brooksbrew
Active Member
Hi! First off, love all the great helpful people who post on here!
I was gonna direct message a member - Odie - who I think has a lot of knowledge on this based on their past posts - but it looks like you need to have a certain number (5?) of posts before this is unlocked. I've read a bunch of posts on related topics but they didn't fully address my question.
Are there ale yeasts that, If I want to get good ester expression, I need to not use a spunding valve for at all? Or is there a point (like sometime after kreusen dies down) that I should be ok to start spunding without killing ester expression? Or does it vary highly between yeast strains - so it would just be an experiment every new strain I try?
Little backstory if wanted/needed:
So I tried my first two ales fermented in corny kegs recently, an english ale with WY1469 and hefeweizen with WY3068. I used a blowoff tube until the kreusen died down, then I attached a spunding valve to both. The english ale seems to have good esters, maybe a little muted but it seems similar to other ales I've made with this yeast. The hefewiezen is really boring, though, it tastes almost like an american wheat. The pressure in the two kegs only reached about 20 psi at room temp at the end of fermentation, so I would need to attach the spunding valve sooner if I wanted to fully carb the hefewiezen that way.
I can't be sure the muted expression on the hefe is from the pressure added due to spunding because I had a fermentation temp control debacle at the same time.
The old wine fridge that I use with an inkbird stopped working during peak kreusen activity, so the temperatures swung from high of 73 down to low 60s after I busted out the old school swamp cooler methods to reign it in. Maybe the downward swing to about 60 F (which lasted quite a while) muted the expression?
I originally was excited about streamlining by fermenting & serving from the same keg and spunding to skip the carbonating step afterward - but now I'm wondering if this is not possible while still getting good esters. Like I said above though, the temp control debacle has confounded the results.
Thanks!
I was gonna direct message a member - Odie - who I think has a lot of knowledge on this based on their past posts - but it looks like you need to have a certain number (5?) of posts before this is unlocked. I've read a bunch of posts on related topics but they didn't fully address my question.
Are there ale yeasts that, If I want to get good ester expression, I need to not use a spunding valve for at all? Or is there a point (like sometime after kreusen dies down) that I should be ok to start spunding without killing ester expression? Or does it vary highly between yeast strains - so it would just be an experiment every new strain I try?
Little backstory if wanted/needed:
So I tried my first two ales fermented in corny kegs recently, an english ale with WY1469 and hefeweizen with WY3068. I used a blowoff tube until the kreusen died down, then I attached a spunding valve to both. The english ale seems to have good esters, maybe a little muted but it seems similar to other ales I've made with this yeast. The hefewiezen is really boring, though, it tastes almost like an american wheat. The pressure in the two kegs only reached about 20 psi at room temp at the end of fermentation, so I would need to attach the spunding valve sooner if I wanted to fully carb the hefewiezen that way.
I can't be sure the muted expression on the hefe is from the pressure added due to spunding because I had a fermentation temp control debacle at the same time.
The old wine fridge that I use with an inkbird stopped working during peak kreusen activity, so the temperatures swung from high of 73 down to low 60s after I busted out the old school swamp cooler methods to reign it in. Maybe the downward swing to about 60 F (which lasted quite a while) muted the expression?
I originally was excited about streamlining by fermenting & serving from the same keg and spunding to skip the carbonating step afterward - but now I'm wondering if this is not possible while still getting good esters. Like I said above though, the temp control debacle has confounded the results.
Thanks!
What was your experience like when you spunded a hefe after you were past the blow off tube period? When did you start spunding, yeast strain, level of ester suppression? Thanks
