Random Brewing Thoughts

[Phischy1]

I ferment in Conicals but I can o my cold crash down to the mid/low 50's with my recirculation setup, I need a diy glycol system. Anyway, NorCal Brewing Solutions has a simple CO2 trap system using ball jars. I intend to set that up before my next brewday.

I also dry hop in the keg, I use a 10gal corny as my Brite tank. I fill with sanitizer than use co2 to push it all out. Then very quickly I'll open the lid, toss in dry hops, seal and purge again by blowing gas in through the out post. To deal with clogging issues I went through Utah Biodiesel Supply and bought an full length dip tube screen. I'll let it sit warm for a few days so I can roll the keg around for better contact. Then roll into the cold room and sit it upright to clear. And carbonate

Finally push it to 5 gal kegs for serving. It works OK, I think I need to let it settle on it's side vs upright so I can more utilization out of the full screen.

 

[YungCoolship]

I've got two round of "worth it or nah?" for you guys...

1) Cold crashing IPA's?

I never do it, mainly because I don't want to worry about air getting sucked in and oxidizing my beer. I know there are CO2 capturing solutions but they seem like a bit too much work. I just use an auto-siphon filter and pour relatively clear beer in a decent amount of time. I've been reading about cold crashing before dry hopping to improve hop character but opinions seem split on the impact.

2) Keg hopping IPA's?

I never do this either, my worst nightmare is bits of debris in my glass causing a grainy mouthfeel. But I'm curious about using my auto-siphon filter to load up 1-2 oz of pellets of cryo and tossing it in the keg. I feel like contact wit hops right before bottling off the keg could really help with competitions as well.

I haven't cold crashed in a few batches because I wanted to see if it would improve the aroma or affect the clarity/mouthfeel negatively. I normally would cold crash a day or two before kegging, then transfer to a purged keg with bagged hops for 3-4 days with the co02 at 10psi through the out post. After dry hopping for 3-4 days I would connect the out post of the keg to the out post of a clean/purged serving keg to finish carbonating.

I still follow the same process with exception to cold crashing. I figured it was kind of a moot point to cold crash when it would essentially be cold crashing in the conditioning keg. The vast majority of byproduct is left behind from the finished beer through transferring to conditioning keg and then to a serving keg... the hop bag almost acts as a filter to the serving keg.

As far as dry hopping in a keg goes, I would definitely recommend it. There is a lot of discussion whether to bag or dry hop free in the keg with lots of anecdotal evidence to support the latter's claim at higher utilization. I personally don't dry hop free in the keg, only because I haven't made alterations to my equipment and hop debris caught in the poppets is a nightmare I don't want to have to revisit. Also, 3-4 days ideal exposure on dry hops, 5 days max... unless you like grassy flavors.

 

[wuntrikpony]

Also, 3-4 days ideal exposure on dry hops, 5 days max... unless you like grassy flavors.

All great points, but I personally have never experienced vegetal flavors from keg hopping before the 2 week mark. I was using pellets in a fine mesh bag.

 

[ChaQuiseman]

I've had hops in my serving keg for 2+ months and have never experienced grassy flavors.

 

[YungCoolship]

I've had hops in my serving keg for 2+ months and have never experienced grassy flavors.

no mealy mouthfeel either?

 

[ChaQuiseman]

no mealy mouthfeel either?

Not that I've noticed. Adding dry hops directly to the serving keg and leaving them there until it's kicked has been my standard operating procedure for about a year now and I haven't experienced any problems. When/if the aroma starts to fade, I just rouse the keg, give the beer about 24 hours to settle, and it's back to smelling as fresh as day one.

 

[Saind]

Is racking a kettle soured berliner wort on top of 3711 and Brett yeastcake a good idea? I've never done a kettle sour before and I'm not sure how to ferment it yet. I can't imagine why this would be a bad idea, but I also don't know **** about making berliners

 

[ChaQuiseman]

Is racking a kettle soured berliner wort on top of 3711 and Brett yeastcake a good idea? I've never done a kettle sour before and I'm not sure how to ferment it yet. I can't imagine why this would be a bad idea, but I also don't know **** about making berliners

Assuming a standard berliner gravity (1.030-1.035ish), you may be overpitching with the yeast cake, but I don't think you'd see any adverse effects from that. People ferment berliners (both kettle soured and non) with both brett and saison yeast all the time (as a matter of fact I have one going now). You have nothing to worry about.

 

[FTowne1]

Is racking a kettle soured berliner wort on top of 3711 and Brett yeastcake a good idea? I've never done a kettle sour before and I'm not sure how to ferment it yet. I can't imagine why this would be a bad idea, but I also don't know **** about making berliners

Depends on what you want as the end result. I made a few batches of kettle soured berliners that were fermented with wheat beer yeast that I was pretty happy with. I wanted a tart, somewhat clean beer with a touch of "body" left to it. Using 3711 will leave you with a bone dry, sorta "spicy" beer.

 

[Saind]

Depends on what you want as the end result. I made a few batches of kettle soured berliners that were fermented with wheat beer yeast that I was pretty happy with. I wanted a tart, somewhat clean beer with a touch of "body" left to it. Using 3711 will leave you with a bone dry, sorta "spicy" beer.

Good point.
I don't really have a "vision" for the final beer yet, I might add mango puree but I might just bottle all of it plain.
Some fruit may work well with a dry and spicy base beer now that I think about it

 

[GhostOfGaspar]

Hello!

This is a really deep thread that I have never read, so I'm sure there is a ton of great information that I will soon get into, but my boss just asked me to learn how to brew so that I can train other people on how to do it. I don't think he really understands all the intricacy/technique/talent/experience that goes into making good beer, but nonetheless I have been tasked with this.

I have never brewed before.

I know a lot about beer, from a product standpoint. While I know it's a running joke on the site, I am a Cicerone. I have pretty good working knowledge on the process, but I know that knowledge and experience are very different things.

I have read Papazian and Daniels' books, and will re-read them, but I'm looking for advice from y'all.

Where the **** do I start?

 

[FTowne1]

Hello!

This is a really deep thread that I have never read, so I'm sure there is a ton of great information that I will soon get into, but my boss just asked me to learn how to brew so that I can train other people on how to do it. I don't think he really understands all the intricacy/technique/talent/experience that goes into making good beer, but nonetheless I have been tasked with this.

I have never brewed before.

I know a lot about beer, from a product standpoint. While I know it's a running joke on the site, I am a Cicerone. I have pretty good working knowledge on the process, but I know that knowledge and experience are very different things.

I have read Papazian and Daniels' books, and will re-read them, but I'm looking for advice from y'all.

Where the **** do I start?

Skip extract brewing altogether and look up "brew in a bag". It's a very simple (and somewhat inexpensive) way to start all grain brewing.

 

[ChaQuiseman]

Where the **** do I start?

Since you already have a handle on the process, I'm not certain that I would advocate messing around with extract brewing unless that's what you'd want to be instructing people how to do. Extract is nice because it allows beginners to focus on the major steps of the process but based on your background, I don't think that's necessary.

In my opinion, a good place to start would be with BIAB. You can use a single pot as both your mash tun and your boil kettle while still being able to play with the intricacies of mash temperatures, minerality content of water, etc. There are a ton of tutorials online for getting started with BIAB which will help get you up to speed on the process and the materials you will need.

Alternatively, if you have any friends who are experienced homebrewers, it would be highly beneficial to shadow them for a session or two so you can see what they do, how they utilize their equipment and get an overview of how the brewing process is modified for the homebrewing scale.

Finally, if there's anything you have any specific questions about, feel free to send me a message. I've been brewing for quite a while and would be more than happy to answer any questions you have, regardless of how trivial they might seem.

 

[Phischy1]

Listen to the podcasts on thebrewingnetwork.com

Particularly Brew Strong for why and how you do certain technical things. Jamil Show for info on classic styles. There's an amazing amount of info on there. And it jives with the books Brewing Classic Styles and How to Brew.

 

[MikeJones]

Hello!

This is a really deep thread that I have never read, so I'm sure there is a ton of great information that I will soon get into, but my boss just asked me to learn how to brew so that I can train other people on how to do it. I don't think he really understands all the intricacy/technique/talent/experience that goes into making good beer, but nonetheless I have been tasked with this.

I have never brewed before.

I know a lot about beer, from a product standpoint. While I know it's a running joke on the site, I am a Cicerone. I have pretty good working knowledge on the process, but I know that knowledge and experience are very different things.

I have read Papazian and Daniels' books, and will re-read them, but I'm looking for advice from y'all.

Where the **** do I start?

Do you work for a distributor?

 

[GhostOfGaspar]

Do you work for a distributor?

No, for a string of bars that is looking to implement more in-house brewing.

 

[MikeJones]

No, for a string of bars that is looking to implement more in-house brewing.

Gotcha...well the best way to learn how to brew is to start making some beers. Reading the books and listing to the podcasts are all great resources too. Join a local homebrew club, make some friends that know how to brew and join in on their brew days and pick their brains.

Since you work for a company that obviously has brewing equipment would they give you a stipend so you can start making batches and not have to go out of pocket to learn what they are asking you to learn?

 

[GhostOfGaspar]

Gotcha...well the best way to learn how to brew is to start making some beers. Reading the books and listing to the podcasts are all great resources too. Join a local homebrew club, make some friends that know how to brew and join in on their brew days and pick their brains.

Since you work for a company that obviously has brewing equipment would they give you a stipend so you can start making batches and not have to go out of pocket to learn what they are asking you to learn?

Well, the request came from a higher-up, executive-level boss and honestly, it caught me completely off-guard. I still have to speak with my direct supervisor, but I'm working under the assumption that, yes- they should foot the cost of the equipment and materials I will be buying to brew at home. I'm also hoping that my "brew days" are not expected to be on Saturday and that I can stay away from the office.

Honestly, I've always been interested in home-brewing, but I work with beer for a living and spend 40-50 hours a week talking, teaching, thinking and writing about beer. I made a conscious decision several year back to specifically NOT brew, because I wanted my hobbies to keep me a more well-rounded individual.

Oh well.

 

[MikeJones]

Well, the request came from a higher-up, executive-level boss and honestly, it caught me completely off-guard. I still have to speak with my direct supervisor, but I'm working under the assumption that, yes- they should foot the cost of the equipment and materials I will be buying to brew at home. I'm also hoping that my "brew days" are not expected to be on Saturday and that I can stay away from the office.

Honestly, I've always been interested in home-brewing, but I work with beer for a living and spend 40-50 hours a week talking, teaching, thinking and writing about beer. I made a conscious decision several year back to specifically NOT brew, because I wanted my hobbies to keep me a more well-rounded individual.

Oh well.

Yeah I feel you....I was all gung-ho for a while about homebrewing too but thought pretty much the same. If they won't provide you the proper resources though it's really going to mean **** all.

 

[user 307594]

No, for a string of bars that is looking to implement more in-house brewing.

What's the long-term goal here? Single brewhouse and self-distro to each bar, or each place has its own on-premise brewhouse? There's a ton to commercial brewing that is easy pass over but is critical to running a commercial brewery, wastewater discharge, electrical requirements, glycol plumbing, bulk co2, 15k for a semi-auto keg washer, etc.

 

[GhostOfGaspar]

What's the long-term goal here? Single brewhouse and self-distro to each bar, or each place has its own on-premise brewhouse? There's a ton to commercial brewing that is easy pass over but is critical to running a commercial brewery, wastewater discharge, electrical requirements, glycol plumbing, bulk co2, 15k for a semi-auto keg washer, etc.

We have a few locations with 2-barrel systems already, so the R&D for it has been done. They just want to make some standardized recipes and a training program for future franchisees who are interested in brewing on-site.

 

[user 307594]

We have a few locations with 2-barrel systems already, so the R&D for it has been done. They just want to make some standardized recipes and a training program for future franchisees who are interested in brewing on-site.

definitely BiaB will be the easiest path then if that's the goal

 

[wuntrikpony]

Brew in the bag for sure...but I’d suggest getting a separate mash tun(igloo cooler) since they retain heat much better than your kettle. Like this:

As a brewing network listener, I would not suggest it as a resource unless you have weeks to sift through all the tangential conversations and dick jokes. There are a lot of YouTube videos out there that will help you pickup techniques faster. How to Brew by John Palmer is the best all around book I feel and the new edition is even better. Brewing classic styles is a great starting point for recipe design.

 

[Phischy1]

If your boss is asking you to do it I'd def ask if they are going to cover hardware and chemicals and ingredients. It's not exactly a cheap hobby.

If the answer is yes then it'd be time to build out a budget.

 

[ChaQuiseman]

As a brewing network listener, I would not suggest it as a resource unless you have weeks to sift through all the tangential conversations and dick jokes.

Couldn't agree more. Their content could be so much better with editing, better audio equipment, and hosts who didn't feel the need to show now much of a "man's man" they are at all times. Not to mention the obnoxious intros and often sexist advertisers.

What I wouldn't give for an informative brewing podcast that was produced by a larger podcasting company that actually understands how to create quality content.

 

[wuntrikpony]

What I wouldn't give for an informative brewing podcast that was produced by a larger podcasting company that actually understands how to create quality content.

Not a larger company, but certainly more informative content:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-brülosophy-podcast/id1207681531?mt=2

 

[Rau711]

I haven't brewed in about 2 or 3 years, starting to get back into the swing of things now, but what is the best software/app/spreadsheet for recipe creation? I was using beersmith 2.0 in the past, that still viable option?

 

[Beerontwowheels]

I haven't brewed in about 2 or 3 years, starting to get back into the swing of things now, but what is the best software/app/spreadsheet for recipe creation? I was using beersmith 2.0 in the past, that still viable option?

Still works!

 

[Rau711]

Still works!

Still the top of the line? Nothing newer or better has been introduced?

 

[doobiegoobie]

Still the top of the line? Nothing newer or better has been introduced?

He's about to come out with version 3.0. Might be worth waiting on that