Commercial vs Home brew fermentation times

[Cwrw666]

I quite like Guinness. It's my go to when there's nowt but doombar or butty Bach on cask. Think I'm right in saying UK Guinness is now brewed in Ireland. 25 or so years ago when I went over there on holiday I certainly couldn't tell the difference.

 

[IceQueen]

yeah because nowdays the twike the water that it reassembles the origional sites to the last chemical, so even that tastes the same.
rosting might be done at one site for all breweries and than sipped out to have the same grains/profile too.
i find that makes beer more boring

 

[Sadfield]

Where do Guinness brew in the UK, Park Royal and Runcorn breweries are closed.

Nowhere, it's brewed in Dublin.

 

[Brewnaldo]

On the agitation point, if you happen to have a clear fermenter (in my case, fermentasairus) it's really quite something to watch the amount of turbulence when the yeast is busy. Truly fascinating.

 

[Agentgonzo]

On the agitation point, if you happen to have a clear fermenter (in my case, fermentasairus) it's really quite something to watch the amount of turbulence when the yeast is busy. Truly fascinating.

I love my stainless steel fermenter, but I do miss being able to see it fermenting

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Nowhere, it's brewed in Dublin.

I know as the 2 breweries I quoted are gone. The poster said UK brewed Guinness to which I replied.

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Nice and shiny toy though

Mmmmmm shiny

 

[Jim Brewster]

I quite like Guinness. It's my go to when there's nowt but doombar or butty Bach on cask.

+1 to that
(unless there's something like Shipyard on keg)

 

[Weizenberg]

I know as the 2 breweries I quoted are gone. The poster said UK brewed Guinness to which I replied.

Yep. I got that wrong. Apologies. He meant Guiness full stop. Good news is that one can make it in about 6 days. That's remarkable.

 

[chopps]

Great thread, thanks everyone for posting.
For most parts of the process I have transfered my homebrew technique to our little semi-pro brewery project, so currently I am still pitching fresh dry yeast, crashing after 10 days and racking on 14. Then 14 days conditioning. It would be a benefit to reduce that timescale and free up tanks earlier (if I can get enough casks!). I’ll be experimenting. Cheers

 

[peebee]

Great thread, thanks everyone for posting. ...

I'm in agreement with that! This thread was very opportune (for me) running alongside a thread on "under-pitching" I'd started on Jim's forum (Mangrove Jack yeasts). (Yeap, I might come over "all authoritative", but I have my brewing hic-cups too). And "under-pitching" is what I concluded there was the main reason for shoddy speed of ferment (that and the style of beer the yeast is best for). If you want fast, go for the older "European" top-fermenting yeasts. If you want slower go for yeasts that have been accustomed to "closed" more modern equipment (like many of the "craft-brewing" yeasts). Or at least, that's the generalised picture being drawn as I see it.

Liquid yeasts; use a starter and "basic" starter calculator (the more complex calculators seem to use the same limited data as the basic calculators but extrapolate increasingly fanciful ideas from it). Don't be afraid of multiple step starters rather than using one big single step. For dried yeasts I drew the following "policy":

Ignore the BBE date on dried yeast packs. Never buy more than you're sure of using in the next six months. Chuck away any you've had for over a year (or within two years of the pack's "BBE" date). Keep the packs in a fridge (as if you don't already?). All especially important if using under-sized packs (10g, not 11.5g).

Using any packs outside these specifications may backfire, and waste the time and money spent on the entire brew. It's just not worth it.

Apologies to those that have been telling me for years how important the yeast is. But I'm getting there.



That's me coming over "all authoritative" again, which will possibly result in ... :tinhat:

 

[Agentgonzo]

Using any packs outside these specifications may backfire, and waste the time and money spent on the entire brew. It's just not worth it.

I'm wondering whether this could be a cause of recent under attenuation I've been experiencing. Yeasts were bought 9-12 months ago (dried).

 

[Sadfield]

Racked a beer to keg yesterday, that I brewed on Sunday, that included being dry hopped. I started the dry hopping a couple gravity points away from the target FG and then lowered the temp for the last day to help drop the hops through the beer, not to drop the yeast entirely. Overlapping fermentation, dry hopping, conditioning and now carbonation.

I only occasionally cool, and only to c12°c. And find that the final bit of clearing and conditioning happens during carbonation, either in the keg or through bottle conditioning.

All this, along with this thread it got me thinking about 'cold crashing' to very low temperatures. And wondering if some go too low, too soon, forcing their yeast into dormancy. Making the conditioning, stationary phase of yeast growth, very slow, by putting it the wrong side cold crashing, which is essentially a filtration process.

@peebee. That dry yeast policy works for me, although by chance of the way I plan, buy and store ingredients for my brews.

 

[Jim Brewster]

I did not realize that the fermenters were stirred, I didn't think there was any need. Hook Norton seem to do this as well judging from a clip I saw yesterday on the telly, they got Pam Ayres to stir it. Their FV is relatively small though and not particularly deep

I brewed a Saison Saturday and pitched in the evening. Big starter pitching onto the previous Saison trub... Sunday morning it was going like the clappers, today is Monday so not after even 48 hours it's all quiet, even beginning to settle out. Temperature is 20c (I'd prefer higher, but it is what it is!)

 

[user 43495]

When I lived in the midlands I was but a stone's throw from the Batham's brewery so I used to go there with jar and spoon (but no Fez) and collect their wet yeast which I believe was a Bass strain. It would ferment out on average in 2-3 days. Nowadays I don't have access to that so use a dried yeast but find the one I prefer does the same job in a similar time. I do usually go through a secondary fermentation process for a couple of days max merely to purge excess yeast because I do usually do a whole day's brewing 2x or 3x resulting in 20-25 gallons and don't want anything to become yeast-bitten. In 45 years of brewing in this way I have had no issues. We recently held a wedding party in our grounds and the buggers couldn't get it down their necks fast enough.. ..had to do another brew a week later.. ho ho!

 

[cockerhoop]

Mine usually take about 10 days at around 20 degrees ending up roughly 7% ABV. My brother has a commercial brewery and doesn’t understand why.
I don’t either.
It just does.

 

[cockerhoop]

I usually add dry hops at that point so it’s often well over 2 weeks before I keg or bottle.

 

[Jim Brewster]

7% ABV is probably a factor.
More sugar, longer hours for the yeast!

 

[Sadfield]

7% ABV is probably a factor.
More sugar, longer hours for the yeast!

Surely that would be offset more yeast pitched, same growth stage and therefore more yeast to do the work?

 

[Jim Brewster]

Surely that would be offset more yeast pitched, same growth stage and therefore more yeast to do the work?

Ah, maybe. But concentrations are a factor in chemistry and biology, but that's beyond my level. I tend to think of lower ABVs fermenting and conditioning faster