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cy24clones

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Did my very first home brew ever and jumped right into to whole grain. I did a St Bernadus Abbey Ale clone recipe. A little background:

I used a cooler mash tun, 10 gallon brew pot, bayou classic gas burner, wort chiller, and primary fermentation bucket.

I maintained a 150.4 mash for 90 minutes (recipe called for 149 but I thought for some reason it called for 150 hence the miscalculation) generated just under 7 gallons of pre-boil wort and hit 5 gallons after a the prescribed 90 minute boil. Pitched liquid yeast at 69 degrees after aerating with wort chiller at 140, 120' and 90 degrees. Recipe called for an OG of 1.079-1.080; I hit an OG of 1.081. I plan on moving to a secondary fermentor ( glass carboy) at around the 7 day mark; pending fermentation activity.

I have a couple of specific questions:

The recipe calls for a secondary yeast pitch three days before bottling. How do you pitch yeast in a carboy? Very confused about that step of the process.

Should I have three days of a stable reading from my hydrometer before moving to the carboy or should I just check for reduced activity before transferring?

I plan on bottling in 750 ml bottles with cork.

I love the info on the site and much of it helped me get the confidence to brew my own.
 
How much yeast did you start with and are you saying the wort was 69 when you pitched or the yeast? The secondary sounds very long based on your wording. Don't transfer at 7 days. let it ride a couple weeks at least to be safe. Forget the instructions on that.
 
badbrew said:
How much yeast did you start with and are you saying the wort was 69 when you pitched or the yeast? The secondary sounds very long based on your wording. Don't transfer at 7 days. let it ride a couple weeks at least to be safe. Forget the instructions on that.

I used an abbey ale liquid pack for a 5 gallon batch. Not certain how much yeast was in it as I don't have the bottle anymore. Thanks for the advice on the transfer, I will let it ride longer. Not in a rush' just want a decent turn out. Any advice on the secondary yeast pitch 3 days before bottling?
 
cy24clones said:
I used an abbey ale liquid pack for a 5 gallon batch. Not certain how much yeast was in it as I don't have the bottle anymore. Thanks for the advice on the transfer, I will let it ride longer. Not in a rush' just want a decent turn out. Any advice on the secondary yeast pitch 3 days before bottling?

Wort and yeast were both at 69 degrees.
 
I'm not all that sure you would need to add more yeast. If you were going to Use it for bottle carbing I would just add it in the bottling bucket then add my priming sugar at 1oz sugar/gallon of beer being bottled to the bottling bucket then rack the beer on top to mix them.
And yes I wouldn't rack till you had steady hydrometer readings for a few days. I usually check around 10-14days then rack
 
GilSwillBasementBrews said:
I'm not all that sure you would need to add more yeast. If you were going to Use it for bottle carbing I would just add it in the bottling bucket then add my priming sugar at 1oz sugar/gallon of beer being bottled to the bottling bucket then rack the beer on top to mix them.
And yes I wouldn't rack till you had steady hydrometer readings for a few days. I usually check around 10-14days then rack

Interesting development: my airlock is filling up with wort and a little blew out the top. Fermenting at a steady 69 degrees for about 28 hours. I am assuming this isn't an issue, but not sure. Lots and lots of activity. I do not have a blow off, just an airlock.
 
I used an abbey ale liquid pack for a 5 gallon batch. Not certain how much yeast was in it as I don't have the bottle anymore. Thanks for the advice on the transfer, I will let it ride longer. Not in a rush' just want a decent turn out. Any advice on the secondary yeast pitch 3 days before bottling?

Sorry to be a drag on your first brew but you waaaaaaaaaaaayy under pitched an OG of 1.081. If you did it today and can pitch again by tomorrow do so. I bet you would need a lot more than one of those yeast packs to do the job (maybe 3 or more). I know some people would say let it ride but I really stress fixing if you can. A packet or 2 of of something dry would fix it up to make a good beer out of a bad situation. Just my 2 cents. Your beer will still ferment eventually but it won't be anywhere as good. Good luck.:mug:
 
badbrew said:
Sorry to be a drag on your first brew but you waaaaaaaaaaaayy under pitched an OG of 1.081. If you did it today and can pitch again by tomorrow do so. I bet you would need a lot more than one of those yeast packs to do the job (maybe 3 or more). I know some people would say let it ride but I really stress fixing if you can. A packet or 2 of of something dry would fix it up to make a good beer out of a bad situation. Just my 2 cents. Your beer will still ferment eventually but it won't be anywhere as good. Good luck.:mug:

I am blowing wort through the airlock 28 hours in at 69 degrees. I am assuming this means a very active fermentation. New to this...why do you say I under pitched at my OG?
 
I am blowing wort through the airlock 28 hours in at 69 degrees. I am assuming this means a very active fermentation. New to this...why do you say I under pitched at my OG?

Go here and use this tool when planning your next batch. The liquid tubes are good for a small beer ~1.045 but yours is a lot bigger and will stress out. There is a date on the liquid yeast to guestimate the strength left in it. You can pitch on top of your wort though. Also if you don't have a gallon of air space that thing will explode on you at proper pitch. With proper pitch I bet it would be pouring out now (assuming no fermcap was added).

http://yeastcalc.com/
 
badbrew said:
Go here and use this tool when planning your next batch. The liquid tubes are good for a small beer ~1.045 but yours is a lot bigger and will stress out. There is a date on the liquid yeast to guestimate the strength left in it. You can pitch on top of your wort though. Also if you don't have a gallon of air space that thing will explode on you at proper pitch. With proper pitch I bet it would be pouring out now (assuming no fermcap was added).

http://yeastcalc.com/

Great info. Thanks. I have 1.5 gallons of air space and am blowing through the airlock. I figure out a blow off valve for the next batch.
 
Did my very first home brew ever and jumped right into to whole grain. I did a St Bernadus Abbey Ale clone recipe. A little background:

I used a cooler mash tun, 10 gallon brew pot, bayou classic gas burner, wort chiller, and primary fermentation bucket.

I maintained a 150.4 mash for 90 minutes (recipe called for 149 but I thought for some reason it called for 150 hence the miscalculation) generated just under 7 gallons of pre-boil wort and hit 5 gallons after a the prescribed 90 minute boil. Pitched liquid yeast at 69 degrees after aerating with wort chiller at 140, 120' and 90 degrees. Recipe called for an OG of 1.079-1.080; I hit an OG of 1.081. I plan on moving to a secondary fermentor ( glass carboy) at around the 7 day mark; pending fermentation activity.

I have a couple of specific questions:

The recipe calls for a secondary yeast pitch three days before bottling. How do you pitch yeast in a carboy? Very confused about that step of the process.

Should I have three days of a stable reading from my hydrometer before moving to the carboy or should I just check for reduced activity before transferring?

I plan on bottling in 750 ml bottles with cork.

I love the info on the site and much of it helped me get the confidence to brew my own.

Props to you for attempting this as your first homebrew! I've done around 15 batches and not sure I'd attempt this myself. Anyhow, good luck... I think you have the advice you need. I hope everything is sanitized properly. Like others have stated, give it time and perhaps push a but more yeast... and take care not to introduce to much oxygen when bottling if you plan on aging these for any length of time. Cheers
 
It sounds like you need to figure out the blow off tube situation now, not for your next batch. Especially of you repitch.
 
outrunu said:
It sounds like you need to figure out the blow off tube situation now, not for your next batch. Especially of you repitch.

After two lid blow-offs I just created a blow off through the airlock into a milk jug with sanitized water. Sanitized everything but concerned about the blow offs. Read several posts that said basically not a huge deal so I will press with blow off in place. Great lesson learned and quick fixes thanks to you all. Fingers crossed.
 
How are you doing it through the airlock? My two cents is to pitch the airlock, and find a way to get the tube sealed directly to the ferm chamber. I use carboys, and a 7/16 od hose jammed into a carboy bung.
 
outrunu said:
How are you doing it through the airlock? My two cents is to pitch the airlock, and find a way to get the tube sealed directly to the ferm chamber. I use carboys, and a 7/16 od hose jammed into a carboy bung.

Because it is 1241 in the am here I had to use tubing on hand. I pulled the innards out of the airlock and shoved a tube over the inner plastic section. I did not have a tube small enough to run it straight through the airlock hole ( plastic fermentors for primary). Seems to be working great. Ridiculously active fermentation at 69 degrees. I was unaware that higher OGs had such a crazy fermentation. Thanks again!
 
Makes sense, just tore apart a three piece airlock. My first blowoff tube became necessary aster thanksgiving dinner, so I had to use what was at hand as well. Just keep an eye on that narrow diameter tube in the airlock, so that it doesn't become clogged and blow your airlock completely off the chamber.
 
outrunu said:
Makes sense, just tore apart a three piece airlock. My first blowoff tube became necessary aster thanksgiving dinner, so I had to use what was at hand as well. Just keep an eye on that narrow diameter tube in the airlock, so that it doesn't become clogged.

Great point. Will do. An adventurous night so far.
 
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