That's one fine cat pelt you got there sir. Skin that putty any way you can... RIGHT? It all works, just do it to make your life easier.
I can only assume that it will make a beer too un-estery. In theory from the research, yes. You would have to do your own experiments to conclude what is proposed from the lessening ester formation, ie. maybe a higher temperature fermentation. I just don't know because clean beers are all I have been after in my pursuits.
I don't know of anyone using the soda bottles as of yet. I proposed it as an idea I would like to try to keep my equipment from being gunked up with the little bit (but still annoying) of krausening yeast that comes out during the ferment. If you rig something up and use it, please let us all know how it turned out for you.
Again, up for debate. Adding gelatin would be great, but you can't and keep a closed system. I had no problem transferring after enough time to get relatively yeast free beer in a transfer keg. The little bit that got in at the start was easily drawn off in the first couple of pints after tapping to serve. I do recommend a filter, and have gone that route now myself. I have been using it pre-tap, but planned on using it during my counter-pressure transfer from primary to serving keg. It has just worked out this time to use it in the fashion I am.
Not abandoned, just not the focus of the thread so I don't elaborate much about it. I really enjoy brewing 12 gallons in my kettle and then using the last 3 to help start my chill and get my finishing volume. I wrote a wiki article about it as well as closed-system pressure fermentation.
Sorry to hear that, but completely understand going to a blow off tube. The spunding technique will probably do you better at the end of primary, and as you know is easy enough to hook up at that point to get your natural carbonation. This last experiment was all higher pressures and I still got dirty. Waste was kept to a small amount, but lets face it... even the smallest bit of krausen in your equipment is nasty. I ended up with a little over a cup of liquid nastiness on the floor around my keg this past brew. The wife was not happy and I had to keep removing the spunding valve assembly and cleaning it to make sure I didn't have an excessive pressure build up. My fault for getting greedy with fermentor space, but worth it because it means I have to come up with a way to get past that... and I love a good challenge.:rockin:I'm on my third 15 gal batch of closed pressure fermentation. The technique has a lot of appeal for me in its simplicity, but I must admit I've been very frustrated during high krausen.
I know I only have 0.5 gal of head space but I thought I could get away with it.
I used 2 drops of fermcap S per gal on the second batch and I'm not sure it made any difference. Forgot to use it on this third batch and I've got a mess.
It only takes a small bit of hop particulate to clog the PRV then the pressure quickly goes to 20. I've taken it off several times to clean it out but it plugs in just a few seconds.
I finally gave up and put a blow off tube on my setup. In another 24 hours when things settle down I'll put the PRV back on and start to dial it up.
Any other suggestions???
Thanks for that. I normally have to wait a day to go back and re-read to find my typos after reading and writing so much. Glad you like it, and the pressures I use are much higher than talked about. I now go balls to the wall from the get go. I am trying for an easy beer, so my experiments of late have been 70-72*F ferments at carbonation pressures. So, 30-32 psi are not out of the question.Wort
The wiki looks great!! A couple of feedback points if I may...
The link for "lautering grant is part of my pump setup" under the procedure paragraph does not work.
Typo under summary of process, the paragraph after #4, first line "and then spund at the lest part of primary" should be last.
Other than those small details, I thought it was awesome!
In the wiki you state "I like to go with higher pressures from the start to keep my krausen down". Do you think this really makes a difference? Any drawbacks in doing so? The pressures you described on your latest brown are much higher than what you were doing earlier in the thread.
I went with the blow off tube for the first 24-36 hours on my Kolsch, it was far less messy, but I don't want to get kicked out of the "club" for using a blow off!
Yeah, pressures used are so variable I don't feel comfortable posting them as a "how to."Nice wiki update. It has a very good explanation of the process. I thin ksome more info about the actual pressures used and their impact would be good; it's the item that I have the most quesitons about.
Kaiser has mentioend that fermenting at 5psi was similar to the hydrostatic pressure experienced in larger breweries, so he didn't consider it to truly be under-pressure.
He also had that fun graph
One thing also to mention was in that last interview with Jamil and Palmer, they talked about how autolysis not happening in homebreweries might be due to the decreased pressure that the yeast at the bottom of the fermenter experience due to the size/shape of our fermenters. But leaving a fermented brew on the yeast for 1+ month under pressure might? dunno.
I have my batch in the corny going right now. I put ~6 feet of tubing between the quick disconnect and the spunding valve and coiled it up. That way I figure that if I do end up with blowoff, it won't make it to the valve, and I can quickly disconnect the tubing and flush it if need be.
I didn't aerate, but made a large starter from real wort (since i no chilled the batch), pitched at high krausen after letting it sit overnight and 5 hours later has it ramp up to 5+ psi, so it went pretty well. I have the valve set for 10 psi, and will jack it up after a couple of days I think.
On that valve, how many turns approximately per psi? Say, if I want to go up 5 psi from where I'm at, is that 1 turn, 5 turns, 10 turns?
I think that I'm going to dry hop by depressurizing after final pressure and diacetyl rest, putting the hops in, then cold crash for a week and then counter-pressure transfer. Although I might put the hops in another corny, purge it with CO2, then transfer that across. Then after a week, transfer again....that might be a bit better, and give me clearer beer in the end...
My main concerns at this point are 1) Clogging my dip tube since I didn't do a stellar job of removing the trub and 2) I wildly missed my mash-in temp (aka, may have denatured the enzymes), so the ferment might stop a bit early and I may need to push it further with some amylase enzyme to get it down to the desired FG.
I guess that I'll see tomorrow, lol.
I had the very same idea, and yes I think it would work great... if you can attach a piece of tubing to get from the normally out port to the bottom of the housing, and run the housing in reverse so that the normally in port has the gas coming out. That way all your liquids and bubbles are at the bottom of the housing and only clean gas is expelled from the housing and spunding valve. The housing will handle the pressures you would be using for this project no problem.
Yeah, I guess you should do what I do now. When you want to increase the pressure close it up completely. Then slowly open it up once you are over-pressured until you get to the sweet spot of wanted pressure release. It works well except during active primary fermentation. for that you need to have everything set and ready to ride out the storm.:cross:
. Oh well, now I have to brew this weekend.
