All grain Blue Moon

[newbiewinemaker]

Hey Guys,

So I just made my first All Grain Beer on Sunday and its in the primary now. I didnt see any signs of fermentation within the first 12 hours so I mixed it really good and the next day the airlock was bubbling like crazy. Well today it hasnt bubbled at all. I cracked the lid and peaked inside and saw a big crust on top of the wort. Is this normal? I have been fermenting right around 70 degrees. I just don't want my first batch to spoil? Any suggestions? I am a wine maker so just stepping into the beer world. Any help would be awesome!

Thanks!

 

[schiersteinbrewing]

The crust is normal. Just sit back and let the yeasties work.

 

[newbiewinemaker]

Perfect! Thanks for the input! Now I can stop worrying! Cheers!

 

[WaltG]

What recipe did you use. I am thinking about a blue moon clone.

 

[newbiewinemaker]

My Recipe:

4.25 LB White Wheat
1 LB Flaked Oats
5.5 LB Maris Otter Malt

Mash: 3.5 gallons @ 150F
Sparge: 5 gallons @ 175F


BOIL: 30 Min

3/4 oz Hersbrucker 30 min
1/2 oz Saaz 30 min
Yeast fuel 15 min
Blue Moon Spice Pack 10 min
1/4 oz Hersbrucker 5 min
1/4 oz Saaz 5 min

I am not sure what was in the blue moon spice pack. It looked like dried orange peels and maybe corriander?

I ordered the AG kit from Austin Homebrew Supply. It smells amazing!

Here is the link:

http://www.austinhomebrew.com/product_info.php?products_id=10902

 

[sachsebrewer]

If you are using the Belgian Ale yeast then it is a little tempermental in terms of temperature, I believe it likes 68 F, but I couldn't keep it right there so I had to swirl the fermentation jug every 2-3 days and each time the yeast would kick off again. Watch your temperature very closely if using this yeast.

 

[newbiewinemaker]

I am using White Labs Belgian Wit Ale Yeast. The instructions say for the temp to be always around 70 F and good areation. The airlock is not bubbling anymore like I stated earlier. It did like crazy at about the 20 hour mark and did all day straight. Now there is a crust inside on the top and its not bubbling anymore. Do I need to swirl it? It says to not touch it for 5-7 days then to rack off lees to secondary for another 5-7 days

 

[tooblue02]

There a re couple of good all grain recipies in the reciepies section, this is one I used and it came out pretty good.

5.25 lb US 2-row
4.5 lb Weyermann Light Wheat Malt
1.0 lb Flaked Wheat
4 oz Acid Malt (for pH adjustment)

1.325 oz Hallertau (3.9%, pellet) 70 min (90 min if chilling)
1 oz Valencia Orange Peel - in cube (10-5 min if chilling)
.325 oz Fresh Ground Coriander - in cube (10-5 min if chilling)

US-05

Mash: 90 min @ 154º
Mash-out: 15 min @ 170º
Boil: 90 min

OG: 1.049
FG: 1.009
ABV: 5.3%
IBU: 16
SRM: 5.5

 

[MindenMan]

The raft you see is krausen, and as said before, that is normal. If your lid isn't super air tight, the now very small amount of CO2 being produced now could be leaking out.

 

[newbiewinemaker]

Ok thanks! When the temp was mentioned earlier about how temperamental this yeast can be I started to worry again. I will let it be then!

Thanks again

 

[sachsebrewer]

I didn't mean to worry you about temps. I place my fermentation jugs in a tub of water and add ice jugs to cool the water as the temps go up as fermentation takes place. So I have a crude temperature control but I can keep it under 70F but it may drop down to 60-65 F for a while which seems to stall this yeast strain. I have never had similar issues with safale-05 or other yeasts.

 

[newbiewinemaker]

Another Question. When I go to rack this to my secondary on Sunday, I won't disturb the krausen correct?

Thanks!

 

[schiersteinbrewing]

Another Question. When I go to rack this to my secondary on Sunday, I won't disturb the krausen correct?

Thanks!

I usually wait until the krausen falls out before I rack to secondary. I only rack to secondary if lagering, dry hopping, or additives. Otherwise I just let in sit in the primary fermenter for 2-3 weeks, then keg or bottle. I'm a fan of why risk oxygenation if you don't have to.

 

[3PegBrew]

I'm going to take a guess and say the Blue Moon spice pack consists of coriander and orange peel/zest

 

[newbiewinemaker]

Ok I was jw because the directions said to rack to secondary after 5-7 days but if that is not needed than I wont do it!

Thanks!

 

[Sir-Hops-A-Lot]

Did you take an Original Gravity measure?
I wonder how well your conversion went during the making of the beer. It might have been that you didn't get a good conversion of the starches into sugar so you may not have hit your target Original Gravity. This is a very common all grain beginner problem (I have it 50% of the time).
That would explain why your beer bubbled for one day and then went still. Of course there are many other reasons too (aggressive yeast) so this is just speculation.

 

[newbiewinemaker]

I hit right on the mark what the direction stated at 1.053.