Open Fermentation and/or Different Fermenter Geometry.

[Sadfield]

Its still interesting that there was difference at the batch size brewed, with a yeast that is sold on its consistency across brewing conditions. It certainly challanged my preconception it would be too neutral.

"Neutral flavor and consistent performance across diverse fermentation conditions make LalBrew Nottingham™ and ideal house strain for producing a wide variety of beer styles."

 

[Twostage]

Its still interesting that there was difference at the batch size brewed, with a yeast that is sold on its consistency across brewing conditions. It certainly challanged my preconception it would be too neutral.

"Neutral flavor and consistent performance across diverse fermentation conditions make LalBrew Nottingham™ and ideal house strain for producing a wide variety of beer styles."

Yes, when I read your post about yeast choice I thought "Whoops, I've messed this up" but there is an expression of difference.

 

[matt76]

My Porter fermentation is well underway! The brew fridge smells of banana and chocolate, like those chocolate covered bananas you used to (still?) get in pick & mix.

No idea if that's a good thing but we'll find out on a few weeks! I suppose Hefeweizen yeasts produce banana aromas, and I'd guess the chocolate is coming from the dark malts

 

[RoomWithABrew]

Not completely sure from the image, but I put my temp probe taped on above the heat belt. But on the area above the heat belt cable/ supply. Matches the ispindel well with this method.

 

[Colindo]

Had this thread pointed out to me and must say it is a very fascinating read. What stunned me most was the discernable difference with Nottingham, I totally would have thought it would result in very similar beers.

I only ever once did a semi-open fermentation when brewing a NEIPA with London Ale III, because that one is said to need a particularly large amount of oxygen to fully attenuate. So on day 3 or 4 I took a paper fan and blew some air onto the krausen. I got quite a smooth fermentation and good precipitation, while later beers with the Verdant dry yeast and closed fermentation gave me more headaches.

It is definitely something I need to try out more often. But since I use a small room for fermentation since I don't have a fridge, it is a bit more risky.

 

[Twostage]

Had this thread pointed out to me and must say it is a very fascinating read. What stunned me most was the discernable difference with Nottingham, I totally would have thought it would result in very similar beers.

I only ever once did a semi-open fermentation when brewing a NEIPA with London Ale III, because that one is said to need a particularly large amount of oxygen to fully attenuate. So on day 3 or 4 I took a paper fan and blew some air onto the krausen. I got quite a smooth fermentation and good precipitation, while later beers with the Verdant dry yeast and closed fermentation gave me more headaches.

It is definitely something I need to try out more often. But since I use a small room for fermentation since I don't have a fridge, it is a bit more risky.

My batches were in the brew fridge for temp control rather than any protection.

See pictures in first post.

Your small room would be fine. I can understand your nervousness, nasties in the air might infect it. I used to worry if my FV wasn’t perfectly sealed so the bubbler worked.

Do a small batch which you don’t have to worry about and leave it open.

 

[Sadfield]

It'll be fine as long as there's krausen formed, covering the beer and active fermentation releasing CO2. And, no pets or kids diving into it.

 

[Colindo]

Thanks for the reassurances. I might do a splitch batch and see where that leads me.

 

[matt76]

View attachment 105680

My Porter fermentation is well underway! The brew fridge smells of banana and chocolate, like those chocolate covered bananas you used to (still?) get in pick & mix.

No idea if that's a good thing but we'll find out on a few weeks! I suppose Hefeweizen yeasts produce banana aromas, and I'd guess the chocolate is coming from the dark malts

I kegged my Porter the other day. I'll give it until next weekend before I tap the keg - I find these dark beers tend to mellow and the flavours round off more after a bit more time, but I'm an impatient so and so.

No closed control fermentation to compare it against, but the hydrometer sample tasted good.

I'm fementing something pale and hoppy closed at the moment but once that's done I fancy doing another bitter - I think I'm gonna try culturing up some Fuller's yeast from a couple of bottles of 1845 and then ferment it open.

 

[Colindo]

I think I'm gonna try culturing up some Fuller's yeast from a couple of bottles of 1845 and then ferment it open.

If you can get Bengal Lancer, that one is even better for yeast culturing due to its lower ABV.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

If you can get Bengal Lancer, that one is even better for yeast culturing due to its lower ABV.

Get it while you can, Lancer has just been discontinued. Don't know if that also applies to the Fuller's IPA which was essentially the same beer for export markets.

 

[Colindo]

Get it while you can, Lancer has just been discontinued. Don't know if that also applies to the Fuller's IPA which was essentially the same beer for export markets.

Wow, that is crazy. India Pale Ale is one of the most imported British beers in continental Europe. Easier to get than London Porter by far.

Edit: Any idea how Griffin IPA compares to Bengal Lancer? Just spotted it on their website.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Wow, that is crazy. India Pale Ale is one of the most imported British beers in continental Europe. Easier to get than London Porter by far.

Edit: Any idea how Griffin IPA compares to Bengal Lancer? Just spotted it on their website.

I've not had it, but it looks like it was a "one-off" that is intended to replace Lancer in the long run - slight tweak to the hops (adding Fuggles to the Goldings) and a more neutral name that matches the new Griffin Gold, but still bottle conditioned.

 

[marshbrewer]

It's my birthday, and I've been given an "make you own open fermentation vessel" kit.

 

[Sadfield]

Joyous Felicitations to you and your yeast.

 

[matt76]

I think I'm gonna try culturing up some Fuller's yeast from a couple of bottles of 1845 and then ferment it open.

Just added a note in my Fuller's Partigyle thread - my attempt to culture up some Fuller's yeast is looking promising.....

 

[Colindo]

I am currently fermenting as openly as I dare by just gently leaving the lid on. The yeast is loving it so far, I'll see if I can take a picture later. I bought W-100 from the Weihenstephan yeast bank which is one of their four British strains and it definitely gives a strong British barm that I can imagine benefits from keeping it open.

 

[Colindo]

There you go. I opened the lid for the photos. Normally it gently lays on top.

I'm pretty sure I will get a great yeast harvest from this.

 

[matt76]

London Pride clone brewed and now fermenting open in the brew fridge. In the pic below this is just foam on the surface from aeration when I drained the kettle to the FV but hoping to see a healthy krausen soon. I'll ferment open and feeling like I want to have another try at transferring to a keg with spunding valve to carbonate naturally, but haven't decided 100% on this yet.

 

[matt76]

I might have messed this up.

I brewed a pilsner last week with the intention of fermenting open and then kegging near the end of fermentation to carbonate naturally and lager in the keg.

Primary fermentation went astonishingly well. I pitched a vitality starter of W34/70 and fermented open as planned at 15°C.

From experience I'm not sure that cold lager fermentations are necessarily much slower than healthy ale ones, especially if you pitch a good amount of healthy yeast.

Even so, I was surprised it went as fast as it did, taking 3 days to go from 1.044 to 1.008 - even if that wasn't exactly FG I wouldn't expect it to go much lower.

I'm not sure if the rapid fermentation was a result of being open, or just luck. Anyway, I was keeping an eye on both the krausen, the gravity, and the rate of fermentation.

A rough calculation based on the sugar I used to add when I bottled my beer suggests you can't need much more than 2-3 gravity points to achieve a decent level of carbonation.

By the time I thought the krausen was dropping, indicating that it's time to keg (just 3 days after pitching), I was already at 1.008.

I took a punt and kegged anyway but now I'm thinking taking it off the yeast cake so soon might have been a mistake - I haven't tasted it but I'm concerned there might not be enough yeast left to clean up and diacetyl or acetaldehyde etc.

I left it 24hrs with a spunding valve on the keg but saw no increase in pressure or further drop in SG. So then I took another punt and added some table sugar - the pressure is now rising gradually so something is happening at least.

I guess now it's just a case of leaving it a few weeks, or possibly longer, to let it do it's thing and see what comes of it.