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What's the pitch tool say? You may be 6 in 1 and 1/2 dozen in the other.
What are you doing with homebrew today?
- Thread starter BOB357
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What's the pitch tool say? You may be 6 in 1 and 1/2 dozen in the other.
Yeah I went and checked that jar I decanted Into and put in my keezer most or the yeast had flocked out but there was a slight haziness of yeast that had stubbornly stayed in suspension and was maybe a centimetre down off the top of the jar.
It'll test out my Bioclear method
. But I'm more than happy with a malty hazy English brown ale that's for sure
The pitch calculator indicated the need for a starter, based on my target gravity of 1.066. I spun up a starter, kept it spinning for 8 hours, then cold crashed it. Well that starter was still chugging, even in the fridge. When I brought it out today, it cranked up a fresh Krausen, and overflowed the flask, again. Sad thing is that I missed my target gravity by a mile (10 or 11 points low, depending on device). Oh well, I pitched the whole starter anyway, just because I’m pissed. The sample looked great, smelled and tasted good. We’ll see how it turns out.
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Was that starter with the new yeast or the slurry?
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I'm brewing my Munich Helles today, adding it to my rotation
The starter was built from the slurry from the amber ale. This morning, my fermenter is bubbling along, so something is happening. I need to adjust my process for these bigger beers, maybe learning some new tricks like sparging?
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This is the recipe I use for Janet's Brown Ale. I pulled it from Brewing Classic Styles by Jamil Zainasheff and John Palmer
https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/928312/janet-s-brown-ale
Well came home to first happiness and then crap. Gravity was 1.010 and pressure around 22 psi, great there. But I smelled beer, one of the caps on the yeast collection container was slowly leaking. So I transferred most of the beer into the serving. I didn’t close off the collection so the nicely packed yeast at the bottom got mixed into what beer was left. So I left the rest and will close off the container to get beer only later on. The leak stopped so that was good. Hopefully I have no issues with transferring that soon after brewing.
It'll all settle out eventually when we'll that's the big ? Cold and time help alot lol
I usually rely on cold and time for clarity. I’m mainly worried about an off flavor from getting off the yeast too quick.
a question about the collection container and butterfly valve: when do I close it off? The directions said to close it off once gravity is stable and the fermentation is complete, but it also said to open it up to make sure the fermenter is de pressurized before removing the collection cup. So how do I actually transfer the beer under pressure without stirring everything back up and still get my yeast in the collection cup? Am I overthinking this as usual?
a question about the collection container and butterfly valve: when do I close it off? The directions said to close it off once gravity is stable and the fermentation is complete, but it also said to open it up to make sure the fermenter is de pressurized before removing the collection cup. So how do I actually transfer the beer under pressure without stirring everything back up and still get my yeast in the collection cup? Am I overthinking this as usual?
Don't it had them cab cap connections on the side ?
Maybe that's the kegland collection cup.
Anyhow if so you could release pressure via the carb cap by just untightening until you hear it come out.
I don't have one of them fermenters josh so hopefully someone else might be able to help.
So it needs to be depressurized to close off? Makes we wonder how to transfer under pressure without stirring up the yeast
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You and me both, water to grain bill ratios for mash and sparge is the one I think I worked out on paper, now I gotta go real world!
If the yeast bulb us closed off under pressure, when you open the bottom it will spurt out.
My suggestion: close the valve, transfer the beer, re-open the valve, depressurize, collect the yeast.
That’s my plan. Learning curve with new equipment. Thanks everyone
Sparging will kick your grain efficiency up, for sure. I've switched to batch sparging and Vorlauf mashing. Vorlauf just basically recirculates the wort to the top of the grain bed. Gonna need a pump for that, though. What I like most about it is how clean the wort is when I transfer to the fermenter. Spent grain is an excellent filter. I usually do two batch sparges which kicks me pretty high on the volume target, then reduce it back down during the boil. Finding that magic balance with mash density and sparging quantity is what I'm trying to do now. There's a very noticeable difference in the second and third runnings, especially on darker beers, so I may be unnecessarily diluting with too much sparging. I normally target a 1.3 to 1.4 quarts per pound of grain for a loose mash. I could probably cut one sparge stage out and shorten up the boil some. That might bring some of my bittering more in line with my taste buds too.
Floating pickup? It shouldn't stir it up much if you're pulling from the top. Even if you had a rigid pickup tube, it wouldn't get much of the yeast/trub.
I close the valve on mine about 3 days after fermentation starts so I can remove the trub/sediment that goes into the bulb first. It settled, so it really isn't going to contribute anything, right? There's probably a bit of yeast in it too (which shouldn't be there if it's still feeding). By doing this, I get a VERY clean yeast cake when fermentation is done. Now, granted, I'm at atmospheric pressure, not 22 PSI. My fermenter is not pressure rated, but I'm sure gonna give it a try when I can find the right parts to put a gas post on the lid. When I put the bulb back on, I make sure it's full of water or wort to minimize any air going through the batch, as well as prevent sucking air back in through the airlock. The bulb holds a quart, so that would suck in a LOT of air if I just let it fill from the batch. In a 5 gallon batch, that's only 5% dilution, so it really doesn't make a huge difference in the beer. I could do it with DME, but it's still a 5% dilution of the recipes. A sample valve on the side would let me fill the collector, but then, I'd have to take the air-lock off to keep it from sucking it dry into the batch. When the batch is ready for bottling, I close the valve and remove the collector again, and put on the hose adapter to transfer to my bottling bucket. That last bit is what I want to be able to use pressure transfer for, so I don't have to lift heavy batches of beer. I usually draw my gravity sample from the collector as it usually has fairly clear beer on top of the yeast cake, depending on the flocculence of the yeast. If it's cloudy, I take a top sample from the fermenter.
As far as depressurizing the fermenter before closing the valve, that indicates the butterfly valve doesn't have a very good pressure rating. That looks like a pretty beefy valve to me. I find that odd, because butterflies are used extensively in paper production and hold back some pretty high pressures. The ball valve on my FF7.9 is a Schedule 80 PVC ball valve. That thing's good for 300 PSI. Probably couldn't open it with that much pressure on one side, but I don't think 22 PSI would give me any noticeable issue. Closing wouldn't be a problem because the pressure should be the same on both sides of the valve. Surely that butterfly will hold back 22 PSI, and I don't see it being hard to operate the valve with that little pressure on it. You should be able to collect the yeast without depressurizing the fermenter. Pretty sure I read that as one of the features of the FermZilla. The whole point of these conicals is to allow removal of trub and yeast to control off flavors and collect yeast cultures. Having to depressurize to me would completely defeat the whole purpose and usefulness. Valve closed, the cup will be full as well as the neck of the valve, so it shouldn't squirt much when you loosen it. Remember, the beer/trub/yeast is not going to compress like air will. The valve will most certainly drain some small amount that doesn't fit in the collection ball. Just put a shallow tray under it when you're removing the collection ball. Loosen the collection ball and sit it on the tray, and you've got your drips/splashes contained. I usually keep a tray under mine anyway just in case it decides to leak. Lotsa o-rings and two threaded connections just waiting to give me a surprise. Seems I have seen some with gas posts installed in the side of the valve neck, but I'm pretty sure that was for CO2 purghing the ball. Purging becomes unnecessary if you fill the collector up first, and you don't get agitation of any sediments/yeast on the sides of the fermenter. You do smaller batches, so you might draw a sample into the collector before reinstalling it. That will prevent significant dilution that monkeys with the FG.
I tried to decipher what you found for a leak, but at 22 PSI, if it can leak, it's going to. Was something just not quite tight enough?
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Been a while since I did a real brew, did a Session Stout for a friend yesterday and a 10G batch f Irish Red today for a friendsgiving party. I missed brewing, need to do it more often and dial in the S40.
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Prepping and making my shopping list for a brew this weekend in preparation for the coming holidays. I am going to do a batch of beer and a small batch of traditional Honey Mead. So much excitement to come
