bernardsmith
Well-Known Member
I am making my first braggot. Pitched the yeast last Wednesday night. OG was close to 1.090. I've made lots of wine and some mead but have no beer making experience under my belt. I know the brew (3 lbs of DME and 2 lbs of specialty grains) won't ferment dry and I see this morning that the krausen is beginning to disappear. When do you know that the first phase has ended?
Some context:
Using Nottingham for the beer. I fermented the honey separately and it has been aging since October. The mead is 3 gallons (clover honey) and this batch of beer is about 2 gallons with trub. The beer , however, is fermenting in a 3 gallon carboy and my plan was to rack the beer into a 5 gallon carboy and fill the remaining space with the mead.
Since beer does not ferment "dry" and since there seems to be a general aversion to taking gravity readings (with wine you would take readings and when close to about 1.003 you could rack into a secondary) how do you decide when it is ready to rack off the trub and into a carboy with no headroom and so no exposure to oxygen?
Thanks
Some context:
Using Nottingham for the beer. I fermented the honey separately and it has been aging since October. The mead is 3 gallons (clover honey) and this batch of beer is about 2 gallons with trub. The beer , however, is fermenting in a 3 gallon carboy and my plan was to rack the beer into a 5 gallon carboy and fill the remaining space with the mead.
Since beer does not ferment "dry" and since there seems to be a general aversion to taking gravity readings (with wine you would take readings and when close to about 1.003 you could rack into a secondary) how do you decide when it is ready to rack off the trub and into a carboy with no headroom and so no exposure to oxygen?
Thanks