Beer Feeds

Posted: by mdwalsh (57 minutes ago)

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I’ve got a strong Belgian in secondary right now, and I’m tempted to keg it. Is there any reason not to? My instinct says it should be bottled, but I’m having trouble convincing myself of that.

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Posted: by philbe311 (3 hours ago)

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This was my first attempt at a lager, and so I ordered a Czech Pils extract kit from Northern.

All was going well until I racked to the primary … and took a sample for an OG (which is supposed to be 1.047).

Disappointing doesn’t begin to describe it. After maybe 15 minutes, there was about 3″ of “goo” at the bottom of the carboy, and the hygrometer was literally riding on top of the stuff in the sampling jar. Given the obvious error in the OG I abandoned that (it was about 1.09, no way that was correct).

The recipe called for 3.15# of Northern’s “Pils” extract at the start of the boil, and then 3.15# more at minute 45.
First question: Could this ‘goo’ have been undissolved sugars?

12 hours after I pitched the yeast, I see that the ‘goo’ is nearly gone (hooray). So I took a second sample and again… disappointment… it’s only 1.0300.

Second question: As this is designed to be a lager (I know, it’s an extract recipe), I’ve got the primary in my keg fridge at about 50 degrees… is it typical for the fermentation to be very slow? (compared to the usual rapid activity I get after 48-72 hours).

Thanks for any insights here.

PS:
I’ve got some photos, but what’s an easy way to link them in?

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So i have never dry hopped in a conical and well im kinda affraid to take the whole top off(due to air exposure and possible contamination) but fitting the hops through the little airlock hole may prove to be messy and could contaminate my batch. so any advice or comments would be great. also i plan on using lose leaf hops not pellet.

*edited for more detail

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Posted: by donteatpoop (20 hours ago)

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So I brewed a porter last night and cooled it down to 63 degrees and racked it onto a yeast cake from a batch of Ken Lenard’s MLPA. Now this was the first time I tried this but I heard that it takes off fast and violently so I put the air lock on my bucket but put a hose on it as a blow off just in case. Well I get up this morning and the lid of the bucket is domed and I hear a hissing noise, not to mention nothing is passing through the tube. The Genious that I am thinks, Self the bottom of the airlock must be clogged, I should clean it out… Ok, not genius, more like retard — I pull out the airlock and POW face full of yeast and krausen. I had to laugh!! At least I wasn’t cleaning the ceiling. I ended up cutting the tip of the airlock off so it was less likely to clog, sanitized and and now it’s a bubbling away.

I only had like a 1/4 - 1/2″ of yeast on the bottom of the bucket so I didn’t think I should have to worry about taking any of the cake out. hmm… I guess next time half is going in a mason jar or the boil kettle.

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So in my recent study of yeast propagation there is talk of a generation of yeast. This definition doesn’t seem to be used with yeast like it is used with other animals so I wondered what the technical definition is.

Here is what I have seen…
In animals, generations are defined simply by a single new group of babies.
With yeast, each time some one uses the yeast they call that a generation, seemingly irregardless of how many “generations” actually come forth.

by that standard, I suppose a batch of beer fermented with a yeast propagated from a single cell would be in the 140th billion “generation”

so what is the break down, how is this actually defined?

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On my last batch I ditched the airlock in favor of a blowoff tube into a growler partially filled with water…
Instead of reusing the yeast at the bottom of the fermenter of this batch, was thinking of using the nice yeast cake i have in my blowoff catcher. It is absolutely beautiful! Flesh-colored and clean.

It was just tap water that it is sitting in, however I sanitized everything beforehand. Anyone ever use this? Never seen yeast that looked this pretty. Guess my concern is that it is just sitting in water that hasn’t been boiled, like i would typically store my yeast in.

Decant and RDWHAHB?

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I bought an aquarium pump and some appropriately sized tubing a couple of days ago with the intent of using a 0.5 micron stainless air stone I had purchases a couple of years ago.
I hooked the stone to the pump with a short length of tubing and threw it into a 1/2 gal of tap water just to watch it bubble. Wat thinking of using it in a fresh batch of blond ale tomorrow. The stone bubbled for a couple of minutes and stopped. The pump is still pumping but the stone appears to be plugged. HELP

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Has anyone noticed that their absorption rate in the mash varies by what grain they use?

Normally, no matter what grain I use, I average about 0.15 gallons per pound of grain. But all of a sudden in my last batch with 85% pilsner malt, my absorption rate dropped down to 0.05 (a third less than normal). I’ve used a high percent of pilsner before and it’s was in the same range as the other malts, but it makes me wonder what happened.

What are the factors that effect absorption rate?

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Posted: by LunaChick (12 hours ago)

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Posted: by rawhydes1 (13 hours ago)

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Posted: by thepiedpiper (20 hours ago)

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Anyone know a store with carboys on the cheap? I’ll soon need to rack a 40+ gallon batch of cider and it’s a long way from yard-sale season in NH.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Jeff

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Anyone have any tips\tricks for keeping tubing in good clean condition? I feel like I go through way too much tubing. I sanitize very thoroughly but I feel like regardless of what I do they still get gunked after a few uses. I attempt to dry them by hanging them over a pipe in the ceiling so that both ends can drain water, but I can’t get it all out and the spots build up. Is there a better drying method?

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Does anyone know if McMaster Carr or anyone else that sells the keg lid foot
in bulk at a resonable price? These are the little rubber nipples that are on the
corny lid clamps. I found some on a supply site, but .95 seems a bit high.

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Has anyone used one of these with brewing? and how did it work?

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I want to have a dedicated fermentation chamber for my lagers, and I want to compare the pros & cons of a fridge vs chest freezer vs homemade fermentation chiller. This equipment would be for fermentation only, and I doubt that I would ever be fermenting more than 2 lager style beers at a time. What experiences has anyone had in this area ? Thanks in advance. Marco

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I found this kit I used in the past for testing my pond water and I’m wondering if I can use it for basic water test for brewing.
I use tap water running thru an activated carbon filter.
Using this kit, I tested both my brew water and bottled spring water ( for comparison), testing geral hardness “GH”, carbonate hardness “KH”, both measured in german degrees “ºdH”, and PH.

These were the results:
For GH:
Brew water = 3
Spring water = 4

For KH:
Brew water = 2
Spring water = 3

For PH:
Brew water = 7.5
Spring water = 7.0

Can I learn anything from these results and if so, what should I do/add to my water to make it to a better water for brewing?
It seems to me that the PH is very high, so should I add some acid?How much?

I do 5gals AG batches.

Below some pics of the kit
http://www.brewboard.com/index.php?act=attach&type=post&id=410
http://www.brewboard.com/index.php?act=attach&type=post&id=411
http://www.brewboard.com/index.php?act=attach&type=post&id=412

And here the PH kit I have been using from my LHBS that have always shown 5.0.
http://www.brewboard.com/index.php?act=attach&type=post&id=413

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At the risk of getting bashed for this crazy idea, I’m hoping I can gain some input on what can go wrong other that the obvious, ie sanitation issues and oxidation. I have a case of Barleywine that never carbed and is at over 12%ABV. My plan on this fine Thanksgiving day, while waiting for dinner, is to blend 1 gallon of RIS that is currently in secondary with the 22 bottles of BW. I plan to uncap and pour them slowly into my bottling bucket, add in the RIS, add in some sugar and maybe some yeast and recap. One question I have is should I rehydrate the nottingham or just sprinkle it on the mix. Thanks for any input.

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I’ve heard people say that you can get your local microbrewery to fill a corney for you. But, I called up my local craft-brewery and they said they weren’t allowed to by Maryland state law.

Anyone know of a place in Delaware/Penn/NJ that will fill up a corney with some good microbrew? I’m having a holiday party and just haven’t had the chance to brew.

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Happy Thanksgiving to everyone here on the board. Hope you are enjoying time with friends and family. Of course what would a weekend be without the question of Who is brewing this weekend?

I am brewing tomorrow with a friend of mine. We are brewing 10 gallons of Bohemian Pilsner. My friend has never brewed a lager so we are giving that a go. Best Malz Pils along with a couple lbs of Carapils. All Saaz hops as well. I went to LHBS earlier this week to get yeast and wanted to get 2 packs of the 2782 Staro Prague but they only had one. So its going to be a yeast pitch of Staro and one of 2278 Czech Pilsner. Starters are spinning as I type. Should be a fun time. Hope everyone has a mashing holiday and weekend.

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Posted: by advill88 (16 hours ago)

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Posted: by bonbini26 (21 hours ago)

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Posted: by OatmattStout (23 hours ago)

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I’m working on my 2nd extract beer which is a brew kit - True Brew Porter. The OG in the recipe was 1.043 - 1.045 & my reading was 1.046. Per the recipe, I pitched the dry yeast at 90F and fermenting began pretty much immediately. After the first 3 days, fermenting seemed pretty much non-existent (by looking at the airlock) so I took a reading at 1.024 so obviously there was some fermentation. I racked to secondary fermenter & took the reading - still at 1.024.

Its been 4 days in the secondary fermentator and no observed fermenting & the reading is still at 1.024. Should I pitch more yeast?

Thanks,
Aaron

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Posted: by NCBeernut (12 minutes ago)

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Posted: by afterexile (2 hours ago)

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I started brewing in buckets 3 years ago and so I’ve just stuck with that, but this time I threw the wort into a glass carboy. I have to admit, it is pretty cool to watch that bad boy ferment! I never realized there was so much activity in the wort - everything swirling around in there.

I also like the idea that I can get a quick visual on when I’m done - being able to watch the it settle down will help to know when it’s done.

This isn’t a new discovery, but it’s kind of cool.

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