So my Single hop ale is in the fermenter doing it's thing and I am already thinking ahead. So, I have two lagers that I have the ingredients for. One is a Helles with WLP860 and the other I got from a very kind user here that is going to use 34/70. Since my new Grainfather has made things much easier, I have developed a plan so to speak. I am going to do the first one Saturday, whether it be the Helles or the other I don't know, and get it in a Corny (this will be my first time fermenting in a corny) and get it in my ferm fridge at about 52 degrees. Then, my plan is to do the second one Sunday and get it in a corny as well. I think that both yeasts will be ok at 52 or so, and since I can do them back to back I won't have to clean the machine but once at the end. Good plan? Input and comments, negative or positive, are welcome. Also, they will probably both be 4.5 gallon brews as my kegs are exactly 5 gallons I think.
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- Thread starter redrocker652002
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I think it will be okay, but I'm not sure I could bring myself to do it. Any residue in the Grainfather (I don't have one) that spoils should be sanitized by the boil. Just be careful of any hoses or lines that aren't exposed to high temperatures.
If it were me, I would at least give the Grainfather a good rinse to get any trub left behind out. Both those yeasts will be fine at 52F, ferment lagers at those temps most of the time myself, and WLP860 has become my house strain for most German lagers.
WLP860 is good at 52, can confirm
W34/70 is good 50-68 (prefer under 60 personally).
After 3-4 days (or around 50% attenuation) you can ramp it up to 65-68F until it is done. Both yeasts actually can ferment warm, but 860 has a little more fruit flavor than W34/70.
Rinse the kettle out a bit like jdauria stated. You don't have to get crazy with it. If your grainfather is like the old one (I am not sure how the new ones are), make sure the pump filter is clean, it would stink for that to get clogged on batch #2. Get the trub out and get the kettle moderately clean from just rinsing. I would probably do a quick wipe of the upper kettle walls to prevent scorching of the previous wort. No reason to get the pbw out.
W34/70 is good 50-68 (prefer under 60 personally).
After 3-4 days (or around 50% attenuation) you can ramp it up to 65-68F until it is done. Both yeasts actually can ferment warm, but 860 has a little more fruit flavor than W34/70.
Rinse the kettle out a bit like jdauria stated. You don't have to get crazy with it. If your grainfather is like the old one (I am not sure how the new ones are), make sure the pump filter is clean, it would stink for that to get clogged on batch #2. Get the trub out and get the kettle moderately clean from just rinsing. I would probably do a quick wipe of the upper kettle walls to prevent scorching of the previous wort. No reason to get the pbw out.
Thanks to both of you for the posts. That is exactly what I was planning on doing. Do my first brew Saturday or Sunday, rinse out the Grainfather to get all the bits and pieces out then ramp up for the second brew day the next day. Once both are in the kegs to ferment (another first for me) I will set my fermenter fridge to 52 and let it rip. I will run a blow off tube for both of the kegs into some starsan. The only issue I may have is I don't have floating dip tubes for either of these. But there are no dry hops in either recipe so my hope is the keg will be fairly clean at the bottom. I plan on letting both sit in the fridge once fermentation is complete at about 35 degrees for a month or so and then break them out and give them a try. Probably will be doing this in the next week or so I hope. I have to break out two kegs and get them cleaned up and ready to go.
I typically cold crash after I have ensured the diacetyl rest is complete. I use a floating hydrometer and I monitor the temp - once it is cold crashed I wait a day or two and get it off the yeast. I would recommend getting a floating dip tube if you can.
One other note - I would probably do 4 gallon batches in a 5 gallon keg. I think you'd find it to be a bear to clean even if you did keep the krausen down on a 4.5 gallon batch. Last few times that I did cornies to ferment I did 4 gallons and didn't have any major issues. I do 6.5 gallon batches in my 7.75 gallon keg and that sometimes gets a little wild and sprays out the spunding valve.
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Longer you let sit to lager the better to compact the trub so you are not pouring a lot of pints of cloudy beer I don't ferment in the keg, but occasionally I transfer lagers to a keg before they are completely done fermenting and throw a spunding valve on, to naturally carbonate the beers in the keg and then transfer off to a serving keg after it's carbonated and lagered. Do only get clear beer in serving keg, I cut about an inch of the dip tube on the spunding keg in order to leave all the trub behind.
Smart on cutting the diptube.
I might consider that since I have a bunch of kegs and I only use floating diptubes. Might be wortwhile using the diptubes that are just sitting around for that purpose and put more primaries in play without needing to buy more floating diptubes. I think I have almost $400 in floating diptubes at this point
Smart on cutting the diptube.
I might consider that since I have a bunch of kegs and I only use floating diptubes. Might be wortwhile using the diptubes that are just sitting around for that purpose and put more primaries in play without needing to buy more floating diptubes. I think I have almost $400 in floating diptubes at this point
That's a lot of dip tubes!
Great minds think alike, I see your Gose name in your signature...was the same name I used on mine last year! I did use a floating dip tube for awhile with my spunding keg, but with closed transfers I was finding it was leaving too much sanitizer in the keg when trying to push it out with gas.
That's a lot of dip tubes!
And I thought I was unique!
I also have a few other clever ones, but I loved that name. I have revamped that recipe a bit since I posted it. Waiting on results from homebrew competitions. I am upset that I didn't have enough to enter NHC this year. We will see how it does at the local level with a true water profile (The recipe I posted is a cheating method of using Himalayan pink salt for people who don't have CaCl, CaSO4, MgSO4, etc.).
Good luck in the comps...mine last year won a few medals here and there, but as a Master Homebrewer Program member, I was chasing scores 43 or higher to rank up, and could not pull one off with it, Had scored a high of 41 with a previous version, and was hoping to improve out it. Oh well, next time. Funny though, when I made it, I did consider using Himalayan pink salt in it, but went with good old sea salt.
Thanks to all who replied. I am now rethinking my plan and moving to plan B. I am going to do the one with the 34/70 first. Ferment it all the way thru in my bucket at about 57 degrees and get it in a keg. Then, I will do the other batch with the WLP860 and ferment in my bucket at about 50 degrees. While 860 is fermenting I am planning on leaving the first keg with the 34/70 in the fermenter to sit and lager. Now, with that said, the ferm temp of the second batch will be around 50 I think, so my question is, can the beer with the 34/70 sit at 50 for a week or so before I drop the temps for both the the lagering temp of about 35 or so? I think doing both in cory kegs is way too much for trying something new, so this might be a good substitute. This way, I can get both done and get them both in kegs and lagering at the same time. My hope is that this is the start of having at least one or two kegs at the ready when my main keg kicks. Thoughts?
Update. The lager with the 34/70 is just about done. The activity in the airlock has subsided and seems to be very slight (I know this isn't a telltale sign, but humor me). I am going to let it sit in the bucket for another week and check the gravity. Once I see it done, my thought is to keg the lager in a storage keg and brew the Helle's that I am wanting to do. This one uses WLP860 and needs to ferment in the high 40's low 50's. I am going to shoot for about 50 on this one, also put the lager that is n the keg back in and store it while the Helle's ferments. Once that one is done, I will put the helle's in a keg as well and let them sit at about 38 to 40 for a month and see what I end up with. Thoughts?
