Topics

106

Yeast and Fermentation / 90% viability necessary? Desirable? Unnecessary?

« on: September 17, 2011, 01:49:42 PM »

I've been re-reading White and Zainasheff's Yeast book, and they mention more than a few times how you should only use yeast if the viability is over 90%. From the MrMalty calculator, it looks like liquid yeast would have to be made within 10 days of your use to have 90% viability.

So, my question is, for people who brew a lot of the same recipes of beer with the same yeast, have you noticed any difference in the finished beer if your yeast was one week old, rather than two weeks old, or three weeks?

I've used yeast that's pretty old. I recently used some yeast made in April, and the beer turned out fine. Maybe it could have been better with fresher yeast, but I'm curious how much of a difference it actually makes.

I wonder if they're just talking about direct pitching without making a starter?

107

Beer Recipes / Avery 17th Anniversary-ish beer

« on: August 31, 2011, 12:14:45 PM »

Hey, does anyone remember this beer?

Avery took it off their website. They had posted stats at one time. Just wanted to see if anyone had thought of brewing something similar.

Edit: I guess I should post a bit more. I know it's a "schwarzbier" that's dry hopped with German hops. I remember it finishing fairly dry/thin like a schwarzbier, but it had maybe 7-8%ABV and a pronounced hop character. I don't brew many hoppy beers, so I'm most interested in what the hop schedule I might use. I have magnum, vanguard, crystal, and willamette on hand.

I'm not interested in doing a clone per se, but something along the same lines.

108

Yeast and Fermentation / Pseudo schwarzbier, 1007 or 2565?

« on: August 29, 2011, 11:59:42 AM »

Which yeast should I use for a pseudo-lager Schwarzbier? I have 2565 and 1007 on hand.

109

Kegging and Bottling / Temperature at bottling

« on: August 27, 2011, 12:07:08 PM »

Hey folks,
Sorry if this has been covered before. I searched and couldn't find an answer. Does it matter if I rack and bottle a beer at cold-crashing temperature, or should I warm up the beer first to rack and bottle.

I ask because it seemed like it was losing a fair amount of CO2 transferring and bottling while cold. Also, as the beer warmed up as I was bottling it, I'm guessing it would've off-gassed a little bit too.

Does this matter? Would I lose enough residual CO2 to worry about? Or am I thinking too hard about this?

110

All Grain Brewing / Partigyle questions, should I cap?

« on: August 25, 2011, 04:09:11 PM »

I've been reading about partigyle brewing, and I intend to do an imperial/regular pseudo-schwarzbier with that method. I've read that some people add different grains at sparging to darken or otherwise change the flavor of the second runnings.

I was planning on making 3 recipes on Beersmith, one with the total grain bill (to figure out mash temps and such), and one assuming 60% of the grist will go towards the big beer, and one assuming 40% goes towards the small beer. Will Beersmith accurately predict the color if I do it this way?

If the color and gravity on the small beer are where I want it to be, should I add grains? I gathered from my reading that the small beer will be lacking, which is why people add additional grains and the sparge. Can someone with some experience doing this verify that?

111

All Grain Brewing / Berliner Weiss questions (I'm an idiot)

« on: August 16, 2011, 11:19:41 AM »

This is new to me so bear with my dumb questions. I'm attempting to do a Berliner weiss by pre-souring the wort before the boil. I made a 4L sour starter of grain and dextrose to grow Lacto, kept hot (110-ish) for 24 hours. pH of starter was 2.9 when I pitched it into the wort.

So the first problem is that I collected a few too many liters of wort, which wouldn't be a big deal except I forgot about the 4L from the starters too. So my total volume was about 8L too much. My target pre-boil gravity was 1.028. Second problem was I forgot to take a gravity reading before I added the starter. So I'm not sure what my OG was. Even with 50% efficiency my wort should have been 1.020.

After 24 hours under a blanket with the carboys wrapped with brew belts, I took a sample. pH was 2.3 and the gravity was 1.016. The airlock was going nuts, so I think some yeast may have survived on the grain too and it was now fermenting.

So, now I'm not sure what to do about the gravity. I can either boil and ferment as-is, or I can try to fix it. I could mash more wort, I could use some DME I have on hand, or I could boil longer. I'm leaning toward one of the first two.

2.3 is lower than I was expecting. What pH should I target pre-ferment? I'm not sure what's typical for Berliner Weiss, but the lowest beer on Raj Apte's chart was 2.8.

Also, are there any concerns with pitching with such a low pH? Should I pitch more yeast than usual?

112

Beer Recipes / Any ideas for a historic wit?

« on: August 11, 2011, 02:53:59 PM »

After reading about the "original" witbier in Brewing with Wheat I've been thinking about how to go about making one of these beers.

The long and short of it is very low attenuation (like 50%), unconverted starches, sour to very-sour character, partially boiled, some spices, few hops. I'm thinking maybe turbid mashing like for a lambic and partial boiling like a Berliner Weisse?

Has anyone tried something like this? I've never tried to purposefully lower my attenuation, so I'm not sure how to go about that.

113

General Homebrew Discussion / Anyone with an ACS account, may I bother you for a few articles?

« on: August 06, 2011, 12:15:21 PM »

Please let me know if anyone has a bit of free time and access to the American Chemical Society catalog. I can send you the links to the articles I want to read.
Thanks in advance

114

Yeast and Fermentation / How versatile are German wheat yeasts?

« on: May 23, 2011, 05:58:35 PM »

Has anyone used any of the various German wheat yeasts for non-wheat beers?
How similar are the various wheat strains to other German ale yeasts?

I've never tried fermenting wheat strains cold, and was wondering if you did, if you could make a kolsch or an alt that way. I've never tried fermenting wheat strains under ~65* and wondered how they would behave.

I made a dampfbier recently that was 100% barley, with WB-06 fermented around 65* that turned out really well, and I'm thinking about using wheat strains on other types of beers.

115

Zymurgy / May/June issue pitching rate article

« on: May 09, 2011, 09:17:16 AM »

Interesting article about pitching rates. I thought it was interesting that ester levels were pretty similar, while the underpitched beer had a lot more fusels and solvent character. The lacing and head retention difference was interesting also.

I've heard a lot of people say that underpitching Belgian beers results in more esters, but it would seem from this test that you'd be getting more hot alcohols and impairing fermentation performance, which was always my gut feeling on that.

116

General Homebrew Discussion / Post-ferment pH adjustment

« on: May 06, 2011, 11:03:03 AM »

Not sure if this is the right place to put this, mods please move if wrong.

Does anyone measure and adjust pH post-fermentation? I know this is something wine guys do a lot, but I was wondering if anyone does this for beer. I've only tried this on a few witbiers. A little acid can really make some flavors pop, and make the beer taste a lot better.

Does anyone have a pH range for finished beers? I've seen ranges of 4.1-4.5 given. Does that sound right?

117

Equipment and Software / 2 stage lime decarbonation plant

« on: April 28, 2011, 05:07:37 PM »

I'm planning on construction a gravity-fed decarbonation plant, and wanted to get some feedback. I'm thinking of using a 30 gallon and two 60 gallon tanks for this. Basically, the the 30 gallon would be the highest and I would use it for magnesium hardness reduction, then I would have the bottom of the tank ported to dump in the first 60g tank, where it would mix with 30 gallons of untreated water to precipitate the untreated water's carbonate hardness. The bottom of that tank would be ported also, and it would drain into the final tank for storage, or it could drain directly into a hot-liquor tank, or be pumped from storage tank into hot liquor tank.

Would it be helpful to use inductor tanks for this, or would plain flat-bottom tanks work fine? I'm not really sure how much precipitation I'll be getting in each tank.

Has anyone tried anything like this?

118

Equipment and Software / Any calculators for immersion chillers?

« on: April 20, 2011, 09:09:18 AM »

There are a number of calculators to figure out plate-chiller cooling capacity, but I was wondering if anyone knew how to figure out cooling capacity for a simple immersion chiller?

Let's say I know my start and end temps, and the temp of the fluid in the chiller, and I want to know how much area I need for the chiller to achieve those.

119

General Homebrew Discussion / Does anyone have an American Chemical Society membership?

« on: April 15, 2011, 01:16:52 PM »

It would save me a trip to the library if someone could help me out with this:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/jf104392y

It's an article on beer stability.

120

Ingredients / My dark candi syrup

« on: March 29, 2011, 05:01:34 PM »

During the recent D2 shortage, I tried to make my own candi syrup. There are a lot of recipes for homemade candi syrup, but I made and was disappointed by all of them. After chasing windmills for at least a few dozen hours, I've come up with a reasonable substitute for D2. It's close enough that I doubt I'll buy D2 again, but your mileage may vary.

Temps were at 5280ft above sea level, water boils about 10 degrees cooler here. You may need to adjust your temps accordingly.

Also, don't turn the heat up past medium. It should take about 45minutes from start to finish. If you heat it up too quickly it will behave poorly.

Hardware:
Small pot with tall sides
Digital thermometer
Spoon
Scale

Software:
3oz Dextrose (corn sugar)
13oz Sucrose
1/2tsp DAP
1/2tsp KHCO3
Water

Add sugars to pot.
Add 1c H2O
Stir well

Bring to a boil. At boiling add:
1/2tsp DAP
1/2tsp KHCO3
Stir well to dissolve

Heat mixture to 320*
Add1/2c H2O
Stir well

Heat mixture to 310*
Add 1/2c H2O
Stir well
Pour in mason/ball jar

Be careful when adding water as it will spit quite a bit at first. Only stir when adding ingredients, otherwise leave the pot alone.

I measured PPG and got 1.046 at the given concentration, and maybe 40SRM. Total batch weight was 515g. If your batch is a lot heavier/lighter than that you'll get a different PPG number.

Variation: Add 1c instead of 1/2c at the end if you want a thinner syrup that's great on French toast.

If you want to see the whole progression of this recipe, go here:
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/candi-syrup-experiment-trying-clone-d2-220882/