Breaking The Rules

[squaremile]

So I finally decided to brew a beer that broke a bunch of the rules that are debated in these forums. I made a very hop forward 4.6% ale (iPA, session IPA, APA, whatever) fermented with rehydrated US-05 at 68 degrees, mash bill was 2-row and Victory. Process used:

BIAB, no sparge, no chill, 20m mash, 20m boil, flameout hops were teas made with boiled wort, bottle after day 9. Drank after 2 weeks in the bottle.

Results? Best beer I have made. No off flavors (DMS, diacetyl, etc), nice mouthfeel (mashed at 152), awesome hop aroma and flavor (Equinox and Columbus), clean finish, respectable head retention, and as clear as any dry hopped beer would be. Rules are made to be broken. Go figure. Anyone else have success with this?

 

[wilserbrewer]

Thanks for sharing. Reminds me of one of my brew sessions , but I've been to shy to admit it. Rather than hop teas, I add hops liberally during the intitial cool down from flame out to about 160 for a hop stand.

Couple more rules you could try breaking if interested.

1. Chill and pitch yeast directly in your kettle, cover with lid and plastic wrap and ferment, rack to keg or bottle reasonably expetiously.
2. Collect yeast directly from the fermenter, store in the fridge in a jar and re pitch directly to your next batch.

Some of the common practice methods carried over to homebrewing were in an effort to mimic larger scale brewing and IMO they are not absolutes on a smaller scale. IME no-chill does not produce as clear a beer out of the fermenter and takes longer in the keg / brite tank. This would be unacceptable at a larger scale brewery looking to minimize cycle time.

 

[Bobby_M]

I made 18 gallons of lambic base wort today and pitched the american ale yeast right into the boil kettle and put the lid on.

 

[jwalk4]

Myth Busters must do a brewing episode special (or at least a very brave brewer).

I feel there are enough debatable myths to explore in brewing to last, at least, one season on Discovery.

The truth is out there........

 

[RM-MN]

Myth Busters must do a brewing episode special (or at least a very brave brewer).

I feel there are enough debatable myths to explore in brewing to last, at least, one season on Discovery.

The truth is out there........

Ah, but in brewing there isn't just one truth, there are many. I've tried a few experimental batches and I'm still looking for at least one truth. I've done 10 minute mashes and while the beer turned out good, it might not if you do a 10 minute mash. Grains are grown all over the world and in many different and varying climates so while this year's harvest from the Canadian prairies will do "this" the grains harvested in Kansas or in the Philippines will be different as will the grains from next year. Despite your best attempts to make identical batches, there will be differences.

The batch I did on Friday got a 25 minute mash but only a 30 minute boil, then the pot was set outside where the temperature was in the 20's F. for an hour before being dumped into the fermenter bucket. Will that regime always work? Will it work for this batch?

Having done an iodine test that showed conversion at 3 minutes, can I shorten the mash to 5 minutes? (the refractometer says no). Will I have a problem with DMS if I increase the bittering hop amount and only boil for 20 minutes? How about a 10 minute boil? Lots of possibilities, but where does the "TRUTH" lie?

 

[didinho]

Having done an iodine test that showed conversion at 3 minutes, can I shorten the mash to 5 minutes?

wich kind of efficiency did you get with a so short mash?
how much malt and how much beer in the fermentor?

thank you!

 

[RM-MN]

The shortest mash I've done is 10 minutes. The efficeincy didn't seem to change from my usual 85%. I think I might have made a less fermentable wort with that but I got a wild yeast in my system about then that didn't want to quit eating so some of my batches had a final gravity near 1.000. I know that those batches should have finished around 1.015 so there isn't any meaningful data to be derived from that.

 

[Newsman]

I'm going to do something outrageous (at least for me): I am going to pitch mixed yeast slurry from my last batch of cider into my next batch. I fermented a batch using a mix of harvested champagne yeast and Nottingham. I pitched the fresh Notty first and then about 24 hours later I pitched about a cup or two of Champagne slurry from a previous batch. When I harvested that batch of cider, I kept a jelly jar mostly full of slurry, which is the mix of Champagne and Notty. Should be interesting to see how it goes. I'll say this -- I tasted the cider from that mixed batch and it was delicious.

 

[Vendrixfly]

The only "truth" that exists in fermentation is things are gonna rot, whether you like it or not. As brewers we design our methods around the ability to control that rot to our personal liking - producing drinkable beer. Once we provide that nutrient rich medium for growth nature takes control in one way or another, so I applaud any effort to break from the norm in process... It's all an experiment after all!

 

[watermelon83]

It's one thing to get a decent beer by breaking all the rules. It's a complete other to get consistent quality beer. That being said I have: used my breathe to push cooled wort out of all my plumbing, fermented with a month old unwashed mason jar of slurry into a batch of CO3C, left wort to kettle cool in the garage overnight, and the sin to end all sins, never rehydrated dry yeast.

 

[nthammer]

I dont rehydrate dry yeast, there is considerable lag time compared to a 2L liquid starter, but havent had any real issues.