Hello All,
I am new in this forum and the questions I am about to ask must have been asked several times that I struggled to find. Sorry for that.
I brewed several times before with malt extract kits, and the products (Pilsner and APA) were pretty good. I am now moving to all-grain system. I have purchased some ingredients and ordered brewzilla 35 L. It's on its way and I am planning to start brewing the first all-grain batch next week:
The first kit will be:
- Zombie IPA (OG 1.065, FG 1.013, IBU 73, ABV 6.4%)
Pale Malt (5.28 kg), Vienna Malt (0.48 kg), Caramel Pils (0.25 kg), Munich Malt (0.4 kg), Melanoidin Malt (0.21 kg), Citra Hop (156 g, some for dry hopping), Safale US-05 for 23 L batch.
The questions:
- Is it safe to open the lid of the fermenter to take a sample or add hops? I am worried about oxygen ingress.
- Do we pour the sample back to the fermenter once we are done with gravity reading?
- If we are wasting the sample to minimize the waste, how often should we get a sample? Do we stop the fermentation once we reach the FG given in the recipe?
- Is it safe to use the primary fermenter as a secondary fermenter too after cleaning and putting the green beer back to it? I have only one plastic fermenter with a tap and T sticker.
- After bottling, do we keep the bottles in the room temperature or at a lower T? How long is ok for bottle conditioning for especially IPA?
Many thanks in advance for your support.
Regards.
Welcome!
I look forward to hearing how you like the Brewzilla. I moved to an electric induction BIAB system a few years ago and love it but want a little more control and ease in my system.
All answers are my opinion and based on my own experience. If you ask 10 brewer's a question you will get 10 different answers!
Now for
The questions:
- Is it safe to open the lid of the fermenter to take a sample or add hops? I am worried about oxygen ingress.
If the beer is actively fermenting it is producing CO2 and a quick peek isn't going to hurt much. The yeast will scavenge any O2 and the CO2 will fill the head space and push out through the airlock. That said, you don't really need to mess with it, see following.
- Do we pour the sample back to the fermenter once we are done with gravity reading?
NO! Even if you are confident in your sanitation it is an unnecessary risk of infection. Drink it and learn what beer tastes like along the process.
- If we are wasting the sample to minimize the waste, how often should we get a sample? Do we stop the fermentation once we reach the FG given in the recipe?
When I first started I took samples all the time because I was excited, impatient, and curious. Now I don't touch the beer between pitching the yeast and packaging unless I need to taste or measure before the next step. For example if I brewed with brettanomyces and want to check the flavor profile before packaging, added a spice, fruit, coffee, oak, etc. and want to check whether the flavor is where I want it, or it is a longer time frame project like a sour or big beer that I want to check out.
You do not need to stop the fermentation. Allow the yeast to do what they do and ferment out completely. You can adjust the recipe or process on subsequent brews if you want a different result.
- Is it safe to use the primary fermenter as a secondary fermenter too after cleaning and putting the green beer back to it? I have only one plastic fermenter with a tap and T sticker.
You can leave 90+% of beers in the primary for the duration of the fermentation process. You do not need to remove the beer and clean the fermenter. That is another opportunity to introduce O2 and contamination.
The only time I use a secondary is if it is going to sit for an extended period of time in the fermenter and there is a valid reason to remove it from the yeast cake. For me, that is very rare. I dry hop, add fruit, add an oak spiral, coffee, spices, etc. in the primary. I usually use a small bag made from the same material as my BIAB bag to contain it and make it easy to remove when I want to.
- After bottling, do we keep the bottles in the room temperature or at a lower T? How long is ok for bottle conditioning for especially IPA?
Once bottled you want to keep them at room temp or higher until the yeast have processed the priming sugar and fully carbonated the bottles. Once your desired level of carbonation has been reached you can chill what you want to drink and leave the rest at room temp. When I bottled I used a few small Coronita or Coke bottles as test bottles so I didn't waste a 12oz beer if it was still flat. I also had no issues with placing a sixer near my furnace which got the yeast going and carbed my beer faster. Could it produce off flavors? Probably. But I never noticed a difference between the beers I quick carbed and those I let sit at room temp. It usually took between 1-2 weeks for bottles to fully carbonate at room temp, longer if it was colder, shorter if they were in a warm spot. Now I don't mean put them in your 100+° garage.
Hope that helps, let us know how it goes!
Skaal!
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