Fermentation complete? - Highland Gaelic clone

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

cbird01

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 8, 2006
Messages
166
Reaction score
0
I need some assistance getting this clone recipe out of the fermenter. The original recipe from the BYO clone issue follows. This is a crossbreed of a Scottish ale and American Amber.

I thought it strange that you dump your wort into the fermentor right after the boil into cool water, then cool down to pitching temp in fermenter. This left all the cold break in the fermentor. I had a slow start of 48 hrs for the WLP001. It has been 1 week since it finally started.

My OG was off at 1.044 (vs 1.056 -maybe LHBS was off converting LME to DME, they gave me 5 lbs and used 5 gallons instead of 5.5 in calcs)

My FG is now 1.010. Virtually no activity in the ferm lock.

1) Is this done and ready for keg?
2) Should I rack to secondary to make sure I separate out the cold break that happened in fermenter?
3) They said to "bottle and age for 2-3 weeks". I am kegging. Should I age at all in keg, or does this seem to just be for carbonation in bottle?

Thanks!

=====================================================
Highland Brewing Company – Gaelic

(5 gallon, extract with grains)

OG=1.056
FG=1.013
IBU’s = 30-32
Alcohol 5.6% by volume

Ingredients

3.3 lbs. Briess Light malt extract syrup
2 lbs. Briess Light dry malt extract
1.5 lbs. Briess Munich malt 10L
.5 lb. Briess Crystal 60L malt
1 lb. Briess Crystal 40L malt
.25 lb. Briess Extra Special malt
8 AAU Chinook hops (60 mins) (.75 oz. of 12.0% alpha acid)
- Sub'd 1.5 oz Cascade
2.5 AAU Willamette hops (flameout 2 min) (.5 oz. of 5.0% alpha acid)
- Sub'd 1 oz Goldings
2.9 AAU Cascade hops (flameout 2 min) (.5 oz. of 5.8% alpha acid)
1 tsp Irish moss for 60 min

White Labs WLP001 California Ale yeast

Steep the crushed crystal malt in 3 gallons of water at 150° for 30 minutes. Remove grains from wort, add malt syrup, dry malt extract and bring to a boil. Add Chinook (bittering) hops, Irish moss and boil for 60 minutes. Add Willamette and Cascade hops at the end of the boil, and let steep for 2 minutes.

When done boiling, strain out hops, add wort to 2 gallons cool water in a sanitary fermenter, and top off with cool water to 5.5 gallons. Cool the wort to 80°, heavily aerate the beer and pitch your yeast. Allow the beer to cool over the next few hours to 64°-66°, and hold at these cooler temperatures until the yeast has fermented completely. Bottle your beer, age for 2-3 weeks and Enjoy!
====================================================
 
Test your gravity again tomorrow. If it's the same, it's done fermenting (Good chance this will be the case). If you really want some good beer here, don't be in such a hurry. If you want to see a good argument for letting your beer sit in the primary for around 14 days, use the search function and search for HOLD THE BUTTER.
Edit** Missed parts of your questions.
I'd skip the secondary and just be very careful when you rack into your keg. This is an increasing trend around here. I believe that secondaries are for aging LONG periods or adding additional fruits or flavors. If you let your beer sit in the primary for about 14 days, keg... This is where there is some wiggle room. I hit mine with about 12 psi (mainly to seal it up) and take it to the basement (currently 60F) and then when I'm ready, I stick it in the Keezer where they sit on 12psi live for about a week before tapping. Works every time.

The point is, your beer is going to take 6 weeks minimum to be ready, no matter what combination of primary, Secondary, Keg / Bottle time you play with. If you tap it too early, you'll know. We call it green beer for a reason. Just give it some more time to age, it'll get better and better up until you hit that very best beer of the batch....THE LAST ONE!
 
As far as if the beer's done, if your hydrometer reading hasn't changed over the course of 2 or 3 days it most certainly is. Judging just by your OG and FG however the beer is probably done. Your brew is at about 75% attenuation which is appropriate for California ale yeast. Any additional drop in gravity will most likely be negligible.

On point two I should mention that racking to a secondary fermenter is a much debated topic among homebrewers. In your case, given the length of time in the primary most of the break material should have sedimented to the bottom of the fermenter. You can, if you choose, rack to a secondary to attempt to clear it if you want. Or, alternately, let it in the primary for another week. It really is up to you. I have found that both methods work fine, although, if clarity is what you're after, I would suggest racking to a secondary or crash cooling before you keg it.

With regard to the third point I would say that the 2-3 weeks listed is strictly for carbonating in the bottle. You could keg, force carbonate, and be drinking in no time if you want to.
 
With steeping grains, adding the trub / hot break has never mattered to me as long as your grain bag did not leave a ton of junk behind. Remember that there are still some really old recipes out there back from the stone ages, and better processes are more common now. Hot side aeration is a boggy man, better avoided but should not be a problem, I'm sure your still get good beer.
It sounds like your done with 75% attenuation, I would rack to secondary, let it sit for 2-3 weeks, crash cool, keg, carb and enjoy.
 
You got good advice here. I just want to thank you for alerting me to this recipe. Highland Gaelic is one of my favorite beers ever (I'm a NC boy), but I can't find it here in NJ. This gained an immediate spot in my brewing lineup. It'll be great for fall/early winter. Thanks!
 
I just recently started kegging and I'm probably going to experiment with going straight from primary to keg and letting the beer age in the keg but I haven't done so just yet. My only concern about going that route is that in every secondary I've done I've always had a fair amount of stuff fall out of suspension. I'd prefer to have that happen in the secondary and then rack off of that into a keg as opposed to having that sediment sit in the bottom of the keg. I realize that my first couple pulls will suck that sediment out and from there it will be fine but being the anal SOB that I am I'd prefer to have as little sediment as possible in the keg.
 
ok guys. Need some help here. I had this beer in the primary for 14 days and have racked to the keg. I think I really should have gone to secondary with it now. I force carb'd the batch and let it carbonate for 3 days. I read in a BYO article that I can gently shake it every now and then to speed the process. (did it twice a day for 3 days - wanted to drink in three days) I did not jack the pressure up. I left at pressure read off the tables for proper volumes.

I am getting really yeasty tastes even after pouring off the first beer for sediment. I think I must really have some yeast in suspension. Guess it is really green.

My question is, what do I do now that it is carbonated and refrigerated at 40 degrees? Can I save it? :confused:
 
Back
Top