What are you doing with homebrew today?

west1m said:
I had a fermenter something lik yours. When I went to a fridge (about the three brews after buying it.) It would not fit . I gave it to my son ,he calls it " The Lunar Lander"
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Now that you mention it, perhaps more Orson Welles' "War of the Worlds" ish. I had to remove EVERY shelf in this thing, including one that was at the same height as the internal temp controller (which isn't really adjustable or removable). Two screws, though, and I had that bugger outta there.

Already Fermzilla shopping and trying to decide which I like better, FermZilla or All-Rounder. If I'm gonna do pressure transfers, the All-Rounder with a pressure kit looks like a pretty decent deal. The FermZilla will let me collect yeast and get heavy sediments out of the brew. The yeast collection is a plus, but the floating dip tube would take care of the chunky bits, too. I think I still want to bottle simply because I can keep more flavors around in smaller batches without needing a whole bunch of corny kegs. May look into force carbonating in the fermenter as well, and take out one more handling step. I simply don't have the place for storing kegs and certainly no room for a beer bar. I've been making just what I drink, but now I'm changing my game a little to do a little more experimenting and trying some new things which will require quicker turn-around on hardware and simpler handling procedures. Not to mention, picking up 5 gallon batches is pretty much a thing of the past for me. Putting off back surgery now.
 
Sunfire96 said:
@RoadRoach happy to brew (and drink) for science :D I hope you enjoy your experiments as well! I'm curious which malts you discover that you enjoy most, I definitely have some favorites I wasn't expecting
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Had my first MO experience with a Summer Blonde recently. That's a really nice malt, but it was only used as an adjunct in this batch. The base (70.9% of total grain bill) was 2-Row, so I'm gonna go out on a limb and say most of the MO was covered up. A lot of what I do has 2 Row in it, so it's time to branch out and see what I'm missing.

Do you do small batches in your main fermenting equipment, or do you have smaller fermenters for it? Just wondering if headspace in the fermenter will affect the process, and how much. I know there's still a LOT of headspace in the FF7.9, but I've still had 5 gallon batches corrupt the airlock, especially on repitch batches. Probably overpitching, but I've also heard that isn't necessarily a bad thing.

If you look at the photo of my 'Frankenbeer' batch in the freezer, you can see there's already a VERY clean inch thick yeast cake in the collection bulb. That's ONE DAY. It's all white and clean S05, first gen, so I might use it in the next American ale I do. I dumped yesterday (look back, you'll see a mention of barf that smelled like a bakery). All I did to prevent aeration was fill the bulb with clean water and spritz the top of it with StarSan. I still hope I didn't royally hose up this batch though, because I forgot to turn the ball valve off before loosening the collar on the collection ball, which resulted in sucking some air backward through the airlock, and possibly pulling some of the airlock water into the batch. DOH! Add that to all the temperature excursions and some agitation today, who knows how this batch is gonna turn out. Not to mention, it's a spin-off of Bulin's Milk Bucket 3-Day Weekend.

Now, to study up on lagering techniques and styles ...... Getting closer to making a good German beer which typically likes colder temps and pressure and cool gadgets.
 
RoadRoach said:
Had my first MO experience with a Summer Blonde recently. That's a really nice malt, but it was only used as an adjunct in this batch. The base (70.9% of total grain bill) was 2-Row, so I'm gonna go out on a limb and say most of the MO was covered up. A lot of what I do has 2 Row in it, so it's time to branch out and see what I'm missing.

Do you do small batches in your main fermenting equipment, or do you have smaller fermenters for it? Just wondering if headspace in the fermenter will affect the process, and how much. I know there's still a LOT of headspace in the FF7.9, but I've still had 5 gallon batches corrupt the airlock, especially on repitch batches. Probably overpitching, but I've also heard that isn't necessarily a bad thing.

If you look at the photo of my 'Frankenbeer' batch in the freezer, you can see there's already a VERY clean inch thick yeast cake in the collection bulb. That's ONE DAY. It's all white and clean S05, first gen, so I might use it in the next American ale I do. I dumped yesterday (look back, you'll see a mention of barf that smelled like a bakery). All I did to prevent aeration was fill the bulb with clean water and spritz the top of it with StarSan. I still hope I didn't royally hose up this batch though, because I forgot to turn the ball valve off before loosening the collar on the collection ball, which resulted in sucking some air backward through the airlock, and possibly pulling some of the airlock water into the batch. DOH! Add that to all the temperature excursions and some agitation today, who knows how this batch is gonna turn out. Not to mention, it's a spin-off of Bulin's Milk Bucket 3-Day Weekend.

Now, to study up on lagering techniques and styles ...... Getting closer to making a good German beer which typically likes colder temps and pressure and cool gadgets.
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Im typically a small batch brewer (2-3.5 gal batches), tho not anymore but that's a different topic :)

I'm of the belief that CO2 will purge the headspace of your fermenter and maintain positive pressure throughout typical primary fermentation time. That being said, I wouldn't use a fermenter that's more than twice the volume of my batch size (a 2 gal batch would go in my 3 gal fermenter not my 5 gal). If you're going to age the beer or do a secondary transfer, then obviously the less headspace the better
 
I have had no oxidization issues using a 5 gallon corny to ferment 2 gallons. Bit of course always spunding so plenty of co2 has already pushed out oxygen before I close it off. I don’t secondary so there’s that too.
 
Josh Hughes said:
I have had no oxidization issues using a 5 gallon corny to ferment 2 gallons. Bit of course always spunding so plenty of co2 has already pushed out oxygen before I close it off. I don’t secondary so there’s that too.
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That's a good point, spunding changes things for sure. Also it's one of those things where I gave stricter advice than I would follow myself :D
 
Hmm, so staying with a larger size fermenter isn't really a bad thing, as long as I make sure a good CO2 blanket is on the batch at all times. Another vote for replacing what I have then. The FF7.9, while great for capturing yeast and pulling trub, stops right there. It isn't pressure rated, and I'm just not up to coming out to the tractor shed to find a huge puddle and a lot of happy roaches. (Roaches LOVE stale beer). One thing to put a little pressure on it for a transfer, a different ball of wax to ask it to hold pressure for an extended time.

Freezer hasn't run again since initial temperature drop. This is good stuff. Temp creeped back up to 63.2 which I expected after an overshoot (undershoot) and homogenizing the cooled batch around the outside with the inside.

Time to go reading about lagering in some of my books and on here. Thanks everyone for the advice of experience.
 
Done 10 litre in a 30 litre fermenter a couple times. No issues.
BUT, I drink my beer quite fast. If it gets older than 5-6 weeks, then it is only because I hid it from myself (does not really work) or I went on a long holiday (I wish)
 
Decided to finally install the tap tower that came with my kegerator. Thanks again for the handle @Donoroto :) it looks real slick
20220922_160806.jpg
 
Sunfire96 said:
Decided to finally install the tap tower that came with my kegerator. Thanks again for the handle @Donoroto :) it looks real slick
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Very nice sunfire!

Hey was perusing kegland the other night and saw these 8lt pet bottles 22$ per pretty much a mini keg.
I was looking for new kegs but really thought hard about these would be great for small batch brewer...
 
Trying a California Common, using the brulosophy recipe:
3.70 kg The Swaen - Swaen Pilsner
0.70 kg The Swaen - Munich Light
0.36 kg The Swaen - GoldSwaen Munich Dark
0.17 kg The Swaen - Swaen Amber
0.05 kg The Swaen - BlackSwaen Chocolate B
0.10 kg The Swaen - Platinumswaen Sauer
28 g Northern Brewer Pellet 10.1 Boil 60 min
26 g Northern Brewer Pellet 10.1 Aroma 15 min
26 g Northern Brewer Pellet 10.1 Aroma 0 min

Mash 60 minutes @66°C

Also, bought a Aquarium grade RO filter (3:30 for 1l/ 12mins/gallon-ish) so I'm playing with that. (The water over here is extremely hard 270HCO3/l)

Also forgot to buy a yeast for this type of beer, so I'm macgyvering with a K-97
 
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I bottled my Belgian pale ale this morning.
Smells and looks nice
I wanted to bottle my saison as well, but the wind is howling! I postponed that one.
Put apple juice on the trub from my baby fermenter (overflow of the batch), poured into bucket fermenter.
Milk can fermenter needs a brew on top, but no ways I can boil anything with this wind. Will do prep and all today, hoping that tomorrow morning is less windy
 
Thought I'd check in on my short cut lager I brewed this time last week (short cuts and all)

Its been sitting at 21c for the last day or two started ferm at 15.5 under 5psi then I upped it free rise to 18c and increased to 10psi then held for 3 days then let it up to 21c under 15psi for last couple of days to finish off.

20220925_130452.jpg

Now this is exactly what I was going for lite clean crackers maybe a hay or field grass aroma ( sorry @Zambezi Special :p)
This is just the hydrometer sample but pretty clear at 21c
20220925_130917.jpg

I'm calling it 1.006 that's 86% attenuation ripper!
I added that cane sugar to hopefully liten the body and drive attenuation I love it when things go to plan.

I'm gunna get this lager crashing for a couple of days and hopefully get her in the glass next weekend :)
 
Scrubbing bottles and maybe boiling them too. Boiling is usually a bad idea with hard water, though. Maybe a bit of muriatic acid (couple tablespoons in 5 gallons) to lower the pH and precipitate some of the lime like we used to do in the pool biz, then a good rinse and drip-dry. Shouldn’t be any critters interested in them if they’re that sanitary. Gonna attack the first thing available for head retention that I can with the Frankenbeer. Fermentation is done on this one, so anything recipe or brewing related will have to wait until the next batch.
 
Impatiently waiting for this pale ale to finish fermenting. Everyone once in a while I get a kveik batch that stays at high krausen for 3-4 days. Maybe it's because this was a dry yeast new pitch instead of slurry repitch. Its also a little colder than some of my kveik batches go (80'F vs 90'F). But I'm out of beer and bummed about it :D
 
RoadRoach said:
Scrubbing bottles and maybe boiling them too. Boiling is usually a bad idea with hard water, though. Maybe a bit of muriatic acid (couple tablespoons in 5 gallons) to lower the pH and precipitate some of the lime like we used to do in the pool biz, then a good rinse and drip-dry. Shouldn’t be any critters interested in them if they’re that sanitary. Gonna attack the first thing available for head retention that I can with the Frankenbeer. Fermentation is done on this one, so anything recipe or brewing related will have to wait until the next batch.
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Don't stray too far from 'regular'. What worked before will work again, but if you try something new then you throw another variable into the situation.
 
Sunfire96 said:
Impatiently waiting for this pale ale to finish fermenting. Everyone once in a while I get a kveik batch that stays at high krausen for 3-4 days. Maybe it's because this was a dry yeast new pitch instead of slurry repitch. Its also a little colder than some of my kveik batches go (80'F vs 90'F). But I'm out of beer and bummed about it :D
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I seem to get exactly the opposite effect if I repitch SAF05. Probably overpitch related, but it ALWAYS pushes krausen out the airlock. Maybe I can change that now that I have a way to better cool down for pitching.

I’m thinking I put the wort in the fridgideezer to start cooling it to pitch temp, and make a slurry to pitch the following day. A bit different from overnight mash to split the brew day, and less contact with the wort.

For all the beer chemists out there, what are the possible effects of slow cooling versus fast chilling? @Trialben, would this be similar to your ‘no chill’ technique?
 
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