Pale Ale almost ready

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Willygilly

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So my 5 gallons of pale ale is doing great in the 25 gallon double wall stainless fermenter. Just checked it. It's at 5.2% alcohol, smells great, looks great (except it's dark brown and not what I would expect for a pale ale) AND it tastes great! Today is 28 1/2 days since I put it in the fermenter. I'll be bottling soon. Can't wait!!!!
 
The dark colour could indicate your suffering from oxidation. A 25 gallon container is far too big for 5 gallons. Also you shouldn't be opening it until you're ready to bottle, especially with that massive head space.
 
The dark colour could indicate your suffering from oxidation. A 25 gallon container is far too big for 5 gallons. Also you shouldn't be opening it until you're ready to bottle, especially with that massive head space.

Yeah, especially on the heels of this thread Pale Ale is black



Do you leave it in the fermenter for 28 days out of necessity or is there some other reason?
 
I don't understand where your theory got it's start. Our ancestors brewed in vessels much larger than mine and they brewed with the vessel open to the atmosphere. Why does the size of the vessel make a difference? The only concern about the size of the vessel is if it is too small. Have you heard of bathtub brew? Our ancestors did brew that way. How do you explain that one? Today I checked on it and I posted the results here. All is good. Everything is cool. The oxygen boogie man did not find my batch of brew. It looks great, it tastes great and it's right on track per schedule.
 
Yeah, especially on the heels of this thread Pale Ale is black



Do you leave it in the fermenter for 28 days out of necessity or is there some other reason?
3 - 4 weeks is proper for a 5 gallon batch, or maybe you know something the experts don't? I checked the specific gravity and the alcohol content today and all is GOOOOOOOD. I'll be bottling within the next couple of days. Just waiting for a time when I feel like it. Remember... when our ancestors first started brewing they didn't have calendars.

BTW... That was just the title of my post and it was meant to get some attention. It really is not black. I thought I might stir the pot a little and it worked. Every critter you can imagine came out of the woodwork to put in their 2 cents. :) :) :)
 
3 - 4 weeks is proper for a 5 gallon batch, or maybe you know something the experts don't? I checked the specific gravity and the alcohol content today and all is GOOOOOOOD. I'll be bottling within the next couple of days. Just waiting for a time when I feel like it. Remember... when our ancestors first started brewing they didn't have calendars.

BTW... That was just the title of my post and it was meant to get some attention. It really is not black. I thought I might stir the pot a little and it worked. Every critter you can imagine came out of the woodwork to put in their 2 cents. :) :) :)
For a pale ale? 10-14 days is all that’s needed, some people are grain to glass in 7 (or less), depending on the yeast and kegging. Longer is not usually a problem unless you’re doing something like an open fermentation (which you are basically doing), in which case you risk oxidation and souring.

Glad you like it though, that’s all that matters since you now have 50 or so to drink!
 
I don't use my bathtub for brewing for the same reason I don't use my toilet or my sink. Why would I when I have a perfectly good 25 gallon stainless steel vessel? Geez, this forum has some pretty thick skulled and brainless wonders spewing nonsense and brainless comments.
 
Not only have I looked at it, I have also tasted it a couple times and it is delicious. I'll be putting it in bottles very soon and then I'll be chilling it and drinking it. Can't wait... yum yum. Sorry you can't enjoy it.
 
You did actually read that, right? 1.5gal of headspace is drastically different than 20 gallons.
So tell me what you think about using a large diameter, but short vessel compared to using a small diameter, but tall vessel; each with 20 gallon headspace.
 
Aceluby, I think you misunderstood the purpose of the experiment and the result. If there is a difference it would be in the surface area at the top of the wort. I don't know what that is, do you?
 
Aceluby, I think you misunderstood the purpose of the experiment and the result. If there is a difference it would be in the surface area at the top of the wort. I don't know what that is, do you?

No, I think you misunderstood the purpose and the result. It is comparing no headspace to 1.5 gal of headspace. The idea is to see if 1.5gal of headspace leaves enough oxygen in your fermenter to impact the flavor. You have 20x the amount of headspace and 20x the amount of oxygen. That is over an order of magnitude difference in the amount of oxygen originally present and the amount of oxygen your fermenter would need to eject in order to have no effect. You cannot compare this experiment with what you did because of that difference because they are drastically different scenarios. Not only that, the experiment you linked to fermented for a much shorter amount of time and was immediately kegged - so even if there was oxygen in the headspace, there wasn't nearly as much time for it to impact the beer. You not only had 20x the amount of headspace, but also had 3 weeks of time for the oxygen in that headspace to interact with your beer. Not really sure why you're arguing here, your pale ale is black and you have a whopping one brew under your belt which you seem to feel makes you an expert. Maybe try a little less trolling, a little more listening, and maybe your next brew will turn out better.
 
I don't know why you think I am new at this and I don't know why you keep saying I am arguing. I am simply presenting the facts and trying to share some of my experiences. I think that's supposed to be the reason behind this forum.
 
@Willygilly I just want to comment on your fermenter. That began life as a military coffer urn. I used to have one very similar. I used it as a mash tun. Had a three piece false bottom made for and it worked great. It was however a bit of a PITA due to the small opening at the top. That made getting the spent grains out difficult. A picture of it is posted in equipment thread titled show your beginning equipment. You show post your fermenter there.
 
@Murph4231
This will be the first batch I brew with this vessel, and I’m hoping all goes well. It sounds like it went well for you, except for the cleaning part, and I never thought about that, so I hope it doesn’t discourage me after this first batch. I did a search on “show your beginning equipment” and I got 9 pages, but none had that phrase in it and none had anything about your vessel. Can you send me a direct hyperlink to that page?

Was yours as large as mine? How many gallons at a time did you brew in it? I’m only doing 5 gallons for this first run. Some of the people reading the thread think there is too much headroom and that the beer will be “oxidized” and spoiled. I’m just about to put it in the bottles and it tastes good and ABV is about 5.5%. Many on the forum think it’s way too much vessel for 5 gallons of beer, but I’ve looked at many large brewing vessels on the internet that have many times more headroom than I have in mine, so I think they are wrong. I think there will always be O2 in beer and when it reaches a point of saturation it won’t take any more. I don’t know how it’s possible to avoid that and I don’t believe it’s necessary to try. What are your thoughts and experience?
 
This has to be a joke right? I feel like I'm taking crazy pills reading through this thread.

As others have pointed out, 5 gallons in a 25 gallon fermenter has A LOT of headspace. Theoretically, during fermentation, the yeast scavenges the O2 and the CO2 escaping your airlock/blowoff tube should fill the headspace. BUT, as soon as you open the fermenter, which it sounds like you did multiple times, O2 mixes with that CO2, and you no longer have headspace clear of O2. O2 after fermentation spoils beer. The term is oxidation and causes staling. This causes darkening and flavors include leather, paper, and wet cardboard. Obviously this ruins shelf life. Bottling will make it worse, as you expose the beer to O2 yet again.

I see you mention that our ancestors brewed in monster vessels, but as others have said, it's clearly an outdated practice. I do realize that many breweries still perform open fermentations, but they are monitored, and after primary fermentation is complete, they get sealed to prevent oxidation.

3 - 4 weeks is proper for a 5 gallon batch, or maybe you know something the experts don't? I checked the specific gravity and the alcohol content today and all is GOOOOOOOD. I'll be bottling within the next couple of days. Just waiting for a time when I feel like it. Remember... when our ancestors first started brewing they didn't have calendars.

BTW... That was just the title of my post and it was meant to get some attention. It really is not black. I thought I might stir the pot a little and it worked. Every critter you can imagine came out of the woodwork to put in their 2 cents. :) :) :)
2-3 weeks is plenty of time for a Pale Ale fermentation (and most other beers, actually). Many brewers here bottle or keg after 14 days. That's been my schedule for Pale ales, and it works out quite nicely. No need to keep it on yeast longer than that, but that's a whole other discussion. As for trying to "stir the pot a little", what did you expect would happen? Almost every response here was posted to help you out and you started calling people "thick skulled and brainless wonders".

These forums are an awesome resource. I've learned a TON on here, from like-minded people. You clearly have much to learn, and we are all willing to help out. Fighting with people posting legitimate responses is not the way to learn.
 
So sorry @Willygilly the thread is (show us your equipment builds). I'm not sure what the capacity was on that vessel. I believe it was 20 gal. I brewed a lot of beers with it. Mostly 10 gal and even brewed some fairly big brews, stouts, strong ales and such.

There has been countless breweries who brewed in open fermenters. I visited a very small brewpub in Portland back in the 90s who only brewed 1 barrel batches and he only had one open fermenter. Every brew that dude made was delicious and he rarely made the same batch twice. Most Belgium breweries open ferment. Larry Bell fermented in an open fermenter when he first opened the Eccentric Cafe in Kalamazoo. I'm no scientist but from my lifetime around brewing I've never seen a problem with open fermentation. That is as long as it is covered with mesh or something to keep the critters out. And head space has never been an issue for me either. Although I do not brew open fermentation and I don't worry about too much head space. I'm far more concerned with too little head space.
 
I don't know why I keep getting comments about opening the vessel multiple times. I have only opened the top cap a couple of times. When I draw off a sample I use the spring loaded spigot at the bottom, and I don't know why some people think there is a problem doing that. Sometimes I think people make negative comments just because they can. I have tasted this batch of pale ale several times and it tastes better each time I taste it. The instructions for brewing this pale ale state that it should be in the fermenter for 3-4 weeks. Today is the 19th day.
 
I don't know why I keep getting comments about opening the vessel multiple times. I have only opened the top cap a couple of times. When I draw off a sample I use the spring loaded spigot at the bottom, and I don't know why some people think there is a problem doing that. Sometimes I think people make negative comments just because they can. I have tasted this batch of pale ale several times and it tastes better each time I taste it. The instructions for brewing this pale ale state that it should be in the fermenter for 3-4 weeks. Today is the 19th day.
Opening the vessel introduces oxygen. Oxygen is bad for beer. It's literally one of the first things you learn about when making beer.
 
You can't just say that our ancestors did this, so why can't I.

Unless you know exactly what all their methods, tools and timings for doing things were along with such seemingly can't possibly be matter of whether they stirred in a clockwise direction as opposed to counter clockwise.

Might be the type of yeast they had then. Maybe they got a good layer of foam on top the beer that protected it more. As well they may have moved it off the open ferment sooner before all the krausen foam was gone and let it finish fermenting in something with less headspace.

So unless you know all that, don't use that as a crutch. Even those breweries that still do open fermenting don't leave it in the open very long. AFAIK.
 
I thought I might stir the pot a little and it worked. Every critter you can imagine came out of the woodwork to put in their 2 cents.
All those “critters” including myself tried to help you troubleshoot a problem that you self-described as a pale ale turning black during fermentation. All responded with experience, questions and suggestions about the recipe, optimal equipment and industry knowledge about the effects oxygen exposure has on light and hoppy beers. You consistently gave inaccurate data and want to berate those who spent the time to try and offer help. I hope you enjoy your black beer.
 
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