Tips on my first BIG beer

[yakoujin89]

Hi, I'm new to making my own beers but last night I aimed for the big bertha. I put two sets (4 cans) of Milestone's black pearl together in a single 40 pints batch. On top of this I added 500g of Brewer's sugar, 500g of extra dark spraymalt, and a further 150g of extra fine dark demerara sugar. The OG is 1.103, compared to my heaviest thus far which was only 1.052.

I pitched the yeast (Nottingham) last night at about 24c and then moved the fermenter bucket to the stairwell outside my flat which is similar temp to an average cellar (16-18c). I'm aware that sometimes normal yeasts won't be able to bring the FG down as far as the 1.010-1.020 range. Would it be a good idea to pitch a super yeast like Alcotec's 24 hour Turbo Yeast towards the end of fermentation (10 days in perhaps)? Would this be able to ferment the residual sugars?

Also, I'm worried about the lid blowing off. Is this likely to happen even at 17~c? When I last checked the airlock it was moving pretty fast - one or two bubbles per second. The krausen also looks pretty well formed, though it hadn't quite reached the lid yet. I pitched the yeast only about 15 hours earlier (about 17 hours now).

 

[yakoujin89]

I just fitted a syphon to the air lock hole and put the end in a jug filled halfway with water. Is doing this a definite way of preventing explosions?

 

[70ls1nova]

yes, that will work, put some sanitizer in the water jug. Did you only pitch one pack of nottingham yeast? If so, that may not be enought to finish your beer, If it does finish, the yeast may be stressed and cause off flavors. I gather that is to be a dry stout, so maybe pitching your super yeast may be the answer, I have never used this yeast though, so i couldn't say for sure.

 

[Shred]

+1 on the above. I always do a blow-off into a contain filled with sanitizer solution, regardless of the size of the beer. Also, 1 packet is only 200 billion cells at it's most viable. You'd probably need twice that for a healthy fermentation. Nottingham will get you up to 10-12% then die off. Beyond that you can try a super yeast or champagne yeast, but you may end up with a very dry beer.

 

[skunkfunk]

If you pitch a turbo yeast (I've never done this), I would hazard a guess that it'll finish tasting very dry and alcoholic. I say just let the nottingham do it's thing, take a taste, and if you like it, you're finished. The nottingham won't stall due to the underpitching, I would think. It's already gone through it's growth phase, no point in pitching more yet. It's usually pretty good at finishing out. If it stalls, it'll be because of the ABV.

 

[yakoujin89]

I didn't sanitise the water in the jug, I didn't think it necessary because the tubing is sanitised and quite long. With the pressure of CO2 pushing out, is it possible for bacteria to move up the tubing? I don't usually sanitise the water in the airlock either, but so far so good… should I start to? As for the FG, if it finishes at 1.020 or so (as I've heard other 1.100~ doing), would it not be quite sweet?

 

[skunkfunk]

The higher the ABV, the more FG you can handle, really. Starting at 1.040 and ending at 1.020 tastes quite different from the same FG starting out at 1.1

Yeah it'll be sweet, but it'll be balanced. Seriously, taste it before you pitch one of those super-yeasts. What's the worst that could happen? Well, the worst that could happen is you pitch a different yeast without tasting it first and it turns out terrible. Not saying it will, just saying taste it first, because my gut instinct is it'll taste better without the turbo yeast.

And yes, it is possible you will get some suck-back on the tubing.

 

[DeBAD]

I agree with the other posts. You are likely under pitched. Since you are still fairly early in the fermentation stage maybe just toss in another packet of the Nottingham dry. It might be too late but it won't hurt.

Also you made the right move on the blow off tube. At that OG its likely gonna take off like a freight train. Enjoy the ride!

Another tip: we did a big beer a couple months ago and I was afraid the lid was gonna blow too. To be safe I put a couple cut 2x4s on top and put 10 lbs of weight on each of the boards and it held. I've heard horror stories about people brewing big beers and finding ferm lids blown off and walls painted with krausen.

Good luck! Your beer is gonna rock bro!

 

[brycelarson]

Since you are still fairly early in the fermentation stage maybe just toss in another packet of the Nottingham dry.

good advice. You should be looking for 400 billion cells for that big a beer.

 

[Jayhem]

This sounds like it's going to be strong! Rocket fuel comes to mind! let us know how it turns out.

 

[GibbyGibson]

I am posting so I can keep track of these tips. I'm interested in doing a big beer soon an would like some advice too. Good luck with yours.

 

[yakoujin89]

I just checked the blow off jug and I'm up to about 3 bubbles of co2 per second

As for the yeast, I pitched two 11g packets on top of half the wort at 24c before pouring the other half (also 24c) on top. I then stirred to be sure it was all mixed in - is it enough or should I add one more packet? What about aeration?

I'm also dry hopping two 50g bags of east kent Goldings for the duration of fermentation btw. Final question, how long will this big a beer take to completely ferment? I've heard of some people leaving big beers for a year?? :O

 

[Shred]

I just checked the blow off jug and I'm up to about 3 bubbles of co2 per second

As for the yeast, I pitched two 11g packets on top of half the wort at 24c before pouring the other half (also 24c) on top. I then stirred to be sure it was all mixed in - is it enough or should I add one more packet? What about aeration?

I'm also dry hopping two 50g bags of east kent Goldings for the duration of fermentation btw. Final question, how long will this big a beer take to completely ferment? I've heard of some people leaving big beers for a year?? :O

I don't think it will hurt to toss in another package of yeast, but it likely won't help either. Most off-flavors are created in the first day or two of fermentation. The growth phase is usually within 12-24 hours.

As for aeration, it's not necessary with dry yeast.

Fermentation will probably be done in a week or 2. You should give it another week or so for D-rest. The long aging you hear with big beers isn't fermentation, it's conditioning/maturing. That can be done in bottle. Let your hydrometer be the judge of when fermentation is complete.

 

[skunkfunk]

I just checked the blow off jug and I'm up to about 3 bubbles of co2 per second

As for the yeast, I pitched two 11g packets on top of half the wort at 24c before pouring the other half (also 24c) on top. I then stirred to be sure it was all mixed in - is it enough or should I add one more packet? What about aeration?

I'm also dry hopping two 50g bags of east kent Goldings for the duration of fermentation btw. Final question, how long will this big a beer take to completely ferment? I've heard of some people leaving big beers for a year?? :O

I'd suggest dry hopping at the very end, just before bottling/kegging. You'll lose much of the aroma with the co2, and you will get grassy flavors if the hops are in there long.

 

[Shred]

I'd suggest dry hopping at the very end, just before bottling/kegging. You'll lose much of the aroma with the co2, and you will get grassy flavors if the hops are in there long.

^ this too. Dry hopping for more than a few days can create less desirable aromas. It's become pretty well accepted that anything more than 3-4 days of dry hopping is unnecessary. The closer you do it to bottling time the better.

 

[yakoujin89]

Came back to uk today after a couple of days in Paris. My flatmate was keeping tabs on the beer while I was away and sent me text each time to let me know how it was. Sometime between 6pm, and my train coming above ground on the English side of the channel tunnel at 10pm, the beer exploded .
It's probably fine, we've cleaned up and reset the lid with the blow out tube reinstalled. Didn't expect it to happen with the blow out in place - especially not on the 4th day of fermentation. I'll post the dramatic photo tomorrow

 

[DeBAD]

I agree with the other posts. You are likely under pitched. Since you are still fairly early in the fermentation stage maybe just toss in another packet of the Nottingham dry. It might be too late but it won't hurt.

Also you made the right move on the blow off tube. At that OG its likely gonna take off like a freight train. Enjoy the ride!

Another tip: we did a big beer a couple months ago and I was afraid the lid was gonna blow too. To be safe I put a couple cut 2x4s on top and put 10 lbs of weight on each of the boards and it held. I've heard horror stories about people brewing big beers and finding ferm lids blown off and walls painted with krausen.

Good luck! Your beer is gonna rock bro!

I hate to quote myself but I told you you should put weight on lid. Oops!

 

[yakoujin89]

Ahh, good point. I didn't do that. I will do it today.

 

[Shred]

Nottingham can be violent.

 

[yakoujin89]

Put a few used tins of beer mix filled with water on top of the lid this morning after pushing down to relieve some gas which was pushing the lid concave. (I'm a student, didn't have any real weights)
I can't stress enough how good an idea this is, thank you very much DeBAD! Without the weights, the lid was pushing out like an old oil storage depot and I was barely getting any gas escaping through the piping. Now, I'm getting about a bubble per second through the piping, and no more lid expansion.

 

[DeBAD]

No prob bro, ferm on! Good luck.

 

[yakoujin89]

Seems to have finished fermentation, it's been 9 days. Shall I keg it?
Even if it's not quite 100% fermented, my guess is that any extra fermentation will just go towards the CO2 produced in the keg, right? The current gravity is 1.032, down from 1.113. Does that sound about right?

 

[Conman13]

I would wait another week, preferably 2 before kegging. Your yeast might not be done lowering the gravity, but they are still at work eating more complex non fermentable compounds and flocculating out. Normally I would go to secondary for at least 2 months for a beer that big.

A beer that big takes a longer time to condition. I'd let the beer stay in the low 60's and condition further before kegging.

 

[yakoujin89]

Fair dues. I'm just a bit anxious to free up the fermenter. Won't in condition in the keg also? I guess I could leave it another week or so.

 

[Conman13]

If you keep the keg in the lower 60F range, sure. Once you cool down to 30's, yeast conditioning activity occurs much more slowly.

 

[DeBAD]

Dude you're not even close. You need to ferm a beer that big AT LEAST 6 weeks. I know some out there frown on it but maybe even toss in a package of Champagne yeast to help get that FG down in the low 1.020s. I'd leave it a total of 3 weeks in the primary then at least 3 more (if not more) in the secondary.

 

[yakoujin89]

Kegged it last night but my plan is to leave it to mature for a month or so before drinking. I just need the fermenter for something else atm. It's good to finish up in the keg, right?


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[SmCranf]

Should have let it sit in primary atleast 2 weeks total.

 

[DeBAD]

Moonshine.

 

[Conman13]

You should be fine in the keg for a month. I would recommend 6-8 weeks personally. I understand being anxious to try it and also move on brewing more things. I am like that sometimes too. But objectively speaking, you will be missing out on big improvements in the beer if you don't let it age for quite a long time. Big beers really need a while to develop.

 

[yakoujin89]

When I kegged it, I added more sugar for carbonation (25g or so, boiled in water). Since then I've tasted once or twice to check on progress (only tiny amounts each time), the beer seems excessively sweet for the small amount of sugar which I added, carbonation doesn't seem to have occurred at all, and the gravity has dropped to 1.023 which is lower than I expected it to drop even when fully fermented out. Also, there seems to be a thin layer of krausen forming at the head of the beer inside the keg - about 1cm worth. There was no krausen in the fermenter when I kegged the beer. Should I be concerned about any of this?

Daniel

 

[Conman13]

Nope! Just give it a while. Big beers take longer to carbonate properly also, sometimes months. You have it at room temperature, right?

 

[yakoujin89]

It's in an alcove where the temperature is slightly lower than the rest of the flat, 17 or 18c. Almost room temp though.


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