1st Post, keg conditioning with Gyle
 

Hello all!! I just came across this site and am exctied to start shareing and learning with you!
Can anyone share there keg conditioning with gyle experience with me. I have use this methond 3 times based on the equation in the Joy of home brew book. only on one occasion did i get any carbonation, and it was low (thankfully I just force carbonate and the beer it great). Im wondering if i need to add additional yeat during kegging or more gyle. Any thougts would be great.
thanks
nick

I guess now you know why many of us don't use that technique. You really have to be precise with the amount of unfermented wort you remove to use it.

Other than that comment I don't have any recommendations to share with you. I'm glad you were able to salvage it though.:D

I have done it. But not with the equation given in JOHB. My technique involves using more Speise (aka gyle) than necessary and monitoring the pressure build-up in th keg. If I get to much pressure I just bleed off the excess pressure.

I use an excel sheet that I got from a German web-site for the calculations, but also asked the author of BeerSmit to add this feature to his program. In this I have to enter the SG and expected FG of the Speise.

I also primed my Chubby Angel APA with Kraeusen. This is gyle actively fermenting at high Kraeusen (pretty much like a stater). I'll have to see how it comes out and how much more yeast actually ended up in the bottles :confused: .

In general I like the idea of using wort that didn't make it into the fermenter. No waste and much cheaper than DME (in case you do AG). It also doesn't change your apparent SG. Or are the ones priming with DME/corn sugar aiming for an SG 0.003 less than intended? I never did, and I just realized that this is actually the effect that priming with concentrated sugar solution has.

Kai

It can be fun to do this, and challenging to get it right, but in the end you still need to hook up the CO2 bottle to maintain carbonation.

Aside from tradition and being 'correct' I can't see it being worth it.

Help a brother out, what exactly is "gyle"? Wort?

Yes, preferrably wort from the same batch.

I have only read the word gyle in the Papazian books. Most other books (English and German) usually call it Speise (German word for meal or food).

Kai

Ah, thanks for the confirmation.

For nick: what styles of brew are you trying this with?

So far I have done it for my last APA, since I read that one of the breweries that I like is doing this for bottle conditioning there ales.

I also plan to use this method for Hefe Weizens as I believe that these beers are best when conditioned in a bottle as the amount of yeast will be the same for each serving.

For kegged beer, I may use a mixture of remaining extract and Krauesen. The advantage for Kraeuesn beer is that you introduce fresh health yeast which can help in fermenting all the remaining extract in case the original yeast already gave up on it.

But I'm not sure if it really makes a difference. The literature I read (Noonan, etc.) suggests that it does.

Kai

thank you all for the replies. I will try this again using a bit of fresh yeast with the glye/spiese. also i will monitor my psi to make sure everything is going well. it happens that im going to keg up my "Hopped up Red" today. I realize the benifits of this teqnique may not be worth the hassle, but hell there something nice about knowing your beer is 100% natural ingredients and has not been put under a lot of pressure!!
nick

[QUOTE=Kaiser]I have done it. But not with the equation given in JOHB. My technique involves using more Speise (aka gyle) than necessary and monitoring the pressure build-up in th keg. If I get to much pressure I just bleed off the excess pressure.

WHAT PRESSURE DO YOU SHOOT FOR?


I use an excel sheet that I got from a German web-site for the calculations, but also asked the author of BeerSmit to add this feature to his program. In this I have to enter the SG and expected FG of the Speise.

CAN YOU GIVE ME THE WEB SITE?

THANKS
NICK