Recent content by CaptainK

I hit the Cysers with sulfite and sorbate. Ran out of time so I just decided to bulk age in the cornys instead of bottling. Is this a bad idea? Is the sulphur supposed to have a way to get out? Can I sweeten and bottle without doing anything else in say 6 months?

The verdict is in. Fantastic head retention! No problem.

Thanks for the reply. How about an optimum temp for the potassium sorbate, and potassium metabisulfite? The D-47 carboy is clear, the Nottingham carboy is cloudy. I hit it with some gelatin and it is at 42 right now. I did pasteurize the juice for both and added pectic enzyme.

I made a couple of cysers last fall OG 1.091. They both fermented out to around 1.000 in 10 days. A couple of weeks later I saw airlock activity, and many bubbles rising. I figured it was malolactic fermentation and let it ride. 7 months later I am getting ready to bottle (both tast fine)...

I added the dregs, but not the juice. I thought I might wait for some additional advice (which just came in, thanks dc I see you did this before). I am anxious to add the juice because I have 5.2 gal. in a 6.5 gal. fermenter. That's a lot of head space. My primary strain 3787 would eat that...

I tried to do the starter the same as for normal yeast from the LBS. Need to rethink that strategy. I found a gallon jug of mango juice at the store. Going to add that along with the dregs tonight. Will add 3 lbs. fresh (I just froze them) at maybe month 5 of a 6 month secondary? How long...

Looks like the starter got contaminated. Maybe I will just add the dregs of 2 bottles of Orval. Looks like the temp in the closet is 64.

One last post to wrap this up. I did a count and looks like I doubled my population. out of 335 cells counted only 22 were the large type I thought were "saccharomyces looking". My gravity did not drop however. Started out at 1.040 and ended up at 1.040. I don't know how accurate this is...

I decided to stop the experiment due to asphyxiation and unhappy wife. I also started to think that if ethanol was being oxidized to ethyl acetate then the yeast were past the reproduction stage (even in the presence of oxygen which is constantly being added) so I was done doing what I set out...

Still high white frothy krausen. Starting to smell like acetone. Wife is not happy. Edit: Wife is really unhappy. We have a newborn in the house and she is losing tolerance for this project. It is in a pretty small room and it really stinks. This is what OSHA has to say about ethyl...

I just came back to brewing after a couple of year break. It has been hard to remember all of the little things that used to be habit. Such as, how much Whirlfolc to add. I have a bag of it in powdered form, not tablets. Should have searched it because it turns out I added about 10g into...

Sounds like a good idea to hold off on the mangos. I will freeze them. I will count my Brett when the krausen subsides. Interesting what is happening in the starter. Thanks

I didn't see any activity after 24 hours in the stepped up starter. This morning (40 hours) I had significant activity and dense creamy krausen with a super light bubble bath looknig krausen growing on top of that. It is starting to smell like fresh cheese in here. I read somewhere that Brett...

I am culturing up the dregs of a bottle of Orval and doing counts to check progress. I can see what appears to be two distinct yeast populations. A large "saccharomyces looking" population, and a smaller population. This would make sense since there should be primary fermentation yeast in...

I am culturing up the dregs of a bottle of Orval right now. I have a Belgian Pale in primary that I was going to throw it in for 6 months. Then I ran across this mango brett beer and that sounds even better. Problem: If I top up a 5 gal. carboy with the beer and 7lb. mango puree I can...