Branden O's Graff Krausen!!

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Lunarpancake

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Location
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WOW Not even a full 24hours and this is the activity I have in my batch.


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I wish my temp's would lower a little im at 73 F but nothing I can do since boiler is in basement too :(
 
nice I started mine 11/2 and started by day two it looked similar to that. day three about double and tonight just checked it and the krausen was headding up the blow off tube. It looks like you might have a bigger carboy than I. Mine is only 5 gal. Cant wait to taste it.
 
I made mine took a air lock to the hardware store and matched up some tubing to the size of the 2 piece airlock. Just make sure that you take off the + type tab that some air locks have on the bottom of them or it could clog. You can usually cut or snap it off the bottom of it with pliers.
 
I made mine took a air lock to the hardware store and matched up some tubing to the size of the 2 piece airlock. Just make sure that you take off the + type tab that some air locks have on the bottom of them or it could clog. You can usually cut or snap it off the bottom of it with pliers.

so you are fitting the tube into the airlock? not into the bung correct?


Ill hit the home depot tomorrow. :rockin:


hopefully i dont get any overflow tonight as I sleep. *checks on it now*



oh...also for a blow off do i need a pitcher of water for the blowoff tube to go into or something? can someone maybe post a picture of their homemade blowoff so i can get a better idea. THANKS!
 
put the end of the blow off tube into bucket of sanitizer ... you are just making a big airlock basically
 
so you are fitting the tube into the airlock? not into the bung correct?


Ill hit the home depot tomorrow. :rockin:


hopefully i dont get any overflow tonight as I sleep. *checks on it now*



oh...also for a blow off do i need a pitcher of water for the blowoff tube to go into or something? can someone maybe post a picture of their homemade blowoff so i can get a better idea. THANKS!

Yes Fit the tube to the airlock
 
Ok just thought to be a supporter and post pictures already learned so much here so why not. (should have done it before) Anyway......

Airlock Setup

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Im making this tonight and am pumped! Now i know what to expect. What were your gravitys guys?

Lunar you go to brewers in freehold right? I work there and added an email with your name to the mailing list.
 
im using s-o4 aswell ......today my krausen was WAY DOWN. It also had lots of yeast globs floating around in it. Still bubbling strong tho.

I got the hosing just incase today by the way.

See Below


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by the way battery where "near the shore" in jersey are you? Im in Monmouth County...if you are familiar with the area more specifically in Oakhurst.
 
Ahh brick. Just down the road from me. Bout 15 min. Wife is from wall I grew up in ocean township.

Carboy lookin good by the way.!! Mine has stopped forming krausen it's just bubbling away now happy as a clam.
 
Ok.....looking for some thoughts here. My graff has me a tiny bit worried. It is still bubbling but its very slow and the krausen has completely gone away. If this is OK ...then great I will not worry but compared to my last cider which was super-active this is surprising and worry-some.
 
yea....i have one of those ready to go.

but now my graff has me a tiny bit worried. It is still bubbling but its very slow and the krausen has completely gone away. If this is OK ...then great I will not worry but compared to my last cider which was super-active this is surprising and worry-some.
 
yea....i have one of those ready to go.

but now my graff has me a tiny bit worried. It is still bubbling but its very slow and the krausen has completely gone away. If this is OK ...then great I will not worry but compared to my last cider which was super-active this is surprising and worry-some.

It will be fine. If you had a krausen at some point that means that it's fermenting and that you have live yeast in there. Let them do their job. In my experience with making ciders they never have an extremely crazy fermentation. The thing is that apple juice doesn't exactly have all of the best nutrients for yeasts. That's why apfelwein has those rhino farts. This should be a bit better since it has the PM in it. So just give the yeasts some time to do their job (they are good at what they do until some other factor (typically us) begins to mess with em).

Anyways, RDWHAHB. Don't go jacking around with your stuff. It should be fine. I by default use a blow-off hose on all primary fermentations b/c I just don't want to wake up the next morning with a blown off lid/huge mess, but they're not always necessary. I typically always switch my blow-off hose to an airlock after about 4 days. Most of the time you won't have a need for it at that point.

In summary, if you don't have krausen coming through your airlock, you don't need the blow-off tube. Just leave your cider alone, krausen or no krausen. It should be fine after the suggested amount of time in the fermenter.

J


P.S.
Do some "Has my fermentation stopped" searches. Look for some stuff Revvy has said. He's got a lot of info on this forum about this stuff.
 
It will be fine. If you had a krausen at some point that means that it's fermenting and that you have live yeast in there. Let them do their job. In my experience with making ciders they never have an extremely crazy fermentation. The thing is that apple juice doesn't exactly have all of the best nutrients for yeasts. That's why apfelwein has those rhino farts. This should be a bit better since it has the PM in it. So just give the yeasts some time to do their job (they are good at what they do until some other factor (typically us) begins to mess with em).

Anyways, RDWHAHB. Don't go jacking around with your stuff. It should be fine. I by default use a blow-off hose on all primary fermentations b/c I just don't want to wake up the next morning with a blown off lid/huge mess, but they're not always necessary. I typically always switch my blow-off hose to an airlock after about 4 days. Most of the time you won't have a need for it at that point.

In summary, if you don't have krausen coming through your airlock, you don't need the blow-off tube. Just leave your cider alone, krausen or no krausen. It should be fine after the suggested amount of time in the fermenter.

J


P.S.
Do some "Has my fermentation stopped" searches. Look for some stuff Revvy has said. He's got a lot of info on this forum about this stuff.


That's what I figured but comparing to my first cider experience this just had me a bit worried. I wasn't about to go messing around with anything especially since it is still bubbling albeit slowly.


Thanks Again, you guys ROCK!
 
Checked on the graff. I wish I had checked the sg when I put it in the carboy but I was an idiot an didn't. Well the sg is at 1.03 after 4 days I'm hoping that it has just been working fast even with the slow bubbling.

I also tasted it and as of now it's very hoppy and bitter. I know that should subside especially with the extra week of fermenting and two weeks of sitting afterwards.

If anyone has any thoughts please pipe in.
 
Just last night finished the last bottle of my first big batch of graff. The first bottle several weeks ago was kind of disappointing. The one last night was possibly the best thing I've ever brewed. Give it some time; it will be worth it. Mine wasn't even Brandon's full recipe; just an adaptation, and it was still delicious. Planning my next batch and wishing it were in the bottles already.
 
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