Sigafoos
Well-Known Member
Reading Papazian's Joy of Home Brewing, he talks about "closed" vs "open" fermentation, and specifically how closed can be better as it removes some of the bad stuff from the kraeusen that cause headaches, etc.
When I first skimmed the section I thought that open would be where you're going for spontaneous fermentation and closed was in a bucket/carboy that's been sealed with an airlock/blow off tube, but upon reading it seems as though he defines "closed" as "carboy with blow off" and "open" as "using a bucket" (possibly with an airlock? It's been a few days since I read it). This is sort of confusing, and I guess it's "open" because there's air in the bucket (dear Liza, dear Liza) -- but that gets replaced with CO2, doesn't it? -- instead of being filled to the brim with the wort (hence the need for a blow off). I think there may have been something about how a 6.5 carboy is also open (for the same reasons), but maybe now I'm just making stuff up.
Anyway, is this right? Did I get some of the stuff wrong? Is Papazian sort of over-exaggerating? He's also said in a few places that start to finish, beer should take 4 weeks, which seems to go against what most people -- pro- and anti-secondary alike -- have said on here.
Also, is the headache thing something I have to worry about? My friends are BMC folks, and while they liked the microbrew hefe and kolsch I gave them last time they were over I don't want to give them a reason to say "...yeah, but I'll stick with storebought." I want them to either buy their own equipment or start subcontracting out to me once they taste my brew
When I first skimmed the section I thought that open would be where you're going for spontaneous fermentation and closed was in a bucket/carboy that's been sealed with an airlock/blow off tube, but upon reading it seems as though he defines "closed" as "carboy with blow off" and "open" as "using a bucket" (possibly with an airlock? It's been a few days since I read it). This is sort of confusing, and I guess it's "open" because there's air in the bucket (dear Liza, dear Liza) -- but that gets replaced with CO2, doesn't it? -- instead of being filled to the brim with the wort (hence the need for a blow off). I think there may have been something about how a 6.5 carboy is also open (for the same reasons), but maybe now I'm just making stuff up.
Anyway, is this right? Did I get some of the stuff wrong? Is Papazian sort of over-exaggerating? He's also said in a few places that start to finish, beer should take 4 weeks, which seems to go against what most people -- pro- and anti-secondary alike -- have said on here.
Also, is the headache thing something I have to worry about? My friends are BMC folks, and while they liked the microbrew hefe and kolsch I gave them last time they were over I don't want to give them a reason to say "...yeah, but I'll stick with storebought." I want them to either buy their own equipment or start subcontracting out to me once they taste my brew