Third batch in the bucket

I'm happy to say that I brewed my third batch last night, and it's in the basement (hopefully) fermenting as we speak. It's a Sierra Nevada-like (not clone) pale, which is going by Pioneer Pale Ale. I'm an Oregonian, so the name makes sense due to that, plus it's my first pale so there's another meaning of "pioneer".

The process was a little different than the other 2 batches I made (Irish red kit and "easiest beer I ever made" recipe from this forum). Most noticeable were the additional hops (4 oz total), and the late extract additions. My girlfriend kept commenting that it smelled different than the other batches, and I told her that it IS different, and to be patient. By the end she said it "smells like beer now".

A couple hours after putting the bucket downstairs, the middle piece in the airlock had lifted, and bubbles were starting. Cool, fermentation is beginning.

As of this morning, the piece in the airlock had fallen again, and it was not bubbling. However, because I read about brewing whenever I get the chance, I know that there's nothing to worry about. Because it started to bubble last night, I'm comfortable assuming that the yeast are either working quietly, or are taking a break and will get back to work soon.

My only issue as of now is wort aeration prior to and immediately following pitching yeast (US-05). In the better bottle I can pick it up and shake the hell out of it, but I can't do that in the bucket. When I spray in the tap water and dump the wort, it gets pretty bubbly, so I think some sort of aeration is happening. I don't stir after the yeast is pitched, which I may do in the future.

Anyway, I'm really liking brewing, even though I haven't even started drinking any beers from my first batch. Thanks for being a great resource!

unionrdr said:

What's the temp in the basement?

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Mid 60s. The bucket thermo said 72 (if I remember right) when I left this morning.

It is expected to be in the 80s for the next few days here, and my house is terrible at maintaining a constant temp. The only safe place to ferment, in my opinion, is downstairs at this point.

If it starts getting too warm in your basement, get a big bucket and rig up a swamp cooler. Pretty much just cool water you place your bucket in to keep the temps constant. I had to put one together for the last batch I brewed (NB Ranger Clone) because the temp in the bucket had jumped from 66* at pitching to 72* within an hour.

To aerate my wort, I just pour it back and forth twice between the bucket and kettle, and I feel that's adequate. And don't worry about the airlock, I did a batch of chocolate stout recently and I don't think I ever saw mine bubble once. It smelled awful when I took a hydrometer reading a week later (CO2 I'm guessing), but it was fermenting away and tasted great.

phenry said:

If it starts getting too warm in your basement, get a big bucket and rig up a swamp cooler. Pretty much just cool water you place your bucket in to keep the temps constant. I had to put one together for the last batch I brewed (NB Ranger Clone) because the temp in the bucket had jumped from 66* at pitching to 72* within an hour.

To aerate my wort, I just pour it back and forth twice between the bucket and kettle, and I feel that's adequate. And don't worry about the airlock, I did a batch of chocolate stout recently and I don't think I ever saw mine bubble once. It smelled awful when I took a hydrometer reading a week later (CO2 I'm guessing), but it was fermenting away and tasted great.

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I've got one batch in a swamp cooler, and it's holding pretty steady at 66 degrees. I will take a look when I get home tonight and see if the bucket needs to go in there as well.

I had to go grab something from home, so naturally I checked on my brew. The bucket is at a comfortable 67 degrees. I see no reason to mess with it, unless things change drastically.

Here's to a good beer in about a month!

I don't think you have to worry as much about aeration with dry yeasts as well, so you shouldnt worry about that either!

phenry said:

If it starts getting too warm in your basement, get a big bucket and rig up a swamp cooler. Pretty much just cool water you place your bucket in to keep the temps constant...

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As you can see from my post count, I'm brand new, and I can honestly say that I don't know nuttin' about nuttin' when it comes to beer. However, I can say that in many circles a swamp cooler is a device that uses the evaporation of water to cool something down. This is much different than trying to use cool water itself. A simple swamp cooler would be a damp (not soaked through) towel wrapped around the fermenter. As the water on the towel evaporated, the temperature would drop, just like sweat evaporating off your skin cools your body down. It works even better if you have a fan blowing on it. The trick is to find some way to keep the towel damp. Possible options are some sort of slow drip, manually spraying it down occasionally, etc.

I know nothing about using swamp coolers for fermenting, but I have seen them used in many other applications. Over long periods of time, they would be much more efficient than just a cool water bath.

dcummings1998 said:

As of this morning, the piece in the airlock had fallen again, and it was not bubbling.

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Check how well the lid is sealed. If you put a little pressure on the lid or side of the bucket and the airlock doesn't move, then your lid may not be sealed all the way around. Not a big deal, but I prefer to see it bubbling.

Scratch said:

As you can see from my post count, I'm brand new, and I can honestly say that I don't know nuttin' about nuttin' when it comes to beer. However, I can say that in many circles a swamp cooler is a device that uses the evaporation of water to cool something down. This is much different than trying to use cool water itself. A simple swamp cooler would be a damp (not soaked through) towel wrapped around the fermenter. As the water on the towel evaporated, the temperature would drop, just like sweat evaporating off your skin cools your body down. It works even better if you have a fan blowing on it. The trick is to find some way to keep the towel damp. Possible options are some sort of slow drip, manually spraying it down occasionally, etc.

I know nothing about using swamp coolers for fermenting, but I have seen them used in many other applications. Over long periods of time, they would be much more efficient than just a cool water bath.

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Eh, I figure a large mass of water is going to hold more consistent temperatures than variable evaporation rates. I have a towel over my buckets in my coolers (a little paranoid about UV you might say), but I didn't notice any real changes in bucket temps since adding them to my bucket of water.

Just a few cubes of ice every now and then keeps the temperature at a steady 64*.

cravej said:

Check how well the lid is sealed. If you put a little pressure on the lid or side of the bucket and the airlock doesn't move, then your lid may not be sealed all the way around. Not a big deal, but I prefer to see it bubbling.

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Well well well, guess who decided to wake up.

I came down to check the temp and make sure the lid was all the way on (I knew it was but I'm a little bit obsessed with monitoring the beer throughout the process), and what did I find? The temp is right at 65 (perfect) and the middle piece is pushed up and it's slowly starting to bubble again.

But, like I said, we already knew things were on the up and up. This just confirms that

Oh crap...

I just got back to the house (after a few hours with one of the founders of Double Mountain, which is pretty awesome) and naturally I came to check on the beers in the basement. What do I see? 2 inches of foam (Star San) atop the airlock.

My first instinct? Use a blowoff. However, I've only used one with the carboy, not a bucket. Can I use the same tube (3/8 inner diameter) somehow? Either in the hole in the lid, or rigged up to the airlock?

Ps, glad to see the yeast are happy!

dcummings1998 said:

Oh crap...

I just got back to the house (after a few hours with one of the founders of Double Mountain, which is pretty awesome) and naturally I came to check on the beers in the basement. What do I see? 2 inches of foam (Star San) atop the airlock.

My first instinct? Use a blowoff. However, I've only used one with the carboy, not a bucket. Can I use the same tube (3/8 inner diameter) somehow? Either in the hole in the lid, or rigged up to the airlock?

Ps, glad to see the yeast are happy!

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I just used Star San for the first time in my airlock (bucket) and got the same mountain of foam during the first two days of fermentation. It isn't the wort coming out, just the star san. i left it alone and eventually it died down. The star san foam never even came off the top of the airlock. I think you're fine.

dcummings1998 said:

I'm happy to say that I brewed my third batch last night, and it's in the basement (hopefully) fermenting as we speak...

Anyway, I'm really liking brewing, even though I haven't even started drinking any beers from my first batch. Thanks for being a great resource!

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Sounds just like me. I've brewed two batches now and I'm trying to patiently wait for the first one to bottle condition so I can begin enjoying the fruits of my labor!

I guess I got your reply just a minute late. I was worried about another issue like my last brew, where the airlock was about to burst, so I scrapped together a blowoff with this bottle, some tubing from my siphon, and some Star San.

Perhaps it wasn't necessary, but I feel good knowing that the thing won't blow!

PS, did I mention that I was hanging with Charlie from Double Mountain? If you can, try their Cluster**** IPA. Really good, and he's a really cool guy.

rearview said:

Sounds just like me. I've brewed two batches now and I'm trying to patiently wait for the first one to bottle condition so I can begin enjoying the fruits of my labor!

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What's amazing is that I'm generally pretty impatient, but when it comes to this I'm willing to wait as long as it takes. Even though I've only sampled a few of my beers (which weren't even ready), I'm still excited when I get to find and brew something new.

if your basement is to warm research the "t-shirt trick" it works great.