Open fermentation longer than 3 days

[youngson616]

Hey folks. I got about 10 open ferments under my belt, mostly wheat beers. I only go 3 days to try and avoid contamination, and in every ferment I acheive 1.020 gravity, even post secondary for week or two. I'm thinking about trying 5 days open to try and reach a proper attenuation, around 1.010 or lower. Anyone try this? Watched a few British and German videos of breweries that go as long as a week open, under great conditions obviously and then bottle. I think the biggest benefit I have seen in open fermentation is the little to no sulfer in the beer which is sometimes prevelent in my closed ferments

 

[youngson616]

So my hypothesis is that transferring after 3 days open to closed secondary @ 1.020 gravity will not result lower gravity at all, but just maybe leaving in primary an additional day or two will drop the gravity.

 

[RM-MN]

What keeps you from putting a top of some kind on the primary fermenter? Cling wrap plastic seems like a viable solution on a small fermenter.

 

[youngson616]

What keeps you from putting a top of some kind on the primary fermenter?

Well mostly for open fermentation purposes, but in closed ferments initially I don't because of blow out or clogged airlocks, happens everytime with my hefes. I thought about putting a lid/airlock on after the 3 days open but that would create pressure (i think) In the fermenter and push all that exposed air krausen into my brew (possible contamination). I ferment in bottle bucket to make it easy to transfer from under the krausen just using gravity.

 

[youngson616]

What keeps you from putting a top of some kind on the primary fermenter?

More esters, less sulfur

 

[RM-MN]

I thought about putting a lid/airlock on after the 3 days open but that would create pressure (i think) In the fermenter and push all that exposed air krausen into my brew (possible contamination).

The cling wrap (Saran Wrap) shouldn't be able to hold much pressure. It would let CO2 out through the overlap assuming the fermenter was wider than the cling wrap necessitating 2 pieces.

 

[Witherby]

Do you step mash your wheat beers (or mash low for maximum fermentability)? I feel like that has a bigger effect than open vs. closed. I open ferment a lot (loose lid--not completely open) but usually mash for fermentability and aim for good attenuation, so haven't noticed (or haven't paid attention) on the effect it has on final gravity.

 

[youngson616]

Do you step mash your wheat beers (or mash low for maximum fermentability)?

I step mash with the last step being decoction. I started open fermenting right around the time I started step mashing, go figure.