Double Dropping

Has anybody else tried the Brakspear method of "dropping" the ale 16 hours after pitching the yeast?

I brewed on Thursday and just "dropped" my Ordinary Bitter last night from my bottling bucket into my primary fermenter. I just opened the spigot and let the beer splash in from ~4 feet high. I left behind about .5 gallons of trub and flocculated yeast. It looks like the yeast picked back up because I found myself with a nice and thick krausen in the morning.

I loved to hear other people's results if they tried it before.

There has been a lot of chatter on hbt lately about British beers and how they act differently when fermented with lots of air. Cool video, sounds neat.

I haven't tried it but intended to within the next few months. Looking forward to hearing how this works out for you.

Congratulations on not letting dogma about racking early limit you.

Would this result in anything different than a second aeration after 16 hours? I suppose it removes the trub...

curlyfat said:

Would this result in anything different than a second aeration after 16 hours? I suppose it removes the trub...

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I suppose it's similar to areating it again, though it's probably more effective than shaking the carboy. The trub removal is helpful if you plan on top cropping the yeast too.

Lol I saw double dropping and I was like YESSS, there's nothing like dropping two sick basslines at the same time

DJ'ing ftw.

So much for the mantra of no aeration once the yeast is pitched. This should work some old hands into a frenzy. I like it.

Well, I ended up kegging the brew last Monday* and took a taste. It's pretty dry with a distinct clove like taste, which other have gotten with regular fermentation, and with few, if any, estery notes.

I think the only benefit I got from this was removing the beer from the trub. It may work better with some temperature control as I had it up to the mid-70's near the end of fermentation which may have cleaned up some of the esters produced.

*Carbed naturally with the remaining gravity points. FFT FTW!

Well that's a disappointing conclusion I was hoping I could tie this in with KingBrianI's quest for the perfect bitter (a quest I am on as well).

bovineblitz said:

Lol I saw double dropping and I was like YESSS, there's nothing like dropping two sick basslines at the same time

DJ'ing ftw.

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My thoughts exactly!!!!!!

I'll give this a go when doing a dry-finishing pale. I guess the crucial factor here is how long after the start of fermentation do you drop the beer. Anybody willing to try 36 hours? Btw, wouldn't this work out fairly well in an Imperial Stout or other high abv ales that need aereating?

This fermentation system system was widely used by commercial breweries in the UK until the 1960's but now only used by four. I've used it on several occasions and drop the beer between 28 and 48 hours, depending on the fermentation speed which I judge to be after the rocky head starts to subside. There's some oxygen pick up but this is quickly absorbed by the yeast and in my experience doesn't cause any stale or oxidised notes in the finished beer. Depending on the particular yeast strain used I sometimes find that the beer finishes a couple of points higher than usual which enables me to keg the brew without using priming sugar. I don't use it for every brew but have had some very good results.