.

10 days in fermenter at 18 - 20c, test with hydrometer to make sure readings are the same then drink the sample for quality control.

If you are barrelling add 80g of sugar disolved in a bit of the beer to the barrel and syphon beer in without splashing, you don't want air now.

Leave it for four weeks. It doesn't matter where.

Drink.

There are loads of other things you can do that could make it better, as you said, but lets get the beer passed 100% failure first.

 

[Aleman]

I think that there is too much made of a lot of the fermenting procedure without a lot of thinking about what goes on and why one step may be required/missed out.

Firstly there is no such thing as secondary fermentation! . . . There is a conditioning stage, which normally takes place in cask or bottle . . . and this is to generate condition in the beer . . . that degree of fizz that generates a head and gives a prickle on the tongue. . . Unless you have some way of generating this artificially the step is essential.

Now during fermentation a lot of yeast is produced . . . and you will also see brown gummy substances forming on the yeast head these are break proteins that get carries through from the wort production into the fermenter. Scoop some off with a sanitised spoon and taste it . . . .Pretty nasty huh? . . . now the longer that beer is left in contact with this stuff the more likely it will turn nasty itself, and some brewers prefer to move the beer into a second fermenter (either while it is fermenting, or after it has finished). This has a couple of benefits in addition to getting it off the crud, in that it gives the yeast additional time to settle out leading to clearer beer in the keg / bottle . . . or less yeast sediment.

Fundamentally there is no 'correct' way to do it . . . personally I prefer not to move beer around from FV to FV as each transfer carries the risk of introducing infection, but as I ferment in a temperature controlled fermenter I can reduce the temperature right down, which eliminates the requirement to get away from the break material. Another way is to let the break proteins precipitate in one FV, and then transfer the beer to another FV and then pitching the yeast.

I'm hoping to get my Conical FV into action soon which will mean that I can get beer away from break proteins and excess yeast without transferring between vessels.

 

[Brewmarc]

I ferment in a temperature controlled fermenter I can reduce the temperature right down, which eliminates the requirement to get away from the break material.

Aleman, can you please explain why this is? Im interested as I am putting togeather a fermentation fridge at the moment with a temp controler.

Another reason I allways thought as to why it is good to transfer to a secondary fermenter after the primary fermentation is to get it off the majority of the dead yeast. A lot of people dont have the facility to crash cool relying on time & patience for the yeast to drop which can also cause off flavours.