I was kind of figuring that might be the case, however I was going for simplicity of not having to swap hoses when chilling. I tried using just the ice water with the pump but I went through a lot more ice and it took longer that way so I was trying to blend both methods. I was going to put a...
I have never used more than one type of yeast in a beer. Actually just brewed my first lager (an oktoberfest) about a month ago.
so how do you utilize 3 different strains of yeast? Are you pitching different yeasts at different times in the fermentation? Just dumping all strains in at once...
Here is what I do. My water temp out of my tap is like 80 degree in the summer, so I use an immersion chiller to get the wort down to about 110 to 120. Then I fill a 5 gallon bucket with ice and water and put a small pond pump in the bottom of it (17 bucks harbor freight) and pump ice water...
If you have plans to make lagers (like a nice tasty oktoberfest) in the future, you will need a temp controlled freezer unless you want to constantly add ice all day.
Keep it in the fermentor for at least another week or two. The yeast might be done turning the sugars to alcohol, but now they are eating / cleaning some of the byproducts of fermentation that can cause off flavors. Give them time to finish the job before you bottle.
PS -- the beer looks...
A gallon loss to trub and your dead space seem high.
Now for the bigger problem of not hitting your numbers, Beersmith should be compensating the grainbill for those losses so you would still hit your numbers. I would think you should be overshooting your OG instead of being way under.
If I...