Hi all,
I have two BrewZillas set up in my garage for fermentation. I’ve been brewing for years—hundreds of gallons under my belt—but this was the first time I tried to ferment under pressure using the bulkhead connectors on the BrewZilla and a Spunding valve.
In case anyone is asking, here’s the malt bill for the Session IPA (10 Gal):
1/2 # Rice Hulls
11# Pilsner
7.5 # Flaked Oats
Now, I made two big (2-L) starters of London Ale III for this—both seemed pretty healthy.
The mash went great-consistent 152 for 60 min, MO at 168, fly sparge at 168. 74% BH efficiency using a BrewZilla 65L. Mash got a little slow/sticky but that was the only issue.
O.G. 1.051
I then cooled the wort and racked to two FermZillas using custom-made coils and pumps hooked up to chiller water in my chest freezer.
Two days into fermentation—no krausen. Just little bubbles on the surface for a couple days as the gravity fell. Now, it was holding pressure for sure! Releasing the pressure produced a ton of CO2 bubbles. Also, the fermentation was done in less than 4 days—it reached 1.010 very quickly due to a high cell count/relatively high fermentation temp (~69). Could it have been that the pressure suppressed the krausen?
Thanks!!
I have two BrewZillas set up in my garage for fermentation. I’ve been brewing for years—hundreds of gallons under my belt—but this was the first time I tried to ferment under pressure using the bulkhead connectors on the BrewZilla and a Spunding valve.
In case anyone is asking, here’s the malt bill for the Session IPA (10 Gal):
1/2 # Rice Hulls
11# Pilsner
7.5 # Flaked Oats
Now, I made two big (2-L) starters of London Ale III for this—both seemed pretty healthy.
The mash went great-consistent 152 for 60 min, MO at 168, fly sparge at 168. 74% BH efficiency using a BrewZilla 65L. Mash got a little slow/sticky but that was the only issue.
O.G. 1.051
I then cooled the wort and racked to two FermZillas using custom-made coils and pumps hooked up to chiller water in my chest freezer.
Two days into fermentation—no krausen. Just little bubbles on the surface for a couple days as the gravity fell. Now, it was holding pressure for sure! Releasing the pressure produced a ton of CO2 bubbles. Also, the fermentation was done in less than 4 days—it reached 1.010 very quickly due to a high cell count/relatively high fermentation temp (~69). Could it have been that the pressure suppressed the krausen?
Thanks!!
