Newbie finishing first batch planning second

[Bruinpilot]

I am just finishing up my first batch of beer, a Kolsch.


It has just been transferred over to a carboy for secondary fermentation at 50 degrees. This batch has answered some questions for me and created others and I wanted to get some ideas and opinions on them. I realize that some of these questions may not have a right answer, but may be preference. Regardless, I love beer making and the discussion it can generate, so here goes.

1) when I am ready to prime and bottle, all the books say to transfer to a bucket with my sanitized sugar (I will be using dextrose) then bottle. I read over and over again that every time you rack you increase the chances of oxidation, so can I simply pour the sugar gently into my carboy and then bottle? This removes one racking event.

2) I have read all the pros and cons of the secondary fermentation and have come to feel that in most cases it is unnecessary. For my Kolsch, it may help with the style's clarity. I think my next beer will be a Scotch Ale, which seems to me is a great candidate for primary only. With lagers, they must do a primary and a secondary both colder than most ales. Is racking to a secondary necessary for this lagering process? (I assume yes.)

3) once in the bottles do they need to remain temperature controlled in the fermentation chamber, or can I just keep them in a dark closet, which as we approach summer, may creep into the upper 70s?

4) I am already planning a scotch ale as I said above and as it starts getting hot here in Texas, the ground water in my immersion wort cooler will not probably be cold enough to get me down to pitching temperature in a reasonable amount of time, if ever. I was thinking of getting some 2 liter soda bottles, filling them with water and then freezing them. The plan would be to dip them in star san and then throw them in the wort with the immersion cooler. Is this a bad idea?

5) finally a question about gravity. I know the gravity is linked to pounds of grain per gallon of water. Let's say I wanted to make a lower alcohol version of a beer, I believe I could proportionately lower the grains in the mash in order to achieve a lower original gravity, and thus less alcohol. My question is, how much does original gravity contribute to other things not alcohol related, primarily taste and mouthfeel of the beer?

Thanks again for reading this and putting up with my newbie questions!







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[andy6026]

I've only been brewing for a year, but I'll take a stab at some of your questions:

1) You definitely want to rack to a bottling bucket. The sugar will need to be mixed into the beer, and by your method you'd need to give the solution a stir in which case you'd be stirring up the trub from the bottom of the carboy. That would make for a very cloudy beer, with lots of trub in every bottle. The risk of oxidization and/or infection is very low if you're at least semi-careful when racking to the bottling bucket. Sanitize everything that comes into contact with the beer and avoid splashing about like a toddler in a wading pool and you needn't worry about this process. Pour the sanitized sugar into the bottling bucket before you rack the beer on top of it. Lay the racking tube into the bottling bucket correctly and the beer going in will swirl around the bucket, mixing the sugar in well.

2) I don't know. I'm going to be lagering my first beer in a few weeks. I will rack to secondary, but am not sure if it's absolutely necessary. I look forward to others' answers.

3) Bottle conditioning is typically done in the ball-park of 70 degrees. I don't think upper 70s will be harmful, but I've not been faced with those circumstances so I don't know for sure. Temps lower than 70s will cause much slower conditioning, and low enough will make the yeast completely dormant.

4) Adding bottled ice is a good idea, but be sure to first get the temp down to a reasonable degree to prevent the plastic from the bottles from leaching into the beer. I believe around 180-190 degrees is the cut-off temp, but to be safe I'd add them at a much lower temperature.

3) The mouthfeel, flavor, alcohol content, etc., are all intimately related to the grains (and hops - flavor-wise). Lower the grain to water ratio will not only lower you alcohol content, but will also change those other factors too. How far you can lower and still have an acceptable mouthfeel/flavor/etc., is entirely dependent upon your personal tastes and your experimentation with brewing. However, since you are looking to learn from the experience of others (which is obviously a good thing) I suggest posting a particular recipe that you think you'll like with your notes on how you are thinking of modifying it to suit your desired ABV and taste. Then ppl with experience of that type of beer can chime in and give good advice.

I hope these answers are reasonable for a start. They all seem good questions to me and I'm curious as to what others will recommend.

 

[andy6026]

One thing I'd add is that for the last one regarding ABV vs mouthfeel/flavor, etc., if you mash at lower temps (say 146-148) then you'll create more fermentable sugars then if you were to mash at higher temps (mid-upper 150s). Mashing high might therefore be a way to increase mouthfeel etc., while keeping your ABV lower. How many points different that would make on X amount of grains mashed in Y amount of water, I don't know, but I'm sure someone else here does.

 

[Trox]

1) I agree with andy6026 that racking to the bottling bucket is the bet way for the reasons he stated. As long as you have the tube laying in the bottom of the bucket you will have less chance of oxidizing your beer than dumping the priming sugar into your carboy and swirling it around enough to make sure it is well mixed in.

2)First moving to a secondary doesn't really help with clarity (and may actually hinder it a bit) since everything that is going to fall out will no matter where it sits; moving to a secondary will just stir it all up so that it might actually take longer to clarify. As for moving a Scotch Ale to a secondary, I would say it depends on what style you are doing. If you are doing the lower ABV then wouldn't need to, but for those in the upper range; a big Wee Heavy, ten you might want to consider bulk aging it in a secondary for 3-6 months before bottling. Of course reading your post it sounds more like you are planning on a lager and not a ale, so make sure your yeast can handle lager temps. Since I don't lager I can't answer that portion of the question though.

3) After bottling you actually want them to be around 70 degrees so that the yeasts will feel more lively and get to converting the new sugar into CO2 for you quicker.

4) Personally after my wort is done boiling I would feel a bit leery towards adding anything into it; especially a plastic bottle with god only knows how many microscopic scratches all over hiding the little baddies waiting to take over the sugar bath before the yeast can get a foot hold. What you might want to look into doing instead is getting a small secondary cooler (maybe 5' in a couple of coils) set-up that you hook inline with your main one. Put the small one in a small bucket/pan/bowl of water that also has your 2 liter bottles in it. This way you can drop the water temp coming from your faucet to a much lower range without introducing a possible contamination source into your wort.

5) This one will probably just be mostly trial and error on your part until you hit that spot where the ABV and everything is at a balance you like.

 

[jekeane]

1. Use a bottling bucket.
3. low/Mid 70's in a dark space is good for bottle conditioning
4. I know there are people that do the bottles or ice right in the wort thing and say it works fine but I wouldn't. You can freezer those bottles and place them in a rubbermaid tub that would fit you kettle however to help speed things along. If you wanted to spend a little $ you could find a cheap pump from harbor freight fill a big tub with icewater and then run the pump to your chiller and the outflow down the drain or better yet to your washing machine.
6. Move out of TX asap