When to add extra ingridients?

[jax85]

Hello all,

Thanks for adding me to the forum!

Brewed my 3rd batch of beer this past Sunday (Brewers best Holiday Ale) and screwed the pooch. Made two big mistakes from what I can tell:

1. I mistakenly included the spice pack with grains while steeping wort. Directions called for spice pack to be added to boil right before chilling the wort. From my research, the spices usually do not last long to begin with (beer needs to be consumed fairly quickly?) so I am thinking my beer just wont have any of the holiday flavors from the spice pack (cinnamon, orange peel). Is it appropriate to add additional spices, if so when? (I've been seeing conflicting information while fermenting v at bottling). I was thinking of tossing in some cinnamon sticks and a couple dashes of nutmeg.

2. I had my first blowout just about 24 hours in carboy. I think its because I did not cool the wort down enough before adding yeast. I freaked out with no immediate way to cool the beer down, and stuck it outside (it was about 40 degrees) for about 7 hours overnight. Brought it back inside and the blowout stopped, and I now have consistent clear bubbles in my airlock (Being that its only been going for a few days I have not taken a gravity reading yet). Do you think dropping the temp that fast will negatively effect my beer? I know the airlock is not necessarily accurate all the time, but it appears my yeast is still alive and doing its job.

Thanks for your help!

 

[jalc6927]

If you plan on doing a secondary you can add spices then, be careful to make sure they're soaked in vodka first

Let it set until bubbling slows way down then take gravity reading to see if it's done

 

[Morrey]

Yep...you screwed the pooch alright. J/K...if this is the worst thing you ever do as a brewer you are golden my friend!

Pitching yeast too hot can kill the yeast, but obviously you didn't kill anything...rather you seemed to excite it beyond control. When you say blowout, I suppose you mean foaming krausen from the airlock? You may have lulled the yeast back to sleep outside at 40F, and this is obviously something you want to control better next time than a roller coaster of temp changes. You may get fusel "harsh" alcohol produced from too hot at first, but maybe you caught it in time. Sounds like you will be investing in an immersion chiller in the future after you get this all figured out. Keeping temps very steady in the 60's for ales is ideal.

Spices are aromatics, and aromas are driven off when boiling. You are right in the fact you likely will have lost most of your spice flavors and aromas during your boil. Ideally, I add them in at flameout so they can steep a few minutes. But don't despair...this is fixable. Take some spices ie cloves, cinnamon, orange zest...whatever you choose, and let it sit in a cup of vodka covered for a few days while your fermentation wraps up. (More on that in a second) Strain the solids out with a coffee filter and use the "tincture" when you are ready to bottle your beer as the last step. You'll have a good flavor infusion that is also sanitized from the neutral vodka.

I suggest you leave the beer in the fermenter an extra few days to allow some of the potential off-flavors to settle out since yeast is pretty amazing in that it kind of cleans itself up when done. Don't rush this, and based on your issues at the beginning, I'd personally leave the beer 10-14 days in the fermenter before bottling or kegging.

 

[jax85]

Thank you very much for this detailed response. Would I add the Tincture directly to each bottle, or mix into my brew before bottling? I am looking at a 5 gallon brew, was thinking of splitting it a couple times to test the potency of any additives I may add.

Your right, I already have a Christmas list of new equipment I want to get. I am a little constricted space wise at the moment (city apartment) and think I may still have to rely on the bathtub and ice to cool down before yeast (which is why I had my blowout, I forgot the ice!!!!), but I was looking at the Brew Jacket to help manage temps while fermenting, I'm not happy about the cost $300, but its doable if its a quality product (was also thinking of getting a mini fridge big enough to hold my carboy, so Im not sure what route to go, its cooler now, so I may be able to hold off for a couple months).

Thanks again for your feedback!

Yep...you screwed the pooch alright. J/K...if this is the worst thing you ever do as a brewer you are golden my friend!

Pitching yeast too hot can kill the yeast, but obviously you didn't kill anything...rather you seemed to excite it beyond control. When you say blowout, I suppose you mean foaming krausen from the airlock? You may have lulled the yeast back to sleep outside at 40F, and this is obviously something you want to control better next time than a roller coaster of temp changes. You may get fusel "harsh" alcohol produced from too hot at first, but maybe you caught it in time. Sounds like you will be investing in an immersion chiller in the future after you get this all figured out. Keeping temps very steady in the 60's for ales is ideal.

Spices are aromatics, and aromas are driven off when boiling. You are right in the fact you likely will have lost most of your spice flavors and aromas during your boil. Ideally, I add them in at flameout so they can steep a few minutes. But don't despair...this is fixable. Take some spices ie cloves, cinnamon, orange zest...whatever you choose, and let it sit in a cup of vodka covered for a few days while your fermentation wraps up. (More on that in a second) Strain the solids out with a coffee filter and use the "tincture" when you are ready to bottle your beer as the last step. You'll have a good flavor infusion that is also sanitized from the neutral vodka.

I suggest you leave the beer in the fermenter an extra few days to allow some of the potential off-flavors to settle out since yeast is pretty amazing in that it kind of cleans itself up when done. Don't rush this, and based on your issues at the beginning, I'd personally leave the beer 10-14 days in the fermenter before bottling or kegging.

 

[Morrey]

Thank you very much for this detailed response. Would I add the Tincture directly to each bottle, or mix into my brew before bottling? I am looking at a 5 gallon brew, was thinking of splitting it a couple times to test the potency of any additives I may add.

Your right, I already have a Christmas list of new equipment I want to get. I am a little constricted space wise at the moment (city apartment) and think I may still have to rely on the bathtub and ice to cool down before yeast (which is why I had my blowout, I forgot the ice!!!!), but I was looking at the Brew Jacket to help manage temps while fermenting, I'm not happy about the cost $300, but its doable if its a quality product (was also thinking of getting a mini fridge big enough to hold my carboy, so Im not sure what route to go, its cooler now, so I may be able to hold off for a couple months).

Thanks again for your feedback!

You are very welcome for the feedback. All brewers (young and old, experienced and beginners) have questions, and HBT is a very good place to ask questions w/o being ridiculed.

The great thing about adding tinctures as we are discussing is the ease of controlling these additions w/o getting too much. I add when I keg, but you'll add when you are preparing for bottling in your bottling bucket. At the same time you add in dissolved priming sugar, add in the tincture. You can add in a bit, taste and evaluate, add in more if you choose, and keep going til it hits your fancy. But be aware that to stir the beer TOO much can add in oxygen which is your enemy at this stage of the game since it will dull your beer's taste given time. Try to add these final items in as gently as possible with minimum (but adequate) stirring.

I'll say sanitation and temperature control rank as two of the top process biggies on which a new brewer needs to focus. If nothing else, a carboy in a tub of water with towels wicking up moisture is a plus. A ferm jacket is fine, but a dorm fridge may be less expensive if you have the space. Try looking at some old threads here and note the way some folks have designed "swamp coolers" to get by w/o spending a bundle. Just remember yeast is real active (exothermic heat) during fermentation and can drive the temps up inside your carboy 5-8 degrees over the room's ambient temp.

 

[mr_stout]

jax85, get a wort chiller and connect to your faucet. They work really well.

Soak the spices in vodka and you can add them to the fermenter at any time.

Remember to take a hydrometer reading after you cool the wort down so you can calculate the ABV amount.

Hello all,

Thanks for adding me to the forum!

Brewed my 3rd batch of beer this past Sunday (Brewers best Holiday Ale) and screwed the pooch. Made two big mistakes from what I can tell:

1. I mistakenly included the spice pack with grains while steeping wort. Directions called for spice pack to be added to boil right before chilling the wort. From my research, the spices usually do not last long to begin with (beer needs to be consumed fairly quickly?) so I am thinking my beer just wont have any of the holiday flavors from the spice pack (cinnamon, orange peel). Is it appropriate to add additional spices, if so when? (I've been seeing conflicting information while fermenting v at bottling). I was thinking of tossing in some cinnamon sticks and a couple dashes of nutmeg.

2. I had my first blowout just about 24 hours in carboy. I think its because I did not cool the wort down enough before adding yeast. I freaked out with no immediate way to cool the beer down, and stuck it outside (it was about 40 degrees) for about 7 hours overnight. Brought it back inside and the blowout stopped, and I now have consistent clear bubbles in my airlock (Being that its only been going for a few days I have not taken a gravity reading yet). Do you think dropping the temp that fast will negatively effect my beer? I know the airlock is not necessarily accurate all the time, but it appears my yeast is still alive and doing its job.

Thanks for your help!

 

[BrianDorry55]

Thank you very much for this detailed response. Would I add the Tincture directly to each bottle, or mix into my brew before bottling? I am looking at a 5 gallon brew, was thinking of splitting it a couple times to test the potency of any additives I may add.

Your right, I already have a Christmas list of new equipment I want to get. I am a little constricted space wise at the moment (city apartment) and think I may still have to rely on the bathtub and ice to cool down before yeast (which is why I had my blowout, I forgot the ice!!!!), but I was looking at the Brew Jacket to help manage temps while fermenting, I'm not happy about the cost $300, but its doable if its a quality product (was also thinking of getting a mini fridge big enough to hold my carboy, so Im not sure what route to go, its cooler now, so I may be able to hold off for a couple months).

Thanks again for your feedback!

Two of the best things I’ve added are a copper immersion chiller and a submersible pump. So in my case, I hook the immersion chiller to my hose, cool it down to around 120 fairly quickly like that, but the process slows down at this point, especially with warm FL water. So I put the submersible pump at the bottom of a cooler, hook up the the immersion chiller and cover with ice and pour in a gallon or so of cold water. Plug in the pump and wait for the water to start running cold out of the chiller runoff...then put the chiller runoff into the cooler of ice with the pump in it so you’re recirculating very cold water. So what I would do in your case is buy an immersion chiller and pump. Buy a hookup for your faucet since I’m assuming you don’t have access to a hose in your apartment....and then just submerge the pump in your bathtub full of ice water. Another huge difference maker that I learned is that you need to keep the wort moving. I pull out my chiller and stir the wort with my sanitized paddle every 5 mins or so. Makes a big difference.