Homebrewers - Whats Fermenting?

[smokinghole]

The advantage of the union system would allow for not needing to wash because there will be a greatly decreased amount of gunk to wash away. I guess build it and see what way you like. A small jug is all you're wasting.

I do it both ways depending on how strongly flavored the end beer will be. So stouts and IPAs I tend to use the whole thing. If I think enough ahead of time I will make it and decant the spent starter liquid off and just pour the thicker slurry.

 

[mthhurley]

I was planning on washing the yeast from the trub before transferring to secondary, would the yeast from the burton provide any benefits over the washed yeast?

Another quick question for you guys;
I have read on several sites two completely different ways of pitching the starter. On Mr Malty and a few other sites, it says to pitch at peak fermentation, in this situation I assume you pitch the entire starter. On other sites it says to make it earlier, let it settle out in the fridge and then decant the beer off the top and just pitch the the lower portion where the yeast sits... Which method would be best?

Me personally, I decant. Reason is if I make a 2L starter and 5.5 gallons of beer, I'm really pushing the capacity of that 6 gallon bottle if I dump the 2L in..pretty much guaranteeing a major blow off and wasting yeast (suppose the burton union could solve this). So I chill, decant and let it warm up to room temp before pitching. I don't make the starter more than two days in advance. A day to grow and a day to chill/decant.

 

[mthhurley]

I could also solve all problems with a 7 gallon conical fermentor, but that comes with issues of temperature control, a full size fridge to try and manage it...etc...etc..

 

[veeref]

I could also solve all problems with a 7 gallon conical fermentor, but that comes with issues of temperature control, a full size fridge to try and manage it...etc...etc..

Not to mention the Blichmann conicals approach $1000!

 

[smokinghole]

Screw it if you're going to get a conical go 14 gal you can do six gal batches in there just fine. If a big brewery will do slow sellers at 30barrels in a 100bbl fermentor you can do 6gal in a 14.

 

[twenty5]

Thanks for the info guys.

I made my first starter last night and it didn’t go very well. I bought a stir plate and planned on using a growler, after making up 1 1.5L solution, I added 2 vials of yeast and put it on the stir plate. The plate apparently didn’t like the bottom of the growler because it kept kicking the magnet off. I then sanitized my 1L flask, poured about 1L of the solution into it, added a new magnet and put it on the stir plate. That took off fine. Basically, I have a 1L starter on the plate and 1/2L starter left in the growler, I have been shaking it up periodically. I know that splitting it up wasn’t optimum but it was like 11 and I panicked. Did I just screw myself or is this salvageable? Should I be buying some more yeast today?

 

[smokinghole]

You should be fine. What is the yeast for?

 

[twenty5]

1.1OG stout

 

[smokinghole]

What yeast is it that you're growing?

 

[twenty5]

Wlp 007, according to Mr malty, I needed a1.5l starter with the sir bar.

 

[twenty5]

Brew day went pretty flawlessly again. New Zealand Pale Ale is to sit for a few weeks now and the Imperial Stout should be ready before Christmas.

 

[hossdawg]

Bottled a Scottish Heavy in 22 oz. after 4 weeks in the primary and wont even think about for at least a couple of months...OG was 1092 with a FG of 1022. Dry hopped and IPA and brewed up a Cream Ale for summer easy drinkin'. The Apfelvein is still waiting patiently for at least another month before bottling.

 

[smokinghole]

Well I sent off my entries to the National Homebrew Contest. I entered my Spelt Saison in the 16C. Then I entered my beer that was inspired by Orval Trappist as 16E. Then the third I entered is a Dubbel in 18B.

I really like these three, but I don't know how they'll stack up in a competition of this size. There are 7000 total entrants. This is also very likely the last homebrew competition that I can enter. We'll see how this goes!

 

[smokinghole]

There's the 9L bottle filled on the left. The 6L next to it will get filled this week or next week.

 

[Lorax429]

I racked my Christmas Imperial Stout to the secondary last night. Now it starts its long rest until I add the vanilla beans and cocoa nibs in September.

Now I gotta start looking at what to brew next. Can't have my primary sitting there empty. :glassesgr Maybe that Belgian Saison I was talking about earlier......

 

[twenty5]

What temp do you plan on leaving that in secondary and how long has it been in primary? My imperial stout is hitting two Weeks this Saturday so I am almost inn the same boat

 

[Lorax429]

It was in the Primary for 16 days. I am going to do my best to try and keep it cool over the summer. I put an old t-shirt on it and put it in the same large blue tub that you saw in my picture of the blow-off disaster I had during primary ferm. Filled the bottom of that with water and will let the t-shirt wick the water up and hopefully the evaporation effect will keep it cool enough. If I have too much trouble keeping it cool I'll have to scramble to try something else. Maybe have my wife add frozen water bottles to it periodically through the day.

 

[twenty5]

I was planning on leaving mine in primary for maybe 28 days then racking to secondary to clear it up and possibly an addition or two (chocolate, vanilla, coffee, etc?) but most of the aging of mine will take place in the bottles I think. I have read that it could take 2-3 months to carb a high abv stout so I want to make sure it is ready for December. My schedule:

Brewed: March 24th
Rack to Secondary: April 21st (4 weeks)
Bottle: June 2nd (6 weeks)

Then let it sit in the bottle for 6 months...

Any issues with this? Anything I should change?

 

[smokinghole]

Controlling temp to large extents won't do much for an already fermented beer. If you have a basement you should be fine. If you don't have a basement but don't let the house get 90 degrees then you should be fine with an interior closet or something like that.

For bigger stouts I advise using champagne yeast or wine yeast at bottling. They are very alcohol tolerant and low pH tolerant. Plus the nice thing unlike adding WLP099 the champagne/wine yeast will not do any further fermentation of your beer. It will consume the priming sugar and only the priming sugar so long as you use corn sugar (dextrose). It's a $1 cost to ensure a carbonated beer further down the road. Just make sure it gets well mixed into the beer.

 

[Lorax429]

I will defer to the more experienced on that one. I am at the same point in my brew career as you are. What I read when I was looking around was that the High Gravity stout would benefit from the extra aging time in the secondary before bottling and then at least 2 months in the bottle. My schedule is to add the cocoa nibs and vanilla around Sept. 8th. Give it about 3 weeks on that and then bottle around October 1st and drink my first one on Christmas eve.