Pliny the Elder extract kit help

[JoeBronco]

You both should be good. 1.014 and 1.016 will leave a little sweetness but that should balance out some of the bitterness. IMO the highest i would go is 1.016 anything more is to sweet for the style.

Just to put it into perspective, 1.015 leaves about 3.4oz of sugar per gallon of beer. So in a 5 gallon batch that's a little over 1 lbs of sugar. Cutting it close, but still doable.

 

[jkendrick]

Another nervous noob question. I have my batch in secondary dry hopping. It's been 24 hours and some of the hops are not touching liquid. Will they eventually sink or should I be pushing them down?

 

[JoeBronco]

Hop bag - Normally the hop bag sinks. Putting a weight (stainless steel or hardened good grade plastic) just makes it happen quicker.

No hop bag -
Whole leaf - No need to weigh down, but a quick stir with a sanitized spoon doesn't hurt to get them all wet. I normally mix them up every few days if they dont sink.

Pellets - No need, they will sink.

 

[badbrew]

Another nervous noob question. I have my batch in secondary dry hopping. It's been 24 hours and some of the hops are not touching liquid. Will they eventually sink or should I be pushing them down?

Whole or pellet?

 

[jkendrick]

Whole or pellet?

Combo. The pellets are fine, obviously, but the whole are not all making contact with the brew. I tried to push them down with a sanitized spoon. It's hard to reach them all in a carboy, but I think they are all wet now at least. Hopefully they will draw in more liquid and sink further.

 

[badbrew]

Combo. The pellets are fun, obviously, but the whole are not all making contact with the brew. I tried to push them down with a sanitized spoon. It's hard to reach them all in a carboy, but I think they are all wet now at least. Hopefully they will draw in more liquid and sink further.

I'll be dry hopping mine this weekend hopefully with pellets only and plan to use a bag with a string. I don't want to leave them in for more than a couple weeks so I'll just let them hang out on the upper layer of beer and when I drink 1/3 of the keg they'll be hanging over the beer.

 

[brewingmadness]

So thursday I checked my gravity and it was at 1.025. This was after 11 days fermenting. Today I checked it again and it is still at 1.025. My target is 1.015. I have it fermenting in a chest freezer that stays between 64-68. Maybe a little cold so I upped the controller to 71. I was about to rack to a secondary, but want some opinions. I used safeale-05. Is it stuck? On brew day, I dropped a bit of lme on the ground, and had a boilover. My starting gravity was supposed to be 1.077 and I came in at 1.069. I sampled and it tastes good, a little sweet though. I have some nottingham, safeale-05 and some wlp001 if needed. What do you guys think? Wait a couple more days at a higher temp, pitch some more yeast, or just rack to the secondary? Thanks

 

[brewingmadness]

I guess this question would belong in the fermenting thread. Going to ask there. Thanks

 

[badbrew]

So thursday I checked my gravity and it was at 1.025. This was after 11 days fermenting. Today I checked it again and it is still at 1.025. My target is 1.015. I have it fermenting in a chest freezer that stays between 64-68. Maybe a little cold so I upped the controller to 71. I was about to rack to a secondary, but want some opinions. I used safeale-05. Is it stuck? On brew day, I dropped a bit of lme on the ground, and had a boilover. My starting gravity was supposed to be 1.077 and I came in at 1.069. I sampled and it tastes good, a little sweet though. I have some nottingham, safeale-05 and some wlp001 if needed. What do you guys think? Wait a couple more days at a higher temp, pitch some more yeast, or just rack to the secondary? Thanks

I'd swirl the carboy around to get things going and raise it a little more to 73. The website says it can handle 75. Don't give up. I think 25 is too high.

Mine was at 30 yesterday.

 

[jkendrick]

FWIW, mine stopped at 1.016 and stayed there for five days before I decided it wasn't going any lower. My target was 1.011. I racked to secondary on Friday and added the dry hops. I don't know if that roused some of the yeast still in suspension, but the airlock on my carboy is now bubbling again. It's very mild bubbling, but I'm hoping that maybe it will come down a bit more. Like yours, mine tastes very good, but is just a tad sweeter than I would like.

 

[brewingmadness]

I'd swirl the carboy around to get things going and raise it a little more to 73. The website says it can handle 75. Don't give up. I think 25 is too high.

Mine was at 30 yesterday.

I thought you wanted to avoid shaking a fermenting wurt at all costs.

 

[SteelCityBrewery]

Yet another noob question, how can you tell if there is an infection? I don't see a film but my beer smells a little funny. It tastes fine. When I dumped my trub and added dry hops, I took a small glass and was a little concerned. Cause for concern?

 

[badbrew]

I thought you wanted to avoid shaking a fermenting wurt at all costs.

No shaking just mild swirling. Get a whirl pool to bring up the yeast on the bottom.

 

[JoeBronco]

NO SPLASHING! You dont want any air getting into the beer, But yes a little bit of mild swirling helps bring the yeast around. The temp is too low for the yeast this far in the game. They are already stressed from the vigorous consumption of the mass amounts of sugar that was in your beer to begin with. They are tired. Make it easy for them by bringing it up a bit around 70- degrees. No much more as you dont want to shock the yeast. Do it one or two degrees at a time. Don't worry, no off flavors will come from it. The Beginning stages are when temperature is more detrimental.

To avoid this in the future, a Yeast starter is in order. If you can make a yeast starter on all your beers it will never hurt your beer but will help with fermentation speed and completion. Healthy yeast is key to a good/great beer. Commercial brewers dump substantially more yeast than we do into there beer to ferment.

SteelCity - Relax. You would know if you had an infection. Chances are you smell a bit of the gas that has settled on the top of your beer that may include some normal fermentation smells. You will know if you have an infection when you drink.

 

[SteelCityBrewery]

I have heard, "Relax and have a homebrew" more times than I care to count. Perhaps I should just go ahead a follow their advice?

 

[JoeBronco]

I have heard, "Relax and have a homebrew" more times than I care to count. Perhaps I should just go ahead a follow their advice?

 

[brewingmadness]

Thanks, I'll try this out.

 

[jkendrick]

I'm going to be adding the five day dry hop this weekend. Vinnie's recipe calls for an additional .25oz of each of the three varieties of hops for a total of .75oz. I had to do a partial boil which, as I understand it, will result in lower hop utilization. I have a full oz. of each of the three hops, so I was wondering if it would be beneficial (read: help compensate for the lower hop utilization in the boil) to add more hops than called for.

Thoughts?

 

[badbrew]

I'm going to be adding the five day dry hop this weekend. Vinnie's recipe calls for an additional .25oz of each of the three varieties of hops for a total of .75oz. I had to do a partial boil which, as I understand it, will result in lower hop utilization. I have a full oz. of each of the three hops, so I was wondering if it would be beneficial (read: help compensate for the lower hop utilization in the boil) to add more hops than called for.

Thoughts?

Are you doing a small batch? Mine calls for 5 oz total dh. You can always add the hops and taste test after a few days and add some more if you want.

 

[jkendrick]

Are you doing a small batch? Mine calls for 5 oz total dh.

I'm doing Vinnie's recipe as published in Zymurgy.

http://486286.cache1.evolutionhosting.com/attachments/0000/6351/doubleIPA.pdf

It calls for 3oz for two weeks and .75oz for five days. I just bought ingredients from my LHBS; this is not a kit.

 

[JoeBronco]

I'm going to be adding the five day dry hop this weekend. Vinnie's recipe calls for an additional .25oz of each of the three varieties of hops for a total of .75oz. I had to do a partial boil which, as I understand it, will result in lower hop utilization. I have a full oz. of each of the three hops, so I was wondering if it would be beneficial (read: help compensate for the lower hop utilization in the boil) to add more hops than called for.

Thoughts?

Dry hops add to aroma not bitterness

 

[jkendrick]

Dry hops add to aroma not bitterness

Yeah I realize that it won't add to the IBUs, but I thought added aroma could increase the perceived bitterness. I'll probably just stick to the recipe but I was just curious as I have the extra hops.

 

[SteelCityBrewery]

Well JoeBronco, you were right. I decided to take a sample of my beer to see how the dry hopping was coming along and was blown away by how great it was. The smell is gone and the flavor is excellent. 6/17 I keg this baby up and wait for the best part!

 

[SteelCityBrewery]

Is dry hopping two weeks giving me that much more hop aroma then dry hopping for one week? I'm ready to drink this devil but I want it at its best

 

[JoeBronco]

That extra week doesn't add to much. It does add some... but to be honest, i normally know im going to be to impatient and add those hops in the mash water and circulate through my mash for about a half hour. Same process Green flash uses on Palette wrecker.

 

[cdeme123]

Sounds like you got a tasty brew on your hands. I'm sure out will be great. Ill be curious to how close out comes to the commercial beer. Do keep us posted.

 

[SteelCityBrewery]

Well, since I've never had the commercially beer I won't be able to be too helpful. I'm trying to trade some east coast beers for some west coast beers but am having a little trouble. Hopefully someone is a yuengling/troegs fan and will trade!

 

[JoeBronco]

Keep your eyes on "Lets Pour". Even though they are not supposed to they sell Pliny at store prices. If you buy 6 you dont have to pay shipping. But They only get in limited amounts and sell out VERY quickly. i was sketchy about this site at first but i know a few people that buy from them (My home brew shop) on a regular basis and i guess its legit. I have never used them.

 

[legasus233]

It was mentioned a page or so back, but don't you have to modify the hop amounts if you decide to do a full 5 1/2 gallon boil versus a 2 1/2 or 3 gallon boil? I will be brewing this one next and can't wait!

 

[JoeBronco]

Yes. The original recipe calls for 8 gallons of water with a final product of 5 gallons. What size batch are you doing?