Hi,
I'm currently running my first batch, a kinda-blonde ale, 21 IBU, 12L (2.5G), extract with steeped CaraHell. It's going well so far. Primary fermentation is over and went kinda very fast - SG was at 1.010 after 2 days and is still stably there after 5 days - but flavor seems to be turning out OK.
In addition, Saturday night I came home drunk and decided to cook up an additional mini-batch from my malt extract leftovers and a broken yeast package. That is just 2.5L and it's sitting in a ghetto fermenter I made from a protein powder can. I can't measure that one all the time since otherwise I won't have any left over for bottling, but I took a peek into the fermenter and it looks like it's fermenting nicely.
My original plan for the 12L batch was to rack half of it and dry-hop it, and leave the other half in primary for my less hop-loving friends (and to generate variety
). However the secondary I'll get (from a friend) is 20L - so I fear that 6L in a 20L fermenter for secondary will be way too much headspace, and also I fear the oxygen which will be drawn into the primary (which is a 30L) when I rack half of it away.
So my options are 1) do the half-batch racking with the risk of overoxygenating everything, or 2) dry hop the whole batch (the easy solution). I could also 3) make two more ghetto fermenters and dry hop some 5-6L in there. (I actually don't know yet how to bottle from there, maybe use a funnel with the bottling cane attached at the outlet?) That would still draw air into the primary, though. What do you think?
I'm currently running my first batch, a kinda-blonde ale, 21 IBU, 12L (2.5G), extract with steeped CaraHell. It's going well so far. Primary fermentation is over and went kinda very fast - SG was at 1.010 after 2 days and is still stably there after 5 days - but flavor seems to be turning out OK.
In addition, Saturday night I came home drunk and decided to cook up an additional mini-batch from my malt extract leftovers and a broken yeast package. That is just 2.5L and it's sitting in a ghetto fermenter I made from a protein powder can. I can't measure that one all the time since otherwise I won't have any left over for bottling, but I took a peek into the fermenter and it looks like it's fermenting nicely.
My original plan for the 12L batch was to rack half of it and dry-hop it, and leave the other half in primary for my less hop-loving friends (and to generate variety
). However the secondary I'll get (from a friend) is 20L - so I fear that 6L in a 20L fermenter for secondary will be way too much headspace, and also I fear the oxygen which will be drawn into the primary (which is a 30L) when I rack half of it away. So my options are 1) do the half-batch racking with the risk of overoxygenating everything, or 2) dry hop the whole batch (the easy solution). I could also 3) make two more ghetto fermenters and dry hop some 5-6L in there. (I actually don't know yet how to bottle from there, maybe use a funnel with the bottling cane attached at the outlet?) That would still draw air into the primary, though. What do you think?
