Hey fellow brewers,
I'm still new here but I thought I'd share with you an experiment I did while I had the good fortune of living in the country on a river shore some years ago and had unlimited open space to deal with the mess and stink that comes with doing all-grain mash beer.
The batch was boiled over an open fire outside and the hopping was done with the Hallertau and Saaz strains. The time of year was November. After the boil, the kettle was fast-cooled by sitting it in a pile of snow on a cold night.
The primary ferment was done in a cool basement with an imported Austrian yeast culture. After dry-hopping and siphoning into the carboy, I tripple-wrapped the carboy in plastic garbage bags, rigged up a long piece of siphon hose between the carboy and the fermentation lock, placed it in a 5-gallon bucket, tied a piece of rope to the bucket handle, and lowered the set-ip into the water off the end of the dock just as the ice was beginning to form. The fermentation lock was filled with vodka so it wouldn't freeze and it poked just above the end of the dock while everything else dangled under the water. A long slow cold secondary ferment would follow over the winter months.
I retrieved the set-up in late March as the ice was beginning to open up and everything was as I had left it back in November. I re-yeasted / primed the batch and the results were nothing short of sensational. The taste has to be experienced to descibe it. The beer was brilliantly clear, had fine bubbles, and a head that was like whipped cream when poured.
If I ever get the good luck of living on a waterfront again, I'd most certainly contemplate this method again. Has anybody here ever done anything like that? I'd like to hear about it and share your successes.
I'm still new here but I thought I'd share with you an experiment I did while I had the good fortune of living in the country on a river shore some years ago and had unlimited open space to deal with the mess and stink that comes with doing all-grain mash beer.
The batch was boiled over an open fire outside and the hopping was done with the Hallertau and Saaz strains. The time of year was November. After the boil, the kettle was fast-cooled by sitting it in a pile of snow on a cold night.
The primary ferment was done in a cool basement with an imported Austrian yeast culture. After dry-hopping and siphoning into the carboy, I tripple-wrapped the carboy in plastic garbage bags, rigged up a long piece of siphon hose between the carboy and the fermentation lock, placed it in a 5-gallon bucket, tied a piece of rope to the bucket handle, and lowered the set-ip into the water off the end of the dock just as the ice was beginning to form. The fermentation lock was filled with vodka so it wouldn't freeze and it poked just above the end of the dock while everything else dangled under the water. A long slow cold secondary ferment would follow over the winter months.
I retrieved the set-up in late March as the ice was beginning to open up and everything was as I had left it back in November. I re-yeasted / primed the batch and the results were nothing short of sensational. The taste has to be experienced to descibe it. The beer was brilliantly clear, had fine bubbles, and a head that was like whipped cream when poured.
If I ever get the good luck of living on a waterfront again, I'd most certainly contemplate this method again. Has anybody here ever done anything like that? I'd like to hear about it and share your successes.
