Messages

61

General Homebrew Discussion / Dortmunder in 7 Days???

« on: February 29, 2012, 05:13:04 PM »

Last Wednesday I brewed a Dortmunder Export with an OG of 1.058.  Tonight it read 1.014 and tasted pretty good.  Unfortunately, I could only keep this beer at 56F with infrequent spikes to 60F.  There is still a thin layer of kreusen covering the beer and I'm wondering whether to keg this weekend or wait a weekend.

62

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: To Skim or Not

« on: February 26, 2012, 07:20:57 AM »

How are you gonna get it in the top of a sealed conical? Unless you are using a plastic conical. My conicals are 7 bbls and pressurized though so I may be thinking on a different level. But even my blickmann conicals with the pull top lid were impossible to skim any foam from especially squeezed inside of a fridge/freezer.

Regardless, much of the "braunhefe" will get stuck to the sides of the fermenter anyway and unless you are open fermenting or in a bucket I don't see an easy or convenient way to skim and I personally feel it is a very, very minor difference. I doubt many breweries are skimming from inside their conicals.

The lid on my SS conical is a sheet of clear plexiglass, thus it is somewhat of open fermentation.  It stands 5 ft tall, so it doesn't fit in a fridge.  You are talking me out of skimming, but I'm having trouble resisting the urge.

63

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: To Skim or Not

« on: February 26, 2012, 06:59:09 AM »

There's no way to skim the or top crop in a conical, unless you do a blow off.

A sanitized spoon does wonders.

64

Yeast and Fermentation / To Skim or Not

« on: February 25, 2012, 08:56:30 PM »

In reading Noonan's Brewing Lager Beer, he talks about skimming brown 'scum' that forms during low kraeusen.  I use a clear plexiglass lid to my conical, thus I can see the scum that has formed.  I'm wondering if those with conicals bother to skim the scum.

65

All Grain Brewing / Re: Fermcap Versus Anti-Foam

« on: February 23, 2012, 03:20:05 PM »

I ended up using 1 tsp in the boiler, which did a good job of stopping a boilover when the wort was 3 inches from the top and roiling.

66

All Grain Brewing / Re: Applely Starters

« on: February 22, 2012, 01:46:48 PM »

I've heard that acetylaldehyde can form in old cask beers because of the oxygen introduced, so that may also happen in a starter on a stirplate.

In fact, I supplied constant filtered air just above the starters for the five days they were working.

67

All Grain Brewing / Applely Starters

« on: February 22, 2012, 01:15:35 PM »

Nearly two weeks ago I made two separate two-gallon starters of WLP830.  After 5 days on stirplates at 60F I crashed each.  Today I decanted each, but before decanting I smelled each and detected a slight apple aroma.  I tasted each and they were both rather bland, telling me the yeast had successfully crashed.  In discussing this with another brewer he is guessing acetaldehyde for an incomplete starter fermentation and that if it occurs in the beer that the yeast would eventually take care of it.

Since I've got nearly $100 tied up in this beer I can not RDWHAHB.

68

All Grain Brewing / Sparge Rate for Big Batches

« on: February 22, 2012, 10:41:37 AM »

I typically make between 15 and 20 gallons.  Today it is a 25 gallon batch and I'll be sparging 26 gallons.  I think I read in Miller that 45 minutes is a good time for fly sparging (which would apply to a 5 gallon batch).  While I personally believe faster is better (to keep the sparge water hot), would 45 minutes also be good for 26 gallons?  I'm all for getting this batch done ASAP today.

69

All Grain Brewing / Fermcap Versus Anti-Foam

« on: February 18, 2012, 08:57:41 AM »

For my next batch I will be sneaking 27 gallons into my 31 gal conical, which will put the top of the wort about 3 inches from the top.  I wanted to use Fermcap but my LHS only had Anti-Form.  I am assuming that both products are the same, so I'm planning on 1/2 tsp of the Anti-Foam (also into the boiler).  Just looking for a little confirmation since I've never used either product.