Second brew - William's Brewery English Bitters

[brewfreaky]

Back at it. Had an extra kit from the incorrect order they sent me so I purchased the wyeast 1768 English special bitter. I brought it out to room temp for 3 days. It took awhile to bloat up. Had to shake it every once and awhile. It now looks like a balloon. I put it back into the fridge after day 3. Brought it out this AM. No longer than 5 days from activation.

Started the boil. Now when your hops get caked on the side from boiling, is that too heavy of a boil? Just an inch or two above the liquid. I'm not going crazy full power, enough to bubble in the middle. Sometimes it will cake to the side. When I see it, I slosh the wort with the spoon to mix it back in. Right thing to do or just leave it?

I will be using a bucket of cold water and a submersible pump and run it through thr chiller. Do you need to star san the chiller or just have it clean? I did the last batch but since it's hot, it should be okay, or no?

Also turned up the boil a tad. This looks better, as long as not much is sticking?

 

[brewfreaky]

the 5 gallon bucket of cold water got warm very fast!

what's everyone's take on letting it sit to room temp?

 

[hotbeer]

Many do no chill brewing. Some do leave it in the kettle. The only thing you risk is that infection might take hold before the yeast you pitch get sufficient to hold most everything else at bay. But it's only a risk, not a given and most that do no chill apparently are successful in avoiding that risk.

So if you don't chill it quickly, then just mitigate any chance for infection to start. Keep the lid on and don't peek. Or put it in a sanitary container made for boiling hot liquids.

You mention chiller. If you are talking about those copper coils you run water through, then just make sure it's clean. Put it in right at flame out or just before and the boiling wort will sanitize it sufficiently.

You can boil as hard or as soft as you want. Everyone has a different opinion about it. I'll do one batch hard and another soft. I still haven't made up my mind which is better. However hard boils seem better for cold break when chilling. However only slightly.

Sure, splash the wort up on the side and wash the hop back in if you think it's a lot of hops to matter. Or consider a hop bags or spider for future batches.

 

[brewfreaky]

So how much trub do you leave in the kettle? I stopped here. Sucked in some before I took the pic

 

[Steveruch]

the 5 gallon bucket of cold water got warm very fast!

what's everyone's take on letting it sit to room temp?

I've been no-chill brewing for a while now, on everything from porter to pilsner with good results.

 

[VikeMan]

Back at it. Had an extra kit from the incorrect order they sent me so I purchased the wyeast 1768 English special bitter. I brought it out to room temp for 3 days. It took awhile to bloat up. Had to shake it every once and awhile. It now looks like a balloon.

This wasn't your question, but for future reference, all "activation" really does is prove that you have live yeast. There's no reason to let it sit warm for days or even hours after smacking the pack. You're just losing live cells that way. When I use Wyeast strains, I don't usually bother smacking at all.

 

[palmtrees]

So how much trub do you leave in the kettle? I stopped here. Sucked in some before I took the pic View attachment 809151

I pour pretty much the whole kettle into my fermenter, trub and all. I don't notice any I'll effects, in taste or clarity, and some people think there are actually benefits to it (though I just do it because I'm lazy and don't want to lose any wort). I think trub vs. no trub is more about personal preference than anything else, so do what feels right to you.

 

[hotbeer]

A nit pick and I might be wrong...

It's not trub until it is at the bottom of the FV. In a boil kettle prior to reaching the FV I'd just say sediment or solids. Perhaps there is a proper word for it in brewing jargon.

But the definitions for trub just reference them in a fermenter.

That being said, IMO anything that is on the bottom of the boil kettle will just pretty much go straight to the bottom of the FV. Trub is said to be beneficial to yeast. How much is too much? I haven't correlated any thing bad or good by how much is on the bottom of my FV. It just sometimes makes racking the beer out more tedious.

 

[brewfreaky]

Good info everyone!

I bought the vivosun 800gph pump and it took two 5 gallon buckets of cold water to get 4 gallons down to 68 degrees, in the garage at around 40 degrees outside.

Odd that the instructions said to boil 3-4 gallons of water, then at the end add cold water to the chilled wort to make 5 gallons. Any reason for this? I don't see the logic. The ipa kit said start will 5 gallons and then top off back to 5 at the end.

 

[VikeMan]

Odd that the instructions said to boil 3-4 gallons of water, then at the end add cold water to the chilled wort to make 5 gallons. Any reason for this? I don't see the logic. The ipa kit said start will 5 gallons and then top off back to 5 at the end.

The kit instructions assume that people (typically new brewers) don't have a large enough kettle and/or a large enough heat source for a full volume boil. But if you have both, full volume boils are preferable.

 

[RM-MN]

So how much trub do you leave in the kettle? I stopped here. Sucked in some before I took the pic View attachment 809151

Notice the liquid amongst the break material? That is potential beer that you left in the boil pot. Next time dump it all into the fermenter and let the yeast have at it. At bottling/kegging time, leave what has settled out. You'll get more beer that way.

 

[hotbeer]

Adding water after the boil is common for a lot of us. Whether we are a majority or not I don't know.

In my case I don't have a big enough pot to boil the roughly 3.8 gallons required for my 2.5 gallon brews. So as my 2.5 gallon kettle boils off, I'll add water to the boil. I keep another pot of water boiling so I don't kill the boil when I add it.

After the boil while I'm chilling the wort I just let that water cool and might even put it in a larger container with ice. It's usually only a quart or so, but I'll need to use in to top off my FV to the 2.5 mark since I won't get 2.5 gallons of wort out of a 2.5 gallon kettle. And the dilution also brings my wort down to or very close to the predicted SG to go into the FV.

Your only concern for adding water is what it's doing for your SG and if it might be contaminated with something wild that will take hold in your FV and change the taste of your beer before the yeast get going good enough to suppress their growth.

I feel my boiled water does that and likely most bottled waters are fine too. And perhaps most municipal water. But just be sure your containers used for any were clean and sanitized. Heat is a sanitizer too if you boil.

Sounds like you are doing extract brewing so I'd think distilled water or RO water will be your better choices.

 

[brewfreaky]

yea, my concern is adding water to cooled wort and potential for contamination. I did clean the clean glass bowl and Star San it before using it to pour tap water into it.

Unfortunately, I havent heard any bubbling. Im not close it so I have to walk over to check and didn't hear anything. Instructions say on 1-3 days it should start. Hopefully it does its thing!

 

[PCABrewing]

Unfortunately, I havent heard any bubbling. Im not close it so I have to walk over to check and didn't hear anything. Instructions say on 1-3 days it should start. Hopefully it does its thing!

Most of mine are bubbling within 12 hrs, many are within 4 hrs, but I have had lag time as long as two days and everything finished just fine.
Don't worry too much about it.

 

[simbabrew]

One of my favorite kits from William's, well balanced and true to style.

 

[hotbeer]

Unfortunately, I havent heard any bubbling.

Don't worry about bubbles. SG is the main thing that will tell you if something is happening or has happened. I usually waited till the beer cleaned up in 3 to 6 weeks before ever taking a sample to check for FG.

If you can see some foamy looking trub and yeast on the sides of the FV above the liquid level, then probably your krausen is over and now it's all about patience.