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Author Topic: Hops Quiz  (Read 7198 times)

Offline tomsawyer

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Re: Hops Quiz
« Reply #30 on: June 01, 2011, 08:48:27 am »
Next time, don't rack to secondary until the beer is finished, then rack to a bottling bucket and bottle it.  It's been 4 weeks, if you'd left it in primary you probably could have bottled it 2 weeks ago.

+1 to this advice.  Its possible that your extended bubbling is from a fermentation that was interrupted and was/is struggling to finish. 
Lennie
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Offline Hokerer

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Re: Hops Quiz
« Reply #31 on: June 01, 2011, 09:15:57 am »
If "intense gushing" means I have an infection (and same with previous batch), I've a mind to just give up on the AG brewing and go back to (gasp!) extracts.  I am VERY careful of sanitation when I brew - nothing else I can think to do. 

Maybe AG brewing is not for me - yeah, I'm getting depressed.  lol

How could AG vs Extract really affect this?  The differences between to two are almost all before the boil whereas infections usually come from something post-boil.  Post-boil, the processes/equipment/etc for AG and Extract are pretty much identical.
Joe

Offline dons

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Re: Hops Quiz
« Reply #32 on: June 01, 2011, 09:54:15 am »
That's true, Hokerer.  I'm just frustrated - I've not had this kind of issue before and it seemed to come with AG, but that should not matter, I understand.
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Offline Will's Swill

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Re: Hops Quiz
« Reply #33 on: June 01, 2011, 08:21:14 pm »

There is a really simple experiment you could do next time. A week or two after active fermentation is finished, agitate the fermenter. I'd bet money on you seeing a burst of airlock activity, indicating that the CO2 in solution hasn't come to equilibrium.

Will do, my mash depth experiments are happily burbling away.  A little too happily - it has inadvertantly become a blow-off v. no blow-off side by side batch, too.  :)  But it will be perfect for this.
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Offline dons

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Re: Hops Quiz
« Reply #34 on: June 09, 2011, 09:21:18 am »
An update.  After 10 days, had a few bottles of the beer.

It is wonderful.  Thanks to everyone who has helped.

One question:  at bottling time, the sampling I took was crystal clear.  Was amazing.  The first bottle I drank, the clarity
was just as good.  The second bottle was very hazy (yes, I poured them both correctly).  Looking through the rest of the
bottles, it seems that there is the gamut - from very hazy to extremely clear.  Most have some sediment floating around in
them - even the very clear ones.

I was careful to mix my priming sugar in well before bottling - trying to take care not to aerate, to the best of my ability.

Any suggestions as to what happened here?

Thanks.
Don
I've finally figured out my problem.  I have Cenosillicaphobia.

Offline morticaixavier

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Re: Hops Quiz
« Reply #35 on: June 09, 2011, 09:40:13 am »
dons,

on the AG v Extract and infection front, do you grind your own grain? if so do you do it in an area that might allow a small amount of grain dust to then settle in a way that would potentially get in your finished wort or beer? grain is a great carrier of infectious microbiota.

additionally the difference between extract and AG in terms of gushing could have to do with mash temps producing a more fermentable wort than expected. whereas with an extract recipe you can pretty easily say that and OG of x will result in an FG of y as the fermentability is fairly constant. while with AG a couple of degrees difference in mash temp could produce significantly different expected FGs. just a thought.
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Offline a10t2

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Re: Hops Quiz
« Reply #36 on: June 09, 2011, 10:03:23 am »
My guess would be that after 10 days they haven't all fully carbonated, and some still have yeast in suspension. Give it another week and they'll probably start to settle out.
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Offline Will's Swill

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Re: Hops Quiz
« Reply #37 on: June 25, 2011, 03:15:12 pm »

There is a really simple experiment you could do next time. A week or two after active fermentation is finished, agitate the fermenter. I'd bet money on you seeing a burst of airlock activity, indicating that the CO2 in solution hasn't come to equilibrium.

Will do, my mash depth experiments are happily burbling away.  A little too happily - it has inadvertantly become a blow-off v. no blow-off side by side batch, too.  :)  But it will be perfect for this.

The kreusen on the no blow-off batch finally dropped on Monday, though airlock activity has been dead for a while.  I shook the crap out of it today, enough to get it to foam.  No airlock bubbles after shaking it.  The airlock has been in place since I pitched, so I would imagine that the CO2 levels inside the fermenter headspace are quite high.  On the other hand, the blow-off batch blew the water out of its airlock and was exposed to the air for 12-24 hours.  It was exposed again when I removed the blow-off tube that I hastily fitted and replaced it with an airlock.  The water in that airlock is still under pressure and I'm quite sure that if I shook that batch, the airlock would bubble.

So I stand by my highly scientific experiment and my thoughts about CO2 stated in this thread.   ;)
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