foxbat's brewdays

[matt76]

Couple of questions for you @foxbat , just curious:

With your starters you overbuild it when you open the pack, right? But then do you split that into 4 or so, and so this latest stage is just reinvigorating a portion of that stored yeast? Or are you continuously harvesting and re-pitching, harvesting and re-pitching?

And how do you find Galaxy? I recall you also used it in a lager a while back. I've read it can be quite harsh. I've only used it once, in a hazy, and that was certainly quite bitter initially, though I can't say conclusively it was the Galaxy. I've still got a load left (leaf, not pellets, about half a pack though I think) and can't figure out how best to use them. Any suggestions how to get the most out of it?

Cheers

 

[foxbat]

Couple of questions for you @foxbat , just curious:

With your starters you overbuild it when you open the pack, right? But then do you split that into 4 or so, and so this latest stage is just reinvigorating a portion of that stored yeast? Or are you continuously harvesting and re-pitching, harvesting and re-pitching?

I overbuild for just the next brew at the point of preparing the starter. So it would normally be; 1.5 litre starter = 1 litre in the beer, 0.5 litres in the fridge. Next time repeat with the 0.5 litres being the 'yeast pack' for the next 1.5 litre starter. I never harvest from a post-fermentation slurry.

And how do you find Galaxy? I recall you also used it in a lager a while back. I've read it can be quite harsh. I've only used it once, in a hazy, and that was certainly quite bitter initially, though I can't say conclusively it was the Galaxy. I've still got a load left (leaf, not pellets, about half a pack though I think) and can't figure out how best to use them. Any suggestions how to get the most out of it?

Love it, love it, love it. But only in an ale. The lager was a step too far I think and it just tasted like a cold ale and not really anything like the Adnams Dry Hopped Lager that I was hoping it would be. In an ale, combined equally with other tropical fruit hops it's great. I think my best ever was Galaxy + Motueka + Cashmere fermented with the Vermont strain to add even more peachy fullness to the flavour. Everybody loved that one.

 

[foxbat]

Today's brew was a slight variation on my Nelson & Cascade ale, this time featuring Galaxy and Cascade to see how those two pair off together. IBUs are little higher due to the Galaxy weighing in at a mighty 15.6% AA and I've skipped the Munich on this one because I didn't want to mask the honey sweetness of the Weyermann Bohemian Pilsner malt too much. This week's user-upper hop addition is 23g of Cashmere at 2 mins.

Recipe: Galaxy and Cascade Ale
Batch Size (fermenter): 24.00 L
Estimated OG: 1.045 SG
Estimated Color: 8.0 EBC
Estimated IBU: 41.9 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     Volume     
29.70 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  -         -          
1.90 ml     Lactic Acid (Mash)                       Water Agent  -         -          

4.30 kg     Weyermann Bohemian Pilsner (4.0 EBC)     Grain        90.0 %    2.80 L     
0.48 kg     IREKS Crystal Maple (3.5 EBC)            Grain        10.0 %    0.31 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     Galaxy [15.60 %] - Boil 15.0 min         Hop          10.7 IBUs -          
16.00 g     Cascade [6.70 %] - Boil 10.0 min         Hop          4.1 IBUs  -          
16.00 g     Galaxy [15.60 %] - Boil 10.0 min         Hop          10.4 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     Galaxy [15.60 %] - Boil 5.0 min          Hop          7.9 IBUs  -          
23.00 g     Cashmere [7.00 %] - Boil 2.0 min         Hop          1.6 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 24.70 L of water at 69.4 C   66.0 C             60 min     

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

Nothing exciting to report on the brew day itself. I started at 06:15 and was all washed up by 11:30. 24 litres of wort at an OG of 1.046 were collected and the brew fridge got it down from 24 to 20 in about 4 hours. The 1 litre starter of Vermont Ale yeast was pitched at 16:00.

This should be lager-like in appearance with lots of tropical fruity goodness from those hops. I'm predicting an ABV of between 4.9 and 5.1%.

 

[foxbat]

Pitched starter late Sunday afternoon.
Rapid fermentation by Monday morning.
Extreme fermentation during late Monday/Tuesday. Not bubbles, more a continuous stream of gas.
Much slower on Wednesday.
Absolutely no activity through the blowoff tube Thursday morning.

This could be the fastest fermentation I've seen yet from WLP4000. Looking at my notes back in 2018 it visibly finished in 5 days and was kegged in 10, drinking at 17. That was from a new pack and they're supposed to get better with a couple of re-uses (this is #4).

 

[Davy6Mac]

That recipe looks pretty good. I've done 8 AG brews so far, and they have mostly been pale ales etc.
I've just done a Pale Ale that only had Galaxy hops for bittering and dry hopping. its almost ready for bottling etc.
In your recipe you've used lactic acid in the mash, just as a matter of interest what will that add to the finished beer. I also use Tesco Ashbeck water for my brews.

 

[foxbat]

That recipe looks pretty good. I've done 8 AG brews so far, and they have mostly been pale ales etc.
I've just done a Pale Ale that only had Galaxy hops for bittering and dry hopping. its almost ready for bottling etc.
In your recipe you've used lactic acid in the mash, just as a matter of interest what will that add to the finished beer. I also use Tesco Ashbeck water for my brews.

The lactic acid will not add anything to the finished beer in such a small quantity. It's to reduce the estimated mash pH from 5.53 to 5.31. I've never tried Galaxy as a bittering hop at the start of the boil because when I do a hoppy beer then the high alpha US/Aus/NZ hops I use contribute all the bittering I need from 15 minutes to the end. When I'm using low alpha hops then I'll bump up the IBUs at 60 minutes using Hallertau Magnum because the bitterness is so smooth.

 

[foxbat]

Today was kegging day for my Galaxy and Cascade ale. I mentioned earlier on that I was a little concerned because the WLP4000 Vermont yeast appeared to go mad like a half-starved crazy thing for 3 days then stop dead after day 4. My schedule is to leave the fermenter sealed for 2 weeks and then take an FG reading while kegging so I just left it, hoping that everything was OK.

I needn't have worried. It finished at 1.007, squarely in the range of just about everything I brew. There was even a small krausen stain on the inside of the fermenter lid when I removed it and I've never seen that before (the fermenter is a broad 33 litres and I fill with 24 litres of wort). Clearly at reuse #4 the WLP4000 is reaching the peak of its vitality.

It's almost a shame that there are no more overbuilds of this one to come but I'm moving on to a different style next that mandates a new yeast.

So there we have it, 1.007 for an ABV of 5.1%. The unconditioned beer tasted good and I got one keg and 3 left over bottles out of it. The keg was fined with Kwik-clear, purged 5 times with 15psi and set at around 12-psi-ish for carbonation and conditioning at the keezer temperature of 12C.

Now on to planning the next one.

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

I like that hydrometer... do you have a link please?

 

[matt76]

I'm curious about your approach to FG @foxbat ...

I see this here and there that "I checked the gravity and it had reached the FG predicted by [insert name of brewing software here]"

Now, I would always check over several days to make sure it has definitely finished fermenting - typically two measurements a couple of days apart.

(For one thing different strains seem to go at different speeds and attenuate differently. It also doesn't help that I'm forever messing around with mash duration and temperature, for example!)

So what gives? It's it simply the case that if you're kegging you have more leeway? I assume kegs have some form of pressure relief??? Whereas if you're bottling, especially with glass, then explosions are rather more of a concern!

 

[foxbat]

I like that hydrometer... do you have a link please?

It's a 'Herculometer' finishing hydrometer that goes from 0.980 to 1.020. It was sold by Northern Brewer in the US and imported here by beerhawk. Unfortunately it appears to be no longer available.

 

[foxbat]

I'm curious about your approach to FG @foxbat ...

I see this here and there that "I checked the gravity and it had reached the FG predicted by [insert name of brewing software here]"

Now, I would always check over several days to make sure it has definitely finished fermenting - typically two measurements a couple of days apart.

(For one thing different strains seem to go at different speeds and attenuate differently. It also doesn't help that I'm forever messing around with mash duration and temperature, for example!)

So what gives? It's it simply the case that if you're kegging you have more leeway? I assume kegs have some form of pressure relief??? Whereas if you're bottling, especially with glass, then explosions are rather more of a concern!

I used to check the final gravity before packaging years ago but when I started using liquid yeast with healthy starters and my system settled down to a consistent behaviour it became pointless because after 2 weeks I could guarantee an ale was done, and 3 weeks for a lager. So I decided to skip it and leave the fermenter sealed up and free from oxygen ingress.

You're right about the lack of risk with kegging. If, one day I have to eat my words then it doesn't matter if it does a point or two in the keg. The extra CO2 will help carbonate and if it goes over I can just let the excess out through the PRV.

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Unfortunately it appears to be no longer available.

I concur - damn because that would be a dead useful bit of kit especially this version: HERCULOMETER - PRECISION SCALE HYDROMETER 1.000 TO 1.070

 

[foxbat]

I concur - damn because that would be a dead useful bit of kit especially this version: HERCULOMETER - PRECISION SCALE HYDROMETER 1.000 TO 1.070

I've got one of those as well . You can see it in the post-brewday OG photos.

 

[emerson909]

@The-Engineer-That-Brews

https://www.themaltmiller.co.uk/product/large-hydrometer-1000-1060/
I’ve got this one, it’s really easy to read

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

@The-Engineer-That-Brews

https://www.themaltmiller.co.uk/product/large-hydrometer-1000-1060/
I’ve got this one, it’s really easy to read

Nice One!!

 

[foxbat]

My next brew is going to be a Belgian Blonde and although it's not due for at least a couple of weeks I decided to get the yeast starter going to build it up to a size that looks like about 100bn cells and keep it in the fridge until the week before when I'll take it out and build it up again to the required size for the beer.

The liquid yeast for this brew was supplied by none other than Tesco, and at £2 for a vial I was delighted to see that it came stored in some rather special beer. So I bought a bottle.

After letting it settle in the fridge for a week I could see a light dusting of that precious yeast on the bottom of the bottle so I decanted off 90% of the storage medium into the first random glass that was within reach.

Setting that aside for a moment (it wasn't easy) I swirled up the dregs into a cloudy solution and poured it into 200ml of 1.020 starter wort that I'd prepared earlier and chilled to 20C.

That's now spinning away at 20C on the stir plate in my brew fridge and we'll soon see if it's alive and if my previous use of this yeast is anything to go by then it will not only be alive it'll be the most aggressive climb-out-of-your-flask yeast I've ever seen.

That glass I set aside earlier on is looking rather appealing. Waste not want not, I'd better drink it I think.

 

[Zephyr259]

I saw the glass of beer in my email alert of this post and wondered how you already had a glass of belgian blonde. Hope the "storage medium" was tasty and good luck growing up the dregs.

I'm going to grow up some of the dregs from the Kernal's sour beers as I recently got one of their mixed cases.

 

[foxbat]

48 hours on the stir plate and I didn't see any activity but it is cloudy and presumably that's yeast.

I just fed it with 200ml more wort, this time at 1.040 gravity. Hopefully I'll get some visible activity soon.

 

[foxbat]

I checked in on the duvel yeast this morning and it seemed to have finished. Or not started. Either way the liquid in the flask was showing no sign of activity. It had, however, changed colour to that darker colour that starters go when they're done. I decided to leave it until tonight then switch off the plate and chill it for a few days so the spent 400ml or so could be decanted off before the next feeding and more importantly so I could tell if anything had happened so far.

I needn't have worried because just a few hours after switching off the stir plate there was a nice layer of pure white yeast on the bottom of the 2 litre flask. I think this one will be up for a 500ml stage next which should be enough to get me enough yeast to save in a jar in the fridge ready to build up for the actual brew.

The actual brew will a 1.065 Belgian, hence the need to get a good run at it (so to speak) with the starter.

 

[foxbat]

Here's how it looks tonight after:

200ml 1.020
200ml 1.040

You can see the layer of yeast on the bottom. I've just boiled up 500ml at 1.040 that's going to be added after it's cooled and after I've decanted off that spent wort.