[nateo]

not to mention a full suit of plate armor. those champagne style bottles are hefty! I wouldn't want a shard of that sticking in my chest.

Yeah, you're probably right. I know the local paramedic through the volunteer fire district, and I wouldn't really want to rely on him in a life-threatening situation.

[dbeechum]

I always emphasize safety goggles at least. This pic usually drives home the idea.


Of course, that doesn't really save you from other accidents:

[nateo]

Speaking of bottle bombs, on the Maltose Falcons page, there is a picture of a bunch of the bottles all balancing precariously on their crown in a fridge. I strongly suggest that anyone trying this not balance the bottles this way.

I was placing them on their crowns in a tote bin to riddle them today. One of them slipped and knocked three others down, and all of their crowns blew off and sprayed beer everywhere. The tote caught most of the beer, but it was a PITA to take all the bottles out and clean them.

I ended up taking out the bottle dividers from the cardboard cases they came in, and placing those in the totes, then filling the totes with upside-down bottles. This way they shouldn't fall down.

All told, I'm down 11 bottles, due to the mishap today plus the ones that've sprung leaks. I have 5 more that leaked that I sealed back up, but I'm not sure if they're going to hold. If I don't lose any more, I should have 54 bottles when all is said and done.

[nateo]

5 of the leaking bottles went into my fermentation chamber (58*) upside down for riddling. They have yet to start leaking again, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

I had two more start leaking at room temp, but by the time I noticed they had lost 1/5 of their volume. I'm just going to chill and drink those. The yeast has dropped really quickly, but there are little bits of dark cloudy junk that's taking longer to settle out. Hopefully once I can get the fermentors out of my freezer, the cold will help them riddle faster.

I think at 5 volumes, 75-80* is just too hot to store these bottles safely. I'm not sure what kind of PSI 5 volumes puts on the crowns at 80*, but it's apparently too much for some.

[nateo]

I disgorged yesterday. About The (now) 8 bottles total with a small leak: I chilled them, they ended up riddling and disgorging fine.

I lost six bottles due to improper freezing of the crown. The slug wasn't solid, and there was a tiny hole in the center of the plug so the pressure couldn't push the plug out all the way. I was using a brine of Everclear (95%) and dry ice. I couldn't get the plug to form properly with the brine. By accident, I added a large chunk of dry ice, and the bottle ended up resting on top of the ice, and not in the brine. The plug froze perfectly, and was just the right size.

Using my timer, I figured out that resting the crown directly on the dry ice for 3min froze the plug properly and consistently.

All told, I ended up with 49 bottles, or 36.75L. I also ended up with about fifteen or so bottles that were messed up but still drinkable, along the way. I started with three batches of 20L, so if you don't know what you're doing, be prepared for quite a bit of racking/bottling loss.

[kylekohlmorgen]

I've really enjoyed following along this thread and reading about Drew's clubs' experiments with this method.

Nateo - how long should these cellar before you're ready to drink?

[nateo]

I've really enjoyed following along this thread and reading about Drew's clubs' experiments with this method.

Nateo - how long should these cellar before you're ready to drink?

I have no idea! My friend's wedding is this weekend, so it'll have to be a week. Now, if you can let it set longer, that'll be better. I'm not sure how long it'll take for the dosage to integrate with the base beer, but we'll definitely be drinking some this weekend so I'll let you know when I get back in town. I'm taking half for the wedding, and saving the other half. 

I also got quite a bit of powdery junk in the younger saison, so I'd recommend doing a loooong secondary at cold temps if possible. I used gelatin and cold crashed for a week on both batches, and I also just let the first saison/mead hybrid I made sit at room temp in a carboy for a couple months.

A guy from the homebrew club said it might be oak dust. IIRC I used ~2oz of oak chips per 5 gallon in both batches. 

[nateo]

Also, FYI, I used my Super Agata-type bench capper to insert the stoppers. No hammer needed like when Drew did his. I unscrewed the bell and took out the magnet, then screwed the bell back on. It worked really well, so I'd suggest inserting the stoppers that way if you have a bench capper.

[dbeechum]

Bah! Hammer's more fun (and for the record - not hammer - rubber mallet - I'm not completely f'd in the head!)

[kylekohlmorgen]

Reviving an old thread...

My brother is making a champagne-like cider, and he found this:

www.sedexbrewing.com

Thoughts? Think this is a viable alternative to the 'Methode'?

[nateo]

Reviving an old thread...

My brother is making a champagne-like cider, and he found this:

www.sedexbrewing.com

Thoughts? Think this is a viable alternative to the 'Methode'?

I would worry about the pressure it can handle. My rough guess is that 5 volumes at 80* is 100-120PSI. My bottles were pretty volatile at room temp, so that seems about right to me. But, if they can handle the pressure, and you use a strain that's flocculant enough (EC 1118 or Premier Cuvee) I'd guess they'd work fine.

[dbeechum]

Looks a little like an external bindule system. Cute

But Nate's right, the big problem is the pressure. These things are designed for screwtop bottles and those won't come anywhere close to holding the pressure needed.

[kylekohlmorgen]

Cute - that was my initial response.


Maybe you just need a LOT of duct tape?