Brewnaldos brewday

[Ben034]

This is the lager right? Yes I would allow temp to rise up to 18-19c and hold for a few days. If you're needing to heat to raise temperature, allow a degree or two per day.

 

[Brewnaldo]

This is the lager right? Yes I would allow temp to rise up to 18-19c and hold for a few days. If you're needing to heat to raise temperature, allow a degree or two per day.

Yep Mexican Cerveza. Thanks. Shall begin today

 

[Brewnaldo]

Just sampled after a few days at higher temp. Tastes really good, and hydro meter readings indicate 1011 to 1012 which is an attenuation of around 80% after 9 days. Sample from the top stsrtting to clear so hopefully once I begin cold (garage temp) crash is should clear a bit.

Have to wait for delivery of syphon and bucket prior to racking and bottling

 

[Brewnaldo]

Here is the last sample I took two days ago. Gravity is settled and diacetyl rest complete so it is currently cold crashing until I find time to bottle. Sample taken at 19 degrees with no finings added yet. Pretty pleased with it.

 

[Brewnaldo]

Help a brother out folks..... I made a priming solution today. Culled it then poured it in the FV. It seemed to immediately granulated again, which was then visible in the bottles.

2 questions then.... Will it just dissolve and work ok?

Will it have dispersed ok for even carbing? One bottle at the very end did look like it had a lot of wee bits in it. I stirred it as much as I thought wise

 

[Brewnaldo]

Time for an update. My Cerveza appears to be carbing up nicely, and almost all of it is lovely and clear.

However, the sediment is very loose and needs little encouragement to distribute itself through the beer

Will this firm up once carbing is done and it goes outside to cold condition? I hope so as I am onto a very clear and bright beer here but unsire what these rogue particles are.....

 

[Ben034]

Time for an update. My Cerveza appears to be carbing up nicely, and almost all of it is lovely and clear. View attachment 23880

However, the sediment is very loose and needs little encouragement to distribute itself through the beer

View attachment 23881

Will this firm up once carbing is done and it goes outside to cold condition? I hope so as I am onto a very clear and bright beer here but unsire what these rogue particles are.....

Once it's carbonated and then stored cold it should become compact on the bottom of the bottle. Depending on temperature outdoors, after cold storing for a couple of weeks, consider getting as many in the fridge as you can for another 2 weeks and after that, the longer the better!

 

[Brewnaldo]

Once it's carbonated and then stored cold it should become compact on the bottom of the bottle. Depending on temperature outdoors, after cold storing for a couple of weeks, consider getting as many in the fridge as you can for another 2 weeks and after that, the longer the better!

Cheers Ben. Helpful as everI dont have much fridge space so probably will have to be outside at ambient then as many as possible rotated in to the fridge as far in advance of drinking as I can.

 

[Ben034]

Cheers Ben. Helpful as everI dont have much fridge space so probably will have to be outside at ambient then as many as possible rotated in to the fridge as far in advance of drinking as I can.

That's what I do with lagers. Wish I had space for a beer fridge.

 

[Brewnaldo]

Wee update on the Cerveza... Carbing levels are disappointing to me personally. It's not very fizzy at all. My little flirtation with suspectee covid19 recently has left me with questionable tastebuds, but I felt it lacked a punch of flavour. When you open it, theres a smell of grapfruity, citrussy hops but then I feel it is lost in the flavour. It did, after a couple, grow on me flavour wise but I do feel its lacking somewhat. Interested to see if my Kolsch which is my next GH brew also lacks flavour. I may start adjusting later addition hops upwards.

I guess the goal in lager making is clean crisp flavour and I think I have achieved that. Longer in the bottle too may yield differing flavours, as I was a bit impatient in sneaking a couple in yesterday as I had a barbecue.... Will leave them a week or two before re sampling.

 

[matt76]

Several questions:

1. You used lager yeast, right? (you didn't cheat and use ale yeast?)
2. Do you know what level of carbonation you were aiming for? (i.e. how much sugar did you add?)
3. Where did you leave the bottles to carbonate, and at what temperature roughly?

I had similar issues with a Helles I made recently and I did some experimenting, here:
https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/helles-not-carbing-options.84567/post-861576
I got various different results, but overall just giving it more time (a few weeks more) all of them carbonated very nicely in the end. I think it could just be that lager yeasts work slower and you need to give it a bit more time than you would an ale yeast.

Cheers,

Matt

 

[Brewnaldo]

Several questions:

1. You used lager yeast, right? (you didn't cheat and use ale yeast?)
2. Do you know what level of carbonation you were aiming for? (i.e. how much sugar did you add?)
3. Where did you leave the bottles to carbonate, and at what temperature roughly?

I had similar issues with a Helles I made recently and I did some experimenting, here:
https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/helles-not-carbing-options.84567/post-861576
I got various different results, but overall just giving it more time (a few weeks more) all of them carbonated very nicely in the end. I think it could just be that lager yeasts work slower and you need to give it a bit more time than you would an ale yeast.

Cheers,

Matt

Thanks for the reply. I used a White Labs Mexican lager yeast. I was going for about 2.8 Co2 vol. 100 grams of sugar IIRC. Carbed up for 12 days upstairs in my house which is probably consistent at 19 or 20 degrees. Left it there for 12 days at which point I started to get nervy as the bottles were getting pretty hard. I felt it was probably there. Perhaps I need to be braver on that....

One thing I will say is I have not yet opened a glass crown cap bottle. Perhaps theres been an issue of holding pressure in my PET bettles/caps which are on their third use.

 

[matt76]

Thanks for the reply. I used a White Labs Mexican lager yeast. I was going for about 2.8 Co2 vol. 100 grams of sugar IIRC. Carbed up for 12 days upstairs in my house which is probably consistent at 19 or 20 degrees. Left it there for 12 days at which point I started to get nervy as the bottles were getting pretty hard. I felt it was probably there. Perhaps I need to be braver on that....

One thing I will say is I have not yet opened a glass crown cap bottle. Perhaps theres been an issue of holding pressure in my PET bettles/caps which are on their third use.

Well, I'm not gonna tell you what to do..... but FWIW I've only ever used glass bottles, never had PET ones. In the case of my Helles I put 8 of them in the airing cupboard for a week and they carbed up nicely in that time (N.B. they'd already been bottled for 4 weeks at this point) and more than the other methods I tried. But after another month or two all of them seemed well carbonated.

Honestly, I think it's just a case of giving the lager yeast more time to do it's thing - which is pretty much the advice I was given!

 

[Brewnaldo]

Well, I'm not gonna tell you what to do..... but FWIW I've only ever used glass bottles, never had PET ones. In the case of my Helles I put 8 of them in the airing cupboard for a week and they carbed up nicely in that time (N.B. they'd already been bottled for 4 weeks at this point) and more than the other methods I tried. But after another month or two all of them seemed well carbonated.

Honestly, I think it's just a case of giving the lager yeast more time to do it's thing - which is pretty much the advice I was given!

That's noted my man. Thank you. Next brew is a Kolsch with Kolsch yeast so hopefully no such issues

 

[Brewnaldo]

Brewday tomorrow.

Only question I currently have is following the lack of hop punch on my Cerveza, will there be any unintended issues with either upping whatever the Kolsch recipe last addition hops are, or maybe doing an additional flameout addition?

 

[foxbat]

Brewday tomorrow.

Only question I currently have is following the lack of hop punch on my Cerveza, will there be any unintended issues with either upping whatever the Kolsch recipe last addition hops are, or maybe doing an additional flameout addition?

Nothing wrong with what you're suggesting but make sure you use a recipe calculator to make sure the IBUs don't go up too high. I think the bitterness of Kolsch pseudo-lagers are low, around the mid 20s. An extra 1 minute addition that you leave in while chilling might have the desired effect.

 

[Brewnaldo]

Nothing wrong with what you're suggesting but make sure you use a recipe calculator to make sure the IBUs don't go up too high. I think the bitterness of Kolsch pseudo-lagers are low, around the mid 20s. An extra 1 minute addition that you leave in while chilling might have the desired effect.

This is where I have a problem, in that I currently dont have a chiller. So far I havent adjusted hop additions or timings to account for that. But what I was thinking was maybe decant from boiler to FV after boil using a filter to avoid extra IBUs from the late addition, but add additional hops to the FV which will be filled with obviously cooling wort.

IIRC saaz is the later addition hops so would put them into the FV.

 

[Ben034]

You could wait until the wort in the kettle has dropped to 80c and then add hops to the kettle. This way the additional bitterness is negligible (look into whirlpool additions - brewing software will tell you the IBUs being added which are going to be very low compared to adding at end of boil). Or you could just dry hop at end of fermentation.

This is where I have a problem, in that I currently dont have a chiller. So far I havent adjusted hop additions or timings to account for that. But what I was thinking was maybe decant from boiler to FV after boil using a filter to avoid extra IBUs from the late addition, but add additional hops to the FV which will be filled with obviously cooling wort.

IIRC saaz is the later addition hops so would put them into the FV.

 

[Brewnaldo]

You could wait until the wort in the kettle has dropped to 80c and then add hops to the kettle. This way the additional bitterness is negligible (look into whirlpool additions - brewing software will tell you the IBUs being added which are going to be very low compared to adding at end of boil). Or you could just dry hop at end of fermentation.

After the amount of trub in my last brew I was hoping to do at least some sort of filtering between boiler and FV this time. I would be loathe to lose those hops so quickly after adding them. That's why I was thinking hot wort into FV to cool removing boil hops, and that last addition doesnt get boiled at all, reducing any unwanted IBUs from wither the boil or the last addition hops. Does that make sense?

 

[Ben034]

After the amount of trub in my last brew I was hoping to do at least some sort of filtering between boiler and FV this time. I would be loathe to lose those hops so quickly after adding them. That's why I was thinking hot wort into FV to cool removing boil hops, and that last addition doesnt get boiled at all, reducing any unwanted IBUs from wither the boil or the last addition hops. Does that make sense?

I think after 10/20 mins at 80cyou will have extracted all the flavour from the hops that you will get. You could leave for a little longer but after that you won't benefit from additional flavour or aroma. If you then want to add additional flavour and aroma you could dry hop later.

As far as your process goes for removing trub, I've always used a chiller and syphoned from on top of trub. Hopefully someone here experienced in the no chill process can comment further.