Need some advice in a a blond ale production

[operaghost]

Hello everyone!

I am brewing a blond ale and have a few more questions to perfect it. I am new to this and hope my questions don't sound dumb:

1. It has been in the fermenter for 11 days and has had a stable gravity for the last 3 days. For the next step, should I keg directly or cold crash before kegging? (The fermenter has temperature control).
2. What is the best time and procedure to remove the sediment from the bottom of the fermentation tank?
3. After kegging, which is better: wait a few days before force carbonating or carbonate immediately after kegging? If it's better to wait, at what temperature should I hold the beer?
4. And last but not least, does natural carbonation really make the beer taste better? If it does, can you point me to a good tutorial on it?

Thank you and have a nice day!

 

[Willy]

1) Let it go for 14 days in the fermenter if you can and then keg it.
2) clean the fermenter out. Rinse all the trub and gunk out, then clean with hot water and PBW. Then use star San to sanitize. Add some CO2 to the empty clean keg to ensure no leaks.
3) For better head retention ... Cold crash the keg over about 5 days, reduce the temp 3-5°F each day. You don't have it, but it seems to make better beer, at least for me. YMMV.
4) once the beer is nice and chilled ... Carb away.
5) natural carb vs a tank? No difference as far as I know. Except tank CO2 is probably cleaner since there is no need to add sugar to ferment and get CO2.

Hope this helps. Just my opinion. Do as you wish and keep good notes.

 

[operaghost]

1) Let it go for 14 days in the fermenter if you can and then keg it.
2) clean the fermenter out. Rinse all the trub and gunk out, then clean with hot water and PBW. Then use star San to sanitize. Add some CO2 to the empty clean keg to ensure no leaks.
3) For better head retention ... Cold crash the keg over about 5 days, reduce the temp 3-5°F each day. You don't have it, but it seems to make better beer, at least for me. YMMV.
4) once the beer is nice and chilled ... Carb away.
5) natural carb vs a tank? No difference as far as I know. Except tank CO2 is probably cleaner since there is no need to add sugar to ferment and get CO2.

Hope this helps. Just my opinion. Do as you wish and keep good notes.

Well, opinions is the secret of a collective knowledge! Thank you very much!

 

[Jag75]

1. Leave in fermenter for 14-21 days . This allows the yeast to clean up .

2. Once you keg the beer , rinse out your fv with hot water , getting rid of all the remnants of krausen and sediment. Then fill with hot water and pbw. Let it sit for a while . Then drain , thoroughly rinse with hot water, dry , then store for next use. I dont use star-san until im brewing the next batch .

3. I set the psi of the keg to 36psi for 36 hrs , then release the pressure and set to 12 psi. The next day the beer is ready .

4. Natural carb vs CO2 , I've got no clue .

On a side note. Are you filling your clean keg with water and Star-San fully , then pushing the sanitizer out via CO2 before kegging? That gives you an almost O2 free keg.

 

[operaghost]

On a side note. Are you filling your clean keg with water and Star-San fully , then pushing the sanitizer out via CO2 before kegging? That gives you an almost O2 free keg.

Maybe I need some clarification on that. I use a siphon to keg (After sanitization i push some clean water to avoid some sanitizer to stay in the keg). After kegging, I close the keg and push some Co2 and release a few times the pressure to remove the Co2. Maybe I´m doing it wrong?

 

[Willy]

Maybe I need some clarification on that. I use a siphon to keg (After sanitization i push some clean water to avoid some sanitizer to stay in the keg). After kegging, I close the keg and push some Co2 and release a few times the pressure to remove the Co2. Maybe I´m doing it wrong?

If you use starsan.... No worries about the foamy residue. Don't flush with water, there's no need and you could be introducing "cooties".

Don't fear the foam - is Starsan's tagline.

 

[operaghost]

If you use starsan.... No worries about the foamy residue. Don't flush with water, there's no need and you could be introducing "cooties".

Don't fear the foam - is Starsan's tagline.

LOL that´s what I needed to know

 

[Jag75]

LOL that´s what I needed to know

Another note. Star - San only lasts for a limited time , so that's why I said dont use it before you store your fv . You just waste it.

As for keg purging. Once you clean your keg, fill with Star-San and water fully. Then push out the water via CO2. Now you have a clean, sanitized keg ready to hold your beer. Some people use the CO2 from fermentation to push out the sanitizer.

 

[mac_1103]

Star - San only lasts for a limited time , so that's why I said dont use it before you store your fv . You just waste it.

Starsan actually can last a very long time, especially if made with distilled or RO water. And a sanitized keg will stay sanitized as long as it's kept sealed.

 

[Jag75]

Starsan actually can last a very long time, especially if made with distilled or RO water. And a sanitized keg will stay sanitized as long as it's kept sealed.

Thats correct , we're talking about spraying some in your fv after you clean it .

 

[seatazzz]

In regards to your question #2, there's something else you can do with the sediment & trub. What you have there, my friend, is yeast slurry. Even after cold crashing there will be plenty of live cells left (although dormant), and they can be repitched into your next beer. If kept properly, yeast slurry can last at least a month in the refrigerator (I store it in a sanitized growler). Leave some beer on it after kegging, just an inch or so. When it's time for use, no starter needed; in dead cells and trub, it's got all the nutrients it needs and more. Just dump it right into your cooled wort, straight from the refrigerator. In my experience, slurry takes off a LOT faster than a prepared starter, or just dry yeast.

Very important note: make sure you keep it refrigerated until ready for use. It takes surprisingly little time for yeast to wake up and start doing its thing, and in a capped growler that can be disastrous. At the very least, if it warms up some, if you take the lid off, you may get a yeast slurry volcano. Ask me how I know.

 

[Bobby_M]

It has been in the fermenter for 11 days and has had a stable gravity for the last 3 days. For the next step, should I keg directly or cold crash before kegging? (The fermenter has temperature control).

A lot of my feedback on these questions will depend on specifically what kind of fermenting vessel it is. For example, if it's a conical that has a sample port, I don't see any issues so far. If it's a bucket or vessel with only top access, it means that you were messing with the beer too much having opened the fermenter 3 times. In other words, fermenters that give you the ability to take samples without exposing the beer to oxygen and/or contamination are the only ones that optimally support frequent testing.

My ale fermenting timeline is almost always 5 days in the middle of the yeast strain's listed temp range, then bumped up 3F for the next 8-10 days. Stable gravity is one of those things that are nice to know if you're into logging your beer's progress but with the correct calculated yeast pitch and reasonable temp control, the beer is going to do it's thing in this timeframe without intervention.

Re: COLD CRASHING. The only way cold crashing is beneficial without any detriment is if the vessel can handle a little CO2 pressure so you can prevent a vacuum from forming. I won't say too much more as we can clarify when we know what the vessel is.

What is the best time and procedure to remove the sediment from the bottom of the fermentation tank?

Same preface question as above. Many are reading this question as you asking when to clean the fermenter. I THINK you mean that you have a conical with a bottom dump. I don't think you'd phrase a post-fermentation cleaning question like this. If it's a conical, you'd typically dump yeast/trub a few days before you transfer to keg.

1. After kegging, which is better: wait a few days before force carbonating or carbonate immediately after kegging? If it's better to wait, at what temperature should I hold the beer?

Immediately.

1. And last but not least, does natural carbonation really make the beer taste better? If it does, can you point me to a good tutorial on it?

This is highly debated and I think that when someone is convinced that natural (fermentation driven) carbonation is better, that experience is driven by a combination of factors that are not necessarily isolated to the method. For example, if a brewer has sloppy transfering habits, the beer may pick up a damaging level of oxygen. When the yeast stay active through a warm period of re-fermentation in the keg, they may scrub that oxygen level down to benign levels. The other thing that it forces is patience. Quick force carbonation technically allows for nearly immediate consumption, usually before some of the more stubborn particles settle out and usually before the beer carbonates all the way to the desired level. Those two in combination will drive the kegged beer quality down in comparison to its natural carb'd counterpart. If the kegged beer were allowed to sit in the cold for 2 weeks on chart pressure, it would be judged more fairly and it would be found as indistinguishable from the other beer.

 

[operaghost]

A lot of my feedback on these questions will depend on specifically what kind of fermenting vessel it is. For example, if it's a conical that has a sample port, I don't see any issues so far. If it's a bucket or vessel with only top access, it means that you were messing with the beer too much having opened the fermenter 3 times. In other words, fermenters that give you the ability to take samples without exposing the beer to oxygen and/or contamination are the only ones that optimally support frequent testing.

My ale fermenting timeline is almost always 5 days in the middle of the yeast strain's listed temp range, then bumped up 3F for the next 8-10 days. Stable gravity is one of those things that are nice to know if you're into logging your beer's progress but with the correct calculated yeast pitch and reasonable temp control, the beer is going to do it's thing in this timeframe without intervention.

Re: COLD CRASHING. The only way cold crashing is beneficial without any detriment is if the vessel can handle a little CO2 pressure so you can prevent a vacuum from forming. I won't say too much more as we can clarify when we know what the vessel is.

Same preface question as above. Many are reading this question as you asking when to clean the fermenter. I THINK you mean that you have a conical with a bottom dump. I don't think you'd phrase a post-fermentation cleaning question like this. If it's a conical, you'd typically dump yeast/trub a few days before you transfer to keg.

Immediately.


This is highly debated and I think that when someone is convinced that natural (fermentation driven) carbonation is better, that experience is driven by a combination of factors that are not necessarily isolated to the method. For example, if a brewer has sloppy transfering habits, the beer may pick up a damaging level of oxygen. When the yeast stay active through a warm period of re-fermentation in the keg, they may scrub that oxygen level down to benign levels. The other thing that it forces is patience. Quick force carbonation technically allows for nearly immediate consumption, usually before some of the more stubborn particles settle out and usually before the beer carbonates all the way to the desired level. Those two in combination will drive the kegged beer quality down in comparison to its natural carb'd counterpart. If the kegged beer were allowed to sit in the cold for 2 weeks on chart pressure, it would be judged more fairly and it would be found as indistinguishable from the other beer.

I appreciate this complete and rich answer. Thank you very much.

And yes, it is a conical tank.

 

[operaghost]

Another note. Star - San only lasts for a limited time , so that's why I said dont use it before you store your fv . You just waste it.

As for keg purging. Once you clean your keg, fill with Star-San and water fully. Then push out the water via CO2. Now you have a clean, sanitized keg ready to hold your beer. Some people use the CO2 from fermentation to push out the sanitizer.

Well, I did a search here in Brazil and I cannot find it to buy in here. I will look for something similar.

 

[IslandLizard]

Well, I did a search here in Brazil and I cannot find it to buy in here. I will look for something similar.

There are other acid-based sanitizers under different brand names. They may be even similar, but verify before buying or using it.

Iodine based sanitizers such as Iodophor (Povidone) are also excellent sanitizers.
Just be aware, a working solution of an Iodine based sanitizer will only be active for 12-24 hours.

As with all sanitizers, there's no need to make buckets full of it. A clean sponge or (small) cloth drenched in it can be used to apply.

And there's always bleach, but that does need to be well rinsed off/out before it touches wort or beer.

What sanitizer are you using now?