Brew day!

[brewdexta]

In terms of how long to ferment, usually when the hydrometer reading is around 1.010 and stable for a couple of days. For a stronger ale or stout, or one with more dextrins, it may finish around 1.012 or even 1.014. The main thing is that the gravity is stable.

 

[Maker]

I don't filter it off, the sediment goes to the bottom of conical fermenter and gets covered in yeast and the tap I use for bottling is above this sediment.

So I need to find a conical fermenter?

I was going to put the hops in a muslin bag for dry hopping, I haven't collected any spare stainless fittings yet so I'll have to be a bit creative with the weight. Leaving it to re-settle for a day after taking the hops back out out sounds like a plan, hadn't thought of that. Why bother taking the hops out at all though? I could leave the bag/tube/whatever in the fermenter and syphon the beer out from around it.

In terms of how long to ferment, usually when the hydrometer reading is around 1.010 and stable for a couple of days. For a stronger ale or stout, or one with more dextrins, it may finish around 1.012 or even 1.014. The main thing is that the gravity is stable.

So give it a week, chuck the hops in and check the gravity, then check it again in a few days? I assume there's no harm leaving it in the fermenter too long?

 

[brewdexta]

So I need to find a conical fermenter?

I was going to put the hops in a muslin bag for dry hopping, I haven't collected any spare stainless fittings yet so I'll have to be a bit creative with the weight. Leaving it to re-settle for a day after taking the hops back out out sounds like a plan, hadn't thought of that. Why bother taking the hops out at all though? I could leave the bag/tube/whatever in the fermenter and syphon the beer out from around it.

So give it a week, chuck the hops in and check the gravity, then check it again in a few days? I assume there's no harm leaving it in the fermenter too long?

A muslin bag will be fine, boil it first to take away any strange flavours. No problem leaving that in while bottling, I take SS containers out as the nylon I'm using is ancient and may snap under the load of wet hops and drop into the bottom and stir stuff up. Also, bottling occasionally gets delayed if something comes up so this way it doesn't get left in too long.

Your ok for a week or two after fermentation finishes, you can get off flavours from decomposing yeast and sediment if you leave too long.

If your fermenting at around 18 to 20c with decent yeast and starting around 1.050, I suspect it will have fermented out in about 5 or 6 days. So check it after 5, then 6 and see if it moves much. Should be 1.012 give or take a little.

 

[brewdexta]

You lose less beer to sedimentation using conical fermenters this one is similar to mine , HDPE so you have to keep water temp below 55c when cleaning. You can get smaller ones I didn't buy a stand, I just cut a hole in apiece of old worktop and that sits on some angle iron that forms the frame of an insulated fermentation cupboard. I got some off-cuts of kingspan insulated steel panels to make the cupboard. You have to put your own taps etc, in it, I had to have some SS nipples made for it I seemed to remember

It seem that The Fermzilla is now all the rage, you can ferment and serve from the same container as it can be pressurised, I haven't tried them but they sound quite good.

it is now officially beer o'clock

Cheers
Andy

 

[Maker]

The HDPE one is cheaper than I expected. I'd seen Fermzilla, quite tempted but more reading required first. I've also seen (but forget the name now) a corny keg with a conical bottom, held together with a huge triclamp, very cool to look at though I'm not really sure the point in it.

What's the butterfly valve on the bottom for? Surely opening it would kick up all the sediment.

 

[brewdexta]

Not having owned one, apart from emptying, I'm not sure. Is it some way of getting rid of the sediment after fermentation but before using it as a pressure vessel? I may look it up at some point.

 

[Maker]

I've just been told the airlock is bubbling.

 

[Maker]

Dryhop day;


Looks disgusting but I gather its supposed to. 60 grams of hops and a glass tumbler as a weight in a muslin sock are in, and syphoned a little out to check the gravity. Came out at 1.014 which equates to 4.7% ABV.

It's, err, Hazy. Actually tastes really nice!

Check it again Friday, hopefully keg it then.

 

[brewdexta]

It looks like it still has a bit more fermenting to do, keep it around 18 to 20c and it will be done by Friday. I usually leave it for a few more days, it gives the yeast time to "tidy up" and eat some of the undesirable chemicals before falling dormant, so you might want to wait until at least Monday. I would then lower the temp for couple of days to get the cold crash, less sediment in your keg.

I'm thinking of getting some nucleated drinking glasses, posh name for glass with a rough finish to the inside bottom, could be a logo or just slightly abraded. the idea is that it helps release a continuous stream of bubbles in the beer hence aiding head retention.

 

[Maker]

I would then lower the temp for couple of days to get the cold crash, less sediment in your keg.

My friendly neighbourhood spiderma coffee roaster gave me lots of advice (Including the cheap gas supplier) and cold crashing was one of the things he said. I was thinking of standing the fermenter in our big pan with some icy water overnight, didn't realise it would take a few days, might just stick it in the garden in that case.

I'm thinking of getting some nucleated drinking glasses, posh name for glass with a rough finish to the inside bottom, could be a logo or just slightly abraded. the idea is that it helps release a continuous stream of bubbles in the beer hence aiding head retention.

I'll restock when pubs open, only got two good ones left.

 

[Monkey Harris]

Who want a laugh at my expense?

Stopped mashing at quarter to four. Carefully poured it through a cheesecloth into our fermenting bucket and blocked the cloth, clearly that wasn't going to work.
View attachment 277842

Someone suggested a pillowcase as a filter, don't see why it wouldn't work so cleaned one in boiling water, put it over the bucket and poured it all in...

Immediately blocked, we were left with a very heavy, very hot balloon.
View attachment 277843
We resorted to scooping the liquid and grain out, through a sieve into the pan, saving the grain in a couple of big bowls, then straining the liquid in batches though the cheesecloth, rinsing it in-between. Then we could check how much liquid (Is it wort yet?) we had and work out (Guess) how much water to heat up to rinse the grain (Sparge?) with to get up to a reasonable boil volume. By the time that was all done, and we had it back on the hob to boil, it was twenty to six and it had dropped to 42 degrees. I went to home to eat at that point and I've just got a text now as I type this (Twenty past seven) that it's began boiling! First hop addition in half an hour...

You don't have to sterilise things b the boil
,it's after it's at risk,

When I did biab ,
I used a wooden dowel,marked with the water levels.. (pencil)

And filled the pot from the hot water outlet for the washing machine,under the sink,

Then topped up with kettles of boiling water until the strike temp was reached,
Had a plastic pot with a meat thermometer poked through it sitting on the water..simples

 

[Monkey Harris]

The bath cooled our wort to around 20 degrees in about an hour, I'm not sure how fast an immersion chiller would have been, certainly safer, carrying 20 litres of near-boiling water up the stairs is fairly nerve racking. In the mean time we had a bit of a clean, mopped the floor thrice (It's still sticky!), mixed up some Starsan then lumped the pot back downstairs and onto the worktop to syphon into our fermenter. We let it splash a bit as it it syphoned in, I'm pretty sure Brewdexta did this in his brewing thread a few years ago, it said on the yeast sachet to add it to "Cooled, aerated wort".
View attachment 277924

Most of the liquid coming through looked pretty clear but once the pot was nearly empty it started sucking up all this ugly crap. We left a bit in the pot but I reckon most of it got through to the fermenter. I wonder if an inline filter could be used, I imagine it would need pumping if I went down that route? Maybe filter it between the fermenter and the keg?
View attachment 277923

Hopefully it all settles out as it ferments. Anyway, its in the bucket with an airlock. I've just realised we forgot to weigh it so I've got no idea how much we made, hopefully right around 19 litres.
View attachment 277922
Original Gravity came out at 1.050 (I think, never used a hydrometer before), it was supposed to be 1.066 but I'm not surprised at all, the amount that ended up on the floor, soaked into various cloths, up my arms, on my clothes, etc I'm surprised there's anything left at all. I couldn't resist tasting it (Clearly didn't learn my lesson from tasting the raw hops earlier ), very sweet, but disgusting, not sure what I was expecting to be honest. It's darker than I was expecting, is it likely to brighten up a bit as it ferments? I imagine a bit of colour is coming from suspended crap that'll hopefully drop out.
View attachment 277921
I'm not sure how long it needs to ferment, I assume it'll stop bubbling? Not sure when to dry-hop either.

I'd held off buying the CO2 regulator until we brewed because I knew there's be things we'd forgotten, so far on the list we've got a brew bag, big mixing paddle, a more reliable thermometer (The food probe broke, presumably got wort in it. ), perhaps a floor scale with a remote display rather than a bathroom scale too. We're considering getting another batch of ingredients and a second fermenter and brewing again next week, pilsner perhaps. I can't help wondering what 47kg of propane and a burner would cost too, the gas hob was heating at less than a degree a minute...

I had a gas tap on my boiler feed, outside,
And run a paella ring from that..cheap as

 

[brewdexta]

My friendly neighbourhood spiderma coffee roaster gave me lots of advice (Including the cheap gas supplier) and cold crashing was one of the things he said. I was thinking of standing the fermenter in our big pan with some icy water overnight, didn't realise it would take a few days, might just stick it in the garden in that case.



I'll restock when pubs open, only got two good ones left.
View attachment 278721

My cellar is about 8c this time of year so I turn the temp control off in the fermenting cupboard and it takes a couple of days for 75 litres to get from 18c to 8c. But I leave it a couple of days for the sediment to drop after it hits that temp before kegging. So if you use ice to drop the temp, then you have saved yourself some time, but I wouldn't be dragging it between house and garden when your trying to let the sediment settle out

 

[brewdexta]

I've wanted a Blichmann hop rocket for a while. Everywhere seemed to be sold out, and the Aussie clone, the hop missile was also out of stock. I found one in a brew shop in NI so bought it. Not cheap, especially as you can't shop around and I had to buy two 1/2" NPT part D cam and groove quick connects for the plumbing, but means I can forget dry hopping and the hops after the boil. So I will save on hops, get a better beer and its shiny and its my birthday soon and I have been very good in not buying tools for at least a week. Convinced yet?

You pack it with hops, and put it in line between the copper and the plate chiller and pump wort through it on its way to the fermenter. So almost boiling wort hits the hops and extracts all the oils and aroma, but before they are driven off by the heat of the wort, another 1m down the pipe is the plate chiller, chilling the wort down to 20c.

It will arrive too late for tomorrows traditional bitter brewing session, but the new world IPA planned for about 2 weeks time will be ideal to try it out.

Cheers
Andy

 

[Maker]

Ooh shiny. I got some more bits today;



Another fermenting bucket, with a hole in the bottom for a tap. A brew-in-a-bag bag, no more messing with sieves and cheesecloth. A CO2 regulator and another batch of ingredients. Got the grain "Fine crushed" this time in an effort to help hit our target OG. That, combined with the proper bag and mashing with the right amount of water (I realised last night we'd mashed in far too much water so had very little to sparge with), should have a bit more luck with this one.

 

[Maker]

Brew two.


Only 13 litres of water this time, in a big muslin bag and much closer to the right temperature, 66 degrees, aiming for 65. This recipe mashes out at 75 degrees with an out time of 10 minutes, I assume that means after an hour, start heating again, then leave it at 75 for a further ten minutes before sparging.

 

[Bullet2012]

I’ll pm you my address for deliveries

 

[Maker]

Mashing is done, the bag with lifting straps is brilliant.


Fly sparge with a syphon, quite proud of that idea, worked a treat.
Our HLT wasn't quite big enough so had to temp control the kettle.

 

[Radar 3]

I`d lov to know where you live,just so I could walk down the street and take in the Ozone.

 

[Shox Dr]

@Maker. You would love @brewdexta 's set up.