Spying on the yeasties

After about a year of home brewing I wanted to see everything in action. So setup the laptop for time lapse and was very quite so the yeast would not be shy
[youtube]aRMVMCdV0ak[/youtube]

Nice -- beats standing in my basement for an hour straight watching the airlock bubbles. Of course I'm still going to stand in my basement for hours watching airlock bubbles.

Sweet!!!

10 Char

Please add the Benny Hill theme song music.

I wish I would have let the time lapse go a little longer. Maybe next time I will do a whole brew session in time lapse. I hope this beer turns out ok, missed my og. OG should have been 1.087 but ended up 1.100

more alcohol is always good ... defiantly start earlier and end later in the cycle next time.

That is a great idea. It was really neat to watch. I have never done primary in a carboy, so I don't even know what any of my beers look like to any degree.

A full time lapse would be sweet as well. Good idea.

cford1 said:

That is a great idea. It was really neat to watch. I have never done primary in a carboy, so I don't even know what any of my beers look like to any degree.

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I started out using buckets and it drove me crazy not being able to see. That was the only reason I switched to better bottles. I can watch the churn of fermentation for hours.

I have been using buckets but started an apfelwein in a plastic carboy, and have been amazed. Thanks for the time lapse.

i also wanted to see what was happening in that bucket, so instead of the lid I just covered with plastic wrap - ended up with a giant mushroom top of krausen, but luckily it never spilled over (thank god for surface tension). still, that time lapse was cool, thanks for sharing.

pervert!!!!!!!!!!

I had also had that idea, but didnt want to brave it.

what software did you use?

very cool...I ferment in buckets so I have never seen first hand our friends the yeasties at work

NoisufnoC said:

what software did you use?

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I used a program called gawker and a macbook

Cooper's has a 5g batch plastic, wide-mouth, screw-on cap fermenter w/a see through top.

I think it is available in the U.S. but only as a kit for 99$. So you would have to pop for the whole kit w/the items you might not want.

I got spoiled right from the gitgo w/a Mr Beer ferementer so's I could see the fermenting occurring. I would go for a BB if it had a wide-mouth/screwon cap, and available in brown. Also it would need to accommodate a regular spigot vice their (BB) overpriced version of a spigot. Not likely.

I noticed the other day that Home Depot sells separately several lids to their 5g buckets--one of them appears to be near transparent--didn't look closely, though.

I always like time lapse videos and yours is great. While I was browsing related videos I found this one of the classic exploding airlock.

[youtube]V60zPo4pC5s[/youtube]

what a *******!

that was really cool, I think when I pick up a clear carboy ill do this as well as I already have a web cam on my beer (though its a piece of garbage)

Nice vid!
I now don't feel that I am weird. I some times sit and watch the small pieces moving around in the beer, and the bubbles popping, slightly toasting my glass to the side of the primary. Before I thought that I was maybe dating my newly found friend, her father would be proud of me. I never kept her out too late, and never took advantage. Always respected her. He might be upset that I did share her with anyone who came over though.

The following could easily be applied to yeastie spying, I guess...

"Filled with mingled cream and amber I will drain that glass again. Such hilarious visions clamber Through the chambers of my brain -- Quaintest thoughts -- queerest fancies Come to life and fade away; Who cares how time advances? I am drinking ale today." ~Edgar Allan Poe
**********
"I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity."
~Edgar Allan Poe

Speaking of yeasties and see-through fermenters, etc.
I was again reading through Brew Like A Monk, the other day and came across where they point out that many Belgian brewers emphasize that the size and shape of the fermenter is important. That the fermenter should be, say, only half as tall as its width. This seems to be in contrast to what many homebrewers use, e.g., carboys, buckets, etc.

I had never thought of this before in relation to the Mr Beer fermenter that I started out with many years ago; it (MrB fermenter) is, in fact, half the height as it is long. It is doubtful that that is what MrB had in mind when it was designed that way, and it is likely that way because they wanted it to resemble a beer keg/barrel on its side.

The Belgians idea of this is that the wort should have a greater surface area than it is deep.

Who knows?