January Brew and Swap

[Tess Tickle's Brewery]

Try batch priming mate and this issue goes away

I plan to try this soon.

I've never been happy with how the husband does it though. He just stirs raw sugar in the beer. I would definitely be using the boiled water method I think.

 

[Justin Dean]

I make up sugar solution per carbonation calculator and put it in separate pressure vessel. I use keg. Then purge and close transfer from fermenter in to pressure vessel. Invert a few times to mix and the bottle.I use boel tap so closed transfer all the way. Obviously not pressure fermented

 

[Tess Tickle's Brewery]

That's one of the reasons I bought my Boel tap too, so I could do what you're explaining.

It's all exciting stuff.

Suppose I could just leave in the keg instead to carbonate in there if I didn't want to bottle condition. With priming sugar obviously.

 

[Stu's Brews]

Just kegged mine and obviously had a quick sample. Really fruity with a nice spice backbone from the Rye and a decent smack of bitterness. Happy with how it has come out so far.

 

[SMP Brewery]

Just kegged mine this morning, the fermentor was just sat in the garage and got down to 1 degree on its own.
mines not as bitter as I’d hoped and as per the last couple of brews didn’t get down to the required FG so is a bit sweet, perhaps I’m under pitching or not getting the mash right.

 

[Tess Tickle's Brewery]

I bet it's still yummy SMP.

What I'm worried about with mine is, after another 6 weeks in the keg, there won't be any hop flavour left. I was going to bottle it which is why I brewed it so early

On the bright side, the ascorbs I put in it might have saved it from the oxygen that it saw.

 

[Stu's Brews]

Just kegged mine this morning, the fermentor was just sat in the garage and got down to 1 degree on its own.
mines not as bitter as I’d hoped and as per the last couple of brews didn’t get down to the required FG so is a bit sweet, perhaps I’m under pitching or not getting the mash right.

What yeast did you use?

 

[Mayor of Simpleton]

Mine is tasting how I want it. It was really estery during fermentation and I was a bit concerned about that, but time seems to have cleaned it up. It's murky as hell though -- let's see after a long cold crash. I was hoping to keg tomorrow but I might give it a bit longer.

 

[Nottsbeer]

Just kegged mine this morning, the fermentor was just sat in the garage and got down to 1 degree on its own.
mines not as bitter as I’d hoped and as per the last couple of brews didn’t get down to the required FG so is a bit sweet, perhaps I’m under pitching or not getting the mash right.

I think I've been under pitching all my higher gravity beers without realising. I've always used Brewfather to input recipies, but until someone mentioned (I think Tess Tickle) that this also tells you how much yeast is needed, I've always just guessed! Looking back on my Rye recipe, brewfather recommended 1pk of my chosen yeast for my small batch....I only used 1/2-3/4 and had a few issues! Not sure if that will help you, but I'm going to take more notice of that in the future and stop guessing.

 

[pilgrimhudd]

Just going back to dry hopping/oxygen etc, I wouldn't mind if it wasn't so random, i've had some brews that i've dry hopped late and not had any issues and others where it clearly has oxidised and i've done exactly the same thing! Arrrrrgh!!!!

Though I suppose it could be bottling is the issue, yet there again, same process.

This is why i've dry hopped at active fermentation for this one. Bottling on Tuesday so i'll get a first impression there.

 

[SMP Brewery]

What yeast did you use?

WLP001 though as I’ve had no issues with it before. Got it from GEB got a despatch confirmation the 29th but it didn’t get picked up until the 2nd, they said it wasn’t left over the NY weekend awaiting despatch but I’m not convinced as the ice pack was warm, wondering if that might have been an issue.

 

[Mash Monster]

WLP001 though as I’ve had no issues with it before. Got it from GEB got a despatch confirmation the 29th but it didn’t get picked up until the 2nd, they said it wasn’t left over the NY weekend awaiting despatch but I’m not convinced as the ice pack was warm, wondering if that might have been an issue.

I recently had a delivery and the box was very warm. The driver took the parcel from the front footwell of the van and the heater must have been on full tilt. I recall thinking at the time that I was glad I had forgotten to order yeast ! Just saying

 

[Stu's Brews]

WLP001 though as I’ve had no issues with it before. Got it from GEB got a despatch confirmation the 29th but it didn’t get picked up until the 2nd, they said it wasn’t left over the NY weekend awaiting despatch but I’m not convinced as the ice pack was warm, wondering if that might have been an issue.

Hmmm... Not used WLP001 but it's meant to be the same strain as Wyeast 1056 and US-05 so shouldn't have any issues attenuating due to high flocculation.

How far out did you end up? As you said earlier could be either pitch rate or incomplete mash conversion that has caused it.

 

[SMP Brewery]

It was 4 points above what I was expecting at 1.017

 

[Tess Tickle's Brewery]

So my batch 1 (keg part) has gone down the sink cos it's vile (as expected), but we've saved the bottled part of it.

I can't send my batch 2 in the state it's in at the moment. I couldn't taste it at all when I kegged, but I can now. Lots of diacetyl

It's currently sat in my kitchen but it's only 15c in there. It's such a shame if it doesn't clean up as there's a lovely beer behind all that butter.

Does anyone have any advice apart from turn up the heat? It's already had an extra packet of yeast when I kegged it.

Going forward my plan is to make starters for all my beers and don't go near them for 2 weeks! And taste them before kegging!

 

[Stu's Brews]

So my batch 1 (keg part) has gone down the sink cos it's vile (as expected), but we've saved the bottled part of it.

I can't send my batch 2 in the state it's in at the moment. I couldn't taste it at all when I kegged, but I can now. Lots of diacetyl

It's currently sat in my kitchen but it's only 15c in there. It's such a shame if it doesn't clean up as there's a lovely beer behind all that butter.

Does anyone have any advice apart from turn up the heat? It's already had an extra packet of yeast when I kegged it.

Going forward my plan is to make starters for all my beers and don't go near them for 2 weeks! And taste them before kegging!

I think all you can do is keep it warm and hope for the best. If the yeast hasn't gone dormant then it may be able to clean up the diacetyl.

 

[Tess Tickle's Brewery]

Ok thanks Stu. I will bow out now then until it's time for the swap schedule to be drawn up, at which time I'll reassess the beer.

 

[Zoiks]

I have a conical fermenter with a pressure relief valve so I blow CO2 in through the outlet to create a blanket over the beer before opening the lid . I then toss the hops in, close it back up and close the outlet valve.

I know some people use magnets to hold a bag of hops above the beer and then remove the magnet on the outside of the fermenter to release the bag when they are ready to dry hop. That way they don't need to open the lid at all.

I bought sous vide magnets for this very purpose a few months ago, however I'm unable to find any reading on how much it impacts the freshness of the hops leaving them suspended outside of packaging for 3-10 days, anyone know much about this?

 

[Tess Tickle's Brewery]

Not about the freshness, but time-wise it's only been around 48 hrs for me (until I need to dry hop)

 

[Stu's Brews]

I bought sous vide magnets for this very purpose a few months ago, however I'm unable to find any reading on how much it impacts the freshness of the hops leaving them suspended outside of packaging for 3-10 days, anyone know much about this?

I'd assume there would be some oxidation of the hops over the first 24 hours but after that the CO2 emitted from fermentation should prevent any further issues.

I doubt those first 24 hours are significant enough to have a major impact on the final beer.