foxbat's brewdays

[foxbat]

It's the Tuesday before a brewing weekend therefore it must be yeast starter day! I made up a 1.5 litre starter using this saved back Yeast Bay WLP4000 Vermont yeast from the fridge, which now looks like this:

I decanted off most of the spent wort, swirled it up and added it to the 1.5 litres of cooled DME solution:

That's now in the brew-fridge at 19-20C where it'll stay for the next couple of days while it ferments out. I'll keep back 0.5 litres again and cold crash the remainder until Sunday.

 

[samale]

How long would would you keep yeast for. I am only starting to use liquid yeast.

 

[foxbat]

How long would would you keep yeast for. I am only starting to use liquid yeast.

2 or 3 months max I guess? In practice I brew about once a month and will use a jar kept in the fridge for the next brew. I know some people will keep jars for much longer and just do appropriate starters to get the cell count back.

 

[cushyno]

The clarity of your stored yeast is as good as your hydrometer samples!

To answer @samale , You can store yeast for long periods if you're happy to babysit them through careful culturing back to full viability. Because I'm a tight a**e and too lazy to get an order in for more yeast, last week I used a portion of S-04 starter saved in April (which had previously been cultured up from slurry saved from last October). Treat it gently, growing up from 200ml to 500ml, to 1.5l and it works ok. Sanitisation seems to be a key factor too.

 

[foxbat]

Today was brewday for the next in my Outback Ale series of Galaxy & Nelson Sauvin hopped beers. The strange looking quantity of Maris Otter in the recipe is because I had that much left over and wanted to use it up so I put it all in and reduced the amount of Munich I was going to add to keep the sweetness in check. IBUs at 40 puts this in the low end IPA range but I'm still calling it an ale.

I've still got 100g of Galaxy and 50g of Nelson in the freezer after this brew so there'll be more brew days to come that feature these two hops. It's a good job I like them!

Recipe: Outback Ale No.3
Batch Size (fermenter): 24.00 L   
Estimated OG: 1.044 SG
Estimated Color: 8.6 EBC
Estimated IBU: 40.9 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 75.6 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes
Water profile: Ca:63, Mg:11, Na:10, SO4:98, Cl:65

Ingredients:
------------
Amt         Name                                     Type         %/IBU    
29.65 L     Tesco Ashbeck                            Water        -        
2.50 g      Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash)          Water Agent  -        
2.00 g      Calcium Chloride (Mash)                  Water Agent  -        
2.00 g      Epsom Salt (MgSO4) (Mash)                Water Agent  -        
1.50 ml     Lactic Acid (Mash)                       Water Agent  -        
0.50 g      Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Sparge)        Water Agent  -        
0.40 g      Calcium Chloride (Sparge)                Water Agent  -        
0.40 g      Epsom Salt (MgSO4) (Sparge)              Water Agent  -        
0.20 ml     Lactic Acid (Sparge)                     Water Agent  -        

2.86 kg     Weyermann Bohemian Pilsner (4.0 EBC)     Grain        61.6 %   
1.32 kg     Maris Otter (Crisp) (7.9 EBC)            Grain        28.4 %   
0.23 kg     IREKS Crystal Maple (3.5 EBC)            Grain        5.0 %    
0.23 kg     IREKS Munich Malt (20.0 EBC)             Grain        5.0 %    

12.00 g     Galaxy [15.60 %] - Boil 15.0 min         Hop          10.7 IBUs
12.00 g     Nelson Sauvin [10.40 %] - Boil 15.0 min  Hop          7.2 IBUs 
16.00 g     Galaxy [15.60 %] - Boil 10.0 min         Hop          10.5 IBUs
16.00 g     Nelson Sauvin [10.40 %] - Boil 10.0 min  Hop          7.0 IBUs 
1.00 Items  Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 7.0 mins)         Fining       -        
22.00 g     Galaxy [15.60 %] - Boil 2.0 min          Hop          3.4 IBUs 
22.00 g     Nelson Sauvin [10.40 %] - Boil 2.0 min   Hop          2.2 IBUs 
1.0 pkg     Vermont Ale (Yeast Bay #-)               Yeast        -        

Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 4.64 kg
----------------------------
Name      Description                      Step Temperature   Step Time     
Mash In   Add 24.65 L of water at 70.4 C   67.0 C             60 min        

Sparge: Dunk sparge with 5 L of water at 75 C

There's nothing exciting to report about the brew day because it all went as planned and I collected 24 litres of 1.044 wort into the fermenter. Hitting the target gravity this time seems to have validated my decision to reduce the extract potential of the Weyermann Bohemian Pils from 1.038 to 1.036.

With our groundwater still up at around 21C I gave up with the immersion chiller at 26C and put the fermenter in the brew fridge to come down to the intended pitching temperature of 20C. It should be somewhere near that tonight. If this ferments down to the planned 1.007 which I totally expect it to then the final ABV will 4.9%.

 

[foxbat]

The Vermont yeast starter went in at 9:00pm last night with the wort down to 20C. This morning at 7:00am it's already bubbling rapidly through the blow-off jar at the end of my keg-purging-with-CO2 hookup.

 

[matt76]

I know what you mean about the ground water temperature, similar situation here, I'm giving up too once I get down to about 26degC and even then that's taking the sharp end of 15 mins for 12L!

(And to think in winter I can get it down to 18degC in about 5 mins!)

 

[foxbat]

My Summer Ale is just about reaching its peak now that summer has well and truly disappeared. This is the same pic that I posted in the 'what are you drinking thread'.

The taste is a very refined malty sweetness from the Weyermann Bohemian Pilsner malt with a herbal, floral and distinctly lemon taste from the big dose of Celeia that I put into this. The flavour is reminscent of the pilsners that I've had and really enjoyed in the western Austrian alps and as such I'll be doing a Celeia lager later this year or early next.

 

[foxbat]

Today was kegging day for my Outback Ale No.3. I transferred 19 litres to a corny keg that been purged with the CO2 generated during fermentation and got an additional 3 bottles from the left overs.



FG was, as predicted 1.007 giving an ABV of 4.9%. I fined the keg with Kwik Clear, went to purge it and DISASTER I've run out of CO2! I managed to get a single purge cycle in and the small headspace will have been mostly CO2 anyway because the keg was pre-purged so I'm hoping the lid seal will be good enough to keep O2 out until I can get a replacement cylinder from Adams Gas.

This 6kg cylinder has done 13 kegs including purging, force carbonating, serving and pushing PBW and water through the lines to clean so I think I've got my 20 quids worth.

The aroma of Nelson and Galaxy from the fermenter was incredible and the sample jar tasted fantastic. I just hope my keg will keep until I can get another cylinder.

 

[foxbat]

It's 6:00am and I'm laying in bed in a mild state of panic about having run out of CO2 and I got to thinking about how the high pressure gauge dropped from 750psi down to zero so fast last night - in about a second. Surely CO2 at 750psi in a 6kg cylinder would account for more than just a 20psi burst into the headspace of a full keg. That means it could only go to zero so fast if...

...I jumped out of bed, dressing gown on, muttered something unintelligible to the wife and legged it down to the garage. Yes, sure enough, numpty here hadn't turned the cylinder on last night and so all I'd done was empty the high pressure from inside the regulator body into the keg. Doh!

I quickly gave the keg a 5x15psi purge and set it to carbonate at about 12psi. Panic averted and all back to normal. That experience was enough to convince me to buy a second cylinder because I must be pushing it now on keg #14 and when it does actually run dry I'd like to do a smooth changeover leaving me with an empty cylinder that I can exchange for full when it's convenient to make the 45 minute drive to the supplier.

 

[Horners]

I treated myself to second cylinders of co2 and mixed. Chose smaller ones so that they fit in keezer. Makes life so much easier having second co2 for occasional use such as force carbing, beer gun etc. Also peace of mind - can sleep at night knowing that when you inevitably leave gas on and a whole tank leaks away, you have an emergency supply.

 

[foxbat]

That's my starter done for this weekend's brew. 1.5 litres of Ashbeck and 150g of light DME boiled, cooled to about 22C and foil capped:

The 500ml overbuild from my previous brew came out of the fridge earlier on to warm up. This'll be the third brew I've done with this WLP4000 Vermont Ale yeast and I'm not finished with it yet.

I decanted off the very clear spent wort and had a taste. As usual it tasted bland and of nothing much at all. So much so I could have bottled it and sold it off as Greene King IPA and nobody would know. Waste not want not and so down the hatch it went. Back to business, the yeast on the bottom of the jar was gently swirled up into suspension and tipped into the waiting flask:

Now that's on my stir-plate in the brew-fridge set at 20C. If the last two starters are anything to go by then I'm to expect no krausen whatsoever and a complete fermentation in less than 2 days. 500ml will be kept back for the fourth use of this yeast pack and a litre will go into the brew.

As for said brew; It'll be another APA, most probably involving Nelson Sauvin and Cascade I think. I started my keg of Outback Ale No.3 last weekend and it's flipping ace. I'd forgotten how much I like Nelso Sauvin so I need to try it accompanied by some different hops and I've got Cascade in the freezer so that's going to get used.

 

[matt76]

Hey @foxbat , question for you about Kwik Clear finings.....

When and how much of these finings are you adding to how much beer?

Kwik Clear seems to be out of stock everywhere but I've managed to get hold of some Clear It to play with, which as far as I can tell is exactly the same stuff (A = Kieselsol a.k.a. silica, B = Gelatin) except for some reason has a much shorter shelf life (though I can't really see why).....

(out of interest, does it say a shelf life on the Kwik Clear box?)

I get the basic idea - you add some of A and mix, wait at least an hour, then add some B and mix again.....

So how much A & B are you adding and to how much beer? And are you adding it in the fermenter or just in the keg or a combination of the two? Major difference of course is you keg whereas I bottle, but it might still be do-able for me.

I bought the Clear It as a last ditch attempt to sort out an errant batch of Munich Helles - unfortunately I had to add it post carbonation directly to the bottles (far from ideal!) but I was stunned by both the speed at which the crud dropped out and also the amount, plus it also seems to have banished chill haze. Unfortunately, for other reasons, I think this batch may be a lost cause , but used more properly this stuff certainly seems promising.

 

[foxbat]

Hey @foxbat , question for you about Kwik Clear finings.....

When and how much of these finings are you adding to how much beer?

Kwik Clear seems to be out of stock everywhere but I've managed to get hold of some Clear It to play with, which as far as I can tell is exactly the same stuff (A = Kieselsol a.k.a. silica, B = Gelatin) except for some reason has a much shorter shelf life (though I can't really see why).....

(out of interest, does it say a shelf life on the Kwik Clear box?)

I get the basic idea - you add some of A and mix, wait at least an hour, then add some B and mix again.....

So how much A & B are you adding and to how much beer? And are you adding it in the fermenter or just in the keg or a combination of the two? Major difference of course is you keg whereas I bottle, but it might still be do-able for me.

I bought the Clear It as a last ditch attempt to sort out an errant batch of Munich Helles - unfortunately I had to add it post carbonation directly to the bottles (far from ideal!) but I was stunned by both the speed at which the crud dropped out and also the amount, plus it also seems to have banished chill haze. Unfortunately, for other reasons, I think this batch may be a lost cause , but used more properly this stuff certainly seems promising.

I add 6ml of each part to a 19 litre Corny. It looks like you've found a suitable alternative product that should do the same job. I add 6ml of part A to the empty corny, transfer the beer on top of it then add part B when it's nearly full. 'nearly' because when it's actually full I'm a bit busy playing chicken with the gas dip tube trying to get as much beer in without submerging it (you don't want to do that ).

I don't know for sure but I assumed the recommended waiting time was to allow it to mix so one part doesn't neutralise the other and I'd get the same effect by adding at different ends of the transfer to the corny. It certainly seems to do the job.

I'm not sure how you'd get the most out of it when bottling because you intentionally create more trub during carbonation but if you've noticed it gets rid of chill haze then maybe doing it in the fermenter during a cold crash would do the trick.

 

[foxbat]

A very wet day today to be brewing since I like to wash up outside on the patio where I can splash around all I like without making a mess. Still, needs must so it's on with the brew.

This is a slight variation on my previous Outback Ale No.3 where I used Galaxy and Nelson Sauvin. This time I'm using Cascade and Nelson Sauvin with a little bit of user-upper Simcoe to finish off a bag.

Recipe: Nelson and Cascade Ale
Batch Size (fermenter): 24.00 L  
Estimated OG: 1.045 SG
Estimated Color: 8.0 EBC
Estimated IBU: 32.8 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 75.6 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes
Water profile: Ca:63, Mg:11, Na:10, SO4:98, Cl:65

Ingredients:
------------
Amt         Name                                     Type         %/IBU     Volume       
29.71 L     Tesco Ashbeck                            Water        -         -            
2.50 g      Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash)          Water Agent  -         -            
2.00 g      Calcium Chloride (Mash)                  Water Agent  -         -            
2.00 g      Epsom Salt (MgSO4) (Mash)                Water Agent  -         -            
1.50 ml     Lactic Acid (Mash)                       Water Agent  -         -            

4.00 kg     Weyermann Bohemian Pilsner (4.0 EBC)     Grain        83.3 %    2.61 L       
0.45 kg     IREKS Crystal Maple (3.5 EBC)            Grain        9.4 %     0.29 L       
0.35 kg     IREKS Munich Malt (20.0 EBC)             Grain        7.3 %     0.23 L       

0.50 g      Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Sparge)        Water Agent  -         -            
0.40 g      Calcium Chloride (Sparge)                Water Agent  -         -            
0.40 g      Epsom Salt (MgSO4) (Sparge)              Water Agent  -         -            
0.20 ml     Lactic Acid (Sparge)                     Water Agent  -         -            

12.00 g     Cascade [6.70 %] - Boil 15.0 min         Hop          4.2 IBUs  -            
12.00 g     Nelson Sauvin [10.40 %] - Boil 15.0 min  Hop          7.1 IBUs  -            
16.00 g     Cascade [6.70 %] - Boil 10.0 min         Hop          4.1 IBUs  -            
16.00 g     Nelson Sauvin [10.40 %] - Boil 10.0 min  Hop          6.9 IBUs  -            
1.00 Items  Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 7.0 mins)         Fining       -         -            
22.00 g     Cascade [6.70 %] - Boil 5.0 min          Hop          3.1 IBUs  -            
22.00 g     Nelson Sauvin [10.40 %] - Boil 5.0 min   Hop          5.2 IBUs  -            
20.00 g     Simcoe [11.70 %] - Boil 2.0 min          Hop          2.3 IBUs  -            

1.0 pkg     Vermont Ale (Yeast Bay #-)               Yeast        -         -  


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 4.80 kg
----------------------------
Name      Description                      Step Temperature   Step Time    
Mash In   Add 24.71 L of water at 70.5 C   67.0 C             60 min       

Sparge: Dunk sparge with 5 L of water at 75 C

Brew day went well with no hiccups and I was all done and washed up (carefully in the kitchen!) by midday.

OG was 1.046, 1 point above predicted and I hit my target of 24 litres into the fermenter. This will almost certainly ferment down to 1.007 give or take 1 point yielding an ABV of 5.0 or 5.1%.

I got it down to about 22C with the immersion chiller using the usual 65 litres of water and the fermenter is now in the brew-fridge coming down to around 19C when I'll pitch the WLP4000 Vermont yeast starter.

 

[Zephyr259]

Another good brew day done it seems. I'm going to be rebrewing my take on your outback ales soon too as I have Nelson and Galaxy which need used.
Ihave the Omega DIPA yeast on the stir plate now for an ESB. Tried to climb out last night but didn't quite make it, nice change from Wyeast, the first starter from their packs seem to take ages to do anything.

 

[foxbat]

Another good brew day done it seems. I'm going to be rebrewing my take on your outback ales soon too as I have Nelson and Galaxy which need used.
Ihave the Omega DIPA yeast on the stir plate now for an ESB. Tried to climb out last night but didn't quite make it, nice change from Wyeast, the first starter from their packs seem to take ages to do anything.

I do seem to remember the Omega was a lively one, unlike WLP4000 which barely seems to raise a krausen but ferments at the same rapid rate as the Omega and produces the same characteristic full flavour and peachy notes.

 

[foxbat]

I kegged my Nelson & Cascade ale this evening. Final gravity was 1.009, slightly higher than I'm used to but still perfectly OK. I don't think the Vermont Ale is running out of steam yet. I hope not as I'm going to re-use it for a fourth and last time in the next brew.

I got a keg and then two bottles from the remainder. The keg got its usual Kwik-Clear finings and a 5x15psi purge and is now on for a set-and-forget carbonation at 12C and 12psi.

Last weekend I tried the left over bottles from my Outback Ale #3 and was surprised to see how much darker and muted in flavour they were than the bright and fresh beer I get from kegs. So this time I've added a cheeky 0.1g of ascorbic acid to each of the left-over bottles to see if does the job in scavenging oxygen.

 

[foxbat]

Tonight I'm enjoying a pint or three of my Outback Ale No.3. Galaxy & Nelson Sauvin complement each other and as long as Nelson Sauvin is to your taste then I think you'd love this beer as much as I do.

 

[foxbat]

A corny doesn't seem to last as long as it used to or is it just that time flies when you're stuck at home not travelling to work every day? Anyway I've a free keg so it's brew day this weekend and DPD have obliged by delivering 25kg of Weyermann Bohemian Pilsner malt from Geterbrewed this morning.

The WLP4000 yeast starter was prepared last night for its fourth and final re-use in the Galaxy and Cascade pale ale I'm doing on Sunday. It's looking rather more active on the stir-plate this time with a krausen approaching the top of the flask though I don't think it'll actually get there. It should be done by tomorrow night.

Next month I'm doing a Belgian Blonde (titter ye not!) for new year so I'll be culturing up the Duvel yeast from a bottle like last time.