Messages

1696

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: Lager Fermentation

« on: November 23, 2009, 04:05:51 PM »

There are also studies out there that show that beers with trub ferment faster. This just goes to show that this is one of those topics where there is little hard evidence to support one or the other side.

Kai

1697

Equipment and Software / Re: Spunding valve experience

« on: November 23, 2009, 03:35:09 PM »

0.5-0.8 bar. I don't know how many Psi this is.

Kai

1698

Equipment and Software / Re: conicle fermenters: go stainless or is there a less expensive way?

« on: November 23, 2009, 01:55:30 PM »

I’d use the conical as a yeast propagator:



I had very good success with air raised yeast. When I propagate my lager yeast with constant air, I can get fermentation rates of 1-1.2 Plato/day over the first 7 days of fermentation at 48F and normal pitching rate. As a result I have been doing this for all my recent lager batches. Currently I do this in a carboy but would love to do this in a conical if I could find one for less than $100. With a conical I can place the air stone at the lowest point and create an optimal current that keeps all the yeast in suspension. Then I can let it settle and harvest at the bottom. I may even install al heater that would allow me to sanitize the fermenter and wort by boiling the wort in place. The wort that I’m using is about 12 l at 2 Plato.

To give proper credit, Geronimo from the NB forum pointed me to the fact that air raised yeast does so much better in fermentation. I have yet to conduct experiments to understand why that is and what an optimal propagation schedule is.

Kai

1699

The Pub / Re: Lets get to know each other!

« on: November 23, 2009, 12:29:07 PM »

My real name is Kai Troester and I like yellow beer

I’m an 34 year old “off the boat” German living in Massachusetts. I’m married and have 2 kids. One is 5 and the other one is 3. They are a lot of work and a lot of joy at the same time.

To make money I design micro processors at a large chip company (no, not that one, the other one: AMD) although I love my job I like to balance that with a more hands-on hobby.

I started brewing in 2005 after seeing Alton Brown’s good Eats show. Needless to say I quickly became hooked and started to see brewing as a way to connect with my German heritage. Having always had a geeky nature I quickly discovered the scientific and technical part. Despite what you may think, I’m actually a fairly relaxed brewer. Mostly because I think I figured out how to control my beer and not the other way around. But there are still occasions where the beer sets the schedule but I’m working on minimizing them.

When I came here first, my friends felt that Kai is to short of a name and it must be short for Kaiser, hence screen name that I use in brewing related forums.

Kai

1700

The Pub / Re: It will take some time...

« on: November 23, 2009, 12:13:15 PM »

I saw the change in the banner text. Nice

Kai

1701

Equipment and Software / Re: My simple carboy washer

« on: November 23, 2009, 12:04:00 PM »

PBW works best when it is around 120-140F.
Are you planning on putting a heater in there or will the pump heat the PBW?

I'm adding warm water, but the pump should heat the water as well since all of the energy it consumes gets converted into heat. If there is less heat loss than power consumption my the pump, the whole thing should heat up.

Kai

1702

The Pub / Re: Congrats to Gary and Erin - Maya Glass arrives

« on: November 23, 2009, 11:53:37 AM »

Congrats Gary and Erin. Is this your first?

Kai

1703

Questions about the forum? / Re: Attachments

« on: November 23, 2009, 11:38:09 AM »

No rush, just something to consider.

Kai

1704

Equipment and Software / Re: My simple carboy washer

« on: November 23, 2009, 11:37:19 AM »

Here is a quick google search: http://www.google.com/products?hl=en&source=hp&q=utility+pump&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=C9YKS6XnCsyXtgeWnaXJCg&sa=X&oi=product_result_group&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CCAQrQQwAA

You can also look at your local home improvement store. I think the only thing that is important is that the pump is not too tall.

Kai

1705

All Grain Brewing / Re: wort quality and water ratio question

« on: November 23, 2009, 11:32:57 AM »

Jscbeer, Welcome to the board 

The rule of thumb is: "All other things being equal (and this is a very big wild card), a thinner mash will yield a wort that will attenuate more than a thicker mash". There is a lot going in in this statement.

This is not what I have found and many brewing authors agree with me on that. Mash thickness has very little effect on the fermentability of the produced wort. My own experiments on that subject are documented here:

http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?title=Effects_of_mash_parameters_on_fermentability_and_efficiency_in_single_infusion_mashing#Mash_thickness

And even if we use the effect of mash thickness on the heat sensitivity of mash enzymes, in particular b-amylase, the opposite what you stated should be true. This is because b-amylase is more stable in thick mashes and should therefore be able to produce more fermentable sugars compared to thin mashes where it doesn’t live as long. But that isn’t true either. My explanation is that starch conversion in thick mashes is slower and there are other inhibiting factors that cause b-amylase to work slower thus compensating the fact that it lives longer.

And even if that wasn’t true wouldn’t we be able to compensate for the higher fermentability of thin mashes by simply mashing a bit higher?

Kai

1706

Equipment and Software / Re: conicle fermenters: go stainless or is there a less expensive way?

« on: November 23, 2009, 09:26:56 AM »

I have a hard time justifying the price for a conical. Sure carboys and buckets are a hassle, but for the price of even the Minibrew fermenters I can build a really nice temp controlled fermentation chest out of a chest freezer. And there is so much more other equipment that has a better chance improving your beer than a conical.

Are the buckets and carboys costing you a lot of water?

Kai

1707

Extract/Partial Mash Brewing / Re: Are crystal malts better extracted in the presence of base malts?

« on: November 23, 2009, 09:20:21 AM »

Take this reference (Impact of Dark Specialty Malts on Extract Composition and Wort Fermentation)
http://www.scientificsocieties.org/jib/papers/2005/G-2005-0330-275.pdf

That's a nice paper. Thanks for sharing.

Kai

1708

Equipment and Software / Re: Spunding valve experience

« on: November 23, 2009, 09:11:30 AM »

I haven’t used it for primary fermentation, but commonly use it for secondary fermentation to carbonate the beer. My experience is that it works fine.

The literature reports that primary fermentation under pressure reduces esters and higher alcohols which allows for fermentation at a higher temperature. Some breweries do that to speed up fermentation while being able to keep the fermentation clean.

There is a guy over on homebrewtalk.com who swears by primary fermentation under pressure. Here is the main thread: http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f13/closed-system-pressurized-fermentation-technique-44344/

Kai

1709

Questions about the forum? / Attachments

« on: November 23, 2009, 08:34:02 AM »

Is there a way to attach files (pictured, spreadsheets ..) to posts? I found that to be a very useful feature on other boards.

Right now I just upload them onto my website, but not everybody has such a place available and it would be nice it if would be easier to post pictures.

Taking it a step further, it would also be nice to attach other files. Spreadsheets for example. When explaining water treatment I’d love to be able to fill in a water spread sheet for brewers who need some help and then attach it to my post.

Is this something that is not possible with the type of board software we are running or is it just disabled?

Kai

1710

All Grain Brewing / Re: wort quality and water ratio question

« on: November 23, 2009, 08:08:29 AM »

Are there any downsides to doing 2/3 water in mash and 1/3 in sparge?  Do you find your efficiency suffers from this?

Efficiency may suffer, but that is part of the idea of getting higher quality wort through thinner mashes. The less you sparge the less undesirable compounds you get into the kettle but the lower your efficiency will be. This being said there is little change in the batch sparhing efficiency unless the run-off sizes are out of balance by quite a bit. Just look at this graph which plots batch sparging lauter efficiency over the ration between first running volume and total kettle volume (the wording in the chart is misleading). This is for a 1 sparge batch sparge:



(http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?title=Batch_Sparging_Analysis)

Kai