This might be a post better suited for pro brewing forum, but I would like to hear from the home brewing community on this...
This past weekend, my wife and I went away on a weekend getaway. We stopped at a local brewery, producing ~2000 bbls/year. They had 3 - 22bbl fermentors and a 7bbl brew length.
I got to speak to the owner & head brewer for a while and got to take a tour through the brewery. He mentioned he doesn't brew more than once per day. After more questioning, it turns out he brews 7bbls, and chills/adds O2/ and moves it to the fermentor, where on the first day he pitches enough yeast for 21bbs of beer.
The next day, he said usually the first batch has CO2 bubbling out (in fact I got to see this). He brews the same beer, chills/Adds O2 and moves it to the same fermentor.
He repeats this on the third day filling the fermentor.
This poses a multitude of questions:
1) Is this a relatively standard practice?
2) Why pitch enough yeast for 21bbls? What if you pitched maybe enough for 7bbls, wouldn't the yeast would multiply and be enough to ferment the next 7bbls and so on... Basically using the first 7bbls as a production starter
3) Theoretically, wouldn't adding O2 on the second and third brew days potentially cause detriment to the already fermenting beer? Especially with lighter gravities?
4) There were more questions I had - I just cannot remember them now (must be writer's block)
Without mentioning what my interpretation of the beer was - how does this process affect the end product?
What if as a home brewer, I brewed 5gal batches each day, pitching enough yeast on the first day until I had 15 gallons fermenting?
What would you expect?
Cheers!
Max
This past weekend, my wife and I went away on a weekend getaway. We stopped at a local brewery, producing ~2000 bbls/year. They had 3 - 22bbl fermentors and a 7bbl brew length.
I got to speak to the owner & head brewer for a while and got to take a tour through the brewery. He mentioned he doesn't brew more than once per day. After more questioning, it turns out he brews 7bbls, and chills/adds O2/ and moves it to the fermentor, where on the first day he pitches enough yeast for 21bbs of beer.
The next day, he said usually the first batch has CO2 bubbling out (in fact I got to see this). He brews the same beer, chills/Adds O2 and moves it to the same fermentor.
He repeats this on the third day filling the fermentor.
This poses a multitude of questions:
1) Is this a relatively standard practice?
2) Why pitch enough yeast for 21bbls? What if you pitched maybe enough for 7bbls, wouldn't the yeast would multiply and be enough to ferment the next 7bbls and so on... Basically using the first 7bbls as a production starter
3) Theoretically, wouldn't adding O2 on the second and third brew days potentially cause detriment to the already fermenting beer? Especially with lighter gravities?
4) There were more questions I had - I just cannot remember them now (must be writer's block)
Without mentioning what my interpretation of the beer was - how does this process affect the end product?
What if as a home brewer, I brewed 5gal batches each day, pitching enough yeast on the first day until I had 15 gallons fermenting?
What would you expect?
Cheers!
Max