Racked my Chinook IPA - Some Q's

[_jon_]

Hey Guys,

So.. this eve after 2 weeks of fermentation I decided to rack off my Chinook IPA. I wanted to do 12 bottles and the rest in the keg, but I chuffed up the bottling, it wouldn't come out of the bucket clean because of the leaf hops which came through... it was a bit of a nightmare. I also forgot to prime and only got 4 bottles! Will not priming it mean it won't carb in the bottle?

I got about 3/4 of a keg with the remainder, but thanks to the crappy auto-siphon (which I am mega disappointing with exeter brewshop about, forced me to purchase another one after their last one broke on it's maiden voyage!)... Anyway I went off... thanks to the crappy siphon I maybe got a small amount of trub and the odd hop leaf.

I've pressurised the keg to 20psi, and will leave it for a couple of days.. by which time I will have set up my kegerator and hopefully be ready to tap it and drink some. I had a little taste and, flat it tastes pretty bland... not very hoppy and very melow (doesn't taste strong at all).

One of my other questions was about star san... I've seen and read a million times that a little liquid and foam left in the keg/bottle is absolutely fine.. but will it affect the taste at all?

Thanks
Jon

 

[cerbera84]

Hi Jon,

StarSan is fine - the majority of people appear to use it - "don't fear the foam"...!

I usually keg and carb a beer and try to leave it approximately 4 weeks before tasting. The beer may need to lose the carbonic bite and condition before you'll know how good it will be.

I don't think your bottles will carb from what you've said.

I recently bought a Rack Magic autosiphon from Beer Hawk, seems a good piece of kit so far and its fully dismantleable https://www.beerhawk.co.uk/fermenter-s-favorites-rack-magic-siphon

I recently made a Chinook Columbus IPA which was great but it improved a lot over the 4 weeks conditioning.

Ben

 

[_jon_]

Hi Ben,

I did have one of those siphons but I took it apart to clean it and then lost the little one way valve thing.. so it didn't work anymore

Oh now that's news I wasn't hoping to hear 4 weeks... lol. My kegerator arrives tomorrow, and I've no beer to put in it. Devestation haha.

Considering what to get on next.. maybe the jaipor or a punk ipa.

 

[Duxuk]

I tie a piece of net curtain material around the bottom of my syphon to stop dry hops being sucked up the tube. If you have bottles with no priming I'd just take the caps off, add half a teaspoon of sugar to each and recap.

 

[_jon_]

I actually ordered some muslin cloth, but it didn't arrive before I racked it. Next time :-)

 

[jeg3]

I've bottle conditioned in the past without the use of priming sugar, but I conditioned in the leg first for 4 weeks or so.

I got a tap with a bottling stick from wilkos for £6 and turned one of my FVs into a dedicated bottling bucket, bottling is now a doddle.

I do use priming sugar now coz I couldn't stand the 10 week wait. It did make a good beer though

 

[_jon_]

I think I'll open the bottles and add some corn sugar, as these bottles are for someone else. Mines in the keg. I'd hate for theirs to be pants.

Should I mix the sugar first with something? Or just dump it in the bottles?

 

[GerritT]

I think I'll open the bottles and add some corn sugar, as these bottles are for someone else. Mines in the keg. I'd hate for theirs to be pants.

Should I mix the sugar first with something? Or just dump it in the bottles?

Pff, just dumping it might lead to one bottle being still flat, and another gushing wild. My brew sensei taught us to add the sugar to a cup of hot water (just enough to dissolve it), then to the complete wort just before bottling, and lastly ladle it carefully throughout, no splashing.

BUT you could just lightly under-carbonate it, to be safe.

 

[_jon_]

Well I have to say I'm amazed and impressed.

I primed the bottles and have left them, as they're not for me.

As I previously mentioned, I kegged the remainder... pressured it to 20psi and left it for a couple of days. In the meantime my new fridge arrived. So last night, I drilled a couple of holes in the door and fitted some taps. Today I've ran a keg of starsan through the lines, followed by about 2 litres of clean cold water.

Then I got the Chinook and bled the gas out, and then set the regulator to 11psi. (The pressure that the starsan seemed to come through without any fuss). I've just pulled off a small sample, and it tastes surprisingly good!! I've turned on the fridge and will chill it to #4 on the fridge! I do have an inkbird, but I'm not using it just yet as I don't plan to ferment in this fridge and I know that the temperature I like my beer is.... Cold! But I've got the inkbird just in case I need to be fussy about temps later on.

Based on this small sample (can only be a small sample since it's lunchtime!) I'm optimistic about a full pint of the cold stuff this evening.

Annoyingly though, my c02 bottle is so big that I won't be able to fit 2 kegs in there with it. So when I add another beer, the c02 is going to have to go outside. Which makes me wonder if I can drill in the side of the fridge, sometimes there are cooling tubes in the side. but I'll have to cross that bridge when I come to it, or get a smaller c02.