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Brewed the red

Northern Brewer General
#1

I did an Irish Red today.
Grain bill;
5.5rahr pils
2.0 pale ale
.75 belg. malt
.25 breiss carm. pils
.25 breiss spec. rst
.125 breiss bisq. malt
.125 rst barely
hops;
1oz Willamette @ 60 min and 1 oz fuggle
1 oz golden @ 30 min
1 oz cluster 5min end of boil
beta sacch rest144 30 min
alpha sacch rest 158 45 min
mashout 167 12 min.
My water ph started at 5.0 and ended after boil and cooled between 5.0-5.4 ph.
gravity was around 1.045.
yeast was danster dry

This was the first of the year. I know a little late. This was the first buying grain instead of kit. I did have a lot of fine particles in the grain, which made it difficult to clear up. I did tweak this kit recipe just because. I wanted more of a red color which it ended up. I did taste the wort and it tasted sweet. Had a lot of particles in the wort. Fun day!!

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#2

It becomes alot more of an art when you can blend different malts to craft a very drinkable brew… Sneezles61

#3

I am looking forward to the next one in a few months. We are doing cider in a few weeks.

The yeast was working with in 6 hrs. I usually start my dry yeast the day of, just before brewing. The aromas coming from the air lock is fantastic. I missed hearing the “blooping” of the air lock at work. The bubbles on top of the are white, so I am still hoping for no contamination. The equipment sat awhile, so that is why I sanitized, sanitized, sanitized 2-3 times carboy and holding bucket.

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#4

I think I added too much water for the rests. Another item to write down. I always want to learn and improve on this journey.

#5

I store my equipment in sanitizer so I don’t have to work as hard next time I brew. The Star San stays good for a long time.

#6

Have your apple juice ready/handy… When you rack out of your fermenter… Pour the apple juice on top of that yeast cake… … I’ve never saved any yeast after the apple juice ferments… I believe it doesn’t offer the yeast much in the way of nutrients, so it leaves the yeast in poor shape… Sneezles61

#7

Just checked the gravity 1.012. I like the color. I also tasted it after doing gravity. Nice flavorthrough the hops. Tomorrow I am going to do my first cold crash. I will check gravity again tomorrow. This weekend I will be bottling.

#8

Hope you can wait til Sunday… I like a minimum of 3 days. Sneezles61

#9

What does a three day waiting period do? Like I mentioned before, first time for this process.

#10

As the activity slows down the gravity becomes seemingly stable but stability over 3 days is a more accurate measure. Gravity stability over a 24 hour period is not helpful and I am suspect of 2 days as well. My last brew fell consistently .001 every 3 days for a long time. It was annoying.

#11

The three days of cold crashing will allow more time for the yeast, trub, and polyphenols to drop out of suspension.

#12

Squeegee has it right… The 3 days I refer to is in a cold chamber… It takes some time for a large quantity of liquid to cool down, and then a while for the yeast and other misc. proteins to precipitate. or settle out… Then, being as careful as possible not to stir up sediment as you move and or rack.
How about the diacetyl rest? Sneezles61

#13

Does bottling or kegging affect the length of the cold crash? From a bottle conditioning perspective, it it possible that a long (3-7 days) cold crash would drop out enough yeast to affect carbonation?

#14

I just read about it. Raising the temp to 65-68 for 2-3 days for the yeast then racking, I like to bottle on the weekends due to timing. If I could diacetyl rest for 5 days I would.

#15

You certainly can! In fact, why not leave the fermenter at ambient room temp until Wed. Night… Then into the fridge until the week end when you can bottle… It’ll be just fine… Sneezles61

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#16

No 3-7 days will not affect the bottle conditioning process. 3 months of layering, maybe, but 3 days no way.

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#17

I did start the cold crash Thursday. After reading the above thread, I was going to leave carboy in the refrigerator until Thursday and pull out start the diacetyl process?

#18

Well usually you do it the other way around… The rest, now let’s call it DA rest, usually will produce a bit more yeast cells as they are active scrounging what little sugars and a host of by products and they will absorb them… They’ll limp along for quite a while should you let them… But, you just can’t wait too long… You want beer in the cooler! 3 days… A week…
Then it’s time to cold crash get them chunky buggers to fall to the bottom…
I doubt you’ll ruin the brew… I’ll be looking to your follow up before you bottle… See if it’s quite a bit clearer than usual! Sneezles61

#19

Cold crashing, very heavily flocced yeasts, old and tired yeasts from extensive aging are all factors that slow down bottle conditioning. Usually it sets you back a couple days which is no big deal in the grand scheme. If you have an aged big beer with tired yeast and you cold crash I would pitch new alcohol tolerant yeast at bottling.

#20

I was reading about cold crashing through Exbeeriment. My feels are that the beer will be a little darker than before through oxidation. I misunderstood that the DA rest first and the CC. Can I let the beer warm up a day or so before bottling or do I have to bottle that day ? I know this sounds like I don’t know what I am doing, but I am out of sequence. Trying different stages. Thank for the patience and suggestions.

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