So I have a question. My fermentation is done but I'm curious as to why my final gravity is so low?? Everyone else seems to be ending at 1.013ish, and mine ended at 1.005 which is way lower than I wanted. I only used one pack of 1318 yeast and made a 1liter starter which was technically under pitching by a small amount according to the yeast calculators. I feel like that low of a final gravity takes away from the sweetness and dries it out way to much. My starting gravity was dead on at 1.062
My OG was also 1.062 but finished at 1.016 with using 1318. A FG of 1.005 seems extremely low for that strain.
So I have my batch fermenting right now, was planning on cold crashing before I keg. Fermenting in a big mouth bubbler with a rubber stop on top with my 3 piece airlock. My stopper fits pretty snug and works fine for fermenting but I can fairly easily push my stopper right though the top down into my beer with a little bit of pressure. Should I worry about it being sucked down into my beer while cold crashing? Should I remove lid and cover with sanitized foil? Skip crashing all together?
Used recipe from OP with A38 Juice yeast. Fermenting like crazy after 2 days!
Drinking my 6th iteration of this beer now - following the original recipe exactly but using Imperial A20 Citrus (sacch trois) at 72 degrees. I brewed with this yeast at that temperature to see what I could do while my fermentation chamber was full. I was skeptical at first because the first few samples tasted overwhelmingly belgian-y, but after a week in the keg this beer is delicious! FG was 1.010 so its just slightly drier than other batches, but still a pretty good body. The belgian-y flavor really mellowed out and kind of turned into a bubblegum sweetness that melds with the fruity hops. It is also noticeably lighter in color and a bit hazier than when I've used 1318 or Conan.
Here's a running tab of the hop combos I've tried so far, roughly ranked best to worst. All have been really fantastic though.
Citra/Mosaic/Galaxy
Citra/Equinox
100% Citra
Citra/Mosaic/Simcoe/Columbus
100% Nelson
Drinking my 6th iteration of this beer now - following the original recipe exactly but using Imperial A20 Citrus (sacch trois) at 72 degrees. I brewed with this yeast at that temperature to see what I could do while my fermentation chamber was full. I was skeptical at first because the first few samples tasted overwhelmingly belgian-y, but after a week in the keg this beer is delicious! FG was 1.010 so its just slightly drier than other batches, but still a pretty good body. The belgian-y flavor really mellowed out and kind of turned into a bubblegum sweetness that melds with the fruity hops. It is also noticeably lighter in color and a bit hazier than when I've used 1318 or Conan.
Here's a running tab of the hop combos I've tried so far, roughly ranked best to worst. All have been really fantastic though.
Citra/Mosaic/Galaxy
Citra/Equinox
100% Citra
Citra/Mosaic/Simcoe/Columbus
100% Nelson
Looks bomb. Really interested in trying that yeast; I just had a NEIPA from Modern Times here in socal called Golden Pineapple where they used London III and sacc trois and it was great. Had that bubblegum thing you're talking about. Have you tried the Imperial "Juice' blend? Wonder what temp would be good for that one.
Also liked hearing that you enjoy Equinox; I feel like it has a lot of haters but right now it's one of my favorite hops I've used to date, especially in these dank styles. Super fruity/citrusy.
Any noted problems with the NE style in competitions? Knocked down on appearance if cloudy from bottle?
Drinking my 6th iteration of this beer now - following the original recipe exactly but using Imperial A20 Citrus (sacch trois) at 72 degrees. I brewed with this yeast at that temperature to see what I could do while my fermentation chamber was full. I was skeptical at first because the first few samples tasted overwhelmingly belgian-y, but after a week in the keg this beer is delicious! FG was 1.010 so its just slightly drier than other batches, but still a pretty good body. The belgian-y flavor really mellowed out and kind of turned into a bubblegum sweetness that melds with the fruity hops. It is also noticeably lighter in color and a bit hazier than when I've used 1318 or Conan.
Here's a running tab of the hop combos I've tried so far, roughly ranked best to worst. All have been really fantastic though.
Citra/Mosaic/Galaxy
Citra/Equinox
100% Citra
Citra/Mosaic/Simcoe/Columbus
100% Nelson
I wouldn't risk crashing unless you have a way of injecting CO2 (instead of air) during the crash. If you brew these beers often, it's worth it to get that part of the equation sorted out. If you don't want to go through with that, just keg it and put it on the gas. It will crash in your keg and the contracting liquid will pull in CO2 instead of air. Don't forget to completely purge your keg of all air and fill it through the dip tube. Open the pressure relief valve during racking. No need to remove the lid.
I had it at 152-153 on my Grainfather. I don't use a mashout, I just sparge with 168° water.what is the mash temp? do you use a mashout? does the wort cool down and sit before heating in the kettle for the main boil?
152-153Mash temp? Most ppl seem to be around 154-156 for this style
I don't use 1318 that often.... but that does seem low. I honestly think the only beers I have ever brewed that got down to 1.005 are Saisons. I guess the number one thing is "how does it taste?"
It taste pretty good, but I don't taste very much sweetness to it. I think it fermented out to low for that.
Some possible candidates....
*#1 is always operator error - are you sure your gravity reading was correct? Did you use a hydrometer - is it accurate? Was sample uncarbonated? Refractometer? They don't measure correctly when alcohol is in finished beer.
I use a digital refractometer as well as my hydrometer. I pull a sample, pet it sit an hour, and then test. With the refractometer, I use a calculator and it's always dead on with my hydrometer. I always do my final gravity readings before I cold crash or keg.
*Low mash temps.... but, I would think you would need to be down in the 145 range at least Are you sure mash temp was even and held throughout mash?
That I'm not 100% on. I had some problems with all of the flaked grains wanting to give me a very slow sparge, but I caught it right away and started added rice hulls, and stirred. I think I did this two or three times until I felt there were enough rice hulls and it was flowing good enough. I did still hit my SG number right on the dot, so I think the mash was OK.
*Infection.... Something else is in there eating what would normally be unfermentable by yeast. (How does it taste?)
I'm pretty impeccable with my sanitation methods. I don't taste any type of infection.
*Fermentation temps... I suppose if you were on the high side the yeast might get away from you and take it down that far.
I think I started at 63, then to 65, then to 68 and finish it off at 70.
*The yeast simply did more than anticipated.
I'm thinking this is the most likely culprit. Next batch I won't make a starter and see where I end up.
I think those would be the areas I would consider.
Did you use yeast nutrient? Was the yeast a fresh vial or washed/repitched?
how do you inject co2 during a cold crash in a fermenter?
I have a pretty trick setup for mine that I came up with. I figured it out after the first few times of cold crashing with glycol in my Ssbrewtech fermenters.
If you are fermenting in a keg, it's easy. Just take the blow-off line off and hook up your gas line to the keg with a few psi, unless you want to carb it before transferring, then you can bump it up to 10 or so. When you cold crash, the liquid contracts, and instead of blowing out, it sucks in. If you try cold crashing with your blow-off still in your sanitizing bucket, you will suck it all into your beer..They say it's OK to still drink it, but for me no thanks.
So with a conical fermenter, I rigged up a cask breather with two outlets so that I can use it on two conicals at a time. It's all on quick disconnects so I basically hook up my co2 tank to it, with my regulator set at 8-10psi. The cask breather regulates it so that the fermenter won't suck in anything but co2, and only AS NEEDED from the cask breather as the liquid is contracting, so it won't carbonate or overpressurise my conical.
I'm sure there are other ways of doing this but I think the easiest and cheapest way would be a keg if that's what you already have and are fermenting in.
Are you using 1:1 on your citra/equinox? I have a pound of equinox that I have been scared to use in large dry hop quantities due to some folks saying it can be harsh.
Which cask breather do you use, can you post a pic, pretty interested.
One other question with these NEIPA styles. Are you guys who keg letting them sit a few weeks before drinking them? Do they get a little better with age or diminish? I just added the final dry hop tonight which I'll leave for 2-3 days, then 2 days of cold crashing, then 3 days to carbonate. Just curious if these things are just as good to drink fresh or if they come out green and need a little time in the keg?
how do you inject co2 during a cold crash in a fermenter?
Probably a stupid question: what is the advantage to cold crashing with this style (as opposed to skipping the cold crash)?
Probably a stupid question: what is the advantage to cold crashing with this style (as opposed to skipping the cold crash)?
I haven't tried Imperial Juice, which is their version of 1318... but I think you might be thinking of Imperial Dry Hop which is a blend of Citrus (Trois) and Barbarian (Conan). Not sure how fermenting above 70 with either of those would go. It will be interesting to try Citrus at room temp again this summer, when it could get up near the 80's.
I was a bit skeptical about Equinox, but it was great 1:1 with Citra. The citrus, particularly lime, really stuck out to me. Almost like a margarita IPA (in a good way). No green pepper, which I've heard some others report.
Probably a stupid question: what is the advantage to cold crashing with this style (as opposed to skipping the cold crash)?
I'll never use Equinox again. The risk is not worth the reward. I wouldn't be surprised if they renamed it due to its terrible reputation
What experience did you have with equinox?
Green pepper bomb on multiple occasions - same as what most people report. I always dry hop heavily though so maybe it's ok in small amounts
Green pepper bomb on multiple occasions - same as what most people report. I always dry hop heavily though so maybe it's ok in small amounts
Brau, update on your pseudo-LODO comparison?
What do you guys carbonate this to? I think I do 2.5 volumes for standard ipas, should I go lower?
Also, I tried transferring from my fermonster from the spigot through the liquid outpost, against the advice I've seen on here and it didn't work. At first I thought it was a problem on my fermonster, because I accidently collapsed the spout by tightening a hose clamp too much. But i tried to pull a pint today and I got only a slow trickle. So now I figure it's the liquid post. I guess I'll have to take it apart, which I really hate to do since I'll have to expose some o2.
Oh and carbed up my hydrometer sample with a carb cap to taste. Holy crap it was delicious.
I keep it pretty low.... 1.9-2.2 range probably.
You can try putting a liquid disconnect on your CO2 and pushing CO2 down the tube..... That may or may not work.
Make sure you vent the pressure off your keg before you take the post off to clean it out if you go that route..... guess how I know that
That is a job best done over a floor drain if possible.
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