is there a home-brew / zymurgy thread around here?

Lerxst said:
Time is one way to clear a beer in the fermenter
Cold temps is another way
Finings, like gelatin, isinglas or polyclar are another way

Does racking the beer help clear it? I don't really think it's appreciably more clear after racking (compared to just leaving it in the primary) except you now have less lees on the bottom of the vessel to kick up when you handle the fermenter or rack for packaging.
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Makes sense. And I agree, in 90% of circumstances it does seem unnecessary to use a secondary. I still like the idea of having the 5 gal secondary for 2 reasons though. Empties the 6.5 gal for another quick brew (two weekends in a row and be done for a few months), and empties the main fermenter for long conditioning brews that might otherwise hog it for a month or so.
 
eloydrummerboy said:
Now, that's a schedule I could subscribe to!
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I'd say most of my beers have a 2.5 to 3 week turn around, grain to glass. The west Flanders red is going to be a bit different because I have to wait for the bugs to get it nice and sour.

I've got a few empty vials to return to the LHBS for recycling back to white labs

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I opted to wait a while longer on secondary transferring my first big batch. I took another gravity measurement today, and it was down to 1.011 from the 1.012-3 I saw earlier. I could still see some small bubbles in the wort. I saved the beer from the gravity measurement and chilled it in the fridge for an hour and tasted it again. I get a good malty taste, which is what I should have for an Irish red ale, and some hops bitterness (also pretty normal, but it was still very strong on the bitter side). The strange part was a pretty strong taste of acetaldehyde. I could taste the beer, but it certainly had some apple to it. I guess this means the yeast need a little more time to work through this stuff, so I am going to leave it where it is and test it again over the weekend. It tasted better at room temp.
 
Played around with some primitive swamp cooling ideas today. Just tossing a damp towel on top of my fermenter resulted in a pretty quick 4-5 degree cooling effect, presumably due to evaporative cooling. I checked the internal temp of my wort, and it matched the external thermometer, and I was able to get down to the 66 degree range without any issues. No water bath, no ice blocks, just a wet beach towel. I think my next batch of beer will the aimed for a 65-66 degree fermentation, rather than relying on ambient 73 room temperature. From all I have read this temperature shift should help a bit in controlling off flavors and yield a better product.

How many of you guys run a swamp cooler setup? How is it configured (ice bath, bucket, etc)?

I know a freezer/temp regulator is the way to go in the long run, but this little trick should make things better until a cheap chest freezer shows up on craigslist.
 
I did last summer when it was rather hot here (all relative of course :embarrassed: ), I have large plastic plant pots that I put my fermentation bins in and could add maybe 15l of water to. Then I draped a wet towel over the bin and it dips into the water so wicks up if needed. The added water also helps protect from any temperature swings

Luckily the room I ferment in has a stable temperature, depending on the time of year, so I can get away without having a proper temp controlled fridge as long as I'm careful about yeast selection.

For heating it in winter I have used an aquarium heater in the water, its thermostat appeared to be quite accurate but I'll get a controller for it next winter if I have still not got around to getting a proper freezer setup.
 
Mine has been working rather nicely. A little unsightly, but efficient. It's ranged between low 60s (forgot to turn the heat on one night) and mid 70s (forgot to turn the cool on during the day) and the water hasn't swung more than +/- 2°F around 65°. I put 4-5 used water bottles in the freezer to use as ice packs if needed. So far I put one in, and that ended up taking the water temp down to 63ish. I only wetted the towel/blanket combo once at the very beginning too.

Here's the set-up:
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^^ I have a deep polyethylene tray I can grab from work that should be about the perfect size for this sort of thing. My ambient is in the low 70's (maybe 73-4, and that is with the AC on), so I would be thrilled to get below 65.
 
Tiltsta said:
^^ I have a deep polyethylene tray I can grab from work that should be about the perfect size for this sort of thing. My ambient is in the low 70's (maybe 73-4, and that is with the AC on), so I would be thrilled to get below 65.
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Oh yeah, no sweat. Just fill some old water bottles or similar with water, freeze, and add to the water to get the temp you want. Go slow though because it really doesn't take a lot to drop it pretty low. I would guess no more than 1-2 in the morning before you leave for work and you'll be golden. Maybe add another at night.

The spot where I have mine sitting seems to be a cool spot in the house, and it's getting down in the 40s 50s here at night. So I have no trouble, with the water's natural aversion to temp. swings, it stays in the perfect range with no work. Once it starts warming up here in a week or so, I might need to start adding some ice. We'll see.
 
^^ Awesome. I think I am going to make something very similar to what you have. I'm glad to hear it works so well.
 
That's:

Vermont ale - aka conan
Funktown Pale Ale
Saison blend

I'll probably brew with the funktown this weekend or next
 
Good to see more yeast companies turning up, although I've never had any complaints about White Labs proper

I'd like Brewlabs in the UK to do vials rather than slants, the less steps needed the better imo. Or the National collection of yeast cultures expanding into homebrewing would be even better!
 
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Cool looking yeasties. :thu:

My first big batch beer is at the same FG as a few days ago, but it has matured considerably, with no green apple taste and quite a bit more clarity (although still cloudy). The strong hop bite has also faded. It tastes pretty darn good right now. A little more time and it should be pretty decent beer.

I guess all the 'patience is key' in this thread is sage advice.
 
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I'm thinking a nice rye pale ale w/ mosaic hops, maybe all late hops, will be a good fit for the funktown pale ale yeast. Something like:

7# Pale ale malt
1# Rye malt
.75# Munich I
.75# Victory
.50 oz Mosaic @ 15
.50 oz Mosaic @10
.50 oz Mosaic @ 5
.50 oz Mosaic @ 0/whirlpool
 
^^ That sounds good, and also like a very strong beer. I like high gravity beer with a lot of flavor.

First use field report on the Darkstar burner. I'm doing a 2.5 gallon boil. It took no time to heat the water to grain steeping temp. On full tilt, it can do +15 degrees F on 2.5 gallons in about a minute or so. Eleventy billion times faster than my stove. It also has a nice regulator that can cut the gas flow WAY down to more or less maintain a temp. I'm really happy with this thing. :)
 
Tiltsta said:
^^ That sounds good, and also like a very strong beer. I like high gravity beer with a lot of flavor.
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@ 4gal yield, it will be a smidge over 5% ABV


Tiltsta said:
First use field report on the Darkstar burner. I'm doing a 2.5 gallon boil. It took no time to heat the water to grain steeping temp. On full tilt, it can do +15 degrees F on 2.5 gallons in about a minute or so. Eleventy billion times faster than my stove. It also has a nice regulator that can cut the gas flow WAY down to more or less maintain a temp. I'm really happy with this thing. :)
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Why not full boil?
 
I don't have a pot of sufficient size to full boil. I also have enough problems not boiling over/paying attention with 2.5 gallons in a 5 gallon kettle. Eventually I will swap to something larger.
 
Just trying my strong belgian ale that I bottled a couple of weeks ago - it's excellent, albeit young . Although still too cloudy, but I've only had them in a warm room to condition. The t-58 yeast is really nice and I can't detect any alcohol. Could have done with maybe a tad more carbonation.

Quite looking forward to the other one I brewed on the same day I bottled this one, it's a bit darker and has some coriander and darker brewers syrup instead of plain sugar
 
Well, we transferred the Russian Imperial Stout into the secondary a few days ago. I've just now got the time to sit down and write about it. Work has been crazy. But anyway. I wasn't too worried about getting a perfect gravity reading, and the bubbles in the tube made it a bit difficult, but it was somewhere between 1.020 and 1.025. Estimated final gravity was about 1.024 , so I think I'm about there.

She's coming out of the swamp cooler now, and is going to sit in ambient at around 68-70 (if we can keep it there). I may end up getting a chest freezer this weekend though, but even then I won't have the temp. controller for a week or so if i ordered it the same time. (with all the crazy work mentioned above, I told D-girl that I deserve some reward and am going to buy the chest freezer with some of the overtime money. :grin:)

We both tasted it and we like it. The hop bite needs to settle a bit, and I'd like more of the yeast and sediment to settle. I think aging will do this beer very well. But I think we're going to enjoy it, and best of all, my fears of the contaminated yeast starter seem to have been unfounded.

Now comes the hard part. Do I add some of the bourbon soaked vanilla like I had thought about? Some cold brewed coffee? Hmm...

Here she is.
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