What are you doing with homebrew today?

Wanna trade j? My altbier is looking pretty brown-like
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Sure, I think I'm only a few hundred miles away. Probably be chilled in time to pitch
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Only got a few psi build according to my spunding valve. Hopefully didn’t add too much oxygen when I switched corney lids.
Not likely, unless you fanned the top of the keg while it was open or left it open long enough for the CO2 and air to mix. CO2 is heavier than air, and even with the lid off, it'll stay put for a long time in a confined space. It'll take a lot longer to get enough harmful O2 in there than you think, considering air is mostly nitrogen (inert). I would be more worried about unpurged air in the CO2 lines than anything else (air) that went into a keg that was just minutes before pressurized with CO2. Even just a couple PSI.
 
Hopefully good. @RoadRoach I didn’t add any co2 until the next morning BUT it did produce a negligible amount of psi on its own. I then purged and added some co2. I almost opened it an added some sugar but didn’t. This weekend I’ll transfer it to a serving keg and may add a smidge of sugar. Of course IF damage was done it’s done
 
I just checked a sample of my recently brewed amber ale. The aroma, color and taste were OK (verified by my wife), and SG was at 1.008, corrected from a refractometer reading. This reading is 2 points lower than predicted, so I think it is ready. Given 20 days have passed, I see a bottling day in the very near future.
 
Hopefully good. @RoadRoach I didn’t add any co2 until the next morning BUT it did produce a negligible amount of psi on its own. I then purged and added some co2. I almost opened it an added some sugar but didn’t. This weekend I’ll transfer it to a serving keg and may add a smidge of sugar. Of course IF damage was done it’s done
I think it'll be right as rain. If it was nearly done fermenting, it probably wouldn't put out much more CO2. Any pressure at all says the yeast was still happy, and sleepy. Like I said, the CO2 blanket will linger quite a while at 0 PSI. If you didn't have it open more than a few minutes, you'll be fine. A little sugar after transfer should get it started up again for self-carbing, if you're looking to save the CO2. If you're carbing with gas anyway, probably won't need much sugar at all, especially if it was nearly done. Did you have your Tilt in it?
 
I think it'll be right as rain. If it was nearly done fermenting, it probably wouldn't put out much more CO2. Any pressure at all says the yeast was still happy, and sleepy. Like I said, the CO2 blanket will linger quite a while at 0 PSI. If you didn't have it open more than a few minutes, you'll be fine. A little sugar after transfer should get it started up again for self-carbing, if you're looking to save the CO2. If you're carbing with gas anyway, probably won't need much sugar at all, especially if it was nearly done. Did you have your Tilt in it?
Yep tilt was in. Only had cover off for less than 30 seconds
 
A little worried my altbier ferment is stuck. Couldve been lack of oxygen or allowing the pressure to build too high. Or the tilt is reading 5-6 points too high, which would put the FG at an exceptable spot. It's currently finishing at room temperature and I gave the fermenter a good spin to rouse up some yeast. Just gotta give it time now
 
A little worried my altbier ferment is stuck. Couldve been lack of oxygen or allowing the pressure to build too high. Or the tilt is reading 5-6 points too high, which would put the FG at an exceptable spot. It's currently finishing at room temperature and I gave the fermenter a good spin to rouse up some yeast. Just gotta give it time now
Don't trust the tilt.
 
Don't trust the tilt.
Sounds like a really cool gadget to show you when the yeast has flat-lined, and that's about it. Too much stuff about bad readings for me to trust any of the brands I'm reading about. I'd like a no-contact means of monitoring fermentation so that I can tell if/when it hits final gravity, and I can stand a few points hither or thither, but an erratic reading because of krausen/bubbles would rub my hair backward a bit.

For now, I just get a sample when I pull the bulb for racking to the bottling bucket (from the bulb, of course) for my FG reading. I get another out of the top when I open it up, too. Opening it will cease to happen if I ever start doing pressure fermenting and transfer, though.
 
Sounds like a really cool gadget to show you when the yeast has flat-lined, and that's about it. Too much stuff about bad readings for me to trust any of the brands I'm reading about. I'd like a no-contact means of monitoring fermentation so that I can tell if/when it hits final gravity, and I can stand a few points hither or thither, but an erratic reading because of krausen/bubbles would rub my hair backward a bit.

For now, I just get a sample when I pull the bulb for racking to the bottling bucket (from the bulb, of course) for my FG reading. I get another out of the top when I open it up, too. Opening it will cease to happen if I ever start doing pressure fermenting and transfer, though.

I've read some people following fermentation by weighing.
Don't remember the in's and out's though.
May be worth a thread on its own ;)
 
The only trouble I have had with the Tilt was after changing the battery. That seems to throw it out of calibration as batteries don't weigh the same. Had to recalibrate a couple times untill I was happy with the reading.
If somehow it broke or quit, there would be a new one in the mail that day.
 
Brown ale is chugging away, but slightly worried I picked up the wrong kind of apple juice. Really tiny isolated pockets of action on the top a few days ago, and now nothing. Been a while since I've done a cider, is that normal?
 
I've read some people following fermentation by weighing.
Don't remember the in's and out's though.
May be worth a thread on its own ;)
Makes perfect sense, actually, especially in large volumes where a 3%-10% change in weight (specific gravity) of the liquid is more detectable. Small scale stuff is going to require some very accurate scales or load cells. A 3% (drop from 1.040 to 1.010) change in one gallon of liquid is a very small amount of weight. It's going to take a scale with a very selective weight range and extreme accuracy to do this. Not something you're gonna buy at WalMart. Then, the actual fermenting process can affect the weight as well. Compressed CO2 (from pressure fermenting) can indeed be quite a bit heavier than CO2 at atmospheric pressure. Gonna need a little math to handle that. For basic needs though, on large volumes, sounds like a perfect non-invasive way to monitor gravity. Still no substitute for a calibrated hydrometer.

One of the things I like about this hobby is all the different opinions that give me a lot of information to play with and see what works for me or ideas to try.
 
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Finally back in the game, and today it’s double trouble. Up front is my amber ale, and in the back is our hard cider, primed with a solution of maple syrup. This whole day has been quite a test, but hopefully the results are worth the trouble. On my next round, I will need a new oral syringe to dose my bottles with priming solution. Today, I had to opt for batch priming in the fermenter after my syringe refused to hold liquid. I was switching things on the fly. Fingers crossed that the batch prime mixed thoroughly.
 
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View attachment 22749 Finally back in the game, and today it’s double trouble. Up front is my amber ale, and in the back is our hard cider, primed with a solution of maple syrup. This whole day has been quite a test, but hopefully the results are worth the trouble. On my next round, I will need a new oral syringe to dose my bottles with priming solution. Today, I had to opt for batch priming in the fermenter after my syringe refused to hold liquid. I was switching things on the fly. Fingers crossed that the batch prime mixed thoroughly.
I take it you bottled directly from the fermenter to avoid agitation? Hard to get a homogenous mix that way, but I understand the tradeoff. Hope it turns out better than expected.
 
I take it you bottled directly from the fermenter to avoid agitation? Hard to get a homogenous mix that way, but I understand the tradeoff. Hope it turns out better than expected.
Yes, I bottled directly from the fermenter after adding my priming solution and giving it all a good swirl with a sanitized spoon. That’s not the way I wanted to do it, but hopefully it works out in the end. Before we moved, I got rid of my bottling “bucket,” so pour and swirl was my only option. We’ll see next weekend when I open the first bottle.
 

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