Cheers from Cleveland, OH

[Yontsey]

Couple questions:
1. Do I need to clean that airlock or refill it with San Star solution or will it be fine?

2. For dry hopping, I read you want to do the first round while fermentation is still going on so around day 2-3. I'm thinking tomorrow for my first round and then do the second round in like a week. Is that going to be too long? I don't want the hops to hang in there too long and make it bitter. Do I leave that first round in there when I go to do the second round? I'm going to Denver next weekend so I won't be able to keg until May 5th, which would be 15 days. Should be ready by then.

 

[BarbarianBrewer]

Was checking the Tilt this morning and wondering why the temperature wasn't getting warmer then realized I turned the heat off in the house because it was 70s last week but dropped to 40s the last couple days and the house was only at 64˚. Turned the heat back on to 70˚. Should be ok I would assume

Had the house thermostat set to 70˚. Turned it down to 68˚. By next weekend it's going to be in the 70s here so I will turn it off but it should be good by then.

You know you are a home brewer when you set the house thermostat to make the yeast happy

 

[BarbarianBrewer]

Couple questions:
1. Do I need to clean that airlock or refill it with San Star solution or will it be fine?

2. For dry hopping, I read you want to do the first round while fermentation is still going on so around day 2-3. I'm thinking tomorrow for my first round and then do the second round in like a week. Is that going to be too long? I don't want the hops to hang in there too long and make it bitter. Do I leave that first round in there when I go to do the second round? I'm going to Denver next weekend so I won't be able to keg until May 5th, which would be 15 days. Should be ready by then.

I would clean and refill the airlock. What is in the airlock and the lid now will turn nasty and you don't want to risk that being sucked back into the fermenter.

For dry-hopping. Just toss the hops in when scheduled and leave it all until the end. You won't get bitterness from dry hopping, just flavor and aroma. If you leave dry-hops in too long the worst thing that will happen will be that some of the aroma may fade.

 

[Yontsey]

Roger that. I'll sanitize everything tonight and clean the airlock and replace it.

I'm going to do the first round of dry hopping tomorrow and then I'll do the other round this weekend. One of my buddies recommended doing it in the first 7-10 days so that oxygen can still get pushed out and won't impact the beer as opposed to waiting til later in the process.

Do you guys toss them in loose or put them in bags? I've seen people go both ways.

 

[BarbarianBrewer]

You want to (but don't have to) add dry hops while the yeast are still active because the yeast will consume the oxygen introduced when you added the hops.

Loose or bagged is completely personal choice.

 

[Yontsey]

I really appreciate all y'alls help. My plan I'm thinking now is wait til tomorrow and set up some San Star cleaning solution and clean the air lock because it's still super active and then toss in the first round of dry hops loose and then do the second round Saturday.

 

[Yontsey]

Use the tilt to figure timing. Let it drop to maybe 1.040 or 1.030 then drop the hops. (About 10 points before FG, or when the curve just starts to flatten out)

It is also a practice to increase the fermenter temperature 4-5 F for an ale at the same time. This helps the tired yeasties get a little more energy. To finish off the sugars and start to eat the diacetyl.

Gravity is down to 1.031-33. Should I go ahead and dry hop today or is 2 days too soon?

 

[Donoroto]

Gravity is down to 1.031-33. Should I go ahead and dry hop today or is 2 days too soon?

If FG is predicted as 1.020, today or tomorrow. Watch the graph for the curve to flatten...

 

[Yontsey]

Roger that. I’ll plan for tomorrow and Saturday as the next drop.

 

[Yontsey]

Anyone have issues with the Tilt Pi randomly disconnecting every once in awhile? Picks up no problem with Bluetooth but just randomly stopped logging live data and feeding to Google Docs. Signals no issue.

Edit: took a few times resetting the pi. Finally came back. I wonder if the stainless fermenter gives it signal issues?

 

[Yontsey]

One thing I've noticed over the last 3 days is the temperature of my home brew slowly rises. It's up to 76˚ right now even though the house is at 70˚. I assume the slow temp climb is because of all the active fermentation. Any tips or recommendations to get it to level out or is this typical?

 

[BarbarianBrewer]

That temperature climb you are seeing is normal. The more active the fermentation, the more temperature rise you will see. There are numerous ways to keep your fermentation temps down. The cheapest is called a swamp cooler. Basically put fermenter in a bucket of water. Add ice blocks/bottles/cubes to chill the water. A towel or t-shirt on top that hangs into the water, with a fan blowing on it, will wick up water to increase cooling.

 

[Megary]

That temperature climb you are seeing is normal. The more active the fermentation, the more temperature rise you will see. There are numerous ways to keep your fermentation temps down. The cheapest is called a swamp cooler. Basically put fermenter in a bucket of water. Add ice blocks/bottles/cubes to chill the water. A towel or t-shirt on top that hangs into the water, with a fan blowing on it, will wick up water to increase cooling.

+1

Just another point: Certain yeasts will do better at warmer temperatures than others. Check the temperature range for the yeast you are using.

 

[Craigerrr]

Gravity is down to 1.031-33. Should I go ahead and dry hop today or is 2 days too soon?

If it were me I would just make one addition near the end of fermentation.
If you ask me "double dry hop" can mean adding hops at two different times, but I think of it more as a doubling of the amount of hops.
Adding some now and some later shouldn't be any different than adding the full amount at the right time (in my opinion).
Your recipe calls for 2 ounces of hops, I wouldn't be expecting much aroma to begin with from that.
Adding one today, and another later on won't make a perceivable difference over adding them both now.
With the exception that adding the ounce of hops after fermentation is completed does increase your risk of oxidization slightly.

 

[Brewdomestix]

Don't forget to keep notes. Record amount of hops, day of brew you added them, in a bag or not - aroma/mouthfeel/tasting notes etc. Save some of the batch if possible. Do one or two things slightly different next brew and compare.

Great thread you have started here.

 

[Yontsey]

I did the first round of dry hopping yesterday evening and that's when it jumped up a degree and immediately went from like 1.033-ish to 1.023-ish then slowly climbed back up some. Still very much actively fermenting as the airlock is bubbling like crazy, at least it was as of this morning. Gravity is around 1.012 to 1.010 range currently and dropped back down to 75˚.

I'm going to do the second round of dry hopping on Friday I'm thinking. Like you guys mentioned, it was recommended to do it during fermentation so that it will force some of the oxygen out that sneaks in. I ended up just dumping them loose instead of the bag method. The recipe was 2ozs of hops on the first dry hop and then 2 more ounces. Yesterday I did 1oz Equinox, 1oz Mosaic. Friday is 1oz Equinox, 1oz Citra.

I don't have the packet info in front of me but I want to say that London Ale III said between 65-75˚ for yeast but it's been chugging right along the whole time. The color and smell are insane. The color has that hazy yellow-ish color you want to see in a NEIPA. My laundry room smells like a brewery and I don't hate it. Luckily, my wife's loving it too.

With the Tilt issue, I think it's just a weak signal from the Pi to the Tilt itself, whether it's the stainless fermentor or just low signal output. Sometimes a reset helps, but it seems like it comes back. First time working with it, so I didn't really know what to expect. I messed up a bit at the beginning so I don't have the initial OG reports. My initial reading was 1.069 so we're working towards a solid ABV.

Thanks everyone for the help so far. Next step is determining when to keg. I'm heading out of town next Friday til Sunday so if the gravity levels off enough, I will probably do it when I get home Sunday but that's all TBD right now.

 

[Donoroto]

First, take the Tilt reading with a large grain of salt. Fermentation, krausen and hops gunk all affect the reading.

Second, connect to the Tilt Pi on your LAN and check the signal level. -100 dBm is very small, -70 dBm is fairly strong. If the signal is weak from the tilt, the pi will occasionally miss readings.

Tjis screen shot shows -62 dBm signal, quite strong. The SS fermenter has a clear plastic 4" cap that helps a lot, and it sits inside a SS commercial bar fridge, but plenty if signal leaks out of the door seals.

This also shows the last reading was received 0.2 seconds ago. Sometimes that value climbs up to 20 or 40 or 60 seconds, but that's not typical.

Look at what your Pi is hearing. That can go along way to help diagnose if there's really a problem or not.

Well that being said, every once in a while I get a drop out as well.

 

[Yontsey]

Yeah I’m usually around -85dBm but sometimes it was hitting -100 and then drop. I moved it closer, even tho it was 6-7’ away. Picked right back up. That all stainless SS tub and lid I have is like a tomb.

 

[Yontsey]

 

[Yontsey]

Sitting at 1.011. Took a little sip. Still very green. Needs time and more hops. Gonna do the second round tomorrow. Will re-evaluate next week.