Topics

1

Yeast and Fermentation / Slow, to, no noticable fermentation...and no kruesen after 4 days.

« on: February 03, 2010, 02:07:51 pm »

Okay, so I feel like kindof an amatuer for even having to ask this, but I'm having an issue with a current beer that I'm 'trying' to make.   It was my third ever all-grain batch and I think I got a little cocky or something cause I wasn't paying attention to the fundamentals.   I ended up forgetting to take a gravity reading before pitching.   I suppose that was my first mistake because it's kinda hard to tell what is going on in a brew if you don't know where it started.   I had 15 lbs of grain in a 5 gallon batch and I was thinking that it would start out around 1.065 or so depending on my effeciency.   Anyways, here's the second problem.   I ended up getting Wyeast 1056, and I also had a pack of Munton's dry yeast sitting around.   I smacked the Wyeast pack only about 1/2 hour before pitching when the wort was around 75 degrees.  I also threw in the dry yeast as well without re-hydrating.  That's three things that I did wrong.    I remember checking the day after pitching and the air lock seemed to be bubbling, but just a little bit.  I was expecting vigorous fermentation though.   Just three days after pitching though the bubbles completely stopped.  I did a gravity reading last night and it was at 1.015 so I'm thinking that I just missed the fermentation and that if I let it sit, it will be a nice IPA.   When checking my gravity though, I noticed that there wasn't much krausen at the top of the wort (beer) line like there normally is.   Wondering maybe if I had contamination, or if maybe I didn't convert the sugars properly.   The wort seemed nice and sticky from the pitcher I used for the vorloff.  Maybe I'm just freakin out and nothing is wrong at all.   

Has anyone pitched a beer with both Liquid and Munton's dry yeast?  and how has that effected your beer and fermentation?

Here are the things I did wrong.
1. didn't take a gravity reading after the boil before pitching yeast.
2. Didn't smack the pack early enough on the 1056
3. Also used Munton's dry yeast, and didn't rehydrate.
4. Boiled Irish Moss for only 5-10 minutes, and not the recommended 15 minutes.


Shed some light on this if at all possible.

Grazie,

Nick

2

Kegging and Bottling / Handmade Growler question...

« on: January 28, 2010, 10:21:11 am »

I bought a handmade growler from a college friend who lives out in Montana.   He makes extremely cool handmade Growlers and I was wondering about if anyone else has something like this and what the application would be.

http://www.carlburgpottery.com/

Obviously it's really cool to have if you keg your beer and want to bring some of your homebrew over to a friends house for sampling and general consumption.  (I just started kegging and my first kegged beer is still in the process of force carbonating).  I'm assuming it'll be just fine for quick consumption.

Another question is this.  I tried to bottle condition my second ever homebrew in this handmade growler and for some reason it didn't carbonate at all, while my bottles had.   I'm wondering if it's too porous to hold the CO2 for a long time?  It'd be cool to bottle condition in my Growler.   

Let me know your thoughts.

Nick

Let me know if you have any experience with this type of Growler.