When you rack, do you push with co2 or use autosiphon/tacking cane to avoid transferring break material/hops
When you rack, do you push with co2 or use autosiphon/tacking cane to avoid transferring break material/hops[/quote]I use an auto siphon, held a little off the bottom to avoid as much break as possible. I use hop sacks, so there isn’t much of that.
I brewed a batch of cream ale yesterday to test it out. Half was transferred to a corny keg at flame out. The other half was chilled to about 64 with an immersion chiller and then transferred to another keg. They will be smaller batches than usual, but I wanted to treat them the same-I can only fit one carboy or bucket in my ferm fridge while I can fit two cornys. Since I left the dip tube in the keg, I think I can remove a lot of the break material by just pushing it out. It should all be settled. I need some headspace for fermentation anyways.
Science!
I did an unplanned “No Chill” on Friday. My wife did not know I was brewing and made plans to go out to dinner with friends. With 20 minutes left in the boil, I was told we were leaving in 30 minutes. Flame out, lid on and bring kettle inside. That night when we got home it was still quite warm so I put the entire kettle in the fermentation fridge overnight. Next morning, temp was low 60’s and I transferred to the bucket and added yeast. Added bonus was leaving a bit of trub in the bottom of the kettle.
If this works, it sure is easier!
I want to try this next time I brew. I’m curious though how people are transferring the near boiling wort to their fermenters without splashing and oxidizing. I know the latter is much debated and may not be an issue but I’d still like to minimize it. Since I have ball valves on all my boilers I’m thinking just a length of tubing to get to the bottom of the fermenter and open the valve up, is there a better way?
[quote=“Glug Master”]Since I have ball valves on all my boilers I’m thinking just a length of tubing to get to the bottom of the fermenter and open the valve up, is there a better way?[/quote]Make sure it’s the high-temp hose.
This is what I did and it worked well. I used silicon tubing.
Plastic or glass fermenter(s)?
What are ya’ll doing to minimize the thermal shock to a glass carboy, if using one of these?
[quote=“Stealthcruiser”]Plastic or glass fermenter(s)?
What are ya’ll doing to minimize the thermal shock to a glass carboy, if using one of these?[/quote]
Nothing. You shouldn’t even think about going into glass. I ran mine I to a couple corny kegs. I think I saw that some use poly cube containers with a cap.
For my no-chills (all my beers for the past couple years), I simply lift my brew kettle(s) (I do split boils on the stove) and pour from the kettle into my fermentor. With a steady pour, it really doesn’t splash much at all. I don’t seem to have oxidation problems, but that’s my observation - not anything scientific. But I am sensitive to oxidation.
Earlier in my brewing, when doing extract and partial boils, I experimented with some different chilling methods. One I tried turned into a catastrophe, and my hot wort was exposed to more air for a longer time than I would ever imagine it would with reasonable care. For all my worries, I detected no oxidation in that beer.
I’m not saying HSA is a myth, but in my experience, it takes some pretty extreme abuse for it to be a problem.
That said, a stream from a valve dropping several feet into the container would, I think, create a lot more aeration than my ~ 5 second pour from kettle to bucket. If I were you, I would let it trickle down the side, or better, attach a high temp hose as others have mentioned.
-kenc
How are you guys addressing pre-fermentation aeration when doing no-chill? For most of my beers, I chill to pitching temp, then set my kettle up high and open the ball valve, letting the wort whiz into the bucket, creating lots of foam.
I suppose you could get a 5 lb oxygen tank and “force carb” the keg with oxygen, doing the roll around or shake method. What do you think about that idea? I wonder how much a 5 lb canister of O2 costs? Do you have to have a medical reason to get one?
I transfer to a corny through my valve and hi-temp tubing, then seal the corny with CO2 to allow for thermal contraction as it cools. The next day I remove the lid, pitch my yeast from several feet high (with good aim!!) which creates a little splashing. I then replace the lid, seal, and shake the bejesus out of it. Fermentation has always taken off, so at least for me this seems like enough aeration.
I’ve always though it would be cool to transfer the yeast starter into the corny under pressure, and then hit it was a few psi of O2, allowing completely closed chilling, pitching, fermentation and transfers from flameout to serving.
If you have an O2 tank from the hardware store you could run the line to a liqiud post and run O2 through the dip tube and then shake.
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For ales, once it is at pitching temperature, all you need to do is rock the fermentor back/forth vigorously for 45 seconds. That hits the O2 saturation point in air (~8 ppm), and is all ales need. For lagers, O2 is suggested.
http://www.wyeastlab.com/faqs.cfm#r44kenc
