Pressure barrel and yeast questions

[shaunmc]

My 2nd brew (St Peters Ruby Red) has been brewing for 15 days now in the airing cupboard at 22 degrees.
The OG was 1040 and now its been steady at 1010 - 1012 for 3 days so time to move on.

2 questions :

There are some brown lumps on top of the brew, presumably yeast. Do I wait further, stir it or continue to the next stage?

I now have a Wilkos pressure barrel. My current brew is in a brew bucket. Do I decant into the pressure barrel, put back into the airing cupboard for 2 further weeks and then bottle, or just syphon into bottles?

I want to use carbonation drops in each bottle (they worked well lat time), so do not want to dispense from a pressure barrel.

 

[Kevin Wood]

Don't worry about the brown lumps and don't stir them in. They are a normal byproduct of fermentation and will hopefully be left behind when you syphon out of the FV.

Sounds like the fermentation has finished so now is a good time to think about bottling.

Without further fermentables (e.g. priming sugar) there is no mileage in keeping the brew longer in the airing cupboard, as everything fermentable has likely been used now. Any further resting needs to be somewhere cool (i.e. a garage or shed).

You could either do this in the fermenting vessel or decant into your sanitised barrel. There are pros and cons with each:

The FV will have a layer of CO2 above the beer which will shield it from oxidisation while standing for a while longer. Moving the beer to another vessel will lose this protective layer and increase the risk oxidisation or infection. Then again, the beer will now be separated from the "trub" containing byproducts of the fermentation so will probably clear better for bottling. I would usually move to another vessel before bottling and mix in a sugar solution to "batch prime" the brew, then bottle from that vessel, but using carbonation drops does allow bottling straight from the FV, although you will have to be careful not to disturb the "trub" at the bottom of the FV during bottling.

I personally would probably syphon it off carefully to a sanitised vessel without moving the FV too much from where it currently sits, then let it settle just for a day or two in the cold before bottling. If you have a CO2 injector on your barrel, add a shot of CO2 after transferring the beer in, let it settle for 5 minutes, and then let some of the gas out by loosening the lid. This will re-establish a protective layer of CO2 over the beer. Instead of using carbonation drops it would be just as easy to stir in a syrup made by boiling some sugar in tap water for a few minutes at this stage. This is a more cost effective way of priming, and reduces the risk that you forget to add a drop to every bottle during the tedious bottling procedure.

 

[shaunmc]

Cheers for the advice.

I see what you mean about carbonation drops. I think I did miss a couple in my first brew!

My FV is a ground floor level, so will need to be moved to allow syphoning, so will need to settle again?
My pressure barrel just seems to have a screw-on seal. I don't have any CO2 kit - sounds like I'll have to buy a CO2 injector barrel cap to replace the screw-on one?

I think I'll move the FV to a higher point, let it settle for a couple of days, I can then de-cant to the pressure barrel and then after a couple of days in cool conditions bottle from this barrel using carbonation drops as I already have them.

For the next brew I'll try the CO2 kit and compare.

 

[Kevin Wood]

Yep, not worth worrying about CO2 if you don't have it to hand but if you do ever decide to dispense a beer from the barrel it's worth fitting an injector valve to the lid first so you can top it up if the pressure in the barrel drops after drawing off a bit of beer. I'd move the FV somewhere cool and bottle straight out of it if you're happy with that.

Alternatively, just transfer to the barrel when you're ready to bottle and batch prime then bottle immediately from the barrel. For a normal ale about 100 grams of sugar to a 40 pint kit, dissolved in boiling water then stirred in before bottling is a good starting point. I find it more convenient than carb drops, which inevitably end up a sticky mess when I keep reaching for them with wet hands during bottling but to each their own.

Then leave the bottles back in the warm for a week or two to condition followed by a couple of weeks in the cold to clear and mature. :thumb: