Night Brewing. Worth risking bugs?

[joeldp144]

I am considering brewing one evening in the next week or so, but I am concerned about bugs flying into my wort once it has cooled down. I brew AG in a keggle, immersion chiller, and transfer by hose to bucket fermenters. The buckets would be wide open during transfer, and I wouldn't be able to prevent any bugs from dropping into the wort. I would probably start after work and be cooling down around 10 or 11 PM. Live in the south, and there are plenty of night bugs and mosquitos.

Should I be worried about this much? Is it worth putting off brewing for a few weeks until I have a morning available?

Wife is pregnant with twins, so I am trying to stock up before I get grounded from brewing for a while.

 

[strat_thru_marshall]

June Bug IPA.


Get a bug zapper?

 

[Teromous]

You're going to need the beer when the babies come. Maybe a giant mosquito net, or one of those large outside bug tents you can put up. Find a way!

 

[dRaPP]

stick your hose in the bucket, start the flow and cover with Saran wrap. sure it won't be airtight, but then again bugs are stupid...

 

[Laughing_Gnome_Invisible]

You're going to need the beer when the babies come. Maybe a giant mosquito net, or one of those large outside bug tents you can put up. Find a way!

That gives me an idea!! How about stretching a sanitized paint strainer over the bucket. pouring the wort through that would help aeration and stop the bugs too!

 

[Ringmaster]

I hear there's yellow lights that scare bugs away, try looking into those?

 

[tomlivings]

Smoke loads of cigarettes, light some citronella, hose through some sterilized muslin if necessary.
I feel your pain on the pregnancy thing...I just have a baby boy since 4 weeks. It truly is only a small sacrifice

 

[abbot555]

Just name your brew after the first bug to drop in it LOL !

 

[pd230soi]

I brew almost always at night outside so the kids will be asleep. Never had a problem with bugs.

 

[dgooden]

Just did a night brew on friday, started about 8pm, went until 12 or so. I brew outside with just a cooler mash tun and a brew kettle, so had some transferring between buckets going on. I live in florida, so the humidity was the worst part. Beer helps.

No issues with bugs in the brew - the mosquitos were more interested in us. SWMBO barely survived an aerial attack by a large beetle.

 

[ghpeel]

That gives me an idea!! How about stretching a sanitized paint strainer over the bucket. pouring the wort through that would help aeration and stop the bugs too!

+1 - I do this anyway, even if I'm brewing during the day. Great way to filter out some break material and hops if you suck at whirlpooling. I'm like a whirpoolin' 'tard, so this works for me.

 

[biochemedic]

I remember a thread on another board about weird things falling into the boil...a bug was one of them, and that poster just scooped it out and kept going...said the beer was fine.

I do a couple of mead recipies that require boiling...you want to see lots of bees? Boil some honey outside in the spring in NC!

Further to the filter idea...I also agree with this and do it regularly (I use a nylon filter). Pour through this into my bottling bucket and then via spigot and hose into the carboy. Good aeration, and gets most of the hop debris and some break out.

 

[JNye]

i brew at night or early morning. even the worst flocculating bugs will fall out during cold crash.

 

[Daybis]

I have it happen to me. I just scoop it out and move on. I thought about making a cover for my brew pot with some window screens.

 

[Paddle_Head]

I brew at night exclusively.

Just make sure you set up camp as far as possible from your porch lights, since that is where 99% of bugs are going to be attracted too. Other than that, cover pretty much everything but the boil, and you'll be fine.

 

[joeldp144]

Thanks for all of the advice. I proceeded with the brew session from 6 to 11'ish last night. I used a cover for the pot, and I kept it on between stirring. I also kept the lid partially on the fermenter as I made my transfer.....leaving only enough opening to get the beer into the bucket.

I didn't notice any bugs flying in, and both fermenters were bubbling away this morning. So far, so good.

 

[v2comp]

I would recommend not leaving the lid on at all during the boil, DMS needs to evaporate out of the boil kettle. "Covered boil
Covering the brew kettle during the boil prevents DMS from evaporating, and results in high levels of DMS in the finished beer.
Slow cooling
Because DMS is created at temperatures below boiling, cooling the wort too slowly means that excessive levels of DMS can be created which cannot be evaporated once the boil has stopped.
The DMS produced during the hot wort stand will stay in solution even if the hot wort tank is vented. For every extra hour of hot wort stand, a DMS increase of approximately 30% will result. The level of DMS in the wort determines the level of DMS in finished beer". straight from Wikipedia....lol

 

[joeldp144]

I would recommend not leaving the lid on at all during the boil, DMS needs to evaporate out of the boil kettle. "Covered boil
Covering the brew kettle during the boil prevents DMS from evaporating, and results in high levels of DMS in the finished beer.
Slow cooling
Because DMS is created at temperatures below boiling, cooling the wort too slowly means that excessive levels of DMS can be created which cannot be evaporated once the boil has stopped.
The DMS produced during the hot wort stand will stay in solution even if the hot wort tank is vented. For every extra hour of hot wort stand, a DMS increase of approximately 30% will result. The level of DMS in the wort determines the level of DMS in finished beer". straight from Wikipedia....lol

I should have clarified. I left the lid off during the boil. I use an immersion chiller, so as I was cooling the wort, I left the lid on which covers about 75% of the kettle opening. The DMS should have been boiled out. I only used the lid at sub-boiling temperatures, and I removed it from time to time to stir.

I read a little about DMS, and that makes me want to lean toward a counterflow chiller on future 10 gallon batches since it took me an hour to get my 10 gallons down to the upper 80's. Tap water was in the low 80's. Either that, or just brew large batches in the winter.

 

[Tlylebrew]

Never had a problem with brewing at nght, but wasn't that worried about bugs in my beer. I figure they will settle out in primary