The beer gods do not smile upon me today. After the whole black lager disaster I forged onward. I bought new serving lines for the beer as mentioned in the previous post. After trying out the first line I went back into the house to attempt to make a second, longer line. I must have had some type of beer leak in the keg and in the time it took to make a new line and get back to the fridge the entire keg had emptied into the chest freezer.
It was a surreal experience. I didn't even notice as first. I put the new line on and plunged the tap down and all I got was air. As first I thought that the new line had a leak because all I heard was air. But that didn't make sense. Even if I had a leak it would leak beer not air. I looked at the bottom and it was all white with beer head which didn't really register at first since the chest freezer is white anyway. Once I figured it out I was sad.
I told Ellie and she seemed to really be sad for me. Like the good trooper and wife that she is she snapped into action and began scooping the beer with a ladel from the bottom of the fridge into pitchers. I was so disheartened that I wanted to just dump it all but I glad she didn't let that happen.
Afterward we poured some into a growler for a crazy lazy who liked my shirt and Ellie drove off to deliver it while I poured some into a growler for a party tonight. We drank the rest. I then proceeded to clean up.
Lessons learned. Be sure there are no leaks when installing new beer lines.
Silver linings. Now I have a temp controlled fridge that has been freed up to lager the black lager.
Saturday, December 21, 2013
Black Beer Tragedy
To start, the current EKA is the best. The soft water is the way to do this in the future. The lower temp and the starter helped generate fewer esters. I'd bet next week it will clean up more and taste even better. I think the next time I brew, I will brew even colder, with more yeast, and a starter. That should make it as clean as possible. Then we can add in some crystal malt and a little amarillo and then I think I've got my beer.
Some things I learned recently.
- You can make beer fizzy by shaking it up but you will also put all the yeast in suspension and the blonde beer will be yeasty for a week or more until it settles out.
- Beer lines need to be small in ID, large in OD, and long. I saw a way on the internets to use that really tiny fridge water lines. I'm going to try that. http://www.reddit.com/r/Homebrewing/comments/1te7c8/how_to_14_icemaker_tubing_beerlines_great_pour/
Ok now for the reason of this post. The temp control box has died. I believe it happened during a brown out a couple of days ago. It appears that the brown out caused the file system to become corrupted. The pi is unable to be booted at this point. It makes me sad. I have backed up the code so that's good. But not the temp data or the logs. I may be able to mount the drive on a linux box and extract some of those pieces of data. I'll try that later. They are not a huge loss. The worst part is configuring the box to execute the code I wrote. Permissions needed to be set up. Configurations to make the serial port behave a certain way at power up and so on. Those will take a while to remember. What I think I need to do is figure out a way to clone the drive so that I will be able to quickly recover from this issue in the future.
Worse yet is the potential status of the beer. It is a lager and I wanted it to be kept at 52F for a few weeks. It has warmed to the garage temp for the past few days. I sampled it and it is finished fermenting. The FG is 1.010 and it tastes good. So I think I will leave it at the current temp until I keg it.
Some things I learned recently.
- You can make beer fizzy by shaking it up but you will also put all the yeast in suspension and the blonde beer will be yeasty for a week or more until it settles out.
- Beer lines need to be small in ID, large in OD, and long. I saw a way on the internets to use that really tiny fridge water lines. I'm going to try that. http://www.reddit.com/r/Homebrewing/comments/1te7c8/how_to_14_icemaker_tubing_beerlines_great_pour/
Ok now for the reason of this post. The temp control box has died. I believe it happened during a brown out a couple of days ago. It appears that the brown out caused the file system to become corrupted. The pi is unable to be booted at this point. It makes me sad. I have backed up the code so that's good. But not the temp data or the logs. I may be able to mount the drive on a linux box and extract some of those pieces of data. I'll try that later. They are not a huge loss. The worst part is configuring the box to execute the code I wrote. Permissions needed to be set up. Configurations to make the serial port behave a certain way at power up and so on. Those will take a while to remember. What I think I need to do is figure out a way to clone the drive so that I will be able to quickly recover from this issue in the future.
Worse yet is the potential status of the beer. It is a lager and I wanted it to be kept at 52F for a few weeks. It has warmed to the garage temp for the past few days. I sampled it and it is finished fermenting. The FG is 1.010 and it tastes good. So I think I will leave it at the current temp until I keg it.
Saturday, December 7, 2013
Schwarzbier
I wanted to make a Schwarzbier. But I don't know what the hell I was thinking when I bought the ingredients. I wanted to go simple and just use pilsner as a base malt. Also, I wanted some kind of de-bittered specialty grain so I went with Carafa II. Ok. There are other specialty malts and I didn't get them. Soooo, it will be a black pilsner beer. Not sure if anyone who drinks it will think it is a Schwarzbier or if it will even be good. But here we are, so let's do it.
8.5 lbs Pilsner
12oz Carafa II
1.65 Hallertauer 4.1%AA @ 60mins
0.5 Hallertauer 4.1%AA @ 20mins
0.5 Hallertauer 4.1%AA @ 0mins
WLP830 x2 with 1 liter starter (stir plate) Lot num: 1002989, Date 3/4/14
Here's the water:
3:00pm - Got everything measured out. Boiled O2 stone. Going to start heating up strike water. I'm considering this the start of the brew day. If done by 9pm. Then we all good. Also, I bought some tubing and connectors and stuff to improve the cooling process. More on that later.
3:31pm - Got the water done and am heating up the strike water. Got the grain milled. Pulled the mash tun off the shelf and stuck my nose in it when I opened it, just like everytime. And it smelled foul. Almost like a mild vomit smell. I narrowed it down to the ball valve. I put the steel braid, washer, and ball valve real quick into a PBW solution with super hot water. I'll leave it for 15 mins or so. Since it's on the hot side, any infection will be killed in the boil so I'm not too worried but I plan to clean that valve more thoroughly and today. And if the beer tastes like shit, we'll know one possible reason why. I may just replace that ball valve. Maybe completely disassemble it and see if I can clean it.
3:54pm - Mash temp was a little high, 158F. I added some room temp water to get it to 151F. After the PBW wash the ball valve smelled a little better. I will re-access after the run off and give it another smell. Also, I will be sure to order up a new ball valve. Maybe it's time to replace the old mash tun. Also, pH came out a little high 5.5ish instead of 5.2. Probably won't be real bad but I think it goes to show that it won't be as dark a beer as I think it will be. Haven't had a bad brew day in a while. This day is going badly. It's my fucking birthday. Doesn't this brew day know. There's only one thing left to do I think. Time to start drinking. I bought some Gordon Biersch.
4:06pm - A bird flew in. I yelled at it. It flew out.
4:25pm - Sat down for a sec. Wanted to note that my temp controller box is having an issue. I made it such that the two key executables fire up upon boot up. But the tempcontroller program doesn't work. If I kill it, then restart it, it works. I think the issue is that the Pi I/O requires permissions that I had to setup to get pi user access to the I/O ports. I don't sudo the tempcontroller executable in the startup script so I don't know which user starts this up. It works when I log in and kill the process and restart because when I log in as the pi user, I now have permissions. Ergo, I think I have a permission issue. I just thought of this just now after having had beaten my head on the issue last night. Late last night. Working on my first Winter Bock. It's good.
5:50pm - Took a 30min break for Chinese food. Mongolian Beef. Pre-boil gravity is 1.042. Higher than I thought it would be. Kevin is on his way over.
6:14pm - Things looking up a little. I tried the wort. No vomit. Ellie feels the same. The wort tastes good. So maybe the malt bill is not so bad. Also, I fly my new plane tomorrow. So that's good. The vomit odor in the ball valve is completely gone. I made sure to clean the crap out of it. I'm gonna pour me another beer.
9:03pm - Done. OG was 1.050. A little higher than what I thought but that's ok. It tasted good. Looked a little more dark brown than black. I should google translate dark brown beer into German and use that to name this beer. Kevin came. We had good talks. The new cooling system worked like a champ. Basically we use the basin as a sump and re-circulate ice water through the coils. We got the wort down to 50F in 25 or so mins. Really fast. Everything else went without a hitch so I guess we'll see what happens.
8.5 lbs Pilsner
12oz Carafa II
1.65 Hallertauer 4.1%AA @ 60mins
0.5 Hallertauer 4.1%AA @ 20mins
0.5 Hallertauer 4.1%AA @ 0mins
WLP830 x2 with 1 liter starter (stir plate) Lot num: 1002989, Date 3/4/14
Here's the water:
3:00pm - Got everything measured out. Boiled O2 stone. Going to start heating up strike water. I'm considering this the start of the brew day. If done by 9pm. Then we all good. Also, I bought some tubing and connectors and stuff to improve the cooling process. More on that later.
3:31pm - Got the water done and am heating up the strike water. Got the grain milled. Pulled the mash tun off the shelf and stuck my nose in it when I opened it, just like everytime. And it smelled foul. Almost like a mild vomit smell. I narrowed it down to the ball valve. I put the steel braid, washer, and ball valve real quick into a PBW solution with super hot water. I'll leave it for 15 mins or so. Since it's on the hot side, any infection will be killed in the boil so I'm not too worried but I plan to clean that valve more thoroughly and today. And if the beer tastes like shit, we'll know one possible reason why. I may just replace that ball valve. Maybe completely disassemble it and see if I can clean it.
3:54pm - Mash temp was a little high, 158F. I added some room temp water to get it to 151F. After the PBW wash the ball valve smelled a little better. I will re-access after the run off and give it another smell. Also, I will be sure to order up a new ball valve. Maybe it's time to replace the old mash tun. Also, pH came out a little high 5.5ish instead of 5.2. Probably won't be real bad but I think it goes to show that it won't be as dark a beer as I think it will be. Haven't had a bad brew day in a while. This day is going badly. It's my fucking birthday. Doesn't this brew day know. There's only one thing left to do I think. Time to start drinking. I bought some Gordon Biersch.
4:06pm - A bird flew in. I yelled at it. It flew out.
4:25pm - Sat down for a sec. Wanted to note that my temp controller box is having an issue. I made it such that the two key executables fire up upon boot up. But the tempcontroller program doesn't work. If I kill it, then restart it, it works. I think the issue is that the Pi I/O requires permissions that I had to setup to get pi user access to the I/O ports. I don't sudo the tempcontroller executable in the startup script so I don't know which user starts this up. It works when I log in and kill the process and restart because when I log in as the pi user, I now have permissions. Ergo, I think I have a permission issue. I just thought of this just now after having had beaten my head on the issue last night. Late last night. Working on my first Winter Bock. It's good.
5:50pm - Took a 30min break for Chinese food. Mongolian Beef. Pre-boil gravity is 1.042. Higher than I thought it would be. Kevin is on his way over.
6:14pm - Things looking up a little. I tried the wort. No vomit. Ellie feels the same. The wort tastes good. So maybe the malt bill is not so bad. Also, I fly my new plane tomorrow. So that's good. The vomit odor in the ball valve is completely gone. I made sure to clean the crap out of it. I'm gonna pour me another beer.
9:03pm - Done. OG was 1.050. A little higher than what I thought but that's ok. It tasted good. Looked a little more dark brown than black. I should google translate dark brown beer into German and use that to name this beer. Kevin came. We had good talks. The new cooling system worked like a champ. Basically we use the basin as a sump and re-circulate ice water through the coils. We got the wort down to 50F in 25 or so mins. Really fast. Everything else went without a hitch so I guess we'll see what happens.
Saturday, November 23, 2013
EKA V Soft Water
All out of beer. Time to make more. So I thought I'd make EKA V again but this time I will use softer water.
The ingredients are the same as EKA V.
Yeast WLP 001 Lot number 1003290. A 1L starter was made the night before. Stir plate was used. Kinda.
For the water I started with distilled and went from there. Here's what it looked like:
Started at 4pm. I just finished now at 10pm. I hit my mash temp at 152F and the OG was 1.042. Hit all the numbers.
Some of the stuff that went wrong:
- Stir plate sucks. I need to get going on the new one. My next nerd project. I want to implement a PID controller to maintain the spin rate of the magnet.
- I used my bare hands to open/close the drill bit onto the mill. It tore up my hand a little. I need wear a glove or use a towel or something next time.
- I had my headphones in and was trying to stay very busy cleaning. As a result I never heard/forgot that I was vorloufing into a gallon pitcher and it overflowed and made a mess. I used the mop to clean up. This would be avoided by another person with me.
- Still have issues with cleanly getting the wort from the re-circulation silicon tubing after cooling. It just makes a sticky mess. I've got to think of a better way.
- The pump seems to have issues moving the hot wort from pot to immersion chiller for re-circulation. I think I need to make the silicon tubing from pump to chiller shorter. It should make it easier on the pump.
- Still issues getting the wort cooled down enough. I can get it cooled very quickly to 75F ish but then I can't get cool water in the big chiller. I run out of ice in the pre-chiller so fast. I just need to remember to buy more ice at the store.
- When I turned on the temp controller I wanted to cool the wort a little before I pitched yeast. So I turned on the force on option and the temp controller seemed to just hang up. I'm not sure what happened but I will need to run this bug down later. I had to kill the process, change the force on option off, and then restart the process and it ran normally fine.
- Too much hot break in the beer after cooling. I need to find a way to settle it out faster. I don't like it just sitting there, not cooling more, becoming more infected by bugs while the break settles.
- If I'm going to keep tweaking water, I should get a scale.
I will say that the water did make a difference in taste. I tried the wort and it was...different. Not sure how it will turn out but I am sure it will turn out different.
Also, I switched the fermenting fridge to the smaller one and plan to serve out of the larger one.
The ingredients are the same as EKA V.
Yeast WLP 001 Lot number 1003290. A 1L starter was made the night before. Stir plate was used. Kinda.
For the water I started with distilled and went from there. Here's what it looked like:
Started at 4pm. I just finished now at 10pm. I hit my mash temp at 152F and the OG was 1.042. Hit all the numbers.
Some of the stuff that went wrong:
- Stir plate sucks. I need to get going on the new one. My next nerd project. I want to implement a PID controller to maintain the spin rate of the magnet.
- I used my bare hands to open/close the drill bit onto the mill. It tore up my hand a little. I need wear a glove or use a towel or something next time.
- I had my headphones in and was trying to stay very busy cleaning. As a result I never heard/forgot that I was vorloufing into a gallon pitcher and it overflowed and made a mess. I used the mop to clean up. This would be avoided by another person with me.
- Still have issues with cleanly getting the wort from the re-circulation silicon tubing after cooling. It just makes a sticky mess. I've got to think of a better way.
- The pump seems to have issues moving the hot wort from pot to immersion chiller for re-circulation. I think I need to make the silicon tubing from pump to chiller shorter. It should make it easier on the pump.
- Still issues getting the wort cooled down enough. I can get it cooled very quickly to 75F ish but then I can't get cool water in the big chiller. I run out of ice in the pre-chiller so fast. I just need to remember to buy more ice at the store.
- When I turned on the temp controller I wanted to cool the wort a little before I pitched yeast. So I turned on the force on option and the temp controller seemed to just hang up. I'm not sure what happened but I will need to run this bug down later. I had to kill the process, change the force on option off, and then restart the process and it ran normally fine.
- Too much hot break in the beer after cooling. I need to find a way to settle it out faster. I don't like it just sitting there, not cooling more, becoming more infected by bugs while the break settles.
- If I'm going to keep tweaking water, I should get a scale.
I will say that the water did make a difference in taste. I tried the wort and it was...different. Not sure how it will turn out but I am sure it will turn out different.
Also, I switched the fermenting fridge to the smaller one and plan to serve out of the larger one.
Friday, November 22, 2013
Scottish 80 Tasting notes
This is my 100th post. I had no idea until just now!
Anyhow, the Scottish beer turned out great. One of my favs. It is malty, sweet, and delicious. Everyone who has tried it has been pleased. I went to visit the bearded brewer today and he gave the following feedback:
- No diacetly
- A little bitter
- A little estery
I think what I need to do is pitch colder. I'll that a go on my next brew tomorrow.
Anyhow, the Scottish beer turned out great. One of my favs. It is malty, sweet, and delicious. Everyone who has tried it has been pleased. I went to visit the bearded brewer today and he gave the following feedback:
- No diacetly
- A little bitter
- A little estery
I think what I need to do is pitch colder. I'll that a go on my next brew tomorrow.
Thursday, October 10, 2013
Scottish 70/80
A Scottish 70 is a malty beer with low alcohol. We still get good body by setting the mash temp really high. I grabbed the ingredients from The Bearded Brewer almost three weeks ago and I can't remember the exact grain bill. For reference I've included the recipe for a Scottish 70 from the Jamil/Palmer recipe book. The hops and yeast is correct.
6.5 lbs British Pale Malt. I think I got Maris Otter.
0.5 lbs Munich.
1.0 lbs Crystal 40L
0.5 lbs Honey Malt
0.25 lbs Crystal 120L
3.0oz Pale Chocolate 200L (this is one I may have had a hard to finding and substituted)
UK Kent Goldings 0.75oz 5.8%AA
WLP002 x2 Date: 01-09-14 Lot: 1001913
Whirlfloc
Servomyces
50% RC water
50% Distilled
These brewing salts:
We are shooting for a mash of 158F.
3:38 pm- Wanted to start around 1pm. Started around 2pm. Just got the strike water to temp. The mash tun is creaky today. First time I've heard it do that.
4:03pm - Ellie here. Just mashed in. Hit 158F.
5:28pm - Runoff done. All is well. Gravity = 1.034. Should get 1.044ish. I will add all the hops. Hanging with Ellie has been fun. She made Kevin bring burgers.
8:42pm - Done the for day. Kevin brought burgers, tacos, and beer. The OG is 1.040. I thought that might be a little low for the amount of hops I added but the wort didn't taste bitter. Also, I attached the O2 stone to a racking cane with plumbers tape to better control it. It seemed to work well but there was a small leak in the tubing from the tank to the filter that I could hear. I'll need to fix that.
When it came to cooling I was able to cool the wort to 70F in 30mins. I needed to push more cool water through the big coils. I think that is why it was so slow last time. There is a lot of surface area. It makes no sense to push a small amount of water through it. There just wouldn't be enough contact. So, for a big coil, more is better.
Other than that it was a ho hum brew day. I had the gate for the dogs. They ate the barley but it was hot so the would get burned. But they wanted to eat it so bad. It was funny.
6.5 lbs British Pale Malt. I think I got Maris Otter.
0.5 lbs Munich.
1.0 lbs Crystal 40L
0.5 lbs Honey Malt
0.25 lbs Crystal 120L
3.0oz Pale Chocolate 200L (this is one I may have had a hard to finding and substituted)
UK Kent Goldings 0.75oz 5.8%AA
WLP002 x2 Date: 01-09-14 Lot: 1001913
Whirlfloc
Servomyces
50% RC water
50% Distilled
These brewing salts:
We are shooting for a mash of 158F.
3:38 pm- Wanted to start around 1pm. Started around 2pm. Just got the strike water to temp. The mash tun is creaky today. First time I've heard it do that.
4:03pm - Ellie here. Just mashed in. Hit 158F.
5:28pm - Runoff done. All is well. Gravity = 1.034. Should get 1.044ish. I will add all the hops. Hanging with Ellie has been fun. She made Kevin bring burgers.
8:42pm - Done the for day. Kevin brought burgers, tacos, and beer. The OG is 1.040. I thought that might be a little low for the amount of hops I added but the wort didn't taste bitter. Also, I attached the O2 stone to a racking cane with plumbers tape to better control it. It seemed to work well but there was a small leak in the tubing from the tank to the filter that I could hear. I'll need to fix that.
When it came to cooling I was able to cool the wort to 70F in 30mins. I needed to push more cool water through the big coils. I think that is why it was so slow last time. There is a lot of surface area. It makes no sense to push a small amount of water through it. There just wouldn't be enough contact. So, for a big coil, more is better.
Other than that it was a ho hum brew day. I had the gate for the dogs. They ate the barley but it was hot so the would get burned. But they wanted to eat it so bad. It was funny.
Sunday, September 15, 2013
EKA V
Got some new toys!!! I brewed yesterday and had a hell of a busy day so I didn't blog during the making of the beer and I'll do my best to remember what went wrong and what went well.
Ingredients:
8 lbs 2-row
0.5 lbs Crystal 15L
1oz Williamette 4.9%AA (changed this as per Jamil recipe book)
WLP001 x2 (I'm too lazy to make a starter)
Servomyces
Whilfloc
5 gallons Ridgecrest filtered water
5 gallons distilled
4 grams gypsum
4 grams calcium chloride
1 gram epsom salt
Crush, mash, sparge, and boil all went off without a hitch. Then we get to cooling. I bought a larger wort chiller from MoreBeer and while I was at it I got the Jamil style with the whirlpool feedback. Here's a pic of the setup:
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Ingredients:
8 lbs 2-row
0.5 lbs Crystal 15L
1oz Williamette 4.9%AA (changed this as per Jamil recipe book)
WLP001 x2 (I'm too lazy to make a starter)
Servomyces
Whilfloc
5 gallons Ridgecrest filtered water
5 gallons distilled
4 grams gypsum
4 grams calcium chloride
1 gram epsom salt
Crush, mash, sparge, and boil all went off without a hitch. Then we get to cooling. I bought a larger wort chiller from MoreBeer and while I was at it I got the Jamil style with the whirlpool feedback. Here's a pic of the setup:
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What you are seeing here is water goes from the sink to the red bucket which has a pre-chiller. The ground water here is really warm. The bucket is filled with ice water which I continually stir to get optimum heat transfer. This water goes to the new chiller in the kettle and goes out of said chiller into the sink. The wort goes from the ball valve in the lower front of the kettle to the pump on the ground which then pumps the hot wort to a re-circulation connection on the chiller. This steers the wort right onto the chiller coils and causes the wort to whirlpool which maximizes heat transfer. The effect of this is that the wort is cooled from boiling to 70F in about 40mins instead of an hour.
The only issue I had here was that I hooked up and ran the re-circulation system about 5 minutes before flameout to sterilize the system and the pump was pissed. I couldn't understand why. It made all sorts of noise as if it was not primed. Once flameout occurred and I began cooling the wort, then it calmed down and started working great. I had taken it apart earlier in the brew day to clean it and I thought maybe I reassembled it incorrectly. I'll double check when I use it again.
Anyhow, once cooled, the wort was immediately moved to the fermenter. In hindsight I should have waited a little for the break material to settle. The whirlpool causes all that break material to just mix up in the wort. I ran out of ice in the pre-chiller and the wort was now actually warming up from 70F and I felt to need to get it transferred immediately. So the beer won't be pretty.
Ok then time to oxygenate. I put a lot of time into replacing tubing and stuff from the old O2 system I have. I've never taken the stone off and cleaned the tubing in the year or so that I've had it and figured it was time. New tubing and new air filter. It was a pain in the butt to get the stone pulled from the black tubing that MoreBeer had jammed the stone into. I actually had to get the box cutters out and cut it free. Why would they fit so tight? Well I found out. First issue, the plastic tubing is all bent to hell and I couldn't control the stone well enough to get it into the wort to oxygenate it. It would make it maybe half way down and sometimes not even that far. I was getting real frustrated trying to push it down father and farther and getting nowhere. I wasn't sure I was even oxygenating the wort at all. Then it happened. I heard a scary pop sound and the oxygen tank started making all sorts of scary noises. I stopped everything and when I pulled it out of the wort I noticed there was no O2 stone on the end of the tubing. The pressure had blown it right off the tube. This is why MoreBeer put the thing on so damn tight. Well now my O2 stone in lost in the fermenter. I'll have to get it back when I empty the beer out of it. Also, I'll need to think of a way to control the stone better once it is in the wort. This could be as simple as tie it to a steel rod of some kind and then move the rod around.
Then we get to the part I'm most proud of. I've spent the last month not making beer but engineering a way to make better beer. I really feel my ester issue is due to temp swings. So I built a super fancy temperature controller.
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So what are we looking at here? The top of the box contains three LEDs. A red for power on and two greens to indicate which solid state relay is on. You will see a nice square hole cut out of the lid and that is where a nice display modules lives that is currently being programmed. Mounted on the far side of the box is a Raspberry Pi. It has a USB WiFi device which you can see to the right. It provides a web interface that I can use to monitor the temperatures and change settings. The web page looks like this:
The green line is the beer and blue is the chest freezer temp. I wrote this code using some java script, PHP, and little CSS. C code that I wrote will then read the settings and both temperatures and make a decision about whether or not it should turn the freezer on. This code reads the temps via SPI bus that is connected to an analog to digital converter. It turns the freezer on or off using a solid state relay. I went all out on the solid state relay. Freezer compressors can draw a lot a current and I didn't want to worry too much about heat and over current issues. There is another smaller solid state relay for turning on a heating element of some kind in the future. Most of the system is powered by an AC to DC converter which is wired up to the wall power and outputs 5V. This 5V powers the Raspberry Pi and most of the supplementary components. However, it is a little too noisy for the analog to digital converter so I wired up a 9V battery to that portion of the circuit. My math says I should get 50+ days of continuous use on that 9V so it should be good enough for long lager fermentations. Below is a pic of the schematic for the electronics:
The first temp probe just sits in the chest freezer. The second is put down a thermowell. The ones at MoreBeer are too skinny and I had to get a couple from a place in LA called Brewer's Hardware. They fit perfect. I jam them into the carboy hood and it makes me smile. Here a pic of the chest freezer with a carboy full of water that I used during testing:
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This works great and I couldn't be more pleased. The screen grab of the web interface is the one for this actual beer and you can see how well controlled the temperature is. If it comes out estery, it will not be because of temperature. I really have a pro style control of the beer temps now and I can't wait to see the fruits that come to bear from this temp control box.
The last small issue I have here is how to mount the box itself. I tried magnets yesterday. I attached them to the box with a hot glue gun. They just are not strong enough. I need to figure that out for next time. For now though I duct taped it down to the top of the chest freezer lid.
There are improvements still to be made on the box. Right now it does not do warming temp control so come winter I'll need to write more code and the display needs to be programmed and installed. But right now it is functional and usable and I intend to use the crap out of it this fall.
I bought all the supplies needed for a Scottish 70 from the Bearded Brewer. It is a malty low alcohol beer. The trick is to get lots of body in the beer with few grains. It will require a very hot mash temp. So stay tuned for that.
Wednesday, August 14, 2013
More Ester Thoughts
My brain has been working a million miles an hour at this ester problem. A couple of things to note.
1. The furlough beer was underpitched. Nottingham website says about 55 billion in a packet. For 5 gallons of 1.045 beer I want something like 250 billion. So about 4.5 packets. I pitched 2 packets. I wonder if I had pitched 4 would the beer be great.
2. The realization from #1 leads to a problem. The last split batch I added one vial of WLP001 to 2.5 gallons of wort and two vials of WLP001 to a different 2.5 gallons of wort. I was adding just about as much yeast as you can into the second and it was still horribly estery. What was the difference between furlough beer and the split batch.
- The ingredients? Split batch had munich. Furlough had crystal and rye.
- The temp swings in the chest fridge? The split batches were smaller in volume and would be affected more by the temp swings. The really small (3 quart) infected test batches should then exhibit very estery taste when done.
- Yeast? Split batch had WLP001 and Furlough had Nottingham.
All things to test. Gotta go fly now.
1. The furlough beer was underpitched. Nottingham website says about 55 billion in a packet. For 5 gallons of 1.045 beer I want something like 250 billion. So about 4.5 packets. I pitched 2 packets. I wonder if I had pitched 4 would the beer be great.
2. The realization from #1 leads to a problem. The last split batch I added one vial of WLP001 to 2.5 gallons of wort and two vials of WLP001 to a different 2.5 gallons of wort. I was adding just about as much yeast as you can into the second and it was still horribly estery. What was the difference between furlough beer and the split batch.
- The ingredients? Split batch had munich. Furlough had crystal and rye.
- The temp swings in the chest fridge? The split batches were smaller in volume and would be affected more by the temp swings. The really small (3 quart) infected test batches should then exhibit very estery taste when done.
- Yeast? Split batch had WLP001 and Furlough had Nottingham.
All things to test. Gotta go fly now.
Ester Report 1
What I want in life is to make a beer like Widmer's Citra Blonde. A clean blonde beer. Unfortunately, I suck. All I have been making is ester beer. They really come through when you have a light beer. To re-cap I've tried different air locks, different temperatures, more yeast, and now clean gear. In all cases one was more/less estery than another but still they were all estery. I made furlough beer and used two packs of dry english yeast. At first I thought it was a bust after I sampled it 4 days in. But now after 10 days I would say it is drinkable. Maybe my least estery blonde yet. Could it simply be the english yeast? All the others were the Chico strain. Three days into the fermentation of clean gear beer I can say they both taste the same. I'll try again next weekend. But something tells me that they will continue to taste the same. So where do this leave us? Temperature! I really need to get going on my sexy temp controller.
Thursday, August 8, 2013
Infection?
I went to sample the furlough beer. It tasted ok, but noticed a little ester in there. Is it just green beer taste that will clear up in a few days? Maybe. But I think not. I think it will get steadily worse over the coming weeks.
All my beers for a while now are too estery/cidery. What's happening? Why? One key thing I noticed is that it gets worse the older it gets. This led me to do some thinking and I'm now guessing that the issue is an infection. Some type of acetobacter I'm guessing. They work slowly which is why as the days/weeks go by the beer get worse. I wonder if I were to add oxygen to the beer after a few weeks, would it turn into vinegar? There are a couple of ways we can test this.
1. I plan to make a small batch of beer in the kitchen on Saturday. Nothing fancy. Just some DME, water, and a little hops. Once the wort is cooled I will put it two separate 1 liter water bottles. One of these water bottles will not have any of my gear touch it. From the pot to the bottle. Shake it up to add some O2 the old fashion way, add yeast, and done. I'll use ballons with little holes poked in them as air locks. Then, add wort to another 1 liter bottle but use the funnel, O2 stone, and thief (to check gravity). Basically, all the plasticy things I normally use (except the racking cane). Then I put these in the chest freezer for a couple of weeks and sample.
2. The furlough beer will be given O2 after another week and we can see if starts to become vinegar. Of course if the furlough beer is amazing I'll drink it and not experiment with it. I check it again in a week.
My guess is the O2 stone is the culprit. I jam it in the fermenter every time and I have never completely taken it apart to clean it. All it ever gets is a rinse after use and a boil before use. The boil is only the top 3 inches as well. I'm looking to sanitize just the O2 stone itself. I've never put effort into the tubing.
If this test shows that there is an infection the plastic stuff that touches the beer after it has been cooled must be replaced.
All my beers for a while now are too estery/cidery. What's happening? Why? One key thing I noticed is that it gets worse the older it gets. This led me to do some thinking and I'm now guessing that the issue is an infection. Some type of acetobacter I'm guessing. They work slowly which is why as the days/weeks go by the beer get worse. I wonder if I were to add oxygen to the beer after a few weeks, would it turn into vinegar? There are a couple of ways we can test this.
1. I plan to make a small batch of beer in the kitchen on Saturday. Nothing fancy. Just some DME, water, and a little hops. Once the wort is cooled I will put it two separate 1 liter water bottles. One of these water bottles will not have any of my gear touch it. From the pot to the bottle. Shake it up to add some O2 the old fashion way, add yeast, and done. I'll use ballons with little holes poked in them as air locks. Then, add wort to another 1 liter bottle but use the funnel, O2 stone, and thief (to check gravity). Basically, all the plasticy things I normally use (except the racking cane). Then I put these in the chest freezer for a couple of weeks and sample.
2. The furlough beer will be given O2 after another week and we can see if starts to become vinegar. Of course if the furlough beer is amazing I'll drink it and not experiment with it. I check it again in a week.
My guess is the O2 stone is the culprit. I jam it in the fermenter every time and I have never completely taken it apart to clean it. All it ever gets is a rinse after use and a boil before use. The boil is only the top 3 inches as well. I'm looking to sanitize just the O2 stone itself. I've never put effort into the tubing.
If this test shows that there is an infection the plastic stuff that touches the beer after it has been cooled must be replaced.
Sunday, August 4, 2013
Furlough Beer
Clare says we should make a furlough beer. We are DoD employees and we are being furloughed. Ok Clare here we go. I thought I'd try a little rye. Also I think I'd like to try some dry english yeast. We are going to be sure to cool the wort down today to 65F.
Here's a breakdown of the recipe. I'd like to lower the gravity a little too, so less malt.
8 lbs 2-row
0.5 lbs Crystal 15L
0.2 lbs Rye
0.4oz Northern Brewer 10% AA @60min
0.5oz Amarillo 8.4% AA @10min
0.5oz Amarillo 8.4% AA @1min
Lallemand Nottingham 11.5g x2 - Dated 01/2015 - Lot# 1081064V
Servomyces
Whilfloc
5 gallons Ridgecrest filtered water
5 gallons distilled
4 grams gypsum
4 grams calcium chloride
1 gram epsom salt
8:44pm - So I've been at this for a few hours now and all is going ok. Currently I am mashing and should start the sparge in 15 min or so. Two things are different at this point then normal. One is that I used the grain mill cabinet that Ellie's dad made for me. It worked wonderfully. I set the mill on top, a bucket on the bottom, attached the drill, and milled away. I'm defiantly going to need to give him my thanks. Also, I boiled up some tap water for re-hydrating my yeast and it is simmering in a covered pot in the kitchen as I type. Other than that the day has been the same.
Had some problems with hitting my mash temperature today. I did myself a favor and made sure that I got the temp real close before I put the grains in. I'll never make that mistake again. Also, when I did get the grain in, the temp was a little high which is correctable. If it's too low then we normally are screwed. It's nice that I seem to be getting a process down such that even when things don't go perfect the whole brew day is not lost.
12:55am - Whew! All done. I did not cool the wort to 65F as planned. I cooled it to 68F. I just couldn't get it colder than that. I need to change my cooling method. Maybe I'll try an aquarium pump in a bucket of cold water. I don't know. But I bet this beer is as estery as any other batch. Nothing was different like I wanted. I guess we will see. Something I noticed about these blonde beers is that they are drinkable very early and the esters really kick in as the beer cleans up. So, if I really want to drink this batch I guess I could do it early.
I was thinking another way to skit this issue was to just set the fridge at a higher temp, which I have done. It is now at 67F. English yeast doesn't do well any higher in temp than that. In fact the chest freezer was much cooler than 67 more like 60F when I put the beer in. In no time at all the temp had crashed from 70Fish to 66F. So, 3 degrees in just a few minutes. I needed to warm up the freezer so I plugged in a fan and put it in the freezer with the hopes of it pushing the cold air out and pulling warmer garage air in. This worked great and I was able to warm up the fridge to 68F in about 30secs. That's when I noticed the temp strip change back to 68F. There is no way to liquid could cool that fast. This leads me to feel like the temp strip is not as accurate as I have thought. I rely in this temp strip to tell me what is going on in the beer. Maybe I need one of those thermowells.
Anyhow, the day is done. We will see what we get. I don't want to say this day was a bust but I wan unable to achieve the 65F I was looking for when cooling the wort. I think if this batch comes out too estery again I need to re-evaluate how I cool the beer and amend the process and try again. It's late. I'm going to bed.
Here's a breakdown of the recipe. I'd like to lower the gravity a little too, so less malt.
8 lbs 2-row
0.5 lbs Crystal 15L
0.2 lbs Rye
0.4oz Northern Brewer 10% AA @60min
0.5oz Amarillo 8.4% AA @10min
0.5oz Amarillo 8.4% AA @1min
Lallemand Nottingham 11.5g x2 - Dated 01/2015 - Lot# 1081064V
Servomyces
Whilfloc
5 gallons Ridgecrest filtered water
5 gallons distilled
4 grams gypsum
4 grams calcium chloride
1 gram epsom salt
8:44pm - So I've been at this for a few hours now and all is going ok. Currently I am mashing and should start the sparge in 15 min or so. Two things are different at this point then normal. One is that I used the grain mill cabinet that Ellie's dad made for me. It worked wonderfully. I set the mill on top, a bucket on the bottom, attached the drill, and milled away. I'm defiantly going to need to give him my thanks. Also, I boiled up some tap water for re-hydrating my yeast and it is simmering in a covered pot in the kitchen as I type. Other than that the day has been the same.
Had some problems with hitting my mash temperature today. I did myself a favor and made sure that I got the temp real close before I put the grains in. I'll never make that mistake again. Also, when I did get the grain in, the temp was a little high which is correctable. If it's too low then we normally are screwed. It's nice that I seem to be getting a process down such that even when things don't go perfect the whole brew day is not lost.
12:55am - Whew! All done. I did not cool the wort to 65F as planned. I cooled it to 68F. I just couldn't get it colder than that. I need to change my cooling method. Maybe I'll try an aquarium pump in a bucket of cold water. I don't know. But I bet this beer is as estery as any other batch. Nothing was different like I wanted. I guess we will see. Something I noticed about these blonde beers is that they are drinkable very early and the esters really kick in as the beer cleans up. So, if I really want to drink this batch I guess I could do it early.
I was thinking another way to skit this issue was to just set the fridge at a higher temp, which I have done. It is now at 67F. English yeast doesn't do well any higher in temp than that. In fact the chest freezer was much cooler than 67 more like 60F when I put the beer in. In no time at all the temp had crashed from 70Fish to 66F. So, 3 degrees in just a few minutes. I needed to warm up the freezer so I plugged in a fan and put it in the freezer with the hopes of it pushing the cold air out and pulling warmer garage air in. This worked great and I was able to warm up the fridge to 68F in about 30secs. That's when I noticed the temp strip change back to 68F. There is no way to liquid could cool that fast. This leads me to feel like the temp strip is not as accurate as I have thought. I rely in this temp strip to tell me what is going on in the beer. Maybe I need one of those thermowells.
Anyhow, the day is done. We will see what we get. I don't want to say this day was a bust but I wan unable to achieve the 65F I was looking for when cooling the wort. I think if this batch comes out too estery again I need to re-evaluate how I cool the beer and amend the process and try again. It's late. I'm going to bed.
Saturday, August 3, 2013
Split Batch Results
So after three weeks I sampled the split batch and two things were noted. First, the beer with more yeast was less estery. Second, both beers were still horribly estery. So, I've learned what things I can do to get less esters but I still have an ester problem in my brewery. What am I doing to cause this problem? It will be a fun adventure to figure it out. Who knows. Maybe I will never figure it out and my career as an amateur brewer is over. But I'm not ready to throw in the towel yet!
Possible issues:
1. I think I need to keep the wort cool before I pitch. I usually get impatient and cool the wort only to 72ish, pitch the yeast, and then cool to 65ish in the chest freezer. Maybe this drop in temp pisses off the yeast. So next brew I think I will cool the wort more before I pitch.
2. The chest freezer is currently set at +-3F. I always thought this was sufficient since the beer is a large thermal mass and would not fluctuate all that much. Also, this will keep the compressor from cycling on and off like a boss. Perhaps this is causing the beer temp to fluctuate too much. Once I get the temp controller working I will be able to gather data about this issue.
3. Equipment issues. Maybe the stuff that measures the temperatures is broke. Maybe the O2 stone is broke. Maybe some other equipment is to blame. I'm going to try #1 and #2 before I start thinking about this.
Wish me luck.
Possible issues:
1. I think I need to keep the wort cool before I pitch. I usually get impatient and cool the wort only to 72ish, pitch the yeast, and then cool to 65ish in the chest freezer. Maybe this drop in temp pisses off the yeast. So next brew I think I will cool the wort more before I pitch.
2. The chest freezer is currently set at +-3F. I always thought this was sufficient since the beer is a large thermal mass and would not fluctuate all that much. Also, this will keep the compressor from cycling on and off like a boss. Perhaps this is causing the beer temp to fluctuate too much. Once I get the temp controller working I will be able to gather data about this issue.
3. Equipment issues. Maybe the stuff that measures the temperatures is broke. Maybe the O2 stone is broke. Maybe some other equipment is to blame. I'm going to try #1 and #2 before I start thinking about this.
Wish me luck.
Sunday, July 7, 2013
Pitching Rate Split Batch
So while the Helles came out good it grew fruity over time. I think that's because as it cleaned up the esters became easier to detect. I have no homebrew club here so I get feedback when I can. I think I should enter some competitions to simply to get feedback from the judges. I'll look into that. Anyway I digress. I went to The Bearded Brewer in Quartz Hill to get grain and I brought the Helles for feedback. He went to all kinds of beer school. The degrees are on the wall when you walk in. He agreed with the ester character and it got me thinking about how I can change my process to get rid of that flaw. One thing I think I'm going to need is to pitch more yeast. So that's what this split batch will be today. We will make EKA IV and split the batch into two fermenters. In one we will pitch one vial of WLP001 and the other we will pitch two vials of WLP001.
BTW, that guy at The Bearded Brewer is super cool. I've been to some shops where the workers are assholes. This is nicest guy to ever own a brew shop. I think he was a carpenter in his previous life and it shows in the shop. Beautiful hardwood floors. Plus he has a sweet beard. He looks like a lost child of one of the ZZ Top boys.
The recipe and water is going to be that same as EKA IV. I won't bother to capture it here. The only difference is the yeast.
WLP001 x1 and x2 - Date = 10-10-13 - Lot number = PSICEL-44-2
Ok. All done for the day. It was a very ho hum brew day. I brewed by myself. The OG is 1.052. Ellie is with her sister in LA. I think Claresta is in LA too. I didn't invite Kevin or Pooley because I'm trying to drink a little less.
One small thing that did come up was that I remembered that there is no way I'm going to fit two fermenters in the current chest freezer. As luck would have it, a new chest freezer was sitting in the garage so I pulled it out of its box and it now houses the two fermenters. I also put on my other sticky from Christmas a while back. Here's some pics:
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BTW, that guy at The Bearded Brewer is super cool. I've been to some shops where the workers are assholes. This is nicest guy to ever own a brew shop. I think he was a carpenter in his previous life and it shows in the shop. Beautiful hardwood floors. Plus he has a sweet beard. He looks like a lost child of one of the ZZ Top boys.
The recipe and water is going to be that same as EKA IV. I won't bother to capture it here. The only difference is the yeast.
WLP001 x1 and x2 - Date = 10-10-13 - Lot number = PSICEL-44-2
Ok. All done for the day. It was a very ho hum brew day. I brewed by myself. The OG is 1.052. Ellie is with her sister in LA. I think Claresta is in LA too. I didn't invite Kevin or Pooley because I'm trying to drink a little less.
One small thing that did come up was that I remembered that there is no way I'm going to fit two fermenters in the current chest freezer. As luck would have it, a new chest freezer was sitting in the garage so I pulled it out of its box and it now houses the two fermenters. I also put on my other sticky from Christmas a while back. Here's some pics:
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Sunday, June 9, 2013
Helles II update
Tried the Helles a couple of days ago. It's good. The fermentation went really well. I fermented at 52-50F for almost three weeks. Then I raised the temp to 60F for a diacetyl rest for two days. Then I transferred it to a keg to lager it.
I've read two methods for lagering. The first says to get it to around 34-33F and the other says to get it -10F from fermentation. The last time I made the Helles I lagered it at 33F. This time I went with the -10F method. I don't really think it matters.
Let me just say that the Mexican Lager yeast is super clean. Just like I remember at White Labs. It gave off a sulfur odor during fermentation just like the WLP830 did but there is no DMS in the final product. The Helles from last year had a sulfur type quality to it when I began to lager it and it went away slowly as it lagered. It took a month before it was almost undetectable. I could detect it because once I got a mouthful of that the first time it seemed like I was hypersensitive to it. Which leads me to a flaw detection theory that I will get to in a sec here. The Mexican yeast produced a lager that was drinkable right after the three weeks were over. In fact I can hardly tell a difference between it now and when I kegged it.
The beer itself came out around 6.2% ABV (finished at 1.011) which is a little high for a Helles. I will shoot for 4.5% in the future. It's not bitter. Maybe a little too sweet. Although I'm not sure if that is a perceived sweetness due to the amount of alcohol. It has a nice malty character to it. It has almost no hop smell. But the most interesting part of this beer is the character the Noble hop added to the brew. I don't think I was supposed to have a large bitter addition of Hallertau Mittelfruh. I think it supposed to be added to a 4.5% beer. When we add enough for a 6.2% beer then we get a real floral, citrusy, almost tart character. Because I added too much it will be easy now for me to identify Hallertau Mittelfruh when I encounter it in the future. Which leads me to this next little bit of personal tidbit...
It seems to me that when I want to learn what something in the beverage smells/tastes like what I need to do is have some over-exposure to it. Once that happens, I then become sensitive to it. Now I am sure I can detect Hallertau Mittelfruh again when used in beer at reasonable levels. Because of my last Helles, I can detect even minuet amounts of DMS. Because I made that danky red a while back, I know what oak is going to taste like even in small amounts.
Ok. Gotta go. Claresta came with her boy and gave me beer. It's nap time now.
I've read two methods for lagering. The first says to get it to around 34-33F and the other says to get it -10F from fermentation. The last time I made the Helles I lagered it at 33F. This time I went with the -10F method. I don't really think it matters.
Let me just say that the Mexican Lager yeast is super clean. Just like I remember at White Labs. It gave off a sulfur odor during fermentation just like the WLP830 did but there is no DMS in the final product. The Helles from last year had a sulfur type quality to it when I began to lager it and it went away slowly as it lagered. It took a month before it was almost undetectable. I could detect it because once I got a mouthful of that the first time it seemed like I was hypersensitive to it. Which leads me to a flaw detection theory that I will get to in a sec here. The Mexican yeast produced a lager that was drinkable right after the three weeks were over. In fact I can hardly tell a difference between it now and when I kegged it.
The beer itself came out around 6.2% ABV (finished at 1.011) which is a little high for a Helles. I will shoot for 4.5% in the future. It's not bitter. Maybe a little too sweet. Although I'm not sure if that is a perceived sweetness due to the amount of alcohol. It has a nice malty character to it. It has almost no hop smell. But the most interesting part of this beer is the character the Noble hop added to the brew. I don't think I was supposed to have a large bitter addition of Hallertau Mittelfruh. I think it supposed to be added to a 4.5% beer. When we add enough for a 6.2% beer then we get a real floral, citrusy, almost tart character. Because I added too much it will be easy now for me to identify Hallertau Mittelfruh when I encounter it in the future. Which leads me to this next little bit of personal tidbit...
It seems to me that when I want to learn what something in the beverage smells/tastes like what I need to do is have some over-exposure to it. Once that happens, I then become sensitive to it. Now I am sure I can detect Hallertau Mittelfruh again when used in beer at reasonable levels. Because of my last Helles, I can detect even minuet amounts of DMS. Because I made that danky red a while back, I know what oak is going to taste like even in small amounts.
Ok. Gotta go. Claresta came with her boy and gave me beer. It's nap time now.
Sunday, May 12, 2013
Helles II
My first lager was a helles and I loved it. For some reason around this time every year I get a hankering for an all malt clean lager. So I thought we would give it another go. This time with Mexican Lager yeast. I was able to try this yeast at White Labs when I visited their place and I really like it.
Recipe:
10 lbs pilsner
1 lb munich
1.5 oz Hallertau Mittelfruh
WLP940 - Mexican Lager x2 with starter - Lot Number CHI887-88-89-90 - Date June 20, 2013
Whirlfloc
Servomyces
50% ridgecrest water
50% distilled
3 grams gypsum
3 gram calcium chloride
1 gram epsom salt
3 gram canning salt
Water break down:
It is Sunday. I made a starter Friday night. This is the longest I've let a starter go. We'll see if it makes a difference. I hope to mash at 150F. I hope to get a gravity of 1.050.
Also got a new fun thing to try today. FermCapS. It should keep the wort from foaming over. 3 drops per gallon. So if I have 6 gallons of wort that it is 18 or so drops. I measured this to be about what the eye dropper holds.
11:04 - I've measured out the brewing salts.
11:59 - We have doughed int. Did I mention Ellie was with me today? She helped clean the hopper from the mill and stir up the mash. Doughed in high on purpose. Enough of this undershoot crap. We were about 10F higher than I wanted. So I just got some cool water and poured it in a little at a time as she stirred. We got it to about 151F. I'll call that a victory.
Also did I mention we got great news on Friday. Ellie had her 1 year CT scan. It was actually day 422 since the procedure and it came up clean. We are so happy it hurts!
1:04 - All is going well. I just finished sparging. Final running OG was 1.032. I batch sparged. Preboil gravity is 1.042. I heated up water to about 190F and added one and a half gallons, stirred it up and ran it off. Then I added 4 gallons of 175F water stirred it up, left it for 5 mins, and ran it off. I vorloufed each of those runnings.
1:15 - All the wort in the kettle and we are heating it up. I added 18 drops of FermCap. Let's see if it works.
2:28 - Everything is really ho-hum right now. All is going well. No issues. Got about 30 mins left in the boil. I thought I'd boil for 90mins today to drive off as much sulfur from the pilsner as possible. The FermCap worked really well. There was still a little hot break but not enough to create a boil over. Will use it every time now.
I added the hops 60min from flameout and gave Ellie a sample. She is not a hop fan but I thought she might like to try one of the noble hops. It is not as bitter and mean as the ones we typically use. It's very pleasant and as I type this it is filling the air with the wonderful aroma. She found it agreeable. So that was cool. I've found lots of time to clean stuff. Cleaned two kegs, the chest fridge, and the mash tun.
I think Rachel will be by after work to pick up the spent grain for Nat's family.
3:55 - Again a boring day so far. Ellie just helped me cool the wort to 65F. I will let it set for 10 min for the cold break to settle to the bottom. Probably only get 2F more in cooling. I've put the yeast in the chest freezer which is now set to 50F to cool it a little from 75F or so room temp that the starter was at to something closer to the 50F I plan to ferment at. The idea is that I get the wort to 63F and the starter is about that as well when I pitch. Then into the chest freezer which is at 50F and hopefully the thermal mass of the wort/beer will be such that it cools slowly.
4:05 - I just sampled the wort. The hydrometer says 1.060. Way higher than the 1.050 I was after. It will be a little sweet and boozy. I guess that's good if you want to get laid. The sample tasted REALLY good. I can't wait to drink this beer. I'm sad I have to wait 6+ weeks to do it.
5:30 - All done. The only hiccup was that the rubber stopper doesn't fit into the glass carboy. Need a smaller stopper. No problem. Just used the top I use for a blow off and set myself up as though I was expecting a blow off. Going to kiss the wife!!!
Recipe:
10 lbs pilsner
1 lb munich
1.5 oz Hallertau Mittelfruh
WLP940 - Mexican Lager x2 with starter - Lot Number CHI887-88-89-90 - Date June 20, 2013
Whirlfloc
Servomyces
50% ridgecrest water
50% distilled
3 grams gypsum
3 gram calcium chloride
1 gram epsom salt
3 gram canning salt
Water break down:
It is Sunday. I made a starter Friday night. This is the longest I've let a starter go. We'll see if it makes a difference. I hope to mash at 150F. I hope to get a gravity of 1.050.
Also got a new fun thing to try today. FermCapS. It should keep the wort from foaming over. 3 drops per gallon. So if I have 6 gallons of wort that it is 18 or so drops. I measured this to be about what the eye dropper holds.
11:04 - I've measured out the brewing salts.
11:59 - We have doughed int. Did I mention Ellie was with me today? She helped clean the hopper from the mill and stir up the mash. Doughed in high on purpose. Enough of this undershoot crap. We were about 10F higher than I wanted. So I just got some cool water and poured it in a little at a time as she stirred. We got it to about 151F. I'll call that a victory.
Also did I mention we got great news on Friday. Ellie had her 1 year CT scan. It was actually day 422 since the procedure and it came up clean. We are so happy it hurts!
1:04 - All is going well. I just finished sparging. Final running OG was 1.032. I batch sparged. Preboil gravity is 1.042. I heated up water to about 190F and added one and a half gallons, stirred it up and ran it off. Then I added 4 gallons of 175F water stirred it up, left it for 5 mins, and ran it off. I vorloufed each of those runnings.
1:15 - All the wort in the kettle and we are heating it up. I added 18 drops of FermCap. Let's see if it works.
2:28 - Everything is really ho-hum right now. All is going well. No issues. Got about 30 mins left in the boil. I thought I'd boil for 90mins today to drive off as much sulfur from the pilsner as possible. The FermCap worked really well. There was still a little hot break but not enough to create a boil over. Will use it every time now.
I added the hops 60min from flameout and gave Ellie a sample. She is not a hop fan but I thought she might like to try one of the noble hops. It is not as bitter and mean as the ones we typically use. It's very pleasant and as I type this it is filling the air with the wonderful aroma. She found it agreeable. So that was cool. I've found lots of time to clean stuff. Cleaned two kegs, the chest fridge, and the mash tun.
I think Rachel will be by after work to pick up the spent grain for Nat's family.
3:55 - Again a boring day so far. Ellie just helped me cool the wort to 65F. I will let it set for 10 min for the cold break to settle to the bottom. Probably only get 2F more in cooling. I've put the yeast in the chest freezer which is now set to 50F to cool it a little from 75F or so room temp that the starter was at to something closer to the 50F I plan to ferment at. The idea is that I get the wort to 63F and the starter is about that as well when I pitch. Then into the chest freezer which is at 50F and hopefully the thermal mass of the wort/beer will be such that it cools slowly.
4:05 - I just sampled the wort. The hydrometer says 1.060. Way higher than the 1.050 I was after. It will be a little sweet and boozy. I guess that's good if you want to get laid. The sample tasted REALLY good. I can't wait to drink this beer. I'm sad I have to wait 6+ weeks to do it.
5:30 - All done. The only hiccup was that the rubber stopper doesn't fit into the glass carboy. Need a smaller stopper. No problem. Just used the top I use for a blow off and set myself up as though I was expecting a blow off. Going to kiss the wife!!!
Split Batch Air Lock Results
So the results of the split batch were definitive. The batch with the silicon air lock created a much more estery beer. It tasted like a fruit bomb. To me it tasted like an apple cider mixed with beer. Some of the girls really liked it. The batch with the traditional bubble air lock came out way less estery. Ellie found that she liked the two to be mixed so I pour her half of one and half of another when she was up to drinking some.
I like clean beer so I think I will switch to a low or zero pressure head space method during fermentation in the future. Maybe it's time to try brewing in a open container????
I like clean beer so I think I will switch to a low or zero pressure head space method during fermentation in the future. Maybe it's time to try brewing in a open container????
Saturday, March 16, 2013
EKA IV
Today I plan to do a split batch and have one fermenter with the silicon cap and the other with an air lock. I have a theory that the silicon cap is putting CO2 pressure on the beer and it is stressing the yeast. We will make EKA with a little less base grain.
9 lbs 2-row
1 lb Munich
0.5 lb Wheat
0.4oz Magnum 10.6 AA
WLP001 x2 - Jun-27-13, Lot PTI44-13
Servomyces
Whilfloc
5 gallons Ridgecrest filtered water
5 gallons distilled
4 grams gypsum
4 grams calcium chloride
1 gram epsom salt
1:06pm - Well into the brew day now. We are mashing now. Everything has gone smoothly. I've invited Kevin. He may get here later. It's a warm day for this time of year. It's nice. I've set up the gate so that snickers can hang with me. She seems to be happy.
Mashing at 150F. I hit a little high. Just added some room temp water. No problem.
Kevin came over. He brought Bud Black. That new Amber from the kit. It was good.
Ok. To sum up. Made a couple of mistakes. First I forgot to prepare the dry yeast for the beer. So as the beer was cooling I scrambled to get water boiled up with the mason jar. I did that and then got in it in the freezer to cool a little. Then I figured it would be better to throw it in the pre-chiller. This will be a good idea in the future. But, then I forgot to nicely warm up the dry yeast. So I fetch it from the fridge and put it under my arm pit to warm it up. This can't be good but I figure let's roll with it. After I get the water to 100F and put the yeast in I remember that I bought WLP001 from the bearded brewer.
So now I've got cold yeast in the fridge, and rehydrated yeast that I don't know what to do with. So I get the WLP001 from the fridge (two vials, one for each fermemter) and try to warm them up. In the meantime I am cooling wort with Kevin. I get the bright idea to use the dry yeast for mead. So I get Ellie to warm up the honey and put it in one of the one gallon fermenters. She didn't mix it so I had ot do that for her. After that she pitched the yeast and I told her to put in an orange and some raisins which she did. We'll see how mead that hasn't had any heat treatment at all turns out. I did sanitize the fermenter and the funnel.
So now the day is done. Aside from the yeast screw up, all went well. The two fermenters are chilling in the bathtub. It is a little warm for this time of year so it might be a challenge to keep it cool. The mead is there too. I think I may open the bathroom window at night and close it during the day.
9 lbs 2-row
1 lb Munich
0.5 lb Wheat
0.4oz Magnum 10.6 AA
WLP001 x2 - Jun-27-13, Lot PTI44-13
Servomyces
Whilfloc
5 gallons Ridgecrest filtered water
5 gallons distilled
4 grams gypsum
4 grams calcium chloride
1 gram epsom salt
1:06pm - Well into the brew day now. We are mashing now. Everything has gone smoothly. I've invited Kevin. He may get here later. It's a warm day for this time of year. It's nice. I've set up the gate so that snickers can hang with me. She seems to be happy.
Mashing at 150F. I hit a little high. Just added some room temp water. No problem.
Kevin came over. He brought Bud Black. That new Amber from the kit. It was good.
Ok. To sum up. Made a couple of mistakes. First I forgot to prepare the dry yeast for the beer. So as the beer was cooling I scrambled to get water boiled up with the mason jar. I did that and then got in it in the freezer to cool a little. Then I figured it would be better to throw it in the pre-chiller. This will be a good idea in the future. But, then I forgot to nicely warm up the dry yeast. So I fetch it from the fridge and put it under my arm pit to warm it up. This can't be good but I figure let's roll with it. After I get the water to 100F and put the yeast in I remember that I bought WLP001 from the bearded brewer.
So now I've got cold yeast in the fridge, and rehydrated yeast that I don't know what to do with. So I get the WLP001 from the fridge (two vials, one for each fermemter) and try to warm them up. In the meantime I am cooling wort with Kevin. I get the bright idea to use the dry yeast for mead. So I get Ellie to warm up the honey and put it in one of the one gallon fermenters. She didn't mix it so I had ot do that for her. After that she pitched the yeast and I told her to put in an orange and some raisins which she did. We'll see how mead that hasn't had any heat treatment at all turns out. I did sanitize the fermenter and the funnel.
So now the day is done. Aside from the yeast screw up, all went well. The two fermenters are chilling in the bathtub. It is a little warm for this time of year so it might be a challenge to keep it cool. The mead is there too. I think I may open the bathroom window at night and close it during the day.
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
EKA III Update
Getting real close on the EKA to what I want. The last batch ended at 1.007 which was one of the lowest it has been. I like it a little dry. The new usage of dry yeast I think is going to be a permanent stay. I will say that I think the ferment ended up with less esters but they are still there. At this point they are mild and almost pleasant but it irks me that it shouldn't be there at all.
During a trip to Big Bear with the wife we listened to The Brewing Network and on some random day back on 2009 a caller called into the show and shared how his beer suffered from strange ferments when he used the silicon stopper. I have been using the silicon stopper for months now. Simply because I'm too lazy to be bothered with filling the air lock every couple of days or whatever. Anyhow I guess the pressure builds up in the head space and angers the yeast. I can confirm that a fair bit of pressure does build up. I think it is time for another split batch with nothing different other than a stopper vs. airlock. My hope is the reason for the esters is that I've been stressing the yeast under too much pressure.
During a trip to Big Bear with the wife we listened to The Brewing Network and on some random day back on 2009 a caller called into the show and shared how his beer suffered from strange ferments when he used the silicon stopper. I have been using the silicon stopper for months now. Simply because I'm too lazy to be bothered with filling the air lock every couple of days or whatever. Anyhow I guess the pressure builds up in the head space and angers the yeast. I can confirm that a fair bit of pressure does build up. I think it is time for another split batch with nothing different other than a stopper vs. airlock. My hope is the reason for the esters is that I've been stressing the yeast under too much pressure.
Sunday, February 17, 2013
Redish Beer
So I saw some email traffic about the homebrewing locals getting together again. Red beer was the one we will muster up with. So I tried to make one. It turned out a little more brown/amber then red. Here's the breakdown:
12lbs 2row
8oz munich
8oz rye
1lb flaked wheat
1lb Crystal 75L
2oz Black roasted barley
.75oz Northern Brewer @60mins
1oz Columbus @1min
2oz Columbus dry hop
WLP028 Edinburgh x2 - Apr-12-13 - Lot CCB755-762
whirlfloc
servomyces
French Oak chips which will be added after primary fermentation for 7-10 days. I'll add it the last week in the fermenter before I transfer to the keg.
Water breakdown:
All that was left at that point was to cleanup. Next time I brew I will brew with the brown dog. She sneaked out of the house and into the garage for a minute to hang with mom, dad, and me. It was nice to see her there. At least this time our brewing adventures did not necessitate a major cleanup of the garage like last time.
12lbs 2row
8oz munich
8oz rye
1lb flaked wheat
1lb Crystal 75L
2oz Black roasted barley
.75oz Northern Brewer @60mins
1oz Columbus @1min
2oz Columbus dry hop
WLP028 Edinburgh x2 - Apr-12-13 - Lot CCB755-762
whirlfloc
servomyces
French Oak chips which will be added after primary fermentation for 7-10 days. I'll add it the last week in the fermenter before I transfer to the keg.
Water breakdown:
Let me start by saying I was trying to make a beer I saw on MoreBeer that looked interesting. They called it Fire in the Hole.I would have bought the Fire in the Hole kit but they were unavailable. So I thought I'd just by the ingredients myself separately and I quickly learned why the kit was unavailable. The recipe called for Carafa II which they were out of. This is key since it adds the color to the beer without the acrid/roasty/coffee type flavors. I think this is because they remove the husks. Since I couldn't find it I substituted in the black roasted barley. Also, they didn't have any Magnum hops that the recipe call for in bittering. I've still got some Northern Brewer in the freezer so this wasn't a problem.
Dad was coming over to brew with me. Before he got there I measured out the hops and the brewing salts and got the water ready. Got the O2 stone boiled. Got the mash tun together.
In some sort of bizzaro type brew day from the last time, we had a hell of a tough brew day initially, then things got smooth and boring. It started with me adding the brewing salts to the brew water. It then looked very cloudy and the chalk settled on the bottom. Afterwards I do some google fu and learned that you don't add chalk to the brew water, you add it to the mash because it needs the low pH to actually dissolve. So there was that screw up.
Then I thought it would be cool to show dad the grain mill. I get the grains in the hopper and the drill hooked up and start milling and something happened that never happened before. As soon as I started the drill, the mill flew off the bucket and emptied the hopper full of grains onto the garage floor. Half of this ended up under the dryer. So dad lifted the dryer and I did my best to gather up all the grain from the garage floor. So now the grain is a nice mix of rye, barley, and lint/dirt/bugs/whatever from the garage floor. This might sound gross but it's really not a big deal since the mash will filter almost all of that out and even if something does get through it will be boiled for an hour so life goes on. But still what a pain in the ass.
I've lost that cool key used to tighten and loosen drill bits from the drill. So I tighten it but turning on the drill and letting it torque down onto the mill and tighten up. We ran all the grain through the mill and then focused on the strike water. I'll get back to that screw up. So now it comes to getting the drill off of the mill and I can't seem to do it with a pair of pilers and my strong as an ox dad grabs the neck that tightens/loosens the bit and turns the drill on. I'm sure it will break his wrist but instead it just burns up the AC motor on the drill and we end up with a lovely electrical burned smell in the garage for a few minutes.
So we get the strike water into the mash tun and I swear we hit the 168F we wanted. So I go to take the mill off of the bucket and I look at the grain. What do I see? Not a single grain has been crushed. That's right kiddies, if you run the mill in reverse the grains will get shifted to the sides of the rollers and pass through the mill completely uncrushed. So now I've to get the smelly drill back out and get it attached to the mill but I can't since when dad ran the thing in reverse the open the drill bit he jammed it. So, I have to get him to do the same thing he did to burn up the drill the first time only this time in reverse. After we get through that, I mill the grain in the correct direction and all is well. It now made sense to me why the mill jumped off the bucket the first time. When it spin in the wrong direction the force torques the mill off the bucket. When done right, it would torque down onto the bucket and spillage. So we do a better job getting the drill off the mill when done. All we needed was a little practice I guess.
Ok so now we get the grain in the mash tun and the temp is 148F. Too low. And why should it go right? Nothing has yet anyway. So we pull out some grain and boil it up and add it back into the mash to raise the temp. I got about +2F. Then I pulled out about three times as much grain as I did the first go around and boiled it and added it back. At that point I was at 156F and we left it.
So at this point things start to go smoother. It's like we exercised all of the bad brewing demons in that first hour or so. We heated up the sparge water and did a batch sparge. We got about 7 gallons and the pre-boil gravity was 1.048. We boiled for an hour and during the last minute I added the columbus hops. This is my first time with these hops and as soon as I opened it smelled it I was floored. I've been used a lot of citrusy type hops lately (cascade, amarillo, citra). I found this hop to be pungent, dank, and earthy. Very interesting odor.
Then we set our minds to cooling the wort and it took about 45 mins to cool. I had dad stirring the wort while I stirred the prechiller. That led us to about 2:30ish and mom was hungry and took him away. I left the wort for a few minutes for the cold break to settle. Then I racked it over and hit it with O2 for a minute and pitched the yeast. It now sits in the chest freezer. The OG is 1.062.
All that was left at that point was to cleanup. Next time I brew I will brew with the brown dog. She sneaked out of the house and into the garage for a minute to hang with mom, dad, and me. It was nice to see her there. At least this time our brewing adventures did not necessitate a major cleanup of the garage like last time.
Saturday, February 9, 2013
Elf King Ale III
Just ran out of the Zythos IPA. Time to make more beer. If you really want to be a good brewer, brew the same beer 5 times I've heard. This will be the fourth of this blonde ale. Well I guess 6th if you count the two Spike Ales. Anyhow, of note this time around I will not have a flavour/aroma hop addition and I'm using dry yeast. Also this is the first blonde ale I will use water I have built. Here's the breakdown:
10 lbs 2-row
1 lb Munich
0.5 lb Wheat
0.5oz Northern Brewer 10.6 AA
Safale US-05 11.5g - Dated 06/13 - Lot# 72202 179 1535
Servomyces
Whilfloc
5 gallons Ridgecrest filtered water
5 gallons distilled
4 grams gypsum
4 grams calcium chloride
1 gram epsom salt
10:15 - I've already measured out the hops and brewing salts. I've also boiled water for the yeast to re-hydrate in. That water is now cooling in a mason jar that I boiled with the water. I used tap water. I am now boiling the O2 stone in distilled water. It's the best way to sanitize since it is hard for the sanitization solution to get into the pores. Once I get done boiling I usually just put it right into sanitization solution and leave it until I'm ready to use it.
11:20 - Moving along well. The strike water is now heating up. I've tasted the water and it is good. Here's a screen grab of what the water chem came to.
Mash tun is ready to go. Grains have been crushed. Ellie was here to see the mill and I think she thought is was cool. I seem to have lost my drill key. Got to go to Home Depot and get a replacement. Also, I need to got on with cleaning some stuff. It seems in my drunken stupor last brew session I didn't clean the gear as good as I should have.
11:55 - Just doughed in. Wanted to hit 150F. Looks like I did. Also looks like the pH came in around 5.2 on its own so no 5.2 will be used. Got the brew kettle soaking along with some hoses. I think I'll leave it for another 30mins or so.
12:50 - Heating up the sparge water. Went inside for bit to hang with Ellie. That was nice. Then I came out and cleaned some stuff. In a minute I'll begin the sparge. So far all is well.
1:39 - Sparge done. Now heating up the wort. On a whim I decided to do more of a continuous sparge today. I heated up the sparge water to 190F and then put 1+ gallons in and stirred up the mash. Then I did the vorlouf and started the first runnings. I don't know why but 10mins or so later I slowly put more water in the mash tun. And then I was like, screw it, let's do this. I got a very good extraction of sugar. The gravity of the last of the runnings was 1.015, the lowest I've ever had. The pre-boil gravity was 1.040. I should hit 1.050 no problem. Also, I tasted the grain and it was the least sweet it's ever been. Go team Avery!
2:06 - The 60min count down has begun. All is going well. Just added the hops.
4:03 - Man the wheels fell off quick. I got the pump circulating the wort and the hose flung out and started pumping hot wort all over the garage. So, it's going to take a long time to clean the garage. Then things just got worse. I tried to use dry yeast. So I warmed the water in the majon jar by putting it in the stove until it was 100F. Then I added the yeast. I left it for a while then went to swirl it around and it spilled everywhere. Since I spilled a crap ton of beer on the floor there was not enough in the fermenter. And then I smashed my finger when putting the propane tank back and it hurt like hell. Then after I moved the fermenter to the bathroom to ferment I realize I forgot to put the yeast in. Now I remember I forgot to take a gravity reading. I'm in a bad mood. I've got to get to cleaning now.
5:16 - Ok. Measured OG was 1.052. Done cleaning. In addition to the usual cleaning process I hosed and mopped the floor. I hope I got all the sticky. Time will tell. Also, my shoes got real sticky. I hosed them off too. I hope the beer is ok. From all the crap of me touching the brew as it was cooling I hope I won't get an infection. If we do I guess it would be kind of fun. We can have a new party game to see who can drink the awful beer the fastest or something like that.
Avery out!
10 lbs 2-row
1 lb Munich
0.5 lb Wheat
0.5oz Northern Brewer 10.6 AA
Safale US-05 11.5g - Dated 06/13 - Lot# 72202 179 1535
Servomyces
Whilfloc
5 gallons Ridgecrest filtered water
5 gallons distilled
4 grams gypsum
4 grams calcium chloride
1 gram epsom salt
10:15 - I've already measured out the hops and brewing salts. I've also boiled water for the yeast to re-hydrate in. That water is now cooling in a mason jar that I boiled with the water. I used tap water. I am now boiling the O2 stone in distilled water. It's the best way to sanitize since it is hard for the sanitization solution to get into the pores. Once I get done boiling I usually just put it right into sanitization solution and leave it until I'm ready to use it.
11:20 - Moving along well. The strike water is now heating up. I've tasted the water and it is good. Here's a screen grab of what the water chem came to.
11:55 - Just doughed in. Wanted to hit 150F. Looks like I did. Also looks like the pH came in around 5.2 on its own so no 5.2 will be used. Got the brew kettle soaking along with some hoses. I think I'll leave it for another 30mins or so.
12:50 - Heating up the sparge water. Went inside for bit to hang with Ellie. That was nice. Then I came out and cleaned some stuff. In a minute I'll begin the sparge. So far all is well.
1:39 - Sparge done. Now heating up the wort. On a whim I decided to do more of a continuous sparge today. I heated up the sparge water to 190F and then put 1+ gallons in and stirred up the mash. Then I did the vorlouf and started the first runnings. I don't know why but 10mins or so later I slowly put more water in the mash tun. And then I was like, screw it, let's do this. I got a very good extraction of sugar. The gravity of the last of the runnings was 1.015, the lowest I've ever had. The pre-boil gravity was 1.040. I should hit 1.050 no problem. Also, I tasted the grain and it was the least sweet it's ever been. Go team Avery!
2:06 - The 60min count down has begun. All is going well. Just added the hops.
4:03 - Man the wheels fell off quick. I got the pump circulating the wort and the hose flung out and started pumping hot wort all over the garage. So, it's going to take a long time to clean the garage. Then things just got worse. I tried to use dry yeast. So I warmed the water in the majon jar by putting it in the stove until it was 100F. Then I added the yeast. I left it for a while then went to swirl it around and it spilled everywhere. Since I spilled a crap ton of beer on the floor there was not enough in the fermenter. And then I smashed my finger when putting the propane tank back and it hurt like hell. Then after I moved the fermenter to the bathroom to ferment I realize I forgot to put the yeast in. Now I remember I forgot to take a gravity reading. I'm in a bad mood. I've got to get to cleaning now.
5:16 - Ok. Measured OG was 1.052. Done cleaning. In addition to the usual cleaning process I hosed and mopped the floor. I hope I got all the sticky. Time will tell. Also, my shoes got real sticky. I hosed them off too. I hope the beer is ok. From all the crap of me touching the brew as it was cooling I hope I won't get an infection. If we do I guess it would be kind of fun. We can have a new party game to see who can drink the awful beer the fastest or something like that.
Avery out!
Sunday, January 20, 2013
Zythos Tasting Notes
Kegged the Zythos on Tuesday. The idea was that on Thursday the poker boys would be over and I could use them as taste testers. On Wednesday Ellie and I tried it and it was good. A little too bitter but it had a malty profile and a great mouthfeel. I think I have nailed the water issue for IPAs.
This beer was fermented cold. I put it in the spare bathroom and left the window open. It fermented at around 62F and after a couple of weeks the OG was 1.020. I thought I could get it a little lower so I swirled the yeast back into suspension and moved the fermenter inside the house to warm up a little. After another four/five days is dropped to 1.015. It was dry hopped for 5 days. I think it could do with a little more dry hopping. Ellie suggested halving the beer into one of the kegs and adding some more hops. That's a good idea!
So, the poker boys drank the beer and it got them drunk. I can't think of anytime in poker history where we got that drunk that fast. It was bad enough that we had a hard time playing poker. The consensus was that the beer was good. I agree. It is.
This beer was fermented cold. I put it in the spare bathroom and left the window open. It fermented at around 62F and after a couple of weeks the OG was 1.020. I thought I could get it a little lower so I swirled the yeast back into suspension and moved the fermenter inside the house to warm up a little. After another four/five days is dropped to 1.015. It was dry hopped for 5 days. I think it could do with a little more dry hopping. Ellie suggested halving the beer into one of the kegs and adding some more hops. That's a good idea!
So, the poker boys drank the beer and it got them drunk. I can't think of anytime in poker history where we got that drunk that fast. It was bad enough that we had a hard time playing poker. The consensus was that the beer was good. I agree. It is.
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Kegged Cider Still Ferments
So my hope was that the kegged cider would no longer ferment in the cold temp of the chest freezer. I set the temp to 42F (pretty cold for ales). And for the first week the cider was a little sweet. The second week it hit a sweet spot and tasted great. I thought this was due to aging. But as it turns out, the yeast continued to ferment the added apple juice. Very slowly. Now it has almost completely dried out and has a tart character to it.
The lesson here is that cold yeast will still ferment just very slowly. All of them will not floc out due to coldness, nor will all of them go dormant.
The lesson here is that cold yeast will still ferment just very slowly. All of them will not floc out due to coldness, nor will all of them go dormant.
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