Just finished bottling my first batch carabu slobber extract that came with my essential brew kit. Everything went well until I got it in the fermenter. I had trouble keeping a constant temp. I’m going to use an aquarium heater and water bath for temp control next time. I was a little sloppy bottling and afraid to pick up trub so I only got a little over 4 gal of beer bottled. I have to work on that. I built a mash tun and I’m going to start all grain. I know a lot of you say not to bother with a secondary but I’m thinking of doing it so I don’t have to leave so much behind trying to stay out of the nasty stuff. Need to get more flexible tubing and a better bottling wand. My OG 052 FG 021 that was extract with dry I was wondering if AG and wyeast would get that down. I tasted it before it went into the bottles I don’t know if that is indicative of the final product.
I’m not sure how that will make a difference. You will have to try to keep your auto-siphon out of the trub when transferring to secondary just like you did when transferring to the bottling bucket. The only difference is you’ll have to do this twice instead of once.
I figure there will be less trub to worry about in the secondary. I don’t know, that’s why I’m asking. The other thing is I will transfer from bucket to clear carbon so I can see better.
do yourself a favor and don’t touch that beer for 3 weeks - - something magical happens between week two and three and that beer ROCKS!
Sputnam in your previous post didn’t you say you were planning on keeping your beers in primary for 2 weeks? A bit contradicting right? I agree with the 3 week primary business. I keep all of my beers in primary for 3 weeks.
You’ll get out of the secondary whatever you put into it.
I strain my wort before putting it in the fermenter and I’m careful when siphoning into a secondary or bottling bucket. I start siphoning high until I get close to the bottom, then I tip the carboy so I’m not siphoning right off the yeast.
:cheers:
i should have clarified - i mean 3 weeks after going in the bottle (or keg). miso solly :mrgreen:
Ok, tip the fermenter when siphoning and three weeks bottle condition, got it
Also, AG beers will finish a little better due to the ability to control fermability with temps. With extracts this is already determined.
I’ve never brewed slobber but if it came with us04 I would have expected a little better attenuation than 1.021. You mention your plan to use heat for more consistent ferm temps. How cold did it get? 04 should perform well down to low-mid 50s.
My 2 cents, perfect your racking technique rather than use secondary vessel.
I wanted to leave it in the basement but it was 53deg and it stopped bubbling. I moved it upstairs were it fluctuates between 58 and 63. I was going to use the water bath so I can keep a constant temp. I heat with a wood stove so temp flutates
[quote=“sputnam”]do yourself a favor and don’t touch that beer for 3 weeks - - something magical happens between week two and three and that beer ROCKS![/quote]So true but for me it is more like between week 3 and 4. The beer goes from one dimensional where you can taste the ingredients separately to three dimensional where all the ingredients are married and taste totally different. Its kind of like left over meatloaf.
