This past weekend I elected to bottle two batches of beer as well as brew a third. I purchased another 6-gallon bucket from my local brewer so I would always have a bucket of sanitation available through the whole process. I found this very useful on a couple of levels. For example;
I always had sanitation available
After I bottled my first batch, I could wash all my tools and then store them in the sanitation bucket
I also did some research and now that I have an extra bucket of sanitation, I believe I can keep this sanitation for upwards of 6 months (if I keep it clean). Though, I’ll probably dump mine in a month as I am very conservative.
Extra Pot of Boiling Water:
The instructions say to start with 2.5 gallons of water for steeping. I started with 2 gallons and boiled a second [smaller] pot of .50 gallons. This allowed me to do two things:
After steeping, I hung my bag from the microwave and leave it hanging over my pot (to drip) while I turned up the heat. I used about half of the water in my second pot to pour over the hanging steeping bag to extract as much of the flavor from the grains as possible (without squeezing the bag).
After I poured my LME into my boiling pot, I used the remaining water from my second pot and poured a little into my empty LME plastic bottle, shook it up and then poured it into my pot of water to get almost all of the LME out of the plastic bottle and into my pot.
I then poured my remaining boiling water into my primary pot to bring me to my 2.5 gallons.
I would not store your equipment in sanitizer. Rinse well after use and let air dry. Sanitizers can leach out some components of plastic and rubber seals, making them very brittle or leaving a hard to clean off residue. I have a funnel, with built in strainer, that is opaque and very thin on the bottom from being in Starsan solution for a week. Store your auto siphon in separate pieces or the the seal on the cane will eventually become distorted, then sucking air during use.
Having a spray bottle with sanitizer works well for the small pieces, or long pieces that don’t fit completely inside a bucket. Works well for sanitizing the lid of a bucket, or carboy mouth, when opening for SG sampling.
I’ve been using the wort in the boil kettle to pour through the steeping grains. Have the bag resting in a large strainer over the boil kettle. I figure the grains won’t absorb any more, but the wort could still do some extraction. Your method may extract more.
I use hot wort from the kettle to dissolve what LME is left in the jug, adding the wort with a measuring cup, and then stirring with the handle of a wooden spoon. Shaking produced to much pressure in the jug. Was very hot on the fingers too.
I’ll use the same method of dissolving the remaining LME, for late extract addition. At times there are two jugs of LME, I’ll pour from each of them, add hot wort and stir to dissolve. At the time for the late addition the heat stays on because the thinned extract mixes rapidly in the hot whirl pooled wort.
Planning out some of those small things does make the brew process more comfortable and predictable. Happy brewing.
So after a week, my Irish Red Ale stopped fermenting. In fact, it wasn’t even pressurized so I said, what the heck, I’ll just bottle it. So I did.
My Ace of Spades Black IPA
Really excited about this one and after a week, it too stopped fermenting. It too was no longer pressurized either. However, because I have been really excited about a Black IPA (had one over the summer), I decided I would still put it in a secondary fermenter for another two weeks (in a glass carboy). So, it did ferment, I can sediment on the bottom and the secondary fermenter is now pressurized.
After seeing the sediment in the glass carboy (Black IPA), I looked at my Irish Red Ale bottles … sure enough, there is more sediment than I expected in the bottle.
Question
What causes my primary fermenter to depressurize and then re-pressurize in the secondary fermenter? Or, I suppose I could also ask the question, "Why does my beer pick - up (continue) it’s fermentation after moving it to a secondary fermenter?
What kind of vessel are you using for primary? If it isn’t completely sealed, when the more vigorous part of ferm is done, you will lose the pressure built up. Remember…yeast makes beer, we stir the ingredients. even after active ferm, the yeast will clean up after themselves removing esters and such. Let them do their magic, give them time. I’ve found that a week late is better than a week early every time. Wait for the yeast to fully flocculate (drop out of suspension) before bottling, and be careful when you wrack to your bottling bucket to keep out of the yeast cake…this will give you MUCH less sediment in the bottle.
[quote=“DrGonzo”]What kind of vessel are you using for primary? If it isn’t completely sealed, when the more vigorous part of ferm is done, you will lose the pressure built up. Remember…yeast makes beer, we stir the ingredients. even after active ferm, the yeast will clean up after themselves removing esters and such. Let them do their magic, give them time. I’ve found that a week late is better than a week early every time. Wait for the yeast to fully flocculate (drop out of suspension) before bottling, and be careful when you wrack to your bottling bucket to keep out of the yeast cake…this will give you MUCH less sediment in the bottle.
I too use a bucket, and sometimes the seal isn’t quite air tight. I’ve experienced the same thing with my buckets, on my current batch actually (patersbier). That’d be my guess as to why you’re seeing activity, then no pressure. just have a couple of craft beers while you wait for them yeasty beasties to do work, then have a couple of HOMEBREWS while you wait for your next batch.
For getting the last little bits of LME out of the jugs, I just filled them about 1/4 with warm tap water and shook them. Repeat if necessary. Having extra water in the boil is not bad; it’s actually even a bit better. You just want to minimize how long the addition causes the wort to come down from the boil as you add the relatively cool rinse water. (Also assuming the pot is big enough to not boil over.) You make up for the extra water in the pot with less top-off water at the end. Don’t risk burning yourself, or spilling boiling wort by trying to pour it back in the LME jug. Also, I’m not sure that the jug’s plastic is OK at that that temp.
It seems like your almost trying to sparge your steeping grains, which is fine. However, I would not use boiling water for that, as it might extract some unwanted tannins (off flavors) into the beer, just a thought. You want to get the water to around 170 if you want to do that. My two cents. Also, sound like you may want to try a go at a mini-mash/partial mash. I’ve never tried this brew, but it always looked good to me (http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/john … h-kit.html). There is a brewing TV episode about it.
[quote=“jeffsmietana”]It seems like your almost trying to sparge your steeping grains, which is fine. However, I would not use boiling water for that, as it might extract some unwanted tannins (off flavors) into the beer, just a thought. You want to get the water to around 170 if you want to do that. My two cents. Also, sound like you may want to try a go at a mini-mash/partial mash. I’ve never tried this brew, but it always looked good to me (http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/john … h-kit.html). There is a brewing TV episode about it.
Jeff[/quote]
I didn’t know that was what it [sparging] was called, thank you. And good point, I don’t think I used boiling water but it is a good pointer not to; no hotter than 170 degrees would be ideal.
So my Irish Red, I must have had a taste when it completed it’s first 4 weeks of conditioning (2 weeks normal, 2 weeks cold). I was not overly impressed. Then thinking, well maybe I just don’t like reds. So on St. Patty’s Day I ordered a red at a bar (flying fish maybe) and was not impressed. So I just thought my Irish Red was fine, I just did not like Reds.
Low and behold, I had another on Friday Night (that would be another 3 weeks of conditioning) and it tasted much better.
I am now starting to lean towards giving my beer a much longer lag time for conditioning.
[quote=“Jobu”]So my Irish Red, I must have had a taste when it completed it’s first 4 weeks of conditioning (2 weeks normal, 2 weeks cold). I was not overly impressed. Then thinking, well maybe I just don’t like reds. So on St. Patty’s Day I ordered a red at a bar (flying fish maybe) and was not impressed. So I just thought my Irish Red was fine, I just did not like Reds.
Low and behold, I had another on Friday Night (that would be another 3 weeks of conditioning) and it tasted much better.
I am now starting to lean towards giving my beer a much longer lag time for conditioning.[/quote]
It depends on the beer. Some styles are much better fresh than others. There really isn’t a “one size fits all” option when it comes to beer, although there are some common themes (yeast quality, temps, sanitation).
[quote=“Templar”][quote=“Jobu”]So my Irish Red, I must have had a taste when it completed it’s first 4 weeks of conditioning (2 weeks normal, 2 weeks cold). I was not overly impressed. Then thinking, well maybe I just don’t like reds. So on St. Patty’s Day I ordered a red at a bar (flying fish maybe) and was not impressed. So I just thought my Irish Red was fine, I just did not like Reds.
Low and behold, I had another on Friday Night (that would be another 3 weeks of conditioning) and it tasted much better.
I am now starting to lean towards giving my beer a much longer lag time for conditioning.[/quote]
It depends on the beer. Some styles are much better fresh than others. There really isn’t a “one size fits all” option when it comes to beer, although there are some common themes (yeast quality, temps, sanitation).[/quote]
Just shocked. A little over two months from brewing my Irish Red and I had another bottle last night. This beer has really settled down to a real nice, smooth taste. I am just shocked this is the same beer.
The more malt focused beers tend to do well with age. The more hop focused beers are better fresh. I’ve done the caribou slobber kit 3 times, and each time I let it set a little longer than the last. It just keeps getting better. My very 1st brew was CS, and I drank them as soon as they were ready, The last time I brewed that kit it set in the fermenter for two months, then bottle for a month…GREAT!!!
PS. I’m brewing this one again soon as it is a house fav. :cheers:
[quote=“DrGonzo”]The more malt focused beers tend to do well with age. The more hop focused beers are better fresh. I’ve done the caribou slobber kit 3 times, and each time I let it set a little longer than the last. It just keeps getting better. My very 1st brew was CS, and I drank them as soon as they were ready, The last time I brewed that kit it set in the fermenter for two months, then bottle for a month…GREAT!!!
PS. I’m brewing this one again soon as it is a house fav. :cheers: [/quote]
This is good information (more malt focused the beer, the more [positive] impact from aging). Thanks!
