Adding ingredients after primary is over

[MarcGuay]

Hi folks,

I understand that there are lots of interesting things that can be added to a single-stage fermentation after primary is over (dry-hopping, oak chips, etc). Typically it seems that it is recommended to mix whatever it is into the worty-beer/beery-wort by rocking the fermenter around. Having read Palmer's How To Brew, it seems like this would re-introduce the bitter compounds left by the krausen on the side of the vessel. How is this not a problem? Does the krausen get re-activated and push them back out when you rock it?

"A head of foamy krausen will form on top of the beer. The foam consists of yeast and wort proteins and is a light creamy color, with islands of green-brown gunk that collect and tend to adhere to the sides of the fermentor. The gunk is composed of extraneous wort protein, hop resins, and dead yeast. These compounds are very bitter and if stirred back into the wort, would result in harsh aftertastes. Fortunately these compounds are relatively insoluble and are typically removed by adhering to the sides of the fermentor as the krausen subsides." (http://howtobrew.com/book/section-1/fermentation/primary-or-attenuative-phase)

Thanks
Marc

 

[TheMadKing]

Hi folks,

I understand that there are lots of interesting things that can be added to a single-stage fermentation after primary is over (dry-hopping, oak chips, etc). Typically it seems that it is recommended to mix whatever it is into the worty-beer/beery-wort by rocking the fermenter around. Having read Palmer's How To Brew, it seems like this would re-introduce the bitter compounds left by the krausen on the side of the vessel. How is this not a problem? Does the krausen get re-activated and push them back out when you rock it?

"A head of foamy krausen will form on top of the beer. The foam consists of yeast and wort proteins and is a light creamy color, with islands of green-brown gunk that collect and tend to adhere to the sides of the fermentor. The gunk is composed of extraneous wort protein, hop resins, and dead yeast. These compounds are very bitter and if stirred back into the wort, would result in harsh aftertastes. Fortunately these compounds are relatively insoluble and are typically removed by adhering to the sides of the fermentor as the krausen subsides." (http://howtobrew.com/book/section-1/fermentation/primary-or-attenuative-phase)

Thanks
Marc

I'm not sure where you got the advice to rock your primary fermentor, but don't. There's no need to agitate and the krausen on the sides isn't the issue, the trub at the bottom is. It will get mixed back into the beer (it's beer once primary is complete), and cause a yeasty mess that needs to settle all over again.

If I'm ever adding flavoring (other than dry hops, which I just pour pellets directly into primary) I rack to a secondary fermentor. So for oak chips my process would be:

Finish primary
Soak ~4oz of oak chips in bourbon overnight
Rack to secondary
Drop in oak cubes
let it sit for 7-14 days (I go by taste)
siphon to a keg and leave the oak behind

There's no reason you couldn't do this in Primary really, I just prefer not to sit on my trub for an extra 2 weeks. Just don't agitate your primary unless you want to wait a long time for all of the trub to settle again. It won't hurt anything, just make a mess of your beer for a few days.

 

[MarcGuay]

Thanks. So if you weren't doing secondary you would just throw the hops/oak/herbs/seeds through the bunghole and let them mix on their own?

 

[TheMadKing]

Thanks. So if you weren't doing secondary you would just throw the hops/oak/herbs/seeds through the bunghole and let them mix on their own?

Yep, it might not extract flavor as rapidly as mixing, but it will work just fine.

 

[MarcGuay]

Here's an example of someone suggesting to rock the fermenter after adding things post-primary btw: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=71861. Perhaps it's a different method because it's a sugary liquid.

 

[TheMadKing]

Here's an example of someone suggesting to rock the fermenter after adding things post-primary btw: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=71861. Perhaps it's a different method because it's a sugary liquid.

Ah, in that example, he is not rocking to mix the ingredients, he is rocking first aerate the wort and then to rouse the yeast and restart fermentation with the grape juice. That's common when adding fermentables to the primary after fermentation has slowed.

 

[MarcGuay]

Makes sense, thanks.