What's fermenting now?
- Thread starter TN
- Start date
As of yesterday I have a continental dark ale fermenting. Temperature corrected beginning specific gravity was a touch low (1.041, for this recipe starting was supposed to be 1.043-1.045, but close enough yea?) but I think it'll be ok. Fermentation is active and brew bucket is at 68°.
Right now I have three half gallon yeast starters going in preparation for next weekend's brewing. WLP840 for a pilsner, WLP060 for a brown ale and WLP002 for a braggot.
My continental dark is now bottled. Got 2 full cases + 1 ~18oz grolsch bottle. In the beer fridge right at 48°. Final gravity was around 1.02 i believe (I have it in my notes, didn't get quite the full drop it was supposed to, was this caused by not enough yeast?). Did a small taste test and even without carbonation it was pretty good. Can hardly wait until its properly ready.
Down from what? Thats okay for a final but not great for most beers. Did you correct for temp?
I've got a farmhouse ale in primary. It's ready to be moved to secondary. I'll do that tomorrow. I'm going to dry hop an ounce of amarillo hops, because what beer wouldn't benefit from an ounce of dry hopping?
http://www.ridemonkey.com/forums/showpost.php?p=3383696&postcount=44
About 1.04 to start. It was right around 64° so it didn't really need to be temp corrected. The instructions that came with the extract kit said final should be around 1.01.
Racked my smoked porter to secondary, added 1 tablespoon of cocoa to the carboy. I think it's going to be too smokey, so hopefuly the cocoa will offset the smoke some.
I was going to rack my brown ale as well but the gravity has stalled at 1.030. OG was 1.061. I rousted the yeast and pitched a packet of Nottingham. Even though this is a brown ale, I'll probably end up dry hopping it with some Willamette hops, just because I have four pounds of them in my freezer...
the question is, what will I brew next?
I was going to rack my brown ale as well but the gravity has stalled at 1.030. OG was 1.061. I rousted the yeast and pitched a packet of Nottingham. Even though this is a brown ale, I'll probably end up dry hopping it with some Willamette hops, just because I have four pounds of them in my freezer...
the question is, what will I brew next?
10 gallons of a golden ale fermenting...tomorrow we're brewing up an IPA. fine-tuning recipes and all.
That's what they tell me. I also added more yeast, just incase.
The original yeast was Windsor and it's not the best at attenuation(eating of the sugars). Nottingham was what I pitched yesterday and it does a very good job of eating sugars. So I'll probably end up w/ a dry, high ABV beer....
gonna do a partial mash next. looking for recipes.
brewing up two 10 gal batches tomorrow. a blonde and either a pale or a porter.
I bottled my farmhouse ale yesterday. Initial taste test = WINNAR! It's now got to bottle condition for three months. Stupid.
I've got nothing fermenting now and all the beer equipment has been put away.
I've got nothing fermenting now and all the beer equipment has been put away.
the amber ale that was supposed to come with my brewkit (but was backordered) finally showed up yesterday. Looks like I'm brewing this weekend 
I have a Pliny the Elder recipe merrily bubbling away in the guest bathroom.
Some notes:
- First beer I've made where the original gravity was absolutely on the money to expected value (after adjusting for temperature)
- LOL @ 17 ounces of hops. An embarrassment of riches.
- I need a better way to strain the spent hops out of the wort if I'm going to do more beers like this. The screen clogged up instantly. Maybe like a giant Frech press for the pot?
- I had a surprisingly large amount of krausen on my yeast starter, weird (my last two starters had almost none). Sure made for a short lag time, though - the airlock was bubbling after 3 hours and had a giant head of krausen after 6.
Some notes:
- First beer I've made where the original gravity was absolutely on the money to expected value (after adjusting for temperature)
- LOL @ 17 ounces of hops. An embarrassment of riches.
- I need a better way to strain the spent hops out of the wort if I'm going to do more beers like this. The screen clogged up instantly. Maybe like a giant Frech press for the pot?
- I had a surprisingly large amount of krausen on my yeast starter, weird (my last two starters had almost none). Sure made for a short lag time, though - the airlock was bubbling after 3 hours and had a giant head of krausen after 6.
cheese cloth? perhaps sew it into a large steep bag?
also, as of saturday I have an amber ale fermenting.
The problem is mostly that I'm fermenting in a carboy. It's not what I use to strain that's the issue, it's how. The thin neck means I can only get so big a strainer in there, and if I did a transfer via siphon into a steep bag, the bag in the carboy would get too big to pull out.
I think the french press idea is genius, actually, and I may try to fabricate something.
don't sew it like a sack, sew it like a long tube - kind of like a sock. so that its narrow enough to be pulled out.
You can put the hops in hop bags or nylon paint strainer bags and actually boil them that way. There are a bunch of pics with how people try and do this. I have done it a few ways. The easiest, use a clothes pin and pin it to the handles of the kettle. A friend just put holes in the top of the bag and put a wooden handle through it and sits that on top of the kettle. There are more involved ways... PVC pipe with bag attached to it and a handle going through holes in it. I've seen one that actually had it hanging via a clothes hanger... Lots of options. Sadly the bags are a pain to clean but you will keep all that crap out of the fermenter.
A fine idea, but it won't allow me to go to Home Depot and play in the hardware section
Does your brew kettle have a threaded bulkhead in the bottom?
i was thinking false bottom too.
I'll take a picture of mine tonight but I've got a homemade version of a bazooka screen in mine that I made with some copper pipe and the braided stainless jacket from a dishwasher hose.
Mine is similar to this but I have a T after the threaded portion and my filter is circular.
No, it's just a regular 5-gallon stock pot.
Is the implication with that cylindrical filter that you screw the filter into the bottom of the pot, and the hops go into the filter?
Is the implication with that cylindrical filter that you screw the filter into the bottom of the pot, and the hops go into the filter?
Nope, with my system you drain the kettle through a ball valve installed at the bottom of the kettle. The strainer sits inside on the bottom and hops are added directly to the boiling wort. When I'm finished boiling I connect my counterflow chiller to the outlet on the kettle and open it up, the strainer inside the kettle catches most of the trub. If I were really concerned with it I could filter the rest through cheesecloth before it goes into the fermenter.
3%?? Yeesh, I'd be really careful with that. Might end up with bottle bombs if the fermentation decides to start back up in the bottles.
wow how did this thread drop down so far?
just racked into secondary fermenter... bavarian style heffe-weiss. about 5% abv after primary fermentation (2 weeks)
just racked into secondary fermenter... bavarian style heffe-weiss. about 5% abv after primary fermentation (2 weeks)
I JUST pitched yeast into my ale.
1 pound of vienna
1 pound of Rauch (smoked grain)
1 pound of crystal 80L
9 pounds of 2 row
2.5 ounces of hops in the boil. mostly Willamette with 1/2 ounce of Amarillo.
Nottingham yeast.
Should be good.
1 pound of vienna
1 pound of Rauch (smoked grain)
1 pound of crystal 80L
9 pounds of 2 row
2.5 ounces of hops in the boil. mostly Willamette with 1/2 ounce of Amarillo.
Nottingham yeast.
Should be good.
Well my last batch was a complete slam-dunk. Have been getting absolutely rave reviews about it and I think it tastes stellar.
Gotta decide what to do next, though. Last two beers have been IPAs but I really like IPAs. Considering a brown sugar ale, a rye pale ale, or maybe something completely different.
Gotta decide what to do next, though. Last two beers have been IPAs but I really like IPAs. Considering a brown sugar ale, a rye pale ale, or maybe something completely different.