Further to my 'Happy with your ale' thing.......

[Bang Road Brewery]

Righto,
seems like there is some issue with my ferments 'hanging' at the low '20's. Also , opinion suggests that racking to secondary is not as beneficial as used to be thought. With that in mind, how long would it be 'decent' to let the brew sit on the yeastie cake in primary ? I've come across things here and there that seem to suggest leaving it in primary on yeast may , in some way , be detrimental . Anyone confirm/deny? Opinions, please!

 

[NormanHurst]

Until it's done!

The oft quoted standard is 2+2+2 (2 weeks primary, 2 weeks to carb, 2 weeks to condition).

I've left beers on the yeast in primary for over 3 weeks no problem. Sometimes that was deliberate (a slow finishing yeast), other times it was life getting in the way and no free time to package the beer.

The key thing is letting the yeast do its thing - eat the sugar and clean up after itself. Understanding your yeast and its behaviour will help a lot.

Do think about dry hopping though. Leaving dry hops in a beer for extended time may lead to unwanted vegetal flavours.

 

[Sadfield]

As above.

 

[Clint]

I've never had veg flavours off hops,even after three weeks dry hop. I've also left a fermenter up to nearly five weeks without any I'll effect.

 

[Agentgonzo]

I've never had veg flavours off hops,even after three weeks dry hop. I've also left a fermenter up to nearly five weeks without any I'll effect.

Same here (2 weeks max)

 

[Brewnaldo]

I leave my lagers at -1 in primary for as long as I can which has ran to like 4 weeks before. No issues. My last and best one was in the FV for 29 days. The one I currently have on is at day 23 and won't be kegged until Monday at the very earliest

 

[MashBag]

I bottle after 7 days.

 

[NormanHurst]

I bottle after 7 days.

More than one way to skin a cat.

 

[MashBag]

I do think Norman was bang on.
There is no precise time. It is when it is done.

Yeast, recipe, style and temp will all affect it. Yeast don't have watches

 

[Bang Road Brewery]

Hmmmm....
I've left one recently for better part of 3 weeks , due to life getting in the way , but it was still at around '019-ish . I'm wary of letting it sit too long in case it buggers things up . As for dry hopping, I've done a week , with no issues , but again , all the scaremongering of vegetal / off notes has put me off doing longer , and anyway , I consider it may not be necessary. Now , doing a dry , and removing the hops and putting fresh in , is another matter , and I've never come across it yet , but seeing as I love me hops , I figured that may be something to try one o' thse days.

After all , hops is green, they grow in the ground, are 'plant-based' (I hate that term ) , so must be good for ya ! Five of my one a day !

Would there be any benefit to gently rousting the settled yeast cake , if done without aeration or oxidising? Maybe wake up a lazy yeast ? I can feel a brew coming on.......

 

[Galena]

1.019 is still rather high, I cannot say if your fermentation is stuck or not but I had issues when using SO4 yeast in the past. There is a very useful post on things you can try HERE I tried them all I think and it was adding US05 that got it moving in the end.

 

[Druncan]

I understand that the origins of IPA were to hop before transit to India then re hop before transit to destination - double hop is a historical fact. I left a Porter and AIPA for 3 weeks when we went travelling. With Yeasties dumped and held @ 2-4*C Sometimes the slow route leads to a better maturated brew!

I do tend to stick to CML Ale for many brews FA 1.004-6

 

[Sadfield]

I understand that the origins of IPA were to hop before transit to India then re hop before transit to destination - double hop is a historical fact.

I've brewed an IPA along these. The hops were in for 12 months.

 

[MashBag]

1.019 is still rather high, I cannot say if your fermentation is stuck or not but I

I agree.

@Bang Road Brewery what was your mash schedule?

 

[Bang Road Brewery]

Sorry for the delay in responding, I hadn't noticed this last post.The mash sched is history now, I think , unless it's in the notes I had been keeping, and was stored in the Braumeister recipe bank , but that's all overwritten now. I did this , a couple of weeks ago , following the recipe Mashbag kindly sent me . It now seems to have 'landed' at 1.016
Brewday was now 9 days ago. ( now 16 days ) Before going any further , here's excuse number 1. Me being me , I meddled with the recipe, as I found I had about 60 grams of Chinook in the freezer. These got dunked in the steep in lieu of the final 33 grams of Cascade. The Cascade will get an outing for the dry hop , which , yes , I know was not in the 'plan' , but refer to above excuse. I also took the liberty of upping the total Maris Otter to 5.5 KG, as with the wheat malt at half a kilo , the Braumeister was charged to a comfortable load. I also intended to get a full charge into the keg , so volume was increased for maximum swigging opprtunities to come.

All mashing was 'as per' , at 66C for an hour, no intentional mash-out, but the lowest temp available on my sparge water boiler is 75C , so sparge was at that temp . Sparged to around 27 litres. Pre boil grav was 1.055 and change, post boil got me 1.060 after an hour's boil .

Hop additions were to recipe- sorta - 33g's Cascade at 45 mins, same again at 15 mins, and the aforementioned Chinook at 80C steep for a good half hour .

I took the advice of a previous poster, sorry , forgot who, I bend for my offence, and changed my yeast hydration regime to just a half-hour with some nutrient , and this seemed to give a much more lively-looking jugful of yeasties than previously, so that's a fixture from now on. It was S-04, and pitched at 16.30 , and was happily gassing after 3 hours. The morning after , it was a maelstrom of swirling yeasy tornadic activity in there., and down to 1.054.

4 days later , we were at 1.022, 2 days after that, 1.020 , and today , 9 days in , 1.016. Beersmith , however , estimated a finishing grav of 1.018. All the hydrometer samples have been swigged, well , you would , wouldn't you,? and found to be shaping up nicely. Today, day 9 , there is a slight evidence of a bit of cleaning up to be done by the yeasties, but nowt major , so I'll let them sit there until the 2 week mark , rack to secondary and warm it up a degree or so to 20 , or maybe 21C for a diacetyl rest. The main ferment went along at 19C.

I detect a noticeable improvement in the body and mouthfeel up to now could that be the wheatmalt?, so it looks like this recipe is a keeper, and no doubt will be adjusted/meddled with in regard to hopping and maybe a bit of oatmalt , for a bit more mouthfeel , and I very well may investigate additions or subs to the grain bill. However, for now, I'll leave things as they are and try this again, to get a good handle on a working , proven base recipe. .Now all I gotta do is wait....... and there's the rub....................




'If uw wilt oud graven zijn,
drink beer in plats van medicijn!'



Quote Reply

Report



















[IMG alt="Bang Road Brewery"]https://cdn2.imagearchive.com/thehomebrewforum/data/avatars/m/46/46387.jpg?1662400161[/IMG]








Write your reply...



Attach files Upload Video

Conversation info​

Participants 2 Replies 16 Last reply date Jul 23, 2023 Last reply from Bang Road Brewery

Conversation participants​

2. 
   
   [IMG alt="Bang Road Brewery"]https://cdn2.imagearchive.com/thehomebrewforum/data/avatars/s/46/46387.jpg?1662400161[/IMG]
   
   Bang Road Brewery
   New Member
   
   
   
4. 
   
   [IMG alt="MashBag"]https://cdn2.imagearchive.com/thehomebrewforum/data/avatars/s/8/8619.jpg?2014[/IMG]
   
   MashBag
   Landlord.