A few questions stemming from yesterday's brew day.

[chexjc]

Hey all, I have a few questions from yesterday's brew day of an amber ale. It was a full-boil 5-gallon batch of extract with steeping grains.

1. I'm still dialing in my system. Yesterday I used a yardstick to get an accurate read on how much water I was using and after punching the numbers into Beersmith, I started with 6.3 Gallons of water in the pot. At the end of the brew I had something pretty close to 5.5 Gallons, instead of the 5.1 I was aiming for. I think a large part of this was a) I didn't boil very vigorously and b) I didn't account for the volume of water added by 6.3lbs of LME. I thought it made sense to use just enough power on the burner to get that rolling boil, so as to not waste propane or burn off too much water. Once I realized I was off-course a bit (about 40 minutes into the boil), I kicked it up and only then do I feel like I really saw the beer foam up. Perhaps I'm just not being vigorous enough? On the LME...I read somewhere that 6lbs of LME=1/2 Gallon of water. Is that true? With lighter beers, I like to do late-additions, so that makes it tricky to account for the volume of water in the extract.

2. Aerating. I did my first several brews with a carboy and did lots of shaking. Since switching to buckets, I've been pouring back and forth from the kettle to bottling bucket a few times and then running through the spigot for extra aeration into the fermenter. Normally this is all well, but yesterday I had more foam than I've ever seen in my life. Pair this with the fact that I ditched the hop bag I usually use (this recipe was light on hops -- 2oz total) and I made the biggest mess of all time. Hop cover foam. EVERYWHERE. Initially too much for me to even fill the bottling bucket. I feel like I probably lost a solid gallon of beer to foam...which is alright because I had a half gallon more than anticipated anyway. Any insight on this?

Overall it was a great brew day, the wort tasted fantastic, but these were the two things that stuck out as problems. Thanks for any advice

 

[joshesmusica]

1) just figure out your actual boil-off rates (i.e. _ gal/hr) and type that into beersmith.

2) http://brulosophy.com/2015/05/25/wort-aeration-pt-1-shaken-vs-nothing-exbeeriment-results/

 

[RM-MN]

Hey all, I have a few questions from yesterday's brew day of an amber ale. It was a full-boil 5-gallon batch of extract with steeping grains.

1. I'm still dialing in my system. Yesterday I used a yardstick to get an accurate read on how much water I was using and after punching the numbers into Beersmith, I started with 6.3 Gallons of water in the pot. At the end of the brew I had something pretty close to 5.5 Gallons, instead of the 5.1 I was aiming for. I think a large part of this was a) I didn't boil very vigorously and b) I didn't account for the volume of water added by 6.3lbs of LME. I thought it made sense to use just enough power on the burner to get that rolling boil, so as to not waste propane or burn off too much water. Once I realized I was off-course a bit (about 40 minutes into the boil), I kicked it up and only then do I feel like I really saw the beer foam up. Perhaps I'm just not being vigorous enough? On the LME...I read somewhere that 6lbs of LME=1/2 Gallon of water. Is that true? With lighter beers, I like to do late-additions, so that makes it tricky to account for the volume of water in the extract.

2. Aerating. I did my first several brews with a carboy and did lots of shaking. Since switching to buckets, I've been pouring back and forth from the kettle to bottling bucket a few times and then running through the spigot for extra aeration into the fermenter. Normally this is all well, but yesterday I had more foam than I've ever seen in my life. Pair this with the fact that I ditched the hop bag I usually use (this recipe was light on hops -- 2oz total) and I made the biggest mess of all time. Hop cover foam. EVERYWHERE. Initially too much for me to even fill the bottling bucket. I feel like I probably lost a solid gallon of beer to foam...which is alright because I had a half gallon more than anticipated anyway. Any insight on this?

Overall it was a great brew day, the wort tasted fantastic, but these were the two things that stuck out as problems. Thanks for any advice

Gee, I'm sorry you are going to have too much beer. Do you need someone to help drink it?

When you boil you don't need more than a slow roll. Guessing how much will boil off is just that, a guess. Changes in humidity or the temperature will change how much you boil off. Just roll with it. You can bottle the extra or dump it out. I know that I would just bottle it.

Your yeast need oxygen for reproduction. That's why we aerate but it sound like you overdid it. There is a limit to how much oxygen you can get to dissolve in the wort. I only dump the wort into the fermenter, back to the pot, and back to the fermenter. My beers always have alcohol in them.

 

[Freddyj123]

what about using a paint mixer to aerate in the kettle prior to transfer to fermentor?

 

[jbaysurfer]

You're fine. The foam from aerating should settle down after a few minutes and you can add the last of your wort after that if you like.

One thing that stands out to me though is a risk, and it can be mitigated, but I want you to be aware of it at least: When you run through the spigot in your bottling bucket your clean/cooled wort, you're giving any bacteria that may live in there a prime nutritious meal. If you don't clean it properly before and after you could easily be introducing that bacteria into your brew process. I don't use a bottling bucket anymore but when I did, I dis-assembled it every single time and cleaned and sanitized the crap out of it. Between that and autosiphons, I feel those are the most infection prone places in a homebrew set up.

Boil off...it just takes a little time to dial it in, and depending on where you set your case/how vigorous the boil is, it will be a little different every time. The more you brew the better you'll learn what the ideal boil vigor is, but I'm well over 100 batches into my current setup and still over/undershoot my boiloff however slightly, most of the time. It's not really possible to eyeball it and get it perfect every time....and it's not really necessary either. Don't worry about the volume of LME, Beersmith will factor that into the volume calculations.

 

[chexjc]

Gee, I'm sorry you are going to have too much beer. Do you need someone to help drink it?

Haha! I'm all set! I think I did the same thing -- kettle, bucket, kettle, bucket...but it was too much. Thanks for the advice!

what about using a paint mixer to aerate in the kettle prior to transfer to fermentor?

Hmmm...

One thing that stands out to me though is a risk, and it can be mitigated, but I want you to be aware of it at least: When you run through the spigot in your bottling bucket your clean/cooled wort, you're giving any bacteria that may live in there a prime nutritious meal. If you don't clean it properly before and after you could easily be introducing that bacteria into your brew process. I don't use a bottling bucket anymore but when I did, I dis-assembled it every single time and cleaned and sanitized the crap out of it. Between that and autosiphons, I feel those are the most infection prone places in a homebrew set up.

Boil off...it just takes a little time to dial it in, and depending on where you set your case/how vigorous the boil is, it will be a little different every time. The more you brew the better you'll learn what the ideal boil vigor is, but I'm well over 100 batches into my current setup and still over/undershoot my boiloff however slightly, most of the time. It's not really possible to eyeball it and get it perfect every time....and it's not really necessary either. Don't worry about the volume of LME, Beersmith will factor that into the volume calculations.

Thanks for all the great tips! I also take apart and clean the spigot and auto-siphon after every use, but if I could do without the bottling bucket, I'd be happy to. I thought another benefit was the ability to leave some of the hop gunk/protein matter behind when transferring to the kettle. This time it just caused more trouble as the valve started getting clogged because I didn't use the hop bag like usual. I think I will do away with that method from here on out. More cleaning anyway! I still feel cautiously optimistic about this batch. You ever brew one and just think...everything is in place for this to be a fantastic beer?