Ever ferment in your boil kettle?

[DSorenson]

Dear HBT,
The HBT search engine used to be better... not sure what's going on there.

Anyway... my two-week-and-a-day-old sour mashed rye saison tastes really good *knocks on wood* from the gravity readings I've taken. It's got me encouraged to do it again, but this time with 100% pilsner malt.

I was thinking about doing an "open" fermentation this time. The easiest way I could think of doing that would be to just ferment my beer in the very boil kettle I brewed it in. I plan on sanitizing a mesh bag to cover it with; my house isn't exactly open fermentation friendly.

I am aware of what some folks have to say about not wanting to ferment on all the break and hop material. I used to worry about that very thing until I realized it didn't hurt anything... well except to stress me out. I am not worried about that.

My boil kettle is stainless steel, so I'm not worried about the ethanol reacting with the metal.

I will transfer 7.5 gallons of beer from said boil kettle into two different, appropriately sized carboys after 3 or 4 days. One smaller carboy is going to get some beer and then apple cider to make a graff. The other will be full of the straight saison.

So what do you have to say?

 

[jlangfo5]

So I have done this with quite a few of my last brews actually. It is great if you are trying to save time, effort, especially after a long brew day. I use an Al kettle and havn't noticed any off flavors yet.

What I normally do is chill the kettle in a water bath to about 80-90 ish and just drop the whole kettle into my fermentation chamber till it hits pitching temperature. Once it's at temperature, I pitch the yeast and stir like a madman and work in all the air that I can.

You can probably work more air in every time you walk by it until you see visible signs of fermentation activity.

Primary fermentations in an open container, like a bucket is very common in wine making and it helps the yeast get needed oxygen for early fermentation. In beer world, we tend to drive all of our oxygen off during the boil, and like to ferment in closed carboys so we typically get pretty creative with our oxygen set ups.

Once primary fermentation is slowing down though, you will want to be sure to get it into a carboy and let it finish it's business.

Also, I would like to note, I feel that my brew house efficiency suffers badly when I use this method because I tend to either leave a lot in the kettle, or I get a lot of seddiment into the carboys.

 

[DSorenson]

So I have done this with quite a few of my last brews actually. It is great if you are trying to save time, effort, especially after a long brew day. I use an Al kettle and haven't noticed any off flavors yet.

What I normally do is chill the kettle in a water bath to about 80-90 ish and just drop the whole kettle into my fermentation chamber till it hits pitching temperature. Once it's at temperature, I pitch the yeast and stir like a madman and work in all the air that I can.

You can probably work more air in every time you walk by it until you see visible signs of fermentation activity.

Primary fermentations in an open container, like a bucket is very common in wine making and it helps the yeast get needed oxygen for early fermentation. In beer world, we tend to drive all of our oxygen off during the boil, and like to ferment in closed carboys so we typically get pretty creative with our oxygen set ups.

Once primary fermentation is slowing down though, you will want to be sure to get it into a carboy and let it finish it's business.

Also, I would like to note, I feel that my brew house efficiency suffers badly when I use this method because I tend to either leave a lot in the kettle, or I get a lot of sediment into the carboys.

Thanks for the feedback! I was honestly a little discouraged earlier today as I was considering how I might aerate the wort. I guess I could just use your method of stirring the heck out of it.