I was thinking about doing an open fermentation of an Irish Red for St. Patricks. I very new to brewing, but have become quickly obsessed. I’m planning on using an extract kit. Is there any reason why I SHOULDN’T try this experiment with and Irish Red?
What’s your definition of “open fermentation”?
I watched and episode of “Brewing TV” and was going to mimic what they did. Put it in the bucket and leave the top off, checking it often, and moving it to a second fermenter when primary fermentation is done (in the video he was making an IPA and he moved it within 70 hours) Being so new, I don’t know if it’s a good idea or not. Michael Dawson made it sound like it intensified the fruit tones in the IPA. I thought it might be a unique thing to try with an Irish Red.
Open fermentation increases the risk of infection. Do you want to make sure you have your Irish Red Ale for St. Patiricks Day? If it doesn’t work you could buy some Killians Red.
[quote=“brewhatcher”]I thought it might be a unique thing to try with an Irish Red.[/quote]Could have a positive impact, could lead to an infection depending on how clean your fermentation area is, the general air quality, and the presence of small flying insects such as gnats. You might want to cover the top with light-weight towel which will let the CO2 through and keep things from falling/flying in.
The endless options and experimentation is one of the reasons I’ve quickly become so excited about this new hobby. I’m willing to take a risk for the experiment’s sake, but what I’m really asking, as a new brewer, is if anyone has done something like this before and had a negative outcome, even with a successful batch. Does that make sense? Such as, the benefits of an open fermentation, i.e. more esters and heavier fruit/spice tones, don’t benefit THIS kind of beer (a Red Ale)…or am I getting into preferences now… :shock:
Thanks! I might give the towel a try. You mentioned air quality, does that mean that a basement could be a bad place to do this?
I’ve done this before. My advise is to put a cloth or towel over it. Depending where you are storing it. After three day transfer iot to a secondary. I racked from the bottom and left the top inch in the primary just in case there were any floaties. Don’t be scared to experiment. I would make sure to transfer no later that 72 hours. I let one go for a week and it had a quite a bit of a banana flavor to it. Good luck.
Thanks! I’m off to my local brew store! I appreciate all the quick advice, it gives me enough time to have my beer ready for Saint Patty’s.
[quote=“brewhatcher”]You mentioned air quality, does that mean that a basement could be a bad place to do this?[/quote]Is your basement wet and moldy? Are there windows that allow outside air to circulate? Do you have a litter box down there? That sort of stuff - obvious sources of airborne nasties that you wouldn’t want to get in the beer and spoil it.
As far as seeing a measureable improvement in the beer from an open versus a closed fermentation - I think that the volume and geometries of the standard homebrew fermenters do not have any effect on the yeast (not deep enough to exert any osmotic pressure on the yeast and the airlock does not allow any pressure to build on the surface) that would then change with the removal of the lid. But if you were to ferment in something like a Lexan foodservice container, which would increase the surface area and reduce the beer depth by 10x or so, you might see a difference compared to a beer fermented in a carboy.
I would want to know the recipe/yeast/temps before a pegging banana flavor to “open fermentation”.
I would want to know the recipe/yeast/temps before a pegging banana flavor to “open fermentation”.[/quot
I assumed he would be using Nottingham dry yeast from the Northern Brewer store. That is what I used. I also tried an IPA with 1056 American ale yeast and got sort of the same flavor. I noticed the longer it sits in the secondary the more of an off flavor it got. The next batch I transfered as soon as primary fermentation ended. It’s always fun to experiment but irt also sucks when the brew is not drinkable.
It depends on where you live. If you live some place cold and there is not a lot of stuff in the air, I would go for it with a towel or something over the top of the bucket. If you live someplace warm, I would not attempt it.
I use a modified open fermentation for my English ales during the winter months. I use a 6 gallon lexan rectangle. It has a lid, but it does not seal. I have made many fantastic beers with this system, and a few infected beers. I only use it during the cold months and I add some weight to the top fermenter so that the lid has some pressure on it to stay closed. I don’t want any bugs getting in there. You can stack these containers, so you can ferment a lot of beer. I also don’t let the ferment go more than 7 days. Most English ale yeasts don’t have a huge krausen, so you can put 5.5 gallons in the fermenter with out worrying about the beer foaming out and getting infected. You should also pitch a big starter of fresh yeast. The containers are also easy to clean. I hate carboys, but I usually just stick with them because I don’t get infected beer.
Based on a couple of batches I made this winter, I have not been able to notice much difference between fermentation vessel shapes for 5 gallon batches. I’ve brewed identical recipes of an english bitter and a mild. I put one in a cube shaped container (roughly, 12"x 12" x 10" tall), and the other in a container that was more of a tall rectangle (roughly 15" long, 6" wide, and 17" tall. All batches were “open fermented” with just loose foil over the mouth of the container. The differences were minimal.
I’m planning to brew the mild again and ferment it in a low shallow food prep container (roughly 21" long, 14" wide, and maybe 4-6" tall). Unfortunately, several weeks have gone by, so there could be other variables (ambient basement temp, freshness of grains and hops, age of past batches, etc.) that could have an influence on a side by side comparison.
Like others have said I would worry about bugs in the summer here. We get allot of fruit flys and ear wigs they will both ruin a batch of beer by landing in it.
I did an “open” fermentation with a steam beer last spring. I left the bucket lid on but not sealed so there was really no pressure in the fermenter to speak of. Once the bulk of primary was done, the lid was sealed. My buddy used 5 gallons of the same wort/yeast but did a standard closed fermentation. Differences weren’t huge but I could taste a bit more fruitiness with the open batch. Mine also attenuated about 2 points lower.
